Outdated visuals - Engine Limitation? Screenshots attached

[Milamber]

I know this game runs on CryEngine, but does anyone else feel that the graphics—especially the teeth and skin—look quite outdated compared to modern visuals? I’m curious why they chose this engine over UE5, given its advanced animation realism and detailed visuals. The story, acting, and dialogue are fantastic, but the visuals could use a major upgrade. I’m playing on ultra settings with a 4090, and while the frame rate is solid at 4K, there’s no HDR support.

Another issue with the animations is how animals, especially the dog, look. They don’t appear very realistic, even compared to The Witcher. Is this a limitation of the engine? Could mods enhance the visuals, particularly the teeth, skin, and animal animations, to bring them more in line with today’s standards?

These screenshots highlight the complete lack of effort put into the visual quality. Captured in photo mode on ultra settings in 4K, they speak for themselves.

https://ibb.co/hJd7kqFb
https://ibb.co/bp7J8NN
https://ibb.co/0VMGt3Ck
https://ibb.co/39L1JKZQ
https://ibb.co/7x7nbXJg
https://ibb.co/Z6XsQm2q

[Nezuko Pizza Delivery]

Game looks amazing on my shiny sleek and oh so elegant ps5 pro

[makbthemf]

Yes, CryEngine is old as mamuth feces, and is supported by Warhorse studio solely.

[The_K00lDude]

Id take anything over ue5 lately. Now maybe its just devs being lazy and not optermizing there stuff. But I feel I get the worst performance from that engine

[makbthemf]

Originally posted by The_K00lDude:

Id take anything over ue5 lately. Now maybe its just devs being lazy and not optermizing there stuff. But I feel I get the worst performance from that engine

I bet next game would be more like Mount and Blade and on EU5. However Warhors needed to release KCD2 on CryEngine not to waist budget on mechanic adaptation, new assets, team education, e.t.c.

[Caldrin]

Cryengine is pretty old I don't think they have got their new version out yet..

But it still looks amazing..

[Caldrin]

Originally posted by makbthemf:

Yes, CryEngine is old as mamuth feces, and is supported by Warhorse studio solely.

That is not true quite a few games out there use CryEngine.

[Milamber]

From an optimisation standpoint, I haven’t really had any issues, but I wouldn’t be the best judge because of my video card. I’m curious to see how other GPUs handle it. When you look at other UE5 games—not just open-world ones but stuff like Wukong, Bodycam, and Sons of the Forest they just look incredible. Even though they’re different genres, the visuals are next-level, and the lighting makes them feel so real. This game, though, feels like a step backwards. The skin textures, especially, look pretty bad.

[makbthemf]

Originally posted by Caldrin:

Originally posted by makbthemf:

Yes, CryEngine is old as mamuth feces, and is supported by Warhorse studio solely.

That is not true quite a few games out there use CryEngine.

I have never stated that they doesn't exist, I've stated that Warhorse is actually the sole developer who make any extensions over the vanilla engine by CryTeck. All other big CryEngine titles were not released after 2016.

[rustypup]

They discussed this at length.

Despite its age, the world looks fantastic

The team chose to focus on content/story over shipping on new engine which is actually a mammoth task that requires you split focus - half the team trying to build the world and the other half working around limitations, bugs, customising, etc....

They made a good choice.

[Milamber]

Originally posted by rustypup:

They discussed this at length.

Despite its age, the world looks fantastic

The team chose to focus on content/story over shipping on new engine which is actually a mammoth task that requires you split focus - half the team trying to build the world and the other half working around limitations, bugs, customising, etc....

They made a good choice.

Not so.

Since UE5 was already available when development started, the idea that switching to it would have been a "mammoth task" that split the team’s focus doesn’t really hold up. The main reason studios avoid changing engines mid-development is the huge effort needed to transfer assets, tools, and workflows—but if UE5 was an option from the beginning, there wouldn’t have been any migration; they could have just used it from the start. That means any struggles with an outdated engine were self-inflicted, not an unavoidable challenge. Plus, UE5 actually makes development easier in many ways, with features like Nanite, Lumen, and World Partition reducing the need for tedious optimization and workarounds.

The argument that switching engines would have "split focus" ignores the fact that sticking with an old engine does the exact same thing, because developers end up wasting time fighting its limitations, fixing bugs, and customizing outdated tech. Either way, the team would have had to divide their attention—the difference is that using UE5 from the start would have set them up for fewer technical hurdles in the long run. There might have been valid reasons for avoiding UE5, like it being in early access at the time or the studio having a lot invested in their old engine, but the idea that it would have made development harder just doesn’t make sense, since using outdated tech likely created just as many, if not more, problems.

[dulany67]

I agree that some of the NPC skin textures are not as good as they could be. But they seem to have put more dev time in the main ones.

That's a bit picky though, the game looks very good.

[Milamber]

Originally posted by dulany67:

I agree that some of the NPC skin textures are not as good as they could be. But they seem to have put more dev time in the main ones.

That's a bit picky though, the game looks very good.

I have edited the first post and taken screenshots to demonstrate what I am talking about.

[Glazed and Confused]

Looks really good to me but I'm also not walking around and checking the detail on buckets and rocks.

[Mr_Hig]

The game looks and feels more or less the same as the first.

[Milamber]

Originally posted by Glazed and Confused:

Looks really good to me but I'm also not walking around and checking the detail on buckets and rocks.

And this is exactly why we're stuck with mediocre graphics—because of comments like this that validate visuals which were outperformed by current technology over five years ago. I think the real issue is that I’m talking to a group of people who are two to three generations behind in tech, so these visuals seem impressive to them because they’re still living in the past.