| Norris2k said:
What do you see in this picture ? I'm looking at it, and it feels so outdated, gross, static and aliased... just look at the sorry blurred background, the old school shadows. For other screenshots, some are very appealing visually speaking (I really like the nintendo 2014), but except for the platinum screenshot, you can see the extreme technical weakness : simplistic background (or a black one color background !), simpliest shadow. simple textures (or a form a gouraud shading), mostly cubic elements, very simple lighting, low poly everywhere... And I mean, it's far from being on par with the hardware. Ok, I do believe it's also for part art direction and style, but in term of internal objective it was clearly more "let's make the best impression we can on a tight schedule and for a tight cost" than "let's push the hardware !". I don't know if it's the same for you, but I have a friend that is totally nintendo fan (and there is nothing wrong with that, he like the games), and he's a great guy and it's always a pleasure to play with him... but when we talk graphics, you really feel he doesn't know anything about what happened outside nintendo for the last 10 years. I mean, the technical satisfaction when you see a lot of lights, a big monster on the screen, a texture moving like a strange blob, a bump mapping we got it 10 years ago. You see TLOU, and like it or not in term of style, that's a whole different level, texture are complex, not repetitives, the water is impressive, it's detailed, you can see up to a very far distance, the shaders are fine art, the lighting is rich, shadows are greats, the animations is detailed and interact with the background, etc. |
Bold: A physically based lighting and shading model, which is something usually seen on PS4/Xbone/PC, nice wood textures, bokeh depth of field, soft-shadows, dynamic water simulation. Also, while this particular screen doesn't show it, the game also employs subsurface scattering and god rays. All notable upgrades over its Wii U predecessor Nano Assault Neo, which was already confirmed by its devs to be using techniques not possible on last gen systems.
Italic: Comparing Platinum, a dev never known for its tech prowess, to Naughty Dog, one of the most technically talented devs on the planet, isn't exactly a level playing field. But that aside, The Last of Us on PS3, while it looks very nice overall, frequently fails to maintain even a 30fps target, and it has its ugly moments too:
