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[Stringjam]

It seems to be a very good engine. I'm pretty sure most of the lighting isn't baked, either.

The draw distances are very short, though, so I wonder how it would handle an open, daylit environment. Most of the outdoor / large area stuff in Dead Space is dark and not very detailed, and of course, there's no animated vegetation to deal with.

 

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[Stringjam]

I'm a slut for vegetation laden outdoor maps, usually drooling over the likes of BF3's Kiasar Railroad, but I've been finding a lot to like in DS3's interiors. Lovely rich lighting and shadows that make me think of Quake 4.

I as well. Something so amazing about walking through a forest of animated grass and trees. Very hard on engines, though. Especially with dynamic lighting / shadows / sub-surface scattering (which is really only done well, it seems, by Crytek).

Sometimes you just have to make compromises to keep things running smoothly though, and I guess in the end, I'm willing to make those to maintain smooth framerate. There's no use going too far with it if you have all kinds of stuttering and performance issues.

I think the Dead Space series as a whole did a great job making those dark interiors interesting and "haunting." It really is an art.

The latest game to really blow me away visually was The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Even though it was pretty static, I just found myself standing there staring into the forests.

 

[futurefields]

It's a really good engine for indoor environments. They stick to techniques and algorithms that offer high 'bang for the buck' and don't really use any of the more intensive effects like tesselation, parralax occlusion mapping, subsurface scattering. There is no global illumination and I believe even ambient occlusion is nixed.

 

[futurefields]

Tomb Raider 2013 is pushing a lot more graphics.