Dear developers the engine looks outdated.

[fedeita]

Thanks for this game, I like it but the lighting is poor and has many glitches and artifacts that need to be fixed, here's a small list of what I find most annoying:

-Artificial lights don't cast shadows:
This is mostly annoying as it causes all shadows not being rendered even in interior scenes.




The light is not culled and passes through objects:



-The engine seems to not taking into consideration indirect light:
As you can see here, only direct light coming from the main source cast shadows and whenever it get obstructed, the lighting result flat.
At evening, with the sun obstructed, there's no shadows:


At night the shadows are back again:

More examples:




-Global illumination is full of artifacts
I know a bad baking is at the base of the various problems but I was expecting something better from the native scenes, most of them aren't even completed and at this point I suppose you bet on a dead horse since baking is really time consuming and doesn't allow future changes to the scene without implications.


-Vegetation have no pbr shaders:
Using it would give life to the environment as the leaves reflect the light, I think arma reforger did a great work at it judging by the artstation's page of their artist.
I don't know how this passed the quality check but I noticed some plants have their texture with highlighted texture reflections, as it is abysmal to look at, it shows how much better they would be with reflections:

 

[five bucks]

The engine is fine. It's a battle simulator that can host thousands of troops with individual AIs, it's not meant to have the graphical fidelity of games where there's only a few enemies at a time. Honestly this game can look really good sometimes.

And don't forget that development started in ~2013, so of course the engine is not going to be the newest on the block.

Where Bannerlord needs work is in its gameplay balance and design, not its graphics.

 

[archaicwarrior]

OMG! Warband is great game even though the graphics is very old.

Let them finish the game, and add depth features, before we start talking graphics.

AW.

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

The "engine" is just a jargon term for low level code. I don't know where this idea comes from that they "make" an engine before starting the game and then it never changes.

The engine is fine, these are mostly issues with the assets that have been gradually fixed (and sometimes broken) since release.

 

[Galdr]

While Id tend to agree, I was still playing Warband on a daily basis up until Bannerlord released. I still install old games, even DOS games, every now and then. Sure, it would be amazing if my favorite games had prime GFX but with the speed hard- and software development progress, I dont feel its fair to expect or demand. Once they updated it, new stuff has come out and they can start all over. Not time for bug hunt/fix, no time for game development and no time for development of new titles.

 

[Mad Vader]

Wait for Bannerlord: Remounted with prettier graphics to pay twice!

 

[fedeita]

I struggle to understand your comments, what I have proposed would require the work of only a part of the team, this would not affect the rest and would not take away resources from other areas of the game that need to be improved.
Moreover, I'm not asking the moon as the artificial lights are already capable of casting around shadows in the charachter menu and there are even selfie shadows when you encounter other party members.

 

[Mad Vader]

I struggle to understand your comments, what I have proposed would require the work of only a part of the team, this would not affect the rest and would not take away resources from other areas of the game that need to be improved.

We don't know who, if anyone, is left on the teams except for few guys that show up on the forums. The engine guys are probably on another project and return to this one to fix a crash or a performance issue. So any further work on the engine would probably affect in some way their new unannounced game, I doubt they have people waiting for new bug reports while doing nothing (I may be very wrong though).

 

[Dodgy]

Genuinely don't care about the graphics, it's probably the best part of the game, ironically. (Meant as a proper step up from Warband).
If only they could actually improve the AI/gameplay, fleshing out those barebones...

 

[froggyluv]

Wait for Bannerlord: Remounted with prettier graphics to pay twice!

Screwed you once , shame on them. Screw (mount) you twice..shame on You !!

As to the OP I think the game looks visually good to sometimes even stunning considering the amount of troops being calculated and with the right reshade going on. Bigger shame is the lack of reason to EVER go into a city to witness them as its just utterly boring to go wandering for no reason at all. Only time I see a city is in a Siege. The combat animations tho are outstanding imo

 

[Goyyyio]

What you guys are not seeing for some reason is that instead of arguing that "there are things that need to be fixed/added with more urgency", we could just add this to the list of things the Devs will never fix because anything the community asks for will be instantly added to a blacklist of "DO NOT DO"

 

[fedeita]

nice

 

[Turret0487]

What you guys are not seeing for some reason is that instead of arguing that "there are things that need to be fixed/added with more urgency", we could just add this to the list of things the Devs will never fix because anything the community asks for will be instantly added to a blacklist of "DO NOT DO"

I've reached this same conclusion.

It seems to me that the more people complain and demand, the more petitions get ignored.

 

[mongoid]

What you guys are not seeing for some reason is that instead of arguing that "there are things that need to be fixed/added with more urgency", we could just add this to the list of things the Devs will never fix because anything the community asks for will be instantly added to a blacklist of "DO NOT DO"

Exactly. By Taleworlds' logic, if the community ask for something, then it almost certainly isn't worth doing (unless of course, there is a mod that has done it already and they can easily adapt it and call it their own - and even that is highly unlikely).

 

[fedeita]

Haven't you noticed my last screenshots? Dynamic shadows are already ingame and the atmosphere is amazing but they are slightly bugged as the game keeps switching them off and on randomly while walking around

 

[fedeita]

Little update, they can't be enabled in outdoor scenes

 

[Count_Morfetico]

Where Bannerlord needs work is in its gameplay balance and design, not its graphics.

+1

 

[sh1ny4]

The issue with the game's look is the art direction, not the technology. And graphics don't really matter for this type of game, it's like complaining about a 4X' not featuring Raytracing

 

[Count_Morfetico]

The issue with the game's look is the art direction, not the technology.

What's the issue?

 

[sh1ny4]

What's the issue?

compare the vanilla battle maps to modded ones, same with armours. Even within base game there are some massive differences in quality, like top tier sturgian vs battanian.
they are in the same engine but one looks significantly better than the other. the game has no consistent art quality meaning we get some pretty ugly parts that could have been done better.
There are plenty of good looking games without top of the line technology, and plenty of games with top of the line technology that look bad.
The game lacks development in many parts but the graphics ? really at the bottom of the priority list