MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

[puppies_on_acid]

Re: MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

The fact of the matter is that for a AAA game that is developed by a first party developer from Sony, this game lacks a lot in the graphical department compared to about any other AAA game for the current gen, and it lacks compared to many prior gen games as well.

While many people don't really know all the technical information surrounding graphics and just roll their eyes at things like people talking about water splash effects, that does not excuse that the game has plenty of dated textures, no traces of ray tracing, a clear lacking of things like subsurface scattering, zero cloth physics, and many other items that are very very common in games today.

Most games haven't looked awful for nearly 10 years now. We hit a point graphically where games age a lot less and are less of a hassle to go back and play because the visuals hold up so well. The Show is far from an atrocious looking game, but it is also equally as far from being a technical marvel. It doesn't need to be a technical marvel, but it's also pretty far from being up to the standard graphically that most AAA games, sports and non-sports, are achieving on the regular.

I remember years ago when they did a dev stream talking about how they were starting to incorporate PBR textures into the game. It was neat. PBR textures were becoming the norm back then. Now, you look at the graphics in the series still, and you notice that there are still plenty of textures that aren't PBR textures. There's still plenty of flat looking areas that look like they don't even have a normal map at all.

You focus on the key parts of a baseball game and you see skin textures that are comically bad, jerseys that look rough even when you zoom in and get the best LOD model, the grass and dirt are pretty bad at nearly every park, the texture resolution in many areas is questionable. For example, even when playing on the prettier graphical settings, you'll still see extremely low res pants textures on the batters from a batting camera leading to the glove pocket being very jagged and bad looking. For this day and age, things like that should not be happening in a AAA game.

While the game may look good enough to play, and many old timers here may think it looks fine because they grew up playing Duck Hunt(I did too), that does not mean the game is well behind the modern standard graphically. This thread is also here to have a dedicated place for graphical talk, so when people do mention smaller details in the graphics like splash effects, subsurface scattering, etc. They shouldn't be shrugged off as nitpicking. That's tossing someone's opinion away simply because you don't think like they do. Instead, it should be accepted that those details are small and we can acknowledge them lacking doesn't make the game a 0 out of 10, but we should also be able to accept those are things that should be expected in a AAA game in 2024. Heck, those are things you'd have expected in a AAA game in 2018.

Simply put, from a technical standpoint, The Show is lacking compared to your average AAA releases and really even your AA releases as well. A AAA game developed by a first party studio should have significantly more technical details in the game and that's just an objective fact. Whether the graphics are good enough for you is irrelevant to the fact that this series is lacking any technical details that became the common standard years ago.

Yeah, this is a great post. Absolutely on point.

I do game development in Unreal Engine and my area of expertise is in PBR Textures. I too was excited when they started talking about and showing off the new PBR they were doing many years ago. The problem is it seems like they never finished and they seem to have done the bare minimum on the textures that do actually have PBR, mainly just an albedo texture, a normal map, and a roughness map, then maybe occasionally a metalness map on metal objects....but it's hard to tell on those sometimes. I mean they should really be doing a displacement map, detail map, and AO map on just about everything as well. Then depending on the texture there should be proper translucency maps, Opacity maps, and transmission maps. Of course you have to optimize for all these added textures, but that's not hard to do.

If they were to add proper ray-traced lighting on top of it, that would go a long way to making the lighting look so much better.

[ltw0303cavs]

Re: MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

The fact is this engine is 3 years past due. They know it , we know it. No streamer is going to say anything because they want their SDS goodie bag. DD drives their channel numbers and grinders don't care about aesthetics . SDS has cultivated you to be satisfied with this product. They want $120 bucks for that limited edition and the game has not evolved and what's the ben saddder ? is people will buy it

[breakfastcat]

Re: MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

Yeah, this is a great post. Absolutely on point.

I do game development in Unreal Engine and my area of expertise is in PBR Textures. I too was excited when they started talking about and showing off the new PBR they were doing many years ago. The problem is it seems like they never finished and they seem to have done the bare minimum on the textures that do actually have PBR, mainly just an albedo texture, a normal map, and a roughness map, then maybe occasionally a metalness map on metal objects....but it's hard to tell on those sometimes. I mean they should really be doing a displacement map, detail map, and AO map on just about everything as well. Then depending on the texture there should be proper translucency maps, Opacity maps, and transmission maps. Of course you have to optimize for all these added textures, but that's not hard to do.

If they were to add proper ray-traced lighting on top of it, that would go a long way to making the lighting look so much better.

This is a great post, and also kind of speaks to a pattern I've noticed with SDS where they'll add a great feature one year and everyone agrees that it's a great start but can see obvious ways it could get better in the future, but then they just leave it as is with little to no improvements in subsequent years while they work on some other feature for the year that will just get abandoned the next year. It happened with the PBR textures like you said. It happened with the Batting Stance editor. It happened with the Stadium Creator. It'll probably happen again this year with the Face Scan. The only things that seem to ever get iterated on are DD modes.

[canes21]

Re: MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

Seems the disappointment is not just here at OS. Unlike most subreddits, The Show subreddit has generally been the most positive gaming subreddit I have frequented for years. Hardly ever do I even see a single negative post about the series on that subreddit. It's typically just constant praise for the game or highlight clips.

This year, though, is different. I've seen more negativity about the upcoming game there than positivity. A lot of posts about the graphics once again being behind the times. It clearly does not have the momentum that the #FixMaddenFranchise movement had, but it's the first time I can remember seeing a collective disappointment among many in the various communities with this series. It's not just graphics that I am seeing complaints about either.

It seems OS is far from alone in having many that think the lack of graphical updates is disappointing. Many of the issues brought up in this thread have been mentioned over there as well, so it seems the more "casual" groups are also coming to the same conclusions we are with regards to the lack of progression with the series.

[ltw0303cavs]

Re: MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

I've been saying this for years , SDS has cashed in all the goodwill this game built up and told you as a fan ? We don't care what you think. This game needs new blood , new eyes on it because now ? they are just cashing checks

[Mitchrapp]

Re: MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

See, this is what I don't get. Those checks Sony cashing? Why are people who are supposedly disappointed still giving their money to Sony. One cannot help but think Sony is giving the people what they want. So in the only manner Sony can quantify (your $) it's readily apparent they think they are giving what we want, and hence care what is thought. Until a better way for Sony to gauge the success of the series comes along, monies reign supreme.

Its been 4 years for me not playing and I continue to not unless they update game big time. Esp. RTTS.

[eric7064]

Re: MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

See, this is what I don't get. Those checks Sony cashing? Why are people who are supposedly disappointed still giving their money to Sony. One cannot help but think Sony is giving the people what they want. So in the only manner Sony can quantify (your $) it's readily apparent they think they are giving what we want, and hence care what is thought. Until a better way for Sony to gauge the success of the series comes along, monies reign supreme.

That's what happens when DD is the cash cow. When streamers drop thousands of dollars on launch night and I have personal friends dropping a hundred dollars on packs on launch week what are we as franchise/rtts fans going to do? We are a less valuable customer.

The sales of the game matter less than the money made from the game.

[puppies_on_acid]

Re: MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

See, this is what I don't get. Those checks Sony cashing? Why are people who are supposedly disappointed still giving their money to Sony. One cannot help but think Sony is giving the people what they want. So in the only manner Sony can quantify (your $) it's readily apparent they think they are giving what we want, and hence care what is thought. Until a better way for Sony to gauge the success of the series comes along, monies reign supreme.

I don't think you understand. I haven't given them money since MLB '20 and I'm about 99% sure I won't give them money this year. I'm already voting with my wallet, as are other people around here.

The problem is the people that just buy the game for DD, which I'm going to go out on a limb here and say far exceeds the amount of people that buy the game for Franchise and/or RTTS. These people are going to keep buying the game, year in year out, just to feed their gambling addiction. It's the same type of people that keep buying Madden every year for their card collecting game, even though Madden has been trash for over a decade. Therefore SDS sees no point in putting much, if any, effort into anything but DD and online modes.

Granted, The Show has a pretty good on-field product, from a gameplay perspective, but it has for 10+ years and not much has changed gameplay-wise in that time. However, in that time not much else has changed as far as graphics go (same atrocious player models since PS3 era, unfinished stuff like the aforementioned PBR, holdover PS2 era graphics in some stadiums, etc etc), not to mention the lackluster animation system they have (Don't get me started on pitching deliveries/motions, they are just bad). There is so much that can be improved upon, but at this point the only way that will happen is with another developer coming in and providing true competition.

Then there's the stuff they've taken out of the game over the years, only to be re-introduced a few years later as an "All New Feature" Or the stuff that has never come back. Y2Y saves being a big one.

[marbury]

Re: MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

https://youtu.be/kRu4e_XhxZk?si=w0LPiiZFhG16yWgG

Just watched the Switch trailer from last year... The lighting is different, lower resolution, lower texture quality and no grass.

But I have to say it looks very similar to PS5... like a low resolution trailer

[Totfc773]

Re: MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

https://youtu.be/kRu4e_XhxZk?si=w0LPiiZFhG16yWgG

Just watched the Switch trailer from last year... The lighting is different, lower resolution, lower texture quality and no grass.

But I have to say it looks very similar to PS5... like a low resolution trailer

Its the same game. They scale it down to accomodate the lack of power of the Switch

[marbury]

Re: MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

Its the same game. They scale it down to accomodate the lack of power of the Switch

I know it is the same game but the difference should be more visible regarding the power of the console.

Either way you could say SDS did a perfect job scaling this game down on the switch or MLBTS isn't using the potential of the playstation consoles.

To me the difference in NBA is much bigger.image-7.jpegimage-8.jpegimage-9.jpeg

[marbury]

Re: MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

Mortal Kombatimage-10.jpegimage-14.jpeg

[marbury]

Re: MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

EA FC 24image-20.jpeg

[LegendKillerOne]

Re: MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

I don't think anyone with decent eyes can dispute the graphics are behind these other games but there has to be a reason for it. The company has to have an idea why they have not upgraded. Maybe one day they will tell us.

[PDibby23]

Re: MLB The Show Graphics Discussion Thread

I don't think anyone with decent eyes can dispute the graphics are behind these other games but there has to be a reason for it. The company has to have an idea why they have not upgraded. Maybe one day they will tell us.

This is the problem. They don’t say anything! When they must know it’s the most obvious elephant in the room. All these threads would go away if the company we were giving hard earned money to at least addressed us like valued customers for 5 seconds.