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Graphical Fidelity I Expect This Gen

Gow was sony most important game of the past gen, i can't believe that they are treating the sequel like an after tought with the B team, ascension was made during the decline of the brand (same for kz4) but today the gow brand is healtier than ever, it must be something else but if that is the truth, then at sony they are really fucked in the mind.

Can you even imagine if horizon 2 was ps5 only...jesus if i have to wait ps6 for horizon 3 (crossgen with ps5) i'm going to kill the fucking jimbo...
Yep. I think the simple fact is that SSM is no longer the graphical powerhouse it used to be. Both studios are bound by the same constraints. GG is further limited by having to render a massive open world, and yet they look pretty much a gen apart.

It's possible that Cory took all the best designers and artists with him for his new IP leaving Ragnorak in the hands of the B team. We saw this play out with GOW Ascension and KZ Shadowfall, the A team was busy making new IPs. It's shocking how similar this looks to the first game. I am getting Ascension vibes here and that's never a good thing. I mean they are reusing the main midgard hub world. Oh now the lake is frozen, wow a new texture! Like come on. This is a $70 AAA sequel. Dont reuse anything on principle. When Insomniac did it for Miles they charged only $40 for it.

It's not the B team on GOW it's mostly the same team then the first one, for Cory new Ip Santa Monica has recruted new Leads and they are still looking for an Art Director for this project so they are only working on it with a small group of peoples and when GOW will be released most of the team will be going to work on Cory's game and a few peoples will start working on the next Gow.
 

Hunnybun

Member
Ooh this is very interesting stuff. Hadnt read this before. It's good to get some confirmation that SSD does not enhance the graphics directly. I keep getting into these ridiculous arguments where I end up essentially downplaying the SSD because everyone thinks the PS5 SSD will improve the graphics. Nah, they will just improve the streaming of assets which is important for things like fast traversal but wont turn the 10 tflops gpu into a 15 tflops GPU.

I am also going to purchase it on Day 1. I just want them to learn from GG and implement some of the enhancements they have made in Horizon, and then go a little bit beyond.

Need to see:
- Fast travel between Realms without having to go all the way back to the realm tower. Or waste time in the portal world.
- Completely different character models for the PS5 version. Like how FIfa and NBA did it. This is a game coming out 2 years after launch, it cannot look identical in anyway.
- Better hair rendering. I still see PS4 quality hair and fur.
- The black girl's model looks stunning. Everyone is losing their shit over a black person being in norse mythology while Im like shes the best looking thing in the game who gives a shit if shes black. Bring all character models up to her standard.
- Enhance the foliage, foliage draw distance and allow foliage interaction. Assassins creed did this at launch. The PS5 version had better foliage than even the PC version.
- Lastly, and this is important, use ray tracing in some form. Reflections are not needed in this world but you can use RT GI or even software based GI that Demon Souls used. This game simply cannot be a straight port native 4k 60 fps remaster. They need to make a 1440p 60 fps mode that looks at least as good as Demon Souls.

I don't think that's what he was saying. He just meant the SSD doesn't directly improve graphics processing, which of course it doesn't.

What he was saying is that it acts like a memory multiplier, and more memory can DEFINITELY improve graphics.
 

GymWolf

Member
Well I'm not sure of the value of these extreme close ups since that's not how we experience the game. For me the Kratos model was just clearly superior to almost every main character last gen, and Aloy was just ok, but nothing special.

I've played both games recently and imo the difference in visual quality is pretty stark. God of War has probably aged the best of all the PS4 exclusives that I've gone back to since getting a PS5.

In terms of gameplay advances - that wasn't really something I was commenting on, but again I'd just urge patience. We've seen very little of the game. We didn't know much about any advances by HFW until that gameplay walkthrough, and Ragnarok simply hasn't had an equivalent showing yet.
Yeah kratos is a bit more detailed but the game is smaller, has less things going on at the same moment, less enemies on screen (and far less detailed), and the secondary characters in gow are a couple of steps behind kratos where horizon is far more even with secondary\tertiary character that looks as detailed as aloy.

I mean looks these npcs

07.png
horizon-character-art-teersa-portrait.jpg

05.png

maxresdefault.jpg

even at 720p in the last screen the armour looks as real as it get and that is less than a tertiary character.
Horizon to this day is probably the open world with the most detailed enemies and npcs.
 
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rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
All of which can be brutally expensive. Then factor in RT.
Devs can really push things harder in ultra if they wanted to, but then it becomes a “can it run Crysis” game that a lot of pc players will complain about. 🤷‍♂️
If the game is indeed ahead its time their complain would be ignorance. Crysis had and still has a problem with poor CPU usage.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
It's not the B team on GOW it's mostly the same team then the first one, for Cory new Ip Santa Monica has recruted new Leads and they are still looking for an Art Director for this project so they are only working on it with a small group of peoples and when GOW will be released most of the team will be going to work on Cory's game and a few peoples will start working on the next Gow.
Yes, there is one main production team, but the lead designers and lead artists are typically pulled in to new IPs first, and others below them are promoted to the sequels. This happened with Horizon and KZSF, and GOW Ascension and Stig's new IP. Even Amy Henning lost all her best designers and artists who were pulled into Neil's team to finish off TLOU and by the time they came back, the game had suffered in their absence which led to clashes with Neil, Bruce and other designers from TLOU.

If I had to guess, Cory has a team of maybe 40 devs who are the cream of the crop helping him with the vertical slice of his new IP just like Stig did back in the day while the rest of the studio works on Ragnorak, but judging purely from the lack from graphical upgrades, it's possible that Cory not only took the best level designers, but also the best artists (lack of new character models) and the best programmers (lack of graphical upgrades you would expect from their second game on the same platform, see Horizon FW, TLOU2, Ghost Of Tsushima etc).
 
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Hyperbole much?

Part of the reason that Horizon 2 looks like a bigger leap is that GOW was a much better looking game than the first Horizon.

People go on about the improved Aloy model, but for me the new Kratos still looks better than her, even though it's a smaller improvement.

And while overall the Ragnarok footage we've seen does look quite close to the first game, there were still scenes that looked up there with the best we've seen from HFW.

People need to be a bit patient.
Nah…HZD is one of the best looking games last gen from character models to textures and lighting…and no ragnorok doesn’t look as good as HFW.
 

Hunnybun

Member
Nah…HZD is one of the best looking games last gen from character models to textures and lighting…and no ragnorok doesn’t look as good as HFW.

I didn't actually say it does looks as good as HFW, though.

As for Zero Dawn, it does still look good but it's also showing its age. As all mid gen PS4 games do now, tbh. Spider-Man, GOW, Days Gone, TLOU2 etc all look clearly better than anything that came before them, imo.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
We didnt do a graphics awards thread for 2021.

Whats everyone's best graphics of the year?

My top 3. I thought Ratchet would win by default, but Guardians came surprisingly close. I also thought RE8 looked incredible.

E7G0BbgXEAQpcgw


FEsm6WBX0AIjZKx


E181g3GWQAEMmG0


Returnal and Forza were ultimately disappointing because they both had some great looking levels but then looked fairly last gen most of the time. Returnal with its first level with incredible fog and lighting, and Forza with this section below that looked a gen ahead of every other area in the game.

51244941553_e234bcb5c0_o.png
 
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GymWolf

Member
Re8 looks good in some parte and meh in others, also shooting animations kinda sucks, it's too uneven.

For me it's ratchet, forza and yeah i can see guardians in third place, although ingame animations and combat animations are a bit crappy, but at least it's less uneven than village, it looks good everywhere.

Lol for even listing returnal.
 
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Hunnybun

Member
Of the games I've played it's Ratchet by a landslide.

I'd probably put Returnal second, because it just looks so beautiful at certain points, even though so many elements are subpar, and how little they've squeezed out of the PS5 at 1080p60 - Insomniac made a game at about treble that resolution and it often looks a generation ahead. But yeah, when it comes together, it does look lovely.

I think Forza looks great on YouTube but how good the image quality is on a big tv I'm not sure, I've heard it's not too great.

Deathloop is another I thought actually looked pretty great, but it has that weird aesthetic that I think a lot of people can't look past. But I thought technically it was a good looking game and one of the better next gen showcases so far, not that that's saying much.
 

8BiTw0LF

Consoomer
#1: R&C: Rift Apart
#2: Returnal
#3: Forza Horizon 5

When the bullet hell kicks in, which it does a lot in Returnal the ray-tracing pops like no other game I've seen - especially when it's a little foggy and dark.
 

GymWolf

Member
#1: R&C: Rift Apart
#2: Returnal
#3: Forza Horizon 5

When the bullet hell kicks in, which it does a lot in Returnal the ray-tracing pops like no other game I've seen - especially when it's a little foggy and dark.
Returnal use rtx for audio dude, their "rtx light" are not what you think they are, from df analysis:


After checking in Housemarque, we got some answers: the PlayStation 5's RT hardware is used to accelerate global illumination queries, essentially speeding up a software-based system and not used for direct visual results.
 

Hunnybun

Member
You can downplay it all you want, but you forgot the most important part of the DF analysis:
"Ultimately, the end result with Returnal is a visually rich, absolutely stunning third-person shooter - a genuinely next generation take on the genre."

Drop Mic GIF by Captain Obvious

Basically, it's rough. Stunning on occasion, but quite often worse than an average PS4 game. What annoyed me about the DF coverage was this idea that it's pushing the PS5 really hard because of the low resolution. It'd be truer to say that it pushes Housemarque really hard. A top class developer like Insomniac would've got it looking way better than it does, imo.
 

8BiTw0LF

Consoomer
Basically, it's rough. Stunning on occasion, but quite often worse than an average PS4 game. What annoyed me about the DF coverage was this idea that it's pushing the PS5 really hard because of the low resolution. It'd be truer to say that it pushes Housemarque really hard. A top class developer like Insomniac would've got it looking way better than it does, imo.
Maybe.. We can only guess, but that particle system is on another level. I've never seen anything like it. When "bullets" are flying around you, the fog moving along as you move in it and the destruction of elements/enemies - that's something I've never seen Insomniac do.
 

GymWolf

Member
You can downplay it all you want, but you forgot the most important part of the DF analysis:
"Ultimately, the end result with Returnal is a visually rich, absolutely stunning third-person shooter - a genuinely next generation take on the genre."

Drop Mic GIF by Captain Obvious
I was not downplaying, i just said that he has a lot of particles on screen :lollipop_grinning_sweat:

And let's be honest here, df was just hyping the new gen, it's a good looking game with great atmosphere and art direction and a lot of particles on screen but if returnal is an example of next gen, we are royally fucked dude, there is a clear difference between stuff like returnal and demons\ratchet\horizon
 

Hunnybun

Member
Maybe.. We can only guess, but that particle system is on another level. I've never seen anything like it. When "bullets" are flying around you, the fog moving along as you move in it and the destruction of elements/enemies - that's something I've never seen Insomniac do.

It's probably just more that other developers would use the power more efficiently to achieve a better result with less intensive techniques. I was playing Ratchet last night and there are parts with impressive volumetrics and crazy particles everywhere, and general fidelity approaching a CG cartoon, at like 1440p and 60fps AND ray tracing(!!), where you just have to concede that the overall result is on a completely different level from Returnal.

And I'm someone who thinks Returnal basically looks really good, btw.
 

8BiTw0LF

Consoomer
And let's be honest here, df was just hyping the new gen
I don't think so. In 10 years Returnal will still be remembered as a good-looking game.



The future is not about high resolutions - it's about effects.

It's probably just more that other developers would use the power more efficiently to achieve a better result with less intensive techniques.
I think you're right, but I don't think you can push the PS5 much further in UE4.
UE5 has a lot of the techniques built-in that Housemarque developed for UE4, so there's hope for more headroom in future games.
 

GymWolf

Member
I don't think so. In 10 years Returnal will still be remembered as a good-looking game.



The future is not about high resolutions - it's about effects.


I think you're right, but I don't think you can push the PS5 much further in UE4.
UE5 has a lot of the techniques built-in that Housemarque developed for UE4, so there's hope for more headroom in future games.

That's because it has great art design and i wasn't talking about resolution here, i'm okay with playing at 1440p60 frame forcthe rest of the gen on console (i have the pc for 4k) but having many particles on screen is just a small part of the graphic, housemarque was always good with that.

If we talk about the start of a gen, Infamous 3 also had many particles on screen but it was also a major update in all the other graphical aspect compared to the previous gen where returnal simply isn't.
 
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8BiTw0LF

Consoomer
If we talk about the start of a gen, Infamous 3 also had many particles on screen but it was also a major update in all the other graphical aspect compared to the previous gen where returnal simply isn't.
If we compare Infamous SS to Returnal, they're about the same resolution, but Returnal is 60fps and has way (wayyy) more particles showing om screen and a lot more action (movement) on screen in general.

Both games are great showcases for what the consoles can do.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Basically, it's rough. Stunning on occasion, but quite often worse than an average PS4 game. What annoyed me about the DF coverage was this idea that it's pushing the PS5 really hard because of the low resolution. It'd be truer to say that it pushes Housemarque really hard. A top class developer like Insomniac would've got it looking way better than it does, imo.
Yeah, i can kinda see the GPU being pushed hard in the first level with interactive foliage, bullet hell, destructible environments, and A shit ton of fog everywhere, but other levels are pretty much barren. Ratchet and Demon Souls look better in every aspect and they are 1440p 60 fps.
 

GymWolf

Member
If we compare Infamous SS to Returnal, they're about the same resolution, but Returnal is 60fps and has way (wayyy) more particles showing om screen and a lot more action (movement) on screen in general.

Both games are great showcases for what the consoles can do.
Again with the resolution...nobody is talking about resolution here, many graphical aspects of returnal are on par if not inferior to some ps4 titles, infamous was better in everything compared to ps3 games, the difference in graphic between inf2 and inf3 is gigantic, the difference between returnal and stuff like tlou2, spidey, metro exoduss, gow, days gone or even stuff like gears 5 is not that much, and it is not a matter of diminishimg returns because games like ratchet or horizon or hellblade 2 look much much better than returnal already.

And tbf, infamous is an open world game so having 30 stable fps was ok, returnal is a much smaller game and can't keep stable 60 frames to save his life, not sure what between the 2 game is the better achievement here...
 

Turk1993

GAFs #1 source for car graphic comparisons
1 hour straight Forza Horizon 5 gameplay graphics porn


The variation in this game is unmatched, the biomes, the dynamic tod, weather and different seasons look insane. The way the trees and objects react to the car and weather is impressive and the open world is just insanely detailed with many variations. Most of the games mentioned above have static lighting, static weather and small levels while Forza Horizon 5 is one of the most dynamic game ever created.
 

GymWolf

Member
Listen, you're in the minority of people who's not impressed by Returnal. It's cool, but regardless of what I write, it won't change your mind.
I'm not in the minority as you can see from various topic about graphic where returnal was called in cause, but ok.

Still don't understand your fixation about resolution when it was never a point of discussion, at least for me...
 

Neilg

Member
Also I understand why guerilla are doing the hero lighting because it will show Aloy in her "best light" . However its actually less realistic to have artificial lights iluminating Aloy.

Depends what you're going for. Any photoshoot, any big budget movie - they all use hero lighting. It's a stylistic and creative choice that is outside of the ability of lower budget indie movies/games. Nobody watches a David Fincher movie and complains about how unrealistic the lighting is.

There's a great resource about lighting available online, if you're interested, the shot lighting and lighting principles chapters are good. Basically, it highlights that nothing is ever consistent between shots, and the real art is making it feel consistent while making each individual shot pop as much as possible. If you used the same lights for every camera change, many movies would look shit.


It's a huge leap forward for games to start including this kind of thing.
The additional power and ease of lighting scenes with new tech means the manpower making a game can be redirected, and we can have a complex character lighting rig where some lights move and fade off as the camera spins, and have them all re-orient themselves with each cut during a cut scene.

for some background, I work in pre-rendered CG/animation, i'm a generalist but lighting is a big area for me.
 
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Turk1993

GAFs #1 source for car graphic comparisons
Listen, you're in the minority of people who's not impressed by Returnal. It's cool, but regardless of what I write, it won't change your mind.
I mean he is not wrong tho, outside the particles and fog what is so special about returnals grahpics? the art looks really good but the environments and textures don't look too good tbh.

I'm not in the minority as you can see from various topic about graphic where returnal was called in cause, but ok.

Still don't understand your fixation about resolution when it was never a point of discussion, at least for me...
Outside the last 2 months nobody even talked about Returnals graphics, its a great game and people love it but all of sudden its get called out as one of the best looking games ever.
 

GymWolf

Member
I mean he is not wrong tho, outside the particles and fog what is so special about returnals grahpics? the art looks really good but the environments and textures don't look too good tbh.


Outside the last 2 months nobody even talked about Returnals graphics, its a great game and people love it but all of sudden its get called out as one of the best looking games ever.
Yeah, i love the game myself, in terms of pure gameplay it was probably my goty, i have nothing against it.
 

Turk1993

GAFs #1 source for car graphic comparisons
Yeah, i love the game myself, in terms of pure gameplay it was probably my goty, i have nothing against it.
After all the positive talk and great reviews i think its time to give the game a shot when my PS5 arrives. Normaly not my type of game but i think im gonna enjoy it.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Depends what you're going for. Any photoshoot, any big budget movie - they all use hero lighting. It's a stylistic and creative choice that is outside of the ability of lower budget indie movies/games. Nobody watches a David Fincher movie and complains about how unrealistic the lighting is.

There's a great resource about lighting available online, if you're interested, the shot lighting and lighting principles chapters are good. Basically, it highlights that nothing is ever consistent between shots, and the real art is making it feel consistent while making each individual shot pop as much as possible. If you used the same lights for every camera change, many movies would look shit.


It's a huge leap forward for games to start including this kind of thing.
The additional power and ease of lighting scenes with new tech means the manpower making a game can be redirected, and we can have a complex character lighting rig where some lights move and fade off as the camera spins, and have them all re-orient themselves with each cut during a cut scene.

for some background, I work in pre-rendered CG/animation, i'm a generalist but lighting is a big area for me.

Yeah its a matter of taste. But I agree that somtimes the surreal can look better then photo real.
As long as the hero lighting has a good dynamic approach it should not be an issue for me.
 

8BiTw0LF

Consoomer
I'm not in the minority as you can see from various topic about graphic where returnal was called in cause, but ok.

Still don't understand your fixation about resolution when it was never a point of discussion, at least for me...
Topics - on a forum. All professionals who's "analyzed" it, has a more science-based approach, don't you think?
 

8BiTw0LF

Consoomer
I mean he is not wrong tho, outside the particles and fog what is so special about returnals grahpics? the art looks really good but the environments and textures don't look too good tbh.
As everyone knows, you can't have it all. What Returnal does - no other game has achieved - and yes I'm talking particle-wise. Quite a genius way to throw all the horsepower at what's important for a bullet-hell shooter. Even DF recognizes the approach. If a games graphics is only scaled in invironment and models, we don't get a fair comparison for the games that choose to be something else.
 

GymWolf

Member
As everyone knows, you can't have it all. What Returnal does - no other game has achieved - and yes I'm talking particle-wise. Quite a genius way to throw all the horsepower at what's important for a bullet-hell shooter. Even DF recognizes the approach. If a games graphics is only scaled in invironment and models, we don't get a fair comparison for the games that choose to be something else.
But everyone recognise returnal graphical merits dude, it's just that some people put more weight in other graphical aspects or a more balanced type of graphic with maybe less particles and more details elsewhere.

Of course housemarque used the horsepower for the particles because the genre request that, nobody is saying that their approach is wrong.
 

GymWolf

Member
Can we agree when the heat is on, it's a really beautiful game then?
Honestly? i prefer the more quiet moments where i can enjoy the atmosphere of the locations.

Although i loved the gameplay, i'm not exactly a fan of the bullet hell genre and i don't really like these gazillion of colored blob of energy all around the screen, they kinda look cartoony and in contrast with the super serious tone of the plot and the eerie atmosphere of the game (and the unsettling design of the enemies)

Many people had doubts about the same thing before the game was out, the starking contrast between the dark tones and alien planet and the silly looking enemies projectiles.
 
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8BiTw0LF

Consoomer
Honestly? i prefer the more quiet moments where i can enjoy the atmosphere of the locations.

Although i loved the gameplay, i'm not exactly a fan of the bullet hell genre and i don't really like these gazillion of colored blob of energy all around the screen, they kinda look cartoony and in contrast with the super serious tone of the plot and the eerie atmosphere of the game (and the unsettling design of the enemies)

Many people had doubts about the same thing before the game was out, the starking contrast between the dark tones and alien planet and the silly looking enemies projectiles.
I don't know these many people you keep talking about, and I've never heard the cartoony phrase about Returnal before.

Let's be real here.. You want "good" graphics to be something that Returnal doesn't deliver. That's cool, but IMHO Returnal delivers something more than just a beautiful backdrop.

If I could come up with a more satisfying (all-round) implementation, it would be an enemy-counter - like the resolution for invironment going up, if there's little to no enemies. Lots of enemies = low resolution = blurry backdrop.
 
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GymWolf

Member
I don't know these many people you keep talking about, and I've never heard the cartoony phrase about Returnal before.

Let's be real here.. You want "good" graphics to be something that Returnal doesn't deliver. That's cool, but IMHO Returnal delivers something more than just a beautiful backdrop.

If I could come up with a more satisfying (all-round) implementation, it would be an enemy-counter - like the resolution for invironment going up, if there's little to no enemies. Lots of enemies = low resolution = blurry backdrop.
Dude i don't know what the hell are you talking about anymore and again with this fucking resolution that i never even spoke about...i was praising the game for his atmosphere and the fact that i don't personally like all these colored globes in such a dark game with an oppressing atmosphere, if you don't remember other people talking about the same thing then search the topics when the game was presented and the first gameplays, you are gonna read some people talking about the same thing, it's not an hard concept to grasp, it's like in the movie alien if the xenomorph started vomiting orange ballons from his mouth, some people like it, some people don't.

They are spectacular and they are needed for the genre of the game, but they are not exactly in tone with literally all the remaining art design of the game or the serious tone of the plot, i can understand the rays, but the ballons are a bit too much, especially when they are soo many, if you don't like the word cartoony, then tonally off maybe sounds better, but it is still a personal thing.

Like i said, never been a fan of the bullet hell genre and this is not me wanting good graphic, they are 2 different things.

Let's just cut it here dude.
 
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Returnal has cool little graphical things - but I didn’t know people considered it a graphical powerhouse. It looks good for what it does but ratchet looks A LOT better
 
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