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Horizon: Zero Dawn is too beautiful to exist
- Thread starter SolVanderlyn
- Start date
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
Horizon isnt just the best looking game. It's probably the best looking art in any medium. It's all about that cinematography. they dont just rely on foliage to make their game look great. or the lighting. or the character models. they made sure every area in the game looked appealing under every lighting condition.
So many games look great only during day time with the sun shining bright. they look muddy during dusk and dawn and simply boring during night. GG i think treated this game as a movie. every single area in the game looks stunning because when they added foliage, they focused on making it dense and beautiful, they didnt exactly focus on making it interactive. someone in another thread posted a video of zelda botw where link is cutting grass with his sword. well, thats great and all but you put zelda next to horizon and it looks two gens behind.
same goes for stuff like global illumination and hairworks. all those fancy pc features going back to last gen didnt make PC games look like Horizon. its how they used their lighting solution to fill up the fields with moonlight that matters. remember when everyone trashed the console GPUs after Epic stripped away support for GI from UE4? Well, GG certainly was able to fake it and in the end that's what matters. you dont need to simulate perfect hair. you just need to make sure it looks good. you dont need to have foliage interactive, you just need it look dense and sharp and detailed and beautiful.
the fact that it is an open world game that looks better than uncharted 4 is a testament to GG's artists and cinematographers. i cant remember seeing a better looking hollywood movie.
So many games look great only during day time with the sun shining bright. they look muddy during dusk and dawn and simply boring during night. GG i think treated this game as a movie. every single area in the game looks stunning because when they added foliage, they focused on making it dense and beautiful, they didnt exactly focus on making it interactive. someone in another thread posted a video of zelda botw where link is cutting grass with his sword. well, thats great and all but you put zelda next to horizon and it looks two gens behind.
same goes for stuff like global illumination and hairworks. all those fancy pc features going back to last gen didnt make PC games look like Horizon. its how they used their lighting solution to fill up the fields with moonlight that matters. remember when everyone trashed the console GPUs after Epic stripped away support for GI from UE4? Well, GG certainly was able to fake it and in the end that's what matters. you dont need to simulate perfect hair. you just need to make sure it looks good. you dont need to have foliage interactive, you just need it look dense and sharp and detailed and beautiful.
the fact that it is an open world game that looks better than uncharted 4 is a testament to GG's artists and cinematographers. i cant remember seeing a better looking hollywood movie.
Sygma
Member
im going through it very slowly because i just cant stop taking screens and whatnot in the first area. the rendering of bad weather is absolutely insane, honestly i was dying to see light effects as good as alan wake's / quantum break's on pc and horizon absolutely delivers. it also run like a dream and the combat feels so good despise the 30 fps lock, it really is impressive.
also, mount controls. i cant understand how cdr fucked up so hard on that while GG just nailed it straight.
oh and of course the machines's textures + solid use of hdr. it really is something else. seriously who cares about interactive foliage.
as far as botw is concerned its just unfair. you cant compare it. botw is mighty impressive whe you remember that it runs essentially on a fucking tablet. the artstyle is perfect and it has an amazing physics engine used all the time, while actually adding some very neat tricks to the open world genre as a whole.
a tablet game. wait for mario odyssey. if you told me 6 - 7 years ago that id get such games on a handheld id have lost my shit.
also, mount controls. i cant understand how cdr fucked up so hard on that while GG just nailed it straight.
oh and of course the machines's textures + solid use of hdr. it really is something else. seriously who cares about interactive foliage.
as far as botw is concerned its just unfair. you cant compare it. botw is mighty impressive whe you remember that it runs essentially on a fucking tablet. the artstyle is perfect and it has an amazing physics engine used all the time, while actually adding some very neat tricks to the open world genre as a whole.
a tablet game. wait for mario odyssey. if you told me 6 - 7 years ago that id get such games on a handheld id have lost my shit.
flipswitch
Member
Have you ever been speechless trying to describe something? That's how I feel now. GG created a technical, artistic masterpiece, and the game is actually very good to boot.
Feeling stressed? Play this game. Just sit down and watch the beauty unfold. And another game would be BOTW.
Feeling stressed? Play this game. Just sit down and watch the beauty unfold. And another game would be BOTW.
Frozone
Member
It's a very pretty game. It's not the best in 'most accurate' photoreal graphics like The Order and Hellblade. Every game out there has some flaws to it that are glaring to me at this point. I'd never call a game 'too good'. The lighting in this game is just as inaccurate as other titles (W3, Skyrim, Uncharted, Tomb Raider, etc..). Animation is superb and texturing is pretty good (again, not the best).
Frozone
Member
The lighting in Hellblade is unmatched and it's the only game that does the most realistic approximation to global illumination. Also has some of the best looking FX of any game to date (check out the realistic fire shader).
Horizon's biggest strength is the tricks it uses to create foliage with definition and self-shadowing. Everything else in the world just looks standard fare. It's water being one of the weakest aspects of the game. And while it has an incredible procedural weather/day/night cycle with realtime shadow generation, it's actual illlumination spectra is fairly flat. It's range isn't high at all.
If any game is going to stand above the rest in graphics, lighting is the most important as it's the basis for how we view our own physical universe.
icecold1983
Member
like tomb raider?
Yeah... no. Like many others have already pointed out, it's not like Photomode magically adds stuff that wasn't already there (unless of course you decide to add your own depth of field and change the field of view, which is just camera related)
Since some people like to downplay for whatever reason, here's a comparison between direct in-game shot versus photomode shot
Should I point out which ones are Photomode to help you out?
Guerrilla very easily has the best looking game on any platform
phoisgood495
Member
I don't want to downplay the achievements of this game, because it really is gorgeous, but there is still tons of small details that can and will be improved as we get more and more horsepower, like the foliage not moving naturally at all, and unrealistic ground\rock textures in places, as well as just more and more detail.
Progress always marches forward, and I can't wait to see what comes along next to blow my mind.
Progress always marches forward, and I can't wait to see what comes along next to blow my mind.
I'm playing through Hellblade on PC in 4K right now, but until it gets HDR support, Horizon, Uncharted 4 & The Lost Legacy's lighting is, even if less accurate, far more stunning.
I agree. I love how the whole atmosphere changes, when a rain drizzle or storm approaches:
All true, it's easy to think 'it can't get much better' but it always will, which is an exciting prospect for lovers of visual beauty and tech alike.
SMOK3Y
Generous Member
Whats this "Ubisoft style"? I adore HZD and I have never played a ubi game
Look at the in-game map.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
It's an extremely superficial comparison though. Yes, you got a map with icons... but that's it. Most of the icons are just machine sites anyway, which are indicators of the types of enemies you'll find in that area, not an item on a checklist to mark off. I suspect Danjin hasn't played the game, or played it very little, to say such a thing.
As an example: those annoying, overdone, climbable towers in Ubi games? Yeah, you have the Tallnecks, but there's what, like, 5 of them for the whole game, and because of that, they're a pretty cool discovery every time, instead of finding one and going "sigh, another fucking tower....". It never got repetitive because they were carefully placed and there were not an overabundance of them.
Basically, there's nothing inherently wrong with having a map with icons; it's what you do with them and how you pace them that matters. This is what makes the difference between the insufferable, boring, and tedious Ubi-style map (well, that and the fact that the moment-to-moment gameplay in Ubisoft open-world games is generally, well, bad, often really bad even). In this department, Horizon destroys those games easily.
Is this a meme? Or did you just call Horizon the greatest piece of artwork that mankind has ever made because of its graphics?
This is an UBI style game, it just looks really nice, I played it in 4K HDR. The main story is pretty good
and the twist was GREAT
If he believes that then it's ok. It's not that serious. Art is subjective.
I'd put the art and set pieces in both Destiny games way ahead of HZD. Its pretty standard post apocalyptic fare.
CopperPuppy
Member
Whoa.
jim2point0
Banned
Insert "I don't have to be a master chef to know when food tastes bad" argument.
I played this on a 40" 1080p TV and the game looked just as good, if not better than those screenshots. It's one of those games that looks way better in motion that it does in screenshots. IMO.
Disagree.
sankt-Antonio
Banned
Who cares as long as it's good. Mario was about jumping on mushrooms for decades.
That Destiny has better art or that HZD is stand post apocalyptic?
Eeeek, no. At times I feel like Destiny doesn't even know what it's trying to be. The skyboxes look nice, I guess.
BriareosGAF
Member
The volumetrics bugs drive me a bit nuts, both the voxel aliasing, as well as popping, surprised they let those go. And they desperately need some better SSS for the skin, transmittance for the foliage. Those are fairly minor quibbles, though, it is a very, very pretty game. Was there a trivial way to advance time? I put in 80 hours and would have gladly ticked a checkbox that said "that's okay, I don't need to play at night, you spent all this time on a lovely renderer, I want to see everything".
I have a variety of complaints about the combat, especially around humans, cameras going into the foliage when fighting aerial units, the silly story bits, etc., but this isn't the place for that so I'll save it.
Herp Derpington
Member
While it's pretty I think the world in TW3 is definitely more fleshed out and more believable. Plus I really don't care for the characters. Just something about the way they speak and their world just seems so corny and unbelievable. I'd probably shy away from the hyperbole though as we're bound to see games 10 years from now that make it look quaint. It is really pretty on Pro though.the resolution increase is noticable.
BradleyLove
Member
Robot dinosaurs are "standard post-apocalyptic" fare?
Hamster Plugin
Member
The problem with Horizon looking good is that I have to delay playing it, because I currently only have a PS4 amateur, and with graphics like that a Pro is required to get maximum enjoyment.
Hopefully there will be a GOTY Edition with the upcoming DLC by the time I get a Pro and an OLED TV. Sony did one with Bloodborne so I'm expecting one.
Hopefully there will be a GOTY Edition with the upcoming DLC by the time I get a Pro and an OLED TV. Sony did one with Bloodborne so I'm expecting one.
UserDoesNotExist
Member
To be honest? I think that this obsession on graphical fidelity is what will cause AAA gaming to collapse under its own weight.
This level of graphical fidelity requires a team of relatively well-paid professionals working for years. Budgets on these projects are still growing exponentially although the number of consoles sold per capita is near saturation. Meanwhile, the market has already demonstrated that ugly, janky-ass games like Minecraft and PUBG can thrive if the core gameplay loop is engaging.
This level of graphical fidelity requires a team of relatively well-paid professionals working for years. Budgets on these projects are still growing exponentially although the number of consoles sold per capita is near saturation. Meanwhile, the market has already demonstrated that ugly, janky-ass games like Minecraft and PUBG can thrive if the core gameplay loop is engaging.
Both.
Canklestank
Neo Member
Some advice, OP. Don't ever use this line on your SO, they might call the cops lol.
What? Is there a major Pro upgrade to the conversation animations? Because they look pretty bad on my vanilla PS4 when compared to anything that's not an RPG.
This never happened.
What? Is there a major Pro upgrade to the conversation animations? Because they look pretty bad on my vanilla PS4 when compared to anything that's not an RPG.
This never happened.
JetSetRadio
Banned
Sunhi is Mark Cerny and is playing on his PS5 BC.
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
lol i guess i shouldnt have said that.
I was thinking of TV and movies. I seriously cant think of a movie that wowed me like this.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
What movies do you watch? Because Horizon while looking great by video game standards doesn't hold a candle to modern CGI or even realistic CGI from ten years ago for that matter. Like have you seen Maleficent, Beauty and the Beast, War for the Planet of the Apes, TFA, etc? Or hell even TV Shows, GoT looks phenomenal.
Thank god, was hoping this was on the first page at least
Reminded me of.
I think he means art direction, not CGI visuals
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Even in that sense. There are so many good films and shows these days that absolutely nail their aesthetic to an absurd degree where as Horizon being a video game has areas that could be improved substantially, like water.
Frozone
Member
HDR is great for seeing true pixel values. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Just because a game supports HDR doesn't mean it looks better than all the LDR games. HDR alone isn't enough to justify that stance.
old manatee
Banned
I was surprised how good it looked and ran on the original PS4. The grassy plain areas and the big canyon area in particular had amazing landscapes. The dinosaurs and people had tons of animations and interesting designs. I didn't care for the level design, which made some areas feel really dull even though they had objectively good graphics. The town and village areas in particular weren't memorable at all to me. Overall though it's easily one of the best looking games on the system.
CEJames
Member
Melchiah
Member
Avatar didn't "WOW" you back in 2009?
I didn't even manage to finish watching that, as the premise and story wasn't interesting to me at all. I never had that problem with Horizon, which only shows that visuals alone aren't enough to carry a product if it's lacking somewhere else. In Witcher 3's case, the combat was one of the things that made me quit early on.
ChronotriggerJM
Member
Graphics aside, I'm really happy with how much fun it is to move Aloy around, and it plays sooooo damn well. The combat it super satisfying, and the animation engine is just wonderful.
flipswitch
Member
Remember the large amount of input lag in KZ2? I'm glad those days are over. Controls work great, the mechanics as well. Couldn't be more pleased they got the most important thing right.
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