Digital Foundry - Horizon Forbidden West PS5 Trailer Analysis: The Decima Engine Evolves
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Haven't seen the video, but I SO wish they had shown behind-the-shoulder gameplay. Would've made for a great analysis video.
Its still in-engine which can clearly be seen in the scenes with Sylens and Aloy riding through wheat(?) fields.
The scenes in the snow are pretty much a better looking Frozen Wilds.
Because it was all in-engine and there were plenty of engine upgrades over the first game and even Death Stranding to point out.
Maybe if you had watched the video or read the article instead of a low-effort drive-by you would know!
Alex says as much about several rendering topics. I recommend watching it, it's a good video
Just platinumed the first one. I don't think it's much of a looker but I'm used to playing in 4k now so not really a fair comparison. Great to see new environments and it looks much better.
Not even 12 posts in. Good job, guys 👍
/s
Great job, Alex!
When have these in engine trailers ever been representative of gameplay graphics. I get why people might want to watch it, but it seems no different than doing a tech analysis of a Pixar trailer.
Maybe watch/read and you may be able to answer those questions.
Hm, not to me. I think it's unrealistic to expect every feature of the hardware to be used in every game, and ray tracing is expensive as hell. Also have to remember this has been in development for 3-4 years? I wonder when developers actually got their hands on kits that supported ray tracing. Might have also been too late in the development process to add it in or was too expensive with what they've built up to that point.
Excellent analysis Alex. The increase in environmental detail and particularly the vegetation, were definitely my favourite things for the trailer. Now very much looking forward to seeing gameplay. Hopefully see it in August.
I have a small criticism of Alex's videos. He uses too much jargon. It's fine when he demonstrates/explains what he means like with hero lighting and hero props/assets, but then there are phrases like "traditional card based system for the hair" that left me having to look it up. I don't have a problem with looking stuff up on occasion, but there are videos of his which make me feel like I should have taken a mini-course in graphics rendering before watching.
This is good feedback. Maybe a "Rendering 101" video would help here, just to go over some basic techniques modern games use to get things done that people could reference.
Frozen Wilds made me an HDR believer. It was the first 'game' I played in HDR fully.
Honestly this could be a really good thing for them since not a lot understand whats going on in their videos, Dark1x has this been considered before? Not sure if y'all have already done this.
Btw, I think it speaks greatly of the gameplay model because aside from the more refined self shadowing around the eye and insides those rounded extensions of the outer jacket/coat at the deltoid, the slightly higher resolution beard and slightly more notable forehead creases, I cannot discern any other differences:
It's clearly using RT, you don't get those types of reflections and AO without any sort of RT implementation.
Some Cliff notes:
- Increased short-range geometric detail
- Increased mid/long-range detail (LODs and shadow maps)
- (Implied) increased foliage interactivity
- Increased cloud animation frequency
- Increased fluid simulation (crest-breaking water)
- Modest, subtle character model upgrades (increased geometric detail, lighted facial hair)
RT is for many things out of reflection. They don't use RT for reflection but we need to see how will be the gameplay to know if they use something for GI, ambient occlusion, soft shadow.
Pop-in detected. Absolutely disgusting.
Pre order cancelled. It was gonna be the same trash anyway... right. Right?!
Considering H:ZD has zero water physics, one of the biggest visual flaws in the game, I was very happy to see they have included some form of dynamic water simulation.
RT is going to be quite limited in launch window titles, and limited overall this gen unless there's a breakthrough in doing cheap RT on AMD's side of things. The only way we're going to see a bunch of RT is if games are targeting lower resolutions.
I wonder if this game will have proper day and night cycle and not like the original were it was transitioning between different prebaked sequences.
Yeah the waves on the shore is incredibly realistic.
On a related note, the underwater scene is some of the best I've witnessed in a game. Most titles don't do underwater very well but this looks perfect.