Photo mode - Complaints and SuggestionsPS4

[zzz_pt]

Hey everyone,

This thread is the place to post the issues you find while taking pictures ingame. Mostely for PS4 but if you have suggestions for improving the feature, leave them here. I'll start.


Complaints Issues / Bugs:

1. Amount of jaggies: Pretty much every shot has them. I don't know if it's technically possible but the processing / rendering power should give priority to the car in and then the objects ins the distant background.

Spoiler: A couple of examples

the truck is full of jaggies on pretty much every edge.

same here. especially noticeable where the body parts meet each other

2. "None" filter burns out the dark shadows: This is really a bummer. I've noticed as soon as I edited my first shots. I then realized it's better to take shots with a filter such as "faded" or "blockbuster" because those are a bit more washed out but they keep a decent shadow information without 100% black areas. The default filter should work properly.

Spoiler: "none" filter burnt shadow - example

Notice the back of the car and shadow on the tires is 100% black (burnt). This should not happen because it's impossible to recover any information while post-editing. It doesn't happen with other filters, such as "blockbuster" - see below.

Here, the same are is dark but some shadow detail is preserved.

3. Sometimes the wheels will stay still with lowest shutter speeds: sometimes within the same replay / car + track. The track will show some motion blur but the wheel won't. It looks weird and wrong. This leads me to the next point.

Spoiler: wheels without motion blur - example

Wheel not moving despite the low shutter speed. track has some motion blur.

4. The lowest shutter speed should provoke a drastically higher motion bluff effect! Shooting a car at 300 km/h with a shutter speed of 1/2 or 1/5 looks like we're shooting a car moving at 30 km/h... The motion blur effect should be way more noticeable both in the background as well on the tire/wheels.

Spoiler: motion blur needs to be increased - example

Max speed at Indianapolis... The blur effect is bad! I went to photoshop and fixed it:

now, this looks fast!

5. Lights not coming from the headlights / or tail lights. Especially noticeable with fog or bad weather. I don't know if it happens everywhere or with all cars, but this happened to me today. I ended up not using any of the shots that show this issue because, again, it looks wrong.

Spoiler: Lights are off the car model

Tail light illuminating the road... 2m away from the car.

Light beams coming from the air, not the headlights.

6. The bokeh effect is not well implemented. I like the idea but when I use it, the shot ends up looking fake. The way the blur meets the sharp part of the picture is too noticeable. Bokeh has to be smooth, otherwise it doesn't work. It seems to me the bokeh is not reacting to the F stops. We can put the max (F16) and the bokeh will show as if we had an F 1.2 or something, affecting always the same area/distance. Not sure I explained it right but if you play with it you'll see it I guess.

Spoiler: Bokeh is not smooth

This looks weird. I can't even understand how this came out with the settings I had.

So I ended up taking another one without the bokeh, just in case.

7. The steering wheel doesn't show in photo mode if we drive like that. It should appear when we want to take pictures of the interior or if we're shooting a car with no roof.


I bet there are more, but these are the most important issue for me at the moment. Now, on to the suggestions!


Suggestions


1. Increase the blur effect + have it also affecting the car if we want. In GT6 we had 3 different options of motion blur that affected the car or not with different degrees. Example.

2. Have an option to stop time / weather when shooting. I don't know why this happens... I like to see the clouds moving while I'm shooting the same scene because it gives me different skies. However, if we set the time of the race for 60x (or another high value) we can even see the sun moving away from the shot! If we could have an option to "stop" time would be great. That would also allow for some HDR shots with crazy skies.

3. Turn off / on the headlights of all cars in the shot. Sometimes we're the only ones driving with the headlights ON/OFF and this looks weird in photo-mode. Not a big deal but I won't take a shot where that happens. Sometimes, at sunset or sunrise, we get amazing lighting effects but not everyone turns their lights ON/OFF at the same time.

4. Change the color of the driver outfit. Sometimes we choose a specific car livery / color (red and white, for example) for a shooting session and then we go to the track we we find out the driver has a yellow suit and a green helmet that don't fit the car.

Spoiler: Example: I chose a red Honda 2&4 and my guy had a yellor-ish / golden outfit.

Not evident in this shot because I made everything to avoid showing it.

You may say some points are just lame, but we won't have a better feature if we don't mention the small things that can make the difference. I'll post this on the official forum as well as soon as I can add links/pictures.


Citing @IanBell @The_American just in case.


Cheers!

 

[torque99]

Some good points @zzz_pt 👍 and I hope the jaggies (AA) gets sorted very quickly by patch. I see you didn't have Pcars1! There is a huge improvement in this new photo mode!

There are some ways to work around some of these points after having a go on this for a few days. Jaggies can be reduced very slightly by zooming in from far with the triggers and putting the F stop number high and the bokeh on 0 or 3 and also adjusting the camera to align the jaggies.



Taking photos from replays should help you slightly with the motion speed blur. Place the blue icon on the photo camera symbol (far right) then use the triggers to play the game in very fast forward mode. Press the photo icon (not pause) and it should freeze the frame with fast motion blur already in place.



This is how we used to take most the shots on Pcars1 (in replay) for some better angles and faster shots.

I very much doubt the other points you raised will be actioned quickly. I think they have a long list of priorities before upgrading the photo mode.

 

[zzz_pt]

@torque99 I only take shots from replays but I'll give it a try to your method for faster motion blur. I didn't play PC1. Also, I couldn't notice a difference between bokeh 1,2 and 3 on my monitor. Will try again.

The PRO is noticeably better than the standard PS4 and that's expected but I wouldn't expect more jaggies on a PS4 tittle than on GT6 on the PS3. :/

And oh yes, for sure there are more important things to fix and implement first. ^^


Just adding these here from GBO Possum:

Here are some issues I have found on PS4 Pro with 4K and 10 bit HDR via HDMI. EDIT: Logitech G29. Software level V01.00.0842

@IanBell, I hope your team finds these observations useful

2. Photomode goes into a loop clicking the shutter when taking a photo. This occurs in a replay on the Nordschleife, with Drone camera. The only DS4 buttons which are operable are "Share" and "PS". The shutter sound goes off maybe once a second and won't stop. The photo(s) is/are not saved, have to force quit PC2 by pressing and holding PS. I have tried taking photos on this replay multiple times with the same failure. See

3. Photomode. Default shutter speed is 0.5 seconds! Really? What trackside photographer would put their camera away with the shutter speed set to half a second? Or even ever use such a slow exposure! Also, the default f-stop is 3. Again, that's not a likely setting choice for a spaorts photographer. I'd have it at f-8 (I'm beginning to think that default values in PC2 are being set simply to annoy. Like brake sensitivity.)

4. Photomode. Max f-stop on the camera is f-16 and max shutter speed is 1/997. Both should be higher like real cameras. And it should be easier/quicker to change shutter speeds. No camera in the real world has such small increments in shutter speed

6. Photomode should have an autofocus capability. Or if it's there already, make it obvious how to use it

15. Photomode again. I question the actual shutter speed. I'm looking at my car (heading off-track!) crossing a painted line on the tarmac at an angle of about 45 degrees. Aperture is f-16, shutter speed is 1/5s. The car is traveling at maybe 30 mph. Both car and painted line are fairly sharp, especially the car. My guess is that in 1/5 of a second, the car should be covering 6 to 9 feet, so the line should be seriously blurred rather than almost totally sharp. In addition, when I take the Drone cam inside the car and examine the speedometer, it's showing zero.

16. Photomode. Drone camera movements have an annoying inertia which makes it hard to fine-tune the camera position. I understand that the designer probably wants me to feel like I'm flying a drone, but I'm a photographer, not a pilot. I want my drone to be able to stop as soon as I let go of the stalk

17. Photomode. It seems that "sometimes", the Drone camera has autofocus, at least up to the point in time that I override the Focus Distance. From then on, autofocus is dead. There needs to be a way to revive it

18. Photomode. I complained above about the shutter speed default of half a second. I just discovered that if I switch to Trackside camera and immediately back to Drone, the shutter speed has become 1/600th. The Trackside defaults to 1/50th with a minimum of 1/5th. The cockpit Camera defaults to 1/500th

19. I came out of Photomode and the Play/Pause button was showing "Pause", which indicated that the car was moving. It wasn't. Pressing on this button with the PS4 "X" button, changed it to Play, but no movement. Another press and we are back to Pause, but no movement. It looked like things are locked up, but I found a workaround. Click on the fast reverse button followed by play, and things got moving again.

Damn, I accidentally hit the shutter button and I'm back to problem number 2. That's enough for now. I'm going to reboot and try to find a combo of car + game settings that is drivable.

 

[GBO Possum]

This morning I found some more slightly mad photomode behavior. But before I get to that, a comment on bokeh.

Also, I couldn't notice a difference between bokeh 1,2 and 3 on my monitor.

Bokeh 3 is meant to provide a "smoother" appearance, but IMHO, it's the other way around. I see very slight differences between 1,2 and 3.

Bokeh 0 is quite different. In my experience of distant shots, such as the opening scene in my YouTube video linked below, Bokeh 0 causes a drastic reduction in depth of field on f16 shots.

Now back to my original objective...

Environment - PS4 Pro with 2160p and HDR via HDMI. Logitech G920 emulating a G29 via DriveHub. Software level V01.00.0842

In my reposted post above (thank you for placing it here, @zzz_pt, good idea), I mentioned the "shutter clicking loop". I got that again on the California Highway, and tried mashing "circle", and when that didn't appear to work, I mashed a heap of buttons. After 80 seconds or so, I was returned to a view of the stationary car, the sound of its engine revving, and the sight of its wheels spinning. I have no idea which (if any) buttons got me out of the loop.

Things got stranger after that. I went back into "Drone" photo mode, and the height buttons no longer worked. In fact L1, L2 and L3 were unresponsive as were R1, R2 and R3

Another oddity was that I went into Trackside view of the replay, liked the "camera" positioning, and decided I wanted a photo from that viewpoint. However, the trackside photomode camera was from a quite different viewpoint. Strange and disappointing

Take a look at the video, once the shutter starts clicking, skip to time 2:05:-



Bottom line? Taking a photo breaks photomode. For me, anyway. YMMV

The workaround is to use the PS4's "Share" button to take a screen shot.

Another issue for me is the default brightness and saturation. For my taste, and compared to other games (Forza and GT especially), it's a bit washed out.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
However, all is not lost. There's much to like, such as:-

1. No game logo on the photo! Thank you!! (Are you listening, T10 and PD, especially T10 with FM6's horrible new 2 megapixel camera and huge logo using up a whole lot of those pixels?)
2. It's quick (but limited in pixels)
3. It has actual f-stops and shutter speeds like, well, "a camera". (T10, are you listening?)
4. The Drone Cam is by far the most flexible in its ability to be placed on- or off-track, and flying to a decent height. Forza and GT place annoying restrictions on movable camera placement, so this is a breath of fresh air! I REALLY appreciate this flexibility! Thank you!!

 

[jake2013guy]

You're not alone @GBO Possum. I've noticed those issues as well. I'm enjoying taking photos. But those issues make it frustrating sometimes.

 

[Scuderia Paul]

I am really enjoying Photo Mode but it could do with a few tweaks and additions.

I'm finding the 'Filter Strength' slider has no impact on the applied filter.

DRONE CAMERA Y-AXIS INVERT OPTION
Like many people I have become accustomed to playing FPS with the inverted Y-axis option. I'm finding it hard to adjust.

DRONE SENSITIVITY
The sensitivity of the Drone Camera could do with being reduced. Trying to make minor a adjustments can be very fiddly.

 

[35mm]

Regarding bokeh,

#1 simulates a lens with its aperture blades not fully open (and with 5 blades). The result is that the highlights have a pentagonal shape;

Bokeh 1​

#2 simulates onion-shaped bokeh, typical of older lenses (or with a classic design). Gives a bit more of a dramatic, vintage effect;

Bokeh 2​

#3 simulates bokeh from a more modern lens. It has perfect, round and uniform highlights. Gives a more creamy result.

Bokeh 3​

#0 supposedly removes the bokeh effect, but it gets weird because even with it turned off there's still the effect of depth of field. I've also found that when simulating panning (motion blur) it's best to turn bokeh to 0.

Bokeh 0​

This could have been very interesting and I appreciate the effort in putting this in Photo Mode, but the bokeh effect looks cheap in most cases (more like using a "blur" tool in Ps) and the transition between focused/unfocused areas is just awful. All those jaggies aren't helping either.

 

[zzz_pt]

Regarding bokeh,

#1 simulates a lens with its aperture blades not fully open (and with 5 blades). The result is that the highlights have a pentagonal shape;
#2 simulates onion-shaped bokeh, typical of older lenses (or with a classic design). Gives a bit more of a dramatic, vintage effect;
#3 simulates bokeh from a more modern lens. It has perfect, round and uniform highlights. Gives a more creamy result.

#0 supposedly removes the bokeh effect, but it gets weird because even with it turned off there's still the effect of depth of field. I've also found that when simulating panning (motion blur) it's best to turn bokeh to 0.


This could have been very interesting and I appreciate the effort in putting this in Photo Mode, but the bokeh effect looks cheap in most cases (more like using a "blur" tool in Ps) and the transition between focused/unfocused areas is just awful. All those jaggies aren't helping either.

That might explain why I never saw it. It's probably visible at night shots with lots of light sources (say, a grid of 32 cars) at increasing distances from the camera and the lowest f stops. That wouldn't result in very interesting shots probably ^^ I might give it a try and see at least if I can notice anything. Wouldn't be surprised if it was another bug.

 

[35mm]

That might explain why I never saw it. It's probably visible at night shots with lots of light sources (say, a grid of 32 cars) at increasing distances from the camera and the lowest f stops. That wouldn't result in very interesting shots probably ^^ I might give it a try and see at least if I can notice anything. Wouldn't be surprised if it was another bug.

It's hard to tell them appart, to be honest. But it does not need to be taken at night to be visible.

Added some samples to my post above.

 

[zzz_pt]

It's hard to tell them appart, to be honest. But it does not need to be taken at night to be visible.

Added some samples to my post above.

I've tested it after your previous post explaining the differences.

Obrigado.