Some thoughts. Still pre-ordered of course, but hope they can address some of these things before launch.
* At about 40 seconds into the video, Sean shows the binoculars he talked about recently. I think this is the first time we've seen them. I wish the UI for it felt more like Luke's binoculars in Star Wars, with numbers and gauges moving. Hopefully this UI is not final.
* I have some issues with the UI design. I don't like the element/equipment icons; their glossy 3D models look don't really fit in with the rest of the design aesthetic. I'm also not a fan of what looks like the Helvetica font being used for dialogue options, as it doesn't mesh well with the thin futuristic font they're using.
Sean's mentioned before that they didn't want to show certain UI stuff because it wasn't finished, but it might be that they've at least somewhat settled into this look, so I'm not really expecting it to change that much. I agree there's some stuff that looks a bit weird, and some of that might indeed change, but some of it might end up very much like what we've seen today. There's some UI stuff that's on the 3D models themselves that I dislike more, like the ammo counter or some of the cockpit displays inside the ship, but they do look a bit like placeholders still, so who knows.
* Green grass on an ice world feels really off. I'm aware that the NMS algorithm takes into account the elements on the planet, sun type, etc. to decide on colors for vegetation, but this is the first time I've seen the result not make sense. Perhaps it's just my Earth perspective where green grass = warm climate? It feels jarring though.
* There's some weird lighting going on with the Relic, where the Relic is casting a shadow from the moon, but the shadow is partially colorized green from the Relic's glow. Looks bad. Also, sleeping in front of a Relic to heal? That's new. I guess you're safe from animal attacks and your suit running out of cold protection while sleeping there?
* The flickering shadows do look really bad, distracting once you notice it. I don't remember this being there in older builds? If they fix nothing else, they need to address this before launch.
* The procedural generation pop-in almost looks more severe in space. Asteroids seem to appear just a few tens of meters from your ship. This is surprising to me because there's really not much geometry to render in space versus a planet. It's strange though because some far-off asteroids are out there, but then close asteroids still seem to just pop in. I don't know if this is related to how their algorithm works, or if it's a memory or render issue.
Personally, I don't have a problem with this and I think it's all in line with the visual style, but yeah, I'm suspecting there'll be some weird color combinations here and there. Some of the lighting might not be all that advanced (maybe I'm exaggerating) but it's also a bit jarring that there doesn't seem to be any ambient occlusion so a lot of the objects (like those stone pillars) look a bit floaty. In any case, this game is weird in a generational tech kind of way, since it does some things differently (that makes a high toll on the performance without really looking like it should), it's got a mix of old and new artifacts, stuff that you generally shouldn't see much in current gen games (like the pop-in), but also you don't really have loading times etc.
I'd say that pop-in it's a mixture of things, and it
should generally be better on PC (depending on the PC you have), but it also depends on how the procedural generation is done, optimized etc. There's only so much you can do with that stuff with today's console hardware, but even so it is jarring. I do hope it gets better, at least on PC, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
* They didn't mention that Sean basically stole the Korvax's ship with that bypass chip. Surprised that didn't set off a wanted level.
That was probably used to call in an empty Korvax ship, kinda like your very own cab. Maybe such a terminal can call you a standard, barebones Korvax starter ship in case you want one right now or are stranded without a ship. A slight boost for the later game if you loose your ship, maybe.
* Those cargo pod explosions on the freighter still look dreadful. The particle effects must've taken someone two minutes to implement. Considering there's several of the Burnout team working on this project, I would expect better explosions!
They do look pretty barebones. Maybe it's intentional, to keep with the minimalistic look of the game, but maybe they're placeholders as well. I kinda don't expect that to change much though.
* The Korvax trading post and the space station looked to have the exact same props same potted plant, same table/chairs, same light fixtures. I don't know if everyone just buys from Space Ikea in this universe, but it will make the exploration experience a bit shallower if we see the exact same pre-fab decorations at every outpost we go to.
I mean, they might have different props for different factions, so only the Korvax would buy from Space Ikea (if we assume the station is even Korvax controlled, it makes sense). But still, I wouldn't expect a lot of difference in that regard, I'm sure we'll see a lot of the same looking architecture and interiors throughout the game.
