SEGA Rally's Deformable Track Surfaces (PS3, Xbox 360)
An idea so fantastic that SEGA deemed it appropriate to issue a press release about it:
Quote:
GAME OVERVIEW
The introduction of SEGA Rally to the arcades in 1995 had the single biggest impact on the racing genre. Subsequent console rally games concentrated on a realistic simulation of the sport, but their popularity, reflected in sales, steadily dropped over the last decade. Now, SEGA Rally is back and set to reinvigorate the genre with the vital ingredients that many of the modern racers lack – fun, character and beauty, with few rally games able to match its unique and rewarding experience. Rally’s dead, long live SEGA Rally.
DEFORMATION
The all new SEGA Rally retains all the pedigree of the 1995 arcade classic, whilst using all the resources available in the cutting edge next-gen hardware. One major innovation in the game which until now, no developer has managed to achieve - straining even the considerable computing power available today - is proper deformable track surfaces.
As with the original SEGA Rally arcade cabinet, in single player mode the new SEGA Rally is about racing successive laps of the track against a number of opponents. Although, this time as well as AI players, players can race each other online or head to head.
As players race each successive lap in the game, they and their competitors churn and wear the track leaving a scrubbed or rutted track surface behind. Unlike other games which have tricked players into believing they’re cutting up the track with visual trickery, SEGA Rally really is deforming the surface and this will affect the gameplay in a number of ways.
As well as learning the race tracks to gain split-second advantages, players will start to see, hear and feel nuances in taking one racing line or another. For example, players might see a contour made by another car through some gravel, which if they follow will help them gain speed, whereas if they take a fresh route through the gravel it could potentially slow them down. It's these gameplay elements that give extra depth, is what players expect from a next-gen console and is something no game has done before.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Most games use a 1 metre polygon grid to drive upon, but that was never going to work for the level of details aimed for in SEGA Rally. Because of this, the entire drivable surface of every track within SEGA Rally is modelled at the massively high detail of 6 centimetres for every single polygon - that's 17 times more detail and means that each tyre of each Rally car interacts with up to 12 polygons at any time.
Importantly, the physics engine powering SEGA Rally also runs the detail at a high frame-rate, reacting to every bump in the highly detailed scenery. For every surface, there are a number of characteristics - in addition to the normal static and dynamic slip components SEGA Racing Studio has modelled wear rate and how ruts form for every polygon, how the friction changes as players dig down into the surface, and the profile of the debris which tyres leave as they churn each surface up. SEGA Racing Studio are even able to model the higher grip levels expected on tarmac as traffic lays down rubber - and that means real live racing lines forming that can and must be reacted to as in a real race.
From a graphical point of view, as well as deforming the polygon surface of the track, multiple materials with specular lighting and bump mapping are blended per-pixel in real time, both along the length and into the surface of the track, as detailed in the screens shots provided.
Could this be the title that revives SEGA's flagging fortunes? Time and deformable tracks will tell.
too bad sega rally is the rally version of ridge racer.
"Lets take a really cool realistic idea and slap it into an unrealistic rally game..."
It looks like a good game but I am still waiting to see how realistic/arcadey it is.
If it it is anything like the previous Sega Rally games, it will be very arcadey, and very fun. I can't think of a single Sega game that is supposed to be realistic. As far as I can tell, they are games first and foremost. The fact that they resemble reality is only a cover for making an arcade game. That's one of the key reasons their NFL games were so damn good. They focused on making a great VIDEOGAME first, then added the trappings to make it look and sound like the NFL, as opposed to trying to make a simulator.
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too bad sega rally is the rally version of ridge racer.
"Lets take a really cool realistic idea and slap it into an unrealistic rally game..."
It looks like a good game but I am still waiting to see how realistic/arcadey it is.
Too Bad? More Arcadey is good, more arcadey is better!
Arcade style racing FTW!
Realistic Racing FTL!
Seriously though; i really can't stand realistic racers all that much; very rarely enough sense of speed and just overall kinda meh compared to things like NFS, Burnout, Rush (older ones) or even trackmania.
If you are talking about 2k games then they were all about sim play above everything else. They just happened to create the best football and bball games ever created in the making. No hint of arcade at all, just plain realistic.
Arcadey is not bad but I keep hearing how realistic certain aspects of the game are...which I could care less about if it ends up as an arcade racer.
Most games use a 1 metre polygon grid to drive upon, but that was never going to work for the level of details aimed for in SEGA Rally. Because of this, the entire drivable surface of every track within SEGA Rally is modelled at the massively high detail of 6 centimetres for every single polygon - that's 17 times more detail and means that each tyre of each Rally car interacts with up to 12 polygons at any time.
That sounds like such bullcrap. a "1 metre polygon grid" you say? How exactly does one measure a "metre" in a game, much less "6 centimentres"? And "tyre"? What's going on here?
That sounds like such bullcrap. a "1 metre polygon grid" you say? How exactly does one measure a "metre" in a game, much less "6 centimentres"? And "tyre"? What's going on here?
In 3d programs you can set units to whatever scale you want
I'll take arcadey over realistic, but that's just me. This is the kind of thing we need to see from these "next-gen" systems. Well, if this actually effects gameplay,that is.
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That sounds like such bullcrap. a "1 metre polygon grid" you say? How exactly does one measure a "metre" in a game, much less "6 centimentres"? And "tyre"? What's going on here?
You can't seriously be asking this?
On the dimensions:
You know the relative dimensions of every single item in the game. You *have* to know this, since that's how you create realistic-looking cars and features. This is basic 3D modeling and CAD theory.
If they say a grid is 1m, then, based on the relation of that to other objects in the game, the side of which we know in real life, it's equivalent dimension, if the scene generated was actual reality, it would be 1m.
My mind boggles at your incomprehension.
On tyre:
You do realize that other English-speaking countries spell certain words differently, right?
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If it it is anything like the previous Sega Rally games, it will be very arcadey, and very fun.
Can't agree more. I would take Sega Rally '95 over DiRT any day. Sega already nailed the fun arcadey racer over a decade ago, can't wait to see them do it again. I only hope this deformable terrain they're developing is exaggerated to the same extent as everything else so that it's a noticeable dynamic in the gameplay. Really looking forward to this one.
