Codemasters defends removal of in-car view in GRID 2: “Only five percent of players used it”
By Tim Colwill on August 9, 2012 at 1:08 pm
Codemasters yesterday revealed the existence of GRID 2, and today they’ve come under fire after previews of the game revealed the removal of the in-car (cockpit) view. Codemasters’ Clive Moody has been quick to reassure players that they’re basing this decision on actual play date gathered from players themselves.
“While we do use research and focus groups, the most important data source for us is the enormous amount of telemetry data we can obtain from our servers that tells us exactly how and what our players are doing across all our games. So it’s not a case of just a sample of people we’ve spoken to in research, it’s a fact that only five per cent of Codemasters Racing game players ever used the in-car view.”
“They (in-car views) are expensive to run due to the requirement for high-resolution interior textures which are seen close-up and require a considerable amount of in-game memory (to store) and processing (to render),” he said, suggesting that they could use the extra memory better elsewhere.
Source: Eurogamer
GRID 2 will have 82 tracks in total, get the full list here
Plus, check out the Asian region tracks in this new trailer.
GRiD 2 talks up their new LiveRoutes system, will randomise your driving experience
Junctions can split up to six ways.
GRiD 2 planning to “redefine” multiplayer, mostly with YouTube integration
Not really sure this counts as "redefine".
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I’ll probably get flamed, but I prefer the bonnet cam….Surely i’m not alone.
In car view is extremely nice to have though, it’s great to see the detail and really experience what the car has to offer. But once you start playing the game it’s pretty hard to see anything at all as the FOV and windscreen/dash are often tiny and get in the way.
Hopefully they release a demo so I can check it out before diving in :)
Here I was starting to get excited for the game oh well.
I use the behind view as I can see what the car is doing, which IRL I would be able to feel through the chassis movements and steering feedback. However it’s fun to play in-cockpit too.
The excuse given though is a load of horse crap. It takes some Hi-Res textures (but not enough to stress a current 1GB card beyond Hi-Res body textures from behind a car view) and the extra detail in the cockpit shouldn’t be an issue with proper usage of DX11′s tessellation abilities.
Sounds like that 5% are gonna cause another developer to stop talking crap. Though admittedly it does take a fair bit of time and effort to make a good Hi-Res interior. If they had come out with that as the explanation it would make more sense…
I’m one of the 95% that don’t use it. Personally quite happy to see it ditched if it helps improve performance, and allows them to better spend time elsewhere.
rsoblivion,
They are referring to hardware of consoles, not PC.
Codemasters dropped the ball since the original Grid IMO. I doubt Grid 2 will be anything to write home about.
Not alone Cas, i prefer bumper view when i’m using a wheel, and 3rd person for a controller. Cockpit view does look nice though, but i couldn’t always use it. i’d rather a clean view to focus on my surroundings more.
Their excuse for not having it does seem a bit weak though..
yay im part of the 5%
Yeah I prefer to be right on the road itself if possible, and with a force feedback wheel I know exactly what’s going on :)
I always use cockpit view, it’s part of the reason I think GT5 is such a stinker.
Such a shame, I was so excited about this… I’m sure it will be good but it’s now on my bargain-bin list.
So ditch it for the console version of the game only.
Yep another part of the 5% here, and like Murray it’s gone from a must have to wait for bargain-bin or steam sale.
That’s pretty irrelevant. Even if it’s due to the restrictions of console, the explanation they have given is still ridiculous. The target will be the next gen consoles anyway unless they have hidden it and are aiming for Christmas release on current gen. Hell GRID 1 had cockpits on console and it worked fine…
Most people who use cockpit view are also those who have wheels and Codies have become so driven by corporate lackeys instead of intelligent developers that they won’t cater for their market properly. They’ve gone from sim to arcade and at the same time alienated their fanbase with a profound lack of support for games they have created.
Wow this has certainly kicked up the dust hasn’t it? Personally prefer behind car view as at least you get some peripheral vision (cockpit/bonnet view has a rather restrictive view arc) so I couldn’t give a rat’s if they included it or not.
I barely used the ‘in-cockpit’ view, it’s basically just the bonnet cam with obstructions and a distracting steering wheel. It’s not like actually being in a car with natural field of vision, depth perception and focus.
Ditching the view obviously does save development and in game resources so I’m all for it.
I agree with their reasoning for dropping the cockpit view, and while I do enjoy jumping into the drivers seat to see the interiors, I can’t race with that view.
However I think that 5% is definitely large enough to be statistically relevant. That’s 1 in 20 players. They obviously know exactly how many people they’re upsetting with this announcement, so they’ll be expecting quite a bit of backlash.
I use the bonnet cam as well. While using a wheel, it makes it a bit awkward to see both my wheel and the wheel on-screen for the cockpit. It’s especially distracting if that on-screen wheel isn’t synced with my wheel, and watching hands on the wheel and shifting; While it’s nice to have the option, I personally don’t see it as a huge loss. I would prefer for a company to put more effort into the control and physics of the game to make it more realistic. I bought the original Grid not too long ago, and I’ve played it for maybe 20 minutes. The game simply doesn’t work well with a G27, and that’s a setback for me. I don’t doubt that it could be a good game with a different controller, but it’s not a good sim.
I loved the cockpit view, and i hate any driving game that doesn’t have it. I actually am better driving in cockpit view, i post faster times… interest in this game is quickly dropping to 0% as i am not a big racing fan to begin with yet have enjoyed codemasters racers.
Argh i cannot edit anymore… to continue after reading the comments above i can see why bonnet would be better if you had a wheel but me with my poor controller its the extra link i need i suppose. I just don’t want to shell out over $200 to get the same connection…
I’m really getting sick of companies using the excuse ‘It saves video memory’ by removing a feature. It is simply not true. For example, a cockpit view means there is actually less of the world that needs to be rendered onto the screen (since you cant see sideways or behind like in a third person view)…..so either they are telling a bunch of fibs or are really bad at coding a good engine.
Bethesda said the same excuse for Skyrim for the reason they merged shirt and pants into single items….it is simply not true that a change like that has a huge impact on performance. They just say something technical like that so that the common player doesn’t think they were duped out of content.
Now 5% doesn’t sound like much, but if a game sold 500,000 copies then that 5% is actually 25 thousand people…..its nothing to scoff at. This is just another company corner cutting while alienating the hardcore racing fans in favour of the common player.
I use bonnet cam anyway, just hope they don’t screw up the handling. :)
GRID was never hardcore though. It was the first in a slippery downwards arcade slope which hit hard with DiRT 2 and 3. GRID 2 is just going to be another arcade game lacking in detail and acting like the CoD and BF of racing.
For serious racing there is pCARS and iRacing along with a few others that focus on detail over arcade handling. When someone actually makes a game that doesn’t require different modes to drift and circuit race as well as off road then we’ll hit the big time.
so driving behind the car still renders the cockpit and slows everything down?
i call poo!
Surely this is only an issue (as described) for consoles? ;-)
Does the data gathered by their servers also show how ppl like to play when in single player?
Didn’t think so.
TBH I’m personally not fussed, and those with sim cockpits are less likely to be running Grid (I assume) so doesn’t seem like teh end of the world.
If you had TrackIR5 like me you would never want to play with anything other than the “Cockpit” view.
I prefer in cockpit mode too.
I only used cockpit, sigh!
Wonder if the telemetry data shows them that a mass majority of players also have more ram thean the game is using?
I’ve had over 8 gigs of ram since windows 7 came out, i actually don’t know anyone running windows 7 who only has 4 gigs…
How about they make a 64bit executable and use it and not have the memory issue at all?
Then put ” (64 bit os and X ram required for cockpit view) ” on the box, done….
Another racing game that I will NOT be buying now. Myself & the rest of the people I regularly race with all use the driver’s view (nearly always racing on PC, but sometimes on console).
How can they get data on how I play my games when the cable is unplugged? Oh right, they CAN’T! Rarely do I find any online races worth joining, to many trolls, etc just trying to crash into everyone else (& to few servers with active admins or options to vote kick/ban).
“They (in-car views) are expensive to run due to the requirement for high-resolution interior textures which are seen close-up and require a considerable amount of in-game memory (to store) and processing (to render),” Really? In all the racing games I have (including Grid, Dirt 1/2) the FPS is higher when using the in-car view, so that’d be a good thing.
psychofruiterer,
He’s talking video memory. Not RAM.
Well that certainly saves me some money.
So because I didn’t play online and contribute to this “DATA” that makes it valid to remove cockpit view?
What a croc of S**T.
I loved cockpit view and unless it is added you can count me out.
I’ll stick to Minecraft.