About The Graphics of Civ VI

[Socratatus]

So I was watching a few preview videos for CIv 6 and I was completely bummed out by the graphics. There's something very "lacking" about the way the game's appearance, i think the best explanation would be that it looks "scarce" lacking detail.

Now I don't mind the actual graphics themselves, but where are the dense vegetation? The rich marbled landscapes? The thick forests? The gnarly jagged mountains that looked a little menacing as it rises over the empires?

What we got were ultra smoothed grasslands with little sprinklers of pine trees that look like upside down green ice cream cones. Little bumps that passes for hills, barely any details along river beds. Everything looks so perfect, like out of a dream. It's really strange, it seems more magical than a game about history. I really hope I'm wrong because I've been waiting for this game for years!

I agree. It`s like looking at a child`s cartoon game. It doesn`t have that detail or feel of grittiness. There`s no real spark in it.

I wonder if they`re going to make the same mistake of playing it `safe` again? I hope not.

 

[Erudain]

My only complain about the new graphics, specially in some of the early screenshots and vids, is that they were too bright, colors were too strong, but that's usually easily solved decreasing the brightness in the game options.

The combat animations on the other hand, yuck, I hope what they've showedd is not the final combat animation...

 

[King Jason]

I'd also mention that saying "there's no link between graphic style and gameplay" while simultaneously saying that "graphic style can be used as evidence of gameplay" is probably not the best way to support an argument

I can't find where I said the latter part, and if I have then the can must have been meant to be a "can't".

 

[cpm4001]

I can't find where I said the latter part, and if I have then the can must have been meant to be a "can't".

It was in your reply to stiiknafuulia, this post.

No worries; sorry if I got the wrong idea due to a typo!

 

[King Jason]

It was in your reply to stiiknafuulia, this post.

No worries; sorry if I got the wrong idea due to a typo!

Oh, I was saying even if I conceded that point; which is the point (you?) the people that are saying that the graphics being cartoony = a simpler game.

So basically, I was saying that even if the claim that a cartoony game is evidence of a dumber games is true - I personally think what has been present of civ6 in terms of gameplay thus far has proved counter to that point and concern.

With every bit of more information we discover, the game feels more in depth than ever; One of the earliest previews suggested the tech tree was diced in half due to the culture techs being implemented. Now, while I still think the system could've been deeper overall, I could understand the concerns some raised that a tech tree with half the techs could have dumbed down the game. Yet in the most recent stream, Ed clarified the misrepresentation of that preview and said that while the tech tree is a little trimmed down - it's not 50% less tech, and in fact due to the civics tree, it's 50% more "research nodes" (stuff to learn) than civ 5.

It's pretty compelling stuff, imo.

 

[Acken]

Its just a quantity thing. Kids watch a lot of cartoons made for kids adults watch some cartoons made for adults.

As for civ6 it has a lot of details, more than any in the series, and the game looks good on the videos. Only the fx of combat are too much for me and id like units to be a bit smaller.

 

[kamex]

I didn't mind the earlier era screenshots too much, but the 'modern' cities look somewhat goofy, especially Big Ben...

 

[Alex Khan]

Red sparks in the fights looks horrible. Hope these can be disabled!

 

[darko82]

Here are some words from the art director concerning the graphics:

"We wanted to give a slightly more playful look to it," Busatti says of the changes from the more realistic Civilization V and the sci-fi Civilization: Beyond Earth. "We even took stuff from Civilization: Revolution" — the 2008 entry in the series designed for consoles — "but we didn't want to go that heavily stylized." The result is a world of bright colors and floppy-eared dogs, semi-realistic soldiers, and facsimiles of real-world buildings. "It has to be inviting — you're playing this game for 40 hours," Busatti says. "We had to make sure it wasn't drab, and that it was a lively world."

 

[Thormodr]

I hope there will be 40 hour games.

 

[labellavienna]

I really like what I see in this screenshot. The individual items look good, and the large stretches of farmland gives coherence and makes the map less busy on the eye than many of the other screenshots we've seen. I hope this is indeed the "norm" of what we'll see and not the situation where every single tile is filled with either a different district, improvement or wonder. Some of those screens have looked extremely busy and unappealing.


PS: The forests and jungles still look BAD!


PPS: Is that two new city state types we see on the mini-map? Purple for culture and brown for ... production!?

Spoiler :

This is a better comparison.

This makes me feel better, thanks!

 

[ZubieMaster]

The graphics had been growing on me but the latest Builders video has me worried about the graphics again. The huge cartoony units just ruin the look for me. Frustrating because the landscape artwork has some detail and elegance to it, but then there's just elements like the units that make the whole thing look like it's being played on a game console or smartphone app or something.

 

[darko82]

The graphics had been growing on me but the latest Builders video has me worried about the graphics again. The huge cartoony units just ruin the look for me. Frustrating because the landscape artwork has some detail and elegance to it, but then there's just elements like the units that make the whole thing look like it's being played on a game console or smartphone app or something.

The builders video made me like the graphics even more. Just keep in mind this video shows zoomed in map. When you zoom it out, the units will be smaller. Also, I am sure there will be a mod to reduce the size of units etc.

Thus, nothing to worry about

 

[jsciv69]

By now there are more than a few opinions regarding the graphics and animations of Civilization VI. Without question the visuals are quite unique to say the least. What jumps out immediately is the extreme color saturation. Of course it's been since explained, the color explosion is meant to identify certain buildings, districts, units among other things. If it does seem a bit much, the simple remedy is to tone down the color saturation on the computer monitor just a bit and that problem is solved.

The terrain, outside of the comical look of the forest/jungle trees, is impressive especially when zoomed in. There seems to be different shades of grassland. Desert and plains are also easy to indentify. And the water does look life-like.

Some of the animations do seem to be borrowed from Robot Chicken. Claymation. It allows for a good sense of humor. But the horse/cavalry units are very realistic and impressive. And some of the land units such as infantry units are not bad at all. And the battle scenes look epic.

The day/night sequence is a nice touch. And I like the return of flyover fighter units which was a nice feature in Civ IV. And the return of Wonder movies is also very welcome.

A couple suggestions. Inner city/civ highways and freeways with vehicles driving along. And show random people traveling the roads. A few ideas borrowed from SimCity. Fires and crime in the city requiring Fire stations and Jails. Show civilian planes fly to and from airports. Cruise ships sailing from port to port. Changes in weather such as rain, snow. Earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, typhoons etc.

All in all i think the graphics are unique and impressive. Civ VI and expansion packs should do very well. When imagination has no limit anything is possible.

 

[joncnunn]

Moderator Action: Two graphics threads merged

 

[Tsuchinoko]

While I slightly prefer the more realistic style of Civ V, I'm fine with the style Firaxis have gone with in this game too. I'm hoping that the simplified leaderscreens will make it easier for them (and modders!) to add many more civilizations and leaders to the game. I can also understand the argument that it makes the map clearer and more 'readable' from a distance.

The one thing about the graphics that really bugs me is that the style of the buildings in districts doesn't match that of the buildings in the city centre. For example, shrines, temples and amphitheaters will look Greco-Roman in style even when you play as Japan or China (or at least that's how it seems from the current screenshots). It just makes urban areas look like a jumbled mess of mismatched styles to me. I could see the argument would be that they look the same for everyone so it's clear what kind of district they are, but surely just having the colour-coded roofs would be enough to achieve that - even if the buildings themselves looked slightly different? Matbe I'm the only one who's bothered by that though.

Also - I find it kind of weird that they seem to be keeping the colour schemes for the civs themselves the same as they were for Civ V, but for some reason decided to reverse Egypt's (and only Egypt's) colours? Why? I've never associated purple with Egypt, and that means Rome would have to have a different colour scheme too (even though purple/gold is perfect for them). Perhaps they'll steal Red/Yellow from Persia (Persia deconfirmed! )?

 

[King Jason]

A couple suggestions. Inner city/civ highways and freeways with vehicles driving along. And show random people traveling the roads. A few ideas borrowed from SimCity. Fires and crime in the city requiring Fire stations and Jails. Show civilian planes fly to and from airports. Cruise ships sailing from port to port. Changes in weather such as rain, snow. Earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, typhoons etc.

I'd like to not have to play the game at it's lowest settings, thanks.

 

[AriochIV]

A couple suggestions. Inner city/civ highways and freeways with vehicles driving along. And show random people traveling the roads.

Aside from performance concerns, it would be a bit weird to have unit figures and vehicles at one scale, and then cars and pedestrians at a smaller scale.

 

[jsciv69]

I'd like to not have to play the game at it's lowest settings, thanks.

Lowest settings would not be necessary. Computer monitors are equipt with color saturation settings. This can be toned down as I experimented while watching a Civ VI demo. I lowered the color saturation and visuals did improve. This can also be done by using the video card setting adjustment.

 

[jsciv69]

Aside from performance concerns, it would be a bit weird to have unit figures and vehicles at one scale, and then cars and pedestrians at a smaller scale.

I understand your point. But maybe something along the line of roads changing with each passing era. And maybe they can at least make cruise ships and civilian planes the same size as other units. I think the visual of airliners flying form city to city and civ to civ, would make this great game even more of a thrill.