Bethesda has revealed new details on the graphics technology in Fallout 4 less than a week before release. The post on their website discusses the evolution their Creation Engine went through to empower the artists and designers at the studio. The tech and art teams work closely together to pick each individual feature based on the “artistic and performance goals” they wanted to achieve.
To increase dynamic lighting, the studio replaced the engine’s graphical core by adding a physically based deferred render. That’s programming jargon for significantly more realistic lights and shadows. Bethesda says: “This new renderer allows us to add many more dynamic lights to every scene, and paint our surfaces with realistic materials. We want objects and characters in the world to feel tactile and grounded, and a big part of that is ensuring that these materials are distinct – that metal reflects light in a distinct manner from wood, for example.”
Bethesda worked with graphics technology and hardware company NVIDIA to create volumetric light (sometimes referred to as “God rays”). The feature takes advantage of the GPU’s hardware tessellation. It is also not restricted to PC’s with NVIDIA graphics cards; Bethesda notes that this works on all platforms. You can see it in action below.
A new material system allows the surfaces to get wet. Dynamic post-process techniques will also enhance vibrancy and color of scenery. There were also major upgrades to the virtual cameras. The post ends with a few more details about the update to the Creation Engine:
- Tiled Deferred Lighting
- Temporal Anti-Aliasing
- Screen Space Reflections
- Bokeh Depth of Field
- Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
- Height Fog
- Motion Blur
- Filmic Tonemapping
- Custom Skin and Hair Shading
- Dynamic Dismemberment using Hardware Tessellation
- Volumetric Lighting
- Gamma Correct Physically Based Shading
Not sure what all of that means? It’s okay. What’s important is that it will make the wasteland gorgeous when we all explore it next Tuesday, November 10, on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or PC. If you need something to tide you over until then, check out everything we know so far about the game, or the five things new Fallout players should know. More screenshots are posted below to view.
