Calling all GPvRs

[optical illusion]

Should've gone to specsavers!! Too obvious those mentioned, everybody knows white GPvRs have blue version R stickers!!!

[optical illusion]

Well guys, photoshoot over, and I wasn't raped, murdered or the car stolen Guys were a sound bunch.

Roll on release!!

[CJ]

Well guys, photoshoot over, and I wasn't raped, murdered or the car stolen :D Guys were a sound bunch.

Deadly. Give us the run down on the shoot. Did you have to sign an NDA out of interest? Will FTO-Ireland get a mention in the credits after all?

CJ

[TopCat]

Nice one, glad to hear you weren't physically or mentally scarred. They gonna give you any pics?

[optical illusion]

Well, parked at work, they put chalk mark measurements on the ground, took hundreds of photos and measurements of the car, inside and out, under the bonnet, the boot...

I sat in their BMW and read my saucy novel... They brought me to lunch, more shooting, then we finished off in finnegans. Talked about cars all the while (worthwhile day then ) Soundest lads you could ever meet, real down to earth. Talked about the game and some of the cool cars they have to shoot and where they have to go to find the rare ones.

Yes CJ, calm, part of the agreement

Told them I'd love a digitised photo of my car, as in, how it will be in the game. Car was dirty even though I cleaned it, and they had to dry it so rubbbed the dust all over it Therefore I won't be requesting actual photos

[TopCat]

Oh, I misunderstood, they wanted to digitize the car to make a model of it rather than actually take a pic of it to put on the cover, etc? So your car will actually be IN the game, sweet.
Don't suppose they could give you a copy of the actual computer model? I have some 3d software here that could open most of them files.

[optical illusion]

Yes, actually IN the game!!! You can crash my car into other inanimate objects as many times as you like! Manuals are more accurate at crashing anyway

Dunno, doubt it tbh...

[Uncle B]

Probably for the latest Project Gotham Racing?

[optical illusion]

Guys, just to get something cleared up, as I seem to be asked this a lot, the gpvr you'll be playing in the game will actually be mine, they didn't take 700+ photos to use on the cover, sure the car was filthy.

They don't take loads of different pictures of different owners cars, just one car, one owner.

They had some complaints in the past that they were using two + cars to design one car, so they are not doing this anymore, they are going all, or nothing. That's dedication for you. At least they listen...

[optical illusion]

Right guys, thread revival.

I can officially say that my car will be starring in none other than, the awesome Forza 3!! Can't wait to see it and the credits - bonus for fto - ireland too!

Great thing is, I can crash it many times and not have to worry

Now, anyone have a second hand 360?

Full list here: http://kotaku.com/5376574/forza-motorsp ... g-car-list

[gary d]

SWEET

[Dragonheart]

Coooool. Any game shots of it or rendered images?

[optical illusion]

Not as yet MJ...

[Bernard]

Is there one for everyone in the audience?

[optical illusion]

I'm beginning to doubt I'll even get mine at this stage!!

[Myfeckin FTO]

Doesn't get much better than Forza 3 on the Xbox - well done Laura.

[CJ]

Doesn't get much better than Forza 3 on the Xbox - well done Laura.

[Johnk]

Will have to get that 1 when it come's out fair play to you

[Mitsumaniac]

From now on each fto-ireland member without X360 and a copy of Forza 3 will be degraded to just Half-Member
Congrats

[optical illusion]

Thanks for all the well wishes guys, really appreciate it and so glad to be representing the club. As soon as I can give you sneak previews of photos I will!

[optical illusion]

Someone just text me to inform me that the car is mentioned in The Irish Times motoring supplement today, they were meant to ring me for an interview, so much for that!

[Bernard]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/motors/2009/1014/1224256602180.html

From Irish streets to on-screen action


Microsoft’s new driving game, ‘Forza Motorsport 3’, was largely developed in Ireland. Due for release this month, PADDY COMYN took it for a test drive

AND THERE was I thinking I had the best job in the world. Sure, there are plus points to driving all sorts of cars from week to week, but there are downsides. Like . . . well, perhaps there aren’t too many. But what if your job was to develop and test video games? And, better still, car video games?

I’m sitting in a presentation room in one of Microsoft’s Dublin offices and the company is almost as I expected it to be. There was more than one Golf GTi in the car park.

The lobby is bright and welcoming and workers sit in the spacious coffee shop exchanging ideas, wearing jeans and T-shirts. There might not be the surfer dudes or sunshine of Silicon Valley, but John Byrne, David Foster and Ingo Schumacher (the game test driver, with an appropriate surname) look relaxed and rather pleased with themselves as they present me with the fruits of their labour.

Although “labour” might not quite be what some people would call spending months on end photographing some of the world’s most beautiful cars and then sitting down to test them, before releasing them to an expectant audience. “You could say that I have one of the best jobs in the world,” says Foster, who, although I’m sure his job is way more complicated than we think, basically gets paid to test video games.

Forza Motorsport 3 is the new, must-have driving game for the Xbox 360. If you don’t know what an Xbox is, just go ask any eight year old. They will tell you that it is one of the trio of consoles (the others being Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii) that they probably want under the tree, if it’s not already in the house.

It is a console from Microsoft that offers stunning graphics and a wide range of titles, suitable for everyone from the occasional gamer to the sunlight-starved and obsessive.

The Forza series is the game for car lovers. And guess what? This game was developed, in part, from right here in Ireland.

Forza Motorsport 3 is the third in a hugely successful series of racing car games. Foster, who is a project manager responsible for the localisation of Forza Motorsport 3 for the European markets, and John Byrne, project manager for the European car content, have spent the last 18 months making sure this game will be as realistic as possible.

But when you do get your hands on it, make sure to try your hand at the Mitsubishi FTO, Opel Speedster, Renault 5 GT Turbo, Aston Martin Vantage or Ford Fiesta Zetec S, because they are all cars that were sources and photographed here in Ireland.

“We were in charge of getting all the photography for the European cars and this meant sourcing everything from the standard car to the unusual and in some cases we were able to photograph cars from just down the road,” says Byrne.

Byrne, who has been at Microsoft since 1991 and has worked on games such as Flight Simulator , wasn’t a photographer, but reckons he has picked up a few things along the way.

“All we needed to do was photograph the car on a level surface. We used a fixed focal length lens and photographed the cars through 360 degrees and used step ladders to get aerial shots. We attended the Frankfurt Motor Show to photograph all the latest models and use callipers and rulers to illustrate scale in the photos.” This attention to detail is worth it. The details on the cars in the game is incredible and watching some of the demo versions of the game is like watching a movie.

Byrne shows me a book containing an exhaustive collection of photographs of cars from every angle. Every panel, hinge and nut of the car was recorded, to be transferred into the games visuals. But it doesn’t just end there. The cars are also put on a dyno, not to measure the horsepower, but rather to faithfully record the car’s sounds through the entire speed range.

When you hear a car on Forza Motorsport 3 that is the car’s actual sound, not some made-up synthetic one. “We put the car up on a dyno and get the sound at lots of different places,” explains Korey Krauskopt, group programme manager with Turn 10, a video game developer created by Microsoft Game Studio. “The audio team will mix this with the car’s physics engineering.”

The team at Turn 10 uses raw data to make sure the cars feel like they should. “At the E3 event, we had a representative from Audi drive the R8 V10 in the game and at first he said it wasn’t accurate, but then we realised he had the brake assist function activated and after we turned that off he said it was exactly like the real car.”

The game features 400 cars on over 100 real-world tracks (yes the Nürburgring is there) and from there the possibilities are endless. “There is a whole world of customisation available on every car, from changing graphics to engine tuning,” says Ingo Schumacher, as he guides me through the menus of the game. Ingo spent 12 years in the Air Force and often voices games for Microsoft and, while claiming to be no engine expert, he shows me the intricacies of the phenomenal customisation options available on the game.

But I’m itching to try. Having just spent a few days in a Fiat 500 Abarth, this was just the car I picked for my first try and it was amazing. The sound was just the same as the Fiat and you could flick the car into bends like you can with the real Abarth. There was even the delicate tail lift that happens in the real car. Plus, it didn’t require a degree in computer nerd studies to operate.

“We want this game to be something that the occasional gamer can just pick up and play without any fuss,” says Foster.

From here, we selected an E30 BMW M3 and it too, was its playful, tail-happy self. As the laps flew by, people started looking at watches as your now wild-eyed reporter kept everyone way longer than clocking out time. This is a game that will make the lonely forget that they need friends, the married probably very divorced and any petrol head blissfully happy.

* ‘Forza Motorsport 3’ is in shops from October 23rd, at €59.99

[optical illusion]

Yay, I'm representing Ireland as 1/5!

[TopCat]

Pity you didn't have the interview, but it's great publicity to get in a write-up like that. Fair play.

[colm_mcm]

MIJ article worthy I wonder?