Wow, that's a LOT of spectators...
Blimey, what an interesting week! Loads of cool stuff has been happening, including some shenanigans with bits of interesting paper, but most of which I can't tell you about (I can hear the ninja lawyers already!)... Eek smiley There's still plenty to cram into an update though, so fret not.
Firstly, development on PGR3 is going well. The soundtrack is almost finalised, and I've had it playing on loop for the best part of this week. What can I say? It's absolutely fantastic... with plenty of surprises for those who think they know what to expect! Of course, you can always make use of the custom soundtrack feature and ignore the PGR3 music, but with almost every genre covered (from Alt Rock to J-Pop and everywhere in between) I think you'll have a tough time finding a track which doesn't float your boat.
At the moment I'm finding myself listening to some of the Electronica (although I'm not normally a fan of this type of music), but there's also a great track from one of my favourite bands on there which I can't stop playing! All in all, I think this is the best soundtrack featured in a Project Gotham Racing game so far; Nick and the guys and gals on the audio team have really excelled themselves!
So on the web front; we've started a pretty big competition. Click here to have a look if you haven't already. Basically the idea is to complete the sentence "I am the biggest PGR3 fan because..." in 30 words or less. You can win a limited edition Xbox 360 faceplate plus E3-related accessories. You have to be in it to win it! What do points mean? Prizes! Etc. etc.
In other news, we had some fun playing with guns and pieces of paper. It didn't really make much sense at the time, but I suppose that's what it's like in the crazy world of video games! (?!?) If it's any comfort... the piece of paper definitely started it! (For reference: the guy with the gun is Walter, part super-programmer and part crazed psycho. He even has a two foot high model of Patrick Bateman on his desk...!).
Yep, the "gun" was just an air powered pistol thing. It was quite lame to be honest... it needed lots of encouragement to go through the paper, let alone cause any serious damage. Bizarre Creations may have been beaten by a simple document this time, but the war is still very much on. Grrr!
Also, for some cringe-worthy news, check this out if you missed it the first time round. The hazards of video games eh?
...So, back to PGR3. Earlier in the week I was trying to sort something out on the other side of the office, when I was called over to Chris' desk. He's been taking a closer look at our crowd system, seeing how much he could max out the 360 hardware with spectators. During the test he sorted out a pretty remarkable screenshot for me.
How many people in this experiment? Answer: thirty-five thousand.
Remember; the following screenshot is just a test, and not representative of the crowd size which will be present in the final build of PGR3.
There won't be 35,000 spectators per corner in the finished game... we want to have other objects in the game as well! Winking Smiley This was just a test to show how crazy our crowd rendering system is.
You can still expect many thousands (yes, thousands) of spectators per track... but the full game running with 35,000 might be pushing it a bit!
This is just a single corner. It's ridiculous; that's a helluva lot of people!
The most remarkable thing to me was that this was all running at the game's normal frame rate. (ROFL! :eek3: )
Not a bit of slowdown. It takes a while for our expectations to adjust to the "next generation" of video games, but I suppose things like this are what we will be seeing from now on... (!)
Seeing all of these virtual spectators shuffling around and waving their arms is a memorable sight. In the newer builds of the game some of the crowd have cameras, and if they're a few rows back you can see them holding it above their head before taking the photo. They've even got a flash! Remember all of these guys, gals, and even children are motion captured for extra realism.
What you can't see here are the extra details added around the courses to make things seem more "lifelike".
There's ambient traffic, camera crews, racing teams (complete with huge big rigs), massive spectator stands, etc. etc. In fact, if you look carefully, you'll be able to see some Bizarre Creations staff members skulking around in the masses. There are also some Bizarre t-shirts in there too...
Na leck mich fett... :eek3: