Dear Devs, where are the "graphical upgrades"?

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by Ragnarok, Dec 12, 2013.

  1. Ragnarok Well-Known Player

    So I'm checking out DCUO again, after a long hiatus. I loaded up the PC client, and aside from some environmental changes, where are these supposed 'grand and sweeping' (paraphrasing, but that's what the hypometer was set at by the devs) upgrades? I even swapped to PS4 and rolled a hero as the villain pop on any platform is universally anemic, and here I am shaking my head again at the lack of even the most basic form of AA on the "new" console. Sure the LoD has improved and its 1080p (not 60 FPS though, that's for sure). However, basic PC features like AF and AA - even the performance negligible MLAA - haven't been implemented. The particle effects also look distinctly worse and pared down on the PS4 as well.

    For either platform, is this the best it is going to get? Or are there more incremental changes and effects to add that you simply couldn't fit into the patch. I ask because video-games are a visual medium and a great deal of my enjoyment comes from playing a polished looking game, which DCUO still struggles to be after 3 years.
    • Like x 3
  2. Dolfo Dedicated Player


    You do realize the Unreal3Engine is about a decade old if not older and in order to implement what you're asking would most likely require a completely new/custom built engine. However it's unlikely that'll happen unless we get news of squeal. It's just way too costly and time consuming to build an entire gaming engine especially while keeping the current version of DCUO available on PS3/PS4/PC.
  3. Ragnarok Well-Known Player


    I'm going to assume that you know nothing about computers or GPUs to have made a statement like that. In any modern GPU you can force AF, AA (of up to 20 or so permutations), HDR and any number of other 'modern' effects. The PS4 GPU is essentially a 7870m (mobility Radeon). The PS4 hardware is more than capable of adding these effects if the software is incapable. Which it isn't. Furthermore, people - like myself - have been playing the PC version with all the bells and whistles (16 X AF, FXAA or 16 X CSAA) for some time now. You can force on these graphical features through Nvidia control panel or the Radeon interface. You can find a full list of all UE3 features here:

    http://www.unrealengine.com/features/

    Or just check out wikipedia.

    Please don't contribute to this conversation unless you have actual knowledge of the aspects in play. Thank you.
    • Like x 3
  4. MAXILIANO Loyal Player

    One thing has been very clear to me is a certain conformism and mostly lack of vision on the part of developers. See that are still clinging to old paradigms and that this and other claims can often be seen as subversive or nonsense from them.o_O
  5. DarkSyde79 Loyal Player

    The graphical update to DCUO impacted the PC the least since y’all were gaming in 1080p already.
    • Like x 1
  6. Fruity Reaper New Player

    The way I looked at it was they brought the console version nearer to the PC as when run at full the PC version was always head and shoulders above PS3 as is standard. the PC version has seen some cosmetic changes, the bloom for example making rocks and concrete shiny now or the clouds being a bit more dynamic, some lighting effects been boosted etc but nothing to revolutionise the way it looks or behaves on the PC platform - ergo the update was to bring the PS version closer to what us PC users have been enjoying for couple years :)
  7. MidnightTiger Well-Known Player

    The only thing I noticed is the trigon place (I think it's called Robinson Park) and I LOVE IT SO MUCH :3
    A lot more demonic than they had before. But I'm not sure what else they changed :p This wasn't part of the GU31, but I love how they changed where the mail/bank/broker is in the HoD and WT.
  8. Ragnarok Well-Known Player

    http://www.usgamer.net/articles/super-charging-your-super-heroes-dc-universe-online-comes-to-ps4

    "We will be adding things like anti-aliasing that we don't actually offer,” he said. “Even if you have a really high-end PC, we currently don't allow anti-aliasing. So, there's some other features that we'll probably adding, like screen space effects. Screen space ambient occlusion gives better shadows, better lighting, and better lighting feel. More features like that. Beyond that, there's things we can do with materials. We'll only look better than where we are now. I don't think we'll look like an Unreal Engine 4 game, but we will certainly look better than we've ever looked. We're such a big, good, rich game, that I think we'll hold our own."
    • Like x 1
  9. blklightning New Player

    Have you disabled Vertical Sync in game and reenabled it in your NVIDIA Control Panel? That will change your framerate from 30 to 60fps, which will then show off the graphical upgrades much better.
    • Like x 1
  10. WreckTech New Player

    I am also someone who greatly appreciates some nice looking graphics in the games I play. For now though, I'd much rather they dedicate the manpower to making the game actually run before making it look pretty. I've been disconnected well over 20 times in the last day alone. Of at least 15 of which have been at the start of PvP matches which then resulted in 10 minute deserter penalties. Of all those disconnects about 5 have been game freezes where I had to manually pull the power plug on my PS4 (really hate doing that) because it could not shut down. I just want to be able to play the freaking game...T_T.
  11. Ragnarok Well-Known Player


    I thought it was obvious that I'm a rather proficient PC user. I run DCUO with vsync off and my GPU settings cranked to 11 (forced via Nvidia control panel) when I play on PC. Performance, as it has been for the past three years isn't an issue. That said, I've split my time with DCUO back and forth between the PC and PS clients trying to find that right balance with community where PC - for villains at least - is sorely lacking. Now, my problems are two-fold with this last supposed update. First off, on the PC client, aside from minor environmental tweaks, no major rendering features appear to have been added. These features were mentioned in the article I linked as well as in numerous posts, intimations and interviews by the development team prior to the last major update. Where is the built in AA after 3 years? Where are these extra bells and whistles PC users were supposed to have access to after this last patch.

    Which leads us to my second issue. Because of the ever declining villain population on USPC, I've started over with a hero toon on the PS4. Again, I'm noticing the paucity of graphical updates, which is baffling given the relative performance of the console. Why are these most basic GPU tweaks missing from the PS4 side of things? Not even FXAA? Really?

    So the question to the devs is not if these features were implemented, as they clearly were not. Its if and when they will choose to implement them. Next GU? The one after that? I'd really like to know.
  12. Little Sister New Player

    There are several videos on YouTube that show off the differences (like side by side comparisons). I'm sure a "rather proficient PC user" like yourself can find them ;)
    • Like x 4
  13. SKAVANGER408 New Player

    As long as people play on the ps3 there won't be a huge jump.
  14. Too Many Toons Dedicated Player

    I don't tweak any settings...went from w/e it was to where it is now. I can see lots of improvements, esp in WT, Robinson Park, crash site in centennial.

    Can't please e1....
  15. Ragnarok Well-Known Player

  16. Ragnarok Well-Known Player


    What improvements do you see that have to do with large-scale rendering? I.E. anti-aliasing? Three years, and as a PC game no less and that still isn't in the game. Honestly, that's ridiculous. If you don't like IQ fine, this isn't the thread to debate opinions on that. Its specifically in reference to the quotes that the devs made themselves regarding additional IQ added to the game. (IQ=image quality, in case you didn't know.)