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Arkham Knight on PS4 is a technical tour de force - Digital Foundry

SnowFlakeCake said:
Played a little bit of this game and yeah it looks lovely on PS4 but so far, nothing in terms of looks has beaten Infamous: SS for me (open world games that is). To think that game released so quickly after the PS4 launched, we have seen how GG have progressed since Shadowfall so cannot wait to see what Sucker Punch have managed to do next. Yoshida even said he played their latest game so chances are that by latest next E3, we will get a first look at the game.

Batman is the second prettiest open world game I've seen on PS4 though, not a mean feat at all for a game which would of course not take full advantage of the console by virtue of being a multiplatform title.
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Rainfall is a million times better on Batman. I'd say that and amount of detail in any given place is probably the only things that technically beat Infamous SS, but those combined with the art style make it a better looking game to me. Oh, and I think character models are much more consistently great on AK, too. Oh, and water (not puddles on the ground, but the water out at bay). Oh, and LOD pop-in is WAY better on AK.

Sorry, I keep thinking of more things that AK does better, lol. Particles are going to be a close one, but AK might be better there, too.
 
Dictator93 said:
Why not have the best of both worlds by targeting more powerful hardware? :P

High quality GI in real time


Heck it is even higher quality than Unity's baked solution, looks similar to all those UE4 demoes and is even real time. Indirect specular (in real time) even! The reflection in this shot for mirror here is done via a SVOGI trace.
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Oh I know, I've seen that. That's where we're ultimately heading. I'm not confident that's even feasible for a large scale game. People were looking for a game that pushes the PC to the limit the other day - something using this sort of GI would be the one. Newly converted PC gamers would bitch about not getting a perfect frame-rate though.
 
Infamous has better rendering tech and insane particle systems. Also, it runs at 40+FPS unlocked, which benefits its quick gameplay quite a bit. But, AK has much denser environmental detail and more striking art direction, while also not lacking in impressive particles. AK in general has the amounts of detail that you see in Infamous on those rare occasions where you explore a story-specific location. It's not that ISS was incapable of rendering denser detail, because some locations had it - it's just that they clearly didn't have enough time or manpower to populate more of the game with such detail.

dark10x said:
Oh I know, I've seen that. That's where we're ultimately heading. I'm not confident that's even feasible for a large scale game. People were looking for a game that pushes the PC to the limit the other day - something using this sort of GI would be the one. Newly converted PC gamers would bitch about not getting a perfect frame-rate though.
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You know what though - that still doesn't look as good as the best offline GI solutions. TO1886 baked GI and whatever realtime component they have on top, looks notably better than that. So why waste processing power unless you really need day/night changes and light propagation in your game. Even if you have that much power, it could be used on other things.
 
Hey, what the heck is up with the zipper on
Catwoman's
(totally unsurprising character spoiler) suit? It straight up looks like shit, just a pixelated mess, like it's rendered at 1/4 resolution or something. Really stands out.
 
I think the biggest weakness of infamous is draw distance and very empty city. Heck I think Infamous 1 and 2 had more alive city
 
The heavy rainfall while maintaining a smooth frame-rate is great to see. Would be nice to see a certain other developer manage to do the same with the PS4 version of their game.
 
Mastperf said:
The heavy rainfall while maintaining a smooth frame-rate is great to see. Would be nice to see a certain other developer manage to do the same with the PS4 version of their game.
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Yeeep. CDPR really need to optimize how their alpha effects are rendered, especially on PS4. It's a travesty at times, and such a shame in an otherwise lovely game (not that that's its only issue).
 
Mastperf said:
The heavy rainfall while maintaining a smooth frame-rate is great to see. Would be nice to see a certain other developer manage to do the same with the PS4 version of their game.
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Not sure what Witcher 3 is doing with its rain that causes such a hit. The rain effect is just awful in W3. Looks like a bunch of white lines falling from the sky. They're not dynamically lit like Batman either, as far as I can remember. They must be doing something in the background during a rain storm that causes performance issues.
 
dark10x said:
Not sure what Witcher 3 is doing with its rain that causes such a hit. The rain effect is just awful in W3. Looks like a bunch of white lines falling from the sky. They're not dynamically lit like Batman either, as far as I can remember. They must be doing something in the background during a rain storm that causes performance issues.
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There is a new update and the performace is still not improved... I do not want to derail batman thread.


I am playing more and more. I hope the here and drop are also fixed but Rocksteady is probably busy helping with the pc version right now.
 
camac002 said:
A quick search of Youtube shows someone upload a minute long video showing the sea here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAGmsJomTYM

yXgYV7.gif
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I don't understand. Looking at the real ocean does nothing for me but this is amazing. Whats wrong with me?
 
It's a nice looking open world game but it's certainly not better than Infamous SS.

It has like this grainy texture going on too. SS was so crisp and the lighting was awesome.
 
I noticed last night that the game uses quite a bit of POM as well. I always enjoy this feature so it's nice to see it here.
 
dark10x said:
I noticed last night that the game uses quite a bit of POM as well. I always enjoy this feature so it's nice to see it here.
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YES! This was very surprising to me too. That's a very taxing tech feature that rarely shows up in games.

Yea, this game is doing much much more than ISS.
 
James Sawyer Ford said:
InFamous has an incredible open world engine.

I can see people arguing that certain games have better art design, but I don't think there's a better open world gaming engine. Apply Batman art with the InFamous engine and it would look even better.

Seattle just isn't as exciting as Gotham. But the night time graphics in InFamous are better than AK taking art out of the equation. The engine looks cleaner and has a more polished CG look with all the powers and motion blur going on.
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Not sure about this. I recently got Infamous SS on PSN sale and I actually think performance is pretty terrible. Not what I was led to believe after reading the DF analysis. The game is constantly sputtering /hitching as it loads assets, even with nothing going on. Add to that frequent drops below 30 when the action gets thick and you have an experience that is definitely not fluid. Game looks amazing at times though.
 
Dictator93 said:
Why not have the best of both worlds by targeting more powerful hardware? :P
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Putting more effort in for a smaller market? Not gonna happen.
At this point we have to be thankful when a PC port is somewhat decent with dev outsourcing that work and shit.
Expecting devs to specifically target higher end PCs to get the most out of them seems like a pipe dream.
 
dark10x said:
I noticed last night that the game uses quite a bit of POM as well. I always enjoy this feature so it's nice to see it here.
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Yeah, tons of textures have POM. The stepping in it really reminds me of the older styled POM fromt he original Unreal 3 demo and from PDZ, which makes me nostalgic :P
dark10x said:
Oh I know, I've seen that. That's where we're ultimately heading. I'm not confident that's even feasible for a large scale game. People were looking for a game that pushes the PC to the limit the other day - something using this sort of GI would be the one. Newly converted PC gamers would bitch about not getting a perfect frame-rate though.
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Well, in its current form it is rather performant, so we can hope!
1.21Gigawatts said:
Putting more effort in for a smaller market? Not gonna happen.
At this point we have to be thankful when a PC port is somewhat decent with dev outsourcing that work and shit.
Expecting devs to specifically target higher end PCs to get the most out of them seems like a pipe dream.
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Like I said above, it does run rather well. The single bounce from sun global AO version runs @ 4 ms on the xbone and 2 ms on a mid tier pc. And already that level of GI and global AO puts it head and shoulders above most games' baked solutions.

And in terms of games which target the high end PC market, you know what I will say :P
 
I'm holding off on a PS4 version in favor of PC. Not touching the PC version with a ten-foot pole right now though. This wait is unbearable though.
 
Seems like rocksteady did best optimizations and used PS4 hardware very well first time in a 3rd party game by matching visuals close to Sony first party. Wish many developers take this seriously.
 
VanWinkle said:
Rainfall is a million times better on Batman. I'd say that and amount of detail in any given place is probably the only things that technically beat Infamous SS, but those combined with the art style make it a better looking game to me. Oh, and I think character models are much more consistently great on AK, too. Oh, and water (not puddles on the ground, but the water out at bay). Oh, and LOD pop-in is WAY better on AK.

Sorry, I keep thinking of more things that AK does better, lol. Particles are going to be a close one, but AK might be better there, too.
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After the ACE Chemicals segment, particles are most definitely better in batman. I'm pretty much convinced that Batman is a better looking and more intensive than Infamous in every way shape and form. From environmental destruction(especially this), to particle effects, to effects like rain, to character animation, to character models(especially the npc character models) as the physics on the character models like how their hair reacts to movement etc, it's just a better looking game. Seriously,
dhMeAzK.gif


unbelievable how well this game is running with these visuals man.
 
With my PC version sitting waiting for the update/real release I'm interested in a DF PS4 vs X1 article but still no sign of it.

I'm bound to end up with one of the console versions to tide me over.
 
This thread and the other about the great open world just made me buy the game in combination with a good deal on the game after I withheld my purchase.

Excited to see how it looks and plays, love the Arkham games and was on media blackout.
 
Crossing Eden said:
After the ACE Chemicals segment, particles are most definitely better in batman. I'm pretty much convinced that Batman is a better looking and more intensive than Infamous in every way shape and form. From environmental destruction(especially this), to particle effects, to effects like rain, to character animation, to character models(especially the npc character models) as the physics on the character models like how their hair reacts to movement etc, it's just a better looking game. Seriously,
dhMeAzK.gif


unbelievable how well this game is running with these visuals man.
Click to expand...

I'd say what Infamous does better than AK is IQ, water puddles, hair (though neither is incredible), and skin shaders. I also think that, although AK does a great job with material shaders, Infamous' use of PBR makes it a little bit better. There may be a few other things.

Overall, I would agree with you that AK looks better.
 
Crossing Eden said:
After the ACE Chemicals segment, particles are most definitely better in batman. I'm pretty much convinced that Batman is a better looking and more intensive than Infamous in every way shape and form. From environmental destruction(especially this), to particle effects, to effects like rain, to character animation, to character models(especially the npc character models) as the physics on the character models like how their hair reacts to movement etc, it's just a better looking game. Seriously,
dhMeAzK.gif


unbelievable how well this game is running with these visuals man.
Click to expand...

I agree, Rocksteady are ridiculous. I wonder what they could do with UE4 oO.
 
VanWinkle said:
I'd say what Infamous does better than AK is IQ, water puddles, hair (though neither is incredible), and skin shaders. I also think that, although AK does a great job with material shaders, Infamous' use of PBR makes it a little bit better. There may be a few other things.

Overall, I would agree with you that AK looks better.
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I wouldn't even that the hair or PBR implementation is better. I mean the close ups on Batman's model are Especially not the stiff hair. I'm actually struggling to think of a character so far, besides Gordon, who doesn't have hair physics. And finally I saw an instance of a character sitting down without the cloth physics looking wonky. Unfortunately the game's visual effects aren't very good for screenshots, so many shots i've taken look blurry compared to when the game's in motion.
 
Like I wrote in the OT: the first time I saw a Fear Takedown I thought it was a pre-rendered, scripted event. Then I realized they're dynamic and real time and I about lost my shit. They look incredible.
 
I finally gave in and purchased a PS4 copy. I have a PC that should be able to run it at high settings, but I'm not up for dealing with total BS at the moment. University just ended and I want to relax, not get mad at myself over the purchasing decision I've made.
 
dark10x said:
I noticed last night that the game uses quite a bit of POM as well. I always enjoy this feature so it's nice to see it here.
Click to expand...

Yep, i always zoom in on art assets in the arkham games, and in Arkham knight there is a lot of stuff that is pretty good quality upclose/zoomed in. Not everything of course, here and there are still some low res assets but overall its a big step up from previous Arkham console games.

But i dont like their aa method and CA implementation. Do you think its FXAA or some custom solution?
 
This game blows my mind everytime but when I picked up Two-Face and the camera zoomed in a weird way and I could see his detailed ring...I was like r u srs? all dat detail is amazing
 
RoadHazard said:
Hey, what the heck is up with the zipper on
Catwoman's
(totally unsurprising character spoiler) suit? It straight up looks like shit, just a pixelated mess, like it's rendered at 1/4 resolution or something. Really stands out.
Click to expand...
Ya... there's lots of this kind of stuff in the game. It looks like it's mostly caused by the atrocious amount of post fx in the game. I just want to shut the horrible FXAA and film grain off. It looks like garbage except on face shots.
 
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