Why Automobilista has outdated graphics?!

[Mike85]

Seriously guys, i would lovely buy this game and i know it's amazing! But the graphics engine is outdated as hell... It's something like 15-20 years old but with higher quality textures.. It destroys any kind of immersion.... :-(

 

[Will Mazeo]

There are people like the OP which rely a bit more on graphics to immerse themselves in the experience - nothing wrong with that, some brains are wired that way. Others can get past these limitations the minute they start driving, and find that on that front it delivers something they may not find elsewhere. And while it´s fully expected the package as a whole will not appeal to everyone, it would be a shame for any sim racing enthusiast not to give it a go first before making his call - a lot of people still get surprised by what they get once they get past these initial preconceptions. Get it, take it for a spin, and if it doesn´t do it for you get a refund. It´s an easy life being a gamer these days

That's kinda the issue with graphics: sim racers (or potential sim racers) that won't give it a chance because of how it looks. And as a online racer it kinda sucks seeing people that are playing other stuff with poor net code because of graphics
Meanwhile people that play AMS now would be playing it anyway if it had different graphics.

Anyway if I was the one dealing with AMS development I'd probably do the same choice you did for now, it makes sense

 

[Kenny Paton]

Five pages, really gentlemen' (I'm presuming that ladies wouldn't be so worked up for so long) let's keep it on topic and civil.
That's if anybody doesn't feel that it's already been beaten to death.

 

[GTSpeedster]

removed by user

 

[Eero o.]

Not to forget low poly models, poor reflections and shaders.

 

[Paul Bennett]

Another classic thread at RD the OP was happy with the answers within 4 posts. Then storm started on a topic of which most of know the answer already

 

[John-Eric Saxén]

This post:

http://www.racedepartment.com/threa...-outdated-graphics.125651/page-4#post-2301390

It was aggressive and abusive and was not moderated whatsoever. I admit my part in the mess that followed, but this post changed the tone from critical observation to personal abuse.

It would be up to RD to moderate these forums, but unless a post gets reported they don't tend to be very active in moderating here.

My comment to the topic itself, AC & other latest sim engines are using inbuilt HDR post-processing, which changes everything about the way you handle colors. In AC you can make colors very oversaturated (=more primary colors as in your terms) by choosing a certain PP filter, then again with another filter you can make it look undersaturated. The base textures of a HDR engine game are always undersaturated, it's the task of the HDR engine to add a degree of saturation.

AMS doesn't have this luxury, so they have to "bake in" the look of HDR into texures, which means pushing texture colors and luminance to the limit. It just doesn't work as well as with true HDR in all conditions. So IMO it's a tech limitation, not much point in comparing a non-HDR game with one that has it.

 

[Kenny Paton]

It would be up to RD to moderate these forums, but unless a post gets reported they don't tend to be very active in moderating here.

Then if we are too active we get accused of preventing free speech. It seems nowadays that some threads on certain games just attract some people who are happy to bang on and on, either for or against, long after the rest of us have lost the will to live. We do keep an eye on things and if a report is made or we spot something that is contrary to out T&C then we act.

 

[Dan Marr]

I think the overall game experience in AMS is fantastic - no, I might enjoy a more dynamic lighting system, I might enjoy other little things too, but I (personally) think it's not too saturated. I quite like the 'feel' of the circuits more, despite things like AC having a more modern lighting engine

 

[Johand]

I really like this game , the graphics are not that bad , but i have one problem with fps.
If i run everything on high settings and drive alone , 60fps no problem , but at the start of a race with 18 cars or something like that it drops to 40fps everytime you get close to others.
so i turned al graphics down to low but still the same happens..

running tripples with 1 gtx980ti , i did set it up as in the manual , anyone else had this and found a solution?

 

[tpw]

I really like this game , the graphics are not that bad , but i have one problem with fps.
If i run everything on high settings and drive alone , 60fps no problem , but at the start of a race with 18 cars or something like that it drops to 40fps everytime you get close to others.
so i turned al graphics down to low but still the same happens..

running tripples with 1 gtx980ti , i did set it up as in the manual , anyone else had this and found a solution?

I think the slowdowns might be related to the "feeler" code used to sense collisions. There was an update to this code recently which reduced the weird rubber banding effects especially for open wheelers, but I think it's had a performance impact.

 

[Chris]

Thread cleaned.
There must've been something in the water lately.

 

[Greg Latty]

I personally think this game looks fantastic. Sure it doesnt have all of the pp effects like newer sims. But considering when this engine game out, its holding its own very nicely. And on top of that, this game has some of the best sounds and physics.

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[Eero o.]

Aren't those car models ripped from other games, vanilla content seems to have lower quality.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Yep, from other games, made by professionals, just like the vanilla content is also made by professionals
Problem is some of the original cars are very old. But no reason for Reiza to do them again for AMS, IMO, better save that job for the next sim.
Also Patriot has a great eye for this stuff, I remember long ago in a talk he told me some Reiza cars that in his opinion needed small updates (I remember the Super V8, not sure about the others)

 

[Brent Mills]

I'm actually a big fan of the graphics compared to something like assetto corsa which has these weird shadows that jump around and just feel glitchy. I was doing a metalmoro race at Road America and genuinely ooohing and ahhing over how everything looks so nice in a sharp, realistic way.

 

[smove]

Sorry to warm up that primary colours discussion again, but maybe we're indeed not that far away from an easy fix. It would be great to read a statement of the following from developer's side:

In general, AMS's graphics may be in a world between LFS and AC (and the likes), but I appreciate, rather prefer its clean and crisp look to that of the latter sims – it's all perfectly fine! The only thing making its look a bit cartoonish from time to time could be the daylight skies. Their blues are over-saturated and make for a quite unrealistic colour palette, so washing out and brightening these a bit (especially near the horizon where the atmospheric dust should accumulate, visually at least) could hopefully mean a quick fix.

I took the already known screenshot for another comparison:

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[Dann Murillo]

I love the blue skies but I do agree that in general all of the colors are too much primary and need to be more "washed out" for a more realistic feel. Sorry if this is a dumb question but could we possibly accomplish with an alternate SweetFX setting?

 

[smove]

I love the blue skies but I do agree that in general all of the colors are too much primary and need to be more "washed out" for a more realistic feel. Sorry if this is a dumb question but could we possibly accomplish with an alternate SweetFX setting?

I fiddled around with SweetFX a bit and this is what came out: a slightly warmer image with a less saturated blue and a bit of vignette to gain more depth. I'm afraid a selective desaturation for certain colours is impossible to achieve with SweetFX – I'd be glad if somebody could prove me wrong, though!

 

[Daniel R.]

Hello everybody...

nice discussion, very interesting, lot´s of stuff to learn.....BUT....

I just have a blast driving in AMS....why??....because I´m all about good FFB and physics...i tried fancy-big-boob-Project-Cars with VR...stunned in first moment...but disapointent a lot in the end. I was glad after that not purchasing it!!

When it comes to simulation of VEHICLE DYNAMICS and a game can give me a feeling to simulate dynamics as good as possible....i stick with it.

I tried Nascar Racing 2003 Season not long ago....and what should i say...i loved driving the Nascar on Sears Point...why?...Because i felt how heavy and outdated those cars are (which is totally fine)...

Richard Burns Rallye is also a good example....already outdated when present...but i stick with it!!!!
Dirt Rally is nice looking, nice sounds and good graphics....but something is wrong in the VEHICLE DYNAMICS for sure!!

Reiza does a good job, giving me what I´ve looked for....and I thank them very much for this!!!!

 

[John-Eric Saxén]

In general, AMS's graphics may be in a world between LFS and AC (and the likes), but I appreciate, rather prefer its clean and crisp look to that of the latter sims – it's all perfectly fine! The only thing making its look a bit cartoonish from time to time could be the daylight skies. Their blues are over-saturated and make for a quite unrealistic colour palette, so washing out and brightening these a bit (especially near the horizon where the atmospheric dust should accumulate, visually at least) could hopefully mean a quick fix.

In AMS the skies are not dynamic unlike in more recent graphics engines, it's just a sky texture that is randomly chosen. So you might get a good result tweaking them for a certain time of hour, but will it look good in morning or late afternoon hours? rF1 engine was never too great with displaying day-to-night transition realistic and it's one reason that skies tend to look wrong at certain hours. The whole problem with primary colors relates more to the graphics engine than textures. Other sims use HDR which gives a more "TV like" look with bright skies. SweetFX can compensate for some of it, but not all, as it's not in-built. But IMO tweaking SweetFX is still the best option for consistent results across day-to-night.