Road to V1.6 Hype Train (cont.)

For all its graphical qualities, the reproduction of colour (and material properties) in AMS 2 has just not impressed me and it's actually been a big roadblock as far as immersion goes.
I'd love to see this amended in 1.6, but I can't really discern that much of a difference from the footage released thus far.
For reference, the below rF2 video looks a lot more natural to my eyes, it's missing the artificial 'cartoony/plastic/cool' look that keeps bothering me when I play AMS 2 (but not AMS 1).

 

As they say "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder" I actually think Iracing looks incredibly life like in replays even though it's graphically inferior to AMS2, it's the colors and the behavior of the cars. But ironically the best one for me both graphically and how life like it looks and behaves is a simcade, that being Gran Turismo 7, sometimes it really looks like a real life event.

AMS2 has improved a lot though, when comparing 1.5 to 1.6, the difference is very noticeable.

 

I agree that tastes are very personal, but whenever someone states iRacing color pallete is true to life I can't but wonder if there is something wrong with my eyesight.

iRacing colors are dull and washed when IRL (atleast in my eyes) is full of distinct colors. But then I accept it may be me, because "cartoony" as in colorfull look of games is quite widely accepted as an immersion breaking feature

 

Allow me to make a small observation to those who talk about colours... I don't want to attack anyone and I don't want to defend any sim!!!

Do you have RGB certified monitors? Do you have monitors calibrated for "natural" vision (5000-5500K), calibration done with professional instruments?

If you don't have these characteristics, each monitor is a story in itself,
each monitor has its own color error delta and each monitor is set as the user likes; my monitor may seem to have perfect colors while for you the colors are unnatural! just check the TVs displayed in a shop and you will immediately notice how some are beautiful to look at and others the image is completely wrong (in some cases to convince the customer to buy a specific model)!

Furthermore, serious monitors that are used in photography or graphics (in my case in Packaging Pre-Press) are expensive and always have a very high ms response therefore not suitable for games but they have a 98% correspondence with the RGB spectrum (at pact of weekly calibrations and correct color profiles).

This is just to say that it could be a problem of poor monitor adjustment or a monitor that is unable to faithfully reproduce the entire RGB range that the video card produces.

 

Reshade breaks with my VR. Using Pimax Crystal and Pimax OpenXR Runtime.

 

Is the rF2 video much more natural?
What do you think the interior of a real car and the asphalt are like?

 

Now you reminded me we are missing a great track - Hungaroring

 

As someone whose entire career was in the print industry, being able to calibrate my monitors has always been critical. Even the cheaper devices show you just how badly calibrated monitors are from the factory. Notwithstanding the bad color calibration, the brightness settings are always far from correct. For me, a device calibration is a necessity and a very worthwhile expense.

 

Exactly!!
As a color professional I can only agree, unfortunately colorimetry, the color management of the various peripherals (whether monitors, inkjets, scanners or offset printers) is always a very complicated topic to understand and explain for those who are not familiar with of the sector....

 

The question I ask myself more than once when fiddling with colours, graphic settings and saturation is: How does real life look actually?
That sounds like a very easy question to answer... But it's not

 

This is what I use for my monitor. No guesswork. There are cheaper alternatives, but nothing works as good as a hardware calibration.

https://www.amazon.com/Calibrite-ColorChecker-Display-Pro-CCDIS3/dp/B0973JMM4S

 

All this about monitors is great, but at the end of the day it depends on what the developer wants to convey and what expectations people have.
I always think that those that use the cartoonish argument and say that iracing or raceroom looks more realistic is because they want what they see on TV more than in reality, that is the reason replays look "good" in those games, they are "as seen on TV" simulators and DirectX9 by the way, when they are in Directx12 they probably will look different.

 

I use VR exclusively, I don't watch replays. My interpretation is solely that of how immersed I feel in the car. I find that LMU had a very realistic look - I can easily be fooled into thinking i'm in car on track. I am pleased to say that from what I can tell from the limited YT clips of 1.6 the lighting in AMS2 looks to be improved. I wont really know until I can try for myself, but I'm pretty hopeful.

 

What basic (i.e. affordable) tools for monitor calibration would you recommend?

 

I haven't used either, but for simple monitor calibration both brands should do the trick.

https://www.amazon.com/Calibrite-Display-123-Colorimeter-Calibration/dp/B0CW27QFWN
or
https://www.amazon.com/Datacolor-SpyderX-Pro-Calibration-Photographers/dp/B07M6KPJ9K

 

I see no difference between the current 1.5 and 1.6, not saying there aren't differences because i am sure if i saw side-by-side comparisons i will see a difference, but at a glance it looks the same to me. From the Reiza video the reason it looks natural and like you are watching an IMSA race is due to the overcast weather.

It is a similar situation to the Ride gameplay video that people were commenting how it looks photorealistic, these kind of weather conditions give a more real impression than if it is all sunny, here it is explained.

 

If people say things are "too colorful" why don't those the same people just reduce their screen saturation ? Problem solved.

 

Why touching the screen settings when you can simply override with reshade or nvidia/adrenaline app?

 

If anything AMS2 is still pretty desaturated compared to what things look like at a real race weekend, IMO. Went to the Long Beach GP last year and the McLaren Indycars were somehow way, way more orange than they looked in photos, same with the acid green of the Vasser-Sullivan Lexus GT3s. Not unexpected for a sunny day in a colorful city like Long Beach, obviously, but racing is just… colorful, in general. It’s not Call of Duty.