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It's a common fallacy among us moderns. Medieval things that haven't ceased to exist are now several hundred to a thousand or more years old. When we find them, they tend to be old, dirty, ragged, and faded. This is not what they were like.
Chartres Cathedral looks completely different, once you wash 900 years of dirt off the windows and clean 900 years of soot off the vaults. And yet art critics protest, saying it should have been left covered in 900 years of filth, because the restorers took away the sense of antiquity and mystery.
Bah.
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everyone knows that color was invented along with the color television.... in the witcher universe, they havent even harnessed electricity, have they? (except for mages)
My daughter resolutely refuses to believe that the world was black and white when I was young... says something about that only being on TV. That and that I'm an idiot.
Teaching scepticism a success. :yes:
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They used to paint their statutes in Classical and Mediaeval Europe. They also used to paint the exteriors of their castles and places of worship -- it comes as a bit of a shock to some.
It isn't about the lighting per say. I think that what made the old footage "gritty" was the really sharp textures, which recent footage just has not shown.
For example, here:
Early Build: http://i3.minus.com/iSiwvLQJHCwuG.jpg
Current Build: http://i.imgur.com/2V9IrSG.jpg
Notice how (in addition to crisper colors), the geometry and tessellation is a LOT better on the rocks and the broken wall. The foliage is crisper and more detailed. The character models are way sharper.
Another: (sorry about the UI)
http://i.imgur.com/rIXh0Pu.jpg
The textures are incredibly smooth, the details on the rug and the table, for example, and fuzzy and bland.
Another: http://i.imgur.com/Q6nMOdp.jpg Everything about this one is just smooth smooth smooth.. the wood panels, the clothing on the NPCs, the textures on the barrels..
It looks like a painting..which isn't a BAD thing. It is a stylistic direction they changed to or something. The "grittiness" is more about how..well..SHARP everything was. Which is why you can have a scene at night during a storm with really dark colors..but if the textures are really smooth, then it will never be "gritty".
It remains to be seen if ultra will make the textures crisper. If not, then it is something that nodders can fix. Look what they have done with Witcher 2!
But people should not be complaining or worried about "downgrade". Change, maybe, but not downgrade. Things in game dev have to change sometimes..
For example, here:
Early Build: http://i3.minus.com/iSiwvLQJHCwuG.jpg
Current Build: http://i.imgur.com/2V9IrSG.jpg
Notice how (in addition to crisper colors), the geometry and tessellation is a LOT better on the rocks and the broken wall. The foliage is crisper and more detailed. The character models are way sharper.
Another: (sorry about the UI)
http://i.imgur.com/rIXh0Pu.jpg
The textures are incredibly smooth, the details on the rug and the table, for example, and fuzzy and bland.
Another: http://i.imgur.com/Q6nMOdp.jpg Everything about this one is just smooth smooth smooth.. the wood panels, the clothing on the NPCs, the textures on the barrels..
It looks like a painting..which isn't a BAD thing. It is a stylistic direction they changed to or something. The "grittiness" is more about how..well..SHARP everything was. Which is why you can have a scene at night during a storm with really dark colors..but if the textures are really smooth, then it will never be "gritty".
It remains to be seen if ultra will make the textures crisper. If not, then it is something that nodders can fix. Look what they have done with Witcher 2!
But people should not be complaining or worried about "downgrade". Change, maybe, but not downgrade. Things in game dev have to change sometimes..
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The compression doesn't hide the fact that the textures were worse lol. Thats why even a horrible compressed 720p Watch dogs e3 2012 video looked miles better than retail at 4k.
It wasn't "over sharpened"..what does that even mean lol. The geometry, foliage and textures were better..simple as that..while the lighting, physics, and draw distance are better in current build
Ahhhh, another victim of sharpening filter, thinking the textures had more detail in them before... 
If you apply a little bit of a sharpening filter, even on a screenshot taken from one of the trailers (which is not even a still), you'll see that it looks similar to the old build (@wavebend did some tests on the previous trailers and posted them in one of the downgrade threads I believe). I've repeated over and over, sharpening filter is the helper of a lazy designer. Just look at the textures on surfaces (especially leather ones) in the latest trailer. Look at the close-ups. Textures have an incredible amount of detail on them. What you see as "crisp" in the earlier build is the effect of the overly applied sharpening filter, which looks incredibly unrealistic to me. See the jaggies around the objects in the earlier build? Look at that foliage closely; I'm sure you can see how unrealistically "crisp" they look. It even hurts the eyes And tesellation? Look at the edges of that rock wall. Are those straight lines tesellation? In my opinion, the latest trailer (however blurry because all in all it is a video) has much better quality, asset-wise. And as far as I'm guessing, there will be even higher tesellation settings in the Ultra preset.
People need to realize that the assets were the same or worse in the earlier videos (Not talking about the Sword of Destiny, as it is closer to the current build), but their falls were covered with the sharpening effect, just as the Witcher 2. Now I agree the foliage density was better in the previous build; but the quality of the assets? I don't think so. And hopefully there will be the option to increase the density (as the Gamestar preview suggested).
Aaanyway, everytime I tell myself I will not get myself into the arguments about the graphics, the "grittiness" or the "crispness of the textures"; but everytime I come back Just, I beg of you guys to look at the older build objectively, with as much detail as we are looking at the new builds. And that's all I'm going to say. Have a good day sir, and have fun discussing. Respect to you all.
If you apply a little bit of a sharpening filter, even on a screenshot taken from one of the trailers (which is not even a still), you'll see that it looks similar to the old build (@wavebend did some tests on the previous trailers and posted them in one of the downgrade threads I believe). I've repeated over and over, sharpening filter is the helper of a lazy designer. Just look at the textures on surfaces (especially leather ones) in the latest trailer. Look at the close-ups. Textures have an incredible amount of detail on them. What you see as "crisp" in the earlier build is the effect of the overly applied sharpening filter, which looks incredibly unrealistic to me. See the jaggies around the objects in the earlier build? Look at that foliage closely; I'm sure you can see how unrealistically "crisp" they look. It even hurts the eyes And tesellation? Look at the edges of that rock wall. Are those straight lines tesellation? In my opinion, the latest trailer (however blurry because all in all it is a video) has much better quality, asset-wise. And as far as I'm guessing, there will be even higher tesellation settings in the Ultra preset.People need to realize that the assets were the same or worse in the earlier videos (Not talking about the Sword of Destiny, as it is closer to the current build), but their falls were covered with the sharpening effect, just as the Witcher 2. Now I agree the foliage density was better in the previous build; but the quality of the assets? I don't think so. And hopefully there will be the option to increase the density (as the Gamestar preview suggested).
Aaanyway, everytime I tell myself I will not get myself into the arguments about the graphics, the "grittiness" or the "crispness of the textures"; but everytime I come back
Just, I beg of you guys to look at the older build objectively, with as much detail as we are looking at the new builds. And that's all I'm going to say. Have a good day sir, and have fun discussing. Respect to you all.I agree with everything except the last part of your sentence. I think lighting, physics and draw distance were better in the older builds, just go to the debut trailer and see for yourself. Look at the lighting and draw distance in these gifs:
http://i.minus.com/iybtRFAszF35C.gif
http://i.minus.com/ijsjiDFScVIMd.gif
I don't have a gif for physics, but I'm know there's a part of the video where Geralt shows off aard
Also the water looks a lot more dynamic in the VGX trailer: http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/709/7099775/2387868-9315091756-iCmrf.gif
It's obvious that something happened to the lighting, and that in turn, could have affected the visuals of The Witcher 3. The game looks a lot more saturated now, compared to what we saw previously, maybe because they are now going for a different look, or maybe because they want to hide the worse looking lighting. Either way, lighting plays a massive roll in how good the game looks and how aesthetically pleasing it is.
Overall, I personally feel that the earlier builds had a cleaner, more natural look, compared to what we have now.
I forgot to mention, there is A LOT less pop in in the earlier builds, level of detail seems to be higher, even at far distances.
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Hm..I wonder if Marcin said that these visuals can be replicated with ultra..
whoa, suddenly back on the graphics wagon D: imo, the water in the older build was not suitable for a swamp at all Sure, there might be things like greater draw distance and I'm going to say "different" lighting, since I find the more recent lighting dynamics more realistic as I've pointed out in this thread with ~SCIENCE~ a few times already. Art direction wise, which I think is the topic of this thread, I think the game has improved. Of course, the dark and gritty, diffuse lighting may suit to your taste and this is all subjective, but I'll be interested in seeing whether folk's opinion about the choice in lighting and colour scheme changes once we get to play the game in its full context.
i still don't think the reflections are appropriate for muddy swamp water. are you comparing the debut swamp water to the recent open ocean water? imo, the recent footage of the open sea seems better than the debut footage of the open sea in regards to reflections.
Meh, I think what made the old footage look so good was simply more definition.
Before: http://i.imgur.com/Ba1Pnyk.jpg
After: http://i.imgur.com/kzKJ8wQ.jpg
Before: http://i.imgur.com/lKB2gIm.jpg
After: http://i.imgur.com/xcwuNoj.jpg
ALL we need..I think, is just a sweetfx with more definition. I mean hell I did that in iPhoto and it looks so much better. Just a teeny little sweetfx
You know..just to bring out the blemishes and creases in Geralt's armor/clothes, bring out the shine on armor, bring out the specks of dirt and grime and specks on textures.
Before: http://i.imgur.com/Ba1Pnyk.jpg
After: http://i.imgur.com/kzKJ8wQ.jpg
Before: http://i.imgur.com/lKB2gIm.jpg
After: http://i.imgur.com/xcwuNoj.jpg
ALL we need..I think, is just a sweetfx with more definition. I mean hell I did that in iPhoto and it looks so much better. Just a teeny little sweetfx
You know..just to bring out the blemishes and creases in Geralt's armor/clothes, bring out the shine on armor, bring out the specks of dirt and grime and specks on textures.
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That my friend is exactly what "Sharpening" is, and what we have been trying to explain all along I actually added a little bit sharpening on the latest 4 4K screens that they posted, and it helps you see the details on the textures immensely. Like I said before, I don't like sharpening because it looks horrible in move, in my opinion. And really annoys the eyes and creates lots of jaggies around the edges. But like we - and now you - said, it can easily be added using SweetFX for the people who prefer it.
I actually added a little bit sharpening on the latest 4 4K screens that they posted, and it helps you see the details on the textures immensely. Like I said before, I don't like sharpening because it looks horrible in move, in my opinion. And really annoys the eyes and creates lots of jaggies around the edges. But like we - and now you - said, it can easily be added using SweetFX for the people who prefer it.I don't want to turn this into a downgrade thread, but you can clearly see that they changed the lighting between 2013/2014 to now. It's not just about adding a sharpening filter and sweetFX. That's why I think the game looks more cartoony now, the lighting is flatter and it looks like the reflections have been toned down. I'm sure it's not just because of the lighting, saturation probably played a role making it brighter, but the game's graphics and aesthetics have changed quite a bit.
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