Watch_Dogs by Ubisoft

[Deleted member 11852]

You say light is never too soft to cast shadows but in the pic I posted above, there is very few shadows - the fact your have to hunt for them, well that's kind of my point You mention the porch at the back but is that a shadow from a light source or darkening caused by the absence of directed or reflected light - subtleties of of lighting probably beyond a console open world game engine.

But there game is certainly lighting and shadowing during the day.

I'm not denying visuals vary in terms of general appeal but I don't think it's because of the lack of lighting, I think the lighting and shadowing is there but the effect is similar to the real picture I posted before. Simply too subtle to discern

 

[upnorthsox]

And yet you show an image of a porch with no shadowing.......

 

[Deleted member 11852]

And yet you show an image of a porch with no shadowing.......

Probably has lights underneath I'll find it and report back in, oh... nine and half hours.

 

[upnorthsox]

Aah, the porchlight defense. A time honoured Chicago tradition.

To be honest, as someone who has lived his whole life in Chicago(land) I find the mountains/hills in the background much more disturbing.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Aah, the porchlight defense. A time honoured Chicago tradition.

From the original, the legendary, the never to be forgotten, E3 2012 demo, I present virtual Chicago under-awning lighting!!! BTW the hell is going on with that door which looks like it's made out of a block of toffee And looking back, the DOF was crazy high. Aiden Pearce Catacts Edition

To be honest, as someone who has lived his whole life in Chicago(land) I find the mountains/hills in the background much more disturbing.

Accurate or not I'm glad they've included a bit of rural environment. I loved the diversity in GTA San Andreas, missed it in GTA IV, and enjoyed it again in GTV V

 

[Shifty Geezer]

You say light is never too soft to cast shadows but in the pic I posted above, there is very few shadows

There are shadows everywhere, just incredibly subtle. The hydrant has a 'halo' shadow. The girl on the far right has an obvious one. There has to, because her body is occluding light from all directions. It's just that the contrast is low. The man is the only place where a contact shadow isn't visible and that's likely because the surface he's standing on has camouflaged it.

You mention the porch at the back but is that a shadow from a light source or darkening caused by the absence of directed or reflected light - subtleties of of lighting probably beyond a console open world game engine.

It's darkening due to an absence of light from the overcast, hemispherical sky light. Light is coming at the door from all angles, but some of that light is stopped by the porch, reducing the amount of light reaching the door and causing shadowing. Regards expecting GI/AO in games - 1) It's been baked in games for years. 2) Modern engines are incorporating it in realtime, although maybe not for an open world game. 3) It's present in some cases in WD images but not others; its inconsistent. 4) Early WD demo's had gorgeous visuals showcasing great lighting, so people were expecting it, and the similarity to older, simply-lit games is made with the final build.

But there game is certainly lighting and shadowing during the day.

Sure, but it's inconsistent, and really broken in some cases. eg. The deli screenshot with zero shadowing on the guy serving. Your first screenshot shows both direct and indirect shadowing and doesn't look too bad. Your second pic is lacking soft shadowing somewhat (under porch).

I'm not denying visuals vary in terms of general appeal but I don't think it's because of the lack of lighting, I think the lighting and shadowing is there but the effect is similar to the real picture I posted before. Simply too subtle to discern

I disagree. It's not too subtle - it's missing. It's like good audio - it's good when you don't notice it. Lighting is good when it looks real, not when it's analysed and features ticked off. The numerous independent opinions saying people find the visuals of this game flat is good indication that the lighting is off. It's like the Uncanny Valley with faces. You don't need to be a trained 3D artist to recognise a face that's wrong. You don't need to have experience in game design or CGI to spot when a scene doesn't look correct. It feels wrong at first, and then you can analyse it to find what's causing that feeling. Sometimes of cause something can look right, like fudged reflections, but be found wrong on analysis, but you can't render a game according to real life principles and end up with something that looks far removed from reality!

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Well give it a few days and we'll know for sure if effects are subtle or missing. The the nice thing about the PC platform: endless tinkering and testing is possible.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

They're definitely not visible in some instances. Whether they're included but not drawn, or not included, is probably the question.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

They're definitely not visible in some instances. Whether they're included but not drawn, or not included, is probably the question.

That's where I'm going. I think they're there but just not visible. As many people have commented in some scenes it also looks like the lighting engine is completely disabled.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Here's a good compilation of the differences between the first show at E3 2012 and the final product:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg6d8f5XC3k

 

[Deleted member 11852]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE4ZgInuzDE

Multiplayer motorcycle race. Looking good.

 

[L. Scofield]

The indirect lighting probes are distributed sparsely that's why you don't see relatively small details like house porches displaying high levels of AO.

 

[Karamazov]

well if those are this gen's "bad graphics" i'm totally fine with it !

 

[L. Scofield]

From this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqWUWskVcGk

Lighting in real life is SO dull!

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Lighting in real life is SO dull!

I doubt the cameras used for taking the pictures for Google Street View have a decent dynamic range (they're probably really bad in that department) so I don't think you can compare things that way.

As bad as that photo seems, it's probably a mile away from what you would see in real life.

 

[orangpelupa]

that building too blue for my taste, here the yellow-er version

i dont really know why, the bland reality still looks more real to me. Maybe because its bland but not flat? (it have various shadowing and subtle colour brightness changes)

EDIT:
changed the embed to shadowy-er

 

[Deleted member 11852]

i dont really know why, the bland reality still looks more real to me. Maybe because its bland but not flat? (it have various shadowing and subtle colour brightness changes)

Probably because of thousands of minute details present in the photo but not in the game but which your brain is unconsciously aware.

 

[djskribbles]

Here's some very HQ PS4 footage (30Mbps, 2.2GB). Credit GAF.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/m...+-+My+Great+Capture+-+2014-05-26+12-22-20.mp4

Looks great. Framerate seems to be a solid 30fps with no tearing on PS4.

 

[Warchild]

Cross post from the rendering thread, guess i'll post them here too. My top 6 favorite scenes from the 2012 demo.

I got 20+ more so i'll just link to them if i decide to upload them.

 

[pjbliverpool]

Everything you ever wanted to know about the PC graphics settings and performance including some interesting console comparisons:

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/watch-dogs-graphics-performance-and-tweaking-guide