From a development standpoint, how much more resources would it cost to let champions blink?

Essilyn·12/2/2014, 11:07:45 PM·2 votes·838 views

Question already asked in the title, but would it break the game to allow champions to blink? Lulu's laugh lets her blink as she chuckles and snorts, so that does show that it is possible.

I know nothing of the 3D mesh processes and general black magics involved in such a process, and am genuinely curious.

Doesn't even have to be a Rioter, if you know about these kind of things your insight would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

(And before people mock me for being too picky, I really enjoy immersion and I genuinely feel sad when it feels like my champions are about to get dry eye.)

3 Comments

Letzer12/2/2014, 11:15:20 PM1 votes

If you look at champion faces, you'll notice that the face is often the thing they don't really care about. There seems to have been some people in the past who took their time to create nice looking faces, but I think they don't work with riot anymore. (Look at Silver Fang Akali and Imperial Lux for example of faces (and overall texture) that actually don't look like a cluster of pixels)

They could add blinking, and it wouldn't affect much really, except the development time. The skin team has been shifting from detailed skins textures to detailed motions and effect over the last years and I can of get why- because that is what you actually see when playing. How much time they save by leaving the face sub par? I don't know, I doubt it would take that much more time. I'm with you and would like the champions eyes to be more expressive, but again, I really doubt it will happen... sadly.

TheSlappySlap12/2/2014, 11:43:03 PM1 votes

Seems like a serious waste of time and resources for Riot, but everyone has their own tastes. I don't believe it would require much to add a basic blinking animation (you honestly could get away with a simple masking effect that won't effect the 3D mesh in any way). Few people actually zoom in to see faces so it seems like it would be very low priority for Riot.

Leti the Yeti12/3/2014, 12:00:42 AM1 votes

I've heard somewhere that the most important parts of the design in these moba games are the silhouette and the upper body/back since you see that the most so, its probably not costly... just not high on their design values