Portraits

[Blake]

What is your opinion on portraits?
I know the game is in development but honestly i don't like them so far.

I would like to hear your opinion, what do you think?

I think Koh1 portraits were amazing, i really loved them, well i do understand it's a different style they are going for in Koh2, but i feel even if they polished the current ones, im not sure i'll like them any better.

[Zerg]

I share that feeling with you.

I've pasted screenshots from both the old and the new game at the end of my post for everyone else to compare aswell. As far as I can tell I see three big problems.

1. Used space is smaller
The new game uses less space, which forces the portraits to be smaller. This combined with the 3D-faces makes it harder to notice features of the face (wrinkles, mimic, etc.).

2. Bad background
I think the strange white/black background also takes away focus from the portrait. The black inner-shadow doesn't help at all. If its removed I am sure it would help a lot.

3. Faces are zoomed out
The first game just shows more face. If you compare both games, the first game just nearly had no background-space because the faces would take it all up.

Knights of Honor

Knights of Honor II: Sovereign

[Camerlengo]

On 8/15/2021 at 4:34 PM, Blake said:

I think Koh1 portraits were amazing, i really loved them, well i do understand it's a different style they are going for in Koh2, but i feel even if they polished the current ones, im not sure i'll like them any better.

They were amazing, portraits in KoH2 are step backward. I see shapeless and blurry faces, like in Lords of the Realm, which I played like 20 years ago.

I am absolutely attached to portraits of KoH1, and there was no really need to change them completely, just add more icons.

 

[Field Marshal]

11 hours ago, Camerlengo said:

blurry faces

I think some blur is done by images having too much JPG in them.

[Calliope]

That's pretty true, I find the original portraits are reflecting unique faces, easy to differentiate from one another, while it's more blurry (blurred ?) in KoH2. I also prefer the original colors encircling portraits, same argument.

[Al_Wombat]

On 8/15/2021 at 10:19 PM, Zerg said:

I share that feeling with you.

I've pasted screenshots from both the old and the new game at the end of my post for everyone else to compare aswell. As far as I can tell I see three big problems.

1. Used space is smaller
The new game uses less space, which forces the portraits to be smaller. This combined with the 3D-faces makes it harder to notice features of the face (wrinkles, mimic, etc.).

2. Bad background
I think the strange white/black background also takes away focus from the portrait. The black inner-shadow doesn't help at all. If its removed I am sure it would help a lot.

3. Faces are zoomed out
The first game just shows more face. If you compare both games, the first game just nearly had no background-space because the faces would take it all up.

Knights of Honor

Knights of Honor II: Sovereign

Completely agree w everything said in this discussion!

[Zaza]

On 8/15/2021 at 11:19 PM, Zerg said:

I share that feeling with you.

I've pasted screenshots from both the old and the new game at the end of my post for everyone else to compare aswell. As far as I can tell I see three big problems.

1. Used space is smaller
The new game uses less space, which forces the portraits to be smaller. This combined with the 3D-faces makes it harder to notice features of the face (wrinkles, mimic, etc.).

2. Bad background
I think the strange white/black background also takes away focus from the portrait. The black inner-shadow doesn't help at all. If its removed I am sure it would help a lot.

3. Faces are zoomed out
The first game just shows more face. If you compare both games, the first game just nearly had no background-space because the faces would take it all up.

Knights of Honor

Knights of Honor II: Sovereign

I think that the faces/portraits in Knights of Honor II are 3D and are randomly generated.

I would also want to be zoomed in like in KoH1 but maybe that would reveal imperfections in the 3D models and this is the reason they're zoomed out.

 

The portraits in KoH1 were all hand drawn, every one of them has a unique flair with identifiable features/grimaces/mimics.  The 3D portraits will never rival that.

I don't know why they opted for the 3D route. I see they have capable and talented  2D artists.

A low fidelity 2D portrait (for higher number in portraits) but with personality is better than an infinite number of 3D portrait iterations.

 

As an example I give the portraits from Heroes of Might and Magic III. 

 

  

Personality should trump bland mass production.

Edited December 14, 2021 by Zaza