UC4: Best looking gameplay? *SPOILS*

[rockaman]

The foliage is not only super impressive and *insanely* dense in Uncharted 4.

But the LOD management of it and its draw distance is also incredibly strong.

And not only that, the incredibly variety in which the way it is used, bent in this way or that, reacting to simulated wind, the tranlucency of the large leaves with light sources, proportioned in a certain way, and the different archetypes of foliage they use in so many different combinations... all of it is exceptional and helps it set itself apart from other games which also have very strong foliage.

And all of it moves so utterly naturally it's shocking at first sight really. It's certainly no simple "speed tree" foliage or something. The reaction to explosions from grenades or movement of characters is very convincing.

There's just so many things they do right with the foliage in Uncharted 4 that it genuinely feels, and probably is, that raises it so much beyond what we've previously seen in real-time on consoles, or really anywhere. Lovingly detailed but also technically incredible.

 

[Warchild]

Regarding grass.....i don't see it.

 

[rockaman]

Yea the open-ish areas of Uncharted 4 are also incredibly lush. It is not just in the more linear areas that Uncharted 4 looks so good with foliage.

The colour and lighting is simply exceptional all over the game, including in regards to the foliage.

Even many of the seemingly very linear areas of Uncharted 4 also have very distant explorable areas. Not just the one boating area and the two driving ones. The environments are extremely, extremely large.

Also personally I feel DICE's Battlefront is the best comparison of foliage next to Uncharted 4. Not Far Cry 4/Far Cry Primal. The resolution and detailing seems more on par and comparable to what Uncharted 4 offers.

 

[London Geezer]

Thanks for the laugh Shifty!

But I think the 60fps part is too early in your post. Should have mentioned it at the very end for a better effect...

So... You finally got a PS4??

I'd suggest, keep playing. There really is quite a jump in graphics and attention to detail after a few chapters. And the another jump before the end.

 

[London Geezer]

I think one important point to consider in that regard is that UC4 is fairly linear whereas FCP is open world so there is an opportunity in UC4 to perfect each area in a highly artistic way as per the shots ultragpu posted above. However FCP doesn't have that luxury so while the 'average' area in FCP may not look as good (I'd certainly agree with that) I think it can look as good or better when you catch a really good area at the right ToD like the shots I posted above demonstrates.

But that's not the question. You said Farcry primal foliage is better. I don't think it is. You can't then rebut and say that it's not as good as UC4 because it's an open world game. It either is or it isn't better.

 

[pjbliverpool]

This serves as a perfect example of why comparing an open world games visuals is a bad idea in a thread like this. As an open world game, obviously you're always going to find shots that show the game in it's worst light, especially if you're going to throw in screenshots with terrible image quality despite grouping PC graphics into the comparison which wouldn't necessarily be effected by that poor image quality.

It's not like other games can't be highlighted in an unflattering light either:

Meanwhile, FCP can look amazing:

TO BE CLEAR: I'm not suggesting that the above is representative of the relative graphics quality of the two games. I'm very much impressed with UC4. However I do think it serves as testament to how easy it is to post a disingenuous graphics comparison.

 

[pjbliverpool]

But that's not the question. You said Farcry primal foliage is better. I don't think it is. You can't then rebut and say that it's not as good as UC4 because it's an open world game. It either is or it isn't better.

I said it was roughly on par. I'll build on that by saying that at it's best FCP foliage can at least match the best of UC4 foliage. However given that it's a vastly larger open world game, FCP also has much greater opportunity to vary in graphical quality to the point where it's possible to find screenshots like those above which make it look, quite frankly, shit.

 

[rockaman]

At FCP's best it can definitely look somewhere in the range of some of what Uncharted 4 performs, that is definitely easily agreeable.

Overall though, even despite FCP's open world nature, the nod has to be given to Uncharted 4. There's just so many more reasons to see where U4 is untouchable here. And that's including in it's own extremely large play pens, like the two car areas and the boat area I mentioned before. Those are exceptionally large areas.

 

[Recop]

Clearl

TO BE CLEAR: I'm not suggesting that the above is representative of the relative graphics quality of the two games. I'm very much impressed with UC4. However I do think it serves as testament to how easy it is to post a disingenuous graphics comparison.

This is why i only used DF's screenshots to make my comparison = same quality.

And so far, you're the only one who posted very compressed pictures of Primal...

...

 

[Recop]

Overall though, even despite FCP's open world nature, the nod has to be given to Uncharted 4. There's just so many more reasons to see where U4 is untouchable here. And that's including in it's own extremely large play pens, like the two car areas and the boat area I mentioned before. Those are exceptionally large areas.

I think it's much harder to get a consistent quality when a game uses a lot of different assets and this is not the case for Primal.

Actually, foliage should be the last thing affected by a consistency issue. You don't have to create each plant, you simply repeat them...

 

[milk]

I have the same feeling as Shifty in that a lot of U4's good looks have a lot to thank to area specific hacks. I think the overall final result this game displays is unmatched right now. But their real time rendering tech is not groundbreaking, albeit top of the line and with its stand out moments, it is inconcistency-prone by design. Sice the first UC, they've been perfecting their renderer, tools and workflow for this very specific "directed" style. Which makes my graphics whore side feel divided. I like the incredible results they achieve, and rhey make me say "wow, so games can look like THIS now?" but it lacks stuff for that techie graphics whore of mine that likes to see an engine that is just robust and consistent. UC4 is full of artist-made custom tailoring at every corner.

 

[ultragpu]

FCP's foliage while could get dense, non of the grass even cast shadows from the sun thus looking fairly flat under the sun, the lack of variety at least compared to UC4's foliage also drops its points. Also the wind physics from that thunder storm level in UC4 makes the palm trees and everything else look that much more alive as that seldom happens in FCP. There are also tons of places where the foliage are so meticulously well hand crafted to serve a story scene or not, that really gives UC4 a much more consistent look in foliage quality. I would handily put UC4 above FCP's overall, but please do show me what the best of FCP could do tho, I'm only half way through the game and got fairly bored of it as I do with any open world game, so there might be thigns I haven't seen later on.
As for Battlefront, the foliage does look extremely nice in stills, but the lack of any grassfield kinda makes the whole presentation less dense and less varied. They are also very sterile, not nearly as dynamic as UC4's foliage physics in motion, the lack of volumetric lighting in BF is a major sore spot, but it does have some very high res textures tho. The best looking foliage to me has to be seen both in stills and in motion as in how they react and behave to the surroundings. Any one can take a high res photo just for the texture, slap it onto a mesh and repeat, but to have them behave and animate as well on a big scale while maintaining the density and its design quality is much more complicated and effort consuming.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Just played the first four chapters of UC4 and I think my opinion will suitably annoy everyone - I'll currently give UC4's visuals an 8/10.

...

Things are gonna get real good. REAL GOOD.

 

[Clukos]

I would agree about consistency but that's true about any game. The only game I've played in 2016 which is consistent visually is The Witness, and that's using pre-baked lighting for everything and almost nothing outside of the puzzles is interactive. Even Battlefront is inconsistent, there's a reason you see Endor every time someone is talking about graphics and Battlefront, and that map is also full of artist tweaked trickery, you don't just scan a forest then BOOM map ready to go

Maybe i'm missing something or didn't understand you correctly but i think that's an odd complaint Shifty, real-time graphics (baked or not) just aren't there yet (in terms of consistency).

 

[Warchild]

The most impressive realtime character model currently. In some shots it really looks like a cg model. Really sucks that the character model got downgraded which is a major shame, but most impressive is that it is still the best looking, downgraded or not.

We're getting real close to spirits within character models.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Regarding grass.....i don't see it.

Maybe you've not got that far into the game yet but you have not used any example chapters from Uncharted 4 with lots of foliage.

 

[Warchild]

Maybe you've not got that far into the game yet but you have not used any example chapters from Uncharted 4 with lots of foliage.

yeah, i'm taking my time. Can't go ten minutes without taking a picture

Insane detailed characters and insane environments.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

So... You finally got a PS4??

Friend brought his over. It's a great game for hot-seating in the room.

I'd suggest, keep playing.

No, I flatly refuse. Any game that can't score higher than an 8 in the opening chapters ain't worth my time, no matter how good the game might be. I'm not playing these 'computer games' for the fun of it, you know.

I would agree about consistency but that's true about any game...Maybe i'm missing something or didn't understand you correctly but i think that's an odd complaint Shifty, real-time graphics (baked or not) just aren't there yet (in terms of consistency).

I've played plenty of games where the lighting is consistent enough that it doesn't have jarring 'out-of-the-sweet- events. The paper holding in UC4 really bugs me. It looks like a PS2 game in terms of lighting when you have a flatly lit sheet and a flatly lit hand and no lighting cordination between the two. Something like LBP or TTC looks the same in all cases.

Put it down for personal preference. I'd rather a 7/10 constant lighting quality then 10/10 mixed with 4/10 lighting, just as I'd rather have 30 fps locked rather than unlocked with moments of sudden jumps in smoothness.

 

[Love_In_Rio]

I have the same feeling as Shifty in that a lot of U4's good looks have a lot to thank to area specific hacks. I think the overall final result this game displays is unmatched right now. But their real time rendering tech is not groundbreaking, albeit top of the line and with its stand out moments, it is inconcistency-prone by design. Sice the first UC, they've been perfecting their renderer, tools and workflow for this very specific "directed" style. Which makes my graphics whore side feel divided. I like the incredible results they achieve, and rhey make me say "wow, so games can look like THIS now?" but it lacks stuff for that techie graphics whore of mine that likes to see an engine that is just robust and consistent. UC4 is full of artist-made custom tailoring at every corner.

All the engines depends heavily on the artists in the end. Look at Dragon Ages Inquisition for example compared to Battlefield 4. They don´t look games made with the same engine. As far as I can tell Uncharted chapter 13 is the pinnacle of real time graphics for now IMO. It could validate as a tech demo for nowadays possible graphics techniques.
And worthy of remark: the best AA implementation I have ever seen plus the best LOD transtion ever.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Not all. Some games favour dynamic, computed solutions, like LBP2 and TTC. These provide a completely unified lighting model with no hacks, so look the same in all cases. At their best they don't look as good as the best choreographed solutions like UC4's, but at their worst they don't look any worse than their best whereas a choreographed solution can miss out on a specific case and be remarkably inconsistent. Again, the paper holding is pretty gobsmacking for UC4. It's a common enough occurence, they should have faked a contact shadow solution. There are too many elements (in the first four chapters) of glowing objects because the dynamic solutions can't match the quality of the baked. It's like a cartoon where the parts that are going to move are drawn completely differently (and simply) from the beautifully painted backdrops - you can see the ledge is going to crumble as the character walks on it because it's flatly drawn rather than painted and sticks out like a sore thumb.