Obvious Downgrade

[xDeithwenx]

Sadly it isn't going to solve anything, and it wasn't really meant to, it was just an interesting comparison. Case and point is that there's already a discussion happening over whether one of these is from a Console build, and whether or not one image has better leaves.

The point of the comparison is just to display how drastically different a scene can look based on the time of day, and presumably weather conditions. (We can thank IGN for somehow obtaining this picture, I don't know how they got it but it fits perfectly with the footage we got).

However it is my firm belief that as long as CDPR hasn't ripped entire effects/features out of the game (Forward Soft Lit Particles, Volumetric Clouds, Particle effects like the leaves from the (in)famous VGX GIF etc), you crank that bad boy up to Ultra, find the same time of day or weather condition to match the specific moment and yes, I think Marcin is right that anything from VGX/SoD will be able to be re-created. Perhaps not 1:1, maybe that good 'ol VGX Gif won't look precisely the same because the new lighting doesn't quite give off the same effect, or the sharpening is gone, but it'll look pretty fucking close. (Or of course the fact that Eredin has been redesigned, but that's a given)

We'll have to wait and see. Since CD Projekt has been more involved in this thread things have begun to look up, but I'm still remaining skeptical.

That said, IGN may have touched up the picture. It also still doesn't explain why CDPR have started using "lesser" footage to demonstrate their game in recent times (why so something so impressive and then show something which you could debate is less-so?).

In W3's defense, look at Skyrim and ENB; so many good pictures are taken with mods, but when actually playing the game generally speaking there are only a handful of weather effects that make it look stunning.

 

[Zabanzo]

It also still doesn't explain why CDPR have started using "lesser" footage to demonstrate their game in recent times (why so something so impressive and then show something which you could debate is less-so?).

If you think about it, its the "lesser" quality most people will experience. Many will play on consoles, and not every PC gamer owns rig capable of running Witcher 3 in ULTRA presets. Or its just part of their "game will look the same on all platforms" PR campaign.

 

[TemerianGirl]

300 pages of downgrade discussion. :scold:

Meanwhile on Mêlée Island.

 

[caruga]

Spoiler

300 pages of downgrade discussion. :scold:

Meanwhile on Mêlée Island.

Did you make that gif?

 

[KingHochmeister]

Over three thousand posts on this thread ...

 

[megatonante]

So now it is out there how much the time of day and lighting can drastically effect the scene, It is ok to assume that we can recreate the swamp scene from SoD trailer. And does that not 'solve' the entire downgrade thread?

I think the swamp scene in the SoD trailer wasn't even "gameplay footage", it was cg or something specifically built for that one second

 

[Agent_Bleu]

Sadly
(...) leaves.

The significance of it is that it possibly might point to the fact that we are dealing with different assets or different platform versions, a possibility that if true would in and of itself cripple your point, as weather and time of day would not be the only two variables at work. Since it's quite the speculative idea, I shan't pursue that avenue.

What however is not speculative at all is to take Marcin's admission that Elder Blood was on PC and not on consoles, the popular assessment at the toime. Even after the properly encoded version of the trailer was re-uploaded, it still looks shoddy as cork. That's what gives the thesis REDengine is currently inconsistent at least some credence. You can of course pin it on interns and juniors rushing through it on a weekend, but as Evil Chris says in his candid post, they were part of the video team.

What I'm getting at is there are solid reasons to be cautious and not make definitive pronouncements about the matter at hand. I myself cannot untangle this intellectual spaghetti. So it's not sad at all we haven't reached a consensus. It's a testament to the staunch critical thinking which has survived through constant appeals to have the thread locked.

 

[caruga]

I think the thread would be considerably shorter and less controversial, if they'd simply said "Yes, we did lower some settings" or "The earlier footage was beyond what current PC's can handle, so we lowered it to not get expectations too high".

Instead they took us for fools, blamed everything on our overactive imaginations or the atmospheric lighting or youtube compression artifacts.

It's a bad look for a company that had cultivated a rep as being consumer-friendly.

 

[Ourgekjj]

About hardware, the only official information is :

Minimum System Requirements = Low/medium

• CPU: Intel CPU Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz // AMD CPU Phenom II X4 940
• GPU: Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 660 // AMD GPU Radeon HD 7870
• RAM 6GB
• OS 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)
• DirectX 11
• HDD Space 40 GB

Recommended System Requirements = High

• CPU: Intel CPU Core i7 3770 3,4 GHz // AMD CPU AMD FX-8350 4 GHz
• GPU: Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 770 // AMD GPU Radeon R9 290
• RAM 8GB
• OS 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)
• DirectX 11
• HDD Space 40 GB

So very high ultra probably on i7 3930k and GTX980

 

[Captain__Arabia]

i made a gif for you guys :hatsoff:

 

[Jamessh1]

Let's not forget that he "supposedly" Downgrade talk is mostly of the gameplay footage we've seen so far.
From the (PC) impressions on the "Hands On" Event a week ago, all people who played it and made a Preview of the game said that they could only play on "High" setting.

The maxed Ultra setting (and maybe Very High ? ) were locked due to optimizing it, which probably means the performance is still not high enough.
Remember the gameplay footage last year on E3 and Gamscom? They had some performance issues, which are mostly fixed now.

So we haven't actually seen how it really looks when maxed out, except for some shots in trailer maybe.

Well it's easier for people to cry downgrade in the meantime than to actually wait longer to see officially released ultra setting footage. Time will tell for everyone, even those that are impatient

 

[Daywalker30]

i made a gif for you guys :hatsoff:

http://i.imgur.com/gFveTGQ.gif?1

hmm the blood on Vesemir's shoulder is gone from the brighter (noon) pic.

Could it be because of the choice & consequences that Vesemir won't get wounded it that one pic?

 

[misho8723]

hmm the blood on Vesemir's shoulder is gone from the brighter (noon) pic.

Could it be because of the choice & consequences that Vesemir won't get wounded it that one pic?

No no, it's still there.. but because it is darker there, now the blood doesn't looks so bright - in the screen with the clearer lighting, the sun shines on that spot, so that's why it is so visible

 

[Daywalker30]

No no, it's still there.. but because it is darker there, now the blood doesn't looks so bright - in the screen with the clearer lighting, the sun shines on that spot, so that's why it is so visible

oh ok, didn't see that

 

[Captain__Arabia]

oh ok, didn't see that

 

[TemerianGirl]

Did you make that gif?

Aye!

CDPR can downgrade nothing if there is still a beautiful storyline and gorgeous music. I hope they won't touch the music. What? They did? Nooooooo.......

Spoiler

:troll:

 

[Attar]

I have a i7 4770k GTX 780 Ti Super clocked and 8 gb or ram. Can I play on ultra at 30 fps on 1080p?

 

[wichat]

Cam in phone has obviously downgraded the basic lighting effects in photogrphy knowledge in people...

Why this thread reminds me a movie? Oh! Damn right! Groundhog Day is near!!

 

[GuyNwah]

I have a i7 4770k GTX 780 Ti Super clocked and 8 gb or ram. Can I play on ultra at 30 fps on 1080p?

Nobody really knows about Ultra yet, because the developers have not enabled it for anybody who has been given a hands-on preview. We have only statements that Ultra will be possible on systems similar to yours, but there are additional effects such as Ubersampling that will bring anything short of an SLI rig to its knees.

780Ti is not far behind the 980 used as a demonstrator, so you may lose a few frames per second off the demonstrated performance. Again, the game has only been demonstrated on High, and additional optimization for Ultra is in progress.

 

[caruga]

I hope uber isn't needed to smooth out certain edges. In Witcher 2 a lot of edges remained jagged even if I turned the AA on in the settings or forced it in the driver settings. Only uber got rid of them.