speed

[unequal sun]

I enjoy wipeout fusion. I`ve been playing for many hours during many days, but the problem of da game is the speed. Wipeout 2097 or wipe3out were faster. Weren´t they??
I´d like to know yor opinion. Thank you!!

[infoxicated]

I don't think so.

When you're rocketing around in a fully specced Piranha in Fusion, I believe it's probably faster than Phantom in Wipeout 3.

The difference is the draw distance - in the previous versions of the game you couldn't see as far ahead, making the game look much faster. But since you can see a great distance in Fusion it doesn't seem to be hurtling towards you at such a rate. Most of the magazine reviews have missed out on this too, but if you take a moment to look at how far you can see it's quite breathtaking.

I'd definately say that by the time you've gone past Zone 30 in Zone mode, it's moving faster than the older versions did.

[Lance]

hi 'unequal sun', welcome to the wipeout forum.

i never thought about that point Rob, but that is very true. i've noticed it in real life, but hadn't thought about it in games, and deliberately using it in game design. it's really cool how going over a big jump, everything seems to slow down till when you land on a boostpad right in front of a tunnel whilst going 1000 kilometres per hour. pretty good speed-up sensory overload.

come to think of it, in real life, most of the times when i've been going the fastest in a car, there was the least sense of speed. going down a narrow little back road at 90 miles per hour down a straight in bright daylight, there was very little excitement until i saw an intersection and started to look out for someone coming on the main road. and 125 on the interstate highways is nothing [too bad the car wouldnt go any faster!] at night on an open road away from the city, there is little sense of spead either. i've even noticed this effect in GT on the special stage tracks where you race at night and can't see nearby details coming at you. one of the craziest things i've done in real life [aside from certain escapades on motorcycles] was to cruise at 110 mph at night on a narrow country road that i'd never seen before. but because it was night and i couldnt see much in the way of fast moving detail except the road surface, which was just a blur anyway, there was no sense of speed or danger.

so if i ever get the chance to design a racing game, i would probably put lots of clearly visible but distinct details at the side of the road, and make sure they're clearly lit if racetime is at night. structures, cars, etc, that would be clearly different from one another, not just utility poles at regularly spaced intervals; those just disappear from your attention because of regularity, even though they can be a good indicator of your current speed, they just don't give that extra adrenaline rush of zooming past a building in 3 milliseconds!


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Lance on 2002-02-17 17:20 ]</font>

[AmishRobot]

It also depends on what kind of car you're driving. I once got a Ford Tempo (sub-economy class car that weighs about as much as a large shoe) up to 110 mph/177 kph. When the car started bouncing several inches side to side, that's when I got scared! :smile:

Speaking of speed, looks like I missed the skeleton races in the Olympics. Bummer. I need to try that someday. Looks like fun.
Also missed the curling! Nothing like watching a bunch of drunk guys sweeping the ice and yelling "Hup! Hup! Hup!". Now that's sport! :lol:

[infoxicated]

One of the best courses in Fusion is Mandrashee - it's an pretty easy course in its biggest variation, and not particularly technical in any of its other forms. However, the track has overhangs and girders that go above you accross bridges. Seeing all that peripheral stuff whizz by gives a great feeling of speed.

Somehow the stripey track doesn't cut it anymore - as Lance said, it's the depth and then passing of other objects that give that sense of really pushing the needle.

[jmoid]

i read an interview with one of the designers of tekken 4, and he said they had complaints from people because they thought it was slower than tekken 3, when it's actually faster. he put it down to the fact that a game with a slower draw-rate looks quicker, because it's not so smooth.

[Lance]

It also depends on what kind of car you're driving.

hehe, yeah. one time i was bouncing along from side to side [on a smooth straight road] at somewhat illegal speeds in a little ol' sedan, so i stopped trying to push it any farther. clearly the springs and dampers were too soft and the front end was getting lightened by aerodynamic lift. it was a bit uncomfy. i've done much more insane things in better machines with less discomfort because i felt that they would actually respond to my control inputs. [however misguided my inputs might have been. :wink: ]

[Hyper Shadow]

If you think Fusion is slow, put the totally unplayable superfast speed cheat on :wink:

[Zebula77]

One thing to take into consideration is the fact that Fusion runs at 60fps whilst Wipeout 3 and 2097 run at 30fps. This means that everything is twice as smooth, giving you the impression that things are slower. I tried 2097 and 3 yesterday(just for fun)and there's no way they're faster than Fusion. No Way!

[Zebula77]

BTW, what's your fastest speed record? I got my 100% Pirahna up to 3998kph on Florion Heights. That's FAST!

[Lance]

have you ever played N-Gen Racing? i seem to recall getting my fully modified S-37 Berkut to more than 4000 MILES per hour. there's a good sense of speed in the game, but you don't have to react quite as quickly as in wipeout, but you do need to control the plane accurately. the really fast aircraft in the game are even heavier than a qirex!

Nick Burcombe and Andy Satterthwaite were both involved in creating that game.

[Zebula77]

Lance, I think that's kilometers per hours, not miles. I it were miles, that'd make it 6440kph which is, like mach 6 or something.
Anyway, my speed record is something like 3998 on Florion Height 3 coming out of the loop with the turbo.

[Confusion]

I seriously think you can't hit or break 4000 kph. I can get 3999 quite often on Florian Height Course 3 or Katmoda 12 Course 3, but never once has 4000 ever been reached.

Or it could be me.

[Zebula77]

I don't know. I'll keep trying, though.

[AmishRobot]

America: the only industrialized nation that refuses to go metric. :sad: It's probably a part of the 'war on drugs'.

[Lance]

Zeb, i think it is miles per hour. i have the NTSC version, i'll check later to make sure.

but in any case, i didn't say the game is entirely realistic. nor is Fusion. 3995 KPH is approximately Mach 3.7 which is certainly not to be expected of such aerodynamically inefficient things as the auricom, g-tech, and others.

the shockwave from mach 3.7 in an auricom must be devastating. i would think that whole villages and industrial complexes would be destroyed. :wink:


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Lance on 2002-02-21 05:40 ]</font>

[science]

itd be cool if theyd throw some sonic booms in a wipeout game! of course, then again they might happen so often that it would be obnoxious!

[AmishRobot]

I wonder whether adding doppler effects to the audio would get annoying?

I've read about the effect in ExtremeG3 where breaking the sound barrier results in the audio dropping out and a slight haze in the visuals. Sounds like a cool idea, but I haven't seen it myself.

[science]

actually, i thought that was perhaps the only redeeming factor of xg3.

[Zebula77]

The sonic boom in XG3 is it's best feature. You really feel like, whoah that was cool!

Anyway, Lance I agree the ships would not withstand such speeds, and the speed in Fusion isn't simulated, so I guess wether or not the speed in the game is mph or kph, it doesn't really make a difference. It IS bloody fast, that much is certain.

It might be that the NTSC version uses mph, and the PAL kph, seeing as how most European countries use kph and you guys in the States use mph. I dunno, just a thought.

[Confusion]

It's definetely in KPH. Go and race in arcade mode and after you finish it will give you your stats. Where it sasy Average Speed and max speed it will have KPH after it.

Odd that the guy in the advert says MPH though.

[Bunny]

The impression of speed also comes from the "field of view" i.e. how much of a fish-eyed lens FX there is.

[Lance]

has anybody played this supposedly superfast anti-grave cycle racing game called 'Ballistics'?