Having been in the game since June 23rd, I can definitely say I've seen the graphics evolution.
The graphics used to look a lot better during closed beta -- the textures not so much, but the overall 3-D details were quite nice. Now the textures are significantly improved -- though in some spaces on Frozen City you can tell where they've shifted gears from the texture overhaul in favor of fixing other issues.
Many of the players during closed beta didn't have a minimum system requirements to go by, so lots of complaints were made by those running dual-core processors. They also make a large amount of the player base, so details and such were cut back in some cases to make it easier on their computers. I admit, back when everything was in, there were significant lag issues with the motion blur. Those who joined since, also frequently complain of processor-related issues, and the engine itself has been overhauled and bandaged a few times. They're actually in the processor of getting ready to role out what they call a completely new net code, so the graphics have not been high priority.
The issues with the net code are related to the very early, very high effort of anti-hack measures. Instead of using one of the many clearly useless anti-hack programs, they coded almost the entire game to run server side. Instead of you as the client telling the server what you're doing, your client "asks" if it can do something.
"Can I move forward?" While your client waits for permission, it tries to hide the inevitable lag by animating you as moving. The server replies "Sure thing. But this other guy was walking in front of you." So he walks into you, and the two of you collide. The rubber-banding starts while your client, his client, and the server all have an argument about who can do what. o.O; That, unfortunately, is the result of them removing collisions. Which were taken out because client and network physics could not agree to which way you fell.
This, being a very new style of running an online game, has been riddled with issues, slowing down production. Great news, aside from a simple suicide bot program early on, the game has been completely hack free. There was once a "heat hack" client side, but that was wiped out within a week or two of it popping up. Heat's controlled server side too.
In comparison, Hawken, had been in development for more than 4 years before and was about to be released as a paid-for game for Xbox when they suddenly shifted gears (like PGI did with Mechwarrior 5 and for similar reasons -- disagreements with Microsoft and "You can't do a PS3 version." However, unlike PGI, Hawken's creators did not scrap everything and throw it out the window). They just changed their already story-less multiplayer mech combat game into a free-to-play model. Their alpha and beta tests were to make sure the change from an Xbox optimized unreal engine to a computer unreal engine was smooth and lag free.
Earlier Hawken videos of it from xbox, now rare to find, showed it had god awful lag issues.
As someone who played the Alpha, it had a few exploits right from the start (a glitched, non-default set prone ability in the controls where you could 'phase' through the ground and still shoot people while roaming around 'under' the map. A sniper rifle that could kill enemy units by shooting the barrel of their gun, or their foot. The ability to shoot through any two walls on a corner by sticking your barrel through it. Speed hacks).
Long story short, Hawken's had many years before it even announced its "alpha" and "beta" to work out a lot of kinks and bugs, most of which that people do know about were in transitioning from console to PC. Also consider how old the unreal 3 engine is; everyone knows how to use it expertly. All of its quirks have been hashed out. Even PGI was going to run with it, but they decided to go with the Crytek 3 engine -- which has not had its issues worked out. The game the engine was developed for hasn't even been released yet (they're having issues too).
On the PGI side of things, MWO has not been in development for long at all. Closed Beta was out at the very basic elements (the first map, forest colony, used to have sandy beaches and Crytek textures that made you feel about 6 feet tall, no trees if that says anything). We're playing the game as it develops, and although some things could have been developed better (ECM has the features of Guardian ECM, Angel ECM, Stealth Armor, and at least two other pieces of equipment neatly packaged into 1.5 tons, and the 'balancing' of this misinterpretation has caused numerous other unbalancing tweaks), the game and its performance have been getting much better with time. Remember there's been a number of bumps.
Oh, that reminds me. Avoid medium and low settings if you can. The 4 FPS bug everyone's talking about? Those of us on Very High never get them unless we lower the graphics. Just a heads up to avoid a little unpleasantness.
Hope to see you in the field!
(P.S. You should've seen the textures before the Cicada; I seriously think PGI hired a couple of new texture artists. Forest Colony Snow and the Caustic Valley Retexture [not complete] seemed to be 'samples' of the new person or people's stuff. The artist's current assignment are the 'Mech textures and the two new maps, so expect the other maps to be on hold for a bit.)
Edited by Koniving, 18 January 2013 - 08:02 AM.
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