The WRCgame series has done a strong job over the last few years, and the series has seen significant improvements. While this yearsWRC Generations was the developers’ first fully licensed WRCtitle, the franchise went on to EA and Codemasters next year- and so on, KT Racing and a publisher Nacon have been soaring, with the most dense and authentic outing yet. Before its launch in November, we talked to its developer about the game’s use and its use, and how it can improve upon its predecessors, with a bit of insight into its major new additions, and other technological innovations. Read our interview in the following detail.
Note: This interview was conducted before the games began.
“Hybrid cars boost the WRC-series’ airflow. It was very exciting to have the chance to discuss directly with the manufacturers and to receive an accurate analysis of the electric motor’s behaviour.
Hybrids are obviously WRC-generations headlining addition-how exciting was that for you the 2022 season, and how exciting will they have with the moment-to-the-moment gameplay when players are behind the wheel?
Hybrid cars bring fresh air to WRC. It was exciting having the chance to talk directly with the manufacturers and acquire precise information about the electrical motors’ behavior. It helped us get the most accurate simulation of a hybrid car. As for the game, it is another logical decision for the player to decide which map they must choose before every stage. In the race, players have to learn both the ability and efficiency of their batteries, while avoiding the risk of losing control over their cars. It’s a bit difficult!
How do you see this addition of hybrid cars impacting other aspects of the game, such as customization?
After all, players can now customize the mapping of their ICE and choose three of these behaviors. The first offering large amounts of power over a short time, the second of which delivers less power but a longer duration. The second is a compromise between the first and third parties. The power given by the ICE can vary greatly, the car isn’t always given the best choice, and the player will have to choose the right choice for the best performance.
The new Leagues mode in WRC Generations seems to be an important step up for the series – one on the multiplayer side. Can you talk to us about the major changes and improvements it brings to the experience?
The new league mode is a new dimension for the competitive experience of the players on the WRC generation. This season they’re ranked into leagues according to their results. Because of that, players are competing at the same time. It is an easier objective when players enter competition and gain an advantage in the competition as it is with all the players. This system is cross platform.
“Career mode is a very important mode as it provides an immersive experience with the Rally discipline. As the game goes by the way, we work on making it more realistic, interactive and well balanced.
When you come to Career Mode, what kind of improvements should players see in the last years game?
Career mode in the WRC Generations is very important as it allows to experience the Rally experience very immersive. I try to make it more realistic, more engaging and more well balanced. With the work we had done on the global balancing, the hybridization of Rally 1 cars was an opportunity to offer a new dimension in the career management, with new skills and more interest for the shakedowns which allow to test the car mapping in real conditions before starting a Rally.
The ability to create a team is more challenging and therefore harder for the player. The first steps are enjoyable with the new WRC3 junior cars featuring 4WD this year.
Over the years we’ve made the career experience easier and more interactive, more immersive, realistic. The WRC generations is the ultimate version of this game mode; many people prefer to play the best race mode.
KT Racings’ WRC games have consistently made notable improvements in the audiovisual industry year after year – and this is especially important for a series whose authenticity doesn’t matter as much as this one does. What’ve been the biggest improvements you made in WRC years?
The new people allow us to achieve better framerates and realistic renders of the lights, the weather, and the snow for example. The countryside is magnificent.
This will be the final KT Racing and Nacons-Game with the WRC license as part of your current agreement. Did you think of something while you’re doing the game? Is the intention of turning up and deliver a performance that is best teeming yet?
The title of the game shows that we wanted to give our players a game that can last generations. This required a solid competitive mode, that we adapted to the Leagues model, and a good tens of thousands of players. After all, we brought the most extensive content a lot of time with us during a rally game, which we saw 22 different locations, 150 stages and 750 kilometers to cover.
While as a studio, the WRC has obviously grown to prominence over the years, delivering games that can be so bad that people can enjoy each other more. Are you trying to develop rally racing sims and continue applying that knowledge to your hands, or do you want to go out and do something different?
The WRC franchise has really allowed us to grow and strengthen our knowledge every year. I regret to have not profited it. I don’t think I should abandon the rally completely. But its a new page that is turning and thus leaves room for other projects, such as test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.
“WRC franchise has really enabled us to expand our expertise and grow a lot. It would be a shame not to take advantage of it, so I wouldn’t think that the rally would abandon entirely. This is a new page, but its turning and leaving room for other projects if, like Test Drive unlimited solar crown.
Since the release of the PS5 and Xbox, a lot of comparisons have been made between the GPUs of the two consoles, with the PS5 at 10.28 and the Xbox Series X at 12 TFLOPS. How much difference will this be for on the development?
Due to its faster clockspeed, the PS5 is in line with our previous generation. Even though the Xbox Series Xs GPU is better, it’s harder to exploit: it requires a bit of parallelism to exploit the 52 CUs. But I think that devs can hopefully obtain better performance in the Xbox X series.
The PS5 comes with an extremely fast SSD with 5.5GB of hard disk bandwidth. How can developers use this, and how is this combined with Xbox One’s 2.4-GB raw bandwidth?
In addition to power, a lot of games have to be upgraded to the latest digital version, because of the size of a lot of the pixel-like interface. Our systems are using direct-to-ram technology (DirectStorage) and hardware decompression on PS5 (Kraken) for fast loading and streaming.
While the timing of loading was small or a high quality mips appear a bit faster due to hardware differences, it shouldn’t be mistaken for a factor where the load hasn’t shifted from IO to CPU. We’re so happy with the decision to choose the right technology, and we should be able to exploit it more efficiently because our next game, the TDUSC, is a game of open world.
The PS5 and the Xbox Series X have Zen-2 CPUs, but both consoles have different processors. The Xbox One series X includes oxzen 2 and oxznes at 3,8GHz, while the PS5 also has oxznes at 3,3GHz. Can you decide this difference by comparison?
Both a CPU is nice, so we were happy to have very close performance between both consoles. Moreover, as both hardware and software are very close (x64, instruction set, cache size, etc. ), this optimisation benefits both.
What frame rate and resolution does the game target for PS5 and Xbox series X/S?
Our mission is to achieve the best performances and the best stability of old and new generations.
We offer 2 modes depending on the player’s preferences. For PS5 and Xbox Series X, first is quality mode with a 30 FPS and 4K resolution, second is performance mode with a 60 percent frame rate and a 1440p resolution.
The Xbox Series S has a slick, and therefore, the two graphics modes offer a slightly lower resolution: in the quality mode, we have 30 FPS with a 1440p resolution, and performance mode, at 60 FPS with 1080p.
“On the WRC Generation, we really wanted to reach the best performance and stable of new and old generations.”
What are your thoughts on the Steam Deck? Do you have plans for specific optimisations for that device?
Because you know, this is the last time we’ve developed a WRC game officially licensed. We plan on following the game over time, but it’ll take us too much time and monopolize some parts of the team. The steam deck was designed for the purpose of that game.