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Dirt Rally could well be Codemasters' first real sim
I've had my mind set on creating a more focussed and authentic rally experience for a long time now," says Coleman of the project's genesis. "It was actually after Showdown where we started to directly work on this project, and that was with a very small team of individuals who weren't required for the Grid project at the time. To begin with we started prototyping a handling model, and creating tracks based on map data or tracks that my friend and I were tackling in the Impreza to get car handling as close to our own real life experience as possible."
Codemasters hasn't been shy in acknowledging the existence of a new Dirt game, and late in 2013 it invited a handful of journalists, myself included, to play an early version of what it had created. The results were impressive - a marked improvement on Dirt 3's handling that benefitted from a focus on core rally driving. That wasn't quite good enough for Coleman though.
"FWD and 4WD cars felt okay, but RWD didn't give people the sense of stepping the rear end out and holding the slide. In an iconic car like a MK2 Escort, if you look at any picture it's on the lock stops, it's sideways with a big plume of dust coming out the back. That's what people want from the experience and we were unable to give that with the old physics.
"So we got a new physics programmer in onto Dirt, and he brought fresh eyes to the problem. Starting with a new tire model and a new surface model, he's basically rebuilt our physics from the ground up. That's only been possible by having a handling team that wanted more out of the engine, and always asked questions. That pairing has really enabled us to break down the walls of assumption and bring in new features."
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While there aren't specific details on how Dirt Rally will play with mods or Steam Workshop, it's part of the plan. "I think the holy grail for off-road games is not necessarily an editor but a track generation that allows players to arrange a space they've never seen before," says Coleman. "There are vast changes we have to make to our tool chain to make that a possibility, but it has to be something we have our eye on in the future. I think Steam Workshop starts paving the way towards that, and to begin with it can mean people customising the look of their game. Ultimately people are going to ask what they want - and I see Steam Workshop as one of the things we should be focussing on as we take this product through its lifespan. That will allow us to take a step back, and for the community to take it on as their own thing."