The Changing face of Graphics... (for the none belivers) :P

[locutus12]

ive been hearing a lot of people saying recently that "we have all this hardware but our games are crap" and "games havent advanced that much in the last ten years" and a few other comments...

i thought i would make this to emphasize the graphical jumps that have been made in the past 10 years and hopefully proove to the doubters that it has all been and continues to be worth it

my theory is that the reason a lot of people are moaning about the lack of advances is because they have gotten so used to these advances that they dont even notice when they are happening right in front of their eyes, so this threads a little Visual refresher course to show the differences and why all that money youve spent on graphics cards has been worth it (apart from Ageia of course, even God himself couldnt make that a good value product)



lets begin ...

1996: Quake

1998: Half Life

 

[locutus12]

1999: Unreal

2001: Unreal2

2003: Unreal Tournament 2004

2004: DooM 3

 

[locutus12]

2004: Half Life 2

 

[locutus12]

2005: F.E.A.R

 

[locutus12]

2005: Half Life 2: Lost Coast (which led to Episode 1)

 

[locutus12]

2006: Oblivion

 

[locutus12]

No farcry?

HL2 is still the best

Tom

sorry tom, i only went with what i knew never played farcry.

 

[locutus12]

nice thread mate,

Quake looks so bad now (obviously) but at the time it looked great, just goes to show just how quickly they've come along

a lot of games inbetween those posted pushed the barrier up each time as well so it was literally every few months we saw the graphics being pushed

and thats my point exactly, were in danger of getting used to these innovations, so much so that on a quiet year like 2006 is due to the tech shift with DX10, a lot of us are moaning about the apparent lack of innovation

p.s. youve no idea how long it took to make this thread... not a hotlink in site!

 

[locutus12]

lol well i must confess i am short sighted a bit in one eye, fair enough HL2 is stonking game, but its far from best visually, would easily rate GRAW, quake 4, etc. higher

play HL2 all the way through, theres a bit where youve got to cross over under a huge bridge, the sheer scale of it made me quite queezy when i looked down, i fell off once and actually got that butterfly falling feeling just like when you go over a hump back bridge too quick

now thats imersive gameplay, a game that can actually have a physical effect on a person due to its graphics.

got any screenshots of HL2 running on eyecandy?

you really are blind!!!

see post number 3 and number 5.

 

[locutus12]

High res images, make sure you zoom in if your browser auto resizes

http://www.bit-tech.net/content_images/lost_coast_benchmark/eyecandy1.jpg
http://www.bit-tech.net/content_images/lost_coast_benchmark/eyecandy2.jpg
http://www.bit-tech.net/content_images/lost_coast_benchmark/eyecandy3.jpg

Three of the best I could find without firing the game up. HL2 is an awesome game with a really efficient engine, capable of running on lower end systems at decent quality but equally capable of stunning high quality visuals as in the above shots.

You just cannot play that game with all the bells and whistles on and not think: Wow, that looks damn good!

picture 2, that marble pillar, it looks real?! as does the gun and glove!! mine didnt look that good must go back and check the settings...

 

[locutus12]

Hmm odd, I personally thought thats where it was most lacking. Visually the game is good, (lacking in a few areas - mainly effects and some textures) but it lacked atmosphere

if your talking about Half Life 2, then you must have missed something, the out door parts were down right creepy, especially the abandoned highway.