| Nascar Racing 2003 Season Facts : | ||
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| First off let me thank you for giving your time to this interview. We honor the opportunity to submit an interview to our readers to give them insight into the world of simulation motorsports. We would also like to thank our visitors for submiting over 400 questions. BHMS: Before we start with the questions, could you please introduce yourself to our readers. Tell us what you do and a little about your background. Steve Myers: My name is Steve Myers and I am a producer for NASCAR Racing 2003 Season. This will be my third NASCAR title at Papyrus, and after spending the last 8 months working on NR2003 I believe it will be the best one yet. I grew up a motorsports and video game fanatic and actually went back to school to try and get a job at Papyrus, which, thankfully worked out. BHMS: What, in your opinion, is the feature that has changed in NR2003 that will make those who played Nascar Racing 4 and/or Nascar Racing 2002 Season want to buy the 2003 edition? Steve Myers: There really are a ton of new features in NR2003 that will make it an improvement over our last two products, there should be something for everyone to enjoy. The features that I am personally most excited about are the changes to our physics model and the bump mapping on the tracks. These two features alone make NR2003 a must have for any sim racing enthusiast. BHMS: In a previous interview, one of the Papyrus producers had stated "In fact, the physics model is so accurate now that we can plug in a real-life Winston Cup Car setup, and the car will behave just as it would in real life." Can you tell us if and who in Winston Cup has helped in the development of Nascar 2003 in order to achieve this and how was this implemented? Did you take a known setup for a particular track and then try to match the physics to that? We know that NR2003 will have manufacturer specific bodies. Will there also be physics differences between them? Steve Myers: Manuel Daskalos and the guys at Jasper Motorsports helped us so much in making changes to our physics model, I never could have imagined how much data they ended up providing us. Even at this point in development we are continuously getting feedback from Manuel and his team. We essentially adjusted every value we could based off real world data Manuel provided. The end result gave us a physics model that is as close to a real world stock car as possible, one that will not be matched or surpassed for years to come. I should also add that Mike Stackpole at Goodyear Tire and Rubber has also provided us with every piece of data we could ask for, and our tire model is incredibly improved because of it. BHMS: Could you explain the implementation of the Matrox wide screen in N2003 and what it would take to patch some of the other games to support this new technology? With the multiple screen technology that we're seeing now, do you think we'll see more of that technology designed and supported in todays gaming or in the future? And don't forget the 3D glasses and all sorts of head movement trackers. Steve Myers: Actually, NASCAR Racing 2002 Season can be run in wide screen mode on the Matrox card, you just need to download a patch for it. Working with Matrox to incorporate widescreen was a no-brainer for us, because we always look for ways to let our customers feel a little closer to actually racing a stock car . BHMS: I have been a strong proponent of sim products having a brake bias adjuster in the cockpit so drivers can adjust brake bias to balance the car on worn tires. Why do you think this essential tuning adjustment has been left out of many of the products that we see on the shelf today. Is this possibly a new feature that we will see in Nascar Racing 2003 Season (on road courses)? Steve Myers: Unfortunately this did not make it into NR2003. As we do every year, we end up having to cut back on things we REALLY want to fix due to time constraints. The trick is finding a nice mix of things that gives us the most bang for the buck in terms of adding value to the game. BHMS: What improvements have been made to the AI in NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, other than the auto-adjusting AI strength? Their inability to drive most tracks realistically (which can prevent the player from racing closely with them) was a major problem in N4 and NR2002. Will this be improved? Also, will the AI cars react to contact from the player's car in a more realistic manner? In both N4 and NR2002, contact with an AI car which, in real life would have spun them (for example, in the left rear quarter panel while going through a turn), will instead cause the player to lose control, while the AI car drives away unscathed. Steve Myers: We really have made quite a few improvements to the AI for NR2003. They now have a better understanding of the track, the positions of other cars, and the draft. When we started this project we made the decision that one of our primary goals would be to improve our AI, and I think that we have accomplished this goal.BHMS: Can you tell us something about the improved damage model. What has been added, changed? Have you thought about going with vertex damage like we have seen in Viper Racing, Nascar Heat and will objects that break off the car have colision damage? Would it be possible to model tire damage in the physics model to simulate a flat tire or a blow-out? It seems that there is never a flat tire or a tire that comes apart as we see in Winston Cup, where it shreds the fenders. Is that something that the designer felt made the game too hard or is there just not a proper way to get the desired results? Steve Myers: Visually, not much will change in the damage model other than that we have new body shapes. We have and will continue to tweak the damage model to better simulate what would happen in the real world. We have also done extensive testing with the tire model to more accurately replicate real world tire wear at each track. This has been another area that our technical partnerships with Jasper and Goodyear will really improve our product. BHMS: Nascar Thunder 2003 was the first to implement rain on road courses. Will the new sim also address realistic weather and changing track conditions (dynamic weather)? Steve Myers: We will have dynamic weather, but this will not include rain. When realistic weather is selected, the weather can and will change between sessions and during them. The temperature will change as well as wind direction and speed. We will also have animated flags that will give you a clue if the wind is changing direction during a session. BHMS: Nascar Racing Series has a huge online legacy. Have you prepared anything special for the 2003 edition, like a spectator option for example? What is new in the game that will improve off-line racing experience like a career mode or a game-save feature for the people that like to run 100% races and seasons but don't have the time to do it in one sitting. Steve Myers: We have made some nice additions to our already solid MP feature list, these include a voting system and league administrator tools. Players will now be able to vote for things like ejecting problem players or changing the track, and League Admins will now have the ability to moderate a race and throw caution flags, black flags, remove flags, add or subtract laps, and much more. For players looking to add the excitement of longer races in a shorter time period, we’ve added the ability to increase tire wear and fuel consumption rates to force earlier pit stops. BHMS: Now that the NASCAR series is coming to an end what will Papyrus be working on for future releases and will they continue with the simulation genre? What other racing series do you think looks attractive to today's sim market. What other non-driving features do you think need to be introduced in racing sims that will draw more people into playing the game. Where driving and racing is a part of the game, but not the whole experience, what else need to be installed to take the market further ahead. In the future, will you add flexibility of the platform, for modification by the sim community, such as new car bodies, changes to physics parameters and the ability to build new tracks easily, to keep Nascar 2003 alive and on top for several years to come? Grand Prix Legends always comes to mind on something like this... a sim several years old but is even more popular now than it has ever been. Steve Myers: At this point we have several design proposals in the works as we start charting a new course for Papyrus. Its no secret at this point that we would like to do a cross-platform game, but we will not forget our roots as the leaders of PC racing simulations. We’ve been blown away at what the user community has been doing with GPL, N4, and N2002, and we definitely believe that those efforts help contribute to the overall success of our products. BHMS: In many interviews about Papyrus and the Nascar Genre, the name Grand Prix Legends is often mentioned in reference to physics and also other dimensions of that game. Since we all know that this will be your last version of Nascar, are there any thoughts of going back to a 'Vintage' genre racing game?? I know that there was a ground swell about a year ago from the GPL faithful to do a newer version of GPL (ie GPL2) and it was reported that Papyrus said NO! As I recall that was a pretty emphatic, NO.. Do you think that there would be interest in that aspect of racing and therefore appeal to a broad enough base to make it a worthy venture for Papyrus? Is it possible that your decision not to do a second GPL has changed in light of Nascar moving to EA Sports? GPL has long been considered the 'bar' for other sims to be measured to and yet we all know that for your company, it wasn't a commercial windfall. Why do you think now that the more advance physics model is more acceptable now that it was 5 years ago. Are we all just better drivers now and accept the challenge of the more accurate physics model. Steve Myers: First off, Papyrus didn’t say no to a GPL sequel - the market did. Many of the people here would love to do a GPL sequel, but according to all the market research and sales analysis we’ve seen, the numbers just won’t work. It’s very expensive to make a game these days, and we’d be taking a mammoth risk on developing such a project. Remember - the first goal of business is to keep the doors open! But just because a GPL sequel doesn’t appear to be in the cards doesn’t mean that we’re not considering many different proposals for future development. GPL is a great game, and one that we still play quite a bit around here, and although it didn’t have the mass appeal that the other titles have had, its technology base was the foundation for all of the NASCAR titles that followed it. Regarding the “acceptability” of the physics model five years ago versus today, there are several factors at work. First, I think the common misconception people have about a physics model getting more “accurate” is that it will be more difficult to drive, and that’s just not true - especially in the case of NR2003. As the model becomes more accurate, its feedback to the driver becomes more accurate, making it less likely that the driver will misinterpret it. Therefore, it’s less likely the driver will lose control of the car. Another thing that must be considered is that 1967 grand prix cars are, obviously, quite different from 2003 stock cars. The GP cars have a much higher power-to-weight ratio, much less downforce, and skinny, treaded tires. Therefore, they are inherently much harder to drive. So, it’s not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. I want to say thank you on behalf of Papyrus to Black Hole Motorsports and everyone else in our ever-expanding community for supporting us through the years. I know you are going to be very impressed with NR2003 and I hope you will continue to support us in our future endeavors. |
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Comments : |
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| Author: SDager34 | 20-12-2002 |
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Can't wait to jump behind the wheel of this baby! Thanks Papyrus for all the wasted years of playing you AWESOME Sims!! SD |
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| Author: Steve | 20-12-2002 |
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Why is it when someone asks the right questions (real sim questions), producers always seem to don't want reveal too much information. What are they trying to hide. Also, looks like he ignored more then 1 questions... |
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| Author: ThomasH | 20-12-2002 |
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He skipped the 3d VR stuff, wich I was most intressting in hearing..otherwise. Nice job of BHMS to bring it to us :) |
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| Author: BORS | 21-12-2002 |
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Great article so far...hope they get into more depth on the graphics and how they have improved the warp in the new templates. |
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| Author: spoon | 21-12-2002 |
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that was nice and long... yank yank |
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| Author: S CAREY | 21-12-2002 |
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looks like another 50 dollar patch to me cept for the pit crew stuff dont see the new 3d engine purty much looks like the old 2k2 engine to me |
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| Author: S CAREY | 21-12-2002 |
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also steve conveniently left out the fact that the matrox support only works for offline,Im not knockin papy.........ive had a lot of fun with their sims but,These interviews leave a LOT of unanswered direct questions also leaving out brake bias adjustments? and no demo?makes me suspicious that we have another 50 dollar patch on the way with jumbotrons and more animation in the pits..........o I forgot the airplanes/helos flyin around didnt wanna leave those important issues out |
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| Author: Dan Belcher | 21-12-2002 |
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That's a hell of a lot of major improvements in just the driving itself (tire model and physics updates and FINALLY good bump mapping, not just asthetics. Seems like more than just a patch to me... |
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| Author: John | 21-12-2002 |
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There will be a post release demo, and no you will not be able to adjust brake bias. |
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| Author: costinr | 21-12-2002 |
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Yes I agree that there needs to be a little more detail that would sell this to me. Convience me it is not a $50 patch. At least since they are not releasing a demo till after the game comes out. For example will we be able to review tire wear, accellerator, and Brake usage on another online member. This would be very helpful to league admins for replay reviews. Also will you be able to export the standings like always. If one thing doesn't change I hope they leave this feature alone! |
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| Author: gary | 22-12-2002 |
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although short a great read |
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| Author: S CAREY | 22-12-2002 |
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as far as physics go that stuff is HIGHLY subjective unless you have actually driven an 800 HP winston cup car.......... and no 2 WC cars drive exactly the same,at ANY given track,I love papys sims, dont get me wrong NO ONE does it better, but we need to remember this is their last hurrah with the winston cup/nascar license so we need to hold their feet to the fire when they omit important stuff and ignore legitimate questions about this supposedly best/last version,remember nascar 99?that was regurgitated code repackaged and resold...........anyone wanna but a used TSW2? |
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| Author: Napoleon-X | 22-12-2002 |
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The only reason I didn't give it a 10 is I would like to know two things. Is the Venvendi Universal investigation (which is speeding up) potentially going to impact a release of N2003 FE? Second, I'd like to see some PC requirements. Some of us are on the edge right now technology-wise, so I think some advance info would be nice. |
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| Author: Tim | 23-12-2002 |
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Cant wait for n2k3 to hit the stores in february.. thanks alot to papy for making some great sims, for helping me waste my teenage mind playing racing sims everyday.. for everything you guys over there at papy have provided me, heading into my racing career.. Thanks alot, you're NASCAR series will be missed, believe me!!!! |
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| Author: Jason Moyer | 23-12-2002 |
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All of the comparisons I've read between N2002 and N2003 have stated that the difference in the physics engine is as great as the jump between N2 and GPL. I'm not totally willing to believe that, but if its true then really any other feature is going to be irrelevant to a simulation racer. I'd like to see a career mode, online season support, provisionals, and so on, and really I'd rather not spend $50 on another iteration of Redneck Racing (please Papy, convince Sierra/Vivendi to license GPL76 or Indycar 3). That said, if they're going to give us the most accurate tire, suspension, and aero modelling that is possible in real-time on a consumer PC, I can't ask for more. At the end of the day, as with any simulation, it's all about getting to experience something for $50 that few of us will ever have an opportunity to do. Good interview, BMHS, I honestly find your interviews lacking sometimes, but this one was great and touched on all of the points I was most interested in. |
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| Author: Humdinger | 23-12-2002 |
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Sigh, no rain. And I bet the AI will still be dumb as nails since Papy always say they're really going to improve it with each release. |
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| Author: Phillip Parcell | 23-12-2002 |
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I have raced most of my life and been around cup cars.I hope that they will Change the game so these crazy set up's will not work!!! I've tried and ask to talk to some one about this I do not get a reply about this. I can tell you this I can set up a cup car and what kills me what should work does not work in 2002. Please Help make the game better. |
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| Author: RH | 24-12-2002 |
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Nothing is ever said about brakes on N2002 or N2003. The brakes on N2002 are for the most part unuseable, not at all close to real world winston cup, with a single wheel locking up or two on one side etc. To me one of the most important features to the game especially on the short tracks and road courses are the BRAKES. Of all of the changes Papy is making to the game I sure hope they do something about the brakes. rh |
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| Author: RandolphRed | 24-12-2002 |
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Another 50 buck patch. Will we be able to race the AI? Papyrus thought the AI was first class in N4 and N2002. What is the chance that it will be different in N2003? OnLine it's great. Offline. Sounds like SameOld SameOld!!! |
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| Author: Chris | 26-12-2002 |
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This hopefully will be the best NASCAR Racing game ever. I don't think EA can ever out-do Sierra/Papyrus' work. Course that's just my opinion but NR2003 will be hard to beat as far as NASCAR games are concerned. |
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| Author: slowpoke2003 | 26-12-2002 |
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Awesome, I can't wait till its out! I like the options with the administrative options online! Very nice! |
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| Author: Lars O. Steffensen | 21-01-2003 |
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Very interesting |
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| Author: Roger Lee | 05-02-2003 |
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From the interview, it does not sound like many changes or improvements have been made with NR2003. Ever time the interviewer asked about improvements that other sims have made or that WE players wish we could have were not there. I'm wondering if my new purchase will be worth it! |
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| Author: LeftyX | 26-02-2003 |
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like all the Papy sims |
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