Can Cars Sparkle?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JohnBM01
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Just watch the video of the Alpine in Paris.
It is most convincing even at 320x240.
Maybe I wouldn't call it "sparkling," but I had to convince my brother who plays no video games that he was watching real-time graphics in a replay.
He was sure it was rendered, and couldn't believe a PS2 could do that.
Probably because his brand-new HP Pavillion notebook has no hope of ever producing anything as convincing as GT4 on the PS2. To him, that just didn't seem possible.hehe
 
I personally think that Polyphony is doing an outstanding job on the graphics. There are very few games on the market with the level of visual detail that GT4 is displaying.

When you add the fact that Polyphony is putting so many cars, so many modifications, so many tracks (nurburgring!), so many options, so much information, so much of everything...I would say that they are doing much more than most developers would do to bring a game to the public.

Also, I saw pics from Polyphony's headquarters. It was very cool. They had glass walls, excercise equipment, a dvd library and a rooftop parking lot.
 
Viper Zero
They ... magically think Polyphony can pop things into the game without any effort.
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Even from my cynical stand point I tend to give most people a little more credit than that. You get your exceptions but I'd like to think most people are smart enough to have respect for those who understand what they themselves do not.

Will cars sparkle? Probably not. It's tricky for all the reason people have already outlined. I do think we should all throw in to buy Code a nice, vibrant, shiny, tight, sparkling, pink blouse for his birthday though, for all his great contributions 👍
 
it's my birthday soon, so I'll be waiting for it :)

btw I took the plunge and did what I said I wouldn't do, bought GTP :) lol I was too tempted when I saw it and cracked!
 
He he he!!!

Good luck getting all the golds!!!

It takes a while but there are no mega impossible tests in there... just hard ones!!

C.
 
I have now got all golds including the coffee breaks (before I didnt have gold coffee breaks).

yay
 
I still have the Paris video on my computer. I didn't really notice such effects on the car. So I am not one to comment yet. I haven't really studied the effects and graphics. One thing about GTA: Vice City is that the sun can be incredibly blinding during sunrise or sunset. The worst case scenario is when the cops want you dead, and here you are trying to negate the blinding sunlight, and eventually your car blows up, the cops fire mad shots at your ass, and that's it. But in Gran Turismo, I'm sure the sun will be pretty bright, but hopefully not enough to make you overshoot the hairpins at New York City. Perhaps some other elements of a car can sparkle in the sunlight. And if not in the sun, then what about making night racing more special? If you have something to contribute to night racing, reply to my "Lighting and Night Racing" topic in the GT4 Forums.

Meanwhile, nice discussion. Keep it up.
 
John, have you have ever played sega GT (on xbox)? That has some pretty impressive sun light effects in places, think of the vice city one, but more impressive. It shines off the car pretty well too, and your left allmost blinded on peeks of hills when looking in to it.
 
I've played Sega gt on Xbox and I didn't notice any advanced sun light effects like GT4. Besides , car models and physics are nowhere as stunning as in GT4.
 
Code, the only racing games I've ever played on XBOX were "Project Gotham Racing 2" and "Quantum Redshift." Both were demonstrations. I had a chance to play Sega GT 2002 at a Best Buy, but didn't really get a chance to race. So you lucky XBOX players did laps with Sega GT? I'll have to look up some pictures online to compare them with what GT4 can be like.

Oh, and here's something to get your attention in terms of sparkling effects. All the classic cars, chrome and all, under the sunlight. Can you imagine how much sparkle can be on such cars? I mean, imagine if a Chevy Bel-Air is in the game, or even a 1953 Corvette (confirmed, last I heard)? Should be fun. I'll look later, however.
 
code_kev
it's my birthday soon, so I'll be waiting for it :)
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Just give me an address.

Someone was suggesting tear-offs in another thread, how about buying different coloured helmet visor tint? That'd deal with being blinded by the sun.
 
Out of special interest, I wanted to discuss something from a game I played some time ago- TOCA Race Driver 2. I've noticed the much more lovely graphics and sensational attention to detail. Among them is the sparkling effects on the cars under lights or under the sun. Especially during replays, you can note the sun sparkling on the cars so you see a little sun glare. It would be surely nice to have such effects on these cars. If you get a chance, rent or buy this game. It's been out for a while on the XBOX, but it was recently released for the Playstation 2. And I wanted to talk about this game in relation to GT4, but still thinking about if I want to do just that, but TOCA Race Driver 2 features a lot of features that Codemasters did with its racing games over what PD did with the Gran Turismo series.

I have no pictures to share about the sun glare in TOCA RD2, but surely I can suggest a comparison. And I'll put up certain links for comparison. That will be in the future pending an Edit to this post. But when I do have links for comparison, imagine how the graphical effects in TOCA Race Driver 2 compare to Gran Turismo 4 and maybe future GTs.
 
I didn't see this thread earlier, but I was going to post about the effect being present in TOCA 2.

However, I don't think it was done very well.. it seemed too obvious that it was just a small lens flare added on top of the car, based on some algorithm telling the system where it needed to be. I've used similar techniques in CGI. The same problem occurs there if you give the computer too much control.. where there should be only one large reflection, you get a bunch of small ones. Which looks like crap. It'll look good in stills, but likely not in motion.

I wouldn't mind seeing it show up in GT, but I'd like to see it done right. TOCA had the right idea with putting it in there, just not very good execution. Depending on the calculations required, it might be something that'll have to wait until GT5 on the PS3, especially considering how much of a perfectionist KY is.

There's a name for the effect, but for the life of me I can't think of it right now. It's not just "glare", and it's not "Specular bloom", although bloom is very similar. I'll probably think of it right after I shut down the computer tonight, and then forget about it by morning.

EDIT: Ah, here we go.. Screengrab from TOCA 2 (cropped), courtesy of IGN:
 

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Cars do that in PGR2 also, although they often have several 'small glares' along a window line for example.

I still think Sega GT 2002/Online has some of the best lighting on the cars inregards to glare... pity the car handling was a bit dodgy.
 
T5-R
Cars do that in PGR2 also, although they often have several 'small glares' along a window line for example.

I still think Sega GT 2002/Online has some of the best lighting on the cars inregards to glare... pity the car handling was a bit dodgy.
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dodgy, but more often than not, it was fun. I noticed that sun glare too, it was quite stunning at the time (I had first gotten my xbox, and segagt2002 came free with it.)

TOCA 2 has a neat effect, but it is too limited and seems really out of place sometimes. Forza is saturated with over-the-top glowy bloom lighting on absolutely everything. Kind of hurts your eyes.

If any game will get it right graphically, it will most likely be another GT game. Unless Sega comes out with another SegaGT, which I thoroughly enjoyed, despite it's limitations.
 
Yeah I enjoyed Sega GT, but sometimes the handling was just too dodgy & angered me :lol:

Atleast it felt you were pushing the cars to their limits around corners & the sloppy suspension on the old celica etc was funny :)
 
I never got to play sega gt, but toca 2 did have some good graphics. I felt the graphics were payed attention to too much at the expense of driving physics. I have an STi and it handles NOTHING like the "I think I'm racing on ice" feeling I got from toca 2. It's hard to appreciate the graphics of a game if you are too busy cursing from the poor gameplay. I hope PD has focused on both, but I would choose a loss in graphical quality to improve gameplay quality.



Here is a pic I took of my bike and my car with some nice "glitters" from the sun. They won't be glittering again untill may or june due to all the snow, road salt, dirt, etc that we get during the winter here in Minnesota!
 
JohnBM01,
In your first thread you were asking if cars can spakle or shine? We can currently add a "shine" code to cars and it makes them so shiny they are similar to looking into a mirror. Is this what you were asking that can be done? If thats your question then the answer is yes it CAN be done and several members have done this including myself with a Sharkport.
 
Yes, Jedi. Nice to see you've used The Force to come up with a good answer.

But that is what I was talking about. I first seen these effects in GTA: Vice City, then more beautifully in TOCA Race Driver 2. The cars glitter with the shining lights and of course, the sun. I know I talk about Costa di Amalfi like it's a sparkling paradise, but what would it be like if the sun didn't shine off of the car while you're flying down the track? So that's where I was getting at, CAMAROBOY.
 

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