Frames without PBR stick out like a sore thumb

[Cyborg-Rox]

For clarity: PBR, or Physical-Based Rendering, is a method of rendering materials in a game engine (or something like that). Basically it makes light reflection look more realistic, and allow for more different and detailed materials.

PBR was introduced sometime just before Update 15 hit in late 2014, and since then, almost the entire game has been converted to it. But man, when there's something that still uses the old rendering, it really sticks out. This mainly issues me in terms of Warframes.

As of now, Ash, Ember, Nekros, Nova, Nyx, Mirage, Rhino, Trinity, Valkyr, Vauban and Zephyr all lack PBR, giving them a very glossy plastic look, as opposed to the often used matte- and metallic-like rendering of a lot of PBR'd Warframes. So if you're using the Stock skin, Immortal skin (except Zephyr), or Alt Helmets on any of those Warframes, it's really going to stand out from everything else you're using, as well as a lot of environments, and in a time when Hydroid's PBR can literally be hotfixed in a week after some demand, you'd think it wouldn't be too hard just to squeeze out the few remaining ones.

Nowhere is the lack of PBR more noticeable and troublesome than on our beloved Warframes. This must be resolved, for the sake of the true endgame of Warframe!

Edited August 17, 2017 by Cyborg-Rox

[BiancaRoughfin]

True, most old frames have an odd plastic look. I main Zephyr for years now and despite loving her, her looks was always something questionable to me and when the TennoGen skin by HitsuSan came out for her i just couldnt wait to get my hands on it and give Zephyr a revitalizing look.

I wish [DE] would look into this and give these frames some love.

[MirageKnight]

1 hour ago, Cyborg-Rox said:

in a time when Hydroid's PBR can literally be hotfixed in a week after some demand

It probably never occurred to you that the devs have probably been adding PBR to Hydroid for some time to coincide with Hydroid Prime's release. After all, they did the same thing with Oberon.

From what I saw in a devstream a while back, adding PBR to existing textures looks really involved and time intensive...as you have to work on each color channel and make sure the channel masks are done properly. Also, I do believe that only a couple of people on the team actually do PBR work on the 'Frames. There's also surely another 'Frame or two already in the works along with new enemies, weapons, accessories, and world objects we haven't seen yet that need textures made and tweaked. There's probably a backlog of textures that need work...

I'm quite sure that DE is well aware that some older 'Frames could do with texture updates and will get around to that eventually. The simple truth is that newer stuff is going to take priority, because newer stuff is what brings in the money. They will get around to updating old textures sometime though, just be patient.

Not making excuses or white knighting here, just seeing things from a non-player / dev perspective.

[peterc3]

It's a process that requires human intervention and cannot be automated. The "few" remaining frames are 1/3 of the total number of available frames. It was not just thrown together between the update and the hotfix, it was likely not ready for the initial update.

I would imagine they are busy doing everything else going on in the game.

[MisterUltimate]

28 minutes ago, MirageKnight said:

It probably never occurred to you that the devs have probably been adding PBR to Hydroid for some time to coincide with Hydroid Prime's release. After all, they did the same thing with Oberon.

 

Yep.

25 minutes ago, peterc3 said:

It's a process that requires human intervention and cannot be automated. The "few" remaining frames are 1/3 of the total number of available frames. It was not just thrown together between the update and the hotfix, it was likely not ready for the initial update.

I would imagine they are busy doing everything else going on in the game.

Double yep.

They will all get the PBR treatment in time.

[Troll_Logic]

I've never really noticed.  I run everything at highest setting.