Ok since I've done this with QB i might as well do this with U4 after finally getting some gameplay from the gold build on gamersyde (even though it's still low bitrate, thanks Sony), my impressions of the technical/visual side
Things I liked
- Animation: Right of the bat the single most impressive thing about this footage, the amount of contextual animations Drake has during gameplay is very impressive. I might be forgetting something but i think this is the best TPS in terms of animations and anim detail in general. Example of climbing animations but really, you should watch the entire video to appreciate everything
- LOD and asset streaming: Very limited pop-in, detail is not completely lost at a distance and it's barely noticeable during gameplay, one of the very best implementations of lod to date imo, makes the game look a whole lot better as a result. Examples: Example 1, Example 2, Example of lod not working on animals at a distance (lower priority) as noted by Starx
- Environments: Very detailed environments with lots of colors, a definitive step up from previous Uncharted games in terms of how open the level is, letting players to explore at their own leisure. This particular level looks wonderful, some examples: Example 1, Example 2, Example 3
- Foliage: Lush and varied foliage in this level (we've seen more in the beta already), every strand of grass casts shadows on the terrain and the surrounding foliage, making it look like it has volume. Translucency trick looks great too (foliage affected by light). Examples: Example 1, Example 2, Example 3
- AA/AF: Taa used in U4 produces a temporally stable image while also retaining sharpness, this makes the final game look unbelievably good in motion and enables artists to create very detailed assets without worrying about shimmering, sub-pixel crawl and aliased edges on very thin/detailed objects (as seen in Soviet Installation camp in Rise of the Tomb Raider). AF is also of a high quality in most surfaces (x8 perhaps). Example of TAA, Example of TAA and AF, Another example of TAA, Example of AF, Another example of AF. Although their TAA is not perfect and can produce some smearing, and ghosting (very similar to UE4 TAA in that regard), examples: Example 1, Example 2 (4 previous frames? might be something else other than taa). Overall I'm in favor of this technique, it produces the best result in motion.
- Textures: Very detailed textures in almost all surfaces, U4 doesn't trade open areas for texture quality like most other games it seems: Example 1, Example 2 and many other examples in the gamersyde video (you can also notice some pop-in in the binoculars scene)
- Volumetric lighting: Much improved from E3 and PSX, volumetric lighting in U4 seems to be fairly high res and it looks nice overall. Example
- Materials and PBR: Very consistent results. Specularity difference between rock, wet rock, puddle, another example, yet another example, One example of pbr not working correctly, wood looking no different than bricks
- AO: Nice result in indirectly lit areas. Example 1, Example 2
- SSS, translucent hair even during gameplay: Example 1, Example of SSS on Nates hands during gameplay, Another example during gameplay
- Other stuff: Nice smoke plume effect from explosion, also casting shadows on terrain/foliage, Volumetric shadows inside the water, Through use of inverse kinematics, hands sit on the surface of the object instead of clipping or not touching at all
Things I didn't like
- Lack of pom/tessellation on surfaces: In many cases geometry can look very flat such as this: http://abload.de/img/geometry1g3k0z.jpg and this: http://abload.de/img/geometry204jme.jpg. We've already seen use of self-shadowing pom in other surfaces so it's very disappointing to see it missing here. Could very well be performance constraints, this is one areas where the game could improve.
- Dithering in most shaders/shadows: Even though it has improved a lot since PSX, it can still be visible for a small number of frames in each new scene. Examples: Example, during cutscenes it's very easy to spot in the first frame of each new scene: http://abload.de/img/154kl4.jpg http://abload.de/img/2mjkr4.jpg
- Some very low res shadows in some areas (even though shadow res holds up really well in most cases), it seems like not all shadows are upscaled over time (to avoid dithering perhaps): http://gfycat.com/CircularVeneratedAzurevasesponge
- Things posted above: Ghosting/smearing due to TAA, some materials not looking as they should (result of art direction)
Overall I think credit should be split between the technical team and the art team. This game is a combination of great art and efficient rendering. And even if it's not ground breaking in every single category it looks
really good overall. Can't wait to see other levels of the game, of course, whatever i said up above is only for this specific level as this is the only gameplay available from the gold build
I also have to say that i didn't cover many topics that i either didn't notice (because I've only looked at kinda funny, the video i posted above, the one leaked and gamersyde) or don't know what is happening exactly (with temporal shading, specularity over many frames etc.)
Edit: Bonus thanks to gaf, perk of real-time cutscenes
