Fantastic gameplay footage of one of my most anticipated games next year. Great work as usual from Naughty Dog. On a slightly critical note aimed at the new wave of next-gen games, Im not sure if this is a byproduct of a PBR workflow but im missing the contact shadows or subtle ao that we used to paint or bake on characters. Areas where cloth meets skin or where a strap or belt crosses clothing. Similarly when an ammo belt clips onto the belt or under laces on a shoe. There is a flatness in the these aspects that I see a lot across pbr work online and in current games. Having worked with pbr on several next-gen engines and worked with both major pbr methods, I find its heavily reliant on the engine and shaders performing their job as promised. That means realtime AO ( through shader or screen effect ) and Lighting and shadows that are high resolution enough to provide contact shadows. Features like local reflections just add even more realism. The engine docs say almost strictly to not add it in the albedo, Instead relying on engine tech or shadows that add it in from baked AO maps. But strictly following this the depth and weight of straps or transitions between layers is lost because there are no shadows or small ao and bounce light. I assume as well that features like this will be cut to improve performance after all the art assets have been created this way. However when it is added in small subtle amounts, the results in engine look much better, more depthy and more readable from distance. Pbr and next-gen shading is fantastic and the quality is leaping forward rapidly but with all the new tools, improvements and engine automation I think its vital not to forget an artistic eye is still as important as ever, as we are not quite there yet. I imagine not everyone will agree but the criticism isnt trying to take anything away from Naughty Dog, one of the biggest forces of our industry for innovative games and visuals and a company I admire greatly.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 11:26:51 +0000
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