The Art Style and Graphics Discussion

[Tyaren]

Tomorrow "Boost Mode" finally reaches PS4 Pro in the 4.5 Playstation system update. More stable/higher framerates, shorter loading times and less texture pop in older PS4 games for everyone!
@ShinobiGuy, @CyberEvil

Let's see if Last Round's loading times are even shorter now... They already were a little shorter on Pro without a patch.

 

[CyberEvil]

Tomorrow "Boost Mode" finally reaches PS4 Pro in the 4.5 Playstation system update. More stable/higher framerates, shorter loading times and less texture pop in older PS4 games for everyone!
@ShinobiGuy, @CyberEvil

Let's see if Last Round's loading times are even shorter now... They already were a little shorter on Pro without a patch.

You know I can see a history of post edits, right? LOL. Tagging me twice like you're not a veteran around here, man...

I am looking forward to it but I likely won't turn on my PS4 again until April when the Nioh DLC hits. Got my Platinum in it today and that was the only reason I was playing it.

 

[ShinobiGuy]

I am very excited to see the difference. The only thing I really need now is an HDR TV, OLED maybe.

I am looking forward to it but I likely won't turn on my PS4 again until April when the Nioh DLC hits. Got my Platinum in it today and that was the only reason I was playing it.

I just reached level 100 and got my first mystic art.

 

[KasumiLover]

So I've been playing Nier Automata for the past two days and lemme just say that the game is also stunning imo as well as fun! Here's some screens I took:

Sorry about the prompt, I was streaming the game earlier but eventually just said nah since no one even watched and I figured I might as well play without streaming

The desert boss I had to fight, this was one of the creepiest and most bizarre cutscenes in the game, especially the aftermath of having killed him >.<

My favorite pic of 9S, he so cute! ♡.♡

I meet Adam and Eve.

Had to learn the hard way that their looks can be deceiving >.>

A2! Dat hair and costume tho ♡.♡

Another shot, god is she beautiful...so disheveled and unkempt yet attractively so ♡.♡

This part was oddly satisfying to screenshot, loved the perfect squares☆

I HATE Adam for doing this to 9S and making 2B angry...only good thing about him is the boss BGM, had a really hard EDM type feel

When I killed him...although tbh it wasn't satisfying, he seemed to be quite masochistic and enjoyed his death which was disturbing...

That's all I'll post for now, but seriously the game is FUN!! I've played already for about 10-11 hours, and hardly ever stop for bathroom breaks or anything XD​

 

[Tyaren]

So I've been playing Nier Automata for the past two days and lemme just say that the game is also stunning imo as well as fun! Here's some screens I took:

Sorry about the prompt, I was streaming the game earlier but eventually just said nah since no one even watched and I figured I might as well play without streaming

The desert boss I had to fight, this was one of the creepiest and most bizarre cutscenes in the game, especially the aftermath of having killed him >.<

My favorite pic of 9S, he so cute! ♡.♡

I meet Adam and Eve.

Had to learn the hard way that their looks can be deceiving >.>

A2! Dat hair and costume tho ♡.♡

Another shot, god is she beautiful...so disheveled and unkempt yet attractively so ♡.♡

This part was oddly satisfying to screenshot, loved the perfect squares☆

I HATE Adam for doing this to 9S and making 2B angry...only good thing about him is the boss BGM, had a really hard EDM type feel

When I killed him...although tbh it wasn't satisfying, he seemed to be quite masochistic and enjoyed his death which was disturbing...

That's all I'll post for now, but seriously the game is FUN!! I've played already for about 10-11 hours, and hardly ever stop for bathroom breaks or anything XD​

Why is the game so washed out and hazy? Did you crank up the brightness in-game to the max or does it really look like that?

 

[KasumiLover]

Why is the game so washed out and hazy? Did you crank up the brightness in-game to the max or does it really look like that?

That's the visual I think, Iike in some environments it's hazy because of lighting and the lack of color, the environments can be very bright too, although I have my brightness at about 3/5.

I love the hair in the game, it looks so thick and some are very long...Adam and A2's hair tho! One android even had a look similar to a hime cut, I really hope they add DLC that lets you change 9S and 2B's hair style too!

 

[Tyaren]

That's the visual I think, Iike in some environments it's hazy because of lighting and the lack of color, the environments can be very bright too, although I have my brightness at about 3/5.

I love the hair in the game, it looks so thick and some are very long...Adam and A2's hair tho! One android even had a look similar to a hime cut, I really hope they add DLC that lets you change 9S and 2B's hair style too!

I see... I don't really like that washed out look. :/

The bad image compression also might make that worse. You still seem to be using .jpg and Twitter. You are ruining your images in not just one but two steps. XD You really should give .png as the image format and Flickr.com as a host a try. I mean, you spend so much effort, also on that DOA butt comparison, only to impair your work with badly compressed pics.

For everyone who enjoys game art and didn't get the Deluxe, Limited or Collector's Edition of Horizon Zero Dawn, which include a mini art book, here is a cool video of all the art and designs in there:

I have to say the designs of the Carja and Shadow Carja are some of the most beautiful and most intricate designs I have seen in a video game yet. Their clothing and their architecture are truly a sight to behold. Some of those are in the art book too. But once you see them in the game your jaw will definitely drop, especially seeing the cities Meridian and Sunfall.

 

[Jadeinchains]

It looks amazing, I love the transition between a normal town to it being over grown with vegetation, Is there lore and a lot of side quest type stuff to do in this game? The people seem to be more advanced than I thought they would be.

 

[KasumiLover]

I see... I don't really like that washed out look. :/

The bad image compression also might make that worse. You still seem to be using .jpg and Twitter. You are ruining your images in not just one but two steps. XD You really should give .png as the image format and Flickr.com as a host a try. I mean, you spend so much effort, also on that DOA butt comparison, only to impair your work with badly compressed pics.

For everyone who enjoys game art and didn't get the Deluxe, Limited or Collector's Edition of Horizon Zero Dawn, which include a mini art book, here is a cool video of all the art and designs in there:

I have to say the designs of the Carja and Shadow Carja are some of the most beautiful and most intricate designs I have seen in a video game yet. Their clothing and their architecture are truly a sight to behold. Some of those are in the art book too. But once you see them in the game your jaw will definitely drop, especially seeing the cities Meridian and Sunfall.

Will it still be compressed with the rig method? That's what I use to post pics and I'll definitely switch my ps4 to png when I get home to continue playing XD

 

[Tyaren]

It looks amazing, I love the transition between a normal town to it being over grown with vegetation, Is there lore and a lot of side quest type stuff to do in this game? The people seem to be more advanced than I thought they would be.

In-game they come incredibly close to their art. Imo they actually surpass it:

(this is an in-game shot that I took.)

The Decima Engine is able to push out polygons, texture quality and lighting in pre-render quality.

Oh, there is A LOT of lore. There are four culturally unique tribes, Nora (where Aloy is from), the Carja, the Oseram and the Banuk. Each tribe has its own history and lore. The game does a really good job explaining them to you. Especially the Nora and Carja are very intricately explained. You learn about them through the story, talking to NPCs, just overhearing them, doing quests and you find many books, letters and audio files. I haven't even found a third of those even though I actually go out of my way looking for them because they interest me. The game world is one of the most fleshed out that I have experienced so far. And that's not even all, then there is also the old world (our world in the future) and the machine world that pose a mystery to you to slowly unravel.

Yeah, the games pre-release promotion made it seem as if you are playing in a simple hunters and gatheres world, like Far Cry Primal, but it is actually just the Nora and Banuk that feel a little caveman-ish. Especially the Carja are a high culture. They are a mixture of Mogul India, Inca and even Pharaonic Egypt.

 

[Jadeinchains]

That actually makes it more interesting to me that the cultures of the world are more advanced, If it's world is fleshed out and filled with lore I'm interested by that as well. I always like there being files around the world to read up on background information. That screenshot looks like a mix of a mechanical octopus/spider too, I'm really liking the creatures of this game so far. But yeah when I was watching that video I thought the city was interesting looking.

 

[Tyaren]

That actually makes it more interesting to me that the cultures of the world are more advanced, If it's world is fleshed out and filled with lore I'm interested by that as well. I always like there being files around the world to read up on background information. That screenshot looks like a mix of a mechanical octopus/spider too, I'm really liking the creatures of this game so far. But yeah when I was watching that video I thought the city was interesting looking.

If you like that aspect of games, you will love it in this game. The lore in this game is deeper than in games like The Witcher 3 and especially FFXV, that tells you basically nothing of the world that you play in and thus its world feels lifeless and you don't really care about it.
Horizon is imho most comparable to Oblivion or Skyrim, where you also find lots of information about the history and lore of the world. I would argue that Horizon even tops these games in this regard, because its world and cultures are imo more interesting and there is much more variety.

That city, Meridian, and also Sunfall and some other smaller towns of the Carja are more than just interesting. The architecture is amazing. I would bombard you with photos, if the photomode actually worked in towns. It's such a shame. D: So I don't do any bad photos that don't really do these places justice.

Regarding side quests, which I forgot to answer:
There are more than enough side quests. Not as many as in The Witcher 3 or Skyrim or Fallout 4, which have like hundreds (but with a lot of filler material), Horizon maybe has 30-40. But almost all of these are interesting and go way beyond simple fetch or hunt quests. Like the Witcher 3 they tell a little story and introduce or deepen characters and lore to you. They hired one of the Witcher 3 quest designers, so no wonder.
Some of these side quest also span the complete or big parts of the game or they tell side stories of the main story. You are for example introduced to a character in the main story and after you are done with that part the character leaves the main story forever or for a while. But you can still help him solve a problem that arose during the main story. Later in the main story you might meet that character again and the game actually ackowledges that you did help him and that you became close allies instead of ignoring his troubles.

 

[Jadeinchains]

Yeah as much as I love FFXV we really didn't learn much about it's world. ( creatures, countries, cities ) Hopefully they flesh that out. It's good if they've managed to do that with this game since I always get really into stuff like that. That's one of the reasons why I love the Elder Scrolls series, I just checked and it's wikia has over 50,000 pages! I like to look back and read that sometimes.

And yeah 30-40 side quests seems fine since If they are varied and not just fetch quests.

 

[Tyaren]

And yeah 30-40 side quests seems fine since If they are varied and not just fetch quests.

On top of real side quests there are hunts, errands and lots of collecting too by the way. So if someone actually likes those and is a completionist he won't miss that either.

I have by the way found someone going throug the pages of the bigger art book. There is even more art of the Carja and their two cities, Meridian and Sunfall:

 

[Jadeinchains]

I love the look of the cities in that book, They looked just modern enough and futuristic enough. And at least from what I've saw I definitely like the look of Carja the most, The clothes the people wear and they're city.

 

[Chapstick]

Seriously @Jadeinchains it's an amazing game get it if you can

 

[Jadeinchains]

Seriously @Jadeinchains it's an amazing game get it if you can

Yeah from what I'm seeing and hearing I really should, I'm definitely going to think about it a lot now. I was also recommended FFX-2 etc and also the Witcher 3 and I loved them so I think I'd love this!

 

[KasumiLover]

I just saw this for Nier Automata:

Does this mean that mods are no longer possible?

 

[Project Bokuho]

I just saw this for Nier Automata:
View attachment 22758

Does this mean that mods are no longer possible?

Possibly.

 

[KasumiLover]

Well I passed the game, or at least route A. Here's some screens I took:

Eve is pissed off

9S has very pretty eyes... I took a pic of them closed since if they were opened it would spoil what happens

2B too, her eyes are stunning

Probably the most touching pic I've taken in the game, I won't go in to what happened beforehand but seeing this put me at ease.
​

I absolutely loved the game. I have to admit I'm pretty sad it's over, I can play it again for a different route but the game was such a good distraction and sucked me in... I'm probably not gonna touch it for a day or two, this always happens when I play a game I love, I'm so bummed it's over that it takes me a bit of time to play it over again