Unreal Engine 3.9

    Quote from Serenius

    Yeah, GoW1 has some really weird lighting schemes. 40%-50% desaturation, cranked up mid-tones, and a bajillion point lights that turn into a giant brown and gray washed out mess most of the time. It's actually quite pretty when you turn off the desaturation and looks more like the much improved lighting in GoW2. Must have been an art direction thing.

    UT3 has the same thing in the stock maps, hundreds of small point lights everywhere. Is that to simulate ambient/bounce lighting?

    Unreal didn't have radiosity in it's early light model. That's why every bounce was faked with an omni light put in corners and behind obstacles. Since they baked lightmaps it didn't matter performence wise. Now with lightmass working (or any other radiosity solution like Beast for Mirrors Edge) that workflow is luckily not necessary anymore and the results look times better (at least for the average artist, I think everyone agrees that we have seen great results with the old technique as well).

    Quote from SamCom

    UT3 has the same thing in the stock maps, hundreds of small point lights everywhere. Is that to simulate ambient/bounce lighting?

    Yup. There are...easier ways to do it though. Honestly, half the time I've messed around with any of them, there's barely any difference. Like the leaves on a tree are just...a slight...bit...greener. A wall is just...slightly...browner. Never really understood the point of having 2000 light actors do the same job you can pull off with 250-500 when the effect is almost unnoticeable.

    Quote from Sentura

    Don't give me that shit. The problem is not texture or mesh resolution, not even lack of AA or full dynamic lighting on consoles, but stupid post process filters and bland lighting.

    The tech demo is actually from 2004. It's from 7 years ago and still looks impressive:

    External Content www.youtube.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

    so... you're saying that their level designers are awful?

    uh? I'm talking about the art direction, not about the level design (which is great in GOW btw).

    Something happened along the way that made someone decide to go from this:

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/2acvw.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/K1BSb.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/34dWd.jpg]

    to this:

    [Blocked Image: http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/824/824946/gears-of-war-20071003095635080.jpg]

    I'm not talking about texture or lightmap resolution but about post-processes, environment colors, contrast etc.

    Couldn't this screenshot below look much better with better lighting and colors?

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/Jo2kE.png]

    The good news is that Epic finally realized that and GOW 3 might actually live up to its potential. The grass is green now at least.

    [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/KBx2k.jpg]

    i don't like the new screenshot, but yeah, neither the old ones - the concept art looks great though.

    The new one is missing some breakup on the surfaces - the buildings look flat and the mountains look like typical game-world borders. that said: it's an xbox game and well, it's supposed to work and make fun, which it probably will (or should i say does, from what i've played so far :S).

    I'd say epics art these days is just playing it safe, not being extreme enough in any direction to upset people (and fans of their IP's) Would be interesting to see epic guys going balls out with art, that bottom screen shot could have allot of color and interesting lighting, instead it's Gray! Uncharted shows you don't have to make ruins just Gray! Green isn't enough to make the scene feel alive with color.

    Quote from 2d-chris

    I'd say epics art these days is just playing it safe, not being extreme enough in any direction to upset people (and fans of their IP's) Would be interesting to see epic guys going balls out with art, that bottom screen shot could have allot of color and interesting lighting, instead it's Gray! Uncharted shows you don't have to make ruins just Gray! Green isn't enough to make the scene feel alive with color.

    The game you're looking for is Bulletstorm.

    No, all epic did there was ruin People can Fly. When I look at Bulletstorm and realise these guys made Painkiller I begin to cry.

    Obviously they have been altered to look better, but still looking really nice.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.thehdroom.com/images/gamescreens/large/7532.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.thehdroom.com/images/gamescreens/large/7533.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.thehdroom.com/images/gamescreens/large/7534.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.thehdroom.com/images/gamescreens/large/7538.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.thehdroom.com/images/gamescreens/large/7539.jpg]

    Quote from dux

    How is that woman able to impale that thing 2ft off of the ground? It's 3 times her mass! Not realistic at all!111

    I guess thats why the company is called EPIC I always thought the women gears looked out of place to begin with.

    Quote

    And why is that black guys leg as big as my waist? Not realistic at all!!1

    You should see the size of his shit!?!?!?!

    I have to say that Epic's almost monochromatic approach to art direction doesn't do much much for me. Admittedly they were kind of the first to do it and it was a signature look for the Gears of War games (okay, and UT3), but aesthetically I'm just not keen. I'll take the vibrant colours and contrasts of Uncharted 2 any day.

    Gears of War 3 does look like an improvement. It retains its signature monochromatic look in part, but there's shots of colour in there that make it more artistically desirable. This is a good balance IMO because it is the GoW style, just like certain directors and musicians have their own trademarks. It just wasn't pulled off anywhere nearly as well in GoW3's predecessors IMO.

    I guess one problem is because GoW was so successful loads of people started aping what has since been called the 'brown' look, so people have become incredibly tired of it. Now that colour's started to make a resurgence (what a weird thing to say) it's rather refreshing.

    Quote

    ":15hxh5j4]lol, those arent staged / bullshots at all...

    Yeah, I mean crytek or any other developer ever has never done that at all before or anything.

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!

Register Yourself Login