Not so long ago, we told you how the action work for mobile platforms. This time we will touch on racing games, and not only mobile, but also large, class AAA. What difficulties do developers face during their creation? What tricks do they have to go? We will try to tell about this, and we will take a series as an example Forza , Indeed, according to many, this is the best race of this year Forza Horizon 3.
New Year's entertainment park earned on our site "World Windows Store"!
And this material is its small part! Come in By this link Every day, read exclusive articles, watch videos, participate in unusual game competitions and earn tokens that will allow you to win Xbox One and other prizes!
And most importantly – we guarantee the pre -holiday mandarin mood!
Go to the Windows Store world!
In pursuit of realism
The first and almost the most important point on which it is worth stopping is, of course, a physicist. After all, it depends on it whether the players will enjoy driving a car, and on the races themselves as a whole. And here, which is not surprising, the developers try most. For years they set up dozens of details from the corners of rotation of the steering wheel to the brake balance and the behavior of the suspension, so that the displacement of weight during braking, acceleration and turning is felt as real as possible.
► FORZA Horizon’s branch is almost entirely borrowed by the physics of the main line of the series, although in the third part the model is much more arcade and, most importantly, interesting. There is no question of any simulation, of course, but to roll up in Australia to energetic music is really fun.
A crazy amount of attention in the Forza series is given even to things like tire physics. In real races, rubber has a huge impact on the result, but for many years Igarodelov generally bothered such subtleties – the tires were almost a decorative element and did not affect piloting. The developers were repelled only from the main characteristics of the car: weight and power.
But over time, the approach had to be changed. So, series Forza Motorsport For many years she collaborated with companies Michelin And Goodyear , to get a reliable physical model of tires. However, they took the largest step in this direction when developing a fourth part when the company helped them Pirelli , providing his data on the behavior of rubber in various situations.
► Depending on the types of machines and road surface, the behavior of the car, of course, is radically changing.
Different types of tires were tested on the stand to collect data on the load on the rubber and its behavior depending on the car and the actions of the player: how tires in slow and speedy turns behave, during drift, during acceleration or braking … even such invisible ones were taken into account, taken into account. It would seem that the simple player of the part, like heating the surface of the tire, loading, profile height and air expansion inside the wheel.
In the footsteps of Hermann Tilke
A separate reason for thought for the creators of the Forza series is the tracks. And there is no particular difference, the real track or fictional, in both cases there are difficulties and easy moments. To create their own track, the developers still go to real places in search of inspiration and references for designers. They take tens of thousands of photographs, including panoramic 360 degrees, so that the artists have the opportunity to see a place in all details. And they even come up with real stories for their inventions so that the fictional track from some Forza Motorsport 6 is not inferior to real tracks from the game.
► If you believe the developers, even such long highways as “spa”, “Mount Panorama” and “Nurburgring”, they transferred to the smallest detail.
In Forza Horizon 3, the task was even more complicated, because the developers had to recreate a full open world, for which even more photos were needed. At the same time, the guys from PlayGround Games paid attention even … to the sky. Forza Horizon 3 has almost the most beautiful, realistic and diverse sky in games. Every game day can see a completely unique picture there, and all because the Australian heaven from sunset to dawn with a camera with a permission of 12k … sitting in the grass, brushing away from poisonous spiders and other local living creatures for months.
But we must not forget that, despite the beautiful heaven and details, the tracks must be made also interesting: so that the turns contribute to overtaking, and the dynamics remained. After all, if you stick a long ligament of slow turns or a protracted chain of long straight lines, piloting will simply not be interesting.
And there are many such subtleties: you can not make the track excessively narrow, where it is impossible to overtake, or, conversely, too wide, where it is difficult to make a mistake. And the configuration of each turn directly affects the speed in the next bunch and, accordingly, on pleasure. Made a mistake – players get bored. And to do this without taking into account the skills of players and the physics of a car, easier.
► Even forest routes can be very difficult, because it is extremely important that it is interesting to drive there.
► Cities are not intended for racing, so developers often have to go to tricks and change the layout of real places to ride there exciting.
When it comes to real tracks, which are many in Forza Motorsport 6, There are even more difficulties. So, developers may encounter difficulties in acquiring a license. Despite the fact that the owners of the circuits willingly agree with the game studios, the cost of the license is still calculated in dozens, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Sometimes unforeseen difficulties appear: for example, when the owners suddenly change at the autrodrome. If we are talking about the city highway, a new variable appears-after all, against the background, some attractions, iconic buildings or monuments come across any now and then. And often the rights to these objects belong to someone else that devour not only money, but also a lot of time for legal wires. But the track still needs to be transferred to the smallest details, because it is worth making a mistake, and racing fans with experience will not forgive.
The developers have to go to the Avtodrom themselves, and there it is almost manually to collect the necessary information. To do this, they drive along the highway, shooting the video, take tens of thousands of photos, and it is important to capture each cutter, side and bumps to recreate the final picture as detailed and closer to the original.
GPS data are also important so that there are no problems with the size of the track, and recently large developers, like the creators of the same Forza Motorsport, resort to laser scanning (the company helps them with this Smartgeometrics ), which allows you to transfer the relief with an accuracy of millimeters. It turns out a kind of three -dimensional model of the highway and the environment, its frame, which developers for a long time bring into the desired look: work on detail, apply textures, sit for hours on each object, from an advertising plate to the drawing on the asphalt. And of course, they test the resulting route.
► The developers paid attention not only to the sky, but also to the sea, without which it is difficult to imagine Australia. They worked on it with the creators Sea of Thieves , which comes out next year.
They are helped by real racers like Stefan Sarrasen (Le-Man champion), who know the autrods almost by heart, to every hole. They pass in the virtual version and talk about their feelings. At the same time, it is even about such details as bumps, because potholes or bumps often noticeably affect the result. If you believe the developers, on their versions of the legendary northern loop of Nyurgurgring, even puddles accumulate in the same places as in reality.
When it comes to real autrods, during testing it is necessary to solve problems with crooks – fans of cutting out and thereby get a dishonest advantage. Forza developers gain entire teams of experienced online players to test the tracks and find cuts there. Then the problem areas are either cleaned, or the cars there are artificially slow down. As a result, the team takes from the team from six months to a year of real time to create one highway. And this is really painstaking and hard work.
Skynet is close
Another important aspect of any racing game is II opponents. And the developers of the Forza series also have something to tell, because for several years they have been trying to force the Drivatar system, in which computer rivals are trying to borrow driving style and techniques from real players. It turns out not always, but in the latest games of the series in this direction there is a certain progress.
► Name AI forza as ideal, but he is capable of pleasant surprises: sometimes, “spying” some trick of the player, the bot manages to give out unexpected maneuvers.
In the early parts, the developers themselves “taught” the opponents to make certain mistakes and manipulated their engine with the power of their engine, depending on the level of complexity, but gradually this system became deeper. So, instead of lowering power, the developers decided to change the style of turning the turns from the rivals so that they were losing time on braking. At the same time, the level of opponents adjusted to the skills of the player, tracking his speed and skill.
Gradually, Drivatar turned into a full -fledged self -learning system, which loaded the telemetry of the players, compared it and based on this built a behavioral model. It turned out almost self -learning AI, which a few months after the release behaved completely differently than at the start.
This, however, provoked a variety of situations: some AI learned to arrange blockages at the start, others to slow down in front of the nose, and the others for some reason became invincible. But Forza Horizon 3 has finally brought this model to a more or less acceptable level. Opponents there are much more resemble live opponents from the network game. True, so far to the ideal is far away, but the system definitely gives great hopes.
Car maniacs
And of course, the main point, without which there would have been not a single racing game, are cars themselves. And here the developers of the Forza series openly lose control of themselves, although the problems begin long before the cars themselves are transferred to the game.
► Autovista mode has long become a feature of the series and it is thanks to him that you can see how much cars have been worked out. For one car, developers take about six months of work.
The fact is that first of all, the creators of any racing series need to purchase a license for a particular machine. And if the owners of the circuits more or less go towards, then with automakers everything comes out much more difficult. The price tag for cars reaches hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the requirements of large companies can leave a strong imprint on the appearance of the whole game. For example, someone forbids to break their cars, someone demands that their cars be the fastest, and it is important for someone that their cars cannot be repainted or tuned.
Moreover, after the resolution of legal difficulties, new problems begin when the cars are transferred to the game. Yes, some manufacturers send CAD models to developers and all the necessary information on their car. And with some it is more difficult. Some models are completely scanned with a laser, transferring them with an accuracy of thousandths of millimeters. And digitize them both from the outside and inside the cabin.
Somewhere you have to work, focusing exclusively in the photo. Here, developers take thousands of pictures from a variety of angles, so that the designer can use the car with the help of them to the smallest details. Moreover, it is necessary to take into account even such trifles, like a doors mechanism, buttons on a radio or material that are sheathed, because in the branded mode of the Forza Autovista series any fan can study the car interior to the smallest details. And, if something is wrong, he will definitely find a flaw.
► sometimes in Forza there are very interesting, rare specimens. How difficult it was to recreate them in the game only can be guessed.
Sometimes really tense situations arise. So, for example, to recreate the new Lamborghini Centenario for Forza Horizon 3, the developers had to hurry. At that time, the company prepared only one machine that, after the demonstration, planned to completely disassemble in order to make forms for the production of new parts. The guys from Playground had to hastily send their employee to Italy to make thousands of photos of the supercar. And then spend a bunch of time and time to recreate the car to the demonstration on E3. Given that the assembly of a real Centenario used more than 600 types of various materials, from carbon to special skin, the task was incredibly difficult.
However, it becomes even more interesting when it comes to rarities loved by fans and developers Forza Horizon. After all, they still need to be found! And there is no talk of any CAD models-the creators of the game have to look for the remaining copies of rare cars, contact the owners or collectors and agree on meetings in which you can collect the necessary material: sounds, photographs, etc.
► Sometimes the automakers themselves help developers with the transfer of the car, providing all the necessary information. But often you have to look for rare cars almost on landfills to get the necessary data and make the right number of photos.
By the way, the recording of engine sounds and not only is a separate topic for conversation, because difficulties often arise here. It is necessary to install multi -channel microphones of volumetric sound both in place of the driver and at other points to fix all types of sound that the car is only capable of. You need to try to record as many sounds as possible – from the growl with which the car starts to its roar during acceleration or at maximum speed. For this, the car is accelerated on a dynamometric stand and record sounds, while making power measurements so that the engine roller in the game exactly corresponds to the real behavior on the track.
Forza Horizon at all had to be approaching the high degree creatively. When creating the second part, the authors are caps of the unfortunate old Ford KA sledgehammer, writing down all this rattle and knocks, then to voice the clashes of cars. And in order to transfer Kamushkov’s chatter on the body of the machine in the third part, the developers rushed to real cobblestones in the old car of one of the team members.
Racing in your pocket
When it comes to mobile races, management is the main problem. Of course, nor about realistic physics with the plausible behavior of tires, nor about the transfer of tracks to millimeters so far are still talking. But the main thing here is to make the races truly pleasant and interesting, because neither gamepads nor the rudders of smartphones have no steers.
So, driving a car in " Asphalt 8: For take -off »Implemented using a gyroscope. That is, it is worth it to tie the phone to the right, as if instead of your mobile phone, you have a steering wheel in your hands, and the car will go to the right. And vice versa. At the same time, there is no gas pedal at all, but there is the opportunity to slow down on the screen, letting the car into drift, and use nitro. It turns out a simple but pleasant model, sensations reminiscent of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.
► a system tied to a gyroscope uses most modern mobile races.
Another approach to developers of another popular mobile fun – Traffic Rider. Yes, the turns in the game are also tied to a gyroscope, but if Asphalt offers full -fledged routes with turns and cuts, then the entire “track” is one long straight line, on which you need to dodge other cars. But you can squeeze the gas yourself.
There are approximately the same in another popular game, Traffic: Road Racing – Asphalt Street Cars Racer 2. In addition, the developers implemented a rather non -standard physical model, in which the machine turns very smoothly.
And here, for example, Runner Sonic dash And similar games work on it already according to other principles. Yes, you can call them races with a stretch, but still at the forefront here is the speed too. And instead of a gyroscope, the smartphone screen itself is used. It is with a finger in the sensor in the right direction, the players give the commands to the hedgehog Sonic: rebuild to the right or left, make a jump or tackle. And this will probably seem to someone a completely convenient scheme. Yes, this is she is.
* * *
Many people like to compete in racing games, but few people think about how much work is behind these attractions. And most importantly, few people represent how much the development of racing is different from the creation of a shooter or quest. Game construction is the process in itself is difficult and creative, because generally accepted methods and techniques, as a rule, are not. The developers now and then have to reinvent the bicycle and look for a way out of difficult situations that no one has yet got into.
But when it comes to races, the tasks sometimes have to solve even more original. And I would like to believe that after this article at least part of the players will understand how much effort people from companies like PlayGround Games put into their projects.