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DF: Is Uncharted 4 the generational leap we were hoping for?

Rainy Dog

Member
What I've seen of UC4, while gorgeous, doesn't look better than ACU.
IWhb.jpg

acu_2014_11_18_20_00_k9ett.png

acu_2014_11_16_21_35_hxd1t.png

As pretty as those shots are artistically, that's exactly where their beauty lies - in the artistry. There's nothing on display that's technically better than what we've seen of Uncharted 4 at all.

In fact it's silly to even compare them for various reasons.
 

camac002

Member
they just need to show something like the temples/villages in previous games before we can draw comparisons.

Yep, waiting for some urban environments and structures. The comparison of U4 jungle to gorgeously lit internals of Paris buildings doesn't make a lot of sense here. Frankly, if we compare the shots of ACU trees above with U4 jungle, well, I pick U4. Of course, the urban setting of ACU is amazing so we will have to wait and see what U4 is pushing in that regard.
 

Reg

Banned
Pick your poison:
- less impressive graphic but runs flawlessly
- more impressiver graphic but runs like dogshit

For a game where you have to move around a lot, then you need solid/consistent performance. The creative director on that project chose poorly.
 
I find it hilarious that people expect a pre-alpha build to match the E3 reveal.

Then again, some people think not much changes graphically between pre-alpha and retail.
 

SaberEdge

Member
Finally found an example of what I was talking about earlier. Look at the cloth physics and at Galahads feet as he scales down the Zeppelin. There is a lot of footage that you cannot see anywhere else in this video. http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/...+(HateTheGamer+-+GameTrailers.com+Videos+Hub)

Thanks for sharing that video. It definitely does have footage of sections I haven't seen before. The game looks stunningly good. I'm so glad I have this game to look forward to in February, especially now that The Witcher 3 was delayed.
 

JordanN

Banned
Is this not baked?
What is? UC4?

I don't know. I remember Dylan Cuthbert said something about UC4 could use a variant of their tech (which was the voxel cone tracing GI in The Tommorow Children). Not sure if that turned out fake or got misreported.
 

KKRT00

Member
Yatōkiri_Kilgharrah;142454212 said:
Tomb Raider and Crysis in 3D on PC are freaking gorgeous but they're not technically impressive. They're just really fucking good looking games.Anything that you can just throw more hardware power at isnt really something to be proud of. Technology will get there anyway. Technological Impressive games are the ones that come from or lead to innovations in how games are crafted and written.

Look at Cryengine. Its real easy to make a game that looks good in it, but its really not dynamic. It suffers from similar issues that Unreal 3 did. They're pretty restrictive.

You dont know what You want to say it seems.
How engine that highly focuses on its own very advanced physics engine and fully real-time dynamic solutions is not dynamic?
There are freaking army simulators made on it ...

--
What is? UC4?

I don't know. I remember Dylan Cuthbert said something about UC4 could use a variant of their tech (which was the voxel cone tracing GI in The Tommorow Children). Not sure if that turned out fake or got misreported.
He said that he doesnt know what U4 is using.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
in reference to the scene with the brother, they say

"It’s not clear if this scene is real-time yet but - if so - the quality of the model on display appears to be quite high. The skin shaders are of very high quality and the use of stubble is very effective."

Really DF?
Is it real-time? Can we really say for sure? I mean, there is an actual cut between the jumping animation and the switch to a cutscene. I'd like to believe it's real-time but all of their PS3 games used pre-rendered sequences for major cutscenes.
 

SaberEdge

Member
I don't think the vegetation comes anywhere close to UC4. It feels a gen behind with what looks like low poly plants/trees hiding behind textured alphas.

UC4 seems to be a mix of real plant life geometry and textures that's still being rendered into the far distance in addition to stuff like the leaves casting specular reflections.

QVAAv9l.jpg


However, the other two shots you posted do come close (or look better) than UC4. The last pic in particular, appears to be doing HDR/tone mapping which is very good.

Oh I agree. The foliage in UC4 is vastly better than the foliage in ACU. I mean, some of the trees and shrubs look pretty damn good in ACU, but most of the trees in ACU are pretty weak. The way the light diffuses through them is a step up from previous AC games, but the trees are still overall the weakest element for me.

UC4 has the best foliage I have ever seen in a game. Ryse's foliage comes closest, but UC4's is still a step up.
 

Loofy

Member
No, they're all impressive. And they all do some things better than the others. You saying UC4 looks better than The Witcher 3 and ACU maxed out on PC is just more of the over-hype that some of us are talking about. I'm fully open to the possibility that the finished version of UC4 may look better to me overall than either of those games, but it also might go the other way. Like I said, they all look fantastic and have their own strengths and weaknesses.

What I've seen of UC4, while gorgeous, doesn't look better than ACU.
IWhb.jpg

acu_2014_11_18_20_00_k9ett.png

acu_2014_11_16_21_35_hxd1t.png
Definitely love the art design but that doesnt look like a gigantic leap over UC3 imo. Assuming UC3 was rerendered to 1080p(or 900p).

4dwWV82.jpg
 

Superflat

Member
What I've seen of UC4, while gorgeous, doesn't look better than ACU.
IWhb.jpg

acu_2014_11_18_20_00_k9ett.png

acu_2014_11_16_21_35_hxd1t.png

This feels like deja vu, but are you posting PC screenshots to put up against UC4 again?? it's a truly pointless comparison, unless ACU on PS4 has areas that look like your screenshots, by which I mean shots that look like they have a higher native res than its console counterparts, the top pic being a whopping 3200x1548 image and the bottom two being 1080 (when both consoles run the game at 900).

If you really wanted a discussion about ACU's visuals in the midst of Uncharted 4 talk, you should be using ACU screens from the same system. Am I saying something crazy or weird for thinking that's the right way to compare?

These are pics taken from PS4's share, which range from fairly impressive to pretty bad. The fact that they're 900p on consoles already put them in a disadvantage over UC4's 1080, with crazy clean image quality:

 
Oh I agree. The foliage in UC4 is vastly better than the foliage in ACU. I mean, some of the trees and shrubs look pretty damn good in ACU, but most of the trees in ACU are pretty weak. The way the light diffuses through them is a step up from previous AC games, but the trees are still overall the weakest element for me.

UC4 has the best foliage I have ever seen in a game. Ryse's foliage comes closest, but UC4's is still a step up.

Yeah and this is a pretty awesome step up from previous ND games...2d vegetation abounded in those games.
 

SaberEdge

Member
This feels like deja vu, but are you posting PC screenshots to put up against UC4 again?? it's a truly pointless comparison, unless AC4 has areas that look like your screenshots, by which I mean shots that look like they have a higher native res than its console counterparts, the top pic being a whopping 3200x1548 image and the bottom two being 1080 (when both consoles run the game at 900).

If you really wanted a discussion about ACU's visuals in the midst of Uncharted 4 talk, you should be using ACU screens from the same system. Am I saying something crazy or weird for thinking that's the right way to compare??

These are pics taken from PS4's share, which range from fairly impressive to pretty bad. The fact that they're 900p on consoles already put them in a disadvantage over UC4's 1080, with crazy clean image quality:

I was responding to someone who specifically claimed that UC4 looks better than ACU maxed out on PC. If people don't want the comparison to be made they shouldn't try to make it.

I was simply saying that I do think that UC4 will probably be the best looking console game when it comes out, and it might even look better than some of these games on PC, but so far I simply don't think the UC4 footage we have seen looks better than ACU overall.

As far as whether games should be compared between PC and consoles, well I don't see why not. It depends on what you are trying to compare and why. People naturally are curious about such things and they compare whatever they feel like. They compare games between different console platforms (which aren't using the same hardware); they compare between games on the same platform; and they also compare games between PC and console. I don't see anything wrong with any of those kinds of comparisons.
 

AuRoN89

Banned
No, they're all impressive. And they all do some things better than the others. You saying UC4 looks better than The Witcher 3 and ACU maxed out on PC is just more of the over-hype that some of us are talking about. I'm fully open to the possibility that the finished version of UC4 may look better to me overall than either of those games, but it also might go the other way. Like I said, they all look fantastic and have their own strengths and weaknesses.

What I've seen of UC4, while gorgeous, doesn't look better than ACU.
IWhb.jpg

acu_2014_11_18_20_00_k9ett.png

acu_2014_11_16_21_35_hxd1t.png

wow, i can't believe how bad vegetation and trees look on ACU, even on PC.
 

digdug2k

Member
As pretty as those shots are artistically, that's exactly where their beauty lies - in the artistry. There's nothing on display that's technically better than what we've seen of Uncharted 4 at all.

In fact it's silly to even compare them for various reasons.
Heh. This is a losing argument. "Yeah, our game doesn't look quite as great, but technically its doing amazing things". Who the fuck cares what you're doing technically if it doesn't translate into something users can see or interact with.

I don't really understand the anger of people in here though. To me, the game looks like a vastly upgraded UC3. UC3 is fucking amazing. I spent some time (again) today glancing at it on YouTube after people got mad at the comparison here. it looks fucking amazing. You find yourself saying "I can't believe the PS3 can do that". And TLOU took it even further. And this looks BETTER than those. It just doesn't have that "holy shit that beautiful" factor that its competition has right now (to me).

I think it mostly just lacks lighting. There isn't enough contrast or something. I'm sure you can make some argument about how that's realistic, or about how Unity has too much overexposure or bloom. But whatever is missing, it just doesn't pop. To each his own. I liked UC2 and UC3 a lot. I'm excited to play this (and I'm betting some other levels in it will show a lot better than this one did).
 

SaberEdge

Member
wow, i can't believe how bad vegetation and trees look on ACU, even on PC.

Haha no, it still looks better than most games and on par with most of the best-looking games already out, it just doesn't look as good as the foliage in something like Ryse or UC4.

That screenshot is very high resolution and if you click on it you are going to be seeing a super zoomed in view of it. Even UC4's foliage would look pretty bad zoomed so far in. Even without zooming in foliage in screenshots often looks pretty bad. It looks much better in motion while playing the game.
i2fM7Kw1BHvG1.jpg
 
Of all the things in the E3 video, the IQ was the most unlikely to me. To see that it's so close to that really makes me happy. The sheer amount of foliage and excellent draw distance is impressive too.

I'm also glad someone pointed out the deformation from bullets, the grappling hook, and destructible cover. Love details like that and cover not being a permanently safe space spices up gameplay quite a bit.

To be fair that is another abused word from that silly "analysis video". Deformation usually means the mesh affected is bending/ moving /reacting physically. When the video looked very very similar to just particle effect/ mesh switch.

Real deformation would be like Crysis 2s metal barrel and box stuff (here) Crysis 1s trees perhaps...

Or spin tires.
 

Seanspeed

Banned
Haha no, it still looks better than most games and on par with most of the best-looking games already out
It really doesn't. It looks surprisingly bad, honestly.

Even Far Cry 3 had better looking foliage:



Normal 1080p shot, no downsampling or anything.
 

gamerMan

Member
Hehe, did you actually read it? They seem plenty impressed, but not as much as what they expected from the reveal footage. Your opinion was full of hyperbole in the other thread, so I don't think you should feel particularly vindicated. Game looks stunning. 'Generational leap' is the new nonsensical term. Killzone, Driveclub and Ryse are all generation leaps. Hell even Unity, technical mess though it is in parts, is. This definitely is as well. Whether it is a big leap over other top current gen games is a totally different question.

I don't think by generation leap that Digital Foundry was referring to this generation. I think everyone can admit that the original E3 teaser was way way ahead of this generation. It was way ahead of some CG. If the Uncharted 4 game play demo looked liked what was promised in the teaser I don't think anyone would even be bringing up The Order, Killzone, Driveclub, Ryse, and Assassin's Creed Unity.. The teaser rivaled lighting you would see in CG. In fact, the way the skin shader absorbed light looked real. I would say it even surpassed some CG. I was excited because for the first time I saw a game with next-gen lighting that rivaled something that could created with Maya using Vray, material shaders, global illumination, and a couple of days.

Uncharted 4 is a generational leap over Uncharted 3. There is no question about that. However,in no way would it be mistaken for CG. I think when a lot of people refer to "generational leap" they want to play a game that looks like CG since that is what Naughty Dog promised with the original e3 teaser. As amazing as Uncharted 4 currently looks, I see where the disappointment is coming from.

I know some people in this thread say it is close. In my opinion, it is not, but that is just me.

So I guess Digital Foundry expected the game to have lighting and assets comparable to something we would see in CG not something on PS4. Instead, what we got was a much prettier version of Uncharted. I don't think you could mistake any part of the game play demo for CG even the cut scene at beginning or at end.

I know some people say the cut scene at the end is close to original teaser. In my opinion, it is not. It's not the model. It's not because one of the scenes takes place in the night and the other during the day. It's not because the RGB values are messed up. It's the lighting and shadowing on a per pixel level. You can adjust it in photoshop. It has to be calculated. The E3 teaser looks like it is lit with CG-like lighting that mimics real life. The character models in Uncharted 4 look gamey and not like something you would see in CG.


esnNLov.png

uXuIgoM.png
 

Crayon

Member

The teaser version on the right looks like an off screen shot. Last gen these were very popular because they tend to be flattering. There used to be huge threads for off screen shots.

Im straining to see any difference that cant be attributed to the differences in drakes weathering, the game evironments light sources or the capture method.

Im not convinced of a downgrade.
 
As pretty as those shots are artistically, that's exactly where their beauty lies - in the artistry. There's nothing on display that's technically better than what we've seen of Uncharted 4 at all.

In fact it's silly to even compare them for various reasons.

He said it doesnt look better.

I agree the caves are certainly not that pretty, they look like video game rocks
 

i-Lo

Member
It really doesn't. It looks surprisingly bad, honestly.

Even Far Cry 3 had better looking foliage:



Normal 1080p shot, no downsampling or anything.

UC4? While I won't say it's head and shoulders above Far Cry 3 or 4, it does look very good and perhaps one of the best on consoles thus far. I don't know what footage makes it look "surprisingly bad" given just how realistic it looks most of the time.
 
UC4? While I won't say it's head and shoulders above Far Cry 3 or 4, it does look very good and perhaps one of the best on consoles thus far. I don't know what footage makes it look "surprisingly bad" given just how realistic it looks most of the time.

He's talking about AC:U I think

Confused me as well, reading this thread backwards :p
 

cheezcake

Member
UC4? While I won't say it's head and shoulders above Far Cry 3 or 4, it does look very good and perhaps one of the best on consoles thus far. I don't know what footage makes it look "surprisingly bad" given just how realistic it looks most of the time.

He's talking about AC:U
 
You're arguing against someone that's actually PLAYED the game using your own impressions of what you've seen? Damn, son.
I thought it was obvious. ' I 've already played a demo of the game already. Did not like how it felt one bit.

I haven't, but if you go into the Order PSX thread, you'll see a few Gaffers that have. But their impressions run contrary to yours.

Link me plz
 

GnawtyDog

Banned
As pretty as those shots are artistically, that's exactly where their beauty lies - in the artistry. There's nothing on display that's technically better than what we've seen of Uncharted 4 at all.

In fact it's silly to even compare them for various reasons.

I agree.

---------------------------------
Edit: Nvm
 

valkyre

Member
It really doesn't. It looks surprisingly bad, honestly.

Even Far Cry 3 had better looking foliage:



Normal 1080p shot, no downsampling or anything.

Really?

Wow... sometimes it feels as just the "PC stamp" is enough to lead to such embarrassing posts.

Next up we will see how COD3 foliage looks absolutely stunning compared to that UC4 footage...

wow.

Edit: Disregard if you are talking about AC:U . With my apologies. If not, then the above stands. I swear ACU is derailing a lot of threads nowdays...
 

HTupolev

Member
What's better about that foliage other than your opinion? Lets dismiss "foliage physics" present in U4 for starters.

Really?

Wow... sometimes it feels as just the "PC stamp" is enough to lead to such embarrassing posts.

Next up we will see how COD3 foliage looks absolutely stunning compared to that UC4 footage...

wow.
The post you two are quoting wasn't claiming that UC4's foliage was bad, it was claiming that ACU's foliage was bad.

You need to be careful in current graphics threads, they're almost always a comparison between <thread title> and ACU.
 

valkyre

Member
The post you two are quoting wasn't claiming that UC4's foliage was bad, it was claiming that ACU's foliage was bad.

You need to be careful in current graphics threads, they're almost always a comparison between <thread title> and ACU.

I amended my post with the necessary edit.

And yes this whole thing with ACU has become quite tedious. I cannot even understand why it is considered the epitome of gfx technology and the current benchmark when it is plagued by such ridiculous obvious issues like, LOD, constant pop in, performance, stutters etc.

Seriously arent all these considered accordingly in the equation of determining the current benchmark? Can I release a CGI quality game that runs at 5 frames per sec and still be awarded the "most amazing graphics of all time" award?

Sounds ridiculous to me honestly...
 

Crayon

Member
On the subject of the shrubbage, Its practically all i could look at durring my single viewing of the u4 demonstration. Any floral contenders besides crysis 3?
 

_machine

Member
As pretty as those shots are artistically, that's exactly where their beauty lies - in the artistry. There's nothing on display that's technically better than what we've seen of Uncharted 4 at all.

In fact it's silly to even compare them for various reasons.
Actually I would argue that their GI and parts of their material tech is above what UC4 has shown so far, but it's always good to remember that each game has it's strengths and weaknesses and whilst I think that AC:U has better lighting technology behind it Uncharted 4 will absolutely crush the game in terms of IQ. You lose some you win some.
 
Come on guys, only 15 pages and no bans? Step it up.

I for one say yes, this rushed pre alpha/ alpha demo looks a generation ahead. I can't imagine some of the stuff we will see a year from now, not just with this game or the ps4 either but also on PC. The drake model alone has me drooling,I would love to see ND do a silent hill style game, not that Konami won't do a great job. But I'd really like to see a near CG quality survival horror game.
 
I'm in a Naughty Dog's UC4 thread but I'm more impress about The Order's graphic then UC4, albeit UC4 will improve and retake the throne later but right now The Order looks just like a CG movie.
 

Hermii

Member
I cant believe people are disappointed a pre alpha only looks pretty fucking good and not amazing.

The gameplay looks solid already, so I assume the last year of development will be more about graphics than gameplay anyway which is the way it should be.
 

_machine

Member
I for one say yes, this rushed pre alpha/ alpha demo looks a generation ahead.
That was actually far from rushed; all the animations, all the textures, the gameplay, the little details were all there and well polished. It was a well-crafted demo that looked like it was from the actual game polished for a presentation. I really wouldn't expect the game to change that much in a year, especially if they are going to make that 60fps framerate. Things will change no doubt, for both better and worse, but I don't think there will be anything dramatic happening with the graphics. Certainly nothing like adopting full PBR, but with more polish I can definitely see it ending up looking a bit better and I think there will be other environments that will definitely look a lot better in comparison.
 
If you think that Uncharted 4 gameplay trailer looks bad or "meh" you're insane. What the hell is wrong with you guys?

Pretty sure a lot of the argument in hear comes from whether or not it resembles the original trailer and the whole 30-60fps stuff. Most people think it looks good.

Likewise, a lot of other games looks similarly "good."
That was actually far from rushed; all the animations, all the textures, the gameplay, the little details were all there and well polished. It was a well-crafted demo that looked like it was from the actual game polished for a presentation. I really wouldn't expect the game to change that much in a year, especially if they are going to make that 60fps framerate. Things will change no doubt, for both better and worse, but I don't think there will be anything dramatic happening with the graphics. Certainly nothing like adopting full PBR, but with more polish I can definitely see it ending up looking a bit better and I think there will be other environments that will definitely look a lot better in comparison.

I would be surprised if it wasnt already using a PBR workflow of some sort. But yeah, nice commentary.
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
No, they're all impressive. And they all do some things better than the others. You saying UC4 looks better than The Witcher 3 and ACU maxed out on PC is just more of the over-hype that some of us are talking about. I'm fully open to the possibility that the finished version of UC4 may look better to me overall than either of those games, but it also might go the other way. Like I said, they all look fantastic and have their own strengths and weaknesses.

What I've seen of UC4, while gorgeous, doesn't look better than ACU.
IWhb.jpg

acu_2014_11_18_20_00_k9ett.png

acu_2014_11_16_21_35_hxd1t.png
Those are downsampled shots from the PC. ACU looks like rear end on the PS4.
 

kinggroin

Banned
This feels like deja vu, but are you posting PC screenshots to put up against UC4 again?? it's a truly pointless comparison, unless ACU on PS4 has areas that look like your screenshots, by which I mean shots that look like they have a higher native res than its console counterparts, the top pic being a whopping 3200x1548 image and the bottom two being 1080 (when both consoles run the game at 900).

If you really wanted a discussion about ACU's visuals in the midst of Uncharted 4 talk, you should be using ACU screens from the same system. Am I saying something crazy or weird for thinking that's the right way to compare?

These are pics taken from PS4's share, which range from fairly impressive to pretty bad. The fact that they're 900p on consoles already put them in a disadvantage over UC4's 1080, with crazy clean image quality:


You call someone out for being disingenuous (he was), then post generic shots of the game yourself. Its why these arguments go round and round.

Go to the console screenshot thread, give this some effort.
 

merrickxx

Neo Member
Pretty sure a lot of the argument in hear comes from whether or not it resembles the original trailer and the whole 30-60fps stuff. Most people think it looks good.

Likewise, a lot of other games looks similarly "good."


I would be surprised if it wasnt already using a PBR workflow of some sort. But yeah, nice commentary.

I think it looks great, aesthetically. Technically, well I can't tell for shit, because all I see is a blurry, heavily encoded YouTube video.
 

nbnt

is responsible for the well-being of this island.
Is it real-time? Can we really say for sure? I mean, there is an actual cut between the jumping animation and the switch to a cutscene. I'd like to believe it's real-time but all of their PS3 games used pre-rendered sequences for major cutscenes.
The gun he picked carried over with him in the cutscene. And they've already said they're dropping the pre-rendered stuff. But I believe they are using better character models during cutscenes.

15355501293_e15e7fc219_o.gif


15982364915_97f4528bc0_o.gif


This flick happens right after the first scene. You can clearly see the subtle changes.
 
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