RIDE 4 Photo-realistic graphics

Apparently the rain doesn't affect grip? I would have expected more spills from cornering in those conditions.
 
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Now that's some next-gen business. I could get into that. Fantastic lighting.
 
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Yea this is very cool. Wonder if I will live to the day, or if the world will even last that long before civilization collapses in on itself, to see some graphics like that for a SF or Fantasy style game. Like on some Mad Max vehicle in Post-Apoc or some beast in a fantasy game.
 
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I remember back in earlier days of PC gaming, PCs were horrendously expensive, and a lot of games required a high-end machine. That obviously wasn't good in many ways, but it did mean that games were targeting the cutting edge of PC hardware. If AAA games today had high-end PCs as their target platform, we could see some amazing stuff right now.
 
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It's a bit like Morrowinds Water though: The Track and with the rain and water looks amazing. But the bike itself including the other drivers are rather meh. Looks clearly like a 3D model and the lighting doesnt seem to match either. A bit like everything and everyone is made out of hard rubber.
 
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It looks better because everything is moving fast. At 3:50 there's a wipe out. Pause it right as the player gets on the bike and give it a look. The arch for that railroad bridge clearly has 9 sides. The lighting in the tunnel looks weird, too. Still not at photo realism, I'm afraid.

That said, the graphics still look fine! The reflections in the water on the road look great.
 
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Geez…talk about nitpicking. Photo-realistic might be an exaggeration, but this still looks phenomenal compared to 99% of what's out there.
 
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Holy…talk about eye candy. I am not into motorcycle racing or sims either, but this is a promising development for future games I do play, like rally racing games and hell, first person shooters. Dazzling realism in those environments.
 
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I think it also looks this good due to the genre of the game. A racing game is very static and the environment doesn't change that much in real-time. So they can hand-craft the lighting of the scene. To make it just right. I really doubt this can be achieved in an environment in which the player controls the lighting of the scene, can cause explosions, etc. It sounds like it will be a lot of work.

There was an UE 5 demo that also looked very realistic. I think this one. But while it looks very beautiful, there's still something off about the lighting, I think.

Anyway, while graphics are very impressive (right now I'm playing Days Gone and the lighting in particular creates such fantastic moods and atmosphere, from scenic beauty to horror inducing scenery) the human eye quickly becomes adapted to these and doesn't really see them anymore after some time. I noticed this again when I redid a playthrough of Gothic 1. At first sight there was a huge mental mismatch between what I remembered it and how it actually looked. You might say it looked downright awful compared to modern games. But after a hour or so I was fully in, no longer saw the low poly geometry, but saw beautiful foothills and things worth exploring. So it still all comes down to story and gameplay, for me at least. Graphics are beautiful and help set a mood, but that can also be achieved via other ways.
 
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Shouldn't an effect of diminishing returns kick in at some point in this ridiculous arms race for graphics fidelity? Surely the quality of the user experience doesn't keep growing in proportion to the investment in 3D modellers and texture artists, does it? Especially if that investment goes into rendering drab suburban landscapes in loving detail?

But it probably isn't about improving the user experience at all, but simply about marketing. The winner in the graphics fidelity arms race is set to receive heightened attention in the media and tons of gushing youtube videos, and thus gets free extra publicity.
 
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Blimey - you lot are tough to please! We're not going to have photo-realism for a long time, until we have the horsepower for true raytracing. Every game has a performance budget, and there have to be compromises in order to create the best effect possible for that type of game.

I would have thought that when you're making a simulation, more realism is good. To me, I look at that and it feels like spanking a bike around a track in a way I don't have the skill for, and that seems quite exciting. The wet, grey environment is very much what streets round here often look like, and seems even more immersive.
 
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It does look good. No spray from the bikes in front?

For a racing game, I'd rather have realistic physics than visuals, but that's just my personal preference. I've enjoyed Assetto Corsa and rFactor 2 a lot, the visuals in the first one are superb too (even more in its sequel, ACC, which has weather and day/night without requiring any mod).
 
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For a racing game, I'd rather have realistic physics than visuals, but that's just my personal preference. I've enjoyed Assetto Corsa and rFactor 2 a lot, the visuals in the first one are superb too (even more in its sequel, ACC, which has weather and day/night without requiring any mod).

The physics look pretty damn realistic to me. Check out the liquid in that container above the right handle bar. What's that for anyways?
 
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The physics look pretty damn realistic to me. Check out the liquid in that container above the right handle bar. What's that for anyways?
Maybe, I'm not a bike enthusiast. I would expect a more visible tendency to skid in those conditions, accelerating in a curve when there are puddles and it's wet (screenshot below). Maybe they do skid and I don't get the feedback just by watching it. If it has physics too, then it's great!

I'm curious about the little container too. It's too high to be a gas gauge, could that be for the brakes?

image.png
 
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