4 ms·

Is there a better graphics version of factorio? And no I don't mean Satisfactory or Dyson Sphere Program though those are good games in their own rights, I mean

Is there a better graphics version of factorio? And no I don't mean Satisfactory or Dyson Sphere Program though those are good games in their own rights, I mean something with the same level of depth and camera as factorio.

dcre 2y ago
Better in what sense?
- philsnow 2y ago
  I love Factorio but the graphics look a bit like 1996 SVGA 256-color sprites (edit: by which I mean, I feel like there is noticeable dithering). I haven't played the new "Factorio in space" bits, maybe it gets out of the browns-and-beige color palette a bit more?
  - btmiller 2y ago
    I love the art for two reasons: 1. It’s simple, charming, and nostalgic. 2. I view it as a defense mechanism against the onslaught of modern gaming that’s locked in a race to the lowest common denominator (i.e. “Stay away! This game isn’t for you!” ;) )
  - marcosdumay 2y ago
    You don't like the design aesthetic? Because your phrased your question like people that complain about the level of detail. Yes, factorio is ugly (although some trees are beautiful). And yes, that's a design decision. There are some mods that reskin it. Personally, I don't think any of them are beautiful.
  - duskwuff 2y ago
    > by which I mean, I feel like there is noticeable dithering Any chance you have the game set to use 16-bit color?
  - kzrdude 2y ago
    For Factorio 2.0, there's a lot of graphics that have gotten higher resolution upgrades. Earendel has blogged about working on this. (The Space Exploration mod author, who also works for Wube). Terrain looks better, trees look better, too, I think it's a pretty big change.
MarkMarine 2y ago
I haven’t found one, and really as you get later in the game the retro graphics are a blessing. I play on my work Mac (most powerful thing in the house) and I end up having to bail early because I just can’t have a megabase over a certain size, everything grinds to a halt.
solardev 2y ago
What kinda depth are you missing from DSP and Satisfactory? And what do you mean by "camera"? There's also Shapez 1 and 2, which is like the essence of Factorio abstracted into shapes and colors. Shapez 2 has more mining and trains and multiple levels.
- mdaniel 2y ago
  Shapez 2 is just stellar. I mean, Shapez 1 was good, but 2 is just awesome (IMHO, of course)
- jcranmer 2y ago
  Not OP, but my guess for what they meant by "camera" is the fact that Factorio is largely a 2D top-down view with relatively little impedance to jumping to another part of the factory to work on it (especially with the QoL stuff added in 2.0). In Satisfactory or DSP, fixing a remote part of the factory--even trying to diagnose problems remotely--is a chore, and there's precious little you can do to actually speed the travel process up.
  - dpkirchner 2y ago
    For DSP I made a rule for myself: if I have to travel to another planet, I have to bring enough material to increase (ideally double) the production of a resource. That made traveling feel more useful. Course that means I often had oversupply.
- aithrowawaycomm 2y ago
  Speaking for myself, I love Factorio and can't stand Satisfactory. Even on peaceful mode Factorio has you solving real problems, whereas Satisfactory feels like playing Minecraft on creative mode. Satisfactory's main issue is that it lets you build in three dimensions without doing any physics to check if that build is mechanically plausible. It's of course not reasonable to expect them to do that physics. But it means that sophisticated logistics/organization problems in Factorio almost always have the same solution in Satisfactory: build more, but upwards. There's no reason to think long-term in Satisfactory unless you have a specific aesthetic vision for a base. Of course, a giant factory-skyscraper with tons of conveyor belts sticking out looks really cool! And Satisfactory being easier makes it more of a chill sandbox game than a tense strategy game like Factorio, so I get why aesthetics-minded people like it. Different strokes.
ekidd 2y ago
I guess it depends on what you mean by "better graphics"? They're upgraded their graphics several times over the years. I'm playing on a 4K monitor and they're using most of those pixels. I can see a small amount of interpolation at full zoom at 4K. If you zoom in, the graphics are high-res 2D sprites, rendered from 3D models. And the level of detail can be ridiculous. From this week's Factorio 2.0 update (and Space Age add-on), here's an example of the zoomed-in detail: https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-396 https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-396 See the foundry animations? Those videos are actually slightly more blurred than the in-game version. And the sound effects are synced to specific animation frames. So the world of Factorio is oftentimes brown and grim and covered in grime, but that's a conscious artistic choice. (Not all of the new planets are brown. Gleba is green and irridescent and frankly creepy.) Similarly, Factorio's 2D nature has allowed the developers to focus on gameplay and quality-of-life more than many newer games in the genre. If you want to build big, intricate factories with complex train networks, for example, Factorio really shines. If anyone would like a game with 3D graphics, or a different graphics style, try: - Satisfactory: The 3D world is gorgeous, and Satisfactory shines at "walk around inside your factory and tinker with it." Gameplay-wise, it has only recently gained blueprinting tools that allow working at a medium level of abstraction. - Shapez 2.0: This is pretty and colorful and full of great little puzzles. It occupies a different part of the game-design space and is just a joy to play. (Dyson Sphere Project and Captain of Industry also have great gameplay, but I don't know if their graphics are likely to grab people who find Factorio graphically underwhelming.)
bloqs 2y ago
Mindustry
vanjajaja1 2y ago
i also hated the graphics, but once you play it for a bit the graphics melt away and you can see the beauty in the details they have
ducttapecrown 2y ago
The trees move in the wind when you zoom in. Factorio takes sprite graphics to the next level! I felt the same as you, I've always wanted a brighter reskin of Factorio but I've realized it's way tooooo much work for anyone to do for free...
xsmasher 2y ago
Factory Town is great, but looks more like a Warcraft 2 era sprite game.

dcre 2y ago

Better in what sense?

philsnow 2y ago
I love Factorio but the graphics look a bit like 1996 SVGA 256-color sprites (edit: by which I mean, I feel like there is noticeable dithering). I haven't played the new "Factorio in space" bits, maybe it gets out of the browns-and-beige color palette a bit more?
- btmiller 2y ago
  I love the art for two reasons: 1. It’s simple, charming, and nostalgic. 2. I view it as a defense mechanism against the onslaught of modern gaming that’s locked in a race to the lowest common denominator (i.e. “Stay away! This game isn’t for you!” ;) )
- marcosdumay 2y ago
  You don't like the design aesthetic? Because your phrased your question like people that complain about the level of detail. Yes, factorio is ugly (although some trees are beautiful). And yes, that's a design decision. There are some mods that reskin it. Personally, I don't think any of them are beautiful.
- duskwuff 2y ago
  > by which I mean, I feel like there is noticeable dithering Any chance you have the game set to use 16-bit color?
- kzrdude 2y ago
  For Factorio 2.0, there's a lot of graphics that have gotten higher resolution upgrades. Earendel has blogged about working on this. (The Space Exploration mod author, who also works for Wube). Terrain looks better, trees look better, too, I think it's a pretty big change.

MarkMarine 2y ago

I haven’t found one, and really as you get later in the game the retro graphics are a blessing. I play on my work Mac (most powerful thing in the house) and I end up having to bail early because I just can’t have a megabase over a certain size, everything grinds to a halt.

solardev 2y ago

What kinda depth are you missing from DSP and Satisfactory? And what do you mean by "camera"? There's also Shapez 1 and 2, which is like the essence of Factorio abstracted into shapes and colors. Shapez 2 has more mining and trains and multiple levels.

mdaniel 2y ago
Shapez 2 is just stellar. I mean, Shapez 1 was good, but 2 is just awesome (IMHO, of course)
jcranmer 2y ago
Not OP, but my guess for what they meant by "camera" is the fact that Factorio is largely a 2D top-down view with relatively little impedance to jumping to another part of the factory to work on it (especially with the QoL stuff added in 2.0). In Satisfactory or DSP, fixing a remote part of the factory--even trying to diagnose problems remotely--is a chore, and there's precious little you can do to actually speed the travel process up.
- dpkirchner 2y ago
  For DSP I made a rule for myself: if I have to travel to another planet, I have to bring enough material to increase (ideally double) the production of a resource. That made traveling feel more useful. Course that means I often had oversupply.
aithrowawaycomm 2y ago
Speaking for myself, I love Factorio and can't stand Satisfactory. Even on peaceful mode Factorio has you solving real problems, whereas Satisfactory feels like playing Minecraft on creative mode. Satisfactory's main issue is that it lets you build in three dimensions without doing any physics to check if that build is mechanically plausible. It's of course not reasonable to expect them to do that physics. But it means that sophisticated logistics/organization problems in Factorio almost always have the same solution in Satisfactory: build more, but upwards. There's no reason to think long-term in Satisfactory unless you have a specific aesthetic vision for a base. Of course, a giant factory-skyscraper with tons of conveyor belts sticking out looks really cool! And Satisfactory being easier makes it more of a chill sandbox game than a tense strategy game like Factorio, so I get why aesthetics-minded people like it. Different strokes.

ekidd 2y ago

I guess it depends on what you mean by "better graphics"? They're upgraded their graphics several times over the years. I'm playing on a 4K monitor and they're using most of those pixels. I can see a small amount of interpolation at full zoom at 4K. If you zoom in, the graphics are high-res 2D sprites, rendered from 3D models. And the level of detail can be ridiculous. From this week's Factorio 2.0 update (and Space Age add-on), here's an example of the zoomed-in detail: https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-396 https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-396 See the foundry animations? Those videos are actually slightly more blurred than the in-game version. And the sound effects are synced to specific animation frames. So the world of Factorio is oftentimes brown and grim and covered in grime, but that's a conscious artistic choice. (Not all of the new planets are brown. Gleba is green and irridescent and frankly creepy.) Similarly, Factorio's 2D nature has allowed the developers to focus on gameplay and quality-of-life more than many newer games in the genre. If you want to build big, intricate factories with complex train networks, for example, Factorio really shines. If anyone would like a game with 3D graphics, or a different graphics style, try: - Satisfactory: The 3D world is gorgeous, and Satisfactory shines at "walk around inside your factory and tinker with it." Gameplay-wise, it has only recently gained blueprinting tools that allow working at a medium level of abstraction. - Shapez 2.0: This is pretty and colorful and full of great little puzzles. It occupies a different part of the game-design space and is just a joy to play. (Dyson Sphere Project and Captain of Industry also have great gameplay, but I don't know if their graphics are likely to grab people who find Factorio graphically underwhelming.)

bloqs 2y ago

Mindustry

vanjajaja1 2y ago

i also hated the graphics, but once you play it for a bit the graphics melt away and you can see the beauty in the details they have

ducttapecrown 2y ago

The trees move in the wind when you zoom in. Factorio takes sprite graphics to the next level! I felt the same as you, I've always wanted a brighter reskin of Factorio but I've realized it's way tooooo much work for anyone to do for free...

xsmasher 2y ago

Factory Town is great, but looks more like a Warcraft 2 era sprite game.