Demo Graphics Downgrade

It really looks like this project is just another MN9 disaster, at least when it comes to graphics. What a shame, but i guess that's inevitable when you optimize the game for PS Vita. I can't imagine they will change anything significant this late into development.

I am awaiting a response from 505 and Artplay before making any more statements. 

The explanation of "adjusting the graphics for beta purposes to play on the weakest systems as well" is certainly a reasonable one, but it's also weird that it has never been notified. I mean, OBVIOUSLY people are going to point out the concerns about graphics, so if that was the case I feel like a communication like "WARNING: this graphics were tweaked to make the most people be able to play the beta and give feedback" is a no brainer to prevent complaints.

So who knows, I'm sure a clarification will soon come.

That could be explained by them simply splicing captures from different builds, or from builds with settings that are forcibly turned off in the demo, turned on for the capture.

EDIT: I just looked over the story trailer again. In seconds 17 - 19, the castle clearly looks like the 2017 protoype, while in seconds 30 - 32 and 36 - 37, it clearly looks like the demo. We're back to 2017 prototype for 49 - 51, and then with something in the middle of the two (demo quality, but different lighting) for second 52. The fight with Zangetsu is then like the demo.

I also noticed that the model in the cutscene when she fights Vepar (at least in the trailer), is clearly of higher quality than the one for the conversations - much closer to the earlier version, just with a few differences in shading.

My guess: the dialogues/conversations that take place outside some of the cut-scenes (and also the Zangetsu one) are using the gameplay models, while the cut-scene with Gebel and Vepar is using the high-end model.

The more I think about it, the more I look at it, the more I think they just disabled tons of graphic flourishes from the castle for some reason... it gives me hope that they'll add an option to enable them for the final PC release.

Scratch  what I said about the demo - and just about everything else I've said up to this point.

I played the game for an hour, going over every area, and looking at the Zangetsu fight videos and others.... and I have some important news...

I should have done this from the start, instead of relying just on the videos.

1. The game is made mostly of static 2D "billboards" (flat squares on which you hang a bitmap image). What looks like specular lighting and ambient occlusion is just bitmaps baked into the textures.

2. There doesn't seem to be a downgrade in the geometry of the maps - just a downgrade in the variety, detail, and perhaps resolution of the textures.

3. There was no global illumination in the Zangetsu fight - they just fudged it really well with the textures. And those textures were changed/removed for the demo. All the "lighting" is being done with semi-transparent and non-transparent textures.

4. Miriam's model is definitely downgraded from the original prototype shown. That said, it shouldn't be much trouble to implement the older, more detailed model for those that have a PC that can run it.

5. The boat looks better because there are actually more flat "billboards" than in the castle. Also, they're cycling a semitransparent texture over a texture with specular lighting baked in to simulate wetness, and these things draw a lot of attention. The rest is just art direction. The castle has a lot of geometry in the background, and the textures that had apparently been baked into previous versions of that same geometry to give it more detail/the illusion of lighting are what's missing. That's it - that, and a downgrade in the texture quality of the columns billboards in the hall. That's all it took to make it look worse, precisely because the castle has a lot more geometry than the boat. The reason beats me, but in any case, it's something that out to be easily remedied.

6. The quality of the textures in general has always been perhaps lower than what a youtube video allows us to see. Video compression = anti-aliasing, like it or not.

7. The story trailer is the exact same build as the demo. I was wrong in my analysis. They just picked nicer camera angles/locations. But it's the same as the demo. No doubt now.
 
So, basically, textures and maybe youtube video resolution are all that's at work here, guys. That's it. Some tweaks in the art direction and the devs adding the nicer textures for the final build will fix it.

They've surely gotten the message by now.

Now we just wait for Question and Angel-Corlux 's answers, but let's not get too pissy if we don't like what those answers are. Everyone's surely doing their best - it's just communication.

My small two cents:

We were told years ago that the graphics would get better and not to worry. Now they are worse. That is all.

2D billboards? Like in Resident Evil?

 A "billboard" is a technical term for a transparent square put on screen just so you can present a texture.

  +-----------+
  |    put        |
  |   picture  |  ← transparent polygon (square, made up of two triangles).  
  |    here      |
  +-----------+

 The picture could be of a 3D image, giving the illusion that a 3D object is there, when it is not!
  
  Works well when you don't move the camera much.

Vita is the only platform who cannot push this level of graphic. Switch, however, can do this causally while the home consoles and good pcs will obliterate it. 1070 and up or PS4 Pro/ Xbox One X should at least accomplish 4k60 if not on better details.