Holy smokes Melbourne House are really pushing the PS2

All posts by Andrew Carter
Executive Producer: GP Challenge.

I\'ve taken this off GT FORUMS and it looks and sounds very impressive.

Screenshot
http://www.tothegame.com/screens/ps2_grandprixchallenge/2002-09-16/screen6_large.jpg


GrandPrix Challenge

1ST POST

Gentlemen!

I\'d like to answer a few of your questions regarding GP Challenge.

Firstly I\'d like to absolutely guarantee you that these screenshots are indeed taken from the PS2. You will get absolutely this and then some from the actual game and in fact these shots are taken directly from the game several weeks ago prior to final graphics. I should explain that the reason for the apparently high resolution of the screens is that our graphics engine generates images internally at a higher resolution than your TV can natively display. So the final on TV image is the antialiased result of the high resolution image you are seeing on your PC monitor. With its final lighting, the real, final game on PS2 really does look better than these today. It?s not like a certain other recently released PS2 racer!

Also I?d like to confirm that the game runs at a constant 60 frames/second regardless of how many of the 22 cars are on screen and how many effects are being generated. PS2 is both complicated and versatile and it has taken a project with time on its side to allow us to extract full results.

We have really tried hard to push PS2 to the limit on this game whilst still progressing the gameplay and style that people enjoyed so much on Dreamcast TestDrive:Lemans. We set out to make an F1 game that fans of the GranTurismo series would feel genuinely justified in wanting and enjoying. We believe it is the first console racing game that really does rival GT3 visuals and exceeds it in pure motor racing feeling. It feels ferocious for experts (far from ?lite F1? as mentioned in the forum!) but also has modes to encourage those new to racing and Formula 1! Without doubt you will notice a massive difference between GrandPrix Challenge and every other console F1 game released to date.

Happy Racing,

Andrew Carter
Executive Producer: GP Challenge.


2ND POST

I agree, lets cut through the S%#@$^@ and get to the point!

1. It\'s called GrandPrix Challenge.
2. It\'s about injecting the F back into F1 games because it\'s been missing for too long in too many - where F is Fun and the first letter of many other words!
3. Soon.

If you love racing then I really hope you will give it a try.


3RD POST

Thanks for your comments!

I totally understand any doubts as I and many on the GP Challenge team are also sick and tired of gimmick ridden sub standard racing games being advertised as amazing.

It makes our life difficult when we have something genuinely awesome. It\'s really a shame because so many make false claims in this and other racing genres that it is hard to be heard through the noise sometimes.

I only ever get involved in these forums in this way when I\'m certain racing fans will not be disappointed and then we have to make some noise!

We\'re really proud of this game and I promise it really does look better running on PS2 today than in the shots. It has gameplay to match as well.

Regarding the number of cars, GT3 used to have me in awe, but since it was made several years ago we have made a real discovery on PS2 that means our game pushes close to double the polygons and more than 3 times everything else of that game. It is actually a unique \'technology feature\' in GP Challenge right now that allows 22 cars with more individual detail than GT3\'s 6 cars at 60fps. By the way in GPC all the AI cars in the game drive with the same full physics model as the player car so they are not at all simplified either.


4TH POST

A few stats for you,

Raw car model - 8000 Polys
With reflections / lighting - 20000 polys

Total max displayed on screen including all cars / scenery 200,000 - 300,000 @ 60fps in game depending on the scene.

5TH POST

Thanks!

As for damage, there are real physical reactions from the car including spinning, getting one or more wheels airborn and flipping in extreme cases. Wheels and wings sustain visual damage and have very cool physics when broken off in a collision. You can still limp home to the pits on 3 wheels (lots of understeer though!).

The three selectable handling levels (Beginner, Intermediate and Expert) adjust the damage thresholds so Beginner cars are pretty sturdy and Expert cars are quite brittle.

There is an overriding theme in the game of \'one size does not fit all\', so handling can be selected from the following and subtly effects many other in game parameters:

Beginner - just that for those new to racing and F1.
Intermediate - Arcade style, but still with a realistic basis.
Expert - sim (GT) style.


6TH POST

Yes the Logitech / GT3 forcefeedback wheel is especially supported and the entire game is properly navigable with it.


http://forum.granturismo.com/showthread.php?threadid=71733&perpage=40&pagenumber=1

Looks very nice.The pic looks bettter than any other PS2 f1 racing.If it is indeed that good looking

[Kurt Angle]

Are you sure this is a ps2 screenshot?

It looks just TOO GOOD to be true!:eek: :eek:

Firstly I\'d like to absolutely guarantee you that these screenshots are indeed taken from the PS2.

Thats what the producer says

I\'m a huge f1 fan and for me its a toss up between Sonys Formula One 2002 which looks very good some videos on playscope.com and this.

Seeing graphics like Silent Hill3 I dont find it strange to have another visual surprise.We get a lot of them recently on PS2.

12 million to 18 million polygons/sec @ 60 fps?

And most importantly...HI-RES WITH NO JAGGIES???? if
it\'s true, we can just about screw all the other developers who still make games with full of jigsaw teeth!(Eat dust SEGA, and learn from the pros!!)

Too bad I don\'t like F1 racing. Hope they\'ll take that engine to make something else later!

[Bobs_Hardware]

Those pics look better than GT3.

Or at the very least, better than the F1 cars in GT3.

Amazing to say the least.

12 million to 18 million polygons/sec @ 60 fps?

GT3\'s graphics engine could push 20,000,000 polygons/second @ 60fps.  I don\'t see why this is such a big deal.

Bob...you need glasses...it\'s not about polygons anymore...it\'s about JAGGIE FREE HI-RES.

GT3 is great no doubt but the amount of shimerries and jaggies are still pretty noticeable.

If this game can render the game at higher resolution and downsampled it to 640x480. It means it\'s using a few times more of bandwidth data than GT3 eventhough the amount of polygons is slightly less.

Between 15 million and 20 million polygons...it\'s not really significant.

Melbourne House are actually pretty impressive. They have a good team of devs and I think they know what their doing.

Is this game based on a heavily modified Le Mans engine?

[Kurt Angle]

Dunno about enhanced le mans engine. All I know is that it is much better than anything else I have seen.

Not bad for an aussie company.

[Bobs_Hardware]

Paul, I didn\'t quote the Jaggies and Shimmeries part...

I quoted the polygon\'s part.  It sounded like you were surprised to be getting that many polygons from a PS2 game  

and Melbourne House rock, KKn\'D was awesome