They (Naughty Dog’s Studio Coordinator Rodney Reece and Lead FX Artist Keith Guerrette) confirmed to us that the Uncharted 4 trailer showcased during Sony’s E3 2014 press conference was a part of an actual level in game. Secondly, they also confirmed that the entire trailer was running in real time on the PlayStation 4 and it was all in-engine.
We've studied the video in a little more depth and have concluded that it's definitely running at native 1080p resolution (as opposed to being rendered at a very high resolution, then scaled down - a process known as super-sampling). Small clipping anomalies, a touch of specular aliasing on Nate's shirt as he sits up, along with some shadow aliasing on his forehead also suggest a real-time render. On the face of it, we're still looking at some pretty incredible anti-aliasing here for a real-time technique on a game running at 60fps, particularly when it comes to the perfect, artefact-free rendering of Nate's hair - but the combination of the low contrast setting, slow camera movement, motion blur and depth of field would work well generally in making aliasing much less of an issue.
Naughty Dog is out for BLOOD this era. Uncharted 4 to show their ability with the most advanced console on the market, and The Last of Us 2 to show how every other game ever created is a lessor.
