I've been meaning to do this thread for a while, and multiple time decided not to. Since I worked quite a bit on it, and it's a subject that is especially of importance to me, I'm going to make it.
So, we were shown some footage during pre alpha, and a version of planet generation in alpha which is very downgraded compared to today. I bought the DLC because of those footage, sometimes labelled "ingame footage" and I feel misled. Now, I don't think it was with malicious intent. I think it was a desperate move to gain more FPS. But the result is the same for the end user (that's us).
Also, and this is important, it's is NOT about how ugly Odyssey is or is not. And I fully acknowledge that a few, very rare planets actually are relatively similar to the trailer, up to a point. More on that later when it become relevant.
Disclaimer, since I know it's certainly going to run hot : to prove my point I'm going to compare 2 planets in details, in relatively similar places. Note that all screenshots were taken on high/ultra, and to look similar to the trailers, NOT to cherry pick an "ugly" location. Since the places will be noted, anybody who disagree can go there and take a picture.
First, I used ED own trailers, and the screenshots out of them.
from :
For some discussion. The planets shown in this trailer (at least the one we know the name) were compared upon Odyssey release.
And also :
for the first planet.
So, let's start with Villae C4, shown in the heist trailer. The settlement they use doesn't exist today (probably another random generation), so I went to another one on the planet.
VILLAE C4, heist trailer
High atmo :
The downgrade is already obvious. From an amazing looking mountainous and snow/ice planet to, huh, melted ice ? The details aren't there, it's blurry, smooth. The elevation isn't there either.
I think it's objectively worse. Nobody with any sense of aesthetic can say it look better. And it's certainly not as high in graphical fidelity.
Now, this is interesting because sometimes the game actually work in a relatively similar ways :
While still a downgrade, it's still much, much better than the average Odyssey planet. And much, much closer to the footage. So what happened ? Why is this the oddity, but not the norm ?
Planetside :
Do note, I couldn't find a settlement inside a crater/valley like in the trailer, but the one I had was at the edge of a crater. So I'd say it's "good enough".
and
Now, this is EXTREMELY common all throughout Odyssey. A very smooth, without noise hillside. Compared to the amazing looking hills from the trailer, with much more noise and realism.
Once again, the downgrade is quite obvious. Once again, it's not about "is it good", but how downgraded it look.
There is another downgrade that start to be visible now, but will be more obvious later on : no more volumetric atmospheric. Yup, the trailers all had GORGEOUS volumetric atmo, and it was replaced with a cheap shader. In short for those who don't understand, the sky used to be full of cloudy and foggy stuff, and it was downgraded into a simple "blue" (or whatever colour the atmo use) painted sky.
Now, you say "well, it's development footage", right ?
Well it gets even more sad. This is from Alpha, mere weeks before release, from players themselves when we had the original planet generation (as shown in the trailer), at least half working.
I present you pegasi sector db-n be-1 1.
Now, this planet is relatively interesting. See, it's a frozen planet. At least it was in alpha. And the new engine supposedly can do that. Well, let's check.
(source for the alpha screenshots : )
Pegasi sector db-n be-1 1
Planetside :
The differences are STUNNING.
-No more gorgeous volumetric effect (the cold mist). As I mentioned earlier.
-No more ice on rock/gravel texture
-no more snow accumulation
-very bland texture
-Poor rock scattering
It gets even worse (I know....). See the black mark ? I assume to represent the effect when a rock is dragged by ice on the ground ? Well, it's low resolution textures. No actual ground deformation or anything.
Also, see how the "ice on ground" have been replaced from a gorgeous texture to a "grey gravel with painted white" ? Yeah....
Low atmo :
I have no idea what this weird "dotted texture" effect is supposed to show. But the original is better with it's ice accumulating on hill slopes. But also a much bigger view distance for the mountains.
Low orbit :
Obvious downgrade, again. The bottom of the picture is very blurry, that's low resolution textures. Note that I'm on high/ultra when I took the screenshot.
Then you have the "dotted" texture ?
We are nowhere close to the snow capped mountains and very detailed landscape from Alpha.
But it gets worse. Oh yes.
Orbit :
I mean, WTH ? One one hand we have a frozen planet with 2 visible "biomes" the icy mountains and the regular land around. With lots of details all around.
On the other, we have a blurry painting made in low rez with poor details. This is NOT befitting any decent games from 2010 and above.
As a side note, this was a glitch I had on that planet :
See how the terrain is tiled, centered around an invisible point somewhere near where the "info" holographic panel is ? That's quite bad. And I didn't search for it, I saw it when I took the screenshot posted for low atmo. This is near where I landed and took the screenshots.
As you can see, the trailers were misleading. Most notably, the volumetric atmosphere was replaced quickly before release. This is a fact, the "ingame footage" label was a misleading. Not a lie, I guess, because it was an ingame footage at the time.
Since volumetric is more FPS hungry, we can assume this was done to mitigate the terrible optimization. And in fact, I assume the entire downgrade was a sacrifice to the optimization Gods, with no real result.
Also, the downgrade happened very late in development, since it was still looking like that during alpha. At some point they rushed to downgrade with no regard to the consequences.
And it led to issues on its own. See the first screenshot ? The nice mountain view from low orbit/high atmo ? There is a repetitive tilling bug, but the terrain is so highly detailed with so much noise, you can't see it without searching for it. Now that we have a blurry mess with no details, it's a lot more obvious and led to topic you may be familiar with.
Also, for the same reason, stuff like this crater :
Which you probably have noticed A LOT since Odyssey release, was made a lot more obvious to spot. Apparently it was already in Horizon, but the planet had enough noise to hide it most of the time, and make it less obvious.
So, we were shown some footage during pre alpha, and a version of planet generation in alpha which is very downgraded compared to today. I bought the DLC because of those footage, sometimes labelled "ingame footage" and I feel misled. Now, I don't think it was with malicious intent. I think it was a desperate move to gain more FPS. But the result is the same for the end user (that's us).
Also, and this is important, it's is NOT about how ugly Odyssey is or is not. And I fully acknowledge that a few, very rare planets actually are relatively similar to the trailer, up to a point. More on that later when it become relevant.
Disclaimer, since I know it's certainly going to run hot : to prove my point I'm going to compare 2 planets in details, in relatively similar places. Note that all screenshots were taken on high/ultra, and to look similar to the trailers, NOT to cherry pick an "ugly" location. Since the places will be noted, anybody who disagree can go there and take a picture.
First, I used ED own trailers, and the screenshots out of them.
from :
And also :
So, let's start with Villae C4, shown in the heist trailer. The settlement they use doesn't exist today (probably another random generation), so I went to another one on the planet.
VILLAE C4, heist trailer
High atmo :
I think it's objectively worse. Nobody with any sense of aesthetic can say it look better. And it's certainly not as high in graphical fidelity.
Now, this is interesting because sometimes the game actually work in a relatively similar ways :
Planetside :
Do note, I couldn't find a settlement inside a crater/valley like in the trailer, but the one I had was at the edge of a crater. So I'd say it's "good enough".
and
Once again, the downgrade is quite obvious. Once again, it's not about "is it good", but how downgraded it look.
There is another downgrade that start to be visible now, but will be more obvious later on : no more volumetric atmospheric. Yup, the trailers all had GORGEOUS volumetric atmo, and it was replaced with a cheap shader. In short for those who don't understand, the sky used to be full of cloudy and foggy stuff, and it was downgraded into a simple "blue" (or whatever colour the atmo use) painted sky.
Now, you say "well, it's development footage", right ?
Well it gets even more sad. This is from Alpha, mere weeks before release, from players themselves when we had the original planet generation (as shown in the trailer), at least half working.
I present you pegasi sector db-n be-1 1.
Now, this planet is relatively interesting. See, it's a frozen planet. At least it was in alpha. And the new engine supposedly can do that. Well, let's check.
(source for the alpha screenshots : )
Pegasi sector db-n be-1 1
Planetside :
alpha
now
also, note the snow/ice dust accumulation at some places, due to wind and stuff :
now
also, note the snow/ice dust accumulation at some places, due to wind and stuff :
-No more gorgeous volumetric effect (the cold mist). As I mentioned earlier.
-No more ice on rock/gravel texture
-no more snow accumulation
-very bland texture
-Poor rock scattering
It gets even worse (I know....). See the black mark ? I assume to represent the effect when a rock is dragged by ice on the ground ? Well, it's low resolution textures. No actual ground deformation or anything.
Low atmo :
Low orbit :
Then you have the "dotted" texture ?
We are nowhere close to the snow capped mountains and very detailed landscape from Alpha.
But it gets worse. Oh yes.
Orbit :
On the other, we have a blurry painting made in low rez with poor details. This is NOT befitting any decent games from 2010 and above.
As a side note, this was a glitch I had on that planet :
As you can see, the trailers were misleading. Most notably, the volumetric atmosphere was replaced quickly before release. This is a fact, the "ingame footage" label was a misleading. Not a lie, I guess, because it was an ingame footage at the time.
Since volumetric is more FPS hungry, we can assume this was done to mitigate the terrible optimization. And in fact, I assume the entire downgrade was a sacrifice to the optimization Gods, with no real result.
Also, the downgrade happened very late in development, since it was still looking like that during alpha. At some point they rushed to downgrade with no regard to the consequences.
And it led to issues on its own. See the first screenshot ? The nice mountain view from low orbit/high atmo ? There is a repetitive tilling bug, but the terrain is so highly detailed with so much noise, you can't see it without searching for it. Now that we have a blurry mess with no details, it's a lot more obvious and led to topic you may be familiar with.
Also, for the same reason, stuff like this crater :
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