[360] Forza Motorsport 3

[rounin]

Something about Forza makes it look like a cartoon to me. The flat lighting? The seemingly dumbed down car modeling ? The background ?

In any case, it seems to me that they have gone in a different direction than GT5, which strives for more realism.

Forza seems to be looking for style over realism in terms of graphics.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Why should it be a priority

Because it's such an easy fix and looks completely out of place! Straight away I noticed the repeating pattern, regardless of anything else in the scene. If you think of all the effort that goes into car modelling and shading and post-processing etc., why then use a 1980's texturing effect? It's a bug-bear of mine, a remarkably simple fix for an obvious graphical fault but which goes completely overlooked. How's about they use aliased text and bilinear texture filtering while they're at it?

 

[Tap In]

The seemingly dumbed down car modeling ?

what do you mean by "dumbed down car models" exactly?

 

[Neb]

what do you mean by "dumbed down car models" exactly?

I dont like to post small screenshots and such but still the car detail/geometry/design etc is visible vs the real-life models. To say they look "dumbed down" seems very odd. Not my pictures btw.

http://www.pici.se/pictures/small/QLJoKyoBc.jpg
http://www.pici.se/pictures/vJyPcNEMD.jpg

 

[Tap In]

http://www.pici.se/pictures/vJyPcNEMD.jpg

yea. I don't see any "dumbed down" there.

 

[RobertR1]

Here's another dumbing.....

http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/8105/xanavir35fm3vsreal.jpg

 

[L. Scofield]

I think the problem with the lighting in F3 is with the specularity. Sometimes it looks to diffuse/not glossy enough.

 

[Inquisitive_Idiot]

I dont like to post small screenshots and such but still the car detail/geometry/design etc is visible vs the real-life models. To say they look "dumbed down" seems very odd. Not my pictures btw.

http://www.pici.se/pictures/small/QLJoKyoBc.jpg
http://www.pici.se/pictures/vJyPcNEMD.jpg

The model quality and lighting in Forza Motorsport 3 is top notch, and a massive improvement over FM2. I wonder if we will see another large jump in model detail next gen, or will developers focus on using cars around the same detail level, but with much better lighting and shader models.

Here's another dumbing.....

http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/8105/xanavir35fm3vsreal.jpg

The model differences between the GT5 Nissan and the FM3 one seem to be almost non existent. Racing sims are getting fairly saturated in terms of visuals, so it seems like GT and Forza are going to have to start distinguishing themselves based of feature sets, and not just being "the best looking racer ever".

 

[rounin]

what do you mean by "dumbed down car models" exactly?

I dont like to post small screenshots and such but still the car detail/geometry/design etc is visible vs the real-life models. To say they look "dumbed down" seems very odd. Not my pictures btw.

http://www.pici.se/pictures/small/QLJoKyoBc.jpg
http://www.pici.se/pictures/vJyPcNEMD.jpg

yea. I don't see any "dumbed down" there.

I was mainly talking about the overall look. I can't pin it down, but perhaps its the lack of fine detail on the lights on the cars ? The cars look out of place to me. When I look at these cars, I don't feel any 'real-life' lust for them as I do when I look at GT5.

Maybe Forza 2 cars are in the uncanny valley whereas GT5 cars have surpassed it.

Don't mean to start a flame war or comparison war by the way, just wanted to chime in with an opinion.

 

[zed]

Here's another dumbing.....

http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/8105/xanavir35fm3vsreal.jpg

hard to tell from such small pictures but
both look CG to me

 

[RobertR1]

hard to tell from such small pictures but
both look CG to me

Top is Forza 3 and bottom is real life. The headlights give it away. Otherwise, it's quite nice.

 

[mrcorbo]

Because it's such an easy fix and looks completely out of place! Straight away I noticed the repeating pattern, regardless of anything else in the scene. If you think of all the effort that goes into car modelling and shading and post-processing etc., why then use a 1980's texturing effect? It's a bug-bear of mine, a remarkably simple fix for an obvious graphical fault but which goes completely overlooked. How's about they use aliased text and bilinear texture filtering while they're at it?

How do you know that track just doesn't have an entire grounds crew with OCD?

 

[RobertR1]

Tres mas: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=16507591&postcount=2571

 

[djskribbles]

While it looks good in it's own right, I think the reason why people think it doesn't capture the realism (or why they think it looks relatively cartoony), is because the lighting is a tad flat - the cars are less reflective and light doesn't shimmer as they would in real life. The images RobertR1 just posted of the black Lexus IS-F and what appears to be an Impreza in the second shot, are good examples. It doesn't look bad by any means, definitely an improvement over FM2.

 

[phat]

Tres mas: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=16507591&postcount=2571

Wow. They still can't model the disc brakes correctly. The discs are too far inset from the actual rims.

 

[MrFloopy]

While it looks good in it's own right, I think the reason why people think it doesn't capture the realism (or why they think it looks relatively cartoony), is because the lighting is a tad flat - the cars are less reflective and light doesn't shimmer as they would in real life. The images RobertR1 just posted of the black Lexus IS-F and what appears to be an Impreza in the second shot, are good examples. It doesn't look bad by any means, definitely an improvement over FM2.

I would say the biggest improvement has been the toning down of the reflections. FM2 was way too shiny.

Remarkable improvement in my books all round. Now as long as they keep the driving model top notch (best physics on a console by a mile IMHO), it'll be my third forza.

 

[Tchock]

I'm wondering why they're not postprocessing to get the whole output more vivid. Well tweaked colors help a lot overall, and they seem to be dulling the palette compared to the original E3 2009 trailer.


For cars with liveries it looks just nice, but that Lexus just seems wrong. The car shader on it seems to have weirdly done reflections (relative to GT5 Replay)



EDIT: Gloss paints look perfect.
http://images.gamersyde.com/gallery/public/11031/1856_0010.jpg

They need to work on the metallic coatings.

 

[AlNom]

Shifty probably spends more time in the gravel than on the road so he wants it to look good!

Because it's such an easy fix and looks completely out of place! Straight away I noticed the repeating pattern, regardless of anything else in the scene. If you think of all the effort that goes into car modelling and shading and post-processing etc., why then use a 1980's texturing effect? It's a bug-bear of mine, a remarkably simple fix for an obvious graphical fault but which goes completely overlooked. How's about they use aliased text and bilinear texture filtering while they're at it?

Fair enough. It's probably not expensive to fix, but I don't think it's something I'd notice at such oblique in-game camera angles and speeds (bumper cam).

What's a little strange to me is that they tweak MIP bias versus using more AF (as far as one can tell from the gamersyde feeds as Graham noted).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Fair enough. It's probably not expensive to fix, but I don't think it's something I'd notice at such oblique in-game camera angles and speeds (bumper cam).

That's fairly true. GT3's repeated grass textures weren't such an issue when driving, though they did stand out in replays. It's just tacky for developers targeting high realism to let repeated textures remain so drned obvious

 

[RobertR1]

2 more http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=16521842&postcount=2616

Check out the fabric look on the barrier in the 2nd pic. Nicely done.