Final Fantasy XV [XO, PS4, PC]

[orangpelupa]

hopefully the story wont be complicated (throw weird jargons, refuse to explain stuff) just for the sake of complicating things. (ugh destiny, ff13.. /shudder)

 

[London Geezer]

hopefully the story wont be complicated (throw weird jargons, refuse to explain stuff) just for the sake of complicating things. (ugh destiny, ff13.. /shudder)

Oh come on. The story will without any doubt be over complicated, convoluted and with no sense whatsoever. Like so many FF games before it.
And that's part of why we love them. That sense of WTF IS GOING ON that grips you while playing these games.

 

[orangpelupa]

Yeah, FF are like that. But before 13 (i only played 8 9 10), at least i can understand what im doing, why im doing it, and what effect it brings. The general story i also get them, but not on 13...

on XV, it seems the story will be a band of boys traveling together to visit a girl in far-away country. This meeting is planned to turn-down the political conflict, but the result will be worse.

why they did not simply teleport or ride an airplane? dunno...

 

[L. Scofield]

Looking at the recent streams it seems like the renderer has been severely downgraded from the E3 2013 version:

-Tonemapping is much less realistic.
-Light bouncing is almost non-existent.
-Specular materials don't react to light bouncing.
-Low frequency AO is nowhere to be seen.

There's also the blue color grading but that's artistic so it doesn't count as a technical downgrade but it certainly looks much less realistic.

 

[Pixel]

Nearly every single game has had a downgrade from E3 13. Developers are running up against the limitations of the console hardware. Back then 3rd party devs didn't have the actual consoles on hand.

 

[Nesh]

I would have found it more delightful if they were relatively more conservative with their initial reveals and impressed me later with improvements rather the other way around.
Drive Club is such delightful example

The difference in FF15 is quite large unfortunately

 

[London Geezer]

Maybe I'm blind but they look the same, just with different hue.

Ah ignorance is bliss sometimes!

 

[orangpelupa]

so this is in-line with their development progress on PS3. It also got downgraded from initial reveal to the second or third reveal.

basically on that time, they reduced the polycount and make the lightning harsher.

EDIT:
the image colour edited

 

[ultragpu]

Sure it's not simply a TOD change? They did mention something something 70-80% graphics of the final version if I remembered correctly.

 

[L. Scofield]

so this is in-line with their development progress on PS3. It also got downgraded from initial reveal to the second or third reveal.

basically on that time, they reduced the polycount and make the lightning harsher.

EDIT:
the image colour edited

http://i.imgur.com/TOqQUyA.jpg

Nice edit. It's much more clear now that the left part of the building receives almost no bounce lighting.

Sure it's not simply a TOD change? They did mention something something 70-80% graphics of the final version if I remembered correctly.

We need better quality footage from that area but it doesn't look as good. Both the low frequency AO (completely gone, not featured in the TGS trailer) and the tonemapping were a big reason why the E3 trailers looked so realistic.

 

[ultragpu]

I think it's because Luminus engine used to bake all the GI into texture (like the Agni's demo) thus looking better than the dynamic lighting seen in the TGS footage. The need for a dynamic lighting solution for an open world game with changing TOD does seem logical and this is what we get currently.

 

[orangpelupa]

but since the PS3 video, its already shown the game have dynamic ToD right? (the gameplay on grass area)

 

[ultragpu]

I doubt it's dynamic before, could just be a different tod. The tech lead didn't mention or demo anything dynamic tod prior to the new TGS footage. I would be wrong tho, god knows what might happen in the next couple of year before final completion lol.

 

[orangpelupa]

ToD its here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiIx9VJWSl8

from 4.45. especially around 5:00.

btw that graphic is already downgraded from 2006.

 

[Nesh]

ToD its here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiIx9VJWSl8

from 4.45. especially around 5:00.

btw that graphic is already downgraded from 2006.

Downgraded from 2006? Are youbsure you are not comparing it with the CGI 2006 footage?

 

[orangpelupa]

the scene of stella's close up is the same in 2006 and the newer one but in 2006 she have better curve in shoulder, etc. It seems they cut down the polycount a little bit.

but yeah its also possible that in 2006 was all CG and their next trailer was in-game, so they need to cut the poly to meet budget.

EDIT:
i remembered it wrong, sorry. it was 2009 vs 2011

Noctis face and hair also got design changes

EDIT2:
i dont remember where i screencap that from. i think from videos on Gamersyde.

 

[L. Scofield]

I think it's because Luminus engine used to bake all the GI into texture (like the Agni's demo) thus looking better than the dynamic lighting seen in the TGS footage. The need for a dynamic lighting solution for an open world game with changing TOD does seem logical and this is what we get currently.

At E3 2013 we were shown two TODs: afternoon and evening. Maybe they were baked separately or maybe they just had better tech in place.

The low frequency AO was dynamic. It's subtle but it's most noticeable under the vehicles such as that patrol car. Characters also had this feature, here's a GIF that shows it clearly (look at the bottom half):

http://i.minus.com/izXkPhNkupcCD.gif

I think it's a technique like this:

 

[Gradthrawn]

The E3 2013 demo was reportedly done in a prototype engine called "Ebony". The TGS 2014 demo, on the other had, was with the game running directly on the new Luminous engine. According to this translated interview, they are still in the process or bringing functionality over from the prototype to production engines. Although, contextual, this appears to be gameplay functionality and not rendering engine components. Regardless, the difference in engine is likely a contributing factor in the visual difference between the 2 showings.

Q: So after all, the E3 2013 trailer was a lie? You can’t actually play like that?

A: You can fight like that. I think in the recent play demonstration we showed several techniques and functions, but at E3 last year the game was running on a prototype environment (Ebony). At TGS 2014 we showed the game running in the actual environment (Luminous). Right now we are in the process of migrating functions from the prototype into it. It will take time to migrate it all. I wanted to show footage in the actual environment as soon as possible, so I ended up showing something that is in the midst of migrating. The video shows actual footage, not an idealized version. It will become more and more advanced from here on out.


Read more at http://gematsu.com/2014/10/final-fa...fan-concerns-new-gameplay#Gd3csqr7p8cYW0lm.99

EDIT

There's a fairly good post over at GAF summarizing, and visualizing, some of the known information.

 

[L. Scofield]

I'd be happy if they simply got rid of the stupid blue filter.

 

[ultragpu]

I don't get why they even bothered with Ebony, an engine which they never intended to use? One must wonder what the hell have they been doing all these years. It sounds like they really have no clear indication of what level of graphics they want to achieve thus having so many iterations throughout the time. For most other studios they would died 10 times over by now.