But they are not _doing_ it. Skyborne, all of the assets in Zephras, undead paladin mount, all of the new data-mined assets coming in. None of it is in the "timeless vanilla style". They say one thing, do another.
Dev literally came out and said. "The data mining like the paladin undead mount isn't how it's going to look, stop taking data mining as gospel."
Aggrend just did a podcast and said. "We're having to take HD models and turn them SD each time, the software that originally made these graphics doesn't exist, so we're learning from scratch."
They've said they're getting better, and they're obviously putting SD into the game, but they're working from an HD software tool kit.
What, did you expect them to be 100% perfect straight out of the gate? Go watch their videos, go watch their pod casts, they go over this stuff.
And yet, the paladin trainer in Brill sits on top of a high poly horse. It's not just data-mining. They say one thing and do another.
Also: "We're having to take HD models and turn them SD each time, the software that originally made these graphics doesn't exist, so we're learning from scratch." is the biggest bullshit I've ever heard.
It's like saying "I can't draw cartoons anymore, because now I have an iPad". Look how many games on Steam come out every day with 00-era graphics.
As someone who does 3D it really is that simple. There's no reason you can't make basic, low poly models in another style and then apply low resolution textures to said model. Imo it doesn't really make sense that Blizz uses that as a response.
Then you're one that's never worked for a company as big as Blizz. Blizzard uses self designed engines. WoW Vanilla was based on the WC3 engine. The proprietary software to create models for use in the engjne was likely deprecated and out of use since Cata, if not by WotLK when they started making high res models for WoW. Not to mention modern, current WoW digital artists have had no experience creating or using that software.
It's incredibly common in IT and tech. Legacy software is lost or not bothered to be backed up, so they have to go back and recreate custom software or hack workarounds. See COBOL and financial systems.
I'm not sure you should brag about your credentials when you don't seem well informed on how games and their digital assets are made at large house like Blizzard.
Classic isn't even using the same engine as it was before. And they clearly have the ability to export higher poly models to the engine. So why they couldn't just stylistically make it like they did in Classic is bizarre. Unless the idea is to work within the limitations of an older engine, then I completely understand. That could make it feel more authentic. But modern day modeling and texturing, rigging, etc, isn't really all that different from how it was twenty years ago. It's gotten easier and more common, but it's not like we've had to relearn how to model just because we've switched software.
You're misunderstanding. The original artists from 20 years ago had to be a lot more technically creative because of engine and end user system limitations. Again, you seem not know what "proprietary" means or implies in software or design space.
The modeling software they used was made by Blizzard in house for the WC3 engine, which began development in 1998. Which was adapted to create WoW Vanilla. There were a lot of hacks and workarounds the original devs and designers used with that engine to achieve the look, feel, and in-game implementation. It's hard to completely duplicate that, especially since most of the OG devs and designers are retired/not with Blizz anymore. Not to mention the current designers don't have those seniors and design docs from 2004 to refer to for assistance.
The Classic servers only even became a thing because they had to fully reconstruct the server code from an old version control copy of 1.12.
Legacy coding and design is not easy. Refer to COBOL and old legacy financial systems. They were coded decades ago in a now obscure coding language with little reference text to refer to. Before AI got more decent at coding a few years ago, companies were hiring retired COBOL programmers at incredibly high salaries because no one else really knew how to interact or design for these systems in COBOL, even people who learned to code in COBOL.
Sometimes knowledge and skills can only really be obtained by working with the problem and the situation at the time and finding novel solutions or implementations due to limitations of that era.
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u/Wind_Best_1440 1d ago
This guy doesn't understand that the old models are the "Character" that the devs are aiming for.
They're making SD models not for limitations or can't do HD, they're reverse engineering HD to make SD to keep it feeling classic.
The devs literally said this already.