Watch Dogs PS4 'downgrade' ?

aindriu80

Have you seen the latest Watch Dogs video :

There seems to be a serious downgrade in the PS4 version compared to what has been passed off as game footage back at E3.

There is a lot of discussion about it on NeoGaf but nothing from Ubisoft

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/453066/watch-dogs-trailer-triggers-downgrade-debate/

I won't be getting WatchDogs if the video on the right turns out to be PS4 for real.


Watch Dogs

cloud493

It looks like a general downgrade from the stuff we saw at E3, not just PS4.

Lucreto

It is expected there would be a downgrade since one was a PC version before the PS4 spec was finalised.

Ubi-Soft PR thinks otherwise
http://www.gamepur.com/news/13920-ubisoft-pr-comment-recent-watch-dogs-controversy-graphics-downgraded-looks-.html

Gamer Bhoy 89

I'm probably one of few people that isn't too surprised. Who remembers that ludicrous FPS concept (from the PS3's early E3 previews) that never happened.... That probably isn't the best comparison, though :P

I'm still pretty hyped about Watch Dogs, regardless of the graphics it's still going to play well, I imagine. I've been impressed with every video I've seen so far, even the latest one despite it's seemingly downgraded graphics. I kind of expected it to happen.

I should actually start saving up for a pre-order....

.ak

Lucreto wrote: »

It is expected there would be a downgrade since one was a PC version before the PS4 spec was finalised.

Ubi-Soft PR thinks otherwise
http://www.gamepur.com/news/13920-ubisoft-pr-comment-recent-watch-dogs-controversy-graphics-downgraded-looks-.html

Are they lying?

Am I the only one who thinks the main differences in the demo and the latest videos is lighting? A lot of the textures, models etc., are the same.

johnny_ultimate

.ak wrote: »

Are they lying?

Am I the only one who thinks the main differences in the demo and the latest videos is lighting? A lot of the textures, models etc., are the same.

Yep, definitely notably different lighting situations in a good few comparison images I've seen. That and motion blur.

Frankly, this is par for the course - the game was clearly first shown under ideal, hyperpowered circumstances, like most games are these days. It's not completely honest, but it's a good reason to always be skeptical of early footage (remember Killzone 2?). Early clips would have been well before a lot of UI and stuff was added (note the flashing bridge in one of the recent gameplay videos, clearly indicating that it can be manipulated). I'd certainly be inclined to wait + see what Digital Foundry and the like have to say, rather than damning it two months before release. And if it plays and looks good on PS4, then I'll be more than satisfied - if compromises had to be made so that the game plays better, then so be it. Obviously it isn't going to perform on par with a high quality PC, whatever the circumstances.

gizmo

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Frankly, this is par for the course - the game was clearly first shown under ideal, hyperpowered circumstances, like most games are these days. It's not completely honest, but it's a good reason to always be skeptical of early footage (remember Killzone 2?).

I've seen Killzone 2 come up a lot on this subject recently and I find it rather perplexing. The issue back in 2005 was that Sony showed what Guerilla admitted was a target render but Tretton called it "actual gameplay footage" on stage. Then in 2007 they showed alpha footage and it turned out they were about 90% of the way there in terms of visual fidelity. The difference again being the lighting although under different circumstances obviously. In cases like this, as long as they're honest it's a target render then I think it's alright for a first reveal several years before release.

As for Watch_Dogs, well I think this feature sums things up pretty well.

Gonzo

graphics are similar to last year, however at first I thought otherwise, it's just the lighting thats completely changed. Infamous:Second Son has similiar graphics and lighting values to the Watchdog 2013 E3 demo.

jones

it definitely doesnt look as WOW as it did in 2013

Pixelbastardo

Yeah, that sucks.. and can any of you remember the Division "ps4 gameplay" from e3 ?, it looked godly.. it bit too godly, more like way too godly. more downgrades to come from ubi i suspect.

gizmo

Pixelbastardo wrote: »

Yeah, that sucks.. and can any of you remember the Division "ps4 gameplay" from e3 ?, it looked godly.. it bit too godly, more like way too godly. more downgrades to come from ubi i suspect.

While I'd be inclined to say that the potential downgrade with The Division would be lessened by the fact that the title is next-gen only and has an engine built to match, I'm still not entirely convinced that trailer was real-time in the first place.

Retr0gamer

Did you actually say they were the PS4 version? It could just be the PC version they demoed.

jenjenten

it was deffo downgraded....its not an ultra pc setting question here, thats like its a bad pc port or something

gizmo

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Did you actually say they were the PS4 version? It could just be the PC version they demoed.

I can't find a direct comment from Ubisoft from the conference but every report I've read and the majority of videos I've watched said it was, including the DF article covering the reveal.

It's also worth noting that the PC version wasn't even announced until August of that year so it would have been extremely disingenuous to be showing off "gameplay" footage at quality levels which the shipping SKUs wouldn't have been capable of.

beercr8te

I won't pass judgement until i see videos of the released product.

sxejim

Why would they downgrade the ps4 version. On the demo they showed before it looked fine and played well. (the ps4 14 minute gameplay) The only explanation I have is that they lied about the game being previewed on ps4 originally. It may have been a really expensive pc?

aindriu80

I think the gulf between the super charged PC version and PS4 is too big to bridge so the consoles have to take a downgrade. I think once that decision has been made to downgrade the PS4 version gets lumped in with the other consoles and a more general version comes out to fit all of them.

The game has not been totally optimized for PS4 and that's poor form from Ubisoft.

gizmo

sxejim wrote: »

Why would they downgrade the ps4 version. On the demo they showed before it looked fine and played well. (the ps4 14 minute gameplay) The only explanation I have is that they lied about the game being previewed on ps4 originally. It may have been a really expensive pc?

If you look at the series of videos and gifs in the link I posted above, you'll see the downgrade isn't as terrible as some are making it out to be. There is one particular scene however, the car jumping over the bridge, where the change in lighting is quite obvious though even if the increased diameter of the helicopter spotlight alters things. In many other instances it's a case of footage being taken at different times of the day making the disparities more pronounced.

As for the explanation why, well it's not always something so sinister as the above, merely one of the downsides of working on a massive open world game such as this. What may run fine in a smaller, closed off area during earlier development may quickly become unmanageable when the world expands and becomes more populated with more AI etc...

aindriu80 wrote: »

I think the gulf between the super charged PC version and PS4 is too big to bridge so the consoles have to take a downgrade. I think once that decision has been made to downgrade the PS4 version gets lumped in with the other consoles and a more general version comes out to fit all of them.

The game has not been totally optimized for PS4 and that's poor form from Ubisoft.

There's only so much platform-specific optimisation you can do on a multi-platform, cross generation engine to be honest. The only other platform I can see the PS4 version being lumped in with is the XBox One version. From the only footage available so far, the current gen version of the game looks very different.

aindriu80

gizmo wrote: »

There's only so much platform-specific optimisation you can do on a multi-platform, cross generation engine to be honest. The only other platform I can see the PS4 version being lumped in with is the XBox One version. From the only footage available so far, the current gen version of the game looks very different.

Yeah that's one of the videos I have seen. It looks terrible. Fine for PS3 but not for PS4. Its laughable for me to see such poor graphics and characters float around with no physics.

gizmo

aindriu80 wrote: »

Yeah that's one of the videos I have seen. It looks terrible. Fine for PS3 but not for PS4. Its laughable for me to see such poor graphics and characters float around with no physics.

If it was from the next-gen build of the game then I think it's fair to say there's been an under-reaction to the downgrade.

I'm curious too, what characters were floating around with no physics?

aindriu80

gizmo wrote: »

If it was from the next-gen build of the game then I think it's fair to say there's been an under-reaction to the downgrade.

I'm curious too, what characters were floating around with no physics?

Well I won't be parting with the cash if thats the graphics for PS4.

In that video near the end there is a van that almost drives over a pedestrian. If you watch how she moves around it looks very ps2/ps3 and nothing like what we saw back in E3. The character doesn't even walk properly.

gizmo

aindriu80 wrote: »

In that video near the end there is a van that almost drives over a pedestrian. If you watch how she moves around it looks very ps2/ps3 and nothing like what we saw back in E3. The character doesn't even walk properly.

Er, that's Aisha Tyler, the actress they had on stage at their E3 press briefings and who was providing the voice in the background in that video. I'd imagine it was just a quick trailer thrown together to show she was in the game. As for the general quality shown within, that was addressed here.

That being said, I'm still very interested to see how the current gen version will look compared to the next-gen one, mainly because they've yet to show any of it off.

aindriu80

gizmo wrote: »

Er, that's Aisha Tyler, the actress they had on stage at their E3 press briefings and who was providing the voice in the background in that video. I'd imagine it was just a quick trailer thrown together to show she was in the game. As for the general quality shown within, that was addressed here.

That being said, I'm still very interested to see how the current gen version will look compared to the next-gen one, mainly because they've yet to show any of it off.

Well I thought it was desperate.

The PS3 still can run a very decent game. They took ages to properly harness it.

I hope they fix it because I remember looking at something like this at E3 :

Its the division and its new snowdrop engine. It looks awesome but without any clarification about will it what we see on the PS4 running.

gizmo

aindriu80 wrote: »

I hope they fix it because I remember looking at something like this at E3 :

Its the division and its new snowdrop engine. It looks awesome but without any clarification about will it what we see on the PS4 running.

We actually talked about The Division above, see post #11 and #14 for my take on it in this context. That only applied to the E3 video though whereas the latest video shown today looks like some sections running at detail levels approximating what's probably possible on next-gen hardware (namely footage similar to the E3 video) combined with some that's almost certainly running on a high end PC. I'd happily bet that some of the more epic forest scenery shown, for instance, would be running on the latter platform.

PeteK*

So, the game won't look like this for anyone?

Make sure you select HD

aindriu80

looks like the footage was indeed a PS4 but a dev kit.

Watch Dogs graphics look better in the latest trailer
UPDATE: Footage taken from a PS4 dev kit.
By Wesley Yin-Poole Published Monday, 31 March 2014

UPDATE 31/03/2014: The recently-released Watch Dogs Welcome to Chicago trailer contains footage captured from the PlayStation 4 version of the game, Ubisoft Montreal has revealed.

"Just to clarify: Our "Welcome to Chicago" trailer is indeed PS4 Devkit footage. I know this was a popular question so there you go ," Watch Dogs creative director Jonathan Morin confirmed on Twitter.

I think they fixed the physics. It was a joke.

sxejim

ps4 devkit. Does that mean that it was running on a ps4 or running on a pc emulating a ps4?

gizmo

sxejim wrote: »

ps4 devkit. Does that mean that it was running on a ps4 or running on a pc emulating a ps4?

It means it was running on a devkit which is essentially PS4 hardware with (one assumes) a little extra memory on-board for debug usage.