Graphics downgrade

[Eduard Mallorquí]

I open this thread to discuss current AC graphics since from some time ago developers claimed an improvement on this area thanks to the console port.

One of the things that kept me driving on AC was because of the visual experience it offered but so far seems like things have gone to worse. Take for example this picture from last summer:

And compare it with the next one, maximum graphics without DoF, from today:

What you can see is saturation and contrast increased to give a more vivid colors but unrealistic, the trees changed for simpler ones and the track marks of the road are massive compared to the subtle and immersive ones we had before.

Also I noticed the textures of the gravel traps seem to be all over the place with very low resolution and bad clipping. This is also a screen from today with max settings without DoF.

When I asked on the official forums about this gravel traps the answer I got is that they were WIP, and that was months ago, yet seem they didn't change them at all since then.

So, did anyone notice this so far? I'm surprised no one really complained about it, but for me it certainly looks they had to reduce the texture quality and push saturation and contrast for the consoles downgrading at the same time the PC version we could once enjoy.

 

[Uff]

Talking about Imola we have to think that the first version of the track was from some years ago, while the new one aims to reproduce 2015 version: I don't know if the darker tarmac could also depend on the fact that the real one was re-done compared to some years ago.
(Just thinking out loud, not sure about this).

 

[RichardHessels]

TBH I see no noticable difference between the two, it's surely not night and day, little details, but my FPS went up with all new patches.
For me it's a classic example of 'problems of the 1st world'.

For sure FPS goes up if you cut texture size in half. Might be the want one universal look also for consoles. So they scaled some textures down and hide it with DOF.

 

[Eero o.]

For sure FPS goes up if you cut texture size in half. Might be the want one universal look also for consoles. So they scaled some textures down and hide it with DOF.

Texture size doesn't really affect fps as long as you don't run out of video memory and AC have never required that much vram that it would be problem for the current consoles.

 

[RichardHessels]

Texture size doesn't really affect fps as long as you don't run out of video memory and AC have never required that much vram that it would be problem for the current consoles.

In the end texture size does matter a lot. Especially on consoles. Texture twice the size needs to shift 4x as much pixels. All textures you see in assetto are multitextures, So 4x times in 3 or 5 layers, before it ends up as a pixel on your screen.