Forza Horizon 3 vs 4 vs 5 - Graphics Comparison

[Yann]

Hi,
I took some screenshots from FH 3, 4 and 5 in similar situations (I tried) and thought it would be cool to share this here.

I know many have issues with FH5 (I had my share of those issues as well), but when things are working, this is how they stack against each others.

I personally think Forza Horizon 5 looks really good, and it is a nice improvement over the previous ones when we can max it out. I really like the work they did on lighting, it is quite impressive IMHO.

Close vegetation comparison: https://imgur.com/a/MBKbdDT
From a distance: https://imgur.com/a/VNzUI6i

Original screenshots without compression: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmX6b5Kp

Here are some screenshots from Project Cars 2, Project Cars 3, Riders Republic and Need For Speed Heat for good mesure: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmX6cmGY

All those screenshots are taken at max settings, during gameplay (no photo mode).

Here are my custom visual settings / hardware / drivers: https://i.imgur.com/zz8m1wh.png
If you are experiencing issues, I suggest you try those exact settings / driver (I have not set anything custom in my nvidia control panel).

So if just like me, you're obsessed with how games look (as you can see my flickr is full of those screenshots), and were wondering if Forza Horizon 5 has better graphics than exiting games during gameplay, you might use those screenshots to make your own opinion.

PS: Considering adding in town screenshots too, but since those are less affected with LODs, I thought they were not as important. Let me know what you guys think.

[vongdong]

People are nuts if they don't think 5 looks better than 4

[Yann]

Originally posted by vongdong:

People are nuts if they don't think 5 looks better than 4

Well, different tastes maybe, I don't know...
As a 3D programmer, I can only be impressed with the work Playground did here. Those guys are really good!

[Yann]

bump ;-)

[Derik-For-Real]

best comparison i have seen thnx for effort, there is no discussion that fh5 has the best graphics so far.

I think people are upset about the content of the cars mostly nd some visuals, it has almost the same UI, some cars are reused from other forza's while, there has not been an effort to add more newer cars. It feels like the same cars we have seen in other forza games, but no newer cars we have seen before. I do feel the sameway about the content mostly in terms of cars.

[eXPresso]

Personally I also love the new better look of horizon 5, especially the lighting with the atmospheric fog and god rays in the jungle. (Reminds me a lot of red dead redemption 2) But also the new high quality photoscanned assets look really fantastic. It's probably only details that only people with a clue really notice (and not noticed by any standard user), but at least I see the upgrade immediately :D. I have also heard from many people who complain that they are playing with a GTX 1060 or similar card. No idea where the claim still comes from with a 5 year old graphics card to be able to play with the graphics settings as shown in the trailer... But that's the way the PC community is and always will be.

[Tony]

They need to fix the bad drawing and low res on RTX 20/30 and they are the best looking game

[Yann]

Originally posted by Derik-For-Real:

best comparison i have seen thnx for effort, there is no discussion that fh5 has the best graphics so far.

I think people are upset about the content of the cars mostly nd some visuals, it has almost the same UI, some cars are reused from other forza's while, there has not been an effort to add more newer cars. It feels like the same cars we have seen in other forza games, but no newer cars we have seen before. I do feel the sameway about the content mostly in terms of cars.

Thank you!

I agree with the re-imported cars without additional work.
I picked the same Porsche in those screenshot to see if there was any difference, and I could not find any. To be fair, I think the original model was already of a high enough quality to mark this rework as low priority in the artist/3d programmer teams. Working on lighting and new materials really payed off IMHO.

I drive an Audi A4, and had a BMW E91 Series 3 before that, and to my great disappointment, those cars never made it in Forza. I am really curious about the kind of deal they have with manufacturers. Is it a per car license cost? Is it why they are not adding more cars? Or is it because creating one car (exterior AND interior) is already a massive task, so they only add something like 15-20 cars each time? Actually, I have no idea how many cars were actually added in FH5...

[Yann]

Originally posted by eXPresso:

Personally I also love the new better look of horizon 5, especially the lighting with the atmospheric fog and god rays in the jungle. (Reminds me a lot of red dead redemption 2) But also the new high quality photoscanned assets look really fantastic. It's probably only details that only people with a clue really notice (and not noticed by any standard user), but at least I see the upgrade immediately :D. I have also heard from many people who complain that they are playing with a GTX 1060 or similar card. No idea where the claim still comes from with a 5 year old graphics card to be able to play with the graphics settings as shown in the trailer... But that's the way the PC community is and always will be.

I am glad to find people who also enjoy the improvement over FH3 and FH4.
I think we are reaching a point of diminish return though, and we can see the visual gap between each versions gets smaller while the required hardware to keep it maxed out still increases at the same rate.

I suspect people with 1060s had FH4 running really well for them, but with the new lighting they have in FH5, those cards cannot keep up, and if you do not really know what to look for, in terms of visual improvements, it can feel unjustified IMHO.

[riz]

Most of the complaints probably came from the bugged textures, can't really blame them. But yeah game looks good.

[Draylynn]

Originally posted by vongdong:

People are nuts if they don't think 5 looks better than 4

Depends on hardware, on extreme recommended gaming settings with certain pieces of hardware, it looks terrible. Not to mention, not everyone is getting bugged textures and what not.

[Guyver]

Forza 3 had the best music

[Yann]

Originally posted by Draylynn:

Originally posted by vongdong:

People are nuts if they don't think 5 looks better than 4

Depends on hardware, on extreme recommended gaming settings with certain pieces of hardware, it looks terrible. Not to mention, not everyone is getting bugged textures and what not.

I wonder if the bugged texture thing is hardware or settings related.
I wish someone could post a screenshot with:

1- The issue.
2- The benchmark result, which lists the used hardware/driver/settings so we can cross reference things.

Do you have this issue?