Have Your Say: Are Graphics Important?

[Magnus Stjerneby]

its important until it laggs

 

[Damage Inc]

how did I know this would turn into another PCars bashing thread. FFS change the fecking record..

on topic, yes considering the Primary sense of a human is vision then graphics are a vital part of convincing us we are really "in" that car.

I primarily play Pcars, AC and R3E with a smattering of Dirt Rally. So the better looking sims. I also play to a lesser degree RF2 and AMS. I would play AMS a LOT more with an up to date graphics engine and I await Reiza's next gen sim with baited breath. RF2s a weird one, sometimes it looks awesome, sometimes not so much...although to be fair if it had content more suited to me I'd play it more so maybe that's less of a gfx issue.

 

[PR3D4TOR]

I need decent graphics. They do not have to be top of the notch. Gameplay is more important but still its nice to look at beautiful tracks/cars.

 

[Patrik Marek]

everything needs to be good, graphics, physics & sound

but purely from selling point of view, and this is just my oppinion , if you have 3 games and they are

Game A
amazing graphics, ok sound, poor physics
Game B
ok graphics, ok sound, ok physics
Game C
poor graphics, good sound, amazing physics

I think that you will sell most of the games A, followed by B and followed by C

it's very small amount of people that really care a lot about physics and can sacrifice the dated look of the game/sim

so yes, graphics are important, it can help sell your game even if rest isn't amazing, where on the other hand, you could have great physics & sound, but if the graphics looks like something form 2003, you won't sell too many copies

 

[Andy_J]

I think we sim racers and enthusiasts need and want a balance of both good physics and great visuals. We want both and in the main I think we get that with all of todays sims.
I really do enjoy them all and once I get going in them I get immersed. Obviously we would not expect blocky graphics of Indycar 2 these days but still some old games can look good enough for me to still feel the immersion. I love em all.
I still truly love NR2003 and GTR2 for example. Race 07 still has acceptable graphics too.
NR2003 is 14 yrs old and I think it still looks damn fine.

Automobilista often gets down voted for it's old graphics engine but praised for superb physics but to me the graphics are fantastic. And once you are racing it all adds up to superb immersion.

So what I am saying is we all want a balance of many things to make a good sim, graphics, physics, sound and details. I get all them and I am happy and I think we do in all our current sims.

 

[Craig Dunkley]

One has a list of priorities eh, for some, graphics is very near the top and for others not so, but you can bet its on there list of priorities somewhere, hence its a very important part of any game/sim.

For me, physics will always be first, has to be right, then the sim/game has to look good, then content, one without the other = failure.

As someone already mentioned above, Project cars was indeed stunning, absolutely stunning, it also had the content, but failed miserably on the physics, hence it failed.

 

[ale9357]

I just don't care about shiny and ultra graphics in a racing sim.

For me most important things are physics accuracy,FFB behaviour and car and tracks selection.

 

[Patrik Marek]

^ that automobilsta screen looks quite bit better then what I remeber it being, .. is all content up par to this ? or just some latest ?

not sure how accurate these could be, but if we are looking at something like NeedForSpeed 2015, it says 3.5 milion sold copies, and I guess we could agree that physics is not really good and its' graphics that is carrying the game

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?nam...sher=&platform=&genre=&minSales=0&results=200

and now compare that to Assetto Corsa at 0.8 ( sadly it's missing PC, but based on steam there's about 500k , making this total close to 600k)
http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?nam...sher=&platform=&genre=&minSales=0&results=200

and the hateful pcars sitting at 1.6 milion
http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=project+cars

 

[darkelf1]

Actually race games gameplay is most important, then graphic. Anyway race games graphic after 2010 all looks OK to me now, i never play Nascar, even graphic is good, but i don't like the cars.But if it's Indy, then i 'll love it

 

[Patrik Marek]

As someone already mentioned above, Project cars was indeed stunning, absolutely stunning, it also had the content, but failed miserably on the physics, hence it failed.

failed, yeah right, sold close to 3 times as many copies as Assetto Corsa, and some 45 times as many sold copies that Automobilista, .. yeah what a failure compared to successful AMS ... omg people

take the personal feelings away from saying things about something being failure

if AMS really only sold 35k copies, that's what I would called failure from a developer point of view

 

[Craig Dunkley]

failed, yeah right, sold close to 3 times as many copies as Assetto Corsa, and some 45 times as many sold copies that Automobilista, .. yeah what a failure compared to successful AMS ... omg people

take the personal feelings away from saying things about something being failure

if AMS really only sold 35k copies, that's what I would called failure from a developer point of view

I was of course talking about my point of view, for sure it never failed for the gamer.

 

[Nibiru Cataclysm]

I'm a graphics whore...I admit it.

But give me gameplay over graphics if there was a choice.

For instance I still sink an insane amount of time into Diablo 1 and 2. Why? Because of the depth and gameplay.

GPL's recent track addons look incredible because they have *character* and detail, not bloom, god rays, motion blur and light shafts.

More important than graphics are OPTIMISED graphics.

So yes they are important, but not the be all and end all.

 

[Boby Kim]

Apparently we need graphics, racing a dark screen is so...dark right? For me sound is far more important than graphics. Physics, ingame features are also far more important than graphics ala codies or sms.

 

[Nibiru Cataclysm]

failed, yeah right, sold close to 3 times as many copies as Assetto Corsa, and some 45 times as many sold copies that Automobilista, .. yeah what a failure compared to successful AMS ... omg people

take the personal feelings away from saying things about something being failure

if AMS really only sold 35k copies, that's what I would called failure from a developer point of view

Until you know what their confidential internal sales targets and projections were you can't comment on whether the amount of sales were a success or failure.

 

[Nibiru Cataclysm]

Apparently we need graphics, racing a dark screen is so...dark right? For me sound is far more important than graphics. Physics, ingame features are also far more important than graphics ala codies or sms.

Excellent point Boby.

As someone with degenerative hearing loss and tinnitus who is slowly going deaf...sound is very important.

Even in the last few months there are some games I cannot play because the sound mix hurts my ears.

The "ambient crown noises" I find are particularly painful and it's one of the reasons I can't for example play project cars.

 

[FeltHat]

Gimme godlike sound and detailed cockpit and im happy in vr About this ams vs pcars success/failure, u forgot how much pcars costed to develop+marketing+licenses+team size etc, compared to ams

 

[Bjay_23]

Yes, but physics are first priority

 

[rosgillies]

Graphics are important, but not predominant. Project CARS 2 is a good example for that: best looking racing game, but poor physics. In that way, it sucks.

How do you know Project cars 2 sucks? It is`nt even out yet. Give it a chance for pete`s sake.

 

[Ruy Horta]

Crisp graphics and smooth performance over eye candy.

But small details can add a lot to the immersion factor.
Lighting, surface detail, track detail and weather.

But physics, the interaction with the environment, the surface the wheel, it is far more important.

Bad visuals, like poor LOD, AA filtering and performance can be game breakers, better stick to functional and crisp graphics than add poor effects and ugly eye candy.

Sim over looks

 

[rosgillies]

Gimme godlike sound and detailed cockpit and im happy in vr About this ams vs pcars success/failure, u forgot how much pcars costed to develop+marketing+licenses+team size etc, compared to ams

Gimme godlike sound and detailed cockpit and im happy in vr, My thoughts exactly.