Tomb Raider PS4 Release To Instill New Life Into Graphics

When you think about the South Park play on the release of next-generation's consoles in the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, you get the idea that they – really – aren't all that much better. According to the folks behind the epic modern version of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, Matt Stone and Trey Parker are (keeping in mind that they're humorists) dead wrong. Here we're having a peek at what it really means to take a game released to the PlayStation 3 and re-release it to PlayStation 4, fully revamped – in the graphics department, at least.

In the video you're about to see, produced by IGN, you'll find Tomb Raider's Executive Producer Scot Amos speaking up on how this release matters. It's not just a transfer, it's a whole bunch of development work instilled in a release that's a whole lot more deep than that.

"When we made texture maps for the characters and the game and the world itself, even along the last generation, you make them as high as you can. But you always, always have to squeeze them down to a smaller size. Just the actual bitmaps themselves take up memory." Amos continued, "But for Xbox One and PS4, we were able to go back and take those textures we had done and blow them out, literally, four times larger than they had ever been.

In the particle universe we're also seeing here is 15x that of the original – in certain places – this allowing you to see one whole heck of a lot more fire when you're blowing up your favorite enemies. You'll also see dynamically lit particles in this version. At about 3:10 in the video above you'll find that, in the rain, this means you'll be able to see lit raindrops through a searchlight where before there were none. Simple stuff, big difference in feels.

Have a peek here and get pumped up about what Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics will be bringing to both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One iterations of this game sooner than later!