Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion Archive [2014]

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What a great revisit for a gorgeous looking game.
Yes in some situations it Looks really good, but the weather effects do not change the overall inconsistency of the games graphics. some parts look really gorgeous and others look like they were designed for the last gen. yes it helps to add some darker weather. most times a darker picture increases the overall picture quality for the eyes, but just some daylight and those inconsistencies are visible again.

and it also doesn't change the fact, that this feature should have been in there at day 1 like they advertised it..
 
Yes in some situations it Looks really good, but the weather effects do not change the overall inconsistency of the games graphics. some parts look really gorgeous and others look like they were designed for the last gen. yes it helps to add some darker weather. most times a darker picture increases the overall picture quality for the eyes, but just some daylight and those inconsistencies are visible again.

and it also doesn't change the fact, that this feature should have been in there at day 1 like they advertised it..

I haven't noticed any "last-gen" assets, just the opposite. Granted, even the most gorgeous games, can have some underwhelming areas (visually) compared to other areas. IMHO, the only thing Evolution Studio's needs to improve on - in game - is the antialiasing sampling around certain objects up close. Other than that, DriveClub has my vote as the sexiest racer currently available on any system.
 
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-vs-captain-toad-treasure-tracker

"Much of Treasure Tracker's beauty stems from its simple yet brilliant visual design, which sees a series of nicely detailed, Mario-flavoured stages transposed over colourful backgrounds. It's all rather whimsical, but beautifully realised, with stages often resembling small floating models that you could almost reach out and touch. With the focus on smaller maps this time around, the designers are able to include more detail per block, giving the world a richly textured feel. Every edge is beautifully smoothed off and everything just fits together into a cohesive whole that - aliasing aside - feels almost pre-rendered at points."

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"Thanks to superb character models and excellent shading there are moments when Captain Toad resembles a pre-rendered film. It's really a beautiful thing to see in motion."


"Then there is the matter of performance and it's here that - once again - Nintendo delivers the goods. It may seem like a given that a game such as this would operate at a smooth 60fps but that's not always the case; there are plenty of puzzle/platform games available on even more powerful platforms that fail to deliver such a consistent update. Given that Treasure Tracker is even more confined than Super Mario 3D World, the engine never really misses a beat handing in a flawless performance profile. This game simply does not drop frames - at all."
 
Heh seeing what amazing work Nintendo can do with their art I imagine what they could have done if they wanted to use full force their talent on more capable hardware. In the old days Nintendo was combining beautifully both their artistic and technical talent. The N64 demonstrated that combination very very well.
 
Heh seeing what amazing work Nintendo can do with their art I imagine what they could have done if they wanted to use full force their talent on more capable hardware. In the old days Nintendo was combining beautifully both their artistic and technical talent. The N64 demonstrated that combination very very well.
With limitations comes greatness...
 
One of the more pointless DF articles. They're not here to do game reviews. The tech of the game - no AO solution, low shadow res, little content in levels - is mostly uninspiring and not worth a DF article. The only bit of tech really worth noting is the lighting on the characters which the article doesn't do into. My first guess is spherical lightmaps per character although I'm not sure that works with the flipper shadows near the end.

The rest, the author's real message, should have appeared in a review where it's appropriate to talk about back-to-basics gameplay and bug-less code.
 
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Another pointless article, they are shooting for the wind.

Despite massive improvements (For xbox one any way), both worse than your average smart tv for media functions.

Thanks for your input DF, how will we ever live without you in our lives.
 
PS4 is much better at Netflix than my TV and on Xbox One you have voice control. My tv, receiver and ps4 all play nice with HDMI-CEC and with one of the updates this summer the Netflix app also started listening to CEC so it's getting there. But having DNLA back would still be nice. We never watch anything illegal or ripped, so outside of being able to access the 3TB MyCloud we use for (local) network storage, it's basically all we need. I wouldn't mind voice controls for Bluray and DVD though.
 
Another pointless article, they are shooting for the wind.

Despite massive improvements (For xbox one any way), both worse than your average smart tv for media functions.

Thanks for your input DF, how will we ever live without you in our lives.

Don't see what's wrong with occasionally reviewing the changing (improving) media capabilities of these devices.

Would love to know what 'average' smart TV's you're used to using. In my experience they mostly have missing key apps (in the UK either Amazon Instant, or 4OD, or content restricted 5 on demand) and generally awful performance in Youtube and web browsing. And a smart TV can't give you 3D BR playback. Edit: And most 'average' smart tvs don't have voice and gesture control and let you extend control onto your phone or tv.

So ... no.
 
Come on it's not useless. It's nothing that you wouldn't find in other sites, but some of the info is nice to know, especially as far as the more obscure parts of video playback (mkv, 1080i50). And as mentioned, the PS4 is much better than even my lovely plasma at doing some things - then again Panasonic have never been great at the 'smart tv' world, certainly not as good as Samsung.
God, you boys are so hard to please!
 
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God bless, Panasonic, your smart features are never completed and stop being smart disappointingly soon ...

The 360 still has a suite of working media features despite being 9 years old and will do for the foreseeable future. PS3 seems to be doing pretty damn well too. The last thing to consider when you buy a TV are the smart features because they'll a) be incomplete b) be shit and c) stop working after a few months and never be updated.

PS4Bone is the way.
 
Perhaps the real comparison isn't with smart TVs but TV dongles like Google's and the various cheap Android options out there. When PS360 launched, there wasn't much else to touch them in the CE space for media (despite shortcomings). But now every second device has media functionality built in. Connect your toaster's HDMI out to your TV and watch Netflix! So with the competition so widespread, the consoles really need to justify themselves for that functionality. Of course, if you buy a console for games it's a nice freebie addition, but as an all-in-one entertainment device where media functionality is one of the reasons for purchase, they need to start excelling.
 
The last thing to consider when you buy a TV are the smart features because they'll a) be incomplete b) be shit and c) stop working after a few months and never be updated.

Sony owner here. The apps I use Netflix, iPlayer (and the on-demand TV), BBC News, YouTube, AccuWeather etc, are all great. I don't understand why you think Netflix and the other app authors will stop updating the apps for the platform that Sony use? They didn't with my last TV o_O
 
Truth be told my TV gets various updates every year. But to be honest I never understood what they were about. It just updates. They never tell you what the update was about

edit: Oh BTW my TV is a Sony
 
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