Painted armors, you still think they look good?

Tapio75

Personally i like many of them, they look detailed when watched from far distances but at the same time, many of them look flat and textures are poor. Sometimes it bothers me to see my plate bending while i move.

Many of them i like but they only look good in certain colors, usually with high contrast like black/white and such similar combinations. If colors dont have good contrast, the effect of painted armor is often too obvious.

I hope that some time in future, they will add real armors that are in par with todays graphics technology. Armors we have are mostly similar to what WOW had when it launched 10 years ago and while i agree that having more complex armors would peopably cause issues in Cyrodil, i at same time am sure that these obstacles can be overcome by improving technology. I would also strongly wish that if Cyrodil has to have these armors that are essentially outdated graphics, they could easily implement these to work in Cyrodil while having better models in gaming world.

And Sheogorath clothing would really use a bit more contrast, it is one of worst i see.

Elsonso

Personally, I prefer a sacrifice in armor "quality" so that I can have performance. If that means that the armor is "painted on", as others have described, and it moves like a body instead of like something on the body, I can live with that. To me, pretty is always back seat to function, when I have to choose between them.

I am sure that when the technology improves to the point where both can be had at the technical level that we need it to be, we will get it.

As for the dye system, there are a few comments that I have.

• I do not think that all armors have fully working color channels. I have not cataloged them, but I think some armors have sections that are supposed to be colored and are not.
• I would prefer that, while in the dye UI, that the lighting be the same for each dye station and independent of the surrounding environment.
• Some places do not have dye stations and should have them, like Devon's Watch. That question comes up daily in zone chat.
• Some of the dyes seem to color the armor differently. Metal armor seems to show the color better than cloth or leather armor, which appears blended with some base color. I do not know if this is intentional, but if it is, I think they need to adjust it to reduce that base color.
• I would like a system added to show me what parts of the armor will be colored. For example, when I hover over one of the three color rectangles for an armor, have that part of the armor glow bright white. Sometimes it takes experimentation to determine what part of the armor is actually colored. Sometimes I cannot determine it, see the first bullet.

All of that said, I really like the dye system and am glad so many people are using it. Just about everyone is using it. Yeah, some people have no fashion sense, or are horribly color blind , but it is great to see the diversity and it makes the characters more individual.

AlexDougherty

Yes I like my dyed armour.

There are sections where the base colour (undyed) of the armour changes the colour of the dye slightly. Which means whites and milder colours struggle.

But I have acheived a colour scheme for each of my characters, it changes with each new piece of Armour, but they look right to me.

Tapio75

When using dyes, the belt section is one that only colors the buckle. Belt itself does not have the actual belt, it is attached to chest and can not be colored at all, at least most cases i tried. Those "Hanging pieces of cloth" between legs are also attached to chest while i think they should be attached to belt and there should be belts with and without them as these slabs just dont fit all armors.

No, i am not talking of tassets on the hips ^^

TheAmu

Black and (insert colour) is a really popular combination. I don't see why. You all look like Sub Zero, Reptile, Scorpion or Ermac.

Ohhhhh....maybe that's why.

Pallmor

Mine do.

Tapio75

TheAmu wrote: »

Black and (insert colour) is a really popular combination. I don't see why. You all look like Sub Zero, Reptile, Scorpion or Ermac.

Ohhhhh....maybe that's why.

I have noticed this, personally i use other colors but the truth is that if there is not enough cpntrast in colours i use, the details in armor fade and they look even more flat.

I just used black/white as gonstrast example, usually i use dark red/light grey/Some mid brown in corresponding pieces. My Vampire is only one who has black added with red and light grey for highlights.

Bosmer medium armor fits scout well when usend in Dark green/med green with again, grey as highlights

But i really hope those armors would have some more 3 dimensional depth on them instead of illusion which is as grahics technology over 10 years old.

If Aion could do it as well as they did, im sure ESO can as well if they want. Armors and character models were amazing in that game.

Zarman

I spend about ten or more minutes when i get new armor perfecting the dyes to look decent.

ExiledKhallisi

Everyone and their mum are black and red

Elsonso

Zarman wrote: »

I spend about ten or more minutes when i get new armor perfecting the dyes to look decent.

I have to admit that dyes have changed the way I play in ways I was not expecting.

I am not a big fashion person, so I expected to spend very little thought on dyes, and even less time.

However, I find that I am now reluctant to put on new armor in the field because it does not match. I still do it, but it does not match. If some new armor does not color well and ends up looking bad with the others, I might spend quite a bit of time trying other dyes so that it looks right.

I know, that is crazy. I am seeing a psychiatrist about it later next week.

Sighlynce

I like the dyes but it would be nice if the color you choose to apply actually looks like the color in the color chart once applied. For the amount of hues available, it seems like they all seem to be pretty much the same color once on armor (meaning the whites on white , yellow on yellow etc). White should be white, not light tan or slightly pink.. But all in all, I like coloring my armor to be somewhat unique.

JessieColt

My Sneak Thief DW/NB is in all black. He needs to fade into the shadows.

My Sorc is a combination of red and bronze.

I like the armor dyes, they help bring a sense of uniqueness to each player.

smeeprocketnub19_ESO

I'm not entirely sure he was talking about dyes, btw guys. But the fact that the armor looks like it is painted on a lot of times. I heard a rumor they were working on improving that, but I think it's not something that is easily done, and it would probably be a real nightmare when you have such a variety of body types.

LunaRae

Tapio75 wrote: »

I hope that some time in future, they will add real armors that are in par with todays graphics technology. Armors we have are mostly similar to what WOW had when it launched 10 years ago.

I'm sorry, what? http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/787386-Post-Your-Vanilla-WOW-Screenshot

If you can't see the difference from ESO's armor details compared to vanilla wow then I can understand your confusion.

Psychobunni

Painted armors, you still think they look good?

Absolutely. Except the ugly arse shoulder pads sometimes. Some of those are sincere design fails making me wish there was a hide option on them as well.

Xeres14

Yeah I like the dye system. Sometimes the colors come out weird on certain armor but I can adjust. From time to time as I'm doing a bank run I may pass the dye table or building with the dye table in it and I'll stop in to try out a few different schemes. It's fun IMO.

Tapio75

No, i was not actually talking about dyes but armor models themselves and yes, i an see the difference between this and vanilla wow but the difference is mostly just very good illusion of depth with shadows on the right place. They do have better patterns overall but they still are of old.

AlexDougherty

Tapio75 wrote: »

No, i was not actually talking about dyes but armor models themselves and yes, i an see the difference between this and vanilla wow but the difference is mostly just very good illusion of depth with shadows on the right place. They do have better patterns overall but they still are of old.

Yes, I like the styling of the Armours.
If you look at ESO Fashion first you can choose a style you like pretty easily, although I'm not sure it works for light armour jerkins.

I also can get a dyed look I like too.

ThePonzzz

I wish there were more options to to armor looks, in general. The 3 color slots on the same drag piece of medium armor is just boring. Just give me a cloak please.

kieso

looks fine to me.

Moonshadow66

I'm wearing mostly light armor, but light armor pieces can't be dyed as good as heavy, unfortunately. I still would love to have a white robe with some black contrasts (would be awesome on my Argonian robe!), but instead of white it turns brown-beige-whatever. Only black or reddish colors can be used to not look odd, everything else is a mix of color and dirt.

kevlarto_ESO

I like most of what I see, there are just some colors I don't like in game or real life nothing will look good in them to me.. I like the dye system and the look of dyed armor..:)

Gillysan

I do think the colors need tweaking, they need to reflect some aspect of armor material which now it doesn't seem to.

The armor appearance is a different topic that I have done feedbacks on. One of the armors I did a feedback was the Orc character, Bosmer heavy armor. This might be a problem with all Bosmer armor actually, the legs in particular, they look like skinny jeans. Ewwwww!

Tigeracer

@Tapio75‌
You can colour the belt. The third rectangle is the actual strap.
Unless I have not understood what you were trying to say.

sotonin

lordrichter wrote: »

Personally, I prefer a sacrifice in armor "quality" so that I can have performance. If that means that the armor is "painted on", as others have described, and it moves like a body instead of like something on the body, I can live with that. To me, pretty is always back seat to function, when I have to choose between them.

I am sure that when the technology improves to the point where both can be had at the technical level that we need it to be, we will get it.

As for the dye system, there are a few comments that I have.

• I do not think that all armors have fully working color channels. I have not cataloged them, but I think some armors have sections that are supposed to be colored and are not.
• I would prefer that, while in the dye UI, that the lighting be the same for each dye station and independent of the surrounding environment.
• Some places do not have dye stations and should have them, like Devon's Watch. That question comes up daily in zone chat.
• Some of the dyes seem to color the armor differently. Metal armor seems to show the color better than cloth or leather armor, which appears blended with some base color. I do not know if this is intentional, but if it is, I think they need to adjust it to reduce that base color.
• I would like a system added to show me what parts of the armor will be colored. For example, when I hover over one of the three color rectangles for an armor, have that part of the armor glow bright white. Sometimes it takes experimentation to determine what part of the armor is actually colored. Sometimes I cannot determine it, see the first bullet.

All of that said, I really like the dye system and am glad so many people are using it. Just about everyone is using it. Yeah, some people have no fashion sense, or are horribly color blind , but it is great to see the diversity and it makes the characters more individual.

Technology has already gotten to that point... ZOS is the fail factor here. EQ and EQ2 had actual modeled armor a long long time ago.

MercyKilling

I would very much rather have seen Zenimax allow cosmetic customization so we could see ourselves in stuff like this:




or this:




or this:



or maybe use shields that look like this:




Instead, we've got this really crappy looking drawn on armor. Now before you start saying "But it would hurt performance!".....let me stop you right there. It's only installed on your files, so only you get to see what you have installed. If your system can't handle it, don't mod it.

Volkodav

I only have one small problem with the Dye system. All the best colors only opens up as you get achievements,which can take quite a while to do everything to get another one.There are a few base colours,but the gold looks weird,not gold at all,and there's a different lighter black that looks like blue.

theStrict9

The use of texture swapping isn't exactly an obsolete or outdated practice in modern graphics, especially when you are talking about a game where there has to be a large variety of armors or weapons. Unlike WoW, ESOs armor textures are actually lit and have surface depth, which greatly enhances the look of the game.

If you had more varied and more bulky geometry, you are more likely to encounter clipping issues and the armor would still need to "bend" to accommodate animation. The animations need to be authored with a certain consideration to the different kinds of armors the character may wear, and they usually need to be universally acceptable unless you plan to use different animation for different kinds of armors (doesn't make much sense if the character can wear a mix of armors). The point is that what might look good with bulky armor may look bad with light armor (you might expect stiffer movement in plate vs. leather vs. cloth). The other side effect is that animators may have less ability to push the poses into the kinds of extremes that are needed to make an attack look convincing in a real-time game.

There are a lot of reasons why using texture swapping in this way is a good idea for a game like ESO. The alternatives may sound better in your mind, but often what we think works and what does work are two different things. You have to consider the implications of your creative choices, and how easily those choices affect other aspects of the game.

EDIT:
BTW most games make use of texture swapping and mesh swapping to allow for customization. ESO does this with jerkins and robe meshes already, plus a variety of "accent" pieces that help distinguish armors from each other. So when laying out your argument focus on the aesthetic argument and avoid making grandiose claims about the technology. ESO is using state of the art techniques in a practical way to pretty good effect.

Saying it makes the game look ten years old is more a reflection on the fact that not all that much has changed technologically with real-time graphics.

Circuitous

They've made mention, in passing, of improving the quality of armors. I imagine it's something they'd like to do, but might not have the resources for currently.

Dekkameron

Raygee wrote: »

I'm wearing mostly light armor, but light armor pieces can't be dyed as good as heavy, unfortunately. I still would love to have a white robe with some black contrasts (would be awesome on my Argonian robe!), but instead of white it turns brown-beige-whatever. Only black or reddish colors can be used to not look odd, everything else is a mix of color and dirt.

Try using dark elf light armour, that dyes really well in almost any colour.

Here's some i did today whilst meddling.



I was going for a "firey" theme hehe

Moonshadow66

Dekkameron wrote: »

Raygee wrote: »

I'm wearing mostly light armor, but light armor pieces can't be dyed as good as heavy, unfortunately. I still would love to have a white robe with some black contrasts (would be awesome on my Argonian robe!), but instead of white it turns brown-beige-whatever. Only black or reddish colors can be used to not look odd, everything else is a mix of color and dirt.

Try using dark elf light armour, that dyes really well in almost any colour.

Here's some i did today whilst meddling.



I was going for a "firey" theme hehe

Wow, this looks fantastic! I'll try this next time I'll login, thank you :-)