It's like racing, virtually
Thursday, November 15, 2007
IT WAS a busy week for Elliott Sadler. Like most of his fellow Nascar drivers, Sadler flew home after the Subway 500 race in Virginia last month. Then he began to get ready for his next race a week later, Nextel Cup's Georgia 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
He has his usual things to do: meet with his crew chief. Spend hours in his team's garage in North Carolina, so technicians can tinker with his car. Work out every day on the elliptical machine at his gym.
Oh and sit in a chair for hours playing video games.
The last item is not merely a diversion. For Sadler, 32, as for other professional drivers, playing games is as much a part of the grueling, 36-week Nascar Nextel Cup season as is kicking the tyres and checking the oil.
Games like EA Sports Nascar '08 are considered so accurate in their representation of the 22 tracks used in the Nextel Cup that a driver can do a virtual test-run while sitting at home or on a plane.
"They translate 100 per cent," Sadler says. "You wouldn't believe how realistic these games are now and how much we can learn from them."
Take, for example, the grove of palm trees track-side between turns two and three at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Miami.
"As drivers, we go off of lines of sight, picking up objects along the course, knowing where to hit your points," Sadler says. But because EA Sports Nascar '08 inserted the trees on its virtual Homestead course, Sadler can practise taking those turns before encountering them in real life, as he will during the Ford 400 this Sunday. "One, it's helping you do your job," Sadler says. "Two, it's fun."
Athletes in other sports no doubt enjoy the video-game versions of what they play for real. But there's something about racing in particular that lends itself to the small screen.
"I think it's unique," says one rookie Nascar driver, AJ Allmendinger, who used video and computer simulation games to prepare for his first Nextel Cup season.
"The tracks are so close to the real thing that you can prepare for them. In football, I don't think you can prepare for what the other team is going to do by playing a video game."
To achieve the realism that drivers and fans now expect, game designers at EA Sports visit each course. "We make a huge effort in making sure it's right," said Mike DeVault, the lead designer for Nascar '09 and a designer of the '08 game, which has been out since July.
They use photographs, satellite images and detailed measurements along with computer models of the tracks and details shared by track managers, including the specifications of each bank, turn and feature.
The results can be striking. "You walk into a room when someone is playing, and it's hard to tell whether you're watching a real race or not," says John Gaudiosi, who writes about video games at ESPN.com. "That suspension of disbelief is what drives the experience. From the fan perspective, you're really getting into the seat of your favourite driver."
Sometimes drivers provide valuable input, too. "When we talked to Juan Pablo Montoya, he mentioned about the way our rearview mirrors were angled in the cockpit," DeVault says.
"He told us that in real life the perspective they see is slightly different. It was such a small detail, and very driver-specific, but we made that change." So when a fan plays Nascar '08 and chooses the No 42 car, it's a true reflection of what Montoya sees, too.
EA Sports, which has an exclusive licence from Nascar, is not the only maker of racing video games. There are gaming sites on the web as well. Allmendinger is a regular at the site rfactorcentral.com, where "I'll play online against real people", he says. One of his usual opponents, he adds with a chuckle, didn't believe it was really him until he kept winning.
Still, there are limits. "It's pretty similar to the real thing, until you wreck in a game, hit escape and start again," Allmendinger says.
"You don't have the redo option in a real car."
New York Times
He has his usual things to do: meet with his crew chief. Spend hours in his team's garage in North Carolina, so technicians can tinker with his car. Work out every day on the elliptical machine at his gym.
Oh and sit in a chair for hours playing video games.
The last item is not merely a diversion. For Sadler, 32, as for other professional drivers, playing games is as much a part of the grueling, 36-week Nascar Nextel Cup season as is kicking the tyres and checking the oil.
Games like EA Sports Nascar '08 are considered so accurate in their representation of the 22 tracks used in the Nextel Cup that a driver can do a virtual test-run while sitting at home or on a plane.
"They translate 100 per cent," Sadler says. "You wouldn't believe how realistic these games are now and how much we can learn from them."
Take, for example, the grove of palm trees track-side between turns two and three at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Miami.
"As drivers, we go off of lines of sight, picking up objects along the course, knowing where to hit your points," Sadler says. But because EA Sports Nascar '08 inserted the trees on its virtual Homestead course, Sadler can practise taking those turns before encountering them in real life, as he will during the Ford 400 this Sunday. "One, it's helping you do your job," Sadler says. "Two, it's fun."
Athletes in other sports no doubt enjoy the video-game versions of what they play for real. But there's something about racing in particular that lends itself to the small screen.
"I think it's unique," says one rookie Nascar driver, AJ Allmendinger, who used video and computer simulation games to prepare for his first Nextel Cup season.
"The tracks are so close to the real thing that you can prepare for them. In football, I don't think you can prepare for what the other team is going to do by playing a video game."
To achieve the realism that drivers and fans now expect, game designers at EA Sports visit each course. "We make a huge effort in making sure it's right," said Mike DeVault, the lead designer for Nascar '09 and a designer of the '08 game, which has been out since July.
They use photographs, satellite images and detailed measurements along with computer models of the tracks and details shared by track managers, including the specifications of each bank, turn and feature.
The results can be striking. "You walk into a room when someone is playing, and it's hard to tell whether you're watching a real race or not," says John Gaudiosi, who writes about video games at ESPN.com. "That suspension of disbelief is what drives the experience. From the fan perspective, you're really getting into the seat of your favourite driver."
Sometimes drivers provide valuable input, too. "When we talked to Juan Pablo Montoya, he mentioned about the way our rearview mirrors were angled in the cockpit," DeVault says.
"He told us that in real life the perspective they see is slightly different. It was such a small detail, and very driver-specific, but we made that change." So when a fan plays Nascar '08 and chooses the No 42 car, it's a true reflection of what Montoya sees, too.
EA Sports, which has an exclusive licence from Nascar, is not the only maker of racing video games. There are gaming sites on the web as well. Allmendinger is a regular at the site rfactorcentral.com, where "I'll play online against real people", he says. One of his usual opponents, he adds with a chuckle, didn't believe it was really him until he kept winning.
Still, there are limits. "It's pretty similar to the real thing, until you wreck in a game, hit escape and start again," Allmendinger says.
"You don't have the redo option in a real car."
New York Times
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