Turn 10 is just five weeks away from finishing development on Forza 4 - including the game's evening race elements.
When we asked Turn 10 chief Dan Greenawalt for an update on fans' chances of driving under starry skies, he said:
"Our new lighting engine allows us to do alternate times of day. We have a choice number of tracks that are available in kind of an alternate trim, where you start seeing sun rise and sunset at a very oblique angles. That changes the light on the car and change the light in your eyes as you're racing."
Greenawalt told us that Turn 10 had managed to avoid 'crunch' on the game - the period where developers work all hours to ensure a project gets finished on time - due to strictly "metering ourselves all the way along, which is really the unsung hero of games development".
He explained: "Right now, we're just heading into finalising the game ahead to certification, which is making sure we're complying with [Microsoft's rules] on the box. There's about five or so weeks until we submit the finished game."
Greenawalt believes that the title's graphics will be the first major improvement fans recognise over the previous Forza. "We saw that at E3," he commented. "People are really stunned by what we've been able to achieve with an engine that shipped in the box twice previously."
Forza 4 is due for release exclusively on Xbox 360 in October.
Comments
10 comments so far...
sonic_uk on 21 Jul '11 said:
That doesn't necessarily mean night driving is in, mearly that the sunsets and sunrises (which were also featured on the other Forza games in static form) look better. I'll wait for official confirmation and until someone from the dev team actually says "Night driving is included in Forza 4" it is still to be confirmed.
originalbadboy on 21 Jul '11 said:
Agreed this doesn't confirm night driving in any way .. and we know this info at E3.
eltonbird on 21 Jul '11 said:
Personally speaking, I'd prefer a good dusk that doesn't require headlights to full night time anyway. Night racing just means you can't see any scenery, and to do it well with full dynamic headlights is simply not possible at 60 fps while maintaining the image quality they are clearly after.
As GT5 shows, dynamic time of day is nice, but it does necessitate some compromises to both frame rate and image. It's developers prerogative as to what they feel is most important; completeness in representing every scenario you could drive in, or prioritising sheer beauty in the visuals and a rock solid display.
Ditto for weather, which I would be exceptionally surprised to see included in F4, unless it's limited to "a bit overcast" to "sunny as hell"
The reason I'm looking forward to F4 a great deal, is the refinement of what was very good already. Visuals clearly dialled up a couple of notches, even better handling and realism in the racing, more variety in the career, hopefully the weaker tracks in F3 giving way to more famous race circuits and better designed fantasy ones. Coupled with the social features and clubs, it's looking to be a terrific evolution of Forza, not simply a "me too" attempt at crowbarring in any and all graphical effects or racing disciplines that were in GT5.
liquidphantom on 21 Jul '11 said:
I really wanted to see all weather racing, especially effecting the physics.
chancy319 on 21 Jul '11 said:
CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS GAME!!!
alan666 on 21 Jul '11 said:
cannot wait for this
middle finger on 22 Jul '11 said:
I'll wait till is around 20.
BenThomasFoster on 22 Jul '11 said:
SPEND 12 WEEKS MORE GETTING WEATHER IN PLEASE. although if you've implemented night driving perfectly and Le Mans 24 hours is in then sir you may be forgiven for leaving it out
verynaughtyboy on 22 Jul '11 said:
...and I'm at least a year from buying it. I bought the Limited Edition of Forza 3 a few weeks after release and then about a year later bought the complete edition with all the DLC for £10. Not falling for that again and I'm not going to be short of other games to occupy my time.
LordVonPS3 on 23 Jul '11 said:
Well said. I bought the FM3 limited edition as well. FM2 cost me £5 at the time I bought a X360. FM3 cost me around £45. I conclude that I prefer FM2 and considering the bargain price I got that for - FM3 is "buyer's remorse" incarnate. If I could finish FM3 off - I'd peddle it, but on account of how long it would take to finish and how boring it is to plod through the never ending calendar and with FM4 imminent - FM3 won't be worth selling now. That makes FM4 that bit less worth buying IMO because of what I already own and because of what FM4 might actually turn out to be like in the end.
I am definitely thinking about "not falling for that again", particularly with FM2, FM3 and GT5 still to complete. FM4 looks good but does not sufficiently impress me and to be quite honest - I find the American style and choice of music in all FM games horrible and irritating. It actually makes me appreciate the GT series where different music is available for different regions and Japan always has a new "Moon Over the Castle". While one can say yes, it's a good thing the 360 lets you choose your own music, there's definitely something to be said about firing up a game and having that game's famous old riffs set you into a comfort zone that you become more and more familiar with. As for Clarkson appearing in FM4, it'll only be sporadically to talk up those "premium quality = autovista" cars. Some like him, some hate him but I'm sure it's a novelty that will quickly wear off either way.
Contrary to the opinion of people who believe a "notch upgrade" for FM4 was the right way to go, I preferred GT5's big-bang-shebang approach of a lengthy lay off and new installment with broad, vertical variety in addition to innovative and radical new features to complement the old "This is GT" comfort-zone. To be fair, FM2 - with the introduction of XBox Live - felt like a new kick compared with everything else that was out as well (and had the luxury of being on a new generation console), but I certainly did not take much from FM3 which now has more in common with stale bread than EPIC sim racing.
FM4 car clubs & sharing, challenging friends to beat lap times, autovista mode... It's stuff that's already out there on current gen consoles - albeit in a slightly different guise perhaps, but between FM2, FM3 and GT5 - I think I have all of that sufficiently well covered and with still much left to accomplish. What's wrong with sending a friend a message to challenge them to run a FM3 time trial? If you're too lazy to do that, you're probably not even running time trials or playing the game at all. I'm still seeing PS3 gamers popping up on PSN playing GT5 and I have seen one or two people already on A-Spec level 40 - yet still playing. I don't see anyone in my list playing FM3 these days.
For X360 owners, there's really no point paying full whack for FM4 with both other FM games available at a much cheaper price. PS3 owners should be more than happy enough with GT5. If you've got either / or, there's really no sense in picking up FM4 on release day, you'd be better off waiting and getting the game cheap with DLC thrown in and perhaps after you've finished off one of the other games.