Racing cars is an expensive, dangerous business. Even weekend amateurs need a car, spare parts, fuel, entry fees, mechanics, more spare parts, and eventually another car if they do it long enough. It’s also time-consuming and dangerous.
Luckily for racing enthusiasts short on time, money, and courage, we have video games that are getting more realistic every year. This September, Forza Motorsport 6 will hit shelves (and digital downloads) for the Xbox One. It’s the latest in a line of racing games that aim to be the ultimate simulation, and this one is no different.
It’s been 10 years since the first Forza Motorsport launched (back on the original Xbox!), and Forza 6 is the biggest, baddest yet. “It’s our most comprehensive game yet. The biggest, most technically advanced,” says Dan Greenawalt, creative director at Turn 10 Studios and head honcho in charge of every Forza Motorsports title. “We’ve advanced the simulation, advanced the AI, rendering and audio.”
The game goes on sale September 15th in the US for $60, $80 or $100, depending on whether you want to prepurchase downloadable car packs (which will likely be released monthly for a year or so after the game launches) and a special VIP status that allows for accelerated leveling up and a few other perks.
First, the numbers. 450 cars, lovingly rendered with working cockpits, opening doors, realistic engine and tire noises, and, of course, authentic damage. 26 racing locations, including 10 tracks totally new to the franchise. Races will have 24 simultaneous competitors, online and off—with Forza’s “Drivatar” system in place for offline races.
Drivatars are digital players that drive like humans, not precise robots. Even better, they drive like specific human players. They imitate the hard to notice things, like how a driver takes a tight corner, whether they lock up the front wheels under braking, how aggressively they jump on the gas coming out of a corner, or what they do when the rear end begins to fishtail.
All of that behavior gets incorporated—so much so that my friends don’t always enjoy driving with my virtual counterpart. I can get a little aggressive sometimes. Sorry, guys.
The feature, introduced online in Forza Motorsport 5, has been upgraded for Forza 6. Racers will be able to customize how they want drivatars to behave. You’ll be able to tune the aggressiveness of the computer-controlled drivers, making them more professional or more casual. Drive with more of your real-world friends, or get rid of friends entirely.
Also new to Forza 6 is realistic in-the-rain and in-the-dark driving (just not at the same time). Both are available in Horizon 2, a drive-anywhere-even-across-hayfields-in-Europe edition of the series, but Horizon is a more casual, arcade-style game. This is the first time the rougher elements will appear in the ultra-accurate simulation environment of Forza Motorsport.
We have physically-based 3D puddles. Tires will individually hydroplane based on the simulation. Dan Greenawalt, creative head of Turn 10 Studios
An overarching priority of Turn 10 Studios, the division of Microsoft that’s responsible for the franchise (and the reason the game is an Xbox One exclusive), was to ensure the game ran smoothly at 1080p and 60 frames per second, no matter what was happening on screen. The graphics are critical, especially as windshields become streaked with rain, or you’re driving down the back stretch at Le Mans in the middle of the night.
But the physics are where Turn 10 has really pushed things. The development team is obsessive about gameplay and having accurate simulations. “We have physically-based 3D puddles,” says Greenawalt. “Tires will individually hydroplane based on the simulation.”
Every race is different, and the track surface will change depending on conditions and how drivers race. From concrete to tarmac, the paint on rumblestrips, the sealant that connects old and new sections of track—150 surface types in total—everything is measured to accurately replicate how well the tires grip, in the wet and dry, night (friction changes with temperature).
Not all tracks will allow for nighttime or wet racing. It doesn’t rain much in Abu Dhabi, for example, and not all tracks allow races in the dark. It’s all about accurate simulation, after all.
Then there’s the cars. 450 at launch, with more coming in numerous car packs over the next year. And, for the first time since Forza 4, there will be Porsches. (The brand has an exclusive licensing deal with EA, which needs to sign off on any of the company’s cars appearing in any competitors’ racing games. Porsche’s cars should appear sometime in 2016 as a downloadable content pack.)
Simulating all those cars requires a tremendous amount of work. The Forza physics engine can replicate a huge variety of suspension geometries, differentials, all-wheel drive systems, tire compounds (want to see how a 1930s Bentley would drive with modern tires? Turn 10 can simulate that for you), and much more.
It’s not just the physics that takes a lot of work; the cars need to look right. Turn 10 has three main ways to enter cars into their system. For cars it’s not allowed to take apart (think classics worth tens of millions of dollars), it’ll take thousands of photographs and lots of video to accurately capture everything. “Those are the hardest cars to recreate,” says Greenawalt.
It’s faster to do our own research than wait for someone else to do it. We’re doing tests that no one had done before. Dan Greenawalt, creative director at Turn 10 Studios
More modern cars like the 2017 Ford GT, which is making its video game debut in Forza 6 (and, not coincidentally, is on the cover of the box, too) are largely designed in a computer. Turn 10 gets access to the raw computer-aided design (CAD) data from the manufacturer, which is a great starting point. Then it’ll take a ton of pictures and make sure everything looks right. For other cars, like the Bugatti Veyron SS, Turn 10 can use a fancy laser scanner to import every component.
A full time team gathers gobs of data on as many cars as possible, about 1,000 to date. It will even investigate vehicles that won’t make it into the game—all data is helpful, since so many cars share parts. All-wheel drive systems made by Haldex or Torsen, transmissions from various companies, all are simulated. But if Turn 10 knows a transmission from one car it’s tested is being used in another car, it can save time by importing the specs and data.
It has partnerships with tire manufacturers and does its own testing. “It’s faster to do our own research than wait for someone else to do it,” says Greenawalt. “We’re doing tests that no one had done before.”
Forza
All this stuff, Greenawalt says, “is critical in a car that’s being designed but hasn’t been driven yet.” For something like the new Ford GT, which hasn’t been tested publicly, Turn 10 won’t just take a manufacturer at its word. “We’re rebuilding the real world, so what they say the 0 to 60 time is isn’t relevant.” Turn 10 will replicate every component in the car, and calculate the 0 to 60 time from there.
Audio presents its own problems, especially with ultra-rare cars. It can sometimes be impossible to find an owner of an old classic that is willing to let some whippersnapper strap their million-dollar baby to a dynamometer to record its engine sounds. But, if you can find a different car with the same engine, Turn 10 can record that audio (and the performance characteristics) and link it to a different car.
“When you’re playing in Forza, the engine sound you’re hearing, or the exhaust, is a recompiling of all the components in a single car,” explains Greenawalt. “But we’re taking parts from one car and adding them to parts from another.” The end result is accurate, but how they get there requires some sleight of hand.
Bonus: It’s a lot of fun. “It’s a chemistry set,” says Greenawalt. “What if I engine swap this race engine into an old Volvo station wagon? Maybe no one has done it in the real world, but the way we did it is based on science and research.”
But all that data’s useless if Forza’s no fun. That’s why Turn 10 has revamped its multiplayer component with competitive league play and spectator modes.
The leagues allow drivers with similar temperament and skill levels to play together, so guys and gals who really want to race clean don’t have to deal with players driving in the wrong direction, for example. Turn 10 has done a lot of research into the ways gamers play Forza, from those who just want to jump into multiplayer and drive around to guys who will spend hours testing and perfecting their rides, adjusting everything from tire pressure to gearing to suspension travel.
I’m stoked for Forza 6. 24-player multiplayer whipping around Brands Hatch? It’s going to be wonderfully insane. Especially with the wheel and pedals that I’ll inevitably buy. Anyone wanna race?
