I've now watched the video in full, and you're incorrect. It's true that the NPC fade-in is unchanged. However, apart from that PS4 actually eliminates a lot of pop-in from the PS2 (and PC-emulated) versions. Though the video only shows a handful of scenes overall, the effect can be seen across several each in the city and the desert. As with the small plant, sometimes the objects are just missing. Note below the trees and plants only visible on PS4, even well off into the distance. (The comparison is with emulation, but it's not an error; the same low draw distance is on actual PS2 as well.)
Other times, objects are flat sprites until nearby on PS2, whereas they're always 3D models on PS4. Below, look at the potted palm in the distance of the first (PS4) shot, which on PS2 doesn't begin to transition until much closer; you can see it mid-transition with only the leading edge being geometry in the second shot. Mesh detail isn't all that has a higher viewing distance. These shots also show that the column on the right is lit the whole time on PS4, but that edge lighting still hasn't appeared on PS2, even as close as Vaan is. It comes in just after this, again far closer than on PS4.
The lack of downsampling in this particular title is probably unnoticeable for almost everyone. See my comparison earlier in the thread.
No, the emulator shot is native 4K whereas the PS4 Pro shot is 1440p upscaled. That's why the emulator is much sharper. My personal opinion is that it's way
too sharp: no AA and no texture filtering combine with the low-poly assets to make it a shimmery mess in motion, even at very high resolution. I think the Pro version goes too far in the other direction, but it feels much more solid and grounded in motion, even given a lot less image precision.
Aside from my own take on the effort, there's objectively a lot going on here that Digital Foundry did not mention. Lately it seems like they're not closely observing nuances of graphical detail, and even missing or omitting stuff from their analyses. I know they're stretched thin across all releases, but it's disappointing when the foremost technical source for console games is unreliable.
To begin with the textures, the video does point out the refiltering work, and addition of normal and specular maps. For some reason only the article and not the video mentions the occasional textures that have been significantly redone. This is despite the fact that several fully-redone examples are visible in the video itself; the side-by-side shot below shows both kinds of update. The high-frequency detail across and especially under the arch is a clear addition, while more simply reworked textures are used elsewhere.
These texture changes are also obvious in the next shot (though DF calls them "pretty subtle"), which showcases another improvement: the addition of dynamic lighting. Digital Foundry do mention "reworked lighting" as "more areas covered in shade" and additional shadows "cast by environmental objects", but there's more to it than that.
The vague atmospheric blue in the PS2 version is cut by a strong shadow on PS4. This is due to a pillar just off screen, and the light source is a big lamp located across the room. Such self-consistent source lighting directionality does not occur in the original game. Neither does environmental bounce lighting, which is present on PS4.
Note how the sand's tones are reflected on Vaan's right arm and leg, and the inside of his left leg, but he's more neutral in hue where the ground wouldn't be reflecting. This is clearly not just color grading applied to the whole area, but dynamic illumination.
Digital Foundry also didn't notice or bring up the occasional texture alignment fixes posted by
Shin-Ra earlier in the thread. Nor do they seem to have noticed the reduction of the water distortion effects on PS4. This is hard to convey in a still shot, but on PS2 (left side), waves refract the objects behind them strongly. Focus on the wake of the left rat, bending the tile floor's lines, or the wavery legs of the right rat.
This effect isn't completely absent on PS4--see Vaan's left foot--but it's much weaker and doesn't look as convincing. There may also be better wave geometry on PS2, but I can't be certain given the extremely small amount of water footage in the video. (Note that this reduced distortion contrasts with the increased heat haze in the desert, which DF also didn't mention.)
Also, I noticed a single scene where it appears that some background art may have been redrawn entirely for
Zodiac Age. Look at the farthest building in this comparison.
This could potentially be an LOD issue, with the PS4 version simply displaying a more detailed version of the building. However, the changes seem less like increased detail and more like alterations of aspect. I suspect that the furthest-off layers of
FF XII levels are 2D images, so they don't have to be rendered as geometry. I believe that background was redrawn in this case. Given the limited material in this video, I can't say whether this occurs elsewhere, but it's definitely possible. (Or I could be wrong about what's happening here.)
Finally, Digital Foundry have this to say about the game's depth-of-field effect: "Depth of field is also deployed more liberally across gameplay and cutscenes." That's the entirety of the article's detail, and the video only expands by saying the greater use doesn't feel out of place. For some reason, it goes entirely unstated that the DOF effect on PS4 is heavily improved.
Here's a shot from the original, showing that both motion blur and DOF effects were accomplished through displaced repetitions of scene geometry.
Note the slight echoes northwest of the balcony and Vaan's head, remnants of the camera motion in this cutscene. Behind Vaan, the far edge of the platform is "out of focus" in much the same way, with a (stronger) doubled overlay of its own geometry. The DOF here isn't terribly realistic: with both close foreground and far background sharp, it doesn't make much sense for "slightly farther background" to be blurry.
Contrast this with PS4 below, which begins with only the balcony sharp, then racks focus believably to Vaan, sharpening the whole background and mildly blurring the foreground. (The shot is animated, with a long delay.) Not only is the effect more grounded in optical reality, but the DOF effect is a true blur. Even through the compression of the GIF you can easily see the enhanced smooth and natural look.
So to sum up, in their analysis of
Zodiac Age, Digital Foundry didn't describe or display in full detail:
- the full range of improvements to textures (written, but not shown)
- improvements to lighting, including fully lit scenes and environmental bounce lighting
- big improvements to the DOF effect, apart from it just being more common
They did not mention at all:
- highly increased draw distance for geometry and lighting
- lack of downsampling for PS4 Pro on 1080p displays (though it may not matter much)
- occasional texture alignment fixes on PS4
- reduction of water distortion effects on PS4
- increase of heat distortion effects on PS4
- (rare?) revamped backgrounds on PS4
- menus on PS4 run at 60fps
There may be more details from the full game, since all this comes from their video alone. As it's culled wholly from the first few hours of the game, and presents less than 10 minutes of unique scenes from that slice, there remains a great deal of game unexamined.