The Wayfinders | A Kingdom Hearts club |

[Sanctus]

Sweet! That's exactly why I wrote it. Glad it was helpful. :)

They previously used an in-house engine called Luminous. This is a solid debriefing of what we actually know concerning that shift, and it talks about the Kingdom Shader which I neglected. I personally believe Yasue when he says there were no problems with the previous multi-million dollar engine. Unless there's been a change I'm unfamiliar with Luminous is being used for FFXV and it looks great.

I've seen people dis KHIII's graphics as though it still looks like a ps2 game. To quote one of our favorite Organization XIII members, as if. It looks far more smooth, vibrant, and richly textured. It still looks like a Disney cartoon because this isn't Call of Duty. It's for a completely different audience and we love how our game looks.

[Saraibre Ryu]

I've seen people dis KHIII's graphics as though it still looks like a ps2 game. To quote one of our favorite Organization XIII members, as if. It looks far more smooth, vibrant, and richly textured. It still looks like a Disney cartoon because this isn't Call of Duty. It's for a completely different audience and we love how our game looks.

I'm gonna punch the scrubs and anyone else who says it looks bad. It's called being stylized. KH has its own style that, even if you take away the Disney, all the original KH characters have their own style. I would absolutely hate it if they changed it. The KH style fits with everything else and all the other varying styles of all the animated 2D/Stop motion Disney movies used thus far. PotC was a bit weird but they made it work to some degree. The way the game looks is great. The 3D models for all the different Disney worlds didn't look the same like the sole 3D Disney movies do now, and I like it that way.

They have something good, and they don't need to change it. The formula works, nothing needs to be botched. I don't want my Kingdom Hearts looking like real life, I want my Kingdom Hearts games to look like Kingdom Hearts games.

[Winter]

I've seen people dis KHIII's graphics as though it still looks like a ps2 game. To quote one of our favorite Organization XIII members, as if. It looks far more smooth, vibrant, and richly textured. It still looks like a Disney cartoon because this isn't Call of Duty. It's for a completely different audience and we love how our game looks.

It looks like a PS2 game? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Are these people morons? It kinda looks like a step down from the really nice rendered animations from the PS2 games, but ah, we're talking the really nice rendered animation, not the actual game models, which means they've seriously improved, though there is something funny going on with the graphics. I'm not sure if maybe it's because they were using stuff from production that hasn't totally been finished up or what, but looking over that E3 trailer, I kept going "...The lighting is off. There's got to be something up with the lighting. Or maybe it's the rendering?" I even showed my boyfriend (same major, same school), and he can't seem to pin it down, but he agrees with me--something is off, and I'm praying it gets tweaked or added in or fixed, because I like everything else, but that is going to drive me insane.

And for those who may think I'm crazy, lighting makes all the difference, I was amazed at results when we started playing with lighting in class, and here's a side by side comparison: Left side is totally lit (and rendered), right side is totally unlit (default window for working stuff in Autodesk Maya):

See what I mean?

IMO, the E3 trailer and the gameplay trailer I've seen suggest that maybe they're currently only partway lit, or not totally rendered, or the shader or whatever, but something is not right here.

[Sanctus]

I'm gonna punch the scrubs and anyone else who says it looks bad. It's called being stylized. KH has its own style that, even if you take away the Disney, all the original KH characters have their own style. I would absolutely hate it if they changed it. The KH style fits with everything else and all the other varying styles of all the animated 2D/Stop motion Disney movies used thus far. PotC was a bit weird but they made it work to some degree. The way the game looks is great. The 3D models for all the different Disney worlds didn't look the same like the sole 3D Disney movies do now, and I like it that way.

They have something good, and they don't need to change it. The formula works, nothing needs to be botched. I don't want my Kingdom Hearts looking like real life, I want my Kingdom Hearts games to look like Kingdom Hearts games.

^ well said

It looks like a PS2 game? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Are these people morons? It kinda looks like a step down from the really nice rendered animations from the PS2 games, but ah, we're talking the really nice rendered animation, not the actual game models, which means they've seriously improved, though there is something funny going on with the graphics. I'm not sure if maybe it's because they were using stuff from production that hasn't totally been finished up or what, but looking over that E3 trailer, I kept going "...The lighting is off. There's got to be something up with the lighting. Or maybe it's the rendering?" I even showed my boyfriend (same major, same school), and he can't seem to pin it down, but he agrees with me--something is off, and I'm praying it gets tweaked or added in or fixed, because I like everything else, but that is going to drive me insane.

And for those who may think I'm crazy, lighting makes all the difference, I was amazed at results when we started playing with lighting in class, and here's a side by side comparison: Left side is totally lit (and rendered), right side is totally unlit (default window for working stuff in Autodesk Maya):

See what I mean?

IMO, the E3 trailer and the gameplay trailer I've seen suggest that maybe they're currently only partway lit, or not totally rendered, or the shader or whatever, but something is not right here.

You would definitely be the expert here, and I'll defer to your judgment. I definitely see the difference in the pic you've posted. To me, the trailer had a matured, more acutely pastel look than any of the other games. Maybe you'd agree and add there's still something awry with the lighting. The KHI staff remarked on the yet-to-be released trailer (still raw and unfinished) that the lighting was gorgeous. I suppose those of us who lack your training don't have the perception to notice it and are just glad to see it with main console graphics again. It's definitely possible the rendering is unfinished though, especially in that first trailer. The D23 trailer is probably a closer example of what they want it to look like, but I think even then when you consider that it was being developed on the Luminous engine, they only had Luminous 1.5 and to my knowledge they were going to switch it over to 2.0 eventually (same with FFXV).