By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

A few weeks back I asked you guys to submit questions to forward to the developers at Codemasters about their new game GRID. Well, they just got back to me with some answers--from Ralph Fulton, Chief Game Designer, no less. Take a look:

CarDomain: How long did it take to develop this game?

Ralph Fulton: GRID has taken just over 2 years to develop.

CarDomain: How many people we involved in creating the game?

Ralph Fulton: We’ve had a team of 50-60 development staff working on it in the UK plus we have a an art studio in Malaysia that has contributed to it as well – it's a multi-million dollar, AAA project that requires a lot of talent and big investment.

CarDomain: How much of it is based on what you developed for DIRT?

Ralph Fulton: GRID has been created using a heavily upgraded version of the Neon engine from DiRT called the EGO engine. The engine features upgraded environmental detail, the ability to display over 20 cars and can now handle night racing, which was not present in DiRT. The upgrades are not just visual, but are present in the overall presentation of GRID from the physics to controls to the menu system.

More Q & A after the jump!

CarDomain: In a previous interview you stated that Codemasters have over a decade of research on damage characteristics. To what lengths have they gone to make the physics of the game realistic and to what extent have they researched the damage characteristics in the game.  I.E. if you hit a wall in the passenger front fender is your alignment going to pull in that direction?  Can you blow a tire out?  Can the car be damaged to the point it can’t run?

Ralph Fulton: Damage in GRID is more than just visual damage. On the bottom right-hand corner of the screen there is a meter that keeps track of damage accrued for vehicle systems: Steering, Tires, Engine, and more. If you damage your steering or tires, depending on location, the car will gently or severely start pulling to one direction and the driver will have to compensate. Sometimes the damage to the car can be so severe that the car will become virtually undriveable. In other instances, crashing at extreme velocity or in a weakened state will cause the racer to retire from the race, use the Flashback feature, or restart the event.

CarDomain: How is the physics engine created?  How much of the development of it is pure math, and how much of it is trial and error?  Also, how is the difficulty of the game balanced using the physics engine to keep it from being too difficult or too easy?  Along the same lines, how is the computer artificial intelligence created?

Ralph Fulton: There is a lot of very hard math going on, and our physics guys do a lot of seriously clever stuff to make sure the results the physics engine puts out are correct. However, as designers, we have to make sure that there is a balance between realism and playability and a good example of this is in the damage system – if you drive a race car into a tire wall at 60MPH in real life, the car will be destroyed. However, to ensure the game remains accessible and not overly punishing, we have to scale the amount of damage which the in-game car can withstand. In general, our physics engine simulates as accurately as possible, and then we scale things back to make the game playable.

CarDomain: How are the cars modeled in the game?  Is a "full-body scan" of the car conducted?  Do they take a ton of pictures of the car?  Or is it a little of both?

Ralph Fulton: We take whatever reference we can get, and it varies from car to car. Some manufacturers and teams are brilliant for providing access to vehicles and the best thing we can get is CAD data. However, with certain cars, manufacturers are understandably reluctant to give away that kind of information, so we’ll just send a photographer who will photograph the car from every conceivable angle, and from this reference material we’ll have a technical artist produce detailed schematics. Our 3D artists will then use this and the photo reference to build the car.

CarDomain: Will the Honda RSX-R in the line up?

Ralph Fulton: No, but we do have the Honda NSX-R.

CarDomain: Do you really drive the cars on real tracks to know how they handle and then put that info in the game? If so, how do you do this?

Ralph Fulton: Our Car Handling designers have a lot of track experience, and where possible we arrange for them to experience as much as possible, but it’s just not possible to get them behind the wheel of all the cars they’re creating handling for – the number of people in the world who will ever, for example, drive an Audi R10 is always going to be small. What we can do is make sure our guys are as knowledgeable as possible about the cars they’re working on, and we also use motorsport consultants to ensure authenticity. We’ve worked with Creation AIM and their drivers on GRID for instance, to really nail the experience of racing Le Mans, since they’re one of a handful of people to actually have that experience. The other thing which our car handling designers have to have, though, is a real understanding of what makes good car handling from a gameplay point of view – realism is not the only goal in games, and GRID certainly doesn’t pretend to be a simulation in that sense. This game is much more about providing an exciting experience, than providing a complete simulation of racing.

CarDomain: Are there going to be trucks in this game like PGR2 and Gran Turismo?

Ralph Fulton: No, this game is just about racing cars. If they’re not racing cars, they’re not in GRID.

CarDomain: Will Grid suffer from "Rubber band AI"?

Ralph Fulton: Rubber band AI is the probably the #1 beef that hardcore racing fans have with most titles, so we took this very seriously in development. The AI feels very human yet competitive, with no “rubber banding”. If you establish a lead and compete intelligently, you will keep that lead.

CarDomain: Can players accumulate/modify their own cars, then decide what to drive in competition?

Ralph Fulton: Absolutely – the game is about building a race team to compete at the highest level, and part of that will require you to buy the correct car to enter into each event. However, we’re at pains to stress that this game isn’t about just collecting cars and admiring them in your garage – the car is a means to an end. This game is about getting on the track and beating the competition in any way you can.

CarDomain: Will GRID really be the "most visually impressive"? How will it compare to Polyphony Digital and Gran Turismo 5?

Ralph Fulton: Well ultimately that’s for you to decide. Personally I think GRID is the best looking racing game ever, because our art team has worked hard to give every shot a cinematic quality. Polyphony Digital make beautiful car models – there’s no question about that – but I’d argue that our world is far more beautiful. The comparison is interesting though because GRID and Gran Turismo clearly have very different ideas about what makes a beautiful racing game, and which you prefer is probably a matter of taste.

CarDomain: Thanks for taking the time to answer all of our questions!