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[GamingBolt] Graphics Analysis - God of War: Arguably The Best Looking Game of All Time
- Thread starter v_iHuGi
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Let's just forget about the fact that MOST of UC4's cutscenes are pre-rendered videos, and it's very likely that TLoU2's are as well.
As far as models go, I think Senua is the single most impressive real-time character in a game so far. But that game has the advantage of focusing on a single character and is much smaller in scope than God of War. As far as overall visuals go, I think GoW is better, but it's a game with a much much MUCH bigger budget, bigger team, they have all of Sony's capture technology behind them. They also have the benefit of developing for a single hardware spec. That said... the greatness comes from the art.. from the fantastical elements of the game, rather than anything the actual code is doing over any other game.
If I look at Kratos, I see a pretty amazing character model, he looks somewhat realistic, but they add a lot of flourishes to give some life to the character. When I look at the kid though, he's again, very well detailed, but he certainly doesn't look as realistic as Kratos does imo.. Of course that's not to say that they are meant to look realistic.. of course it's realistic within the art style they've chosen for the game... However, It's actually another male character within the game that imo looks extremely realistic, and I'm sure those who have played it will know who I'm talking about.
In the end though, God of War isn't doing anything special technically.. it's just doing everything really well, and along with the art style, makes it a very pretty, detailed and consistently gorgeous looking game.
As far as models go, I think Senua is the single most impressive real-time character in a game so far. But that game has the advantage of focusing on a single character and is much smaller in scope than God of War. As far as overall visuals go, I think GoW is better, but it's a game with a much much MUCH bigger budget, bigger team, they have all of Sony's capture technology behind them. They also have the benefit of developing for a single hardware spec. That said... the greatness comes from the art.. from the fantastical elements of the game, rather than anything the actual code is doing over any other game.
If I look at Kratos, I see a pretty amazing character model, he looks somewhat realistic, but they add a lot of flourishes to give some life to the character. When I look at the kid though, he's again, very well detailed, but he certainly doesn't look as realistic as Kratos does imo.. Of course that's not to say that they are meant to look realistic.. of course it's realistic within the art style they've chosen for the game... However, It's actually another male character within the game that imo looks extremely realistic, and I'm sure those who have played it will know who I'm talking about.
In the end though, God of War isn't doing anything special technically.. it's just doing everything really well, and along with the art style, makes it a very pretty, detailed and consistently gorgeous looking game.
UC4 don't use video for cutscene... lol It was last gen they used video for cutscene and only TLOU was improving the cutscene video....
EDIT: And Naughty continue to improve the technology
https://twitter.com/joshscherr/status/984125664667185152?s=19
If anything you literally just proved the point that Hellblade misses the mark. Also lol at the bolded.IRL :
More eyes reflection irl :
https://www.google.fr/search?q=eyes+reflection&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=8_MqOnl_FMW1cM%3A%2CQGIrEygNdEw2MM%2C_&usg=__BlZZSIxxlvmC9FApRx4ehsRJeLs=&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGy6mVmNDaAhXDuhQKHde_BtEQ9QEIKjAA#imgrc=zXhNZ-fYSPsuPM:
When it's not in the dark, your Hellblade is a big fail, deal with it !
No they're not, they're realtime, you can change outfits, and that can even cause glitches like having models disappear:
No offense.. but all of those eyes look terrible. Soulless and robotic. Horizon's models are well textured... but the shaders aren't even close to realistic.
Show me what is realistic for you in term of ingame eyes, please.
The salt is real in here...
IRL :
More eyes reflection irl :
https://www.google.fr/search?q=eyes+reflection&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=8_MqOnl_FMW1cM%3A%2CQGIrEygNdEw2MM%2C_&usg=__BlZZSIxxlvmC9FApRx4ehsRJeLs=&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGy6mVmNDaAhXDuhQKHde_BtEQ9QEIKjAA#imgrc=zXhNZ-fYSPsuPM:
When it's not in the dark, your Hellblade is a big fail, deal with it !
It is hyperbole, Hellblade is very good, they just miss a feature like Dictator said they use Unreal Engine and it is not having cubemap reflection for the moment...
Maybe this is getting a bit off topic, but why do so many of these eyes have white light reflections on them, as if they're looking at a camera? Or is it a coincidence and there is a natural offscreen light source in all of these?
These hit the mark closer:
But again, Aloy's no Senua:
Hellblade shot is cruely lacking the wetness texture of the eye.
Nope, the eye in Hellblade is not wet as could be a real eye, HZD eyes offer that wetness in the white of the eye on the edge of the eyelids.
Do not need article, when ingame shots speaks for themselves.
I took hundreds of shots of the game (Hellblade) on Pro. Eyes are what you find in any game. UC4 is above.
Eyes are what you'd find in any game? Lmfao ok. Literally the game that's the subject of the thread doesn't have eye shaders on the level but of Hellblade but please tell me more about how every game now matches Senua's model.
Blame Dr. Guildo for once again being ridiculous. To put it lightly, tech threads aren't really their forte. Which is why eventually you start reaching the point of parody:
Hellblade rendering is very impressive for the budget and I like their cutscene workflow even more knowing the limit they put themselve doing aa AAA production value game within an indie budget...
EDIT: And the woman playing senua is not even an actress and with top notch direction and maybe comedy lesson she delivers a great performance....
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maybe you are right but you need to stop hyperbole, it discredits your reasonment. UC4, HZD and Hellblade have very good eye shader. Hellblade just miss the cubemap reflection...
EDIT: HZD has probably the best open world eye shading...
EDIT: HZD has probably the best open world eye shading...
I feel right now overall, GOW and HZD are the best looking games I've ever played.
I didn't expect GOW to blow me away as much as it did. The beginning areas of the game are very nice but the later parts of the game are beyond incredible. I just can't believe what Santa Monica Studios were able to pull off. Playing it on a 4K monitor just makes me want to stop playing and frame every single shot. The game is a visual masterpiece and a work of art.
I didn't expect GOW to blow me away as much as it did. The beginning areas of the game are very nice but the later parts of the game are beyond incredible. I just can't believe what Santa Monica Studios were able to pull off. Playing it on a 4K monitor just makes me want to stop playing and frame every single shot. The game is a visual masterpiece and a work of art.
It's incredibly coincidental but also awesome that NT raised the standard for motion capture in the industry twice with two different IPs that share vaguely similarities.
Surely you comprehend that Hellblade's model looks better yes, Horizon doesn't look like this:
Receipts pls, Hellblade is an incredibly consistent title visually.
You see that shot, it's exactly what I'm talking about, the light can't be on the edge of the eyelid. IRL the light is at the very edge that separates the eye from the eyelid. Now look this HZD shots, and tell me what is more accurate in term of wetness :
At no part in no way in no how does any Horizon ZD character even come close to this as far as realism
Horizon's characters look like damn dolls in comparison. Not just the eyes, but the way they animate as well. It's just much more realistic than Horizon ZD.. and that's OK! Horizon ZD is a much more ambitious game and has many character which have a high quality to them.
Horizon's characters look like damn dolls in comparison. Not just the eyes, but the way they animate as well. It's just much more realistic than Horizon ZD.. and that's OK! Horizon ZD is a much more ambitious game and has many character which have a high quality to them.
The ;) didn't give it away?
If anything, this misconfusion is exactly why there should be ruling against those posts you can't discern from sarcasm anymore, despite my joke being more obvious than most.
Then you completely misconstrued that joke of mines because i was not doing that.
''Thus, not one game is the best looking. Except for Crysis 1, ofcourse. That's the best looking game forever. ;) ''
Where in the bolded did you think i am implying that Crysis 1 was not great?
Then lets just leave that i just mistook your post of the past :)
I have read those posts multiple times now and only now i have some idea of what he tried to say. If we take that thought back to the skin of Kratos, then yes, i would wager its not that overly complex. It looks rubbery, sort to say, despite looking detailed. It feels like not much layers are used, if i got VFX right.
The thing is his conclusion that this level of complexity is not possible on consoles. Even when zoomed in and literally looking at the details, so disregarding obvious rendering issues, i have a hard time arriving at that same conclusion. Perhaps its because i am an ill-literate peasant with no experience in the actual industry (lol) but supposely that model has a lot of layers. In a way i have the impression that i am seeing this aswell, but then i try to marry that to his conclusion, where i then stop seeing his point.
If anything, what VFX is pointing at is incredibly subtle and i feel his explanation of it missed its point, seeing as most (Read: Those peasants! XD) fail to see what VFX is referring. Hell, i am still not 100% sure what it is that he meant there, and that's mostly because of the conclusion he arrived at.
So i reckon i am seeing his point, and looking at the shot i have a hint of what he is referring to, but this is more of a feeling than that i have any solid evidence to point out exactly what VFX means with it.
POM is not a new thing. Metro games used it. The more unknown Exodus from the Earth i believe used it. Perfect Dark Zero was notorious for having that effect enabled. You also say ray-tracing. Is that actually used in POM or is this differently from raytracing (without the -)?
Agreed. Only Stalker had such a dynamic lighting system that could change radically (The lighting storms for instance) and there is a lot going on in the scenery. I feel QB pre-dominantly is not mentioned often because it seems to target more of a photoreal look than HZD or GOW or even Uncharted attempt to do, which are more fantasy like in their visuals in various degrees.
Exactly.At no part in no way in no how does any Horizon ZD character even come close to this as far as realism
Horizon's characters look like damn dolls in comparison. Not just the eyes, but the way they animate as well. It's just much more realistic than Horizon ZD.. and that's OK! Horizon ZD is a much more ambitious game and has many character which have a high quality to them.
At no part in no way in no how does any Horizon ZD character even come close to this as far as realism
Horizon's characters look like damn dolls in comparison. Not just the eyes, but the way they animate as well. It's just much more realistic than Horizon ZD.. and that's OK! Horizon ZD is a much more ambitious game and has many character which have a high quality to them.
Again, what does it behave during ingame context ?
At no part in no way in no how does any Horizon ZD character even come close to this as far as realism
Horizon's characters look like damn dolls in comparison. Not just the eyes, but the way they animate as well. It's just much more realistic than Horizon ZD.. and that's OK! Horizon ZD is a much more ambitious game and has many character which have a high quality to them.
When you will understand that photorealism is not the goal of HZD, God of War and Naughty Dog we will have done a progress...
I understand that, in fact I already stated that. So let's stop posting Horizon ZD eyes like they are special. They aren't. :)
They looks good like Hellblade, UC4... ;) and they are the best eye shader of an open world ;)
Hellblade is also a game that instead of opting for total photorealism instead mimics the look of a film. There are several scenes in the game that have more stylized cinematic lighting.
Realistic characters would stick out like sore thumbs in Horizon. Its always important to keep overall artistic integrity in my when talking about what games are the best looking.
Horizon takes the cake for me because it delivers and all around impressive looking game. The only exceptions are literally facial animations(fixed in Frozen Wilds) and water once you interact with it.
God Of War looks great but flat ground textures and unimpressive foliage are two things i noticed so far that keep me from calling it better looking than Horizon.
Uncharted 4 had similar issues. Very impressive in some instances and disappointing in others.
For me its not about the highest highs but an overall package. This is probably also the reason why i often prefer exclusives. They tend to have longer dev cycles and every aspects receives greater care, some Sony studios especially focus on visuals. My experience with multiplats is such that i always find loads of aspects I dont like visually. Not because the tech wasnt there but because it shows that the certain areas didnt receive enough care.
It's not just the lighting that makes GoW, Horizon and UC stylised though. It's also things like character models, their proportions, their faces, the way they do textures, the way geometric details like trees and rocks look, their colours etc etc. A game can have a look that mimics the look of a film with a cinematic lighting and still aim for a photorealistic art style, an example is Max Payne 3. GoW, UC4, Horizon are not that. For example, without even going into the lighting...the models in GoW are very stylised with unrealistic proportions (and this is not limited to Kratos), the rocks and the textures don't look photoreal but rather almost like they are paintings (most easily evident in the area with red leaf trees). Uncharted has stylised character models as well, perfect proportions with extremely expressive eye and facial movements, the foliage looks very stylised too and so on.
GTAV has Parallax Occlusion mapping, it doesn't require ray tracing at all.
Killzone Shadow Fall use Ray Tracing for shadows.
Those two games use features you said were exclusive to PC and Exclusive to Crytek. You don't even know what you're talking about at this point.
What are you talking about here...
I'm not deciding, this is industry standard. GOW snow lacks reflection, sss and more. This is pretty obvious and looks like nothing has sss in game. Go look at The division snow, ROTR snow and even Horizon snow. Its night and day. The snow in GOW is blurry and rough and doesn't look like snow at all.
Horizon and Batman Origin has a better snow deformation than GOW its not even close.
Snow deformation is the reason why this game is the "best looking game of all time", seriously?
I'm projecting? So we are supposed to compared the "best of all time" to scrubs and not to the heavy hitters?
So GOW is the "best looking game of all time" because it does something a $5 game on steam doesn't?
Are you kidding me? Its like someone saying Micheal Jordan is the greatest of all time and their supporting argument is the stuff he can do that Brian Scalabrine can't do. its absurd, you're supposed to compare the best to the best.
Volumetric Light is standard in games today.
Meanwhile GOW is not even the best looking game in the last 12 months.
Its shows in its lackluster snow shader, eye shader, skin shader, hair shader, frabic and material shader.
The entire game, in game lacks fresnel, subsurface scatterring and fuzz.
You have done nothing in this discussion but name call and quote demands. I have given you 5 list of games of the top of my head without even trying that use snow deformation because their environment feature primarily snow. you on the other hand has done nothing.
Wireframe means nothing.
You can and there is your problem. His hammer, his ripped cloth on his back, and the red leathers cloth he has on his waist, and later on in the game the mask and bag you get. This again is nothing compared to what is happening in ROTR, Horizon, The division, Batman, Paragon and many more games. The problem is that you want to compare this game to the $20 random game but not the other good looking critically acclaimed games and yet you want to call it "the best looking game of all times"
You have literally lied about my response 2-3 times, name called several times, and i'm the one taking things out of context? You have proven in this discussion that you clearly can't hold your ground. Your statement on GI and dynamic lighting and other things literally exposed you.
GOW is not a tech masterpiece or a tech showcase, its not close to being the best looking game even in the last 12 months, let alone the generation. I have yet to see anyone post anything that's supposed to make GOW standout as a graphical powerhouse. For someone to say something has "Probably the highest density of render detail seen yet in a released game" and yet has nothing to show for it? is not a good look!
The list for GOW is staggering.
There's absolutely no Dynamic Global illumination. There's no Time of Day, there's no Weather System, all there is are simple skyboxes. There's hardly any Environment Detail, a game like GTA V has hundreds of small details, and you can't find that in GOW.
The Reflections Pipeline is sub par, there's no use of Planar reflection, and the SSR are low resolution and are only used in some instances.
There exists no Procedural System to my knowledge.
The Hair Shader lacks anisotropic reflection reflection, fuzz, subsurface scattering, fresnel and more.
PBR Shader are very inconsistent in different lighting conditions and compared to Uncharted 4, and ROTR, completely underwhelming.
Eye Shader is almost none existing.
Model Quality is the same as any other game. Most ppl think the work of normal bump map of his rough skin means his character model is in another generation. This is exactly what i mean when non technical people try to evaluate graphical fidelity.
Character Rendering is very subpar and lacks SSS, fresnel and self occlusion (atleasst on the exterior scene.)
None of the characters seem to self occlude themselves nor cast soft contact shadows under where they are standing. The cloth also doesn't look like its shadowing the character (will have to look more indepth into this)
Skin Shader again lack SSS, fresnel and fuzziness that skin has.
Cloth Shader again also lack SSS, fresnel and fuzz.
Water Shader adequate lacks reflection.
Shadow Tech doesn't include a dynamic ambient occlusion or dynamic shadowing system.
There's only one Self Shadowing dynamic light in the game that i can tell
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All of the "enemies" Senua faces are 7-8 ft tall men, none of whom have a face. All of these games push for realism in their own way but also have stylized elements
Can you tell me where materials are not accurate to real life ?
Wood doesn't look like wood ?
Metal ?
Fur ?
Leathers (2 kinds) ?
Rervese of the animal'skin he is wearing ?
Laces ?
Not that this is anything more than personal preference, but I think Horizon looks better than Hellblade. Hellblade is more photorelistic, but Horizon seems far more consistent in terms of its presentation. Hellblade definitely has that uncanny valley feel to it.
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