Breakfast Topic: A love letter to WoW's texture artists
by Mathew McCurley 
May 19th 2010 at 8:00AM
My love and appreciation for the WoW texture artists began with one texture. This one texture made me appreciate what textures were capable of. Love at first sight. The gates of Orgrimmar, to me, are the single most beautiful texture in World of Warcraft. The sense of depth and scale that the gates of Orgrimmar convey are absolutely astounding for what the actual object is made up of. The wall itself is flat. Going up close to the wall is like pulling back the magician's robe -- the trick is just a trick. Looking at the Ogrimmar gate from afar is the real magic.
If you haven't seen the gates of Orgrimmar, it is practically a giant rectangle polygon wrapped with this extraordinary texture. Back in 2004, I (like many fervent WoW fanatics) was engaged in wars of internet-epic proportion on forums and message boards about how terrible and cartoony World of Warcraft looked compared to Everquest 2, the graphical competition at the time. Every time the graphics argument came to a head, my answer was always the same -- WoW's texture artists make this game ooze with flavor, style and depth, and Orgrimmar's gate was my proof. WoW's textures compensate for many of the engine's flaws, even in the midst of complaints of new models' being needed for many of the races.
With Cataclysm approaching sooner rather than later, and with my boy Garrosh Hellscream taking over my capital city, I am losing my favorite texture in the game. I am losing my ace in the hole, and it will be sorely missed. Thank you, WoW texture team, for putting out the best art in video games.
The art in WoW has obviously affected me in and out of the game. What are some of your favorite textures or art pieces in the world that actually have crossed the game's boundaries? Have you ever been amazed at how textures in WoW can make a five-year-old engine look this good?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
eMaRDi May 19th 2010 8:20AM
One Texture of a original Warcraft III cinematic: the floor in the Lordaeron throne chamber room.
One of the most distracting textures I just about some weeks ago are the platform floor textures in Nexus, Anomalus area). Those texture do have an animated second layer which makes you kind of dazed (a healer who has nothing to do. ;) ).
HarrisonPink May 19th 2010 8:27AM
A simple one, the leaves of the trees in the Blood Elf starting zone. I can't explain why, but the combination of the colours in the trees with the peach distance fog absolutely takes my breath away. Ok so maybe that's more colour theory, but hey, don't take this moment from me!
Valis May 19th 2010 8:29AM
The entire Eversong woods is just breathtaking...I agree with you completely.
TR May 19th 2010 11:24AM
^^This^^
Until I leveled my first toon to Outland and started doing the Isle of Quel'Danas dailies I'd never seen the Blood Elf themed zones. I immediately rolled a BE so I could check everything out. Yeah, it sometimes looks like the sin'dorei have been taking too much LSD (which I bet is the drug implication; they "turn on, tune in, drop out") but it's very beautiful.
Other great zones:
* The different trees and plants in transition between zones the Night Elf and Human areas.
* The colors and shadow on walls and streets of Stormwind City as dawn becomes daylight, becomes evening, and then night time. The patrolling guards suddenly carrying lanterns is a cool touch too.
* The buildings and cobblestoned streets of Dalaran.
* Inside the raid instance of Ice Crown Citadel, e.g. Blood Queen Lana'thel's chamber.
siimmart May 19th 2010 11:46AM
The only thing I'm well.. not disappointed, but..
Well, if anyone out there knows Toontown, in the blood elf starting area, in the Ghostlands, those jungle trolls buildings... Top of 'em, there are these cartoonish fences, I remember them made out of bones and strings of plants. Really cute! And nostalig, too, I used to play Toontown with my lil' sis'.
It's a thing to pick Blizz about, as, well, a new expansion came out 'n' stuff and there shouldn't be such cartoonish details.
But wa-hay! I am really grateful to Texture-doing-guys over at Blizz, some textures are breathtaking!!!
Hip!
Hip!
Hip!
Hooray!
siimmart May 19th 2010 11:54AM
nostalgic*
pwherman May 19th 2010 4:43PM
TR mentions how the color and shadow on the walls and streets of Stormwind are affected by the time of day and the NPC's lanterns at night. I also particularly enjoy that my own character's items that emit light, such as wands and staffs, reflect off of, and brighten, those walls and streets in a way they don't in other cities, such as Ironforge. I wish this happened more throughout the world. If anyone knows of other areas that are similarly responsive, I'd love to hear about them.
caelwynn May 19th 2010 8:30AM
The trees in Crystalsong forest have always been intensely beautiful to me. Something about the iridescence...
Arizor May 19th 2010 8:33AM
Having played Alliance almost exclusively until now, you've instilled in me a burning desire to make a little orc, run him up to the door and examine it properly for the first time.
pancakes May 19th 2010 8:52AM
One of my most enduring memories about my first character (an Orc warlock) was arriving at the gates of Orgrimmar. There were a number of level 70s (this was in BC) duelling each other and these giant gates towering up above them.
Entering inside was an amazing experience, because of the way Org manages to appear so large, even though it's really not that big these days.
I think it's probably the reason that Orc went on to be my main.
Anyway, my point is: Org's a great city, so go check it out if you've only ever played Alliance.
PictoKong May 19th 2010 11:09AM
On that topic, i'm mainly horde, but i can say, for sure, the statues at the entrance of stormwind are pretty epic
Guruda May 19th 2010 4:41PM
Now I know this is mostly unrelated, but...
I have usually played alliance, only switching to play horde with some IRL friends. i had only seen Orgrimmar when I did the For the Alliance! quests, and when I played Horde, i found the lack of ordered town areas (compared to IF and SW, I mean) first bugged me, but then kind of grew on me. I loved the tower behind the bank that lets you get to the Valley of Spirits, with the FP at the top. I usually hung out up there when I was bored... Then, about after two months of playing Horde on and off, I had a revelation... That tower, at the top... Had a roof. Am I the only one that completely missed this for so long? I asked my friend, and he'd been playing Horde for years, was shocked to find this out too. Anyone else out there had this happen to them?
Josin May 19th 2010 8:35AM
They've always done amazing things with the textures, though I have to say that part of the issue with human males IS the texture, not just the model, that gives them that constipated, cleft palate look.
All in all though, they continue to astound with their designs, especially in dungeons. I was awed by Karazhan in BC. Still by far one of my favorite RP hangouts. (Especially since its largely soloable now.)
Helston May 19th 2010 8:37AM
Thank you Matt, I just went and looked at the texture out the front of the gate. I then had a look inside the gate and had the feeling of when I first played WoW, that great feeling where everything's new that you only ever get at the start of a game.
Murmillo May 19th 2010 8:40AM
The textures in Silvermoon City are always my favorite, the city is rich in color and atmosphere and I know I'll be spending days flying around it when as soon as Cataclysm hits.
Merus May 19th 2010 8:41AM
Northrend's mountains. Doubly so when I realised how they're put together.
In short, WoW's continents are a single sheet (called a terrain map) that's raised and lowered, and populated with buildings, to make the environments we run around in. This is why cave entrances aren't part of the regular landscape, and why mountains and cliffs never overhang.
What's impressive about the mountains is that, despite the fact that they're one sheet, the textures don't look stretched. They're cunningly put together to look great from every angle, despite the simplicity of the underlying tech.
Andrew May 19th 2010 9:45AM
I agree with you... but I must add that the mountains in Icecrown are the most interesting. If you walk around some of the snowy areas in the mountains, you can sometimes find patches where there isn't any snow. In those snow-less patches, if you look closely, you will notice that it's all just bones from various creatures. This chilled me the first time I noticed it, because it means that the entire snowy mountainside is just a layer of snow on top of an endless pool of bones... the endless remains of those that foolishly sought to fight the Lich King.
pancakes May 19th 2010 8:41AM
There's too many things to list at the moment, so I'll just talk broadly. My favourite aspect of WoW is the little details they put in game. For example, the bloodstains on the lordaeron throneroom floor, where the king's crown rolled in the war3 cinematic. I imagine a lot of people haven't noticed it, but the fact that it's there is pretty awesome.
WoW, while not having the same level of graphics as other games, has much more character than a lot of the graphically superior games on the market.
Noah May 19th 2010 5:05PM
I don't consider other games with higher polygon counts to be "graphically superior."
The fact of the matter is that WoW environments seem to have been created by real artists, almost painting a picture, while other "photorealistic" games seem to be devised by photographers — these games will fade into obsoleteness as the realism is pumped up another level, yet WoW will live on virtually forever like the painting that it is.
Joerendous May 19th 2010 8:58AM
I don't know if this can be considered a particular doodad, but the color schemes of every zone in old world Azeroth are breathtaking to me. How the color of the sky blankets the thematic environment during the changes of the day always leave me in awe.