The Big Fallout 4 Thread

[Elgar]

I don't meet the minimum requirements, unfortunately. Time to buy a new rig, but I'm broke.

[Arthmoor]

For those who don't want to deal with the wonky webpage (dunno why, it seems to be picky about wanting to load right) here you go:
 
PC Systems Requirements (Requires Internet Connection and Free Steam Account to Activate)

Minimum
Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz/AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz or equivalent
8 GB RAM
30 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or equivalent

Recommended
Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i7 4790 3.6 GHz/AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz or equivalent
8 GB RAM
30 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB/AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB or equivalent

[InsanePlumber]

By the way interesting when games will look like that really.

Not just on trailers.

[Jon]

Hmph. 

 

Fallout 4 Discs for PC Intentionally Missing Content to Thwart Piracy

 

Not like I'm going to use the physical media if I don't have to.  I'd rather just put a code into Steam and start the download.   Hell, some (very few) people have faster internet speeds these days than their optical drive read speeds anyway.

[Arthmoor]

The reasoning there is entirely smoke and mirrors. It will do nothing to curb piracy at all. I suspect it will be circulating widely on the net a day or two before release, just like Skyrim was, despite Skyrim having used exactly the same tactics.

[garthand]

Just realized the recommended specs for Fallout 4 are actually higher than the Witcher 3, (specifically the CPU and GPU). I'm surprised, but is this to be expected? The graphics don't seem as intense but maybe there's some other stuff going on behind the scenes?

[VaultDuke]

An old engine is what's going on mostly. It remains to be seen whether bethesda's claims of 'more going on' in their games has merit compared to witcher 3. Who knows, maybe there is more cloth and hair physics. It's not as in your face as witcher 3's hairworks, but it there.

Anyone seen the f4 snippet of piper in the latest mobile shelter trailer? People, including me, seem to really like the new animations, including brow movement on the SS, and the hair physics on piper. Lip animation however... (i hope it's just another youtube artifact, what with animations running at 30fps and the video capture and compression running out of sync/even lower framerate)

[Jon]

So, Fallout has officially gone gold.  I'm guessing they chose Oct 23rd intentionally.  

 

Also, the UK gets a Fallout beer!  A Fallout beer is cool and all, but I would kill for some actual Nuka-Cola...  I mean, it can just be RC Cola in a glass bottle for all I care.   Though I'm guessing maybe there are some trademark issues given the style and coloring of the Nuka-Cola logo.

[sonicadam132]

 Hell, some (very few) people have faster internet speeds these days than their optical drive read speeds anyway.

 

I know my Disc drive is faster for sure than my 10mb internet. And i already have a swedish friend asking me to ship him some of the FO beer  

[Arthmoor]

Fallout 4 is complete. All 27 versions.

Wait, what? 27 versions?!?

[VaultDuke]

9 different regional versions (language files) on 3 platforms?

[Arthmoor]

Yeah, I guess so. Good lord.

[Jon]

So apparently there is a list of the Trophies (achievements) for the PS4 version and apparently they contain MEGA-HUGE SPOILERS...  So avoid anything you see about them if you value a spoiler-free story.

[VaultDuke]

Thanks for the warning.

[Jon]

Bethesda posted a 30-page preview of the Art of Fallout 4 book.   Dem bot renders...  

[alt3rn1ty]

I must admit I am looking forward to FO4, and unusually optimistic .. but reserved optimistic.

 

I hope its more like FO3 than New Vegas, I dont know if its nostalgia tinted for me but it was just so gruesomely nice and fun. NV lost some of that somehow.

Buggy as hell but thats par for the course with Bethesda.

[VaultDuke]

Bethesda posted a 30-page preview of the Art of Fallout 4 book.   Dem bot renders...  

Nice!

[Jon]

YESSS  https://twitter.com/Fallout/status/659822176661540864

 

 

I was just saying I wanted Nuka-Cola, but figured it was impossible because of trademark issues.  I also figured that Nuka-Cola Quantum wasn't going to happen because it was "too out there" or something.   But obviously I forgot all about Jones Soda, which is absolutely perfect for Quantum.

 

I need to pick me up some when it's out.

[Jon]

 

Wow, the case is so much larger than I was expecting.   I mean I realized it has to fit the Pip-Boy and the game box, but it's quite roomy.

 

Also, it's just painful to watch people in possession of the game already.  I'm really hoping my "release day delivery" actually comes on the 9th so I have it ready to unlock at midnight. 

[zilav]

Hmm that's interesting, for a PC version

http://wccftech.com/fallout-4-nvidia-gameworks//

[Arthmoor]

All depends on how much of it they're using. Witcher 3 uses Hairworks and people have complained about that alone being enough to bog the game down. I haven't seen this be the case but I'm on an AMD card which might be intentionally gimped to start with.

[Jon]

Hmm that's interesting, for a PC version

http://wccftech.com/fallout-4-nvidia-gameworks//

 

A lot of people have said that this site is known to make shit up, so I'd remain skeptical.

 

---

 

As for the console version, there were tons of leaked shots yesterday.   I won't post them here but they're all over NeoGAF and /r/Fallout.  There was an initial leak from someone playing it in Spanish.  The images were quite bad (high JPEG compression) and some were quite unflattering.  So there was this fiercely negative reaction, and then suddenly someone came into the thread and posted a few batches of much better looking photos (PNG quality) in what basically appeared to be damage control.  /tinfoil hat

 

Really though, I'm not sure why Bethesda hasn't released more gameplay footage and screens at this point.  The leaked photos are all generic scenery pretty much (no story spoilers) so it feels more or less like the kind of stuff Bethesda should have released anyway.

 

I'd go into a deep graphical analysis but I'd have to link to the specific images.   For now I'll just mention how low resolution the volumetric lighting effect is on the PS4.  You basically get these huge pixelated edges to things which are blocking the volumetric light.  I didn't notice these types of artifacts in the stuff Bethesda released, so I'm going to guess they used PC for all the promo footage, and consoles have a lower resolution for this effect.   Bethesda using PC for their promo stuff is actually kind of surprising, since they're so far up Microsoft's ass usually.     Also the promo stuff had next to no AA, which one would figure if they were running it on PC it would.

 

There were also some clear LOD differences--specifically the shot right after exiting the vault--from the promo footage, which again supports that they did the promos on PC and had some settings higher than they go on consoles.

[Jon]

Well, yesterday was photos.  Today was videos.  Tons and tons of footage is being leaked.

 

If you see any video where it looks like you're in the vault, it's been recommended to nope the eff out because there is apparently a pretty massive story spoiler in that portion.   I read about a lot of people regretting looking at it (they weren't warned by the uploader that there were major spoilers).   Granted it's just in the prologue,  but I have gathered it's something we don't know about the story.

 

I saw the non-spoilery videos.  Just running around shooting.  Combat looks really great.   One thing I really like about looting is 

 

The quick loot system a la Witcher 3. The items on someone you kill pop up in a small window for you to take (without pausing the game).   It is so natural to me coming from Witcher 3 that I didn't actually notice it for a while.   I think you can enter the normal loot screen somehow, but unsure of the key.

 

 

I also watched two character creation videos, male/female.  Unfortunately it was off-screen footage and the guy was goofing off.  Made intentionally bad/alien looking characters and what not.   With that said:

 

THERE'S A MUSCULAR/THIN/LARGE TRIANGLE FOR BODY TYPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Like in ESO)

 

also

 

Male hairstyles looked really great.  The number of styles was impressive.  I was especially impressed with the number of black hairstyles and how good/realistic they looked.

 

Female hairstyles looked nice, but obviously longer hair is harder to do well.   The longer messier styles all looked kind of heavy on the gel/mousse/hairspray and light on the blowouts, i.e. not soft enough.

 

Also, he didn't mess with hair color, but I kind of hope for a two-tone approach.  I think mostly the female hairstyles looked a bit weird because they were entirely one color.  I'd like for a highlight/lowlight color so that hair doesn't look so flat.

 

One of the videos also went over each perk, so people have also compiled a full list.  Though we can't know what some of the 2nd-5th ranks do in certain perks.  The descriptions aren't really clear at all what happens with the next rank.

[pStyl3]

Found on NeoGAF, Complete S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Chart and Fallout 4 Options vs Skyrim Options (Launcher).

 

Spoiler warning for the first image, not so much for the second.

[Jon]

I find the options image kind of suspect.  I just don't understand why "Rain Occlusion" would be an actual toggleable option.  It seems to me more like it was put there by a clever troll to make us think they've finally figured out rain occlusion.    The thing is, a scene I saw ironically had rain occurring under an overhang, though this was console footage... and the overhang **was** a piece of cloth/tarp, so maybe rain occlusion wasn't factored in for this area.  

 

The other stuff could all have easily been obtained by looking at all the leaked images.  There is definitely a high quality bokeh-style depth of field in some shots.  The first time a Bethesda game has had a depth blur that doesn't make me want to gouge my eyes out in fact.

 

There is definitely a "wetness" shader that affects everything when it's raining.  I saw this in the same area where rain was going through the overhang.

 

I also hadn't seen any evidence of Screen Space Reflections, but maybe this is something else reserved solely for PC.  With the console footage, I saw many puddles and things with basically no reflections.  It was a very blurry reflection that didn't look like it was computed from screenspace.

 

Anyway, if it is a real shot, I want to know why there is more vertical space between the SSR and Wetness options.  Although if someone were photoshopping it, they'd surely notice such a mistake.   Also, it would take me probably <15 minutes to recreate this UI with Qt and take a screenshot.  Someone could have done the same.  The View Distance sliders are also highly suspect.  They only have two "ticks" on the slider at each end, and no numeric reporting box like the Skyrim options.  Why would they get rid of that?

 

I guess I'm just cynical.  There are a lot of things that people would like to see for PC options like Temporal AA, SSR, bokeh DoF, and one big thing that has plagued Bethesda games for forever (Rain Occlusion).