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[Nanoman]

Well that's nice, I'm in the Netherlands and it gives me the "Not available in your country" message.

Here's a mirror for people who can't view it https://www.vpro.nl/programmas/tegenlicht/kijk/afleveringen/2016-2017/all-in-the-game.html

 

[vivekTO]

Weren't there a slides from their tech presentation discussed here not long ago? How vast majority of flora is procedural generated?

I think everything , environment particularly, is generated Procedurally, They have only three artist working on it.
The thread you are talking about.

some more gifs

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/gerg222.gif[/IMG][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/5G3FsoG.gif[/IMG]

 

[Gestault]

I love seeing renders of how the engine is handling separate elements, sort of like the Tomb Raider on Saturn vs PSX wireframe render scenarios DF did a little while back.

The tech in Horizon is an incredibly clever blend of methods. I'm queuing the video for after work.

 

[hydruxo]

Definitely going to watch this. Decima engine is straight up wizardry. I have never taken so many screenshots during a playthrough as I did with Horizon. Everytime I took a turn around a corner, I was in awe of what was on screen.

 

[Crayon]

Game looks crazy on vanilla ps4. I've only played about 20 hrs so far and I'm still not used to it. I'll read this later.

 

[Dreamgazer]

Where in the video please is this, wish to avoid

It's in the op/article.

 

[KageMaru]

I think everything , environment particularly, is generated Procedurally, They have only three artist working on it.
The thread you are talking about.

some more gifs

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/gerg222.gif[/IMG][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/5G3FsoG.gif[/IMG]

These GIFs are amazing. Thanks for posting.

 

[Sho Nuff]

Yes, that sure is culling.

 

[Fess]

Such an amazing game, only beaten by BOTW this generation, it's pure witchcraft on show right there in this video.

 

[Toni]

I will always remain shook at how this game keeps a locked 30 on OG PS4, loads the game in like 20 seconds, and is a huge open world looking jaw droping at all times

I'm honestly fine with video games looking like this for the next 7 years lol

 

[jett]

I think everything , environment particularly, is generated Procedurally, They have only three artist working on it.
The thread you are talking about.

some more gifs

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/gerg222.gif[/IMG][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/5G3FsoG.gif[/IMG]

That's just so smart and efficient.

 

[Figboy79]

I'll have to watch this later but Guerrilla are fucking wizards indeed. I just beat it on Saturday, and it's a fucking beautiful game all around, not just the visual presentation. Oddly enough, I didn't immediately want to dive back into it after the credits rolled. Not because I didn't love it, but because there was so much to digest I just didn't want to rush right into it again. Amazing experience. I also got the Platinum Trophy, which I wasn't aiming to do, but it happened. I think I clocked in at 72 hours and some change total. Livestreamed the whole thing on Youtube, so I have a nice archive of my adventures!

The things Guerrilla did to pull this game off is exceptional. They deserve all of their praise. As a long time fan of their games, it's great to finally have a game that puts all of their excellent world building and lore to use (Killzone has a fascinating world and lore behind it, but we never got any of it in the games, which always disappointed me; I still want a Killzone game that's more like Horizon, where you get all of the story and history while exploring the Helghan and Vektan worlds). I hope Horizon does for Guerrilla what Uncharted 2 did for Naughty Dog. They've always been a talented, if under-appreciated developer. This game finally hammers that home.

 

[Hedrush]

Thanks for posting this it was a really good watch. Very evasive when asked how big the HZD game world actually was citing it would spoil the illusion for the gamer.

 

[NullPointer]

I've been wondering if one of the tricks is having the weather change as you make your way through a mountain pass to a new area. This way, the fog and weather shifts masks the loading of the new area in the valley below.

Makes sense and seems like it is indeed what happens when I play unless it's all coincidence.

Been wondering the exact same thing lately.

 

[eXistor]

What the fuck? Not available in my country. I'm from the Netherlands assholes!

 

[cooldawn]

I've been wondering if one of the tricks is having the weather change as you make your way through a mountain pass to a new area. This way, the fog and weather shifts masks the loading of the new area in the valley below.

Makes sense and seems like it is indeed what happens when I play unless it's all coincidence.

You don't need to experience a weather change, though. There's a reason a big mountain is in the middle of the main section of the map...to cut-off the other half and there's a reason to be funnelled.

I'm not sure why some weather changes occur at all. I can only assume it's a thematic design approach, much like the jarring day-to-night-to-day transitions. For example, when walking up a sunny mountain trail leaving Mother's Heart the weather changes to a wintery blizzard before you reach Dry Tower. When you enter Dry Tower it dissipates back to a clear setting.

We know the game engine shows everything in line-of-sight so, geographically, Mother's Heart has been cast aside and Meridian's Lone Light has been generated already. However, there's a stark contrast between the high blanket white snowy blizzards of a mountain and the hot scorched earth setting of a desert.

Except the weather system isn't that clever. I have caught it out a couple of times. I ran in the opposite direction, from Meridian in to Mother's Heart through Dry Tower and I nearly got all the way to seeing Mother's Heart before the game engine started the snow blizzard, yet everything was there to see. The game engine couldn't keep up.

So yeah, I certainly don't think it's there for obfuscation. I think its by design.

Anyway, this video is a brilliant piece. Wish there were ore efforts to document videogame development like this.

 

[Tonidayo]

Great documentary overall indeed, congrats again to GG for the incredible work on Horizon

 

[msdstc]

GG are technical wizards, but their games have been hot or Miss. Horizon was a big hit imo and their best work to date both from a visual and gameplay standpoint.

 

[Painguy]

Realtime graphics have always just been a mish mash of different hacks.

 

[noomi]

Hmmm...

Maybe that's why we weren't able to adjust sensitivity? Lets say someone set it to max and started turning quickly, the game wouldn't have time to load/unload assets?

 

[dhonk]

Not saying their tech isnt impressive but "Horizon Zero Dawn Uses All Sorts Of Clever Tricks To Look Fantastic" as a 3D artist is a stupid title. Oh do you mean like every videogame ever made? Game graphics has always been a series of hacks.

 

[VisceralBowl]

Hmmm...

Maybe that's why we weren't able to adjust sensitivity? Lets say someone set it to max and started turning quickly, the game wouldn't have time to load/unload assets?

The same culling technique is used in tons of other games. The lack of sensitivity options probably has nothing to do with this.

 

[Prophet Steve]

As impressive as the game is, frustum culling isn't remarkable at all.

 

[MattKeil]

Yup, this really should be spoiler tagged. Pretty bummed out because my friends kept telling me how cool it was when you found out where the game is set.

It's not. A place name pops up very early on that makes it obvious. It's unbelievably minor.

And if you haven't played it why are you looking at making of stuff? I don't understand why people so spoilerphobic as to think this is a major spoiler are even clicking on threads about the game this long after release. People are inevitably going to be openly discussing elements of the game at this point.

 

[Prophet Steve]

What the fuck? Not available in my country. I'm from the Netherlands assholes!

The YouTube channel is for foreigners, I watched it through the VPRO Tegenlicht website itself.

 

[PeregrinSe7en]

Such an amazing game, only beaten by BOTW this generation, it's pure witchcraft on show right there in this video.

gameplay wise its all subjective

technical wise horizon shits on zelda from the highest of mountains

no contest

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

As impressive as the game is, frustum culling isn't remarkable at all.

First I've heard/seen of it and the first thing that came to my head was "so THAT'S why FFXV and H:ZD have horrible looking water at the edges of the screen/vision.."

They need to expand that dead zone because it's jarring.

 

[The One and Done™]

What an amazing game. Holy shit

 

[Garibaldi]

Hmmm...

Maybe that's why we weren't able to adjust sensitivity? Lets say someone set it to max and started turning quickly, the game wouldn't have time to load/unload assets?

This isn't doing what you think it's doing. Rendering an asset is different to loading an asset. All this is doing is culling the assets/geometry from the 'to be rendered' list if it's not within the viewport. The asset will still be loaded as it would be ridiuclously ineffecient to unload entire segments when not in view only to load them again as the move into view.

It's been standard practice since the beginning of vidja games. When waste time calculating vertex info on things that cannot be seen?

 

[Voidwolf]

The location is not a spoiler, I'm not even sure it's mentioned in the game. The things people consider spoilers these days...jeez.

To be fair, those of us that have not played the game have no way of knowing whether or not that is important to the plot.

 

[The Dutch Slayer]

What the fuck? Not available in my country. I'm from the Netherlands assholes!

Watch it here:
https://www.vpro.nl/programmas/tegenlicht.html

 

[Wagram]

To be fair, those of us that have not played the game have no way of knowing whether or not that is important to the plot.

It's not. Don't worry about it.

 

[VisceralBowl]

First I've heard/seen of it and the first thing that came to my head was "so THAT'S why FFXV and H:ZD have horrible looking water at the edges of the screen/vision.."

They need to expand that dead zone because it's jarring.

Without seeing what you're talking about I'm guessing that the problem you're talking about has more to do with screen space reflections being crappy toward the edges of the screen and less with culling.

 

[Tigel]

Gif Time!!

I think This is simillar to what Witcher 3 has also Implemented, Might be wrong on that though.

This is pretty standard stuff in game programming . It's called occlusion culling.

 

[SictorVullivan]

Hmmm...

Maybe that's why we weren't able to adjust sensitivity? Lets say someone set it to max and started turning quickly, the game wouldn't have time to load/unload assets?

The assets are still loaded and essentially there, if you upped the sensitivity you wouldn't notice any difference.

What this does is not render what the player essentially cant see. And of course this happens every frame so it's instantaneous.

As people have said video games have been doing this for years, doesn't make it any less amazing though for this game.

 

[dLMN8R]

This is pretty standard stuff in game programming . It's called occlusion culling.

This is also why many games - especially on console where there's a fixed processing budget - don't allow you to configure your field of view. A wider field of view can substantially increase the amount of geometry the engine needs to render every single frame.

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

Without seeing what you're talking about I'm guessing that the problem you're talking about has more to do with screen space reflections being crappy toward the edges of the screen and less with culling.

I wouldn't know lol.

Here's what it looks like in FFXV (not my vid):
https://youtu.be/J_Pk4Dysrng

I just assumed that there was nothing to reflect outide of the "cone" as seen in the gif here.

 

[VisceralBowl]

I wouldn't know lol.

Here's what it looks like in FFXV (not my vid):
https://youtu.be/J_Pk4Dysrng

I just assumed that there was nothing to reflect outide of the "cone" as seen in the gif here.

That's totally a screen space reflection limitation.

 

[Toli08]

To be fair, those of us that have not played the game have no way of knowing whether or not that is important to the plot.

You can play the entire game and never actually know where the game is located in todays time. People that don't know American Geography will go through the game and never actually know what area or city of America this game takes part in.

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

That's totally a screen space reflection limitation.

May I ask what exactly that is?

 

[Rodelero]

May I ask what exactly that is?

Screen space reflection can only reflect that which is on the screen It's a great method for providing accurate reflections, but if what should be reflected isnt actually on screen, the reflection will be missing. If you're swimming in Horizon, you'll notice the reflection is missing on the left/right edges of the screen. Imagine a beam travelling from the camera, to the reflecting surface, and then imagine the beam bouncing off the surface until it hits an object. Does it hit something on the screen? Then you'll get a reflection.

 

[Jashobeam]

the way the ground gets culled is neat, guess the terrain is procedurally generated using voxels?

 

[TatteredHat]

Not available in my country... and I'm in the netherlands. wtf vpro.

edit: ah they want me to use their shitty webplayer.

 

[jelly]

Gif Time!!

I think This is simillar to what Witcher 3 has also Implemented, Might be wrong on that though.

I always imagined games did this to some degree. Cool stuff but now that I see it, does anyone else think it's surprising games still struggle to perform if they hide most of the content. Yes, I don't know what I'm talking about it but if you think of it in such simple terms, it makes computer hardware look weak.

 

[Icebergslim]

Got spoiled about the two states.
I was asking for it lol.

So you then put the spoiler in a post you fucking idiot.

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

Screen space reflection can only reflect that which is on the screen It's a great method for providing accurate reflections, but if what should be reflected isnt actually on screen, the reflection will be missing. If you're swimming in Horizon, you'll notice the reflection is missing on the left/right edges of the screen. Imagine a beam travelling from the camera, to the reflecting surface, and then imagine the beam bouncing off the surface until it hits an object. Does it hit something on the screen? Then you'll get a reflection.

That makes sense. I wasn't sure of the technical process and what entailed the "limitation" in the name. Thanks.

 

[VisceralBowl]

May I ask what exactly that is?

Rodelero did a pretty good job with their explanation.

the way the ground gets culled is neat, guess the terrain is procedurally generated using voxels?

Splitting terrain for open world games into large square chunks is pretty common.

 

[NullPointer]

Game is a technical masterpiece.

A masterpiece on a few other levels too.

Its one of the most polished games I've ever played, and that's something truly remarkable for an open world game like this, much less one that looks and sounds this great.

I just finished a playthrough - maybe 70+ hours - on performance mode on the Pro. Am a framerate whore through and through and appreciated the option, but next time I drop back in I'll give resolution a try and see what if anything I was missing.

 

[sugarhigh4242]

.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/bjK3TEq.png[/IMG]

I always wondered if these are the same:

 

[Risk Breaker]

This is just frustrum/occlusion culling, it's not a new technique but it's a great look at how it works.

I guess the interesting part here is how they divide their terrain so that the culling is more efficient.