Really struggling with the new graphics

[DCD]

I loved Panzer Corps, love the entire genre. 2D graphics would be fine with me but heck I'm up for 3D, or so I thought.

I keep trying, but I can't get myself to play for more than a few minutes - it just looks terrible. I can barely tell what units I have or what is facing me, it all blends in with the bland terrain - it is totally washed out and same-looking.

I actually fired up the original PC last night and played for a few hours (wasting my 2-day window!) because I got a taste for PC again and couldn't stand looking at this new one. I would much prefer those graphics. (Or UoC2 did a good job)

Now I will say that the menus, and info at the sides, everything else looks fantastic. And zoomed in the units look good. (I am playing on max all settings) But the meat of the game just looks awful. It hurts to say that.

ALSO - I'm really bummed this game won't run on my laptop, I actually have to sit at my gaming rig to play. I have a high-end laptop but with the basic Intel GPU.
Yeah I know it's the unreal engine. But it's worth mentioning I can play all my other TB strategy games on this laptop - Civ6, UoC2, EU4, CK2, OoB, etc - all of them are fine, except PC2.

I really hope something can be done about these things before release - I do love this game. Thanks.

[BoredSights]

I have the same opinion. The details on each unit looks nice close up but I'm playing the game zoomed out most of the time. I noticed that every tree/shrub is 3D and has shaders. No need for shaders on every little thing. Also there is a lot of blurred images. I'm playing this game on a high-res monitor and everything should look sharp. Is this game using Motion Blur by default? Is there a config file to turn it off?

[rudankort]

Originally posted by DCD:

I keep trying, but I can't get myself to play for more than a few minutes - it just looks terrible. I can barely tell what units I have or what is facing me, it all blends in with the bland terrain - it is totally washed out and same-looking.

First of all, thanks for honest feedback. Appreciate that.

Second, could you please post a screenshot of how the game looks for you. There is always a chance that something very strange is happening and the game does not look the way it is intended to look. We've had a few such odd cases in the beta.

Third, you mentioned units look good zoomed in. So what happens when you zoom out? Is it that units are too small and lose too much detail? You can go to game's options and crank up unit size slider to maximum - will it be any better this way?

Originally posted by DCD:

ALSO - I'm really bummed this game won't run on my laptop, I actually have to sit at my gaming rig to play. I have a high-end laptop but with the basic Intel GPU.
Yeah I know it's the unreal engine. But it's worth mentioning I can play all my other TB strategy games on this laptop - Civ6, UoC2, EU4, CK2, OoB, etc - all of them are fine, except PC2.

What are the specs of this laptop? Maybe we can find something similarly specced and check. What kind of fps are you getting with it?

[rudankort]

Originally posted by BoredSights:

I noticed that every tree/shrub is 3D and has shaders.

When you say "has shaders", do you mean that they cast a shadow, or something else?

Originally posted by BoredSights:

Also there is a lot of blurred images. I'm playing this game on a high-res monitor and everything should look sharp.

Could you post a screenshot with an example of such blurred image? (Or maybe some of the ones you've already posted can serve as such example?)

Originally posted by BoredSights:

Is this game using Motion Blur by default? Is there a config file to turn it off?

We have turned off motion blur everywhere to the best of our knowledge. But with Unreal, you never know. :)

[BoredSights]

I'm about to record a bunch of game-play for my YouTube channel. Here is a link:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCteuo8DfAwZUnMhQ9apEkBg

[merlin666]

I would like a clearer overview map (or whatsitsname). In PC1, I would always look at the overview at the end of the turn and see at a glance, whether any of my units still had moves left. The split between air and ground units was helpful, as well. Now, I find myself clicking through the Next Unit button at the end of every turn, because I'm never sure whether I had moved them all. Feels clunky.

[Kerensky]

Originally posted by merlin666:

I would like a clearer overview map (or whatsitsname). In PC1, I would always look at the overview at the end of the turn and see at a glance, whether any of my units still had moves left. The split between air and ground units was helpful, as well. Now, I find myself clicking through the Next Unit button at the end of every turn, because I'm never sure whether I had moved them all. Feels clunky.

Bottom right mini map shows unit activity status. Fully colored for can move, can shoot. Half colored for one action remaining. Darkened for both actions used.

This mini map can also be stretched and resized at will.

[tappex]

Originally posted by merlin666:

Now, I find myself clicking through the Next Unit button at the end of every turn, because I'm never sure whether I had moved them all. Feels clunky.

Do you think a change like this (shading counters differently, depending on whether a unit has actions remaining or not) would help?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2002084136

[Kerensky]

Originally posted by tappex:

Originally posted by merlin666:

Now, I find myself clicking through the Next Unit button at the end of every turn, because I'm never sure whether I had moved them all. Feels clunky.

Do you think a change like this (shading counters differently, depending on whether a unit has actions remaining or not) would help?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2002084136

Too subtle. Also, why shade the plate when you can already see this information on the plate. The red bullet and green arrow are activity indicators. They say 'can shoot/can move'

[tappex]

Originally posted by Kerensky:

Originally posted by tappex:

Also, why shade the plate when you can already see this information on the plate. The red bullet and green arrow are activity indicators. They say 'can shoot/can move'

Right, but the arrows are less suited to get the big picture, especially in more complex scenarios. I feel like the more contrasting plates convey that information at less cost. In comparison, looking for those little markers is more akin to reading.

However, I am a bit of red-green color blind, so maybe the current solution is clearer than I perceive it to be.

[BoredSights]

Originally posted by rudankort:

Originally posted by BoredSights:

I noticed that every tree/shrub is 3D and has shaders.

When you say "has shaders", do you mean that they cast a shadow, or something else?

Originally posted by BoredSights:

Also there is a lot of blurred images. I'm playing this game on a high-res monitor and everything should look sharp.

Could you post a screenshot with an example of such blurred image? (Or maybe some of the ones you've already posted can serve as such example?)

Originally posted by BoredSights:

Is this game using Motion Blur by default? Is there a config file to turn it off?

We have turned off motion blur everywhere to the best of our knowledge. But with Unreal, you never know. :)

There is a shadow cast when settings are high. When the video settings are turned down to minimum there are shaders on each tree.

[Dgrang]

I have similar feeling that graphics is blurry and it blends with the environment. When you are zoom in units looks clear but when you zoom they are blurry.
I'm playing on high details but I also tried all others.
btw. I would like to zoom out more before going to strategic View. I would like to see more when I'm playing on bigger monitor. And strategic View is kinda useless compared to previous version.

[ThisHero]

Something that helped performance noticeably for me: check to make sure that under the graphics settings, "Fullscreen" is selected and not "windowed full screen". I do not know why windowed full screen was selected by default for me, but once I changed it performance improved.

[jzak]

I have to agree - the units up close look fantastic but as you zoom out to view your zone of control the unit graphics are just crap with the exception of flying units.

Zoomed out (i.e the game default) my tanks look like boxes and in some campaign games units are just too hard to see under certain terrain.

Also just looking at the screen I find it hard to distinguish between infantry types (with the exception of bridge engineers and grenadiers).

[DCD]

Originally posted by rudankort:

First of all, thanks for honest feedback. Appreciate that.

Thanks for the response.

Originally posted by rudankort:

could you please post a screenshot of how the game looks for you. There is always a chance that something very strange is happening and the game does not look the way it is intended to look. We've had a few such odd cases in the beta.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2002519657
Here's a comparison between PC1 & 2. There's nothing funny going on, but for me it is very easy to look at the PC1 screen, with so many more units, and easily tell what I have, what each unit is, what my position is vis-a-vis the opposition. I think it's a matter of detail and contrast, but everything in the new one looks very bland and similar to me.

Originally posted by rudankort:

Is it that units are too small and lose too much detail? You can go to game's options and crank up unit size slider to maximum - will it be any better this way?

Cranking the unit size slider definitely helped with the armored units, thanks for that. However the infantry and air units still are really hard to tell apart. And the infantry can really blend in with the terrain (damn camouflage!). Everything looks to be a pale green or gray.

Also the unit plates(?) - with the digits and red/green markers - just don't show well. Again see the screenshot above for PC1 vs PC2.

Originally posted by rudankort:

What are the specs of this laptop? Maybe we can find something similarly specced and check. What kind of fps are you getting with it?

My laptop is an HP Spectre with a Core i7-8550U proc, 16GB RAM, but the onboard Intel UHD 620 graphics. Aside from the low FPS (on minimum graphics settings) the game kept crashing after a few minutes of play. So I uninstalled since I didn't meet the specs, not sure what the exact FPS was. I hope something can be done to make it more laptop friendly because you want to be able to play turn-based games on the couch! :)

Thanks again for your engagement, looking forward to the final product, love the game.

[Croaker]

Originally posted by DCD:

I loved Panzer Corps, love the entire genre. 2D graphics would be fine with me but heck I'm up for 3D, or so I thought.

I keep trying, but I can't get myself to play for more than a few minutes - it just looks terrible. I can barely tell what units I have or what is facing me, it all blends in with the bland terrain - it is totally washed out and same-looking.

I actually fired up the original PC last night and played for a few hours (wasting my 2-day window!) because I got a taste for PC again and couldn't stand looking at this new one. I would much prefer those graphics. (Or UoC2 did a good job)

Now I will say that the menus, and info at the sides, everything else looks fantastic. And zoomed in the units look good. (I am playing on max all settings) But the meat of the game just looks awful. It hurts to say that.

ALSO - I'm really bummed this game won't run on my laptop, I actually have to sit at my gaming rig to play. I have a high-end laptop but with the basic Intel GPU.
Yeah I know it's the unreal engine. But it's worth mentioning I can play all my other TB strategy games on this laptop - Civ6, UoC2, EU4, CK2, OoB, etc - all of them are fine, except PC2.

I really hope something can be done about these things before release - I do love this game. Thanks.

I agree - The map's colors are washed out. Also, I don't like the angle of the isometric view of the map, I would prefer a more top down view.Please add a way to change the viewing angle. For the colors, maybe if there was a way to adjust the gamma and contrast it might sharpen the colors. However, Slitherine's "Order of Battle" nailed the graphics style for this type of game with beautiful map graphics, unit animation and an almost top down view. I tried playing "Panzer Corps2" but I couldn't get over the graphics as well. I even prefer the original "Panzer Corps"'s presentation to this rendition. So sad, I waited so long for this release. Refunded for now.