The Real Problem with the Graphics Downgrade since the Beta IMO

Gameplay
#1

In case you haven’t played the beta version of the game or simply haven’t noticed, the game has been downgraded quite massively since, and for a good reason as it was virtually unplayable in its beta stage.
Here’s a comparison video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSFSuOK99o8.

However, one problem in particular is a serious sore to my eyes. And no, it isn’t the massively downgraded lighting system.
Graphics and lighting aside, something about the density and the colour palette of the forests in the beta just looks and feels a lot more European, as it is genuinely what forests look like around where I live in Germany. The forest in the final release, however, looks like a typical video game forest that doesn’t really take the regional atmosphere and colour palette of the geographic area it seeks to depict into consideration, but rather throws in a bunch of trees and bushes, while using a random shade of green that doesn’t resemble the true shade of foliage, especially not in Central Europe.

I typically don’t nitpick about such things, but since it’s already been perfectly achieved in the beta I allow myself to. What I loved about the beta version of KCD was the fact that it didn’t make its version of the Bohemian woods look like yet another video game forest, consisting of random trees and bushes thrown in purposelessly together and coloured in a random shade of green, it actually captured the atmosphere and the feel of Central Europe. It’s a real shame it’s now gone. Hopefully the upcoming modding tools will be able to restore the game’s former graphical glory.

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#2

I think the point is that the beta was a small part of the world where a designer worked without pressure and full creativity because there were no limits yet. For the full game the world was even bigger and the other systems like NPCs, Quests etc were added. The world had to be filled in faster time in bigger scale with better performance. so that might be the reason why the realistic look was gone in the full game.

Modders have a good chance to make it look more naturall because they don’t have a limit in time, but there might be still a limit for the engine. But we will see

#3

Very true indeed, and I absolutely admire the devs’ efforts to make the game more playable with as little compromise as possible.

#4

I don’t understand why they downgraded the graphics while there’s extra an ultra option for future hardware! They could keep all the high quality visuals from the beta for ultra options only! In some years FPS are no longer a problem and the game looks worse forever. Please give us back the beta graphics at least as a DLC so that only people with a very powerful machine can use it!

And I saw even in a pre-alpha how NPCs and objects are by far better animated. Why all the good stuff got removed? Nowadays CPUs have 8 or 12 cores with 24 threads @ 5,0 GHz that should more than enough to handle that!

#5

Yeah. I sincerely hope the upcoming modtools will allow our diligent modders to revert this change. The current forests are such a sore to my eyes.

#6

I hope Warhorse will release the source code of the game inclusive all beta content such as textures, meshes, models and animations etc. so that the community can care the game with fixes, improvements and mods to keep it alive for some years in the future.

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