Sometimes I see screenshots that make rfactor look amazing. Some screenshots look like a cartoon. I know a lot of these screenshots are doctored and photoshopped to make the game look better than it really is. even still, sometimes the game looks great and sometimes it does not. guess it really depends on the modder/track makers. I just don't know of any other game like that.

Some people have better computers than others do.

I've seen some horrendous looking screenshots from rFactor that make NASCAR 1999 look better, but then I factored in that they must be running on the lowest possible settings, due to their computers not being good enough to handle it wide open.

If you put NR2003 on its lowest settings with a low end computer, it'd be the same way.

The better the computer, with the best video cards, the better ANY game will look.

So what you're saying is that we need ...... ?

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Stop oppressive gardening

"De gustibus non est disputandum."

Yeah... order 4 of those, and a side of cole slaw. If no cole slaw, then make it fries.

i don't think its the computer because i have pretty much everything set to high.

my cockpit view looks like this.



how do i get it to look like this?


my tv cam view looks like this.


i would like it to look like this.

Well I've been in a room with around 20 PC's racing at a LAN. PC's ranging from top end to some lower end and none looked like the rFC screenshots. They all looked like yours and below. Though there is video card settings that can enhance the picture which I have done it still hasn't got the same look as the rFC ones. Those shots have with out a doubt been doctored in photoshop or some such program.

rF2 is said to improve on this to some extent but I doubt to the point your looking for if these pics are a sample of it.

Like you've mentioned there are mods and tracks that do look better then others. This is because of high res or low res textures being use in the development. One thing you must remember or these thing are produced by the community. There not done by professionals making a living from this work they put in for us the end user to enjoy.

You want everything but the car to be out of focus in tv cam view?

You may have everything set to high, however the computer can still make a big difference. In the first two pictures I see differences that equate to the anti-alias settings being different (the "jaggies" in your shot versus the smooth edges in the second) and better lighting effects (likely some DX9 options that are supported by the graphics card in the second shot, but not by yours). That being said, you'd also need to have both shots taken on the same track in order to get a good compare since tracks can vary greatly in what graphics options they support.

I think you're seeing a photoshopped image in the TV cams. The same things that make a difference in cockpit view would help with TV cam view, but I don't think rF supports the strong out of focus thing. However, there are some things you can do with the camera settings to alter the perspective and such (I haven't messed with the .cam files enough to know what effects you can get with the cameras).

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Tah Tah For Now!
Scott Stockton

www.theuspits.com

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  Phil 4:13

Maybe it is one of those fancy cube maps that show reflections differently. It looks like the shots you want have reflections on the body.

I'm gonna be honest. The first picture isn't actually mine. I found it posted somewhere. I used it as an example because it it a good representation of my graphics. It is a little sketchy, that picture. I'm using DX9.

I would like to have cars more shinny though. They can never be too shinny. I heard that might have something to do with alpha channels whatever that means. IDK what that is.

Also, I believe cars shouldn't be painted 100% white to allow for shines and reflections. I see too many cars for NR2003 painted like that and that is just 100% plain wrong imo. I'm not sure if the BMW sauber is 100% white (255 RGB), but if it is, I wonder if exporting and darkening the paint job by like 3% will make it look shinnyer in the game.

Yup u can make the cars more shiny with alpha channel in "yourcarskin.dds" if the car/mod allows it ISI cars all have it enabled
Explains the alpha channel reflections:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kH2XPCwZVY

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You can also get the effect of a car being more shiny by replacing the default car cube maps with some that don't have the colors/contrast as muted. The default cube maps are fairly bland. Look around and find some updated/newer maps that have more contrast and you'll see more reflections on your cars without having to change the alpha channel on every car's paint scheme.

Regarding the alpha channel. Full black means no reflection. Full white means complete reflection (almost a chrome look, totally chrome look with the right cube map).

_________________
Tah Tah For Now!
Scott Stockton

www.theuspits.com

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  Phil 4:13

this is pretty much what people do to their screen shots:
(1st is original straight from game)


x)

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I really can't see what's wrong with rF straight out of the box. MaxE's got a top end PC that is plain to see so his sceenshot is high quality. The second pic shows a small among of blur and a added shine on the car which looks good. The third though is going to far with the effect he used. But off cause this was only a example and not a finished sceenie.

If you like the second one as I do you need only to lower your screens (monitors) contrast and adjust the brightness. Every one of us sees these pic's differently simply because all our monitors are different and settings are different. there are so many factors involved in what you see on the screen it's not possible and not fair to put the blame squarely on the game.

Back not that long ago I was running GT4 on PS2. Then I was invited to a PC LAN racing meeting with GTR as the main game. I installed GTR and thought then that GT4 visually killed GTR. Then it did. My PC had a 5500 video card. Straight out of the shop PC with no frills attached. Now things are a lot different and my PC kicks PS2 for six. Purpose built PC with now a GTS250 Gigabyte Nvidia.

To many things dictate what you see.

Thank you Max E. I will look into that.