Path of Exile 2, Realism & Anti-Aliasing

Hi again,

I wanted to talk a little bit more about Path of Exile 2's graphics and particularly a feature which I believe brings up realism or even a more believeable cinematic look to almost every game engine and that is Anti-Aliasing.

From most of the high-quality gameplay footage we have available over the internet (mainly YouTube) for the sequel it is hard to not notice a particular aspect of the new game's looks which is that basically everything is filled with white specks from the specular(roughness) texture masks. Generally, high quality roughness maps is of course always better, however, the level of extra-fine detail that the assets incorporate sometimes makes for unneeded visual noise in the form of tiny white specks all over the place. These tiny white spots appear on nearly all types of surfaces and this might become an issue when differentiating between materials like wood, rock, metal, bone. As if everything is covered with white glitter. Toning down some of those white spots noise, mainly in the environment, could be beneficial to Realism.

This effect, in turn, diminishes realism and a general cinematic look within the game engine. I do believe this particular look for the game is what the game devs intended, although a good amount of Anti-Aliasing can help fighting off those jagged edges and white specks visual noise in most areas. I am not sure at what video settings this Gameplay footage has been captured, but you can see what I mean in the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQwngF0XI_8

Path of Exile 2 has a very Realistic visual style, to the point that in-game footage can easily be used as material for cinematics with a few well placed cameras and zero UI. Visual noise in the form of specular (roughness texture maps) is something that needs a moderate attention and reducing the amount of white specks overall can improve and add to the realism of the game, even if its still within a game engine.

Thanks so much!
Aum

soon we will see poe2