Because it’s just boring, mountain(?), with river, blurry backgound
I would replace it with some pic of tower like this one
4 Likes
While i don’t think its high priority really, the main menu background is kinda getting boring. It would be cool if they make it cycle with other backgrounds.
9 Likes
This could cause some issues for people with lower end PCs, however. If you stay on the main menu you’ll notice the background actually moves, as in, a 3D world is being rendered behind the menu GUI.
Now, the current background uses minimal textures for rendering the scene, and the level geometry isn’t extremely advanced with tons of models everywhere. If it were to change to the Plaza map, however, that would mean those people who have trouble loading the Plaza due to memory limitations wouldn’t even make it to the main menu.
There’s a lot of textures and models in the Plaza map, and it will make loading times for everyone much slower. An upside to this is it’ll make joining a lobby server extremely fast as these textures are already preloaded into memory, but again, only if your PC is capable of loading the Plaza map.
If the background stays simplistic, it’ll continue to allow folks with lower end computers to enjoy some parts of the game, such as the gameworlds.
With the technical side out of the way, let’s talk aesthetics.
Personally, I think changing the background to any one particular theme is a bad choice. Tower Unite is focused on many different themes and art styles so painting the background a specific theme at a time will create too much contrast with the rest of the game. For example, Tower Unite isn’t just a Plaza, it’s also Little Crusaders and Minigolf and the Item Playground.
A generic background such as the mountains and ocean (that we also happen to see in multiple places such as Ballrace, Minigolf, the Plaza, and the Condo… which, by the way, is a genius way of preloading assets that are likely to be reused depending on where from the main menu the player chooses to go) works well as it can be applied to every theme.
Think about it like this, does a spectrum of color on grey or a spectrum of color on a specific color look better? Really it’s just ensuring the colors and themes don’t end up clashing; the background needs to make every theme look good on it.
I agree. The current background is generic, barely related to Tower and quite frankly (although for performance reasons) looks disgusting and amateur.
Having this be the main menu sets a bad first impression for newcomers of the game I think a simple PNG of the Plaza would get the job done much better.
2 Likes
“There’s a lot of textures and models in the Plaza map, and it will make loading times for everyone much slower. An upside to this is it’ll make joining a lobby server extremely fast as these textures are already preloaded into memory, but again, only if your PC is capable of loading the Plaza map.”
Whats stopping the developers from just using a static png background or making a minimalist alternative version of the Tower just for the menu?
I’m sure they could do that if they wanted to. However, given that there are so many other features to get first impressions of displayed on the menu (you even get a good shot of the Plaza from the menu button already!), and the fact that having a moving background looks appealing, I’d say it’s hard to imagine the developers trading out that extra detail to display something that is already displayed clearly and to not even display properly (it’s blurred behind an array of boxes everywhere!).