hier mal ein sehr guter post im offiziellen forum der die lage sehr gut widergiebt. steckt viel warheit drin.
"I'm trying to decide how I feel about this whole situation. One one hand, the demo looks very good, a level up from Forza 2, and a lot like the offscreen footage we have been getting of the Camino Viejo track since E3. This in itself is a good thing, and I appreciate that it is still running so smoothly with all of the physics involved. I will be buying the LE version and no doubt enjoying it for months and months.
However, what we see during gameplay simply does not meet the expectations created by Turn 10 themselves through countless interviews and screenshots released thus far. We weren't told that the cars "look slightly better than Forza 2 with less aliasing, but the same treadless tires and brakes, and by the way you can't really see into the interiors."
Instead, the statements were always "We have 10x the polygons, 4x the texture resolution, we even modeled cockpits and undercarriage for all 400 cars." These exact words seemed to show up in every interview with Dan, John Wendl, and other Turn 10 personnel. Nobody once said "...but you'll have to check them out in photomode for the full effect."
People did reasonably question how the 360 could suddenly handle these amazing 10x poly models at 60fps, calling the graphics a generational leap over Forza 2. The usual answer to this was that Turn 10 "completely re-wrote our graphics engine", not that the gameplay models were not the same ones being shown off in screens. In fact, Che himself bluntly denied that there are different models for photomode at all. His exact response when Neogaf user "Ding" asked about if models and other assets are swapped in for photomode: "Wrong." He went on to say that they only things different in photomode were the amount of AA and DOF effects. I don't know how much clearer one can be about a question.
Che has also said here that the intro video was captured entirely in-game, not even in replay mode. Yet when I watch the video in HD it seems like certain parts (livery resolution, clearly visible interiors and especially the Challenger model at the end) are more detailed than what we see in the demo, even in replay mode. Now usually I like how Che handles things and I can't imagine having to deal with a constant stream of bitter hate/fawning praise/whining/misinformation from all sides as he does, but as the public face of the game he needs to manage expectations carefully and truthfully.
Let me be clear, I'm not complaining about the use of LOD models here. Every game has them, and I don't think anyone expects every car in the race to constantly show the highest detail. That would be wasteful. What I wonder is why not even one car (yours, or the one you focus on in replay) can use the highest level of detail in close-ups to prevent some of the unflattering views you get in replay, or the sudden switch of your car between pre-race countdown and in-game. Replays are where it would be most advantageous to use the menu/photomode models, but it seems that at least the exported videos will use these as per Che's comments.
It's not about polygons either. During a race I don't really care exactly how smooth this wheel well or that bumper edge is. I do sort of mind the loss of detailed brakes and tires, exhausts, rear windshield lines, darkened interiors, and in some cases different head or taillights, as in the widely quoted Porsche GT3 .gif with the glitchy light. These are details that were never present in Forza 2, and it was exciting to see them added in Forza 3 screenshots. I think people might not notice a simple reduction in polygons as much as the switching off of all these little things that help define each car, the instant the race begins.
This is getting quite long, so I'll just say this: none (well, very few) of the people bringing up these issues are doing it to hate on the game, and we'll all be playing it come October. Almost everyone in this forum is here because they are a fan of the game, and there's no doubt that Forza 3 has shown huge improvements in every category just 2 years after Forza 2. All we are asking for is less hyperbole, more openness, and a policy of what-you-see-is-what-you-get when it comes to showcasing the game we've all been waiting for."
^^
