A Generational Leap in Graphics [2020] *Spawn*

I was messing around with COD Black Ops Cold War and it looks really good. The thing that stands out the most? The absolutely terrible hair. It’s not bad all things considered but looks really bad next to the other high quality assets.

Hopefully decent hair rendering will be a thing this generation.

 

So I picked up CB2077 out of curiosity. I'm no-where near ready to play it given my current backlog and aging hardware but I had to see what all the fuss is about first hand.

Firstly, holy shit this game is demanding! Yes I only have a 1070 but even at 1920x810 (fixed) with no RT this GPU can drop almost down to 30fps at times with Ultra settings. It's usually in the 40's or even 50's but that infamous van shootout that DF covered saw it drop to around 31fps at points. Oh and I can't seem to get a solid 60 fps even by dropping settings to medium or by running CAS at 85% (which looks pretty bad anyway). Not sure what the bottleneck is but I have a 3700x so I doubt it's that. I'm running from a HDD so maybe that's limiting things in some way although load times seem very reasonable and I've not noticed any obvious pop in with the limited exposure I've had.

Second, I'm not sure I can play this with a control pad. Usually, any game with 3rd person driving is an automatic control pad game. But the 1st person view in this feels ungodly sluggish with a pad at 30fps. It doesn't really feel much better with a mouse at that frame rate either. I can see why people consider it unplayable at sub 30fps on consoles. It seems to me it needs a solid 60fps and Keyboard/mouse to feel responsive. I can see me compromising on settings to hit 60fps (something I very rarely do) when I eventually start the game properly with modern hardware, and will probably play with K/M primarily with gamepad on standby for driving. I don't like that, it's awkward, and I'll try to get used to one or other method but first impressions suggest this might be the best option.

Third, the graphics. If you think this game looks like GTAV, then you should probably try playing it instead of watching YT videos. They do not do it justice. At all. I definitely get the same vibe from this that I got from the original Crysis. It just feels like you're playing a movie a lot of the time, although that might have a lot to do with the fourth point below. I can't imagine how awesome this must look at high res on a big screen (1920x800 on a 27" 1080p screen is titchy) with full RT and 60fps!

Fourth, the sound. It is by far, far the most immersive sound I've ever experienced in a game. Granted I've barely played the (street kid) intro but that first scene when you're in the club. Wow.

 

I totally understand that vibe. I remember playing crysis and after very long loading times; seeing the faces, suits, skin shading and everything, and then the descent onto the island... It must have been 17 FPS at one point but it didn’t matter: this was what games would look like in the future :O

 

But I agree that there is a strange bottleneck somewhere. You can look at the sky or the ground, and still be around 35-40 fps without (visible) reason sometime, it's weird.

 

The old-gen animation spoils everything. The lighting is not realistic, some pop-up and texture flickering. The whole thing looks like a... videogame.

Overall I'd say both TLOU2 and Spiderman MM look more "next-gen" and realistic than this. It's not all about resolution, number of effects and features applied. The final result is the most important.

 

I am getting the PS4 (PS5) version later this afternoon, so I can tell you guys how it looks in low detail 50-60fps on a 120 inch screen

 

If anything, last of us 2 and MM are typically those last gen experiences graphics wise. They, for a reason landed after CP2077 in DFs best graphics of the year awards. But, totally understandable since those had to run well on PS4 (cross gen stuff).

 

Having seen that version (a family members ps5), dont bother if you want the next gen experience.

 

If you dislike these effects:
Ray-Traced Diffuse Illumination
Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion
Ray-Traced Reflections
Ray-Traced Shadows
(And call them not realistic)

over
Ray-Traced Reflections with REDUCED resolution (1/4 resolution) MOOTED to 30 FPS mode (60 FPS mode use Screen space reflections) with no shadow reflections
Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion


I bet you only tried the game on console and only watched CyberPunk 2077 raytracing videos on youtube videos and suffer from "sour grapes".

Mind boggling

 

Agreed. Having proper draw distances, realistic lighting and exquisite detail ranks high on my list. It really looks horrible when buildings, objects and textures are blurred as a compromise. In a way the console "next-gen" games have some truth only when compared against prior console experiences. Hopefully the real next-gen can move beyond these barriers and start the road towards real photo-realistic environments.

 

Obviously you haven't actually played the game.

 

HAHA, It's mind boggling that on the 1080Ti without raytracing that TLOU2 still looks way better, plays way better and has countless less bugs on a 7 year old platform(PS4).

And this is called GOTY material? My ass. TLOU2 deserved GOTY over this. I stopped playing this after 75 hours recorded. I still haven't finished it. Maybe one day I will. In the meantime, I finished Spider-man Miles Morales, played Astro's Playroom and am busy with Ghost of Tsushima again(which also looks way better than this game).

 

Please re-read my criticism, one important excerpt:

 

CP2077 doesnt need ray tracing enabled to leave last of us 2 in the dust. Atleast on pc. A 1080Ti system handidly makes CP2077 looks leauges better then last of us 2 does on a seven year old PS4 platform. Its not even close.

Hell, a 2012 7950 does better work then the 2013 PS4 in its own AAA exclusives like HZD, a game that looks better then last of us 2 anyway, open world.

 

I may be able to provide some perspective on this since I'm currently playing both TLOU2 and Cyberpunk for the first time.

While TLOU2 looks nice, it's very much a conventional looking video game, with conventional last gen looks. Cyberpunk is a whole new experience. Often times it looks like you are playing an animated movie. It does not look like real life mind you but still a big improvement on TLOU2.

edit: obviously I'm playing with RT effects on

 

I am sorry, but I don't understand what you are saying?
What does a 1080Ti (3 generations old) has to do with a PS exclusive?
And how does this related to CP2077?

 

They both don't have RT.

 

And the final result is visual lesser, but you claim it to be better.
It comes with easy to see less visuals:

A closer look at PS5 ray tracing in Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered • Eurogamer.net
Insomniac's latest Spider-Man: Miles Morales update adds ray tracing at 60fps • Eurogamer.net

This reminds me of another poster than clamied "perfect reflections"...and did not see the screen space reflection anomalies until pointed out.

I see a pattern here.

 

And neither look next gen so point being?

 

Obviously everyone will have a different opinion but I'm really quite baffled by this statement. Are you sure you had the monitor turned on while playing it?