One Hobby Dev + EQ + Unreal Engine 5.2 =

And adding a license that costs 5% of Everquest's revenue could cause the game to lose enough profitability to cause it to be shutdown.

Yes, there are many people who would love this type of upgrade (me included) but we need to be realistic about it happening. And given the number of videos that have been posted saying some person did a conversion of something to Unreal the devs are very aware of it as well.

It's a very cool demo but running a character around an Unreal environment and making a fully working game are two different stories.

I didn't take the time to read all 5 pages of this thread -- sorry! -- but it looks like everyone is just on this guy left and right because he didn't actually hand-code EQ all by himself in a new engine.

I have no idea what the backstory is here. And if he's trying to pass this off as the same kind of work as the last 25 years of developing EQ, then sure there is a huge disconnection.

But I think there is a lot to be learned here about what "updated" EQ' graphics could look like.

I always find myself very very resistant to visual changes in EQ because I felt like the Luclin models were such a huge style departure from the Classic models and the rebooted version of several zones (Freeport especially, of course) were just too different for me (don't wanna argue about better/worse since that's subjective, but objectively, very very different).

This demo captures like 95% of the visual feel of EQ Classic, and for me that's huge. I love that human model. To me, it's what the Luclin human model ought to have looked like. Commonlands, the Karanas, etc. felt the same too; color palette matches and doesn't look like something completely different.

If this is supposed to be a game demo, it's not much. If it's supposed to be a proof of concept for what updated EQ graphics could look like, this is really solid.

Even one of the basic problems with this would be coth. Right now the game is coded to only coth in a single zone and some zone block it. If you went into a zoneless mode would you be able to coth from south ro to west karana?

Zoneless mode would probably work in todays game since it has already been changed so you can lose aggro from running away from a mob (I personally hate this and it has made zone pulls so much harder for PLing). However it does mean it would be easier to go zoneless for EQ since you no longer need a zone to clear 100% aggro.

In his demo about it being too dark when going into areas with tons of trees is I think an improvement for the game, not a bad thing I think it gives a more realistic feel to the game. I know this conflicts with gamma changes they have done since I run all my screens on my computer at 175% brightness if you consider 100% baseline making it easier to see in EQ but there is a difference between the entire zone being too dark to see vs just a handful of small sections that are hard to see. I am ok with parts of the zone being dark just don't make the entire thing too dark to see.

At least as interesting as the graphical remaster he did, is the fact he made the world seamless.

Imagine TSS being one giant seamless world from Crescent Reach all the way up to Valdeholm. It would be quite epic.

Dungeons being locked behind zone-ins is actually not a big issue imo, although Vanguard did have many seamless dungeons.

As hope is often an illusion, we need visions and goals instead.

Showcasing potential is precisely what I was after. Thanks for taking the time to weigh in, ttobey.

Unreal is great for a lot of things. I always drop new characters in it and our stuff looks great in Unreal. I actually like the character lighting in EQ1 better than EQ2. EQ1 models are lower poly counts than the EQ2 versions but they still hold up really well.

On the topic of lighting: With Muada's Vah Shir Chain onaments (Vah HA), I have noticed there are vastly different lighting in different zones. In PoK, there is a gold sheen. In Laurion's Inn, it's leathery brown. In some other zones, it's black and orange very Halloween-ish. Is this due to inconsistent lighting in various zones or some other issue?

That I'm not sure about but I would assume you are correct.

I have a bunch of recent eq/eq2 characters exported to Unreal here.
-https://vimeo.com/849566054-

That could be the start for a new project. Great work on that dwagon and all the other creatures. I would like to see a new wood elf model and it's walk and run animations next. Always wondered about their possible appearance and skin color. Don't like the elddar elves appearance as a pattern for wood elves. Skin to dark and to many rune tatoos, and all of them are blond.

Regarding the lighting, the game would do better without PC, NPC, and mount lighting. Same for armor, shields and weapons. Lighting should make things to look better, but in EQ it does make many things to look worse.

you don't seem to be following. Those models and animations are already part of two major ongoing projects : EQ & EQ2. They are existing work, for existing games, on existing game engines. They're not for something new. They're not themselves new, or revamps, or redos to please your distaste for …dark skin (oof.)

You're out of your depth here.

Imagine this: Revert and keep one server PRE DX11... seeing how the game at that point was at it's pentacle for that graphics engine.. it had been developed ENOUGH... Leave that server for those of us that want to... Yes,,, Live in the past with all the nostalgia and have developers concentrate on developing game content as opposed to screwing the game up and loosing paying "Whales" (20 year paying players).trying to put a circle in a square with differing graphics engines isnt working....OH... AND at the same time wait for it........Make a separate server for the DX11 populus experiments....I know this could be called the test server and technically it is, but we know things were pushed live that shouldn't have been...admit it or not,,. this way the multitude of players wanting to play but can't because they are trying to just be able to multi box and tab out full screen could still do so on the "Nostalgia server".while others can enjoy? playing with their graphic settings till the game locks up and ... whatever the current state of affairs is that many are or not dealing with.....

Everquest caters to boxing now, so an Unreal Engine game would not be used by the majority of the current player base.

Everquest is pretty much unchanged towards boxers - been boxing EQ since 2003.

I do know that those models do already exist in those two games. Porting them over to an Unreal engine could have something to mean. Distaste for dark skin ? Yes, if wood elves (Feir`dal) would have the same skin color as elddar elves. It would be very unfamiliar.

Yeah, especially my eyes.

Yeah I agree,

It just shows what possible.
They stress 1 person too because, a lot of whining about, lack of dev's.
I'll go to another game forum, bigger than EQ. I hear the same stuff, lack of dev's.

You got more than 5 dev's? You got enough.

No one wants to be in a Scrum meeting with 20 dev's
working on what I was working
what I was working yesterday I fixed it
no blockers

next dev turn
10 min speech

18 more dev's to go through

Anyways, this 1 dev doing all that, so what if they reused things, thats part of the game, IFYKYK, why reinvent the wheel, why should they reinvent the wheel, they working on getting stuff done, not reinventing the wheel in the process.

This is a show of how outdated, how technology moved along, there is a video someone with VR, picking up arrows, pulling arrows outta mobs, turning off/on lights.

That video just shows how EQ is missing interactively.
Current EQ, you just open/close doors, thats it.

Theres no flick on the lights using a switch, and so on.


All this work, EQ doesn't have.
The question

work year after year after year always behind trying to catchup doing this new stuff, which equates your codebase is getting older too and you gotta go back and work on dependency upgrades for UI and such, now your behind even more in the catchup. Your on old tech.

OR

you make EQ3. Your codebase is up to date, your on the latest and greatest. The database can be picture perfect.
Plus, you get the population boost from a brand new game.

Brand New Game brings in a A LOT LOT LOT more population than
Brand New Expansion

Diablo 3, expansion 5. Who cares
Diablo 4, whoa new game, I gotta try this. 10+ MILLION copies sold
10+ MILLION other people same thought process. NEW GAME gotta try this.
keep in mind, it only works if its been awhile, if you push a new game every year it doesn't work, like 2K games.
NBA 2K23 NBA 2K24, yeah those are not as exciting as some game that has been awhile since a new version of it came out.
Def Jam 2024, that game would bring in 20+ million easy, all they gotta say its like Fight For New York and Vendetta.
Why are people super excited for the next Grand Theft Auto? Its been awhile. Who cares if they made an expansion 5 for the current one out. But if they made a NEW version, thats a big deal.
Also, there is a not enough expansions, Diablo2? Diablo2 expansion 3 would be a lot more well received than Diablo3 expansion 6. Diablo2 not enough expansions could have had 2 more, than that would be great.
Have to find the right balance. Just about right.
Also, new version if its the same as previous one, like WWE, or Dynasty Warriors, thats not effective either. People aren't dumb.

See what I'm saying. EQ3.
If in the company meetings, how do we get more people playing EQ.
We dish expansions every year but we starting to lack people.
How do we get more people to play.

New version simple. No one cares about diablo 3 expansion 6. Diablo 4, thats a big deal. EQ1 expansion 31 to 40, who cares. EQ3 though. Thats a big deal.
TLPs you can consider these more of a new game factor, if TLPs the biggest thing going, that pretty much means its time for a new game, EQ3.

You could have 20 or more devs on the Everquest team and not have scrums with that many people, it would be a simple matter of splitting people up into teams based on what they work on. Once you do that it is just a matter of working in that group and reaching out to other groups as needed.

Could have groups for
1. spells
2. items
3. npcs
4. tradeskills
5. quests
6. missions
7. raids
8. events
9. others as needed.