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Graphical Fidelity I Expect This Gen

Alex11

Member
AW2 is overrated city as a game. I complain about it's shitty graphics on ps5. On pc it's a different story. For Avatar, I don't have my opinion fully formed yet. The parts later in vid with interactivity was great like SlimySnake SlimySnake pointed out. The vid from @Falc67 also looked better.
I have my issues with AW2, but I wouldn't call it overrated, when it shines it really shines, at its highs the lighting is spectacular, but it does have some rough spots that are being ignored, I have some screens that really can't believe it's from the same game.
 

CGNoire

Member
have you played RDR2 on PC? the input lag and the general cumbersome feel from the 30 fps console versions is still there. rockstar just loves that kind of weighty feeling. its why every GTA game since GTA4 has had that feel especially when driving cars. i dont think its 30 fps, more a design feature because Rockstar designers are stubborn as fuck.
Thats not what Im talking about. Its the Inertia and suspension that where completely gimped in GTAV compared with IV. The bikes where so gimped that not even a mod seems to be able to get them to lean properly.
 

rofif

Banned
I have my issues with AW2, but I wouldn't call it overrated, when it shines it really shines, at its highs the lighting is spectacular, but it does have some rough spots that are being ignored, I have some screens that really can't believe it's from the same game.
I might be salty because of how bad the ps5 version was. Image quality, absolutely 0 care to create RT substitute (so no good ssr).... just grain, grainy ssr and bad performance.
I was obviously still impressed but by the end I was so done with image quality.
 

Alex11

Member
I might be salty because of how bad the ps5 version was. Image quality, absolutely 0 care to create RT substitute (so no good ssr).... just grain, grainy ssr and bad performance.
I was obviously still impressed but by the end I was so done with image quality.
It's understandable, I saw some pieces from the PS5 version and yeah, it can be rough, that's my gripe with all this talk about graphics, some games lacking small or big graphical features between PC and console that really change ones perspective and take on a game's visual fidelity, especially with ones like AW2 or CP 2077 that have path tracing.

I really don't know how it's better to judge a game visually, by one what platform it looks better, by the worst or just a combination.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I've seen those, and I've said it before, some parts look gorgeous, and yeah that first gif of yours looks amazing, but then there are parts like the one ones rofif rofif posted, and those look really dated or a bit on the boring side.
For the comparison with Horizon, just the clouds in HFW for me are above anything in Avatar, don't know what, they just look so delicious, they way they move and look, so good, even in HZD.

I know I may come off as a hater, but I'm really not, it's just my opinion, just as others have a bad or mid opinion about CP 2077, this is my take on Avatar.
It's all good. The thread would be boring otherwise. I think its the cinematography im always talking about. GG is just on another playing field compared to Massive who are just as technically accomplished but lack that final piece of the puzzle Sony studios seem to so effortlessly capture game after game.

The idiotic decision to make it first person also robbed them of scenes like the hellblade 2 gifs above where even canned animations add a great cinematic flair to the visuals.

What the first person view does do is put you closer to the action and in a densely packed game like this, it honestly kinda overwhelms you. I never got this feeling when playing horizon. I feel like im surrounded by plant life and its amazing.

HFW does do some things better. Character models, cloud rendering, water rendering, animations obviously, day time lighting cinematography but Avatar is just a generation ahead in everything else. Draw distance, foliage rendering, dynamic lighting, interactivity, weather simulations (honestly this just might be the game's strongest suit) and indoor lighting is a generation ahead of HFW. It essentially fixes all the issues I had with HFW which to me was the best looking game until AW2 came out, but had some issues with draw distance, pop-in, GI, and other things that they simply couldnt overcome due to last gen limitations.

I have posted this screenshot before to show just where HFW is lacking despite its almost next gen visuals in other lighting conditions. Avatar not only fixes this but also creates some stunning vistas thanks to overall better lighting fidelity that handles indirect lighting and GI light bounce way better than last gen open world games.

Fyjc5DFXsAIi3sF
 

Alex11

Member
It's all good. The thread would be boring otherwise. I think its the cinematography im always talking about. GG is just on another playing field compared to Massive who are just as technically accomplished but lack that final piece of the puzzle Sony studios seem to so effortlessly capture game after game.

The idiotic decision to make it first person also robbed them of scenes like the hellblade 2 gifs above where even canned animations add a great cinematic flair to the visuals.

What the first person view does do is put you closer to the action and in a densely packed game like this, it honestly kinda overwhelms you. I never got this feeling when playing horizon. I feel like im surrounded by plant life and its amazing.

HFW does do some things better. Character models, cloud rendering, water rendering, animations obviously, day time lighting cinematography but Avatar is just a generation ahead in everything else. Draw distance, foliage rendering, dynamic lighting, interactivity, weather simulations (honestly this just might be the game's strongest suit) and indoor lighting is a generation ahead of HFW. It essentially fixes all the issues I had with HFW which to me was the best looking game until AW2 came out, but had some issues with draw distance, pop-in, GI, and other things that they simply couldnt overcome due to last gen limitations.

I have posted this screenshot before to show just where HFW is lacking despite its almost next gen visuals in other lighting conditions. Avatar not only fixes this but also creates some stunning vistas thanks to overall better lighting fidelity that handles indirect lighting and GI light bounce way better than last gen open world games.

Fyjc5DFXsAIi3sF
Yeah, you may be right about the cinematography, but then I guess that includes the stuff I was talking about, no? The samey looking floaty rocks or other stuff. That's one thing that bothers me about CP 2077 also, it's all good while you're in the city, any time of day, 90% of the time it looks amazing, but then tou go outside the city and it looks just plain boring, never mind that the lighting is accurate.

I agree that the draw distance is better and also the dynamic lighting, but I think that the cloud rendering and characters are of much higher quality than these best things of Avatar.
Don't know if I'm making sense, what I mean is the highs of Horizon for me are much better than the highs of Avatar.

But you know, if we are judging a game visual fidelity, artistry, whatever, by its high points, wouldn't then by fair to count the low points also? I mean, ok, this X game is amazing looking in this scene, or excels at this or that , but then its lowest thing its poorer than the lowest thing in Y game, what or how do we judge in this situation?
 
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M1987

Member
Have you seen the gifs ive posted? Cant you tell that the lighting, foliage density, draw distance and lighting is a step above horizon fw?
I'm playing it now and although it looks great,I wouldn't say it looks overall a step above,HFW will look better once it comes to PC
 

Turk1993

GAFs #1 source for car graphic comparisons
Just watched Alex's Avatar pc breakdown, and fuck me it looks good. SlimySnake SlimySnake you where right, the game is a step up from HFW. The lighting and overall detail is really impressive. And the RTGI really shows the difference between this and HFW in similar areas.

Also watched the HB2 trailer and it looks also incredible but a bit too blury and overly processed for my taste. Im sure the pc version will fix that and will look much better since that was Xbox X footage.

In 2024 and 2025 us graphics whores gonna eat good.
 

CGNoire

Member
It's all good. The thread would be boring otherwise. I think its the cinematography im always talking about. GG is just on another playing field compared to Massive who are just as technically accomplished but lack that final piece of the puzzle Sony studios seem to so effortlessly capture game after game.

The idiotic decision to make it first person also robbed them of scenes like the hellblade 2 gifs above where even canned animations add a great cinematic flair to the visuals.

What the first person view does do is put you closer to the action and in a densely packed game like this, it honestly kinda overwhelms you. I never got this feeling when playing horizon. I feel like im surrounded by plant life and its amazing.

HFW does do some things better. Character models, cloud rendering, water rendering, animations obviously, day time lighting cinematography but Avatar is just a generation ahead in everything else. Draw distance, foliage rendering, dynamic lighting, interactivity, weather simulations (honestly this just might be the game's strongest suit) and indoor lighting is a generation ahead of HFW. It essentially fixes all the issues I had with HFW which to me was the best looking game until AW2 came out, but had some issues with draw distance, pop-in, GI, and other things that they simply couldnt overcome due to last gen limitations.

I have posted this screenshot before to show just where HFW is lacking despite its almost next gen visuals in other lighting conditions. Avatar not only fixes this but also creates some stunning vistas thanks to overall better lighting fidelity that handles indirect lighting and GI light bounce way better than last gen open world games.

Fyjc5DFXsAIi3sF
Can you post some gifs of the wind sim showcasing some turbulence preferably?

I agree with Alex the game seems to play super similar to crysis sans the cloak.
 

Audiophile

Member
Super-SHMEXY GTAVI GIF Time with Ultra High Quality AVIFs
Supported: Chrome / Brave / Opera / Safari | Unsupported: Edge / IE | Unknown: Firefox

20_VI.avifs



Grouped in spoiler tags as not to rag your browsers...recommend closing one tag before opening another:

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05_EastcoastCustoms.avifs

06_Lady.avifs

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15_NightIsland+Strip.avifs

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19_Jay&Lucia.avifs

YT 4K Trailer (YT DLP) > ffmpeg TIFF LZW RGB48 -s 1920x1080 > imagemagick crop/pad/resize/filter -s 800x450 > ezgif AVIFs

Framerate lowered from 30fps to 25/20/15fps for different cuts as they're way too fast in places to take in the detail ...enjoy!
 
It's because marketing departments have purposly muddied the waters for the term "RT". It supposed to mean Raytraced but those clever assholes have lately been using it to suggest that when they really mean Realtime. Which for all we know could and probably refers to a far coarser voxel probe solution.

With GTA6 its raytraced.....the good stuff.


Just like they muddied the waters with "4k" and how they muddy the waters every new game that's about to release by having previews where nda's get signed so the previewer can't say "this is not console footage", even tho the previewer's youtube channel is console focused.

The industry us so dishonest
 
Trigger warning for Lethal and Gymwolf but that looks straight up CG. wtf.

They have increased the number of takedowns but combat looks the same as the first. It was also cinematic but basically a 1v1 game with very limited mobility and parrying mechanics that bored me to death after the first few hours. I was hoping for some more moves and a slightly more pulled back camera to let you handle multiple enemies.

Why would they not improve the combat? You'd think they'd be at least worried the game would get torn to shreds if a sequel released with the same ultra basic combat and yet here we are ..
 

GymWolf

Member
Trigger warning for Lethal and Gymwolf but that looks straight up CG. wtf.

They have increased the number of takedowns but combat looks the same as the first. It was also cinematic but basically a 1v1 game with very limited mobility and parrying mechanics that bored me to death after the first few hours. I was hoping for some more moves and a slightly more pulled back camera to let you handle multiple enemies.
It triggers me because you use the word cg, but cg is a broad term.

Hb2 is nowhere near movie quality cg that most people pass for real life, the game still look like a damn videogame, even when it use dark locations, rain and all the tricks to look as good as it does, i bet the game is not gonna look THAT hot under different circumstances.
Also the eyes really bugs me, nd does eyes much better.





Btw avatar looos gorgeous most of the time but:

Ground texture looks terrible, mushy and low res looks like someone puked low res small rocks on the ground, not on par with the rest, it's really distracting.

Water looks very bad, distracting when everything around look good.
It still looks better than sp2 water that you thought was good, so there is that...
 
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GymWolf

Member
Avatar continue to crash on me, how do i run a ubisoft game as an admnistrator/disable full screen optimization? Usually these 2 things are the first thing to check.

From the shortcut on the desktop i don't have this option, do i need to copy the actual exe of the game in the desktop and modify that one?
 

GymWolf

Member
The 2 best looking games of 2024 right here.

SPACE-MARINE.gif

JI8YRvS.gif


Still give Warhammer the edge because of the amount of shit on screen and the actual fidelity isn't far off.
I have no idea how you can like the combat of tlou2 and hb2 and then like the absolute mindless button mashing of an horde of pseudo xenomorphs with the occasional red prompt for a fatality in space marine 2...
 

GymWolf

Member
Jesus the df crowd are so fucking boring, i watched the gta6 analysis and they waste a lot of time on lights and reflections and they barely mention the beach scene with the npcs or some other impressive scene.

Also lol at comparing the shitty models in sp2 to the models in gta6...
 

rofif

Banned
Jesus the df crowd are so fucking boring, i watched the gta6 analysis and they waste a lot of time on lights and reflections and they barely mention the beach scene with the npcs or some other impressive scene.

Also lol at comparing the shitty models in sp2 to the models in gta6...
Yeah bugaga is all about rt. he will spend hours explaining how it's REAL light and youi look at raster image and it's the same usually lol
 

winjer

Member
Jesus the df crowd are so fucking boring, i watched the gta6 analysis and they waste a lot of time on lights and reflections and they barely mention the beach scene with the npcs or some other impressive scene.

Also lol at comparing the shitty models in sp2 to the models in gta6...

Yeah, DF is way past their prime days.
And it just keeps getting worse.
 

carsar

Member
Where is all that GI going?

Like... I might be nit picking but Alex is praising the game and showing this:
cPj96gV.jpg
I dont understand such praising of GI implementation too. First thing I ve been noticing since first trailer - lack of AO in places where it should be. Animals' models, hands and other dynamic objects look weird/
hjtd2RR.jpg

Postrocessing, where is it? I dont see high quality motion blur, dof at far distance and other things which make Avatar movie and many games look so impressive. ubisoft are well known haters of rich cinematic look.
 
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sinnergy

Member
I dont understand such praising of GI implementation too. First thing I ve been noticing since first trailer - lack of AO in places where it should be. Animals' models, hands and other dynamic objects look weird/
hjtd2RR.jpg

Postrocessing, where is it? I dont see high quality motion blur, dof at far distance and other things which make Avatar movie and many games look so impressive. ubisoft are well known haters of rich cinematic look.
It’s a game .. not a movie .. just appreciate what is done in the medium at hand . The topic is graphical fidelity this gen, this , Allan Wake , GTA6, Hellblade 2, is about it .. what is possible. It’s not movie rendering on endless rendering servers .
 
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Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
I have no idea how you can like the combat of tlou2 and hb2 and then like the absolute mindless button mashing of an horde of pseudo xenomorphs with the occasional red prompt for a fatality in space marine 2...
2 different types of games. TLOU 2 and Hellblade, I want the combat to feel "personal" - a big fuck you to every enemy i slaughter violently.
with Space marine 2, i have no problem destroying hundreds at a time with massive guns like a fucking super soldier.
especially when it looks like THAT
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Jesus the df crowd are so fucking boring, i watched the gta6 analysis and they waste a lot of time on lights and reflections and they barely mention the beach scene with the npcs or some other impressive scene.

Also lol at comparing the shitty models in sp2 to the models in gta6...
Its the same as how Alex spent the first part of his avatar video on RTGI and how it accurately covers shadows and AO in caves. Eventually, he did get to the detail part and the actual lighting model, but I feel like they have an agenda to push RT over everything else and kind of lose sight of what really makes the game look as good as it does.

They do cover stuff like hair rendering and character models towards the end of the insanely long 36 minute video though. But by then i dont blame you for zoning out.

NX Gamer had a much more concise video covering everything. 12 minutes and he points out everything worth noting.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I am actually not a big fan of how the game looks at night. Probably to do with the increased black levels in HDR, but at times it can look stunning thanks to those amazing looking trees, the volumetric moonlight and a truly next gen lighting model.

xR2mydw.gif
 

GymWolf

Member
I am actually not a big fan of how the game looks at night. Probably to do with the increased black levels in HDR, but at times it can look stunning thanks to those amazing looking trees, the volumetric moonlight and a truly next gen lighting model.

xR2mydw.gif
Yeah night look meh but hdr is basically required in this game, it looks downright worse in sdr.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I agree that the draw distance is better and also the dynamic lighting, but I think that the cloud rendering and characters are of much higher quality than these best things of Avatar.
Don't know if I'm making sense, what I mean is the highs of Horizon for me are much better than the highs of Avatar.
I disagree. i think avatars highs are higher.
But you know, if we are judging a game visual fidelity, artistry, whatever, by its high points, wouldn't then by fair to count the low points also? I mean, ok, this X game is amazing looking in this scene, or excels at this or that , but then its lowest thing its poorer than the lowest thing in Y game, what or how do we judge in this situation?
Agreed. Thats why despite all the times ive pointed out HFW's shortcomings, ive always followed it up with saying that its still the best looking game out there. I just think avatar has topped it because it consistently looks better and its lows arent as low as Horizons lows.

Play the game and it will become clear that when avatar doesnt look good, it doesnt look good because of its cinematography. Not because of its technical shortcomings like horizon. I think you will be surprised by how good it looks 90% of the time. And even when it looks mediocre, the foliage is still there, the massive draw distance is still there, and the lighting is still better. its cinematography just fails and thats ok. no game can look amazing 100% of the time just like no movie can either.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
how is the actual game
Not great. Not terrible. they do their best to avoid far cry pitfalls during gameplay, but there is only so much you can do with a first person game set in a jungle to make it different. the fucked up making cutscenes first person and its just awful to play through the story. it doesnt hold your attention like sony first party games and you find yourself going through the motions.

its still a good game mind you. Its just not something that will win or get nominated for awards like sony games do.
 

CGNoire

Member
I thought the covered it all pretty well.
I dont like them at all anymore and think there sellouts and have contributed in galighting gamers for years now willfully playing softball with most major releases this gen but.....

....i dont get the hate at all there getting for there GTA6 video. I thought they did a really good job covrering exactly what they needed to with it and contrary to what others keep saying here focused there attention on the most important parts to take away. That is RTGI, RTR, and the Hair Sim. They even mentioned the huge scale as well. People here letting there hatred of Alex distort reality for them. Most of there videoz lately i find to be shit or misleading this wasnt one of them.
 
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CGNoire

Member
It’s a game .. not a movie .. just appreciate what is done in the medium at hand . The topic is graphical fidelity this gen, this , Allan Wake , GTA6, Hellblade 2, is about it .. what is possible. It’s not movie rendering on endless rendering servers .
Asking for simple AO, Motion blur, and DOf equals movie rendering now....say what?
 

CGNoire

Member
Its the same as how Alex spent the first part of his avatar video on RTGI and how it accurately covers shadows and AO in caves. Eventually, he did get to the detail part and the actual lighting model, but I feel like they have an agenda to push RT over everything else and kind of lose sight of what really makes the game look as good as it does.

They do cover stuff like hair rendering and character models towards the end of the insanely long 36 minute video though. But by then i dont blame you for zoning out.

NX Gamer had a much more concise video covering everything. 12 minutes and he points out everything worth noting.
RTGI is the "actual lighting model" though?
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
RTGI is the "actual lighting model" though?
Nah, RTGI just renders everything in realtime and accurately. The actual lighting model needs to be adjusted by devs and artists. Its why robocop and immortals look so different despite both using Lumen, and why nothing has come close to the Matrix despite several games using RTGI.

I remember Alex jizzing all over Metro getting RTGI then HFW came out and had better lighting despite using baked lighting. Both metro and avatar use RTGI but one clearly looks better.
 
I'm gonna get absolutely shredded for this but call me crazy, I'm not impressed with Avatar or Hellblade 2.

Let me say these are not graphically bad games. In fact they are graphically good games but I'm not blown into the stratosphere like GTA 6, UE5 reveal demo, Matrix etc

My issues with them are as follows, first of all both received a MASSIVE downgrade from their initial reveals. Their initial reveals satiated by personal standards for "next gen". But as they are now? First of all we have Avatar which admittedly has great vegetation but I find it a very fugly looking game. The lighting feels flat too often and it just seems kind of muddy and drab. I think maybe it's issue is its art style is basically just "here's generic AAA open world slop". Which is sad for an Avatar game because James Cameron made an ethereal recognizable look for that universe at least. But to me it just looks like a generic Ubisoft game with great vegetation.

Hellblade 2 looks great don't get me wrong but it is smeared with so much post processing its not even funny. Just bathed in film grain, blur, fog and chromatic aberration. Its clear alllllll the rendering budget is being spent to make the main girl and say the next like 3 feet in front of her look as good as possible (For a Series S baseline). But the shit feels so claustrophobic and tight and small no wonder it looks decent. You literally can't see like 10 feet in front of her in a lot of the footage. The character models are outstanding but Jesus the environment is so dark and limited and covered in shadows and fog it kind of takes away from it all to me. The draw distance is absolutely minuscule. I suspect a trade off for the high polygon main character.
 

rofif

Banned
I'm gonna get absolutely shredded for this but call me crazy, I'm not impressed with Avatar or Hellblade 2.

Let me say these are not graphically bad games. In fact they are graphically good games but I'm not blown into the stratosphere like GTA 6, UE5 reveal demo, Matrix etc

My issues with them are as follows, first of all both received a MASSIVE downgrade from their initial reveals. Their initial reveals satiated by personal standards for "next gen". But as they are now? First of all we have Avatar which admittedly has great vegetation but I find it a very fugly looking game. The lighting feels flat too often and it just seems kind of muddy and drab. I think maybe it's issue is its art style is basically just "here's generic AAA open world slop". Which is sad for an Avatar game because James Cameron made an ethereal recognizable look for that universe at least. But to me it just looks like a generic Ubisoft game with great vegetation.

Hellblade 2 looks great don't get me wrong but it is smeared with so much post processing its not even funny. Just bathed in film grain, blur, fog and chromatic aberration. Its clear alllllll the rendering budget is being spent to make the main girl and say the next like 3 feet in front of her look as good as possible (For a Series S baseline). But the shit feels so claustrophobic and tight and small no wonder it looks decent. You literally can't see like 10 feet in front of her in a lot of the footage. The character models are outstanding but Jesus the environment is so dark and limited and covered in shadows and fog it kind of takes away from it all to me. The draw distance is absolutely minuscule. I suspect a trade off for the high polygon main character.
I am more impressed by ff7 rebirth honestly.
Art/custom design stuff is more important that bare tech.
For about a decade now, we are only limited by art and imagination and games that want to push those, have the tech to do it
 
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