Scott Juliano from ISI has posted a new progress report about
track development:
So, let’s see. We finished the second pass on the last of the tracks, which was historic Belgium. When you saw the video, static crowds hadn’t been added yet, which they are now. We’ve started making the last pass on these tracks, which involves up-sizing textures when and where we can–where it makes sense to do so–as well as adding little pieces of glitz art. Do remember, we are trying to simulate large grids at good frame rates across a variety of machines–even with graphic options there still has to be give and take. There really IS only so much GPU and CPU bandwidth to go around
I also just finished reworking all the car/terrain reaction VFX. If you recall in rF1 our particles were… well, you know (I mean, they weren’t BAD [well, the fire was]), but they weren’t great either). Well, I’m glad to say that they are no longer “well, you know”. The programmers added some elements so I can control the particles better. So now we can get gravel kicking up and falling back to the ground as you traverse over a sandtrap, or grass and chunks of dirt that get kicked up when you spin the tires while offroad. All the skids have had a make over, as well as dust and various car smoke. OH, and our fire now looks like fire
I’ve also created particles for new features that HOPEFULLY can be added before we release. If not, they are there for us to implement in post-release updates.
Um, let’s see…. I also just finished adding first pass, animated team members to the pit area on one of our tracks (as a test to see if it’s worth it). These include some guys standing around talking, as well as people sitting at the telemetry stations going about their business. These aren’t really meant to directly interact with the cars–they’re just there to give the pit lane some life. For a first pass, it actually does what I intended–the pit lane doesn’t look like a barren wasteland devoid of people any more. Obviously we can’t have hundreds of crew members walking around (well, not unless no one would mind the game running at 5 FPS), but it’s FAR better than none at all…
Luc has been doing some work on a rF1 track “update” that should be included with rF2 in what we’re calling the “mod” section (more on that later). The purpose of this track is to show you how any rF1 track might look with just enough work done to it to get it running in rF2. And he’s roughing out some documentation of the procedures involved (which we will expand on post-release for you modders out there). The idea is to show you all that it will take SOME work to get an rF1 track up and running, and a bit more work to get it running with the ability to use new features, but none of this work should be too difficult.
Our Post FX work is progressing and hopefully we’ll have some early shots to show of that when we think it’s okay to do so (see, even WE have standards when it comes to WIP screens)….
And finally, Gjon and I spoke today about adding another historic track to rF2, HOPEFULLY for release. It seems reasonable to do it in the time we think we have left, but it is a track NOT to be taken lightly from an artist’s point of view. No, I won’t tell you what it is–it’s a surprise (and I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up in case it doesn’t make initial release). If it doesn’t make it then it’ll be a great addition to our first post-release update. I will tell you that I’m very excited to be working on it though…
I’ll see what I can do about getting some quickie screen shots of the new FX or something in the next few days for Tim to put up….
Anyway, that’s about it for this update–think I’ve used up my allotment of virtual ink for this one. OH, I will add one more thing. The AI programmer has been doing a good amount of work in that area lately. The AI is not quite where we want it yet, but I can honestly say I’m having FUN racing the AI now, and I could never say that about rF1 AI. They are challenging, and a lot smarter about who is around them on track. Again, there’s still work to be done, but even at this stage the difference is night and day, so kudos to him.
And that’s it from me for now. Oh, and for those that celebrate–have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!
