Saurian's new Tyrannosaurus

[Patrx]

Check out the blog post here!

Ordinarily, I would put Saurian news in the "Books, film, and other media" section, but I decided that, as this particular blog post is about what Scott Hartman calls "the most exhaustive attempt at restoring an extinct animal that [he's] worked on", it needed a more general categorization.

[mgaguilar]

Gorgeous graphic. Love the heaviness of the animal. Built full of muscle and weight.
I feel as though the tail is a bit too curvy/appears too flexible, am I wrong in my assumption?

[tyrantqueen]

Very beautiful looking Tyrannosaurus. I can't help but think it looks naked, after seeing the feathered version for so long.

[IrritatorRaji]

Absolutely beautiful restoration, feels so much more life-like than other videogame Tyrannosaurs.

[ITdactyl]

I like it.  Big Rex is perfectly chunky.  This one ain't runnin' after jeeps.  'Begs the question of how they hunted though. ('visually "feels" chunkier than the old feathered model - I wonder if some of its in-game mechanics would also be changed).

I'm also curious about the possibility of the giant tyrannosaurs retaining tiny feathers ala the sparse hairs on elephants (they're not really bald/naked).  Of course there's no practical (even cosmetic) reason to implement this in game.  Thinking out loud.  I know it's not a fluffy Yutyrannus, but I'm still not fully on board the "scales only" train.

[Faelrin]

Anyone else notice the discrepancy between the model and the concept art (in regards to the head on the model being a bit shrinkwrapped)? It's my only issue with it (although I'm hoping it's just due to the program it is being rendered in that causes it to look that way, although some of their other dinosaurs have had this issue, such as the Pectinodon WIP, and the Triceratops).

They've definitely gone all out on this thing and it shows though.

[stargatedalek]

I'm also curious about the possibility of the giant tyrannosaurs retaining tiny feathers ala the sparse hairs on elephants (they're not really bald/naked).  Of course there's no practical (even cosmetic) reason to implement this in game.  Thinking out loud.  I know it's not a fluffy Yutyrannus, but I'm still not fully on board the "scales only" train.

Agreed, for many reasons. I don't want to reiterate exactly how many things in that paper everyone loves to cite are just bold speculation.

Most relevantly though, this isn't the first time the Saurian developers have made a decision based rather blatantly on personal nostalgia rather than (solely on) scientific evidence. Normally there would be nothing wrong with this, but with the way they're advertising their game it feels incredibly unfaithful.

An obvious example would be when they tried to popularize their "rule" about a new genus being valid after a million years separation from the closest related species just to justify using Anatosaurus instead of Edmontosaurus. Just so everyone understand how awful an idea that is, we would need to name about 30 new genera of archerfish alone if this actually gained traction.

There are also a number of things that are simply in error that they refuse to go back and change and yet they'll completely drop everything they were doing and redesign Tyrannosaurus entirely at the slightest justification of scales. Game is unoptimized and barely runs on high end computers? Nope, gotta ditch the feathers first. Placeholder combat system completely unusable? Nope, can't work on combat when we could be making a new Tyrannosaurus.

Maniraptoran hands being the capital example here of provably wrong things they just refuse to go back and fix. But heaven forbid they can't go back and fix errors in the game they're advertising as scientifically rigorous when they can remake their Tyrannosaurus to be equally speculative now that there is slightly more justification for making it the way they wanted it to look.

[Concavenator]

I don´t really like it.I think their previous,feathered version is much better, more accurate and is much more beautiful.That was a perfect Tyrannosaurus.This one looks odd in my opinion (in spite of all the research that surely went into its design).

[Patrx]

Yeah, the idea of a totally featherless tyrannosaurid still seems a little out-there to me, too. I mean, even whales still have sparse bristles and whiskers left to them by their filament-covered ancestors.

[JohannesB]

After reading the blog, I can kind of get into the logic of a featherless Tyrannosaurus rex. Either way, I think this reconstruction is nice and bulky. The lips and head remind me of a Komodo Dragon's.

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

It looks well executed, but it looks nowhere near as good as the feathered version. Very disappointing.

[Lizerd]

Late on this... actually really late but nah. Anyways, model looks good, the bulk is excellent as it should be. However as for feathers I have my disagreements. It should have them, but not what they used to have. In a nutshell look at  giant animals, sadly mammals, us humans, and large birds. Essentially my guess is that it should have feathers that would be sparse and spread out, basically leg or arm hair (we have it, but don't really need it) that would be hard to see, and like large animals it would have a few dense spots for display or thermal regulation such as on the neck. Or maybe I'm wrong, but the model is still cool.

[Syndicate Bias]

The feathers have been a discussion as far as I'm concerned nothing more than that. I dont remember reading or hearing about any actual evidence or published works talking about feathers being a thing other than speculation

[Neosodon]

There are also a number of things that are simply in error that they refuse to go back and change and yet they'll completely drop everything they were doing and redesign Tyrannosaurus entirely at the slightest justification of scales. Game is unoptimized and barely runs on high end computers? Nope, gotta ditch the feathers first. Placeholder combat system completely unusable? Nope, can't work on combat when we could be making a new Tyrannosaurus.

I've seen this kind of criticism in other games such as the isle before. Game designers are usually specialized in different areas. One person works on graphics, another works on bugs and another works on mechanisms and such. The graphic designers aren't just going to sit around and wait for other aspects of the game to finish so that they can give the fan base the impression they are staying focused.

As for the new Rex design I think it looks great. It definitely does the animal justice. Although perhaps the tail could be beefed up a little more to add some balance. But it may just be the positioning.

[Jose S.M.]

I think they shouldn't have de-feathered the rex completely but it doesn't bother me that much. What I don't like is the coloration.

[Takama]

I am not completly sure about how i feel about this.

I mean YES Science may currently dictate that Tyrannosaurus was mostly scaly, and i am willing to accept that.

But this leaves me, very many qustions about other dinosaurs.

For instance

If this is how T.rex looked, then what about the simaler sized Deinochirus?   It had a Pygostyle of all things. yet it grew up to almost the same size as T.rex.

If one were to create a model of that dinosaur, How much of it (if any part of it) would be featherd?

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

I am not completly sure about how i feel about this.

I mean YES Science may currently dictate that Tyrannosaurus was mostly scaly, and i am willing to accept that.

But this leaves me, very many qustions about other dinosaurs.

For instance

If this is how T.rex looked, then what about the simaler sized Deinochirus?   It had a Pygostyle of all things. yet it grew up to almost the same size as T.rex.

If one were to create a model of that dinosaur, How much of it (if any part of it) would be featherd?

Deinocheirus is a maniraptoform though. They never loose feathers no matter how big they get.

[Lizerd]

The feathers have been a discussion as far as I'm concerned nothing more than that. I dont remember reading or hearing about any actual evidence or published works talking about feathers being a thing other than speculation

Well aside from common ancestors and relatives, so far no direct evidence. But that doesn't really mean it's speculation, more an educated guess on what it would look like. But it also lacks something, really big, why does nobody give these things physical flaws or defects such as broken teeth, scars, or a runny nose.

[John]

The feathers have been a discussion as far as I'm concerned nothing more than that. I dont remember reading or hearing about any actual evidence or published works talking about feathers being a thing other than speculation

Well aside from common ancestors and relatives, so far no direct evidence. But that doesn't really mean it's speculation, more an educated guess on what it would look like. But it also lacks something, really big, why does nobody give these things physical flaws or defects such as broken teeth, scars, or a runny nose.

The fleshed out version of the model actually does have some missing teeth in it's mouth.You can really see this on the artist Jacob Baardse ArtStation page.

[ITdactyl]

I think they shouldn't have de-feathered the rex completely but it doesn't bother me that much.

Begs the question, how much fuzz do we really want to see [in game]?

I'll use [the totally unrelated] Eofauna models as an example.  They make excellent pachyderms - one model, the Palaeoloxodon appears totally hairless except for the tail tuft.  They (the palaeoloxodon) probably retained more (albeit tiny) hair all over their body in life, but the toy doesn't need those.  Asking for eyelashes and ear tufts to be sculpted in seems excessive - and exaggerating these hairs just so they can be sculpted in to be "accurate" ruins the look.

Please don't misunderstand, I'm not saying Tyrannosaurs should be a certain way because of features in elephants.  I'll admit my mind is probably locked in the idea that even giant mammals retain hair (whales, elephants etc.) - and maybe it is possible for giant dinosaurs with fuzzy ancestors to have gone fully scaly. 

I like the current look and don't mind that it's fully naked.  If they giant tyrannosaurs were not extensively feathered, then this look is fine.
I'll just echo a sentiment posted earlier... I'm hoping gameplay improvements will be made soon(TM).  I was getting a lot of rubberbanding, so I uninstalled it.  Tried the resource heavy Monster Hunter World on the same PC and that game runs fine.  Something's amiss.