News & Guides

Unreal Engine 4 Will Be a New Creation on World of Warcraft

By John Ryan2015-06-03

 

World of Warcraft is known and loved, but it’s hard to argue that diving head-first into a world this brimming with life would turn many away. It also showcases the power of the new Unreal Engine and what a single dev is capable of within its work space. It’s also a change Blizzard may need to consider in the future. World of Warcraft’s subscriber rate has been declining by the millions since the Warlords of Draenor expansion was released and this may have just been the natural shake-out of things when you have fans returning just to test out new parts of a game. At 11 years, WoW has done amazingly well and it isn’t going anywhere any time soon. Would a complete overhaul of the landscape bring in new players while keeping the still millions of fans who play the game happy?

 

World of Warcraft has a unique visual style—colourful, chunky, but not what you'd call a 'looker'—that's dictated in part by the fact that the game is more than ten years old. But have you ever wondered what it would look like if it was made in, say, 2014 instead of 2004? Wonder no more, friend, because a man named Daniel Luchau has recreated the Elwynn Forest area using the Unreal Engine 4, and the results are impressive, as you can see.

 

Luchau chose to import models from World of Warcraft that were retouched and combined them with pieces from the Unreal Engine 4 demos. While this is not the most polished Unreal 4 can make something look, it is still fun to see differences in graphics. Details and textures are not too crisp, and the windows look watery instead like glass, but there is a moment when flying through the trees is rather breathtaking. Like the video says, it is still an early build. Players will recognize Goldshire, the second quest town in the area and also the town most of South Park’s “Make Love Not Warcraft” episode took place in. Outside of that we also see Westbrook Garrison, with the infamous wanted poster for Hogger outside.

 

When it comes to MMOs, some wowers don't think visual fidelity is a make-or-break feature (the long-term success of World of Warcraft in its aged format is proof of that), but a little extra pretty doesn't hurt, either. Do you dream of exploring an Azeroth that looks like this?

 

Daniel decided to use his skills and the Unreal Engine 4’s power on World of Warcraft. Elwynn Forest needs no introduction: it’s a 10-year old map, and while you can argue if the original graphics are dated or not, it definitely still has its charm. Here, it looks fantastic.

 

It’s pretty easy to recognize everything in the video. There’s the town of Goldshire, the Westbrook Garrison (with the proper Hogger Wanted! poster), and all the surrounding areas. The only thing missing are the max wow level characters dueling and showing of wow mounts in Goldshire’s main square.

                                              

 

What do you think of the video, and of this version of Elwynn, as brought to you by Unreal Engine 4? It will be a wow gold boom I think.

 

PC mods are always a sight to behold. From the mods that simply update an aging game, to the ones that let Thomas the Tank Engine rain fire down over all of Skyrim, there is a mod for just about anyone or anything. World of Warcraft is no exception to this rule. Recently, a modder named Daniel Luchau decided to give one of the game’s most famous environments a visual facelift through the use of Unreal Engine 4. The Elwynn Forest is the starting point for every human character and, with human being the most commonly chosen race, it is therefore the place most players have seen.

 

As a professional wow gold selling service, Mmogah has run the business for over 8 years, is a reliable and secure gold seller. If you have any demand of wow gold for building your characters’ gears, you can visit our on line shop.

 

NOTICE: All gold we sell is legal. If some tricksters who Whisper to you after trading, please ignore them to avoid gold loss. DON'T TRADE GOLD BACK TO ANYONE ELSE.

 

 

 


SHARE
Was this helpful?