PGR 3’s Forests: More Than Just a Blur
The graphics for Project Gotham Racing® 3 have an incredible amount of detail. After all, the Xbox 360™ is a “next generation” console, one that’s fully compatible with HDTV. Every detail of those graphics has its own story, from the faces in a crowd of spectators to the writing on signs along city streets. Take, for example, the hundreds of trees you blast past when you’re driving through a circuit at over 170 miles an hour. The folks at Bizarre—the creators of Project Gotham Racing—wanted every leaf and branch to have more detail than you’d find in any other racing game. For this part of the game, they went to a team of specialists: a company called IDV, the creators of SpeedTreeRT.
While you’re focused on oversteer, tire grip, and the dozens of other factors that affect a race car in motion, your Xbox 360 chews through amazing amounts of code to process the details in the background. A single glance at the forests surrounding the Nurburgring Nordschilefe or the foliage along the roadside in London is enough to highlight the game’s impressive graphics, as well as the talent required to create such detailed backgrounds. Each city has its own distinctive look and feel. After all, the library for SpeedTree includes hundreds of tree models from over a hundred core species, creating what IDV’s CEO, Chris King, describes as “forests of unprecedented density, comprising windblown trees of incredible detail and realism.”
“We had artists using the tool from day one and trees in the game within days,” explains Brian Woodhouse, Development Director for Bizarre Creations. Using a program called “SpeedTreeCAD,” SpeedTreeRT streamlined and simplified the process of adding foliage around the game’s tracks. According to Mr. Woodhouse, this solution allowed them to “free up critical time from key team members to allow them to focus on other aspects of the game.”
Project Gotham Racing 3 creates a photo realistic environment, giving gamers a truly immersive racing experience. While you’ve been tearing up tracks, you’ve probably spent far more time watching the cars around you than looking at trees… but the detail is still there. Anyone who uses the game’s Photo Mode can examine that detail even further. The more you play the game, of course, the more you’ll notice. The next time you’re rushing through a blur of scenery at high speed, keep an eye out for the big picture: the many ways PGR 3 brings innovation to racing game graphics. After all, we wouldn’t want you to miss the forest for the trees.
For more information on SpeedTree in PGR3, visit the Bizarre Creations website.
For more information on SpeedTree, stop by http://www.speedtree.com.