Uncharted 4: A Thief's End Graphics Analysis- The Pristine Image Quality From E3's Teaser Is Missing

Although Uncharted 4 looks fantastic, Naughty Dog has a lot of work ahead if they want to set new visual benchmarks.

[Majin-vegeta]

FFS prepare for an influx of shitty "UC4 was downgraded" articles by the crappy media.

http://memecrunch.com/meme/...

[Mega24]

Meh, no amount of articles will make me have less fun with Uncharted.

[Cindy-rella]

Isnt this game coming out in about 11 months from now or close to that. Its one of the best looking game ever seen but people want more. I know this game isnt the final product because its far from release.

[Lightning Mr Bubbles]

Yeah because the E3 teaser trailer was obviously a cut scene. No amount of work is gonna make a video game look like that during actual gameplay. You have to be pretty dumb to not be able to tell the difference between a movie and gameplay.

[PLASTICA-MAN]

To everyone. You don't really know the meaning of Pre-alpha stage don't you? In pre-alpha stage you are just doing the basics of the game, trying stuff, puting ideas in the engine that may compeleletly by removed or changed. I will take the example of Unreal Tournament 4 (where I am taking part of): the game is now in pre-alpha stages: every map has NO TEXTURE yet, it is still using UT3 (so UE3) models , meshes and weapons. The final build will use UT4 weapons and models built from scratch suiting UE4. Here is my post in UE4 thread where I posted an UT4 weapon compared to UT1 weapon (you can compare this new UE4 UT4 weapon to UT3 weapon still used in the pre-alpha). You can also see in the video how the maps will look. Vehicles and other stuff aren't even developped yet: http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

Do you really think ND aren't aware of the lackluster hair and other problems? Still the game is very advanced even in the pre-alpa stage.

Edit: GOW3 first reveal barely looked a little better than GOW2 (same PS2 engine) with washed out textures. Hell even the demo had less detailed characters models (small polycount) worse aliasing and textures. Ther final build looked like another platform beyond the first reveal and still beats many current-gen games.

Edit 2 : from the article: "Another feature missing is tesselation. It’s rather puzzling to us that both the PS4 and Xbox One are DX11 capable and yet, it is not being implemented in modern games."

The game is using tessellation on Drake called: "Silhouette Tessellation" which is a dynamic tessellation solution that doesn't cripple ressources.

[Letthewookiewin]

And still this is the best looking game on ANY console, besides The Order and Bloodborne. Nothing comes close to these technical masterpieces.

[miyamoto]

LoL, any bs article for click bait, eh?

Anyone here understand the word "target render"?

TARGET RENDER

Nice term

Target Render

That is what the E3 trailer was

And we all know ND will meet that goal from pre alpha to final product.

That is how the process works

Downgrade my bum!
People sometimes should use their brains.

[Cupid_Viper_3]

@ guys on the Sony side of things.

You guys have to relax and understand that the same thing was done to KillZone 2, and more recently inFamous Second Son. There were countless articles crying "downgrade", and "Sony lied to us" and anything else you can think of. In the end they were all forced to eat massive plates of crows. But did that stop them? Of course not, trolls only have one purpose and one purpose only....To troll.

This is not a first and it wont be the last. And keep in mind that most of the people that are going to comment on here, are the same folks that when you bring up Titanfall, Halo, SunsetOverDrive, Forza, or the countless multiplatform games that are running better on the PS4, they quickly fall back on the Gameplay > Graphics angle. And this is also the same group of folks who dismissed indie games now, even though back on the 360 indies were lauded. And these are the same folks who would hype up sales all of last gen, and now are singing a different tune. And of course, these are the same folks who call others "hypocrites"

So what's the lesson here? It's simple really. These guys are not in it for anything but to try and downplay the game, and kill any hype for it.

Anybody, and I mean anybody, who looks at the direct feed of this game and comes back to tell you that there's a downgrade, is nothing but a " complete TOOL".

@ Vegeta, I'm not sure you really understood my post. But ok....

Also, anyone who was in Uncharted 2's beta will remember how amazing the Beta looked, and people thought that it was the final build of the game. Until of course, the retail copy hit and jaws had to be picked up.

Also, until publications like IGN, GameSpot, Edge, and others are sued for libeling and putting out incorrect information, then this sort of thing will be the norm. Where someone with ZERO knowledge of technology, coding, computers, can actually publish an article like this one.

[Majin-vegeta]

@cupid Viper

Ok I just went through and reread your comment.Makes more sense now...my bad >_>

[OB1Biker]

@Cupid_Viper_3
lol I totally agree with you man. + I keep watching the gameplay and Im blown away everytime by this beauty.
No worries about Gamngbolt.. thats what they do and like you say they are of those who 'dont care that much about graphics' when it suits them

[rainslacker]

Yeah, a trailer with one character, in a dark scene with mostly foliage which doesn't take up as much resources as one would think, is obviously the best way to determine if the game was downgraded when you see the entire world, well lit, in full motion with all physics, AI, and particle effects going.

Heck, just look at TLOUR game play. It was very close to what we saw at the E3 trailer for UC4, and the movies in TLOUR looked almost as good as the UC4 trailer, with just some difference in texture detail, so I think UC4 will be fine.

This is Naughty Dog we're talking about. When is the last game they released that wasn't the best looking game for the time it released?

Wonder how many people saying it was downgraded saw it outside the compressed streams that are available.

[marlinfan10]

it might be ridiculous knowing that the game comes out a year from now but any other game would have the same articles written about it so this shouldn't be any different.

[Kribwalker]

Gonna be killzone 2 all over again, but since it's naughty dog these fanboys will sweep it under the rug

[ThePope]

After the E3 trailer people were acting as if that was in game. People now all of a sudden act as if they knew it wasn't all along. Great looking game but people are really forgiving for some reason

Before you hit disagree look at the articles on this site about the E3 teaser, people were sure that was full in game.

[GribbleGrunger]

That's not how the image quality looks at all. This site keeps using Youtube as their source for quality and comparisons, which is why it's laughed at by all corners of the internet. If you're going to do a quality assessment then at least look at uncompressed footage, such as that you can find quite easily on Gamersyde ... but I guess they didn't think that footage would suit their needs.

[PLASTICA-MAN]

Even gamersyde uploaded a a washed out video that they corrected later: http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

There is another corrected video in another article.

[JackVagina]

Heres a much better comparison, no downgrade.

http://i5.minus.com/iT2LBHU...

[DigitalRaptor]

Rashid and his staff need a firm backhand to the face.

All they do is use raw, low quality footage for their comparisons to try and "be the first" with the comparisons to get more clicks for their site.

It's nasty stuff.

[methegreatone]

After watching youtubes video, I thought the graphics were pretty crap.

I did go to Gamersyde after though, and I couldn't have been more satisfied :)

[rainslacker]

I thought the youtube stream of it was not much better than TLOU on PS3, but it was pretty apparent to me that some stuff wasn't complete yet. There were no depth maps on some of the terrain textures which was a dead giveaway to me.

Anyhow, I have faith in Naughty Dog as they have proven themselves time and again. The game play looked like UC, which is what I look for from an UC game, and honestly, even UC1 is still a great looking game, so if UC4 at least gets to that, I'll be fine, although I'm sure we can expect at the very least TLOUR quality, which is a great looking game in itself.

[URNightmare]

The E3 trailer was clearly IN-ENGINE and running on a PS4. Anyone who has played Uncharted games would know this. The same goes for The Last Of Us. They stopped doing CGI cut-scenes years ago.

Let's not confuse CGI, In-engine and In-game graphics.

I knew the in-game graphics would look close to the in-engine trailer as it's the norm with ND's games but not that close. I'm impressed and this is just their first game with the PS4 hardware.

[mark3214uk]

even pre alpha i thought the graphics looked better than any current game already out

[FanboyKilla]

annnnd the f n awesome gameplay from psx was missing from the e3 teaser. soooooooo. ill take the awesome game over your pretty teaser thank-you. nexxxxxt.

[Thatguy-310]

People fail to realize that that trailer wasn't gameplay to begin with. The game still has close to a yr before release so a lot of polish will take place. The game look amazing for pre-alpha

[Forn]

People should just downvote every site that posts absurd flamebait articles like this. Such a shame. I guess people just can't handle how amazing Uncharted 4 looks, and it's still a year away from release.

Also, stop comparing two entirely different scenes, it makes zero sense. And don't use uncompressed video quality as a source of comparison smh.

If people want to see Uncharted 4 in all it's glory check out GamerSyde.

Edit: If this as an example doesn't impress the people complaining, then nothing will ever impress them... http://www.gamepur.com/file...

[Forn]

*compressed

@okmrman

lol yeah, no. If you think there is a downgrade, then you're just lying to yourself. Once again, different scene, different time of day, Drake was wet, etc. Also, nice link to a compressed YouTube video lol. You trolls are so funny. Maybe you should check out GamerSyde ;-)

[okmrman]

https://www.youtube.com/wat...
lol

if you say there is no downgrade then you are a flat out liar

[TheMapleNerd]

Yeah, lets compare CGI to gameplay of a game.

[XxDarkGamerxX]

@ MapleNerd.

No no, according to Naughty Dog this was completely ingame. Which is bullshit ofcourse. but if they say its ingame, we have to right to compare them.

[N4GDgAPc]

Yes that is in game but a big difference. There's in-game gameplay and in-game cinematic. They pretty much have a higher poly character for cut scenes and a model for gameplay. Its just now they can get closer to in game cut scenes compared to ps3.

[ritsuka666]

Yeah, lets compare CGI to gameplay of a game.''

Funny PS fanboys claimed this E3 reveal are IN GAME engine. lmao!

[rainslacker]

Anyone that's played any UC game, or TLOU on PS3 or PS4 can tell the difference between cinematics and game play graphics. It's quite substantial at times, particularly in TLOUR on PS4. The cinematics are in-engine, which means they're being rendered in real time. But during that time, there is nothing else going on which can tax the system, such as waiting for AI or physics calculations to complete.

I swear, it's like people think ND can't pull it off, despite proving themselves over and over again last gen.

[Niv]

Still a year out...

[krontaar]

Really means nothing, this level looked pretty complete to me. They aren't going to redo all the textures. If anything it will get downgraded like all the other uncharted games did from E3 to release.

[Mechanism]

Ha, you don't have a clue do you.. Textures won't improve over a year? Wow. If you don't know what you're talking about.. Just be quiet.

Naughty Dog downgrades are a myth, all his cult like denial warriors happily believe those made up misterx examples of Uncharted 3 like the gullible little brats they are.

Thanks for the laugh.

[XxDarkGamerxX]

Typical N4G Fanboys.

Come on man. We all know the game is going to be great fun from Naughty Dog quality. But the game looks worse then the E3 reveal and naughty dog said it was 'A 100% ingame, running 60FPS'.

The gameplay looked worse and was 30FPS.

And Naughty Dog doesnt do downgrades? They do. Stop being such blind sheep and admit that downgrades happen. Here is proof:

http://a.disquscdn.com/uplo...

We all know this will be one of the best games coming out next year. But come on now, wake up and see the real world. The graphics got a massive downgrade.

[beastModeOn]

@xxdarkgamerxx

What a load of BS. I have played TLOU AND UCs and the
games don't look anything like those edited pics.
I am calling BS. Try harder.

[thanhgee]

@XxDarkGamerxX

Its pre alpha.. what person expects any console game to be 60fps at that stage in the development cycle? It's highly unrealistic.

[DoomeDx]

@ Above

I am getting a little sick of people saying ''Yeah its pre-alpha''. So what? The reveal trailer was Pre-alpha as well. And according to Naughty Dog it was running 60FPS and completely ingame.

Tell me how the game suddently looks worse, with a lower FPS, in a later stage? Use your brain people. The game has been downgraded graphically. Gameplay however, seems like a great step up from the already great UC2 and UC3!

[the_dark_one]

@deemoDx

and who is not to say that this gameplay video isnt from a version before the e3 trailer? it might aswell be. who knows? like a very early build.

[Chaos-Dad]

@DarkGamer
NaughtyDog dont Downgrade, your Uncharted 3 picture is Photoshopped by "MisterXMedia" this Fanboy asshole do the same with InFAMOUS:SS Pics here:
http://ic.pics.livejournal....

@krontaar
This here: http://www.gameinformer.com...

Is a Picture from the Last of Us in Alpha Stage, you can see the Textures on the Car and the Blood!? And this was Alpha noch Pre Alpha like Uncharted 4^^

[jhoward585]

@krontaar
LOL, Of course ND will add more layers of textures. They also have the option to paint over some parts of the textures for what ever they want to achieve.

[user7402931]

pre alpha, a year to go

[DarkLord1003]

pre alpha... that's really all you need to know...
look at the first the order build.... and look at the recent gameplay demo...

[beastModeOn]

For all those people crying about uc4, even though it's in pre alpha state.
Watch these hypocrites defend halo 5 being 720p in its current state.

[Blackleg-sanji]

Oooo im waiting for that backlash -_- gnna be salt everywhere from both camps just like every other game

Ot: nobody seems to be talking about gameplay at all so ill start....that hook swing tho!!!

[Mega24]

Yeah, that instantly made me remember Indiana Jones. Sounds and Movement seems improved from Uncharted 3. I want a long campaign, but I already know it will take like 8 to 10 hours. Still, love the series so can't wait.

[Daz]

they where because hypocrites like you where trashing it.

GOES BOTH WAYS

[EXVirtual]

Pre alpha+ youtube compression + livestream compression? I'm not worried at all. Look at the first gameplay of the Order and look at the new screens.
Not to mention it's already 1080p.

[XxDarkGamerxX]

There is an uncompressed version on the internet already dude.

There is a downgrade. Stop lying to yourself.

[EXVirtual]

I'm really not lying to myself.
The game is a year from release.
If I am proven wrong at E3 2015, so be it, but a lot of things can be done over a year.

[famoussasjohn]

And that's why the game is coming out late next year. It's obviously an early build and will only further improve upon what they already have. Even then, what they have shown looks great to me anyways.

[ShadowWolf712]

I've got that file. 3.8GB Uncompressed color-corrected video.

There's not a "massive" downgrade, and the game is still a year out with improvements to come. Only people lying to themselves are the ones insisting a game a year from release is indicative of final quality.

[justlikeme]

So the reveal trailer what was that? That was also pre alpha and youtubed compressed no?? I'm not taking away anything from UC4, b/c it looks great, but you have to call them out on it b/c it doesn't look like the E3 reveal trailer..

[EXVirtual]

The E3 trailer was in engine cutscene running on PS4. Polished as hell.
This is unedited gameplay footage in the unfinished pre alpha stage, running at 1080p.
I would wait until E3 2015.

[Lulz_Boat]

http://i.imgur.com/BRwZkny....
http://i.picpar.com/Vkjb.pn...

Mhh nope, the same pristine image quality it's still here.

[Rimgal]

I was reading some of the comments made today about Uncharted, and I have to say.This community has become a bunch of drama queens that just want to bitch and complaint about every little thing.

Always finding myself writing a comment in response to other comments, only to find myself deleting it, because it was not worth it. What's up with this generation of gamers who can't enjoy games. Gone the days where we can talk passionately about games, regardless what platform we prefer.

Seriously some of you really need to grow up.

[Mega24]

You get a bubble+.

[jcnba28]

Why do companies do this, do they actually think we won't be able to tell the difference upon release? Not cool naughty dog.

[PrinceOfAllSaiyans]

Do you not know the difference between a cutscene and in game gameplay ?

[justlikeme]

When Nate and his bro? almost blew each others head off that was also a cutscene man..

[the_dark_one]

i just think its so funny all this comments. all of them, i mean people cant see or dont want to see or even know cause they are on a crusade against ps4. the reveal trailers was in-engine graphics quality, and this now is in-game graphics, naughty dog never said that the in-game graphics would look like that e3 trailer. but no matter how many fact we throw at them they will never accept them

[cfc78]

I saw a lot more than just graphics(which looked great)yesterday with the gameplay demo and as a huge fan of the series I have zero worries that as it stands now and in 12 months time Uc4 will be another amazing game.

[q8kik]

Naughty Dog always does this, they reveal their games then they deliver a much better looking game .
Don't you guys remember UC3 or TLOU when they were revealed?

If anything the final product will look much better than what we have seen from PSX.

[XxDarkGamerxX]

You mean this?

http://a.disquscdn.com/uplo...

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/WiIL4...

You guys lie to yourself way to much :/. Yes, Naughty Dog is one of the best studios out there right now. But saying that they dont do downgrades is a big fat lie

[Majin-vegeta]

If you're going to post pix of supposedly downgrades .Dont you use crappy pix that came out of Mister x camp lol.Try harder kid.

[IIFloodyII]

So besides the tree (which is a different tree), everything you used was a pre-rendered cut-scene, which the PS3 would have no problems playing.

[Ryuk_2007]

Why is everyone screaming pre alpha footage? The problem is.. the U4 reveal footage looks miles better than the demo footage that was just released.
The reveal looks cg compared to the demo.

[XxDarkGamerxX]

Accidentally disagreed with you.

The reveal footage was ingame according to them. but all of a sudden the pre-alpha build looks worse? No logic at all.

Grow a pair Naughty Dog. Stop lying to us about stuff being ingame while its clearly not.

[q8kik]

A few seconds in-game cutscene should be easier to polish than a big stage + 15 min worth of footage, right?

PS: you're trying waaay too hard

[sin7279]

Wat is wrong with you mean? You are trolling to much,are you sick? Jesus!

[JackVagina]

Does it really?

http://i5.minus.com/iT2LBHU...

[Fro_xoxo]

The reveal footage was a "target render". . CGI quality. Dubbed "in-engine".. It's all part of the hype.

The funny thing is, when third-parties do this, like Ubisoft. They are later accused of downgrading their game. lol

Sony shall not be exempted.

---
If you really thought the in-game footage would look like the reveal trailer, then lol.

[DoomeDx]

I agree with you. Also according to naughty dog, the ''target render'' was totally ingame running at 60FPS.

So yeah..BS right there. But indeed, if this was Ubisoft if would be slammed hard.

I love sony. I love their games. But this is getting pathetic.

[WeAreLegion]

Not true. Watch_Dogs was not in-engine. It was in-game. PC gamers even revealed that Ubisoft held the PC version back, unlocking the original assets.

They quite literally did downgrade the game.

[Blackleg-sanji]

Everybodys talking about downgrade and graphics while im still squealing over that hook swing and the fact that drake has a damn older brother (played by troy baker!!!)

[Razjin]

That was shocking to me like plot twist!

[Blackleg-sanji]

I swore he was looking for sully the whole video

[Razjin]

What people don't get is that it's all about camera angles/depth and scenery that made the e3 trailer look good so it's not downgraded just not something pre-made for a teaser trailer.

[slappy508]

Sony can have a studio that publishes the best game in the world (and it doesn't look too far off that) and you will still have it's naysayers

[S2Killinit]

So when halo 5 gameplay comes out, we are going to compare it with the halo 5 teaser right?

[justlikeme]

Yes.

[the_dark_one]

of course. seems only fair

[u got owned]

Well to be fair Halo teaser was CGI and I dont recall the developer claiming it was in game.

[S2Killinit]

True. But since we are going to get technical, i think they said the uncharted teaserwas "in engine" but that refers to a cutscene that uses the same engine running the game. So perhaps people are jumping the gun here?

The reason im bring up halo is because i feel like the xbox fans here, if they are any type of gamer, know the Uncharted game is going to phenomenal, and yet they want to rain on their fellow gamers parade. I want them to put themselves in other peoples shoes, by reminding them how it feels when others deliberately want to kill their excitement.

If they want to bash games just because its not on their system, then they should know that they reap what they sow. Next time it will be their turn. And on and on and on.

[WeAreLegion]

The reveal was in-engine.

I feel like everyone suddenly got incredibly stupid and forgot what "in-engine" means.

[ShadowWolf712]

"Sudden;y"? lol

Par for the course these days, man.

[daBUSHwhaka]

So what if there was a slight downgrade in the gameplay shown .They still have loads of time to polish things off and get it to what we saw at E3.This game will be spectacular in so many ways.The engine these guys use has produced some of the best graphics seen this gen and last.Can't wait for this to hit.Happy days.

[Moe-Gunz]

Pre-Alpha and we're already starting this? Stay classy gaming media, stay classy.

[SoulWarrior]

Wow, so we are comparing an E3 reveal, which had no LIVE gameplay, or any action going on at all, to a completely different scene/part of the game?

If they released the same teaser and the image quality would be worse then I would understand..

oh wait... another joke of a clickbait article from gamingbolt.

[Harold_Finch]

Two bubbles, you must be smarter than most or you would have more :P

It was just a ctuscene, TLOU had the same cutscenes and they ran "on a playstation 4" as the Uncharted trailer suggests.

I just round it up to the obvious conclusion:

In the wise words of Men in Black, person is smart, people are stupid.

[SoulWarrior]

I did have 6 at one point but I like to call it selective moderating ;)

[danny818]

It did look sharper at e3. The Sony defense squad will be in full force on n4g aka "ps squad United". But if quantum break had the same article many on this site will praise the article lol

[DougLord]

"And still this is the best looking game on ANY console, besides The Order and Bloodborne. Nothing comes close to these technical masterpieces."

Hahahahahahahaha. Dude Ryze is the best looking game on any console. Order might take the title because it's on rails and not open world. Bloodbourne is nothing special looking. UC will end up looking barely better then Tomb Raider.

You want to be blown away graphically wait for Crackdown. The physics will be mind blowing.

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

The best devs in the business sure know how to raise everyone's sodium levels!

[cruzngta]

The game looks amazing either way. The E3 footage was cutscene cinema and NO GAME out there has those visuals in game at the moment so haters can give it a rest already. Uncharted 4 will look and play amazing.

[Knushwood Butt]

There's always one...

[leemo19]

Ill let the people hating and screaming downgrade have their moment, I know ND will make this game shine just like the rest of their games.

[Alkrado]

If you havent played naughtydog games, don't comment here, talking about "downgrades", "clearly not in game" etc.

Naughty dog has done this in most of their past games and many other developers do this.

U got the gameplay models,textures environments etc.

And u got the cut-scene models, textures and what not. These are much more detailed than the gameplay models.

Naughty dog did this with every jack an daxter/jack game and every uncharted game. Go look it up on youtube. And naughty dog does not use cgi or pre-recorded cut-scenes. Their al in game.

This artikel is shit and all this crap about downgrading is getting old.

[JMyers]

The game is almost a year out... Calm down people. It still looks better than anything in that genre this gen.