Has "Realistic" Graphics Had A Negative Effect On DBD?
I feels like once a month there is a discussion about DBD's graphics, mostly in reference to comparing how the game use to look to how it is now, and while people discuss this from a visual standpoint, I want to tackle this topic from a different perspective.
As time goes on, hardware gets better, and graphically games become more and more advance, I think we might see a timeline where DBD's graphics improve to become "more realistic". The entire point of the Realm Beyond update was to update the visuals for DBD to be more "modern" and "realistic" but the goalpost for graphics are always shift forwards while games can only keep up the pace for so long.
Looking back at older games that try to be "realistic", they often age like milk compared to newer graphics. Developers within the past decade or so have started to recognize this and stylize their games in ways that still age well going into the future but have enough appeal to them to draw players into the world.
I have concerns that the "realistic" approach might shoehorn the developers into effectively performing a Realm Beyond 2.0 or Realm Beyond 3.0 with graphics advancing more and more.
When you look at older DBD, it does have a visual stylization to it that feels jank but also really fitting for the game. The lighting and the maps themselves look nice enough to where I think the graphical style would have worked in the modern day (albeit with some touching up in some spots), and could age well going into the future.
Look at other games that have their own art style or art direction that makes them visual standout and hold up after a long time.
- TF2 has hardly changed visually outside of some models being updated to have a higher polygon count, and it's art direction aged really well.
- Warframe has aged really well, they had graphical overhauls but their graphic focus is not entirely on realism but an art style that cannot be described but only shown. The Duviri Paradox is an amazing example of this, but even their older trailers still hold up well.
- Risk of Rain 2 uses a more cell-shaded arts style that intentionally makes things feel 3-D and 2-D and it works incredibly well to the game's benefit, and despite being decently old now, it has aged well.
- Spiral Knights is a really, really old MMO, the same developers who made it also made Slime Ranchers. The art direction for it is unique enough to where it still has a dedicated playerbase even after not receiving content updates in literal years.
I know these are not necessarily in the horror category, but they are examples of 3-D games using graphics and stylization to their advantage, they have no need to have massive graphical overhauls when the styles used will age well going forwards.
Comments
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The old graphics were nice, but beginning to feel extremely outdated in comparisons to other releases at the time, and if Realm Beyond hadn't happened, I imagine we'd be seeing a lot of comparisons to stuff like RE2 and RE3makes characters, who mostly look just fine with the modern graphics. Considering there are still a lot of complaints about how some characters look now (for good reason), I honestly struggle to imagine a world where the graphics never did update.
That leaves the tragic reality that classic DBD's atmosphere was lost, which in my opinion came not really from how much fidelity the map had, but aspects like its lighting and tone. In this way I do agree that Realm Beyond took some steps backward, and I would definitely be fine if some maps were to receive aesthetic changes meant to emulate the older maps more. But overall, I would think that the modern graphics actually makes the game more appealing and therefore more accessible to more players, so its effect on the community I'd say was positive.
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Yes.
There is a reason why many OG players disliked the Realm Beyond from the very start. It may have advertised as an update that wanted the game's visuals to be modern and realistic, but in reality it did nothing but completely delete the game's atmosphere and unique style.
Think of Cuphead, for example. Cuphead is a game that has an unique style, similar to vintage cartoons. Those visuals are an important aspect of the game, and it would awful if that game was changed to have modern graphics. Same thing with DBD, except that DBD did go through the change, sadly.
Such feedback was given when the Realm Beyond updates were being dropped, but it seems to have been ignored.
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I definitely think some elements have been dulled due to pulling away from a potential "augmented reality" appearance.
Take this skin concept art for example, the concept art sells a very creepy under hat shading style that would look great in DBD, however due to the "stick to the realism" I imagine this sort of thing was not put into the in-game version. I am a big fan of dramatic lighting, cartoonish visuals (if it's tasteful) because its timeless. LoL art style is a great example of cartoon realism that is way more cartoonish than i'd want DBD to appear as - but at least with the original characters I think elements like this skin would benefit a lot from "tasteful inclusion" of unrealistic elements. It's at the end of the day a personal preference though! but there's something about the old character art styles and cosmetics that carries a certain charm.
-Rev 😘
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I don't think DbD has a defining art style anymore. It's just a generic-looking game overall.
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my ps4 can barely run the LOBBY anymore, it feels so bad, I can't even imagine how bad it would be if the game was "more beautiful"
Also, good art style with mediocre graphics is peak (the evil within for example)
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I think the game looks much better now. Old DBD was fine for it's time, but looking at it now it looks pretty ugly. It's honestly a very pretty game as long as you aren't running lower graphic settings.
The reason games like TF2 and Slime Rancher don't need to update their graphics is because they are cartoonish. DBD never had a cartoonish style and was always more realism based, they aren't comparable really.
It still feels like DBD and has a feel to it that is unique. I can't think of any game that has a similar look to DBD. I agree that they shouldn't push the realism anymore though, what it is now is perfect.
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