Chittagong
Gold Member
I must say that my memory had done tricks to me. While RR6 didn't seem particularly next generation, only firing up RRV made it tangible how big a difference there is. Biggest differences:
- Anti-aliasing: You don't appreciate it until it's not there. After playing RR6, RRV looks like a flickering mess. It's really hard to keep focus as pixels pop in everywhere
- Resolution: Again, HD Era seemed like a buzzword, but it does make a huge difference from the in-car viewpoint especially. The road ahead in RRV is a lot harder to see because of the lack of detail coupled with the flickering due to the lack of anti-aliasing - this has very direct gameplay consequences in being able to anticipate upcoming turns. I didn't enjoy in-car viewpoint in the PS2 generation because I never could quite tell what's coming up - now I know why and enjoy the in-car viewpoint a lot
- High res textures and high polygon models: you may remember RRV cars as not too low-poly and with good textures. Well, go back and take a look. All the texts on the cars are pixelated as hell, and the geometry isn't too hot.
- Landscape complexity: RR6 is set in a big, wide world (or, more accurately, a bowl) with lots of immersive structures in the distance. Meanwhile, the world around you in RRV isn't nearly as vast - you are racing in a pipe essentially instead of a bowl.
I was thinking of posting screens, but decided it'd be pointless, since the biggest difference can be felt only by playing and realizing how the flickering and lack of visibility affect your performance.
Now, RR6 isn't exactly pushing the envelope, and is barely utilizing next-gen performance on things such as physics, particles and shaders. In fact, the shader and physics usage is remarkably scarce. So, there is a lot better to come.
I did the same comparison back in PS1 > PS2 shift, and I must say that I feel this generational jump is much more significant. However, the fact that we had Xbox, which was so significantly more advanced than PS2, has made the jump feel smaller.
- Anti-aliasing: You don't appreciate it until it's not there. After playing RR6, RRV looks like a flickering mess. It's really hard to keep focus as pixels pop in everywhere
- Resolution: Again, HD Era seemed like a buzzword, but it does make a huge difference from the in-car viewpoint especially. The road ahead in RRV is a lot harder to see because of the lack of detail coupled with the flickering due to the lack of anti-aliasing - this has very direct gameplay consequences in being able to anticipate upcoming turns. I didn't enjoy in-car viewpoint in the PS2 generation because I never could quite tell what's coming up - now I know why and enjoy the in-car viewpoint a lot
- High res textures and high polygon models: you may remember RRV cars as not too low-poly and with good textures. Well, go back and take a look. All the texts on the cars are pixelated as hell, and the geometry isn't too hot.
- Landscape complexity: RR6 is set in a big, wide world (or, more accurately, a bowl) with lots of immersive structures in the distance. Meanwhile, the world around you in RRV isn't nearly as vast - you are racing in a pipe essentially instead of a bowl.
I was thinking of posting screens, but decided it'd be pointless, since the biggest difference can be felt only by playing and realizing how the flickering and lack of visibility affect your performance.
Now, RR6 isn't exactly pushing the envelope, and is barely utilizing next-gen performance on things such as physics, particles and shaders. In fact, the shader and physics usage is remarkably scarce. So, there is a lot better to come.
I did the same comparison back in PS1 > PS2 shift, and I must say that I feel this generational jump is much more significant. However, the fact that we had Xbox, which was so significantly more advanced than PS2, has made the jump feel smaller.
