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preface
Diablo IV visuals
Thank you for taking the time to read this article! I'm Daniel Briggs, the chief visual effects artist for Diablo IV. The visual effects design team is responsible for creating many different things for the game's various features, but today we're going to focus on the visuals related to the battle scenes. Visual effects artists work with game designers and other members of the art team to create themed features and styles for the hero class, and to breathe life into monsters that result in the kind of gory, refreshing fights that players have come to expect.
Visuals are an integral part of the combat experience of Diablo's generations. For the Diablo IV section, we hope to be able to design more realistic visual effects through physical rendering (PBR) technology, and further support the core axes of gameplay, namely the deeper hero customization system, item system and battle clarity.
Visuals - Design concept
Each visual plays an important role in the final version of the game. We have to understand how each visual works and how it works so that we can create the best possible gaming experience. One of Blizzard Entertainment's core philosophies is 'gameplay first,' which has a major impact on art design decisions when we develop the game's visuals. Diablo IV's ever-changing combat process is the focus of the game and should be able to attract the player's attention. In order to achieve this goal, we must consider various factors, such as the player's technical strength, monster information, traps, damage ranges, and character status. The visual effects of these elements must be clear and easily discernible in any area and lighting conditions, so that sub-players can quickly grasp the current progress of the game and use relevant information to make judgments and decisions. In the course of chaotic battles, players must think and use their brains. You may have seen a legendary item on the ground and would love to hurry up and pick it up, but it's imperative to respond quickly to the monster's attacks so that your character won't be killed in Expert mode. Our goal is to balance the first, second, and third most important game content to help players stay on top of the game. To this end, we have kept powerful skills such as tricks with brilliant visual effects, and weaker skills, which are integrated into the background. Each class has a number of skills, ranging from low to high with different consumption, cooldown times, and intensities. Therefore, each major class also has different intensity visual effects, and the more powerful the skill, the more conspicuous the effect.
Combat improvements
To enhance the combat experience, we've targeted several in-game damage application mechanics that have been improved. During the previous changes to Diablo, ranged effects (AoE) and melee skills are judged as single-frame range damage. With the help of game engineers, we are now able to activate the target area (which we call the vector) into several frames, thus combining the animated visuals played with the dynamic target area.
For example, the Diablo III Whirlwind Chopper is a cylindrical pattern that surrounds barbarians, dealing damage every few frames depending on the speed of the attack. In Diablo IV, the Whirlwind Chopper is a dynamic pie-shaped graphic that comes alive as your character becomes. The range effect spreads outward over time, and the melee swing moves match the movement of the weapon. Dynamic target areas improve the accuracy with which the Diablo IV game system inflicts damage, as well as make the battle process more powerful and the process of slashing monsters more bloody and violent. Dynamic vectors also add a slight point-in-time mechanism for a variety of different skills. In addition, we've remake the monster's hit effect so that the impact changes depending on the direction of the spell or melee attack. We use the data defined by the animation and dynamic target area to find the most accurate location to hit the monster and determine the direction of the monster's physical force after being impacted. In simple terms, if you hit the knee of the sheephead shaman, the knee part will have a blood splash effect. The physical force exerted on the sheephead's knee will cause the sheephead's character mod to fly out as if the knee had been kicked.
In Diablo IV, we use physical rendering (PBR) lighting modules, which means that the appearance of the material and the response to the light are realistic. This can greatly improve the rendering results, but its mechanics may violate the player's intuitive perception of class skills and monster skills. For example, if you look at what a campfire would look like in broad daylight, it should be boring, right? Again, imagine what dust or smoke looks like in the middle of the night, you should be almost invisible, right? To address this situation, we've built a game engine and graphics library that allows us to refine the PBR's rule set in a more aesthetic way. This ensures that important gameplay content is presented as clearly as possible, while maintaining the PBR integrity of immersive elements so that they react realistically to light.
Previous tweaks to Diablo have primarily used 'not light' particles, which are not affected by ambient light. These particles can help control the appearance of the artwork, and the work depicted is the final result. The disadvantage of not-bright particles is that art drawings may look too bright in dark-hued dungeons, or the visual color configuration may not fit into all background environments. In Diablo IV, we use bright visuals to blend in with the light of the background environment to create a more immersive gaming experience. Take the whirlwind chopper as an example (see film above): In broad daylight, the blade reflects sunlight. In dim dungeons, the blade reflects fainter light sources, such as torches. The dust raised by the skill is also lit up by the environment, so it can be integrated into the art atmosphere of the game world. If we operate only on ambient light and follow the original rules of PBR, the gameplay becomes blurry and difficult to discern, especially in dim environments, where the process of wielding a weapon is basically difficult to see clearly. To counterbalance this, many visuals are able to shine on their own and project light on the environment. And now many tricks in the game can even change the climate and light of the surrounding environment for a period of time. Our goal is to strike a good balance between game clarity and a distinct sense of immersion in the subject.
Dynamic player skills
No matter how good the art design is, if the gameplay itself is not interesting enough, it is only a matter of giving up the end. When we designed player skills, one of our goals was to give the system design team a variety of add-down mechanisms that would allow them to design really influential skill trees, class mechanics, legendary items, and peak panels.
The choices the player makes should not only affect the character's numerical value. Once the ideal skill skill has been designed, the visual effects team takes over, allowing developers to dynamically adjust the size, intensity, and duration of the skill. As you accumulate upgrades and items that enhance the power of your skills, the visuals of your skills will become more and more visible.
In addition to these skill add-downs, we also have different versions of the skill designed to completely change the operation mechanism of the skill or the type of damage the skill causes. The size, strength, and duration of these modified skills can also be varied. This way, various versions of the skill can be affected by more and more different legendary bonus and decuff combinations. Your skill tree/pinnacle selection and the items you equip can differentiate your character's appearance and gameplay from other characters of the same class.
The game content was created by the artist to ensure that the artwork supported all sizes and intensities. When changing the size and intensity, we don't adjust each visual effect in a formal way. We tweaked items such as spawn rate, speed, luminosity, and color to make sure the art was fully integrated into the Diablo game world.
[Watch the video] We want the player's character to look amazing! In-game items are specially designed to allow us to apply weapon buffs to any weapon. Your legendary item not only has powerful effects, but it can also make your character look powerful. Here's an example of how we can apply the same fire buff and toxin buff effect to different weapons. [Watch video]
Skill kill effects
St. Hugh arry is a dark gothic world, full of terrifying monsters doing terrible things. Players must not be merciful to the enemy, so that they can survive in this wasteland. We're reintroducing Diablo III's well-known feature: Skill-Directed Death. With this system, players can decapitate, slash, smash, or dismember enemies, and freeze or burn enemies.
With the introduction of the new PBR mechanics, we can design the bloody and violent gameplay to be more realistic, so that these effects can more accurately respond to the light of the environment. The structure of each monster is made up of bones and muscles, making it easy for the player to brutally slaughter the monster. If your character is in the middle of a fierce battle, he will be covered in blood due to the blood spattered by nearby monsters. Over time, the character's armor will gradually change back to its original clean appearance.
Magic makes it special to study the mysteries of elemental magic. They will slow down the enemy through the cold, and eventually make the enemy completely freeze and shatter. In addition, magic enablers can also launch lightning strikes to attack enemies, causing the opponent's body to burst and squeak. Magic makes the summoned flames devour the enemy, causing the enemy to fall to the ground and turn into coke.
Here are a few examples of the types of death that magic can trigger:
Freeze/Smash - Draw frozen monsters into pieces
Burn - Use lightning to scorch the monster's corpse
Burning - Burns the flesh and blood of the monster, leaving only the charred bones of the monster's corpse
Barbarians are adept at physical combat. They know how to use a variety of weapons to slaughter the enemy in close combat. Barbarians possess the power inherited from ancient bloodlines, capable of crushing enemies into flesh-and-blood corpses and causing them to fly into the distance. In addition to their brutal power, the speed and ferocity of the barbarians are equally astonishing, and they are able to unleash fury on the battlefield and dismember all opponents who stand in the way.
Here are a few examples of the types of death that barbarians can trigger:
Smash - Use the weight of heavy objects to squash monsters
Decapitation - Separates the monster's body.
Waist Chop - Praise :)
Severed Lower Limbs - The monster's lower body is shattered, spewing out several joints
Thieves are agile and have an orderly attack pattern. When monsters perceive the presence of thieves, it is usually too late. Simply hit the enemy's weakness with the dagger in your hand, or fire an arrow right in the middle of the eyebrow, which is enough to kill most monsters. Thieves wait for the best time to attack, and they also know how to strengthen their weapons to gain an advantage in battle. Shadow magic can create powerful distractions, but the Thief's Shadow Doppelganger is as deadly as the blade in the Thief's hand.
Here are a few examples of the types of death a thief can trigger:
Dismemberment - Cut the monster's intestines open
Shadow - Shadow energy deprives the monster's body of life
Poisoning - The monster's skin dissolves, leaving only a lump of flesh and skeleton
Peel - Peel off the skin of an enemy, leaving a complete muscle structure
The Druid and the magic of nature become one. They will summon storms and lightning to attack enemies. The Druids know how to manipulate the power of the wind to dominate the battlefield, and their animal companions are able to tear the monster's body apart. The Druid can manipulate the power of the earth through natural magic, allowing himself to transform and strike enemies in the distance at his own will. After narrowing the distance between himself and his enemies, the Druid was able to display his innate superpowers, freely transforming into a quick-moving werewolf or a strong bearman.
Here are a few examples of the types of deaths that a druid can trigger:
Rolling - The monster is squashed by a moving object, leaving only a pool of blood on the ground
Devour - Eats the monster's body with a furious bite
Lightning Burst - Lightning causes the monster's body to burst into pieces
Maim - Leaves the monster skinless and covered in blood
That's what we're going to share with you this time. Having the opportunity to participate in the making of this game was like a dream come true for me. I'm glad I had the opportunity to share part of the development process of the game team with a wide range of players.
Thank you for calling for the latest quarterly update article for 2021. Hope the content of this article is interesting and wonderful. We're listening to players and working hard to make Diablo IV the dark gothic game everyone expects. Please continue to share your thoughts and provide feedback through social media, Reddit, and our discussion boards!