NFS Shift 2 Unleashed - Details

  • Thread starter LittleLefty
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Re the blur effect, I have to say I really like the idea but they missed the execution a bit - they should have made it a per-car .cpt setting rather than global. It's a great way to draw focus onto the centre of the screen at speed and reduce the visual noise of cockpit motion when it's going to be too noisy to be much use - rather than reduce it they just soften it so that your eyes aren't as drawn to it as they are to things in the centre. Great idea. But they really needed to do it per-car so that you didn't have some cars totally unable to get into it and some cars in it for too much of their speed regime, and they should have worked out some way to make the dashboards survive the focus/blur and still be legible.

I sometimes forget what stock shift looks like :) on the PC you have 2 main (as in, fully developed) mods called SunMod and Better Shift Visuals. The same scene from both:








As with F1 2010 I sometimes wonder if some developers couldn't use some display calibration. Or at least - either they do or I do :)
 
So going by the teaser are we getting Night races. That would be great. I wonder if they'll incorperate Day/Night transitions like GT5.
 
The engine does support it (there are commands for daylight advancement/envmap changes with time, and an accelerated time keybind) but I don't know if we will get that - or at least, get it for most tracks. It is pretty easy to make the game look terrible at the 'wrong' time of day and a lot of texture/modeling work for Shift 1 was done dependent on knowing the lighting angles, shadows, etc, in advance. But it would be great if they worked out a way around it.
 
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Posted this in the GT5 damage thread (and it took an insanely long time to upload them all) so I might as well post them here: here's some stuff the existing damage system can do right now. Really hoping from the trailer they implement some of the track effecting damage (oil spills/debris damage) that we haven't found a way to switch on yet:







Apologies for the low FR and quality, it's about as much as my PC can do to play the game at 800x600 and record it in FRAPS at 400x300 at 24fps :)
 
"Shift 2 will make GT5 look s***" more or less like the producer of shift have stated...

...still waiting for the sign to laught after i hear this!!!

Shift, that it was a really great joke, and the 2 one will continue the story! how can the compare shift with gt (arcade with simulator) ???

1st shift physics it was like... i can't say it, but how is possible every time you want to make a little turn above 120km you can't do it without drifting, its like your car is floating in the air, even with all upgrades like tyres, susp, chassis, etc... !

2nd the (day)light in the game its pretty uglly, you can't see the difference between a shinny day and a muddy day, its pretty the same, there is no sun in that game!!

with that and a lot more to say about that game, how they want to put a game like GT5 with 1000+ cars in it, the most enpressive physics seen in ps3 soo far, the best graphics for almost 300 cars and tracks ( since the other cars aren't made in this game but in the previous ones) with all little detail on them, on the closet getting dust???

I was a fan of the NFS series back in the day of NFS Underground / 2, most wanted, and the last was prostreet, but i have to say the only ones that were "great" was NFS Undgr 1 and 2! the others were just crap that they done to have the game ready in the next year so they could sell and make more money (after all that's all they want form these games) and not to satisfy costumers. if so they already have done a Undrg 3 a long time ago...

after this all i have to say is for EA to do their arcades and let the real driving simulator do their thing and satisfy their passion (producers) and ours (consumers) how they have been doing a long long time ago and still not disapointing.

sorry for my bad english but i am portuguese!

tks
 
I certainly don't think they were expecting to get called "arcade" for insisting on downforce above 120 kmh and freeing up steer input to drive where you steered rather than force you within the grip limit. Whoops! :)

One interesting detail from modding - most of the "try and make it more sim-like" mods reduced grip even further. Whereas the "GT Handling" mod basically bludgeoned the tyre files into gripping the same way once they were past peak as inside peak slip. You're welcome to think that's a "real" thing if you want :)
 
I hope they will remove this awful monochromic filters, bloom and grain on Shift 2 picture... we want as close as GT5 graphic not a back to the past... The first thing I have done on Shift was to remove bloom and filters and it was SO MUCH BETTER...

ferrariW1.jpg


ferrariW2.jpg


McLaren1.jpg


F430GT-1.jpg


F430GT-2.jpg


F430GT-3.jpg


F430GTa.jpg


F430GTb.jpg
 
I use the SunMod "standard" bloom myself, about 50% of normal. I think it looks worse totally removing it, they scaled the palette around HDR and bloom taking a cut off the top of it and it looks a little strange to remove it entirely.

I still cringe whenever I see those DLC cars because I spent sooooooo long trying to make zmodeler eat the 'proper' carbon fibre shader and get the realtime reflections to work in exterior views rather than just hood/cockpit views. And it still never worked quite right :)
 
Personally, I think that Shift's full speed photography has an edge over GT5's. GT5's static 'car porn' shots are beautiful, but, just like the game, I hate to say, Shift manages to capture the IMPRESSION of speed. GT5's often leave me wondering if the car is static or moving. At least with Shift, you NEVER have that question! Most 'real racing' photography tries VERY hard to blur and bloom the background to give a static image the 'impression' of speed.

Shift succeeds at that (although yes, there are many other graphics issues) and we COMPLAIN about it!
 
Box art?

604345176866front.jpg


Hooray? I can just see someone sitting over some poor graphic designer's shoulder saying, "No, make the Shift bigger. And make the Need For Speed smaller. No, put it over there at the bottom. Smaller. Smaller. Not small enough." :)
 
I'm graphic designer and what this cover tells me is nothing that I want for Shift2: mo' burnout wrecking and mo' arcade action... Damm EA!!!
 
I hope they get the steering right this time. Modders can get the steering right or at least better, why not EA (or SMS)?
 
Modders tended to split handling into either You Must Have A Wheel or This Probably Stinks If You Use A Wheel with each particular mod. I think they will definitely look at things like whether you can completely disable assists on a pad, the default controller setups, whether they should run different car setups depending on the control device, what the game will auto-recommend, etc. It is harder than it might seem to make it work right without completely destroying car setups (F1 2010) as a consistent thing or locking down the way the player can control the car (Forza/GT/etc).

Personally I would love it if they kept the steer assist / pad control broadly similar to how it works - it's one of the few that lets you break traction and overdrive the car at all - but they need to revise penalties for using it and the degree at which it's allowed to work at different difficulties. And look at how car setups should change depending on the control options, because a caster/front rear setup that is best for a pad is quite different to one that is best for a wheel.
 
I played Shift with a gamepad once through to Level 50, then I got a DFGT.

I will NEVER play a driving game with a pad again! With the pad, I always KNEW I was playing a game. At times, with a wheel, I feel like I'm DRIVING A RACE-CAR..!

From some pretty important things being missed off of Shift's wheel implementation (no side look capability, certain FFB pad input not being sent to the wheel, dodgy center position FFB necessitating a deadzone), I feel Shift was developed primarily n a pad, FOR pad players. But every shot of PD's development team at work, there's a DFGT...

Now that EA have an arcade game for the kids and bashers (HP), time for SMS to make a game for people that DRIVE, not move little joysticks around. If it's a flying game, I WANT a joystick. But until they put game pads into cars to drive by, let's stick to what everyone is USED to, eh?:rolleyes:
 
News from virtualr/german pc games magazine:

Date for Shift 2 is listed at March 8 2011 for now.

140 cars, including GT1, GT3 and prototypes.

Suzuka is a track.

15 opponents (argh trailer lies :P)

Physics mode originally intended for Shift 1 is in it and is called "elite" mode.

In other news, the first of the 4 DLC tracks for Shift 1 has been converted to PC :)
 
Has anyone in the modding community unlocked these 'hidden' settings for Shift PC and tried to get an idea of whether they actually succeed at getting GT5-like handling (because no-one will be satisfied until it gets close to that!), or is it just an incremental improvement?
 
I haven't played GT5 (and nobody knows what it actually does or even has the source data for it) so I can't really comment. TBH quite a lot of the videos I've seen from GT5 look very assisted, but it is sheer foolishness to comment other than on a per-car/per setup sort of basis for this.

Back when Shift was released, I was trying to explain to someone that every single game ever has a huge collection of hacks that try and make the game "act right" even if it is not a mathematically perfect model - say for instance, gravity is quite a plastic concept when it is reduced to code. I got told this was pure **** and that games like Forza 3 do everything properly and that not doing it properly would be a sign of total fundamental problems in the physics engine. Then the source data gets extracted for Forza 3 and, unlike Shift (which uses a kind of hand-of-god antiflip aid), you see this big fat hack to gravity once the cars are airborne to correct their contactless behaviour. Whoops! :)
 
I can't wait for Shift 2. I like it because of how it takes the best of GT and NFS and puts them together to make a solid racing game. I think some people just look at the Need for Speed on the front of the title, and label it as arcade regardless of the experience.

However, I'm reluctant to start Shift again, as my old PS3 died and so did all of the data with it. But I will, now that I've a Driving Force GT!
 
My hopes for Shift2:

- less arcade wrecker happy, more simulator oriented
with less arcade gameplay package (which reward you to be a complete moron on wheels)
- The "elite mode" i.e full physics engine fully available from the begining, and not just as a reward when you finish the game in "arcade morron" mode
- more traditional simulator features: free practice, free race editor...
- GT5 graphic like (the actual screen shots are really not pretty: too much awful bloom, bluriness and still these disgusting monochromatic filters to hide the imcompetence to match GT ultra realist graphics)
- 140 cars that you want to drive!
- entry level/brand new, not tuned cars behaving much better than in Shift1 - approching GT5 in this department would be nice.
- better and more realistic damage system (like we are hinted in the trailer)
- dynamic weather conditions
- LE MANS!!!! track is a MUST HAVE!
- Mod happy would be a nice feature for third parties to complete the cars 7 track roster.
- GT5 like video replay (track oriented without the crazy epileptic videoclip type of replay of Shift1)

And the "DO NOT CHANGE" features or "ONLY IF YOU IMPROVE THEM":
- imersive cockpit view
- good engine sounds
 
Yeah, I don't know what happened to the replay cams. They actually had a complete TV style replay system with no bizarre camera changes - none of that stuff where just as the car would crest an interesting track feature they'd switch it to a view filled with car arse. It needed only a few minor tweaks (some subterranean camera fixes) and didn't take a couple of guys all that long to do. Got added to Overhaul as soon as it was ready. It's nice.
 
Destructoid hands-on has the most actual new info:

Unfortunately, I wasn't given too much hands-on with the title. From what I played however, Shift 2: Unleashed looks to be a very solid sim racer, with guide lines on the road to guide fresh players, and a dynamic weather/road system. As cars race around the track, the road will take damage and create a dynamic. Cars take damage, which is especially notable during the night. When your headlamps go out, night races are even more difficult.
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I saw mention earlier that rather than doing night tracks as "a day track, at night", they are making "night, night tracks" which to me sounds like something going on with deferred rendering/shading to make it a different thing than just applying a projected headlight onto the track. Have to see how this actually works, I love the look of the individual headlights casting different shadows for all of the cars in those screenshots.

Visually, Shift 2 unleashed is gorgeous. Using an updated graphics system, the developers were really able to push some impressive effects. From the inside of the car with the helmet cam, the player can see that light bends and shifts with realistic shadows created by the frame of the car. Even more impressive was the night versions of the tracks, as the points of light stretch and star much like they do with real windows. Wet tracks create reduced visibility, and the game uses focus and out-of-focus elements to create a real keen sense of depth.

Interestingly, like many games this late in the console cycle, Shift 2 Unleashed is being developed with the PS3 as the primary platform, and while the game has a rather soon release date of Spring of 2011, Slightly Mad is making some bold claims. “We want to beat Gran Turismo 5 and Forza” declares Executive Producer of Shift 2 Unleashed, Marcus Nilsson. An impressive goal indeed, we'll have to see if EA's latest racing endeavor will make it king of both arcade and sim racing games.
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Good news for PS3 guys after getting the smelly end of the stick with Shift 1?
 
Yeah, to me damage implies pits, but they might work out something else to do with it instead. They did a lot of work to make pitstops happen in Shift 1 (whole animation system / ai system for marshals / engineers getting out of the way, interacting with the car, fuel intake position, tyre changes etc) that was all ultimately unused so at least some of the heavy lifting is already done..
 
1up:

2) A Realistic Crash

All of the various racing sims have slowly allowed you to bang up the expensive, licensed cars you take out on the race track, but developer Slighly Mad Studios is taking that even further with Shift 2. "Last year we had visual damage and performance damage, but we had kid gloves on," says Abney. "This year we have full, race-ending-state damage engine. You can bounce tires, rip off axles -- really destroy your car and end your race day."

As I get used to the handling on one of the cars, I experience that damage model first hand. Not only do you get tire and track degradation, every bump and scrape against course barriers (and other cars) shows up on your vehicle.

3) A Realistic Car

What good is a vehicle if you can't make it your own? Shift 2 includes four car types, and makes sure that you have a slew of customization options to feel like you actually own the cars you take on the track. Abney explains, "There are Retro, Legend, Muscle, and Super car classifications, and they're all works modifiable. Last year in Shift, we had classes of cars that really didn't work to modify in certain ways. With Shift 2, everything is works modifiable. In the real world, you'll find people with A86 gorillas building 1100 horsepower drag machines, all-wheel drive drift machines, or other elements from any platform. We're latching onto that in Shift by allowing any car to be works modified." We'll see more specific details as the game nears completion, but Abney promises plenty of robust customization options.
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the PS3 as the primary platform
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I hope thatthey create better graphics on the PS3 this time. I tried shift on the PS3 (game store) and it looked really bad compared to the pc version.
 
If you truly DO get game ending damage, I can still see the bashers exploiting it to REALLY mess your day up... after all, few of them race to win:crazy:

But a lobby system that would allow you to restrict entrants to those that have managed to finish say, three races consecutively without destroying your car, and we might FINALLY have a usable filter to allow clean(ish!) racers to avoid bashers even ON the grid...

This won't stop bashers from racing each other, but Shift's weakest point was that ONLY Private games could be set up (with quite some difficulty) to invite clean racers ONLY. Once you clear that 'three race' (or whatever number you feel right) hurdle, you are going to be EXTRA careful not to wreck yourself or it's back to square one. Win, win..!

EA have to realize they have split the bashers off from the racers with HP. Shift2 is going to be mostly racers, and if there's ONE thing racers hate, it's bashers. I would have been SOOOOO happy with even just Shift1 if the handling were fixed and rules set up to exclude bashers. All I would ever have wanted was more tracks and more cars, for a LONG, long time...

But if EA makes what crashes DO occur so spectacular looking, but no race ending damage for causing them, all I see is more of the same old, same old...
 
I don't think the bashers will have fun ending your day if they can't make it to the line themselves... From the looks of the previews it's shaping up really nicely, except a few of them have said the AI is still a bit brutal at times... One site (I think GMRFM.com) said he couldn't even finish a lap without most aids on and wrote the car off in the first corner, that's a good sign :)
 
Jordan do you notify game developers, like EA in this case, that you created a subfourm for one of their games, Shift in this case?

I wonder if EA employees come to this subforum to read about the comments customers have about Shift. To see if EA can learn about the wishes gamers have about Shift.
 
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