Il portale di Blackhole Motorsports ha pubblicato una interessante intervista ai programmatori della BugBear, che stanno lavorando alla realizzazione del nuovo FlatOut.

BHMS: What kind of tracks will be in the game? Will all tracks be simply bull-pin style arenas or will there be a mix of rally-circuits, road courses, oval tracks and possibly stadium style racetracks with jumps and dips?
BugBear: The tracks vary a lot. Some of them are old school rally driving in the gravel pits or forests. But at the other end of the spectrum we also have city tracks and asphalt racing tracks, not to mention the special tracks that are available in different minigames…

Nuovo update per l'ottimo Live for Speed: è disponibile a questo link la patch ufficiale E12 (anche in versione host dedicato), da intendersi come ultimo test prima della release "F". Queste le modifiche più importanti di questo aggiornamento:

#CONTINUE#

Frame rate increase with more HVS-related optimisation
List of games : info button to show host race state
Meeting room : button shows number of people in the room
Autosaved filenames now stripped of illegal characters
Separate speed reduce settings for analogue and keyboard
Automatic language selection the first time LFS is run
MPR : replay autosave now uses more descriptive filename
SPR : controller type now shown in "connection list" (N)
FIX : Autocross now uses LOD even when track LOD is OFF

Prosegue lo sviluppo a pieno ritmo anche dell'interessante Sirocco Racing, il simulatore gratuito realizzato da Ashley McConnell: potete scaricare da questo link la nuova versione 0.48.

I've managed to get the collision detection working at last . I've also upped the network rate for more fluid online racing. I have also got the lap-timing working for brands, let me know what kind of laptimes are possible I hope to make a video soon to show how the online racing is coming along.

La Techland ha rilasciato un nuovo filmato (disponibile in alta - 37MB - e bassa - 11MB - risoluzione) che mostra la particolarità dei tracciati che saranno presenti nell'atteso Xpand Rally: l'interattività e la dinamicità delle piste. Saranno infatti presenti elementi mobili (transenne, reti, cartelli, muretti, porte di cascine...) e dotati di una propria fisica e dinamica, create grazie al nuovo "Open Dynamics Engine":

#CONTINUE#

Dynamic and fully interactive track environment in Xpand Rally has been achieved by global physics simulation of all game’s objects. Physics in Xpand Rally is based on rigid body simulator named Open Dynamics Engine – a complex solution for dynamics simulation created by Russell Smith – the author of the MathEngine system that has been used for physics in many games. During the development of physics simulation for Xpand Rally, ODE has been largely modified and underwent heavy optimizations. It enabled the simulation of physics of bodies of all shapes and connected with one another and with the environment by any ways. All objects joints are fully configurable which allows for independent setting of parameters such as: number of degrees of freedom, friction coefficients, hardness, maximum speed and more.

For Xpand Rally the system has also been extended with a set of new parameters of joints that allow for the proper simulation of car springs and absorbers. Besides of standard gravitation forces also air friction, rolling friction, wind force and liquid interactions have been handled.

Thanks to the above it has been possible to achieve an unbelievable level of interaction of the car with the environment. Each object on the track is dynamic and it’s behavior (such as reaction to collision) is determined by the parameters of it’s physical simulation. The car hitting fences, walls, adverts, lamps, signs or barrels can tip them, break, turn over, pull out from the ground. To make the realism high thousands of such objects have been on each track. Sounds have big influence upon the realism of the game and that’s why the collision system in Xpand Rally is fully integrated with the sound system. At every collision of 2 objects the system takes into account the material of which they are made, and a fallen wooden post for instance will sound differently when hitting tarmac surface and differently when falling down on a green meadow.

As it was mentioned before the ODE system in Xpand Rally has been extended by the simulation of liquid uplift pressure forces. That allowed for making objects float on the surface of water. After the car hits a board, it may fall into nearby lake and float moved by the waves before it drowns. Of course the same refers to the car which will be especially important in some game modes. This phenomenon has yet another meaning. Let’s imagine the car driving through a deep puddle. But this is something to be discussed in further materials about the game regarding car physics. It is worth mentioning that wind plays an important role in Xpand Rally’s physics engine. It makes the antennas on the car’s roof swing and the grass on the fields wave. But the most spectacular is probably the effect of the tapes surrounding the tracks that can be tore and wave in the wind. The air forces simulation has been also integrated with the sound system – the objects that quickly pass by near the camera create characteristic zips. Full simulation of air forces allowed for simulation of the reaction of plants to the car driving nearby when the air wave of the running car bends the grass and other vegetation.

The development of the new physics took more than a year. It’s been worth it to make the system comply current standards and, above all, give the player maximum feeling of realism in the game.

Il portale di Gamesradar ha pubblicato una completa recensione di Nascar Thunder 2004: il simulatore targato EA Sports viene giudicato con un voto complessivo di 8.

Dopo un’attenta prova, è fuori discussione che NASCAR Racing 2003 Season rimanga LA simulazione del campionato tanto noto negli USA, ma NASCAR Thunder 2004 ha conquistato il podio, posizionandosi molto vicino al suo acerrimo rivale. La modalità Career potrebbe renderlo appetibile anche a chi possiede il Re delle simulazioni su ovale e un’eventuale patch capace di correggere il comportamento “timido†dell’Intelligenza Artificiale ne farebbe un’alternativa ancora più valida di quanto non sia ora.

Eccovi fresco fresco un nuovo video di Live For Speed! Per il download (47 Mb - necessita dei video codec di Windows Media Player 9) dirigetevi qui!

This S1 movie was produced to show what non LFS S1 users are missing. It has Blackwood, South City, Fern Bay, Rally X and Drag racing in it, also, GTI, GT Turbo, FXO, RB4, LX and MRT.

La Codemasters australiana ha annunciato che il team Holden Racing, probabilmente il più importante e rappresentativo del campionato V8 d'Australia, collaborerà attivamente allo sviluppo del prossimo V8 Supercars 2 (ovvero Toca Race Driver 2 come verrà chiamato nella terra dei canguri).

#CONTINUE#

Atari, Australia's premier source of interactive software, proudly announces that V8 Supercars 2, the second release of the official AVESCO licensed V8 Supercar game will include the addition of four new race tracks and five new teams including extremely popular Holden Racing Team.
V8 Supercars 2 is the sequel to the top-selling V8 racing game 'V8 Supercar Race Driver' that promises more cars, more tracks and more teams to make it the ultimate racing simulator for Xbox and PC CDROM.

Featuring more teams, V8 Supercars 2 now includes Ford Performance Racing, Team Kiwi, Team Dynamik, Team Betta Electrical and the Holden Racing Team.
V8 Supercar fans will now be able to race against the likes of Craig Baird, Jason Richards, Simon Wills, Todd Kelly and five times V8 Supercar Champion Mark Skaife....