Let's start by taking a look at the console and PC releases, kicking off with a mammoth quad-format comparison gallery and more head-to-head videos than you could possibly imagine (well, OK, six).
Alternative comparisons:
- Resident Evil: Revelations - Wii U vs. PS3
- Resident Evil: Revelations - Wii U vs. PC
- Resident Evil: Revelations - Xbox 360 vs. PS3
- Resident Evil: Revelations - Xbox 360 vs. PC
- Resident Evil: Revelations - PS3 vs. PC
Image quality is clearly a step up from Resident Evil 6. Console owners get a native 720p presentation along with anti-aliasing provided by an implementation of the popular FXAA solution. This gives the game a clean look that is mostly free from the more obvious edge artifacts, and surprisingly texture blur is minimal. The artwork appears clear and unmolested - or rather, at least as much as the game's variable texture resolution allows.
PC users can opt for higher-quality versions of the anti-aliasing effect that provides even better coverage with no additional penalty to artwork clarity - the highest-end setting being FXAA3 HQ, which we quickly settled upon. The end result is a smooth image that looks very clean when running in very high resolutions, and the use of FXAA really comes into its own at 1080p and higher resolutions, where the sub-pixel crawling issue inherent with most post-process AA is far less of an issue.
Beyond the boost in anti-aliasing, the level of graphical consistency remains stable across all consoles and indeed PC. Overall, meaningful differences are few and far between, limited to an off-set bias that sees shadows positioned in slightly different places on PS3 and Wii U (360 and PC are a match) and the use of higher-quality assets on the PC game (higher-resolution textures and normal maps can be found dotted across a few surfaces, but their appearances are infrequent to say the least).
Despite its low-spec handheld heritage, Resident Evil: Revelations generally holds up well transplanted over to home consoles and the PC. Running in much higher resolutions than the original 3DS game, the enclosed environments don't appear too boxy, while the characters feature enough geometry complexity and normal-mapping to keep them looking rounded and reasonably detailed. Revelations certainly won't pass as a dedicated current-gen game, but is a class apart from the sort of results we saw on the last generation of consoles.
Away from gameplay, a look at the cut-scenes shows up some slightly more visible compression issues on the 360 and PC (PS3 and Wii U are identical) but this mainly appears to be restricted to the CG-based video sequences. However, the bulk of the game's cinematics are rendered offline using higher-quality in-engine assets before being encoded into FMVs. Both video quality and offline rendering of assets are a match on consoles and PC for these scenes.
HD platforms vs. the original 3DS game
Despite running on hardware that's technologically archaic in comparison to the PS3 and 360, it is particularly impressive to see just how well the 3DS version of Resident Evil: Revelations holds up in comparison to the enhanced console builds. Given the modest specifications of the 3DS, Capcom has carefully worked around the bandwidth, memory and processing limitations of the hardware while still managing to give the game a polished, current-gen appearance. And it's an approach that works very well indeed - a state of affairs helped by the small auto-stereoscopic screen - providing Nintendo's handheld with one of the most graphically impressive releases to date.
"It is particularly impressive to see just how well the 3DS version of Resident Evil: Revelations holds up in comparison to the HD console builds."
Resident Evil : Revelations - Nintendo 3DS vs. Wii U. Probably best watched at 480p, it's quite remarkable how close the original game is to its HD partners.
Despite featuring reduced polygon counts and lower-resolution textures, the level of detail in the environments is very similar to home console releases, with the vast majority of objects appearing in all versions of the game, though some lack a few extra touches found on consoles - slime trickles down the sides of walls on the consoles and PC, but simply appears in puddles on the floor on the 3DS.
In terms of the environments and characters, normal maps are used to help create smooth surfaces while working with the limited polygon pushing capabilities of Nintendo's handheld, whereas on the other platforms these are used in combination with more geometrically complex models to further enhance subtle details.
Similarly, surface effects - such as higher-quality specular and diffuse reflections - are rendered in much higher precision using pixel-shaders on the consoles and PC, where more objects benefit from having the effect applied. Additionally, volumetric smoke effects are present on consoles and PC, giving these effects considerable depth and realism. In comparison flat alpha sprites with no volume are used on 3DS, with fewer layers that lack depth.
