Sure, it isn't comparable as TotK doesn't deal with fuzzy logic, mapping unreliable gps data to unreliable road data with added dead reckoning using motion sensors to determine which road and what level of overlapping roads you're following while dealing with dynamic changes to the map, all while driving with added forward prediction to compensate for lag in gps data reception. Damn I wish it was as simple as the car is at X,Y,Z on road R pointing with direction included.
Maybe the user entered a parking lot, taking an exit in a tunnel (where there is no gps reception) is the user still following the route or are the motion sensors measuring straight travel. Quick reroute to the nearest gas station, is the overall route still valid or is there a better one now with timed restrictions / timed speed limits along the route.

Yep not comparable at all to a game where everything is known and you can simply pop up a loading screen or long falls to hide data loading.

However in scope, complexity, storage, it's all just manipulating data in the end. And TotK isn't tracking the physics of every tree. Physics simulation starts and stops with the user interacting with objects. Once objects stop moving they are no longer animated, just rendered where ever they ended up. Until some other active object or the user touches it. NPCs have simple routines, following set paths. Enemy AI is pretty standard from what I've seen so far. The amount of interactions you can do is the impressive part.

As a software developer I'm more impressed by FS2020, the whole world seamless (well minus the poles due to their legacy data structure) with dynamic real time weather (with turbulence, temperature, atmospheric pressure all affecting the wings and flight dynamics of the plane) dynamic traffic (all actual live flights are present in the game), boat traffic, cars, other players, some spots with wildlife, thousands of POIs and many photogrammetry areas integrated. All coming from different servers in real time. And it runs on a Series S!


And back to the topic, don't you think persistence could have worked in TotK with better hardware? (more RAM and/or more storage space) As I said before, just 1MB is enough to store the position and orientation of 47 thousand objects before compression. (And more if fused as then it becomes relative coordinates which take even less space to store) Gonna take a while to build that much!

There's degrees to it though. In 2023 a big game needing to run on the PS4 and Xbox One is held back more than one that doesn't for example so I just want the gap between top end hardware and what the development target is to not get overly large to keep progress happening at a good pace. I can agree that it can be an unhelpful mindset if taken too far however.

I think its more the fact is the hardware is 6 years old and people wanna upgrade to a better experience.it's even more evident if you own a powerful PC or current gen console. people just get bored of old tech and the experience is fresh and exciting. At the end of a console cycle games are usually held back because of the hardware and switch is due for a upgrade

Yeah I can understand that, I'm feeling ready for Switch 2 myself.

I meant more that it's so easy to fall into the trap of always wanting more, wanting prettier, and sometimes this can spoil our enjoyment of what we actually have right in front of us.

I was honestly happy with Ps4 graphics  i really wanted a ps5 for 60fps cause it make the games play so much better for combat heavy games. like i find the people complaining about spider man 2 graphics laughable but every one has opinion. graphics have peaked and wasting to much time on graphics will hurt the gameplay 

Nope because like I told the other person games get more complex as you get better hardware leading to you always needing more, TOTK has ideas in it that were intended for BOTW but were too much for the WiiU like the next mainline Zelda will have ideas cut from TOTK it's not as simple as applying what you do at your job to games it's fine you're proud of it but it's apples and oranges, if it was that straight forward countless developers would have done it already and we'd be seeing what you ask for but as it stands no game does it across a huge seamless world like the ones we're discussing.

For example by default if TOTK was built on hardware like PS5 it will be rendered in like 4k as that's what people would be expecting so before anything else resources used has increased significantly before any other change in that scenario. This is why hardware will never be enough. 

Well that's a shame. But I don't think Nintendo would go for 4K at all. They have demonstrated that they value gameplay over graphics over and over. So I'm not so sure they wouldn't add more gameplay instead of more graphics on better hardware.

Anyway I hope the next Zelda uses a new world. So far I'm sticking to exploring the depths as the layout of Hyrule is already known to me. So far the depths still feel new and exciting, but would be nice to build some permanent bridges as shortcuts over the gloom :)

It's clear it's more of a design choice or lack of time to add persistence. The game does remember every resource you have already picked up and enemy you have killed. So like any other game it already tracks thousands of changes. (Of course those are simple bit flags stored by cell, and 1MB would fit 8.3 million 'changes')

I like how there is this thread just complaining that TotK's graphics aren't somehow magically as good as the recent consoles and therefore are bad (and somehow being compared to PS2 lol), while now there is also a thread pointing out how game developers are blown away by what Nintendo achieved with TotK haha, literally asking how it was possible for them to even make a game like this.

Really makes it clear how ridiculous it is to say TotK feels dated lol. TotK is blowing other game devs away. It's a monumental achievement for gaming, just as BotW was six years ago.

Best game I have ever played. The world, physics and sense of discovery is captivating. I'm also ready for a switch 2 but clearly the current switch can produce top shelf experiences.

Was botw your favorite game before this?