Support NeoGAF

[nib95]

So you agree, in answer to the question posed: How was this done?

The answer can be contributed to compromises in shadow quality. Which is what I was getting at.

You said Uncharted 4 has very poor shadows, and implied that's how it achieves amazing visuals. Uncharted 4 firstly doesn't have very poor shadows, it has mostly good to very good shadows, but with the odd issues here and there, but those compromises are likely a very small part of why or how Uncharted 4 manages to be as graphically accomplished as it is.

I think it likely has far more to do with optimisations, tools, art priority, developer talent etc, as it does compromises to things like shadow quality or whatever else, especially since there are so few compromises compared to other console games.

 

[Ricky_R]

So you agree, in answer to the question posed: How was this done?

The answer can be contributed to compromises in shadow quality. Which is what I was getting at.

So you're saying that a decrease is shadow quality is the reason why Uncharted looks as good or is as technically proficient?

 

[shinobi602]

Visuals are absolutely fucking RIDICULOUS.

 

[DannyDanger]

Such a nice little effect.

Looks weird IMO

atleast the ponytail does

I repeat, TressFX was broken first week or two after the release, it was new technology and later it was mostly fixed and improved with the updates. Also why are we comparing game from 2013 with 2016 game?

This is TressFX in ROTTR:

Sorry but nothing comes close to the PC version of ROTTR if we are talking about the hair.

Ok now that looks amazing

 

[Loudninja]

Shadow quality: Shadows are computationally expensive and, truthfully, Uncharted does a mostly good job of rendering them but there are a number of scenes where artefacts shine through, revealing rather pixelated results. We also noticed artefacts when objects pass in front of certain surfaces - a ghosting of sorts.

.

 

[nOoblet16]

I repeat, TressFX was broken first week or two after the release, it was new technology and later it was mostly fixed and improved with the updates. Also why are we comparing game from 2013 with 2016 game?

This is TressFX in ROTTR:

Sorry but nothing comes close to the PC version of ROTTR if we are talking about the hair.

I see people throw around PC everytime they mention something, but does TressFx on PC even do anything extra over the Xbox One version in this case?

 

[Lulubop]

Impressive. Never played an Uncharted game but I really might pick this up. Just wish I didn't have to pay to play the multi

 

[nOoblet16]

Only watched the video sofar but I love what I am seeing. A great maximisation of the strengths of rendering given the budget before them.

I have yet to read the article yet.

Qustions for people who own the game: Is the POM self-shadowing in sunlight?
Does anyone else notice how the TAA is also post-sharpening? I keep seeing it occassionally in screens, but I am not sure if I am imagining it.

I'll let you know tomorrow !!

 

[farisr]

Nice analysis, but I don't see how "we are targeting 60fps" is considered a "promise."

 

[Primethius]

Only watched the video sofar but I love what I am seeing. A great maximisation of the strengths of rendering given the budget before them.

I have yet to read the article yet.

Qustions for people who own the game: Is the POM self-shadowing in sunlight?
Does anyone else notice how the TAA is also post-sharpening? I keep seeing it occassionally in screens, but I am not sure if I am imagining it.

I also noticed the sharpening. It's actually really noticeable when Drake gets shot at and the screen turns black and white.

I haven't read the article so I'm not sure if it's mentioned but that implementation (I assume) is also one of the reasons the FPS dips a bit in the final chapter. The FPS is locked unless you lose health and the screen goes B&W, then the sharpening filter kicks in alongside a bit of an FPS drop.

The sharpening effect is also noticeable when you pull out and put away the journal. Pulling it out applies the filter but seems to be unnoticeable on the journal screen but putting it away has the filter linger on the world for a few seconds before fading away.

 

[Dictator93]

I see peopel throw around PC everytime they mention something, but does TressFx on PC even do anything extra over the Xbox One version in this case?

It has the cinematic level of strands in gameplay if you set it to that. Those are the only differences I know about.

I'll let you know tomorrow !!

Thx

I also noticed the sharpening. It's actually really noticeable when Drake gets shot at and the screen turns black and white.

I haven't read the article so I'm not sure if it's mentioned but that implementation (I assume) is also one of the reasons the FPS dips a bit in the final chapter. The FPS is locked unless you lose health and the screen goes B&W, then the sharpening filter kicks in alongside a bit of an FPS drop.

The sharpening effect is also noticeable when you pull out and put away the journal. Pulling it out applies the filter but seems to be unnoticeable on the journal screen but putting it away has the filter linger on the world for a few seconds before fading away.

Yeah I am wondering about the sharpening a bit, and how or when it is applied. Gamersyde posted some screens and if you look at the rocks cresting above the waterfall here against the sky background, you can see some ringing/outlining which looks a lot like sharpening.

 

[icecold1983]

awww yis

/reading

/watching

http://www.gamersyde.com/leech_37198_1_en.html

you should download that one. the outdoor areas are the closest ive seen to epic kite demo. the aa is as good as epics

 

[EGM1966]

Sounds like consoles have their King of Visuals thus far this gen. Pity it'll never hit PC would be very curious to see how far the engine could be taken with more horsepower.

Just skimmed some of the text. Not watching another frame of this until I'm playing it!

Also the 60fps bit seems unnecessary as that was put to bed a loooong time back. But I guess when everything seems to be near enough perfect something's got to be mentioned as a token negative.

 

[Primethius]

It has the cinematic level of strands in gameplay if you set it to that. Those are the only differences I know about.

Thx

Yeah I am wondering about the sharpening a bit, and how or when it is applied. Gamersyde posted some screens and if you look at the rocks cresting above the waterfall here against the sky background, you can see some ringing/outlining which looks a lot like sharpening.

Yea, it looks like it. From what I can recall, the only instances of sharpening I could notice were:
- Near death, when screen is black and white, you can notice sharpening, especially around enemies
- Putting away the journal, the sharpening fading away is noticeable (I tested this on Chapter 10: Madagascar)
- Chapter 10's opening cutscene before the characters are introduced has a bit of sharpening applied which is then removed as the characters come into frame
- A couple of cutscenes here and there have sharpening applied during select frames (not the entire scene). Example: Slight sharpening on an object as a character holds it up and so on.

 

[SaganIsGOAT]

let me live the dream guys

😂

 

[icecold1983]

its also great to see they do a much better job than other games at keeping specular in check

 

[qa_engineer]

seriously did anyone expect any less from Naughty Dog?

 

[Grief51]

Also the 60fps bit seems unnecessary as that was put to bed a loooong time back.

Since it looks like Uncharted 4 is GPU-limited then I think it is quite likely we will see a patch to run UC4 @ 60 fps on the PS4 Neo this fall.

In that case Naughty Dog will be able to claim they kinda lived up to the 60 fps promise after all.

 

[nib95]

Yeah I am wondering about the sharpening a bit, and how or when it is applied. Gamersyde posted some screens and if you look at the rocks cresting above the waterfall here against the sky background, you can see some ringing/outlining which looks a lot like sharpening.

Photomode adds sharpening by default. You can turn it off though.

 

[DriftingSpirit]

Bless you, Naughty Dog.

 

[OfTheOverflow]

So guys; alternate skins in real-time cut scenes is a yes? Have been trying to avoid spoilers in other threads but need to ask.

 

[icecold1983]

Since it looks like Uncharted 4 is GPU-limited then I think it is quite likely we will see a patch to run UC4 @ 60 fps on the PS4 Neo this fall.

In that case Naughty Dog will be able to claim they kinda lived up to the 60 fps promise after all.

not going to happen. no way naughty dog is leaving that much cpu performance on the table

 

[Garrett Hawke]

I see people throw around PC everytime they mention something, but does TressFx on PC even do anything extra over the Xbox One version in this case?

You can increase the number of strands during gameplay so that her hair is fuller. I don't think it affects cutscenes though.

 

[Bornstellar]

Where do they get that Halo 5 was targeting 1080p? The beta was 720p, so they improved on that with the final product.

 

[deriks]

Tress FX 2.0 is legit.

Didn't know that has a 2.0 version. The first one was too artificial to like
But I guess that still can be improved

 

[Dunkley]

Seeing those ROTR gifs and watching the Uncharted 4 analysis makes me realize what a great time it is to be a gamer right now. It's breathtaking what visual spectacles can be accomplished nowadays.

 

[dark10x]

Only watched the video sofar but I love what I am seeing. A great maximisation of the strengths of rendering given the budget before them.

I have yet to read the article yet.

Qustions for people who own the game: Is the POM self-shadowing in sunlight?
Does anyone else notice how the TAA is also post-sharpening? I keep seeing it occassionally in screens, but I am not sure if I am imagining it.

They do use sharpening and, unfortunately, POM doesn't feature self-shadowing. I've found that they avoided using it in highly sunny areas and that might be why.

Where do they get that Halo 5 was targeting 1080p? The beta was 720p, so they improved on that with the final product.

Before the beta. When it was first announced. Just like the 60fps thing with Uncharted.

 

[Bornstellar]

I need to get back to ROTTR.

 

[Grief51]

They do use sharpening and, unfortunately, POM doesn't feature self-shadowing. I've found that they avoided using it in highly sunny areas and that might be why.

Do you think it would be possible for Uncharted 4 to run @ 60 fps on the PS4 neo specs? Or is it out of the question?

At first glance it looks like UC4 is gpu-limited. A 4.2 Tflops gpu would do wonders for performance.

 

[Bornstellar]

They do use sharpening and, unfortunately, POM doesn't feature self-shadowing. I've found that they avoided using it in highly sunny areas and that might be why.


Before the beta. When it was first announced. Just like the 60fps thing with Uncharted.

Citation needed. Are you sure you are not thinking of the MCC? Where they said your journey begins in 2014 (Which, tbf, is also not 100 percent native 1080p). More to the point, Halo 5 was never shown at a fixed 1080p prerelease. It honestly comes off as an attempt to assuage fanboys.

 

[finalanubis]

Finally it comes, actually I'm totally fine with the failure on E3 1080P 60FPS promising as I don't think it could be achieved on current console with a real AAA quality, even by Naughty Dog...
But the others are great enough, can't wait to play it, awesome and thanks DF.

 

[Digital-Hero]

There are some minor drops - and we've collated them here for your viewing pleasure.

What is the pleasure in that?

 

[140.85]

All this amazing tech. But 4x anisotropic filtering.

Huh?

Are CPUs they chose for consoles this gen specifically bad at this or something?

 

[OléGunner]

It's a technical marvel and I expect no less from ND.

They must be commended for their continued efforts to always squeeze the most out of Playstation hardware.
Only a few more hours to go now, can't wait!

 

[Javin98]

Just watched the video and read the article. Great job as always, dark. However, the video contained a lot of spoilers and I had to turn away from my phone several times. I would prefer it if it was just locations and setpieces we've already seen.

Also, is shadow dithered removed or at least reduced significantly? You can definitely still see low res artifacts, but the dithering seems gone to me. I think I prefer it this way even though the shadows are still a somewhat low point of the visuals.

 

[vio]

AA is blowing my mind. I need that AA in every game.

 

[thenexus6]

I can't wait for the Unchared 4 screenshot thread.

 

[Dragon1893]

*mage quality:* Uncharted 4 delivers the best image quality we've seen in a console game to date. Even in the face of rare titles like Tearaway Unfolded, with its high quality MSAA settings, Uncharted 4 stands tall. Naughty Dog has developed a temporal anti-aliasing technique that delivers results that sometimes manage to approach the quality of a super-sampled image. Thin edges are remarkably clean, shader aliasing is almost non-existent, and shimmering is all but eliminated. Large, complex fields of detailed foliage remain razor sharp even at a distance while finer details on Nate's weapons remain clearly visible. 

Bloody hell.

 

[nOoblet16]

What's going on here?
I don't think it's the TAA since that would only create ghosting when in motion and Drake isn't moving here.

 

[140.85]

Bloody hell.

REALLY hope they share it with other developers...

 

[nOoblet16]

Bloody hell.

I think it's a bit hyperbolic to call a TAA solution best IQ when it obviously has its drawbacks with ghosting and blur in motion...especially when you have Tearaway Unfolded with it's 8xMSAA and pristine look with zero blur. Or the Order 1886 with it's EQAA resulting virtually no jaggies and ghosting PLUS high AF on top compared to 4xAF in UC4.

TAA will produce a supersampled look sometimes, but all TAAs do. I mean the entire reason people stopped talking about Infamous' AA as the best ever despite the fact that it could produce supersampled like look at times was because it had ghosting from temporal artifacting.

 

[Javin98]

I think it's a bit hyperbolic to call a TAA solution best IQ when it obviously has it's drawbacks with ghosting and blur in motion...especially when you have tearaway Unfolded with it's 8xMSAA. Or the Order 1886 with it's EQAA resulting virtually no jaggies and ghosting PLUS high AF on top compared to 4xAF in UC4.

Eh? The Order actually had worse AF overall than Uncharted 4. Where did you hear that The Order has a high level of AF?

 

[Always-honest]

Just incredible.

Tomorrow.

 

[nOoblet16]

Eh? The Order actually had worse AF overall than Uncharted 4. Where did you hear that The Order has a high level of AF?

I didn't hear, I don't think anyone has ever said anything about it actually.
But I am going by my observation, for instance that part where you are walking down the street with Elizabeth (or what's her face). The streets are made up of cobblestones and you could see without any blur for a long distance.

EDIT:
Not as good of a picture but looks fairly high

 

[TheLaughingStock]

ND went into beast mode for this project.

 

[Javin98]

I didn't hear, I don't think anyone has ever said anything about it actually.
But I am going by my observation, for instance that part where you are walking down the street with Elizabeth (or what's her face). The streets are made up of cobblestones and you could see without any blur for a long distance.

Perhaps that part had a relatively high level of AF, but there are numerous areas where the level of AF was closer to 4x as well.

Her name is Igraine, BTW, but I don't blame you for forgetting her name.

 

[jeffram]

Naughty Dog has had a reputation of putting out the most technically accomplished games on Consoles, but the gap between them and everyone else has never been this great. What they are doing borders on unbelievable.

 

[Respawn]

Bless the chips. We all up in here.

 

[nOoblet16]

Perhaps that part had a relatively high level of AF, but there are numerous areas where the level of AF was closer to 4x as well.

Her name is Igraine, BTW, but I don't blame you for forgetting her name.

Yes it's possible but if there is one thing The Order did well, it was consistency across every single thing it does and commits to it completely. But yes, a lot of games do it but shouldn't the same apply to UC4 too? that some parts had 4xAF and some just don't.

Tbh ND has never put priority on AF, since none of their previous games ever did more than trilinear filtering. I know last gen consoles were weaker hardware and AF was rare, but despite that some games would have it from time to time and as such it was something that could be done if prioritised and ND didn't (that being my point). I mean ND are amazing and probably the best at console development, but this notion that UC4 is the best at every single thing it does is just not a realistic one.

 

[GameAddict411]

Holly shit! The video analysis is filled with spoilers!