Horizon: Zero Dawn - Graphics de-Gushing

[ultragpu]

This game's visual is constantly blowing my mind, 3 hours in and I've already taken 500mb worth of pics.

https://abload.de/img/43ok66.png
https://abload.de/img/5egjqc.png
https://abload.de/img/3z5jt0.png

 

[Clukos]

Using shaders to generate surfaces instead of textures to compensate for the downsides of the consoles unified memory architecture? Don't get me wrong there are upsides to unified memory too!

So it's similar to UC4 then, and the effect is enhanced on Ps4 Pro because of the added mem b/w I guess?

 

[Warchild]

I can't believe how close Aloy comes to Until dawn level of fidelity!

 

[Clukos]

I can't believe how close Aloy comes to Until dawn level of fidelity!

I think she's more detailed than most characters in Until Dawn (if not all), or at least it looks that way.

https://abload.de/img/horizonzerodawn_20170dklri.jpg
https://abload.de/img/horizonzerodawn_20170tiybr.jpg
https://abload.de/img/horizonzerodawn_20170x8zxn.jpg
https://abload.de/img/horizonzerodawn_201706czod.jpg

(compressed to jpg through PS to save b/w)

This is the preorder outfit by the way.

 

[ultragpu]

Aloy is definitely an extremely high quality model, everything from her hair, model detail, texture res and shaders are a massive leap over something like The Witcher 3. In fact the models in general are much higher quality than TW3's.

 

[Karamazov]

Facial animations are lacking. They are not bad, better than say the witcher 3 for example, but way behind UC4.
That's a bit disappointing because models look so good, and shaders quality seems consistent between gameplay and cutscenes, not like UC4.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Looking to actually create a discussion out of this love-fest, what does HZD suggest is possible in smaller environments? I just bought Star Wars Battlefronts, a very pretty game, but HZD supersedes it in far larger environments, no? As well as better IQ. If scaled down to smaller arenas say, is there potential to get a significant advance in visuals?

 

[Karamazov]

characters are looking better and better, but now i'd like to see actual clothes physics, i'm tired of armor shirts and trousers. And muscles flex.

 

[goonergaz]

Looking to actually create a discussion out of this love-fest, what does HZD suggest is possible in smaller environments? I just bought Star Wars Battlefronts, a very pretty game, but HZD supersedes it in far larger environments, no? As well as better IQ. If scaled down to smaller arenas say, is there potential to get a significant advance in visuals?

I just don't understand, I play the game...it's open world...but it looks this good!? I keep having to remind myself!

Amazing work by GG.

 

[ultragpu]

Looking to actually create a discussion out of this love-fest, what does HZD suggest is possible in smaller environments? I just bought Star Wars Battlefronts, a very pretty game, but HZD supersedes it in far larger environments, no? As well as better IQ. If scaled down to smaller arenas say, is there potential to get a significant advance in visuals?

Well SW:BF is designed as a 60fps game so I guess you don't wanna strain the engine too much especially when you have XBone to cater to.
I think with the way an Open World game is designed, it kinda distributes resources in its own very specific way, so I can imagine GG caters the outdoor environment a lot in terms of rendering budget but leaving the indoor or smaller sections to a much lesser budget. So despite being a small area, you probably don't get 2x or 3x amount of graphical advancement. However if Decima (current or latest version) is being used for a smaller linear game, I can certainly see a much denser or complex scene due to the fact you can pour every resources into them without having to worry about open world nature.
I also don't really count Until Dawn (fkn ironic name)since it's a very early version of the engine but the next killzone game would probably pack in a lot more effects, higher quality assets and more complex shaders than HZD especially on the Pro.

 

[ultragpu]

characters are looking better and better, but now i'd like to see actual clothes physics, i'm tired of armor shirts and trousers. And muscles flex.

Yeah absolutely, I mean we do have some fairly nice looking cloth sims these days but nothing nearly as advanced as this. Wonder how processing intensive it would be? I look forward to the day when we don't use Normalmap blending for folds and creases on the clothes.

 

[Arwin]

it's not really practical for hunting though, is it, that dress ....

 

[Karamazov]

it depends what she is hunting...

 

[ultragpu]

Make ultragpu her prey time.

 

[Clukos]

I only have one "major" gripe with the game visually, in regards to lighting. I'll put it in a spoiler because you either notice it or you don't

Spoiler

It has to do with the color grading and the time of day. Naturally this is how lighting works throughout the day:

And it looks like white balance in Horizon works the opposite way, being warmer (low blue light) during day time and colder (high blue light) during dawn/dusk

It looks so weird and it is very hard to place what time it is exactly in the game.

I'm sure it is an artistic choice but I don't like it. It's weird too because every art released for the game is "correct", maybe it is isolated in the area I'm in right now?

 

[chris1515]

 

[chris1515]

in game PS4 Pro photomode

against FF the Spirit within

 

[chris1515]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=231273279&postcount=439

Proof photomode doesn't add anything to gameplay, the guy added some DOF effect to the photomode but it is easy to verify.

 

[Clukos]

Alright, back to the positives

Playing on the Ps4 Pro is pretty much like playing with bullshot quality mode enabled, all these are from gameplay:

Translucent cloth material (changed tod to check with the position of the sun) and GI bounce on Aloys gear in indirectly lit area

Self shadowing on everything that's on Aloy

This engine and how Guerrilla used it produced something really quite special.

 

[ultragpu]

At times the visuals could get so overwhelming I find myself overly distracted to even care about enemy attacking. This is real time nature porn.