What is the best graphical feature?

***DISCLAIMER***

Graphic Whores only! No "gameplay trumps all" betas! You have been warned!

So guys, since this is System Wars and graphics are obviously the only real difference between platforms, what is you favorite graphical feature? Like, say, bokeh DOF, or Ambient Occlusion, or maybe Tessellation?!

And, to make things more SW worthy so I don't get locked by the Charpolizei: What game uses your favorite graphical feature, the best? Is it an exclusive?

Personally, dynamic accurate reflections and DOF effects make me extremely horny.

Artstyle

Jiggle animations.

Wet rock surfaces.

INTERACTION.

AA, 16x AF, and draw distance. Can't forget them dynamic shadows either.

Reported for disruptive posting!!!111 I said graphical features!!! MAAWWDDSSS HALP

Textures. Games look whack without them.

Lighting.

i mean, they're all important, but imo, a great lighting map can make a game look great,

Look no further than teh FOX engine. MGS V has meh textures, but art style wise, it looks pretty great thanks to teh realistic lighting it uses.

lighting

LIGHTING! Anyone who's ever used a level editor will know lighting can make all the difference.

My answer is the definitive one but I give you points for second. You can cheat a lot with lighting. For example, I love starfox on the snes. It has a classic design look, regardless--great use of minimal shape. Let's say that game was released today with the same engine, at 60fps with a higher resolution, AND with a really advanced lighting engine? I agree with you, it is the lighting that would really distinguish the game and give the picture that depth that even a lot of high end pc games tend to lack.

Guys, l meant like, graphical features... Like, methods, or something. Like for example instead of saying "shadows" say "SSAO" or "Smooth Shadowing", or if you really want to be that broad and say "lighting" at least elaborate and say if you like global illumination or something.

3D Trees.

this is like the pretentious poser version of a graphics thread.

oh. here's mine then
SSAO,GI,Dynamic Shadows and HDR

High res textures, lighting and to some degree anti aliasing.

You mean post processing?

Also the thing they used in ethan carter to capture realistic models.

@parkurtommo:

Noob, lighting is the most important and the holy grail in computer generated graphics, GI SSAO BLOOM HDR even color tones etc are all parts that make the lighting.

Best graphical features aren't even on consoles.

I like texture quality. The higher the better. As soon as I got the PC version of skyrim the first thing I did was get the 2k texture pack. Made a world of difference in that game. Its why I look forward to Fast Racing Neo. 4-8k textures.

I disagree. Most games from the past are designed around the display tech of the time. Heavily processed nes, snes, gen, psx, saturn games look ugly. The N64 is one of the few consoles that for some odd reason tends to upscale really nice. Wave Race looks great in 1080p. I've only tried this on a plasma, but I bet it would look even better on a nice higher res crt or dlp display.

About lighting really quick. I have an uncle that doesn't necessarily play videogames but is into technology and does a lot of photography work. One of the few games to ever turn his head was the original Gran Turismo. Sounds silly, but from a distance that game pulls off some great things with the hardware.

Lighting.

textures

gameplay > graphics

Dynamic lighting in a deferred and forward+ renderer, Area light, SSR, gpu particles, complex PBR, Bokeh DOF, hair and cloth physics. But then again you need a good art style and enough budget to realize the techniques to full potential.

Reflections, like this hi quality beauty from FlopClubz.

If you can't make it out, it is some schlep opening the door on one of the vast 50 cars to choose from.

That and lighting.

@scottpsfan14 said:

@FoxbatAlpha said:

Reflections, like this hi quality beauty from FlopClubz.

If you can't make it out, it is some schlep opening the door on one of the vast 50 cars to choose from.

That and lighting.

Perfect damage control.

Come on Scott, even you can appreciate those smoooooth lines.

Most liked graphical features:

Lighting is the 'easiest' way to make games look beautiful. On the other hand, throwing too much Bloom on there can make even the best games look ugly.

LOD is also very important. And more importantly the way LOD changes when you are further removed from an object. GTA V on PS3/360 is a good example: everything looked good up close but things really started to lose detail once they were like 10-20 feet away.

Draw Distance: pop in can be really distracting when playing so a good draw distance can fix that. Dead Rising 3 is a pretty good looking game, but the amount of pop in can really distract !

Most hated graphical features:

Bloom: I liked the feature at first, than some games began overdoing it to hide graphical flaws, and so it became one of my most hated graphical features.

Blur: unless it's a racing game I really don't need blur. TLOU on PS3 is a good example: even when turning the camera very, very slowly there would still be massive amounts of blur on the characters.

Depth of Field: can be done right, most games don't do it though. And if I want to see something in the distance I want to see it in full detail, not blurred out. Can be done right on iron sighting for example. But most of the time I have the idea that the game does not know for me where I am looking.

@scottpsfan14 said:

@FoxbatAlpha said:

@scottpsfan14 said:

@FoxbatAlpha said:

Reflections, like this hi quality beauty from FlopClubz.

If you can't make it out, it is some schlep opening the door on one of the vast 50 cars to choose from.

That and lighting.

Perfect damage control.

Come on Scott, even you can appreciate those smoooooth lines.

Be a sport and post FH2's car reflections then :)

The only one i could find on such short notice.

Yes!

Agreed. I know nothing of level editors, but anybody can see how lighting is what gives solidity and material substance to the environment, giving the setting that much more reality.

@scottpsfan14 said:

@FoxbatAlpha:

Dat textures. Dem trees. Dat water hydrant. I'm LOVIN' it! Oh and that is photo mode too with enhanced IQ.

That's Forza Horizon 1. ONEEEEEEEE.

Can we keep this little battle royal to this gen?

Please don't be calling people noobs, it isn't 2003. Lighting is like a holistic term, I'm talking about graphical features and not visual features. Lighting is something that goes in to design, and that in turn requires certain GRAPHICAL FEATURES like high quality shadows, global illumination, reflections, AO, what have you.

That's what I wanted this thread to be about, I don't see the problem.

3D games: performance (resolution and frame rate).

2D games: art direction.

Lighting (I don't have enough knowledge to be specific about this) and textures.