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Graphical Fidelity I Expect This Gen

setoman

Member
Great asset quality, Indirect shadows ang lighting is weaker than some of it contemporaries, not terrible though
Look, Three people who see what I see. I guess I'm not completely insane after all?

Some good tech on display for ds2 but i'm not sold on the nextgen jump for the faces...the recent ue5 metahuman demo still looks noticeably better.
Yeah the faces still look like wax. UE5 facial and character rendering still looks significantly better than it.
Also hellblade 2 looks better than it (including the characters)
 
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DanielG165

Member
The facial expressions, fluid simulation, and geometry are all incredible in DS2, but the faces themselves still have that waxy look to them. I’d say that GTA 6, and Hellblade 2 still have the best looking character models overall, imo. DS2 is certainly shaping up to be ONE of the best looking games this generation, but to me, it’s not THE best. GTA 6 still very much holds that title thus far, and likely still will once the game finally releases, as Rockstar aren’t known for downgrading.
 
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Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
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RoadHazard

Gold Member
ps4 to ps5 is the smallest memory upgrade in the history of consoles. I don't think we will even see a leap that equals ps3 to ps4 in my opinion. it is really hard to push better lighting, textures and stuff all at the same time. ps5 itself is the cross gen console honestly

While that's true, PS5 games (if well made) don't need to waste as much RAM on data that might or might not be needed a minute from now and isn't actually used to render what you're currently looking at, which was necessary on PS4 because loading data from the HDD was slooow. That data can now be loaded just before it's needed instead, thanks to the SSD, so you can use more of the memory for stuff you actually see at any one moment.

And the GPU and CPU are obviously pretty big leaps (GPU maybe not as big as PS3 to PS4, but CPU much bigger).
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
Next Gen starts when Kojima says it does

All this talk of Nanite and it's nowhere to be seen in any UE5 games like the original demo, massively underwhelming

Decima now doing Nanite we all asked for, plus destruction. Bow down to Guerillajima gods.

Kojima STILL does best in-class character models and animation too. No uncanney valley stuff.
 
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For me it’s

Matrix demo (duh)

Demon souls
Plague Tale Requiem
FF16
Burning Shores


Rift Apart/Starfield


Spider man 2

(Haven’t played enough of Alan wake 2 or avatar to judge fairly but what I played I thought was good I guess)
Missing TLOU 1 Remake, TLOU 2 Remastered and Cyberpunk 2077 (Pathtraced).
I'm not buying into that. I think it's more about devs and publishers saving money by reusing assets and old tech. The likes of Hellblade 2 that has to run on Series S proves you can push visuals hard.

Even with Death Stranding 2 the cutscenes look easily a generation ahead of PS4, but I'm not sure what happened to gameplay graphics. Maybe Kojima is doing too many projects right now (he's got one with Microsoft and also working on espionage game after this) and they chose to use older assets and tech for gameplay to speed things up.
I agree after seeing the Matrix Awakens demo and some of PS5s exclusives, games can look much better but Devs are using old engines, rendering techniques and old assets to get games out fast etc. You can’t have CGI visuals without high poly counts, perfect textures and GI… thats why cyberpunk overdrive mode (sometimes) and the matrix awakens look “next gen”, look at parts of HFW, TLOU 2, FF16, Spiderman, Alan Wake 2 and a few other games, you can see glimpses of next generation in them when everything aligns just right.

I felt the DS2 trailer looked awesome but I noticed last gen elements like the hair and in general the poly count? It still looks better than most upcoming games but I felt a next gen Death Stranding would be similar to the DS trailer for the first game here, I’m just expecting a bigger leap after seeing the Matrix Awakens…

 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
Missing TLOU 1 Remake, TLOU 2 Remastered and Cyberpunk 2077 (Pathtraced).

I agree after seeing the Matrix Awakens demo and some of PS5s exclusives, games can look much better but Devs are using old engines, rendering techniques and old assets to get games out fast etc. You can’t have CGI visuals without high poly counts, perfect textures and GI… thats why cyberpunk overdrive mode (sometimes) and the matrix awakens look “next gen”, look at parts of HFW, TLOU 2, FF16, Spiderman, Alan Wake 2 and a few other games, you can see glimpses of next generation in them when everything aligns just right.

I felt the DS2 trailer looked awesome but I noticed last gen elements like the hair and in general the poly count? It still looks better than most upcoming games but I felt a next gen Death Stranding would be similar to the DS trailer for the first game here, I’m just expecting a bigger leap after seeing the Matrix Awakens…



Death Stranding looks better than Matrix Demo, VFXVeteran
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Yeah that looks bad compared to anything coming out of UE5...
You really can't see the flat lighting? That have PS4 lighting written all over it.
The lighting was the biggest improvement to me. It was the first thing I noticed because of the GI light bounce in almost every area. It doesnt feel like the light hits the rocks or mountains and gets absorbed in, it feels like it bounces off of it. You can see it in the mountain collapse gif when you compare it to the rocks in Horizon Forbidden west. It's the environments that feel PS4.5 to me, but that could be the youtube compression hiding the texture detail. Still, its a generational leap over DS1 and HFW in lighting, asset quality and character models.

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You need to go back and play DS1 again because that is what PS4 era lighting looks like.

This is much closer to the Unreal Engine 4 Rebirth demo that came out in 2019. especially the cloudy parts and that shot in the rain.

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I am not really sure what UE5 games you are looking at, but this looks better than Immortals, Lords of the Fallen and Robocop. Hellblade 2 looks better but its a smaller game while this is open world. Still, id put these character models up there with hellblade 2's.

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Edder1

Member
I think Kojima is a pretentious overrated weirdo and I don’t like DS (loved MGS3,4 and 5 though) but there is no WAY some of you in here are trying to downplay the graphics of Death Stranding 2. Cmon guys. Like what do you want from next Gen graphics at this point
Something that looks better than this in gameplay:
XTNXFaF.jpg
JOTKcay.jpg
lJFFOg0.jpg


Anyone who thinks these gameplay shots look a generation above original DS is capping hard. If you told me these shots were from PS4 game I would have no reason to not believe you.

I know some folks here have a hard on for some environmental shots, but I'm not seeing anything impressive in those either given the fact that 95% of those lands are barren and empty.
 
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I am not really sure what UE5 games you are looking at, but this looks better than Immortals, Lords of the Fallen and Robocop. Hellblade 2 looks better but its a smaller game while this is open world. Still, id put these character models up there with hellblade 2's.
Its an EMPTY open world. Its like people forgot what causes memory leaks, game freezes, long loading times, etc. Ofcourse they can pump up all their resources into the scenery when 90% of the time its just one chracter on screen, not having to worry about animation and tasks of another 30-50 characters around. As someone that finished DS1 again on the PS5, that game already looks stunning so I dont see what is the big deal now, because to me, these in game cutscene models, their skin textures is exactly like it was in the first game. I dont see any advancement here, Im sure someone will soon make a comparisson video.

One new thing is different scenery which ofcourse adds new lighting, but they way some people talk about DS2 as if it reinvented the graphical wheel when DS1 looks just as good. Maybe this time around theres some RT going on but overal the game looks like a safe sequel just like Horizon 2, GOW 2, Spiderman 2. Its not pushing any boundaries.
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I think Kojima is a pretentious overrated weirdo and I don’t like DS (loved MGS3,4 and 5 though) but there is no WAY some of you in here are trying to downplay the graphics of Death Stranding 2. Cmon guys. Like what do you want from next Gen graphics at this point
I wouldnt have it any other way. Otherwise it would be like an era circle jerk. It's the dissent that keeps this thread going strong.

Next Gen starts when Kojima says it does

All this talk of Nanite and it's nowhere to be seen in any UE5 games like the original demo, massively underwhelming

Decima now doing Nanite we all asked for, plus destruction. Bow down to Guerillajima gods.

Kojima STILL does best in-class character models and animation too. No uncanney valley stuff.
I think UE5 has ended up being a disappointment so far but its been mostly c tier developers making games for it. Id hold off until i see games from Crystal Dynamics and CD Project. Hellblade 2 isnt using nanite or lumen but still looks phenomenal and thats an Unreal Engine game. I think the character faces in Hellblade 2 dont have that uncanny valley effect because NT has always been great at facial animations like ND and KojiPro.

I just love the skin shaders on Lea Seydox's face in the scene with the puppet. Her skin shaders in DS1 just didnt glow like you would when you are bright room like this. She's easily the best looking character in the game. I am curious to see what Dakota Fanning's sister would look like when she's not in shadows.


The facial expressions, fluid simulation, and geometry are all incredible in DS2, but the faces themselves still have that waxy look to them. I’d say that GTA 6, and Hellblade 2 still have the best looking character models overall, imo. DS2 is certainly shaping up to be ONE of the best looking games this generation, but to me, it’s not THE best. GTA 6 still very much holds that title thus far, and likely still will once the game finally releases, as Rockstar aren’t known for downgrading.
i kinda like the waxy look lol. Gives it that cg look but hellblade 2 is definitely going for a more photorealistic look like TLOU2. GTA6's character models are straight up cartoony in comparison to both DS2 and HB2 but they still look fantastic because of the facial animations and hair. Also, we havent seen any gameplay footage of GTA6 yet and both DS2 and HB2 look way better in cutscenes, so that might be the case with GTA6 as well.

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Id rank, HB2>DS2>Callisto>GTA6 in terms of character models, but GTA6's scope is just in a league of its own. I dont think ANY game coming out in the next 10 years until rockstar's next game will be able to top it. We will have to settle for comparing individual elements like lighting, hair, character faces, etc. Rockstar is using its 3,000 devs to basically destroy all competition, but kojima with his 100 devs has done a remarkable job as well. Sucks it took him 6 years though.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Its an EMPTY open world. Its like people forgot what causes memory leaks, game freezes, long loading times, etc. Ofcourse they can pump up all their resources into the scenery when 90% of the time its just one chracter on screen, not having to worry about animation and tasks of another 30-50 characters around. As someone that finished DS1 again on the PS5, that game already looks stunning so I dont see what is the big deal now, because to me, these in game cutscene models, their skin textures is exactly like it was in the first game. I dont see any advancement here, Im sure someone will soon make a comparisson video.

One new thing is different scenery which ofcourse adds new lighting, but they way some people talk about DS2 as if it reinvented the graphical wheel when DS1 looks just as good. Maybe this time around theres some RT going on but overal the game looks like a safe sequel just like Horizon 2, GOW 2, Spiderman 2. Its not pushing any boundaries.
Open world being empty doesnt mean the GPU doesnt have to render massive draw distances, all that geometry and tesselated rocks and surfaces. Especially in a game like DS which has physics applied to every single nook and cranny so every surface is filled with geometry which is very expensive on the gpu.

The only thing they are saving are some CPU cycles on NPCs, their animations and AI routines. They are putting those CPU resources into doing what seems like some fancy destruction and realtime floods. How is that not generational? When did we see stuff like this last gen let alone in DS1?

Besides, 99% of the open world games are empty 90% of the time unless you go into a city or an output. RDR2 is 90% empty. Horizon is 90% empty. Metro Exodus. Its only the urban city games like cyberpunk, spiderman and gta that have those NPCs and traffic that make the world feel full. Doesnt mean RDR2 wasnt the best looking game of last gen.

And this is what Lea Seydox looked like in the last game. this is a massive improvement.

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James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
I wouldnt have it any other way. Otherwise it would be like an era circle jerk. It's the dissent that keeps this thread going strong.


I think UE5 has ended up being a disappointment so far but its been mostly c tier developers making games for it. Id hold off until i see games from Crystal Dynamics and CD Project. Hellblade 2 isnt using nanite or lumen but still looks phenomenal and thats an Unreal Engine game. I think the character faces in Hellblade 2 dont have that uncanny valley effect because NT has always been great at facial animations like ND and KojiPro.

I just love the skin shaders on Lea Seydox's face in the scene with the puppet. Her skin shaders in DS1 just didnt glow like you would when you are bright room like this. She's easily the best looking character in the game. I am curious to see what Dakota Fanning's sister would look like when she's not in shadows.



i kinda like the waxy look lol. Gives it that cg look but hellblade 2 is definitely going for a more photorealistic look like TLOU2. GTA6's character models are straight up cartoony in comparison to both DS2 and HB2 but they still look fantastic because of the facial animations and hair. Also, we havent seen any gameplay footage of GTA6 yet and both DS2 and HB2 look way better in cutscenes, so that might be the case with GTA6 as well.

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Id rank, HB2>DS2>Callisto>GTA6 in terms of character models, but GTA6's scope is just in a league of its own. I dont think ANY game coming out in the next 10 years until rockstar's next game will be able to top it. We will have to settle for comparing individual elements like lighting, hair, character faces, etc. Rockstar is using its 3,000 devs to basically destroy all competition, but kojima with his 100 devs has done a remarkable job as well. Sucks it took him 6 years though.

GTA6 looks like a really good cross gen game to me. A little bit better perhaps. But in terms of detail and density of detail didn’t really wow me.

DS2 has the nanite level detail I’ve been wanting, and thought we’d get a glimpse of in Starfield but didn’t.

It’s also pushing some environmental destruction and weather dynamics that is sorely missing across the board and gives me that genuine next gen feel
 

Edder1

Member
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2 heaviest hitters we know about for next year so far.

IDGAF about different art styles, which one looks better to you guys?
I'm not a fan of the twerking simulator that is GTA6, but you have to be out of your mind to compare a game with extremely dense and rich environments full of NPCs, vehicles, buildings, physics and interaction to a game with barren empty lands of DS2. There's literally little to nothing going on in DS2 lol, and we all know you can't play cutscenes.
 
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Msamy

Member
Something that looks better than this in gameplay:
XTNXFaF.jpg
JOTKcay.jpg
lJFFOg0.jpg


Anyone who thinks these gameplay shots look a generation above original DS is capping hard. If you told me these shots were from PS4 game I would have no reason to not believe you.

I know some folks here have a hard on for some environmental shots, but I'm not seeing anything impressive in those either given the fact that 95% of those lands are barren and empty.
The fact that you peak the worst condition gameplay shots in the trailer and those shots have special lighting , weather and fog conditions due to developer choise means that all your talk are nonsense , I love hellblade 2 and gta 6 but I can peak shots from their trailers that looks worse than ds2 shoots that you peaked , in the end gta6 , hellblade 2 , ds2 and star wars outlow are currently the only games that show me true next gen graphics from the upcoming games
 

Edder1

Member
The fact that you peak the worst condition gameplay shots in the trailer and those shots have special lighting , weather and fog conditions due to developer choise means that all your talk are nonsense , I love hellblade 2 and gta 6 but I can peak shots from their trailers that looks worse than ds2 shoots that you peaked , in the end gta6 , hellblade 2 , ds2 and star wars outlow are currently the only games that show me true next gen graphics from the upcoming games
Most of the shots that they actually showed from a gameplay perspective where you can clearly see it was a person playing were all in foggy and rainy environments, so maybe you should blame the devs for that instead of trying to shift it on to me. But then again, you're the same guy that is liking all the non gameplay impressive shots others are posting, so it's hard to take you seriously with your accusations of bias.

I have always remained consistent on this forum that cutscenes aren't important to me and ultimately it should be the gameplay by which graphics are judged, because that's where you spend 90% of the game. So far I haven't seen anything in gameplay of DS2 to warranty calling it next gen. Maybe this was a poor showing or early work in progress, but right now I'm gonna keep it real and call it how it is. Cutscene are next gen yes, gameplay they showed looks underwhelming.
 
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Msamy

Member
But then again, you're the same guy that is liking all the non gameplay impressive shots others are posting, so it's hard to take you seriously with your accusations of bias.
Obviously people's above post many gameplay shots and gifs which looks far better compared to the ones that you peaked , I don't feel like I need to post them again
 

Edder1

Member
Obviously people's above post many gameplay shots and gifs which looks far better compared to the ones that you peaked , I don't feel like I need to post them again
Almost all the shots people are posting are either cutscenes or "gameplay" shots with controlled camera. The actual gameplay bits were very few (4:04- 4.30) and I posted images from 3 of the 5 actual gameplay sections from the trailer. The other two were Sam walking at night and one with him crouched in reddish environment, which once again had fog in it.
 
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Msamy

Member
Almost all the shots people are posting are either cutscenes or "gameplay" shots with controlled camera. The actual gameplay bits were very few (4:04- 4.30) and I posted images from 3 of the 5 actual gameplay sections from the trailer. The other two were Sam walking at night and one with him crouched in reddish environment, which once again had fog in it.
Actually if you ever played death stranding 1 you will know that those gameplay shots with controlled camera will look the same when you played and control the camera also there are many gameplay other than gameplay shots between 4.04-4.30 and you don't even post the good gameplay shots between 4.04 -4 30
 

yamaci17

Member
I'm not a fan of the twerking simulator that is GTA6, but you have to be out of your mind to compare a game with extremely dense and rich environments full of NPCs, vehicles, buildings, physics and interaction to a game with barren empty lands of DS2. There's literally little to nothing going on in DS2 lol, and we all know you can't play cutscenes.
cutscene obsession in this thread will at some point will make me altogether give up on this thread. it really makes the entire thread boring. by that logic nothing tops heavy rain or beyond two souls on ps3 in terms performance to graphics ratio
 

Edder1

Member
Actually if you ever played death stranding 1 you will know that those gameplay shots with controlled camera will look the same when you played and control the camera also there are many gameplay other than gameplay shots between 4.04-4.30 and you don't even post the good gameplay shots between 4.04 -4 30
Dude, they only showed 5 bits of gameplay in those 26 seconds. I posted images from 3 of them, the other 2 as I mentioned above were Sam walking at night and Sam in a reddish foggy environment. People already posted the other 2 multiple times and I'm not seeing anything impressive about them, nothing to call it next gen. Also one of them had foggy environment and you already complaind that I posted shots with foggy environments lol, although 4 of the 5 gameplay bits devs showed were in overcast conditions.

As for you claiming those controlled camera shots will be same in gameplay, I would have to say you maybe right, but nothing in those came even close to UE5 demos we've seen years ago.
 

Msamy

Member
As for you claiming those controlled camera shots will be same in gameplay, I would have to say you maybe right, but nothing in those came even close to UE5 demos we've seen years ago.
Give me any ue5 released or upcoming pc or console game that looks better than ds2 in those shots
 

Edder1

Member
Give me any ue5 released or upcoming pc or console game that looks better than ds2 in those shots
We're yet to see AAA studio use UE5 with all of its new features, but doesn't mean anything since we've seen UE5 run on consoles and Matrix demo was released for all to try. Let's not pretend like current gen consoles cannot handle UE5 demos, because they all ran natively on these consoles. There are many AAA UE5 games in development so it's only a matter of time before we see them.
 

Msamy

Member
We're yet to see AAA studio use UE5 with all of its new features, but doesn't mean anything since we've seen UE5 run on consoles and Matrix demo was released for all to try. Let's not pretend like current gen consoles cannot handle UE5 demos, because they all ran natively on these consoles. There are many AAA UE5 games in development so it's only a matter of time before we see them.
I don't say that current gen console can't handle those demos but I know that full scale game use far more resources than small demos also I think some ds2 environment shots looks very close or identical to those ue5 demos .
 

Edder1

Member
I don't say that current gen console can't handle those demos but I know that full scale game use far more resources than small demos also I think some ds2 environment shots looks very close or identical to those ue5 demos .
Matrix demo had way more going on and I'm sure was way more taxing on hardware than DS2.
 

icerock

Member
Kojima always pushes tech but that was really stunning, I didn't expect such level of graphics. Will be interesting to see how it pits against GTA VI. Our favorite DF members remains skeptical




Also, on a sidenote. People should really start paying attention to the discord leak which I shared earlier. Another thing has checked out and since then Warren has affirmed OEM stuff, while him and Shinobi are also teasing multi-plat announcement is near.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
Apparently people are supposed to be impressed by that. If you told me that was from Starfield (another game with barren lands full of rocks and sand) I would have to believe you.
Not even talking about being barren, just how unimpressive the rocks look.
 

Edder1

Member
Not even talking about being barren, just how unimpressive the rocks look.
I've seen people claim that Decima now has its own Nanite and I was just shaking my head. The tech they're using is more detailed than last gen, but it's still way behind Nanite. Remedy also could not match Nanite, not even close. Right now UE5 is in its own league with tech advancement, we just yet to see big projects come out that use it. I'm sure in time others will catch up with UE5, but right now nothing comes close.
 
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Msamy

Member
While I'd rather not compare these game's it's clear that HB2 is pushing a similar level of fidelity in the environments and even higher quality character models.

You can see one game is full scale 4k and the other have black bars and they are very close as you said .
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
While I'd rather not compare these game's it's clear that HB2 is pushing a similar level of fidelity in the environments and even higher quality character models.

It's really hard to judge the most finer micro-details with yt compression (but yeah the rocks look more micro-detailed)

When nextgen is gonna finally sets in most of the assets are gonna look decent to good, it's the details when you get close and zoom that are gonna make a difference.

I don't think that the human models looks much better tbh, but DS2 has the advantage of having famous actors in the cast so they just look inherently more real because of that (the brain get tricked).
 
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Msamy

Member
I'm getting a strong feeling of your bias towards DS2. How can you not think that a detailed city with ray traced GI with hundreds of cars and NPCs is not more taxing on hardware than an NPC walking about in barren lands with few buildings in between and couple of enemies on screen?
I don't defend any game that don't worse if you know me or see my previous comment in this theard you will see how I attack those lazy developer's who give us last generations graphics like spider man 2 , suicide squad , other games
 

Alex11

Member
cutscene obsession in this thread will at some point will make me altogether give up on this thread. it really makes the entire thread boring. by that logic nothing tops heavy rain or beyond two souls on ps3 in terms performance to graphics ratio
Yes it is, I get it, they look nice, especially from top dogs with a high budget, but people need to separate them somehow from actual gameplay when talking about graphics, 90% of the time there is such a huge gap between when you play and watch a cutscene.
 
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