The next release of the official Formula 1 racing game is due out soon (24th August 2018). As the date approaches, developers Codemasters have released another video to wet your appetite for the game.
In Developer Diary 3, Senior Car Handling Designer David Greco walks us through the serious efforts put into making the game more simulator, less arcade and also provides us plenty of visuals from the upcoming game which looks gorgeous.
If you played last year’s game, you’ll know the baseline was already a very high bar, but not one to rest, Codemasters invested heavily in turning the gaming experience into more simulator than video game.
It’s refinements like implementing a new tyre temperature model that reflects real world, where temperature no longer just comes from the surface of the Pirellis, the carcass and the heat radiating from the brakes. This means tyre wear is much more realistic and means pushing hard may take the best out your tyres and loose traction, needing to pit more often.
There’s updated suspension and chassis physics that allows you to feel weight transfer through the wheel (if you’re not using a wheel, get one), as well as the feeling of hitting the kerbs. We’re not just talking about rumble here, that’s been in the game for many editions, we’re talking about the car bouncing off a kerb and unsettling it to the point where it impacts your acceleration out of the corner. In the highest difficulties, hitting severe kerbs could break your suspension, something we’ve seen throughout the 2018 F1 season.
Your steering wheel display will now show off ERS deployment. There’s a dynamic bar that measures and displays how much energy you’re harvesting and sending to the battery for use later in the lap. When it comes to qualifying or passing, this will be critical.
Codemasters were able to acquire some intel from a former F1 engineer who helped in the development of the game. He brought along some data about real downforce, drag levels and engine bias for power and torque delivery.
All that combines to make F1 2018 the game a massive step up from F1 2017. Check out the dev diary video below.
