CASTROL SUPERBIKE INTERVIEW 3/18/98
KEN: The Game Pad would like to thank you very much for the time taken from your busy schedule to speak to us here. We recently downloaded the Castrol SuperBike demo and were very impressed with the realism as well as the graphics. Needless to say we are eagerly anticipating what looks to be the first real motorcycle racing sim! Let's start by telling our readers your name, title, and what you do for the company: TONY: My name is Tony Love and I am Development Director at Interactive. This means I have responsibility for all development issues including code, art and playtesting. KEN: Could you tell us a bit about your Interactive Entertainment. I'm not very familar with it. Has your company done any games previously? TONY: We are experienced game developers and have worked on many titles over the years on all sorts of formats from Gameboy to PC. We have done many conversions as well as original titles including Shadowlands (Domark), Brutal Sports Football (Millennium), PowerF1 (Eidos). Our publishing partner on this title is Intense Games. The team here are all experienced developers, most having been with the company for several years. KEN: Explain to us the concept behind Castrol SuperBikes. Is it meant to appeal to the arcade or sim-crowd or both? TONY: Our intention when we started developing this title was really quite simple, we wanted to produce the best motorcycle simulation ever seen on the PC. To achieve this aim we knew we needed expert knowledge which is why we got involved with the Castrol Honda Superbike team (the current champions). We also understand that many people like to get a new game and play it straight away without having to plough through the entire manual. This is why we have incorporated Rookie and Novice modes which are easier to play and good to get started with. You can then go on to try Amateur, Semi-Pro, Professional and finally Ace mode. The user can also fully customise the simulation settings (for example tyre wear and wheelies can be turned on and off). This will cater for the hard core simulation nut whilst letting younger members of the family have a go. KEN: How does it compare to say, Motoracer or Redline Racer? Will it appeal to a different crowd? TONY: Motoracer and Redline Racer are nice games but they are not sims. If you want an accurate simulation with in-depth strength and longevity Castrol Honda Superbikes is the one. The feedback we have been getting from people who have tried the demo is great and shows there is a real need for a sim rather than an arcade game which is only fun for a while. KEN: How many tracks will be in the game? Will there be a full season championship mode? TONY: We have ten tracks in the sim including Honda's test track in Japan. This is a very difficult track to master but great fun to race. Game modes include Championship which is a season of races over the ten tracks. You can select the full 100 kms race length which means that a season is in fact over 1000 kms of racing (that's about 600 miles) plus Qualifying. We also have a Trainer mode where an experienced racer on the team's other RC45 shows you how to lap each circuit as you try to follow him. KEN: What about a user customizable difficult setting like Papyrus uses...98,99,100,101..% strength for AI opponents as opposed to easy, medium, hard? TONY: Our first five difficulty levels (Rookie, Novice, Amateur, Semi-Pro, Professional) are user customisable. The user can change the individual realism settings and has complete control of the sim (including damage, race length, engine realism etc). In Ace mode the user has to compete for real over 100kms and has to face the same problems the teams get in real life, like tyre wear, engine problems and crashes that hurt. KEN: What about setups for the bikes such as tire pressures, gear ratios...? TONY: The user has control of the tyre types and gearbox ratios on the bike. For this we used data from Castrol Honda and found out how they set their bikes up. The gearbox is the big thing to set up. The engineers have a choice of 21 primary final drive ratios (achieved by changing the front and rear cogs on the chain drive). They then have a choice of gears for each cog in the box to fine tune that ratio. The idea is to get a gearbox that covers the entire range of speeds needed on a particular circuit and then fine tune each gear to match the most important corners. This is reproduced exactly in our sim. For the tyres they always use the same tyre pressures (2.1 bar front and 1.9 bar rear) so the pressure is fixed in ours. Michelin give them four types of tyre on the front of the bike and ten on the rear. The rear needs more choice because it does more work. Softer construction tyres are used on fast flowing circuits (where they have less work to do) and harder tyres are used on tight twisty tracks (as they are more heavily loaded). Soft tyre obviously wear more quickly and are more prone to pick up dirt (especially if you go in the gravel). Again our sim reproduces this exactly. On the lower difficulty levels the bike setup is less important but as you progress it becomes more important to get the right gearbox setup. When you get to ACE mode it is vital to get the right gearbox and tyres otherwise a) you will not be able to keep up with the other bikes and b) your tyres might wear out before the end of the 100kms. KEN: Are there any new or special features that have not been implemented in other racing sims? TONY: We have looked at all the best features of the sims out there and put them in ours (e.g. intelligent TV style camera views in replay mode, split screen play etc). The big difference with Castrol Honda is the fact that you are racing a Championship winning motorcycle (the RC45) and are leaning into the corners as far as you dare. KEN: Are you implementing network or internet options? TONY: We have a two player split screen mode, which is great fun if you only have one PC. We also have a network play mode (for people with more friends/PCs) and will be releasing an internet version later in the year. KEN: How was the game designed to implement realistic physics? TONY: First of all we took the data that Castrol Honda supplied us (things like brake horse power, chassis weight, wheelbase, drag coefficient etc) and used them directly in our simulation model. We then compared the performance from our model bike with the real stats to check that our 0-60 times, quarter mile times, braking distances, top speeds and so on matched. The biggest task was modeling the steering/leaning of the RC45 so that our bike cornered in exactly the same way and again we did this by comparing the data. We now have a model that matches the real thing in every respect. If you can lap Sukuh in 58 seconds on our bike you could do the same on the Honda (if you had the nerve). KEN: How will the AI be? It seems that is the one thing suffering recently in racing sims. Both ABC's Road to Indy and Cart Precision Racing were severely handicapped by AI cars that were either slow, ran into you, or didn't even know the player was there! How will Castrol SuperBikes be different? TONY: We have tried to make the CPU bikes as aware as possible about the human player and each other. One advantage of bikes over cars is that they are thinner and so can avoid each other more easily. One thing that is really nice is the way the CPU bikes compete with you very strongly. For example if you out-brake someone coming in to a corner but then run wide, the CPU bike will re take you in the corner. KEN: What will be the minimum specs for a smooth framerate? TONY: We have been running an accelerated version on a P90 successfully, but obviously the faster the machine you have the better (such as a P200). KEN: Will a 3d accelerator be required? Which ones will be supported? TONY: You can run the game without acceleration but for hi res you really need an accelerator. The game is designed to work with any card that has DirectX drivers. KEN: How do you like working with glide? Many developers have indicated a preference in working with OpenGL as opposed to D3D. Do you find one is bettter or easier to work with? Do you prefer OpenGL to D3d? TONY: This is a contentious issue. We are using D3D because most cards work with it and we are getting good performance from it. KEN: Does your company have any other games coming out this year? TONY: We do, but we are only thinking about Castrol Honda at the moment, so look out for an announcement in the summer. KEN: When can we expect to see Castrol SuperBikes on store shelves? TONY: Intense are planning a May release. KEN: Any final comments for our Game Pad readers? TONY: We are really pleased that you like this early demo. Watch the Intense Games website and our own site at Interactive Entertainment for updated demos. And thanks to everybody who have e-mailed us with comments on the demo - keep them coming. KEN: Thanks so much for your time, and good luck on making this a bug-free and realistic SuperBike sim!
Be sure to visit the Castrol Development team at Interactive Entertainment
Download the Castrol SuperBike 9.7 Mb demo at Voodoo Extreme