People should be comparing Bethesda to Bethesda. It's not a gorgeous game. Fine, it doesn't win any awards. But at least it's a clear improvement over their previous efforts. Can anyone deny that?
So we can't compare Fallout 4 to Metal Gear, GTA, the Witcher, or even modded Fallout 3. OK enjoy the game guys.
Solid Samus said:I entirely disagree with that. Vanilla Skyrim is a lot rougher than you remember, I think. I dunno, I could boot it up and take maxed out screenshots if you'd like me to. I think that based on what I've seen, Fallout 4 absolutely represents a reasonable advancement from Fallout 3 and Skyrim, especially these ultra PC shots (even ultra on PC when Skyrim released wasn't all that impressive, with average resolution textures and unimpressive LOD and material effects abound). And I also don't believe that it's fair to outright compare Fallout 4 to The Witcher 3 without considering context. 'Open World RPG' is a nebulous phrase that can encompass very different games, and Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 have very different underlying mechanics that enable their particular approaches to roleplaying and contextualizing the world. In Fallout's case, those particular design decisions demand a degree of performance overhead that came at the cost of visual fidelity, as was the case in the previous few Fallout and Elder Scrolls games. Which is something people are normally willing to forgive or overlook, in return for content that they feel they will genuinely enjoy (in FO4's case it appears design emphasis was placed primarily in filling the world with a dense amount of content). Until that ever-nebulous AAA label creeps its way into the equation and gives people these hardlined, arbitrary expectations they feel absolutely must be held to, regardless of context.
Does anyone really think the employees at Bethesda Game Studios don't give a shit about the games they make? Does Todd Howard just genuinely say fuck it, it's good enough, stamp it on a disc. Does Pete Hines not care at all?
I entirely disagree with that. Vanilla Skyrim is a lot rougher than you remember, I think. I dunno, I could boot it up and take maxed out screenshots if you'd like me to. I think that based on what I've seen, Fallout 4 absolutely represents a reasonable advancement from Fallout 3 and Skyrim, especially these ultra PC shots (even ultra on PC when Skyrim released wasn't all that impressive, with average resolution textures and unimpressive LOD and material effects abound). And I also don't believe that it's fair to outright compare Fallout 4 to The Witcher 3 without considering context. 'Open World RPG' is a nebulous phrase that can encompass very different games, and Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 have very different underlying mechanics that enable their particular approaches to roleplaying and contextualizing the world. In Fallout's case, those particular design decisions demand a degree of performance overhead that came at the cost of visual fidelity, as was the case in the previous few Fallout and Elder Scrolls games. Which is something people are normally willing to forgive or overlook, in return for content that they feel they will genuinely enjoy (in FO4's case it appears design emphasis was placed primarily in filling the world with a dense amount of content). Until that ever-nebulous AAA label creeps its way into the equation and gives people these hardlined, arbitrary expectations they feel absolutely must be held to, regardless of context.
Why don't we compare Total War to Ultimate General: Gettysburg?
I entirely disagree with that. Vanilla Skyrim is a lot rougher than you remember, I think. I dunno, I could boot it up and take maxed out screenshots if you'd like me to. I think that based on what I've seen, Fallout 4 absolutely represents a reasonable advancement from Fallout 3 and Skyrim, especially these ultra PC shots (even ultra on PC when Skyrim released wasn't all that impressive, with average resolution textures and unimpressive LOD and material effects abound). And I also don't believe that it's fair to outright compare Fallout 4 to The Witcher 3 without considering context. 'Open World RPG' is a nebulous phrase that can encompass very different games, and Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 have very different underlying mechanics that enable their particular approaches to roleplaying and contextualizing the world. In Fallout's case, those particular design decisions demand a degree of performance overhead that came at the cost of visual fidelity, as was the case in the previous few Fallout and Elder Scrolls games. Which is something people are normally willing to forgive or overlook, in return for content that they feel they will genuinely enjoy (in FO4's case it appears design emphasis was placed primarily in filling the world with a dense amount of content). Until that ever-nebulous AAA label creeps its way into the equation and gives people these hardlined, arbitrary expectations they feel absolutely must be held to, regardless of context.
We will, thanks!
This. Doesn't excuse graphical underachieving, but for those baffled why people are still hyped for what they feel are lackluster graphics, perhaps THIS is a reason? I mean, were you guys around bitching about Skyrim because in 2011, Arkham City (another open world game), LA Noire (open world game), and Deus Ex: HR (HUB game) were all released. And frankly, vanilla Skyrim didn't look as good as them.
How would people who bought their games on PS3 answer?
Perspective.
Skyrim? The game that uses the same engine as Fallout 4? The game that was broken on ps3 and couldn't be fixed? Yeah I don't remember anybody bitching about Skyrim.
Krappadizzle said:minimal texture mods
I'm playing Skyrim, completely vanilla besides DLC and the high res texture pack, in another window right now. Fully maxed. And I'm just not seeing it. I mean, yeah, certain environmental effects are pretty impressive and the LOD is genuinely improved from Fallout 3, but the LOD still isn't that great, textures are visibly repeated from a distance, poly count is a lot lower than in Fallout 4, models and textures in general are significantly worse than they are in Fallout 4, the lighting is especially dated comparatively speaking, etc. etc. I really think that Fallout 4 is on the same level of advancement, especially considering that what I'm playing now isn't what Skyrim looked like 7 days before release, as is the case with Fallout here... it's what Skyrim looks like after 4 years of patching, driver improvement, newly introduced tech overhead, ini tweaking, and a high res texture pack. The game didn't look as good on even the highest end machine in 2011, as it very likely looks on your rig right now, even with minimal modding.I guess we'll just agree to disagree. I've been playing Skyrim with minimal texture mods(mostly game enhancements like Requiem/Frostfall/Hunterborn/Realistic needs and diseases) with no ENB's and keeping context in mind to what was released in 2011 alongside it and especially to what was released before it, it looks great. Animations, shadows, draw distance, world size are all substantially better than what came before. from New Vegas. FO4 doesn't look as impressive of a leap comparatively to FO3-->Skyrim was from same developer. IT LOOKS BETTER. It does. But I'm just not as impressed with the leap in technology. I don't buy the whole, "it's doing more behind the scenes, so it's okay it looks mediocre" that some of you are spouting, simply because they managed to make it do more behind the scenes with previous games as well as making it look substantially better in each iteration. I accept it. I absolutely do. I'll be there day one, excited as fuck to play it just like the rest of ya'. But it doesn't give it power armor from criticism.
Aside from what I posted, flora overhaul, SMIM.Which ones?
Skyrim at ultra settings:
I'm playing Skyrim, completely vanilla besides DLC and the high res texture pack, in another window right now. Fully maxed. And I'm just not seeing it. I mean, yeah, certain environmental effects are pretty impressive and the LOD is genuinely improved from Fallout 3, but the LOD still isn't that great, textures are visibly repeated from a distance, poly count is a lot lower than in Fallout 4, models and textures in general are significantly worse than they are in Fallout 4, the lighting is especially dated comparatively speaking, etc. etc. I really think that Fallout 4 is on the same level of advancement, especially considering that what I'm playing now isn't what Skyrim looked like 7 days before release, as is the case with Fallout here... it's what Skyrim looks like after 4 years of patching, driver improvement, newly introduced tech overhead, ini tweaking, and a high res texture pack. The game didn't look as good on even the highest end machine in 2011, as it very likely looks on your rig right now, even with minimal modding.
EDIT- Nevermind already covered.
PC Ultra to PC Ultra, Skyrim was a damn good looking game for late 2011 and held up to its peers better than FO4 does in late 2015.
I'm playing Skyrim, completely vanilla besides DLC and the high res texture pack, in another window right now. Fully maxed. And I'm just not seeing it. I mean, yeah, certain environmental effects are pretty impressive and the LOD is genuinely improved from Fallout 3, but the LOD still isn't that great, textures are visibly repeated from a distance, poly count is a lot lower than in Fallout 4, models and textures in general are significantly worse than they are in Fallout 4, the lighting is especially dated comparatively speaking, etc. etc. I really think that Fallout 4 is on the same level of advancement, especially considering that what I'm playing now isn't what Skyrim looked like 7 days before release, as is the case with Fallout here... it's what Skyrim looks like after 4 years of patching, driver improvement, newly introduced tech overhead, ini tweaking, and a high res texture pack. The game didn't look as good on even the highest end machine in 2011, as it very likely looks on your rig right now, even with minimal modding.
Aside from what I posted, flora overhaul, SMIM.
Krappadizzle said:I'm not saying Skyrim looks better than FO4. No way. I'm saying the leap from Fallout 3--Skyrim feel bigger than Skyrim-->FO4 does. Animations alone in Skyrim were miles better than Fallout 3, aside from everything else you already listed.
I've been playing Skyrim with minimal texture mods(mostly game enhancements like Requiem/Frostfall/Hunterborn/Realistic needs and diseases) with no ENB's and keeping context in mind to what was released in 2011 alongside it and especially to what was released before it, it looks great. Animations, shadows, draw distance, world size are all substantially better than what came before. from New Vegas. FO4 doesn't look as impressive of a leap comparatively to FO3-->Skyrim was from same developer. IT LOOKS BETTER. It does. But I'm just not as impressed with the leap in technology. I don't buy the whole, "it's doing more behind the scenes, so it's okay it looks mediocre" that some of you are spouting, simply because they managed to make it do more behind the scenes with previous games as well as making it look substantially better in each iteration. I accept it. I absolutely do. I'll be there day one, excited as fuck to play it just like the rest of ya'. But it doesn't give it power armor from criticism.
I'll say I don't mind that we have a difference of opinion at all. I'd love to see a poll as to what the consensus here on GAF is.
I'm not saying Skyrim looks better than FO4. No way. I'm saying the leap from Fallout 3--Skyrim feel bigger than Skyrim-->FO4 does. Animations alone in Skyrim were miles better than Fallout 3, aside from everything else you already listed.
EDIT- Nevermind already covered.
PC Ultra to PC Ultra, Skyrim was a damn good looking game for late 2011 and held up to its peers better than FO4 does in late 2015.
Curious about what you think can be done without a sacrifice to performance, especially on consoles.This is exactly what I've been saying all along, but fallout 4 isn't allowed to be critiqued.
You can't point out that it looks better than fallout 3 but not as good as it possibly could, that's simply insane and puts you on a high horse for expecting the same jump that we had from morrowind to oblivion.
This is exactly what I've been saying all along, but fallout 4 isn't allowed to be critiqued.
You can't point out that it looks better than fallout 3 but not as good as it possibly could, that's simply insane and puts you on a high horse for expecting the same jump that we had from morrowind to oblivion.
You can't point out that it looks better than fallout 3 but not as good as it possibly could, that's simply insane and puts you on a high horse for expecting the same jump that we had from morrowind to oblivion.
Curious about what you think can be done without a sacrifice to performance, especially on consoles.
The Witcher 3 has more NPCs in frame at once in Novigrad than Bethesda games have interactable items in a scene.
Kinda of disappointed in some of posters here.
You can have your own opinion but other people can have theirs. If they don't think it's up to their standards in comparison to other games then that's completely fine.
Curious about what you think can be done without a sacrifice to performance, especially on consoles.
That will be interesting to see because no other game is attempting that atm.It's also worth considering that this game might be holding onto some performance overhead on consoles for the sake of mods over the next few years (and I'm not talking about graphical mods).
Power of the Cloud that shit.
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The Witcher 3 has more NPCs in frame at once in Novigrad than Bethesda games have interactable items in a scene.
Power of the Cloud that shit.
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I just realized that Witcher had amazingly huge cities and NPCs galore. I cant recall ever seeing that in Fallout. Maybe for FO4?
I just realized that Witcher had amazingly huge cities and NPCs galore. I cant recall ever seeing that in Fallout. Maybe for FO4?
Off topic here, but are you using a foliage mod? Which one and does it have a big performance hit? Do you have any other shots?I guess we'll just agree to disagree. I've been playing Skyrim with minimal texture mods(mostly game enhancements like Requiem/Frostfall/Hunterborn/Realistic needs and diseases) with no ENB's and keeping context in mind to what was released in 2011 alongside it and especially to what was released before it, it looks great. Animations, shadows, draw distance, world size are all substantially better than what came before. from New Vegas. FO4 doesn't look as impressive of a leap comparatively to FO3-->Skyrim was from same developer. IT LOOKS BETTER. It does. But I'm just not as impressed with the leap in technology. I don't buy the whole, "it's doing more behind the scenes, so it's okay it looks mediocre" that some of you are spouting, simply because they managed to make it do more behind the scenes with previous games as well as making it look substantially better in each iteration. I accept it. I absolutely do. I'll be there day one, excited as fuck to play it just like the rest of ya'. But it doesn't give it power armor from criticism.
Proof:
No enb:
I'll say I don't mind that we have a difference of opinion at all. I'd love to see a poll as to what the consensus here on GAF is.
We passed that border a couple pages ago.Some of the comments in this thread are bordering on the insanity in that other Fallout 4 screenshots thread. So much for "gameplay over graphics".
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Dying Light as an obvious competitor/point of comparison for Fallout 4's visuals. It might be a bit smaller in scale but it's very similar to Bethesda's games in terms of structure, POV, open world, etc. To me it feels more like a BGS-style game than The Witcher and seems like a better point of comparison. I think it looks really nice and will be happy if Fallout 4 looks comparable in motion.
It looking a bit better than Fallout 3 isn't really praise. Remind yourself that it's 2015, look at the graphics for every other hit AAA title this year, and look at Fallout 4 again.
Off topic here, but are you using a foliage mod? Which one and does it have a big performance hit? Do you have any other shots?
We passed that border a couple pages ago.
Can you finally look down and see ya feet?
Should I start on 3 or New Vegas?
Haven't really played a Fallout game before. For some reason I'm really psyched about this game. Am I going to get destroyed if I buy this game next week? Should I start on 3 or New Vegas?
There's hardly any continuity between each game. You can start on 4.
Haven't really played a Fallout game before. For some reason I'm really psyched about this game. Am I going to get destroyed if I buy this game next week? Should I start on 3 or New Vegas?
Dying Light looked great though.
Oh I know that, I was just thinking from an overwhelmed stand point.
Oh I know that, I was just thinking from an overwhelmed stand point.
Skyrim and Fallout 3 both had great tutorials. I imagine this one will too its basically become a staple of a Bethesda game to have a starting area that's really linear that teaches you how to play the games. I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Awesome, thanks. I'll have to install Verdant tonight.I literally just started a playthrough yesterday and I'm still in the process of whittling down my mod list as I get crashes ever 30 min's or so and don't have any other pics. But the flora overhaul is Skyrim Flora Overhaul and Verdant.
On topic:
Can you finally look down and see ya feet?
So any word on performance yet, or nah?
Can you finally look down and see ya feet?
Console versions seem to be doing great, even in heavy actions.
That's somewhat a good sign for PC versin as well, I guess.
No.
But when the FO4SE or equivalent script extender comes out, there'll be another plugin that allows you to view your third person body in first person like past games.
PC ofc.