Board 8 > I'm feeling graphics fatigue [TLoU Pt 1, Horizon FW, no spoilers]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Currently playing TLoU Pt 1 on PS5... and I feel crazy, but didn't the original game/PS4 remaster just look better than this? Obviously textures are higher resolution on PS5 version, backgrounds are far clearer, and *certain* aspects of the lighting are way better (though not all). Yet I'm getting some weird vibes of inconsistency that weren't there in the original. The animations on characters' faces look way less natural all of a sudden, the obviously fake smoke cloud from a gunshot looks way worse now, harsh shadows stand out much worse than they did before, etc.

I experienced this in Horizon Forbidden West too. Like, yeah, the environments look gorgeous, but why does everyone's face look SO UNNATURAL??? Aloy's smiles in conversation are straight up so awkwardly timed. In fact, in HFW, the character that seemed the least awkward to me was Kotallo, a character who had so much face paint on that you couldn't really tell what his face was supposed to be expressing, and he had a rather stoic personality anyways so he didn't need to express much.

I'm feeling like as our textures/render distance/graphical fidelity increases, all the other stuff has gotta increase with it, but it's lagging behind. A bad animation or effect can do WAY MORE to kill my immersion in a game than a slightly blurry background texture. And human character models are getting so close to realism in many ways, but still falling short in others - in TLoU Pt 1 I'm seeing this as Joel and Tess looking a little cartoony, as if a slight Walking Dead-esque cel shaded filter was applied over real people.

Anyone else? Just me? What has been y'all's feelings towards the AAA graphics of the current gen

I also think the original remaster looked better than the PS5 version for TLoU. Obviously it's better under the hood or whatever, but aesthetically they made a lot of changes that I think look worse.

I dislike Forbidden West for gameplay reasons, but honestly I thought the graphics/models were super impressive. I never got a weird feeling from them except to say "wow that is scarily good."

In general though, I don't see how much more graphics can improve with the current type of games we're playing. The leap from PS2 to PS3 was the last huge jump in graphics, while with the PS3 to PS4 and PS5 the jumps are in performance. (Also, I'm not a Sony Crony, I just think this is the easiest way to describe gaming generations).

For the next gen, I just don't see games looking better than they do currently in a way that most consumers will get. With VR, on the other hand, I do see room for improvement but also I have doubts that VR will ever catch on as long as you have to wear a headset.

You still need to choose between performance and graphics mode for PS5, I could imagine that the next generation would just be integrated so you get the nice graphics and the 60 FPS.

BlackDra90n posted...

You still need to choose between performance and graphics mode for PS5, I could imagine that the next generation would just be integrated so you get the nice graphics and the 60 FPS.

I hope so! Feeling like I'm getting rid of either looks or framerate really sucks. But at the same time, usually performance mode just outright looks better with the stabilized framerate and still incredibly high def graphics.

I think what you're saying is that the graphics are so good you notice minor imperfections more? Kinda like an uncanny valley effect? I can understand that, but I haven't had a problem with it, personally. Specifically with The Last of Us Remake, it has the issue of using the original PS3 animations with better graphics layered on top, so I can see how that would look "off". I thought Forbidden West looked quite pretty though. Its actually graphical problem was focusing too much on realism, so it's hard to tell important game elements from what's just part of the background.

BlackDra90n posted...

You still need to choose between performance and graphics mode for PS5, I could imagine that the next generation would just be integrated so you get the nice graphics and the 60 FPS.

Starfield runs at 1296/30 on Series X. I doubt we'll get graphics and frame rate anytime soon.

MacArrowny posted...

I think what you're saying is that the graphics are so good you notice minor imperfections more? Kinda like an uncanny valley effect? I can understand that, but I haven't had a problem with it, personally. Specifically with The Last of Us Remake, it has the issue of using the original PS3 animations with better graphics layered on top, so I can see how that would look "off".

Yup, that might be it.

The PS3 animations using that era's graphics really looked spot on at the time, and still looking back looks pretty natural to me. Like, it has aged really nicely! But maybe those animations with way higher fidelity graphics on top just looks wrong. Uncanny valley is exactly what I'm talking about. Lots of things approaching realism with a few things completely collapsing the immersion.

Even within generations you get big differences. Early ps3 just looks like better ps2 in some ways. But then late ps3 is nearly equal to ps4

That gen is just weird, especially on PS3 specifically. Very little came close to MGS4 for years.

Solioxrz362 posted...

Like, it has aged really nicely! But maybe those animations with way higher fidelity graphics on top just looks wrong.

You get this effect even without such a big fidelity leap - some of Yakuza Kiwami's animations are unintentionally hilarious.

While graphics have definitely improved a lot, the biggest leap between now and the PS3 era is absolutely in animation. Stuff from the late PS4 era to today can look so fantastic in motion and it's a clear order of operation above what even the best PS3 games or even early PS4 games were able to do.