Here are just some concept drawings I pulled up from google, some of them are from Fallout 3 and some from New Vegas.

I feel like all it would take is some newer, diverse-er, better looking textures and colors, a lot more thoughtfulness and invested time, and more objects!

I mean, the walls around New Vegas for example, were made of billboards and pieces of concrete. The billboards are all white, I guess they're all evenly and identically faded. They're all angular and random, sticking into the ground and the side of the Ultra-Lux. They could have made a couple different concrete pieces, maybe one's from a sidewalk, and one's from the wall of a parking garage?

The walls surrounding North Vegas were made out of "ACME Realestate" signs, all randomly spewn into the landscape by some hasty designer.

I understand that mostly everything has to be made of those static object things so that people can make their own stuff on the geck. But why not have more? How about, burning barrel, burning barrel with bloody marks on it, burning barrel with part of the side torn down, etc. There are only three kinds of barrel in the whole game! Closed, yellow in a crate, and full of holes with a fire inside it.

Yes we can! :fallout:

http://ui29.gamespot.com/124/cityruins_2.jpg
http://www.defonten.az/wp-content/gallery/artwork/sc_03.jpg
http://www.jedijane.me/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/concept02B.jpg
http://gza.gameriot.com/content/images/view_320200_1_1252655292.jpg
http://www.shd4.com/img/post/fallout3/05.jpg
http://img390.imageshack.us/i/insurancedestrzo0.jpg/sr=1
http://www.product-reviews.net/wp-content/userimages/2007/06/pcfallout3.jpg
http://www.maximumpc.com/sites/future.p2technology.com/files/imce-images/Fallout-3-alternate.jpg
http://wallpaperswide.com/thumbs/fallout_new_vegas_hoover_dam_concept_art-t2.jpg
http://gamesas.com/newsletter/images/falloutnv/conceptart-thestrip-B.jpg
http://wallpaperswide.com/thumbs/fallout_new_vegas_concept_art-t2.jpg

Graphic limitations.

if anything was more designed the games would have more problems.
and the game has enough problems already, so we gotta live with static items.

i mean, the graphics right now are causing problems, i fell into a crack and ended up being rocketed upwards, then fell to my demise.

Agreed... The processing to create a world this vast without loading times is pretty intense and the fact that the game is so streamlined as is with all the various interactable objects, items, etc, is pretty impressive. Fallout 6 or 7 (if made) may look more and more like those concept drawings. Sure they could try to do it now, but the game would play like a slide show.

Well why not go back to the old turn based games? Then it wouldn't be so bad to "play it like a slide show." I mean until Fallout 6 or 7 come along and blow us away of course.

Man, i love the concept art. Those cities look great, I hadn't seen that one of rivet city.

But that's why the call it that because it is just a concept.

Pretty much what the others said. If they added anything more detailed, my ps3 would start smoking and melt. :brokencomputer:

I think the reason we don't see a more detailed / populated new vegas is simply system/engine limitations. But personally, I can't wait till they ditch gamebryo. But you kinda have to admire how much devs that have used the engine can get out of it.

There's always FO:4 right? :celebration:

So do we start to flame a certain console?

This doesn't have anything to do with platforms. It has to do with more variety of static objects and graphic content.

I must have mentioned that line of reasoning a dozen times in the past... but the games would still have realtime exploration.

I honestly don't understand why that art couldn't be done. Fallout 3 and NV are loose along the 2d ground plane, and fairly limited when it comes to elevation... The PC can't fly, and in Fallout 3 most tall buildings have no actual roof to them. Architecture like that insurance building in the concept art could be done pretty close I'd think... The geometry could be relatively simplistic, but with good textures ~since it never has to stand up to scrutiny past the first floor, and from controlled angles. The Normal Maps for the models are all about the same size (for similar objects), and the details on them can totally fake tremendous model detail. :shrug:

**I don't know the engine in any professional capacity or experience though; but I do believe that all that the AI considers are the low-res collision meshes, and that the normal maps would not be exceedingly larger for having a bit more detail.

I think its a combination of several factors:
Textures are much worse than they could be because the game has to run on low end hardware and consoles.
Same is probably true for models.
The concept art is done by different people than the ones that do the 3D models, textures, etc.
Engine limitations, although a different engine probably still would yield similar results, as hardware limits still apply.
As long as we have multi-platform launches without more differentiation between the different systems (e.g. higher graphic settings on high-end pc) or at least a new generation of consoles, graphics will stay below what could be done.

- I actually don't give a flying [censored] about graphics. If FO Reverted to "eye of the beholder" graphics but worked on an epic story I would be able to accept that far easier than better looking ragdolls and thin story.

I'm seriously of the same opinion.

I'm not saying that the graphics make the game, I'm just pointing out that sometimes the graphics (the environment) make the immersion, which is what we all want.

I won't, I don't waste my time getting into those squabbles. Concept art is beautiful, but there is no limitation save the hand and creativity of the artist, but unless you're running some sort of massive supercomputer, then any standard hardwar on any technology will have extreme difficulty streaming a world like that as a smooth world and so on.

-I would but I have warnings and have to keep a low profile .

Concept art always looks better then the game

Not only that, but also hardware limitations.


Few people understand that graphics CAN break a game. Just as bad music CAN break a movie.

Would Starwars have been just as epic if it were without its soundtrack? No, it almost got canceled because of that. Would Fallout 3 or NV have been the great games they were if they had 8-bit graphics? Not a chance in hell.

I mean, which is better? Some text saying "You are in a forest, alone at night. with a thick fog growing around you", or this >> http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8aaft_bZOFo/S9EQ9hHM_JI/AAAAAAAAARg/pCp_vt53AUE/s1600/wallpaper-36422.jpg

Personally, I am a more visual person. I like to see that I am in a creepy forest rather then read it.


Obviously though I think we can all agree that if they had good graphics AND good story, then that would be loved by all.

-Sure. I am a huge fan of Inon Zur and especially Jesper Kyd (Jeremy soule was great but its getting stale). But there are alot of game that sell purely because of their graphics.

I played Crysis. and that game had great graphics and decent music... But the gameplay and history svckED. There was an option to sneak that was basically [censored] useless and the story was more or less a "Doom"/"Halo" ripoff. The lore was all [censored] and [censored]e didn't make any sense. Cloaking gear but sneaking was useless? I stopped playing after about one hour. It was completely crap.

About once a year I re-install Star Wars: Rebellion, and Planescape: Torment. Honestly the graphics are all but archaic but the music and the gameplay is Excellent. In the case of PST the story is so great that I enjoy it every time. Its like rereading a good book. And in the case of Rebellion... well. The potency of the Death Star is great for getting rid of frustrations . And the music does add the ambiance.

Maybe its because I remember the earliest stick man Computer RPGS, the long hours I enjoyed playing "eye of the beholder" ect. The graphics supported the story and the music added the ambiance. But the story made the game work. Not the graphics nor the music.