With proper culling and polygon-streaming, it shouldn't be a real problem to have grass on track. And if you ever tried ripped content from AC in rF2, you already know they work like a charm.
Provided they're scaled to a correct height and show proper grass blades and properly blend into the base terrain color. Too many of the tracks have extremely tall grass, like 8"-12" tall, in what are mowed areas (should be 3"-4"). Or use the AMS-style "boar bristle" grass blades.
I'm an AC track guy but I'll weigh in some with this as I have some experience with 3D grass. I know in AC if you properly LOD the grass objects so that the grass ever so slightly "crawls" as you drive it has very little impact on frame rate. Also as Emery said above matching the base to the grass or vise versa is key and is often overlooked. AC also has a variation file in the shader so you can have slight color variations over distance which IMO is important. If the 3D grass is all the same exact shade it can look strange. I'm not sure if rF2 has an option like that in it's current shaders. If not then maybe it is something they will add when they go dx11. As for mowed grass it sometimes has to be sort of a compromise. If the grass object is properly short then you need way more grass objects to make it look convincing. So you often go to the taller side of things to help fill it in more. My latest track has mowed grass in real life but I really couldn't have it as short as it should have been without way to many grass objects. I did find one video I guess was done right before they mowed and it was fairly high so I based it off that. 3D grass is also key if you want things like flowers like you would find in spring. It adds a nice bit of detail that catches your eye as you drive by. Here is a shot of that track in AC Here is a shot of Bridgehampton in AC that shows primarily the grass color variation. This was obviously going for a more tall and untouched grass compared to above. Also above the ground texture is based off a google earth image so it required a slightly different approach to the 3D grass texture when compared to what you see below. Above could actually maybe use a bit more variation. I've been working with Toebee a bit as he has been working on bringing my Riverside to rF2. He is currently working on porting the terrain/grass over and so far it looks pretty good. This is a very early WIP but this is a shot Toebee sent me of his progress with RIR. Still some color tweaks needed but it looks like it will work. I'm excited to learn more about rF2 as this project progresses Shot of original in AC for reference
I think it's no coincidence that these shots of grass are from low level. What do they look like when the camera is higher?
With this style grass it is almost invisible from above. This style is a bit more noticeable but as we all know it is always a bit of a compromise and depends on the overall look you are after. The point of this kind of grass was to look wild so it requires a bit more solid 3D grass alpha texture. This is the look I was after for RIR. When driving it really looks good in my opinion and isn't that the most important thing?
LOL, Lilski's grass has been pretty much the best examples I could think of. Really glad he contributed to this thread!
Nice, but doesn't look anything like real grass, which is the problem of most 3D grass attempts. That grass reminds me of Far Cry 1, which was released in 2004. I would not be happy with this level of 3D grass in a 2017 game: The shots from @LilSki are admittedly quite good.
Yes, I'm happy this has a thread. @LilSki 's shots look great. I'm not sure we really need grass to cast shadows as mentioned earlier but tyre track would be good.
The rF2 RIR conversion is being done by Toebee not me. I help were I can but my rF2 modding knowledge is very limited at the moment. The shot above is one of the first tests with the grass added. We discussed that if we cannot get it to look right we may not use it. But so far it seems it might work. overall it is still very early in the conversion process as Toebee is also learning as he goes. I am sure he will start a dedicated thread for it at some point.
i tried to implement "3d grass" too, but i had lighting issues, maybe because wrong settings. i am going to talk with Toebee
Perhaps, this is an interesting article as well -> http://blog.codemasters.com/grid/10/rendering-fields-of-grass-in-grid-autosport/ Check out the included PDF file too.
@LilSki: you did a fantastic job on those tracks for AC. They all look very good and feel convincing. The question though is, how the grass looks for a complete TOD cycle in rF2, wich is not really a thing in AC. I tried some tracks in rF2 that featured grass and there have allways been issues with the grass at night to the point where it really looked ugly. Most screens I have seen with grass in sims, have been day light shots. Would be interesting to see some AMS shots at night too, though it is difficult to draw comparisons has AMS and rF2 have different rendering. At the end, I think that it will be doable in rF2 with DX11 in a fashion that it looks good and performs well, but the question is whether it's really a priority and if there aren't more urgent issues.
Great find, thanks. It shows that there's more to it than just "planting grass", if you want to make it correctly anyway. The best part of it ? when I saw they use a map to generate grass, I think SRPL tool does something similar in rFactor (along with a way better water shader). It was doable in DX9, 3D grass didn't magically appear with DX11, and it didn't look bad either. But having read dev's opinion on the 3D grass on this forum, it won't happen.[/user]
I work in a modding environment aswell, so no need to tell me that 3D grass is doable in DX9 allready. But it has a big impact on performance most of the time and looks quite polygonal, so to get around this you need to find a good balance of density, height and draw distance. I also know that it is an artistic decision. The fact I question it for rF2 in it's current state is that it has looked pretty ugly on the tracks I have seen it, some of them being conversions from GSC or rF1. Maybe it's a problem in the conversion process, but I would actually like to see a video with grass that looks convincing 24/7 in rF2 and playable frame rates.
I am not sure as I said I am curious how the RIR conversion progresses for how it will all work at all hours of the day and with headlights. The point of my shots was more or less to show how it can look when you have the proper shaders and you use them correctly. If rF2 doesn't have the right shaders then it is true that 3D grass will never look right with it. However in many cases even in AC 3D grass looks horrid so the bad 3D grass you are talking about may not be rF2 being at fault but just the modder didn't set it up right. I personally spend many hours with my grass to get the look I want and at all hours that AC can operate in. It is far from an afterthought as it seems to be with many modders.
