With the prior AO solution, this shot had a very "seventh-gen" appearance, but the new AO is doing an enormous amount of work to make this scene look properly lit. This more subtle shading and more realistic lighting overall is transformative in many scenes, like the courthouse in the opening cutscene. Deep crevices are filled convincingly with shade, while geometric intersections only receive noticeable AO coverage when appropriate. Gone is the crude-looking AMD CACAO implementation that was present before, replaced with a better-looking alternative. The difference in lighting and shadowing in some scenes can be dramatic, causing a generational improvement in image quality.Īs of version 1.2, Forspoken's ambient occlusion has been overhauled. Thankfully, this is the key area where the new patches have delivered very substantial improvements. As a result, Forspoken - despite decent-looking characters and fairly detailed models - just didn't look right in a lot of lighting conditions. A lot of materials ended up looking shiny, with very visible specularity, so they appeared reflective even when their real-world counterparts had diffuse surfaces. Approximating these secondary effects of light was a key technical advancement in last-gen games, with most adopting baked GI and screen-space ambient occlusion (SSAO) alongside the use of physically-based materials.įorspoken had poor secondary lighting though, seeming to rely on basic, low-fidelity baked GI solution with ambient occlusion that consisted only of simple dark outlines where geometry intersected. In games, we usually model these phenomena through global illumination (GI) and ambient occlusion (AO) techniques. When we light spaces in video games, we need to be mindful of the way that light propagates through real-world environments, bouncing and scattering around physical objects, flooding areas with reflected luminance, with subtle occlusion when it is impeded. Interestingly, when comparing the game's dynamic resolution system between 1.0 and 1.2, I noticed that the more recent code often exhibits higher internal resolutions than 1.0 in the 60Hz quality and performance modes, despite their improved performance - perhaps due to changes with the game's lighting and fog in the most recent version.Īfter all, the biggest issue with Forspoken's visual presentation was its relatively poor indirect lighting. Oliver takes a look at Forspoken's current turnout on PS5 as of patch 1.2, provided in convenient video form above. There are still occasional dips, but the vast majority of the performance issues seem to have been resolved which makes the game feel a lot better to play. Forspoken also includes 120Hz versions of each of its three modes, with quality and RT targeting 40fps while performance mode remains at 60fps and these modes also perform well, essentially trading resolution for higher or more stable performance. The good news is that these issues appear to have been solved in 1.2, with a steady 30fps in quality and RT modes and 60fps during the vast majority of combat. Meanwhile, performance mode exhibited frequent frame-rate dips in combat, souring the experience. As a reminder, some areas of the launch version of Forspoken had serious performance issues, often dipping to around 20fps in both quality and RT modes despite a 30fps target. Getting into specifics, let's start with performance and resolution changes, before diving into more transformative upgrades to the game's indirect lighting. Have recent patches turned Forspoken into a technically sound title, or does the game remain a bit of an open-world mess? Some might say it's both of these things, but let's be clear - improved lighting, dramatically better ambient occlusion, higher resolutions and even superior frame-rates represents an often night-and-day improvement over the original launch. A dedicated patching campaign seems to have improved the title's plight, with reported visual and performance improvements in tow as of version 1.2. At launch, the game was far less impressive though - a repetitive, empty game with surprisingly dated graphics despite its high budget. Forspoken was one of the most promising early PS5 showings, revealed with death-defying parkour, wide-open landscapes and beautiful visuals throughout.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |