The LOD system is baked into the assets as the game uses the Umbra real time culling system.
Witcher 3 gameplay from YouTubers from CDPR event
- Thread starter Tovarisc
- Start date
The LOD system is baked into the assets as the game uses the Umbra real time culling system.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Distant foliage rendering is ridiculously expensive (see: GTAV) and requires a whole bunch of rendering and asset LOD tricks to do convincingly. Brute force HQ foliage over long distance would be nice, but performance would take so unbelievably hard. After TW2 my belief is that CDPR do their best to have dense, lush foliage that looks great, but also optimise the rendering and LOD transitions so the game still, you know, works. I don't think they've mastered it, and other games might do it better, but I can't imagine it's an easy task.
Also this:
CDPR's use of middleware probably restricts how much they can do in the scope of a normal development period. "Fixing" TW2's grass required me go into literally every single foliage asset individually and tweak the stats, since each asset has its own LOD variables.
In TW2 there were basically two variables that impacted foliage: one was an ini tweak, the other was the asset LOD. The former can be used to increase general rendering distance of foliage, but you needed the latter to change foliage quality over distance. The former is great, but you get the same LOD transitions without the latter, meaning foliage rendered far but still billboarded quickly. Looked better than default of course, but yeah. Without the latter you don't get the HQ foliage.
If/when CDPR release the editor for TW3 I'll edit the foliage LOD transitions again, if it's possible. And maybe this time try and optimise it.
Also this:
CDPR's use of middleware probably restricts how much they can do in the scope of a normal development period. "Fixing" TW2's grass required me go into literally every single foliage asset individually and tweak the stats, since each asset has its own LOD variables.
In TW2 there were basically two variables that impacted foliage: one was an ini tweak, the other was the asset LOD. The former can be used to increase general rendering distance of foliage, but you needed the latter to change foliage quality over distance. The former is great, but you get the same LOD transitions without the latter, meaning foliage rendered far but still billboarded quickly. Looked better than default of course, but yeah. Without the latter you don't get the HQ foliage.
If/when CDPR release the editor for TW3 I'll edit the foliage LOD transitions again, if it's possible. And maybe this time try and optimise it.
viveks86
Member
I see. Here's hoping they can optimize it further by launch.
flipswitch
Member
Far Cry 4 on console was very good with its LOD, grass was still visible at long distances. It always impressed me.
texhnolyze
Banned
KainXVIII
Member
Really? Swamps or lakes looks like pastgen jelly water with standard distortion shader :-/
Nah, but keep trying. Show us some better looking water in some other open world game.
I saw plenty of pop-in in Just Cause 2.
To claim it has "zero pop in" is pretty baffling.
Here's a thread talking about it too: http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=107915
jim2point0
Banned
The grass in that game would actually look pretty great if it had any kind of render distance whatsoever.
Wat?
KainXVIII
Member
jim2point0
Banned
Crysis is not an open world game.
Speaking of jelly water...
Watch Dogs water is pretty great though
AzureSkies
Member
The original definitely was open world.
KainXVIII
Member
Debatable.
flipswitch
Member
Watch Dogs had some very convincing water ripples/waves as you swim or drive your boat through it. Maybe it's the tesselation.
I love how storms start to form. Very well done.
Gat-Damn, I try to not get excited or hyped for videogames anymore, but there's something about Witcher 3 that makes it so ****ing hard to do.
These videos aren't helping
jim2point0
Banned
What the hell is your definition of open world?
You were locked into individual maps until you completed a mission. Then you moved onto the next map. Just like any other linear, mission-based shooter. The only difference was, Crysis had large maps that had SOME degree of freedom.
But you couldn't travel anywhere you wanted. There was no open world because there was no world. There were just missions.
Watch Dogs water looks pretty good yeah. The one in witcher 3 is not bad, but maybe retains it's distorted shape a little too long giving it a slightly more solid look. I dunno. I'm honestly not complaining because overall it's not bad at all but I do see what the poster meant when he commented on it.
viveks86
Member
fwiw, the witcher 3 was supposed to have similar water tessellation, though we've never seen it in action since last year
DOWN
Banned
Now that's a fine new way to handle stormsI love how storms start to form. Very well done.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I'm pretty sure it does, at least on the ocean. In Joe's video the water deforms relative to the boat's bobbing, and they probably use tessellation to calculate that.
In a round about way, and potential size of Crysis map templates, sure. But irrefutably Crysis doesn't offer anywhere near the same scale of interactive play space that people come to expect from a game defined as "open world". The map may be large, but your interaction is limited to specified zones.
viveks86
Member
Hmmm agreed. It just doesn't stand out as much as the effects trailer, probably because one is rough weather while the other isn't.
nowheretorun
Member
Looking forward to this game and would love to buy after I finish Bloodborne.
However, still not seen any ps4 footage, which is ok if not for the fact of the pop-in. If there is this amount of pop-in on ultra pc settings, then the ps4 is going be surely shite?
It's all very well having a huge open world game but for the life of me, I can't understand the free pass this is getting with all this pop-in. Totally ruins the whole aspect of being in this huge open world. Technically, its not good enough for me, maybe not even cheaper down the line.
Ffs, its practically constant!
Gutted.
Here's to dreaming it will be ok.
However, still not seen any ps4 footage, which is ok if not for the fact of the pop-in. If there is this amount of pop-in on ultra pc settings, then the ps4 is going be surely shite?
It's all very well having a huge open world game but for the life of me, I can't understand the free pass this is getting with all this pop-in. Totally ruins the whole aspect of being in this huge open world. Technically, its not good enough for me, maybe not even cheaper down the line.
Ffs, its practically constant!
Gutted.
Here's to dreaming it will be ok.
How can you see the water clear enough in that video to draw such hard conclusions?
In any case, Watch Dogs did have pretty nice water (although the screen space reflections were pretty glitchy), and I don't remember walking around in it to see how it reacted. Crysis 3, on the other hand, is not an open world game. It just has a series of fairly open maps, pretty similar to The Witcher 2 actually.
Some really good use of shaders here. This water looks fantastic to me.
I think CDPRed mentioned before that popup distances were baked in into objects, and they cannot increase them for PC. So I think console versions will not differ from PC in that aspect of rendering.
We shall see.
That Lazygamer hands on report is interesting. Anybody wondering how it looks on consoles should give it a watch.
They played the Xbox One version and even though it runs at 900p they said stuff like "it looks phenomenal"..."it looks incredible"..."visually it's stunning".
They also seemed to really like the combat.
It's a little funny to me that we have a few people in all these Witcher 3 threads nitpicking the most absurd things in an effort to minimize the game, yet people that have actually got their hands on the game are practically gushing about how good the game looks, and that's after playing the Xbox One version!
viveks86
Member
Yep. That was definitely good to hear. I wonder how much they've improved the framerate though, as every hands-on so far has highlighted that as an issue. Given the shortage of time left, it's going to be down to the wire for CDPR to get it up to a solid 30.
Baldwin_the_First
Member
Wouldn't the framerate be locked in already seeing how The Witcher 3 is already gold? I'm guessing they would have to patch it in if they had to fix it.
viveks86
Member
Not in the build they played, as that wasn't the final version (no idea why). I'd be shocked if there is no day one patch, regardless of how the framerate holds up in the final build.
The Super2bit Interview isn't linked correctly.
Here is the interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDFM_GFpwVY
Even if it just gets close to a solid 30fps, that would still be better than most open world games on consoles. Obviously nobody likes stutter in their games and I definitely understand the concern, so let's hope it turns out alright. I'll be playing on PC, but I want everybody to get as good an experience as possible.
Well the Xbox One build these journos are playing is reportedly an older build, not the final gold build. And they can, of course, possibly improve the framerate further with a day one patch.
Oh wow.
You weren't kidding, TW2 foliage looks way better.
Everything else looks phenomenal in TW3, making the subpar foliage (relative to TW2) stick out even more.
From the HUD options I dont see a viable way of playing/enjoying the game without a minimap.
I was hoping that CD Project could incorporate a waypoint indicator (like in Assassins Creed for example) that would indicate where you next object direction is and how far away you are from it. I love to play games with minimal UI elements that I find most of the time annoying for taking precious screen space.
The way it is now, yes I can turn off the mini map, but then I feel absolutely blind... I have to enter the game map way to often to find my bearings and this is immerssion breaking stuff there, let alone that if certain quests have time limitations to reach a destination it would be very annoying to navigate without the map.
Dont know if anyone is listening from CD Project but an option with waypoint indicator would be awesome.
I was hoping that CD Project could incorporate a waypoint indicator (like in Assassins Creed for example) that would indicate where you next object direction is and how far away you are from it. I love to play games with minimal UI elements that I find most of the time annoying for taking precious screen space.
The way it is now, yes I can turn off the mini map, but then I feel absolutely blind... I have to enter the game map way to often to find my bearings and this is immerssion breaking stuff there, let alone that if certain quests have time limitations to reach a destination it would be very annoying to navigate without the map.
Dont know if anyone is listening from CD Project but an option with waypoint indicator would be awesome.
Super Stardust
Member
lowhighkang_LHK
Member
Can somebody do me a favor and let me know which one is the best to watch the least annoying youtuber?
I took a look at angry joe's footage and it made me not want to watch anything.
I took a look at angry joe's footage and it made me not want to watch anything.
viveks86
Member
lol. Fixed. Thanks!
Gopher's is good. PietSmiet's footage is good too.
I agree, I found his video annoying. I personally liked Gopher's video the most: https://youtu.be/94R0Ji39E68 ...but I didn't watch them all.
I'd go for these two.
Gopher, ~13min; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94R0Ji39E68
ImAnderZEL, ~10min on Ultra 1080p60; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_eRUq1PQPE
How 3 skill trees look (one skill tree is missing)
I don't really like how the general UI looks, it's way too simplistic for my taste. A mix between the old and the current UI would be bettter I think.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
PietSmiet, Gopher, and ImAnderZEL all look great. The High5 vids are also pretty cool.
Best water I have ever seen on any game ever.How can you see the water clear enough in that video to draw such hard conclusions?
In any case, Watch Dogs did have pretty nice water (although the screen space reflections were pretty glitchy), and I don't remember walking around in it to see how it reacted. Crysis 3, on the other hand, is not an open world game. It just has a series of fairly open maps, pretty similar to The Witcher 2 actually.
Some really good use of shaders here. This water looks fantastic to me.
viveks86
Member
New footage (this time I'm sure!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbKSArQauGo
Now about that translator...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbKSArQauGo
Now about that translator...
PLASTICA-MAN
Member
Witcher 3 map size compared to other games: http://gamingbolt.com/witcher-3-map...-4-new-screens-show-different-visual-settings
Have you played The Witcher 2? It does have fantastic foliage. In fact, it still looks better in that regard than most current gen games I've played (especially after using EatChildren's awesome foliage mod).
But, like all games, the quality is somewhat uneven. The forests around Flotsam are The Witcher 2 at its best in terms of foliage. You also get stuff like this, though:
I think the foliage in The Witcher 3 looks amazing and we've only really scratched the surface. There's going to be forest areas that look quite different from anything we've seen so far.
If we look at the grass in The Witcher 3's most direct competitor, Dragon Age Inquisition, I'd say The Witcher 3 easily has the better looking foliage.
Yea, I have the TW2:EE on Steam but only played like 15 min before getting distracting by Diablo 3:UEE; planning to get back to it soon.
TW3 looks fabulous as is, but with mods it will be elevated to new levels.
The foliage on the ground from what I've seen is really odd because it looks like paper (?).
In other words, very flat and 2D, while lacking shadows.