The Art Style and Graphics Discussion

Chapstick

Well-Known Member
@Ken

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Jadeinchains

Well-Known Member
Here are some pics that I did of Street Fighter 5, which was released just today:

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The game looks very rough overall. I'm very disappointed by that. :( If this game wasn't Street Fighter and wasn't such a niche game and hadn't such a devoted fan crowd, there would have been a huge uproar regarding the graphical downgrade, similar to the drama about Watchdogs or The Witcher 3. The game looks nothing like the promo screenshots and videos, at least not on PS4. The console version has most noticably big problems with shadow dithering on the characters. It is imho the ugliest effect that I have ever seen in a video game. It looks even worse in motion and isn't as visible here. I also -as usual- have only taken pics that make the game look best. Can't help myself. ;)

Here's two pics that show how incredibly rough it can look like on PS4:

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Oh god with the first pictures I thought it looked okay but those last two Jesus Christ! And yeah if this didn't have the street fighter name behind it it would be getting ripped apart a lot more than it is.
 

Tyaren

Well-Known Member
Standard Donor
Why most of the King of Fighters character design is just meh! D:

id say it is. they're really starting to show off the ability to do more detailed models and make more diverse faces. some of these are better than their OG counterparts in my opinion. Benimaru id say looks better than he ever did. i accidentally paused at 1:07 and look at the detail on her gloves.

The designers of this game too must've thought that the more detailed and polished a character model is the better. But a model can look detailed and polished (intricate polygon mesh, nice textures and shaders, well animated...) and still look uninspired and just forgettable.
The King of Fighters designs before XIV were the exact opposite of that. They were less detailed, but they had oomph! They were powerful and recognizable.

Original Terry design:

51d93c14f6f354acd2f3da9247843bf4.jpg


New Terry design:

terry2.jpg


Original Terry looked very iconic in style. Terry now does look nearly the same...nearly. His design gained a lot of nice details like logos and stitches...but for some reason they chose to cover up his sleeves. But his cut sleeves were actually the very detail that stood out in Terry's original design. From the stereotypical american youth it transformed him to a badass fighter. Everything covered up, with just the muscular arms exposed, it made him look very powerful and gave his punches the right blow. This is now sadly gone... :(

Original Kyo:

kyo1.jpg


New Kyo design:

kyo2.jpg


Kyo was already a pretty boy in his original design but he also looked like a rebel....since he is supposed to be one. His jacket had a clean design and a clean cut shape. This biker jacket (similar to Kyo's black biker jackets in other parts of the series) gives him that rebellious look. The new jacket looks similar at a first glance but is full of unnecessary details that make it feel cluttered. The shape also isn't clean cut anymore but seems almost womanly fanning out at the hip area. Normally such jackets accentuate a man's V shaped upper body. There are sometimes even literally V's plastered on it. ;)

i88fa79074940ed99b0d830e983357e3d.jpg

The new jacket neither accentuates manliness or strength nor does it actually look like a biker jacket anymore. I won't address the shiny, black J-pop star hair because they already changed it themselves... ;)


Andy's original design:

andi1.jpg


Andy's new design:

andi2.jpg


With Andy it at first also seems as if there wasn't much of a change. But if you look just a little closer everything that made the original look great is watered down in the new design. Original Andy's slicked back long hair looks badass (is there a good alternate English expression? XD), new Andy wears it boringly parted. The hair length too is dull. It's neither long nor really short... The red flames were contrasting nicely with the white of the original fighting garb. Now that contrast is reduced by the dark blue and grey parts.
Like the other fighters Andy has also considerably slimmed down. To make that loss of visual strength perfect they even gave him that grey shirt underneath his fighting garb so that nearly no muscularity is seen. :/

This is an oldschool fighting game, it's character design should look powerful and iconic. Now it looks just weak and forgettable. :/
 
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Argentus

Well-Known Member
Why most of the King of Fighters character design is just meh! D:



The designers of this game too must've thought that the more detailed and polished a character model is the better. But a model can look detailed and polished (intricate polygon mesh, nice textures and shaders, well animated...) and still look uninspired and just forgettable.
The King of Fighters designs before XIV were the exact opposite of that. They were less detailed, but they had oomph! They were powerful and recognizable.

Original Terry design:

51d93c14f6f354acd2f3da9247843bf4.jpg


New Terry design:

View attachment 19215

Original Terry looked very iconic in style. Terry now does look nearly the same...nearly. His design gained a lot of nice details like logos and stitches...but for some reason they chose to cover up his sleeves. But his cut sleeves were actually the very detail that stood out in Terry's original design. From the stereotypical american youth it transformed him to a badass fighter. Everything covered up, with just the muscular arms exposed, it made him look very powerful and gave his punches the right blow. This is now sadly gone... :(

Original Kyo:

View attachment 19216

New Kyo design:

View attachment 19217

Kyo was already a pretty boy in his original design but he also looked like a rebel....since he is supposed to be one. His jacket had a clean design and a clean cut shape. This biker jacket (similar to Kyo's black biker jackets in other parts of the series) gives him that rebellious look. The new jacket looks similar at a first glance but is full of unnecessary details that make it feel cluttered. The shape also isn't clean cut anymore but seems almost womanly fanning out at the hip area. Normally such jackets accentuate a man's V shaped upper body. There are sometimes even literally V's plastered on it. ;)

i88fa79074940ed99b0d830e983357e3d.jpg

The new jacket neither accentuates manliness or strength nor does it actually look like a biker jacket anymore. I won't address the shiny, black J-pop star hair because they already changed it themselves... ;)


Andy's original design:

View attachment 19218

Andy's new design:

View attachment 19219

With Andy it at first also seems as if there wasn't much of a change. But if you look just a little closer everything that made the original look great is watered down in the new design. Original Andy's slicked back long hair looks badass (is there a good alternate English expression? XD), new Andy wears it boringly parted. The hair length too is dull. It's neither long nor really short... The red flames were contrasting nicely with the white of the original fighting garb. Now that contrast is reduced by the dark blue and grey parts.
Like the other fighters Andy has also considerably slimmed down. To make that loss of visual strength perfect they even gave him that grey shirt underneath his fighting garb so that nearly no muscularity is seen. :/

This is an oldschool fighting game, it's character design should look powerful and iconic. Now it looks just weak and forgettable. :/

Well look at the bright side.

There's no way half the cast can look as bad as the 13 redesigns (Ralf Clark Leona vice mature and Mais horrific horror face)
 

Russian-chiropractic19

Well-Known Member
Standard Donor
please post sprite work if we're comparing in game assets please(ignore the women)
kof14-yahagi_mmcafe2.jpg


i agree with you about Kyo and Terry

Andys slicked back hair made him look old and in some cases bald, dude isnt even in his 30s and this isnt the first time he's had it parted. the flame decals could have honestly been anything red, but the main issue is at this time what made Terry and Andy stand out is now considered very generic. ill agree with you about the lack of muscles being shown but i really dont think their designs were anything special.

aside from those few id say they're really doing well with everyone else. Ralph, Clark, and Benimaru look better than ever.
 

Jadeinchains

Well-Known Member
Why most of the King of Fighters character design is just meh! D:



The designers of this game too must've thought that the more detailed and polished a character model is the better. But a model can look detailed and polished (intricate polygon mesh, nice textures and shaders, well animated...) and still look uninspired and just forgettable.
The King of Fighters designs before XIV were the exact opposite of that. They were less detailed, but they had oomph! They were powerful and recognizable.

Original Terry design:

51d93c14f6f354acd2f3da9247843bf4.jpg


New Terry design:

View attachment 19215

Original Terry looked very iconic in style. Terry now does look nearly the same...nearly. His design gained a lot of nice details like logos and stitches...but for some reason they chose to cover up his sleeves. But his cut sleeves were actually the very detail that stood out in Terry's original design. From the stereotypical american youth it transformed him to a badass fighter. Everything covered up, with just the muscular arms exposed, it made him look very powerful and gave his punches the right blow. This is now sadly gone... :(

Original Kyo:

View attachment 19216

New Kyo design:

View attachment 19217

Kyo was already a pretty boy in his original design but he also looked like a rebel....since he is supposed to be one. His jacket had a clean design and a clean cut shape. This biker jacket (similar to Kyo's black biker jackets in other parts of the series) gives him that rebellious look. The new jacket looks similar at a first glance but is full of unnecessary details that make it feel cluttered. The shape also isn't clean cut anymore but seems almost womanly fanning out at the hip area. Normally such jackets accentuate a man's V shaped upper body. There are sometimes even literally V's plastered on it. ;)

i88fa79074940ed99b0d830e983357e3d.jpg

The new jacket neither accentuates manliness or strength nor does it actually look like a biker jacket anymore. I won't address the shiny, black J-pop star hair because they already changed it themselves... ;)


Andy's original design:

View attachment 19218

Andy's new design:

View attachment 19219

With Andy it at first also seems as if there wasn't much of a change. But if you look just a little closer everything that made the original look great is watered down in the new design. Original Andy's slicked back long hair looks badass (is there a good alternate English expression? XD), new Andy wears it boringly parted. The hair length too is dull. It's neither long nor really short... The red flames were contrasting nicely with the white of the original fighting garb. Now that contrast is reduced by the dark blue and grey parts.
Like the other fighters Andy has also considerably slimmed down. To make that loss of visual strength perfect they even gave him that grey shirt underneath his fighting garb so that nearly no muscularity is seen. :/

This is an oldschool fighting game, it's character design should look powerful and iconic. Now it looks just weak and forgettable. :/

I kind of feel like the game is so ugly that even if they'd kept the same designs they'd still look ugly. Still I agree with what your saying the new designs are just dull and have nothing special to them what so ever. I wish they would show some of the more visually stand out characters.
 

Tyaren

Well-Known Member
Standard Donor
please post sprite work if we're comparing in game assets please(ignore the women)
View attachment 19243

i agree with you about Kyo and Terry

Andys slicked back hair made him look old and in some cases bald, dude isnt even in his 30s and this isnt the first time he's had it parted. the flame decals could have honestly been anything red, but the main issue is at this time what made Terry and Andy stand out is now considered very generic. ill agree with you about the lack of muscles being shown but i really dont think their designs were anything special.

aside from those few id say they're really doing well with everyone else. Ralph, Clark, and Benimaru look better than ever.

I do like Benimaru's design too...though it is imho a little too detailed for a default:

27_kof03.png


kofxiv-benimaruralf.jpg


It looks more like an alternate casual costume that would fit him well. I also wonder why his new main color scheme is green and black... :/

This however stays iconic:

benimarusvcvscc2.jpg
 

Russian-chiropractic19

Well-Known Member
Standard Donor
But isn't he supposed to be just that? ;)

is he supposed to look bad? his old appearance made me want to never touch him the new one still has the same feeling they were going for but at the same time i could see myself playing as him.

largely because his hair blends with his outfit instead of being the singular focus of his character. the green of the shirt transitions to the color change of blond hair which was shortened and swept back to appear more natural.

now when he does his weird poses he as a person stands out and not just his hair.
 

Tyaren

Well-Known Member
Standard Donor
So, after I've seen and played lots of current generation fighters I did come to the kinda disappointing conclusion that the DOA5 character models (excluding the cheap DLC models of course) are still among the very best...if not the best in the genre. They're just so clean and polished.

the_handsome_men_of_doa__hayate__by_doafanboi-d869aaw.jpg


the_handsome_men_of_doa__eliot__by_doafanboi-d869a4r.jpg


the_handsome_men_of_doa__bayman__by_doafanboi-d869agi.jpg


And these are just the male characters. As we know the girls are even more polished. Man, at the begining of this generation I was so pumped to see the amazing things especially fighters would do, if the character models in other game genres already looked so great. I'm not yet giving up though! >__< There's still Soul Calibur 6 and I have high hopes it will look amazing.
 

Chapstick

Well-Known Member
If DOA5LR got anti aliasing and added more polygons to some things, did a bit of retexturing, and changed the lighting in more stages (like scramble and arrival have fantastic lighting but some other stages seem nearly unchanged from PS3 imo) I think it could easily pass for a current gen 2016 game.
 

Jadeinchains

Well-Known Member
If DOA5LR got anti aliasing and added more polygons to some things, did a bit of retexturing, and changed the lighting in more stages (like scramble and arrival have fantastic lighting but some other stages seem nearly unchanged from PS3 imo) I think it could easily pass for a current gen 2016 game.


I'd say it already looks like a current generation game based on the looks of Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V. I do hope and expect that they will add anti aliasing and better textures for the next game though.
 

Tyaren

Well-Known Member
Standard Donor
If DOA5LR got anti aliasing and added more polygons to some things, did a bit of retexturing, and changed the lighting in more stages (like scramble and arrival have fantastic lighting but some other stages seem nearly unchanged from PS3 imo) I think it could easily pass for a current gen 2016 game.

The imho most beautiful stage with the best lighting (nothing technically fancy but visually) is Fireworks. The textures are still in parts sup-standard (sand and sea foam) but the rest looks already really good. Put pretty character models in that stage and it looks, without hyperbole, better than some current gen fighters:

DEAD OR ALIVE 5 Last Round_20160109055029.png


DEAD OR ALIVE 5 Last Round_20160109052854.png


DEAD OR ALIVE 5 Last Round_20160109060420.png


DEAD OR ALIVE 5 Last Round_20151231073816.png


DEAD OR ALIVE 5 Last Round_20160216033009.png

What one also mustn't forget: DOA5LR is the only fighter were you can zoom in on characters and stages that far and freely turn the camera and it still looks fairly good. You can't do this with any other current fighting game. If you could, I doubt very much everything would still look this polished from up close. Street Fighter 5 for example. Zoom just a little in and you feel like you want to puke. D:
 
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Tyaren

Well-Known Member
Standard Donor
But even the best doa5 stage doesn't look half as good as most doa2u/3/4 stages which is really sad.

God send you! XD I didn't want to double post but there was news regarding Killer Instinct on Xbone. Among other things the game will get a graphical update in Season 3! o__O

Old:
KEAG0ks.png


New:
JFRh0AY.png


"We are excited to be adding several new elements to KI Season 3 that we believe really improve the overall experience, and I’m going to be speaking to the ‘Art side’ of things today.

In terms of visuals, we are adding new graphics technology; reflection tech for the stages; re-introducing screen space color adjustments that work with gameplay; adding an all-new dynamic lighting system that provides greater realism and interaction for the characters and stages. Not only will Season 3 feature this new lighting, but we’ve gone back and re-lit everything for Season 1 and 2 as well. We can’t wait for our fans to see the enhancements of KI’s visuals!

KI S1 had a “deep black” look that many fans really loved, and we’ve gone back to it (with a ton of upgrades!), so you’ll see deeper darks and more “mood” throughout all the stages.

As technology advances, graphics are becoming more and more powerful and the gamers have come to expect stunning visuals on today’s console hardware. Early in development of S3, we knew that we wanted to raise the bar on many levels and have a deep passion for delivering on ‘next gen’ visuals. In order to do this, we had to overhaul the tools and the pipeline and we’re really happy with the results and how we are utilizing the graphic power of the Xbox One.

Our lighting system was very specialized, and it was time for an overhaul. We met as a team to ideate and decided to use a system that allowed us to obtain dynamic lighting for the game, but work with our existing game engine. Once in place, our stages were completely re-lit utilizing the new tools while characters received updates to their lighting probes, which allows them to interact with the stage lighting. Characters now composite into the scenes in a way that is really believable – allowing for good integration/compositing while maintaining readability – especially important in a fighting game.

We are now able to get realistic bounce and fill lighting on the characters and we are using strong rim lighting (from behind) to further pull the characters out from the background.

We think the fans are really going to love the new visuals, they are going to notice details that they didn’t before – which showcase a wide range of characters and stages (such amazing locations to be fighting in!) When you add up the real-time reflections combined with the new lighting system, you get a very compelling look and feel that stays true to the style of KI but ‘ups the bar’ in regards to the game being a visual showcase."


Dear Capcom please take note! If they can do this on the Xbone you can do that on PS4 too! :)
 

Argentus

Well-Known Member
Dude PLEAAE spoiler tag your images I can barely load the page.

Also it just looks like they swapped the lighting is all. Background gets well lit while the characters are now totally in shadow so you can't make out details
 

Tyaren

Well-Known Member
Standard Donor
Dude PLEAAE spoiler tag your images I can barely load the page.

Also it just looks like they swapped the lighting is all. Background gets well lit while the characters are now totally in shadow so you can't make out details

Maybe we can start a new page. ;)
 

Tyaren

Well-Known Member
Standard Donor
Head to head visual comparison of Street Fighter IV and V:


While the character models and their animations clearly look better in Street Fighter 5, I find it at this point unacceptable that backgrounds and their animations still look better in Street Fighter 4. And then there is that horrible shadow dithering on PS4 that basically completely ruins the image quality of that version and makes Street Fighter 4 appear the clear winner in image quality too.

Put some images on this page in spoilers @Argentus. ;)
 
ALL DOA6 DOA5 DOA4 DOA3 DOA2U DOAD
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