As usual with basically every major game release since Watch_Dogs back in 2014, a 'graphics downgrade' debate sparked on the Web surrounding Marvel's Spider-Man, the PlayStation 4 exclusive due on September 7th worldwide, with a few fans inquiring with Insomniac and Community Director James Stevenson about these graphics changes.
According to Stevenson, who spoke with his engineers and artists colleagues at Insomniac before addressing the fans in the following series of tweets, the reason for these graphics changes is to be found in a combination of art changes (such as the reduced number of puddles in that scene and the different lighting due to the Sun's position having been moved around) and "aggressive" video compression resulting in crushed detail for that video. However, no actual level of detail has been diminished - thus, no downgrade at all in the final build.
Stevenson invited skeptics to check out the 75 minutes of gameplay (based on the E3 2018 demo Nathan played in LA and wrote about) posted earlier this Summer by Insomniac to confirm that the game still looks as good as it did when it was first revealed. He then vehemently rejected any comparison with Watch_Dogs, to this day considered the greatest examples of a graphics downgrade, saying that examples from that game are like 'night and day' compared to these small changes.
It’s not a downgrade. The sun moved. It’s in shadow now. That video is overly compressed and crushing dark detail. Looks great at full res
— James Stevenson (@JamesStevenson) August 25, 2018
Yes because the lighting and the video compression. I looked at it in full res this week and the suit detail is there. The video compression is crushing it
— James Stevenson (@JamesStevenson) August 25, 2018
No just go watch the hour of footage we’ve put out since E3, realize there has been. I downgrade, stop stressing out, and enjoy the game in two weeks
— James Stevenson (@JamesStevenson) August 25, 2018
There is no downgrade. The sun moved during the course of development, which changed the lighting in the scene, and we reduced the amount of puddles there. Please enjoy the hour of amazing footage we've released since E3 illustrating this.
— James Stevenson (@JamesStevenson) August 26, 2018
No it’s not. Lighting changed and we moved a puddle. Games change in development. All the level of detail is still there
— James Stevenson (@JamesStevenson) August 26, 2018
Yes. The lighting changes the dark details of the scene, but all the detail is still there. We didn’t remove or downgrade anything. Insomniac has never done that.
— James Stevenson (@JamesStevenson) August 26, 2018
I am telling you I talked to the technical and engineering and art staff, and looked at the live code of this from the final build. There was NO DOWNGRADE.
— James Stevenson (@JamesStevenson) August 26, 2018
First: it's not a downgrade. Downgrade implies we showed something not possible as a trick or reduced capabilities. Neither of those a re true.
Second: Attitudes like that are why game devs don't want to show stuff in production because people can't handle minor changes
— James Stevenson (@JamesStevenson) August 26, 2018
yes the sun has moved several times during development which may change appearance as things look different if the light changes
— James Stevenson (@JamesStevenson) August 26, 2018
you have to be kidding. go look at the examples from the game you reference. that's night and day.
this is a lighting change and some aggressive video compression and a puddle being moved. It looks great at home and every journalist who has played at E3 or preview build agrees
— James Stevenson (@JamesStevenson) August 26, 2018
I'm telling you the lighting (darker lighting hides dark details), combined with compression crushing dark detail, is making it appear less detailed in the tiny screenshots going around, but it's NOT.
I said the puddles being removed was an art change, not a technical one.
— James Stevenson (@JamesStevenson) August 26, 2018
And despite my adamant explanations, clarifications, and assurances, people don't want to listen. Yet I'm the one with the Dev kit and 4K monitor here.
— James Stevenson (@JamesStevenson) August 26, 2018
Other photos show they clearly did change. Also they aren’t as intense. I’m the developer explaining it to you and you won’t listen
— James Stevenson (@JamesStevenson) August 26, 2018
We'll soon have the game in our hands, anyway, and be able to judge ourselves. The review embargo has been set by Sony for September 4th, three days ahead of the public release, which bodes well for the confidence both the publisher and the developer have in the game's quality.
Spider-Man will last about twenty hours for the main story, as recently confirmed by Stevenson himself, though the length can significantly increase once side quests and side activities available throughout Manhattan are added into the count.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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