QUESTIONS / ANSWERS PROJECT MANAGER INTERVIEW PC Project Manager : Stéphane Decroix - F1Racing Simulation is one of the best simulation game on the market, how is it possible to better it ? technically The physical and mathematical simulation model has been optimized and bettered. You'll see that the playability reaches a new dimension with cars behaviours infinitely nearer reality. The quality and speed display have been tuned and enable the gamers to experience a faster and fluider game. You'll see this progress in the menus loading as well, with no more waiting between the different menus pages ! Opponents AI is much subtle and EACH pilot has its own personality, which is even adapted to each tracks ! The standard car behaviour is now perfectly natural. graphically One car design per team : 11 car design has been entirely created ! The cars graphics has changed to be truly accurate (much more faces on each part of the cars) New and amazing 3D graphics special effects (environmental mapping, vortex, smokes, lights effects...) 17 new tracks design Two new game modes (which takes the number of game modes to 8) - Career mode : a real immersion in the head of a futur champion ! You start as an amateur in a small team and try to improve your performances so that you're proposed to integrate a better team with better cars after each championships of the season... So, how are you going to improve your driving, what strategy will enable you to get more points in order to be better ranked and hence change teams ? Take care ! Bad results and you'll not be hired by one of the leader teams ! - Mode Scenario : With specific background and driving conditions, will you be able to fill up the goal the scenario has imposed ? 10 scenarios are available and more to be found on www.ubisoft.fr ! An old-style mode directly coming from the 1950s with four teams, and of course four physical models, car behaviours, motor sounds... New rules implemented : blue/black/yellow flags, 107% rule ... New set ups available : DURING the race (brakes, anti-roll bars, planning of the pit stops strategy...), in the pit stops (wheel alignment)... New stats : the telemetry has been optimized to try and get the pole position. In terms of multiplayer modes, you can now ad an 8-player through network for a whole Grand Prix, including qualifying (and warm-up) to determine your place in the starting grid ! Direct Sound 3D : you'll hear before actually seeing him an opponent trying to overtake you ! New motor sounds changing given the chosen view. Game Service : for the first time, you'll compete against web fellows in real time through ubi soft website ! (in progress) Map Editor : customize your game, from the pilots/teams' names to the cars/tracs/cockpits/menus graphics maps ! - Did you change something at the engine ? We bettered F1RS engine by optimizing or re-writting several part of the code. more faces top speed fluid display Absolute compatibility with the (4 Mb RAM) 3D cards and amazing optimization for the new chipsets generation ! - What about this new PC simulation game and the evolution of 3D cards ? This new Ubi Soft racing simulation manages at the best level the main 3D cards existing on the market. The D3D version as the Glide versions are optimized to make the most of the small system configurations. Of course, the game takes advantage of what the new chipsets make possible, like real-time sky reflections on the cars... - What does your project represent in term of development time and staff ? 15 to 30 persons on a 9-month period... - Did the three teams (PC, N64 and PSX teams) work separately or in coordination ? We naturally cooperated ! On the one hand, the first and the second PC game development and experience was profitable for the consoles versions. On the other hand, new ideas coming from the Canadian and Chinese teams have " revitalized " the second PC version ! - What kind of informations could you exchange (if you have) given the specificities of the 3 platforms ? Technical informations on car behaviours mainly.