Digital Foundry: Hands-on with the Forza Horizon 2 demo

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ouge123 said:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-hands-on-with-forza-horizon-2-demo

Digital Foundry: Hands-on with the Forza Horizon 2 demo

Further inspection of the demo shows that Forza Horizon 2 delivers its visual punch with a crisp native 1080p resolution, as promised by the developers earlier in the year. The anti-aliasing solution is also given a boost over that of Forza 5 via the use of 4x MSAA (multi-sampling anti-aliasing) - a bandwidth-heavy choice that we rarely see in use on console.

mpressively, despite the demanding open-world set-up and an avalanche of advanced rendering effects, Forza Horizon 2 holds a solid 30fps throughout the demo without ever dropping a single frame during gameplay, no matter how carelessly we ploughed through the scenery and collided with other vehicles - driving feels smooth and responsive in a variety of weather and road conditions.
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Amazing job from the developers, game is damn gorgeous :D
 
I think that we'll see, as developers get more used to using the xb1, many more games with such stunning visuals and solid frame rates. Pretty satisfied with the ol' Xbox One!
 
Forza Horizon had one of the best engines last gen and this time around, it is looking like a repeat. These games are probably the smoothest 30fps games I've played. It's incredible.

I wonder what engine they use, would be nice for other games as well.
 
Hip Hop said:
Forza Horizon had one of the best engines last gen and this time around, it is looking like a repeat. These games are probably the smoothest 30fps games I've played. It's incredible.

I wonder what engine they use, would be nice for other games as well.
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They use Turn10's engine.
 
Forza Horizon did wonders on 360. Looks like Horizon 2 will continue the trend on XBOX One hardware.
 
hagege_s said:
Forza Horizon 1 already had MSAA (2x I think). That's why they're so nice looking.

Anti-Aliasing is so important.
Click to expand...

Horizon 1 actually had 4XMSAA WITH an added layer of FXAA on top of it ..

which is why its one of the cleanest games of the last generation.
 
1080p and Msaa4x? And at that visuals?

Holy cow. But a bit understandable when Forza 5 could pack 1080p and Msaa2x at twice the frame rate, which means probably similar bandwidth requirements.
 
Textures mostly appear pretty crisp and clear, although the low level of anisotropic filtering is disappointing - details on the ground start to blur from just a few metres away.
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This is my biggest complaint. I wish more priority was given to AF. Lack of it, for me, can completely destroy all the other efforts to get a clean and crisp image and is something we've suffered quite a bit of this gen, though people seem to suggest it is computationally cheap to do?
 
This is perhaps the most impressive aspect,

holds a solid 30fps throughout the demo without ever dropping a single frame during gameplay, no matter how carelessly we ploughed through the scenery and collided with other vehicles - driving feels smooth and responsive in a variety of weather and road conditions.
Click to expand...

They pulled it off on 360 and now they've done it again.

And to think, this is only their second game....

Wizards, yo.
 
4xMSAA? No wonder the game looks super clean, and it really does look photo-realistic at times.

Driving with all of the HUD turned off is an absolute must.
 
I tried it out last night. It was pretty good. Loved the off-road racing through fields. I always use bonnet-cam and it was CRAZY.
 
LukasTaves said:
1080p and Msaa4x? And at that visuals?

Holy cow. But a bit understandable when Forza 5 could pack 1080p and Msaa2x at twice the frame rate, which means probably similar bandwidth requirements.
Click to expand...

IIRC Forza 5 had no AA at all.

About the analysis some really impressive stuff from Playground once again, they certainly put a lot of emphasis on clean IQ. The inclusion of 4xMSAA is surprising to say the least & seeing the frame-rate analysis not dropping a single frame is great news as well.

Can't wait to see how the engine will evolve for Forza 6 after Playground's involvement/improvements.
 
It's seriously sharp and clean. Unfortunately LOD0 trees have no anti-aliasing at all and some parts of the player's car are a little bit aliased. But perfect apart from that.

4xMSAA is super heavy as well, especially considering the XB1's low bandwidth. Can't help but wonder if SMAA 4X (2xMSAA + 2x temporal AA + SMAA) would've been better. It definitely cheaper.

The unwavering framerate is nice to hear though. Looks like that's starting to become characteristic of Forza titles.
 
mangochutney said:
This is my biggest complaint. I wish more priority was given to AF. Lack of it, for me, can completely destroy all the other efforts to get a clean and crisp image and is something we've suffered quite a bit of this gen, though people seem to suggest it is computationally cheap to do?
Click to expand...

no AF to 16x AF on Skyrim for even low end GPU's costs at most 1 FPS. It is so trivial today that there is no reason not to have it as for the cost it adds a lot to the IQ of the scene. Not sure why devs have struggled with it for so many releases so far this gen.
 
chandoog said:
Horizon 1 actually had 4XMSAA WITH an added layer of FXAA on top of it ..

which is why its one of the cleanest games of the last generation.
Click to expand...

Oh ok, it's even more impressive then.

BTW The Order 1886 also use 4xMSAA, and it's also insanely good looking. IMO every game should use a decent amount of AA, even if developers must downgrade other things.
 
Demo didn't finish downloading in time last night, so I'll finally get to check the demo out today. From all the comments I've seen I'm really getting hyped for this.
 
Marlenus said:
no AF to 16x AF on Skyrim for even low end GPU's costs at most 1 FPS. It is so trivial today that there is no reason not to have it as for the cost it adds a lot to the IQ of the scene. Not sure why devs have struggled with it for so many releases so far this gen.
Click to expand...

Do you really think devs don't consider it? How much do you think are you able to know how much of an effort it is to implement AF to the rendering in actual code and how this will affect the rendering time per frame? Please stop it.
 
MS, please ask Playground to reboot PGR after FH2. It would be great to have each game in every 3 year cycle:

2014: FH2
2015: FM6
2016: PGR5
2017: FH3
2018: FM7:
2019: PGR6

then, this generation will be to the end...
 
Game looks fantastically clean. 4xMSAA in console games is pretty rare, so it's nice they could pull this off, and in 1080p to boot.

Some of the DF screens.

fh2-1.jpg~original


fh2-3.jpg~original


fh2-2.jpg~original


fh2-4.jpg~original


fh2-5.jpg~original


fh2-6.jpg~original
 
I think they may be using the same engine they used for 360...its the only explanation i can give that they have 4XMSAA with FXAA included..the same set up for the 360 version with that pristine 720p native IQ.

These devs dont fuck around with IQ OR performance, its nice to see.
 
strata8 said:
It's seriously sharp and clean. Unfortunately LOD0 trees have no anti-aliasing at all and some parts of the player's car are a little bit aliased. But perfect apart from that.

4xMSAA is super heavy as well, especially considering the XB1's low bandwidth. Can't help but wonder if SMAA 4X (2xMSAA + 2x temporal AA + SMAA) would've been better. It definitely cheaper.

The unwavering framerate is nice to hear though. Looks like that's starting to become characteristic of Forza titles.
Click to expand...

Bandwidth is not really an issue for the X1, especially with regards to its gpu. The size of the ESRAM is the issue, but it can be worked around, although that requires a bit of effort.
 
c0de said:
Do you really think devs don't consider it? How much do you think are you able to know how much of an effort it is to implement AF to the rendering in actual code and how this will affect the rendering time per frame? Please stop it.
Click to expand...

Stop what? Pointing out that devs make stupid IQ choices all the time. UFC at 900p + 4x MSAA is worse than 1080p + 2xMSAA but that did not stop EA from going for the objectively worse option on the PS4 version.

AF is simple and if the devs need source code there are plenty of places to get it from that will be practically plug and play with the API. If you have a 0xAF screenshot compared to a 16xAF screenshot you will notice the IQ differences immediately yet if you benchmark the difference will be at worst 2 FPS even on cards that are behind what the XBox One has.

As far as how much effort it requires, chances are it is practically nil since it is not some new or fancy graphics technique, it has existed for decades. Hell 10 or so years ago ATi and Nvidia were one upping each other for true angle independent AF so that it worked on even odd surface angles. This is back in the time of the Radeon 9700 Pro.
 
I played the demo last night, and after the first Horizon I wasn't remotely surprised to see a rock solid 30 fps with some of the best IQ I've seen on the current consoles.

My high expectations were absolutely met.
 
hagege_s said:
Oh ok, it's even more impressive then.

BTW The Order 1886 also use 4xMSAA, and it's also insanely good looking. IMO every game should use a decent amount of AA, even if developers must downgrade other things.
Click to expand...

Both games (1886 and FH2) uses Forward+ so it might be a benefit as opposed to using deferred or forward rendering.
 
As good as the game looks in photos, it looks astounding in motion. The lighting is phenomenal and the car models as a result look sublime.
 
Inuhanyou said:
I think they may be using the same engine they used for 360...its the only explanation i can give that they have 4XMSAA with FXAA included..the same set up for the 360 version with that pristine 720p native IQ.

These devs dont fuck around with IQ OR performance, its nice to see.
Click to expand...

On XB1 Horizon 2 is using a version of the Forza Motorsport 5 engine.

The X360 version of Horizon 2 uses the engine used in Horizon 1 which was developed from Forza Motorsport 4.
 
It's a really great looking game, it felt smooth when I played it (as smooth as 30fps can be..). Super impressed with the whole package, they've done very well.
 
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