New High Resolution PS4 screenshots (place here!)

[Shaneus]

I may be in the minority here, but I really do hope there's a Zaccaria-esque option to tone down the HDR/bloom/post-proc on the PS4 version. Because I'm finding it just comes off as a bit tacky and overdone compared to the vanilla versions on 360 and hell, even iOS. It feels like the equivalent of J.J. Abrams and his gratuitous usage of lens flare in the Star Trek movies.

FarSight, just because it's there, doesn't mean you have to use it. Or if you do have to use it, don't grossly overdo it.

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

I also heard that noise when I was unsuccessfully playing WH20 at PWA. Insanity Falls is awesome!

 

[Espy]

Star Trek 25th is ridiculously bad for hitting the glass. There is a moving central target that sends the ball flying at least once a game (often airballing SDTM or over the flippers, which unfairly leads to a completely unavoidable drain). I don't think the central target even scores, it exists to cause havoc. I was at a tournament with that table last week and the noise of the ball hitting the glass was very frequent.

Despite that I still like the table. It's really easy and satisfying to do huge combos on the ramps, which light up T2-style. Just avoid the central target like the plague.

 

[smbhax]

I may be in the minority here, but I really do hope there's a Zaccaria-esque option to tone down the HDR/bloom/post-proc on the PS4 version. Because I'm finding it just comes off as a bit tacky and overdone compared to the vanilla versions on 360 and hell, even iOS. It feels like the equivalent of J.J. Abrams and his gratuitous usage of lens flare in the Star Trek movies.

FarSight, just because it's there, doesn't mean you have to use it. Or if you do have to use it, don't grossly overdo it.

I agree with this, although if that's what they're using in this version it's at least more subtle than in the PS3 version, where it very obviously makes the tables look slightly out of focus.

 

[Sumez]

I'm still hopeful these playfields are just placeholders and they will have much clearer table scans, but as they are releasing next month I'm not too optimistic.

(...)

I think this may be another case where people should speak up if they want quality.
I already bought every PS3 table, I'd like to see more than just the PS3 tables with improved lighting.

Ugh, I hate to back these accusations against FarSight, as I want to believe in them and see them do good stuff, but I have to agree here, it's so worrying that FarSight will gladly respond to people here and on Facebook about requests they can grant, but as soon as someone raises a relevant question such as a the extremely poor texture quality on these PlayStation 4 screenshots, they are silent as the grave.

Hell, it doesn't have to be every texture on a table - as long as at least the playfield texture is upgraded to be legible and maybe even somewhat photorealistic, it would mean a huge improvement over the PS3/X360 versions. I'm sure they have the table scans available in a good resolution, it really can't be that complicated to implement on a powerful system such as the PS4. Or if they can't make it work, hire someone who can.

 

[ScotchYeti]

Or if they can't make it work, hire someone who can.

+1

 

[Mark W**a]

I hope Farsight at least includes a high res textures optional download sometime in the future. 5 gigs of ram that's a 10X increase over the 360 and yet the textures are the same. No excuse for that.

 

[smbhax]

I've seen a comment or two from people who saw the Expo demo that the texture quality did seem to be improved over the PS3 version, so let's not go assuming they haven't done anything just yet.

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

I think this may be another case where people should speak up if they want quality.
I already bought every PS3 table, I'd like to see more than just the PS3 tables with improved lighting.

I couldn't agree more. I also bought every table and its bad enough I have to buy them again on PS4, especially as I can't play it on PS3 because the flipper lag + my TVs lag is too high, but I will be very upset if the playfield artwork is not crystal clear.

Its understandable on PS3 with its limited RAM, but on PS4 I can't see it being necessary.

 

[Dumpstar]

I couldn't agree more. I also bought every table and its bad enough I have to buy them again on PS4, especially as I can't play it on PS3 because the flipper lag + my TVs lag is too high, but I will be very upset if the playfield artwork is not crystal clear.

Its understandable on PS3 with its limited RAM, but on PS4 I can't see it being necessary.

I think we will see improved graphics etc now the PC version is becoming available. Between that and the PS4 and the income it will generate, that they will need to devote more resources to improving that experience for customers.

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

It depends how hard they are willing to push the PC version and how skilled they are at scaling from a low end PC to a high end.

You would assume very considering the huge variety of platforms its available on, but the game doesn't run as well on the PS Vita as I expected. Its difficult to know if this is an optimisation problem or that something else about that build is actually better than mobile. For example, its not always immediately obvious where one versions physics have been toned down, you notice that over time. Except in the case of the PS4 where I think the improved physics will be immediately obvious as its a huge jump in processing power from the other versions.

What are the minimum specifications for the PC version? If they are going to make it run on (for example) Intel HD Graphics 2000, then will it be fully optimised for the top-end cards too? Its usually a given on PC, but they spread themselves awfully thin with all these different builds of the game that I fear they will not have the resources. The bugs people always talk about on PS3, the flipper lag, gives the impression they were always shooting for higher than they were capable of. The PS4 will hopefully give them the leeway to finally hit that target, but I hope the quality of the textures do not suffer for it as that awesome lighting is meaningless if its not reflecting off of life-like playfield graphics.

 

[Mechanix77]

This probably would've been a great question to ask Bobby King during the last podcast.

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

To be fair, I'm not THAT anxious to know as its not like knowing either way is going to change how they approach it - I will know when it comes out. I just REALLY hope the PS4 version kicks ass because the PS3 version is a huge let down since the flipper lag and the PS Vita version is really REALLY hard to make out the details on the playfield so I never learn what the different lights actually refer to.

 

[smbhax]

There's a min spec thread started by a FarSight employee (Mike R) over in the PC Beta forum.

Back on the PS4 topic, in the last Bobby King interview, they did ask him about texture resolutions and I'm pretty sure he said they've re-photographed the playfields to improve their in-game texture resolution.

 

[Kevlar]

Back on the PS4 topic, in the last Bobby King interview, they did ask him about texture resolutions and I'm pretty sure he said they've re-photographed the playfields to improve their in-game texture resolution.

I thought his answer there was a bit, lets just say unexpected, are we to believe they stripped all the machines right down again to rescan the playfield? not saying he's fibbing, just thats a hell of a lot of work! Maybe they already had higher rez scans from the first time?

 

[shutyertrap]

Maybe they already had higher rez scans from the first time?

This. Bobby told us the photos they had were of a quality higher than even what the PS4 was going to display. The bit about them going back was that they used those photos to create new hi rez images.

 

[Kevlar]

This. Bobby told us the photos they had were of a quality higher than even what the PS4 was going to display. The bit about them going back was that they used those photos to create new hi rez images.

That makes sense, I couldn't see them striping them twice!

 

[Sumez]

What doesn't make sense is that they are using such low resolutions on those screenshots, but I'm glad to hear that they at least kept the hi-res scans

 

[Metalzoic]

This. Bobby told us the photos they had were of a quality higher than even what the PS4 was going to display.

Strange. Then why doesn't it look like they are using them? Could this be more of a problem with having quality programming (ala PS3 & Vita versions) as opposed to the artwork used?

 

[shutyertrap]

Strange. Then why doesn't it look like they are using them? Could this be more of a problem with having quality programming (ala PS3 & Vita versions) as opposed to the artwork used?

I don't have an answer for that. I do think it clears up once and for all though everyone saying they are using old photos from PHOF days. As a matter of fact, their Victory machine was in a play field state of disarray because they had just shot new photos of it. So are they taking hi-rez photos of all the tables? Yes. How they implement those images, I don't know.