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Epic Games shows jaw-dropping graphics for next-generation consoles

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Re: Epic Games shows jaw-dropping graphics for next-generation consoles

#31

Post by bcrescimanno »

mortenjorck wrote: post #21

Too bad all these beautiful effects will be covered up by the foreshortened perspective of a gun in one corner and a health bar in the other corner. I kid, but honestly, seeing this doesn't excite me anywhere near as much as a preview of whatever the team that made Mirror's Edge has in store next for current -generation consoles.

You kid--but it's the sad reality of most modern games (or at least the ones that generate the most press). Rather than just putting a new "pretty face" on the same old shooter concept that's been the norm for the past 15 or so years, I'd like to see game companies get back to innovative gameplay concepts. Interestingly, I see far more of that innovation coming from the indy publishers who don't do anything in the realm of "crazy 3d graphics" than I see coming from studios churning out "DOOM clone v 29345.2"

Re: Epic Games shows jaw-dropping graphics for next-generation consoles

#32

Post by potatolicious »

bcrescimanno wrote: post #29

Not to put too fine a "trolling point" on it--but after playing Final Fantasy XIII I'm inclined for game developers to take a step back in terms of their graphics aspirations to continue to deliver quality games. It's been speculated (and supposedly admitted to--though being at work I don't have time to dig up a link) that the incredibly linear world of FFXIII was a direct result of being overambitious with the graph…

On the other hand, you have studios like Bethesda - who build great games with incredible gameplay... but graphics performance so sluggish that it really takes away from the experience, not to mention buggy and crashy as hell.

There's room on both sides to improve. IMHO Valve is the best at this - their games run on an incredible range of hardware and look good on just about anything. Their engine is also rock solid to boot.

Re: Epic Games shows jaw-dropping graphics for next-generation consoles

#33

Post by bcrescimanno »

potatolicious wrote: post #32
bcrescimanno wrote: post #29

Not to put too fine a "trolling point" on it--but after playing Final Fantasy XIII I'm inclined for game developers to take a step back in terms of their graphics aspirations to continue to deliver quality games. It's been speculated (and supposedly admitted to--though being at work I don't have time to dig up a link) that the incredibly linear world of FFXIII was a direct result of being overambitious with the graph…

On the other hand, you have studios like Bethesda - who build great games with incredible gameplay... but graphics performance so sluggish that it really takes away from the experience, not to mention buggy and crashy as hell. There's room on both sides to improve. IMHO Valve is the best at this - their games run on an incredible range of hardware and look good on just about anything. Their engine is also rock solid…

My point was only that there are many ways to fail when achieving "graphical perfection" is included among your goals for a game. Performance sucks, the world is shrunken, gameplay and story suffer; these are just examples. As always, "something's gotta give" and when you decide it can't be graphics, things that are far more core to the game experience end up on the chopping block.

Re: Epic Games shows jaw-dropping graphics for next-generation consoles

#34

Post by squidsoup »

As beautiful as this demo is, I think the push for realism has harmed the game industry more than it has move it forward. One of the few developers in recent memory that has managed to focus on both visual fidelity and gameplay is Bioware with the Mass Effect series; for the most part most developers aren't this successful and end up producing beautiful but lifeless, dull games.

Also consider that producing art assets for an engine like this is a huge undertaking and adds a substantial cost to development. Publishers are less likely to take risks with innovative concepts given film like budgets, increasing the tendancy to stick to formulas that they know offer a good ROI. The "hollywoodisation" of the games industry hasn't had much to offer me as a gamer, and increasingly I find more enjoyment with wee indie offerings like Minecraft over the AAA titles.

Re: Epic Games shows jaw-dropping graphics for next-generation consoles

#35

Post by emehrkay »

aphyr wrote: post #5

Realtime graphics are finally blurring into stylized film. I expect in another ten years or so we will, for all intents and purposes, have the horsepower to render photorealistic scenes. The bigger problem may be finding ways to create this content without insane amounts of work. Cloth mechanics, particle/hair systems, realtime physics, constrained IK/semirigid body solvers, fractal elaboration, fluid dynamics, proce…

It seems like the more horsepower that these consoles/video cards have, the more opportunity exists to create tools that create part of the graphical experience. IE a toolset that handles creating realtime dynamic forests or cities or hair etc

Re: Epic Games shows jaw-dropping graphics for next-generation consoles

#36

Post by w1ntermute »

iaskwhy wrote: post #8
gamble wrote: post #3

It's going to be a while before there's another console generation. (In a sense, the Kinect and PS Move were an attempt to refresh the consoles without changing the base hardware) I haven't even heard rumors of new console development yet, so I'd guess they're at least 2-3 years out.

Not sure if this means anything but Sony has been releasing a new generation every 6 years (1994, 2000, 2006, 2012?).

Well when did we first start hearing news about the PSes 1-3, relative to their release dates? The PS3 was announced on May 16, 2005 (wow, that's so long ago!) and was released in Japan on November 11, 2006. That means that if a PS4 will be coming out on schedule, we should be hearing news very soon.

Re: Epic Games shows jaw-dropping graphics for next-generation consoles

#37

Post by sgoraya »

Goes almost without saying that Epic develops great game engines; however, IMHO, Crytek's cryengine at GDC was more impressive and has done a better job of rendering outdoor environments and foliage better than the Epic's Unreal engine; Unreal still has top spot in market share but I think Crytek will make significant gains in the next couple of years;

That said, Tim Sweeney is still a hero.

Re: Epic Games shows jaw-dropping graphics for next-generation consoles

#38

Post by AndreSegers »

The problem with these tech demos is exactly that--they're just tech. In-game graphics will never look this good because of non-cinematic camera angles, behind the shoulder viewpoint, and HUD elements mucking it up. It's nice looking, for sure, but I can get that from a Pixar movie.

Re: Epic Games shows jaw-dropping graphics for next-generation consoles

#39

Post by dkersten »

chipsy wrote: post #28
barrkel wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Content will have to be increasingly procedurally generated. I worry less about the practical size of the content - to be frank, I think games will likely trend towards being rendered in whole or in part remotely, with consoles being dumb clients - than the manpower and budget required to create it. I lament constriction - I haven't bought any of the latter games in the Call of Duty series owing to how constrained an…

I think a really strong FPS AI would be a technical achievement similar to automatic car driving; it has have a "real eyesight" algorithm, notice motion, understand varied terrain, etc. A basic LOS check is insufficient since there's lighting, smoke, semi-transparent items like fences etc. included in typical FPS environments. Even considering that the data structures for the world and rendering can be reused for AI…

A fuzzy LOS algorithm may work: have a "vision" value, when the LOS algorithm encounters an "object", add the objects opaqueness to the vision, if the vision is below a threshold, continue the ray, otherwise stop. Any objects of interest it calculates are made "fuzzy" based on its vision value. Also increase the vision value with distance, darkness, fog etc. That way, partially obscured, distant or dark objects have a higher vision value and are therefore treated as fuzzy, meaning the AI has only partial information on it (depending on how fuzzy).

Now distant and obscured objects are visible to the AI, but it won't know everything about them and could choose to ignore them, investigate or take some other intelligent action.

Re: Epic Games shows jaw-dropping graphics for next-generation consoles

#40

Post by awj »

bcrescimanno wrote: post #31
mortenjorck wrote: post #21

Too bad all these beautiful effects will be covered up by the foreshortened perspective of a gun in one corner and a health bar in the other corner. I kid, but honestly, seeing this doesn't excite me anywhere near as much as a preview of whatever the team that made Mirror's Edge has in store next for current -generation consoles.

You kid--but it's the sad reality of most modern games (or at least the ones that generate the most press). Rather than just putting a new "pretty face" on the same old shooter concept that's been the norm for the past 15 or so years, I'd like to see game companies get back to innovative gameplay concepts. Interestingly, I see far more of that innovation coming from the indy publishers who don't do anything in the re…

Yeah, unfortunately as you ramp up on art assets to get to the level of "crazy 3d graphics", the people holding the money tend to want more and more of a sure thing. 'DOOM clone v 29345.2' will inevitably sell boatloads. 'Toasty the toaster & the raspberry jam rebellion', not so much.
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