Check Out World of Warcraft's Updated Player Models

[Steven Bogos]

Check Out World of Warcraft's Updated Player Models

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor will add completely new player models for the game's oldest races.

Can you believe World of Warcraft first came out back in 2004, almost ten years ago? While the game's new races, such as the Worgen, Goblins and the Pandaren, have nice, modern models, the original eight races: Humans, Night Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Undead, Tauren, Trolls and Orcs, are starting to look a little rough around the edges. Warlords of Draenor, the latest WoW expansion, aims to change that, giving a much-needed face lift to the game's oldest player models.

The new models are a substantial increase in polygons from their old versions. The old Dwarf male, for example, had 1,160 polygons and was mirrored on both sides. The new model is 7,821 polygons, has higher texture resolutions, and the face doesn't have to be symmetrical anymore. Some other cool new features of the new models include animated hair (including facial hair!), and capes being animated using the new model's bones to flow more naturally.

Check out the images below, which feature the Orc male, male and female Gnome, male and female Dwarf, and the Undead male:

[gallery=1883]

Blizzard is currently working on the Dwarf female, Tauren male, and female Troll models, and promises that all of the original eight races, as well as The Burning Crusade's Blood Elves and Draenei, will receive new models for the upcoming expansion pack.

This seems like a lot of work to put into such an aging engine, it makes you wonder why they don't just start from scratch with WoW 2 or something?

Source: MMO Champion [http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/3548-Blizzcon-2013-Recap#image=newmodelsss:2]

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[Caiphus]

Right.

I mean they look better, certainly. They still don't really get anywhere near the new stuff in other MMOs.

So it says they don't need to be symmetrical. Does that mean they'll be adding sliders and all that? Or will it still just be selecting from presets?

Not that it really matters, I suppose. I haven't played in a while.

Edit: Upon further thought, I realise that having photorealistic models in WoW would look totally out of place. So yeah. I guess they aren't bad. Possibly further argument for WoW 2.0 like in the OP.

 

[VanQ]

It's too bad that they aren't doing anything with the Blood Elves and Draenei as of yet. The Draenei being a main focus of the expansion would make you think they'd update their aging models too. Blood Elves are also in need of a facelift, even if they are still the prettiest PCs in the game.

WoD is looking to be updating a bunch of the niggling stuff that players have been asking for for quite some time. It's about time I finally got around to race changing my Warlock from a Blood Elf to an Orc, I think.

Right.

I mean they look better, certainly. They still don't really get anywhere near the new stuff in other MMOs.

So it says they don't need to be symmetrical. Does that mean they'll be adding sliders and all that? Or will it still just be selecting from presets?

Not that it really matters, I suppose. I haven't played in a while.

Edit: Upon further thought, I realise that having photorealistic models in WoW would look totally out of place. So yeah. I guess they aren't bad. Possibly further argument for WoW 2.0 like in the OP.

I suspect it will be presets like always. I don't see the point of adding that much customizablity to a game that Blizzard will likely begin to start phasing out in the coming years in lieu of newer projects and the rebuilt Project Titan. If anything, they only did this because they were probably seeing a drop in paid race changes and wanted to give reason for people to want to do it.

 

[Fappy]

It baffles me that it took them this long to finally update the character models. You'd think they'd place graphic update priority on what most players consider to be the most important part of the game... their own characters. People have been asking for this since WotLK... maybe even as far as TBC.

The expansion is looking more and more like a plea for help, imo. They really just need to get a new MMO out there already. The game's effing ancient >.>

 

[Aeshi]

Right.

I mean they look better, certainly. They still don't really get anywhere near the new stuff in other MMOs.

To be fair, there's probably only so much you can do with an engine as old as WoWs before you hit "may as well just make a WoW2 while you're at it" territory.

 

[Khymerion]

And yet they leave some of the most hideous character models completely untouched. They have not seemed to show the human models, which compared to all but the dwarves, is hideous.

 

[Oskuro]

why they don't just start from scratch with WoW 2 or something?

If they can incrementally upgrade the engine and content, why would they need to publish an entirely new game?

People who keep wondering when "WoW 2" will come out should realize each expansion has pretty much been sequel. Everything from the graphics engine (much more graphics intensive now than at launch) to the gameplay and content has been overhauled gradually over time.

I haven't really player WoW since shortly before Cataclysm, but if there's one thing I've always though about a well-managed MMO, is that it shouldn't really need to launch sequels. Why ask the established player base to leave their game-world behind for a new iteration, when you can just expand said world?

It has happened before, for example, people still play the original Everquest (which still gets expansions) despite the launch of Everquest 2.

And the usual reason for launching sequels, namely attracting new players or bringing back old ones... Expansions already do that (hence why there's another one on the way).

The dwindling popularity of WoW seems more like brand exhaustion, and a sequel wouldn't do much to help. That's why I suspect Blizzard is working on a new brand for their next big MMO, and if they ever release a WoW2, it'd probably be when said new project starts dwindling in popularity.

But Blizzard is merged with Activision now, so maybe they'll just shove a WoW2 down our throats after all, and discover if the actual wow-killer would be the sequel.... Or not (It'd be delightfully ironic to have WoW2 go free-to-play after being unable to defeat WoW itself )

 

[VanQ]

And yet they leave some of the most hideous character models completely untouched. They have not seemed to show the human models, which compared to all but the dwarves, is hideous.

They just haven't revealed them yet. Blizzard is on record, if you had actually read the article, as stating that all eight of the original playable races will be updated. Including humans. They're just spacing the news out to keep the playerbase watering at the mouth for more info.

 

[EbonBehelit]

They've also stated that Draenei and Belfs will get visual updates too.

It's quite exciting really - some of the current models look REALLY derpy.

 

[Helen Jones]

Pretty worried about what MMO Champion also says - "There will be no free re-customization for characters after new character models."

I think most of the updates look really good, but the female gnome is giving me some doubts, and I don't see why Blizzard would refuse an extremely basic free re-customization when a characters appearance may be really important to a player. This is why I've already screen-capped all my characters old models, now I just have to hope they don't change too drastically, or apparently I'll be supposed to fork out £20 to change it.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Liking the Tauren reskins, the Dwarves look awesome and the undead concepts are neat.

 

[Alfador_VII]

Liking the Tauren reskins, the Dwarves look awesome and the undead concepts are neat.

These are a lot more than just reskins, and yes they do look pretty awesome.

I'm not currently playing WoW, but I might go back.

 

[jurnag12]

Looking forward to it. And to be honest, I prefer this to a new race or class, by this point.

It's too bad that they aren't doing anything with the Blood Elves and Draenei as of yet. The Draenei being a main focus of the expansion would make you think they'd update their aging models too.

It probably makes you think that, since that's exactly what they're gonna do. As is noted in the article above.

 

[VanQ]

Looking forward to it. And to be honest, I prefer this to a new race or class, by this point.

It's too bad that they aren't doing anything with the Blood Elves and Draenei as of yet. The Draenei being a main focus of the expansion would make you think they'd update their aging models too.

It probably makes you think that, since that's exactly what they're gonna do. As is noted in the article above.

Oh, I must have missed that addendum after the image gallery.

How embarrassing.

 

[SinisterGehe]

So they finally got their army of 3D and 2D artist to do something. (No seriously, Blizzard has the biggest art department split across many sectors).

I have to admit it from 3D artist standpoint, they have done good job, they just need to add the fading to hair so they don't look like Action Man models.

Also updating the animations would be rather important also, now that they have FACES and FINGERS 90% of animations need an update.

Hell I'll check this out when it comes out. I just need to do quick server transfer before any of the idiots from my past see that I am back and start flinging shit at me like monkeys. Also the server is very much dead.

But this is going to cause small think to happen, people might no longer be able to have WOWgasms on their intel IB 5000 GPUs. They need a real one.

 

[AldUK]

All of the comments here talking about WoW 2 might want to look into a little project known as "Project Titan." That's Blizzard's next MMO. We may still see a WoW 2, but if it comes, I predict we won't see it until long into Titan's lifespan. (Likely, not at all.)

 

[Demandred20]

All of the comments here talking about WoW 2 might want to look into a little project known as "Project Titan." That's Blizzard's next MMO. We may still see a WoW 2, but if it comes, I predict we won't see it until long into Titan's lifespan. (Likely, not at all.)

They scrapped all their work on that a little while ago and went back to scratch. Project Titan seems to be more vapourware the more time goes by.

 

[ragnarokz]

Minor surprised they didn't went with the usual Night/blood elf, you know, as the first examples.

 

[Alcaste]

The reason they don't go full hog is because a LOT of their customers play on dated machines.

I think armor underwear looks goofy. Still, I'm waiting until I see the model that would make up 90% of my characters (female tauren). If they do the housing stuff right, I might actually slip back if they release a trial or something so I can see it. It'd be nostalgic, since I haven't given it any time for years.