Graphics anxiety : an analysis

[Boccages]

To those of us who were disappointed with Animal Crossing: New Horizons' graphics as presented in the E3 trailer, here is an analysis GameXplain made of the different rendering techniques used in the released E3 footage as of now (think how they represent light bouncing off hairs, water and objects). The presenter is quite impressed by the advanced lighting effects used in the E3 trailer.

I hope it soothes your graphics anxiety

 

[MarcelTheFool]

I always thought it looked amazing. I'm super impressed with these mechanics. Glad to see that video helped curb some disappointment.

 

[LokiBoy]

Amazing

I agree, the graphics were absolutely amazing, especially when comparing to past games. I am so excited to see what other details they made stand out when the game releases.

 

[jim]

i can't wait to see al the updated furniture and villager models. they look so much more natural and varied now!

 

[Bitty]

yea I dunno, I was actually kind of surprised that people didn't like the graphics. I think it's a much needed upgrade and I cannot wait until I get to experience those graphics.

 

[Cardbored]

I thought them adding pupils was neat until I saw that thumbnail. Now it's kind of unsettling lol

 

[Jason Voorhees]

I think they can do much better.
They have nine months to do so.

 

[Chouchou]

Well they are doing a MUCH better job than Gamefreak.. I had to get used to the new style the first day of announcement but I like it now and i'm super curious what the final look will be.

 

[lars708]

I actually kinda dislike that video because there really isn't a lot of actual technical information. I can see that it could be interesting for people who aren't very knowledgable on the subject. But for me all that's being said in the video seems obvious to me.

I was hoping that they had counted the pixels to find out the resolution the game is running at or a framerate analysis. Granted it's hard to analyse that without having the actual game but you know people have analyzed trailers for resolution and framerate before so yeah...

On the topic of being worried about the graphics, I'm actually not worried at all. It looks very sleek and modern and in my opinion that's a good thing!

 

[watercolorwish]

Its really beautiful! I LOVE how everything looks so 3D like the trees and flowers. Did anyone also notice the villagers have really natural looking walk cycles now? And the wind makes the game look so alive. So excited

 

[Scarfy]

I'm glad there are people out there enjoying the minute details they put into this game. There's a few things pointed out that I didn't even notice. You can tell from what we have so far that the people working on the look of animal crossing have a passion for the craft. Thanks for sharing.

 

[oath2order]

I personally thought that the graphics looked great.

But honestly, it's Animal Crossing, it's gonna look good regardless.

 

[will.]

I think they can do much better.
They have nine months to do so.

disagree. yes they have 9 more months but they can't (and won't) change all the graphics now. if you look at the comparisons between new leaf and switch, the graphics are way way better and it's gonna perform way smoother as well. i honestly don't think they could've done that much better, especially with how big the game is.

 

[Jason Voorhees]

disagree. yes they have 9 more months but they can't (and won't) change all the graphics now. if you look at the comparisons between new leaf and switch, the graphics are way way better and it's gonna perform way smoother as well. i honestly don't think they could've done that much better, especially with how big the game is.

I disagree.
I think the Switch can do better.
Like they said. They delayed it to improve it.

 

[jefflomacy]

I went back and looked at the New Leaf E3 trailer, and it's interesting how little was actually revealed in that trailer even though the game came out only a year and some months later (Nov 2012):

I think the same situation is going to play out with New Horizons.

They don't even reveal Isabelle's role, and the graphics are inferior to the real game. I think we will be pleasantly surprised with the real trailer when it is released.

The E3 trailer vs the real trailers (there appear to be two launch trailers):

 

[will.]

I disagree.
I think the Switch can do better.
Like they said. They delayed it to improve it.

yes they did delay it to improve it and yes the switch is a powerful machine. but the graphics are amazing. animal crossing games are supposed to look animated and cartoonish not lifelike and they pulled that off spectacularly in new horizons. plus, like what jefflomacy said above, the footage shown at e3 is always different.

bottom line is that the new horizons graphics are outstanding lol

 

[Hopeless Opus]

lol what more were people expecting honestly?? it looks great

 

[Jason Voorhees]

yes they did delay it to improve it and yes the switch is a powerful machine. but the graphics are amazing.

The graphics look amazing, to you.

We have different opinions.

I won't be changing mine unless there's an improvement.

 

[Kirbyz]

The graphics are visually stunning. It’s to show improvement from previous game. For some reason, it’s so surreal, I’d never imagine an AC game to look like that. It looks amazing though.

Edit: Not trying to criticize anyone if it seems that way, just giving my opinion on it Everyone’s free to their own opinion, so if you don’t like it, then that’s perfectly okay because I understand where you’re coming from lmao. I was so surprised when I first saw it, I really like imo

 

[jim]

I went back and looked at the New Leaf E3 trailer, and it's interesting how little was actually revealed in that trailer even though the game came out only a year and some months later (Nov 2012):

I think the same situation is going to play out with New Horizons.

They don't even reveal Isabelle's role, and the graphics are inferior to the real game. I think we will be pleasantly surprised with the real trailer when it is released.

i always get surprised at the number of people who don't seem to notice nintendo's habit of saving the "polish" on their games' graphics for the later stages of game development. (i'm talking purely about graphics/models, not gameplay.) from my years of observations this often goes up until the last few months before a game goes gold.

this fits in with what nintendo developers have revealed in interviews about their development pipeline. many things get switched, trashed, etc if you pay attention to the trailers and early gameplay footage and compare it with the final product. some changes are much more subtle than others. some changes the normal user won't even have knowledge about to make comparisons to earlier builds (like bugs and performance issues that are tested and stamped out).

on a related note, the art direction is clearly different in this new animal crossing installment but it's still animal crossing at its core. a lot of people were upset when the trailer for new leaf initially dropped because "ew long limbs! this looks wrong! this isn't animal crossing!"

but then we actually got the game in our hands we became used to it and those complaints died out. people are averse to change but i think we'll all be pleasantly surprised when we're actually able to play in march.