Ugly, performance targeted lighting

[inlimbo]

I wonder if this is also due to art direction?

Art direction plays a big part, yeah. If you want another hot take from me compare the just released Battlefield 2042 gameplay to gameplay of Battlefield 2142. Battlefiled 2142's lighting is largely baked and it's not doing much technically for its time, but it's far more striking and unusual aesthetically than 2042's bland mashup of reds, purples and blues.

 

[PSman1700]

Yep. There really isn't anything technically impressive about the graphics in this game. It uses the same GI light probes for global illumination, the fur rendering doesn't have ambient occlusion, and several assets with low poly count. Their RT reflections is using checkboard rendering on top of using very very low samples for the reflection. It makes all of the specular objects look granny as hell. I would have preferred for them to stick with SSR tbh. The low reflection samples are very jarring.

The game is extremely pretty artistically though. They've got a billion different shades of color in one frame which catches the eye very effectively.

Its impressive looking due to its art and asset detail. Technically, not so. Its just ALOT of artwork and detail pumped into rift apart. Rockstar is much more capable at this. Wait for whatever they have coming up designed around modern hardware.

 

[Kugai Calo]

Yeah I found RDR2’s lighting impressive too, the characters really merge into the environment unlike Halo Infinite and Rift Apart. I wonder what techniques they use exactly.

 

[inlimbo]

Scratch what I said about 2042. Those sandstorm and ice field maps wasn't a good showcase for the game's lighting.

 

[jlippo]

Yeah, RDR2's got some of the best lighting ever. Aesthetically and technically, but aesthetically especially.

When we're talking GI probes and Ratchet and Clank are we talking baked GI probes? Because as I understood it Rift Apart is still using baked indirect lighting for all its GI. And surely baked GI isn't the reason it looks flat, it's the particular kind of probes they're using, right?

Baked probe grid, yes.

If I understood correctly they changed the way it was baked from Spiderman, but the resulting grid data was same.
So it should be a cubemap probe convoluted down to one sample per face.

 

[Nesh]

I am perplexed that this thread talks about ugly lighting for Rift Apart and "better" lighting in Fallout 4?

 

[JoeJ]

I am perplexed that this thread talks about ugly lighting for Rift Apart and "better" lighting in Fallout 4?

It's very interesting how opinion / perception diverges.
Can't second this one either, but it's about expectations too: Some people 'expect' dynamic time of day should be in a modern game. I don't and do not even think about that, while for precomputed lighting it has a big impact on quality compromise vs. dynamics.

 

[snc]

I am perplexed that this thread talks about ugly lighting for Rift Apart and "better" lighting in Fallout 4?

Yeah, is this topic late April 1st joke ? ;d