UE3 needs a serious upgrade to keep up with other console titles, PS3 exclusives and new PC releases. Gears 2 needs better lighting and shadows, and it should be able to display more characters and handle larger interactive enviroments then the first game in order to be able to repeat its success. Some AA wouldn't hurt either.
Does UE 3.0 need an upgrade? *Spin-Off
- Thread starter Laa-Yosh
- Start date
And with E3 "changing/gone" it opens up space for the other shows to take on more importance.
Agreed. Some gameplay diversity/evolution wouldn't hurt either.
I disagree, it's still one of the best looking games out there. Easily in the top 20% or so. Gameplay was the best also.
Pay closer attention to the lighting and shadows then.
Characters use just a few point lights, so their lighting is harsh and unnatural, often some parts are completely black despite standing in a sunlit outdoor enviroment. It needs some kind of image-based ambient lighting, perhaps even some global illumination fake, to keep up with games like Halo3, KZ2, or even Valve's HL2 series.
Shadows are very buggy - they flicker a lot and light bleeds through in many cases. Just look at the ears of Marcus as you play through the game, it's very disturbing to me.
Gears does look very good though, but it's mostly the result of the amazing texture work, relatively complex shaders (compared to other games), and the inspired design (www.johnwallin.net). If they can fix the above mentioned issues, and increase performance, then Gears 2 can easily become the best looking console game so far...
I agree and that is something that i have been saying all along.
Maybe some people will laugh at me when I say that what makes Gear look so good is its art but I don't care. I feel that a lot of people do not give it credit for its art as they reduce the whoe game into "bald space marines" how can it then be concidered to have any serious art.
That does not mean that there is no strong tech in the game as there clearly is, but as also pointed out there are quite a few not so strong tech issues as well...
If they can get Halo 3 lighting in Gears of War environments, I would be grateful. 
After playing Halo 3, the lighting issues in Gears of War just make me cringe, but honestly, it isn't a huge huge deterrent when I actually do play the game. From time to time I do notice the inconsistencies, but for the most part it's not too too bad.
After playing Halo 3, the lighting issues in Gears of War just make me cringe, but honestly, it isn't a huge huge deterrent when I actually do play the game. From time to time I do notice the inconsistencies, but for the most part it's not too too bad.I'm with Rangers on this one, I haven't seen that many games that look better than Gears so far.
And then there's UT3, also on the same engine and IMO that pretty much the best looking game available (along with Crysis and CoD4 *in parts*).
And then there's UT3, also on the same engine and IMO that pretty much the best looking game available (along with Crysis and CoD4 *in parts*).
Yeah, I was watching this today and it just goes to show how far apart they are in this regards.
Gears has great asset variety and quality but they definately took a couple steps back from the UE3 demos in terms of the shadowing and lighting techniques the game shipped with.
I think most people are drawn to the art and have a hard time differentiating the two. But Gears would look even better if they resolved some of these issue. The lighting issues on the ears, personally, drive me nuts and look really poor.
nothing to fix here.all in the artist's hands.
You're referring to the excessive character highlighting, right? For example, the character has a light in front of it yet the edges of the back or sides of the character are highlighted very brightly.
I would hope their global illumination implementation would fix that.
Silhouette edges are highlighted intentionally, to separate the characters from the background. Otherwise they'd be lost in the image, particularly with the hyper-detailed look of Gears.
The trouble is IMHO that the models are far too lowpoly for this, and normal mapping cannot compensate in this case.
The trouble is IMHO that the models are far too lowpoly for this, and normal mapping cannot compensate in this case.
You're referring to the excessive character highlighting, right? For example, the character has a light in front of it yet the edges of the back or sides of the character are highlighted very brightly.
I would hope their global illumination implementation would fix that.
Actually I was referring to the overly sharp specularity that shiny objects have when rendered in UE3 - it makes everything look a little wet.
Actually I was referring to the overly sharp specularity that shiny objects have when rendered in UE3 - it makes everything look a little wet.
This is more because of every artists out there on a UE3 game seems to like making things shiny, not so much because of UE3 engine itself.
