Stunning New Killzone 2 Screen Released

Sony's press site had been updated with this image of Killzone 2, hopefully followed by more soon.

[Condoleezza Rice]

That looks friggin AWESOME!

[decapitator]

CHRIST..........o_O

[sonarus]

I'm not going to lie, that looks fantastic

[HighDefinition]

Is becoming a REALITY.

This day has been insane.

[Ghoul]

who laughs now :D

[thor]

Yeah it has that cool grainy look you get from ambient occlusion as well (faked here of course), but still the character models look on par with crysis from this distance :O

[Statix]

Thor, I'm not sure you know what you're talking about. Ambient occlusion doesn't cause a "grainy look." Nor do you or I know whether it's "faked" here. I kinda doubt you know what ambient occlusion is; maybe you can elucidate it for everyone.

[jwatt]

Yes it's day time, well I was confident they weren't going to have the whole game at night.

[thor]

Actually I've done 3d art for years. Ambient occlusion gives it that kind of finish. I know perfectly well what it means, it simulates the percentage of surrounding light that can reach a surface, rather than just deciding whether things are in shade or not. I know it's faked, well approximated shall we say, because it takes an awful long time and a raytracer to do it properly. They have probably baked some AO maps beforehand, but they won't change as objects and characters move around. It makes for more realistic lighting, though.

[Ghoul]

@statix

no need to get angry here thor said it absolutly right, and yes it DOES give you a slightly "grainy" look to it couse most aoc maps arent that highres to save texture memory, that way you get some rather unsmoothed aoc bakemaps.
you overreacted to the word grainy couse most people wont see the grainyness us 3d artists see.

and yes it is faked as realtime aoc isnt ready yet, we have some very promising engines and thirdparty code coming this way but its more then 4-6 years away to see it in action in a video game.

[Expy]

Processing is the PS3's domain, it's what it does best, and it is a raytracer as well (Cell Processor).

[Statix]

Well in that case, consider me "pwned." It seems like you probably know quite a bit more about the subject than I do, and aren't the "noob" that I initially thought you were.

[Ghoul]

@expy

every cpu is a raytracer as raytracing (like the name suggests) is just a render method tracing every ray instead of the regular realtime fake textures you use like, reflection maps, aoc, etc.

even the ps3 wont give us ingame raytracing in this gen, i even doubt any gaming system will ever do it since raytracing isnt needed its far to expensive to calculate for the little + in realism you can easily fake without the average joe seeing the difference.

[titntin]

Ambient occlusion maps are greyscale images, and as such, are not a big drain on memory at all - there is certainly no need to use a low resolution that would cause graininess. Indeed, the only graininess I've seen in AO maps comes from 3D artists who don't know how to set up the ray tracer to achieve decent smooth results. AO maps are often baked into the vertices's as lighting info anyway (the last two next gen engines I worked on used this method) so the texture map isn't even stored. There's not a 3D games artist in the world could look at that image and say they were using AO maps or not - and the 'film grain look' that appears to be being referred to is most likely a post video process as its perfectly viewable in non occluded areas.
Sorry to be picky, but I've been a digital games artist and and animator for more than 15 years, so I feel compelled to offer those observations.

As for the image - it looks great, and profession aside, as a long time gamer I'm excited to see games imagery starting to achieve this standard and I hope the game play lives up to the great visuals.
There's a look to the shots I've seen from this title that shows an extremely well released lighting engine making this one of the best most realistic lit games I've ever seen and a cut above some of the other engines out there.
I actually turned down a contract at the beginning of the year working on these environments (I didn't want to move away from the wife for the duration of the contract) - but I have to say, looking at this screen shot and anticipating more, I might regret that decision! :)

[Honolulu]

Met some of the good people from Illuminate Labs some weeks ago at the pub, and they said they're using some kind of dynamic occlusion technique that goes by the normal map among other things. It's not completely accurate though, but it sure looks awesome nonetheless.

[Ghoul]

@ tintin

well said thanks for taking the time to write this acurate reply :D
you are right though you cant spot AO maps in the open that easy

in fact for everyone interested in GG deffered rendering technology
http://www.guerrilla-games....

damn interested paper for gamedev/artists and gamers alike

page25 shows you the incredible scene lighting GG accomplished in killzone2 wich for me is the most impressive realtime lighting i have ever seen

[St0]

hmm looks good, wouldn't say it was "Stunning" though

[decapitator]

Yeah, stunning is an understatement. You mean amazing right ? Agree with you if thats what you mean.

[Fishy Fingers]

1 screen? Most games, that wouldn't excite me, but this is KillZone 2 :)

[IIamback]

Am i the only one not impressed? It looks even more dumbed down....

[pwnsause]

thats cause the image is compressed. BTW this is the first image that we actually see daylight in KZ2. lighting looks amazing. possibly up to Crysis standards when it comes to lighting.

[Fishy Fingers]

1 screen is hardly enough to judge something.

But just from that I can see...

Volumetric clouds
What look like soft shadows
Huge amount of AA
Real time dynamic lighting
Post-processing
Massive draw distance

.. all that from a compressed shoot. Not bad for a game with over six months true development time remaining ;)

Personally I want to see some flames/fire, that was my only concern with the E3 gameplay videos, but hell, even that wasn't bad.

[sonarus]

You might be the only one. The backgrounds look a little dull which can be expected of an incomplete game but the characters and the lighting are simply stunning

[Statix]

Honestly, it looks improved to me. And trust me, I'm a realist, not a fanboy, when it comes to evaluating graphical quality; I criticized the PS3 version of GTA4 heavily for its graphics when it came out. But this is one of the best, at least better, looking screenshots of Killzone 2 that we've seen.

[DarkSniper]

Killzone 2 will undoubtedly be ten times more superior than anything offered on competing consoles. With Guerilla hard at work, you can make a safe bet in saying that Sony once again delivered their promise. Next Gen starts when Sony says so.

$niper

[Montrealien]

with a 60 million plus budget it sur as hell better be the best thing this side of FPS shooters.

[Mwaan]

lol. So the next gen starts in 2009? Character models look outstanding. I'm way more into this game than Resistance. Can't wait to hear what people have to say about the demo. If they can pull off those visuals without any compromises, I might kneel before my PS3.

[vloeistof]

iiiiiiiiiii omg later gameplay right along with r2 gameplay if so i will stay on this site till it hits :)

well last year they showed ratchet so insominac knowing i think we will see r2 gameplay today

[Fishy Fingers]

If Sony allow it. I don't want anymore of that "behind closed doors" BS!

We're the people buying it, we're the people who should be shown it. Well that what I think.

[crimsonfox]

i think everyone wants ff:ac good cgi graphics now eh??? this is good enough for me isn't that from the first cgi trailer on the right aren't those the stairs that they wacked that dude off???

[kingboy]

holyf@ck that looks fantastic

[PStriple703]

damn son

[meepmoopmeep]

looooking good. Sev looks badass

[CViper]

Its going to be crazy considering you can walk around all of that city. And it looks like killzone2 wont be hidden in the dark.

Makes me want feb sooner.

[Honolulu]

yeah, well. It would be kinda stupid to just define the bullets with only a normal map since they actually are something that stick out. would probably look weird if they were just a part of the base mesh with a normal map, would use up a lot of unnecessary tries and still look like ass.

it's funny you should say all the objects are one object, in a way all the textures are rendered ontop of a giant quad stretched over the entire screen rendered in different passes, like you do in postrproduction-apps in movies. so, all the textures are just on a plane escept for the geometry, I'm not a programmer, but that's how it's been explained to me how deffered rendering works.

[CViper]

Yeah but thats the way its done in Unreal Engine titles. R6Vegas as well as Unreal3 come to mind. Its an easy way to keep the geometry light.

You have different texture channels for objects. Diffuse/Specular/Reflection/Bu mp/NormalMaps. You set the coordinates of where X texture goes by UVmapping an object. You can have objects with multiple UVmaps for different things. Its not really stretched over 1 quad, but each object has its own type of map for textures.

Little features like this plus animation diversity are only going to add to the realism of the title.

[Honolulu]

Yeah, the animation does a lot to the whole experience.
Definitely looking forward to this title, even though I can't stand fps on console. :P

No no no, I know what unwrapping/UV-mapping is and all that p'zazz. I'm talking about a step in the render-pipeline where you transfer information from every objects seperate texturechannels that are rendered like on a quad on top of everything infront of the camera so everything is rendered in unison in different passes, colour, spec, normal, glow, alpha, lightmaps etc.
all the information from every texture is compiled, all normalmap information from all objects in a single normalmap so that that's the only normalmap that is rendered instead of every other in the scene since they're already included in that "mega" normal-map being rendered on the top... buäh, I'm sleepy

Or are you referring to UE3.5?
I know that Illuminate Labs are working with Epic on some sweet middleware love for UE3.5 though.

I've mainly worked on characters and props outside of editors so I have'nt messed around with environments and levels in unrealed3 much... hopefully that'll change soon though. :)

Or am I generally confused here and you're talking about plain old lightmaps? does'nt ue3 handle them automatically?

need some sleep, nighty night.

[neogeo]

glad to see some daylight

[7h3ultim8p00]

Actually, the Killzone 2 VIDEO is already out. Looks fuking badass.

[IIamback]

Reading NeoGaf more people are impressed with "Mirrors Edge" than with "Killzone 2", i am afraid KZ2 is going to be flop, not sales wise, the way it was hyped it is going to sell big, but somehow that game feel empty, no soul. They said (developers on Playstation forum) that they have improved facial animation, but it looks same as one from E307. Rico (black guy) still look like he had botox injection all over his face, or like he had a stroke or something(looking at new vid very we see him briefly). This event has been major let down.

[Fishy Fingers]

Mirror Edge is COMPLETELY new, this is the first EVER gameplay footage of it. Of course people will jump on that, I did (looks amazing to).

Wait for some KZ2 HD footage to drop, then you will see some excited people.

Oh and as long as I enjoy the game and me and my buddies can enjoy in some online fun, it cant be a flop. Who cares what others think, enjoy games for yourself, let the cooperation's worry about numbers and dollars.

[crimsonfox]

nit picking eh buddy ... botox hahaha wtf

[thehitman]

Some people just cant give it up.... HOW THE HELL U GOING TO SEE ANIMATION IN A STILL FRAME!!! All i got to say if you think gears looked good and this doesnt then your bias and there is no hope for you as a true gamer.

[IIamback]

I didnt get laid in few days, maybe that is my problem...let you know tomorrow

[crimsonfox]

ay...

[Maddens Raiders]

do not be confused. Llamback is Feral Fenix from back in the day. A staunch 360 defender and Sony hater who's been pretending to be *balanced.

This is bad comedy.

[IIamback]

Idiot everyone knows i am massive PS3 fanboy, lol, go visit a doctor to cure that paranoia you have.

[Maddens Raiders]

you are Feral Phoenix. And you've been reported for attacking other members in the Gamer Zone.

[jkhan]

Ok, Now thats just like rubbing salt on our wounds:(
I want more HD footage. That was freaking awesome by the way:D
Oh and by the way, if you look closely, you will notice that this picture was captured off screen. So the game will look a lot crisper than this image;)

[ShAkKa]

i maybe use it as a desktop background for a little while.

[Salvadore]

Looks stunning, but the game is unfortunately slanted for February next year :(

http://www.joystiq.com/2008...

[Mozilla89]

Oh well I have other things to do till Feb 2009, still I hope a demo or something comes out this year.

[jollygoodchap8]

...thats nuts.

This is getting as bad as Home.

[Statix]

Looks very good, but need to see more.

[DJ]

suddenly disappeared...

[MK_Red]

W.O.W...

Feb can come soon enough. Seriously... I want this game NOW!

[thehitman]

Im glad killzone is not out this year I was still wondering how I going to get that and socom and equally enjoy them. Then Res2 lurking around the corner... Also gives me something to look forward to earlier in the year. I wish the vidoes were high quality though couldnt see anything in the crap vids look like som1 did it with their phone..

[A_PimpNamedSlikBak]

A Pimp Named Slikbak's permed hair just stood up.

[Doctor Strange]

Amazing, all the delay is going to do is make this game better, can't wait.

[Ace Ventura]

And you know thats not even finished. You can tell the full AA hsn't been added yet.

KILLZONE 2 IS GOING TO BE AMAZING

[Firestorm]

lol, of course you cant. Judging by previous ps3 games it prob wont get AA either.

[AliC]

looking good

[Expy]

I see a lot of people complaining about the colors and the "dullness" of the picture. But when's the last time you've seen a warzone with vibrant colors? When's the last time you've seen the War in Iraq with vibrant greens, red, and blues?!

[Ghoul]

could it be ?

a n4g user with common sense ?
well said, i totally love the artdirection of kz2 great atmosphere.

[Maddens Raiders]

no one has to sell me on KZ. I played the first one religiously online day and night and anyone who remembers the park will remember, *ParkHelL* the SF II clan and the P.I.C. clans (I created the *ParkHelL* moniker that everyone picked up & adopted) much to my glee. I will camp out for this game. God I hope they bring back a Park-like level for old time's sake. I will be fkn elated. =)

btw - I'm whoring for bubbles. =)

lol - a litle phantom disagreer. Gotta love it... =)

[jollygoodchap8]

They bash MGS4 and KZ2 for their use of grays...yet they praise Gears, CoD4, etc.. those games are not exactly the most colorful games out there.

I guess PS3 exclusives must have some other shade of gray that is overwhelmingly noticeable when wearing MS fanboy goggles.

Does MS use different shades of gray than Sony? What kind of grays are they using? The fanboys can't see or complain about them, maybe Sony should try using those grays instead.../sarcasm

[Neurotoxin]

Looks Good, not amazing.

[Statix]

Perhaps not "amazing" based on a static image in and of itself, but I can imagine seeing it run and playing it in realtime, and in motion this might look amazing, then.

I'm happy that Guerilla gets another half a year to polish things up and improve on this game to reach its full potential, because I already have way too many great games to look forward to this year, particularly First-person Shooters. It's a stacked year for AAA games, even more so than last year, in my humble opinion.

[avacadosnorkel]

on the verge of becoming Duke Nukem Forever

[acdata]

i hope some day ur next gen start
PLAY B3HIND(tm)

[Mwaan]

Did you just pull a lollipop out of your mouth before you typed that? And what side are you on? I can't even tell...

[Montrealien]

ohh Disss!! the fanboys are flinging little pieces of caca with flames on em, and they burnnnn!!!!

[Firestorm]

to the original trailer. Must say I didnt think ps3 ould do such things. lets hope that it's actually a good game.

[PSWe60]

I hope the game play is as good as it looks.

[kewlkat007]

is gameplay, that's all we ever see with this game. screenshots, after a while you want them to be moving.

[pwnsause]

didnt you see the new trailer that was shown today? lol

[Ri0tSquad]

More then 2 now and the gameplay videos look better then these screenshots.

[EZCheez]

I just made a theme using this pic and posted it on PSU.

[smurfie4]

Im glad that they are taking their time with killzone 2. A february 2009 release gives Guerilla plenty of time to improve, graphics and game mechanics. With that said, this game looks to be a true technical showcase for ps3!

[AngryXbot]

"I thought Killzone 2 was nothing but dark, grey and black colerz"

[candystop]

Stunningly ugly lol! Ps3 has not and will never live up to the hype! This shot is proof that the console is very limited and has reached its max!

[IQUITN4G]

Oh i give up, maybe next gen then

[ApocalypseShadow]

and as we will see,it will be "another" game that propels sony past microsoft worldwide in system sales in the future.

japan-check
europe-check
US-only a matter of time but selling just as well at a higher price now.ffxiii and vs will end the back and forth.

megaton......................

[DomUltra]

Impressive as usual, I have no doubt Killzone 2 will be the king of console graphics, I've seen enough for myself that it's definitive, one more screenshot or trailer won't make me think any more or less of KZ2 graphics wise.

[thehitman]

KZ2 is just a scratch on what I think ps3 can do. I think that graphically ps3 games will evolve the same way ps2 games did. If you compare gta3 with san adreas you see a huge leap in graphics which I think the same will be towards the peak-end of ps3 life cycle.

[hahahabutt]

Im not getting to happy, Game comes out in 2009. Alot can change by then

[DomUltra]

We already know Killzone 2 is gonna set the benchmark for graphics on consoles it's not if or when, it's inevitable, but the thing to worry about is Gameplay, it's been a long time since Killzone 1, let's hope they learned alot since then.

[Will-UK]

KZ 2 is really showing the ps3 potential ,proving many PS3 critics wrong

[wass007]

XBOTS PISSOFF!!!!! got no exclusives comin your way so your tryin to trash talk ours

and p.s gears aint a exclusive a can get dat on ma pc lmao!!!

[Montrealien]

Too Human and Ninja Gaiden 2 are great exclusives I`m looking forward to for my 360. Resistance 2 and Socom are the ones I`m looking forward to on my PS3.