Can We Make This Come True?

[FanFoehver 5]

Hello, this is the first time I've visited APB forums since 2015. I remember APB Reloaded Engine Upgrade and the Failed promises of Gamersfirst. I've seen Matt saying that 64-bit upgrade code is compatible with 2.x versions. This is reallllllllllly good news, lets gooooo! 

 

Here's the old Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KPC8BAka4w&ab_channel=GamersFirst

 

The old engine upgrade looks decent, it just needs more polishing and it should be perfect!

 

Side note: Add heavy depth of field at 100m to demonstrate effective and moveable objects/meshes range. (Optional Graphics)

Biggest problem with the old engine upgrade: Performance, especially on old gen consoles, gives bad impressions about it. Ex. OMG it sucks, nooo we dont want it!

 

Pictures:

 

Social District

 

 

Post processing in the old lighting looks like a foggy overlay rendered on top of screen. The new lighting seems to have nailed color-balance, but the shadows look dark.

 

Character meshes look more highlighted, should make it easier to aim at during combat. Decals look more jagged on the newer version.

 

 

Financial

 

Top: Beautiful shader reflections around low roughness materials, and shadows are no longer super dark. I wanna play this 24/7 if it ever happens :O
Bottom: The classic lighting that gives me nausea and stomach

 

 

 

Waterfront

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abington Towers

 

 

 

END

 

 

[TheMessiah 430]

this guy dont get it..this is not happenin this are screenhots G1 back then from unreal 3.5

[FanFoehver 5]

3 minutes ago, TheMessiah said:

this guy dont get it..this is not happenin this are screenhots G1 back then from unreal 3.5

Yes I know that, it is not about directly bringing stuff from unrecoverable old engine. Just make a new one similar to the screenshots above. Basically Improve the game visuals to make them more fun and less stressful.

 

This includes Post processing and lighting, Textures, Materials, UI, Tutorials, Bug fixing.

[Hexerin 1140]

4 hours ago, FanFoehver said:

Just make a new one similar to the screenshots above.

[NotZombieBiscuit 3146]

I still think the engine upgrade looks aesthetically worse. Better only graphically but ruins the look and style of APB.

[BlatMan 711]

Live has blue filter, 3.5 has orange filter. Both have over use of bloom. Having normal, white lighting will make the game look less dated.

[TheMessiah 430]

the lightin is better in 3.5 but only shows up how old the grafics are..check consoles for example

[Yapopal 168]

The visual part of version 2.0 was done in haste, by little interested people. I was very annoyed by the ship in version 2.0 of the engine. Textures are terrible, palm trees in concrete. The lifting mechanisms of the bridges are taken from some steampunk post-apocalyptic game. The textures of the walls of the buildings in Asylum are seamless in the live version. In version 2.0 they are of terrible quality Crl+v, Crl+c. Unnecessary bloom, as if the camera lens was wrapped with stretch film. The contrast and brightness settings are too high. The color temperature is too warm. In clear weather, there are no sharp shadows on the buildings. They glow from within. In general, I do not understand your admiration. Looks different but much worse.

 

Merged.

 

I use video card software consumption. I adjust brightness-contrast, color temperature, shadows. The live version is getting much prettier. It's annoying that each time of day and weather needs its own setting.

[FanFoehver 5]

7 hours ago, Yapopal said:

The visual part of version 2.0 was done in haste, by little interested people. I was very annoyed by the ship in version 2.0 of the engine. Textures are terrible, palm trees in concrete. The lifting mechanisms of the bridges are taken from some steampunk post-apocalyptic game. The textures of the walls of the buildings in Asylum are seamless in the live version. In version 2.0 they are of terrible quality Crl+v, Crl+c. Unnecessary bloom, as if the camera lens was wrapped with stretch film. The contrast and brightness settings are too high. The color temperature is too warm. In clear weather, there are no sharp shadows on the buildings. They glow from within. In general, I do not understand your admiration. Looks different but much worse.

Yes, but LO can use AI to enhance textures, they can do it better if they choose to. Current Live version is much worse than the old Engine Upgrade. Look at vegetation, and grass is missing in current live version. There's like fake global illumination by increasing Sky Light intensity in the scene. They definitely can make it better than GamersFirst Engine upgrade.

 

 

Current - Social District : There's grass textures but no foliage, this looks really bad.

 

Engine Upgrade - Social District : There's over exposure in post processing, we don't need that, we just need inspiration from the screenshot above, not copy and paste it. Post processing has overexposure, always lit foliage in the middle (not affected by built lightmaps)

 

 

This post is not about copy pasting the old engine, it is about taking notes and improving upon it's mistakes. APB definitely needs something that refreshens it is style to look like a brand new game (Not by completely ruining the nostalgic aesthetic)

[Thial 176]

Don't know if it's allowed but ReShade can easily achieve that look.

[TheMessiah 430]

26 minutes ago, Thial said:

Don't know if it's allowed but ReShade can easily achieve that look.

at night time i prefer how the game was lookin back then(o dou was kinda too yellowish)at least u can see stuff not like now-pitch black

 

 

waterfront

 

 

[BlatMan 711]

Removing the fog makes a huge difference.

 

 

Blue and bloom removed. Not as screenshot friendly but the colors are accurate. It looks closer to the character editor lighting.

 

[BringBackTomorrow 43]

You should know by now, that the world will fix climate changes before this new engine upgrade will launch. 

[Yapopal 168]

I've always liked this drawing.

[R3ACT3M 489]

I asked the devs and those graphics will likely never return as they ran poorly. I still hope to one day how ever see improvements to the visuals. But right this second it's not important

[magik 184]

15 hours ago, BlatMan said:

orange filter.

I'd rather have an orange warm filter over the cold harsh blue. The de-saturation is awful.

[vsb 6171]

5 hours ago, FanFoehver said:

APB definitely needs something that refreshens it is style to look like a brand new game (Not by completely ruining the nostalgic aesthetic)

apb is never going to look like a brand new game, its simply too old at this point

 

a better investment would be some kind of art director to ensure that apb has a cohesive and stylized art direction going forward - omochabox and stockwell are long gone and their leftover art has been recycled to death at this point

[BlatMan 711]

1 hour ago, R3ACT3M said:

I asked the devs and those graphics will likely never return as they ran poorly. I still hope to one day how ever see improvements to the visuals. But right this second it's not important

They may have said that but that was a blatant lie. They broke it and didn't want to fix it. They didn't remove the excessive particles in blood splatter, smoke, muzzle flash, flying debris, explosions, etc. Those caused the game to freeze when rendered back then. You needed custom configs and modified files up until the GTX 900 series. Even then a GTX 960 will still have freezing issues when shot at. It's why nearly every streamer players with various effects removed.

[NotZombieBiscuit 3146]

Let's get rid of the vignette first.

[MonteJr 4]

I think what has been said before still stands:

These updates are meant to first fix the backend before we see better changes in terms of gameplay, graphics, etc.

 

The backend was a mess, some which I'm not sure I can say still(?) but the newest patch is a step in the right direction, and we may finally see some better aesthetic looks like this in the near future.

[R3ACT3M 489]

On 2/22/2023 at 4:17 PM, BlatMan said:

They may have said that but that was a blatant lie. They broke it and didn't want to fix it. They didn't remove the excessive particles in blood splatter, smoke, muzzle flash, flying debris, explosions, etc. Those caused the game to freeze when rendered back then. You needed custom configs and modified files up until the GTX 900 series. Even then a GTX 960 will still have freezing issues when shot at. It's why nearly every streamer players with various effects removed.

You seem confused. I was referring to the Unreal Engine 3.5 graphics as the OP was.

[BlatMan 711]

1 hour ago, R3ACT3M said:

You seem confused. I was referring to the Unreal Engine 3.5 graphics as the OP was.

You're right, I was thinking about Reloaded back when they messed up the tracers. My point still stands on performance.

[R3ACT3M 489]

3 hours ago, BlatMan said:

You're right, I was thinking about Reloaded back when they messed up the tracers. My point still stands on performance.

No for sure, the current visuals I know are half disabled and probably half broken