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[JordanN]

Unreal Engine 4. Visuals look unpolished, hard to say but it has this distinctive bleh

Oh man, my head hurts from reading these comments.

Engines don't create art. Everything that was said here about bloom, lighting, unpolished etc aren't because of the game engine but because of the developer working with it.

Here is an example of 1 model using 3 different styles in the same engine.

It's not about the technology. There's too much flexibility involved for a game to not take advantage of it.

Another example is when a game is considered "too shiny". Well, you can definitely turn it off as that is how materials are suppose to work (something that has too much specular/reflection can be sourced to what kind of roughness it's using).

 

[Nirolak]

Lighting models are generally the easiest thing to recognize, but material rendering can also be a giveaway.

Or, if it's rather obviously either Unreal or Unity, scene complexity is a good indicator.

 

[mieumieu]

I don't have experience in that (I mostly do porting so...) I would guess it comes down to the default lighting/shading/shadow model of an engine.

A lot of the times developers would think "that looks good enough" and don't bother to make deep customization for their games. But when they do change it, the result would be different and unique. It is not lazy though. It is called saving time and budget.

Even in the era of PBR, the default light models still differ in different engines. I heard that Unity's implementation is not as good as the others for example.

Another example is when a game is considered "too shiny". Well, you can definitely turn it off as that is how materials are suppose to work (something that has too much specular can be sourced to what kind of roughness it's using).

Sometimes I like things to be more shiny, because it more easily "proves" the existence of lighting models to untrained eyes. Otherwise some people might think "well it is just PS2 graphics"...
Maybe this is what the developers from early UE3 games actually think!

 

[niravp]

If it's a stinking pile of shit, it's Telltales engine.

That's exactly what came in my mind when I read the title.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

I'm not sure this is entirely fair, as we're letting a lot of prior knowledge colour our judgement. If you didn't know any better, would you really think that Mirror's Edge, Borderlands, Gears of War and BioShock Infinite were all built on the same engine? Surely art style is at least as important?

 

[funkystudent]

UE3 games had weird faces 95% of the time.


It's a bit hard to explain. You could just tell that it was a ue3 game from the faces.

 

[modernmalady]

When I saw the footage of Mass Effect: Andromeda I said to myself "yep, that's a Frostbite game."

I can't really explain why I could tell though. Of course I had seen the news that EA was making their devs use Frostbite for all future products. But even if I hadn't seen that news I would have instantly known.

 

[DonMigs85]

UE3 games had weird faces 95% of the time.


It's a bit hard to explain. You could just tell that it was a ue3 game from the faces.

Yeah, Gears of War, the Arkham games, and many others had similar face styles.
Alice: Madness Returns, Mirror's Edge and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West looked more unique at least.

 

[Katori]

It really irks me when people say crap about Unity. It's a tool, and a damn good one. Not a panacea. If you think it's going to solve all your problems, it's not. You still have to do optimitation. But all these devs out here thinking Unity is plug-n-play are ruining its reputation.

Yeah, Gears of War, the Arkham games, and many others had similar face styles.
Alice: Madness Returns, Mirror's Edge and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West looked more unique at least.

That's just because of the trends at the time in art design, though.

 

[Big Nikus]

If it's a stinking pile of shit, it's Telltales engine.

Brutal, but that made me laugh.