Is this one of the best looking circuits in sim racing?


Still playing a lot of Assetto Corsa at the moment. Monza is one sweet looking circuit. I would even go as far in saying, this could be one of the best looking tracks in all of sim racing. The lighting is unbelievably good, really giving the whole track a solid 3D look. In fact, I would say the game looks almost photo realistic at times, in a way that not even the mighty Project Cars can match. The reflections and blemishes which can be seen as the light catches the windscreen, when on certain parts of the track, is just phenomenal. No sim does windscreen reflections better.

Overall, I would still say that graphically, P cars just has the edge. It too can offer very impressive visuals, but delivers them more consistency, as it has plenty of high quality official content out the box. The same cannot be said for Assetto Corsa. This means, unlike AC, P Cars has no reliance on (or support for), modded content, which although is often excellent, regularly lacks the graphical polish exhibited by most first party content.
 
I've seen Pcars looking awesome in videos, but at my rig it looks less than special, bad aliasing and cartoony color palette, in terms trackside objects it wins against AC (tracks filled with "live" people) but everywhere else it was a disappointment, tarmac textures, grass looks weird, underwhelming cockpits...

I like that AC is very tunable in it's looks, the saturation settings let's you find your prefered tone easily and the PP presets.

Pcars has one trump card which is weather, it looks brilliant in the wet.

Iracing is technologically behind, but what it lacks in fancy post processing it makes up in sharpness and detail, it looks great no doubt.

Yea it's like I said, personal preference, everyone of us will see it different but so long as we get equal enjoyment out of it at the end I don't think it really matters
 
  • Deleted member 130869

I still think the best track artists reside at Sector3. Feels3 is special. But iRacing, they do so well with getting the environment, especially the variation in the asphalt and trackside textures. Plus there is depth. So iR is right there too. Then we have Reiza tracks which are also great at not being repetitive and providing a good environment. Then we have AC and ISI.
 
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I still think the best track artists reside at Sector3. Feels3 is special. But iRacing, they do so well with getting the environment, especially the variation in the asphalt and trackside textures. Plus there is depth. So iR is right there too. Then we have Reiza tracks which are also great at not being repetitive and providing a good environment. Then we have AC and ISI.

Feels3 is one of my favourites, I really enjoy the ISI tracks as well, when you take the time to look at the detail in them you can start to appreciate them a bit more and given what their working with it's all the more impressive, I've only looked at a few of the tracks in Automobilista so far but what I've tried I've enjoyed, there's some good modders out there as well in terms of scratch builds, Lilski stands out, loved Bridgehampton and Riverside is coming along great, Pixsim's Nogaro for RF2 was another one, Darren Blythes VIR will knock peoples socks off, I've got an earlier copy of it on here although he doesn't know it lol
 
The upgrades to Monza, Imola and Nurburgring and others in the new patch are very nice...much better than before, lots more track side objects, better trees....I always thought AC looked a bit washed out, but I have had a bit of a tweak with the filters and have got it looking pretty good on my old rig. I also boosted my AF to a recommended 16x...my center lines were disappearing at Blackcat. That fixed it.
The graphics in RRE may not be quite as "realistic", but I quite like them and they are getting better. The new Nords is pretty bloody good.
 
There are some nice graphical enhancements to be had by turning on the post processing menu. The problem is it can make the game look very burnt out indeed, but turning down the exposure (Page down button), fixes that. I really think this game looks wonderful when played on max settings. The trouble is with R3E, if you happen to have a power rig (fortunately I do) the game does not take advantage of that, because it's built on such an old engine. The difference between playing the game on mid and max settings isn't that great at all. Whereas, there is a huge difference in playing AC on mid and ultra settings. It really shines when everything is maxed out. True R3E graphics are getting better, but there is only so much you can do with an old engine.
Today I raced Nordschleife back to back, first on R3E then on AC. The difference is massive. AC very much looks like a 'Next gen' title, while R3E really does not. Textures look bland and the lighting flat. The move to the Unreal 4 engine will be a smart move I think and can't come quick enough.
I still think R3E is a great sim. It's still one of my favourites, but just for the driving machanics/physics and not for the presentation. I guess that's the way it should be anyway.

As for the 1.5 update, you're right, it has further enhanced AC graphics by some way.
 
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  • Deleted member 130869

I only run the natural_mod filter. I have to play the game more to experience more, next time out I will try the now-stock Natural filter.
 
  • Deleted member 130869

Ok, I drove what, 4 of AC's tracks now since the update? Well, gravel solution aside, I am quite pleased with the updates. In an earlier post I did my own quick rank but Kunos material definitely gets a bump now.
 
Remember the West Brothers hype and we all drooled over their car renders?
I think Assetto Corsa is at that level now.
What happened to the West Brothers?

I remember the massive leather embossed manual that was supposed to come with their sim.

Racing Legends previously known as World Sports Cars that was it!
https://ravsim.com/category/independent-racing-simulators/
Scroll to April 3rd ,2012.
 
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Interesting. I was totally unaware of this. Think its fair to say Kunos as delivered for the most part, but I never fully believe all the hype that surrounds most games pre release.
 
Lol No worries Keith. Glad you like it but I'd appreciate it if you don't distribute any further. I dunno how old that version is but next time I do a build for my testers I'll let you have an update if you like.
 
Lol No worries Keith. Glad you like it but I'd appreciate it if you don't distribute any further. I dunno how old that version is but next time I do a build for my testers I'll let you have an update if you like.

It won't be shared Darren, no worries there, the build was 2 months old, I'd love a copy of the update, I'm signed off for 6 months, I've got nothing better to do than test :)
 
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