And I've heard it's too open-ended: once you start playing, there's no story-line to speak of.
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And I've heard it's too open-ended: once you start playing, there's no story-line to speak of.
This is imo perfect witcher atmosphere
Hmm I agree to the extent that it works for scenes that demand fog and moitsure or very cloudy/rainy days. But on a clear sunny day it's much to dark. I think I prefer what I've seen in the official screenshots. It's dark/grey when the weather is appropriate, but nice and bright when it's a clear day outside. Realistic weather after all makes for a more believable world, it won't always dramatically rain when you have a dual to the death with your rival.
On a side note that last picture with the giant is pretty awesome.
Disable bloom. I did that with The Witcher 2 along with the requiem ENB and it did wonders. No longer that radioactive look.
Art Style
So I have been trying to understand this "down- grade" stuff. It is really quite weird to me because in terms of actual graphic fidelity, the newer builds are WAY better, like in textures, draw distance, cloth and hair simulation, FX..but still many people like the older trailers.
I think this is because they pretty much changed the entire art style. It used to be more natural colored, with more browns and greens and treys..giving a more gritty "medieval" fantasy feel.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/13/oct/w3/WL59.jpg
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/13/oct/w3/WL13.jpg
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/13/oct/w3/WL07.jpg
Whereas newer footage in similar locations, particularly novigrad, are much brighter, more colorful, and more "fairy-tale"-y. There are significantly fewer instances of grey or brown.
http://0cb8dd5d2dc142d08f0f-eb3b436...dn.com/images/9r9y_YFmC62W.840x0.Vdef9Kkm.jpg
http://e5c351ecddc2f880ef72-57d6ff1...dn.com/images/FgKKy9XAXP-z.840x0.Vdef9Kkm.jpg
http://e5c351ecddc2f880ef72-57d6ff1...dn.com/images/CkcK4WsuC05N.840x0.Vdef9Kkm.jpg
Older footage was more "photorealistic" while newer footage is more cartoony. It is not a downgrade. It is an art style change. They question is which style you prefer.
Of course, there is this infamous screen I keep seeing: http://static5.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1289/12896015/2669276-2544201081-iKcRG.jpg
which has significantly better reflections, and most notably, an excellent Depth of Field, which has been completely absent in all instances of actual gameplay. I hope it is in there..as I loved it in Witcher 2.
Plus his badass walking animation (cough cough)
Is this old news? I am just tired of people saying this game is "down- graded", all these random comments and Wcctech articles and whatnot, and I think many people don't realize the type of change that actually occurred in the visuals.
Essentially, it is like the difference between Far Cry 4 "enhanced" godrays vs volumetric fog godrays. One is super bright and colorful, other is still colorful but much more gritty and dark.
EDIT:Not to mention how pre e3 2014 and post were on different engines, but you all probably knew that. Its why his hair is grey like Witcher 2 in all older footage.
So I have been trying to understand this "down- grade" stuff. It is really quite weird to me because in terms of actual graphic fidelity, the newer builds are WAY better, like in textures, draw distance, cloth and hair simulation, FX..but still many people like the older trailers.
I think this is because they pretty much changed the entire art style. It used to be more natural colored, with more browns and greens and treys..giving a more gritty "medieval" fantasy feel.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/13/oct/w3/WL59.jpg
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/13/oct/w3/WL13.jpg
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/13/oct/w3/WL07.jpg
Whereas newer footage in similar locations, particularly novigrad, are much brighter, more colorful, and more "fairy-tale"-y. There are significantly fewer instances of grey or brown.
http://0cb8dd5d2dc142d08f0f-eb3b436...dn.com/images/9r9y_YFmC62W.840x0.Vdef9Kkm.jpg
http://e5c351ecddc2f880ef72-57d6ff1...dn.com/images/FgKKy9XAXP-z.840x0.Vdef9Kkm.jpg
http://e5c351ecddc2f880ef72-57d6ff1...dn.com/images/CkcK4WsuC05N.840x0.Vdef9Kkm.jpg
Older footage was more "photorealistic" while newer footage is more cartoony. It is not a downgrade. It is an art style change. They question is which style you prefer.
Of course, there is this infamous screen I keep seeing: http://static5.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1289/12896015/2669276-2544201081-iKcRG.jpg
which has significantly better reflections, and most notably, an excellent Depth of Field, which has been completely absent in all instances of actual gameplay. I hope it is in there..as I loved it in Witcher 2.
Plus his badass walking animation (cough cough)
Is this old news? I am just tired of people saying this game is "down- graded", all these random comments and Wcctech articles and whatnot, and I think many people don't realize the type of change that actually occurred in the visuals.
Essentially, it is like the difference between Far Cry 4 "enhanced" godrays vs volumetric fog godrays. One is super bright and colorful, other is still colorful but much more gritty and dark.
EDIT:Not to mention how pre e3 2014 and post were on different engines, but you all probably knew that. Its why his hair is grey like Witcher 2 in all older footage.
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@SpeedRunner101 Been there, done that. Discussed it through two threads with around 400 (or more?) pages in total. I don't think there is any opinion that "hasn't been" covered on that subject actually.
I see lots of comments on mainstream gaming websites as well; but after this point - and after those loooong gut-wrenching threads - I don't read them anymore. I just want to get my hands on the game come May 19th and lose myself in it
I see lots of comments on mainstream gaming websites as well; but after this point - and after those loooong gut-wrenching threads - I don't read them anymore. I just want to get my hands on the game come May 19th and lose myself in it
@SpeedRunner101 Been there, done that. Discussed it through two threads with around 400 (or more?) pages in total. I don't think there is any opinion that "hasn't been" covered on that subject actually.
I see lots of comments on mainstream gaming websites as well; but after this point - and after those loooong gut-wrenching threads - I don't read them anymore. I just want to get my hands on the game come May 19th and lose myself in it
Ah I feel like an idiot.
Well I guess some people will make sweetfx, with some sharpening to make it more like that.
What about Depth of Field? Can we turn that on if we want as well?
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TW2 had options to turn on/of DoF, so yes, I'd expect so.
Perhaps it is an issue of reflections.
Some post e3 builds showed pretty meh reflections in water and armor and overall environment, and the only footage we have now with apparently "proper" reflections is on xbox one and geralt wearing 2 non-reflective cloth armor sets.
What I am trying to say is, the only ultra PC footage we have seen (At least I think) is the Nivigrad 35 minute gameplay from last year, which was a very VERY incomplete build, and that 2 minutes of beautiful sunrise gameplay that didn't show any water or reflective materials.
TO be honest, the Sword of Destiny, which is the same "style" as current build, looked stunning to me and had parts that were very gritty looking. Perhaps we just haven't seen the right footage to compare it with.
Some post e3 builds showed pretty meh reflections in water and armor and overall environment, and the only footage we have now with apparently "proper" reflections is on xbox one and geralt wearing 2 non-reflective cloth armor sets.
What I am trying to say is, the only ultra PC footage we have seen (At least I think) is the Nivigrad 35 minute gameplay from last year, which was a very VERY incomplete build, and that 2 minutes of beautiful sunrise gameplay that didn't show any water or reflective materials.
TO be honest, the Sword of Destiny, which is the same "style" as current build, looked stunning to me and had parts that were very gritty looking. Perhaps we just haven't seen the right footage to compare it with.
You know, I am sure CDPR could make the game look like something that would blow you from the chair, but with so many mechanics and things running in the background. A full living world that acts on it's own, this also puts a strain on how heavy the game runs on systems. Not just consoles, but pc as well. You can have the best pc in the world, and CDPR could make it so that the PC won't be able to handle it if they desired to. I don't care anyway, I will play it on minimum if I am even able to, and enjoy the game. I am fine with anything now. I am tired of these endless discussions about graphics. Give me a game with deep lore, interesting dialogue, tough choices, a world to explore ,and an awesome combat system. Oh, we're getting that already.
See you in May.
See you in May.
Wrong.
Those early screenshots are not realistic, they are bleached. You can see that devs didn't cover lighting in that early build.
Final product will have much more realistic lighting. Typical for CDPR it will be one type of light for one location (Novigrad will have warm colors, like on warm, late summer day (California style), Skellige will have more frosty like colors.
http://static4.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1179/11799911/2758980-panorama_novigrad.jpg
http://static1.gamespot.com/uploads...-wild_hunt_skellige+_is_a_beautiful_place.png
But all those are realistic, all of them can happen in real world.
Lighting looks much better than in high-fantasy like style of W2.
But there is a reason why for some people game looks a little bit cartoonish (for me also). CDPR stated that they actually paint textures. For example in Crysis or Kingdom Come you have more realistic textures, maybe even based on real photographs. CryEngine propably also helps with It's characteristics.
Moreover SpeedTree has this a bit cartoonish style.
That's all.
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So much this, TW3 seems to have very natural lighting and scene composition. TW2 lighting was... not all that great(unrelated to whatever 'style') and the dithered shadows DID NOT HELP but they mostly made up for that using post-process. Launch time TW2 bloom was pretty weird, excessive and almost made the game look like it was set in a nuclear wasteland, that improved over time with patches, toned down in a lot of areas. Lighting was definitely not TW2's strong suit, but all the local point lights in each scene compensated for that, the dungeons for example or the waiting place in the Arena.
Have to agree with @dexter2 here. The early screenshots which people seem to hold in such high standards had terrible lighting, they are literaly just gray. I'm sure the final game will have it all sorted, it's CDPR we're talking about !
you know that game have dynamic weather cycle so there can be gray days, sun don't shine all the time.
Yes, I do know that. I wouldn't have brought this up if one screenshot somewhere was gray. The issue here is that in the older footage/screenshots everything was gray. The 3 screenshots posted above are different places, all gray though and it seems like it's slightly different time of day as well in two of them.
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No it wasn't and it has been shown again and again earlier in this thread and in the downgrade threads by me and others. It's simply a twisting the facts to claim everything was gray. The earlier material had colorful and light (sunny) scenery too - in fact lots of it.
Anyway I simply can't be bothered to find all the posts it has been shown in but here a a some screens from the older material that shows that everything wasn't gray in the older material - far from it.
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I think you are wrong and i will explain what i mean. The 3 screenshots posted above to which i was referring were from the debut trailer and that time of development where everything had this grayish filter on it. You can look at it here if you want in the trailer below.
That was clearly not the final state of the game, you can see at how Geralt's face looks and the non existent lighting effects to understand why.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt91NLt6mEU
The screenshots you posted above are after the VGX and Sword of Destiny trailer era, where we actually saw how the game looks like with everything in a more complete state of the engine. I agree with you that they look great but those are quite a bit after the debut trailers time i believe.
It simply looks like the game back then was not ready and it shows it, it was January 2013 if i am not mistaken. The screenshots you posted are indeed great but they aren't that different at what we see at the current gameplays are they ?
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The argument about the change in art direction, color palette, gray/colorful have always been DEBUT, VGX, SOD vs newer materiel not just DEBUT vs everything after that. Some people (including myself) feel there is and see a obvious different and it have been argued in many threads, not just here.
The difference is that the newer materiel feels and looks much brighter and over saturated compared to how it was in the first three trailers. People that like the change in the newer material then argued that the older material was too dark/gray/not sunny and that is simple not true as the older materiel was light/colorful and had sunny scenery too. And that was why I quoted your post because I wanted to correct that assumption which me and others have done so many times before.
Then there's a whole other discussion about downgrade in general which I refrain from as I don't personally see a downgrade in graphic fidelity but only as said a change in color palette and to some extend art direction.
I apologize for assuming that you were talking about the first three trailers and not only the debut trailer that indeed consists mostly of darker scenes.
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Hey it's alright, i see your point. I do think there was a slight change somewhere along the way but i can't pinpoint where. It's the older screenshots posted that i was talking about indeed cause those are day / night to where the game actually is.
We spend so much time in here looking for news so it's only natural to have disagreements, that's cool.
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