The Pursuit of Graphical “Realism” Is Dangerous | Design Delve

Semper fedlis ad astra per aspera soloboDi hof center

“A singular degree away from apple bottom jeans” was truly inspired. I lold

I’ve not seen the OOT Remake models until now but… yeah I kinda hate it. They all kinda make me uncomfortable to look at.

Great video JM8, I appreciated the tech explanations. If the game was played through an output that could handle each of the pixels that are in the models, would the grease disappear? Can there not be multiple LOD character models/filters that the game switches between depending on the total pixels to be rendered in a given environment? It always bugs me when depth of field is lost to pull everything unrealisitcally into focus (like the clip of Link running around the fountain in the town square). Our eyes just don't work like that. Maybe it's impossible for third-person games to do dut to the nature of the 'camera' the player sees through. I'm not saying we should make all FPS characters shortsighted, but I do appreciate when elements are given a LOD comparative to the focus of the player/character.

Guess I’m in the minority of kinda digging what Nintendo’s doing here. Do I want all their games to look like this? No way, but as a bold swing of going hyperdetailed on a game as iconic as OOT, but also making distinctively weird choices that only Nintendo would make, I’m on board. It feels like they could have played it safe and delivered a clean, high resolution, detailed models which more accurately matched the original aesthetic. Instead there’s a bunch of bonkers choices that are somewhat jarring, but make sense with what inspiration Nintendo is drawing from. As with all this, the only way to truly grasp whether it works is to properly play the game for extended stretches. But I’m glad they went for something divisive, and I a kinda dig it, though that may change when playing the full game.

You should still credit the AI generated video to the source. Even when it is AI slop. Doing otherwise is bad journalism.

I wouldn't say that it's "dangerous" but it most definitely isn't as important or groundbreaking as many game companies seem to think nowadays. I want games with compelling stories and entertaining mechanics/gameplay. If a game's got those things I mostly couldn't care less about how it looks

There's a reason a lot of people say Link's awakening is one of the best remakes ever. The art wasn't anything close to realistic but it had a very clear and consistent style

Except this is also a stylized take?

I personally like the idea of the added detail BUT, it does seem overdone. It feels like they bypassed the goal a bit, like they were shooting for 100% and hit 150% instead. As I've watched developers achieve greater heights of realism, I was hoping that the insane peaks they've reached would have allowed them to focus more on narrative, gameplay, environment, etc. But most seem to be stuck on that peak, trying to push progress up a hill that doesn't really exist anymore.

There's a parallel here with the evolution of painting as an artform. By the 1800s, hyperrealism had evolved to the point that paintings resembled photographs... and thereby eliminating one of the things that made it "art." Modern art has almost entirely abandoned that approach. Similarly, the games where we remember the graphics are almost always remembered for style rather than realism. If you're given a flexible toolkit, use that flex. Games always show an approximation of reality (if even that). If we can let people "die" three times in a game or run at 50kph for gameplay purposes, there's no reason to straitjacket the games' art style. So... yeah, no argument here.