Why do screenshots look better than the actual game for consoles?

[DarkKnight]

I just bought ESPN NHL2k5 for my xbox yesterday and I can't help being dissapointed by the graphics. The game looks really good in screenshots but on my TV the textures look blurry and the are so many jaggies. The screenshot looks like the game is using FSAA, but on my TV and monitor its has so many jaggies. I know that screenshots in PC games look better because all the effects are turned up and so is AA and AF, but you can't do that in consoles, so why do the screenshots look so much better? I tried the game on my 52" HDTV with component cables in 480p mode and on my monitor using a VGA adapter (one of the good ones), but the graphics can never match the screenshots.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

There's this awesome program called Photoshop, you should really read about it.

- M4H

 

[Gurck]

It's probably in 640x480, which is why you'll get jaggies, especially on such a big screen. HD doesn't matter if the source is in regular resolution.

 

[JoeKing]

they probably get the screenshots from the development computers they use.

 

[yhelothar]

Probably because your TV blows the image up about 200x.

 

[Ikonomi]

Well, the reason that screen you linked looks so good is because it was rendered in a higher resolution on a development PC and resized to 640x480. For some reason, Xbox developers especially love to do this. Or at least, they used to.

Also, in some cases, they might take a legitimate shot of the game (from the frame buffer) running in progressive scan, and if you're not playing it in progressive scan, obviously it won't look as nice. But I see you're running HD.

 

[Vortex22]

And that image looks pretty crappy anyway.

 

[Koing]

Well if you sit about 25m away from your screen or further it would look 'good' and without jaggies...

That is the problem with a big tv it just magnifies everything unless the source is top notch.

That screen grab will look 'crisp' as it is small. Play the game on your xbox BUT play it windowed sot he window is about 6inch's across the diagonal. See how it looks now? MUCH better but no one plays it that small!

Koing