Last of Us [PS4]

[Shifty Geezer]

just a random thought but, does it really have to go from pretty to ugly, 30 to 60?

Ugly? There we are, TLoU, already a gorgeous game, improved in virtually every way especially in framerate whcih could drag a bit on PS3, becomes ugly at the drop of a hat! There's only one difference between 30 and 60 fps and that's shadow resolution. One shouldn't define the aesthetic of a game purely on the shadows.

As for ND creating a nice mid-way point, they almost certainly can, but this is a port, not a new game. It was a 60 fps target and that's what they're releasing. They just decided on whim to give a 30 fps option, and found that with minimal effort they could throw in some higher quality shadows. The end product though is the 60 fps version. That was their target and what they tweaked rendering and resources for.

 

[Arwin]

This has been more than just a port though; it is also an experiment / test-bed for their next-gen games.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

This has been more than just a port though; it is also an experiment / test-bed for their next-gen games.

True but I don't expect TLoU to be remotely representative of what Uncharted 4 will look like. The texture work is clearly a marked improvement over the PS3 version but a long way from Infamous Second Son, likewise the complexity of the geometry of the environments. I would imagine there's quite a gulf in the effort to create and refine assets for a 720p game on PS3 compared to a 1080p game on PS4 and I think this shows in what we've seen of the remaster. They've not recreated or rebuilt vast areas of the game as far as I can see.

 

[Arwin]

True but I don't expect TLoU to be remotely representative of what Uncharted 4 will look like. The texture work is clearly a marked improvement over the PS3 version but a long way from Infamous Second Son, likewise the complexity of the geometry of the environments. I would imagine there's quite a gulf in the effort to create and refine assets for a 720p game on PS3 compared to a 1080p game on PS4 and I think this shows in what we've seen of the remaster. They've not recreated or rebuilt vast areas of the game as far as I can see.

Oh of course, there's no question about that. But they've said as much themselves that this allowed them to test the waters and inform how they would handle their next project. And going for 30 or 60fps was a part of that as well.

 

[DieH@rd]

 

[nightshade]

Wow what's going on here?

Seems fine when the flashlight falls on them
http://i.imgur.com/0BoY5yB.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/56JOphG.jpg


It seems like a very low resolution post process filter but two things:
1) What could this filter possibly be for?
2) Why use such low res filters on PS4?


Also, missing shadows
http://i.imgur.com/0BoY5yB.jpg

 

[Gitaroo]

definitely cut scene quality now.

Wow what's going on here?

Seems fine when the flashlight falls on them
http://i.imgur.com/0BoY5yB.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/56JOphG.jpg


It seems like a very low resolution post process filter but two things:
1) What could this filter possibly be for?
2) Why use such low res filters on PS4?

its the same on PS3, especially with left behind DLC, which is explain why it run smoother but with even more light bouncing in the new DLC. PS4 version is not worse but the same. High res makes them stand out even more, but yeah, do hope that they can clean it up soon. The game definitely need some tweaking still after seeing those shadow off set problem in the PS4 problem. Looks like the game was really hard coded for 720p only in mind, unless Tomb Raider which had a PC version to port from.

 

[nightshade]

This is due to their implementation of bounce lighting?

 

[HTupolev]

This is due to their implementation of bounce lighting?

Could be. It seems to be more noticeable in areas where I expect flashlight GI to form a significant contribution of the light response.

Stuff like this is why some people have been arguing for a while now that it's difficult to describe a game's resolution as a pair of integers.

This sort of thing has been common for a long time, really. Transparencies are a pretty common culprit, look at GT5 on PS3, looks almost like it's running at 240p when you have lots of dust behind a car.

 

[nightshade]

Could be. It seems to be more noticeable in areas where I expect flashlight GI to form a significant contribution of the light response.

Stuff like this is why some people have been arguing for a while now that it's difficult to describe a game's resolution as a pair of integers.

This sort of thing has been common for much of this generation, really. Transparencies are a pretty common culprit, look at GT5 on PS3, looks almost like it's running at 240p when you have lots of dust behind a car.

Uh they've been doing this for ages now, not just last gen.
Regardless of what the alpha resolution is or the resolution of the post process pass it should not be mistaken with the rendering resolution of the game''s framebuffer as that is what we refer to whenever we talk about game's resolution and it should not be confused.

 

[HTupolev]

Uh they've been doing this for ages now, not just last gen.

Yes. I have no idea how my hands managed to hit the keys like that. I edited my post.

Regardless of what the alpha resolution is or the resolution of the post process pass it should not be mistaken with the rendering resolution of the game''s framebuffer as that is what we refer to whenever we talk about game's resolution and it should not be confused.

Okay, but what do you mean by "the framebuffer"?

Usually it's not hard to point at some primary memory region, but coming up with a good general-purpose definition is hard. "The resolution opaque geometry is rasterized at prior to reaching the ROPs" seems to be the general thing, and I don't disagree that the notion of native resolution can still be used in everyday discussion, but in a strict sense it's a pretty fuzzy issue.

 

[nightshade]

well the rendering resolution of the opaque geometry.

I remember we had this discussion once when Alan Wake came out, people wanted other people to specifically state what they were referring to when they meant the "game's resolution" and honestly it got a bit stupid everytime someone had to refer to it as the "rendering resolution of the geometry"

 

[Graham]

This is due to their implementation of bounce lighting?

Quite likley. I presume they are doing VPL based bounce, basically placing a crap tonne of point lights on the surface points illuminated by the flashlight.
That being the case, it'd make sense calculating that lighting at lower res - as the number of overlapping lights will be exceptionally high.

That is all assuming that's what they are doing. I haven't looking into it.

 

[nightshade]

Quite likley. I presume they are doing VPL based bounce, basically placing a crap tonne of point lights on the surface points illuminated by the flashlight.
That being the case, it'd make sense calculating that lighting at lower res - as the number of overlapping lights will be exceptionally high.

That is all assuming that's what they are doing. I haven't looking into it.

Yea that's exactly what I thought they were doing and probably the reason why we don't see it everywhere.

 

[DieH@rd]

Digital Foundry is very satisfied with the look and state of TLOU Remaster. They have not spotted any changes in shadow quality between 30 and 60fps modes [except in few isolated situation that they marked as "buggy"]. Framerate is almost always at 60, and can drop down only during the most crowded scenes that have lots of transparency effects [first appeirance of bloater has drop to 48fps].

 

[DJ12]

But didn't ND said theres a difference in shadows between the two modes?

I'm sure they can sport the difference, maybe they imply it's not a deal changer?

 

[AlNom]

Apparently the better shadows are part of the patch?

 

[Ruiadas]

Yeah the DF article said they were playing pre-patch so their comments on the shadows may be inaccurate.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-vs-the-last-of-us-remastered

 

[RenegadeRocks]

I saw lotsa jaggies in youtube videos...I was expecting a pristine IQ, like TR.

Also that low res lighting from Left Behind, that was really bad on the DLC, have they implemented it into the full game too ? I was expecting such stuff to vanish on the ps4 and to get a clean pretty picture, the way its meant to be !

 

[djskribbles]

I watched "1080p" youtube videos as well and there was loads of aliasing...looked heavily sharpened. But then I watched the DF 1080p/60fps video and IQ is quite good. Goes without saying...yt sucks.

95 on metacritic. Game of the years? Probably not.