Dota 2 graphics vs lollipops

Dota 2 graphics vs lollipops

One of the things that makes it hardest for me to transition from League of Legends to Dota 2 apart from the various gameplay differences, is the map aesthetic. Sure the UI is huge and clunky compared to the scalable one in LoL but the map is really what makes it hard for me to play. I can’t read it, I can’t see where I am, everything is so flat and looks the same to me. The only way for me to know where on the map I stand is to look at that tiny little box on the minimap.

This was a problem for me when I tried to play HoN too, but HoN was a hundred times worse at this than Dota 2.

But well instead of being all talk, let me just point out examples and why I think this is happening.

If you take a look at the one on the left (LoL) and compare it to the one on the right (Dota) You can see that the camera seems to be located significantly lower in Dota 2 [dota2strategyguide. com] (compare the boxes on the minimap) from the ground, but the same from the head of the champion

As such, the map in Dota 2 is probably a lot bigger than the one in LoL so the camera has less coverage around the PC even if it’s at the same height.

Solutions:
1: Downscaling the map (Easiest way, no loss of graphical quality either)
2: Upscaling the champions and moving the camera higher (Harder since each champion’s model needs to be upscaled and loss of graphical quality as the textures will look worse if they are upscaled)

If you look at this, you can see that the trees are more clearly defined in LoL than dota, they also have more color variation, this makes them look slightly more cartoony, but it also makes it easier to detect them. The thing with the trees in LoL is also that they are not placed on a walkable path (as in you can’t cut down trees in LoL like you can in Dota)

You will also see that everywhere people are normally going to walk in LoL has a very clearly defined road, whereas in Dota the road is not as clearly defined at all (for instance where that flying thing is there seems to be some sort of road but it blends in so much with the grass it can’t be seen.

Solutions:
1: Thicker roads that are more clearly defined as not being part of the grass, and a higher color variation between the trees and grass
2: I don’t have another idea. Dota 2 graphics vs lollipops

Overall I think it comes down to contrast, and putting less similar colors next to each other. Look here for example

on one side of that road, the road is clearly defined away from the grass which is clearly defined away from the treeline. On the other side we have the road not clearly defined from the grass which is almost exactly the same color, but the treeline is still very clearly defined away from the grass (in other words adding a darker color to the grass next to the road here on that side would solve that problem.

The game looks good, I never had a problem with that, neither game has inferior graphics it’s just that they’re in different style. Dota 2 is in a semi-realistic style whereas League of Legends is cartoony. But bottom line is, I need to be able to see a bigger area around my character to feel comfortable (I even think it’s too low in LoL), and I need to be able to clearly see road from grass from tree to be able to enjoy it. I have no doubt that playing more will allow the graphics to grow on you, but having some sort of option to change the contrast and color vibrance in the game could probably do wonders for “readability” of the playing field and it’s objects.

Lastly; fog of war isn’t dark enough for me to see that it is fog of war and not something in my vision range.

It might also be a cool solution to allow players to use texture pack mods (for the map, not for the characters)