But you said this earlier on:
And this..
You posted those gifs after making those statements, how else are we supposed to interpret your replies other than a clear attempt at diminishing the need for cloud-assisted physics? Sure, it's not about making the two games look graphically comparable. But it's a pretty obvious the RFG gifs were meant to imply that the leap in physics complexity isn't big enough to warrant "the power of the cloud".
The notion that physics complexity should improve proportionately to the increase in console power is baffling to me. Because if you were to subscribe to that logic, the XboxOne in theory shouldn't struggle to put out games at just twice the previous standard resolution. Aside from putting out destructibility, the game needs room for things that are par for the course in an openworld Crackdown game, not the least of which includes tall skyscrapers and heavy traffic/pedestrian count, something RFG didn't have. RFG also didn't have the verticality of Crackdown, which demands huge draw distances, so it requires a ton more visible geometry. I'm pretty impressed that they even got real-time screenspace reflections on a TON of surfaces in the alpha demo. I'd understand there wouldn't be any need for the cloud if the skyscaper debris had collapsed and clip/sink into the ground like a lot of structures do in RFG:
But nope, in Crackdown, almost if not all debris chunk physically interact with each other in such a
hugely satisfying manner.