Tal Shiar Agent
Banned
I had completely put this game at the back of my mind a long time ago... then the reviews hit and I preordered. I can't wait.
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Digital Foundry - [4K] Horizon Zero Dawn In-Depth Tech Analysis
- Thread starter danowat
- Start date
DirgeExtinction
Member
Woo, I've been waiting for this video. 
I'll watch it in a few.
Question: Is good AI really that taxing, especially for open world games?
Also, I thought foliage reacted to Aloy in the first gameplay reveal after she drops down to the grass before she kills the Watcher. Maybe it didn't.
I'll watch it in a few.
Question: Is good AI really that taxing, especially for open world games?
Also, I thought foliage reacted to Aloy in the first gameplay reveal after she drops down to the grass before she kills the Watcher. Maybe it didn't.
Blackthorn
"hello?" "this is vagina"
Long grass does react to Aloy, but other foliage doesn't.Woo, I've been waiting for this video.
I'll watch it in a few.
Question: Is good AI really that taxing, especially for open world games?
Also, I thought foliage reacted to Aloy in the first gameplay reveal after she drops down to the grass before she kills the Watcher. Maybe it didn't.
Yes it's CPU intensive and in open world game the AI has a lot more area to travel and a lot more variations in the area and environment.Woo, I've been waiting for this video.
I'll watch it in a few.
Question: Is good AI really that taxing, especially for open world games?
Also, I thought foliage reacted to Aloy in the first gameplay reveal after she drops down to the grass before she kills the Watcher. Maybe it didn't.
nelsonroyale
Member
Reminds me of
This was beautiful.
Woo, I've been waiting for this video.
I'll watch it in a few.
Question: Is good AI really that taxing, especially for open world games?
Also, I thought foliage reacted to Aloy in the first gameplay reveal after she drops down to the grass before she kills the Watcher. Maybe it didn't.
It doesn't fully react. It sways a bit but it clips through her. But for any other foliage and grass on the ground there's no interaction at all. I would be cool to see the grass bend and stay bent after characters walk through them. Could be a cool mechanic for hunting. This is what sequels are for though!
Prithee Be Careful
Industry Professional
How do people do those?, every site I try makes terrible GIF's
All that talk of diminishing returns we heard back at the start of the gen seem really silly now. I know it's subjective, but I'm blown away by what we've seen developers achieve in a single console generation.
I remember seeing TLOU running on PS3 and thinking 'man there's not far to go from here, is there?'. How wrong I was - even the remaster of that game looks dated now.
GribbleGrunger
Dreams in Digital
RenderJosh
Member
Because due to its nature, aka fully baked lightmaps stored on disk, most of the geometry has to be static and you can have dynamic Time Of Day, which in the case of Horizon or any open world would be bad.
Regarding the "No GI = pitch black when no direct illumination" question, the easiest way to solve this problem is to use Image-Based Lighting with reflections probes scattered all around the scene.
This way, it is possible to do proper lighting computation even when parts of the scene are supposed to be occluded from a direct light source. As long as there is an available probe in the vicinity, it will provide the necessary informations to compute the diffuse irradiance and the specular radiance terms (since they are most likely using a PBR workflow with something like a Cook-Torrance BRDF).
Stormhammer
Member
good looking/interactive water is one of the most important things to me in a game ;~; i guess i'll still buy it
I see. Shame it's not even used in linear games, it really looks fatnastic. But most games have good enough lighting now, which makes them look really great. This gen has really been defined by lighting advancements imo.
RenderJosh
Member
It is basically the same situation as in that video for example.
The reason it looks that amazing is because everything is precomputed and baked. And because of that, everything has to be static, else things would look off in an instant. The only way to approach this kind of graphical fidelity (in real time of course) is to use an approximation of Global Illumination.
Image-Based Lighting is such an approximation actually, with fairly obvious limits since while it allows fully dynamic scene, it still relies heavily on precomputed maps from the skybox or reflection probes (Ubisoft did something pretty interesting with The Division to counter that problem by updating informations of the reflection probes at runtime to achieve a more convincing GI).
Another way is to use Voxel Cone Tracing to achieve GI. Nvidia's VXGI and Tomorrow's Children lighting model are based on this technique. It still has quite an high rendering cost which explains why (among other reasons) we do not see this solution very often. But in my opinion, the future of affordable and convincing GI lies in VCT.
hairygreenpeas
Neo Member
This game is seriously making me consider purchasing a PS4 Pro, my god.
DangerMouse
Member
Yup!
Just do it!
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
And in an open world game too no less.
Equanimity
Member
Thanks for an in-depth technical analysis
The article doesn't mention destructible log houses, rocks and trees; I hope it's discussed in the video.
The article doesn't mention destructible log houses, rocks and trees; I hope it's discussed in the video.
GifGafIsTheBestGaf
Member
i convinced my bro to get the game, it only took a lot of footage and gifs (and putting half of the cash myself lol)
we both playing at launch, shit is gonna be good
we both playing at launch, shit is gonna be good
It is (both trees and houses). You see a creature taking down a few trees. They mention it affecting gameplay so not just visual pleasantry.Thanks for an in-depth technical analysis
The article doesn't mention destructible log houses, rocks and trees; I hope it's discussed in the video.
Blackthorn
"hello?" "this is vagina"
Hmm. There had better be an enhanced graphics and locked framerate option.
have not tried it yet..
Probably a more stable 30, which seems kinda redundant.
Equanimity
Member
Thanks for sharing this info. Does the video include any spoilers?
dr guildo
Member
Especially in a procedurally generated environment like this one...
Liabe Brave
Member
How is this confusing?
Favor resolution - 2160c and 30fps
Favor performance - 1080p, better effects, and more stable 30fps
EDITED for accuracy.
It's weird that the version with better effects has unlocked framerate. Feels like it should be like ROTTR: 4k mode, 1080p 30 fps w/better graphics mode, and 1080p unlocked framerate mode.
Depending on how better those effects are the unlocked framerate may do more harm than good.
It's not higher than 30fps. It's still capped.
Not sure what the differences are outside of a lower resolution right now. Will require the microscope.
Maybe they bump the framerate up to something like 40fps and additionally have some power left for graphical enhancements like better shadows, better texture filtering etc...
Huh? Strange... Didn't you notice any visual enhancements?
Huh? Strange... Didn't you notice any visual enhancements?
Liabe Brave
Member
It seems unlikely they'd bother patching in a separate mode that does nothing, but okay. I've changed my post in light of this.
Did you test that one house that consistently dropped frames before? Is it 30fps now?
rokkerkory
Member
absolutely gorgeous game!!
I want to but it's locked now and I have no saves near there. Might have to try that initial battle at the gates which showed a few minor dips. Just to see if it cleans it up.
What's odd is that the performance mode also drops the resolution on the text/HUD down to 1080p.
It removes downsampling! hahaha.
There's probably some particles trickery going on, but I'd guess unless Guerrilla says something, we'll stay in the dark.
John is a treasure
They are literally the same game apart from AF, res and draw distance on Pro.
This is a PS4 game through and through
So is there a huge gap here between the Pro version and OG?
DF seems really focused on the Pro version and it gives me that feeling like OG is not the "real" one and that I'm missing out on how the game is supposed to look
They are literally the same game apart from AF, res and draw distance on Pro.
This is a PS4 game through and through
Kinda. Have you seen the intro or not? There are glimpses. I think I saw one weird new creature in the distance somewhere.
I don't feel bad having watched it and I'm spoiler-sensitive.
mysteriousmage09
Member
Great vid. Always interesting to see stuff like this.
Equanimity
Member
I have seen part of the intro, lots of the preview footage, the technical masterpiece and 4K Digital Foundry Video.
I'll take your word for it and watch the video later today. Thanks
jimmypython
Member
It's like playing opening CGI of a monster hunter game; or this game feels like what the MH franchise should be headed.
Yeah, I show a lot of locales but it's all without context. Tried to avoid spoiling any events in the game. Without knowing how the game progresses, the random shots really don't amount to much other than cool visuals, I think.
KZObsessed
Member
I closed the video pretty quickly when I started seeing things I hadn't seen before. But what I saw before that was fucking incredible.
Baldwin_the_First
Member
Well that's disapointing for a game so damn pretty.
On top of literally everything else it does, something had to be sacrificed to keep FPS, otherwise people would be complaining about the FPS
PodcastFips
Member
The map alone is amazing already. God I can't wait any longer!