The Big Fallout 4 Thread

[Jon]

has youtube's compression gotten worse in recent months? every trailer I see has horrible artifacts, most noticeably when the dog is sprinting out of the house.

 

Is the video on their American channel any better?  (The one I found links to was the UK one)

 

[VaultDuke]

nope, maybe I need to test later on my private PC that has a dedicated GPU

[Hana]

The video looks fine to me?

 

Texture wise the graphics look nice .. sad the dog has no "fur" though, after all this time.

 

But the Fallout franchise just isn't my cup of tea anyway. So my opinions don't count.

[Deathbydestiny]

Well, I guess it should be no surprise it's the gamebryo engine still. On the bright side, we have all the tools already to deal with it.

[InsanePlumber]

I only hope that this recording was made on the game engine. (or not?)

 

+ current generation of consoles.

+ objects physics. 1m50s (interesting how many NPCs die from that)

 

- cleverly hidden LOD. 1m42s (sheson get ready)

- still they can not make a decent "clothes" for the dog (53s), and plastic textures.

- animations not have had much of an impression on me. (fore and the rest of animator will have something to do)

[VaultDuke]

The video looks fine to me?

when the dog steps out of the house, about half a second in, the bushes become really blurry as the dog starts running. the next scene in the streets with the flying vertybird also has lots of compression artifacts, the same applies to the boy running uphill two cuts later. not sure what's up here.

and on the technical side: no cloth physics (maybe the dog tail), no hairworks (for better or worse), the shot where you are elevated above the streets has lots of random npcs not moving at all in front of what looks like a bar/shop on the streets, oldschool looking skin without subsurface scattering, low res textures on the vault armor with no tessellation (watch the belt after he pets the dog). improved shadows and lighting though.

it looks like they ace it again on the area design, but anything else looks less stunning than their competition. I'm a bit sad.

I like whenever the dog tilts his head, that's cute.

[Jon]

I only hope that this recording was made on the game engine.

 

Yes, it was very obviously in-engine.  Though the exterior outside of the house between 0:15 and 1:00 looks highly suspect.  The perspective and the parallax don't feel correct, so I'm guessing that it's partially a matte painting.  It's not totally flat though. I see at least two separate layers moving. 

 

I am guessing it is because that entire scene was set up solely for the trailer and it's not going to be in the final game.  Note that it cuts between him leaving the house and running up the street.

 

 

One thing I noticed...  the rays coming in the window around 1:00 move!!!  Stuff like that has always been static in Bethesda games.  They're not moving smoothly though, so they still update the sun shadows on an interval.  That better not just be a canned feature for the trailer.   That kind of volumetric lighting is pretty rare in games.  Yes, there are "godrays" in many games, but you have to be looking at the light source.  The other kind of volumetric lighting is where it actually raymarches a volumetric effect from the shadow map and light position, and you don't need to be looking at the light source.  GTA V has this effect, and it's really nice.

 

I do notice that there are also "godrays" later in the video too but they mostly seem to have the sun in the shot, so it looks like the more simple effect.  However, at 1:46 the angle of those rays would suggest the sun is out of the frame, meaning it's not a screenspace effect!  

[VaultDuke]

hm, the interior in the intact house looks considerably worse than in the broken one, also the intact one seems to be the one with the odd parallax, right? maybe they just faked that part a bit, or assembled it quickly. Skyrim had horrible POV, and was very fisheye, too. it's most noticeable with 3d glasses on, though. so it may just be that they messed that up again. nice spot with the godrays, I never payed much attention to them, but your explanation why they are tricky was well understandable. I was happy already to see the shadows no longer flicker. btw: imho object physics stopped being a + and became a mandatory thing after oblivion imho, so I count it as a negative, that they still seem to behave very floaty in the trailer.

[DSoS]

Looks like it will be interesting.

 

I'll still get it, I enjoy the FO series. I'll see what Game Stop has to offer for Pre Ordering.

[Jon]

So...  re:  the leaked information from last year...  (Warning: There are story spoilers if the guy girl(?) is legit)

 

The person is definitely more credible now that this trailer is out.  For example:

 

In Fallout 4, mixing things up, we are making the game more "Story Based" and the player character will finally talk, and narrate his storyline. At the beginning of the game, you create your character (You can only be a male in the main story) 

 

Also, this is rather interesting...

 

PLATFORMS: Fallout 4 will be available for a wide range of platforms after launch. The first version that will be released is being developed for Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC. This version uses a brand new engine built from the ground up to take advantage of the power of next gen systems. Absolutely everything is new, and no assets or scrips are being used from Fallout 3/NV or Skyrim. Fallout 4 will also be available on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. This version is also being developed by Bethesda Game Studios, but will release a year after the advanced version. This version runs on the Creation Engine, the same engine that powered Skyrim. This is being done so that PS3/360 users can play the game without problem. Everything will be the same in this version as the advanced version, except for the graphics, gameplay and some additional features. Also, Fallout 4 on PS3 and Xbox 360, last I knew, was around 20GB+. This means that it will most definitely require install.

 

After rewatching the trailer a million times, I just don't see how the game is in a modified Gamebryo/Creation engine.  It also makes sense that they would decide to just start over with an engine for the next-gen, as their Franken-bryo probably was on its last legs and unable to make use of the new tech.  If it's true though, I wonder what they are doing about the assets.  If they really do make another version to put on the older gen, I assume they want to share the same assets, but just make everything use a lower LOD on the older gen.

 

If the new version doesn't use the NIF format at all, then bye bye NifSkope...  

 

 

Also, what he she states about progress and release date seems fairly spot on:

 

PROGRESS: By my estimate, Fallout 4's PS4/XboxOne/PC version is about 40% complete, while the PS3/Xbox360 version is about 15% complete. Both versions are being developed by BGS.

 

RELEASE DATE: BGS has a "Roadmap" already planned out for Fallout 4 and a spinoff. I already was informed about it from the studio when I worked there, and I read it. Basically, the roadmap is this: June 2015 - Fallout 4 reveal at E3, trailer only July 2015 - First gameplay trailers August 2015 - More information October 2015 - PS4/Xbox One/PC release November 2015 - First DLC December 2015 - Second DLC, as well as PS3/360 version release January 2016 - Third DLC March 2016 - Forth DLC April 2016 - Fifth and Final DLC June 2016 - Fallout Spinoff revealed, in development by Behaviour Interactive. October 2016 - Fallout Spinoff released for PS4/Xbox One/PC 

 

 

Basically he's she's been dead on about everything it seems.  Though one suspect detail is the whole "Classic" mode on PC.  Just seems really strange. 

 

And yeah, he she stated that the trailer was coming after E3, but I am guessing they probably changed their minds about that.  They may have wanted to get ahead of any possible info leaks,  or just figured it made more sense to use the trailer to drum up viewership for their conference.

[VaultDuke]

why does this not look like a modified gamebryo engine to you? I mean 1:42-1:48 looks pretty much like FO3 with better lighting and more stuff added to the ground.

[zilav]

I didn't notice any difference in LOD compared to Skyrim, but there were not a lot distant views in trailer. If uGridsToLoad is still 5, then

[Jon]

why does this not look like a modified gamebryo engine to you? I mean 1:42-1:48 looks pretty much like FO3 with better lighting and more stuff added to the ground.

 

Something about the flashbacks.  They look like strictly controlled cutscenes and not your wonky "Scenes" like in Skyrim where it's still pretty much in-game.   Like at 1:28 there are multiple people holding each other, and there are more NPCs on screen (~33) than exist in any of Skyrim's cities.   I don't think Gamebryo has the capacity to tell 33 NPCs what do be doing all at once.

 

 

Also, the city size.  Looks pretty massive, and I didn't see any sort of indication that it was in its own worldspace.   Whiterun is teensy in comparison and had to be in its own worldspace.  This says to me they figured out entirely new streaming tech to make use of the next-gen CPUs and RAM.   After Skyrim replaced most of the renderer, pretty much the only thing left of Gamebryo is the cell system and the data formats.

 

 

Edit:

 

And also, the NPC faces/bodies.  They don't even seem like they have anything in common with the tech from Skyrim.  Like honestly they sort of seem like a step back.   Though I can't really see enough of the NPCs up close enough.  It just might be the generic style of the NPCs.  The hair on the main character is definitely better though.  

[VaultDuke]

i have to point out, that most of the npc in the mass scenes don't move at all! i agree, that i'm not happy with the way the skin is displayed, not sure it's worse than Skyrim though.

i did spot an ever so slight movement of the female hair in the cradle scene, when she moves forward. it's mostly blurred by the crt-filter though.

edit: hair physics on the similarly looking (identical?) woman holding the baby during the explosion scene! yay!)

i can report, that i still se heavy artifacting on my GTX 765m

edit: also, the scenes that reminded me earlier of FO3, where you see the wasteland shots? they look fucking gorgeous on my gaming monitor! fuck anti-reflective coatings (and low contrast office PCs, yes i was watching that trailer at my work place ).

edit 2: yep, hair of the protagonist looks good. note to self: never judge anything on a crappy monitor again! it's still not perfect technically, but very much enjoyable looking now at home.

[Jon]

i can report, that i still se heavy artifacting on my GTX 765m

 

High-motion scenes always look terrible on YouTube.  Oddly I find Twitch has better bitrate for video games and it's a streaming service for crying out loud.  It's limited both by the streamer's upload speed, which sends the video to a server, and Twitch's servers' upload speeds.

 

When the various Witcher videos were released, there was a site called Gamersyde that had them fully uncompressed.  The 35min gameplay video was 5.5GB for example.  They distributed it via torrent.   In fact, here:  http://www.gamersyde.com/download_fallout_4_trailer-34774_en.html

 

See if that video is any better for you than the YouTube one. 

 

 

Edit: It's WAYYYYY higher quality.  No joke. 

[VaultDuke]

i don't remember them looking that horrible 2 year ago though.

[Jon]

i don't remember them looking that horrible 2 year ago though.

 

In case you didn't catch my edit.  That link is WAY higher quality.   I chose the torrent.

 

Quick comparison:

 

 

 

I'm guessing they didn't bother with AA because YouTube compression would obliterate it anyway...  It looks like they sharpened it on top of that, to try to counteract YouTube compression.

 

Edit:  More:

 

 

(vs YouTube version)

[VaultDuke]

saw the link. took me a few mins to download. yes, a very big improvement. it's incredible how bad Youtube is. to be fair, in motion the aliasing didn't look that bad. saw it on door frames and houses most of the time, not on persons though (and do you see any on your shot with the ship?). i was going to comment, how i liked their post-process AA. while not the strongest it sure didn't add any blurring to the image. and the places where the filter fails to see the aliasing (oddly enough in mostly horizontal and vertical lines, e.g. the cannon windows of the ship screenshot from you), shows us that it's not a 4k prerendered scene. once again, i applaud their confidence in showing ACTUAL scenes. this has to be highlighted nowadays.

[Jon]

More screens from the high quality download:

 

 

 

[Jon]

2015 Release date basically confirmed.

 

ESTIMATED SHIP DATE: TBA 2015.

[Arthmoor]

So in all of this has nobody bothered to try and pin down what city this is? There have been hints in the last 2 games that Boston is making an appearance. Anything in here that would confirm that? I think a lot of us have been saying Boston for some time now.

 

Also, I've been saying in chat for months now that this is gonna be a November 2015 release. Todd has said before that the hype train for Skyrim was too long and they want to shorten that for their next game. Well now we know what that next game is. 5 months seems like a more reasonable stretch than 11. They can be all secretive if they want, but I think most of us have them figured out now.

 

I also saw nothing in the trailer video to convince me it isn't their franken-engine. Remember, we've had trailer vids for everything from Morrowind onward that looked better than the end product came out. You'd think they'd learn not to do that, but they clearly still are.

[VaultDuke]

Doesn't that just mean the the ship date is to be announced in 2015?

Edit: its Boston. At Kotaku they have an article pointing out 3 landmarks (the pillar, the golden dome and the ship) while a reader pointed out the statue. Don't remember the details, but all agree it's stuff in boston

edit 2: sorry, polygon:

http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/3/8718881/fallout-4-boston-trailer-analysis

they're going crazy:

http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/3/8720667/fallout-4-will-transform-boston-landmarks

[Jon]

So in all of this has nobody bothered to try and pin down what city this is? There have been hints in the last 2 games that Boston is making an appearance. Anything in here that would confirm that? I think a lot of us have been saying Boston for some time now.

 

Yes, it's for absolute sure Boston.  There are numerous landmarks in the video.  I didn't recognize any of them except for the golden dome.  It was more like "it's so obvious nobody bothered to talk about it" so there wasn't really a need for a long discussion about whether it was Boston.  I'm talking about on other sites.  I didn't explicitly mention it here because I sort of figured everyone else already knew.

 

Here are the landmarks I've seen mentioned:

 

 

 

 

 

(The name on the sign says Scollay Square)

[VaultDuke]

Kotaku is going crazy as well:

http://kotaku.com/all-the-juicy-details-hidden-in-the-fallout-4-trailer-1708720494

an article that tries to spot all the small and big details in the trailer. (klick on the numbers underneath the pictures for some additional readers' comments)

[Arthmoor]

lol, ok. I guess I just suck with landmarks then cause I'm not at all familiar with Boston. Especially not a nuclear devastated alternate 50s version of it. Only two things I personally saw that confirmed it for me was the wooden ship (with the ever so cool rockets attached) and the golden dome. I wasn't 100% sure though because Boston isn't the only city with wooden ships and gold domes