Grid Legends is a magnificent racing game. Although it does not have the wide open range of Forza Horizon, nor the detailed traced of the shelves on the Gran Turismo, it has excellent lighting and beautiful steps. This is true on all platforms, but the recent version on Android and iOS is intriguing. We have experienced mixed fortunes for the triple-A titles released on mobile, but after playing the game largely on the iPhone 15 pro, I am impressed. In fact, it is one of the only trips triple-trips that I can really recommend.
The first impressions suggest a favorable visual participation on iPhone with results that seem largely comparable to the latest generation Xbox One version of the game, but of course, there are compromises. The lighting has been significantly simplified while the shadows are obviously lower, with a clearer fracture between the waterfalls. The alias of the shadow is a greater problem accordingly, with roller shadows which seem less natural at rest. This becomes a more substantial problem in the view of the cockpit, where the perspective of the near camera exposes the low resolution of the nearest cascade.
In addition to that, the shadows of the foliage does not come to an animal on the iPhone, probably to reduce the number of updates of the shadow card that the game must deal with. I would say that these shadow changes are not so visible in the typical third person camera when they really drive at speed. There are other small lighting changes throughout the game, such as the less effective impression of ambient occlusion in this cockpit of truck. The foliage in some tracks appears a little flattest, with a shade of lower contrast below. Subtle lighting adjustments are present on the tracks if you look carefully, although during the gameplay, their impact is deeper.
Volumetric lighting is probably the largest flat omission here, because the environment on the track side often no longer has volumetric lights. This makes a big visual difference in certain tracks, like this one, although most of the tracks and times of the day are sufficiently similar. That said, there is a lighting adjustment that really promotes the iPhone. The real -time cubemaps used for vehicle reflections on the Xbox update at only 15 Hz, once for the 2 images essentially. On the iPhone, they are complete and distract much less and a higher resolution.
The detail of the model also takes a hit. The LODs get closer to the camera and the details of the texture are worse, despite the fact that the high -resolution texture pack is installed. The filtering of the texture is reduced, the crowds are simpler, while the particle effects are united or disappeared. It goes without saying that the resolution decreases – Xbox One uses a dynamic 1080p which is generally adjusted around 900p, while the iPhone 15 Pro offers approximately 630p without sign of the impressive Metalfx Upscaleur of Apple.
It looks like a long list of iPhone concessions, but by comparing the two large lines, the lighting seems similar, the models are roughly similar and the game is generally quite comparable. It is certainly better than what you expect from a Nintendo Switch conversion, for example, where you would generally see fundamental cuts larger in visual makeup of a game.
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It is all the more impressive as the performance is also solid. The default graphic mode of the target game 30 IPS and is well enough in the typical game, with a regular 33 ms frame for a uniform frame. When cars come together a bit, images can briefly tumble up in the 1920s. These performance dives have an impact, but generally occur towards the start of the race, when many cars are nearby. Reposting also tends to cause image frequency problems, although it has little impact on gameplay. The Xbox One S has similar behavior, but tends to get closer to the 1920s and does not fall as often. It is a better interpreter in the deformation points, but the two machines do a job good enough to generally provide a gameplay of 30 frames per second. In addition, the movement vague present on the two platforms makes the game decently smooth despite its lower images rate.
Until now, I have spoken of the default mode, which provides the similar analog to the experience of the domestic console. But there are also two other visual modes to examine, which come with their own compromises. The battery saving mode is delivered with a few cups – the most obviously, the withdrawal of reflections on screen space, which makes a fairly large difference on wet circuits. The spectators on track have also been slightly made and there seem to be adjustments to the minor LOD, as well as lower real -time cubemaps. But the biggest change is simply a large cut to make the resolution, because the battery saving mode takes place somewhere near 360p, although the two modes have an equally sharp HUD.
The advantage is however that the performance is very good, hitting a set of 30 images per second coherent in a typical game. The big car packages do not really confuse, except when we perform a flashback, where we sometimes see substantial drops – but with little play relevance. The level of performance is a good deal better than graphic preset, and the Battery discharge also seems to be reduced. The performance mode has all the same visual compromise as the battery saving mode, except that the resolution is a little higher here at around 550p. However, this mode uses real-time cubemap reflections that update half a long way, which means 20 Hz here.
Indeed, the performance mode now runs at 40 IPS by default on the 120 Hz screen of the iPhone, which I have never seen before on iOS. Image rates here can soak a little when cars are grouped, but generally the game flies to a 40 images per stable second. If we limit the iPhone to 60 Hz, the game works at 30 frames per second, which is quite wise since 40 images per second is not divided evenly into 60 Hz. I do not have new Apple devices in Main to test, although I had the chance to play the game on the iPhone 16 pro of a friend and the biggest difference seems to be that the target performance mode 60 frames per second instead of 40 on my device , although the drops seem more frequent.
However, I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max that I tested briefly. The option for high -resolution textures is not available due to RAM limitations, and there are other cuts, such as the loss of reflections on the screen space in graphical mode. But in general, it is a great experience that works at a decent level of performance. The 13 Pro is not separated by a lot of raster performance from the 15 pro, because the iPhone GPU performance elements have been more modest in recent cycles. Apple upgrades have focused more on RAM, tracing rays and automatic learning performance than improving GPU speeds for typical workloads, which is more strictly limited by technology of current processes.
Overall, Grid Legends works. The fashion selections are useful, the overall appearance of the game is preserved and where there are cuts, they are mainly a non-problem when consulted on a small mobile screen. The performance is also solid, unlike the majority of the latest generation iPhone ports that I have examined since the launch of the iPhone 15 Pro. There are a good number of compromises compared to home consoles, but it is satisfactory compared to other heavy strikers on the platform. It is also a game that does not require 8 GB of RAM to work, operating well on older iPhone devices, which is a plus for users who improve less frequently phones. So Grid Legends is indeed a rare game – an eighth generation console wearing that I can really recommend playing on iPhone. It does not suffer from flagrant faults and is a well -optimized version of a beautiful race title.
