Does anyone feel all the colors in the game are masked by dirt? I am an old player and I think the color of definitive edition should be more bright.
@Kuoting said:
Does anyone feel all the colors in the game are masked by dirt? I am an old player and I think the color of definitive edition should be more bright.
The demo at gamescom had a lot more colour than the screenshots they have given us from what I can see. One of the main reasons that the old version’s buildings appear very saturated in colour is because the colour palate was much smaller on older computers and thus, many buildings appeared brighter as there was little shading compared to the definitive edition.
Also, could an admin lock this thread as there is already a thread discussing this?
The dust and dirt coming from balistas firing are blurring the complete battlefield. Are we talking about the same effect?
Increase the brightness of your monitor or even the game itself! Hahaha it is possible to change the saturation of colors on your own monitor. 
My opinion is that the color palettes selected in the game are trying to have a very good connection, mainly due to the updating of the graphics (one implies the other).
This was my initial reaction as well from the screenshots released when the game was announced. The detail on the sprites and buildings is great up close but zoomed out the models look dirty, muddy and dull. The sprites and buildings in the original release are simpler and sharper, making them much more identifiable when zoomed out.
https://forums.ageofempires.com/discussion/313/muddy-graphics
Thankfully it was announced the game will have Classic Mode, which will allow us to play the game with the original graphics if we choose.
I asked a friend who has never played AoE before and he has the same feeling. The color of the old version is more appealing. 
Well, I asked MY friend and he says the new colors are better, so we’re tied 
hahaha
Just look at this screenshot, the DE version below is so much more realistic:
@Raw1812 said:
Just look at this screenshot, the DE version below is so much more realistic:
If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you are aiming for the 500 LOLs badge.
The truth is:
TBh tho I think we need to be playing the game to see how it feels. I was hardcore AoEO player so I am used to cartoony/bright AoE personally, but I def like DE’s color scheme.
Let’s be realistic here ;p
There are those of us who feel this way, and it’s been talked about to some degree of detail in this thread:
Ensemble Studio’s original vision for the Age of Empires games is that they are bright and colourful. The ES motto is “The sun is always shining in Age of Empires,” and I think that AoER should remain faithful to that premise, and not be desaturated, murky-looking, and missing a lot of the original AoE’s colour variety.
I’d really like to see the building roofs in AoER appear more pink, as they are in the original game, and the ship sails and cliffs take on more unique tones, so that they don’t become visually homogeneous with so many other elements of the game: walls, towers, buildings, roads.
As one person suggested in that other thread, maybe there could be two colour modes in AoER: The original AoE colour theme, and FE team’s own vision. I find FE’s promo media to be much more limited in colour, brightness, and variety than the original game’s. It takes a lot of spirit and sense of environmental breath out of the impression, IMO.
Also, while some people have claimed that the Gamescom version of the game appeared more colourful, we haven’t received any confirmation or comment on this from the AoER team. Some clarification could go a long way, here.
@Penelinfi said:
Let’s be realistic here ;p
Let’s be fair:
I appreciate the devs’ efforts on the details but having a quick glance the overall color of the original is better.
And I have preordered the game. I am not boycotting. The details of new buildings and units are awesome, I just want the “color” can be as bright as the original version.
If unfortunately the devs can’t adjust the color in time, at least I hope they won’t make the same mistake when developing AoE2DE.
The pixel horses are in fact more vibrant than the realistic one. A brown picture is not good to show this.
The issue is not number of colours though, it’s the vibrancy and contrast between colours. The water is vibrant. But could be darker in the deep water to show that difference better - it can be overwhelming when units are everywhere and you are trying to figure out which part is actually the shallows.
Units need to have brighter team colour elements in my opinion.
Buildings could have more white stone and again, bright team colour elements.
Overall I don’t think it’s actually “dull” as much as lack of contrast in colours.
Another thing is that the horse’s bronze/gold parts were very yellow in the original, whereas now they are closer to bronze and slight tarnish. We like our shiny gold horses!
Pictures can also be misleading due to the fact they are not original uncompressed files.