Forza Motorsport: misleading trailer and trailer, did Turn10 lie? | Xbox One

The new Forza Motorsport game is now available, six years after the release of the last episode in the series. Although the game’s reviews are generally good, some dedicated players of the series are very disappointed with the details. Some point out elements that are completely absent from the game, although they were present in the presentation videos. He lies ? mistakes? We do inventory.

Has Forza Motorsport suffered a downgrade?

Now that Forza Motorsport is available, many comparison videos are starting to appear. Whether it’s comparisons to Gran Turismo 7 or promotional videos for the game, there’s something for everyone.

Some images published on social media show many differences between the Forza Motorsport game in the final version compared to what the developers presented in their videos a few months ago. Did the game suffer from a drop in graphics? This is what we will try to see.

One video compares Forza Motorsport gameplay as revealed by Turn10 in June 2022 and the final game available a year later. At the time, Chris Esaki insisted on the details put into the Maple Valley track.

Everything you see is new and was captured using photogrammetry and 3D scanning. Advanced rendering and procedural generation technologies bring a new level of realism to the track.

Chris Esaki, June 2022.

The comparative video shows that the game is generally identical to what was presented, but some details are still different:

• The fog in the forest is absent in the final video, but this may be a difference in weather timing.
• Vegetation is present in the background on the hills in the final game, and was not present in the final game reveal.
• Track details appear less clear in the final version of the game, and some rough edges are absent.

• Part of the circle shows that the final game has less vegetation, the asphalt terrain is less present and the cones shown in the video revealare absent.

• The grass at the edge of the track is less dense in the final.
• The trees at the edge of the path are rendered less well in the final game. Plant density varies and the light show looks much better in the video reveal than in the final match.
• The method of applying the light varies at night. the video reveal It gives the impression that the light has real volume while the effect is flat and less pronounced in the final game. the video reveal It also featured a fully lit amusement park, apart from the final game and replaced with marquees.

Other notable differences in the video relate to damage. There are some dents and dents on the car’s bodywork when revealed and are absent from the final game, but it’s difficult to judge these items without knowing if the player had the exact same engagements in the game compared to the ones in the June 2022 video.

The before/after images may look like they largely work against the final game, but upon closer inspection, the damage to the vehicle is quite similar. The difference in presentation comes, once again, from the mismatched light management between the two videos, which looks more realistic in the trailer reveal.

Additionally, we don’t know where the sun was positioned when the player made the shot, which could bias the comparison on their image on the right. So we tested by adjusting the light rendering in the player shot in the final version of the game, and by playing with the contrast and light in the final version of Forza Motorsport (image right), we finally arrived at a very close view of the trailer reveal.

Finally, the last notable differences again relate to reflections and light, a key element in getting a realistic rendering of the game. In the June 2022 trailer, the reflections of the red car on the door of the car next to it are clear. The effects of tree reflections on the black cover are also very detailed and smooth.

In the final game, reflections are less precise and detailed, and glare is less noticeable. Digital Foundry also states that environment reflections on the car’s bodywork run at 30 frames per second in the final game.

Does Ray Tracing deliver on its promises?

Ray Tracing was mentioned very early in the game’s development by the Turn10 teams. A detailed video on this topic was also released in June 2022 to support this technology of making light and reflection effects more realistic.

Ray Tracing is available in the final game. The effects are visible on the vehicles’ bodies, but there’s something missing that Turn10 showed off: applying Ray Tracing to the environments.

Digital Foundry confirmed during its analysis that some Ray Tracing effects on environments are absent from the final game, even on PC. The Xbox Series S also doesn’t offer Ray Tracing while racing, but that’s not surprising here.

Digital Foundry points out that not all of the Ray Tracing effects detailed in the January 2023 video will end up being available in the final game. Turn10 explained that its textures and shaders have been “reworked from scratch to high resolution and optimized for a cutting-edge ray tracing experience.” In the video, the studio simultaneously shows the image below in which we see the reflections of the environment on a wet surface. This Ray Tracing quality is therefore absent from the final game, whether on consoles or PC.

Digital Foundry concludes that what Turn10 offered was very good, but expectations were higher given the promotional videos that Microsoft broadcast to promote the game.

In June 2023, we published an article wondering if the special light show teased by Turn10 would eventually miss the game, and then wondered where Ray Tracing on Global Illumination went. We were talking about an article that was deleted by the developers, but it mentioned global lighting via ray tracing.

RTGI, intended for Ray Traced Global Illumination, is not mentioned again, indicating that Turn10 no longer uses this technology in the game. Instead, the developers have only talked about “Real-time Ray Tracing on Circuit”, specifying more details about this. The topic will be shared between now and the game’s launch in October. At this time, these details have not been shared.

so what ?

In the end, we can say that there are many differences between what Turn10 presented and the final game as it was delivered upon release. If you can easily pass a few blades of grass that you don’t really notice when you’re trying to pass a competitor at 120 km/h on a cornering track, the differences in light rendering and ray tracing seem even more significant and noticeable.

It’s completely normal for a game to evolve during development and for choices to be made along the way. But what the Turn10 community and Microsoft criticize on social networks is too much emphasis on some graphical features that, at best, are not well presented in the final game, if not completely absent. Overall, the game is still a graphical success, especially on €500 or €300 consoles like the Xbox Series S.