2014-08-01, 02:27 AM
To put graphics in perspective a bit from a development standpoint, realize the game was created to run at 720p on the xbox 360 and ps3...the PC version is just a port of a game not designed with today's best graphics chips in mind.
Additionally Crysis was the poster child for high end graphics, most games of its era did not meet those standards. And lastly, the areas in Dark Souls are 100% custom made, when you have to design models for every unique piece of atmosphere to create an intriguing medieval fantasy world from scratch you can't expect them all to be the most uber detailed graphics ever made. Crysis had simple environments, they looked fantastic yes, but a lot of what you are impressed by is super detailed trees/plants and great lighting, altogether I would wager their total environment models used to be less than 1/3 of what was needed to create all the 30 something unique places in DS2.
Literally I can buy a pack of really well modeled trees for Unity and make you a high end looking jungle in about half an hour, but if you asked me to recreate some of the areas of DS1 or 2 I would not be able to do it.
Oh, and I would say the giant forest is probably the worst looking place in the game, it was pretty obvious to me that certain teams worked on different environments as some of them are really quite awesome. Check out this totally from scratch area in the DLC, it looks pretty sweet!
![[Image: dark-souls-ii-1405449029563_1920x1080.jpg]](https://www.twinfinite.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/dark-souls-ii-1405449029563_1920x1080.jpg)
Additionally Crysis was the poster child for high end graphics, most games of its era did not meet those standards. And lastly, the areas in Dark Souls are 100% custom made, when you have to design models for every unique piece of atmosphere to create an intriguing medieval fantasy world from scratch you can't expect them all to be the most uber detailed graphics ever made. Crysis had simple environments, they looked fantastic yes, but a lot of what you are impressed by is super detailed trees/plants and great lighting, altogether I would wager their total environment models used to be less than 1/3 of what was needed to create all the 30 something unique places in DS2.
Literally I can buy a pack of really well modeled trees for Unity and make you a high end looking jungle in about half an hour, but if you asked me to recreate some of the areas of DS1 or 2 I would not be able to do it.
Oh, and I would say the giant forest is probably the worst looking place in the game, it was pretty obvious to me that certain teams worked on different environments as some of them are really quite awesome. Check out this totally from scratch area in the DLC, it looks pretty sweet!
- Todd DuFore (DMPDesign)
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