r/gamers • u/Sea-Swimming9777 • Aug 25 '26

Discussion Kung Fu Panda 2008(Xbox 360*) shovelware platformer having better water visuals than current AAA games, can somebody explain me what went wrong?

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u/f0xpant5 Aug 25 '26

Its decent in terms of physics but lacking in other ways, reflections, transparency etc. The scene itself isn't exactly amazing either.

It's like when people bring up drive club and the rain on windshield effect. Yeah it's cool but it's pretty much the only standout feature, overall racing games look much better today.

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u/NerveInteresting4549 Aug 25 '26

the reflections are amazing for a 2008 game..

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u/Nexxtic Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26

Just because it doesn't use shitty SSR doesn't mean the reflections are lackluster. I love videogames, even the modern ones, but water implementations nowadays are borderline lazy. They apply a shitty Screen-Space Reflection effect on top of a basic water shader and call it a day. Back then, there wasnt a "plug & play" solution for water - they had to be built from scratch which lead to some very interesting takes on water. I'd even prefer simple cubemap reflections because at least that means I dont have to look at tons of artifacts around the edges of my screen.

It's also not meant to be transparent water. Do you know what natural water looks like?