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[NXGamer] The Best Graphics/Technology of 2021

VFXVeteran

Banned
I disagree. The fur looks amazing. It was something I noticed playing long before Digital Foundry highlighted and praised it in their video. Here is what they had to say:



But....you are free to your own opinion so.....

Yeap. I'm going by the actual code that goes into shading hair properly. So I know what to look for.

Hair in games are missing these crucial components:

1) Self-shadowing (ambient occlusion)
2) Inter-shadow casting on each other
3) global illumination - where the bounce of light from one strand illuminates another strand
4) Needs 3 specular lobes - not just 2.
5) Back-scatter component - not just in cinematics.

DF and others are judging the graphics on the cinematic hair - NOT the gameplay hair (which is much lower quality). Tech in games should be judged on gameplay assets and not cinematics. That's one of the main misleading assumptions from average gamers when they judge graphics in a game - it's cinematics. Whatever is running in the gameloop is where we should judge what a system can accomplish. IMO of course.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Put me on the list of people not impressed by village, that game has a nice mansion area and that's it, the rest of the locations are extremely uneven, i think re2 remake looks better tbh.

And the melee\shooting animation are pretty meh for an AAA.
Every game on that list is uneven. Forza looks like this in some areas (see below) and last gen in others. Ratchet's open world chapter with the chick robot looks baren and ugly. Returnal's levels 3,5 and 6 look straight up last gen. RE8 looks stunning outdoors when you first start out, and awful and dawn or dusk or whatever that orange hue setting is. The final boss fight looks fugly, but ALL Indoor areas from the mansion to the doll cottage and the factory all look stunning. The windmill outdoor area looks stunning too.

For example, Forza looks like this

51244941553_e234bcb5c0_o.png


And this in the same game.

forza-horizon-5-plane.jpg


Returnal looks like this:


Returnal_Preview_1.jpg


And this:

Drone_1.jpg


RE8 is far more consistent through out.
Village
A6kBeAM3wT27coSbZTNHh8.jpg


Mansion:
E19r309WEAEdElZ



Factory
E19r4HZXsAUOQTm


Doll cottage
E181g3GWQAEMmG0


Windmill
E181a5kXMAAFypF


The only time it looks bad is during the orange lighting.
 
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Hugare

Member
Best Graphics Technology for me for 2021 is by far Metro Exodus's pure RT implementation. R&C has everything going on for it with artistic direction. I'm betting that the switching of worlds can be done without the PS5's SSD. The RT reflections aren't enough to put the game in the top spot for best graphics technology.

NXGamer should have judged based on 100% tech and not on art imo. Returnal shouldn't have been on that list at all. This proves how desperate we are to create a list of "Best of". Added particles in a game shouldn't be enough to put this game on the list. The resolution is poor and the texture/normal maps are of low quality as well.
I agree with Metro, but dont agree at all with you dismissing what Returnal does

Its not simple as "added particles". They are all emissive lights, each one of them. And in some scenes there are thousands of them.

+ destructible environments + huge areas and bosses + 60 fps + no loading at all

Not saying that it is mindblowing, but compared to those other games, it deserves to be there
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Last line is a little too extreme. Cross-gen doesn't mean a game can't have nice enough visuals to be put on top-lists.
Thats why I said on principle. Even if they are good looking, as a critic they have to take a stand instead of rewarding these greedy publishers with awards.
 

ethomaz

Banned
Every game on that list is uneven. Forza looks like this in some areas (see below) and last gen in others. Ratchet's open world chapter with the chick robot looks baren and ugly. Returnal's levels 3,5 and 6 look straight up last gen. RE8 looks stunning outdoors when you first start out, and awful and dawn or dusk or whatever that orange hue setting is. The final boss fight looks fugly, but ALL Indoor areas from the mansion to the doll cottage and the factory all look stunning. The windmill outdoor area looks stunning too.

For example, Forza looks like this

51244941553_e234bcb5c0_o.png


And this in the same game.

forza-horizon-5-plane.jpg


Ratchet looks like this:


Returnal_Preview_1.jpg


And this:

Drone_1.jpg


RE8 is far more consistent through out.
Village
A6kBeAM3wT27coSbZTNHh8.jpg


Mansion:
E19r309WEAEdElZ



Factory
E19r4HZXsAUOQTm


Doll cottage
E181g3GWQAEMmG0


Windmill
E181a5kXMAAFypF


The only time it looks bad is during the orange lighting.
I agree.

Talking about inconsistency I can add Flight Simulator like somes remembered here... it look next-gen sometimes but others times it looks like very old gen.
Returnal is inconsistent too but look bealtiful sometimes just like Forza Horizon 5.

R&C I found consistent... looks beautiful most of time... same for Village.

BTW your pics are from Returnal not Racket.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
Yeap. I'm going by the actual code that goes into shading hair properly. So I know what to look for.

Hair in games are missing these crucial components:

1) Self-shadowing (ambient occlusion)
2) Inter-shadow casting on each other
3) global illumination - where the bounce of light from one strand illuminates another strand
4) Needs 3 specular lobes - not just 2.
5) Back-scatter component - not just in cinematics.

DF and others are judging the graphics on the cinematic hair - NOT the gameplay hair (which is much lower quality). Tech in games should be judged on gameplay assets and not cinematics. That's one of the main misleading assumptions from average gamers when they judge graphics in a game - it's cinematics. Whatever is running in the gameloop is where we should judge what a system can accomplish. IMO of course.

Well......I can't speak to any of the tech. Just what these old eyes tell me. And to them it looks pretty dang impressive all around. Granted.....I'm not seeing what you see but I can appreciate an informed opinion.

No Problem Reaction GIF by Travis
 
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VFXVeteran

Banned
I agree with Metro, but dont agree at all with you dismissing what Returnal does

Its not simple as "added particles". They are all emissive lights, each one of them. And in some scenes there are thousands of them.
Emissive lights using a deferred rendering technique with no shadows being cast is status quo. We can render 1000s of point lights with very little cost as long none of them cast shadows (which is the main expense in lighting).

+ destructible environments + huge areas and bosses + 60 fps + no loading at all
60fps is because the scene is rendering at a lower resolution therefore all framebuffers can handle the reduced pixel count (i.e. low bandwidth requirements).

Not saying that it is mindblowing, but compared to those other games, it deserves to be there
Last year was lackluster tbh. I wouldn't have even made a "best graphics technology" list. It was that bad. The tech demos are by far 'next-gen' quality. We may not even see games looking like demos this generation until maybe the end of the cycle. Epic is obviously ahead in graphics tech than most studios.
 
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sncvsrtoip

Member
Best Graphics Technology for me for 2021 is by far Metro Exodus's pure RT implementation. R&C has everything going on for it with artistic direction. I'm betting that the switching of worlds can be done without the PS5's SSD. The RT reflections aren't enough to put the game in the top spot for best graphics technology.

NXGamer should have judged based on 100% tech and not on art imo. Returnal shouldn't have been on that list at all. This proves how desperate we are to create a list of "Best of". Added particles in a game shouldn't be enough to put this game on the list. The resolution is poor and the texture/normal maps are of low quality as well.
Nah, in the end how game looks is more important than tech as even indie studio can go full heavy rt tough end with mediocre results. I agree with metro ee on top looking/tech list but for sure not top3 as game wasnt even that good looking (mediocre models, textures and animation + on consoles lack of 30/40fps mode so not so sharp)
 

Rea

Member
Because games like R&C get compared to CG all the time. Also, I'm just mentioning WHY I say what I say. I know what to look for and I can visually "see" the flaws.
Well, not everyone is VFX vet like you, they don't know what to look for, just generalizing the game. But even then, The game looks very close to looking like CGI film, but of course CGI look better.
 

SLB1904

Banned
Best Graphics Technology for me for 2021 is by far Metro Exodus's pure RT implementation. R&C has everything going on for it with artistic direction. I'm betting that the switching of worlds can be done without the PS5's SSD. The RT reflections aren't enough to put the game in the top spot for best graphics technology.

NXGamer should have judged based on 100% tech and not on art imo. Returnal shouldn't have been on that list at all. This proves how desperate we are to create a list of "Best of". Added particles in a game shouldn't be enough to put this game on the list. The resolution is poor and the texture/normal maps are of low quality as well.
ratchet looks on par with Disney Pixar movies
 

Hunnybun

Member
Yeap. I'm going by the actual code that goes into shading hair properly. So I know what to look for.

Hair in games are missing these crucial components:

1) Self-shadowing (ambient occlusion)
2) Inter-shadow casting on each other
3) global illumination - where the bounce of light from one strand illuminates another strand
4) Needs 3 specular lobes - not just 2.
5) Back-scatter component - not just in cinematics.

DF and others are judging the graphics on the cinematic hair - NOT the gameplay hair (which is much lower quality). Tech in games should be judged on gameplay assets and not cinematics. That's one of the main misleading assumptions from average gamers when they judge graphics in a game - it's cinematics. Whatever is running in the gameloop is where we should judge what a system can accomplish. IMO of course.

I actually sort of agree with you.

I've never found the fur in ratchet very nice looking, especially in gameplay, as you say. In fact I'd say that AESTHETICALLY, it's one of the weakest areas of the game.

DF I think focus too much on what's technically impressive from a coding POV rather than what actually looks GOOD.

I get that the fur in Ratchet is probably a real advance on what was done last gen. The problem for me is that it's often a case of "so near yet so far": it falls short of being convincing and so is actually a bit ugly to look at, imo.

I think RT is often treated like this too. Obviously a huge technical advance over last gen, but often so compromised as to definitely not be worth the cost. Reflections for example, are often hard to tell apart from SSR during gameplay, or are very low res, or reflect such a basic version of the scene that the whole effect is pointless. And yet DF et al cream themselves over it every time, just cos it's cutting edge tech.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Nah, in the end how game looks is more important than tech as even indie studio can go full heavy rt tough end with mediocre results. I agree with metro ee on top looking/tech list but for sure not top3 as game wasnt even that good looking (mediocre models, textures and animation + on consoles lack of 30/40fps mode so not so sharp)
Metro shouldnt be on any lists. It looks that mediocre.

I also love how it was on graphics lists in 2019 just because it used ray tracing then two years later they finally come out and say "hey our last RT solution was all wrong, completely inaccurate, and incomplete since it didnt even illuminate the environments by bouncing off correctly." , "THIS is how its really supposed to look." So should we now go back and rescind the award?

I am glad NX included Ascent but Guardians shouldve been picked over Metro. Same goes for Kena.
 

Imtjnotu

Member
I actually sort of agree with you.

I've never found the fur in ratchet very nice looking, especially in gameplay, as you say. In fact I'd say that AESTHETICALLY, it's one of the weakest areas of the game.

DF I think focus too much on what's technically impressive from a coding POV rather than what actually looks GOOD.

I get that the fur in Ratchet is probably a real advance on what was done last gen. The problem for me is that it's often a case of "so near yet so far": it falls short of being convincing and so is actually a bit ugly to look at, imo.

I think RT is often treated like this too. Obviously a huge technical advance over last gen, but often so compromised as to definitely not be worth the cost. Reflections for example, are often hard to tell apart from SSR during gameplay, or are very low res, or reflect such a basic version of the scene that the whole effect is pointless. And yet DF et al cream themselves over it every time, just cos it's cutting edge tech.
At no point during R&C did anyone confuse ssr and RT reflections.

Materials did change the reflections but never were any low quality.
 

GymWolf

Member
Every game on that list is uneven. Forza looks like this in some areas (see below) and last gen in others. Ratchet's open world chapter with the chick robot looks baren and ugly. Returnal's levels 3,5 and 6 look straight up last gen. RE8 looks stunning outdoors when you first start out, and awful and dawn or dusk or whatever that orange hue setting is. The final boss fight looks fugly, but ALL Indoor areas from the mansion to the doll cottage and the factory all look stunning. The windmill outdoor area looks stunning too.

For example, Forza looks like this

51244941553_e234bcb5c0_o.png


And this in the same game.

forza-horizon-5-plane.jpg


Ratchet looks like this:


Returnal_Preview_1.jpg


And this:

Drone_1.jpg


RE8 is far more consistent through out.
Village
A6kBeAM3wT27coSbZTNHh8.jpg


Mansion:
E19r309WEAEdElZ



Factory
E19r4HZXsAUOQTm


Doll cottage
E181g3GWQAEMmG0


Windmill
E181a5kXMAAFypF


The only time it looks bad is during the orange lighting.
Those are bullshot from capcom.

I played on max details on pc except rtx and except for the indoors like the mansion and doll house, many other areas are crossgen af, they look good from afar but close up details are just not there.

I think it does look more uneven to me because the mansion looks faboulous so any other location looks shit compared to it, returnal looks consistently ok\good, that screen you poster look photomode or just the perfect pic in the perfect moment, it almost never looks like that, the second screen is far more realistic.

For forza i only saw a lot of pics and yt video so i can't fully judge tbh.
 

ethomaz

Banned
I found the new RTGI in Metro a disservice to the art style and environment of the game.

The old lighting was better.

The fact that even closed low illuminated parts become like a external sun shining with new RTGI tells a lot.

The game was make to have closed dark environments.
 
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GymWolf

Member
Metro shouldnt be on any lists. It looks that mediocre.

I also love how it was on graphics lists in 2019 just because it used ray tracing then two years later they finally come out and say "hey our last RT solution was all wrong, completely inaccurate, and incomplete since it didnt even illuminate the environments by bouncing off correctly." , "THIS is how its really supposed to look." So should we now go back and rescind the award?

I am glad NX included Ascent but Guardians shouldve been picked over Metro. Same goes for Kena.
I lolled hard at the rtx part:messenger_tears_of_joy:
I swear you can take a pick of dry shit on the desert and just saying that it has rtx is enough for people to cream their pants.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Those are bullshot from capcom.
I took all those shots except for the first one. ;p Capcom just adds their copyright logo to every photo mode shot because they are morons. No other game does this.

Returnal's 1st and 2nd levels do a fantastic job of using volumetric lighting and fog. For some reason, that goes away in the third level which is where that screenshot is from. Or it's severely downgraded. If you look up in the sky in the 2nd level, all you see is this thick layer of volumetric atmosphere as you fight those flying enemies. It is a fantastic effect that rivals the volumetric fog on the ground in the first level. Levels 5 and 6 are also very underwhelming.

RE8 definitely looks cross gen.
 

Hunnybun

Member
At no point during R&C did anyone confuse ssr and RT reflections.

Materials did change the reflections but never were any low quality.

No I'm talking generally about RT reflections not necessarily Ratchet.

But even there there are plenty of scenes where a layman would never know the difference.
 

GymWolf

Member
I took all those shots except for the first one. ;p Capcom just adds their copyright logo to every photo mode shot because they are morons. No other game does this.

Returnal's 1st and 2nd levels do a fantastic job of using volumetric lighting and fog. For some reason, that goes away in the third level which is where that screenshot is from. Or it's severely downgraded. If you look up in the sky in the 2nd level, all you see is this thick layer of volumetric atmosphere as you fight those flying enemies. It is a fantastic effect that rivals the volumetric fog on the ground in the first level. Levels 5 and 6 are also very underwhelming.

RE8 definitely looks cross gen.
Lol wtf? They really put the copyright in your screenshot?! This is whole other level of bullshittery lmao.

I'm not really a fan of fog effects, i guess it adds atmosphere but a graphic never looked better to me because there is fog in it, it's an effect that i always put on low\off to save performances, same for clouds.
 

Hugare

Member
Emissive lights using a deferred rendering technique with no shadows being cast is status quo. We can render 1000s of point lights with very little cost as long none of them cast shadows (which is the main expense in lighting).


60fps is because the scene is rendering at a lower resolution therefore all framebuffers can handle the reduced pixel count (i.e. low bandwidth requirements).


Last year was lackluster tbh. I wouldn't have even made a "best graphics technology" list. It was that bad. The tech demos are by far 'next-gen' quality. We may not even see games looking like demos this generation until maybe the end of the cycle. Epic is obviously ahead in graphics tech than most studios.
Wont try to argue with you because you obviously know more about tech then I do

But I also believe more in DF's and NXGamer's words than yours (no offense)

I think its looks impressive, they say it's impressive, so lets agree to disagree
 

GymWolf

Member
I agree with Metro, but dont agree at all with you dismissing what Returnal does

Its not simple as "added particles". They are all emissive lights, each one of them. And in some scenes there are thousands of them.

+ destructible environments + huge areas and bosses + 60 fps + no loading at all

Not saying that it is mindblowing, but compared to those other games, it deserves to be there
Well they were 60 frame shit solid with constant slowdowns during combat, not exactly impressive for a game that runs upscaled from 1080p.

And what destructible environments?? A couple of stone pilons and statues?! Maybe i forget something...

The most impressive "destruction" was that ball of goo that reacts funny when you shot at it in some areas.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Lol wtf? They really put the copyright in your screenshot?! This is whole other level of bullshittery lmao.

I'm not really a fan of fog effects, i guess it adds atmosphere but a graphic never looked better to me because there is fog in it, it's an effect that i always put on low\off to save performances, same for clouds.
Oh god I hate fog in the new Horizon trailer. It's everywhere just like it was in the first game. I hate it in the PC version. I actually went out and bought Horizon on PC last week because I saw a video of it running without fog but it turns out the guy is selling the mod for a $10 monthly patreon. It's clearly there to reduce the rendering load and i hate it. They shouldve had an option on PC to remove it altogether.

However, it is one of the few next gen things in Returnal that sets it apart. It's not fog to save on performance, it's thick and has physics of its own. You can see fog disperse as you move through it especially in the first boss fight. In that sense, it's truly volumetric.

You can see it in this gif.

LCfMbGa.gif


The volumetrics in the second level look stunning. Sadly the game never looks this good after this level.
1621015237932.gif
 

Ev1L AuRoN

Member
Best Graphics Technology for me for 2021 is by far Metro Exodus's pure RT implementation. R&C has everything going on for it with artistic direction. I'm betting that the switching of worlds can be done without the PS5's SSD. The RT reflections aren't enough to put the game in the top spot for best graphics technology.

NXGamer should have judged based on 100% tech and not on art imo. Returnal shouldn't have been on that list at all. This proves how desperate we are to create a list of "Best of". Added particles in a game shouldn't be enough to put this game on the list. The resolution is poor and the texture/normal maps are of low quality as well.
I would agree, but you have to realize that despite Metro Exodus great RT implementation, that game is essentially a last gen title. Like Minecraft RT path tracing. The game is gorgeous, but it has last gen assets, and it shows, textures, geometry are all very basic compared to Ratchet.
As a package, Ratchet has a lot more going for it. Amazing assets, fur-rendering, particles and draw distance. Also, the SSD is leverage in very interesting ways, not just the quick load times, but also the dual-windows views, the rift jumps. The game has amazing IQ, one of the best motion blur implementation on the biz, 5 modes to play including 4k40fps with all the bells and whistles.

As for Returnal, despite that low native res, we live in the era of image reconstruction, and the game looks sharp enough on a 4k display, and is one of the clearer games in motion I ever play, I love that game to death and is probably the game I played the most on PS5, the dual sense implementation is also top notch.
 
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GymWolf

Member
Oh god I hate fog in the new Horizon trailer. It's everywhere just like it was in the first game. I hate it in the PC version. I actually went out and bought Horizon on PC last week because I saw a video of it running without fog but it turns out the guy is selling the mod for a $10 monthly patreon. It's clearly there to reduce the rendering load and i hate it. They shouldve had an option on PC to remove it altogether.

However, it is one of the few next gen things in Returnal that sets it apart. It's not fog to save on performance, it's thick and has physics of its own. You can see fog disperse as you move through it especially in the first boss fight. In that sense, it's truly volumetric.

You can see it in this gif.

LCfMbGa.gif


The volumetrics in the second level look stunning. Sadly the game never looks this good after this level.
1621015237932.gif
Yeah i noticed that while playing, i guess i just don't care about the fog at all other than adding atmosphere.

Last time i liked fog was probably silent hill 1 :lollipop_grinning_sweat:
 

Loope

Member
Best Graphics Technology for me for 2021 is by far Metro Exodus's pure RT implementation. R&C has everything going on for it with artistic direction. I'm betting that the switching of worlds can be done without the PS5's SSD. The RT reflections aren't enough to put the game in the top spot for best graphics technology.

NXGamer should have judged based on 100% tech and not on art imo. Returnal shouldn't have been on that list at all. This proves how desperate we are to create a list of "Best of". Added particles in a game shouldn't be enough to put this game on the list. The resolution is poor and the texture/normal maps are of low quality as well.
I'm going to wait for that poster that called out Riky for using the emoji to call out the ones that used the emojis on your reply. I didn't know you were back.
 

VFXVeteran

Banned
I would agree, but you have to realize that despite Metro Exodus great RT implementation, that game is essentially a last gen title
Just because a game was developed and released last gen doesn't make it a 'last-gen' title. All the graphics engines go through evolution phases all the time. None of these games have graphics engines written from scratch. A game that implements the latest tech is what is the effort for pushing tech past last-gen. I agree that Metro is a last gen title, but since they put it in the lineup, it should have won on sheer tech alone.

As a package, Ratchet has a lot more going for it. Amazing assets, fur-rendering, particles and draw distance. Also, the SSD is leverage in very interesting ways, not just the quick load times, but also the dual-windows views, the rift jumps. The game has amazing IQ, one of the best motion blur implementation on the biz, 5 modes to play including 4k40fps with all the bells and whistles.
As I mentioned, the fur-rendering doesn't look good but I respect your opinion that it does. The other items that you named are typical assets from any game out there. Draw distance isn't a metric because it's a game that's closed within the extents for that level. It's not open world like open world games that you can actually travel to. The warps are definitely something that can be done without the PS5 SSD. The data isn't anywhere near large enough to require it.
 

GymWolf

Member
ratchet looks on par with Disney Pixar movies
Yep, it looks exactly like the movies where they need to render a single frame for like 50 hours in a render farm, but with a 500 dollars hardware.

You people really like to throw these hyperboles at him to make him mad uh :lollipop_grinning_sweat:

Not saying that vfx is without faults sometimes but this is hilarious even for a guy who think that ratchet deserve the first place on that list.
 
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Loope

Member
Everyone please stop using laugh emojis. Thank you.
Tell that to the person whose immediate reaction was calling out the guy for using it. You can use on mine if you want to though.

Edit: Ah it was you, that's why the snarky remark about something you did first.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Best Graphics Technology for me for 2021 is by far Metro Exodus's pure RT implementation. R&C has everything going on for it with artistic direction. I'm betting that the switching of worlds can be done without the PS5's SSD. The RT reflections aren't enough to put the game in the top spot for best graphics technology.

NXGamer should have judged based on 100% tech and not on art imo. Returnal shouldn't have been on that list at all. This proves how desperate we are to create a list of "Best of". Added particles in a game shouldn't be enough to put this game on the list. The resolution is poor and the texture/normal maps are of low quality as well.

That reminds me, I have the game and its DLC purchased. Just haven't had the time to play it.*

The Metro EE.
 
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