Why does Fallout 4 have such ugly graphics?

[stroopwafel]

Now, let me first clarify I don't 'hate' the game like most of you. Yeah, the story is lacklustre and it's not much of an rpg but I find the gameplay loop of obtaining a quest, discovering a location and fetching an item an enjoyable one. Primarily b/c the world is genuinely fun to explore and discovering a new location not knowing what you're going to find is the highlight of the game for me. The gameplay is also drastically improved from FO3 so the game could even stand on it's own as a fairly decent FPS.

The graphics however are absolutely horrendous. Character models look like they're made from oily clay and their outfits blends into the model and the faces..my Dog the faces look like someone took a potato and carved a 'face' in it. Every time I see that lopsided pointy mouth of my character I cringe. The environments look like upscaled PS2 graohics and also the geography is really sparse on detail and very simplistically put together(just look at it from a high vantage point in the game).

There is absolutely no reason for these graphics to look so ugly. Bethesda is one of the top studios with huge budgets and long development times. I'm playing Sniper Elite 4 at the moment which looks better and is made by a relative 'B studio'. The designs in the artbook for Fallout 4 are also superb so maybe Bethesda's animators are just really shitty? Or, maybe it's that Frankenstein engine they are still using for their games? Dishonored 2 for example look like they took the designs from the artbook and put them straight in the game. So maybe they could have taken some advice from Arkane like they did with Id for the gunplay?

Bethesda was a pioneer when it came to introducing open worlds but they really have been outmaneuvered left and right often by developers with lesser resources.

 

[Zhukov]

Because Bethesda are married to that fucking Gamebryo engine of theirs.

Plus I'm pretty sure their animation department is staffed entirely by six goldfish and a teddy bear.

The gameplay is also drastically improved from FO3 so the game could even stand on it's own as a fairly decent FPS.

The gameplay was a massive improvement, but I felt that it eventually fell apart due to the bullet-sponge enemies. Shooting a dude once or twice and dropping him is satisfying. Shooting a dude four times and having him lose 10% of his health bar is tiresome. I found myself resolving many of the combat encounters by popping the slo-mo drug, running up to enemies and mashing left click with an auto shotgun. Not something that I'd consider the stuff of a good FPS.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

The graphics can probably be blamed on the old ass engine they use.

As for the animations, I don't know. It can't be an engine problem, surely, considering that much older games actually have better animations than Bethesda's recent games. I guess they don't consider it that important.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The only real problem I have with the graphics are the faces. Really, everything else looks pretty good considering its open-world RPGness, but the faces just look jank. And once those lips start talking... eesh.

But I'd be fine with all the graphical hiccups if Bethesda knew how to create fun and intriguing characters and a captivating story.

 

[Saelune]

I'm fine with the graphics. There is a slight cartoonishness to them that in the long run is probably a good thing.

But I also am not a graphics whore. I care more about aesthetic consistency, which is a major part of why I HATE graphics mods.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

It's not that bad, come on, what were you expecting? What comparison was made to disappoint so much? The game has a lot more to deal with than your average linear FPS progression. It can't have everything and still run smoothly. I thought they were just fine, pleasing enough, aside the odd low res texture in places.

 

[CaitSeith]

It's not that bad, come on, what were you expecting? What comparison was made to disappoint so much? The game has a lot more to deal with than your average linear FPS progression. It can't have everything and still run smoothly. I thought they were just fine, pleasing enough, aside the odd low res texture in places.

If modders were able to make FO3/FO:NV look awesome for free years ago, one would assume the people paid for making the new game would be capable of doing so. Silly me...

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

It's not that bad, come on, what were you expecting? What comparison was made to disappoint so much? The game has a lot more to deal with than your average linear FPS progression. It can't have everything and still run smoothly. I thought they were just fine, pleasing enough, aside the odd low res texture in places.

If modders were able to make FO3/FO:NV look awesome for free years ago, one would assume the people paid for making the new game would be capable of doing so. Silly me...

Surely though the same could be said for pretty much any game then? Modders don't have deadlines, contracts or the rest of the game to make and test. Plus you're talking only PC there. Which is a bit of a hefty expection to put upon multi-platform deveopers. Why does Bethesda get held to a different standard here?

 

[stroopwafel]

It's not that bad, come on, what were you expecting? What comparison was made to disappoint so much? The game has a lot more to deal with than your average linear FPS progression. It can't have everything and still run smoothly. I thought they were just fine, pleasing enough, aside the odd low res texture in places.

Maybe for you sir, but for him it sounds like it's more than he can bear...

 

[CaitSeith]

It's not that bad, come on, what were you expecting? What comparison was made to disappoint so much? The game has a lot more to deal with than your average linear FPS progression. It can't have everything and still run smoothly. I thought they were just fine, pleasing enough, aside the odd low res texture in places.

If modders were able to make FO3/FO:NV look awesome for free years ago, one would assume the people paid for making the new game would be capable of doing so. Silly me...

Surely though the same could be said for pretty much any game then? Modders don't have deadlines, contracts or the rest of the game to make and test. Plus you're talking only PC there. Which is a bit of a hefty expection to put upon multi-platform deveopers. Why does Bethesda get held to a different standard here?

I don't really. Final Fantasy XV is a visually impressive open world-RPG on the PS4 (at least compared to Fallout 4). Different priorities I suppose; but it shows that it can be done even in consoles. AAA developers have access to a much larger quantity of resources than modders, and have more years in experience. The notion that even with that they are more incapable than the modders is either really absurd or incredibly worrisome.

 

[mad825]

....So is the OP complaining with or without the high resolution texture pack?....

I've personally though the graphics were pretty good especially for a Bethesda game. I've even opted to downscale the textures for more FPS and it's still pretty decent looking.

 

[stroopwafel]

The gameplay was a massive improvement, but I felt that it eventually fell apart due to the bullet-sponge enemies. Shooting a dude once or twice and dropping him is satisfying. Shooting a dude four times and having him lose 10% of his health bar is tiresome. I found myself resolving many of the combat encounters by popping the slo-mo drug, running up to enemies and mashing left click with an auto shotgun. Not something that I'd consider the stuff of a good FPS.

Yeah, I had most of my perks invested in weapons, was fairly overleveled and had weapons maxed out and enemies were still kinda spongy. Implementation issues aside the gunplay itself was solid. Still it was apparently Id software who worked on it so credit isn't even really for Bethesda.

It's not that bad, come on, what were you expecting? What comparison was made to disappoint so much? The game has a lot more to deal with than your average linear FPS progression. It can't have everything and still run smoothly. I thought they were just fine, pleasing enough, aside the odd low res texture in places.

I don't mind 'bad' graphics as I hold different developers to different standards. Most developers however don't have the development time and budget that a title like Fallout 4 receives. This game has been in production like what? Over five years? Bethesda is considered an 'AAA' developer so it's fair to hold Fallout 4 to the same standard as, say, GTA5 or The Witcher 3. The graphics in those games just look superior to anything in Fallout. There is a base uglyness to everything in the game(just look at how the water is rendered) with little detail and lots of copy/pasting the same assets(which ties in to the shitty building mechanic). Fallout 4 is an ugly game but the character models take the cake. They all look like they were made in the same editor that all produces the same slippery potato for a head(and, like Shinji said, those mouths).

My question was if it's really that shitty engine Bethesda still uses that produces such ugly graphics or that they are simply a one-trick pony. A developer that can produce a huge world but has otherwise nothing to compensate for. Something that has become more jarring as other games have left Bethesda's own titles in the dust.

Though like I said I enjoyed Fallout 4 but I have a hard time seeing the AAA quality in this title. Looks more like something some mid-tier developer could have produced. It sucks even more when you consider how much effort they put in the concept art. None of which looks even remotely how it is in the game, and the piss poor animation is mostly to blame for that.

.

 

[Mcgeezaks]

I don't think it looks awful, I think it can look pretty great at times, mostly because of its lighting. I don't know why they're still using the gamebryo engine, maybe they want Fallout to still feel like Fallout?

 

[09philj]

It's a Bethesda RPG made in the Creation Engine.

 

[Xprimentyl]

There is absolutely no reason for these graphics to look so ugly. Bethesda is one of the top studios with huge budgets and long development times.

It's because they didn't shit out a remaster of Fallout 3 to supplement the budget for Fallout 4. *eye roll*

 

[Laughing Man]

It's the game engine, pure and simple. The modifications they have made to the engine Gamebyro engine to make it the Creation Engine means that it is no longer limited in terms of max texture sizes, something that Oblivion and Skyrim both suffered from but on that same note the fact that it is based on an engine that was constantly trying to balance image quality with stability and more often than not failing quite badly are the reasons why F4 looks the way it does.

The fact that the new HD texture pack for F4, recommends a 1080GTx to play it is a show of just how bad this game engine really is. I am sorry if your game recommends a 1080GTx then I am expecting it to look a hell of a lot better than F4 does.

It's not that bad, come on, what were you expecting? What comparison was made to disappoint so much? The game has a lot more to deal with than your average linear FPS progression.

Witcher 3, which looks better, is more stable, has better animations and requires a similar powered computer.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Because Bethesda are married to that fucking Gamebryo engine of theirs.

Plus I'm pretty sure their animation department is staffed entirely by six goldfish and a teddy bear.

Now it's 3 goldfish now, someone brought their cat to work. The bear is in counseling, and is unfit to work.

OT; Reiterating, it's the game engine. They have been using it for about 15 years now. It started showing it's age in Oblivion, and has only gotten worse.

 

[Tanis]

It's because they CAN.

Like SE when it was just SQ.
The B. have a built in fan base that will ***** TILL THE END OF TIME about their games...but STILL BUY THEM.

So...why should they change?
If people are STILL willing to buy their games, even after TES5's clusterfuck, then why would they change?

 

[Poetic Nova]

Because they use an engine running on its last legs. It's held together by ducttape, some shoestrings and merely believe by the devs that the engine is stil good.