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so when will trees start swaying in racing games?

rod

Banned
playing pgr3 and rr6 x360 got me thinking. wow. both great looking games. but WHEN will the era of STAGNANT TREES end? is it hard to do? has there been ANY racing games where trees have moved? >_<
 
Why, never, of course.
Diminishing returns and all, right?
200px-Reginald_Fils-Aime.jpg

"What do you want in your experience? Do you really want to see trees sway in the wind? Or do you want to play games in a whole new way?"
 
well they couldve at least made them look more realistic. or different from each other. they look like a copy paste job
 
6.8 said:
when I'm racing at 150 mph, I don't tend to look at trees swaying around.
When I'm driving down an expressway at 100mph, I'm not directly looking for trees swaying in the wind either.

But, much like that or birds overhead or smoke in the horizon or a thousand other things, I still notice it's there.

Contrary to what some companies want you to believe, CG still has a long way to go.
 
The trees on 2600 Grand Prix kinda did... once you got going fast enough, they'd just be a blurry line on the top and bottom of the screen. And when you slowed down, they went back to normal. Also, if you crashed at a high speed, the game had a seizure-inducing flash and a sound effect that reminds me of some kid trying to make the "transforming" noise of the Transformers.

Real answer
I got nothin
 
With bone animation systems being standard nowadays and the processing power of the next gen cpus, it should be doable.
 
More importantly - when are first person shooters going to start modeling DUST?

God dammit - when i walk around someones high tech office building planting explosives in REAL life the shit is EVERYWHERE!

Fuck the next generation.. if it doesn't have dynamic volumetric dust its not fucking real enough for me!
 
Trees did sway in earlier games and it looked silly.

I think it would be far more fruitful to have more realistic looking trees.

And as BCD2 mentioned, RalliSport Challange 2 has the best looking trees.
 
hey i never said fuck this gen...but some people fuss about buildings, others about grass, hey i just want some real lookin realistic movin trees! :D
 
Yeah but where does it all end?

When you get your realistic swaying trees, what next? will people be upset that they dont drop acorns on the track in autumn? Will you want to see dynamic litter getting generated based on the size of the crowd attending the race? Should spectators be seen rushing back to their seats from the bathroom, hot dogs in hand, as the race starts?

Seriously.. how real does it have to get? and does it even matter?

Sillyness asside i really fear for the way games are going. As we get more realistic the small things that are missing just seem more obvious and take us further from the reality people seem to crave...

How long will it be until we see some stupid screenshot comparison thread on GAF arguing over which new game has the better dust simulation and laughing at the new console that can't quite manage to render realistic fingerprints on pint glasses when you drink from them in an RPG inn?
 
ninge said:
Yeah but where does it all end?

When you get your realistic swaying trees, what next? will people be upset that they dont drop acorns on the track in autumn? Will you want to see dynamic litter getting generated based on the size of the crowd attending the race? Should spectators be seen rushing back to their seats from the bathroom, hot dogs in hand, as the race starts?

Seriously.. how real does it have to get? and does it even matter?

Well trees have always littered racing tracks in videogames...it's almost akin to paved roads in racers...it's ALWAYS there. I think that's why the concern is there. Skybox, road textures, trees...it's all the basic "necessities" if you think about it.
 
GT5 maybe. Or not. Since they'll probably support 1080p and have less power for little details...anyway, I think it'll happen this upcoming generation.
 
i think your missing the point ninge


2-3 gens from now i wouldnt want a photo realistic 60fps real time weather effects racer with static cardboard trees, even in pgr3 they stand out really bad
 
ok, clearly im preaching to the wrong crowd :)

time for bed!

final thought - would you really be happy in 2-3 generations time just playing another slightly more realistic racing game tho? what will keep you coming back in generation 4 when all that is added is some new effects that allow you to see the visible wear on the tyres during a race or something? Realism seems to me to be the driving force of "games" right now and as much as i enjoy something like PGR3 i still fail to see what if really offers above and beyond PGR2 other than a prettier face...
 
Theyll start swaying.. when EA runs out of ideas and makes

"Need For Speed: Shake the Trees with your Revolution controller"

Im looking forward to it.. got my preorder down for 2/2008
 
ninge said:
ok, clearly im preaching to the wrong crowd :)

time for bed!

final thought - would you really be happy in 2-3 generations time just playing another slightly more realistic racing game tho? what will keep you coming back in generation 4 when all that is added is some new effects that allow you to see the visible wear on the tyres during a race or something? Realism seems to me to be the driving force of "games" right now and as much as i enjoy something like PGR3 i still fail to see what if really offers above and beyond PGR2 other than a prettier face...

This argument is just silly. What do you propose, that games find new ways to get less realistic? Give cars the ability to boost jump over a house? Oh wait, why stop there? let 'em jump over a skyscraper. Hey wait, why stop there? Let 'em jump over the clouds. Shit, why stop there? Let's have 'em jump over the moon! It's the same stupid argument in reverse.

As far as racing games go, there's a thousand little things that affect the way a car behaves. Variable weather elements, air and surface tempretures, surface conditions such as ruts, bumps, slick or sticky surfaces, or the amount of rubber laid down and it's type, a multitude of different tire types and their wear rate on each surface and in each condition, airflow, engine tempreture, and so on. That's not even getting into rally or off road racing where going first on a dirt road is a huge disadvantage, as it means that car has to sweep the dust off the road for the following drivers. Any serious rally fan would welcome the inclusion of that element into future games.

Anyway, here's the short answer...you keep improving until you reach the theoritical limit that can no longer passed. We're YEARS away from reaching that threshold.
 
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I'm sorry but I just had to post this and say that these are the absolute WORST looking trees I have ever seen in my LIFE! :lol
 
Wollan said:
I think GT5 will be *omg* when revealed.

And Tourist Trophy 2. :) I've been reading some new impressions of it (from people that actually know what they're talking about)..And mMMMMM. Another gift from the racing gods at Polyphony.
 
duh, we had lots of 'kinda swaying' trees on xbox for example.
What i'd really want is trees swaying from storms like those in ghouls'n'ghosts 1st level in action / adventure games..don't really care about racing games. It's definately possible now and i've heard alan wake does something similar for example
 
Project Midway said:
yeah...many Xbox1 games has swaying trees... Wreckless (at least the original, havent played the sequel)

yup, the sequel too, and i remember many many others.
It's just that sometimes they sway very slowly and it's almost impossible to notice unless you stop the car and look closely
 
RSC2 did a very clever cheating with their tree to acheive great framerate and nicely detailed trees. Just watch a saved replay and watch the trees closely as you switch camera to see what I'm talking about.
 
Foul Angel said:
the better question is "When will we see DESTRUCTABLE ENVIRONMENTS?"

I think this is happening more and more, but it's more of a development time issue than hardware power issue.
 
The actual racing, physics, damage model, proper online multi and thousands of other IMPORTANT THINGS aren't done right in this genre and the guy waits for his trees.
:lol
 
I could have sworn that trees sway in most wanted... not related to your cars speed or anything.. I thought the other day I stopped at one point on a street with trees and that they moved... or I could been drunk....
 
isamu said:
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I'm sorry but I just had to post this and say that these are the absolute WORST looking trees I have ever seen in my LIFE! :lol
Damint isamu, you so know better than this.
 
Seventh Son said:
the better question is "When will we see DESTRUCTABLE ENVIRONMENTS?"

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There's one other thing I forgot to mention in terms of what could be added to racing games. Over the course of a race weekend, a track goes from having little rubber on it to getting covered with it. This gives the course more grip and thus makes the cars go a little quicker over the course of the weekend. This is basic stuff that anyone who watches auto racing would appreciate.

Variable weather would be nice as well...and I mean real variable weather. At Spa it can be bone dry on one part of the track, and soaking wet on another, seriously compromising tire choice. Stuff like this should be cake for these new machines.
 
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