| Richard Burns Rally Facts : | ||
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BHMS: The claimed realism of this game is one of the most eagerly anticipated. Just how far does this go - what happens if we, for example, strike a tree at 100km/h head on? Warthog: In view of popular demand, the game comes with three different realism levels for car damage. Easy, Professional and Champion. Champion is truly realistic - and no other mode should be considered for the serious sim fan. If you hit a tree at 100km/h head on, your car will most likely be a write off. BHMS: A question that is common to all our interviews. How lifelike are the car physics and how did you achieve this level of realism? Warthog: The aim from the beginning has been to make the simulation as close to reality as possible. This meant we had to identify what mechanisms have the greatest effect on how a rally car behaves. Then we tried to model these with as much accuracy as development time and computing power allowed. This meant reading a lot of scientific papers and adopting existing methods to be suitable for real time computation. The second part of the problem is once you have all the code running, you need proper parameters to make it behave as the car it was intended to simulate. Here we are very thankful to the world rally teams who have provided us with plenty of information. Ranging from tyre properties to air flow through turbos. The last part is testing and setup work on the cars. We have been working closely with mechanics and a professional rally driver who on several occasion phoned to his team to ask questions like what size of anti roll bar or how much rebound damping was run on a certain rally. We went through all of this because we wanted to make a rally simulation closer to real life than anything developed to date. BHMS: No tools for editing the game on PC have been announced. How mod-able will Richard Burns Rally be? Will racing fans be able to paint their own paint schemes, add new cars... I guess the question here is, how hard did you guys try to "secure" the code? Warthog: It will be posssible to modify some aspects of the PC version, but to what degree we're not sure of yet. BHMS: What kind of multiplayer modes and options will there be? What kind of options are there in the Hot-seat mode? Warthog: The hot-seat mode lets up to four players compete on any stage of their choosing and we've also added another option to play through an entire rally. In both these modes you can race with or without Ghostcars. Unfortunately there are no online head-to-head multiplayer modes. BHMS: Should we expect to see any further (bonus) cars beyond the announced cars? If so, what historical era will they originate from, and are there any non-4WD drivetrains making appearances? Warthog: There are bonus cars to unlock, including a contemporary 2WD bonus car. You'll have to play the game to find out which, though! BHMS: What are some of the more unique tuning options available in the garage and how do they affect the car performance? Warthog: In the setup section you make changes to the cars as you would do in real life. For instance, to set the front toe of the car, you change the length of the steering rods and the toe is calculated in real time. To change caster you simply move the mounting points of the struts. The user will also be able to alter the control systems of the differentials. BHMS: Can you briefly describe how the tire model works? What factors contribute to grip (i.e. temperature, wear, surface, load borne by each wheel)? Warthog: The tyre model is basically a slip-based model. The force to slip angle/slip ratio curves is modified in real time depending on the conditions of the tyre and the material it is interacting with. All the factors mentioned affects the way the tyre behaves. For instance we obtained information from the tyre companies on several aspects of the tyres, such as operating temperature, grip and tyre stiffness in relation to tyre load etc. Heat transfer is also modelled and the temperature affects the tyres in different ways. For instance, the temperature of the rubber closest to the ground affects the friction level of the tyre whereas the temperature of the air inside the tyre affects the pressure and thus stiffness of the tyre. BHMS: We know about the spectators being where they should and shouldn't be. But what about wildlife - is there any? Warthog: We have wildlife like birds, kangaroos, deer etc, and you can actually be unfortunate enough to hit a bird and smash your windscreen (birdsplash as it's commonly called). BHMS: While talking about accidents, tell us what is so special about the damage model. Warthog: Rough driving and crashing can damage plenty of components of the car. If you damage a brake line you will be driving without brakes, bust a radiator and you will loose your engine coolant and eventually overheat your engine. Damage the intercooler and turbo boost is lost. Run over a rock and you might bend a suspension rod, altering the toe of that wheel. On Easy and Professional, though, the damage is fairly lenient to the player, but I'm happy to say that in Champion mode the gloves are off. BHMS: What about component wear during rallies such as tyre and brake-wear? How does one repair the car? Warthog: Tyre wear is modelled. If you gamble that a track is wet and choose a wet weather tyre, but it turns out its not, then the tyre will overheat and wear down quicker. Brakes are accurately simulated. They increase their efficiency as they warm up but start dropping in performance as they get overheated. In car service the player will be presented with a team mechanics job list. The player then gets to decide what parts have to be replaced. As the player selects parts to be fixed he is presented with an estimated time - the accuracy of which is dependant on the skill and experience of the lead mechanic (no absolute time guarantees here). The clock ticks in real-time as the player chooses what to fix. Once the order has been given the time speeds up as the parts are replaced. Overdrawing the 20 minute service time (or 40 minutes for overnight service) will result in penalties exactly as in real life. One of the nicest features in car service is that the car parts are connected as they are in real life. Replacing a brake disc, for instance, means that the mechanics need to remove the brake pads and brake callipers before the disc can be removed. And then put it all back together again. BHMS: Is the scenery interactive in any way? In other words, can you damage or alter the objects around a stage or are they solid and fixed in one place? Warthog: Yes. We have fences, signs, mesh fences, cones etc. that can be knocked about and/or broken. Logs can be knocked around and roll down hills. Our tickertape is something special actually; it snaps just like real tickertape and the sticks fall over, of course. But if you drive really carefully you can stretch it over your bonnet and over the car. Try it when you get the chance - it's a neat little detail. BHMS: Were there any specific feature of the game you found especially difficult to implement, and are especially proud of (please provide some technical details!)? Warthog: Quite a few things. The most striking must be the dynamic weather (which is great), the way no stage has a pre-designed weather setting. We have different sky parameters, rain effects, potholes and ruts that can be dry or filled with water. Stage surface graphics and materials also range from dry to wet depending on precipitation and moisture (with different specularity levels for each degree of dampness). Track surfaces also have different degrees of wear, that also affects the surface materials. If you start a stage as one of the first cars, the stage will be pretty pristine. Starting last will have the road softened up and lined with your competitors' tyre marks. All of the above creates great verity in driving conditions. Also the game uses several different stage order schedules that makes the track order different from season to season. As for difficulty, the above features have put a lot of strain on the testing though, as you can imagine trying to perfect something with lots of random parameters and making sure no oddities appear. BHMS: What about this 'dynamic weather' - just how dynamic is it? Do we get forecasts or will we know for sure how the weather will be like? Tyre gamble? Warthog: Every rally has several weather settings as appropriate for that rally's climate and the season. At the beginning of a rally the "start off" weather is random and changes for better or worse as the rally progresses. Particular weather is not tied down to a particular stage. There are forecasts that tell the player the current weather and if the weather is inclined to get worse, better or be more or less stable. As you only have access to the weather data at the service park, you'll have to gamble on what tyres to use, particularly for sections where you drive two stages in a row without service. BHMS: We know nothing about the career mode, apart from there being a rally driving school. Please tell us more. Warthog: There is a rally school that is divided into a Basic and an Advanced section. After the player has completed the rally school he is free to start a rally season. The player commits to a team and drives that team's car for a season. After the season the player can change to another team and drive another season (the player is likely to unlock new teams to drive for if he doesn't do too poorly!). It takes skill to do well in a season however as we follow the rally rules to the letter. Failing to reach the finish line will retire you from the entire rally and reward you with no season points just as in real life. And there are time penalties for false starts, getting stuck in the rough etc. BHMS: A lot of fans located in North-America have expressed concern about if and when Richard Burns Rally will be published on their continent. What can you tell them to put their minds at ease? Warthog: You will have to keep an eye on the SCi website for any information regarding publishing deals. * bonus question BHMS: We received a question from one of your developers (Fozz on our forum) asking for a raise? We at BHMS all think that he deserves it, just by visiting and offering his insights on our forum. Warthog: If he would spend as much time doing his work as he does on your forum, he would indeed get a substantial pay rise. As it is now, however - prospects are bleak. To learn more about this game, visit our Richard Burns Rally Game Section, where you can check out some videos, screenshots and all the latest news. |
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Comments : |
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| Author: Svarci | 14-04-2004 |
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No on-line... :( |
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| Author: LightHammer | 14-04-2004 |
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We need a pc demo soon...!! |
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| Author: kamkor | 14-04-2004 |
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I cant wait to smash a bird on my windscreen :D... |
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| Author: Bill | 14-04-2004 |
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No head-to-head online play? That just plain SUX!! Developers need to realize that good online play and modding capability (adding tracks/cars etc) are essential to the longevity of ANY video game/sim!! |
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| Author: AK-47 | 14-04-2004 |
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I WANT THIS GAME!!! This game will be a total sim (total kickass) !!!That's the way games should evaluate!!! |
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| Author: fastestdudeonearth | 14-04-2004 |
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yes, man:.. that sounds just awesome:.. |
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| Author: Ian McKnez | 14-04-2004 |
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Unfortunately there are no online head-to-head multiplayer modes. :( We need a pc demo soon! |
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| Author: AZone | 15-04-2004 |
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Great! |
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| Author: Jason Moyer | 15-04-2004 |
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THANK YOU WARTHOG SWEDEN! :D |
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| Author: motohd | 15-04-2004 |
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1:Ya better consider add-on/mod cars & TRACKS to compete with XpandRally.. ( SVE vs POL :) 2:est.dtg 4 demo ? |
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| Author: gram | 15-04-2004 |
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I cant wait for some playable version for public :):). |
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| Author: Midi | 15-04-2004 |
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Why there's 4 player limit in hot-seat mode? Something like 8 or 10 would be good :( Rally games are best when played with friends, please raise that player limit. |
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| Author: DaViSFiT | 15-04-2004 |
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And what about LAN ? playable ? Hotseat sucks... |
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| Author: Gwarth | 15-04-2004 |
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I couldn't care less about some multiplayer options. Rallying is individual sport, you should be alone on the track! The only multiplayer system that fits in rallying is hotlap competition. So I really don't complain about such thing. If there building a hotlap system is possible I'm pleased. Nice interview. Waiting for part 2. |
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| Author: 2re | 15-04-2004 |
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Wow. This can be all we could ask for and thats not including the Birdsplash. Good luck Warthhog. |
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| Author: Jack57 | 16-04-2004 |
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Very nice interview - well done! This one certainly has some promise. Nice bit of dry humor in the last response ;) |
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| Author: ThomasH | 16-04-2004 |
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Now, all we need is some moving media to back the words up. So faar, it isnīt that convincing really. Though I really hope I am wrong. |
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| Author: SinBin | 17-04-2004 |
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ow sounds like the "Ultimate rally sim" I cant wait to try it. I dont care about online for a rally sim the stages should be to tight, GTR will sort online racing for good. |
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| Author: Ken Mac | 18-04-2004 |
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Rally is getting bigger and bigger in America. PLEASE release this sim in the USA. Codemasters decided evidently to keep it's new release from us. Please know that bringing RBR to America would be beneficial to the Rally Racing series as a whole! |
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| Author: stefan | 21-04-2004 |
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no multiplayer, no "moding", nothing to backup sim declaration... |
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| Author: true. | 22-04-2004 |
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yes, rally is an individual sport, and multiplayer modes are not welcome here. IMHO |
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| Author: Murph | 26-04-2004 |
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We need great rally sims in America. I hate to think of being limited to only one rally series in the states. I agree with the idea of multiplayer being undesirable in a Rally sim---unless it's a console-only version. |
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| Author: Joe | 04-05-2004 |
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Can't wait to try this rally game.Sounds way-better than colin mcrea 4. |
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| Author: Rambo | 16-06-2004 |
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Damn no on-line |
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| Author: Benneyb | 15-07-2004 |
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What about stage lengths??? |
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| Author: petter | 29-07-2004 |
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great stuff, I cant wait to play the PC version, if I mange to get some free time. |
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