Why do the console versions look so terrible?

[Shawn Zipay]

I'm reading through this NeoGAF thread about the visuals for Hardline on the XB1 and PS4 and... wow. Just wow! What the hell did they do? I know that Hardline is 720p on XB1 and 900p on PS4 but this is just nuts!

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1012168

Not my screenshots, taken from the above link:





and
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost...&postcount=231

Bad Company 1 on 360:


Bad Company 2 on 360:


BF4 on PS4:



How did they manage to mess this up so badly?

[CptainCrunch]

Dont know.

Some have been asking about this and there hasn't been an answer. Some speculate its because of all the extra stuff in the game and some say its due to the larger servers and all the different game modes.

I know DICE and Visceral have been having a lot of issues with the hardware budgets on console and meeting the specs. One example is the shield in BF4. Originally if you had the shield you were also able to use a pistol, but according to the devs, there was not enough memory to do both, so they removed it on all platforms.

I wouldnt think this would be an issue with the newest Xbox and Playstation, but I think the devs are under orders to keep the game uniform across all platforms.

[Shawn Zipay]

Dont know.

Some have been asking about this and there hasn't been an answer. Some speculate its because of all the extra stuff in the game and some say its due to the larger servers and all the different game modes.

I know DICE and Visceral have been having a lot of issues with the hardware budgets on console and meeting the specs. One example is the shield in BF4. Originally if you had the shield you were also able to use a pistol, but according to the devs, there was not enough memory to do both, so they removed it on all platforms.

I wouldnt think this would be an issue with the newest Xbox and Playstation, but I think the devs are under orders to keep the game uniform across all platforms.

What extra features? Battlefield 4 on PS4 was also 64 players. Comparatively, Hardline has fewer weapons and (from what I've seen and experienced in the alpha/beta) it also seems to have less destructive environments. Plus BF4 was still 720p on XB1 and 900p on PS4 and both did 60fps (maybe not constantly, but sometimes).

Plus the server stuff really shouldn't be impacted much by the visuals the clients see, especially with things like textures, foliage, non-destructible/movable objects/buildings.

I've also seen the excuse of "cross-gen" development holding it back on PS4/XB1, but that doesn't seem to hold much water either since Battlefield 4 was also "cross-gen." I also cannot imagine why the devs would be under orders to hold anything back either. Why do it with Hardline but not BF4? Sony and MS aren't going to push for that, they want their new systems to sell. EA would be absolutely mental to do that as well because if the game looks terrible, they're the ones who are going to be (or getting, in this case) mocked online and that will sure as hell dissuade sales. Sometimes bad press really is just bad press.

[CptainCrunch]

I know, I dont understand it myself. I dont play on console or listen too much to what is going on with them. It doesnt really make sense to me either, but a number of devs have stated that they are really pushing the limits on resources. Maybe its the FB3 engine. Maybe its poorly optimized code and such. Maybe its something with that guys system or what he downloaded.

As for the "holding" it back, I remember something in the CTE program being stated that they wanted things uniform across all platforms, so if it couldnt be done on a console, it wasnt done across the board, such as the shield thing.

I wish I had answers Zips, but I dont, just mumblings in the underground. :/

[signa]

All I can see is the Battlefield "blue hue". :)

[Shawn Zipay]

I know, I dont understand it myself. I dont play on console or listen too much to what is going on with them. It doesnt really make sense to me either, but a number of devs have stated that they are really pushing the limits on resources. Maybe its the FB3 engine. Maybe its poorly optimized code and such. Maybe its something with that guys system or what he downloaded.

As for the "holding" it back, I remember something in the CTE program being stated that they wanted things uniform across all platforms, so if it couldnt be done on a console, it wasnt done across the board, such as the shield thing.

I wish I had answers Zips, but I dont, just mumblings in the underground. :/

Well, those images are from multiple people so it's not really limited to just one guy. Which is even more disheartening.

And something like the CTE I could understand. That was for features or fixes to the game that was already out for months by that time. I'd assume they would want to stay within some sort of a budget there since they couldn't very well go over budget by adding a bunch of stuff and upsetting their existing customers on the old platforms. Like, that stuff I get. Existing product and all. This though just seems inexcusable.

All I can see is the Battlefield "blue hue". :)

Yeah, their color filtering is still way overdone on that engine. I'm assuming it's an engine thing and not just consistently poor choices by different developers (but ... who knows).

[stilla-killa]

I am playing it on PS4 now and I think the graphics look pretty good. I am having a blast playing hotwire.

[jimykx]

From the videos I was seeing it didn't look this bad. It actually looked pretty similar to other PC videos. I guess these were just opportunistic bad shots? But yeah, the AA is really awful
Anyways, it seems the power of these new consoles isn't all that NEXT GEN. Did you hear about the GTA V graphics downgrade too?
It's an appropriate time to say



Edit:
I would also say that it's Visceral's first experience with the engine (hopefully the last with BF), so maybe they don't know so well how to optimize it and make it look better on consoles?