Check Out World of Warcraft's Updated Player Models

[The Lugz]

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.

I can confirm this, I've worked with classic wow models to attempt modding the game,
which isn't strictly within the TOS but.. well they can't do anything about it so who cares?

anyhow, the original 3d engine for this game is absolutely archaic. there is literally no wiggle room the models must conform to poly limits in terms of size or the game will disable them, the models must have separate skin files that conform to size and dimension limits or the game will reject them, if parts of the model used for animation are missing, no models will load in the game world ect... this is also why wow model's arms and textures would 'bend' or stretch as they animate, lack of modern uv layering techniques ( imagine stapling your clothes on via fixed points, and you'll get the idea )

my advice overall: modding wow is a *****, find another hobby.

now with blizzard's proprietary model tools it's obviously going to be easier, as these limits will doubtless be hard-coded in but my point is you can't simply drag and drop any old model file in there as you can with say, skyrim, crysis or anything even remotely modern, so these updates are indeed a refresh of the engine using updated tools.

and, having studied software development I can also tell you that if you have the source code you can continue to mod it to the end of time, if you know the variables and how they interact there is simply no point in making a 'new' engine since it will share half it's code with the old one anyway as code never really gets old unless it's been outdated by more efficient code and well if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

so with the original code, yep there are massive limits but blizzard has the power to modify them on a whim so it's not a major problem it just takes time.

 

[Shinkicker444]

Some of the female gnome facial expressions are absolutely adorable.

Spoiler

 

[Carnagath]

I don't see why we would need a WoW 2 for graphics improvements. Runescape, for example, simply changed to a new engine (twice!).

Yes, changing engine would be fine, but they're not doing it. They're just overloading the old engine with crap that it can't handle. The game's performance in raids has been unacceptable for a while now. I'm obviously fucked cause I'm on a laptop, but a friend with a pretty damn good PC drops to like 25 FPS during boss fights unless he drops everything to low. The game is extremely CPU-intensive, but is unable to utilize fast CPU's well. They really need to get their shit together instead of adding more bells and whistles to a fucked up engine.

 

[Ohlookit'sMatty]

As a 3D modeller this is a form of porn to me // Just look at those beautiful polygons and the prefect texture maps *starts to breathe heavily* Being a huge WoW fan also helps

-M

 

[AngelSword]

Well, that was an efficient way to take the wind out of the article; build up & build up the feature, then cut it down by saying, "Why bother?"

 

[feauxx]

The new models look nice; but let us see the update Human, Night Elf and blood Elf females already.

They haven't done those yet, they don't know if they can finish all races before WoD release actually.

 

[Nemu]

Have to say, my VERY first thought after they announced the updated models was "they had better give us free recustomization".
I'm one of those people who spends a long time getting my toons to look how -I- want them, I don't think it's right that Blizz goes and redesigns the models and has, in effect, said "if you don't like it, spend 15 bucks to change it".

Nah, how about I just not resub? After 8+ years of playing, I cancelled both of my accounts earlier this year. While the model upgrades (and garrisons) are appealing to me, unless they bend a little bit on this, I'm not too keen on the idea of buying 2 copies of a game and possibly being forced to spend more money in order to play toons that I WANT to play.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

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 >.>

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?

I'm going to go with the risk factor involved here. I still play WoW, I freaking love WoW still and I've been playing since TBC. At this point starting WoW 2 would most likely mean ditching all my characters thus far. A new engine would probably mean new mechanics which would probably mean having to learn to play all over again. Sure they could implement character imports, but they're also likely to not so as new players don't feel daunted at the prospect of starting a new MMO that already has a transferred elitist culture.

I think this is why they've wisely crafted Titan alongside World of Warcraft, for new players to go and experience it and hopefully stay, whilst also pulling over some WoW veterans too. WoW itself is probably just too valuable to ditch for a shiny engine. Besides, as a roleplayer I'm happy with all these changes!

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

The game is still a boring grind to get anywhere in it, you grind for your level 20 armour, next its for the 21 armours add infinite....well, till you reach the level ceiling. Just an annoying grind, zero fun, but the fun is there if your willing to waste hours of grinding for it.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

I'm currently playing a Pandaren warrior (switched from orc at the beginning of MoP) and after seeing these changes and knowing quite well that there is absolutely no way the pandaren race will get a visual upgrade..I might go back orc.

Time will tell. As an active WoW player I am really looking forward to this expansion.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Obviously every single tauren is going to look docile and dopey with the same face texture, right? COME ON.

I can only hope that they make a Grimtotem skin available or something. That'd be cool.

 

[Grospoliner]

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 )

I sincerely hope that Blizzard-Activision have greater foresight than to try this. They should know that nothing they do will ever surpass WoW.

With the possible exception of Diablo Online of course... Though given how Diablo 3 went none of us can expect them to do right now.

Edit: Woops. Not sure what I did to screw up the quote. Sorry everyone.

 

[Kroxile]

Am I really the only one who thinks they look the exact same? Except for having some of the jagged edges on their shoulders smoothed out.. they really do look exactly as they are now =\

 

[FiveSpeedf150]

Very cool. Then again, the reasons I stopped playing WoW didn't include "My Orc wasn't Hi-Def enough."

 

[Mad World]

I assume that people won't be required to buy the expansion pack in order to see these new models. Would be a tad ridiculous.

 

[Risen]

I really like most of the new models and I am eager to see the new human models as most of my characters are human. I especially like the male gnome concept art in the top left of the gnome frame. The Tauren still do not really look very good to me. The Yaungol look much better than their ancestors the Tauren. Another big question I have is WHAT THE HECK IS THAT LARGE BONE STICKING UP FROM THE SHOULDER OF THE MALE UNDEAD??? If it is the proximal humerus, it is disjointed and could not work. Otherwise it is a bone that humans do not have. Since the Undead were the human inhabitants of Loradorn, I do not think that they would have any bones or other anatomical features lacking in their human counterpart. What are those bones?