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[NotSelf]

Legend of Kage

This is a screenshot guessing contest, right?

No sorry don't know why it wasn't showing i did put a new pic.

 

[manzoman96]

I love looking at Green Hill Zone. All of the colors!

 

[Labadal]

Many great examples in this thread.

Legend of Mana

Pillars of Eternity

Ni No Kuni

 

[p3tran]

lot of nice pics here
out of recent memory, what i saw in ryse I think is the best. not only inside the forest level etc, but also those vistas of the mountains when on that wooden watchtower.. I remember stop playing the game and just looking around and across and said "goddamn!!"

 

[caleb1915]

I hope the next Elder Scrolls will look this good.

Holy shit, now all i can hear is the morrowind theme playing in my head looking at these two.

 

[Protome]

Dragon Age had a pretty good tree.

 

[ElAlcesDiablo]

I really liked the trees in Ghost Recon back in the day. I think it was the first time I'd seen trees actually move in a game.

The game had great atmosphere; no music, just the sound of the wind and the trees swaying in the breeze.
The sequels were rather disappointing for me.

 

[Garcia]

Put large images in quotes so people can read your post~

Thanks for the tip.

 

[Bulzeeb]

Seiken Densetsu 3 looks pretty nice.

was about to post this, that games was one of the best looking snes games ever (a real shame it was never released in the us)

I also loved the night/day changes

and this is a personal favorite

 

[ichtyander]

Drawn to Life had some pretty sweet pixel art trees as well.

 

[SpookyFries]

Everquest trees forever

 

[Kaswa101]

Jesus, people really forgot how good U3 looked, didn't they.

The 1% theory is bullshit, that entire chapter looks unbelievable.

Agreed. Most of the game looked just as good imo, except maybe Syria lol.

 

[spuit*11]

I'm rather partial to the two trees in Ico.

I really liked the trees in Ghost Recon back in the day. I think it was the first time I'd seen trees actually move in a game.

The game had great atmosphere; no music, just the sound of the wind and the trees swaying in the breeze.
The sequels were rather disappointing for me.

My man.

 

[dragonbane]

Loved the way the forest area looked in Beyond: Two Souls:

Bonus: The Old Friends chapter looked beautiful as well

 

[notBald]

Agreed. Most of the game looked just as good imo, except maybe Syria lol.

I know I'm not in the majority, but Uncharted/TLoU has never impressed me in their overall look. Perhaps because I played Crysis 1 first.

On the topic of Crysis. It looks good in still images, but I found the pop-in very distracting. It's something I've not seen much mention of when the game's graphic is discussed, but unless there's a setting I've missed the game has more pop-in than any game should.

As for best looking tree, Trine 2 wins easily. Gorgeous game.

 

[JP]

I know it wasn't a popular game but I enjoyed it.

 

[runnin_blue]

I always found the trees in Shinobi 3 to be great. The way the leaves fell, so impressive at the time.

I tried to find a gif of it but I'm not sure what part of the internet they hide those, my googling never finds anything.

 

[unTamed]

Battlefield 4 has some pretty good looking trees, and some really good looking leaves too. Sorry for all the pictures, I did not know which one to pic.

 

[Riposte]

Not even grass type

 

[NeoGIF]

 

[level44]

This.

 

[Jacobi]

Rebel Strike's forest was also impressive at the time. I wonder if this game runs on emulators...

 

[WeAreStarStuff]

Some Chrono Cross love:

 

[RoboPlato]

The Uncharted 3 shots, and the reactions here, are a great example of Naughty Dog's combined technical and artistic wizardry, along with strong impressions of a good, still screenshot.

Tree geometry is Uncharted 3 is basic as fuck and nothing to go crazy over. Not bad. Not amazing. Not Crysis 3 tessellated-to-hell-and-back. Just a basic, serviceable, and balanced triangle count making up the truck and branches.

Naughty Dog know their shit with textures and that's what makes it look so damn good, along with the subtle normal map and position of the lighting in the shot. It looks like a photo of bark, the normal map giving the illusion of bumps and chips, and the still, front-on imagery giving the impression of detailed geometry in the chunks and corners of bark popping out of the tree.

The illusion is lost somewhat when you're actually playing and can move around the tree and see the bark is a texture attached to flat, polygonal surfaces, even if it still looks good thanks to the technology and art.

TLDR: Naughty Dog have great artist. Nicely set up screenshots look awesome. They've a pretty damn sweet bark texture. Killzone: Shadow Fall's trees should shit all over them geometrically, even if the bark texture doesn't hold up for artistic reasons.

This is precisely why I think debates about tech vs. art are a waste of time. Both are important and can complement one another and when blended intelligently it can have a magnificent outcome.

 

[KKRT00]

This is precisely why I think debates about tech vs. art are a waste of time. Both are important and can complement one another and when blended intelligently it can have a magnificent outcome.

Still, tech is quantifiable, where art is totally subjective. You can hate certain style when tons of other people can like it, like i hate WoW like art style, yet millions enjoy it.

 

[Makoto Yuki]

N64 Rareware trees will always have a place in my heart.

Diddy Kong Racing has my favorite video game trees. More variety than what's shown in the screen above. When you pump into some of them coconuts fall out, tiny details that made me smile.

Banjo has a world that is a tree in different seasons. Edit: this is not that tree.

 

[Al-San]

It's real guys, 2 screens I took just now:

Well I'll be damned....I'm going to fire up UC3 again soon.

 

[rashbeep]

I think Ryse wins pretty easily from all the examples so far. There's more to trees than just a texture.

 

[Timu]

There's a setting to change the font in the game.

I just played it and I'm not seeing any setting to change the font...from what I've seen in options:

 

[Timu]

Agreed. Most of the game looked just as good imo, except maybe Syria lol.

Syria looked really good to me:

 

[RustyNails]

 

[Boogybro]

Gaf, are you even trying?

 

[burgerdog]

Gaf, are you even trying?

Already posted.

 

[Boogybro]

Already posted.

I knew my faith in GAF was well placed.

 

[Timu]

Different regions?

That has to be it hopefully.

 

[Kaswa101]

Syria looked really good to me:

I agree, don't get me wrong. But something felt off to me about that section of UC3. Easily the least polished and most glitchy, and something about the lighting was especially annoying.

But yeah, still looks great even by today's standards. The desert, chateau/forest and ocean are all still amazing feats for 8-year old hardware.

 

[Timu]

I agree, don't get me wrong. But something felt off to me about that section of UC3. Easily the least polished and most glitchy, and something about the lighting was especially annoying.

But yeah, still looks great even by today's standards. The desert, chateau/forest and ocean are all still amazing feats for 8-year old hardware.

Yeah I love the looks of those levels, definitely the desert:

 

[XiaNaphryz]

They can adjust sliders in Speed Tree like no one else!

Even ILM uses Speed Tree for some of their work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3VACTRGmrI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbuzAV1TAYc

http://www.cgchannel.com/2013/08/the-lone-ranger-the-best-vfx-you-never-noticed/

For the vegetation, SpeedTree was pretty much the only solution we used. It’s a really artist-friendly tool when you’re trying to create something organic. You can get a lot of variety very quickly, just by putting in different seed values. But you can also go in and hand-draw splines and get a match to a tree you want to replicate. It does everything from quick solutions right down to full control.

The other important thing was to have the trees move. That’s always been an issue with big environments. It’s fairly easy to populate an environment, but having all the trees move – and move in an interesting way – is tough.

Again, we were able to get that out of SpeedTree. We didn’t move every single tree, just ten or fifteen that were at the right spot in the frame. Even adding one tree at the right spot in a frame made a huge difference. We didn’t have to move every tree to make the environment feel alive, but we did have to move the right one.

 

[See You Next Wednesday]

How could I forget this beauty. It doesn't look like much now but it blew my mind the first time I saw it:

That's impressive

 

[See You Next Wednesday]

These ones in Grim Fandango are pretty cool.

Okami ones looks nice too.

While the game itself was alittle meh, this area always looked kinda cool to me:

I always loved the patchwork trees in Yoshi's Story (seen here in the Yoshi-themed DLC for Sonic Lost World):

Good art will always trump realism. In 2-4 years those Ryse & Crysis shots will look bad & dated, but the above quoted ones will look good forever.

 

[Self_Destructive]

Good art will always trump realism. In 2-4 years those Ryse & Crysis shots will look bad & dated, but the above quoted ones will look good forever.

That doesn't make sense cause then there will be new realistic ones that look better. :]

 

[Makoto Yuki]

I always loved the patchwork trees in Yoshi's Story (seen here in the Yoshi-themed DLC for Sonic Lost World):

What?! Why is Sonic in my Yoshi's Story? I swear that guy loves ruining my childhood.

 

[Symphonia]

I always loved the patchwork trees in Yoshi's Story (seen here in the Yoshi-themed DLC for Sonic Lost World):

Now I want Nintendo release a Yoshi's Story HD for Wii U.

 

[terrisus]

Everquest trees forever

Man, I just love the look of EverQuest.
I could just wander around in there forever.

Banjo has a world that is a tree in different seasons.

Click-Clock Woods

 

[RoboPlato]

Still, tech is quantifiable, where art is totally subjective. You can hate certain style when tons of other people can like it, like i hate WoW like art style, yet millions enjoy it.

I agree. I was referring more to how people act like you can only have one or the other.

 

[The Janitor]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2EGFQByAuc&hd=1

 

[valouris]

Shogun 2 Total War

Rome 2 has some awesome desert trees as well, but Shogun's Japanese pink blossoms are just too magical.

 

[SPACECADET]

 

[EhoaVash]

I really like autumn feel trees

 

[Sexually Aggressive Uncle]

There's some kind of screenshot voodoo going on here 'cause the version of Uncharted 3 I own doesn't look anywhere near this good.