With the graphics downgraded from the first BeamNG video, will they ever be upgraded again?

BeamNG used to be extremely visually appealing.



I assume that the graphics downgrade is due to the developers switching from Cryengine 3 to Torque3D. However, Cryengine is now open-source, but I've heard the subscription to it is too expensive to be considered. Is there any other alternative engine to be considered? Torque3D isn't an ugly engine, it's just not anything very spectacular or new. Many aspects of it seem very dated (grass sprites, reflections of non-existent terrain, etc), and I would love to see this game get some visual upgrade along the way. While the car physics are very next-generation, the engine definitely doesn't look very next-gen.

 

I wish this too, the graphics from the first few trailers is what made me want this game, (also the physics obv) but now its like the colors are over saturated, and cartoony (still looks amazing, and all the graphical updates they did look amazing compared to before the update) but cry was def a more visually thrilling engine.

 

No, most likely not. The coloration was an artistic choice and I think it looks good, too many mud-brown games these days. Also, tdev has dumped quite a bit of work into T3D himself, adding new features and helping to prepare the OGL port. CryEngine is NOT FOSS AFAIK, I'd like a source for that. One of the biggest reasons for the switch was because they wanted total access to the source of the engine IIRC, and T3D was the best-looking one at the time to offer that.

 

The conflict is they have an extremely realistic model, with non-realistic graphics. It's like having a full-blown helicopter simulator, complete with physics, ballistics, and even precise medical injury issues on the pilot, and cel-shading the entire thing. As far as Cryenging, I said it is open source, not that it was free. http://store.steampowered.com/app/220980/

EDIT: Apparently open source refers to the fact that it is free. By open source, I meant it was commercially available. I now know that is incorrect use of the phrase.

 

At first I was not impressed with the new visual fidelity but I have to say the more I play the update the better I'm liking it. Definitely had to tweak a few default graphics setting right off the bat because they looked too fuzzy or
blurry. My guess is this is all because of the new T3D. Tweaking PostFX and skybox settings worked for my tastes but I don't think that "crispness" is coming back in my opinion.

 

Open Source means you have access to the whole source code of the application. Very few AAA engines offer this. If you say something is Open Source because it is free, prepare for Linux users to rain upon you with the fire of a thousand penguins.
The reason CryEngine looks so "muddy realistic" is because those initial videos pandered to the engine's strengths. If I remember rightly, tdev or gabester said CE can't do dynamic reflections. At all. Like, not even the fake cubemaps we use now. The cars were muddified to make it such that the need for reflections was downplayed, as was placing them on a totally white test map.

 

Open source doesn't just mean free, it means they can change anything about the engine they like, and have full access to the underlying code. I don't claim to know anything about the dev's goals with BeamNG, but I feel like the freedom they have with T3D is vital to the game they want to make, moreso than just looks.

Besides, T3D is improving constantly as it is an active open source project. Who knows how good it'll look when BeamNG.Drive comes out?

 

I think once fresnell shaders for the cars paintwork gets added, and with the right PostFX, Torque3d can look very incredible too.

 

Gameplay > Looks. That's all Im gonna say

It looks amazing to me

(imported from here)

 

The cryengine trailer just used tons of yellowish shaders, IMO that won't make better graphics. I like the clean look of the modern beamng.

 

"Cryengine is now open-source, but I've heard the subscription to it is too expensive to be considered"

isnt that an oxymoron? shame on you Cryengine

 

Open source does not refer to being free or commercially available. It means the source code of the software (or now the phrase is applied to hardware designs too) is available for re-use.
Cryengine is not free. Cryengine source code is not available.
Torque3d however is MIT licensed. If you go and read the MIT license you will find it meets the definition of open source perfectly. The source code is free to download and modify to your needs.
Source code is also available for unreal 4, but it is under a commercial licensing system and therefore not open source.

- - - Updated - - -

It should also be noted that tdev and estama are both contributing to the torque3d source code now. Specifically in github you can find their names tagged in relation to the linux port (itself including an OpenGL rewrite) and windows 64 bit support.

 

For me, graphical quality is the second biggest part of the game, the first is gameplay.

With a game with such good physics, it would be a shame if you were not able to see the details. I do know, however, that this games graphics are pretty good, however I wish they were better. With the race update, they have come quite far, and I hope as time goes by, the graphics will improve in T3D.

Anyway, just my opinion, I just would really like to see this game evolve to have forza-esk graphical; quality, clarity and all round beauty.

 

Well, I hope in a better driving system... now It isn't realistic and It isn't arcade..

 

The colours really are not over saturated. If you want to have something that looks alot like the orignal videos turn on HDR and add a yellow/brown overlay.

Now i may be biased since i prefer my games to actually have colour as opposed to being swamps of brown and bloom.

A key example of this is MWO (running on cry engine 3) (incompetent as lemon developers though)

Here is an example of gameplay with HDR and Filters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmpMvS9I0iA


Here is one where the filters and HDR were removed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7zvMfEzh9Q

See both are in cry-engine 3, but the graphics look almost entirely different. (an engine does not effect graphics, unless your developers are simply using defaults)

 

That screenshot the OP showed was just terrible. It's so brown, it almost looks like an old sepia picture!

 

I was mesing around in the world editor/material editor. 2 things:

I came across what looks to be Uniforms or something for soldiers, etc. Whats that?

I also came across the "dirty" textures for the Covet (only car I was playing with). Windows, etc. How do you get those dirty textures to work on the car? I would def like to see that happen Maybe with the dirty textures, the cars would look a little more like the original videos, since IIRC the cars had a bit of dirt on them, not so shiny and new (a late 80's-early 90s car shoud have a bit of a dirty appearance to them IMO)

 

The soldier stuff is default T3D assets, I think.