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[Audiophile]

When I got my PS3 I still had a 14" JVC Portable CRT for 6mths. Occasionally I'd get some time on the living room Matsui 27" 4:3 CRT.

Got a Sony Bravia KDL32D3000U in around Oct '07 and it was a revelation. Had been playing Motorstorm and R6 Vegas up until that point on the CRT TVs and the 768p Bravia LCD was a big step up for them. Then a month later: COD4 & AC!

That TV is still going strong now. I tried my PS5 on there a few years back just to see what new games look like on it; and it's not as flattering as my memory of it. It's all just dull and soft and flat looking.

 

[ckstine]

I had a somewhat similar experience. I went from playing gta 4 on my old sony trinitron (may she rest in piece) to a new 1080p screen and I realized how fucking ugly it was... it went from something that felt real to like a weird brown bag of pixels. That's something I want this gen or next gen, accurate CRT simulation.

 

[Lethal01]

I had a somewhat similar experience. I went from playing gta 4 on my old sony trinitron (may she rest in piece) to a new 1080p screen and I realized how fucking ugly it was... it went from something that felt real to like a weird brown bag of pixels. That's something I want this gen or next gen, accurate CRT simulation.

There are some great customizable Crt shaders you can use with reshade/retroarch.
Can't give you CRT motion clarity though. needs atleast 4k to be really good

 

[eNT1TY]

Feels like a paid promo if i didn't know any better.

 

[RaduN]

There are some great customizable Crt shaders you can use with reshade/retroarch.
Can't give you CRT motion clarity though. needs atleast 4k to be really good

Resolution will never give you crt motion clarity.

However, bfi (black frame insertion) aims to do just that, though the feature is not 100% reliable yet.
The way it works is like this: you have a black frame inserted every other frame. So when you set your display to 120 hz, the 60 hz content will have minimal motion blur/trails/response time.

 

[Lethal01]

Resolution will never give you crt motion clarity.

However, bfi (black frame insertion) aims to do just that, though the feature is not 100% reliable yet.
The way it works is like this: you have a black frame inserted every other frame. So when you set your display to 120 hz, the 60 hz content will have minimal motion blur/trails/response time.

Yes, I know it well and use it regularly. has drawback on brightness which I can live with but still doesn't reach CRT level, it's decent though.

Usually, I just use a PC crt at 1440p with a CRT shader.

 

[RaduN]

Yes, I know it well and use it regularly. has drawback on brightness which I can live with but still doesn't reach CRT level, it's decent though.

Usually, I just use a PC crt at 1440p with a CRT shader.

Yeah, the libretro guys tried many approaches to bfi in order to mitigate the shortcomings. Even a grey frame insertion.

Try to also apply so shaders (you most likely did that already) and maybe you find a sweetspot.

 

[ckstine]

Yes, I know it well and use it regularly. has drawback on brightness which I can live with but still doesn't reach CRT level, it's decent though.

Usually, I just use a PC crt at 1440p with a CRT shader.

Idk, shaders just aren't there yet. They haven't quite figured out halation. I think the best way they could possibly go about doing it would be to simulate the light via path tracing, and then bake that into an alpha effect. I've seen similar stuff with high quality DoF.

 

[ResetEraVetVIP]

Gameplay wise I agree. it's been a dud.

But graphically ive seen improvements that have made me sit there in awe. I understand that its mostly been incremental but there are times where all the new next enhancements come together to deliver truly CG quality visuals I never thought possible until we got to 40 tflops. But yeah, diminishing returns was a thing even with the PS4 generation in comparison to the massive leap we had going from PS2 to PS3. The asset quality and lighting upgrades were basically the main things we saw get improved going from PS3 to PS4 but it felt like a huge upgrade because so many PS3 games were open world and devoid of any detail. If you compare something linear like Uncharted 3 or Beyond to say AC Unity, it might not feel like a gargantuan leap either.

Remember this Beyond gif? It was used to show how PS4 games didnt really get a big boost either.

The desert levels in uncharted look on par with stuff we saw last gen.

Then there is this legendary battle in GOW.

Looks on par with ragnorak doesnt it?

My point is that it was incremental even back then, but we appreciated having insane visuals in open world games that we would typically only expect in linear games. This time around, the gap is smaller but they are fixing things like draw distance, level of detail, lighting accuracy and volumetrics. They dont pop out at you immediately but just go back and compare some early gen games and those incremental upgrades will become obvious and significant very quickly.

You brought up AC Unity. Look at the texture quality and LOD draw distance here. i used to post this shot as an example of amazing next gen graphics. Below that is an ugly screenshot from AC Origins. I think that game still looks stunning but it had these really bad issues with LOD transitions on foliage and just really poor lighting during transitions. You can see the same thing in Infamous and uncharted 4. Stuff like this should be resolved thanks to virtualized geometry, use of RTGI and other realtime GI solutions, and a way better use of volumetric effects that hide any flaws in those transitions. I think Spiderman 2 is a lazy ass game but even that game has done a lot of work on LOD transitions and draw distance despite relying upon baked lighting and normal maps. Avatar, Alan Wake, Hellblade and Star wars to a lesser extent go nuts with detail without sacrificing that draw distance and lighting flaws we saw in so many levels even in the best looking games of last gen.

Here are a couple more:

I think it comes down to engines and technology, as I have said multiple times in this very thread, to have CGI like visuals you need wayyyy more geometry and a GI system. These current engines struggle at this, except UE5 as of now. Hellblade 2 and The Matrix Awakens give me that “next gen” feel and look. Marvel 1943 also, all done on what engine? UE5.

 

[March Climber]

IIRC, matrix UE5 demo had 35k pedestrians being governed in realtime by their system. I think Rockstar with their 3000 devs probably have even better systems to handle the insane number of NPCs and NPC variety we saw at the beach and strip clubs. That said, with RDR2 and even GTA5, they had a lot of scripted stuff for pedestrians which is something no other dev can do.

What are your thoughts on Dynasty Warriors Origins?

 

[analog_future]

So I bought Suicide Squad as part of the Steam Sale, and it's definitely in that tier of best looking games, alongside Hellblade II, Alan Wake II, and Avatar. Sound design, animations, and combat are top notch as well. Shame that Rocksteady went the gaas route with this one, because they still clearly have the special sauce. Hopefully they are given the opportunity to create a AAA single player game next.

Some of my shots:

 

[Audiophile]

10yrs and 4mths old; released on a 1.8TF GCN GPU & a 1.6GHz Netbook CPU



Holds up insanely well when it comes to the overall image in motion. The particles alone honestly look better to me than most of the coarse, temporal artefact-ridden sludge we get now.

 

[mrqs]

10yrs and 4mths old; released on a 1.8TF GCN GPU & a 1.6GHz Netbook CPU



Holds up insanely well when it comes to the overall image in motion. The particles alone honestly look better to me than most of the coarse, temporal artefact-ridden sludge we get now.

Still one of the biggest highlights of last gen for me, and it came out in Feb 2024. Super impressive.

 

[GymWolf]

 

[analog_future]

10yrs and 4mths old; released on a 1.8TF GCN GPU & a 1.6GHz Netbook CPU



Holds up insanely well when it comes to the overall image in motion. The particles alone honestly look better to me than most of the coarse, temporal artefact-ridden sludge we get now.

It'd be fun to replay this one in 4K/60/HDR on PS5 (or PC!)

 

[MadchesterManc]

It'd be fun to replay this one in 4K/60/HDR on PS5 (or PC!)

I'm sure they updated the PS4 Infamous games with Pro upgrades so you can unlock the frame rate with a toggle and it uses checkerboard for 4K. Tried First Light on PS5 a while back and it looked great with HDR and was pretty much locked at 60

 

[Darsxx82]

So I bought Suicide Squad as part of the Steam Sale, and it's definitely in that tier of best looking games, alongside Hellblade II, Alan Wake II, and Avatar. Sound design, animations, and combat are top notch as well. Shame that Rocksteady went the gaas route with this one, because they still clearly have the special sauce. Hopefully they are given the opportunity to create a AAA single player game next.

Some of my shots:

The cinematics and facial animations are top notch. During the gameplay it is more inconsistent due to its Gaas nature intertwining great visual moments with others that are too uninspired.

That said, I agree, the game shows that Roksteady has very good graphic designers and that a future AAA SP game would surely not disappoint on a visual level.

 

[Portugeezer]

10yrs and 4mths old; released on a 1.8TF GCN GPU & a 1.6GHz Netbook CPU



Holds up insanely well when it comes to the overall image in motion. The particles alone honestly look better to me than most of the coarse, temporal artefact-ridden sludge we get now.

PS4 launch window delivered, visually. This and Killzone were stunning.

 

[Audiophile]

I'm sure they updated the PS4 Infamous games with Pro upgrades so you can unlock the frame rate with a toggle and it uses checkerboard for 4K. Tried First Light on PS5 a while back and it looked great with HDR and was pretty much locked at 60

Yeah, I recall booting up the original game in 2160CB HDR on my PS4 Pro after I got it and distinctly recall the framerate toggle. I'm pretty sure it'll run full tilt at 60fps on the PS5.

 

[SlimySnake]

10yrs and 4mths old; released on a 1.8TF GCN GPU & a 1.6GHz Netbook CPU



Holds up insanely well when it comes to the overall image in motion. The particles alone honestly look better to me than most of the coarse, temporal artefact-ridden sludge we get now.

it looks good up close. really dated from afar. sony studios all do this with their open world games. Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima, even GoW. They prioritize near term detail while ubisoft studios make sure their games have great draw distance. But that means they dont look as good up close.

Honestly, i am tired of stuff like this and i hope sony studios fix this going forward.

 

[arkhamguy123]

it looks good up close. really dated from afar. sony studios all do this with their open world games. Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima, even GoW. They prioritize near term detail while ubisoft studios make sure their games have great draw distance. But that means they dont look as good up close.

Honestly, i am tired of stuff like this and i hope sony studios fix this going forward.

All 6 of those screenshots combined don’t look as good as a random vista from red dead 2 hell Arkham knight mops the floor with those if you go stand on Wayne tower.

I don’t remember these sony exclusives looking that bad on a macro scale good lord. Spider man 1 and 2 are kinda free of this though to be fair. Standing on the one World Trade Center looking out is genuinely impressive with the city rendering

 

[KXVXII9X]

PS4 launch window delivered, visually. This and Killzone were stunning.

This is why I don't understand when people say this generation started out like the last. In the Launch Window we had Killzone Shadowfall, Infamous Second Son, Ryse: Son of Rome, Sunset Overdrive, Driveclub, and Knack. That gen started with some lookers.

 

[GymWolf]

How in the fuck was sunset overdrive a looker?

 

[reezoo]

Feels like a paid promo if i didn't know any better.

not that the game looks bad or anything but to me video gave the same vibes, feels like paid content.

 

[CamHostage]

I was probably too young to appreciate it, but I don't remember feeling anything special about the jump from SNES to N64 at the time, it just kind of happened and I accepted it. Obviously looking back, I can see how insane it was.

Looking back, that is insane, but if you read magazines from the time, it was not an unusual opinion that 3D wasn't a "leap", it was just different... until it started to manifest in new games impossible via 'old' sprites and bitmaps.

We had this Slow-Boiling Frog effect where the graphics were so abstract in the early days and the gameplay was so rudimentary and hard to handle (plus 2D visual quality was at an apex with high resolution detail and computer-assisted modeling) that 3D games were often written off as "same old thing but now in 3D". Now we see where the games were going, where the size and depth of the world would make a difference, where a 3D collision box and a self-defined model with autonomy (unlike a sprite, which can only switch to other sprites when acted upon to show results of action) can create a character and change gameplay... we see the leap, it it was all these little hops that took us there and surprisingly we didn't know how far we had really come until we first looked back.

 

[KXVXII9X]

How in the fuck was sunset overdrive a looker?

It clearly was a step up from similar open worlds from the previous gen like Infamous 2. I didn't look at the game and go, "Hmm, I think this looks like a crossgen game."

 

[GymWolf]

It clearly was a step up from similar open worlds from the previous gen like Infamous 2. I didn't look at the game and go, "Hmm, I think this looks like a crossgen game."

I mean yeah but it's definitely out of a place in a list with inf3, kz sf, ryse and driveclub, those are actual lookers, it looked better than a ps3 game but it was pretty bad as a nextgen only game, also it was running at like 900p on the xone.

 

[SlimySnake]

All 6 of those screenshots combined don’t look as good as a random vista from red dead 2 hell Arkham knight mops the floor with those if you go stand on Wayne tower.

I don’t remember these sony exclusives looking that bad on a macro scale good lord. Spider man 1 and 2 are kinda free of this though to be fair. Standing on the one World Trade Center looking out is genuinely impressive with the city rendering

Yes. Spiderman games are an exception. Sp2 especially has a fantastic draw distance but that’s because they don’t have to render huge foliage rich vistas like other Sony games. Those buildings are far easier to replace with 3d models from 2d cut outs than trees from what i understand. You can see this in ratchet where the draw distance is great in the city levels and completely falls apart in the desert level with the red trees. They resort to blurring out the background like in horizon.

Oh and Spider-Man 2 buildings don’t look next Gen up close. Far behind cyberpunk in comparison.

So I bought Suicide Squad as part of the Steam Sale, and it's definitely in that tier of best looking games, alongside Hellblade II, Alan Wake II, and Avatar. Sound design, animations, and combat are top notch as well. Shame that Rocksteady went the gaas route with this one, because they still clearly have the special sauce. Hopefully they are given the opportunity to create a AAA single player game next.

Some of my shots:

Cutscenes look way better than gameplay. It’s fairly good looking game overall, but firmly in the last Gen camp. Star Wars and callisto are far more next Gen looking during gameplay.

That said, the draw distance is very impressive in this game as well but again just like Spider-Man 2, the actual building assets are just last Gen quality.

 

[Hunnybun]

Looking back, that is insane, but if you read magazines from the time, it was not an unusual opinion that 3D wasn't a "leap", it was just different... until it started to manifest in new games impossible via 'old' sprites and bitmaps.

We had this Slow-Boiling Frog effect where the graphics were so abstract in the early days and the gameplay was so rudimentary and hard to handle (plus 2D visual quality was at an apex with high resolution detail and computer-assisted modeling) that 3D games were often written off as "same old thing but now in 3D". Now we see where the games were going, where the size and depth of the world would make a difference, where a 3D collision box and a self-defined model with autonomy (unlike a sprite, which can only switch to other sprites when acted upon to show results of action) can create a character and change gameplay... we see the leap, it it was all these little hops that took us there and surprisingly we didn't know how far we had really come until we first looked back.

I think a big part of why Mario 64 felt like such a leap was simply that it wasn't ugly. N64 had different challenges, but at the very least the graphics weren't horrible, pixelated, shimmering messes like we had on the other consoles. You combine that with the absolutely quantum leap in game design, and for me it's still - and almost certainly always will be now - by far the single most impressive game reveal I've ever seen. It's hard to communicate to younger people just how incredible it was.