When F1 2013 was released, I thought about doing a screenshot comparison to compare how Codemasters versions of the classic cars compared to older PC F1 games of the past, to show how far we've come graphically/3D modelling wise. With the release of F1 2017 I decided to finally do this comparison.
Some notes:
1. I've only included games where the car is actually listed in the game, so no games like Automobilista/Game Stock Car, where the classic F1 car looks very close to the McLaren MP4/4 but isn't trying to be identical to it (for copyright reasons). There's one exception, but I'll get to it when I get to it!
2. To show the 3D modelling to best effect, I've used both various wrappers (a mix of nGlide and dgVoodoo2) to upscale the games to my monitor's native resolution (2560x1440), rather than capturing them at 640x480 and having blurry upscaled screenshots. I've upscaled software rendered screenshots to show the pixels in the image, so you can see how low-resolution they were (they can't be improved with wrappers).
3. I've captured all games at 2560x1440 resolution. For some this required black bars adding to the sides of the screenshot, so that they all sit in-line below. There were also some games that render at widescreen 16:9 resolutions, but if that meant they cropped the image top-and-bottom (losing cockpit detail) then I went for the original 4:3 resolution instead.
4. I managed to show each car at a unique circuit across all the games I captured, so you can compare circuit modelling/detail too!
5. Screenshots are taken from 3 angles; cockpit, front-left view and rear-right view.
6. Game names are based on the UK releases (where I am), hence the game being called Formula One Grand Prix, not World Circuit, etc.
7. No mods are included! Only original in-game cars (otherwise this comparison could go on forever!).
So, let's begin... click any screenshot to enlarge!
Some notes:
1. I've only included games where the car is actually listed in the game, so no games like Automobilista/Game Stock Car, where the classic F1 car looks very close to the McLaren MP4/4 but isn't trying to be identical to it (for copyright reasons). There's one exception, but I'll get to it when I get to it!
2. To show the 3D modelling to best effect, I've used both various wrappers (a mix of nGlide and dgVoodoo2) to upscale the games to my monitor's native resolution (2560x1440), rather than capturing them at 640x480 and having blurry upscaled screenshots. I've upscaled software rendered screenshots to show the pixels in the image, so you can see how low-resolution they were (they can't be improved with wrappers).
3. I've captured all games at 2560x1440 resolution. For some this required black bars adding to the sides of the screenshot, so that they all sit in-line below. There were also some games that render at widescreen 16:9 resolutions, but if that meant they cropped the image top-and-bottom (losing cockpit detail) then I went for the original 4:3 resolution instead.
4. I managed to show each car at a unique circuit across all the games I captured, so you can compare circuit modelling/detail too!
5. Screenshots are taken from 3 angles; cockpit, front-left view and rear-right view.
6. Game names are based on the UK releases (where I am), hence the game being called Formula One Grand Prix, not World Circuit, etc.
7. No mods are included! Only original in-game cars (otherwise this comparison could go on forever!).
So, let's begin... click any screenshot to enlarge!
