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I miss being blown away by new-gen graphics....

tommib

Member
Maybe I'm just getting older or it is diminishing returns. I am playing Horizon for the first time thanks to the 60fps and for a 2017 game I am still blown away. Honestly I don't even need better graphics, work on other things like enemy variety, better level design, more variety in environments etc, for me personally 2017 graphics in 60fps is enough. As long as we get games looking like Horizon and Last of Us 2 running in 60fps I am satisfied. Of course things like level designed restricted from the HDD should also be resolved so we have less going through right caves in games. So to conclude give me Horizon, Red Dead 2 level of graphics in 60fps without level design choices based around HDD and the gen would be enough for me.

Before anyone mentions this I haven't felt like this for a generation ever I have been gaming since the SNES. When PS1 came out I always felt we need 3D graphics. Going from PS1 to PS2 I always felt near the end of generation games looked to boxy, and alot of games are not true 3d (prerendered backgrounds). Then with end of PS2 I felt games were blurry and resolution was low, and finally PS3 games were jaggy and draw distance was not that great. With PS4 the main complaint I had was 30fps games but the look of the games still continue to blow me away, so just upgrading resolution was enough.
Love the positivity. I can’t think of a better time to be a gamer.
 

RPSleon

Member
Games look good enough in most instances. If we can keep 60fps a standard from now on then im happy. The fact that some console games are even doing 120 is great.

I cant wait to see what comes later this generation. I think theres still gonna be moments we dont expect
 

Kikorin

Member
I'd love to see this gen show this kind of interaction and physics simulation. I don't care at all about super-high resolution, incredibly high poly count or things like that, what really give you the impression to be in a living world is the interaction and this has gone worst and worst in last years, I guess because of the shitty CPUs, but now there are no more excuses.





 
I still get blown away by PS4 games. Recently I was playing Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition which has been out for quite a while now, and some of the scenery was amazing.

I have no doubt I'll love what the other consoles offer when I can get one.
Now imagine Tomb Raider with the level of detail from the UE5 engine demo.
 

xPikYx

Member
Equation is simple, you want framerate? Buy a PC, no seriously tge whole point of a new generation of consoles before was to create the minimum common denominator to develop games, now they gone crazy pushing resolutions and framerates to a level not even 1000£+ gpus can stand, and they want to do it on cheap shit like these new consoles they produced this time around, 400£ for a console in 2020 was like selling a ps1 for 50£ at launch in 1994, to see a real jump they should have costed at least double, pushing over 15tf, 32gb of ram, and using dlss like reconstruction tecniques at performance mode (1080p to 4k for 60fps, or 1440p to 4k for 30fps), we definitely need a mid gen refresh soon, these consoles are a epic fail. For those who speak about diminishing return, please stop, we are so far away from that, we need to reach UE5 tech demo polygons level and marble path tracing level of illumination shadows cast and reflection before talking about diminishing return.

This polygon level of detail:


Path tracing for Global illumination, reflections and shadows cast:


This technology for characters model presentation and modelling:


When we will have a game having all of the three contemporarily at 1080p 30fps then we talk about diminishing return, because you cannot improve much visuals like this, you can only bump up resolution, framerate and loading times, but until then stop talking about diminishing return because it is not the case
 

Raphael

Member
My kid is just about 8... and doesn't seem to care what games look like. I find it so strange.

Minecraft and Roblox are ruining a whole generation of graphic whores.
I guess that makes sense, prefered lego cars to more realistic car models cause i had more fun and options with that.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
I agree, the consoles could be ps4 pro 2 and x1x2 and it would not feel strange.

Dimininishing returns is part of the reason. But im sure we will be wowed eventually.
It might be like GTA3, which even though it did not have the best graphics it did have that wow moment.
 

Indyblue

Member
I think that a new generation can be about more than just things looking prettier. Games running much better, loading much much faster, quick resume, Atmos - these are all super cool, next gen kinda things for me. I also think that the Pro and One X dampened the graphical leap. We’ve never really had a mid-gen refresh to that extent before.
 
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Deerock71

Member
The un-canned valley is upon us.
burger king love GIF
 

xPikYx

Member
What makes a difference between generations has always been the amount of polygons per frame, this number has not increased this time around, so no jump, no leap, no actual generation
 

xPikYx

Member
It has actually...cross gen engines are holding the new hardware back.
Whatever the reason, so far no difference, if this will be visible in 2022 or 2023, again there was no point of ps"5" whatsoever now, better to postpone it. It seems like the market was asking for new hardware but the industry was not ready/not willing for this. They gave us the alleged new consoles just because people were asking for that, but they didn't want to,nobody in the industry was ready for it, before gaming studios were updating their engines starting to develop games years in advance ready for debut, now nothing, nada, kaput. The only engine ready for giving something interesting is the Unreal engine5 and it debuted only this year while it should in 2018 at latest
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
I miss the early days of PS4 when they showcased Killzone Shadowfall, DriveClub, The Order 1886, Infamous Second Son, Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4, The Last of Us Part 2... etc.

Every time they showed something for the PS4, I was floored at how good it all looked.

Now-a-days though it's like... HEY IT LOOKS THE SAME AS A PS4 GAME BUT IT HAS 60FPS!!!! WOW 60FPS! SO NEXT GEN!

I'm so sick of it.

The last time I was blown away by something for the PS5, was when they showed off UE5. That's pretty much it. Everything else just looks like last gen stuff with some extra detail and 4K resolution.

I must confess though, I've stayed away from any videos or screenshots of Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart because I wanna go in with fresh eyes. Hopefully this is the game that really makes me think "Man, now this is what next gen can really do"

What are your thoughts? Is 60fps enough to call it "next gen" or do you really wanna see that graphical leap we've come to expect each new generation even if it has to be 30fps.

If a game looks as good as UE5 demo, I'll gladly play it at 30fps.
Virtual Reality Vr GIF
 

Edgelord79

Gold Member
Graphics are at a point where generational leaps will be much smaller so I think focusing on frame rate is much more important.

Also photorealism is still way off. It's not even about graphical fidelity as much as how complicated light and shadows play out.
 

hussar16

Member
I still get blown away by PS4 games. Recently I was playing Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition which has been out for quite a while now, and some of the scenery was amazing.

I have no doubt I'll love what the other consoles offer when I can get one.
I think hdr is making these old gen PS4 games still hold up even on ps5 but I do want new standard for graphics
 
I'm disappointed by the lack of next gen looking games, even a year after the next gen consoles were released. Unfortunately, we're still in the cross gen period, and we may be stuck here for a while due to the chip shortage. The UE5 tech demo still blows pretty much everything out of the water.
 

Cryio

Member
I'm fine with visuals from Dreamcast / PS2 / GameCube / Xbox onward.

Some games aged better than others, for example I think early 7th gen visuals aged the worst.

But other than that, I can still be impressed when I see an old game running a relatively modern visual technique.

Like, Resident EVIL 4 on PS2/GameCube has extremely polished, very high poly character models, depth of field and cinematic pans and zooms for its cutscenes. It's extremely impressive.

For cinematography overall, the framing, panning and zooming in something like Arkham Knight is still pretty much unrivaled 6 years later. That game SCREAMS technical proficiency and a master of their craft, in the engine leverage, source material, general gameplay and visual design.
 
I think Cerny got it right. This generation is all about the SSD access speed and no loading screens. Returnal blew me away with how it immediately launches you to the planet surface with no title screen.

I can’t wait to see what other games can do with this technology. It’s a goddamn shame that every upcoming AAA series is being handicapped by being cross-gen.
 
Whatever the reason, so far no difference, if this will be visible in 2022 or 2023, again there was no point of ps"5" whatsoever now, better to postpone it. It seems like the market was asking for new hardware but the industry was not ready/not willing for this. They gave us the alleged new consoles just because people were asking for that, but they didn't want to,nobody in the industry was ready for it, before gaming studios were updating their engines starting to develop games years in advance ready for debut, now nothing, nada, kaput. The only engine ready for giving something interesting is the Unreal engine5 and it debuted only this year while it should in 2018 at latest
You kinda nailed it with that comment. The industry wasn't ready for it or wanting a new generation. Lack of new engines, cross gen, covid. AAA devs are making record profits and the more money they make the more greedy and "lazy" they become.

Ray tracing could've been the big innovation but the consoles don't seem capable enough to run really computationally expensive forms of RT. In hindsight I wish they would've waited another year or two for new systems, if that would've allowed for better RT and higher resolution/better settings. I'm both happy with what we got (60 fps, rt- though rt reflections are not that transformative in terms of graphics if you ask me) and unhappy at the same time (we have to choose between quality or performance).

I thought we'd have more next gen upgrades at 4k/60 too.
 

Astral Dog

Member
well, i was wrong about the time 😋 lets wait until next E3 shall we, or whatever major event game companies show off their (not early/CG video) full next gen games with demos. i don't care WHEN it happens, as long as they are PS5/Series only

gamers appeared impressed by the new Ratchet visuals, but thats only a single cartoony game. people want to see realistic visuals and other artsyles with some gameplay changes, the reality is we only played very few games that take advantage of the new systems
 
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I miss the early days of PS4 when they showcased Killzone Shadowfall, DriveClub, The Order 1886, Infamous Second Son, Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4, The Last of Us Part 2... etc.

Every time they showed something for the PS4, I was floored at how good it all looked.

Now-a-days though it's like... HEY IT LOOKS THE SAME AS A PS4 GAME BUT IT HAS 60FPS!!!! WOW 60FPS! SO NEXT GEN!

I'm so sick of it.

The last time I was blown away by something for the PS5, was when they showed off UE5. That's pretty much it. Everything else just looks like last gen stuff with some extra detail and 4K resolution.

I must confess though, I've stayed away from any videos or screenshots of Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart because I wanna go in with fresh eyes. Hopefully this is the game that really makes me think "Man, now this is what next gen can really do"

What are your thoughts? Is 60fps enough to call it "next gen" or do you really wanna see that graphical leap we've come to expect each new generation even if it has to be 30fps.

If a game looks as good as UE5 demo, I'll gladly play it at 30fps.

I agree with you OP. Though I think after early PS4 games the games after just stopped impressing me graphically. I just don’t think I’ll be wowed again even if the graphics become a generational leap. I’m just over it now I guess. 🤷‍♂️
 
I agree with you OP. Though I think after early PS4 games the games after just stopped impressing me graphically. I just don’t think I’ll be wowed again even if the graphics become a generational leap. I’m just over it now I guess. 🤷‍♂️
To be honest. I agree. Like AC Unity looked insanely good because they used static lighting. Then, when they switched to dynamic lighting it was bland. A lot of early games had static lighting (like second son and the order)
 

Lethal01

Member
To be honest. I agree. Like AC Unity looked insanely good because they used static lighting. Then, when they switched to dynamic lighting it was bland. A lot of early games had static lighting (like second son and the order)
And the solution to this continues to be raytracing, Quality higher than that of static lighting in totally dynamic scenes.
 
I honestly feel like graphical advances for now are pointless. Graphics have come a really long way. There's a major wide crevice between something like the visual fidelity of the original Atari and the 7th~8th gens. I really wonder when people will be satiated. Anything beyond is just gravy. Its just resources spent on excessive details for the sake of excessive details.

Besides, graphics are only the presentation. There should be a shift and bigger drive on gameplay experimentation. That shit has really gotten stale, especially on the AAA front which has practically relied on reusing templates/ideas for years now.
 

nordique

Member
R&C on PS5 is seriously impressive though. That opening scene where you step out into the fair - that was simply stunning.

R&C PS4 was beautiful too, but the PS5 game is simply on another level all around

Sure we are probably getting diminishing returns, but the returns are still there and they are still impressive
 
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