PGR3's track editor: Amazing!!

[OpaOpa]

You have the entire city at your disposal, just pick your turns and you have a new track. This feature is f'ing amazing, and we will have 5 cities to design from.

I wonder if the engine could handle a free roaming mode, that would be crazy.

The fact that each city is fully realized and at your disposal is pretty damn sweet. I swear MS just keeps setting the bar higher and higher for racing games. Also, the new OXM says a true force feedback wheel will be availible near launch.

 

[pc999]

This is what I want in games, that make me happy.

That make me want a HDD in PS3 too...

 

[Titanio]

Free roam would be excellent indeed.

I think I remember reading that with the track editor, you simply choose an intersection, and then it presents you with a number of follow-on intersections to pick from, and then you designate a start and finish. Sounds pretty simple, yet effective.

That make me want a HDD in PS3 too...

I dont' think you'd really need one. You'd just need to store the sequence of intersections, and which one is the start and which one's the end. It'd take very little space on a memory card even.

 

[OpaOpa]

This is what I want in games, that make me happy.

That make me want a HDD in PS3 too...

No kidding, the fact that Sony is so nonchalant about HD's makes me wonder is Sony really has a true vision about next gen. MS keeps saying it's not just about hardware, it's about the combination of Hardware Software and Services. This is the perfect example of this philosophy imo.

 

[OpaOpa]

I dont' think you'd really need one. You'd just need to store the sequence of intersections, and which one is the start and which one's the end. It'd take very little space on a memory card even.

It depends on how robust the game engine really is. Considering the level of detail the game sports I doubt it is done on the fly, and makes me think it wont have a free roam mode.

Even still the game isnt Midtown Madness or anything. Saints Row on the other hand will have a MM3 type set of free roam online modes. I can't wait for that one either.

 

[pc999]

That make me want a HDD in PS3 too...

I dont' think you'd really need one. You'd just need to store the sequence of intersections, and which one is the start and which one's the end. It'd take very little space on a memory card even.

In this especific case is probably it is not needed, but I expect this to be the very least in this kind of features.

I trully belive that MS will relly their strategy in this kind of features.

 

[randycat99]

Indeed...the wankers above that saw fit to bring harddrives into this discussion seem to be guilty of the "solution looking for a problem" psychosis. As if naturally only a cool feature like this "must" need a HD to implement...

 

[Asher]

I dont' think you'd really need one. You'd just need to store the sequence of intersections, and which one is the start and which one's the end. It'd take very little space on a memory card even.

It depends on how robust the game engine really is. Considering the level of detail the game sports I doubt it is done on the fly, and makes me think it wont have a free roam mode.

Even still the game isnt Midtown Madness or anything. Saints Row on the other hand will have a MM3 type set of free roam online modes. I can't wait for that one either.

You might want to remove that animation...contains racial slurs/homophobic insults.

 

[Titanio]

It depends on how robust the game engine really is. Considering the level of detail the game sports I doubt it is done one the fly, and makes me think it wont have a free roam mode.

It doesn't need to be done on the fly. I'm sure the only data it needs is which intersections are used, and in what sequence - certainly regardless of whether Bizaare are doing this or not, it can be done. You'd tag your intersections with an ID - 8 bits should be plenty i.e. max 256 intersections across the five cities, and then just another identifier for the city itself (4 bits would be more than enough there. So say you're track has 15 or 16 intersections, for that track you'd need maybe max 136 bits/17 bytes. The rest is static, preset, the only variable is what the intersections to be used are.

edit - actually, that'd allow for max 256 intersections per city, not across the 5.

 

[OpaOpa]

It depends on how robust the game engine really is. Considering the level of detail the game sports I doubt it is done one the fly, and makes me think it wont have a free roam mode.

It doesn't need to be done on the fly. I'm sure the only data it needs is which intersections are used, and in what sequence - certainly regardless of whether Bizaare are doing this or not, it can be done. You'd tag your intersections with an ID - 8 bits should be plenty i.e. max 256 intersections across the five cities, and then just another identifier for the city itself (4 bits would be more than enough there. So say you're track has 15 or 16 intersections, for that track you'd need maybe max 136 bits/17 bytes. The rest is static, preset, the only variable is what the intersections to be used are.

It still needs to be compiled. Turns would need to be implemented so that you can't go off track. I highly doubt this feature could be implemented without a hard drive. Then again the PS3 is a supercomputer, maybe it could pull this feature off under 10 seconds everytime you load the level. 8)

 

[randycat99]

Titanio,

Agreed, this could be done easily in mere kB of storage, but you know they would want to have each foot of the course compiled (as ridiculously wasteful as that would be), JUST SO you would need a HD to do it.

 

[Titanio]

It still needs to be compiled. Turns would need to be implemented so that you can't go off track. I highly doubt this feature could be implemented without a hard drive.

The track model isn't dynamically constructed around your editing - you're simply tracing a route through a preset, pre-existing city. The turns already exist, you're just choosing which ones to use. Setting the bounds of where you can go.

 

[OpaOpa]

Agreed, this could be done easily in mere kB of storage, but you know they would want to have each foot of the course compiled (as ridiculously wasteful as that would be), JUST SO you would need a HD to do it.

If Bizzare has found a way to just ship the 5 city maps and a method of sectioning off turns for each track, then they are pretty smart cookies. I'd love to learn more about how the tracks are actually created.

 

[Npl]

This is what I want in games, that make me happy.

That make me want a HDD in PS3 too...

I`d only want a HD so devs can use them for swapping. Futere games are gonna be expensive in terms of Textures( all those shaders need input and I doubt procedural shaders will be used often ).

But in that case +256 or +512 MB >>>>> any HD. Why force a HD upon anyone if half of the ppl dont have a use for it and dont want a fragile additional heating and noiseing component ? Dollars saved on the right spot IMHO.

 

[Titanio]

If Bizzare has found a way to just ship the 5 city maps and a method of sectioning off turns for each track, then they are pretty smart cookies. I'd love to learn more about how the tracks are actually created.

At the risk of making it sound simple..

..in each track, every intersection can only lead to a finite number of other intersections. They simply check which of the possible intersections you've chosen as the next one, and erect invisible walls such that you must travel toward that next one. An if/else for each intersection, basically.

if(nextIntersection == intersection2)
{

// erect invisible walls on the required sides of the intersection (up to 4, presumably)

}

and so on..

 

[Acert93]

I agree with Titanio. This feature could easily be implimented to be very small *if* that was a known limitation when building the engine. TS2 has a level editor using tiles and you can build large multi level maps in a very small space. Same idea... you actually are only changing a couple variables, the actual content is just moved via the engine, not the saved data.

Indeed...the wankers above that saw fit to bring harddrives into this discussion seem to be guilty of the "solution looking for a problem" psychosis. As if naturally only a cool feature like this "must" need a HD to implement...

No need for name calling... sounds like aweful sour grapes to me.

The Sony interview from the other day indicated that the PS2 only had 500-600k HDD sold. While the above example may not be something that cannot be done without a HDD, there are plenty of examples that are nearly impossible without a large mass storage device. Downloadable content (like the Halo 2 map packs), demos, trailers, microtransactions, some MMOs, and so forth are examples. Not having a standard HDD could put PS3 publishers in the proverbial catch 22 / chicken-or-the-egg. If a large publisher like Square-Enix can get caught with their pants down on the HDD issue and not carry the day on their own (and to rub salt in the wound, have Sony REMOVE the HDD slot from the PStwo) then I am sure others will be gun shy as well if their game also requires a HDD.



Anyhow, this is a nice feature. It could make for some interesting races and could make the game last a LOT longer. I would not usually say a PGR3 like game is something I would be excited about (GT and Forza style racers are more my thing) but MS seems to be making PGR3 a really killer title worth a look.

 

[randycat99]

...or put up those walls with the animated arrows to tell you which way to go at an intersection.

 

[Titanio]

I agree with Titanio. This feature could easily be implimented to be very small *if* that was a known limitation when building the engine

Indeed, they'd have to accomodate in the design from fairly early on. But once the groundwork was in place (and I don't think it would require TOO much work, given the constraints i.e. intersection based), I think it should be fairly straightforward to do.

 

[Inane_Dork]

I really like this feature. It should also make online gaming much more fresh.


Not to derail the thread, but there's also a new dash view from PGR3: http://media.xboxyde.com/gallery/public/1473/726_0001.jpg

 

[randycat99]

Indeed...the wankers above that saw fit to bring harddrives into this discussion seem to be guilty of the "solution looking for a problem" psychosis. As if naturally only a cool feature like this "must" need a HD to implement...

No need for name calling... sounds like aweful sour grapes to me.z

No, not really. In this case, they really are wankers. As of yet, there is little, if any, indication that a harddrive has anything to do with the feature, but naturally it has to be brought up because that is the mindset. I could just have easily have said "trolling trolls", but I think that is pretty evident, already.