Canyon: Screenshot/Video/Article Collection

[fastforza]

Hylis are you 100% sure that these shots are IN-GMAE shots running in REAL TIME??? Or are they simply CGI placeholders?

It must be the power of the new graphics engine Nadeo developed. It will also depend on your GPU and other hardware.

I'd love to see a benchmark on an OC i7 PC sporting dual ATI 6990's.

[haenry]

I think these pictures are made with the TM-shoot tool. So they may be rendered in the MT.

[eyebo]

There's no spinning wheels in the shots, so it probably wasn't made with the video renderer (if it's anything similar to the TMF one). It's probably just the game on max graphics. Come on, it's not THAT incredible. Haven't you guys ever played Half Life 2, even on medium graphics it looks this good. A lot of optimization can be done in the rendering engine.

TM2 has a new engine with dynamic lighting where light bounces from one object to another. Plus you get lightmaps incorporated into the challenge files. As far as I know TMS/TMO enviros didn't even have lightmaps. And Stadium's lightmaps didn't always work the best, sometimes with client side render errors. TM2 will include the lightmaps directly in the challenge files, so we won't have to deal with that anymore. So tracks will look amazing and load quickly.

To me it's not a huge surprise that it looks this good. These graphics are on par with what we'd expect from a modern racing game. I'd even venture to say that some textures look a little low quality, though that usually won't be a problem when you're flying by them at 500kph.

Please don't misunderstand me though, I'm totally stoked about the game. It's going to be a real joy to play. Some of the visuals look downright real, especially on the secondary scenery blocks (the ones with the shrubbery). But lets keep things in perspective.

[wiidesire-2]

Hello eyebo,

it's a very bad example to compare Trackmania 2 with half life 2. Probably it's also bad to compare Trackmania 2 with Grand Tourismo 5 (Dirt 3) and you know why?

because it's not a normal racing game. It's will be the most unrelastic ( loops,jumps,etc.), but it will be also realistic ( graphic) game we have ever seen. If you compare Trackmania 2 Screenshots to Dirt 3 ( I have it, very good graphic / in my opinion best from racing games), of course Dirt 3 is a little bit better, but I wouldn't like Trackmania 2 with this graphics. Dirt 3 has much better graphics of the cars, but I think the environment ( mountains,...) isn't that good as trackmania 2.

It's very hard to mix unrealism with realism and I like it, that the graphics of the cars are ok, but the scenery looks perfect. The scenery looks reallife for me ( just look at : http://www.pic-upload.de/view-9781112/t ... 2.png.html), and the cars looks like Trackmania-style . Thats a perfect mix in my opinion


Regards,

Max

[eyebo]

I wasn't comparing the games themselves. Obviously those are far different games stylistically.

I only meant to give an example of an advanced rendering engine that's already a few years old and looks really good. It seems to me that a first person shooter and a racing game aren't that dissimilar when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of the actual engine powering the graphics behind the game. That's why the same engine will be able to power Trackmania2, ShootMania, and QuestMania.

I agree with you that it's the mix of realistic graphics and unrealistic and crazy driving parts which makes TM so fun.

[elitechris]

Exactly, wiid. Nadeo has proved they can make a mix of unrealism and realism in great proportions. And honestly, I also wouldn't like to see TM2 with perfect graphics, however, improving graphics from TMUF was necessary. Nadeo saved the originalness, which I admire them for that a lot.

I think we shouldn't ask Nadeo for more (only in proper circumstances) and let them do their job. Maybe, because of that, they will release TM2 sooner.

[eyebo]

I think I need to clarify why I said what I said.

On the previous page, Isamu put in doubt that the recent screenshots could possibly be directly from the game without some fancy rendering being done and that we won't actually see this level of graphics in-game. In the same post he was incredibly excited about the graphics. So surely he was very positive about them, but also cautious.

My post was simply meant to put some context to the screenshots. The graphics aren't beyond the realm of what graphics cards could do even a few years ago. I used Half Life 2 as an example, but other games and gaming engines were also very advanced.

My point was, the screenshots are real, and from in-game (obviously with angles from the replay editor). Anyone with a decent graphics card will probably play with that level of graphics.

[Trackmaniack]

I sure hope I can play this maxed out. I don't have my old rig anymore, but still can't afford this years rockets...

[wiidesire-2]

Trackmania 2: Baut Rennstrecken, Shooter und Rollenspiele
Fakten

ManiaPlanet beinhaltet Trackmania 2, Questmania und Shootmania
Trackmania 2 ist ein Episodenspiel
Trackmania 2 - Canyon erscheint im Herbst mit rund 60 Strecken
ein großer Editor mit dreimal so vielen Bauteilen als im Vorgänger integriert
zentrale Internetseite mit Neuigkeiten und herunterladbaren Strecken geplant
realistischere Optik mit Schadensmodell
im Juli soll der Beta-Test starten

Trackmania 2:

Create Tracks, shoot and adventure games facts:

-Maniaplanet includes Trackmania 2, Questmania and Shootmania
-Trackmania 2 ist ein episode-appetizer
-Trackmania 2- Canyon will be released in autumn with around 60 tracks, a big editor with 3 times more blocks as in the previous game
-central internetpage with news and downloadable tracks
-realisitc graphic with visual damage
-beta should start in Juli

some interesting: ( not many new things):

Die Entwickler luden in Intervallen einen Teil der Spielergemeinschaft zu sich ein und ließen die neuen Strecken von ihnen testen.

The developers invited in time intervalls a part of the community and let them test the new tracks..


full article:

http://www.spieletipps.de/artikel/3249/1/

[Filipe1020]

Hylis, the god of the racing games!