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Consoles screenshots thread (PS4/Xbone/WiiU) [Up: Thread rules in OP]

69wpm

Member
Chromatic aberration is an optical aberration, something that doesn't exist in real life.
You can subjectively like the "oh, it's like in movies!" effect but it clearly and objectively destroys image quality by replacing some colours with others, adding fuzziness to an otherwise clean image.

I think ZombiU is the first game where I noticed chromatic aberration. If you guys look at the beginning of this topic, you'll find some screenshots. Great game with very nice atmosphere. It's also the only game where I think the chromatic aberration and the dust lens effect or whatever it's called work very well.
 
ibrnKLA8Z0LXsO.jpg


iboJT1DbseINTP.jpg


ifRzsmGG1SN1I.jpg
 

thelastword

Banned
That's what I was about to say. This discussion has been going on for far too long.

Some of you need to check out the PC thread, which predate all the console threads, people take screenshots at resolutions they don't/can't play at just for the sake of IQ. And if we're talking about camera angles, most PC games can be altered to have free cams (some with controllable effects like DoF), so pretty much photomode for every game, and the PC thread is full of these screenshots and everyone is ok with it.

If a game swaps assets when it's in photomode, that's different. But even then, I think just putting "photomode" alongside the title is enough.
Almost all games that have a photomode even from last gen had a photo-mode thread. Last gen I remember halo, forza, gt all had separate threads. This gen we have infamous, forza5, f.horizon 2, tlou.r etc . with their own threads. If someone wants to see how these games look with added aa, blur and other effects or at different camera angles these threads serve a purpose, people go nuts and get creative there, but it's not representative of in-game play.

This thread on it's inception seemed to cater to persons taking direct-feed shots off the console's screen shot feature and off capture cards, persons would come in and see what the latest released games looked like. I'm sure many have purchased games looking at the impressive in-game shots posted here, it's muddying the waters to post pics that are heavily supersampled et.al. What's the point of the photo-mode threads if we will just post them here too? What's the differentiator? perhaps I should post direct feed grabs in the photo-mode threads and caption it "non-photo-mode" pic. This thread serves it's purpose (well I thought so) and so does the photo threads.
 

Pjsprojects

Member
Can't we just post pics and be happy? I spend as much time looking for what I think are good shots as playing the games.

If-I'm-in-the-wrong posting pics then I guess the thread rules need changing.
 
I don't see why not. People post pics that aren't representative of gameplay all the time. Forza isn't the only game, that's posted, with a photo mode that allows people to alter the image (DoF, filters, strange camera angles, etc)

Also I don't see any major differences in the photo mode shots unlike with Forza 5 for example.

Is Forzas photo mode real time?
I remember GranTurismos photo mode adding better AA and stuff once you decided for a picture you want to take.
Infamous: Second Son on the other hand has a real time photo mode, so its very well representative of how the game looks in real time.


But I think its okay either way.
 

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
inFAMOUS (and The Last of Us) don't supersample, boost shadow, depth of field and motion blur quality when enabling photo mode. They just let you manipulate the camera and realtime quality effects as a realtime cutscene would.
 

Noobcraft

Member
More Horizon 2 (Photo mode)
GetPhoto.ashx

GetPhoto.ashx

GetPhoto.ashx


inFAMOUS (and The Last of Us) don't supersample, boost shadow, depth of field and motion blur quality when enabling photo mode. They just let you manipulate the camera and realtime quality effects as a cutscene would.
They do let you tweak color settings and DOF don't they? I played around with the TLOU:R photo mode for a few hours when it came out and it was relatively capable.
 

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
They do let you tweak color settings and DOF don't they? I played around with the TLOU:R photo mode for a few hours when it came out and it was relatively capable.
Yes, and they're all realtime-quality effects. When you hit the SHARE button it takes a regular 1/60 or 1/30th of a second frame.

Photo modes in the later Gran Turismo's, Forza's and Halo's (and even Tearaway) all take a moment (or several seconds) to render an offline-quality frame.
 

GYNGA

Member
Almost all games that have a photomode even from last gen had a photo-mode thread. Last gen I remember halo, forza, gt all had separate threads. This gen we have infamous, forza5, f.horizon 2, tlou.r etc . with their own threads. If someone wants to see how these games look with added aa, blur and other effects or at different camera angles these threads serve a purpose, people go nuts and get creative there, but it's not representative of in-game play.

This thread on it's inception seemed to cater to persons taking direct-feed shots off the console's screen shot feature and off capture cards, persons would come in and see what the latest released games looked like. I'm sure many have purchased games looking at the impressive in-game shots posted here, it's muddying the waters to post pics that are heavily supersampled et.al. What's the point of the photo-mode threads if we will just post them here too? What's the differentiator? perhaps I should post direct feed grabs in the photo-mode threads and caption it "non-photo-mode" pic. This thread serves it's purpose (well I thought so) and so does the photo threads.
I agree. I don't want to see bullshots in this thread. Though I wouldn't be against changing camera angle.

They do let you tweak color settings and DOF don't they? I played around with the TLOU:R photo mode for a few hours when it came out and it was relatively capable.
It's real time though. However it's definitely one of the harder topics. It's not easy to draw a line between what should be allowed and what should not be allowed in this thread. I myself would be against screenshots with changed DOF, added filters etc.
 

-griffy-

Banned
I don't see why not. People post pics that aren't representative of gameplay all the time. Forza isn't the only game, that's posted, with a photo mode that allows people to alter the image (DoF, filters, strange camera angles, etc)

Also I don't see any major differences in the photo mode shots unlike with Forza 5 for example.

The difference between the photo modes in games like Infamous and Last of Us is that those are still running in real time with whatever alterations you use, so they are still representing the real time graphics of the game as you are playing it. They are using the same depth of field and color correction effects the actual game uses when you are playing.

The photo modes in things like Forza or Gran Turismo are rendering out essentially a pristine still frame once you position your camera, so the IQ is impeccable, but it doesn't represent what the game actually looks like in real time when you are playing it. They seem to be supersampling the frame for perfect AA, increasing the sampling for motion blur dramatically, and perhaps even increasing the texture filtering, effects which if turned on all the time would probably result in a game running at 5fps. It can be misleading in the way bullshots are if people don't present them properly.
 

Noobcraft

Member
Yes, and they're all realtime-quality effects. When you hit the SHARE button it takes a regular 1/60 or 1/30th of a second frame.

Photo modes in the later Gran Turismo's, Forza's and Halo's (and even Tearaway) all take a moment (or several seconds) to render an offline-quality frame.
Even so though it wouldn't be hard to argue that Forza Horizon 2's photomode pics are a good representation of actual gameplay. The game does have 4xMSAA and excellent motion blur in real time. I guess I could take 720P screen grabs from "Xbox Record That" footage and use those... The amazing IQ still shows through.

http://xboxclips.com/video.php?uid=...raft&vid=05a12375-0e04-453c-9b81-7e0baea13a97
 

Melchiah

Member
I have personally nothing against photo mode shots, even if it changes the visuals from the actual gameplay. I do have a problem with cutscene shots, as they can feature spoilers, and I just think they're pointless as every player gets the exact same cutscenes. There's no variation between them, unlike it's with gameplay, where you can show others something they might have missed.
 

TheMoon

Member
Too much talk, not enough pictures.

Here's something wonderful from Pushmo World:

wiiu_screenshot_tv_01rws6h.jpg


And here's me facepalming into the finish line in MK8.
wiiu_screenshot_tv_01i4z1t.jpg


And here's the incredibly sad start menu for Sniper Elite V2 since that's the only thing you can screenshot because Rebellion was so clever as to auto-pause the game and pull up the pause menu screen once you press the HOME button, making taking screenshots completely impossible even when it is theoretically not disabled. So stupid.
wiiu_screenshot_tv_01kkpc9.jpg
 

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
Even so though it wouldn't be hard to argue that Forza Horizon 2's photomode pics are a good representation of actual gameplay. The game does have 4xMSAA and excellent motion blur in real time. I guess I could take 720P screen grabs from "Xbox Record That" footage and use those... The amazing IQ still shows through.

http://xboxclips.com/video.php?uid=...raft&vid=05a12375-0e04-453c-9b81-7e0baea13a97
It would be hard to argue, 4xMSAA still falls well short of the supersampling on display in photo mode.

Here we have best and worse case realtime scenarios for image quality and there's still a lot of aliasing in both.
 

Caayn

Member
The difference between the photo modes in games like Infamous and Last of Us is that those are still running in real time with whatever alterations you use, so they are still representing the real time graphics of the game as you are playing it. They are using the same depth of field and color correction effects the actual game uses when you are playing.

The photo modes in things like Forza or Gran Turismo are rendering out essentially a pristine still frame once you position your camera, so the IQ is impeccable, but it doesn't represent what the game actually looks like in real time when you are playing it. They seem to be supersampling the frame for perfect AA, increasing the sampling for motion blur dramatically, and perhaps even increasing the texture filtering, effects which if turned on all the time would probably result in a game running at 5fps. It can be misleading in the way bullshots are if people don't present them properly.
I'm well aware of the differences between a real-time photo mode and the one used in games such as Forza and GT. However I do think that photo mode shots should be treated equally, whether they're real-time or not. Most photo mode shots I see in here of TLoU (for example) don't represent gameplay at all (extreme close-ups, black&white/sephia/etc filters, black bars, you name it). I don't see why we should accept one effect but deny the other.

Either accept photo mode shots or don't accept any photo mode shots.
 

Noobcraft

Member
It would be hard to argue, 4xMSAA still falls well short of the supersampling on display in photo mode.


Here we have best and worse case realtime scenarios for image quality and there's still a lot of aliasing in both.
The best case for IQ is in motion as it is a racer. There is a huge difference between using Forza 5 photomode to represent gameplay (pretty awful IQ in gameplay vs pristine in photomode) and using Forza Horizon 2 photomode to represent gameplay because it already has incredible image quality in gameplay. When Driveclub photomode comes out it will probably be the same story as Forza 5 because it has bad IQ too.
 
I agree with Griffy. Forza's photo mode may as well not even be part of the game. It's not a representation of the game's in-game visuals at all. TLOU and Infamous may have filters and effect options, but they are real time and render from the game engine.
 

-griffy-

Banned
I'm well aware of the differences between a real-time photo mode and the one used in games such as Forza and GT. However I do think that photo mode shots should be treated equally, whether they're real-time or not. Most photo mode shots I see in here of TLoU (for example) don't represent gameplay at all (extreme close-ups, black&white/sephia/etc filters, black bars, you name it). I don't see why we should accept one effect but deny the other.

Either accept photo mode shots or don't accept any photo mode shots.

There's a fundamental difference between real time and rendered stills, so to say they should be treated equally when they aren't equal in the way they work doesn't make sense to me.

I'm not saying Forza photo mode shouldn't be allowed in this thread, but it should definitely be marked when used. I personally don't know that they should be in here as I've kind of viewed this thread as "Here are captures of console games as they are running in real time," as in this is what the games looks like for real, no bullshots. Sort of a counter point to the high res PC screenshot thread where IQ is preferred over any kind of realistic performance. But that's just my own take on the thread.
 

-griffy-

Banned
Bit disappointing that Driveclub seems to have that same artifacting Killzone suffered from, where there is some sub-pixel wonkiness going on in the anti-aliasing causing single pixel "dots" to appear in places (especially noticeable in trees).
 
I agree with Griffy. Forza's photo mode may as well not even be part of the game. It's not a representation of the game's in-game visuals at all. TLOU and Infamous may have filters and effect options, but they are real time and render from the game engine.
At all? I think that's taking it a bit far, have you seen some of the Infamous SS shots here, effects and all? They don't exactly represent how you see the game either.

If we're banning photomode shots, well then we need to ban pics from ingame cinematics too as they often have extra AA, effects and camer angles not possible in-game.
 

garyBig

Member
Bit disappointing that Driveclub seems to have that same artifacting Killzone suffered from, where there is some sub-pixel wonkiness going on in the anti-aliasing causing single pixel "dots" to appear in places (especially noticeable in trees).

Yeah it's a bit strange that nobody cares to adopt that power lines thing from GTAV. I mean last gen could handle smooth power lines, why can't new gen? (Silly question considering not even AF takes any priority on consoles IQ-wise, but anyway)
 

-griffy-

Banned
For the most part I hate CA, but I think it works well in certain horror games like a film grain filter. However, it looks so bad in non-horror games like Destiny.

It worked well in Outlast when you were looking through your video camera, as it was emulating a kind of crappy looking camera/lens. I think it's fine when used as a specific visual effect like that, or say in the original Crysis where it had accurate color separation when looking through/in water, or in Dirt 2 (I believe?) where it's used heavily in the UI/motion graphic presentation (but not on the 3D graphics). It might be appropriate as a subtle effect in a game like The Order which is leaning very heavily on a filmic, period look.

But agreed on Destiny, it's just out of place there. Just slapping it over an image without a compelling narrative/stylistic reason just results in a rather ugly effect being present at all times.
 

sangreal

Member
As a quick and dirty test since people are wondering what effects forza adds in photo mode (sorry, I couldn't get the exact camera angle/zoom for some reason)

gameplay:
gameplay2.png


photo-mode:
photomode2.png


rendered/shared:
rendered2.jpg


(the last image may appear washed out because I play in limited rgb colorspace due to xbone's broken output)

here is another one:
http://www.thesangreal.net/gafpics/gameplay.png
http://www.thesangreal.net/gafpics/photomode.png
http://www.thesangreal.net/gafpics/rendered.jpg

This is obviously incomplete as I can't capture the things you would never see in gameplay like the individual flecks in the paint when zoomed in all the way

Not trying to wade into any arguments about what should or shouldn't be posted in this thread, just thought it would be interesting
 
I'm well aware of the differences between a real-time photo mode and the one used in games such as Forza and GT. However I do think that photo mode shots should be treated equally, whether they're real-time or not. Most photo mode shots I see in here of TLoU (for example) don't represent gameplay at all (extreme close-ups, black&white/sephia/etc filters, black bars, you name it). I don't see why we should accept one effect but deny the other.

Either accept photo mode shots or don't accept any photo mode shots.
Yeah whe're well past the reasonable request to leave photomode images out of the screenshot thread. But at least put "photomode" in the thread. Nothing wrong with that. Whe're also posting for people who don't have the game yet.
Same with "cutscene".
 

Anion

Member
As a quick and dirty test since people are wondering what effects forza adds in photo mode (sorry, I couldn't get the exact camera angle/zoom for some reason)

gameplay:
gameplay2.png


photo-mode:
photomode2.png


rendered/shared:
rendered2.jpg


(the last image may appear washed out because I play in limited rgb colorspace due to xbone's broken output)

here is another one:
http://www.thesangreal.net/gafpics/gameplay.png
http://www.thesangreal.net/gafpics/photomode.png
http://www.thesangreal.net/gafpics/rendered.jpg

This is obviously incomplete as I can't capture the things you would never see in gameplay like the individual flecks in the paint when zoomed in all the way

Not trying to wade into any arguments about what should or shouldn't be posted in this thread, just thought it would be interesting
I cant see any differences. We need a DF article on this now lol
 

garyBig

Member
I cant see any differences. We need a DF article on this now lol

Look at the far improved Anisotropic Filtering on the upper right (behind those black & white tiles). Also Anti Aliasing is much better on the diagonal lines right behind the car (lasers and scaffolding).
Even the black & white tiles themselves suddenly have depth to them and have shading applied to them (plus they are now illuminated by surrounding lights)
 

Noobcraft

Member
Look at the far improved Anisotropic Filtering on the upper right (behind those black & white tiles). Also Anti Aliasing is much better on the diagonal lines right behind the car (lasers and scaffolding).
Even the black & white tiles themselves suddenly have depth to them and have shading applied to them (plus they are now illuminated by surrounding lights)
Compare the photomode (still 30 fps) to the rendered. There should be no difference between gameplay and photomode as long as he has all settings at their presets. The rendered shots should be the only ones with the super sampling.
 

VanWinkle

Member
Compare the photomode (still 30 fps) to the rendered. There should be no difference between gameplay and photomode as long as he has all settings at their presets. The rendered shots should be the only ones with the super sampling.

But it's not. You can look at the gameplay shot to the photo mode shot and the photo mode one has virtually no aliasing, whereas the real time gameplay one does. It looks like going from real time gameplay with good image quality to a supersampled screenshot.
 

Noobcraft

Member
But it's not. You can look at the gameplay shot to the photo mode shot and the photo mode one has virtually no aliasing, whereas the real time gameplay one does.
The photomode runs at 30 fps though. He didn't get the angle right for capturing the gameplay so the scenes aren't perfect but this thread is apparently OK with real time photomode (infamous ss/TLOU:R) so it's valid.
 

VanWinkle

Member
The photomode runs at 30 fps though. He didn't get the angle right for capturing the gameplay so the scenes aren't perfect but this thread is apparently OK with real time photomode (infamous ss/TLOU:R) so it's valid.

The fact is that the photo-mode image quality is not representative of the in-game image quality. Photo mode in Infamous and TLOU doesn't change the image quality whatsoever.

However, I don't really care if people post racing game photo mode shots. I don't personally like them, since they don't show real-time image quality, but I don't mind it, and it does let people get cool artistic shots.
 
I cant see any differences. We need a DF article on this now lol

I couldn't either at first. However, if you view both pictures at full size, and then zoom in quite a bit, you can tell there is some more AA in photo mode. I guess this makes a difference if you play about two foot away from your tv. Otherwise, in my opinion the gameplay is pretty much the same as photo mode in Horizon 2 outside of having camera controls and filters.
 

UnrealEck

Member
Forza is a nice looking driving game. One of Xbone's best looking games.

That's using 16GB DDR4 on an I7 and an SSD though....the GPU isnt the only thing that matters.

A 6850 is easily far and away topped out on that though. That CPU and memory isn't going to be able to pull ahead with a 6850 keeping it back. A much lower end CPU and some standard frequency DDR3 (like say 1066MHz) would suffice.
 
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