game is good but could use some more eye candy

The problem with this is that our art resources are very weak. We don't even have a single dedicated modeller at the moment. I guess i come closest to being such a person, and my output rate given my current schedule is 3 models per *year*.

If you want the game to have better visuals, the first thing to figure out is where to find people to improve them.

Models wise, i've had a fairly decent experience with directing an outsider artist to produce a high-quality model from concept art and a long list of requirements (tank factory) that fits the game very well - so perhaps just finding some modellers would be sufficient. So for models, it is maybe possible to actually commission artists, if you've got big pockets.

Shaders are more difficult. Especially since having all the really fancy things requires a quite lot of changes to the engine and the game. E.g. a modern, gpu-based particle system would be a massive improvement over the currently used CEG and LUPS particles, but for that, not only you have to completely implement a major engine system from scratch, but also you have to reimplement every particle effect ZK has in this new system.

I would say also that one of the things that units mostly miss is good animations. Sadly, Spring doesn't really support easy outsider contributions to animations, because Spring animations are code that is run in a synced context. There are some crutch tools that allow you position the pieces, and i wrote a Blender addon to allow animation exports from Blender - albeit lacking a lot of major features modern animation software takes for granted, like bezier interpolation. However, my experience with directing outsider animator talent was a lot less stellar than my experience directing model work, in large because the entire animation pipeline is garbage.

I will illustrate the animations point with this. Compare and contrast this with the lobsterly nerd pose that the Strike commander strikes when shooting in the actual game presently.

Anarchid, tell me what programs are used for modelling and I'll take a look. I've currently got spare time; might be an idea to wet my toes and mess around with them. You never know where things may lead. I trained as a fine artist so I may be able to help in other areas as well if you are looking for 2d art now.

Astran: I'm in the same camp. I would rather have great gameplay and a fun game then a great looking one. I raised this point just as something that could use some improvement. I don't think it's necessarily the highest priority or anything, it could just use some improvement

Anarchid: I completely understand what you are saying and that's why I phrased my post the way I did. The game looks good, it could just use some more eye candy. That's also why I didn't suggest making the graphics amazing. That would be fantastic, but I know this is all volunteer. That's why I suggested some post processing or slightly better textures instead of all kinds of post processing and HD textures. Just a slight improvement. I also didn't mention the animations and other things. I also value gameplay and performance over an amazing looking game. It's a balance. You want a descent looking game, great performance and a fun game.

I liked the detail in your post Anarchid. It helps me understand the inner workings of the engine a bit better.

What are your settings like? Ive seen shields looking really nice on some other peoples vids before, I'm sure there was some setting that made them shimmer and glow.

I think a lot of what makes the games eye candy less appealing is the maps tbh. Some of the popular maps are old as shit and low res.

Compared to other similar games though I agree the shooting animations are kinda meh. Plasma projectiles and lasers etc arent particularly shiny.

Anarchid, re your picture above. Although this pose may seem intuitively more realistic, I think lasers have no recoil so there's no reason the com would have to lean slightly forward as it does. The current com understands this ;))

It's "@" + username

"forum post editor is good but could use some more realtime wysiwyg"

A unit animation is a pretty good bite sized piece of work for a new contributor.

What about extra skin for commanders. With the steam DLC incoming. The choices are really limited.
I know its not meant to be 'value for money' but an donation. But there is not even one for the strike commander and only 1 for the assault commander.

Since Astran is an 2D artist, this looks like an thing for a starter.

Well you're in luck because writing animations in ZK just requires attention to detail and a love of trigonometry.