51 DRIVECLUB details that might just blow your mind


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As you might have noticed in recent trailers, Evolution Studios? forthcoming PS4 racer DRIVECLUB really is a looker. But until you see it up close it?s hard to appreciate just how much effort the team has gone to to ensure it really pushes at the boundaries of gamers? expectations.
 
During a recent studio visit I was treated to anecdote after eyebrow-raising anecdote from key team members about just how detailed this game is. Duly, to shine a light on the extraordinary work that?s currently underway up in Runcorn, Cheshire, I collated as many as I could note down into the list below. Take a look and keep in mind this is only scratching the surface ? Evolution still have months of development left and are adding new elements every day?

 

List - http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2014/06/05/51-driveclub-details-might-just-blow-mind/

 

Some pretty impressive sounding graphical claims

 

Tree lovers can smile :p

 

13. Some tracks boast over 1.2 million road-side trees ? and this number keeps going up as the artists try to out-do each other as development progresses.

 

and this is just lol

 

17. The Indian track Chungara Lake boasts a 19,000-strong flock of pink flamingos, all behaving independently of each other.
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Seems like the driving mechanics are quite unrealistic.  One of the Pagani videos has it buzzing towards a corner at 150mph, deceling down to 75mph in about a second, and then whipping around the corner.  I guess that's cool for somebody who likes NFS, but I thought we were beyond that arcadey junk.

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I like the fact that the team is trying to add things to the game to make the game more fun when you're not in first place. In most racing games, depending on the people you're racing, as soon as you're out of first place the race is over. I'm glad they're adding club challenges and mini-goals throughout the race to keep it interesting for the non-first place people.

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It's not a sim, stay disappointed until Project Cars

 

I meant more from a graphical perspective. I know it is an arcade racer not a sim but Forza 5 played like a 360 game IMHO.

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Somehow I rather doubt this is all true.

 

Don't you think that would be pretty much suicide to publish something like this on the official PS site months before release? Gamers will go through every single bullet point and look for everything stated come release.

 

Here's all 51 for anyone too lazy to visit the blog

 

As you might have noticed in recent trailers, Evolution Studios? forthcoming PS4 racer DRIVECLUB really is a looker. But until you see it up close it?s hard to appreciate just how much effort the team has gone to to ensure it really pushes at the boundaries of gamers? expectations.
 
During a recent studio visit I was treated to anecdote after eyebrow-raising anecdote from key team members about just how detailed this game is. Duly, to shine a light on the extraordinary work that?s currently underway up in Runcorn, Cheshire, I collated as many as I could note down into the list below. Take a look and keep in mind this is only scratching the surface ? Evolution still have months of development left and are adding new elements every day?
 
Weather
 
1 NASA data was used to accurately map out the night sky ? so wherever you are in the world you?ll see the correct star constellations for your location.
2 If you?re lucky, you?ll get to see the northern lights ? it?s possible to see the aurora borealis from the northern tracks in Norway, Scotland and Canada.
3 All clouds are full 3D models to ensure accurate light diffusion from the sun. They?re calculated at massive distances in a fully volumetric form, so thin clouds cast lighter shadows than dense storm clouds, and their colour impacts the feel of the landscapes and cars.
4 Skies are uniquely generated every time you play, so just like in real life you?ll never see the same sky twice. Unless you?re replaying somebody?s challenge, in which case it?ll replicate exactly to ensure a level playing field.
5 You can play with settings to speed up or slow down the day/night cycle. With some circuits taking over a couple of minutes per lap, at 60x accelerated speed with a judicious choice of start time, it?s possible to experience two sunrises and sunsets in one race. Both of which will be completely different to each other. 
6 Clouds react dynamically to different wind speeds. This is then converted into a ground wind speed which accurately interacts with all vegetation, overhead cables and other environmental features, based on their height from the ground.
7 Waves and rippling on the surface of lakes is dynamically linked to wind speed, which affects how clear reflections are in the water.
 
The environment
8 High resolution NASA data was used to accurately map landscapes and mountain formations ? which were then tweaked to ?improve? on their natural beauty and make them perfect for high-speed racing.
9 The team spent weeks out on location and covered a minimum of 200km every day to get a feel for each country?s roads and atmosphere. They captured thousands of photos and recordings along the way, in all weather conditions and different times of day.
10 Road tarmac textures are hand-modelled rather than tiled or tessellated. Stones and bitumen are all placed and then rendered procedurally to give realistic surface detail with huge visual variety and no repeating detail on any road surface.
11 Each location has a draw distance of up to 200km to the horizon and even simulates the curvature of the earth in both skies and terrain. Distant landscapes are built out and fully modelled, instead of ?painted on?, to ensure that they support the dynamic, volumetric nature of the skies and lighting.
12 All environmental light sources are independently generated with different properties. The team sampled the colour and intensity of individual streetlights, house lights and even camera flash bulbs, which you?ll see best in any of the Indian tracks at night 
 
Flora and fauna
13 Some tracks boast over 1.2 million road-side trees ? and this number keeps going up as the artists try to out-do each other as development progresses.
14 There are over 100 different varieties of trees, bushes, mosses and flowers. The team consulted botanists at Kew Gardens to learn which plants would naturally grow in each location.
15 Wildlife is realistically tied into the day/night cycle. You?ll see flies and butterflies only during the day, and moths and bats only at night.
16 One of the India tracks features a tea plantation with a sprinkler system that turns off and on at set times during the day.
17 The Chungara Lake track boasts a 19,000-strong flock of pink flamingos, all behaving independently of each other.
18 ?and look out for the seagulls in Scotland, roosting crows in Norway, Canadian geese and vultures in Chile!
19 Spectators are placed in realistic spots where they would feasibly enjoy a good view of the race. This is done by hand, by Neil Sproston, a senior track designer who?s a real life race enthusiast. Neil regularly clambers over walls and fences in pursuit of a good viewing spot for a real life race. Duly, Evo leveraged his expertise!
20 Spectators dress for the weather ? if it?s a cold night, expect them to be sporting hats and gloves. 
 
The cars
21 A typical DRIVECLUB car is made up of 260,000 polygons. The staggeringly detailed cars you see in promo videos are the same models you drive in the game ? they?re not pre-rendered CG versions.
22 Each car takes approximately seven months to create - from initial licensing, reference collation, CAD data processing, asset production, physics modelling, through to the final car in-game.
23 Evolution snapped in excess of 1,000 photos of the interior and exterior of every car as part of the reference gathering. 
24 Pagani employ seamstresses to accurately match up the symmetrical carbon weave on the cars bodywork, and even add the ?Pagani? name to their small screw heads. These nuances are accurately reproduced in-game.
25 The same 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) engineering data that the manufacturer uses to factory produce each vehicle has been used by the development team to create each car.
26 More than 500 different material types are available to designers to apply to the vehicles.
27 The cars have realistic layered paint materials ? base metal or carbon layer, primer coat, base colour coat, two metallic paint coats, clear top coat, etc. ? which can all be stripped away individually as part of the damage system.
28 A full shader-driven procedural system is used to simulate car damage. Multiple layers of scratches appear in the most exposed areas and edges, revealing undercoat and bare metal or carbon. A parallax mapped dent layer provides minor crumpling, and a physics driven vertex deformation system is used for severe damage.
29 As you race, dirt and dust gradually builds up on the car, subtly altering its appearance.
30 Screen space reflections (SSR) are being used together with real time dynamic light probes to render vehicle lighting and reflections more accurately, as opposed to using outdated pre-baked cubes.
31 The car dashboard reflects onto the windscreen in bright light; and the car exterior reflects onto carbon interior panels. 

32 Anisotropic lighting is used to simulate the effect of each individual thread in carbon fibre weave. The pattern of the carbon alters realistically with the lighting angle and surface curvature.

33 Headlights are modelled using multiple layers of reflectors and lenses that realistically reflect and refract the bulbs shining beneath.

34 Rainbow specular highlight effects can be seen in headlight lenses because thin film interference is utilised.
35 Animated active aero flaps are rigged up accurately and coupled with the physics system to operate exactly as they would in real life. The Pagani Huayra is one of the best examples of this.
36 Conversion of kinetic energy to heat is physically modelled to accurately render the temperature and glow colour of brake discs. 
37 The speedometer displays have been accurately reproduced for every car in terms of visuals, technical display output and behaviour (again, all hooked up to the in-game physics).
 
Audio
38 Each reference car was fitted with at least 16 separate microphones to authentically capture the sounds of the engine from 360 degrees, inside and outside of the car. Some had four mics on the exhaust alone.
39 In-game, the engine sound reacts to your perspective. Pan around a stationary car gunning its engine and the sound shifts with the camera position (relative to where the engine is).
40 When you race, the engine sounds are different based on which of the six camera views you choose ? inside or outside of the car. You?re not hearing the same engine audio with a filter ? it?s all recorded separately 
41 The recordings were so accurate that BMW and Mercedes-Benz AMG requested copies to replace their existing library.
42 In many cases, Evolution?s audio captures are the most high definition recordings of these cars in existence.
43 Bespoke sound effects were recorded for every action in the game. You won?t hear a single stock sample.
 
Handling and physics
44 Although not a sim, DRIVECLUB?s handling model is based on real world physics, using technical data about performance provided directly by the manufacturers.
45 To fine-tune the performance of every vehicle, a virtual ?rolling road? test is used to check acceleration, top speed, weight distribution and braking performance.
46 Aerodynamics are physically modelled. For example, activating DRS on the McLaren P1 affects the levels of downforce to increase top speed and acceleration.
47 Evolution worked closely with Thrustmaster to get the best possible feel on all their wheels. When using a supported wheel you get 1:1 movement between the steering wheel in your hands and the steering wheel in-game.
 
Artificial intelligence
48 The AI drivers adapt their racing tactics and braking strategy based on pressure from players or other drivers. When alongside them, they will try to brake deeper into the corner.
49 AI drivers always try to predict overtaking opportunities based on the track, the performance of their car relative to opponents, and also how opponents are driving at any given moment.
50 When an AI driver has a car with KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) fitted, they will use the energy strategically at opportune moments to pass or block opponents on the track.
 
Load times
51 Despite all of the above, once selected a track will take no more than 15 seconds to load.

 

 

 

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Thanks, wanted to check out the list but it's blocked at work :P

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I see that COD and it's Fish AI have been a massive positive influence on the industry at large; with game developers now striving to program AI for ever-more complex organisms. 

 

Flamingo AI is the hallmark of next-gen, people!

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I see that COD and it's Fish AI have been a massive positive influence on the industry at large; with game developers now striving to program AI for ever-more complex organisms. 

 

Flamingo AI is the hallmark of next-gen, people!

 

Yeah stuff like that is a bit naff, but small touches in games do bring things to life

 

For more important small touches, all the self-reflection stuff is tasty (cars reflecting on other cars)

 

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Don't you think that would be pretty much suicide to publish something like this on the official PS site months before release? Gamers will go through every single bullet point and look for everything stated come release.

 

It's important part of marketing to promise that actual gold was used on socket pins of the processor that compiled the final release.

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I think they over did it a bit.

NASA weather and constellation data, using 16 mics to record vehicle sound at different locations and angles (manufacturers even wanted to use that data in their archives), using manufacturers 3D cad images to build the cars ingame.. Etc etc.

Gameplay might be arcade style but the world around you is going to be a sim of the real tracks, cars, sounds and locations.

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Sooo, who's going to be the first to attempt to count those 1.2 million trees or all of those flamingos?  It seems to be pretty easy to claim an absurdly high number of objects that would be very difficult for someone without the game code to count.

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Yeah stuff like that is a bit naff, but small touches in games do bring things to life

 

For more important small touches, all the self-reflection stuff is tasty (cars reflecting on other cars)

 

 

I'd prefer the small touches that I'm going to notice. I'm not going to notice that a crowd of 3000 Flamingos are behaving individually as I go flying past hopefully faster than 30mph, hopefully not skidding on my side/roof.

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I'd prefer the small touches that I'm going to notice. I'm not going to notice that a crowd of 3000 Flamingos are behaving individually as I go flying past hopefully faster than 30mph, hopefully not skidding on my side/roof.

 

Well you will now, because they've told you  :whistle:

 

When you watch a film for the first time, do you notice all the little details and background interactions? No, some things you probably won't ever notice until you read about them and go back and see for yourself. It's 1 point out of 51, no it doesn't mean much, if anything, but it's harmless programmer trivia.

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I personally was pretty damn blown away when I read this blog entry yesterday.

 

Sure, a whole lot of stuff may never not be noticed, but I think the point of it all is they are doing it, and while it may not be incredibly relevant to this particular game, it will hopefully provide inspiration to other developers.

 

It really comes down to the individual aspects may not be all that impressive on their own, but it is the combination of them all that creates an environment that is incredibly realistic, and that just adds to the overall immersion.

 

So overall I think it is pretty damn impressive.

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I'm a huge fan of details, so if they can deliver while producing a great game expereince... why not?  I still remember playing Duke Nukem 3d on pc and being impressed by the ability to "use" items that were part of the environment.  Oddly enough I was blown away when playing Max Payne and you could turn on the faucets and even the paper towel dispenser worked.  Usually when a developer puts that much detail into a game it ends up being a great game.

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And just to build on my previous comment. Okay. So they recreated the stars in the skies exactly as they are in real life, including how they cast shadows on the earth. To me that is amazing. But I totally get I may never appreciate it as I am driving 100mph in a Porsche.

 

However imagine that same stars system they created as the sky in a virtual reality environment. That's pretty damn special and one step closer to creating experiences that mimic reality itself.

 

The truth about video games and graphics and virtual reality and everything else related to technology, is we have not seen a damn thing yet. That's what excites me most. Reading stuff like this, although it may seem trivial in a video game that is about racing cars, just really provides a small glimpse into the future of things. I just hope I am around long enough to see it all come to fruition.

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