Graphics Patch in the future?

Battleborn Battleborn General Discussion
#21

Battleborn’s visual style and player character models are fantastic. I like stylized graphics as I feel they age better since they do not need to stand up to the evolution of photorealism. One of my favourite examples is when both EverQuest II and World of Warcraft launched in 2004. The former was judged to be the better-looking, with super advanced graphics that taxed even beastly PCs of the day, but after a few years it looked terrible because the standard of realism got higher, while World of Warcraft still looked pretty good (in my opinion) since it was not judged on the same merits.

However, perhaps in order to accommodate large numbers of models and lots of visual effects, the quality of models and textures varies wildly in Battleborn, and I feel things look a bit muddy and low resolution across the board. Lighting looks flat-out awful in many places. As an example, look at the splash screen for Geoff in The Algorithm and how poor it looks when it zooms across his body close up. Those lit parts look miserable (I think it may not even be lighting, just a bright texture meant to simulate it?). Now, further away they look decent enough, but it is stuff like this that draws people’s ire. Why they showcase the poor textures by zooming in is beyond me.

I love the game, but I am not blinded by that love, either. I can definitely understand the view of people who feel the graphical quality is middling. The style? Well, you love it or hate it, that is always going to be the case. However, the execution of that style could have been done better. I mean, when a game comes out over two years into a new console cycle, but looks like it could have come out in the last one, it is not surprising to hear criticism about visuals.

3 Likes
#22

You could click on that link and understand what I’m talking about (it even has pictures!), but I don’t mind rewriting my post yet again.

The whole interface looks unfinished, because:

  1. There is a missing icon causing a pink rectangle to appear in chat.
  2. The styled font is mixed with a generic one in a weird way - player’s nickname is in generic, but character’s name is in styled. Just compare them when getting XP rewards at the end of the game.
  3. The above is just one occurrence. Fonts are mixed for no reason at all in various places throughout the interface. Items with identical meaning next to each other use two different styles.
  4. Sub-tabs are moving to match main tab selection (which is great), but for Marketplace the sub-tabs move to the center of the navigation instead. UX overlook.
  5. Ordering of items when buying gear is inconsistent and doesn’t follow anything, even the alphabet.
  6. Rotating your character using the mouse is just weird - when dragging even a single pixel to one side, the character spins around at constant speed until you release the button.

These are just a few points. If a pink rectangle staring at your soul at the end of each match doesn’t cause you to think “how the hell could they overlook something so glaring”, then I don’t know what to say.

#23

I haven’t had any instances of 1, 4, or 5 happen to me. 6 because I play on PS4. My computer is exclusively used for Team Fortress 2.

2 and 3 Don’t seem so shocking to me, as I’m more interested in the actual values than the text on screen.

as for 5. it’s a little unclear what you mean. Do you mean in the order they appear in your inventory?

#24

1 and 6 are PC exclusive. As far as I know, you can’t expand chat history on consoles, or the icon is just present on console build whereas it was overlooked on PC.

As for 4, could you take a look at Gear -> Packs -> Buy new pack and see if Uncommon Loot Pack is the last one listed? If it is, then the ordering is broken (it doesn’t even follow the alphabet, since “UPR” should be after “Uncommon”). Compare it with screenshots at 21 interface issues (with lots of pictures)

As for 5, it’s also explained in the topic linked above. Let’s go to Command menu yet again and agree on some naming:

Tabs:

  • Battleborn
  • Gear
  • Career
  • Marketplace

Sub-tabs (visible if given tab is active):

  • Loadouts
  • Packs
  • Stats
  • Challenges
  • Titles
  • Loot Packs
  • Misc.

Now, the issue is this: if you select Gear or Career tabs, then their sub-tabs appear right below the selected tab. But for Marketplace, the sub-tabs appear under the space between Gear and Career instead of below Marketplace.

The fact that 2 and 3 are not “shocking” to you doesn’t mean there’s no issue. The interface is objectively not consistent within itself, there’s no subjectivity here.

But really, all your questions would be answered if you just read that topic. I think I’m done repeating myself here, sorry.

#25

You already answered the questions I actually felt I needed answered. Thanks, boo.

#26

The only graphics patch I want is one to fix Attikus’s skins; when he stretches with a skin other than his standard, there’s a belt-buckle mark.

#27

I’d like them to patch in a fix for some of the textures looking absolutely terrible during boss intros. It breaks immersion when the textures look like something from the 1990’s. (The ‘Spider King’ is a great example here).

1 Like
#28

The only thing they need to improve graphically is toning down all these awful eye candy effects. All the visual clutter makes it so hard to play as melee and dips my frames to the twenties. It’s also hard as hell to track down enemies after a huge explosion of effects went off after everyone presses all their buttons. I just want to play a game where I can clearly see the battlefield and make calculated plays.

The worst offender for me is Attikus’ electric skill, I seriously thought i was going blind from all the flashing lights.

#29

Yeah what timtobornen said, unfortunately many games today make things thinking about the consoles and just change keymappings for the PC. Skyrim for example also has a terrible in game UI and needs PC specific mods to make it really usable wotk kb+mouse.

I feel that nowadays unless it’s a PC specific title, PC support is an after thought.