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

matt100 · 19 Jun 2006 at 19:29

I see the point, I don't think quake 4 is significantly better than quake 1 to play but for a game like farcry to be in any way decent it needs the gfx, I remember trying to play it on the lower settings, all the grass etc was gone and the atmosphere disappeared

I don't think graphical quality makes a game but with a decent game the graphics can certainly enhance it a heck of a lot.

Marshy · 19 Jun 2006 at 22:15

da_mic_1530 said:
the graphical jumps are great, but are they worth the cost, current GFX card prices are just silly

GF2's were £300 odd when the were released some 8 years ago , Take into account inflation & todays cards are pretty reasonable compared to then.

matt100 · 19 Jun 2006 at 22:20

Marshy said:
GF2's were £300 odd when the were released some 8 years ago , Take into account inflation & todays cards are pretty reasonable compared to then.

I paid knocking on for £200 for a 128mb 9800pro a couple of years ago which was replaced with a £250 x800pro so it's not that different, yes I guess the uber high end stuff like 7950s and 512mb 7800gtxs were a bit challenging in the price dept but a distressingly expensive gpu is hardly a new invention.

Last card was a £250 x1900xt so I guess with the inflation between 2004 and now you could say in real terms the x1900 is actually cheaper than the x800!!

Gashman · 19 Jun 2006 at 22:20

Naj said:
After playing HL2 EP1 on max settings with my lovely new gfx card, i re-installed HL2 but this time with FakeFactory's mods.. and WOW

I'll let the picture speak for itself, no cinematic cut scene, just a snapsot of the game as you play it:

They have done a great job with that mod. Other then Alyx, who's skin texture is perhaps far too smooth but looks a lot "sexier", every character looks surreal! I have just bought Quake 4 and HL2 franchise puts it to shame!!! The lip synch in Quake 4 is god awfull. I have played F.E.A.R, which is very good and unique in ways.

But king for me at the mo is HL2 and co, no improvements...pfffft!

the person looks great, but the background looks very bland, unrealistic and not what you'd expect from such a raved about game

Edit: why bother making characters look good when they make the rest of the levels looks so un-polished

PinkFloyd · 19 Jun 2006 at 22:27

Gashman said:
the person looks great, but the background looks very bland, unrealistic and not what you'd expect from such a raved about game

Edit: why bother making characters look good when they make the rest of the levels looks so un-polished

To me that summarises the graphics on HL2, everyone raves about it but many of the textures lack detail. Anything without a whole lot of shaders (water/wet stuff / people) is plain.

Gashman · 19 Jun 2006 at 22:47

thats the exact reason i prefer doom 3 engine, it looks better, the characters look less realistic, but the enviroment looks sharper and more detailed

PinkFloyd · 19 Jun 2006 at 22:48

Doom3 meh.
Textures are bad in that aswell, and its too dark.

Source is probs one of the best looking engines at the moment, just needs higher quality textures on some things.

Farcrys engine was excellent and still looks drop dead gorgeous, along with the unrealengine. Personally I like FEAR..... but people with lame rigs don't

Naj · 19 Jun 2006 at 22:54

Gashman said:
the person looks great, but the background looks very bland, unrealistic and not what you'd expect from such a raved about game

Edit: why bother making characters look good when they make the rest of the levels looks so un-polished

Valid point made there. That snapshot was taken with a mod that redeveloped skins/textures for most characters and objects. Stuff like wooden boxes and metal barrells look far better now. This alone taks a lot of resource to run. It could be possible to redo the entire maps but imagine who resource intensive it would be. Thats why there will always be a sustainable market when it concerns GFX cards.

Cyber-Mav · 19 Jun 2006 at 23:10

farcry hands down is the best game engine todate. and when the cryengine2 powered game (Crysis) is out im sure it will be the best engine ever.

Gashman · 19 Jun 2006 at 23:11

i prefer advanced warfighers engine, far cry is starting to show its age now to be honest

welshtom · 19 Jun 2006 at 23:50

PinkFloyd said:
To me that summarises the graphics on HL2, everyone raves about it but many of the textures lack detail. Anything without a whole lot of shaders (water/wet stuff / people) is plain.

The textures on HL2 are what make it insane!!! Have you even played it????

compare the textures to FEAR/DOOM3/Quake 4 and they will be so much better than all of them combined,

No game has come close to HL2. Storyline/diversity/textures/playability/Detail/Physics etc.

It is a masterclass in programming that can be played happily on a Geforce 4 and still look good..

Tom

Gashman · 19 Jun 2006 at 23:57

are you kidding? played HL2 at 1280*1024 maxed everything, full AA and AF, wasn't impressed with visuals

the only thing HL2 has thats appealing is interactive enviroment, decent story and it runs smoothly on just about any system as long as its inline with recommended specs

welshtom · 19 Jun 2006 at 23:58

Gashman said:
are you kidding? played HL2 at 1280*1024 maxed everything, full AA and AF, wasn't impressed with visuals

well, you sir are officially blind

Gashman · 20 Jun 2006 at 00:00

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

welshtom · 20 Jun 2006 at 00:02

the opening scenes. nuff said tbh.

signing out...

Gashman · 20 Jun 2006 at 00:04

got any screenshots of HL2 running on eyecandy?

nikebee · 20 Jun 2006 at 00:11

personally, every time i play Unreal Tourny 2004 i'm always thinking WOW look at these graphics.

the game is now 3 years old, still looks wonderful and still looks tip-top graphically.

and the best thing about it? the engine ran great even on basic systems

Shocky-FM · 20 Jun 2006 at 01:17

nikebee said:
personally, every time i play Unreal Tourny 2004 i'm always thinking WOW look at these graphics.

the game is now 3 years old, still looks wonderful and still looks tip-top graphically.

and the best thing about it? the engine ran great even on basic systems

The unreal engine has always been the best imo, they always look fantastic on release and continue to do so for many years... The first ever game that made my jaw just drop was unreal on my voodoo 3 when you first leave the prisoner transport... ...

Also unreal2/UT2003+ all use high quality textures, which are really lacking in most modern games for some reason... no idea why since modern cards are more then capable...

The source engine isnt far behind though but again does lack high resolution textures which can make some scenes look a litte crappy..

locutus12 · 20 Jun 2006 at 01:44

Gashman said:
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.

Gashman said:
got any screenshots of HL2 running on eyecandy?

you really are blind!!!

see post number 3 and number 5.

Six6siX · 20 Jun 2006 at 02:28

Gashman said:
got any screenshots of HL2 running on eyecandy?

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!