NWN2 Graphics - what do you think...

Neverwinter Nights 2

Danicek

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I'm really just at the begining of this game and even though I really enjoy it, I'm bit puzzled by the graphics or better to say with 'if I like it or not'. I have turned most of the settings up to max or just right below the max. I may have to tweak my setting a bit because it feels not smooth enough, anyway...

The graphics is beautiful and all but it just feels too artificial/unnatural. I'm not sure how to express it. I'm talking mainly about outside areas (I haven't seen much of it yet). I have yet to try to turn off bloom effect. It may improve my feeling.

What do you think about this?
 
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I think they are better than the original, but I prefer those of G3!!
 
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One I would suggest is in Advanced Options to turn Off. "Enable Light Sources from NPCs" though it seems broken.
When ever I Start a game or Load a game I have to hit Escape, click on Options then colse Options to make it reactivate and turn it Off as set, could be jsut an ATI issue not sure.
 
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When I first started playing I did not like it at all, the graphics felt artificial and unnatural to me, especially the faces felt like made out of plastic.
But after a while I didn't see it anymore... the storyline and dialog just sucked me into the game, and the world became as 'real' as could be with a game ;)
 
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I put my thoughts in my review:

"The next difference is in the graphics and performance. There is a clear progression in the look of recent Bioware and Obsidian games from Knights of the Old Republic to KOTOR 2: The Sith Lords, and now from Neverwinter Nights to Neverwinter Nights 2. Each game looks better than the last, but the performance suffers greatly. It isn't just the absolute performance either - it's the relative performance, or the way a game looks compared to how it runs on a computer that meets the recommended specifications. The original Neverwinter Nights looked and performed very well even on systems just passing the minimum system requirements. The sequel, however, is a pig. It is certainly better looking that the original - or even the more recent KOTOR 2: The Sith Lords, and the details and environments are nicely done. But even on systems exceeding the recommended system requirements, the performance is not very good, with frequent drops in frame rate. It is possible to get solid performance by tweaking your settings and figuring out your system bottlenecks and getting good performance, but for too many this game is just frustrating in terms of performance."
 
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I agree with Sorcha, and Mike as well. The graphics seem artificial, but better than NWN1 where they were really abysmal. I don't get a big performance hit from them but the load times are crazy-I wonder if all the cinematics are to blame.

My biggest peeve is the camera, which I just can't get adjusted comfortably. But as Sorcha said, the story pulls you in and all that stuff doesn't matter at all after awhile.
 
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In reguards to the camera, I think there is a complete unlock command allowing full freedom, maybe it was added with 1.03, can't recall atm.
 
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I do know what you mean Dani, it is a whispy sort of feel, rather then the hard feel graphics of NWN 1. I did turn bloom off after I started. Not sure it made much of a visual difference but performance seemed better. To me it was visually unexpected at first, but with game time spent, you do adjust from the shock. ;)
 
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I think the NWN2 graphics is fine. Not great but adequate. I'm not too focused on graphics when I buy computer games. As long as they look pretty nice then I'm happy. Oblivion has better graphics than NWN2, but I enjoy NWN2 much better because the story is so much better.

What annoys me with NWN2 is that the game is so hardware demanding for the just ok graphics we are presented with. I wonder why. I feel the game engine can't be very optimized to be so laggy at times. I know you can get more fps by turning off graphics, but even high end PC's suffer with low fps if all graphics are turned on. That is very strange. I can live with the graphics I get with a lot turned to low. You can get used to about anything. ;)
 
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Actually, I ALWAYS played on max zoom out and wondered why people thought that the graphics were any better than NWN1's. Then one day, I happened to either be forced to do a massive zoom in or did it myself (can't remember which) and saw how when really zoomed in, yes the graphics looked much better than NWN1. The cutscenes looked about the same to me though...

I, then, promptly zoomed right back out...
 
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It's a shame they don't offer a fully functional first person mode. The dungeons and landscape really look quite nice when zoomed in with the camera tilted horizontally... But even using some sort of WASD keyboard layout, movement is awkward at best.

As an Arcane Archer, I'm pretty much forced to play with the camera zoomed out as far as possible. :-/
 
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Well, I don't mind the graphics in general, but the character modells look shitty as hell.

Is it just your personal preference or do you have something specific you don't like? I mean, I really think they are pretty nice (of course you should take into account that it is infact meant to be primarelly played zoomed out, so when zoomed in, it was really pleasant surprise for me to find out how nice the models look).
 
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I think the graphics are well done. The funny feeling I get in Nwn2 is that my character does not feel part of the world. It seems like I am inside this nice picture postcard, but that I am not a part of it.
 
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Is it just your personal preference or do you have something specific you don't like? I mean, I really think they are pretty nice (of course you should take into account that it is infact meant to be primarelly played zoomed out, so when zoomed in, it was really pleasant surprise for me to find out how nice the models look).
Partly it's personal preference of course. I think the character models have that plastic look that you know from Everquest 2 - I just don't like it. But what bothers me even more is that the faces just don't look really good. Especially the female ones. Some of them look almost androgynous. I really don't like this kinda of realistic look that seems to be en vogue at the moment - it has the tendency that every character looks the same.
 
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Partly it's personal preference of course. I think the character models have that plastic look that you know from Everquest 2 - I just don't like it. But what bothers me even more is that the faces just don't look really good. Especially the female ones. Some of them look almost androgynous. I really don't like this kinda of realistic look that seems to be en vogue at the moment - it has the tendency that every character looks the same.

I understand what you are talking about. I see it as well but I guess it doesn't bother me or just a little bit.
 
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Guess I'd be in the same camp as a few others here; The graphics are good, but the system requirements for said graphics are a bit insane, people have said they run Oblivion faster 0.0

I mean, we basically got a rehashed version of the combat engine, how could it be this demanding, god forbid virus scan comes up while I play it, whole thing crashes, even though I have recommended on everything except my video card, which falls between recommended and minimum.

Theres also a lot of little things that seem a step down from what we had in the first game; like the menus, portraits, map, etc, I nitpick though I suppose, but cmon :/

People have mentioned the "death" system, which does irk me, being a more "hardcore" D&Dist, as well as the knockdown feat problems, the feat+ other skills, etc. can be fixed by patches, they don't bother me as much, and the death system only applies to the OC, so I really don't care there either.

But the biggest turn off right now is the multiplayer, though the Frenzied Suicider (Berserker) almost tops multiplayer, almost, they shoulda implemented it better or scrapped it and gave Barbarians a different PrC, not just keep it in so they can have one "true" FB in the OC, a certain somebody who doesn't die unless his frenzy goes away.

Meh, I ranted more than I wanted to, don't get me wrong, I enjoy it, but I'm a lil bit dissapointed for the 60 dollars I spent, though the patches do show promise, who knows.
 
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Even if the patches have improved the situation a bit graphics are mediocre for the system requirements, even Gothic 3 runs better on my machine (not to mention incredibly smooth Oblivion on high settings).
 
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