Best graphics of any game?

Trunchisholm said:
Those screenshots are bullshots, though. The PS3 R&C games are all sub-HD (960x702) with 2X MSAA. They're not that clean, not by a long shot. They are good-looking games, especially seeing as they are 60 fps.
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Yeah, ACiT didn't look so hot. Plenty of sub 60fps drops too. Thankfully, it was an awesome entry in the series so that at least made up for it.
 
Uncharted 3 is still tops for me, pc or console. Stuff like the Witcher 2 and Skyrim look nice, but their graphics are just there, and didn't really grip me. I imagine it comes down to the technical presentation going on in addition to the image quality. Journey is a good example. The Witcher, Crysis and all that can have larger assets with the better hardware, but if they aren't doing much with them then it doesn't stand out as much for me

But all these sorts of threads do is make me wonder what kind of stuff Naughty Dog could do with modern hardware.
 
Speaking of all this, does anyone have a fix for Crysis 2 DX11 on Windows 8 consumer preview.

Gives resolution "undefined" plays at like 240p...

Can't find a fix on google and would love to see how this game looks on my new PC...
 
Trunchisholm said:
Those screenshots are bullshots, though. The PS3 R&C games are all sub-HD (960x702) with 2X MSAA. They're not that clean, not by a long shot. They are good-looking games, especially seeing as they are 60 fps.

That reminds me that Banjo-Kazooie: N&B doesn't get much love. It's one of the best-looking cartoony games this generation. Pop-in in Showdown Town aside, it is simply gorgeous. Viva Piñata: TiP is also quite the looker. Those games push the 360 hardware really hard, and they are both 720p with 2X AA. What I wouldn't give for a classic Banjo game using the N&B engine...
Click to expand...

*shrugs*

It looks fantastic on my TV. I played it on a 40" 720p Samsung, and, honestly, the game didn't look that different from those screens for me. I've never gotten hung up on the "sub HD" stuff on GAF. If the game looks good on my TV, that's all that matters to me.
 
Figboy79 said:
*shrugs*
a 40" 720p Samsung, and, honestly, the game didn't look that different from those screens for me. I've never gotten hung up on the "sub HD" stuff on GAF. If the game looks good on my TV, that's all that matters to me.
Click to expand...


Because your TV is barely HD... I kid. Kind of.
 
not the best, but damn detailed enough to make me think it's a living city:

if9VAGXL1Yotv.gif
 
TheExodu5 said:
This is roughly what it looks like, minus the compression:

959038_20091027_screen004.jpg


edit: found a lossless png...so this is exactly what it looks like.

ratchet_and_clank_collection_preview_2.png
Click to expand...

Doesn't look like that on my TV, that's really all there is to it. I know this, because I've been recently replaying some of my favorite PS3 games, and this one was top of the list. The image quality and color saturation is just leagues better than that on my set. Both my TVs.

The second screenshot is from the Ratchet HD Collection.
 
Yeah I corrected myself. And it doesn't look like that on your TV because it's probably calibrated very poorly, with ultra saturated colors. Doesn't help the fact that the game is sub-HD with very little AA and doesn't even manage to hold 60fps much of the time.
 
nOoblet16 said:
It does not deform in real time but it's not pre rendered either, those effects you see are done in real time, otherwise he won't be able to leave the prints exactly where he walked. They use parallex mapping to project the footprints and marks according to where the character is positioned as mentioned in the very article you quoted.

Most people have mentioned the things I wanted to say already but I'll correct you on one point. Halo 3 does not uses tessellation (of any sort), Halo Reach like Halo Wars uses the Hull shader to do tessellation for terrain generation and this is the most Xbox 360 hardware can do with regards to this effect, also it's very different from the displacement map techniques and adaptive tessellation seen in DX11.
Click to expand...

No, it isn't different. And xbox supports displacement maps. You can mess around with displacement maps and the tessellator on the xbox 360 with XNA. 360 has an early tessellator and hull shader that is what is being used in DirectX 11. The 360 tessellator is similar to the tessellator that is in the ATI 6000 series cards.

And for anyone that wants a better understanding of physics read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0123819768/?tag=stackoverfl08-20
The author also has one for game AI.
 
Reiko said:
I dunno... Killzone 2 had more of a CG look.
Click to expand...


Yeah KZ3 improved on some things, but not others.


Mainly, the great OBMB from 2 was removed. Watching a dropship land and takeoff in in KZ3 was not nearly as good looking as in KZ2. In fact many things weren't.
 
Hate on it as much as you want but Mass Effect 3 to me was stunning. Like there were some scenes in the game where I was just like WOW. Really incredible! But from fear of spoilers I won't mention.

That and Uncharted 2 and 3.
 
I still don't understand how Halo 3 had amazing textures if you looked upclose, but as soon as your were a good 3+ feet away they turned into a blur.
 
TheExodu5 said:
Yeah I corrected myself. And it doesn't look like that on your TV because it's probably calibrated very poorly, with ultra saturated colors. Doesn't help the fact that the game is sub-HD with very little AA and doesn't even manage to hold 60fps much of the time.
Click to expand...

It doesn't look like that on my TV because it doesn't look like that on my TV.

I calibrated my TV perfectly fine, and all of my games look ace on it, including this one. It's not even worth arguing over. The game looks fantastic on my set. That's the long and short of it.
 
meta4 said:
Talking about water RE2 water is so under-rated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyuY3-SLuDA
Click to expand...

As is the case with most of Insomniac's work, it varies wildly. The water is amazing in some parts, and ridiculous in others. The boss fight in San Fran harbour looked like Jell-o more than water, IMO.

And don't get me started on the water falling from drain pipes and such, stand underneath it and look up.... it's laughably bad.

I'm more likely to give props to the falling snow tech in R1.... that blew me away at the time.

snow3.gif
 
SunhiLegend said:
insert awesome gifs here

God of War 3, Uncharted 3 and Killzone 3 take the cake for the PS3.

Edit: GT5 also is a technical masterpiece.
Click to expand...

*hugs PS3*

I will also say that I prefer KZ2 over KZ3, by a mile. KZ2 's assault rifle reloading animation looks 100% CG to my eyes.
 
Why are some saying Uncharted 3's graphics aren't really that good because it isn't based on real time physics.

Do you guys even realise that even most movies bake some of the physics aspect before rendering? Come on guys. If it looks good, it looks good. Don't try to discredit the whole thing because of the behind the scenes engineering.
 
echothreealpha said:
Why are some saying Uncharted 3's graphics aren't really that good because it isn't based on real time physics.

Do you guys even realise that even most movies bake some of the physics aspect before rendering? Come on guys. If it looks good, it looks good. Don't try to discredit the whole thing because of the behind the scenes engineering.
Click to expand...

So we're back to it's look good because it looks good... And not technical achievements again?
 
Stallion Free said:
The claim that brought all of this water tech into question stated that: "When they script that the ship capsizes (which is obviously a 100% scripted event), the water flooding the boat isn't scripted, that's the actual water from the actual ocean they built, pouring into the actual boat they built."

And that clearly isn't true based off this:

"For flooding in the hallways of the cruise ship level, where Drake searches for the kidnapped Sully, the group used a Next Limit Real­Flow simulation that was run through Side Effects’ Houdini. The resulting mesh was then imported back into Maya for skinning before it was incorporated into the game."
Click to expand...

We're talking apples and oranges here. These are two entirely different parts of the game.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-11-02-building-uncharted-3-article

Drake's Deception's cruise-ship level is the manifestation of several of those possibilities: Nathan Drake on the deck of a vast boat, reacting dynamically to its movements, which are in turn dynamic reactions to the movements of the roiling, storm-lashed ocean. The deck is scattered with physics objects that slip and slide across its surface. There are secondary bodies of water on the ship itself that move independently from the surrounding ocean. At first sight, it takes the brain a few minutes to process what Naughty Dog has achieved.

"That level was designed by my friend of co-lead designer Jacob Minkoff, who told me last week that when he came up with the idea for the cruise ship and when we pulled together a group of programmers and technical artists to pitch the idea to them, they initially looked at him as though he'd gone stark raving mad," says Lemarchand.

"Perhaps he had! You have to be seized by a little bit of madness to be so audacious as to suggest that in 2009 - when he first came up with the idea - that there's a ship floating around on a virtual ocean whose hold would then be compromised and which would flood with water which would cause the ship to tip onto its side and begin to sink."

"Of course, we have to run that dynamic water system inside the ship as well as around it, and Jacob says - and I think this is to his very great credit - that having looked at him like he was mad, the programmers then proceeded to talk together for 20 minutes and came back to him and said, 'All right, let's go for it.'"

"They committed to do it and they did do it. It's amazing. I can say this because it's not my level, but I think it's a landmark."
Click to expand...

As has been stated, the water bursting through the wall and rushing through the hallway is a scripted effect. Most everything else is dynamic, physics-based awesomeness and the guys on the ND team that pulled it off deserve mad props.
 
CREMSteve said:
We're talking apples and oranges here. These are two entirely different parts of the game.
Click to expand...

Aren't they part of the same sequence? You get out of the car storage area and are running around the living quarters of the boat which leads to the ballroom glass breaking? And this is all during the cruise ship sequence?
 
nOoblet16 said:
Even more impressive is how they render the water in the first place especially the reflection and transparency, usually developers simply use a low resolution buffer for the transparency effect and reflection in water, Naughty Dog simply went in an entirely different direction for that, the water in Uncharted games are actually solid surface and in order to give them a transparent look they render the reflection, transparency and refraction ONTO that solid surface. The end result means that they can get the look that one would normally achieve only through rendering full resolution alpha for water and for the reflections.
Click to expand...

Nothing new.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_Render_Targets
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Render_Target



nOoblet16 said:
Halo Reach like Halo Wars uses the Hull shader to do tessellation for terrain generation and this is the most Xbox 360 hardware can do with regards to this effect, also it's very different from the displacement map techniques and adaptive tessellation seen in DX11.
Click to expand...

The 360 does not support Hull shaders!!

They are SM5 only!


charsace said:
No, it isn't different. And xbox supports displacement maps. You can mess around with displacement maps and the tessellator on the xbox 360 with XNA. 360 has an early tessellator and hull shader that is what is being used in DirectX 11. The 360 tessellator is similar to the tessellator that is in the ATI 6000 series cards.
Click to expand...

The 360 does not support hull shaders!!!!!!

The tessellator in the 360 is not similar to the HD6xxx's, it is the pre DX11 one found in the HD4xxx and lower!
 
BigTnaples said:
Yeah KZ3 improved on some things, but not others.


Mainly, the great OBMB from 2 was removed. Watching a dropship land and takeoff in in KZ3 was not nearly as good looking as in KZ2. In fact many things weren't.
Click to expand...

Killzone 3 still has OBMB, they just lessened its effect (turned down the exposure time essentially)

But yeah, KZ2 definitely looks more "cinematic"
 
CREMSteve said:
As is the case with most of Insomniac's work, it varies wildly. The water is amazing in some parts, and ridiculous in others. The boss fight in San Fran harbour looked like Jell-o more than water, IMO.

And don't get me started on the water falling from drain pipes and such, stand underneath it and look up.... it's laughably bad.

I'm more likely to give props to the falling snow tech in R1.... that blew me away at the time.

snow3.gif
Click to expand...

Yeah, I remember being really impressed by that as well back then.

I think one of the things I like about Insomniac's games is that they don't go crazy overboard with effects and razzle dazzle.

I look at the screens people posted of The Witcher 2 and other games, and they just look so damn busy, like a thousand different rendering techniques going off at one time. It's jarring. I still think it looks really cool (The Witcher 2 is the first game I'm buying when I finish building my gaming PC next month), but I think Insomniac is good at being minimalist with their visual effects. I think ACiT looks phenomenal (as stated before), even if it's not running all sorts of crazy resolutions and filtering effects. The art design, animation, and clean look of everything does it for me.

I've only played Resistance 1 and 2, but I liked them both. I heard 3 was much better than 2, which is great, because I loved 2. I think Insomniac gets a lot of flak compared to many other devs that have done a lot worse game wise. I think Insomniac has a pretty solid track record, with very few misses, and even their misses aren't god awful (I got All 4 One from the PS+ freebies, and I was expecting a train wreck. It's not classic Ratchet, but it's not a bad game in the least. The beta for Full Frontal Assault has been really fun as well, and also isn't classic Ratchet).

But I digress.

Many of my top choices for best graphics have already been listed in this thread, so I don't have much else to add here.
 
All games use "cheats" and "smoke and mirrors." The entire rendering model of all 3D games is a big cheat, and everything related to transparency, refraction, etc, another cheat on top of that.

To accuse a game of cheating is a little absurd. It's like claiming that a movie "cheats" because they only build and dress the part of the set they need, or that using CG or practical effects is cheating vs genetically engineering an actual alien creature.

Graphics programming is all about tradeoffs and cheating as much as you can.
 
Margalis said:
All games use "cheats" and "smoke and mirrors." The entire rendering model of all 3D games is a big cheat, and everything related to transparency, refraction, etc, another cheat on top of that.

To accuse a game of cheating is a little absurd. It's like claiming that a movie "cheats" because they only build and dress the part of the set they need, or that using CG or practical effects is cheating vs genetically engineering an actual alien creature.

Graphics programming is all about tradeoffs and cheating as much as you can.
Click to expand...

In fact, cheating is often more impressive because it allows hardware to "do" things it shouldn't be able to. Plus cheating saves resources and CPU/GPU cycles, so you can get more fx going on at the same time.
 
NBtoaster said:
Resistance 1 still basically has the best IQ of a console game.
Click to expand...

god of war 3's IQ is just flatout ridiculous.

Best looking games ive played (in order from best to least best)

Battlefield 3
gow 3
Killzone 3
Killzone 2
Uncharted 3
Uncharted 2
 
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