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Digital Foundry: Fallout 4: Next-gen or not?

E

ElTorro

I wanted to dominate the living room. Then I took an ESRAM in the knee.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-fallout-4-next-gen-or-not

Much has been said of Fallout 4's graphics prior to its launch. Perhaps the most widely-leveled criticism is that it doesn't look like a 'next-gen' title in every aspect, but part of a line of games born from last-gen development. No doubt, Bethesda is in its element with the sheer scale of its world building - and certain leaps are made on a visual level. But questions were raised ahead of release; is this a true technical successor to Fallout 3? And has the Creation Engine evolved enough to a point where this could only be achieved on current-gen hardware?
Click to expand...

Read the article for a list of "what works" and "what doesn't".

The end product in Fallout 4 is an unusual mixture of old and new. It undoubtedly follows a familiar template underneath, but the new lighting model layered over the top gives it an often-times beautiful, current-gen veneer. Certain new effects already look dated, but regardless, it has a flexibility most games don't offer, with its wide scope for exploration, and a freedom granted by its dialogue options. It's not a knockout blow in technical terms, but it still impresses in its own way - and hopefully this marks the first step of many, as Bethesda continues to develop for PS4 and Xbox One.
Click to expand...
 
E

ElTorro

I wanted to dominate the living room. Then I took an ESRAM in the knee.
I find the facial animations particularly jarring. They have never been good in any Bethesda game I can remember, but it's weird that a high-profile open world RPG game is still so sub-par in this category compared to other games.
 
M

Muchi Muchi Pink

Member
ElTorro said:
I find the facial animations particularly jarring. They have never been good in any Bethesda game I can remember, but it's weird that a high-profile open world RPG game is still so sub-par in this category compared to other games.
Click to expand...
Not only facial animations, animations in general are subpar. They already were when Fallout 3 released.
 
K

Kezen

Banned
Repost :
Volumetric lighting: Fallout 4 utilises Nvidia technology to produce volumetric lighting, allowing light to scatter more convincingly across the air. This is impacted by newly added smoke and fog effects in the distance, and also produces the long light shafts we see trailing around objects occluding the sun. Compared to Fallout 3, it's an impressive effect that adds a great sense of depth to each environment - one highlight being the film noire-like smoke that collects under spotlights at Diamond City's press office.
Click to expand...

We're hugely fond of this effect in Fallout 4, though on PS4 and Xbox One it is noticeably dialed down in quality compared to PC's top setting. In this case, something in the region of a 480x270 resolution is in play where geometry edges intersect with light shafts. It's a fraction of the full 1080p image, and creates a strange, dithered artifact at points, running at odds with the crispness of every other on-screen element. This isn't a complete deal-breaker though, and it takes the right angle to catch it.
Click to expand...

Now that's interesting.
 
D

Drencrom

Member
Seems like the PS4 and XB1 versions are basically the same, except stuttering in the XB1 version when the game loads assets at times.
 
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Renekton said:
Cell and 256MB RAM for this type of game is near-suicidal.
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Skyrim PS3 did eventually turn out to be near identical to launch-day 360 version after around 2 dozen patches and direct intervention of Sony's own coders .. so there's that.

Bethesda just needs other coders to help compile their shit properly on enclosed systems.
 
B

Banana Aeon

Member
Drencrom said:
Bethesda quality as expected, they must have an performance patch on the way.

3otTtOv.png
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Wow, that's fucked.
 
Cornbread78

Cornbread78

Member
riskVSreward said:
How quickly we forget the Cell processor. Honestly, I've seen this line of thought pop up for weeks now in relation to Bethesda/Fallout and it's simply befuddling.
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AlStrong said:
Strange comparison given the architectures.
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Dr. Benton Quest said:
They have different architectures. They arguably could have coded better for the PS4 before it was even released given they had far more experience.
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Renekton said:
Seems like DF's answer is yes.

Also LOL at FO3's gliding animation.

Cell and 256MB RAM for this type of game is near-suicidal.
Click to expand...


I wasn't wrong with anything I said; I was simply giving them a pat on the back that's all. I mean, they couldn't figure out the cell, so getting X86 so easily is a big improvement, no? Thank you based Cerny....

Man, this game is making people on edge, lol....
 
R

Renekton

Member
Cornbread78 said:
I wasn't wrong with anything I said; I was simply giving them a pat on the back that's all. I mean, they couldn't figure out the cell, so getting X86 so easily is a big improvement, no? Thank you based Cerny....

Man, this game is making people on edge, lol....
Click to expand...
Oops sorry I wasn't disagreeing with you :)
 
riskVSreward

riskVSreward

Member
Cornbread78 said:
I wasn't wrong with anything I said; I was simply giving them a pat on the back that's all. I mean, they couldn't figure out the cell, so getting X86 so easily is a big improvement, no? Thank you based Cerny....

Man, this game is making people on edge, lol....
Click to expand...

Nevermind my hostility, you were clearly just tipping your hat to their fine development skills. Their inability to code for PS3 was a clear signal that they wouldn't be able to code for PS4 so they in fact deserve your praise. I'm just way too on edge right now, this game tends to do that to people.
 
E

enemy2k

Member
Really enjoyed the video, the graphics are a good upgrade over Fallout 3 and the engine has some key next gen effects added. But they could have done better, more tessellation would have been nice on the enviroments. But I am satisfied. I hope I am able to run the game at 1080p at 60fps on my PC.
 
G

Gurish

Member
Like I thought, it looks nice but far from mind blowing and not really at the top technically, but it's far from being ugly and horrible looking as well.
 
L

Litri

Member
I hope that from now on many other great games (gameplay-wise) get a passing even if they are subpar on the graphics department. If not, bias.
 
K

Kyne

Member
so many different words and threads to say that this game looks like shit.

will get on PC in hopes that mods can save it.
 
B

BigDug13

Member
Zil33184 said:
Spu local store is 256k, so technically it had seven pools of 256k.

Main memory was 256MB, of course. Also, VRAM was an additional 256MB and RSX could access both pools simultaneously at full speed.
Click to expand...

For awhile I thought maybe PS3 was shit for open world games based on Bethesda's output, but after GTAV, it seems like that was false and it was more a case of Bethesda never really learning how to do it on PS3.
 
W

woen

Member
"a freedom granted by its dialogue options"

So that's why you have last-gen textures and animations and why it sometimes runs at 0fps (sic) on Xbone. Next-Gen dialogue options it is.
 
G

Gurish

Member
Have to admit, after downloading high quality vids from Gamersyde that I disagree with DF, the game is not next gen, it's closer to last gen, maybe lighting is sometimes better than the average 360/PS3 game but animations, textures and other aspects are worse than some last gen games, overall I can't really call it next gen, looks much closer to last gen with a better IQ, and it runs like shit on consoles as well, good job Bethesda!
 
R

Ryoku

Member
I don't understand how "physically-based materials" is a positive in this when the utilization of it is absolutely trash--especially when concerning skin and hair (of which there is no mention).

Edit: Texture quality?
 
D

darkinstinct

...lacks reading comprehension.
phyrlord said:
I like how people are blaming the game and NOT the 2011/2012 dated OLD tech the consoles are using...
Click to expand...

Maybe because games like GTA V, Mad Max or soon Just Cause 3 show that you can do pretty graphics in open world games on 2011/2012 tech?
 
P

pottuvoi

Banned
Pretty much what to expect from a new last gen game. (Albeit in higer resolution.)

What I would love to hear is if they have actually improved the world simulation side of the game.
 
R

Raistlin

Post Count: 9999
Kezen said:
Repost :




Now that's interesting.
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Wouldn't that be expected though?

It sounds like there's a custom nVidia API for it, so for non-nVidia GPUs they had to do their own (scaled back) custom variant.

Sounds similar to what happened with some games and Tressfx.
 
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