4k Screenshots - Beautiful game

nmk · October 27, 2014, 12:36am

I hope we can at least agree that it is a matter of taste and preference on how to balance LOD and draw distance. Personally, the grass pop-in did not bother me, and I barely noticed it. I prefer greater detail for nearby objects, because these are the ones that I see all the time. On the other hand, the view of further objects is often obstructed.

But since I joined this discussion, I started paying much more attention to how the grass LOD and draw distance are implemented and I completely agree with you that it could be improved. Many times there is discontinuity, with grass far away first appears, then disappears, then appears again as you move closer. And as you suggest, maybe it might help to decrease the grass density on lower settings.

On the plus side, the grass does not seem very computationaly expensive. While frolicking in the grass fields where grass covers most of the screen, disabling the grass completely gives me at at most 10% increase in frame rate (very high, 1080p, GTX 780 Ti). The console command is e_MergedMeshes 0. So I’m assuming that increasing the draw distance won’t be too expensive. Unfortunately, I did not figure out how to increase it in the console. If anyone knows the command, please let me know.

McWonderBeast · November 5, 2014, 1:56am

this Made my day.

AiChichi · November 11, 2014, 6:59am

I just noticed - isn’t there too much of four-leaf clovers ? Should they be rarer ?

(I am just fault-finder :-))

masozravapalma · November 11, 2014, 9:26pm

Well I have seen fields where almost every second clover was four leaf so it isn’t that unrealistic

Cannon · November 15, 2014, 11:18am

I kind of wish it had more stylized lighting. It looks a little flat. Like maybe a bit of HDR and stronger sunlight. They nailed detail and open space for sure.

Alias got some better lighting scenes in his shots though. Mmm

PrasCo · November 15, 2014, 1:05pm

I respect your opinion, but I think otherwise. : )
Just like every food of these days is filled with sugar and salt, games tend to overuse filters and effects. I really like that KCD actually seems believable and natural and doesn’t feels the need to look like Skyrim on 30 mods and drugs together. For my eyes, KCD does not look more flat than reality - I really hope than without mods, natively this will stay that way even in battles (so no shiny-heroic saga, but also no grey-rainy end-of-the-days feel) - simply realistic.

On an unrelated note, how on earth do we have smileys even for this:

McWonderBeast · November 15, 2014, 2:43pm

Thank you, I did nothing special to the settings those pics are raw. (account was blocked when alpha released)

so far in my experiences the lighting detail if profound, go into the section of woods right ahead from the start point and look at the sun through the trees. the day night cycle is amazing for an alpha state.

YuusouAmazing · November 16, 2014, 7:34am

@Cannon: While some of the VFX team members wanted to add more HDR, Daniel said “No!”. He doesn’t want a synthetically optimized environment. It’s a similar opinion he has about music. He wants real medieval combos, a real orchestra and basically no optimization like compression because the whole dynamics of a track get lost.

Cannon · November 16, 2014, 1:30pm

Thanks for the response. As plagued as Unity has been for certain bugs, I’ve fallen quite in love with its lighting. It looks like a gorgeous period piece film thanks to some lovely stylization in terms of color, intensity, and HDR. Can’t wait for KC to add yet another gorgeous historically themed game to the field. These are from an actual user on NeoGAF.

McWonderBeast · November 16, 2014, 2:43pm

I enjoy the lighting presented here but it would break immersion for me, the only time in real life I see colors this vibrant is under the influence of psychedelics.

Looks great, but I would feel like im in a painting.

Freix · November 16, 2014, 4:27pm

I agree with @mcwonderbeast. The pictures are beautiful, but they have absolutely nothing in common with reality. It’s more like coloring books.

Cannon · November 17, 2014, 12:13am

Let’s be sure to realize games including KC still have a number of stylistic and artistic directions that render them far from carbon copies of plain life visuals. The game’s use of motion blur is a prime example. It’s not a far cry to question style in other aspects of the visuals when there is already stylization present, not necessarily in the degree of the Unity images.

There’s nothing wrong with using aesthetically pleasing cinema techniques in a medium that uses numerous conventions of cinematography for the camera views displayed on screen. A lack of these effects and style choices in all forms is not only uncommon, but is rarely the goal. Just because your eyes don’t catch some of these aesthetic features in plain vision, doesn’t make them wrong or totally nonexistent when examining camera work and lighting in a game.

SirWarriant · November 21, 2014, 5:52pm

Graphics are the only thing that game has going for it.

213 · November 22, 2014, 7:57am

no one is saying it’s a carbon copy or if that’s even possible, they’re saying they appreciate the effort to abstain from the overdone car commercial look present in games like unity.

a limit on cinematic effects to keep the visuals natural and as close to reality as possible while retaining the least distracting aesthetic adornments is far more challenging than just slathering the screen in brown filters.

the pay off is also more appreciable. increased immersion, better reference to reality, more intuitive, more organic.