fafalada --- your opinion of APEX (Xbox racer)

I would think the polycount is a bit higher than your estimates. What impresses me is the full cube environment mapping on every single car (including the rims).

 

and apparent distortions from damages.

 

Cube environment mapping does not add that much to the poly count.

Cube environment mapping is not a completely true reflection.

 

It definitely looks impressive, but I have heard from a (supposedly) playtester, that reflections get updated at half the main framerate - that would mean at 15FPS.

 

Reflections look buttery smooth from all of the videos I've seen (unlike PGR's reflections). Although, it could be another case of dev kit prowess being used for the vids and the somewhat finished product or testable product being more optimized for an actual Xbox.

 

maybe they sacrified 60fps ,also because 1/4 frame reflection update would have feel too "popy" ?

 

Usually "reflections" run at a lower framerate than the actual game. It's kinda weird, but that's how it works.

 

What ever the reason is, it's certainly very distrating and unfortunately quite present in most Xbox racers that I've seen. It also looks quite unnatural IMO.

 

Yeah. That's why I prefer reflections in GT3 more, even though they use simpler, spheric mapping model. It just looks more smooth and natural.

 

Actually, you can see in the video how the reflections update: geometry clipped at a much closer distance (noticeable pop-up in reflections), and rendered at a visibly lower resolution. I'm not sure if the framerate was lower, though it doesn't appear noticeable so from the videos.

- JavaJones

 

Is that just another term for vertices?

 

just a cheap PR 'tech' FX. It means that all the polygons (triangles) are
attached together to gain efficiency ... 8) i don't think a single one developper on earth doesn't use tristrips ...

 

Apex is almost here! EB says it'll ship February 18. The short video on the recent OXM disc looked promising. And the game's gotten an 8.0 from EGM.

Who's going to bite? I might check this game out for the graphics alone. Looks like a gorgeous racer, and from all accounts, it plays pretty well too.

Kolgar

 

has anyone else noticed how a lot of these games appear to have a much higher resolution in posted screenshots than final gameplay?

 

Yeah, Panzer Dragoon Orta didn't look anywhere near as sharp/anti-aliased as the screenshots portrayed. (I play on an HDTV in 480p)

I don't understand why they keep posting screenshots of things that look either photoshopped or rendered (at a higher res and crazy antialiasing)

 

Consider me disappointed. I grabbed the game on the way home from work today and visually it is nowhere near the quality of the screenshots (not a huge surprise). No widescreen support, 30fps, average detailed cars.

Nice backgrounds though. Very nice. Handling is like a much looser Gran Turismo. There's heaps and heaps of tracks which is good.

But I was expecting more, particularly in the visual department.

 

heheh... interesting...

 

FYI, the game has a lethal bug related to the memory save, that prevents any progression in the career mode.

 

Also it appears that the PAL version has a nasty sound bug. Don't play this game up too loud. :?

 

Thanks for the info.

30k 'tristripped' polygons per car, yet it also says "More than 12 cars each with up to 10000 polygons".

Well I'm confused.