Kholat based on UE4 - finally next generation PC graphics?!!

[RussianSensation]

I am sure some of you out there are just as disappointed as I am that while Unity, FC4, DAI, etc. look better than their predecessors (gameplay quality aside), it's very hard to call any of those games representing any real leap in next generation PC gaming graphics beyond Crysis 3, Metro LL, Skyrim/GTA IV modded, Ryse Son of Rome. In fact, I think the latter all look better than the former. To exacerbate the matter, these newly released games also have performance issues on relatively high-end PC hardware (970/780Ti/290X). Not many of us want to spend $500-1000+ of dollars on new GPUs when a new game that's crazy demanding comes out but doesn't blow Crysis 3 out of the water, far less one that looks worse.

IMGN.PRO, an Indie developer, in cooperation with Wohoo Games announced the upcoming adventure–horror game Kholat. The game is based on Unreal Engine 4 and it is a PC only title.

Kholat - real time gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTfwU9bNOuM

While I don't know if this game will even be any good, the potential of UE4 is very promising to me compared to Anvil Next, Dunia 2, Frostbite 3, etc. All of these engines are not good enough for next generation PC gaming graphics. I am hoping more games start licensing UE4 as it's looking a lot more impressive to me than current gen gaming engines, aside from maybe CryEngine 4, which is the only one that comes close.

Just imagine how a AAA PC game would look on UE4 with major financial backing behind it! :thumbsup:

 

[skipsneeky2]

Been a huge fan of the UE3 engine, its dated but some great games came out of it.Looking forward to what UE4 brings.

Outside of Source,has these really been another great engine that has lasted a entire 7 years?

 

[xantub]

Bah, misread the title as EU4 and got all excited

 

[DeathReborn]

While I am not a fan of horror games, if it's the first UE4 powered title up for sale I will buy it just to try it out.

 

[Squeetard]

I'm playing DA:I on ultra and I truly think it has "next gen" graphics. The lighting and particle effects are all good, but the tessellation detail in the game is what separates it from previous games. Everything has depth, the walls the floors the rocky paths.
AC:U is another "next gen" title, because of the crowds. Never ever seen that many npc's in a game. Performance issues aside, that is pushing the boundaries.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Looks not a great deal better than Skyrim with slightly higher resolution textures, nothing to be terribly excited about - graphics wise.

 

[wolf_squad]

UE4 is, indeed, a great engine, but, sorry to burst your bubble, to me it seems that they're using stock ue4 assets almost exclusively in that video. ue4 comes with a collection of graphical and tech demos, which are free to tear apart, both elemental demo and particle cave (which looks particularly similar to the video here) look similar and, I dare say, even better than this.

I would hold my breath until these guys show something that doesn't look like stock ue4.

 

[nurturedhate]

Agree with the posters above. Not seeing anything that special. High res textures in a corridor with nothing happening. Also, 70+ hours into DAI - the game looks great.

 

[cbrunny]

holy motion blur...

 

[cbrunny]

I am sure some of you out there are just as disappointed as I am that while Unity, FC4, DAI, etc. look better than their predecessors (gameplay quality aside), it's very hard to call any of those games representing any real leap in next generation PC gaming graphics beyond Crysis 3, Metro LL, Skyrim/GTA IV modded, Ryse Son of Rome. In fact, I think the latter all look better than the former.

C'mon man, I'm all for progress, I agree the improvements were not as great as we would like, but at least have a rational comment.

 

[Jodell88]

The vanishing of Ethan Carter is the best looking game for quite a while IMO.

As for the video in the OP, it doesn't look that special.

 

[Zenoth]

I can't run DA:I on ultra with my current system (I will after my soon-to-come upgrade), but out of curiosity I did set everything to ultra for the kicks. I think that the game ran at about 10 FPS on average (at 1080p, no AA) and I have to say that it looks absolutely gorgeous. I do consider DA:I's graphics under those maxed out settings to be "current generation", not exactly "next". We don't know what the "next" generation of graphics on the next consoles will be.

I assume that most people refer to this current generation when they think of "next gen", but that's the problem. What the PS4 and the XBOX One can do is "current gen" for consoles, and what PC hardware can do right now is also current gen, but for the PC. If let's say... some PC-only game was to be developed with UE4, pushing the engine and what current high-end PC hardware can do to the limits, such a game would be "the best that the current generation" could be. I wouldn't consider it next gen.

Technically I guess that there's no such thing as next generation. We could think that the PS5 and the XBOX Two and heck maybe even the Wii Entire Alphabet will be next gen but once they're out they suddenly become current gen anyway.

My concern isn't about graphics and generational leaps anymore (oh I've been part of that wagon for years), it's about developers not treating a PC port as it should have been especially when they had 3 or 4 years of time to work on it. Take DA:I for example, they worked on it for nearly 4 years according to what I've read (they supposedly started working on it before DA2 was even released). Yet, there's no Push-to-Talk and no Mute Microphone feature for its multi-player mode? Do I have to repeat myself when I say that they've been working on it for nearly four years of their life? I LOVE the single-player, but I haven't approached the multi-player yet. From a tweeted message it's been confirmed that it will be implemented in a patch. Well, okay, where is it? Oh, right, still in the works, four years prior to that wasn't enough I see. I guess that EA needs to give a decade now for their biggest projects? The coder for the scripted scenes starts working on the damn thing at the age of 25 and when the game is released he had two marriages fail, three kids and white hair starts showing up but the game isn't ready yet? Where does it stop?

Yeah, a bit of exaggeration here but my point is why just not be content with the current gen? Because the "next gen" won't be different. The A.I. will still be as dumb as a cockroach, games will be released in unfinished states, we'll still have to remind devs all over the place that they forgot to give us Push-to-Talk after 'x' years in development, Internet code will still suck for most multi-player games and we'll still have to grind our way to top in MMORPGs. Only big difference might be the textures resolutions, the physics effects and the polygon counts on our favorite character's faces. Oh and switches, door knobs, levers, and all interactive objects will still glow because we're too dumb or lazy to look around ourselves.

Alright, now I need cookies to remove that pessimism taste at the back of my mouth.

 

[Red Hawk]

I can't see an independent developer making a game that has cutting edge graphics and being anything more than a glorified tech demo. Much as we bemoan the lowering of AAA games to the graphical standards of consoles, the reality is that publishers need that wide audience across consoles and PCs to justify investing heavily into the technical side of a game at all. Remember Hard Reset? It was talked up as a "PC exclusive shooter". It had some nice effects, but does anyone talk about it anymore?

The reality of the PC market is that it's not making "next generation" leaps, not really. There are a few developers, usually sponsored by AMD or Nvidia, that gradually implement features across there games that are ahead of current generation consoles. When next generation consoles come along, the rest of the developers jump ahead, but the PC gamer doesn't see a wild improvement because it's just jumping to where a number of developers already were. And those developers will continue inching ahead.

I can't run DA:I on ultra with my current system (I will after my soon-to-come upgrade), but out of curiosity I did set everything to ultra for the kicks. I think that the game ran at about 10 FPS on average (at 1080p, no AA) and I have to say that it looks absolutely gorgeous. I do consider DA:I's graphics under those maxed out settings to be "current generation", not exactly "next". We don't know what the "next" generation of graphics on the next consoles will be.

Out of my own curiosity, would you mind running the in-game benchmark on DAI at those settings and posting the specific average before you upgrade? I'm curious how 270X compares to something like the 670 with all settings maxed besides AA -- the game's "Ultra" setting actually leaves a couple settings not maxed out, such as "post processing effects" which includes the highest level of depth of field. Because of this, a lot of the benchmark sites have missed that effect as they just benchmark at the preset ultra setting.

Take DA:I for example, they worked on it for nearly 4 years according to what I've read (they supposedly started working on it before DA2 was even released). Yet, there's no Push-to-Talk and no Mute Microphone feature for its multi-player mode? Do I have to repeat myself when I say that they've been working on it for nearly four years of their life?

Wow, really? Even BioWare's own Mass Effect 3 had push-to-talk and mute mic in its multiplayer, and it was more console port-ish on the technical side than DAI is....

 

[Slappy00]

I dunno about it being groundbreaking, it looks like a shiny Skyrim to me with 100% more particles and better splashy water.

 

[DigDog]

looks great but graphics without nextgen gameplay is useless. and gameplay design is something which has been very lacking lately, see skyrim/fallout.
yeah i know you loved them but i thought they were bad.

 

[HeXen]

Please tell me everyone is joking. What looks so impressive about it? Ethan Carter on UE3 looked better imo. The water effects looks very las gen as the water falling looked right out of Bioshock, the rocks are modeled fine but textures aren't nothing to note about, the snow and wind reminded me of Skryim with a texture mod and ESB. The lighting could stand some more shadows or something...well it's no KZ 4 in the lighting dept that's for sure.

I don't get it but whatever.

 

[dguy6789]

There likely is not going to be a big leap in graphics in the future due to diminishing returns. It takes more than a 100% increase in graphics performance now to make a game look noticeably better.

From this point on we're likely to only see incremental improvements with each graphics generation; similar to the last 5 years of Intel processor improvements.

 

[Anomaly1964]

Everything looks like small, 3D models, like you might use for a movie; it doesn't look real (if that is what they are going for)...

 

[tential]

looks great but graphics without nextgen gameplay is useless. and gameplay design is something which has been very lacking lately, see skyrim/fallout.
yeah i know you loved them but i thought they were bad.

Glad I'm not the only one. I didn't think they were "bad" but they weren't exciting to actually play. Explore? Sure, but I essentially was unkillable in Skyrim which was boring. Fallout, well I just couldn't get into that game no matter how many times I play it, I get bored.

Also, I think targeting PC Gamers on the basis of graphics is destined to fail. To make a game in which we all will UNANIMOUSLY agree is great looking, you have to not just beat Crysis 3, you have to destroy it. You put that much effort into a games graphical side, then you STILL have to worry about making great gameplay. It's better to focus on gameplay, then just simply use the graphics you do for console gamers (who aren't crazy graphics freaks who will overscrutinize everything), and then port it to PC and say "Sorry, you don't get the graphics you're looking for, BLAME console gamers/weak consoles"

We'll see how The Witcher 3 prevails though.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Comparing DA:I to Skyrim, I am sure DA:I looks better. However, I have to say in the context of when the games came out, Skyrim blew me away. I could walk around for hours just looking at the beautiful scenery. DA:I OTOH is just "yea, OK, looks nice but I was expecting more somehow" and it sure beats the hell out of my 1gb video card. Dont get me wrong, I think it is a good, maybe great game, but graphics wise it doesnt blow me away, although it is very good.

 

[Stringjam]

Please tell me everyone is joking. What looks so impressive about it? Ethan Carter on UE3 looked better imo.

Ethan Carter DID look better than that demo...I agree. It's possibly the most graphically impressive game I've seen to date. What all these UE demos (including Ethan Carter) lack compared to Cryengine is outstanding dynamic lighting (including real-time GI, which UE4 still doesn't do).

Combined with Cryengine's sub-surface scattering algorithms, and how impressively smooth it runs, UE's main selling point is how much support they provide, and how well the tools work.

If you could place the photogrammetic environment and assets of Ethan Carter into CryEngine, people would be puking rainbows for weeks.

Lighting is everything.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Not impressed.

Looks like something Crytek might have put out 5 years ago.

What about gameplay?

 

[poohbear]

I am sure some of you out there are just as disappointed as I am that while Unity, FC4, DAI, etc. look better than their predecessors (gameplay quality aside), it's very hard to call any of those games representing any real leap in next generation PC gaming graphics beyond Crysis 3, Metro LL, Skyrim/GTA IV modded, Ryse Son of Rome. In fact, I think the latter all look better than the former. To exacerbate the matter, these newly released games also have performance issues on relatively high-end PC hardware (970/780Ti/290X). Not many of us want to spend $500-1000+ of dollars on new GPUs when a new game that's crazy demanding comes out but doesn't blow Crysis 3 out of the water, far less one that looks worse.

IMGN.PRO, an Indie developer, in cooperation with Wohoo Games announced the upcoming adventure–horror game Kholat. The game is based on Unreal Engine 4 and it is a PC only title.

Kholat - real time gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTfwU9bNOuM

While I don't know if this game will even be any good, the potential of UE4 is very promising to me compared to Anvil Next, Dunia 2, Frostbite 3, etc. All of these engines are not good enough for next generation PC gaming graphics. I am hoping more games start licensing UE4 as it's looking a lot more impressive to me than current gen gaming engines, aside from maybe CryEngine 4, which is the only one that comes close.

Just imagine how a AAA PC game would look on UE4 with major financial backing behind it! :thumbsup:

Hows frostbite 3 engine not next gen???? BF4 & DA:I are absolutely gorgeous! Frostbite 3 is meant to be next gen and apparently hasnt even fully stretched its legs.

 

[BFG10K]

I didn't see anything terribly exciting there. I'm playing through Shadow Warrior 2013 right now and it has several cave sections containing water and glowing stalactites/stalagmites that look vastly better.

But in general I don't buy the idea that today's games don't look good. Plenty of modern games look great, even some of the Call of Duty titles.

Also many older games still look good like Doom 3, Far Cry 1, MoH Pacific Assault, and Painkiller, and these games are ten years old.

 

[BFG10K]

looks great but graphics without nextgen gameplay is useless. and gameplay design is something which has been very lacking lately, see skyrim/fallout.

I just finished Oblivion Deluxe Edition yesterday and put over 100 hours into it. When I completed Fallout 3 I put over 140 hours into it and that didn't include the DLCs as I didn't have them at the time.

Some people have put over 1000 hours into these games. Nobody would put in that kind of time investment if the gameplay sucked.

Everybody likes to knock Bethesda but they consistently produce fantastic single player experiences.