Unit Portrait (Making it look more realistic)

This is the current unit portrait for the scv in sc2.

http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ss29hiresgq3.jpg

^ by the way click again on the image to view the original size of the pic(scv).

http://images.wikia.com/starcraft/images/d/d2/SCV_SC2_HeadAnim.gif

I think it would be awesome and 10x cooler if they make the unit portrait more realistically detailed like these.

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/7043/ss29hirescopyke5.jpg
http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/3595/ss29hirescopy3123lq6.jpg
http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/4288/ss7hirescopy22ff0.jpg

Blizz just need to spend some more cash and do some extra work.

yeah imagine tychus look in the pre-rendered cinematics (intro trailer) as his unit portrait in the game. wow.

 

Yeah except you will notice that whe you are looking at those 3 new ones and the old there is a massive difference in file size. For example the orignal is about 1/2 the file size of the first "high quality" picture. That is a massive difference when you are talking about something so small relative to the overall picture. Especially once you add in the fact that those are also 3D images that need to be rendered in real time by the players computer and graphics card.

 

^ no click again on the scv link and it will be on its original size.

Obviously there is a big difference. The images i got is from the movie final fantasy the spirits within, clearly its more detailed and realistic, and it costs 100million dollar to make, far more than the sc2 unit portrait model. Actually the movie(2001) is the first movie to have a full cgi animation that look really "realistically" human.

 

I'm not a fan of the SCV's portrait either, but those images either don't fit the style of the rest of the game or the unit's personality. The first picture doesn't look like a lowly worker; it looks more like a pilot. The second one just isn't right for the SCV, as they're not wearing some fancy body armor. If anything that's a Ghost. The third one doesn't fit for the same reason as the first one. They kind of fit other units, though. If the Predator makes a return the first one could be it.

 

no those are just sample. why would the woman be an scv etc?

im just suggesting a more realistic look. imagine raynor with that quality as a unit portrait. Im expecting raynor's unit portrait in sc2 will look closely to the in game cutscenes. But this movie final fantasy spirits within, is just detailed and have realistic human like characters even to this day standard of cgi.

yeah imagine tychus look in the pre-rendered cinematics (intro trailer) as his unit portrait in the game. wow.

I know the buildings and overall look of the game doesn't really look realistic. But most want the game to look more realistic thats why we have a new graphical update now, so a more realistic unit portrait would add up to that, as well as making us feel and see more the realistic perspective of the starcraft universe.

 

^ The community as a whole didn't want the graphics to look more realistic so much as they wanted the graphics to look darker and more gritty because units and buildings (especially Terran) looked like they were made of plastic. Did they step up the graphics to the level of the intro trailer? No, they just broke up the color a bit on Terran and dimmed down the shine coming off of Protoss buildings. Besides, even people who don't like some of the portraits probably won't care about it too much because they'll be playing the game instead of staring at the portraits the whole time.

EDIT: Also, I don't want the system requirements to skyrocket just because of some stupid picture in the bottom right hand of my screen.

 

Portraits look fine as they are. SC shouldn't step into an ultra realistic look. That's not the art style, looks very out of place.

 

Too detailed portraits seems like a nice addition, but a bit useless as well. I mean, sure, it will look better, but why should the DPs look better than the game itself..

 

i wouldnt mind, but yeah the specific requirements for sc2 will probably increase...

 

None of them suit, especially the middle one that looks like it comes from a completely different universe altogether.

The current portrait is great. It works extremely well for the SCV, much like the old SCV portrait, and has a great personality to match. Apart from being dressed appropriately and having the cockpit of the SCV around him, he looks like a construction worker. The handlebars, the aged, worn and dirty face, the mullet, the cap, several cigarettes, the uniform, the walkie-talkie strapped to his shoulder, what looks like a beer or two stashed in the background, and the fact that it all meshes together so well. If there's a more stereotypical constriction worker hanging around somewhere, I don't want to know about it.

The first suggestion does not work at all. He's young and fit, with a clean face, both clean-clean and clean-shaven, wearing a clean uniform/suit, then there's the the headphones, and his enthusiasm and eagerness. He doesn't fit the SCV crowd at all.

The second one doesn't work at all either. In fact, I'm not even going to start on this one.

The third suggestion is just like the first one. Young and fit with a clean face and a clean uniform, her hair is far too well cared for and she looks determined and capable. She doesn't fit the SCV at all.

Even if these suggestions were purely for the sake of showing higher quality and more realistic unit portraits, what of the Protoss and Zerg? How would they get to the same level of realism? Besides, I'd be inclined to think differently. If they're lower quality, it means the camera is of lower quality, which it would be during such a war, so makes it look more genuine and true. Having the faces as realistic as possible doesn't always add to the appropriate sense of realism, it merely makes those faces realistic which may or may not represent what's truly going on around them.

 

omg. whats with you guys saying that my pictures don't fit the scv and all. All of those are just examples.

I find it funny specially you itza denying each one of the portrait i represented not to be terran. Do you really think this pictures i posted will be the actual character or models if blizzard made it look realistic? weird. Its from the movie final fantasy. just read my last few sentences on this post.

anyway i just want to say this. that guy would be the most handsome terran scv there is. Scv in light armored power suit. nova is clean and pretty as an angel. so the second one looks completely from a different universe? can be a sc2 ghost to me. the marauder armor, head, etc... looks more of a different universe than that. im not being serious here, so dont try to argue with this.

My point is for example, the scv current look could look more realistic and detailed etc. thats all.

im not going to bother to search for a realistic 3d model to represent an scv.

my idea is to make the unit portrait more realistic. Imagine raynor to have more realistic eyes etc, in the unit portrait as compared to what is now (see in game cutscenes).

ok "you" see it that way. So what do you expect in future blizzard games? sc3 unit portrait? So do you think it will be the same or worst downgrade? ofcourse everything will improve, the interface and units etc. will look realistic, sharp, detailed, etc...and the unit portrait as well.

you know what, its because the current unit portrait of units in sc2 is the best blizzard can do right now. but i wont be surprise if the unit portraits in future blizzard games will be more far realistic than it is now.

anyway, if they can still improve the current one. why not?

in case of system requirements getting in the way, well what can i say, thats just too bad. starcraft 3 anyone? xp

sc1 unit portrait seem pre-rendered right? and also didn't actually look and fit with the game itself. it looks far realistic compared to the cartoony 2d game. But it looked awesome overall as the game itself.

 

@ zeratul11. Reading is your friend. Apart from noting the flaws in each one, I recognised that they could just be an example, which is why I said this:

Yes the portraits could look more realistic, just like how StarCraft1 portraits could have looked more realistic, but it's perfectly fine the way it is now and there's no need to improve it.

I don't see why you're going on about future Blizzard games. They'll look better because Blizzard will have better technology, etc, just like how StarCraft2 looks better than StarCraft1. Future Blizzard games are really irrelevant to the current StarCraft2 portraits.

So, in answer to 'if they can still improve the current ones, why not?', it's because upgrading all of them would not only take a whole lot of unnecessary effort, but it would up the system requirements. In response to 'that's just too bad', you're talking out your arse. The game is being designed to be playable by as many people as possible, not just for the people with the requirements to run it. If they unnecessarily improve all the portraits, then less people will be able to buy and play it so they won't make as many sales, nor will it be as popular. StarCraft3 is again irrelevant. Just because StarCraft3 would require greater specs than people have now it does not mean that it's an excuse to up the requirements of StarCraft2. When StarCraft1 was released, no-one's computers would have been able to run StarCraft2, so why make the comparison between StarCraft2 and StarCraft3? All in all, if system requirements are getting in the way in any field, it's a problem. It's not 'just too bad', it's not 'oh well' and it's definitely not 'who cares?'.

 

first of all i read that. if you were planning to put that in the first place you dont necessarily have to include all other parts of your post specially the ones where you were contradicting the images i posted since you know its just an example. is it just for the sake of debating that it dont look terran or scv etc? well no need, those are just examples of a more realistic unit portrait.

they could make the zerg and protoss look at the same level of realism by improving the current look of the zerg and protoss unit portrait. also there are aliens in final fantasy spirits within too. that look nice as well.

if your satisfied with what you see right now then good. but im always open for improvement.

i was jsut saying if its that hard and costly as well as requiring too much computer specs to make a more realistic unit portrait for sc2 then fine. lets all just wait for sc3.

Stupid pictures? imo the unit portrait is one reason why starcraft is better and unique compared to other rts.

i can't imagine starcraft without a unit portrait. In starcraft 1 thats one of the things that made me go crazy about the game, its not like im looking at it all the time, but hearing the units as well knowing how they look like(portrait) in more of realistic approach made starcraft for me amazingly unique, fun, and cool compared to other rts.

and i dont get it why until now there is no other rts game outhere that have a unit portrait similar to starcraft. Is it really not legal to copy something like this, i mean starcraft's simple yet interestingly fun eye candy interface specially with the live unit portrait is the thing to do. if i was the lead designer for a rts game, i would make it a "bit" similar to starcraft and warcraft interface but better. >_<

 

^ Unique? yes, but it doesn't add much to gameplay, which is why I'm against any unnecessary work on it. Look at SC1 - very simple system requrements, yet still 3 out of 5 people on bnet lag like sh*t. Now imagine SC2 with your so desired new portraits. It would move at a snail's pace! I'd rather have SC2 in 2D than have it freeze every five seconds because of portraits. I know I'm repeating myself here, but I cannot stress enough how much I want gameplay to go as smoothly as possible.

 

those portraits doesn't fit at all the SCV, this is not a game about good humans going in space and fighting evil aliens to save humanity. The terrans, as u may remember, were sent decades ago from earth to colonize the Koprulu Sector. The majority of them were inmates, criminals, thieves, army guys etc. Your pictures fit more maybe an UED race, if it was one. SCVs are all about picking their nose hehe "i'm claustrophobic" bla bla..

 

@ zeratul11. If you did supposedly read it, you obviously didn't read it well. I'll repeat myself:

If you're saying that the Protoss and Zerg could also be improved just by improving the current look, then all your examples are unnecessary. The Protoss and Zerg portraits could not be improved in the same way as you've suggested for Terran so basically you just want higher quality portraits, and it's been stated several times why increasing the quality of portraits would not be a good idea.

Why do you keep bringing up StarCraft3? What is its relevance to anything? The quality of the portraits and system requirements in StarCraft2 have literally nothing to do with StarCraft2.

About the portraits being so unique, they're not really. Tonnes of games have them. It's not a StarCraft icon and the reason why other games may omit them is that they're more graphics-based so may need to skimp on unnecessary things like unit portraits as all the other graphics.

 

let say it won't affect system requirements. there. would you still not want it kaara? anyways.

@alezblaze. please read most of the post. and i understand, im not tryiing to represent the scv but a sample of a higher quality more detailed realistic unit portrait.

@ itza. i read that.

but at the beginning of your post your talking about contradiction that my given portrait does not look like the scv or terran. thats unnecessary since you already know it was just an example portrait i made. since you already unnecessarily did that, so then ofcourse i will try to counter that(it doesn't look terran) as well, even tho im aware (before i replied your post) that you already said this. v below.

"Even if these suggestions were purely for the sake of showing higher quality and more realistic unit portraits..."

Unnecessary? zerg and toss unit portrait could not be improved? what are you talking about? I've given just a sample realistic portrait and i dont care how blizzard will do it.

just go straight to the point coz i don't really understand your problem with sc3. sc3 = new engine = better unit portrait.

just say directly, sc2 dont have the necessary stuffs to make a unit portrait as realistic as that. is this what you mean?

but starcraft and warcraft still makes the best rts unit portrait and interface.

 

There's no such thing as "will not affect system requirements". Everything that needs to be drawn (aka rendered) puts a certain amount of strain on the system. Rendering those very high polygon count 3D models would definitely increase the requirements, so my answer is no.

 

if it wouldnt effect system requirements i would snuggle and cherish this option
the problem is, it does effect sytem requirements, and even though i think the unit portraits are vvery important, i dont want to spend another 150 euros to upgrade my computer for a game where gameplay is most important. looking from an financial standpoint upgrading this would be dumb, iit owuld maybe cost $100.000 or more( i have no idea), but not very much, But it would also cost around a milliion buyers, meaning 50 million dollars. and even though blizzard gets a lot of money from WoW, they are still a company, and not artists, and the goal of a company is making money(some artists too though), they will maybe make small changes that wont increase the sales, but they wont do something this big

 

@ zeratul11. If you read it, you'd understand that I was covering both sides of the argument. The reason I covered both sides was that you hadn't clearly stated that those images were purely to show how a higher quality portrait would work in StarCraft2, so to ensure I covered both sides of the argument, it was, in fact, necessary.

Zerg and Protoss images could not be improved to meet the standard of such high quality Terran portraits. The reason is because the Terran will always have something to use as a template for both structure and movement whereas Protoss and Zerg don't have the same advantage. It's one of the reasons why CGI humans always appear to move and act more normally than other CGI things, as there is physically something to model and use.

The problem I have with StarCraft3 is that it has no apparent connection to this conversation. Why do you keep bringing it up? What is the reason behind doing so? Explain why you're using it because it's about as relevant as talking about StarCraft2 while StarCraft1 was being developed.

StarCraft and WarCraft may have the best unit portraits, but I've already explained why that would be the case which pretty much dismisses any chance or reason behind improving their quality. The reason is because Blizzard has never been on the cutting edge of graphics as they focus more on the gameplay and experience, which is definitely a good thing, so due to their lower standards in the graphics department, they're able to add a couple of quick things like unit portraits. That means there's no real sense in improving the quality of them as they're only an added graphical bonus due to the rest of the graphics not being as flashy so they wouldn't be the things to be improved.

Also, as kuvasz said, there's no such thing as not affecting system requirements, so there's no use in discussing that part.

@ ijffdrie. I think that's the most intellectual thing I've ever heard you say. Keep it up.