Forza Motorsport 6 – Exclusive interview with Dan Greenawalt

There is one image that, for us, illustrates just how stunning Forza Motorsport 6 will look when it hits the Xbox One on September 18.

It depicts an Aston Martin DBR9, sitting on a rain-sodden race circuit. It is, at a glance, indistinguishable from the real vehicle. Rain drops create concentric patterns in puddles, and sit in beads on the bodywork alongside flecks of vulcanized rubber sticking to the car’s flanks. Reflections dance across the windows and a glow emanates from the tail lights.

Remarkably, this is real game footage, illustrative of the detail Turn 10 calls ‘Forzavista’. Even better, the game, in motion, will project these details at full 1080p resolution and at 60 frames per second. Such detail has only been possible thanks to the latest physics engine devised by Turn 10.

Turn 10 has confirmed other aspects of the game at E3. It will have, for instance, more than 450 cars – making it one of the most comprehensive driving games yet. All have working cockpits, opening doors and full damage.

24 equally-detailed cars can now compete on the same track too, up from 16. Wet weather and night racing are part of the experience at 26 locations, and there’s a seventy-plus hour career mode to compete in. And, as ever, gamers can customise and modify their cars.

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evo spoke to Dan Greenawalt, creative director at Turn 10, to find out just how such a level of detail is now possible.

Dan: ‘Forzavista has become more than just a game mode – it’s now the definition of what a next-generation car can be. We build the cars in a highly detailed way.

‘While it looks great – you can see the scratches, the imperfections and more – it also improves the racing. We can use those better models to run better aerodynamic models, and the better paint quality lets us run highly-detailed damage models.’

How have you improved the simulation model from earlier games?

Dan: ‘With the eighth-generation console, the Xbox One, we’re able to simulate things that weren’t possible in the last generation. We’re able to do things ourselves now that four or five years ago would have been done overnight with servers at a major manufacturer.

‘Our new physics engine puts us on the cutting edge of rendering – as you’ll see from Forzavista – but also allows us to simulate hundreds of different types of tyre compound for different cars. Not just width, but the way the tyres heat up, and cool down, and even get flat spots. We can simulate all the different suspension architectures, the electronics and driver aids, and even the inertia of the drivelines.’

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