The graphics in video games just keeps getting better and better every year. We are getting close to the point where you won’t be able to easily tell the difference between video game graphics and real life. For instance, take a look at the two images below. Can you guess which one is from a video game and which one was taken by a camera mounted on a real race car?
The image on the left is from a real race car, and the image on the right is from an upcoming racing simulation video game called Project CARS. When I first saw this image, I really wasn’t sure which one was real. However, you might tell the difference between the two more easily by watching the following video, which is where the above image was taken from:
Project CARS has extremely nice graphics. The game will also supposedly offer support for the Oculus Rift, which could potentially make this upcoming racing game a huge hit. So, what do you think about the future of video game graphics and virtual reality technology? Could we make a video game that is so realistic that it looks exactly like real life?
I am actually really excited for this game to be released in 2 weeks. According to gamespot the game will have 110 courses and 30 locations when it first comes out. I am really impressed that it will have this many circuits. Previously I think that Assetto Corsa was a pretty good racing simulation, but I expect this to top that and then some.
I agree that graphics have become extremely advanced over the past years. I remember when i was playing Legand of Dragoon on PS1 when everything was scaled down or pixelated and to me that was an amazing graphic set for the time. Now a days graphics have become a focal point of many game designs. however i have noticed that many games are so focused on putting out the next chapter in the series rather then spending good quality time polishing out a game that meets the graphical standards of other games. Take call of duty for example, there was a huge jump in graphics between call of duty 3 and 4 yet there have only been minor adjustments from that point on, of course factoring in the improved graphics engines making some of these games look better. Although Graphics have become a amazing revolution in video games alot of studios are still struggling to replicate the real life physics in these games, like the other commentator mentioned the real life driver is shaking everywhere while the simulation is so smooth, this to me seems like a result of the track and torque of the vehicle on the real life course vs the simulated version. The track is extremely bumpy in the real version and the vehicle is throwing the driver into his seat when he accelerates yet on the simulation it is almost like the road is silky smooth except for the rumble strips on the edges and the driver almost has no reaction to acceleration.
I agree with the most recent commenter that it appears to be mostly the racing games that have these incredible graphics, perhaps because there is less going on and the focus can be put on the graphics. Or atleast that’s the way it used to be. I was away from gaming for about 4 years while I’ve been here in college, and I think I’ve missed some serious advancement in graphics in a lot more genres than just racing. There’s an interesting picture comparison in this article that shows this. And while the article also mentions the graphics aren’t as good as the picture throughout the entire game, they’re still undeniably great.
I think graphics will become almost an afterthought in the next few decades as they become totally realistic. My little cousin was playing Farcry 4 on PS4 a few months ago and I actually thought he was watching national geographic with the scenery in the background. I’m excited to see where things go next.
I’ll admit, it took a long time for me to differentiate the two feeds in the video (I’m still not 100% sure which is which.) It is stunning to see the graphics we are capable of these days, but it is no surprise considering how fast GPU technology has been surging along.
As I’ve thought about it after reading the post, it always seems to be racing games who get the newest graphics tech. You’d think that it would be a uniform roll-out across all genres, but to my experience it is always racing games first. Gran Turismo’s various iterations have always pushed the graphical envelope on Sony’s consoles, and Forza has does the same thing on Xbox. The Need for Speed games did it for PC back in the day, and now we have PC titles like Dirt, Grid, and of course Project Cars. My theory is that it is just easier to emulate the mostly static conditions of a race when you have new tech, rather than figure out the tougher visual problems like facial animation. (The art pipeline is probably easier too.)
Now that we’ve perfected single-screen graphics in some cases, I think graphics tech will start on the next challenge; rendering a scene twice @ 90FPS so that it will work in VR!
I too am often fooled by the way video game and simulation graphics mimic real life. I have even had cases where I thought my roommates were watching a sports game at first when I walked into the room as opposed to actually playing one. In the case of the simulator, what threw me off was the fact that the user interface was overlaid in just the real life video and not the simulation. This made me look a little closer and I noticed a few main differences between the videos that I think it is interesting to note.
For one, as close at the simulation is to the real life video, a simulation may never be able to accurately recreate the unpredictable movements of a human. Driving at such high speed, the car is obviously shaking a great deal, and the driver is focused on maintaining composer as he attempts to make the various turns. At such high speeds, you’ll notice that any slight movement of the wheel can cause a jarring action and almost make you over react in order to adjust. The driver on the left (the real video) is constantly over adjusting and the wheel is jarring back and forth the whole time. This is a normal occurrence, but it is tough to know how a particular driver will handle the situation. On the right, the driver seems to be on a way smoother ride. He seems calm and relaxed, but again the simulation seems to be missing the factors that make the driver seem more tense in the real video and instead it bases driver movement off of the track turns alone. I think with extensive play testing, they may realize it is necessary to use sensors attached to the left driver in order to make a more accurate feel to the simulation. This also goes for the camera as pointed out before me, the car would cause the camera to shake and the smooth simulation just doesn’t seem feasible. These are the sorts of things humans may overlook when trying to accurately duplicate something, but on the other hand I don’t think I would have noticed this unless it was put next to the original video.
Another interesting thing I noticed was the attempt to use the review mirror to show the track behind the user. Now as this feature is pretty cool and it makes you feel like the world is sort of real, it’s also not entirely realistic. In that angle of the view of the drivers seat, it would not make sense to have such a clear view of the mirror. If you notice in the left video, you can see the track but the not in the same view angle. Just something I noticed.
Interestingly, my initial thought was that both images were from games. The reflections in the one on the right seemed too crisp and unnatural, while the image on the left seemed too out of focus and blurry (the HUD probably threw me off as well.) In hindsight, blurriness makes a lot of sense in a camera moving 100 mph, and the video of the game could have implemented a motion blur effect to make it closer match the real video. Alternatively, if they used a higher quality camera to record the real footage, perhaps the two images would have still looked almost identical.
Wow, the graphics of that game are superb! It goes to show how far we have truly come with gaming technology. It’s almost shocking to believe that it was just a few decades ago when games like Space Invaders and Pong were considered cutting-edge games. I believe if we could come this far in just a mere 40 years I don’t think there is anything holding us back from continuing to improve and innovate gaming technology moving forward. Attaining the ability to develop experiences with games that seamlessly imitate reality is inevitable in my opinion.
I wonder how we as a society would react to the availability of such experiences. On the one hand, it could be beneficial to provide expensive, dangerous, or otherwise impossible experiences in the form of an accessible digital game. While on the other hand, we might become so fixated on our life-like virtual experiences and avatars that we lack the drive to experience anything in the physical world.
This technology could also provide a platform for life-like interaction outside of games for things like work, education, and social networking. It’s exciting to think about how much closer we might come to manifesting such platforms in the next few decades.