BeamNG.drive - PBR Materials and Graphics Update

Looks amazing, although i'm more interested in Gridmap v3.

 

Basically this. Global Illumination would fix a lot of this anyway since occlusion is worked out dynamically and doesn't need to be guessed or baked, but I don't know how they'd do it with the current lighting system, if it's even worth doing at all. For me, aside from the plastic-looking materials, it is the single most obvious aesthetic flaw in the game that makes it look aged. That being said, PBR materials already fixes the materials and it's a welcome step towards improving the look of the game massively, which I'm massively grateful for.

 

Sorry, i thought you didn't understand. I'm really stupid.

 

Well I mean, the update hasn't come out yet, so maybe by that time, they will fix up some of the dodgy shadows (hopefully). And just remember, we're one step closer to GI

(Can't wait for gridmap V3)

 

I dont think people here fully understand what global illumination is and how most games do it these days.
Global illumination is all about how light bounces, so your red car creating spill on a white wall or a white wall brightening up a shadowed alleyway. Games do this pre-baked 95% of the time, as real time GI has only really become feasible in the last few years with RTX and UE5's Lumen. In fact, most shadows under cars in video games are not really calculated shadows. Usually a texture of some sort to fake the AO look under the cars.
The changes you guys want is a proper lighting overhaul, since currently the AO is very cheap/noisy, and shadows are just tinted shadow maps. Lighting from the sky is applied uniform over everything, which is why interior areas like tunnels look lit even when they are not.

 

Im really looking forward to it too!

About the shadows under cars, SSAO has been the big contributer in BeamNG so far and they introduced changes to it a while ago so im guessing it stays for a while yet. The old one had flaws which could be worked around with the settings, after the quality bug was fixed (broken code in the postfx files so it was locked on low or medium) but the new one cant be adjusted so far for the game, only in Photo Mode. IF its still used and IF its adjustable then it will help with that

 

They would have to have a map for that to split the metallic and roughness, unless you assume the paint is also worn out and rough, though with a map they could be at different

It's kind of funny the games with the best lighting systems are the old ones with direct lighting. Super crisp shadows and always immediately obvious that objects were intersecting or not. The new PBR pipeline has much better materials and lighting effects in general, but those shadows now are super expensive.
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Well they already had a lighting pass before, and now with the PBR materials there's more incentive. But the fact that there's a dedicated art team now makes it more likely that it will happen.

Yeah, not sure why people think it will help with shadows. I've seen some semi-real time probes for changing conditions, but I'm no game expert. Closest I got to dealing with it was Blender's Eevee render for a friend's bathroom remodel. It only helps the shadows if it's pre-baked, but since Beam is dynamic that doesn't help. It would just be bounce lighting, which is still cool. Doubt they'd implement ray tracing.

 

Also, if they're adding roughness and specular, will this allow modding in new effects, such as iridescent and glitter?

 

Bringing something up that bothers me for quite some time: Anti Aliasing.

Are there any improvements on that front? The game has a level of detail that is too much for SMAA or FXAA to handle. (Especially grass, trees or fences)
TAA would definitely fix this issue while not costing that much performance. There are users on the Steam-forums bringing up this problem as well.

 

>Sussus Amogus

Get out of my headGet out of my headGet out of my headGet out of my headGet out of my headGet out of my headGet out of my headGet out of my headGet out of my headGet out of my head

Also, pretty sure PBR inherently allows iridescent and glitter effects

 

PBR does not inherently allow that. iridescent is a shader effect due to how it reacts to light being different then just 'light comes in, bounces, and goes out'. Car paint is as well, which is why beamng has clear coat, its added as a custom shader. Glitter would be interesting, since a shader file has been in the files for that forever, but as well is technically not brought with pbr. You can create a glitter esque effect but proper glitter is another thing that would be done on the car paint side, since car paint flakes are under the clear coat.

 

Release date?

 

When update will be ready... There is no specific date yet.

 

Depends on the node setup. They could just have it be roughness and metallic, though I think I saw they were doing metallic flake paint. Car paint is actually a major pain in the ass to make a shader for. If they're going as far as flakes and clear coats it could be a pretty intricate shader.

 

Tbf I'm very hyped for this update because the game may finally be somewhat immersive.
For the longest time I've played this with keyboard, because IMO, everything looks plastic like and fake (mostly vehicles). I feel like I'm pulling out my wheel to play an arcade game almost.

 

If you want a dated looking BeamNG.drive then you can go and play Rigs of Rods. BeamNG is all about realism, therefore it has to be as modern looking as possible.

 

possibly