Star Wars: Battlefront 2 may be the best-looking Frostbite game yet, boasting various upgrades over the original - report
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 looks great, but it's when you compare it with the 2015 game that you realise the jump.
During EA's E3 2017 showcase, we were treated to a nice long, 40-player session of Star Wars: Battlefront 2 multiplayer gameplay.
Theed, the capital of Naboo was shown off and we got to witness the new deep class system in action, alongside a host of vehicles, weapons, and heroes. It looked amazing running on PC. To the untrained eye, though, the engine may not looked like it had seen upgrades since Battlefield 1, but there's actually a lot going on than first meets the eye.
Digital Foundry managed to perform some early analysis from direct-feed footage captured at the event and came upon what looks like a revamp of the engine's physically-based rendering system.
This affects materials in the game, making everything from the city's cobblestone architecture look very distinct from the rest of the scene. "But it's the lighting that really sells it," the site points out.
"The interior scenes in particular are strikingly realistic with excellent use of light-bounce, filling each scene with natural hues. The way lighting spills from the bright outdoors into the palace is impressive to behold and showcases the strengths of the engine."
The impressive lighting techniques carry over to particle effects, allowing blaster shots to illuminate smoke and dust clouds. Coupled with the explosions' use of screen-space reflections, action scenes look stellar.
Battlefront 2 is also a more detailed game than its predecessor, clearly visible as you go from flying over in a starfighter and into the densely populated streets, all without loosing the high level of fidelity.
Watch the video above for a recap of the high points from DICE's presentation.
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is out November 17 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.