Whats stopping racing games looking 'real' to me?

[shakotan]

What is it about the latest generation of racing games (and other games really) that stop them looking 'real'?

With the likes of Forza 6 and Horizon 2, Dirt 4, the modelling and the scenery are spot on. The cars are pixel perfect, right down to the lamps and even 'orange peel' on the paint.

So what stops them looking real? To me they still look like video graphics, not an actual movie that I'm controlling. With the level of detail, you'd expect the illusion, but no.

Is it just me? Do I have my colour settings etc all screwed up?

[Wobbegong]

I find that you don't get the sense of speed. I've used flight simulators and they've always felt the same, I think it is the lack of 'feel' through the control and the sound of the wind/tarmac etc

[anonymous-user]

Because they are too perfect. Too shiny, too glossy.

[mp3manager]

Have you tried VR?

Project Cars/Dirt Rally and even American/Euro Truck Simulator are all very, very believable when playing on my Rift.

[Venturist]

I think it's a combination of things to do with the fact that you're looking at it on a TV screen.

When we see footage of real life on a screen we are used to seeing either a very polished, stylised presentation like in a movie or Top Gear type show; or in something more off the cuff, some sort of video artefacts or jittering to footage from unstable camera mounts etc - imperfections.

What we actually see in video games is very close to perfection, like how you see things with your eyes in reality - but you're also used to seeing that in 3D.

So we are seeing the perfection of the 3D world, but not slickly edited together like a movie, using fixed camera angles that are chosen for practicality not for excitement and presentation, but without any of the telltale artefacts that those angles normally come with in real footage, all compressed onto a 2D screen. That's not a combination we often see in real footage, so it doesn't feel real to us.

A good replay in something like Gran Turismo or F1 games using realistic camera angles (like helicopter tracking shots that don't perfectly keep up with the car) and cutting between different cameras looks a lot more believable.

Edited by Venturist on Saturday 10th June 18:21

[Donbot]

Some of it is still down to lighting and textures. In early CGI things looked very plastic, but now it can be extremely difficult to tell what is real and what isn't.

Computer games have got the pixel count high enough to remove the jagged edges and other obvious flaws, but the lighting and textures have a way to go. The amount of computing power needed to generate 'real' images in real time must be huge.

[SturdyHSV]

Venturist said:

A good replay in something like Gran Turismo or F1 games using realistic camera angles (like helicopter tracking shots that don't perfectly keep up with the car) and cutting between different cameras looks a lot more believable.

I'd second this, your brain knows what is a 'real' camera angle, magical hovering cameras that track the cars don't look real.

When you see things going past a static trackside camera , or as mentioned, a realistically 'bad' tracking shot, it looks a lot more real.

The general shiny shiny of everything can be a bit much too.

I also think HDR is going to help a lot with making things look more real, as if lighting is even slightly wrong it really stands out