An imperfectly exceptional feat: Shadows in The Last of Us
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Impressive.
flipswitch
Member
Bornstellar
Member
Gameplay:
Supersampled shot.
Either that or they have some ultra secret FXAA that outdoes anything I've ever seen.
XtremeXpider
Member
Here's the cutscene:
Gameplay:
I guess the second pic is not "gameplay", gameplay looks like this:
Is it really that surprising? In-engine cutscenes can have fantastic fidelity, ingame is another matter.
Well shit I'm going to have to see this in person. Can't believe how little aliasing there is in those shots.
Maybe that shot above really isn't supersampled...I'll reserve judgement until I see for myself.
Unless that shot is supersampled as well.
Bornstellar
Member
That is a press shot I believe. The point was to corroborate the geometry in the cut scene with the playable space.
EDIT: I'm actually unsure now. Those have to be supersampled, right?
flipswitch
Member
I guess it was also due to not knowing what the ps3 would be capable of.Remember the Cell for eg.
XtremeXpider
Member
Maybe bullshoot (too smooth) but I don't think we will see a lot of aliasing in game. There are some previews and most say game looks sharp and great.
No hardware acceleration. That's why I still use Firefox.
HoodWinked
Member
the AF is such an eyesore for Last of Us
An issue in a lot of console games, sadly. Reach has similar issues, judging by the shot above.
Demoncarnotaur
Member
Is this really impressive?
This is really impressive (to me):
The shadows are really great.
I'd say both are great. Also, I am LOLing at the guys face and magic beard in the third image.
Boss Man
Member
Well Halo tends to be that way, it would be odd if it suddenly started looking like shit lol.
Something with Halo though is that it seems like it has a certain aesthetic that does not open itself up to even attempt some of the messier/more complex things. It may have been a conscious decision way back to avoid limitations last gen, and I think that's why it's easy for your brain to feel like Halo 3 looks like "Halo 2 HD" when it's really a huge improvement. It's things really ingrained in the overall visual look of the game that can't be changed. I admittedly can't show this objectively, it's just something that I see. I feel the exact same way about God of War, and GOW3 was one of the more technically impressive games this gen as well.
I feel stupid bringing this up in a thread where some people actually know graphics, but maybe someone can explain it better.
XtremeXpider
Member
This is not Reach xD
XtremeXpider
Member
Halo 3 was really technically impressive, but not impressive to the eye, if you look all the things that Halo 3 engine is doing you can't say it is "Halo 2 HD" xD
Halo 4 looks really impressive to the eye...
Man the guy in the backround is making me roll :lol
Boss Man
Member
I agree, and I do think it's very nice to the eye as well. It's just that there's something with the aesthetic (and I want to mention that God of War is the exact same way for me, so as not to stir up a firestorm) that keeps it from taking advantage of some of the advances from last gen to this gen.
In gameplay at least. The in-game cutscenes look wonderful.
I don't want to shit up this thread. We can talk about the same effect in God of War instead.
cook torrance.
Boss Man
Member
Eh, maybe (I have no idea) technically but not just straight up worst-looking. Halo always has this really clean look to it that looks nice to me (and most people probably).
XtremeXpider
Member
I am talking about things like theater mode recording the gameplay all the time, AI and physics working even on non-seeing parts.
Demoncarnotaur
Member
Well, the first level looked good if you ignored the character models. Its mix of lighting, atmosphere and water is lovely. However, the rest of the game..
But you still have to admit the engine did some impressive things...well namely its HDR/Bloom and water.
But its humans..
Usually when people say "technically" they're referring to the visuals.
But I'll agree with you on those fronts.
I don't have to admit a thing. I think the bloom looks horrendous, even in bullshot mode:
Half-Life 2 had nicer HDR and water.
It used tessellation for water ripples, but I thought it has visually underwhelming as well back in 2007.
OP, I think what you're refereing to is known as imperfect shadow maps, and as far as I can tell, NO OTHER game has it. Several people on B3D have commented on this as well and I'm actually surprised that the DF article didn't delve a little more into that tech (which is why when you said DF did "a great job on articulating that facet of the game", I was wondering if we read the same article haha). I've brought it up before so I'll just copy/paste my post here:
I'd love to see developers bringing imperfect shadow map tech (or some variation of it) into PC games, knowing full well that current hardware standards presents such opportunity. Forget SSAO/HBAO when you have indirect shadows as convincing as the ones in TLoU:
Oh damn. Those GIFs really do show that off. Yeah...can't think of any game on the PC that does that at the moment.
edit: shit...that looks way better than SSAO. Pre-baked AO + imperfect shadow maps please.
XtremeXpider
Member
Boss Man
Member
Man, that does look really good in motion.
Yeah, the recent batch of screenshots are all supersampled. The only real-time stuff is in the waypoint videos as far as I can see.
XtremeXpider
Member
Demoncarnotaur
Member
My god The Last Of Us is looking godly..I can't wait for it.
Gifs aren't the best way to show it off since they have a tendency to make stuff look better... but the game looks great in motion and very close to the screens:
Gifs aren't the best way to show it off since they have a tendency to make stuff look better... but the game looks great in motion and very close to the screens:
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
So that what they are, I knew it couldn't be SSAO, too specific.
flipswitch
Member
It looks like this:
What game is that?
It looks like this:
Looks so good. Wonder why this hasn't been featured in any game until now (that I know of).
XtremeXpider
Member
Not a game, it is the CryEngine 3 SDK (I guess).
My god The Last Of Us is looking godly..I can't wait for it.
Gifs aren't the best way to show it off since they have a tendency to make stuff look better... but the game looks great in motion and very close to the screens:
Is there any screenshot form 720p gameplay video?
XANDER CAGE
Member
SSAO and other lighting effects are getting really impressive, but I won't be truly wowed until a dev solves the awful dithering we're subjected to in practically 100% of games. Even gorgeous games like The Witcher 2 and that amazing MGS: Ground Zeroes demo have terrible, jaggy, jarring lighting that really destroys the potential for wonderful subtle lighting effects.
It looks like this:
Yeap. Typically AO is applied on a surface directly behind an object (occlusion). In that gif you can see diffused shadows even on the ceiling; I wish more games support this.
Boss Man
Member
I was sort of 'meh' on it until I saw the death animations in the second .gif. Those effects are incredible. The death animations were the same thing that stood out to me when I saw the E3 trailer. They look very impressive, and also sound/feel satisfying.
Dictator93
Member
I hope you guys know this is a gif of crysis 2. LOL
haha
The way the last of us does it most likely is the same way the original author of the gif did it in crysis 2. Lots and lots of manual and extremely low resolution shadow casting lights. Fakes AO and GI
Its not dynamic at all in the sense that is changes with environment, it is just an interesting and neat way to convince the player it is dynamic.
I'll dig up the crydev topic for you guys soon if you dont believe me.
I think I'm always too distracted by the overbloom in Crysis 2 to ever notice when the lighting looks good. The engine is super capable...it just needs better artists working with it.
How do you go from that GIF, to this:
I guess I did kind of notice when I took this shot:
Though there is a problem with the shadow...the light against the wall isn't affecting it in any way, which is weird.
Is there an example of this feature running in-game in Crysis 2? And you have to realize that in Last of Us the intensity of the shadows actually change based on which part of the model is near the wall.
I guess the second pic is not "gameplay", gameplay looks like this:
Gameplay pic looks good but nothing that makes me go OMG. Great lighting but the texture work is pretty bland and minimal. Given the openess of the game though I guess that is a tradeoff. Def one of the prettiest games of this gen though!
Also there is no point showing cutscenes for higlighting shadows. Lets use in game pics.
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
here is the level of Crysis 2 (opened in the editor) it is from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo3toQGBSFQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo3toQGBSFQ
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