Are graphics in racing games getting better?
Discussion
In preparation for Project Motor Racing I thought I go through some my old racing games. So AC, Project Cars 2, Forza Motorsport (latest one), Le Mans Ultimate, F1 2024, all at Spa to see how much difference there is between the games visually.
I couldn't get Spa to load on AC so just used the first track, the difference in release dates between the games span over 10 years, all were at 4K resolution, and the studios that developed them I believe span from tiny all the way through to EA.
When I've looked at the screen shots side by side, I was surprised how little difference there seems to between the games. In fact I would say Project Cars 2 looks far better than LMU despite the two titlea been separate by a decade.
So what's going to with graphics in games?? Thinking about the other games I enjoy, Hitman, Ghost Recon - the graphics engines in those games really haven't improved in a decade........Have we reached the a plateau for graphics improvements? Or is something amazing about to happend with Ai etc in the next few years to bring real photo realism to games??
I couldn't get Spa to load on AC so just used the first track, the difference in release dates between the games span over 10 years, all were at 4K resolution, and the studios that developed them I believe span from tiny all the way through to EA.
When I've looked at the screen shots side by side, I was surprised how little difference there seems to between the games. In fact I would say Project Cars 2 looks far better than LMU despite the two titlea been separate by a decade.
So what's going to with graphics in games?? Thinking about the other games I enjoy, Hitman, Ghost Recon - the graphics engines in those games really haven't improved in a decade........Have we reached the a plateau for graphics improvements? Or is something amazing about to happend with Ai etc in the next few years to bring real photo realism to games??
- Project Motor Racing is looking like at best a minimum improvement on Project Cars 2 on the graphics end.
There are a couple of plugins to improve the graphics on Assetto Corsa, a few tweaks can having looking way better than it does out of the box.
LMU is (afaik) just a rehash of RF2, so no real improvements even if the game is “newer”.
I think the main improvements for any game over the past few years is frame rate, we used to be happy with 30fps, everybody want 120 or more now.
LMU is (afaik) just a rehash of RF2, so no real improvements even if the game is “newer”.
I think the main improvements for any game over the past few years is frame rate, we used to be happy with 30fps, everybody want 120 or more now.
It has often struck me how little racing games have visually developed. There is just something obviously game like about them.
Not sure if it's the colours, lighting, textures or a combination, but it instantly looks like a game as opposed to other genres that get pretty close to looking real. I assumed that it was just too difficult to make it more realistic.
Not sure if it's the colours, lighting, textures or a combination, but it instantly looks like a game as opposed to other genres that get pretty close to looking real. I assumed that it was just too difficult to make it more realistic.
There's lots of challenges I guess because you've got metal, shiny things and landscapes, which are both very distinct. Also, isn't this about draw and rendering capability, especially at distance?
Think about graphically, the most impressive first person game you've played where you're just wandering about slowly.
No imagine firing through it at speeds up to maybe 250mph.
It's much harder to do.
GT7 still has the thing where when you're on the banking on Route X, it struggles to render the shadows on the Armco, so it pops in quite late.
You've got to sacrifice something for maintain fps
Think about graphically, the most impressive first person game you've played where you're just wandering about slowly.
No imagine firing through it at speeds up to maybe 250mph.
It's much harder to do.
GT7 still has the thing where when you're on the banking on Route X, it struggles to render the shadows on the Armco, so it pops in quite late.
You've got to sacrifice something for maintain fps
Agree with the lighting comment by another poster.
I think HDR is one of the best things for graphics across all platforms. It's a bigger deal than resolution.
The past decade, most graphical tweaks have gone into:
I think HDR is one of the best things for graphics across all platforms. It's a bigger deal than resolution.
The past decade, most graphical tweaks have gone into:
- weather effects
- rain behaviour (puddles, spray)
- lighting (inc HDR)
- in-car experiences (tachometer live, displays matching real life, lap times etc)
Yeah, I was just thinking about this the other day. It is strange that they seem to have almost plateaued a decade ago, and have sat in this uncanny valley ever since. I almost never have to double-take a screenshot of a modern race sim because I thought it was a photo at first.
The cars and tracks have far more detail but even Assetto Corsa Evo has the same kind of overly bright, glossy feel to it.
I suppose they do have quite unique requirements compared to most games - you have highly detailed models, plus you're rendering large distances; you are moving fast through scenery that's close to you, and because of the mirrors it needs to render all this in front and behind you. So maybe they just fall into areas that GPUs just don't optimise for.
On the other hand, that's no excuse. I mean, Assetto Corsa Rally has come 20 years after Richard Burns Rally and the latter often looks closer to reality at a glance.
The cars and tracks have far more detail but even Assetto Corsa Evo has the same kind of overly bright, glossy feel to it.
I suppose they do have quite unique requirements compared to most games - you have highly detailed models, plus you're rendering large distances; you are moving fast through scenery that's close to you, and because of the mirrors it needs to render all this in front and behind you. So maybe they just fall into areas that GPUs just don't optimise for.
On the other hand, that's no excuse. I mean, Assetto Corsa Rally has come 20 years after Richard Burns Rally and the latter often looks closer to reality at a glance.
Plenty of stuff seems to be Unreal Engine 5 these days which often looks worse than stuff 10 or more years older, and is painfully bloated.
EA WRC looked like it had Anti-HDR to me and did its best to make lighting as flat and uniform as possible. And it was blurry to boot.
Some of the Assetto Corsa graphics mods look light years ahead of what comes out these days.
EA WRC looked like it had Anti-HDR to me and did its best to make lighting as flat and uniform as possible. And it was blurry to boot.
Some of the Assetto Corsa graphics mods look light years ahead of what comes out these days.
Project Cars 2 looked incredible when it came out and Automobilista 2 which is based on the same engine looks fantastic now.
Assetto Corsa with Custom Shader Patch and Sol/Pure looks almost as good capable of real wow moments.
You don t need a monster PC to run these games either.
I have a powerful PC but the F1 games never run smoothly for me, even if the frame rate is high they still look jerky so I have to turn some of the graphics settings down. If I could run it smoothly on full settings it would look impressive.
Project Motor Racing seems to be very disappointing on the graphics front - lots of power needed and even then people are struggling with frame rates. It s based on the Farming Simulator engine rather than the Madness engine of PC2 and Automobilista 2. Maybe that s better for physics but worse for graphics..
At the minute it seems like the older games have an advantage in graphics and less power needed to run them.
Assetto Corsa with Custom Shader Patch and Sol/Pure looks almost as good capable of real wow moments.
You don t need a monster PC to run these games either.
I have a powerful PC but the F1 games never run smoothly for me, even if the frame rate is high they still look jerky so I have to turn some of the graphics settings down. If I could run it smoothly on full settings it would look impressive.
Project Motor Racing seems to be very disappointing on the graphics front - lots of power needed and even then people are struggling with frame rates. It s based on the Farming Simulator engine rather than the Madness engine of PC2 and Automobilista 2. Maybe that s better for physics but worse for graphics..
At the minute it seems like the older games have an advantage in graphics and less power needed to run them.
I think it’s a story of diminishing returns. Once you get to a certain point in terms of graphic realism, their is more value in enhancing the game play by increasing the realism of how the car reacts and the smartness of the competition.
I found it interesting to read that the F1 simulators don’t focus on hyper realistic graphics, they put the computing power into modelling the car and track details so the feel is more realistic than the “look” so they can test set-ups.
I found it interesting to read that the F1 simulators don’t focus on hyper realistic graphics, they put the computing power into modelling the car and track details so the feel is more realistic than the “look” so they can test set-ups.
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