PSP Ridge Racers to have Rave Racer tracks

M

Megadrive1988

Veteran
the latest game in the long running Ridge Racer series, is sounding more awesome than ever before. Ridge Racer (1993, arcade) was the first fully texture-mapped 3D videogame AFAIK. the newest game in the series, Ridge Racers for PSP, is now said to contain tracks from the arcade sequel Rave Racer as well as tracks from other Ridge Racer games.


feast your eyes:

http://ranobe.com/up/updata/up10611.jpg

http://ranobe.com/up/updata/up10612.jpg

http://ranobe.com/up/updata/up10613.jpg
8) 8)


I believe the screen with the houses is from Rave Racer's Mountain track, though I could be mistaken. edit: actually 'Greenpeak Highlands' appears to be the Rave Racer Mountain track.

for me, Ridge Racers looks like a real killer app for PSP. :oops:


note: if Rave Racer track(s) in Ridge Racers is true, this would be the first time Namco releases any Rave Racer content to the home. the PowerVR Series 1 port of Rave Racer for PCs was cancelled, and quietly swept under the rug in 1996-1997. as was the N64 version when that console bombed in Japan.


edit: more info!
# - Pictured remakes of RRV Sunny Beach, R4 Heaven & Hell, RRV Mountain
# - Rally X is playable while loading
# - The girl is Reiko Nagase again.
# - Namco surveyed fans and the most frequently asked question related to whether the new title would be focused on being a game or a simulation. The drift obviously won out.
# - There will be as many as 24 types of track
# - The previewed tracks are all Ridge Racer classics graphically rebuilt from the ground up.
# - A new bar has been added to the display on screen. The developers won't say what it is, but do hint that it would be nice to corner without decelerating. It appears it will be for nitros.
# - A "world tours" mode has been added. There are going to be a large number of different tour types, some suitable for short bursts of gaming, others for longer periods. Courses and cars are unlocked through the completion of tours. Prizes can also be obtained in the process. They don't say what they mean by a prize, but one of the screenshots has the spaceship from Xevious on the back of the car so it will probably be decals and customizations of that ilk.
# - They explain that the name "Ridge Racers" has multiple meanings, of course combining elements of several past Ridge Racer games, but more significantly, allowing more than one person to compete in this version. Wireless play will be supported. 12 players can participate simultaneously. The programmers are still hard at work on it.

http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=psp&message.id=50734


SOLD :oops:
 
It looks pretty good, better than the other stuff we've seen for PSP so far. Ridge Racer DS certainly looks quite poor compared to this. I wouldn't go so far as calling it a killer app yet, but that's just me.

And am i the only one who noticed that some cars are very low polygon? It's strange because in some shoots the cars look smooth as silk!

Oh and don't wanna beat a dead horse but i'm curious how the battery life verdict is gonna be on this one.
 
thop said:
It looks pretty good, better than the other stuff we've seen for PSP so far. Ridge Racer DS certainly looks quite poor compared to this. I wouldn't go so far as calling it a killer app yet, but that's just me.

And am i the only one who noticed that some cars are very low polygon? It's strange because in some shoots the cars look smooth as silk!

Oh and don't wanna beat a dead horse but i'm curious how the battery life verdict is gonna be on this one.
Click to expand...

Some of the cars look low polygon because the PSP isn't as powerful as Sony was trying to let on IMO. Not that it matters because the PSP is hella powerful for a handheld.
 
thop said:
And am i the only one who noticed that some cars are very low polygon? It's strange because in some shoots the cars look smooth as silk!
Click to expand...
Depends what you define as low poly? I'd guess 2-4k per car based on these, which is well, GT level of detail.
But true, IIRC R5 cars were a bit higher, polygonal wheel plates and all.
 
On the first page the red car in the pic in the middle, that rear just looks extremely low poly to me. While the other cars on the same page look a lot better.
 
Well angular edges are part of the design sometimes, remember these aren't real cars :p But anyway, with the budget I guessed, that's pretty much what you'll get - not everything will be quite smooth.
On the non-glamour shots, GT cars always exhibit some of that too.
 
The cars really are low poly, at least compared to any PS2 version i've seen. Still looks good, also seems to have a very good draw distance. It's also interesting to see this on the PSP, kinda makes you realize how big that screen really is! I just don't understand why so much of the screen is being taken away by the lap, time, etc. surely they could make it a lot smaller.
 
thop said:
The cars really are low poly, at least compared to any PS2 version i've seen. Still looks good, also seems to have a very good draw distance. It's also interesting to see this on the PSP, kinda makes you realize how big that screen really is! I just don't understand why so much of the screen is being taken away by the lap, time, etc. surely they could make it a lot smaller.
Click to expand...

There should be an option to take the HUD off. Like in some (many? not sure) racers these days...
 
OMG!

ss1-5b.jpg


Low poly or not, that's very impressive! :oops: IMO, textures are less impressive, but I am sure game budget is a factor as well as battery life restrictions or libraries. I'm sure games will get more impressive by the generation (and as a market builds up that ensures the PSP's life and support).

EDIT: Some cars may also look low-poly due to it being work-in-progress?!

EDIT2: Okay, not all screens have poor looking textures. The above shot is basically RRV worthy - I expect the other screens with low-textures and low-poly models due to work-in-progress. Hmm... but then again, launch date is pretty soon. Strange. Could this be a classic case of porting?

Remember Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec: Some tracks like the Tokyo circuit were unbelievable, while other older tracks were plain ugly and empty (Laguna Seca?). Perhaps this is a time and budget issue? In any case, if the above screen is any indication, I'm very excited about PSP and its future and really anticipate its launch. Wow! Imagine this at 60 fps! WOW WOW WOW! (hope it is 60 fps grrrrrrrr)
 
thop said:
The cars really are low poly, at least compared to any PS2 version i've seen.
Click to expand...

When you have 12 cars running on the road i bet it won't matter ;)
 
Rave Racer ~ 1995
raver.jpg

raver_a.jpg

raver_b.jpg

raver_c.jpg


no home Ridge Racer game touches ^Rave Racer's^ textures yet even though Ridge Racers is pretty decent. guess we'll have to wait for a PS3 RR to finally surpass what Namco put out in 1995 as far as texture mapping.
 
no home Ridge Racer game touches ^Rave Racer's^ textures
Click to expand...
Hmm, perhaps if you have some nostalgic fetish for unfiltered, monochromatic textures :p That doesn' t look good at all to me, and it's the same hardware emulated by Vivanonno, right? Based on that emulation, and RR1/2 that I've played on it, that hardware's texture handling is really poor - after all, wasn't it the first arcade hardware ever to be able to display textures?

EDIT: Oops they replaced them with the smaller movies!
Click to expand...
Yeah, but those new, smaller movies run at the same resolution, are pretty much as smooth, and have much better encoded audio!
 
marconelly! said:
no home Ridge Racer game touches ^Rave Racer's^ textures
Click to expand...
Hmm, perhaps if you have some nostalgic fetish for unfiltered, monochromatic textures :p That doesn' t look good at all to me, and it's the same hardware emulated by Vivanonno, right? Based on that emulation, and RR1/2 that I've played on it, that hardware's texture handling is really poor - after all, wasn't it the first arcade hardware ever to be able to display textures?
Click to expand...

Just to follow up on that: AFAICS the lighting in Rave Racer was done by having differently tinted textures. For example, when the cars went into the tunnel that was "lit with sodium vapour lamps", it looked to me*** like the texture was swapped to one that was predominantly yellow. Similarly, as they passed under bridges, it would change to others that were darker. I can only assume this was done because the arcade hardware perhaps didn't have Gouraud shading.

unfiltered, monochromatic textures
Click to expand...
They definitely weren't monochromatic - at least not the BMPs that I had.


***I had all the textures on my PC when we were helping with the port to the original PowerVR hardware and it seemed that they hadn't taken advantage of any shading capabilities.
 
jarrod said:
This game is so mine. Hope they manage to squeeze 8 player wireless in there too. :)
Click to expand...
I think along with the great graphics this might really challenge the battery, so i doubt it.
 
thop said:
jarrod said:
This game is so mine. Hope they manage to squeeze 8 player wireless in there too. :)
Click to expand...
I think along with the great graphics this might really challenge the battery, so i doubt it.
Click to expand...

Maybe... just maybe Namco think it's up to the player himself if he wants to play multi and use the wireless option.
 
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