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Unreal Engine 5 games - horrible IQ

cireza

Member
Which games make good use of UE5?
Guilty Gear Strive and DB Fighter Z are really impressive.

I still don't like the engine because it seems to entice developers to do realistic, saturated games. Special effects overload, lighting, particles, fog, everything goes. Give me clean games FFS.
 
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Rickyiez

Member
Silent hill 2 remake looks amazing but the performance inconsistency seems like more on the dev than the engine itself
 

justiceiro

Marlboro: Other M
My man could have mentioned how almost all games on UE5 have transversal stutter, but no, he decided to complain about biq while using dlss at 55 on a 4K TV. Man, no modern game will look good on this overblown setup.

This is a rare case we're I agreed with the title at first, but then his arguments made me change my mind.
 
My man could have mentioned how almost all games on UE5 have transversal stutter, but no, he decided to complain about biq while using dlss at 55 on a 4K TV. Man, no modern game will look good on this overblown setup.

This is a rare case we're I agreed with the title at first, but then his arguments made me change my mind.
In truth the IQ is awful in motion regardless of DLSS setting.

DLSS performance looks good in a lot of other games eg Cyberpunk.
 
I'm sure there are developers out there that will create a game on it that both looks and performs great. That being said, from the games I've seen running on it, they have this weird generic look that doesn't seem right.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
This is why they've gotten away with it. People take a settled screenshot and it doesn't look THAT bad. But once it moves...
It looks fine in motion. OP's probably playing on DLSS ultra performance or something.

BKz8XGH.gif


cnBWBp9.gif


qqGXVj2.gif
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Am I the only one who thinks UE5 games look shit?

Great in screenshots - but where it matters, horrible IQ in motion.

Black Myth Wukong looks incredibly grainy and dithered. Made even worse by the use of Framegen (thus disabled).

Looks bad in motion regardless of DLSS quality or DLAA.

Edit: I stand corrected

Some other games utilising UE5 maintain good clarity in motion. Marvel Rivals looks exceptionally clean.

I think this is inherent to BM Wukong. Too bad because this bad IQ is bothering me a lot.
You edited this out but this is silly.

Sadly the performance of the game is so shit I have to use DLSS slider set at 55% to have a target frame rate of 80FPS at 4K.
I can understand locking the game to 60 fps, but 80? If you are going above and beyond and have to reduce internal resolution to 1200p then dont complain about the IQ.

Your system is easily powerful enough to max out this game at 4k dlss quality at 60 fps.

I played the game at dlss quality at 30 fps all settings set to cinematic. Then my NG+ runs were all at DLSS performance at 60 fps high settings. There is nothing grainy or dithering about the game. Its softer on DLSS performance but thats all games and why i suck it up and do my first runs at dlss quality nowadays even if it means taking a hit to performnace.

With the new DLSS4 transformer model, DLSS performance should look as good as DLSS quality. So swap out the dlss file with the one from cyberpunk.
 

Killer8

Member
By default Black Myth Wukong uses a horrendous amount of sharpening (at least on PS5 Pro). Lower it down to the lowest amount you can (but don't fully disable it) and it looks much better. That is the cause of the 'graininess' in the image. Also adjust the motion blur amount from strong to weak as it has a lot of artifacting.
 
I haven't really noticed a performance or IQ problem personally, but IMO UE5 games just all look like generic slop. There's something about it that just makes your game look bland to me.

Stellar Blade is a good example - Great fidelity but the art direction is just horrible.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I haven't really noticed a performance or IQ problem personally, but IMO UE5 games just all look like generic slop. There's something about it that just makes your game look bland to me.

Stellar Blade is a good example - Great fidelity but the art direction is just horrible.
Stellar Blade is UE4.
 
You edited this out but this is silly.


I can understand locking the game to 60 fps, but 80? If you are going above and beyond and have to reduce internal resolution to 1200p then dont complain about the IQ.

Your system is easily powerful enough to max out this game at 4k dlss quality at 60 fps.

I played the game at dlss quality at 30 fps all settings set to cinematic. Then my NG+ runs were all at DLSS performance at 60 fps high settings. There is nothing grainy or dithering about the game. Its softer on DLSS performance but thats all games and why i suck it up and do my first runs at dlss quality nowadays even if it means taking a hit to performnace.

With the new DLSS4 transformer model, DLSS performance should look as good as DLSS quality. So swap out the dlss file with the one from cyberpunk.
60fps feels too choppy. My minimal acceptable FPS for a game is 75.

The grain and dithering is visible especially when there is frantic action. Not visible during still shots regardless of DLSS setting.
 
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GymWolf

Member
I haven't really noticed a performance or IQ problem personally, but IMO UE5 games just all look like generic slop. There's something about it that just makes your game look bland to me.

Stellar Blade is a good example - Great fidelity but the art direction is just horrible.
Stallar blade is not ue5 and it doesn't have great fidelity, it looks like a ps4 game in high res :lollipop_grinning_sweat:
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Stallar blade is not ue5 and it doesn't have great fidelity, it looks like a ps4 game in high res :lollipop_grinning_sweat:
I downloaded the demo and immediately wanted to throw up. It looked worse than most PS4 games. The lighting and level layout reminded me of those UE3 brown PS360 era games. Just so basic, lacking detail ive come to expect from PS4 era games.

The asset quality is PS4 era and nowhere close to what we've seen in good UE5 games. I get that not every UE5 game is a masterpiece and some are dated looking themselves (not a big fan of Robocop and Immortals for instance) but the latest batch of games like HB2, Wukong, SH2 all look fantastic.

60fps feels too choppy. My minimal acceptable FPS for a game is 75.

The grain and dithering is visible especially when there is frantic action. Not visible during still shots regardless of DLSS setting.
Turn off motion blur. And use RTSS to cap your framerate to 60 fps. 60 fps should never feel choppy unless your frametimes are all fucked up. Turn on the frametime graph in MSI Afterburner and make sure its a straight line. You need to cap your framerate and 99% of the time the ingame caps introduce framepacing which makes it feel choppy. Cap your framerate in RTSS, not in nvidia control panel or ingame settings, and the frametime should be consistent.

the game adds a lot of special effects that distort time and space. especially when you parry or do you resolute counterflows. enemies do the same as they create wind ripples etc. its a feature, not a bug.

try the new DLSS transformer files if that doesnt work and you really cant live without 75 fps.
 
I downloaded the demo and immediately wanted to throw up. It looked worse than most PS4 games. The lighting and level layout reminded me of those UE3 brown PS360 era games. Just so basic, lacking detail ive come to expect from PS4 era games.

The asset quality is PS4 era and nowhere close to what we've seen in good UE5 games. I get that not every UE5 game is a masterpiece and some are dated looking themselves (not a big fan of Robocop and Immortals for instance) but the latest batch of games like HB2, Wukong, SH2 all look fantastic.


Turn off motion blur. And use RTSS to cap your framerate to 60 fps. 60 fps should never feel choppy unless your frametimes are all fucked up. Turn on the frametime graph in MSI Afterburner and make sure its a straight line. You need to cap your framerate and 99% of the time the ingame caps introduce framepacing which makes it feel choppy. Cap your framerate in RTSS, not in nvidia control panel or ingame settings, and the frametime should be consistent.

the game adds a lot of special effects that distort time and space. especially when you parry or do you resolute counterflows. enemies do the same as they create wind ripples etc. its a feature, not a bug.

try the new DLSS transformer files if that doesnt work and you really cant live without 75 fps.
I'll try the above and see if this makes a difference.
 

GymWolf

Member
I downloaded the demo and immediately wanted to throw up. It looked worse than most PS4 games. The lighting and level layout reminded me of those UE3 brown PS360 era games. Just so basic, lacking detail ive come to expect from PS4 era games.

The asset quality is PS4 era and nowhere close to what we've seen in good UE5 games. I get that not every UE5 game is a masterpiece and some are dated looking themselves (not a big fan of Robocop and Immortals for instance) but the latest batch of games like HB2, Wukong, SH2 all look fantastic.


Turn off motion blur. And use RTSS to cap your framerate to 60 fps. 60 fps should never feel choppy unless your frametimes are all fucked up. Turn on the frametime graph in MSI Afterburner and make sure its a straight line. You need to cap your framerate and 99% of the time the ingame caps introduce framepacing which makes it feel choppy. Cap your framerate in RTSS, not in nvidia control panel or ingame settings, and the frametime should be consistent.

the game adds a lot of special effects that distort time and space. especially when you parry or do you resolute counterflows. enemies do the same as they create wind ripples etc. its a feature, not a bug.

try the new DLSS transformer files if that doesnt work and you really cant live without 75 fps.
Some areas are better than others, the beach at the beginning is rough.

But yeah, it's a ps4 game basically.
 

moniker

Member
60 fps should never feel choppy unless your frametimes are all fucked up.

I wouldn't call it "choppy", but 60 fps doesn't really feel very smooth (with even frame pacing), especially when you're used to higher frame rates. It's even worse when playing without a mouse, where my personal "smoothness threshold" is somewhere around 90 fps (which incidentally is what VR settled on as a floor for smoothness). It seems this varies from person to person to a degree.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Depends.
Black Myth Wukong looks insane on ps5 and VERY clean in motion too.
Silent Hill looks like ass
 
I downloaded the demo and immediately wanted to throw up. It looked worse than most PS4 games. The lighting and level layout reminded me of those UE3 brown PS360 era games. Just so basic, lacking detail ive come to expect from PS4 era games.

The asset quality is PS4 era and nowhere close to what we've seen in good UE5 games. I get that not every UE5 game is a masterpiece and some are dated looking themselves (not a big fan of Robocop and Immortals for instance) but the latest batch of games like HB2, Wukong, SH2 all look fantastic.


Turn off motion blur. And use RTSS to cap your framerate to 60 fps. 60 fps should never feel choppy unless your frametimes are all fucked up. Turn on the frametime graph in MSI Afterburner and make sure its a straight line. You need to cap your framerate and 99% of the time the ingame caps introduce framepacing which makes it feel choppy. Cap your framerate in RTSS, not in nvidia control panel or ingame settings, and the frametime should be consistent.

the game adds a lot of special effects that distort time and space. especially when you parry or do you resolute counterflows. enemies do the same as they create wind ripples etc. its a feature, not a bug.

try the new DLSS transformer files if that doesnt work and you really cant live without 75 fps.
Using RTSS to limit the framerate makes 60FPS feel good again. I found it interesting how using the in game FPS monitor made the game feel 'choppy' despite running at 60FPS.

Turning off sharpness and using the new DLSS4 .dll files made a huge difference. Now the game looks 'very clean' looking. However, there are some artefacts and fuzziness around the main character when panning the camera. My primary issue with Wukong is that special effects have this low quality to them, despite running my game at very high:
bttn6Rf.jpeg


wdGQ6Zk.jpeg
 
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Larxia

Member
Marvel Rivals is incredibly heavy, demanding, for the visuals it offers. I agree with posts saying that UE5 in general doesn't really look better than older games while being heavier.

I have a pretty old GPU by now, a GTX 1080 that I'm thinking of upgrading, but with this GPU for example, Marvel Rivals pushes it to full usage quite often, with FSR enabled, and I still have frame drops every now and then.

Now in comparison, I've also recently been replaying Star Wars Battlefront 2 (the one from 2018), because of recent mods released for it, and damn, this game still looks incredible, it basically looks like the movies, blows out the visual of most multiplayer games from today, and my gpu only run at around 30 to 40% on it, with every setting pushed to the max.

There is a serious problem with performance in modern games. Graphics kind of peaked around 2017-2018, and since then, games just started being more demanding without looking much better, if not worse because of all the bad post process filters etc...

Quite often to me it feels like people just forgot how good games looked like a few years ago, without being so demanding.
I'm sure if RDR2 released today, and even a 4090 struggled to run its, people would say it's normal because the game just looks that good, of course you need a current 2000$ gpu to run it... :messenger_grinning_sweat:While in reality, since it's an old game, it runs perfectly fine on 8 years old GPUs.
 
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Marvel Rivals is incredibly heavy, demanding, for the visuals it offers. I agree with posts saying that UE5 in general doesn't really look better than older games while being heavier.

I have a pretty old GPU by now, a GTX 1080 that I'm thinking of upgrading, but with this GPU for example, Marvel Rivals pushes it to full usage quite often, with FSR enabled, and I still have frame drops every now and then.

Now in comparison, I've also recently been replaying Star Wars Battlefront 2 (the one from 2018), because of recent mods released for it, and damn, this game still looks incredible, it basically looks like the movies, blows out the visual of most multiplayer games from today, and my gpu only run at around 30 to 40% on it, with every setting pushed to the max.

There is a serious problem with performance in modern games. Graphics kind of peaked around 2017-2018, and since then, games just started being more demanding without looking much better, if not worse because of all the bad post process filters etc...

Quite often to me it feels like people just forgot how good games looked like a few years ago, without being so demanding.
I'm sure if RDR2 released today, and even a 4090 struggled to run its, people would say it's normal because the game just looks that good, of course you need a current 2000$ gpu to run it... :messenger_grinning_sweat:While in reality, since it's an old game, it runs perfectly fine on 8 years old GPUs.
Yes I agree - video game graphics peaked years ago, and we've only seen minor or incremental improvements since.

Frostbite games looked ahead of their time.Battlefront 2 looks jaw dropping.

I used to be blown away by some of the high quality PS3 and PS4 era titles but now everything looks mostly the same.

Take Doom The Dark Ages - I'm hugely looking forward to the game, but it barely looks better than Doom Eternal, which barely looks better than Doom 2016 (in some ways Doom 2016 looks better than Eternal!)
 

nkarafo

Member
This generation is the first where i'm pretty much forced to use reshade on PC, to sharpen up the blurry visuals just a bit.

Doesn't help UE5 on PC runs like shit too.
 

Larxia

Member
These posts about ue5 games looking like ue4 games are killing me :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Please continue:lollipop_grinning_sweat:
I really don't understand what's so funny about this, why would you have to pretend something is better looking only because it's on a more modern engine?
There aren't any games from a few years ago that you think look better than games releasing now? Not any?
 

GymWolf

Member
I really don't understand what's so funny about this, why would you have to pretend something is better looking only because it's on a more modern engine?
There aren't any games from a few years ago that you think look better than games releasing now? Not any?
We don't have to pretend, we have fucking eyes dude, but go on, the topic has already delivered some comedy gold and i'm here for it.

You don't see a difference? Good for you, we have an entire topic focused on graphical fidelity where 95% of the users do see a major difference and love ue5 to death, even with its shortcomings (every engine has shortcomings), i guess we are all pretending because....reasons.

I'm sure there are older games that look better than some not exceptional looking ue5 games, like for example cyberpunk looks better than ue5 remnamt 2, but at its best, ue5 looks better than anything else.
 
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Larxia

Member
We don't have to pretend, we have fucking eyes dude, but go on, the topic has already delivered some comedy gold and i'm here for it.

You don't see a difference? Good for you, we have an entire topic focused on graphical fidelity where 95% of the users do see a major difference and love ue5 to death, even with its shortcomings (every engine has shortcomings), i guess we are all pretending because....reasons.

I'm sure there are older games that look better than some not exceptional looking ue5 games, like for example cyberpunk looks better than ue5 remnamt 2, but at its best, ue5 looks better than anything else.
That's the thing though, it seems like it's not about "having eyes", but more about just looking at stats and specific techs rather than visuals as a whole, to claim that UE5 games look better than anything else.
Like, art direction, lighting etc don't matter?
Is there even a single UE5 game that looks better than RDR2 for example?
And it's like this for a lot of things. It's not because something is more recent that's it's necessarily better...

I don't even understand the logic. It's just an engine, it's just a tool, it's not because you make a game inside this that suddenly it will look better than anything that released before.
 
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GymWolf

Member
That's the thing though, it seems like it's not about "having eyes", but more about just looking at stats and specific techs rather than visuals as a whole, to claim that UE5 games look better than anything else.
Like, art direction, lighting etc don't matter?
Is there even a single UE5 game that looks better than RDR2 for example?
And it's like this for a lot of things. It's not because something is more recent that's it's necessarily better...

I don't even understand the logic. It's just an engine, it's just a tool, it's not because you make a game inside this that suddenly it will look better than anything that released before.
Like i said, it's ok if you think there is no difference, i think that it's hilarious not to see the difference, we can agree to disagree.

I can assure you that i and many others don't give a fuck about stats or whatever you were talking about and we only judge with our eyes.
 
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Larxia

Member
Like i said, it's ok if you think there is no difference, i think that it's hilarious not to see the difference, we can agree to disagree.

I can assure you that i and many others don't give a fuck about stats or whatever you were talking about and we only judge with our eyes.
But... I mean, obviously there are differences between different games, and maybe tech that offers more details, but that's what it comes down to then, stats and specific techs, not "beauty".
There are ps3 games, hell even ps2 games, that I would find better looking than same modern games for example lol
I prefer playing a clean looking game like Kingdom Hearts, rather than a modern game that would have chromatic aberration, vignette, film grain, motion blur, depth of field etc etc

I know this is an extreme example and I'm not here to say everyone should do ps3 games like nintendo, I wouldn't like that, but it's just to say that high tech doesn't do everything to make a game look good.
Yes tech is important, but it's not everything either, and I'm just saying that it's not because a game has more modern tech, that it suddenly looks visually more pleasing than anything else that came before it.

And really, back to my previous example with multiplayer and marvel rivals, I think Star Wars Battlefront 2 is so much more impressive than Marvel Rivals visually, while being 3 times less intensive on the gpu.
 
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rofif

Can’t Git Gud
60fps feels too choppy. My minimal acceptable FPS for a game is 75.

The grain and dithering is visible especially when there is frantic action. Not visible during still shots regardless of DLSS setting.
I am telling you. Don't disable motion blur.
In these games like Wukong, it does such an extremely good job with animations
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
Marvel Rivals is incredibly heavy, demanding, for the visuals it offers. I agree with posts saying that UE5 in general doesn't really look better than older games while being heavier.

I have a pretty old GPU by now, a GTX 1080 that I'm thinking of upgrading, but with this GPU for example, Marvel Rivals pushes it to full usage quite often, with FSR enabled, and I still have frame drops every now and then.

Now in comparison, I've also recently been replaying Star Wars Battlefront 2 (the one from 2018), because of recent mods released for it, and damn, this game still looks incredible, it basically looks like the movies, blows out the visual of most multiplayer games from today, and my gpu only run at around 30 to 40% on it, with every setting pushed to the max.

There is a serious problem with performance in modern games. Graphics kind of peaked around 2017-2018, and since then, games just started being more demanding without looking much better, if not worse because of all the bad post process filters etc...

Quite often to me it feels like people just forgot how good games looked like a few years ago, without being so demanding.
I'm sure if RDR2 released today, and even a 4090 struggled to run its, people would say it's normal because the game just looks that good, of course you need a current 2000$ gpu to run it... :messenger_grinning_sweat:While in reality, since it's an old game, it runs perfectly fine on 8 years old GPUs.
Too heavy maybe, but none of those have horrible or even bad IQ, the point of OP.
 

simpatico

Member
Stalker 2
I'm calling the police. Have you seen STALKER 2 will all the temporal slop scalers turned off? It looks like the ambient occlusion was drawn on with the Mario Paint spray paint tool. Most are better off waiting for the eventual STALKER 2 X-Ray port.
 
That's the thing though, it seems like it's not about "having eyes", but more about just looking at stats and specific techs rather than visuals as a whole, to claim that UE5 games look better than anything else.
Like, art direction, lighting etc don't matter?
Is there even a single UE5 game that looks better than RDR2 for example?
And it's like this for a lot of things. It's not because something is more recent that's it's necessarily better...

I don't even understand the logic. It's just an engine, it's just a tool, it's not because you make a game inside this that suddenly it will look better than anything that released before.
Whilst I'm generally disappointed with graphics from this 'current generation', I am very impressed with both Hellblade 2 and Stalker 2, and they look better than RDR2.
 

Larxia

Member
RDR2.


yVs19rP.gif


Hellblade 2
iIPaUWB.gif


Wukong



oFClfMM.gif


Silent Hill 2
7U3a9s2.gif


Black Hawk Down
ecZZo8X.gif

I think RDR2 looks better than all of those to be honest...
You didn't pick the most flattering example for RDR2 either.
Hellblade 2 doesn't really count in my opinion since it's not really a game and more like a super linear, interactive movie/ scripted experience. RDR2 is a huge open world full of crazy details, interactions, living world etc... It's much more impressive as a whole than a walking simulator with such a small FOV and closed levels.
Wukong looks nice technically, I'm just not fan of the art direction, I think it looks pretty generic, but that's just my opinion / preference on this one.
About Silent Hill 2 I'm not sure what to say, it looks pretty cinematic I guess but it's not that impressive to me.
The last one, Black Hawk Down, looks terrible with all the chromatic aberration going on.

Out of all the examples you posted, I think Wukong is the only fair one, but have you seen what it takes to run that compared to RDR2?
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
but have you seen what it takes to run that compared to RDR2?
yes, next gen games just take more to run compared to last gen games that were designed to run on a 1.3 tflops xbox one.

RDR2 famously couldnt be maxed out when it launched on PC. thats ok. black myth runs fine on the ps5 and pc. it just costs more because its doing more. we should be praising next gen games that are doing more instead of praising last gen games that do last gen assets, last gen lighting, and simply offer 60 fps at higher resolutions. thats not why i paid $500 for a playstation 5. ue5 along with snowdrop, remedy's northlight engine are the only ones that have delivered this gen. its not their fault that sony and ms didnt go with more powerful gpus.
 

TVexperto

Member
Hb2
Wukong
Sh2 remake
Robocop
Stalker 2

To name a few.

This is a cheap AA with ue5



To quote my dude slimysnake, expedition 33 is made in ue5 by a bunch of people out of the college and it looks splendid.

No other engine give small AA teams the chance to rival big AAA devs.

What game is in the gif?
 
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