Short answer is yes.
If nothing else, we’re busting the 256 color limit wide open. In the original game, every object in the game had to draw from the same 256 color palette, but now the colors look more natural.
We are getting rendered water (like AoK HD), but this time around there’s more detail underwater and also reflections.
Plus the elephant in the room: Resolution. It’s been massively increased. Also, making it scalable (so that player can zoom in/out) is truly a phenomenal feat.
Don’t forget we’re also getting more viewing angles. This was possible in the original engine, but it was only used with certain objects, like arrows. All units only had 8 angles: cardinal directions + diagonals. I think we have 16 or 32 now, can’t remember exactly.
tbh The shadows look about the same-- they’re connected to the unit and simply overlaid on the ground. We have not seen fog of war in the trailer, but that was probably just for filming purposes.
I can’t give you anything you haven’t already seen in the trailer, but those are some huge changes to rendering.
It’s still sprite-based and, as you (OP) noted, it looks like the terrain system hasn’t changed. Cliffs and hills look like they use the same old tricks to appear as elevation, despite that all units are shown in the same scale.
In the above picture the houses are copied next to each other to show that there is no change in scale.
Below, you can see that as the Ballista goes up the hill, it remains the exact same size. I also placed a copy of the ballista when it was at the top of the hill next to the one at the bottom of the hill, to show that it remains the exact same size.
TL:DR: Lots of new graphical updates, but no changes to how elevation works.
@sonictimm Thank you for the analysis. Although I am asking a question here, at the same time I am making a suggestion to Microsoft Studios and Forgotten Empires to improve the elevation rendering prior to release. It would be odd if Age of Empires II: HD Edition, a partial remaster, received more improvements than Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, a complete remaster, but I’m not aware of all the technical limitations involved. Hidden Path Entertainment, the original developer of Age of Empires II: HD Edition, may have more tools at their disposal than Forgotten Empires.
They did mention that scrolling will be part of the update. If scrolling is part of the graphic update, i would think they have a way to to adjust scaling and maybe with a bit of adjustment to that, they could something for hill elevation, although i doubt that as most people do not have such a keen eye for those kinda of details and it would require quite some dev-time (i assume at least)
@rhrmn said:
It would be odd if Age of Empires II: HD Edition, a partial remaster, received more improvements than Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, a complete remaster, but I’m not aware of all the technical limitations involved.
I wouldn’t find it odd at all, but what I do find odd is to call HD a “partial” remaster and DE a “complete” remaster. From what we know so far, both are “partial” remasters, perhaps focused on different things.
I would only consider building the game again from the ground up to be a “complete” remaster, which is not happening here in either case. Since the original AoE1 Genie engine is being reused, things like this are to be expected.
Elevation is tightly related to gameplay in Age1 and Age2. That’s why we don’t want to obfuscate it too much with creating smoother hills where it’s no longer visible how high you are exactly. Under the hood, the elevation system was completely recoded, but how clear the outlines on the hills are, is a conscious decision from the art team.
Apart from that, the graphical engine got a LOT of updates. We have units facing in 32 directions, 256 colors PER unit (rather than the same 256 colors for the whole game). Smooth shadows, bloom, anti-aliasing, color-correction and all the niceties you can see on the new water (ripples, waves, reflections,…)
@Cysion said:
Elevation is tightly related to gameplay in Age1 and Age2. That’s why we don’t want to obfuscate it too much with creating smoother hills where it’s no longer visible how high you are exactly. Under the hood, the elevation system was completely recoded, but how clear the outlines on the hills are, is a conscious decision from the art team.
Apart from that, the graphical engine got a LOT of updates. We have units facing in 32 directions, 256 colors PER unit (rather than the same 256 colors for the whole game). Smooth shadows, bloom, anti-aliasing, color-correction and all the niceties you can see on the new water (ripples, waves, reflections,…)
Sound’s good in my opinion! Thanks for the answer.
