Unreal2 Shots Are.. Unreal?

P.S. No-one mentioned the real issue that even in the new, real, shot, the dead guy doesn't have a shadow. Doh =).

Personally, I don't find this issue that important. The shots look great. What I am impressed with was that Epic would find the time to apologize to consumers for what I see as a slight error in judgement that would probably have been overlook if left for a week (I know I already forgot about it). Epic seems like a real class act.

Mark Rein is da' man. The u2 shots are unique compared to the typical fps game engines, which are shying away from realistic sunlight and shadows. Unreal is charging forward with realtime "daylight" light and shadow. Way kewl. (tired of dark chambers and overcast lighting - give us the light of day)

just my 2 cents... the shadows added in by hand is pretty trivial, considering as you can see from the new screenshots that they look almost identical.

but it's nice to see the epic guys own up to something they really could have gotten away with and nobody would have ever known.

This is definitely a 2003 game... yessiree..

The screenshots look fucking dope, regardless of whether or not shadows were added after the fact. Kudos to Mark Rein for shouting out the proverbial "my bad".............

He only admits to shadows, but it looks like they airbrushed the rocket's smoke trail and backblast, as well as the reflection of the cieling/sky in the pool.

tsk tsk

is it just me or does it have uber leet gradient shadows that blend from dark near the model, to surface brightness further away?

as seen most clearly here; the shadow of the left guy's left leg (his left that is..):
http://www.shacknews.com/screens.x/unreal2//4/thumbs/cover1.jpg

Hmm... Now he tells us...

This just points up the need for the so-called gaming "press" -- the p.r., blow-job-giving segment especially -- to get some fucking standards. Ask the developer if the shots are real or altered, and say as much on your site. That way, you'll be going part of the way to deserving the name "journalist."

And as for you developers, a bit of integrity would not be a bad thing. Don't alter shots of your games for publication, but if you must, say up front that you've done so. The phrase "photo illustration" from journalism would save fans the trouble of being mislead and you the hassle of explaining sleight of hand later.

all of you who think that there is anything else doctored in the shot need to take another look. I just went back and forth between the two and the shadows are the only thing that changes.

Shadows are the only thing doctored in that shot? What ninny got his panties in a wad over that?

I love this release - it's great. Not only do they save face for admitting they were wrong, but they actually legitamize the rest of the screenshot by pointing out the part that was doctored. Then they put out a new shot showing that the doctoring is moot because it's in the engine now.

More exposure, more trust, and rock-solid legitamacy. Very very smart move on Epic's part.

STeve/Maarten:
perhaps you should post a clarification of which screen shot is which. there seems to be a lot of confusion going on. as far as i can tell, in order of their release:
Original screenshot, doctored to have shadows: http://www.shacknews.com/screens.x/unreal2//1/thumbs/011402_unreal2.jpg
Original screenshot, undoctored:
http://www.shacknews.com/screens.x/unreal2//1/012302/CourtyardCGW.jpg
Brand new screenshot, with shadows and water reflection enabled:
http://www.shacknews.com/screens.x/unreal2//1/012302/CourtyardNow.jpg

that should clear some of this up.

this is the same ole shit epic always pulls. i remember in irc the night before unreal was released. i asked markr how good the net play as far as lag/ping would be. his response(lon-winded in red letters) was that it had quakeworld quality net play out of the box without patches. of course that was complete and utter bullshit.


epic is the michael jackson of game companies...

The thing I really want to know about Unreal 2 can't be demonstrated in a mere screenshot. I want to know if it can play more than 16 stereo sound channels at once.

Someone has to buck the trend; why not Epic?

I think alot of people want good gameplay over graphics. But in all fairness everyone here or the majority are nothing but a bunch of graphic-philes from the looks of the posts. Which to me is just frustrating at times. Dont get me wrong I love beautiful graphics. But photo realism to me. Or how realistic water looks, creep shadows, 10,000 poly models with photo realistic texturing to me is boring and takes no imagination. Because you have enough reference for it. I wanna see off-the-wall crazy shit. I love imaginative environments and something that goes off on a tangent rather than going over the idea of "let's make this water real! or this shadow act realisic!" I like realism to a degree but not when it overtakes a whole game. It's easy to make a game realistic. It's a task to make it imaginative. Unreal had a very nice way of bringing in new things. Even the weapons were just different and creative. And I loved it. Games like Doom3 have more to prove to me than 5 to 10 second video camera clips of a demon roaming around a round piller and his shadows creeping up it, to make me go "I'm gonna buy it" or "ID fucking 0wnz" ID has alot of work to do. And they have made a strong single player/story driven game since when?

I take any screenshots I can. And if they look nice. I will mutter "Fuck yeah's" or an added "Nice!" Of course if it looks completely Photoshopped then I will bitch about it. I want good gameplay followed by beautiful graphics with some imagination tossed in there. Epic atleast admitted to it and cleared things up. And it was aloading screen of somekind. So I can see the confusion of things. That shot to me looks badass. Epic is a strong company up against the likes of ID and Valve.


that is all :)

Ok something here doesn't make sense. On the "ACTUAL" non-faked screenshot, you can clearly see a reflection on the water that looks very similar to the reflection on the fake shot, that ISN'T on the original.

So are they still faking stuff on shots or what?

Actually I have to say that the reflection on the water looks really really unrealistic. There are no ripples, it's just one big slightly bowed surface.

Must be that newfangled futuristic water that has 50x the surface tension so you can have swimming pools on the ceileing.

That or everyone in the picture is the size of ants. ;)

If a game developer is going to release screenshots of the game, they should be screenshots from the game. If they feel they need to photoshop them up, just don't release them at all.

If they are worried about not getting people interested because they don't have any screenshots of their pretty enviroment lighting or what have you, then they have more problems than miscommunication.

I'm glad they appologized, but that doesn't make me believe that Unreal 2 is going to be a good game... all it does is remind me that people forget what is really important in the games that they play.

Hell most people would immediately turn off shadows at the slight hint that it would improve framerate ANYway... not to mention the added blast to that shrapnel, and the added glare from the explosion, or anything else they doctored that they didn't appologize for. ;)

Shadows or not it still looks amazing.

ID is smarter, they show nothing of their new game !
(but i wanna see it o so bad :/ )

if this is the original shot and only shadows were altered, how come the dead guy isnt in the same position?

Well since it's a minor thing it doesn't really make me upset. But what I really want to know is how fast it's running on a 1 Ghz/GF3 machine!

sweet pics, but why criticize? They're still good.. as far as the fx in them goes, nothing really special, nice flash from the rocket, the water reflection is probably no technological marvel, the water seems to have a similar wave motion effect to what is already in the Q3 engine, and has an environment map applied to it, similar to what is used for shiny surfaces and other fx in most games, giving it the reflection, which I assume would then be a static reflection, not a true one. If its a true reflection, I'd be really impressed.

Graphically, the game looks like it will 0wn, but other than the apparent poly count, I don't think it is miles ahead of anything technologically. Which brings us to the other point: gameplay. Ppl always jump on the bandwagon about games being either "looks good, plays shite" or "plays good, looks shite"... and generally the latter wins out. So why bother commenting on the screens? From DooM screenies (I'm only using those for specific reference, since most ppl know them), we can tell we might like the gameplay because you can see the mood (dark, grim, scary shit).. from these we can't tell anything, and as such, to the game itself, they offer us little preview. When I look at DooM screenies I think "omg I'm gonna shit myself when I eventually get to play this game!".. from SS2 shots (which hasn't been released where I live yet), I thought: "ahehe.. kazillion enemas again! Diieeee mofos!" .. these I just say "Purrrteeee..." but don't get any impression of the game itself.

Bah.. long-winded way to say: Don't judge an incomplete, unreleased game by a screenshot, photoshop'd or not. But if you're going to be swayed by a screenie, at least have the sense to know why.

__out

whoopty fucking doo....

hand drawn shadow....

almost as trivial as the photoshop'd lens flare in the early Amped screenshots

With all the whining I've seen about even the slightest graphic problems in games these days, who can blame them.. Messy screenshots of games in development probibly keep people from even downloading demos these days.

As if Epic has a reputation to save. LOL

This just amplifies my mistrust in Epic.


In id I trust!!

just kidding. I just miss the huge Q3A vs UT threads ;)

Didn't they say that that they didn't stage the screenshot and just let the bots fight and kept hitting the screenshot button. So how did they recreate that exact moment with the shadows on without staging it first?

to me it looks like more than just the shadows were photoshop'd. the whole fake image looks much more crisp and clear than the new one, which has a more dull look to it. although the water reflection looks sweet.

goes to show that even some of the big companies dont have enough faith in their own work to show the real deal and not some cheap rip off.

wow those two new shots are amazing

they still look good.

wow looking awsome !!!

I can barely see any difference. Kinda makes you wonder how many doctored screenshots of games slip by.

WELL I for one, Am glad that's all clear'd up!!!

LOL... the real ones look even better. That water reflection is pimp!

But I am sure people will still flame.

Checkout the reflections in the water on the new shots, looks like they reflect more.
And the smoke comming out from the rocket launcher looks more real.

Way cool screens