Modern rendering

I've noticed that a lot of recent and upcoming games have a particular look to them.

First thing is that more games are using much stronger and brighter colours, a trend I appreciate (fuck overly dark games which look fine on developer's calibrated, expensive monitors but have all the blacks crushed on most regular TVs, forcing you to ramp up the gamma if you don't want eye strain).

Second is a slightly soft look to things. Not talking about AA techniques but the everything looks more solid but like they're made out of a material like sandstone.

UE4 seems to be one of the driving factors but what are the technologies that are actually behind these looks, especially the latter.

Pic is the best example I could find.

Other urls found in this thread:

frictionalgames.blogspot.de/2012/09/tech-feature-hdr-lightning.html
warthunder.com/en/devblog/current/806/
twitter.com/AnonBabble

Well yeah, colors are back and I love that colors are back after the shitwhow that was gen 7 but KH is the wrong example, seeing as it was always colorful
And what's happening now is that with the increase in computing power since gen 7, devs have started using higher poly counts and physically based rendering which tend to favor improved lighting and make games, like Fallout 4 for example, look like they're 90s CGI

Anyone else fucking hate the lightning in Frostbite?

Anything before Battlefront had such shitty lightning.

We are getting back into the vibrant saturated colours style with a more basic texturing system. Which i might add makes my dick rock fucking hard.
I wanna fuck those textures.

Personally, I hate what they are doing with KH3. The look is really off.

I think this is a better example of what you're talking about OP.

More like I hate UE4. It does look off with UE4.

But it can't because when it stop for long.

Picked KH3 because of the 'soft' look to the rockwork I was talking about.

Uncharted 4 is probably a better example of a game that became brighter and more colourful (UC1-3 weren't exactly dark but 4 is just brighter and more vibrant).

Was BFBC2 on Frostbite? Didn't like going in an out of buildings (cool effect but impractical, disabled it in settings)

Yeah, that's a good example.

lighting is much more advanced in the newer engines, however more important is the lack of pissfilters

It's pretty much entirely just UE4.

The reason KH3, DQ11, BB, Gigantic, and so many other stylized AAA titles have this look is down to using that engine and it's lighting system plus their samey shader choices mean the colours and "materials" are very similar looking. They're all using the same tech, and it shows.

It's the same reason last gen most modern military FPS titles looked like they were made by a singular studio, besides most of 'em copying CoD 4.

Even some games built with different or custom engines like FFXV or Overwatch have that "look" to a small extent because modern engines are homogenizing to a certain extent.

Beats the sheet metal and wet plastic look of UE3.

I will never forgive 2005 on for all the overdone color filtering. Holy shit so many games from nearly a decade of gaming are so tiring to look at. Fuck.

The new hotness is Physical Based Shaders, which are meant to look the same across different engines and different lighting situations

You mean UE4 is good at the illusion of volume?

If I remember right Sunset Overdrive and the new Ratchet & Clank use an updated version of the engine Insomniac made for Fuse (and Nexus I think?), which in itself was partially based off of UE3 if rumours were true.

Even still, it shows - rocks, concrete, and man-made materials in general from both could pretty easily fit into the artstyle of most of the games you listed.

What you're probably noticing is physically based rendering. It completely transforms the way a scene receives light and it's one of the best developments in game rendering for a long time.

You mean like this?

Don't all games that run on the RE4 engine have to come to PC at some point? Is that in the contract?

I can't say why they developers in the picture I posted is using it, but I can say why I'm using it for my project. Colors are amazing and can be used to add depth and convey feelings, it also makes objects stand out easier from each other making the player notice the small details. It's also easier as an artist to make something that's a little bit simpler in the micro details and even "bad" textures looks good due to their simpleness compared to attempting to recreate real life bad textures stands out like a sore eye.

...

Nope.

...

Why does every UE game look so similar? KH3 looks exactly like that Kakariko village mockup someone did in this engine.

This.
The change in graphical appearance between fallout 3 & 4 is a decent recent example.

Is that UE4?

Actually, Skyrim to Fallout 4.

It's a fairly new engine, in time UE4 games will become more distinguished from each other.

It's called HDR and the Reinhard transform, which allows developers to use realistic light-levels inside the engine without sacrificing dyanmic range.
frictionalgames.blogspot.de/2012/09/tech-feature-hdr-lightning.html

Because of two things.

1) Deferred rendering, which makes it MUCH easier to add indirect lighting to scenes, brightening them and mellowing out the nornal maps considerably, while simultaneously making transparency much more expensive to deal with, which means a lot more rocks and pipes and paths as opposed to laser-ribbons and plasma-gates and hard-light floors and shit.

2) Physically-Based Rendering, which causes light to do certain things on materials that cartoonists seldom bothered to indicate; so many games going for a toony/stylized look suddenly have reflective specular, fresnel, subsurface scattering, etc.

Comparing games "in the KH style" from 5-10 years ago to modern ones is sort of like comparing an ice castle from 5 years ago to Frozen; even with the goofy art style the ice still glows red from the reflected sunset and such, because real-life materials don't work how cartoonists draw them.

See:
Shaders and lighting are incredibly important to determining the look of a game, and most UE4 games are using very similar ones - plus a similar colour palette, too, since they gotta use a certain spectrum of 'bright' ones that pop visually.

Like this?

Like this??

Like this???

It was pretty damn hard to find an actually colorful game in late 00s. I'm glad it's over.

Like this?? l

Like this? ??

I think Uncharted may have had what you're talking OP and this is probably not a good example but I don't have many other screens

Like thiss ??

What about this??

the sandstone look probably comes from the SSAO effect

dat neon green moss

Or this??

Deferred HBAO and ACES tone mapping.

what percentage of girls would you say would be comfortable with their boyfriend sucking their breasts?

What about this?? ?

my brain keeps calling the cell-shaded but i know its not.

what is this style called?

>Second is a slightly soft look to things.

UE4's default render settings use heavy post process AA and chromatic aberration, which gives everything this muddy pseudo realistic look, if you turn both things off the games look much sharper

>those obvious repeating textures
What game?

That's a tough question to answer, man, but yes, Cammy and Laura are juicy.

NPR.

Frostbite (SW: Battlefront)

Hand painted, but more of a blend between that and realism. You basically perform the same steps you would've done with a realistic model put instead of using photos to make it look better you just hand paint it and use soft colors and lighten up on the micro details.

You mean like this??

What about this?

>NPR

thanks boys!!!! i knew there was a name for this shit

Did you mean this?

It's a fairly normal thing to do, so long as you're not doing it for ages

Please stop

I'm convinced this game doesn't exist and is just manufactured bullshots people spam on Sup Forums.

I don't think it has a name, but I think of it as being Pixar-style.

This is how the game actually looks like.

I'd take my own pic on ultra settings just to prove it more but I can't be bothered. It's a waste of a time game

This??

Don't stop, keep posting grafficxxxzz

Are you playing on a 3DS or something?

No it doesn't have a real name, but it's a form of hand painting.

God damit there was some interesting and informative posts and discussion here, stop spamming the thread.

Sounds like a personal issue.

Jesus dude, ease up on the unsharpen filter.

Am I getting closer, OP? This?

...

what game?

This?????

Dude, fuck off.

What about when graphics look better than real life?

: O

shit

noice

Suck my nuts, fag.

MGSVfags pls stop and GTFO

This is mostly due to developers adopting PBR.

Monster Hunter

Like this, OP?

>that are actually behind these looks, especially the latter.

PBR.

>tfw no Elena waifu

why is life so shit?

This right?

Pabst Blue Ribbon?

superior beer btw

I think BF3's engine was the "successor engine" of Bad Company 2' engine.
And damn, you're right about the lightning.

the "soft" look is artistic choice, not a technical thing.

85%? It's a really common thing to do.

Monster Hunter Online.

Don't believe the bullshots. This is on Ultra settings

>a game engine has anything to do with artstyle

No. UE4 can produce pretty much any artstyle the dev wants. They're just fucking lazy

Physically Based Rendering

The War Thunder devs posted a nice blog about it when they upgraded their engine a while back

warthunder.com/en/devblog/current/806/

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>bullshots
How dare you sir.

OP am I getting closer?

How is war thunder? And how big is it? lately I've been using planetside 2 to scratch my big combined arms itch but I loves me some historical shooters

Breasts actually are an erogenous zone on women, that's something manga actually got right.

Also that women sometimes have a vagina on the back of their knee, maybe.

>really fucking good looking game
>all those planes and tanks
>completely shit gameplay
Such a shame.