Why Do Racing Games Have Glossy Plastic Cars?

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bricky149

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It's been on my mind for ages and could never find an answer to it. Fourza has glossy cars, Shift has glossy cars and maybe a few others. IMO GT's models don't have that plastic look to them nor does Simraceway.

Is there any reason why car models have gone this way, or any other games which don't have that 'plasticky' feel?
 
Huh, I never looked at it that way. I think the developers wanted to make modeled cars have that "New" structure. I mean no one would want a car that doesn't sparkle under the bright sun. It's just unattractive.
 
I feel the same way about forza's cars. I always the the whole game had sot of a cartoonish look to it compared to GT5 and PC games. Don't get me wrong, the game looks great, but it just seems like the colors are overdone, and like you say too shiny. I don't get the same feeling though for GT5, iracing, ferrari challenge, or GTR. Really the only games I notice it in our the 2 you listed.
 
Well ok what it you are seeing is the difference of the types of graphics between the games... For instances FORZA, N.F.S, MID NIGHT CLUB they all use animated graphics. GT5 on the other hand uses a different type of graphics a higher resolution guess you can say HD. Like you said lot of the other games look different one thing you notice is what resolution they work with. Like N.F.S. usually never runs a resolution over 720P but GT5 runs up to 1080P and even in 3D. If you think about something well look at the different paint textures. In my opinion metallic paint is like GT5 it has vivid color rich clear coat. The others are like a pearl paint like the metallic paint bright color but it has a different finish that looks almost milky in certain colors and light. And looks different in certain scenarios. Lol my best analogy.
 
It's not the car models but the lighting and texturing. That said, Forza 4's graphics have improved vastly in terms of lighting over Forza 3.
 
This is what I've been trying to say for a while, yet I couldn't really put my finger on it. I'm going to use Forza and GT as examples, since I've played these games a lot.

Let's start with GT. The cars in this game look like what you would find if you found a perfect condition version of that car. They look real. The paint is metallic if it's supposed to be metallic. It's glossy if it's supposed to be. They look like real cars.

In Forza, all of the cars are glossy. This makes them look like 3D Models, not actual cars. This is what has been drawing me back to GT for a while. You don't get a feeling of realism that you get from GT. That being said, you don't get a feeling of realism from GT unless you use premium models. But it's the same with the tracks. Forza's tracks look overdone, while GT's look, just right. They don't look realistic because they look way too new, but they don't look like something computer generated.
 
Because when you make 3d models, the surfaces you see are rendered like plastic by default.

So it's not exactly "cartoony", it just doesn't look like metal surfaces in daylight.
 
What I don't get is why developers think it's good to have cars looking like glossy plastic. Lighting is a key element but there aren't a lot of games which don't believe glossy is better, e.g. rFactor 2 and Simraceway.

I'd prefer GT5's look than Fourza's look any day of the week.
 
Crispy
This is what I've been trying to say for a while, yet I couldn't really put my finger on it. I'm going to use Forza and GT as examples, since I've played these games a lot.

Let's start with GT. The cars in this game look like what you would find if you found a perfect condition version of that car. They look real. The paint is metallic if it's supposed to be metallic. It's glossy if it's supposed to be. They look like real cars.

In Forza, all of the cars are glossy. This makes them look like 3D Models, not actual cars. This is what has been drawing me back to GT for a while. You don't get a feeling of realism that you get from GT. That being said, you don't get a feeling of realism from GT unless you use premium models. But it's the same with the tracks. Forza's tracks look overdone, while GT's look, just right. They don't look realistic because they look way too new, but they don't look like something computer generated.
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This is exactly what I mean. People like Turn 10 want to show off the power of their game engine/system and unfortunately their attempt doesn't wash with me. Polyphony just want to try and be as realistic to actuality as possible.

Sure there are others, but they're ones I know enough of to get off my chest.
 
theotherspongey
IMO The standard cars in GT5 look like toy cars. aka plastic.
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Standards use the same paint system as the Premiums.

But Shift 2 and Forza 4 do have that high degree of shininess. It looks cool, not realistic but very cool. At least GT cars lose there shine if you don't wash them.
 
Yeah I find that Forza tends to make colors look a bit more saturated, it's probably a post effect that works on everything, including the cars. I can understand why they would do it, real race tracks can be pretty dreary looking places, even on a beautiful sunny day.
 
Its called a shader people :dopey:. That is where the good stuff is. Its how light is reflected off a surface hint hint image based lighting. From my experience, GT5 has bad reflection shaders. Your better off painting your car a matt color when your doing a photo-shoot 👍. I only wish to hack both games to see which one pwns (GT5 lightwave 3d) (forza 3ds max).... One day I will, then we can eliminate the stupid(some are) human opinions and bring some more logical facts to the table. Only thing I ran into with forza is a little contrast issue, a simple problem that can be fixed with the settings on the tv :). Please dont discredit forza, they just about use the same methods PD did. I think the problem with the effects is the APIs they are using (open GL and DX9), goes to show its time for a hardware upgrade.
 
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I personally like the way Forza's cars look over GT5. Maybe cause I always try to make mine shine as much as possible in real life. Meguiars FTW! Hehe
 

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