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Playstation 5 Pro Shows the Futility of the Video-Game Graphics Race

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Re: Playstation 5 Pro Shows the Futility of the Video-Game Graphics Race

#51

Post by NickC25 »

Agree with other comments regarding play vs. visuals.

Don't get me wrong, I've been floored with some of the visuals the PS5 and Xbox have produced, and every generation there's a few titles that just blow my mind with how good they look.

But Nintendo has really been the winner here - they march to the beat of their own drum and while their games don't look jaw dropping, the enjoyment I get out of playing them more than makes up for it. Games, at their core, for me atleast are for playing and enjoyment. And I'll take a game that can put a smile on my face and give me and my friends hours of enjoyment together versus a game whose visuals are effectively real-life and running at 60fps.

I could bring out an old gamecube or n64 at a family gathering and we'd all have fun playing with and against eachother in the same room. Can't say that for many Xbox or PS games.

Re: Playstation 5 Pro Shows the Futility of the Video-Game Graphics Race

#52

Post by twiceaday »

proc0 wrote: post #19

Part of the problem is the lack for AAA studios to take big risks. They keep iterating on old ideas that do not take advantage of powerful hardware. The exception to this is photorealistic graphics, but that obviously limits the type of games that can be made. Only games like GTA 6 will be leveraging hardware in this way, but for most other games the graphical ceiling has been reached. Most games have more than enoug…

You lost me at '... that do not take advantage of powerful hardware.' The risks they should be taking are in making new kinds of experiences ... for existing hardware. There is plenty of room to innovate. They are scared to innovate so you propose that they innovate _and_ require costly hardware upgrades?

Re: Playstation 5 Pro Shows the Futility of the Video-Game Graphics Race

#54

Post by deergomoo »

talldayo wrote: post #2

Say what you will, but this is why Cloud Gaming will make sense eventually. Upgrade cycles have to make you want new games - you can't advertise the same experiences with a "now in 4K/8K" label on it. On top of that, console gamers already pay for online service access and many subscribe to PlayStation+/Xbox Game Pass. They're effectively getting the worst of both worlds - paying SaaS prices for an experience they do…

I'm fine with cloud gaming being an option for those that don't care about the compromises, but I hope it never becomes the only option.

Ownership and preservation has already effectively vanished for gaming given the steady move away from physical media (and the fact that what often ships on the disc is severely compromised without a day-one patch); streaming only would be the final nail in that coffin.

Re: Playstation 5 Pro Shows the Futility of the Video-Game Graphics Race

#55

Post by Narishma »

Uvix wrote: post #27
al_borland wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm all for user choice, but at the same time, the reason I opt for a console is to not think about that kind of thing. I expect the developers made the game with the hardware in mind and optimized it to run well with the graphics provided. The idea of a graphics vs performance mode feels like they needed to push the PS5 too hard to make the graphics good enough to justify a new console, but realistically, the hardwa…

If games only shipped with one mode, it would be graphics mode. The performance modes are there to cater to users who prefer a different tradeoff (i.e. to get PS4-level graphics in exchange for a higher framerate), not because the graphics modes aren't good enough.

Didn't Cerny that 75% of PS5 users or something like that opt for the performance mode?

Re: Playstation 5 Pro Shows the Futility of the Video-Game Graphics Race

#56

Post by NeutralCrane »

peterweyand38 wrote: post #26

When was the last time someone came out with a new pen and paper table top role playing game? It's been a while. We're into reruns. Graphics are comparatively an easy problem to ideas that are new.

New table top role playing games come out all the time.

Re: Playstation 5 Pro Shows the Futility of the Video-Game Graphics Race

#57

Post by vmladenov »

spondylosaurus wrote: post #31
talldayo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MGSV is just a good looking game. It's one of those Yoshi's Island titles that will look good whether it's the day of release or 50 years into the future. Characters are well-designed, setpieces are pulpy and full of cold war personality, and the cinematics are all handled with that loving Kojima madness players have craved since MGS1. It really feels like a game that cost 80 million dollars to make, even though the…

Here's a fun MGSV fact: the amount of time that's passed since MGSV:TPP's release is the same amount of time that separates the events of GZ and TPP :)

So is the time passed since the release of MGS2 and the time between TPP and the tanker incident :)

Re: Playstation 5 Pro Shows the Futility of the Video-Game Graphics Race

#58

Post by atmavatar »

adamc wrote: post #20
paradox242 wrote: post #18

We are well into diminishing returns territory with high resolution textures and 3D models, but most games are still using comparatively crude lighting technique. Raytraced lighting, when combined with the above high-fidelity game objects can produce startlingly realistic games today. Here is an example for a recent game called Bodycam: https://youtu.be/0ol0kTteyo0?feature=shared Even if you forgo the realistic textu…

Sure, and I've seen comparisons before, but the truth is that I don't care. It doesn't change the game. Visual improvements between PS1 and PS2 made the characters look less bizarre and helped me recognize things. At this point, whether it looks photorealistic is just... irrelevant? Maybe some people care more, I can accept that. But there is no chance I'm going to buy a PS5 Pro for it, and I don't think many fans wi…

You're just not being imaginative enough.

An example just off the top of my head is a game where you have to fight a medusa by relying on shadows/reflections only because if you look at it directly, you're literally petrified. Attempting to do that without proper ray tracing simply wouldn't be good enough.

Re: Playstation 5 Pro Shows the Futility of the Video-Game Graphics Race

#59

Post by jayd16 »

NickC25 wrote: post #51

Agree with other comments regarding play vs. visuals. Don't get me wrong, I've been floored with some of the visuals the PS5 and Xbox have produced, and every generation there's a few titles that just blow my mind with how good they look. But Nintendo has really been the winner here - they march to the beat of their own drum and while their games don't look jaw dropping, the enjoyment I get out of playing them more t…

I mean, that's a 4 controller console vs 2 controller consoles... Games were made with that in mind. Can't have everyone on a PC but there are obviously beloved multiplayer PC games.

Re: Playstation 5 Pro Shows the Futility of the Video-Game Graphics Race

#60

Post by feoren »

Retric wrote: post #50
falcolas wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please no. 30fps will actually give me eye strain after awhile. 60 FPS at least, please. And no, 24fps film is not comparable to 30fps, because the film captures a smear of time, whereas computers/consoles do not.

Some rendering engines do smear time in various ways like Motion Blur. Ray tracing can pull it off more cheaply than rasterization but you still need to compute geometry multiple times in as single frame.

If you have time to compute geometry multiple times in one frame, don't you have room to just increase fps?
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