Graphic downgrade

[Phinnway]

@Vixraine That is actually pretty common for open-world RPGs.

 

[EliHarel]

The best information I've been able to find is that it's to give each area a unique and varied feel, to keep such a massive game from becoming monotonous and feeling like no matter the landscape you are going through, it's all something you've seen before. The information used to support that opinion is this image:

http://www11.pic-upload.de/09.03.15/xzdd1axhvy5.jpg

Yeah, that I know. They also said in one interview or conference some time ago that they had these "task forces" for each region, they'd focus on it - terrain, monsters, etc - then move on to the next one. But that post of mine was about the change in artystyle in TW2, from that grey concept art picture Blady posted to the eventual colorful product. He wrote it was because they had financial issues and appealing to the western market could have solved them, if I understood correctly.

 

[Tokei-ihto]

In my opinion, the attitude that violence, gore, and sex, in and of themselves, make a story mature is itself immature since none of these things contribute anything to a story on their own. It's about why they're there and what they're trying to communicate to the audience.

Perfectly said.

 

[B_l_a_d_y]

@EliHarel

fantastic article here
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-06-seeing-red-the-story-of-cd-projekt

so basically they were developing witcher 2 on aurora and redengine for future witcher 3 at the same time,
french company fucked witcher 1 port and that drained all money

cd was near bankruptcy so they go on stock exchange to have some for production.
but they had also big loans so decided to make witcher 2 on redngine and then port it to xbox to get more money.
Making it more like western AAA game rather than pc only RPG with some east-european flavor.
aaa + consoles = high probability of big money/going int mainstream of developers

my english may be fuck up , i should be sleeping now

here is witcher 2 alfa on red engine

there is still plenty of assets from first game

here is probably beta

 

[Neeedles]

If you want the game to be less saturated just turn down digital vibrance(saturation) in nvidia control panel(or amd panel). The default is 50 and i use 30 all the time. Everything looks much better and realistic to me, all games are oversaturated in my opinion.

 

[Mezziaz]

@ here is witcher 2 alfa on red engine[/QUOTE] While am a big fan of grim/dark settings and atmosphere myself, looking back at this footage I have to say I'm very happy with the changes/upgrades CD Projekt did for the final product.

 

[Vixraine]

If you want the game to be less saturated just turn down digital vibrance(saturation) in nvidia control panel(or amd panel). The default is 50 and i use 30 all the time. Everything looks much better and realistic to me, all games are oversaturated in my opinion.

That's a pretty great suggestion. I actually use 60-66 in my settings, but adjusting color balance in the control panel would probably be a lot easier for some users than other suggestions. Though they may run into the issue of subduing colors they weren't intending to. Still, great suggestion.

 

[dragonbird]

Can I suggest that you all move discussion on art direction across into a new thread? A discussion on artistic choices such as limited colour palettes, high/low key, saturation levels and so on doesn't really fit into a "downgrade" discussion.

 

[Cloud_guy]

Looks ugly now. People were too blind back then and thought consoles won't hold PC back because,,, CDPR. Anyways,,, still excited for the game . Hopefully they won't screw story.

 

[JasonShepard]

Looks ugly now. People were too blind back then and thought consoles won't hold PC back because,,, CDPR. Anyways,,, still excited for the game . Hopefully they won't screw story.

I don't think it looks ugly in general, but I do notice there's a few things that stick out to me as ugly. As I've mentioned other times, I think the foliage looks really patchy. The draw distance bothers me also. When he went to go "appreciate the scenery" after battling the Royal Wyvern, I was really unimpressed with how dull the water looked and how the trees mushed together. It looked pretty bad.
This is why I really am eager to know what sort of features will be included on release and what the graphics settings are. I'd like to know how much I can control what's going on in my game visually. Can I go all Serious Sam 3 and make my game turn into a PS2 looking game? Can I fine tune the draw distance? The Witcher 2 gave us a lot to work with settings wise, are we going to see the same thing in The Witcher 3?

 

[Cloud_guy]

The light... the light is gone... oh boy

The game looked like CGI from few years ago back then. Now it just looks OK. Obviously it was beyond the capabilities of current consoles.

---------- Updated at 07:38 AM ----------

People who are holding their breath for Ultra setting are going to be disappointed. So called Ultra settings won't make anything look totally different, since the difference between initial trailer and current build is like night and day. They are just talking about super secret Ultra settings to keep crowd calm until the game launches. It won't be like BOOOM E3 2013 quality is back!!!

 

[Agent_Bleu]

I don't think it looks ugly in general, but I do notice there's a few things that stick out to me as ugly. As I've mentioned other times, I think the foliage looks really patchy. The draw distance bothers me also. When he went to go "appreciate the scenery" after battling the Royal Wyvern, I was really unimpressed with how dull the water looked and how the trees mushed together. It looked pretty bad.
This is why I really am eager to know what sort of features will be included on release and what the graphics settings are. I'd like to know how much I can control what's going on in my game visually. Can I go all Serious Sam 3 and make my game turn into a PS2 looking game? Can I fine tune the draw distance? The Witcher 2 gave us a lot to work with settings wise, are we going to see the same thing in The Witcher 3?

A quick en passant comment on art direction, as it really doesn't belong here: yes, there have been some subtle yet noticeable changes in art direction and while, in theory, a grittier palette might sound appealing to me, the idea of applying it across the board onto such a gigantic world does not. The world needs variety and contrast.

So, with this out of the way, @JasonShepard, yes.

As far as I'm concerned, that scene in the latest footage is one of the most divergent when compared to past trailer material. One thing it does is challenge the narrative which says all downgrade claims can be boiled down to a foliage issue. Not in this case. LoD / Draw distance seem to pale in comparison with their VGX counterparts and that's what's most striking here. Of course, trees themselves look mushy, as you say, and I also seem to notice some aggressive aliasing contributing to the overall weakness of the scene.

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( all screengrabs from uncompressed videos)

EDIT: @shinstyle , first grab from latest footage. Bottom 2 from VGX.

 

[Geralt_of_bsas]

A quick en passant comment on art direction, as it really doesn't belong here: yes, there's been some subtle yet noticeable changes in art direction and while, in theory, a grittier palette might sound appealing to me, the idea of applying it across the board onto such a gigantic world does not. The world needs variety and contrast.

So, with this out of the way, @JasonShepard, yes.

As far as I'm concerned, that scene in the latest footage where Geralt overlooks the lake is one of the most divergent when compared to past trailer material. One thing it does is question the narrative according to which all Downgrade claims can be boiled down to a foliage issue. Not in this case. LoD / Draw distance seems to pale in comparison with was shown in VGX and that is what is most striking here. Of course, trees themselves look mushy, as you say, and I also seem to notice some aggressive aliasing contributing to the overall weakness of the scene.

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( all screengrabs from uncompressed videos)

The point of view from the gameplay vid is much higher, and it shows things MUCH farther away than the other two images. However, Its very hard for me to tell how the trees and terrain in the video look like, there is no light hitting them directly to see properly and its recorded during dusk, which gives very low general lightning.

In the SOD trailer there are scenes with similar looking trees and terrain under more or less (barely) those conditions, like when Lambert jumps above the Fiend, when the light isnt ideal to show the volume and detail, they look flat and muddy. In VGX unfortunately I don't see something too similar to compare, the scene with the griffin shows somewhat comparable results but with trees much closer to the camera so I don't know what the make from that.

I do have the opinion though that VGX and SOD trailers as well as screenshots are in Ultra settings, even when some screenshots also show trees and terrain kind of comparable to the PAXE video, but one thing I noticed is that the PS4 screens look even more similar to PAXE footage, and those are the only screens taken in high settings or worse as far as I perceive. There even the foliage is more similar to what we see in vids.

I wouldnt worry about the draw distance being downgraded personally, if there actually is a difference in quality, it can be easily attributed to High settings, because it seems really minimal, the trees in TW3 never really looked what I'd call good or impressive when they are far away and not illuminated enough to create detail through the contrast of highlights and shadow.

 

[JasonShepard]

The point of view from the gameplay vid is much higher, and it shows things MUCH farther away than the other two images. However, Its very hard for me to tell how the trees and terrain in the video look like, there is no light hitting them directly to see properly and its recorded during dusk, which gives very low general lightning.

In the SOD trailer there are scenes with similar looking trees and terrain under more or less (barely) those conditions, like when Lambert jumps above the Fiend, when the light isnt ideal to show the volume and detail, they look flat and muddy. In VGX unfortunately I don't see something too similar to compare, the scene with the griffin shows somewhat comparable results but with trees much closer to the camera so I don't know what the make from that.

I do have the opinion though that VGX and SOD trailers as well as screenshots are in Ultra settings, even when some screenshots also show trees and terrain kind of comparable to the PAXE video, but one thing I noticed is that the PS4 screens look even more similar to PAXE footage, and those are the only screens taken in high settings or worse as far as I perceive. There even the foliage is more similar to what we see in vids.

I wouldnt worry about the draw distance being downgraded personally, if there actually is a difference in quality, it can be easily attributed to High settings, because it seems really minimal, the trees in TW3 never really looked what I'd call good or impressive when they are far away and not illuminated enough to create detail through the contrast of highlights and shadow.

Actually, I think the distance is comparable. His first image isn't the best shot, but if you look at that small island to the left it's actually decently close to Geralt. I mainly used this island in my comparison between the draw distance/LOD.
https://i.imgur.com/PfFUWmd.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/sLbv5Mq.jpg

The first picture from the VGX trailer has a good amount of detail in the distance. Trees are pretty distinct and don't look like mush.
The second image is from the PAX trailer. The trees start to blend together on the island a bit and out further it becomes more and more mushy.

 

[Ajira]

Excuse me but all this "consoles are holding us back" talk is meaningless. Do you want another Crysis? Do you want to play the game after 2-3 years? Not every pc gamer have an uber system. Is there any open world game looks better than W3 in the same caliber? Do you want empty tech demos like Ryse or The Order? What's your problem? What's happened to fun?

 

[shinstyle]

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( all screengrabs from uncompressed videos)

noticeable difference (as pointed out already) i wonder if the clouds are the same? i cannot really check anything accurately from my cellphone screen.

i wonder.. are the 2 screenshots below PAXE from the official witcher 3 homepage-video?

 

[Maganus]

Excuse me but all this "consoles are holding us back" talk is meaningless. Do you want another Crysis? Do you want to play the game after 2-3 years? Not every pc gamer have an uber system. Is there any open world game looks better than W3 in the same caliber? Do you want empty tech demos like Ryse or The Order? What's your problem? What's happened to fun?

I think that the fact that people could play Crysis after 2-3 years was the best part about this game. It was exciting, everyone wanted to see how it looks on ultra, we could play it multiple times just to see the difference in quality. And the requirements were backed up with the graphics quality.
As much as I love Witcher, I do not consider the requirements to be backed up with quality. If the latest footge require the recomended requirements, then something is wrong - be it the requirements, or the quality
There is also the case of "inconsistency". Just compare the moment, in which the camera do a circle around Geralt, while he is riding the horse (1:55 in the video). It's pretty cool, I have to say. Then look at this:

It's like two different games :/

 

[Nex3t]

I really don't mind graphics, i'm currently playing "memories of a vagabond" it's a 2D RPG and it is fine for me... BUT there is certainly a great deal of difference between footage from last year and footage from last week, so i understand the concern of the people who preorder and was excited for how great the game looked last year, and how "low quality skyrim" the game looks now

 

[JasonShepard]

Excuse me but all this "consoles are holding us back" talk is meaningless. Do you want another Crysis? Do you want to play the game after 2-3 years? Not every pc gamer have an uber system. Is there any open world game looks better than W3 in the same caliber? Do you want empty tech demos like Ryse or The Order? What's your problem? What's happened to fun?

I don't think anyone's actually said that. I think what people have previously said was that Microsoft is preventing CDPR from showing Ultra gameplay so their Xbox One buyers wouldn't feel their version was the inferior one(???). Which isn't blaming consoles, but rather Microsoft.

noticeable difference (as pointed out already) i wonder if the clouds are the same? i cannot really check anything accurately from my cellphone screen.

i wonder.. are the 2 screenshots below PAXE from the official witcher 3 homepage-video?

The lower 2 screenshots are from the VGX video.

 

[Ajira]

I think that the fact that people could play Crysis after 2-3 years was the best part about this game. It was exciting, everyone wanted to see how it looks on ultra, we could play it multiple times just to see the difference in quality. And the requirements were backed up with the graphics quality.
As much as I love Witcher, I do not consider the requirements to be backed up with quality. If the latest footge require the recomended requirements, then something is wrong - be it the requirements, or the quality
There is also the case of "inconsistency". Just compare the moment, in which the camera do a circle around Geralt, while he is riding the horse (1:55 in the video). It's pretty cool, I have to say. Then look at this:

It's like two different games :/

For that all we need is adequate mod tools. If pc community loves a game, it won't age. For example morrowind. They are still modding it and coding a new engine. And I think\hope those requirements aren't necessary. Many next gen games requires an i5 but most of them works, not always playable but works on strong dual cores. They probably test the game on those spec and they just want to be sure.