Yes, this Is the main problem and only developers can fix It. The only solution is the Graphic DLC.
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Yep animations is a huge problem as well, how is possible that all siege units have the same dead animation ? Come on who can defend that ?
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If i remember well DF said that Essence Engine in Aoe4 was running only a one core of the CPU. This Is another problem.
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From what I’ve seen when running Afterburner/Rivatuner, it lightly uses several cores (so I don’t think it’s single-core only), but this game is by far more GPU than CPU limited. If they wanted to go crazy on physics and other CPU intensive features, they certainly have that headroom.
As it stands right now, if Relic wants to improve on the graphics cheaply, they can do this:
- Change the sun/camera angle so reflections are visible from the default view.
- Add a post-processing filter, increase contrast, desaturate the palette, especially the team colors.
- Change the textures, make them grittier, more worn-looking. These are the medieval ages, few people could afford to wear shiny new blue clothes. It’s not a Marvel movie.
- Sharpen terrain and building textures, or add an option for a higher resolution texture pack.
- Add an option for bloom, tweakable with a slider so it doesn’t go overboard like some scenes in AoE 3.
That’s it, that would cost very little in the way of Relic’s resources to do, and also have almost no extra GPU cost as most of these things are already there taking cycles, but invisible. They can advertise this as the “season 3 with graphics enhancements patch”
I post the original article because i don’t wanna be wrong with my statements
"…Graphically, Age of Empires 4 takes a different approach compared to prior Relic Entertainment games and it’s certainly quite different to AOE3, which was very advanced for its time period. Relic tends to push RTS visuals in its games, but AOE4 goes for a more simplistic look, relying on a clean style with limited complexity. To be fair, identifying unit types based on their silhouette or size is easy in this game, so it’s most definitely not aiming for the busy, detailed look we have seen in prior series entries. As a part of this, Age of Empires 4 is seemingly targeting lower-end systems in how its graphics and simulation scale - so certain graphical elements take a hit. Geometric detail and LOD switching is fairly basic, while even the highest quality assets are not exactly rich in detail, with even hero units looking basic, even when viewed at close distance.
Other graphics oddities include the quality of the shadow maps and ambient occlusion, which are lacking even at the highest quality settings. Even with the camera sitting still, it is possible to see a visible flicker and aliasing in the shadows from static buildings and even more so from moving geometry or foliage. The flickering is at odds with AOE4’s otherwise very clean presentation of geometric edges and colours. Also disappointing is how destruction physics run at 30fps, giving a very ‘framey’ look to animation - almost like it’s running in slow motion. What’s needed here is a full frame-rate ultra setting for destruction and based on what I’ve seen, there’s certainly the GPU overhead to do it, though I recommend checking out the video embedded above for a more detailed look at performance, particularly if you’re on an AMD card.
What I’d really like to see are some more ambitious graphics settings, though first of all, there are some technical issues that really need to be addressed. To begin with, the game is highly reliant on performance from a single thread, meaning that CPU frequencies trump the amount of cores you may have, leading to massive underutilisation of today’s many-core processors. This is somewhat bizarre for a DX12 title and definitely holds the game back. Secondly, GPU load increases to an extraordinary degree (anything up to 2x) when the camera moves, leading to highly inconsistent frame-times and frame-rates, as the image above demonstrates. Given how commonplace camera movement and scrolling are in an RTS game, I really wish this did not happen as it makes the game look ‘janky’ even if it does not impact the immediate micro-management frame-rate. We have notified the developers of our findings and received a response:
The issue you encountered is related to the amount of textural terrain required from the game, which loads in as a player is actively playing and can impact performance when panning the camera. We are actively investigating options to further optimise this scenario. Based on input from internal testing, our technical stress tests, and community feedback, this performance drop when panning the camera should quickly correct itself and should not significantly impact gameplay. The quality of the gameplay experience for our Age players is very important to us, and we are working diligently to address and enhance their experience post-launch based on their feedback."
From my perspective, what we have here is a very good real-time strategy game and a great Age of Empires sequel, but technically, there are a range of issues that need addressing. I’d like to see settings that scale higher for several of the game’s graphical elements while the camera motion issues impact the consistency of the gameplay in a very noticeable way and I’d really like to see profound improvement here. Also, the game’s reliance on single core power for a high frame-rate experience is also disappointing and this also needs looking at. Only four threads see a lot of utilisation and to see one of them being occupied far more than the others is almost like throwback to another age - CPUs have only increased in frequency incrementally compared to the far more profound shift to many more cores. I’m hopeful that Relic can get to grips with these issues because the studio has done so much good work here and even with these problems, I still had a lot of fun playing the game.
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AOE4 is definitely modern graphic, just in another art style.
Don’t you see the whole design looks like a story-book driven theme?
I’m pretty fine with the artstyle but textures on the most of models are low and this Is not a modern graphic, especially not for Relic and not for AOE series. Read what i posted before about DF.
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Yes, totally agree with you. I mean the game Is good, the gameplay is fun, the walls are fantastic but damn, improve the graphic. It’s not to hard for them.
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Nah I’m being sarcastic.
In RTS there are frequently a lot of people strongly against better or up-to-date graphics, either “we do not need it” or “it is impossible”. I don’t see that in other genres even SLG which is even more of a chess thing.
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and to think that coh3, running on a branch of this exact engine, is fully marketing multicore support, well, can’t wait to see that get called out
Yes, imagine if they had done AoE 2 and AoE 3 thinking about the competitive… they would not have single units and AoE 3 would be a copy of the gameplay of AoE 2…
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Yes, I wouldn’t have said it better… also with AoE 4 you feel a very strong disconnection, that with the other AoE you do not…
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Yes, but I’m afraid it’s already late for the game at that time and the same thing happened that happened with AoE 3 at his time…
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That looks beautiful…
Yes, so it is nice to play the game…
Seriously?.. I played both betas and didn’t notice it…
Na, it’s a matter of getting used to it…once you get used to their graphics and units, the rest is easier and someone who has a brutal myopia tells you…
What are you talking about? AOE-4 has much more leafy terrain than AOE-3 (Weeds and grasses). In fact the terrain of AOE-4 is one of the things that most liked the game.
If you lose the units in AOE-3, then in AOE-4 you can’t even find them.
In AOE-3 I distinguish everything very easily.
I wonder why you are confused.
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I’ve never had any problems with aoe 3 readability. No idea what some people above are whining about. The terrain does not block the view of your units at all
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haters gonna hate, can’t help that, besides, they got what they wanted with aoe4 so they’ll be fine
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