Consistency for graphics is almost as important as consistency for frame rate

So, I was playing Cyberpunk and realized how visually inconsistent this game is. Mind you, all games have their ups and downs but it's all about how far apart or close together they are. I have seldom seen a game with a big of a gap as Cyberpunk.

At its best, it can look like a game that belongs in the year 2025, but at its worst, it can look like a game that belongs in 2010.

Of course, I'm being hyperbolic (just a tad bit), but what do you guys think of visual consistency? I prefer a game that looks average and consistent throughout to a game that has high peaks but low valleys.

The complaint you're highlighting is very apparent with mods where the people making them just assume barraging high-res textures, models and effects aiming for "realism" automatically equates to better. A lot of the time the engines aren't optimized for them either.

One of the most infamous and egregious examples probably being FakeFactory for Halflife 2, where the creator would regularly throw tantrums and eventually added an option to turn all his bullshit off, even then, still largely fucks up the art-direction.

@uninspiredcup Yup, good points. Those Skyrim mods look great in still shots. Start playing them and notice the flickering light sources (because the engine can't handle more than like 3 at a time), inconsistent texture work (from multiple different mods), awful enb that saturates the colors to the point of making your eyes bleed etc.

Yea, although not trying to shit on mod makers, there are some legit good looking mods out there. Some stunning. Stuff like Skyrim find get good results using an "all-one" collection as for whatever reason the people who put these together seem to at have some semblance of aesthetics.

But yea, Bethesda games are notorious for that type of shit. Doesn't help that their games generally look like shit to begin with.

I hate sony made games population npc. They all looks like ps2 crowd with low quality face render and horrible lip movement. Always threw me off considering how good the hero/heroine looks and movement.

What games are you referencing?

All of em.

Edit: except TLOU. Those guys pretty detailed.

The NPCs in Horizon looked good to me. Unless I am forgetting something.

@Pedro: may have few exceptions. I hate them, from infamous, to spidey, Ghost of Tsushima... actually I take it back. Now I think more, Yakuza games have terrible PS2 like population npcs too.

Agree. Prefer when things are consistent. Back on the PS1, I played Metal Gear and Syphon Filter around the same time. MG had in-engine cutscenes, while SF had some CGI stuff between missions. Having the same models throughout felt better to me.

TLOU2 was consistent af.

The quality of the assets in Cyberpunk 2077 are fairly consistent for the most part. However, issues with the LOD system and object/prop placement can ruin immersion for sure.

Haven't played through it yet, but I'd believe it. ND are major snobs when it comes to texel density, which I can appreciate lol.

In general tho, been a while since I've played a game with clearly lopsided assets. Last one that stuck out to me was in RE2R. Wasn't shown prominently, probably the kind of thing most players wouldn't see. Still, was funny to see what could have been a PS1 texture among all the high res work.

Suppose Nioh 2 as well, but not really a looker to begin with.

I think sometimes developers use low-res textures in areas to save resources, like "Oh well this thing is only going to be viewed from 500 feet away, so it only needs to be 480x480" or whatever. I think Titanfall had a couple of these things except you could get up close to it in some areas, so when you saw it you were like "Damn that looks terrible" and it just seemed like a huge oversight.

Most games these days seem pretty consistent, however, if I am being honest (whether it's bad or good). I never really run into areas where I feel like the textures or detail is suddenly not on par with the rest of the game.

Yeah, game looked amazing when it was working right. Unfortunately the glitches/bugs/etc made for some inconsistency.

I played the ps5 version of Cyberpunk, man it feels like a ghost town , looks like the city is quarantine.

Ff7 remake is the game that immediately comes to mind, and the ugly ass textures really took me out of the game.

The PS5 version hasn't been released yet. So, you should have waited as you ruined your first play-through with the shit PS4 version.

512x512 🤓

But yeah, that's the general idea. Of course proper LOD can account for that, but if it's an asset the dev is confident the player will never see up close in the regular course of play, no use wasting an artists time to create something better.

enter From Software's games.

Bloodborne and DS3, respectively 2015 and 2016 still look relatively pretty with some gorgeous views / environments but my god the jaggies and character models look like PS3 games.

Still waiting for that next-gen upgrade.

GTA V was already delayed, and it has almost zero work put into it.

I just don't see The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk next gen version making 2021.

Well, the next-gen version of CP2077 is already out in the PC version. So, it just a matter of optimizing it for the new-gen consoles. As for The Witcher 3... I know they are working out a deal with that Halk Hogan modder to bring the textures to the console version and I believe they mentioned some RT implementation, but not sure to what extent. I can see them both releasing in 2021. However, there are only a couple months left in 2021 and it would be kinda silly having them both release around the same time competing against each other. So, I can see one being pushed back to 2022.

Having already tried a few of Halk Hogan's texture mods I can say I was especially happy with CDProjekt contacting him.

Another thing I'm looking forward to in the remaster is HDR support for the PC version.

Honestly if we just get a PC version at 4K/60 + 4k textures + HDR support (& a way to get rid of that awful shimmering) then that game will be able to go up against the best looking games again.

My only fear is that Sabre interactive is behind the remaster, they aren't always the best choice for remastering another studio's game.

It's the reason I'm hyped for RT and stuff like deep learning/AI. Having these properly in games would let go much of these inconsistencies as artists won't have to bake stuff or create gazillion assets manually. AI can come in and refine it automatically. Of course we are far far from it right now but the future looks promising.

Yeah, inconsistensy in graphics can be annoying. Nintendo games are often like this nowadays, now that Nintendo was forced into HD despite not really wanna. Their games look great in places, absolutely horrific in others.

CP2077 was more a fake ad than a finished videogame, of course it's incosistent. They just had to pretend the incosistencies didn't exist while showing the consistent parts in trailers for great profit.