NBA 2K21 on PS4 Is a Great Looking Game, But This PS5 Comparison Is Insane

While the graphics are night and day better on ps5, the animations stand out on the ps5 because they haven’t kept up with the visuals.

So you could say those certain users were.... dunked on?

That video is so compressed it didn't really show it off well. Watching the official PlayStation trailer in 1440p or higher looks really excellent though!

That is a pretty huge difference. I would like to know if the color intensity differences are just a result of the capture on the PS4 or if its really that washed out.

Beautiful but gameplay no different

The most important thing is the look and feel of the ball. Without a good ball, there is no game. It is the star of the show, everyone comes to see the ball and chase the ball. The ball must look realistic, it must bounce with good energy and have a handsome appearance when being tossed.

@Hampie Yep, PS5 balls are going to be so realistic you can almost smell them, rub them, give them a little squeeze. Seeing those bodies glisten under the lights as they squeeze their ball into tight spaces, faces writhing in despair as their baskets are filled... that’s what PS5 is all about.

@Mega-Gazz are you sure? I feel the animation is vastly superior, much more realistic

I have 0 faith in madden, its maddening. 2k 21 looks dope tho

And people will still say that the PS4 has great graphics and we don't need a next gen...

The lighting is a big difference too - not just the 'washed out' look but all the lighting, shadows, reflections etc. The Character Models are much higher quality with much better 'skin' too which obviously benefits from better lighting too.

Shame is in a Basketball game though LOL

The PS4 version looks awful, did they make it washed out and blurry so the PS5 version looks better? I have 2k20 installed and it looks way better than that PS4 footage.

NBA 2K2 ugly PS4 face models looks like they were made for PS3. A lot of PS4 games do better characters.

Also, the contrast is washed out for the PS4. Very dishonest comparison.

The graphical difference between ps4 and ps5 is minuscule compared to the difference between ps3 and ps4.

@Turbodream And the graphical difference between ps3 and ps4 was even smaller compared to the difference between ps2 and ps3. So what? It's still significant.

People talking about the "washed out look" need to understand that developers often use desaturated colours / colour palettes to hide low background details , or to hide a myriad of other problems. It can also help with smoothing out lens blur effects in the background should the step change be too harsh. So my guess would be that it is a deliberate decision to hide all the faults / low quality assets. I'm sure @God_of_Nowt could tell you more.

@hi_drnick I've looked at the animations in this video a few times, and I'm not sure they are using improved / better animations. The smoother transitions between movements might just be a result of a higher frame rates. It could also be down to a much improved rigging for the animations to map onto in the PS5 version. Again I'd ask @God_of_Nowt their thoughts. To my eye, it could be a different animation set, but I think it's probably the old animation set with better rigging and frames.

@BAMozzy is correct as well, the lighting, and what looks to be RT is a vast improvement, the reflections definitely seem to be RT, and the character models are a vast improvement. Possibly more polygons in the nose of a PS5 model than the entirety of the PS4 models. lol. The shadows are an improvement, but I can't tell if that's RT too.

Onto the negatives... cloth simulation is nonexistent. I'd have expected more material based rendering. The kits still look like hard items with little realistic movement to them, and the characters don't seem to be part of the scene either. There isn't a sense of weight or contact to the environment, they seem to just sit and glide in the world. I'd expect these things to improve as the generation goes on.

And this is just the beginning of next generation wait until we four years in and look back at PS4 graphics, there will be a big difference.

I'd be more worried about the framerate analysis that has already been done. It shows this game dropping to 20fps on PS5.

@JapaneseSonic I've gone back and had a look, I agree it's an improved model, but I'm not sure it's fabric simulation. What I'm talking about is how the kits look in movement, does the fabric move naturally? Does it react to the motion of the player? It might look slightly better on the PS5, but it looks to my eye to be pre-baked animation, and if it's not then they need to find a way to implement it better.

@Menchi a frame rate analysis on an unreleased game is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. Frame optimisation / frame locking is one of the last tasks teams do. Quite often sadly, this actually makes up part of the day 1 patch. It shouldn't, but it does.

NBA2K8 was the first Basketball game I got on the PS3. Playing that and Drakes Fortune when I first purchased the console was like entering a whole new world of video games.

I fully expect NBA2K21 to have a similar effect

@JapaneseSonic maybe it doesn't matter. Just think it'd help with the realism of the frame, and help the character models feel more grounded. I guess having seen pretty good fabric simulation in Miles Morales I was expecting to see more of it.

The PS5 version looks vastly improved however I find something is still off with it. I think it's the actual animations. When one player (I don't follow basketball so have no idea who) celebrates by shouting, the mouth movement looks unnatural.

The movement of the players feet looks off as well, like they're not touching the floor.

I don't know if its just because it's hard to animate but the closer we get to absolute realism in characters, the more noticeable animations become when not acting like they would in the real world.

@SirAngry I don't give developers the benefit of doubt. The last 15 years of consoles has taken that away.

Is this from standard ps4 or the pro cause like someone else said 2k20 looked better than the footage shown on the pro?

@Menchi that's fair enough, but I think genuinely judging a game on pre-release code is pointless. I've worked on games where FPS was targeting 60 FPS, but about 2 months out was sitting at just about 45. As you get into optimisation that starts to ramp up and you hit your targets. Not saying that'll happen here, but judging an unfinished product? Just not wise.

@get2sammyb why there no flag on backboard on PS5 version ?

I saw a pic earlier that showed what I'm assuming was supposed to be zion williamson yelling and the only difference was I could see the sweat since it was shinier due to being lighter, neither the current gen or next gen screen grab looked like him. This would have been a great time for a boxing game to come out, Fight night round 3 for the xbox and ps2 compared to their next gen counterparts was a night and day difference, this doesn't look that big a difference to me personally.

@naruball Significant graphical leap is quite subjective and imho a stretch. It will probably take a couple of years before we see a game with a real "wow" factor for the graphics. If you buy a PS5 only for that reason, you'd be better staying with a PS4, at least for a couple years. I'm way more excited for the SSD.

Anyways, I know Sony wants to sell tvs, but it would be way more appropriate for them to focus on offering 60 fps for every games instead of 8k support.