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[Psychotext]

However I can't get over the fact that we were told all screens have been made with the ingame photo mode tools. This obviously wan't true.

I wouldn't say it's not true, because I've got shots looking as good if not better than most of the Turn 10 ones (I do a lot of photography so I arguably have a better eye for it than Che )... the problem is what happens afterwards.

Look at it on your console and it'll look utterly fantastic. The problem is obviously to do with the upload / export. Obviously not something Turn 10 had to deal with as they'd be pulling them directly off their dev machines. Look on the bright side, it's something that can be fixed, it's just a question of if they will.

 

[nofi]

I wouldn't say it's not true, because I've got shots looking as good if not better than most of the Turn 10 ones (I do a lot of photography so I arguably have a better eye for it than Che )... the problem is what happens afterwards.

Look at it on your console and it'll look utterly fantastic. The problem is obviously to do with the upload / export. Obviously not something Turn 10 had to deal with as they'd be pulling them directly off their dev machines. Look on the bright side, it's something that can be fixed, it's just a question of if they will.

I agree. Some of the photos I've taken look amazing on my 360, it's just the compression used when downloading them.

 

[Pepto]

Two weeks to the release date and it seems to me like I won't be playing the game this month because of the problems fanatec is having.

 

[Fortinbras]

I agree. Some of the photos I've taken look amazing on my 360, it's just the compression used when downloading them.

So in other words I'm able to look at my pretty photos myself but I won't be able to show them to others in all their glory.

All that because of stupid regulations like missing USB support and horrible compression. Great.

Right now I'm really looking forward to GT5. As far as I know no Sony game with photo mode is missing USB support or compresses the pictures to hell. In times like these I ask myself why I'm still paying for LIVE. This is a Microsoft game, I pay for their servers and yet they don't deliver. But that's another topic.

 

[Lucius86]

I have just purchased an MS FF racing wheel to move over from the controller - so excited!!!

With the demo and the GT3 Porsche I could get in the top 1% with the controller.....but I know that it will take a little while to reach that level again with the wheel as I have to get used to it. What would you say is the best way to adapt and learn to race with the wheel? Any particular driving techniques???

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

I agree. Some of the photos I've taken look amazing on my 360, it's just the compression used when downloading them.

Yeah, exactly. Obvs, T10 are exporting their shit world class style. I'd definitely be blaming MS way more than them. This is clearly a bandwith-type issue, as I'm sure T10 didn't pony up the money out of their own pocket to run the FM.net network.

 

[Dina]

Photomode reveal is disappointing, to say the least.

 

[Randy Lanzarote]

Ouch at the compression in those photomode shots.

Same scenario as Banjo Kazooie last year; release one of the best looking games of the year, then screw it up by having badly compressed images to show it off.

For shame!


edit: why not allow the VIP members to have uncompressed images.... the great unwashed masses won't care either way, but its important to us nerdlingers!

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

edit: why not allow the VIP members to have uncompressed images.... the great unwashed masses won't care either way, but its important to us nerdlingers!

There's your answer right there. Way more of them then there are of us. If I can't get my Scion xB after almost half a decade of straight up begging, well, I wouldn't hold your breath.

 

[Psychotext]

Same scenario as Banjo Kazooie last year; release one of the best looking games of the year, then screw it up by having badly compressed images to show it off.

For shame!

Yeah, now that really was annoying. A game as clean as N&B really doesn't look good when overcompressed.

 

[Randy Lanzarote]

There's your answer right there. Way more of them then there are of us. If I can't get my Scion xB after almost half a decade of straight up begging, well, I wouldn't hold your breath.

Numbers matter not, when you have mastered the SRK -FADC - Ultra on SF4. I'll take them all on!

Spoiler

I'm also pretty good with a bowstaff.

 

[eso76]

Turn 10 really outdid themselves.

They'be been showing us photomode pics of photomode.

: \


other than that positano looks gorgeous (and that 500 too) too bad most returning tracks make the game look like a very marginal improvement over fm2.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

ther than that positano looks gorgeous (and that 500 too) too bad most returning tracks make the game look like a very marginal improvement over fm2.

What, visually? Because after seeing the Quick Look, this looks like a 2.5 times improvement overall over FM2. Way better assists, completely blown open Storefront (I can sell decals instead of just putting them up for auction? I mean, seriously, this is a total gamechanger. I can make an awesome Noodle head and keep it up forever and make a constant stream of money off it, forever, funneling new cars and better upgrades into career, forever. You don't have to go around and try and pimp your auction for the two hours it's up, I mean, seriously, this alone, for me at least, is such a massive improvement over 2 it's like I don't even know where to start. Huge.) Where was I?

Oh yeah, FM2 : FM3::El Mariachi : Desperado

 

[AMUSIX]

I think he was talking specifically of the visuals on the returning tracks....at least, I hope he was. Because most everything else is a huge step forward.


In any case, as Turn 10 said, Forza 3 is really for different groups of people:
Drivers, Tuners, Artists, Photographers, Videographers

wait...that was at E3. I guess now it's more:
Drivers, Tuners, Artists, Photographers, Videographers

Spoiler

yes, I'm bitter about the removal of creativity features

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

But, I mean, people share their Halo photos and stuff, right? It's not like they completely closed off the loop of sharing photos. I'd maybe italicize it or asterix it, but I don't know about crossing it out completely.

 

[AMUSIX]

But, I mean, people share their Halo photos and stuff, right? It's not like they completely closed off the loop of sharing photos. I'd maybe italicize it or asterix it, but I don't know about crossing it out completely.

crossing it out completely is pretty close...the compression means sharing outside of the game is next to pointless.

it's like they said "hey, we're going to give you a nice SLR camera to work with." And then you show up, and they hand you a cell phone camera. As for the videographers...well, they were just ignored entirely.

 

[eso76]

What, visually? Because after seeing the Quick Look, this looks like a 2.5 times improvement overall over FM2.

Visually, of course. The amount of changes and improvements to everything, from physics to features is something we very rarely see in sequels these days.

I'm just saying that the game retains a lot of what made some people say fm2 looked bad while others said it looked good; Visuals fluctuate quite a lot; the game goes from not even looking like a sequel to fm2 on the same hardware to looking so similar it's hard to tell them apart.



Yeah, photomode certainly doesn't look as attractive as it did.
Not only did they cut the ability to take pics of interiors and remove the driver (the debug version allowed T10 to do that, final retail won't...and i'm pretty sure this is the case with all the pics taken from "behind the trees" or anywhere else outside the track barriers we've seen) but compression makes them look awful. I'd rather have half the slots to upload pics at double the quality, if space on fm.net really is the issue (come on...we're talking 100kb...).

I wonder what happens with exported replays...

 

[sneaky77]

any chance they are using the old photomode system because is not the 27th and they don't have it live yet?

 

[AMUSIX]

any chance they are using the old photomode system because is not the 27th and they don't have it live yet?

not a chance, as the compression is done before the upload.

though eso brings up another area of disappointment. For months I asked if photos can be taken from outside the track, and the only response I ever got were shots taken from outside the barriers. Now, it seems that we're confined to the boundaries. And can't have the camera at a height of over 2 meters. And can't shoot from inside the car.

Essentially, none of these shots can be taken by the players in photo mode, even though we were repeatedly told that they came from just pausing the game and snapping the shot:

Now, it should be noted that I don't have the game. Instead, I am relying on the reports of those who do have the game, and on what I've seen in various videos and streams of the game being played.

 

[Diablohead]

No internal shots... I heard that before but along with gimped photomode all I want to say is FUCK forza 3! There should be a penalty for lies and false expectations.

That last image is so high up I never expected to make pics like that, but the rest like being behind some trees (that wv shot last week?) or having the chance to take some cool internal cockpit photos showing the action out of the window... PGR3 allowed it

 

[sneaky77]

not a chance, as the compression is done before the upload.

oh ok.. I thought it may be like facebook where it compresses your images horrible when it uploads. so maybe they had a way to display the native.. if so yes is very dissapointing, doesn't bother me as much cause I dont really use it.. but I was looking forward to seeing the shots by some people here

There should be a penalty for lies and false expectations.

There is, the game doesn't come out till the 27th, so you can just not buy it if it's something that important for you. The only penalty is them not getting your cash.

 

[Psychotext]

we were repeatedly told that they came from just pausing the game and snapping the shot

Technically if you paused the replay with the HUD off and took a photo (either of the screen, or doing it direct feed), you could get most of those angles, except for the in car view obviously.

They're not photomode though... unless there's a way of unlocking the height / track boundaries that I'm unaware of. I still don't understand why the height option is so limited, surely a little more height wouldn't have us showing the outer boundaries of the geometry?

 

[nofi]

none of these shots can be taken by the players in photo mode

I don't see why at least two of them couldn't be.

 

[phil_t]

not a chance, as the compression is done before the upload.

though eso brings up another area of disappointment. For months I asked if photos can be taken from outside the track, and the only response I ever got were shots taken from outside the barriers. Now, it seems that we're confined to the boundaries. And can't have the camera at a height of over 2 meters. And can't shoot from inside the car.

Essentially, none of these shots can be taken by the players in photo mode, even though we were repeatedly told that they came from just pausing the game and snapping the shot:
[/img]


Now, it should be noted that I don't have the game. Instead, I am relying on the reports of those who do have the game, and on what I've seen in various videos and streams of the game being played.

I think the disappointment is totally valid, not sure it's a deal breaker or anything, just a bit of a shame..

I would like some understanding as to why these decisions are made, rather then let us 'guess' and postulate who is to blame and why, just so we can decide whether we can reconcile it or not.

I can forsee that MS may have the most influence, no USB transfers, limit the upload bandwidth, not allow the camera to get into a position it can see the 'extent' of the landscape and provide undesirable shots etc..

Us more techie types see nothing wrong in allowing the camera to see bad things, as we would only use it to create good photo's not some blank blue void that may represent the edge of the world, but I can see MS not siding with us on that one.. which is a real shame..

 

[AMUSIX]

I don't see why at least two of them couldn't be.

in order, they are:
1) too high
2) too high, past the fence
3) in the car
4) past the barrier
5) too high

and Psychotext, the effects on these shots make it clear they were done in photo mode.

What sucks is that the ability to get shots like these was there in development. It's not like there was some sort of programming barrier, or that they didn't have enough time to implement them, but for some reason they weren't given to the players.
It could be, as phil_t suggests, trying to protect against bad shots. Of course, then they go and ensure every shot looks sub-par by overly compressing them. Unless they can do something about the compression (and I doubt they can) FM3 will always come up short in the eyes of the masses who just see what gets posted on the slew of game sites, boards, and blogs.

 

[Psychotext]

I probably wasn't clear. I meant they're not photomode as they're not shots we could take in photomode. I was simply talking about ways to get those angles.

 

[CaptainRizla]

Maybe Che will press a button and it'll all become ok on the 23rd. Just like magic.

 

[Diablohead]

Maybe Che will press a button and it'll all become ok on the 23rd. Just like magic.

I don't see how this can happen, they did nothing to forza 2's photomode after all the bitching about compression and limits there with lots of invisible walls. It was worse back then also because we had come fresh from the photomode from pgr3 which was very open with cameras nearly anywhere, a good distance away from the cars and clear images, and exporting photos from pgr3 was patched in nearly a year after the game was launched!

 

[sneaky77]

some shots here look good, so I don't know what's going on
http://www.flickr.com/photos/santif2d/3994847554/in/set-72157622546608334/

edit: they are not awesome by any means.. but they look a bit better than what has been posted.

 

[Diablohead]

some shots here look good, so I don't know what's going on
http://www.flickr.com/photos/santif2d/3994847554/in/set-72157622546608334/

edit: they are not awesome by any means.. but they look a bit better than what has been posted.

What. A. MESS.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

I can't tell, is that bad or good?

 

[sneaky77]

I can't tell, is that bad or good?

is still highly compressed... which is disappointing.. there is a 7 page thread on the forza site already

 

[rocksteady1983]

I'm going with bad, the compression seems even worse than FM2. I'm so pissed right now. I wish Che would stop reading all our posts and actually give us a concrete answer. If we can't get our photos to be the quality of what che and turn 10 have posted I will honestly punch a whole through the wall due to another empty promise by che and turn 10. And I dont buy the whole "oh i was misinformed bullshit", you knew everything the entire time, LOD model switch, photomode compression etc. Just for once come in here and be completely honest with us and tell us what we need to know. Its getting ridiculous with this game.

End rant.

 

[BlinkGT]

Even the FM3 logo is fucking compressed. :/

 

[RSTEIN]

While I appreciate that MS and T10 didn't mind opening up reviews so early because they prolly knew they'd be sick as all hell, seeing this much of the game this far away from release is JUST MEAN.

It kind of reminds me of Killzone 2 :lol A flood of reviews, advertisements, hype, etc., a month before the actual release date.

GRR!!!!

 

[Fleet of Foot]

I'm going with bad, the compression seems even worse than FM2. I'm so pissed right now. I wish Che would stop reading all our posts and actually give us a concrete answer. If we can't get our photos to be the quality of what che and turn 10 have posted I will honestly punch a whole through the wall due to another empty promise by che and turn 10. And I dont buy the whole "oh i was misinformed bullshit", you knew everything the entire time, LOD model switch, photomode compression etc. Just for once come in here and be completely honest with us and tell us what we need to know. Its getting ridiculous with this game.

End rant.

You need to re-evaluate what's important in life.

 

[p3tran]

I really hope Dan addresses and fixes
a) photomode.
b) dragster countdown.

 

[Diablohead]

You need to re-evaluate what's important in life.

Not being lied too?

I really hope Dan addresses and fixes
a) photomode.
b) dragster countdown.

I just read about this on FM.net, it's like the demo where only in the last 1 second you get control of the revs on the car, lol what the hell.

 

[rocksteady1983]

You need to re-evaluate what's important in life.

I know whats important in life, doesn't mean i can't bitch about something i plan on spending $60 on. Especially when all the facts are cloudy.

 

[Dural]

If we can't take photos from inside the car then what was the point of the high LOD interiors? That would be the only place we would see them.

 

[RSTEIN]

I know whats important in life, doesn't mean i can't bitch about something i plan on spending $60 on. Especially when all the facts are cloudy.

Yeah, I couldn't care less about the whole LOD-model-swapping thing. I'm in the cockpit the entire race and can't see my own car anyway. The graphics are mindblowing as they are.

But this is just stupid. Just fucking stupid. Compressed, fugly pics? When a huge draw of the series is the ability to create and share pictures and liveries? No interior shots?

It doesn't impact me or my eventual enjoyment of the game. I'm really not into taking pics and all that stuff. I just really want to race. But unlike LOD-gate I can see why this would seriously piss people off and I think it's a huge blunder on T10's part.

 

[Psychotext]

If we can't take photos from inside the car then what was the point of the high LOD interiors? That would be the only place we would see them.

You can take photos through the windows... I've tried and it looks surprisingly good. But yeah, it's no-where near the same as being able to get in.

 

[.nimrod]

[...]
But this is just stupid. Just fucking stupid. Compressed, fugly pics? When a huge draw of the series is the ability to create and share pictures and liveries? No interior shots?
[...]

I guess the "HD" .wmvs are gonna be even worse.
If it weren't for the classic car dlc code, i would have already cancelled my preorder, since i'm probably only going to drive older cars throughout the career >:|

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

It's a drag, because honestly one of the freshest things about FM3 visually are those slow shots over the opening menus. To be able to replicate that mood on every track with my Noodle car in photos would have been totally rockin'.

 

[rocksteady1983]

Anyone want to compile a list of the "facts" we have been told that turned out to be "misinformed"? There's too many, I can't recall them all.

 

[tirant]

I just read about this on FM.net, it's like the demo where only in the last 1 second you get control of the revs on the car, lol what the hell.

And this from a supposed Driving Simulator...

The same with the qualifying sessions. How can you pretend to be a racing simulator without even having a real qualifying session???

 

[Fortinbras]

Anyone want to compile a list of the "facts" we have been told that turned out to be "misinformed"? There's too many, I can't recall them all.

That wouldn't end well. The hilarious claims about the improved damage model (+50%!) come to mind.

Let's just say the photo mode is the newest element in a series of disappointing unveilings from a developer who claims to put the community before anything else.

 

[Diablohead]

A moderator from FM.net replied to their 7 page topic on photomode in the F3 section, then locked it.

Hi everyone, I shared this with all my good friends over in the Photomode forum, but I guess you missed it.

What are my honest thoughts?

The game is drop dead gorgeous. My pictures... even the crappy ones... are stunning... The GOOD ones are just as I suspected... pure magazine fodder. Is it real... or is it Forza 3? I've taken well over 50 photos at this point, and from the detail on the cars, THE RIMS!! the tires, the TRACKS! it's just nearly impossible to stop wandering around the car without getting drool all over the freakin' camera lens. We'll all need towels, that's all there is to it.

I've got a 720 x 480 video capture card that won't do these photos justice. phRedesign told me yesterday that the process for getting the pictures out of the storefront is somewhat convoluted until the servers go online. I have asked him in a PM a few minutes ago, if he has time today, to grab some pictures I took of a Subaru he painted so I can show you all first hand what you have to look forward to.

No disregard intended to the pictures that have been posted earlier in this thread, but I had to wince when I saw those. It's not download compression, because there's NOTHING coming off the servers right now. That essentially means that the whole point of this thread indicating that Houston has a problem is moot. As much as the conjecture flying around right now in this thread has made interesting reading, this thread is not what I'm seeing in the full release version of the game so I'm going to save everyone from any further concern about a Photomode fail.

Photomode ROCKS in FM3. The dynamic levels are 10 times what they were in FM2 which has allowed me to take shots directly into the sunlight and pull stunning detail out of the shaded areas of a car that would knock you socks off.

So hang tight, relax, and I'll ask if we can get some pictures posted that I've taken in the past couple of days. T10 won't be in for a few more hours, and I've got to get back to work at MY actual job.

That wouldn't end well. The hilarious claims about the improved damage model (+50%!) come to mind.

Let's just say the photo mode is the newest element in a series of disappointing unveilings from a developer who claims to put the community before anything else.

I think the 50% damage thing was more about internal damage, more parts can break.

 

[rocksteady1983]

A moderator from FM.net replied to their 7 page topic on photomode in the F3 section, then locked it.

Thats their job, to calm people down. Hopefully its true though. But until I see proof the shots we take will look like che's, I'm still extremely let down. We'll see, but I'm betting they will look like Jubes.

 

[p3tran]

ok guys, this info comes from a moderator on fm.net:

the servers and the way that photos are uploaded for forza3 are officially offline, not working.
he says that photomode is absolutely phenomenal and we dont have to worry a bit.


if this is true, then it is possible that maybe someone wanted to help the vip guys with their preparatory work, and maybe opened a temporary way to upload pics.
not the final way, not the proper one, just a way to upload them.

I guess we'll find out soon(ish), but this ~100kb jpg does not fly with me anyway.


edit: yeah, what diablo pasted.