Uncharted 4 Developer Explains Differences Between E3 Trailer and Gameplay, Teases New Levels & More

Following the reveal of the gameplay of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End at PlayStation Experience, Naughty Dog 3D Environment Artist Anthony Vaccaro had some interesting insight to share about the demo and more, joined by Rockstar North Principal Lighting Artist Owen Shepherd.

[Relientk77]

I am more than ready for this game Naughty Dog. Can't wait to see more from it.

[Rimeskeem]

Sorry, didn't mean to give you a disagree.

I am also extremely excited for his game. Naughty Dog has never missed and I doubt they will start now!

[ShinMaster]

Even with Naughty Dog's and Rockstar's explanation, certain people still don't get it.

E3 trailer was a cutscene. Not gameplay. So there was no downgrade.
As ND said, "Trailers are Art Directed for every frame – A trailer is not gameplay so we have the ability to do a lot of art direction in that shot, that could otherwise hamper gameplay. It allows us to give a lot more emotion to a trailer".
Also, "Our first trailer is at night, moonlight. Our gameplay demo is early morning. So the moonlight is slightly over exaggerated to give more contrast to give it that night feeling but enough light so you can see whats going on. Dawn is not a time of day where you have a lot of contrast."
In the gameplay demo he is dry, as opposed to the E3 trailer where he was wet.

TL;DR:
It can't be a downgrade if there was never an example of gameplay that the new demo can be “downgraded” from.

[Bigpappy]

At E3 they said it was in game. Now they are saying it is a trailer. It is their fault for pushing the expectations.

I really don't see the downgrade thing as a big deal the game looks nice. Ryse was down graded and still turned heads

[freshslicepizza]

"Trailers are Art Directed for every frame – A trailer is not gameplay so we have the ability to do a lot of art direction in that shot, that could otherwise hamper gameplay. It allows us to give a lot more emotion to a trailer."

this is why people need to stop posting these images and then tell everyone how great the game looks. we've seen it time and time again even in previous uncharted games. people love to post these images that dont take into account the physics, enemy a.i., hud, and all those others things the hardware has to compensate for. the ps4 simply cannot have that level of detail shown at e3 while in full gameplay mode. the ps4 is not a super computer. yes it can render those images on the hardware but not in actual gameplay. thats the difference.

[Bathyj]

They said it was game engine which it is. They never said it was gameplay.

All these people acting like their hopes were so high just to justify their disappointment now are a joke.

If you think every game with a obvious cinematic is going to look like that in gameplay youre very naive. If youre pretending you believed that just to feign your heartbreak now, youre even worse.

The guy from Rockstar tries to explain the a cinematic will never look like gameplay, nor would you neccessarly want it to. The trailer migh be dark, it might have weird camera angles, the focus might be on something in the background leaving the foreground blurry.

All these thing are art direction and used to heighten the drama during a cutscene. During gameplay they might be tweeked completely differently so you can navigate the world and enjoy the gameplay better. Its apples and oranges.

You might show a scene in a trailer with Drake waking up to a blinding lense flare and he cant see. It might look brilliant. Does that mean you automatically want to have that blinding light while trying to play? Each situation is different and tailored to what is needed at any given time.

[holin4]

i dont remember exactly where i heard this but i remember ND saying "Pre rendered cutscenes are the past..."

http://gearnuke.com/pre-ren...

Maybe i just got it wrong.
Anyway this is one of the best looking game revealed untill now (with the order and QB)

[its_JEFF]

@holin4 But the e3 trailer wasn't pre-rendered. The guy at ND said it was art directed frame by frame. The e3 trailer was using the engine, but probably uses a time of day that won't be in the "game."

If I was a dev I wouldn't bother trying to explain. There is always going to be a segment of people who just won't accept it. They've already made up their minds, nothing you can say will change it. It's like watching Bill Nye debate the Creationist.

BTW that 2nd sentence isn't directed at you @holin4

[torchic]

@bigpappy

it was an IN-GAME CUTSCENE, as apposed to a CG CUTSCENE.

[mkis007]

For those who still do not understand in-engine cutscene vs prerendered cutscene:

Have you ever played a game with an unlock able costume or skin on? During the games cutscenes were you still in that costume or skin? If you were then it was in-engine. If you were not then it was a prerendered video.

The in-engine scenes are generated on the fly using the consoles available resources.

One thing I find kind of sad is that the same people who kept chirping that you had to sit close enough to the TV to be able to benefit from 1080p can't understand how detail on a face would be less visable at a farther distance.

[nicksetzer1]

"Trailers are Art Directed for every frame – A trailer is not gameplay so we have the ability to do a lot of art direction in that shot, that could otherwise hamper gameplay. It allows us to give a lot more emotion to a trailer."

That sounds strangely familiar to what I was called a troll for yesterday... either way, game looks great looking forward to play it regardless of a minor downgrade on what is pre-alpha footage anyway.

[ShinMaster]

"That sounds strangely familiar to what I was called a troll for yesterday ... regardless of a minor downgrade"

*facepalm* yeah, that's probably why people disagreed with you.

It can't be a downgrade if there was never an example of gameplay that the new demo can be “downgraded” from. The E3 trailer was a cutscene, not gameplay.

[nicksetzer1]

@shin the cutscenes between the PSX and E3 versions themselves are lower in quality.

http://i.imgur.com/mI23pH7....

Again, I don't care about a downgrade, never have. Even for watchdogs, the witcher and other similar games. However denying it for one game and not another is just stupid. The game still looks amazing the game will still be one of the best games of all time (gameplay, story, etc) IDK how calling an downgrade a downgrade is a "down vote" worthy cause you seem to think it is.

[Kayant]

@nicksetzer1
"the cutscenes between the PSX and E3 versions themselves are lower in quality" - Yh it's not like that is differences in lighting, the fact E3 drake was wet comparable to a dry PSX drake /s.

[ziggurcat]

@nick:

"the cutscenes between the PSX and E3 versions themselves are lower in quality."

oh for the love of.... the image on the left is from the reveal *cutscene*, and the image on the right (that is rather poorly super-imposed onto a screenshot of the cutscene) is from the PSX *gameplay*, which was *not* a cutscene.

there's absolutely no downgrade, so stop trolling.

[morganfell]

@ziggurcat,

You are spinning your wheels for no reason. Anyone that says they do not care about downgrades and then spends two days and countless bubbles on a downgrade tirade obviously cares. There own actions make them a hypocrite. Then again, there are people just simply incapable of admitting things to themselves concerning their own actions when all the evidence says otherwise and everyone is aware of the truth.

After all, art direction and emotion are not about rendering fidelity but rather how that fidelity is utilized for expressive effect. This is a case of someone wanting something to fail so badly they will read anything into a remark.

[AndrewLB]

The simple fact that the "in-game" cutscene rendered in "real time" that was "captured on PS4 hardware" was running 60fps... while 7 months later things are clearly only running at 30fps... is a DOWNGRADE.

If the game's engine was in such good shape that PS4 hardware was rendering the E3 cut-scene footage in real-time @ 60fps, then it should have had no problem doing 60fps rendering the gameplay footage all these months later.

Cut-scenes by nature are almost always more demanding hardware wise than gameplay when rendered in-engine and in real-time using such high quality assets and processing effects. Just look at Assassins Creed: Unity, Crysis 3, and other games with advanced graphics. If you're maxing out your hardware to barely run the game at say... 60fps, the cutscenes usually cause a drop below that point.

Even if what ND says is true about the actual graphics not being downgraded... the fact that it's only 60fps is in itself a downgrade.

[MysticStrummer]

"That sounds strangely familiar to what I was called a troll for yesterday"

Not really, no.

[MysticStrummer]

"the fact that it's only 60fps is in itself a downgrade."

Not really, no.

[starchild]

Well, a lot of people kept saying that the game would look "identical" to that first trailer. They used that footage over and over to supposedly prove the game looked better than other games. I tried to tell them that it was a cutscene and normal gameplay wouldn't look as good, but I was vehemently told that I was wrong.

I'm still super excited for the game. It looks great and will likely be an amazing overall experience.

[ShinMaster]

We know Watch_Dogs was downgraded because of the first gameplay footage they showed looked a lot better than the final product, even on PC.

Uncharted 4 wasn't downgraded because there was never gameplay footage to compare it to.

Did you not even read the article?
"Trailers are Art Directed for every frame – A trailer is not gameplay so we have the ability to do a lot of art direction in that shot, that could otherwise hamper gameplay. It allows us to give a lot more emotion to a trailer".
Also, "Our first trailer is at night, moonlight. Our gameplay demo is early morning. So the moonlight is slightly over exaggerated to give more contrast to give it that night feeling but enough light so you can see whats going on. Dawn is not a time of day where you have a lot of contrast."
In the gameplay demo Drake is dry, as opposed to the E3 trailer where he was wet.

[PersonMan]

Man, people are quick to call "downgrade" these days.

Remember Second Son? The gameplay was set during a different time of day than the initial trailer, so obviously different lighting will give you a different looking game.

What they should do is NOT show you what their GOAL is by using high end PC or CG rendering, but rather show you what they can achieve (in game) at that moment, and then if it looks better towards the end of the dev cycle, then BONUS.

[MysticStrummer]

"people are quick to call "downgrade" these days."

Interestingly, the same people who won't accept Ryse was downgraded even though the developer said it was.

[Drithe]

The Uncharted games are THE MOST OVERRATED GAMES of ALL TIME!

[MysticStrummer]

Nah that would be Halo.

[Link2DaFutcha]

Totally. Also, @Relientk77 did you used to play Halo on Xbox live with Gary B? Cause that's me

[uth11]

games should just make all their teaser trailers in Minecraft so that nobody gets upset that the graphics look downgraded when the game releases /s

[Kayant]

But the downgrades....

People need to step back and wait for comparable scenes a.k.a the same scene preferably before claiming downgrades.

Really they truly should either way they are damned and can't win.

[Gaming247allday]

Here is the same exact screens from E3 and PSX compared

http://www.product-reviews....

looks downgraded to me, but then again i am not looking at this with fanboy blinders on ethier

[I_am_Batman]

Or at least wait til the game is close to release. The game is still in pre alpha. The majority of optimization and polishing is yet to come and the game already looks great. When I saw the first people complaining about the gameplay being the same as in previous games I decided to stay away from discussions on UC4 all together because those people were either trolling or they haven't payed any attention on the trailer.

Remember what Naughty Dog said about TLOU. The Last 2 months of development made the difference between the game being an 8/10 and a 10/10 meaning it's crazy to judge a game in pre alpha stage. Naughty Dog is setting their goals very high and they won't ship the game until they are satisfied with the outcome.

[GribbleGrunger]

@Gaming247allday:

Oh, but you ARE looking at it with 'fanboy blinders on'. That's the problem.

[Caffo01]

same exact screens? lol one is at night and the other during the day, the psx one is also at much lower resolution. The only comparable thing is Nathan's position... nice try troll.

[Kayant]

@Gaming247allday

Yh because night time is the same as daytime /s

Also people do know that image was made as a jest(to claims of downgrades) guess it works :/ *sigh*.

[ShinMaster]

@ Gaming247allday

I don't expect you one-bubble'd trolls to actually read the article.
So let me make it simple for your simple minds.

E3 trailer was a cutscene. Not gameplay.
As ND said, "Trailers are Art Directed for every frame – A trailer is not gameplay so we have the ability to do a lot of art direction in that shot, that could otherwise hamper gameplay. It allows us to give a lot more emotion to a trailer".

It can't be a downgrade if there was never an example of gameplay that the new demo can be “downgraded” from.

[CernaML]

@Trolling247allday

That image was made as a joke. Its a fake. No surprise people like you fell for it so easily.

[PersonMan]

"People need to step back and wait for comparable scenes a.k.a the same scene preferably before claiming downgrades."

Even if they did that, graphics are still subjective. Some people will say it looks better, but some people will swear they liked the older one better for reasons a and b etc.

No matter how good of a developer you are, you're not going to please everyone. I'm sure they understand this. Also, I'm sure this game is gonna be a massive hit no matter what.

Naught Dog themselves didn't even know The Last of Us was gonna turn out as popular as it did.

[OB1Biker]

@Gaming247allday
Here s a better comparison but still you cant compare a trailer with different time of day/weather / etc
http://www.dailymotion.com/...

[rainslacker]

Or at least wait until the game releases, or final build quality can at least be established soon before release.

[Kingdomcome247]

Lol. Upgrade confirmed each time. If this was a downgrade the rest of the industry should be thankful because it would no longer be a fair fight lol . If GTA 5 made Kojipro feel ashamed of The Phantom Pain, then UC4 would've possibly sent him into full time hiding lol.

[starchild]

Not really. It looks good, but nowhere near as good as you make it sound. It will likely be one of the best looking console games next year, but the gameplay demo's graphics didn't amaze me. The gameplay looked excellent though.

[Clunkyd]

@gaming247allday
Those aren't even the same scenes.
You're also comparing cut scene over a washed out low quality screenshot of the actual gameplay. LOL
It's obvious that you're a fanboy of some sort.

[monkeyDzoro]

Hmmm... Still on the fence w/ this.
I'm not sure I'm keen on believing the words of two TOP developers from two TOP development studios.
I'll wait for the insight and thorough analysis of our improvised N4G armchairs devs... The amount of tech knowledge those gathered by scouting this Internet is amazing. They never ceize to impress me.
So, nope ND/Rockstar, I'm not buying it... Obvious downgrade is OBVIOUS...

[KingKionic]

". His face is so spec-y [editor’s note: specular] in the first image! – Have you seen the trailer? He literally just gets up out of water so his face/chest/shirt are wet and have a high sheen. Bottom one he is not wet so of course he looks dry."

Well looking at drakes hair and skin compared to the gameplay its like he traded places with a Calvin Klien model`s face and a tressume model`s hair in the e3 trailer

But that's none of my business....

Im just gonna enjoy this tea.

[THC CELL]

Nd could downgrade the siht out of this Game il still play it, naughty dog are by far the best in the gaming world and gamers spec the ones who played last of us and uncharted should not worry.

[u-bEttA-rUn]

Omg not this again smh.
Everything ND said I stated yesterday and I am not in any shape a tech expert.
Its just common sense really if you've been playing video games and following Naughty Dog for the past 7 years you know what you see and what you're gonna get... So please let it go...

Edit @ THC Cell I'm sorry for the disagree hit the button by mistake

[BlackTar187]

The amount of XBox only people in here is hilarious.

[ltachiUchiha]

dont mind them. they dont care about exclusive games that are from goty awarded devs. because this line "aslong as its fun" in their minds means its a better game then a game that gives u more then u expected out of a game and sum and goty awards to prove how great the games are. guess i dont blame them for being upset because its been a very long time since they seen any of their favorite exclusives win one of those but hey its cool.

[PsBoxGamer]

Ama buy a Ps4 just for this game.I'm a very big fan of the franchise and really enjoyed all 3 and the vita spin off.This one looks great but I really care more about the gameplay.I'm old school to me gameplay means everything and I'm sure ND will not disappoint me in that department.

[Saithraphim]

Couldn't care less about "downgrades"..the game looks great and I'm confident its going to be amazing.

[JuJuRMJ]

Very eager to see so much more of this game, still far from release but damn can't wait to see more gameplay and ND's amazing level designs!

[error13]

How can you call it a downgrade on something that is from 2 different locations and 2 different times of day. The trolls calling it a downgrade are just sour that ND can make something this spectacular looking and running this smoothly even though it's still in Alpha.

I guess their just trolls being trolls for trolling sake.

[cyclindk]

Good to hear, while this won't shut up any of the diehard naysayers, I have the utmost confidence in ND and for good reason.

[PersonMan]

Maybe devs should just stop showing gameplay and just release the game when it's done.

With nothing to compare it to, you can only assume that's what it always looked like.

[Dudebro90]

The issue here is what every company in the industry seems to have, messaging and talking to their audience.

When the trailer was shown off, it never said game play, but it was shown as if it was to he taken as, this is how the game will look.

Destiny, watch dogs, ryse, killzone, the list goes on of games that are so poorly communicated to mass that their legacy becomes something other than what they game is.

[Dakidog]

What I don't understand is how people(I don't care if you're an idiot, a fanboy, or crazy)can't see that it's a cut scene!!!! Knowing ND it's in engine and not CGI. Gameplay will never look as good as a cut scene, is this not common knowledge by now jeez.

[Double Toasted]

I've played UC 1-2 NUMEROUS times--beginning to end. Their forte is seamless transition from cutscene to gameplay, very few if any have beat ND at that. With that said, the E3 "cutscene" is to far of a reach to be transitioned to the gameplay they showed recently, it just wouldn't look right IMO.

[starchild]

Well some of you might be saying that now, but a month ago all I heard was how UC4 would look exactly like that E3 footage and it will look better than any other game, even games on PC. And, well, it doesn't. The gameplay graphics look similar to quite a few other graphically advanced games.

It doesn't look as good as the E3 footage because that was a cutscene and the new footage is gameplay. Cutscenes are always going to look better than gameplay, even if they are rendered in real-time. That's what I have been saying since the first trailer came out. But lots of people wanted to argue with me, and they were a big part of why people ended up with unrealistic expectations.

[ThatOneRiggaNob]

I remember people specifically telling me that what they showed at E3 was the actual game. What I saw from PSX was not what I saw at E3. I don't care who disagrees. I know what I saw and it wasn't the same. I'm not saying UC4 doesn't look good because that would be false. It's just now what I saw at E3. Now if this was M$ people would be jumping all over this trying to make them look like the devil.

[mysteryraz11]

wasnt downgraded drake looks just a detailed and its different times of the day and its still in pre alpha

[imXify]

"We don’t have an “engine” like UE4. We just build everything in Maya"

This must have taken some nerves to do. *slow clap*

[ThePresentIsAgift]

That was unreal- even though I do not agree with Gaming247allday's link it was funny as fook, nearly laughed my golf balls off.

Sometimes I wish game developers were allowed to legitimately to tell "gamers" to GTFO and just do one. These haters were probably never going to buy their product anyway. EA and UBI have made mistakes recently, so too did Sony with Driveclub and MS with Halo TMCC however they have all made huge strides in repairing their products. In life people make mistakes, it is how we learn.

Why are game developers expected to be perfect, the level of complexity in producing games and associated expense continues to grow at an alarming rate and people expect no problems ever?

If you can do better, then please produce the games yourself. I really sometimes feel that the continual mantra that devs are somehow trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes borders on delusional.

If people generally hate games and development studios with such vitriolic disdain and bitterness maybe they should just stop playing all-together, find a nice new pastime to lower your blood pressure and help you live longer. Everybody wins.

[LamerTamer]

This game looks kind of cartoony. It isn't photorealistic at all. Far Cry 4 looks much more real. UC4 has a weird almost cell shaded, kind of painting look to it. I guess it is the art style or something but the graphics are not all that great, just "OK".

[mogwaii]

Either way they are just another dev that dupe the public into thinking this is what the actual gameplay will look like, very sneaky of them and they just shoot themselves in the foot by doing it.

[ltachiUchiha]

Lol yeah whatever makes u feel better at night. I can hear your tear drops from here lol.

[mogwaii]

U must of been great on the school debating team, a real valid, thought provoking rebuttal there mate.

[Tzuno]

Of course now after he saw the reaction of people he says that it was a beta and they will do more than that which they are forced to do anyway seeing the people rage. That demo was to test people and to see reactions.Guess what they need to put their asses hard at work to improve that.

[Stoff]

"Uncharted is a Action/Adventure game and is made for people who enjoy those types of games. If thats not your thing, or if you feel you want a different game there are plenty out there for you."

"The indie scene is the best place for unique gameplay experiences that are different from the big AAA titles."

"If you are looking for different experiences try out Portal, Gone Home, The Stanley Parable, OctoDad, Journey, Flower, Unfinished Swan. The list goes on and on. There are tons of games out there for you if you are over the AAA style games. We are not making those games though, we are making the best Action/Adventure game we can and the best Uncharted game in the series. So much more awesomeness to come."

[abra511]

it didn't look downgraded to me

[JMyers]

DAY 1. I honestly cannot wait for this game. Love this franchise so much!

[peshkavusCA]

This will be the most over hyped game ever.

[Double Toasted]

Lol, not THE most.

[imuze]

like any Uncharted game ever under delivered...

[kenwonobi]

I am just not seeing the downgrade. Sure it was E3 of a year ago vs this year. We are talking in engine gameplay that was still spectacular and almost a year away from releasing and a lot of time to polish an already beautiful game.

[MALVAD0]

day UNO for me no matter what xbutthurts said i will enjoy this one too just like the others Uc games

[imuze]

cut scene ran at 60fps and the demo was at 30-45fps. anyways i know they will polish so I'm no jumping to any conclusions.

[Gemmol]

they said demo was at 30 frames..... nothing higher