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Witcher 3 downgrade arguments in here and nowhere else

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Not sure if this has been posted.

2013

2504401-6535952199-ip9VU.gif


2014

boevir3vu4urr.png


2015

cWf3DID.png


Compression, time of day, weather, seasons and all that, but I think it's safe to say there are a lot of details that have been removed/reduced.

I still think it looks great and I think they did a great job. While it still isn't entirely impossible the PC-version will look like the gameplay from 2013 like they are saying, it's very unlikely.


Dear lord, everytime i come here, i leave more disappointed of this game.
 

cripterion

Member
Sure they look good, but Witcher environments easily look more impressive to me. For one, the scale is off in Dragon Age, it is nowhere near 1 to 1. It is much closer in the Witcher I would say. Landscape geometry and the variety and density of vegetation is better. There are also actual cities in the game, rather than the small villages in Dragon Age.

Can't disagree with you on that. Wild Hunt's world looks much more believable.

Watching the stream and don't like how people just come in when you clear monsters near an abandoned site, makes it seem taken straight out of Far cry when you clear a camp and dudes magically spawn in.
 

tuxfool

Banned
1000 people versus 300 developers. We'll have to wait and see Witcher 3's credits.

By last count Ubisoft employs something like 8000 developers in 26 studios. 10 studios worked on AC:U.

CD projekt employs about 360 people in total and of that about 100 are on GoG, and a few others were working on the Moba and Cyberpunk (until they were put on finishing W3).
 

Leb

Member
One thing that bothers in all Witchers which is out of place is that you have a village with citizens having normal life and next to it few meters away a lake or a forest filled with monsters and everything seems to be fine for them. Witcher logic?

...but that's not really the case? In W2, for example:

In the prologue, in the castle town of La Vallete castle, the only monsters are found deep within a partially flooded sewer. In chapter I we have Flotsam, where the town proper has enormous walls, and Lobinden, which has erected an elaborate series of heavily patrolled fortifications to protect the village against the creatures of the forest.

In chapter II, Vergen has enormous stone walls, and Henselt's camp is entirely surrounded by a pallisade.

In chapter III, finally, we have Loc Muinne, which is... an ancient walled city.
 

Red Hood

Banned
Dear lord, everytime i come here, i leave more disappointed of this game.

I think that's the console version right? Maybe PC looks a lot better with good cards. Anyway, I can't help but feel the same, but honestly, it was never, never going to look like the 2013 footage. That much was already clear to me, those gameplay vids were definitely out of the question for the scope of this massive game. But I don't know, I somehow still had a little fiery hope that we could be surprised. Ah well.
 

nick nacc

Banned
The level of denial of the downgrade is hilarious. Pretty soon people with say: "well that twitch stream is the FRENCH version of the game, I will wait to see it myself on my monitor"

We know what the game looks like. And outside insane pc mods, the best looking, most atmospheric game that could have defined next gen has been gutted. And so have I.
 
Given how much some people moan about colour grading and piss filters, I'm not sure there is a right answer here.

The answer is: let the user decide.

Also colour grading is pretty hard to do on a dynamic TOD or open world game. It would require every hour of so of TOD having a different colour grade or certain zones turning on a different colour grading (which would lead to the game shifting colur when you cross invisible lines).
 
I'm sorry codhand was such a meanie to you.

codhand? I'm sorry, what are you on about exactly?

I simply reposted the comparison from this very board and since I didn't see any sign of it in the last 15 pages, I thought I could embed it with my comment. I don't have the time (or interest) to plough through a downgrade-thread with 70 pages.

If this was offensive to your internet persona, sorry I guess? Do you want me to credit you or should I just remove the whole comparison?
 
Am I weird for liking the color corrected a little bit more ? :D

Not at all. It looks a bit more naturally balanced and saturated, and the higher contrast/darker shadows help hide the lack of detail in the vegetation. It looks like vegetation ambient occlusion took a big hit in release.
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
codhand? I'm sorry, what are you on about exactly?

I simply reposted the comparison from this very board and since I didn't see any sign of it in the last 15 pages, I thought I could embed it with my comment. I don't have the time (or interest) to plough through a downgrade-thread with 70 pages.

If this was offensive to your internet persona, sorry I guess? Do you want me to credit you or should I just remove the whole comparison?

Just found it funny that gaf > internet > gaf had happened. I don't understand why you're being so pissy.
 

tuxfool

Banned
The answer is: let the user decide.

Also colour grading is pretty hard to do on a dynamic TOD or open world game. It would require every hour of so of TOD having a different colour grade or certain zones turning on a different colour grading (which would lead to the game shifting colur when you cross invisible lines).

Yup. I'm fairly sure they admitted that they regretted using the filters, it seems to be a mistake in the context of a large open world with long draw distances. It could work in enclosed spaces where TOD makes no difference such as caves etc, and from what I've seen they do this in the caves.

Each of the different scenes from the 2013 trailer had a different colour grade. I have no idea how one would transition from one to another in a satisfying way.
 
The answer is: let the user decide.

Also colour grading is pretty hard to do on a dynamic TOD or open world game. It would require every hour of so of TOD having a different colour grade or certain zones turning on a different colour grading (which would lead to the game shifting colur when you cross invisible lines).

You wrote TOD in many of your comments.What do you mean by that? Time Of Day?
 
Not at all. It looks a bit more naturally balanced and saturated, and the higher contrast/darker shadows help hide the lack of detail in the vegetation. It looks like vegetation ambient occlusion took a big hit in release.

AO works on everything regardless (especially HBAO). That should be the same if not better now (since it is using HBAO+ instead of TW2's SSAO).

Rather... prebaked AO (into the texture) was probably completely removed.
You wrote TOD in many of your comments.What do you mean by that? Time Of Day?

Yeah "Time of Day". It is a habit from spending too much time with Cryengine.
 

vpance

Member
Why not? We have the frame rate nailed down.

One thing at a time I guess.

Given how much some people moan about colour grading and piss filters, I'm not sure there is a right answer here.

I like it in this shot. But I think in other areas I'd like to see more natural colors, like out in the woods, or during sunrise or something.

PC gamers are

I'm sure someone will patch it in ;)
 
AO works on everything regardless (especially HBAO). That should be the same if not better now (since it is using HBAO+ instead of TW2's SSAO).

Rather... prebaked AO (into the texture) was probably completely removed.

Yeah, looks like you're right. I was mostly looking at the base of the vegetation textures, where the release version appears to have lost a lot of shadow detail, which is probably by the vegetation looks a lot flatter/uniform in the release.
 

cripterion

Member
They just showed all the video settings on the ign stream. Spotted a sharpen filter in there lol. Hairworks,CA and AA are off. No HBAO just SSAO.
 

viveks86

Member
Ok guys, the IGN stream just showed the game running on a 980 and ultra. But here's the catch, they claim all the settings are on and they browsed through the menu. A handful of them are actually not enabled. Things I noticed that were off

  • AA
  • HBAO
  • Light Shafts
  • Hair Works
  • CA (Thankfully)

EDIT: Beaten!
 

tuxfool

Banned
AO works on everything regardless (especially HBAO). That should be the same if not better now (since it is using HBAO+ instead of TW2's SSAO)..

I'm watching the IGN PC stream. They're running on Ultra, but with weird settings.

They have AA disabled, Hairworks off and SSAO (although HBAO is available in the options)

They have a seperate menu for graphics and post-processing.

Edit: Double beaten.
 

grtkbrandon

Neo Member
What strikes me as odd about the whole ordeal is that I booted up TW2 yesterday and was still impressed by the graphics. I'd say it looks better than the compressed images and video content I've seen of TW3.
 

Static Jak

Member
Ok guys, the IGN stream just showed the game running on a 980 and ultra. But here's the catch, they claim all the settings are on and they browsed through the menu. A handful of them are actually not enabled. Things I noticed that were off

  • AA
  • HBAO
  • Light Shafts
  • Hair Works
  • CA (Thankfully)

EDIT: Beaten!
Didn't IGN do something similar a while back with another game? Either they messed up the settings in a comparison video or they actually used console footage. Can't remember.
 
What strikes me as odd about the whole ordeal is that I booted up TW2 yesterday and was still impressed by the graphics. I'd say it looks better than the compressed images and video content I've seen of TW3.

I don't think it's a stretch to say that genuine gameplay will always looks better than videos. There's a certain wow-factor to actually playing [any game] for yourself that will make everything seem more impressive.
 

Static Jak

Member
What strikes me as odd about the whole ordeal is that I booted up TW2 yesterday and was still impressed by the graphics. I'd say it looks better than the compressed images and video content I've seen of TW3.
I'm playing it again right now and while I think it looks pretty good, it has a few issues. Like some pop in with stuff like foliage and some lighting. And I wasn't a fan of some of the lighting but that's just my personal taste.
 

Raven77

Member
After the constant downgrading of games from pre-release footage I've come to several conclusions:

1. Initial "reveals" of games no longer excite me at all. I've become cyncical that the hype-building-so-we-can-generate-preorders-footage is just a scam to sell video cards and generate baseless hype.

2. Gaming development is extremely complicated and I feel more people should be mindful of the complexities there and less quick to blame.

So, part of me hates devs for this, while the other part SORT OF understands at least part of the problems they face.

Idk what to think anymore...
 

grtkbrandon

Neo Member
I don't think it's a stretch to say that genuine gameplay will always looks better than videos. There's a certain wow-factor to actually playing [any game] for yourself that will make everything seem more impressive.

Very true, which is why I'm not super bothered by the downgrades because I don't think the game looks bad by any means. Is IGN the only place covering the PC version at the moment?
 

viveks86

Member
Is that HBAO+ or their own implementation of HBAO?

According to Nvidia's site, it's HBAO+

Didn't IGN do something similar a while back with another game? Either they messed up the settings in a comparison video or they actually used console footage. Can't remember.

It's not IGN though. The dev himself went through the menu and scrolled over the screens above while claiming everything is on. Lol.
 

tuxfool

Banned
According to Nvidia's site, it's HBAO+



It's not IGN though. The dev himself went through the menu and scrolled over the screens above while claiming everything is on. Lol.

It might not be part of Ultra. It is in a different menu. I'm not aware of any game these days actually using plain HBAO. It was never popular given Nvidia's version is better and not particularly heavyweight.
 
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