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JZStudios

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Posts posted by JZStudios

  1. Posted

    13 hours ago, RGgiac said:

    Can you see how the lighting and colors look way more natural and realistic in DriveClub? DriveClub looks more like a photo, while DR2.0 looks like a drawing. Look at the trees, imagine DR with those colors and lighting, how howesome it would be.

    Ironically, every time I look at Driveclub I'm acutely aware that it's a game. Just looks a little off, kind of like the new God of War. Something about it just looks a tad weird.

    But again, aside from the trees being too dark and a bit weird overall, DR2 is really good. That comparison is really not good though. One is in an open environment on a bright sunny day, the other is in a forest on an overcast day. Either way, even with dark trees it doesn't look like a drawing. And if trees were the only issue, only Wales would look bad. The other environments have fewer trees that don't look as weird.

    As to the colors, Driveclub is more saturated and vibrant, which Jake was complaining that DR2 is too saturated, despite being rather... filtered probably.

     

    The second image is a much better comparison. I will say, Horizon (And Forza) have the best environment lighting bar none. They have an insane capture setup, and then manually touch up each one and compress the images in stages so the horizon line is the cleanest. It accurately lights the scene and reflects off surfaces, and it shows. DR2 doesn't have as much environmental lighting color, though it does have no motion blur making it harder to spot details in Forza. It doesn't look like an artistic choice though, it looks like a really old engine compared to 2 studios constantly working with each other with a near unlimited budget.

     

    The third image... I think the rocks might be photogrammetry, which gives it an edge, but I'm also thinking that DR2 does confirmed have a PBR pipeline, but the lighting engine and shadows in particular are not fully up to par. Seems more like it's still a bit stuck in 360 era with little environment lighting. Which is still more than RBR had. I think otherwise the environment and assets are fine. Especially the mountains in the distance and the atmospheric scattering.

     

    The fourth image honestly looks really good. The trees aren't super weird, the lighting matches the environment... maybe a slightly warm filter is applied. The reflections on Forza are definitely better, but otherwise it looks really good.

    13 hours ago, RGgiac said:

    By the way, do you know what looks realistic? Finland promocional screenshots:

    But when they released the DLC...

    That's mostly super overdone bloom from looking into the sun. And terrible compression. It doesn't look like the game was playing on high settings. Also seems like it's now foggy instead of clear.

    Otherwise, the promo shot just looks "cleaner." There's no bloom, there's no weather, the roads a higher res texture... the shadows might be higher res, but I'm not sure because I haven't played the game on high settings for a long time and I'm not installing it just to find out. Otherwise the basic assets and lighting are the same. The trees still look weird.

     

    I think my main takeaway is that maybe it isn't actually IBL, and just has a sun lamp with an average color or something. Dunno. I'm just curious what engine they'll use going forward. D5 is using whatever the Evo Studios guys came up with, and now they have SMS and the Madness engine.

  2. Posted

    5 hours ago, gfRally said:

    Been to PIMA, didn't realize that it was Private.  I got a number of unique photos there, as well.  Not too often do you find a B58 Hustler outside with typical desert dust on it, instead of the rather pristine museum pieces.  

     

    MSFS is around 120gb to download.  I think they say 150gb hard drive space after decompression.  All in all...  I am glad I got it on Gamepass, it crushes my system, and as much hype as there is about the scenery being so detailed, this is based on BING maps not Google.  They do not have the most up to date data, also stuff like bridges are kinda right but they are built like buildings - they are solid objects.  This is different on the hand crafted cities.  I live near one of the cities that has not been touched.   Anyhow, from about 500-1000ft up it looks pretty good except for a few autogen buildings.  

     

    It was satisfying to crash into my house, though!

    A few years ago we had some Japanese guys come out for business. We dropped them off there and a few hours later we got a call from a rather confused lady at the counter.

     

    Jeez. Still smaller than COD. What's the difference between Bing and Google? Other than the fact I forgot Bing exists?

  3. Posted

    11 hours ago, Jake Cushing said:

    Bingo!!

    So you want the game to actively look like misplaced objects? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

    2 hours ago, Jake Cushing said:

    But the moment you suggest that maybe, just maybe, a change of aesthetic direction might be worth considering, it's triggerama and 'I literally don't see how that is possible!' etc etc

    It makes no sense. Nothing in RBR blends in together in a realistic fashion. It doesn't look "photographic" or photorealistic. DR2 looks pretty photorealistic. A photo collage by definition is just a bunch of random pictures mashed together that basically have no correlation, and thus are explicitly not photorealistic.

    I still don't understand what you're talking about, other than I guess DR2 should just say "**** lighting and realistic materials for a photorealistic look, let's just do flat shading and simple, shadeless models." Nothing about that makes any sense. 

  4. Posted

    13 hours ago, Jake Cushing said:

    KCD's designers made a deliberate design choice to utilise photographed rather than drawn textures wherever possible. The upcoming Flight Simulator 2020 has done the same.

    I don't mean to be rude, but yeah, no ****. It's not like the textures in DR2 aren't taken from actual photographic reference material. Why would they send scouting teams with cameras to locations to just not utilize any of it? Unless you're doing something with a specific art style or the physical object doesn't exist you'll be using photographic references and textures. The only difference here is once again that RBR has no shadows.

    13 hours ago, Jake Cushing said:

    Codies have opted for a less realistic look in DR2.0, with oversaturated colours, trees and objects which do not look realistic in texture mapping, and lighting which emphasises 'moodiness' rather than realism. This is unlikely to be due entirely to limitations of the engine.

    If the colors are "oversaturated" then turn the saturation down. Problem solved. But I'll tell you with 100% certainty that they aren't. I don't understand everyones fascination with either a complete lack of color, or blatantly over saturated. The lighting and materials are physically based, and possibly IBL based. It doesn't emphasize "mood," it emphasizes accurate lighting conditions.

    13 hours ago, Jake Cushing said:

    If you can't see this, then I'm afraid there is no point further debating the matter.

    You explained literally nothing. You just gestured at it and said "SEE! SEE!"

    13 hours ago, Jake Cushing said:

    it will remain to be seen whether Codemasters opt for a photographic look or a 'gamey' look for DR3.0.

    But frankly, it's a complete moot point when , once again I don't really mean to be rude, but you don't know what the **** you're talking about.

     

    10 hours ago, Jake Cushing said:

    Here is an example to illustrate. This looks 'nice', but it also looks drawn. It's so obvious it shouldn't need explaining. Look at the grass, trees, rocks, pretty much everything except the clouds. It ain't realistic, period.

    85188472_3449880121751198_485488629100052480_o.thumb.jpg.e16f108e16af87b08b764faf21c073be.jpg

    Looks drawn? The hell does that mean? RBR looks like a photo collage. I mean sure, the trees in DR2 are a bit dark, but everything else you just said makes no sense. You literally explained nothing. I'm a mild photographer and a fan of 3D animation and graphics and I have no ******* clue what you're talking about.

    But yeah, I get what you mean. That image looks nothing like this. Except in basically every way. Look at the grass, rocks, pretty much everything looks drawn.

    WRC Rally GB Great Orme stage cancelled as divers cannot get close ...

    WRC - Wales Rally GB: Sixth win of the season for Ott Tanak | SnapLap

    Upon further image research, the trees actually aren't all that dark compared to reality either.

    010 - Managing Forests for Water Quality: Forest Roads | USU

  6. Posted

    On 8/21/2020 at 3:34 AM, tbtstt said:

    I actually guessed the American aircraft, it was just the Brit one I thought was unclear! 

    There are quite a few Mustangs in the UK (only a handful flying), but there is always at least one at any airshow I have ever been too. The Corsair is rare here, only one flying. I have been to Duxford a couple of times to see it. 

    Incidentally, if you love aircraft and ever find yourself in the UK then a trip to Duxford is a must. The museum hangars are good, but it is worth the trip just to look round the restoration hangar. 

    I just find it interesting that I know (mildly) a bunch of American and British aircraft, and of course the Zero, but barely any German. Seems odd the Brits wouldn't know icons like the Mustang and Corsair. It's not like the Spitfire ever flew over here.

     

    14 hours ago, gfRally said:

    Restoration hangers are the best.  Up close and dirty.  I had access to the Smithsonian AIr and Space museum's restoration and warehouse facility umm... (wow 20 years ago now)  That was incredible to photograph!  Some of the stuff that I saw there hadn't seen in public for more than 40 years.  Many of the pieces have since been moved to display at the Udva-Hazy Center in Washington DC (technically Virginia) which is more like Smithsonian Air and Space museum 2.  Still waiting to see a few of the planes that where way back in the dark corners. 

    Going to the UK would be very overwhelming, some of the planes kept in Duxford and a couple others are extremely rare to see.  It must be nice to be a days drive from the Mach Loop/Duxford/all of London historic places/and Wales Rally GB.  I would probably run out of weekends to visit all that I have on my bucket list there 🙂

    EDIT - Since I posted this (6hrs ago currently) I was 2 hours into DL MSFS2020 it still has 10gb to go!  This thing is massive.  I have pretty fast internet, too.

    Luckily here we have the airplane graveyard and the Pima Air & Space which is like the largest private museum. Probably not as cool as the Smithsonian, but they do restorations and most of it is donated. Then there's the air base airshows if you want to see modern stuff.

    How big is the download for MSFS?

  7. Posted

    On 8/20/2020 at 9:40 PM, Jake Cushing said:

    The photographic look of RBR was a design decision. It's easy to criticize or dismiss a game simply because it is 15 years old and its tech did not allow large numbers of polygons or advanced lighting.

    There are other games which have chosen a photographic appearances as a design choice: see Kingdom Come Deliverance vs most other first-person RPGs

    DR2.0 has chosen a non-photographic overall look, in favour of a moody but gamey look. Some stages look a little more realistic than others, however.

    The result is a loss of immersion - I sincerely hope the specialisation of Dirt rally in the upcoming games will see a realistic direction taken.

    That doesn't even make sense. The game has basic flat lighting with little to no shadows and photographed textures. It literally can't be anything other than "photographic." Unless you're talking about... cinematic or something. I'm assuming you're talking about the graphics, and I'm telling you that with basic flat lighting and photographed 2d tree sprites it will only look "photographic" unless you do something like Auto Modellista and do cel shading. And I can verifiably prove that.

    Kingdom Come Deliverance is using the Cryengine, which still has by far the best rendering engine of any commercially available engine. I might even argue of any engine, except maybe Frostbite. Which literally utilizes photogrammetry. Other first person RPGs just don't have the visual fidelity of KCD because it runs freaking terribly. Comparatively. It actually runs pretty well for the fidelity displayed, but it struggles on console. I guess you could call that a "design" decision, but it's more of a technical limitation. Other companies like Bethesda have always looked ****. The Ego engine is sorely aging. It's not a design decision, it's just an old ass engine, which is why so many things had to be cut, like track lengths and multiple cars on track.

    DR2 and D4 adopted a PBR pipeline and a better lighting system. Honestly, I don't really play either anymore, but I'm looking at random pictures and DR2 looks pretty realistic. Trees are 3d, instead of 2d sprites, it has actual lighting and shadows, the materials react to the environment lighting and colors... I honestly don't know what you want. Hills in the distance have an appropriate sense of scale and atmospheric haze, dust clouds look high resk, soft, and pillowy, the sky looks natural with appropriate cloud coverage, which again affects lighting and materials...

    Could you explain what you're actually talking about? Because I genuinely have no idea. Could you point out what about RBR looks more "photographic" than DR2?

    dirt-rally-2-a.jpg

    On 8/20/2020 at 10:19 PM, RGgiac said:

    Finally someone understand what I've been trying to say for so long.

    Could you explain it? Because I seriously don't get it. RBR literally has no shadows in all 3 videos he posted. Environment lighting has no effect on colors. Trees are 2d sprites. There's barely any grass, and it doesn't have shadows. How is that more photographic?

  8. Posted

    7 hours ago, richie said:

    They glorify Forza 4 because they had a great time, the racing was great and they made lots of friends. All the epic races and leaderboard battles. but from an objective perspective it's an old and outdated game on old and outdated tech. It has reached cult status among Forza fans and that's it. 

    Not necessarily. There's a guy on YouTube I've been watching called ColourShed and he's been reviewing a whole bunch of racing/driving games he'd never played, Forza included. He only recently played FM4 for the review for the first time and he thoroughly enjoyed it. It's actually kind of neat to see someone play old nostalgic games like Midnight Club and Burnout and come to the conclusion that they're still actually pretty fun.

     

    RBR though? RBR is not very good now, and has been outclassed for a while. It's mostly only alive because there's mods and there hasn't been too much other in terms of rally games, especially with such open/easy modding. If DR 1 or 2 had modding support it would replace RBR instantly.

    Anyways, to address the initial points;

    1. The "photographic" look is really easy when the game is so low res and literally everything is just a picture with flat lighting. Like... there's no shadows at all. And I wouldn't agree that it looks more "photographic" than DR2.
    2. Eh? Dunno. Frankly, duncare.
    3. The in car movement isn't that great? I hate it either way.
    • Agree 1

  9. Posted

    3 hours ago, gleylancer571 said:

    Alone by the camouflage painting you can already see which planes they are.
    A Ju87 Stuka was never available in blue.
    The only mystery are the national insignia on the Hawker Hurricane but surely allied from the Pacific War

    It's supposed to be a Spitfire, but at this scale in Lego they look very similar. Not really shown here is a small air scoop underneath and the two wing box things. Hurricane don't have that. Based on this image of the two though, I couldn't possibly differentiate between the two at this scale. Although given the tail rudder is so massive, maybe I should just call it the Hurricane...

    Barking-creek-1200x0-c-default.jpg.56b968b57b2bb3cf864b56fcefb65f92.jpg

    To be 100%, I didn't make the Mustang but I don't think I'd change anything about it. I guess with some color variation it could look more like a German plane. As to the Spitfire insignia, it was just the closest pre-made Lego asset to the RAF roundel.

  10. Posted

    7 hours ago, Dunoon said:

    ME 109, Spitfire and Stuka.

    Definitively not a Stuka. The wingtips are round and it's blue. The 109 I can see, but no.

    7 hours ago, merseyxshore said:

    P-51, Spitfire (or maybe Hurricane? and Douglas Destroyer

    Correct, correct, I don't even know what that is.

    6 hours ago, tbtstt said:

    I think so: given the wing profile I'd say it is the most distinctive one of the three! 

    That's what I thought. Doesn't look like a Stuka at all. It has the round nose and the distinctive wings. Here I wasn't happy with the Spitfire, but apparently the corsair is just straight terribad.

  12. Posted · Edited by JZStudios

    On 8/13/2020 at 6:26 AM, PJTierney said:

    Soundtrack:

    DIRT5-Soundtrack_promo_portrait-v1-1.jpg

    The only artists I've heard of out of that lineup are New Found Glory and the Killers. Which aren't super similar. I'm curious if there's going to be a way to disable certain songs or genres you don't like, like the old EA Trax worked.

    • The first 9 tracks in the Spotify playlist are SUPER whiny British punk rock. If I wanted to listen to out of key people on the verge of tears I'd rather just go to a college campus.
    • Then there's 2 pretty boring songs.
    • Then there's New Found Glory with trademark nasally vocals, but at least it has some energy to it.
    • Another abrasive Brit-punk song with terrible vocals.
    • An awful EDM type thing.
    • Bad British rap
    • Magic Man by the Sherlocks is okay. Not the most exciting off road racing music.
    • Something I can only guess is going for an 80's "hard-rock blues." Dislike.
    • Another awful EDM track.
    • I Missed Out by Hockey Dad is also okay. Again, not the most exciting song. A lot of these songs are super predictable. They make a small rhythm and just never change anything and almost cry while "singing" over them. At least NFG had some chord progression and variety in the song.
    • A pretty poor blues-rock song
    • I don't even really know. It's just also not very good.
    • Let's do it till we get it right. Well, keep trying. You started so well.
    • A bad "hard rock" song.
    • A song that's not good, while also being something I can't imagine racing to.
    • Holy hell, Hollywood by Car Seat Headrest is just... truly ******* awful.
    • A bunch of other bad songs.
    • Pearl Jam. Not even one of the better songs.

    Yep. Guess I'll just turn the music off if I pick up the game.

  13. Posted

    2 hours ago, Jake Cushing said:

    This is one disconcertingly bizarre game to look at.

    No colours make any real sense in relation to any other colours

    The lighting colour of the road makes no sense against the sky, nor against the colours on all the hoardings. It's like it's all been put through a randomising filter.

    And its got some sort of post-apocalyptic bubble-gum aesthetic going on.

    Anyway, gg, moar primary colours and 'splosions Codiez

    I'm willing to bet it's a PBR pipeline with just a lot of saturation. Desaturate it and it'll look more "normal." It's subtle though. I honestly have no idea how you think the lighting color of the road doesn't match the sky. It matches it perfectly.

  15. Posted

    On 8/2/2020 at 3:06 AM, PJTierney said:

    That being said, if there was a true Look to Apex option I'd probably use Cockpit view. I've tried something similar in F1 2020 and it's great, and I think the Project CARS games have it natively.

    I get why it exists, but I hate it. Makes it hard to really know where the car is pointed.

    • Agree 1

  16. Posted

    On 7/30/2020 at 11:01 AM, PJTierney said:

    More gameplay 🙂 

    Chris is taking the lead on all these (I am heavily focused on F1 2020 right now) so it's always a nice surprise when I see what's coming out of this game 🙂 

    The track looks more exciting than Dirt 4, but I don't know how much of a stampede it is with only one vehicle.

  19. Posted

    2 hours ago, Miatakias_GR said:

    New gameplay video for Dirt 5 

    This mode looks cool,  but will be time trial only or there will be many cars on tracks? 

    Seems odd to me that we're getting that as a mode and not truck racing.

  20. Posted

    12 hours ago, JorritVD said:

    I see a lot of things that can be used for DR3, but that would all depend on the licensing though if we for example talk about a livery editor.

    Not really fully up-to-date, but is there not a "Open Area" as a DirtFish or Battersea? 

    You'd think the livery editor would be easier. They could just have bare cars with no sponsors and skip that part of licensing entirely.

    I'm also curious, I don't remember anything specific being announced for it, but the trailer showed Gymkhana is back, so I would think so. Hopefully it's more than just the one or two playgrounds, or they let you do Halo style forge mode on it. It'd be cool to set up your own runs.

    • Agree 1

  22. Posted

    20 hours ago, PJTierney said:

    She's just curious about @JZStudios being nostalgic.

     

    Will she return though?

    Oh, I wasn't being nostalgic. The first time I watched it was a week ago. It was just funny that after shooting him he just throws the gun in his face.

    For slightly more context, there's a channel here that shows some cheesy movies with a "presenter" for some added humor.

     

  24. Posted

    22 hours ago, JZStudios said:

    This is unrelated to anything, it was just the ending of a cheesy movie that was on the other night I thought was funny.

    OMnYnR.gif

    @PJTierney For context, it's called Billy the Kid Vs Dracula. After shooting him 12 times, which does literally nothing, Billy the kid just chucks his gun at his face and that knocks him out. It was fantastic. Not even Doctor Who is at that level.

    • Like 1
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