Glitchy Pbr Is Making Transparent And "weathered" Textures Look Ridiculous (3 Screenshots)

[GMSantasHelper]

Forum wasn't letting me post the images directly, so instead I provided a direct link to each one on my steamcloud... hope this works.

 

PBR looks [inaccurate] on virtually all textures in this game (PBR can look amazing if done right, don't get me wrong) because it uses artificial reflection and shine which doesn't take into consideration the lighting/atmosphere of the room. We need proper shadow maps and lighting effects for PBR to work as it is intended (like it does in other games where it looks very nice and realistic). Just slapping it on everything makes most textures look exceptionally fake and tacky. There needs to be proper adjustments before adding the "PBR Touch" on surfaces that are most impacted by it, or at least give us the ability to turn OFF these [undesirable] texture effects. This is probably my biggest complaint with the game right now... it just strikes a nerve with me that a game that used to have such a great atmosphere now looks like a mirror maze. bleh!

 

Example of "Transparent Glass" in the Orokin Derelict: Obvious example of PBR making the awesome flowing water behind the glass pretty much invisible (much like the tenno in the cryopods right now). Also in this shot you can see a similar erroneous effect in play on a very NON-transparent surface... on the left where the Orokin apparently used gold colored aluminum foil to build their fittings. The overly-textured surface reflecting each smooth section makes it look broken up and "waxy" when viewed at a distance. Up close you can see what is really going on; there are "waves" in the texture to simulate dents and wear... which to me would mean the surface would not be very reflective. The engine, on the other hand, thinks it needs to over-exemplify this subtle reflection. Result: weird stuff.

 

http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/538511711968555855/5968EFDE6A91C3C028218F5DEB27E6B0D20E01B1/

 

More Weirdness: Here we have infested tissue looking like it is made out of Mercury (liquid metal)... I'm sure the goal was to make it look "wet" but the engine thinks "wet" means reflective/shiny.

 

 

http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/538511711968617992/B1A9F649F57139A40AD0EBC4ABC31062793B85BA/

 

One last one here I'm not sure is directly related to PBR or not since this has been around since they did the texture overhauls a few major updates ago... but I'm including it here because it is a fine example of fake reflections on surfaces that are originally completely transparent (like the cryopod in normal defense modes). This is a picture of the once transparent glass tiles over the water system (which you can hear flowing through the floor) of the old style dojo hallways. For such a cool feature of having flowing water under the floor it is now totally hidden! This happens in the Derelict on tables and broken window tiles that lay on the ground as well. My favorite dojo rooms are now eyesores =/

 

http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/538511711968659500/D1D0A9879DF0B23DE9504CE82ECB14D8D317E9EB/

 

[JohnProdman]

There's no PBR implemented in tiles yet, only on entities.

[GMSantasHelper]

Screenshot says otherwise... where are you getting this idea from? Most reused wall, ceiling and floor textures are now using PBR.

[GMSantasHelper]

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/Materials/PhysicallyBased/index.html <-- read this. Note that most textures in game right now that have had the PBR touch are using the aluminum material, to poor effect. It seems to be an oversight on material property to how it will actually look in the game engine which uses [ancient] Shader 2.0 and single source lighting.

Edited January 10, 2015 by GMSantasHelper

[IMNOTGOOFYORAMI]

I don't understand the haste about adding PBR elements in game. Very random, partial, unoptimized with lighting, weird kitchen-faucet-like-metal material, erroneous reflection and sometimes other than it being applied with PBR the actual texture looking very blocky (e.g. optiocor)...

Couldn't DE just carefully optimized all the things and applied complete PBR replacement at once? (Of course subsequent calibrations will happen but nothing major.) Nowadays I'm very worried about the current state of PBR elements being claimed by DE that it is "working as intended" or "in the right place of our "artistic integrity"".

[GMSantasHelper]

It has been awhile and a few new PBR passes have come. However this time we got some much needed lighting and shader improvements which *gasp* make a lot of the PBR stuff look a whole lot better! The once "metallic" infested tissue for example now actually looks fleshy and wet, kudos. Glass is slowly improving, but they still seem to not get the whole reflection system with the curved glass objects fully. I feel the easiest fix would be to remove the reflective property on curved glass as it isn't very realistic to have curved glass reflecting anyhow, you ever looked into a curved mirror? yeah.... it isn't pretty. I do realize that the curved glass and the flat glass share the same texture and properties, changing one without changing the other is probably impossible at this point. Finding a happy medium between the two I feel is a lost cause, just void the reflection on glass and it will look fine I assure you. The point of glass is to show what is behind it, but not actually let you go there... like windows. If you see your reflection in a window, it is because the window is of poor quality glass (for that purpose). Also, I'm not sure the goal on having the cryopods completely reflective. I personally think it is silly, but they may be trying to phase out the frozen tenno inside and this is an easy way to do it for now. I'm slowly getting used to it, but the texture does appear erroneously in places. You can usually see a semi-circle of mirror adjacent to a semi-circle of transparent glass on the same floor panel in the new grineer spy missions. I don't have a screenshot at this time, but I'm sure others have noticed it as well. Anyhow, felt I should update my thoughts on the progress of PBR in warframe and I do say it is slowly improving. In time I think it will be just fine.