When F1 2013 was revealed, a lot of jaws dropped at how stunning it looked. It looked stunning and realistic, and simply put, the graphics got a lot of attention. Ahead of the game’s release, the developers decided to spill the beans on a lot of things in a bare-all interview with GamingBolt. This included the graphics.
‘We have a new Art Director in the team and have also lost HRT from the grid enabling us to free up some much needed memory,’ said Paul Jean, Game Director on F1 2013. ‘Both of these factors have enabled us to push the visuals still further.
‘We have a new lighting solution which has really bought the tracks and garages to life but the main advance for me has to be the car models. We have changed the way we create the cars so now the textures are much higher, meaning that they are much clearer when you are close up. This in turn has allowed us more flexibility when it comes to things such as camera placement for replays.’
He also talked about the much talked about decision to include the Classics mode in the upcoming game.
‘Classic content is comfortably the most requested feature we have ever had, whether that’s from press or fans of the sport. People want to recreate races they saw when they were growing up and to drive as their former heroes in iconic cars.
‘With this in mind it has been something that we’ve wanted to do since we signed the F1 license in 2008 but it has been a very complicated process and it has taken a long time to secure the relevant licenses. Many of the teams have changed ownership several times in the intervening years, some no longer exist. There are issues with sponsorship and liveries as we cannot show alcohol or cigarette sponsor for example.
‘Our licensing team has done an amazing job to secure the content that they have for F1 2013 but we see this as very much the start point for us and classic content,’ he signed off, possibly hinting at growth in scope and potential for the mode in the coming years.