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[IbizaPocholo]

Xbox Series X’s Horsepower Allows for More Creative Freedom, But Don’t Expect Massive Jumps in Visual Quality – The Medium Dev

gamingbolt.com

Acording to Bloober Team’s Jacek Zieba, who is a producer on the upcoming horror title The Medium, the 9th console generation’s added horsepower isn’t going to bring about similar leaps in quality, and will instead pave the way for more creative freedom, and new gameplay experiences- such as The Medium’s own patented Dual Reality gameplay.

“Games will generally look better, but it won’t be an amazing leap in quality like PS2 vs PS3 vs PS4, or Xbox vs Xbox 360 vs Xbox One,” Zieba said in an interview with GamingBolt. “The ability for better computing power and hardware can definitely help open up many interesting ideas and concepts, whether it will be better AI, finer details on the stage, or easier workarounds for developers. It helps to provide more opportunities for creative freedom, such as the dual reality gameplay within The Medium.”

 

[VincentMatts]

i mean, games will inevitably end up looking better but yeah, it wont be a massive leap like ps2 to ps3 was.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Well considering that the last generation was basically shackled by CPU, technically we won't see anything new with the exception of RT.
I think this time we will chase QoL changes like faster loading times, higher framerate.

 

[BlueXImpulse]

No reason we can't see a PS3 to PS4 leap here. If developers put the budget in the right places i.e. not all in resolution and make use of mesh / primitive shaders and SSDs we will end up seeing some truly amazing games.

Blooper should speak for themselves.

 

[killatopak]

I’m fine with that.

 

[Sethbacca]

Blooper should speak for themselves.

This right here. Then Naughty Dog will come out with their first game of the generation and people will shit themselves and be like "Wow, who would have known". Rinse/repeat.

 

[Nhranaghacon]

Expect massive leaps in visual quality, as long as the dev's strive toward's massive leaps in visual quality.

This dev forget's that a 3rd of the way into the Xbox 360 console cycle, the Xbox 360 leap frogged itself visually

When BF3 released. Most publication's were caught off guard citing
"we honestly didn't think the bar could be rasied visually again this generation, particularly after Gears of War 2 - and BF3 came in, saw Gears of War 3 was scheduled to release soon - then proceeded to literally raise the bar on visual's twice as high"

So again, visual splendor will be a thing this gen - despite the folly's of these dev's and faux critics attempting to state otherwise.

 

[Jon Neu]

VFXVeteran

 

[SaturnSaturn]

For big aaa games then its probably resonable to expect, for others the dev costs will be way to high, would rather the extra power be used on ai, gameplay functions and world building, world size than fidelity tbh.

 

[Dr Bass]

Didn't we already see the Unreal Engine 5 demo on PS5? What else looks even remotely close to that? How is that not a massive leap?

This is an absurd take IMO.

 

[VincentMatts]

This right here. Then Naughty Dog will come out with their first game of the generation and people will shit themselves and be like "Wow, who would have known". Rinse/repeat.

I mean, ND games already look great and it also depends on the technology individual games use. I dont think youll see a massive difference between how TLOU2 looks now on ps4 pro, and what it will look like on ps5 other than a stable 4k60 with those same graphics.

Even for their next game, they wont suddenly look that much better than that other than framerates, Level of detail, etc. That kind of proves the point.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

No reason we can't see a PS3 to PS4 leap here. If developers put the budget in the right places i.e. not all in resolution and make use of mesh / primitive shaders and SSDs we will end up seeing some truly amazing games.

Blooper should speak for themselves.

Well if you looked at UE demo, basically the changes were the lighting and physics. Maybe more details, but in general some huge leap did not happen.

 

[BlueXImpulse]

Well if you looked at UE demo, basically the changes were the lighting and physics. Maybe more details, but in general some huge leap did not happen.

They were using movie assets for that game. That is the kind of leap I would expect from PS4 to PS5 and IMO it's an equivalent or greater leap than PS3 to PS4.

 

[Valued Gamer]

Diminishing returns.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

They were using movie assets for that game. That is the kind of leap I would expect from PS4 to PS5 and IMO it's an equivalent or greater leap than PS3 to PS4.

Movie assets but so what? Without mentioning you would not even tell whether they movie-level or not. Like at all.
And would compare them with some God of War assets.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Blooper should speak for themselves.

They did, since they plugged themselves in the very last sentence.

 

[Killer8]

The fact they literally patented this game mechanic is hilarious.

"With all this new console power we can have more creative freedom. Now watch us patent those ideas so everyone else gets less creative freedom"

 

[Bonfires Down]

Ravi Sinha: Crytek has always maintained that CRYENGINE is meant to be scale-able and designed for next gen. Now that both the consoles are out, what are your thoughts on the PS4’s unified and Xbox One’s embedded memory architecture?

Sean Tracy: We are delighted with the updates to the next-gen hardware but of course always want more! The unified architecture of the APU’s allows us to easily leverage massive amounts of resources for all kinds of features including rendering, physics, animation and more. Though the PS4 and Xbox-One don’t offer an enormous jump over the previous generation in terms of raw processing power, the custom AMD APU’s within both platforms represent a huge leap forward in terms of integration and capability.

I reckon we’ll be fine.

 

[DeepEnigma]

The fact they literally patented this game mechanic is hilarious.

"With all this new console power we can have more creative freedom. Now watch us patent those ideas so everyone else gets less creative freedom"

Great, now they're stuck using this (gimmick?) in everything they design going forward, maybe.

 

[Memorabilia]

Didn't we already see the Unreal Engine 5 demo on PS5? What else looks even remotely close to that? How is that not a massive leap?

This is an absurd take IMO.

Yeah I was going to say after giving it a little bit of thought the leap this gen in raw horsepower is actually pretty huge vs the prior generational change. There's no guarantee this will be put towards just visual improvements but the potential is there.

I suppose I might agree that as we get closer to lifelike VQ we could see diminishing returns start to limit the perceptual differences. But there still seems to be quite a ways to go before we hit that threshhold.

 

[cireza]

PS3 to PS4 or 360 to One wasn't a notable jump to being with.

 

[kuncol02]

PS3 to PS4 or 360 to One wasn't a notable jump to being with.

X360 to XOne was 5 times jump in graphic card capability and 16 times jump in RAM. Now we have twice as fast GPU as in XOneX and 1.5 times more ram. Only jumps this generations are CPU and disk speed.

 

[IDKFA]

I don't think I've understood very well.

For me, the UE5 demo was a massive leap compared to what we see on PS4/xbo.. For me, it was certainly a far bigger from PS3/360 to PS4/xbo

 

[Freeman76]

They need to realise this could be limitations of their abilities. Valhalla is a massive jump in visual fidelity, as far as im concerned anyway.

 

[Vindicator]

PS2->PS3 was more noticeable due to increased geometry, whereas now games look quite detailed already, so now it's more about lighting, pbr, physics/particles etc.

 

[Allandor]

They need to realise this could be limitations of their abilities. Valhalla is a massive jump in visual fidelity, as far as im concerned anyway.

na... ACV already looks good on last gen consoles, even better on mid-gen consoles. So there is no big jump to the current gen. But after all it is a crossgen title, but really. No one really expects any more visual jumps like PS1-> PS2 -> PS3. Now we more or less get quality of life jumps with lower loading time etc. RT could get big with next gen, but faking is already so good, that the visual difference is minimal in most areas. And while the current gen also supports RT (but is not able to really massively use it) the future jump won't be seen as such a big jump, too.

 

[kikkis]

I don't think I've understood very well.

For me, the UE5 demo was a massive leap compared to what we see on PS4/xbo.. For me, it was certainly a far bigger from PS3/360 to PS4/xbo

Ue5 is bit of outlier innovation in geometry especially. Lead developer has tried to make it happen for like a decade and its still isn't out yet. Once they publish source code for it, i am sure other devs will have that too, but adapting those techniques to whole art side of game is gonna take couple of years. Most game engines graphics side is quite similiar to one another so its great to see some bigger innovation like ue5s geometry.

 

[Hunnybun]

Like people have said, the Unreal 5 demo alone showcased a huge leap. One of the most impressive ever, imo.

There's stuff in Demon's Souls - while not on that level (it's 60fps, after all) - that certainly represents a big leap, too. And I think everything I've seen from Ratchet & Clank looks absolutely incredible.

That's without getting to things like Horizon 2 (which is cross gen!).

So it's already been proven that there'll be a huge leap, as far as I'm concerned.

The main worry at the moment is how long we'll have to wait for a consistent supply of those games, if so much is going to be cross gen.

 

[TheDreadLord]

I think this is expected right? Even on high end PCs and games loaded with all sort of visual models we won't see a big step as it was during the 16bits-32bits era.

 

[Hunnybun]

PS2->PS3 was more noticeable due to increased geometry, whereas now games look quite detailed already, so now it's more about lighting, pbr, physics/particles etc.

And frame rates. They need to maintain this provision of performance modes.

Doubling the frame rate is almost like a generational leap on its own. The effect on something like Days Gone is fucking incredible.

From what I've seen so far, 2x the resolution, 2x fps, and ~2x overall fidelity is the best use of these consoles' power, and is more than enough for a 'generational' improvement.

 

[kikkis]

PS2->PS3 was more noticeable due to increased geometry, whereas now games look quite detailed already, so now it's more about lighting, pbr, physics/particles etc.

I think main selling point of ue5 is increased geometry rather than the lumen real time GI. Current games have been limited to about 8 pixels per triangle for good performance for like two decades now, so ue5 should be improvement in that area.

 

[Lysandros]

What a shameless, nonsensical statement for the ages made under a very obvious influence..

Edit: Out of context, i thought the comment was about the systems of the 'same' generation. The title of the article seems a bit misleading.

 

[Freeman76]

na... ACV already looks good on last gen consoles, even better on mid-gen consoles. So there is no big jump to the current gen. But after all it is a crossgen title, but really. No one really expects any more visual jumps like PS1-> PS2 -> PS3. Now we more or less get quality of life jumps with lower loading time etc. RT could get big with next gen, but faking is already so good, that the visual difference is minimal in most areas. And while the current gen also supports RT (but is not able to really massively use it) the future jump won't be seen as such a big jump, too.

Nah

Stop speaking for other people! I play games regularly and the step up from 1X to series X is huge to me. The visuals are far more immersive, even distant buildings are highly detailed, everything is sharper, smoother and better. For me the visual jump is as good as any other gen, I'm very impressed. If you arent, thats fine, but stop spouting your opinion like it should be everybody elses too, as it isnt.

 

[whyman]

I waited to get a 4k hdr TV until now. Ps5 is a huge leap!

 

[martino]

true but I expect people to confuse even more budget on DA and their personal appreciation of it (or mass public) and tech prowess.
probably because of war.

 

[Raonak]

Yeah nah, I keep thinking games can't look better... But then they do.

Demons looks so legit.

 

[vkbest]

Damage control with their game. They know xbox fans are expecting AAA game from AA developer.

 

[Explosive Zombie]

Honestly sounds like excuses for how their game will look.

 

[GymWolf]

This bullshit diminishing returns narrative is gonna be with us for all the next gen isn't?!

Just say that you don't have enough horse power or talent or time or manpower and cut this crap.

 

[cireza]

X360 to XOne was 5 times jump in graphic card capability and 16 times jump in RAM.

In terms of games we played pretty much the same games, just prettier. Not a jump for the player.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

lol waiting for the mid-gen "Pro" version is looking better and better by the day

 

[Ascend]

I prefer more creativity over shinier graphics. And if you think about it, it's the main reason Nintendo is successful. Graphics improvements are nice, but it should not come at the cost of gameplay, creativity, plot, or innovation.

 

[synce]

I mean just look at the unprecedented number of cross gen games. The benefits of the new hardware are offset by needlessly bumping up the res 4x times. Moore's Law died long ago so it made no practical sense to do this, but TV companies would go out of business if they didn't convince people they don't need a higher res, which they did a fine job of. You end up getting the same game you'd get last gen, but slightly sharper if you sit real close to your gigantic TV.

 

[Bankai]

"But Don’t Expect Massive Jumps in Visual Quality"

I consider a jump to 60fps a MASSIVE improvement visually. I don't really care about even more detail or a (much) higher resolution. Just keep it at PS4 levels and improve upon the AI and fps.

 

[Iced Arcade]

Expected as much. Also why BC (like last gen) is more relevant than say PS2/Xbox and previous gens. Games PS3/360 and even more now PS4/xb1 still hold up pretty decently well by today's standards.

Higher res, faster frames and faster load times is what I expect and happy with.

 

[Nikana]

They should learn how to optimize a game before talking about any technical aspects.

 

[ZywyPL]

We wen't from TFlops to horsepower, nice. So the question is, how much XSX taped together does it take to match a Bugatti?


On a serious note, it is kind of expected, 4K alone is eating most of the computing power, but then again, we have stuff like Mesh Shading and VRS to offload that power and use it somewhere else, so it'll be interesting to see the outcome in the next few years. Although I'm more interested in devs using not the GPUs but all of the 14 threads to push the games forward, with actually living worlds, full of interactions, physics etc. those are the aspects that hit the biggest regression due to Jaguar CPU.

 

[mejin]

so, that's the creative freedom Spencer talked about...the creative freedom to launch day one on gamepass.

 

[Birdo]

Just go back to 1080p and make great looking games with great framerates.

 

[Stuart360]

Lost count how many times i have said this over the last year or so. A 4k target just eats up them teraflops for breakfast.
Obviously there will be a jump, just dont expect miracles.
If you take Demon's Souls for example, its by far the best looking launch game imo, but thats all down to its high quality textures. It looks like someone took Dark Souls 3 and added a 4k texture mod. Polygon wise, i have no doubt a 1080p/30 version could be done on PS4.