As expected, Guerrilla's level of technical accomplishment is simply sensational. Its ability to produce striking visuals has never been in question but the Decima engine has reached new heights with Horizon.
What works and what doesn't in Horizon Zero Dawn
[4K] Horizon Zero Dawn In-Depth Tech Analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y8u7MvuArA&t=5s
2160p Checkerboard rendering
Full 1080p downsizing
Improved anisotropic filtering filtering
No global illumination
GPU based procedural placement for rocks, foliage, wildlife and sound affects, all placed in realtime
Dynamically generated volumetric cloud simulation
True volumetric light shafts
Limited water reflections
No water reaction with character
No foliage reaction with character
What works
The world: From both a technical and artistic perspective, the world of Horizon is a triumph. The sense of scale on display is truly breathtaking and the game is rich in detail. Foliage and rubble pepper the landscape, towering mechanical cities tower in the distance while volumetric lighting hangs gently in the air. This is backed by a remarkable real-time cloud simulation that enables a realistic portrayal of the sky building a more cohesive environment in the process. The way in which these elements complement one another to create such an impressive environment stands out as a remarkable achievement in design.
Materials: Killzone Shadow Fall was one of the first games this generation to make use of physically-based rendering and Horizon continues that trend with a rich materials system. Horizon combines natural materials such as wood and stone with the ancient technology of the old world to great effect. The machines are decked out in futuristic looking polymers and metal plates which play nicely off the more natural surroundings resulting in a unique looking game. Textures are rich with detail and look great under a variety of lighting conditions.
Character animation and detail: Open world games sometimes make sacrifices to character detail out of necessity but impressively, Guerrilla manages to maintain a level of quality on par with a linear action game. Textures used on clothing and skin are of high resolution while the applied shading introduces an extra layer of realism. World traversal feels natural thanks to smart design, while inverse kinematics allow Aloy's feet and body to react naturally to the wild undulation of the terrain. The skeleton system from Killzone Shadow Fall makes a return enabling even more robust animation work. Each outfit exhibits bits and bobs which make use of a physics system designed to allow these materials to react naturally while moving. The quality of the models and fluidity of the animation all come together to create a satisfying sensation of movement and interaction which enhances the basic feel of the game - a key element in any third
Post-processing effects: Since Killzone 2, Guerrilla has pushed the envelope in terms of the quality of its post-process pipeline. From motion blur and depth of field to reflections and light blooms, Horizon makes use of the full suite of effects available in Decima. Motion blur is prominent throughout the game and applied to camera and character movement alike. This helps increase the fluidity of animation while emphasising dramatic actions. The effect is beautiful but subtle enough so as not to distract those that don't care for it. A high-quality bokeh depth of field is used both in photo mode and during conversations. The soft-focus effect is striking at times when contrasted against bright backgrounds. Each of these effects combine with one another to create an highly appealing final composition.
Frame-rate: On the surface, 30 frames per second doesn't sound especially impressive, but reaching such a stable level of performance in a game of this size and scope is an achievement indeed. We've tested many open world games over the years including Fallout 4, Just Cause 3, The Witcher 3, Infamous: Second Son and even the remastered version of Skyrim and many of those games suffer from noticeable hitches, skips and drops during traversal and combat alike. To play a game like Horizon at such a stable level of performance without any of these typical issues is something that simply must be commended. Beyond that, frames are evenly paced throughout eliminating any sense of instability in the process.
Loading times: Another potential pitfall we've often encountered with open world games are the loading times. Whether it's the lengthy waiting times of The Witcher 3 or the constant barrage of loading screens in Fallout 4, many gamers have become accustomed to staring at loading screens in open world titles, disrupting the all-important sense of immersion. In comparison, Horizon manages to dodge most of these issues. The initial startup can take between forty to fifty seconds to complete but once in the game, loading remains fast. Death generally means waiting less than ten seconds to retry while fast travel manages is always reasonable.
Pre-rendered video: While Horizon generally sticks to real-time cut-scene for its exposition there are several pre-rendered videos included as well. As a game in development well before the existence of the PlayStation 4 Pro, we wouldn't have been surprised to discover a selection of video encoded at 1080p. Thankfully, that is not the case and all the video content included in the game is displayed at a full 2160p instead. This ensures that there is never a disconnect between the game itself and the video sequences - a particular bugbear of ours on PS4 Pro and indeed PC gaming.
The map and menu system: As a role-playing game, players spend a decent chunk of time navigating Horizon's menu system and the experience really couldn't be more pleasant. While the game itself operates at 30fps, the frame-rate is increased to 60fps within the menu system. In addition, the map system is one of the best we've ever encountered thanks to a detailed 3D map that quickly communicates height and distance. The cherry on top is the high-resolution text and menu graphics used throughout - these elements use high resolution artwork designed for 4K displays.
What doesn't
Water rendering: Water often plays a large role in natural environments and Horizon is no exception. Unfortunately, the way in which water is portrayed here is at odds with the rest of the presentation. Screen-space reflections are kept to a minimum, only reflecting a small part of the surrounding environment with the game relying more heavily on baked textures instead. When encountering calm pools of water, the result sticks out against the otherwise superbly detailed environment. In addition, water does not react in any meaningful way to characters while moving through them. At least the portrayal of turbulent streams, such as water rushing down a rocky mountain pass, is decidedly more impressive at least.
Artificial intelligence: The world of Horizon is populated by an eclectic mix of humans and machines but engaging them can result in some head-scratching moments. When facing machines, the behaviour doesn't feel out of place but humans generally react to the player in less than satisfying ways. Case in point - early on, the player gains an ability to whistle which grabs the attention of the nearest enemy. By hiding in the bushes and whistling, you can attract a human to your position where you can immediately kill them from cover. By whistling repeatedly, it's possible to attract the attention of all nearby humans over time resulting in a pile of bodies as you dispatch each one. This type of behavior feels unnatural and cheapens the encounters with human enemies.
Lip sync: Horizon features a lot of conversations and a wide range of characters but not all characters exhibit the same level of quality. NPCs responsible for handing out lower tier quests often exhibit inaccurate lip synchronisation which looks out of place in such a beautiful game. There is a distinct feeling that lip sync quality is tied directly to the important of the character as main characters tend not to suffer from these problems.
Audio mix: Horizon sounds great overall apart from one small detail - voice playback positioning. Traditionally, when using a surround sound setup, voices should play back through the center channel speaker. In the case of Horizon, voices are panned right which means they play through the centre and right speaker but not the left. This creates a sense of imbalance that is highly distracting on surround set-ups. Now, this may seem like a nitpick, but at least for us, the effect of having voices panned right is distracting. This isn't an issue when played in stereo mode, but we would like to see this addressed in a future patch for users of a surround sound setup.
Camera position: Third person games often give users a choice on which side of the screen a character is placed - essentially letting you select the dominant shoulder. In Horizon, the game decides for you and in many cases, it doesn't feel quite right. Aloy is often pushed to the right side of the screen even in tight environments where the left side of the image is pushed up against a wall. It's a personal preference, but if you're used to playing with characters positioned to the left, this can be distracting and could potentially have been addressed with a simple option.
Anisotropic filtering on a standard PS4: The experience on a standard PlayStation 4 is generally excellent across the board but that doesn't mean it's perfect. Texture filtering is kept at a very low level on a standard system with otherwise detailed textures appearing blurry at oblique angles. It's likely that system resource limitations prevent the inclusion of higher quality filtering, but the results here are underwhelming nonetheless.
Shadow distance: In close proximity, shadow filtering is of exceptional quality but the resolution of the shadow maps quickly dissipates just a few metres from the player character. The shadow cascade quickly jumps from highly detailed to amorphous blob shadow in a way that can prove distracting at times. In the larger open areas, this is never a real problem, but it stands out while exploring dense forests and areas with lots of complex shadow work. Still, we'll always trade shadow quality for increased performance so Guerrilla made the right choice here.
Foliage interaction: You'll spend a lot of time traipsing grassy hills and dense forests and while the dense foliage looks beautiful, most of the plant life does not react to the player in any way. Instead of brushing up against these plants, the player simply clips right through them which looks a little off-putting next to the otherwise stunning animation work. As with shadow distance, however, this is likely a necessary trade-off in order to hit the target frame-rate.
Minor glitches: As polished as Horizon may be, this is still an open world game and as such, strange things can happen. From ducks walking in mid-air and boars clipping right through a stack of crates to enemies that just disappear into a wall after death, there's no shortage of this stuff. Most of it is good fun and harmless to the overall experience at least, but it's worth pointing out as it does momentarily break the immersion the game world works so hard to generate.
Shadows
Shadows are rendered beautifully close-up, but the effect transitions to a lower quality surprisingly close to the player. It's not noticeable in many scenes, but hard to ignore in foliage-heavy scenes like this one.
There are some amazing images in the video, maybe someone can grab some.
