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They are not remotely close to "terrible". They are perfectly fine. Its certainly no worse than every single Philosopher advisor in EU4 having exactly the same portrait.

No-one is going into hysterics over the lack of variety in EU4 Philosophers... yet they are upset that there isn't enough variety in these kings faces?
Here's the thing - you're not wrong, but you're not entirely right either. Yes, the portraits aren't the worst thing in the world, and yes the lack of variety in EU4 portraits did not make the game better. However, that one EU4 portrait took, what, a few hours of an artist's time and a meeting to approve it, maybe a second round if the reception on the first draft didn't go well? Nobody complains about the philosopher portrait because it's very clear how little we're meant to stare at those faces.

People are upset because for a system that clearly took lots of time, it seems to add little to the game of playing out the ambitions of an Early Modern state.

Project Caesar appears to have all of the mechanics of EU4, most of the mechanics of Vicky, and some of the mechanics of CK3. It is over the longer simulation span than any other Paradox game. It has all the making of the most complex and sophisticated grand strategy game ever developed (based on the TT's we have seen).

But we're going to dismiss it as "for casuals uninterested in deep strategy" because... it has 3D portraits? Hmmmm.
I generally agree, but it does feel like at some point a business decision was made that 3D portraits were required for all Paradox games.

Not "game is for casuals," but rather a combination of "we have the fancy face toy, we must use it" and "I have never played an hour of a Paradox game in my life but I think I know what the fans want," despite the pushback on major investment in 3D faces (and even fancy 3D models on the map - there's a cohort of vocal Paradox fans who would be happier if the game were played entirely in spreadsheets). However, we're not privy to the private conversations that got PC its 3D models, so I could well be very wrong.
 
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People are upset because for a system that clearly took lots of time, it seems to add little to the game of playing out the ambitions of an Early Modern state.
The time involved is a fair comment - and an interesting commercial decision for a company to have made. But personally I've not seen many (any?) people upset about the time investment. I've seen a lot of people getting very upset about "ugliness"

I generally agree, but it does feel like at some point a business decision was made that 3D portraits were required for all Paradox games.
I think this is probably true. As I understand it, the investment in 3D was made in CK3 as part of implementing the DNA system. Personally I love the DNA system and think it is so much better in 3D than it ever could have been in 2D. I think once they had the basic 3D modelling infrastructure, they figured they might as well use it on Vicky3 and PC.

Reminder of the early CK3 portrait system. Would anyone prefer this?

I don't really care about 2D or 3D from an art perspective, but I do think 3D works much better for the sort of parametric modelling needed to represent a DNA. I mostly just think that the amount of angst about 3D models has gotten silly.
 
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Ya'll are crazy. I liked the models they showed. Just make a simple mod to disable them or replace them with something else when the game releases. People are throwing such a hissy fit on what is essentially a cosmetic choice is silly.
 
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Because it's nice when games look nice. And for many people nice art is an important component of that. For some people nice art also adds to their immersion. And people might disagree on what counts as "nice art," but there's a reason most of the anti-3D crowd want 2D portraits and are talking about how nice 2D portraits would look instead of wanting no portraits and talking about how much portraits are a waste of space period.

Those reasons being 2d art is small, unobtrusive and stylized to fit unique game ui. I mean - we have this discussion with every recent PDX game: CK3, Imperator, Vic3... all have a lot of "nice art" all over the place, bad interface, ai paintings replacing important data. You basically said that it is good to replace game data with loading screen because "it is nice when games look nice". I believe we have very little in common when it comes to what we enjoy in games. Have a nice day. EOT.
 
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The time involved is a fair comment - and an interesting commercial decision for a company to have made. But personally I've not seen many (any?) people upset about the time investment. I've seen a lot of people getting very upset about "ugliness"


I think this is probably true. As I understand it, the investment in 3D was made in CK3 as part of implementing the DNA system. Personally I love the DNA system and think it is so much better in 3D than it ever could have been in 2D. I think once they had the basic 3D modelling infrastructure, they figured they might as well use it on Vicky3 and PC.

Reminder of the early CK3 portrait system. Would anyone prefer this?

I don't really care about 2D or 3D from an art perspective, but I do think 3D works much better for the sort of parametric modelling needed to represent a DNA. I mostly just think that the amount of angst about 3D models has gotten silly.
The DNA system wasnt new to CK3 but already present in the first Crusader Kings game. I am 100% the 3D implementation in 3 was an efficiency/cost thing, but as with almost all 3D ventures it is bound to look aged quite quickly.
 
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Ya'll are crazy. I liked the models they showed. Just make a simple mod to disable them or replace them with something else when the game releases. People are throwing such a hissy fit on what is essentially a cosmetic choice is silly.
I am concerned that the amount of complaints about the 3D art will drown out any constructive criticism at this rate. Like it or not, the 3D seems to be here to stay and despite not enjoying them myself, I just hope that the devs will still be able to reach some of the feedback related to the rest of the Dev Diary. With any luck it will be possible to mod in 2D portraits for folks like myself who wish to make mods but do not have the means to get our own 3D artists though, haha!
 
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Theres no accounting for taste but surely theres better way to say it than using words like "childish" or "degenerate".

if anything about the game so far couldnt make you accept even playstation 1 style low poly models, its not the people who lile 3d models who are "The Casuals who only like graphics".
 
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Why not use 3D modeling? I'm pretty like 3D.

With 3D modeling, I can now see 3D anime girls in EU5! We can also add a lot of "physical effects" (you know what)

Foe example of FRENCH QUEEN:
View attachment 1144435
YES ANIME KINGS AND QUEEN.



ESPECIALLY QUEEN with....with....emmmm.....


QUALITIES!
 
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If we really need the 3D I just hope I don't have to stare down a lobotomised homunculus taking up half of the window every time I want to check some internal government mechanics. Seeing how wide the backgrounds in the examples were makes me worried.
 
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I think for me the problem can be solved with additional shaders to make 3d models more like 2d paintings

1717665983871.jpeg
1717665919900.jpeg


there are a few videos on how to do it
 
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Am I the only one who misses from EU4 the 3D view of the cities? I found it super cool and immersive to see them grow and see the buildings that you built appear in the 3D model.

Although I understand in a game like project ceasar it would crash performance.
Uh, I don't see why it would crash performance, just use LODs to dynamically load only an appropriate amount of cities at once
 
They are not remotely close to "terrible". They are perfectly fine. Its certainly no worse than every single Philosopher advisor in EU4 having exactly the same portrait.

No-one is going into hysterics over the lack of variety in EU4 Philosophers... yet they are upset that there isn't enough variety in these kings faces?
A large part of the bias towards 2d models comes from nostalgia, don't get me wrong i'm not saying 3d models are perfect or even consistently good but saying 3d models get stale pretty quickly applies largely to 2d ones as well.
 
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This is not true at all, try making 3d vestiments, garments, crown to another era, fantasy world or other lifeforms like snake people, cat people, dragons, elfs, dwarves, making 2d portraits is just easier and faster, and have more potential to be pleasing to the eyes, because it's handmade
Okay but the average modder isn't making a total overhaul fantasy mod (to which the main limitation/time consuming thing is remaking the world). Look at the workshop for EU4 and see out of the thousands of mods how many are total overhaul fantasy mods. Heck look at the hoi4 workshop where virtually all total overhaul mods are still on the topic of interwar/20th century. The only PDX GSG that actually seems to have a lot of mods taking place in separate eras/fantasy overhauls is CK3, the game with the most sophisticated 3D models.
 
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