Uncanny realism in games

It's amazing how close to reality some of those screenshots are. Makes me want to get on with modelling my home town (a little project I keep meaning to do).

Yeah but "realism cloning" is actually just an expression of 2 things:

1. lacking creativity to create own believable cities
2. A good way to burn a LOT of time :)

What's scary is that the game is even more grey and boring than the real city :D

that was interesting. thanks for sharing.

Yes - it's as uncanny and realistic as a photograph...yawn.

I think that's damn impressive... Personally I think it would be great to drive at break neck speed around a city that you know.

And regarding "lacking creativity to create own believable cities" why reinvent the wheel?

Anything looks photorealistic at 200 X 140.

Besides, they aren't going to have the resources to put the same amount of effort into the whole game world as they do in their bullshots.

yes there is that argument of, why can't GTA look as good as PGR4?
I think the answer is simply that PGR4 only shows a small amount of the city you're racing in. GTA has to show every alleyway and tube station, so modelling GTA to the same level of detail as PGR4 would take multiple times more effort and time, and also much more machine resources. It'll happen one day though, infact, you're going to start seeing random city generators soon, that will generate an entire city for you based on simple basic instructions. I've not seen any examples of this, but it would make sense that it'll happen soon.

Uncreative, maybe, but impressive. I agree with the grey comment, but they could sort that out with a change of lighting and some more interesting skyboxes.

Call me old-fashioned, stoneage or uber-retro, but do me 2d retro and pixels any day.. :P



FTW! ^__^ (minus the purple perhaps :P)

i once made a model of my whole school

Quick!! Arrest Devils Child immediatly, he's training for terrorist activities!!! Please god don't tell me it was a Counterstrike map, they'll throw away the key!

Because that's where the money's at?

Doesn't it?

I wrote one of those in Blitz3D. Worked fairly well, considering the language it was written in.

For a second there I wasn't sure which one was which. Good stuff though....i always like to see how much better they get every year with things like this.

Wow that is good. CS_TBL, I like retro stuff as well. :-)

It's a racing game, people want it to look realistic and close to the real thing since its set in real places many people will be familiar with.

So for this particular game the scenery is spot on. Realism is kind of boring to create really though, it can be fun to see if you can pull it off, but imagine how dull it must be to copy whats already there.

Still, I bet its great for the people who play the game. I have the same problem whenever I work on a game. I like FPS games so long as they have interesting AI and great graphics but the thought of making one bores me to tears.

Can't think of anything worse than trying to recreate reality in a game really :(.

I agree with Fredborg. What a dull and lifeless game. I like the improvements in graphics technology as much as the next guy, but without some artistic sense of style, it's just bland and devoid of interest. It bears no comparison to Team Fortress 2, for example.

second that.

lets hype crysis instead: http://crysis-online.com/Media/Screenshots/screenshots-other.php#Comparisons :P

Almost any other game but a realistic looking simulation I'd agree. But I think PGR4 looks spot on when you put the PGR series goals in mind. It's visualy a sim with arcade like gameplay and hybrid controls.

Probably my favourite racing franchise, definately spent more time playing the first two on the original Xbox than any other racing game since except maybe lotus turbo challenge multiplayer on the amiga.

The models and city pictures are all from old Quebec City (in the province of Quebec), in Canada.

I think they did a remarkable job!

I was reading recently in that CryTec engine pdf, about how when you try to get closer towards realism, people start to strictly compare `real` with how the game actually looks, and they become much more critical of it not looking totally perfectly real. While there are more obvious flaws in the look of the game they take it as artistic style and don't take it seriously, but as it approaches `real looking` they start to compare it to reality and it gets a pretty bad rap unless it's totally perfect, which the above shots are not. The lighting is all wierd.

The colours are all wrong. It's rubbish. Tell them to start again from scratch.

I think it looks pretty groovy. It's a shame they didn't make it snowy though. It's amazing what a bit of snow can do to perk up a scene and give it a bit of character.

Personally I far prefer sprite graphics to so-called photorealistic 3d. They have more character and charm. 3D is just somehow lacking any soul.

If stuff has to be 3d (which it seems it always does now) then I prefer the stylised look of something like TF2 over the real look of HL2.

I think some of the responses to this thread re-inforce that ;-)