Graphical Fidelity I Expect This Gen

Jack Howitzer

Neo Member
Not sure if you know about this for the AC games, but did a lot for AC Unity. Not sure if it still works with the Shadows


Also try to use this one as a guide to get rid of the start up videos.

Their engine has becoming quite different in the new one so I guess probably not, but thank you anyway mate!
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
You guys are making me want to play an Assassin creed game... wtf

Wait a bit, people are in the honeymoon period, i'm playing the game and it is just another 7\10 rpg ac for now.

The opening was the best thing but the cracks start showing fast.

I agree with people saying that it doesn't look better than horizon, so i don't know what the fuck is impressive in a nextgen only game being unable of beating the shit out of a 3 years old crossgen but ok.

I save the word impressive for other stuff, the game look great like the other 99% of great games we post in here.
 
Last edited:
No bullshit photo modes

Jg1GMpP.jpeg


JDYNKUk.jpeg


wsqeLxz.jpeg






 

Edder1

Member
Wait a bit, people are in the honeymoon period, i'm playing the game and it is just another 7\10 rpg ac for now.

The opening was the best thing but the cracks start showing fast.

I agree with people saying that it doesn't look better than horizon, so i don't know what is impressive in a nextgen only game being unable of beating the shit out of a 3 years old crossgen but ok.

I save the word impressive for other stuff, the game look great like the other 99% of great games we post in here.
We see this alsmot every time a new big game releases. Remember when Spiderman 2 came out and everyone here was proclaiming it to be some kind of graphical masterpiece? Well, we all know those same people have different opinion now. People are way too easily impressed and way too reactionary because they are desperate and thirsty for proper next gen looking games. When all you been served is Macdonalds for years you don't even know what good food tastes like anymore.
 
Last edited:
Besides more dense vegetation and draw distance that's a PS4 game if I ever saw one. More dense foliage and draw distance in no way shape or form make that a "next gen" game, whoever says that is delusional. It's so easy to impress people nowadays because of how bad this gen was.

I suggest you go back and play the PS4 and there's a hell of a difference
 

Bojji

Member
No bullshit photo modes

Jg1GMpP.jpeg


JDYNKUk.jpeg


wsqeLxz.jpeg








Turn off that ugly CA, please...

Besides more dense vegetation and draw distance that's a PS4 game if I ever saw one. More dense foliage and draw distance in no way shape or form make that a "next gen" game, whoever says that is delusional. It's so easy to impress people nowadays because of how bad this gen was.

What is "next gen" looking open world game according to you?
 

Edder1

Member
I suggest you go back and play the PS4 and there's a hell of a difference
So you're saying Shadows is a generation ahead of Forbidden West on PS4?

I would also counter your suggestion with a suggestion of my own, have a look at Infamous 2 that came out in launch year of PS4 and tell me where is the generational jump 10 years later.
 
Last edited:
So you're saying Shadows is a generation ahead of Forbidden West on PS4?

I would also counter your suggestion with a suggestion of my own, have a look at Infamous 2 that came out in launch year of PS4 and tell me where is the generational jump 10 years later.
Yes by a long way, and Infamous 2 didn't have a great frame rate or draw distance , Take off those rose tinded glasses
 

Edder1

Member
Yes by a long way, and Infamous 2 didn't have a great frame rate or draw distance , Take off those rose tinded glasses
So framerate and draw distance is now what constitutes next gen visuals? By the logic every game on PC is next gen compared to consoles because you can have higher framerate and better quality settings like having better draw distance. Very poor argument, but that was expected.
 
Last edited:

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Just saw this KCD 2 shot shared on Reddit:

3ref13pykjqe1.jpeg


God damn. I just might have to play this game.
The game looks marvelous. And believe it or not, thats a castle in real life.

Just dont go inside the forest or any of the villages or the main city. Thats where the illusion breaks. But in terms of draw distance, grass,

XwOn2zj.gif
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes










God bless proprietary engines.

This is amazing. They didnt just stop at RTGI, they have cloth, hair, fog, and water physics AND destruction based on properties like ice and fire.

The devs had the character land inside a fort on the ground. Then the combat started. The warrior fired flaming errors at gunpowder barrels on the ground and under the towers, causing a massive amount of destruction in the wooden fort and its various destructible structures and objects. If you knock down an enemy, that enemy can knock others down behind him.

“The level of force applied to an object can also affect the amount of debris that that object creates as it destructs,” the dev said. ” So even tiny, subtle details like that can make a difference in graphics quality.”

You can also shoot out a blast of ice at enemies and freeze them, and the result is cool ice physics. You can wear down doors or break them down altogether. The dev fired a bunch of flaming objects at a gate. The gate started burning, and that made it easy to destroy the gate into pieces with more force later on

There is no way this game is running at more than 30 fps on consoles. I am guessing RTGI will be out on consoles.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I agree with people saying that it doesn't look better than horizon, so i don't know what the fuck is impressive in a nextgen only game being unable of beating the shit out of a 3 years old crossgen but ok.
HFW was the best looking game when it came out 3 years ago. At least when excluding Cyberpunk PC. It's been topped since but only by a handful of games. Mostly linear or wide linear like Wukong. So trading blows with the best looking game just three years on is going to get people excited.

That said, the game's visuals are not impressing me at all. I see the effort put into implementing various different next gen techniques. I like that these massive Japanese castles have zero pop-in and some great looking textures, but it's still just not up there with the best of UE5. The weather effects are nice, but they end up making everything dark and grey and that takes the beauty out of the game. My favorite season so far is the snow season when its not snowing because it looks a bit more photorealistic. Really dont like the trees in autumn, and as i stated earlier, night time is just bland. Sadly no way to pass the time.

And the game is a lot of fun. Probably a 7/10 if i was being harsh but most people's 9s are my 7s. So im not surprised people are loving this very well crafted game. New setting, new combat system, and several other new features make this is a very fun game to play. I liked AC Origins a lot, but this giving me those Black Flag vibes.
 
Last edited:

yamaci17

Gold Member
+Some more AC shadows shots. The game is STUNNING. I am playing in quality 30fps mode. It looks quite a bit better than 40fps

that's normal, this game's performance doesn't scale that much with internal resolution because ray tracing sampling probably runs at native resolution to ensure high image quality

its shading resolution drops to 1300-1400p on ps5 pro with quality mode and 720p-800p-900p on performance mode without specular ray tracing
which probably means balanced also drops to 1000p-1100p just to get from 30 to 40 FPS without specular ray tracing. PSSR should make balanced mode look decent

and of course it is TAAU so it can't handle low resolutions that well

some humble shots from my lowend PC (thanks dlss)

XFDYLLd.jpeg

iwJ0ru4.jpeg

LAuNbYu.jpeg



I'm looking forward to see ps5 and ps5 pro equivalent settings. when I try to push draw distance and loading distance to ultra high, I have to sacrifice a lot of internal resolution. they look okay at high but it really gets great at ultra high. we made some comparisons with my friend and came to conclusion that ps5 pro runs with maxed out draw distance and loading distance, however I wonder what ps5 is doing
 
Last edited:

GymWolf

Gold Member
That said, the game's visuals are not impressing me at all. I see the effort put into implementing various different next gen techniques. I like that these massive Japanese castles have zero pop-in and some great looking textures, but it's still just not up there with the best of UE5. The weather effects are nice, but they end up making everything dark and grey and that takes the beauty out of the game. My favorite season so far is the snow season when its not snowing because it looks a bit more photorealistic. Really dont like the trees in autumn, and as i stated earlier, night time is just bland. Sadly no way to pass the time.

And the game is a lot of fun. Probably a 7/10 if i was being harsh but most people's 9s are my 7s. So im not surprised people are loving this very well crafted game. New setting, new combat system, and several other new features make this is a very fun game to play. I liked AC Origins a lot, but this giving me those Black Flag vibes.
Agree with that "most people 9s are my 7s".

5 average
6 decent
7 good
8 great
9 excellent
10 perfect or close to perfection.

Barely any game is a 9 or 10, i score 80% of games a 7.

The problem i have with the horizon comparison is that it was a crossgen, if it was fully nextgen i could understand, but barely beating a crossgen (only is some aspects) is impressive now?
 
Last edited:

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I'm honestly more surprised by people thinking this is a huge improvement over the last 3 games when it came to the actual game, not graphic.

People with low graphic standards have been a constant for the whole gen so they are just anither bit ti add the already huge pile.

Agree with that most people 9s are my 7s.

5 average
6 decent
7 good
8 great
9 excellent
10 perfect or close to perfection.

Barely any game is a 9 or 10, i score 80% of games a 7.
To me, 6 is flawed. Anything below that is trash. I dont play bad games like big rig truckers so if im spending $20 for a subscription or $70 for game, im picking up a game that i know is going to be at least a 5 at best. Competently made but flawed with poor or non-existent gameplay. Ryse, Order, Hellblade 2 fall under that scenario. 6 i would reserve for Halo Infinite, Starfield, AW2, Indiana Jones, Dragons Dogma 2, Outlaws and Avatar. Though probably 6.5 for those last three. I had fun with them but they are not good games.

7-10 are exactly how i rate games. People complain about games being scored on a 7-10 scale by reviewers but they do the same thing. I get laughed at when i rate Ratchet or Horizon FW a 7, but im fairly consistent about rating games 7. I defend days gone every time a thread pops up, but its a 7 to me. Same goes for FF16, Astro Bot, Callisto, but people overrate the shit out of those games and get mad when someone says its merely a good game, nothing more. 8 to me is Great and i have given multiple GOTYs to games i give an 8 or 8.5. 9 and 10s should be reserved for all time greats, but for whatever reason if the game is popular and is simply competently made, people just hand out 9s. And its not just reviewers doing that.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
To me, 6 is flawed. Anything below that is trash. I dont play bad games like big rig truckers so if im spending $20 for a subscription or $70 for game, im picking up a game that i know is going to be at least a 5 at best. Competently made but flawed with poor or non-existent gameplay. Ryse, Order, Hellblade 2 fall under that scenario. 6 i would reserve for Halo Infinite, Starfield, AW2, Indiana Jones, Dragons Dogma 2, Outlaws and Avatar. Though probably 6.5 for those last three. I had fun with them but they are not good games.

7-10 are exactly how i rate games. People complain about games being scored on a 7-10 scale by reviewers but they do the same thing. I get laughed at when i rate Ratchet or Horizon FW a 7, but im fairly consistent about rating games 7. I defend days gone every time a thread pops up, but its a 7 to me. Same goes for FF16, Astro Bot, Callisto, but people overrate the shit out of those games and get mad when someone says its merely a good game, nothing more. 8 to me is Great and i have given multiple GOTYs to games i give an 8 or 8.5. 9 and 10s should be reserved for all time greats, but for whatever reason if the game is popular and is simply competently made, people just hand out 9s. And its not just reviewers doing that.
Lol that days gone bit hit too close to home, people probably think it's an 11\10 game for me but as you say, it's just a 7, i'm mad at media scoring a 7 because i know that most people don't consider a 7 a great score so the game is gonna sell less, not because i don't agree with the score.

I have the ability to separate the enjoyment i get from a videogame from the actual score, like i can have 10\10 fun from a game but admit that it is just a 7\10 when you weight up all the flaws.

People seems to be over-protective so they can't admit when they are having a lot of fun with a 7\10 game so they need to say it's an 8 or 9.
 
Last edited:

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Not when it can look like this at times

vdude4G.jpeg
Yeah, that last area sucks ass, but its mostly because of story reasons. Humans polluted it on purpose to kill plant and wildlife blah blah blah. I stopped playing when i got to this area which is basically the last act. Game looks next gen 90% of the time.

They also let you fly really fast which causes some pop-in but i did a comparison between Horizon's flying and Avatar's and iirc, flying in Avatar was like 5x faster.

avCPuMA.gif


ceqFruz.gif
 

geary

Member
Just saw this KCD 2 shot shared on Reddit:

3ref13pykjqe1.jpeg


God damn. I just might have to play this game.
There was an interview in Czech with Martin Frývaldský (CEO of Warhorse) and someone summarized it:

Warhorse expects 3 mil. copies sold around the start of April.
Warhorse was experimenting with the use of AI in voice acting during the development of KCD2.
Creating games in Czech Republic is aprox. 4 times cheaper than making it in USA.
Fryvaldsky lend his appearance to Jost of Luxemberg in the game
They didn't expected the controversy around homosexual romance before the release
They DID expected the controversy around Musa.
He says that Vávra made some unfortunate statements about the absence of black people in Bohemia when releasing KCD1 because he lacked PR experience.
He confirms that they want to make another single player RPG game because that's what they do the best.
Historical setting is a secondary concern for them.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
It's a beautiful game but those trees look last gen.

This is what trees should look like this gen:

hsTJ5Or.gif


cnBWBp9.gif


aYlPhWL.gif


Maybe its the art style. maybe its just different color correction. But while the game has the density and tech of other games, it doesnt have the look.
Game has horizon rock syndrome, some trees are actually super detailed (the wood part not the green part) they are just rare.

If i find one later i'm gonna post one of my infamous smartphone pics.
 
Last edited:

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
After trashing tsushima for the precanned stuff i thought you were about to rape poor shadows.

Our friendship is hanging on a superman hair...
The precanned animations in this game are phenomenal though. They remind me of AC Unity, there are so many different takedown animations and they are all brutal. Especially with the tanto and the kusarigama.

AC devs had a rough last 10 years or so when it came to animations, but im so glad they are back. they used to be up there with naughty dog.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
There was an interview in Czech with Martin Frývaldský (CEO of Warhorse) and someone summarized it:

Warhorse expects 3 mil. copies sold around the start of April.
Warhorse was experimenting with the use of AI in voice acting during the development of KCD2.
Creating games in Czech Republic is aprox. 4 times cheaper than making it in USA.
Fryvaldsky lend his appearance to Jost of Luxemberg in the game
They didn't expected the controversy around homosexual romance before the release
They DID expected the controversy around Musa.
He says that Vávra made some unfortunate statements about the absence of black people in Bohemia when releasing KCD1 because he lacked PR experience.
He confirms that they want to make another single player RPG game because that's what they do the best.
Historical setting is a secondary concern for them.
they need to keep vavra off of twitter and away from any kind of PR. After seeing the phenomenal Monster Hunter sales, i am pretty sure KCD2 underperformed. It shouldve sold 4 million easily at launch with the hype it had going in until about a couple of weeks before the gay stuff leaked.

This whole idea of romance in video games needs to go. You cant fuck these women like you can GTA's coffee gate, so whats the point? there is no gameplay purpose here. Just nonsense dialogue that is virtually impossible to fail.

Also with the current anti-woke climate and everyone being turned into a lesbian (Ellie, Aloy, Black Cat), it was needless to take not one but two straight men and add an optional romance between them. They probably had no intention too but likely tried to appease some of their critics for the first game, and overcorrected.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I remember so many people were saying Ghost looked like a PS5 game when it was revealed, lol. People can be so reactionary 🤦. It didn't even look as good as RDR2 and yet you had these dumbasses yapping nonsense.
Thats because it was severely downgraded after the reveal. The weather effects, the tree quality, the moon reflections on trees and grass, the leave physics in the finale battle, and the fire and lighting effects were all severely downgraded.

7zn7I0t.gif


Sony studios did this a lot late last gen. TLOU2's entire character models and animations were literally faked according to ND themselves in the TLOU2 making of. An AC dev pointed this out and was cancelled on twitter, but ND devs never admitted to it until recently when the making of doc came out. They let the poor bastard get harrassed on twitter. Shitty people.

Days Gone also had its entire lighting system removed. Go and watch the OG gameplay. It had way better quality lighting.

And of course, there were the Horizon FW and Spiderman 2 so-called captured on PS5 trailers.
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
After trashing tsushima for the precanned stuff i thought you were about to rape poor shadows.

Our friendship is hanging on a superman hair...
The animations are pretty awesome. And I didnt even realize they were precanned because theres so many different death animations. And environmental deaths.

For instance, I said it earlier, but there was a moment where I was in the middle of combat, and some wood was on fire, I knocked a dude into the wood, and he caught on fire, then I chopped his head off. That shit never happened in ghosts. that game literally had the same animation for EVERY death :messenger_tears_of_joy: trash ass game

Im only like 2 hours in, so we will see if i keep liking it.

I was also super hard on Ghosts, because it came directly after TLOU 2, and it felt 2 gens behind that game in the combat department. I was like.. WTF is this TRASH? and i ended up hating the game.

But with Shadows, theres no game that launched recently (especially on TLOU 2 level) that im comparing it to, so im much fairer.
 
Last edited:

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions


This game looks fucking amazing. My god. Such a shame its hard as fuck and another soulslike. Id be all over this as a regular action game
 

Edder1

Member
Thats because it was severely downgraded after the reveal. The weather effects, the tree quality, the moon reflections on trees and grass, the leave physics in the finale battle, and the fire and lighting effects were all severely downgraded.

7zn7I0t.gif


Sony studios did this a lot late last gen. TLOU2's entire character models and animations were literally faked according to ND themselves in the TLOU2 making of. An AC dev pointed this out and was cancelled on twitter, but ND devs never admitted to it until recently when the making of doc came out. They let the poor bastard get harrassed on twitter. Shitty people.

Days Gone also had its entire lighting system removed. Go and watch the OG gameplay. It had way better quality lighting.

And of course, there were the Horizon FW and Spiderman 2 so-called captured on PS5 trailers.
Damn, that GIF looks bad. Let me go back and watch the reveal again.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Damn, that GIF looks bad. Let me go back and watch the reveal again.
There are two trailers. One is the reveal trailer at Paris Game Show in 2017. The other is the gameplay reveal from e3 2018. both were massively downgraded. In fact, the Paris Game Show trailer looks on par with GoT 2's reveal lol.
 

Alex11

Member
Played about 15 hrs of Shadows, I agree that it's a mix of cross and next gen, although what is next gen? seems that there isn't one game that satisfies the majority.

Character models, especially faces are so, so, only the hair is superb. The same for textures, there are some that really look horrible.

Everything else to me looks from good to amazing, especially the interiors, this is where it beats the hell out of Horizon.

As a whole, it's not better than Horizon, that game has better textures and let's not talk about the clouds, it's a masterpiece in that department.
Outlaws I think it looks better, I have yet to play Avatar and Wukong.





Also the lighting in some outdoor areas or time of day looks really good, natural, with accurate colors.










Yeah, it doesn't have that exaggerated lighting or contrast some other visually praised games have, but again, with the lighting they have implemented it tends to look more natural, realistic.
Also, it looks really good at 1080p, I mean, don't know if anybody tried to play a recent game in 1080p, it's a pigsty.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Played about 15 hrs of Shadows, I agree that it's a mix of cross and next gen, although what is next gen? seems that there isn't one game that satisfies the majority.

Character models, especially faces are so, so, only the hair is superb. The same for textures, there are some that really look horrible.

Everything else to me looks from good to amazing, especially the interiors, this is where it beats the hell out of Horizon.

As a whole, it's not better than Horizon, that game has better textures and let's not talk about the clouds, it's a masterpiece in that department.
Outlaws I think it looks better, I have yet to play Avatar and Wukong.





Also the lighting in some outdoor areas or time of day looks really good, natural, with accurate colors.










Yeah, it doesn't have that exaggerated lighting or contrast some other visually praised games have, but again, with the lighting they have implemented it tends to look more natural, realistic.
Also, it looks really good at 1080p, I mean, don't know if anybody tried to play a recent game in 1080p, it's a pigsty.
Nice scnreenshots. When it hits, it hits. Just not often enough for me.

Also, why are you playing this at 1080p? On Consoles the performance mode doesnt even have RTGI or do you have a PS5 Pro?
 

yamaci17

Gold Member
yep incredible how this game looks at 1080p/dlss quality

I'm going between 1080p dlss quality and 1440p dlss balanced and it could be because of DLSS 4 but they really look similar

but I'm not surprised. most ubisoft games look great at 1080p. I played ac valhalla at 1080p/120 and it looked quite good. star wars outlaws also looks incredible at 1080p with ray reconstruction
 
Last edited:

GymWolf

Gold Member
The animations are pretty awesome. And I didnt even realize they were precanned because theres so many different death animations. And environmental deaths.

For instance, I said it earlier, but there was a moment where I was in the middle of combat, and some wood was on fire, I knocked a dude into the wood, and he caught on fire, then I chopped his head off. That shit never happened in ghosts. that game literally had the same animation for EVERY death :messenger_tears_of_joy: trash ass game

Im only like 2 hours in, so we will see if i keep liking it.

I was also super hard on Ghosts, because it came directly after TLOU 2, and it felt 2 gens behind that game in the combat department. I was like.. WTF is this TRASH? and i ended up hating the game.

But with Shadows, theres no game that launched recently (especially on TLOU 2 level) that im comparing it to, so im much fairer.
You barely kill anything 2 hours in, if you really care about this stuff it is pretty unmissable unless you play with closed eyes, i could not play anything for 10 years and notice this stuff in 30 sec...

Every weapon has like 2-3 finishers, there are not many of them, more than sushi with only the katana but nowhere near enough to not get repetitive after a couple of hours, if you really didn't liked tsushi for that, i seriously don't see how can you have enjoy the comabt in shadows, it's not like it's mechanically better than tsushi other than more weapon variety, probably the opposite.

I give you a couple more hours before you start noticing that something doesn't adds up.
 
Not sure if you know about this for the AC games, but did a lot for AC Unity. Not sure if it still works with the Shadows


Also try to use this one as a guide to get rid of the start up videos.

I did some (and same) tweaking for Syndicate .ini file before seeing this message but do not get your hopes up too much. Environment details did updated to a much more crispier ones but even if I put the highest number for different assets the game has limit and cannot exceed it and return the number to the biggest number in .ini file.

And I wanna say one thing about next generational graphical fidelity:

The much needed improvement is the draw distance and near zero "pop in/pop out"s. Not resolution, not state of the art graphics but this. Limited draw distance is so annoying, so immersion breaker. The biggest issue for games (especially open world games) is this for me. Game makers really prioritize this when designing graphics.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
The precanned animations in this game are phenomenal though. They remind me of AC Unity, there are so many different takedown animations and they are all brutal. Especially with the tanto and the kusarigama.

AC devs had a rough last 10 years or so when it came to animations, but im so glad they are back. they used to be up there with naughty dog.
It's not a matter how how cool the finishers are, all the enemies you don't kill with finisher fall down in the same exact way and they don't keep account of the kinetic force of the hit, and the enemies that you kill with the finishers are gonna have the exact same death pose because even when they fly in the air and the landing, are precanned, except when there is an obstacle, in that case, sometimes the ragdoll turn on, it's not completely disabled like in sushi.

Just try this, go into a large area where you can perfectly see all the enemies around you and and spam the kurisagama heavy attack that is aoe, and watch all the enemies falling down with the same exact animation (or maybe 2 but you get the gist), or just try to do headshots with the rifle, even fucking avowed has a more satysfying rifle... sorry but this is no good in 2025, not when other devs spend time to give us cool finishers AND well tuned ragdol.

If i wasn't a lazy fuck i would make some videos where it is fucking obvious even to a blind man but i refuse to believe that you can't see what i'm talking about.

Graphic are too realistic to have ps1 precanned death animations, sorry but if you can notice incorrect lighting in your realistic games, i'm gonna notice terrible death animations in my realistic game, both can take me out of my immersion because they look gamey.

If we praise tlou2 ro rdr2 animations we should also say when animations are not on par with the best in the genre, everyone can do a cool finisher animation, many AA that i played had cool finishing moves, imagine if tlou2 had precanned death animations and enemies falling down all in the same way instead of what we have, cmon dude.
 
Last edited:
I remember so many people were saying Ghost looked like a PS5 game when it was revealed, lol. People can be so reactionary 🤦. It didn't even look as good as RDR2 and yet you had these dumbasses yapping absolute nonsense.
Art style goes a long way, and GoT's is stunning, imo. Raw techwise, though, it's not at RDR2's level.

Also, RDR2 is not only top tier in terms of raw tech, but it's art style is great, too. Someone smarter than me can explain how exactly they pull it off, but both RDR2 and Naughty Dog games don't go for pure realism, and I think they age better as a result.
 
Top Bottom