Need For Speed

Need For Speed Announcement Trailer

My latest project has been announced!

I'm a Technical Artist specializing in Special Effects and Dynamics.
The contributions I make to the game are focused on real-time rigid body simulation and particle animation.

I make the fire, water, sparks, tire smoke and gravel kick-up, clouds, fog, steam and mist, lighting effects, car-wrecks, shattering glass, bullet impact ejections, destructible assets and debris - anything that behaves non-uniformly.
For example, when you collide with a stop sign in the game, and it breaks into pieces, I am the person who made the emission of dust and wood debris and splinters, cut those pieces up, defined the mass and friction of each piece, and crafted their collision volumes (how they interact with the road/cars/rest of the world).

I worked directly with the marketing team on the trailer for the helicopter moments, avalanche and explosions, and tumbling police car near the end.
(I had been working on those moments and many more for the past year, they just captured some gameplay to show off some excitement in our experience!)

I wanted to share because announcement day is an exciting time for a development team.
We have a lot of the game crafted, but plenty of work to do to finish it up for a Thanksgiving release.

Any suggestions?

http://www.needforspeed.com/therun

physx support?

I play the hell out of NFS Shift, great series of games.

Need beta testers?

How about a cheat code to unlock the team petty cash roadrace XJ

are you the guy that makes every shift throw a fireball out of the exhaust?

...what about the NOs plume?

i hate that stuff.... about as much as i hate EA for what they do to first person shooters....

GrimmJeeper said:

physx support?

I play the hell out of NFS Shift, great series of games.

Need beta testers?

How about a cheat code to unlock the team petty cash roadrace XJ

Click to expand...

We're focused on consoles - 360/PS3 - but we'll support a PC version as well.
No physx on consoles - but the engine is quite powerful - DICE's Frostbite2.
I've been trying to get my XJ into this game for a while now!
Apparently, Jeep Cherokees aren't fast enough...

xcm said:

are you the guy that makes every shift throw a fireball out of the exhaust?

...what about the NOs plume?

i hate that stuff.... about as much as i hate EA for what they do to first person shooters....

Click to expand...

haha, yeah man, I hate the bright blue NOS flame and backfire bursts too..
..but yep, I do the bidding of gameplay designers and producers.

They feel it is necessary to have these visuals to help convey the state of the cars.

Which FPS are you not a fan of?
What ticks you off about em?
I'll be sure to feedback as much as possible.
Medal of Honor has been not so hot since the first or second one eh?

Battlefield on the other hand, no complaints there (from me)!

kndrewa said:

I've been trying to get my XJ into this game for a while now!
Apparently, Jeep Cherokees aren't fast enough...

Click to expand...

You could change that with the setup though. it doesn't have to be realistic secret xj! secret XJ! secret XJ!

yeah, i understand doing what the paying party says....

battlefield is my favorite fps series.... and i have experienced some of the worlds worst bugs/flaws/etc with the series..... battlefield2 was iffy at best, battlefield 2142 completelty wont even install on vista.... LUCKILY, battlefield, bad company 2 is currently working flawless.... (probably has nothing to do with EA!)

you know, typical pc gaming stuff =)

thats funny that you mention frostbite2 being your engine, as thats what badcompany2 uses. what other games have you worked on?

kndrewa said:

I make the fire, water, sparks, tire smoke and gravel kick-up, clouds, fog, steam and mist, lighting effects, car-wrecks, shattering glass, bullet impact ejections, destructible assets and debris - anything that behaves non-uniformly.
For example, when you collide with a stop sign in the game, and it breaks into pieces, I am the person who made the emission of dust and wood debris and splinters, cut those pieces up, defined the mass and friction of each piece, and crafted their collision volumes (how they interact with the road/cars/rest of the world).

I worked directly with the marketing team on the trailer for the helicopter moments, avalanche and explosions, and tumbling police car near the end.
(I had been working on those moments and many more for the past year, they just captured some gameplay to show off some excitement in our experience!)

Click to expand...

Awesome work! that looks painstakingly detailed.

Just throw an XJ covertly into the particle effects:
(Not sure how frostbite2 works but...)

Find effects texture, place XJ image over it. Set alpha to 50, save image.
???
Proffit

CherBear said:

Just throw an XJ covertly into the particle effects:
(Not sure how frostbite2 works but...)

Find effects texture, place XJ image over it. Set alpha to 50, save image.
???
Proffit

Click to expand...

haha!
yep, we could have some 2D XJ particles!

I want to be able to drive one of these though.
I already have a 3D model of my Jeep I created for a demo reel back in 2004..

NFS The Run demo is available on XBL and PSN.
CHeck it out!

I'm proud that we featured my avalanche level in the demo.
I'm going to Sweden in a few weeks to present on my development techniques for this level!
I used some pretty sweet logic to synchronize my avalanche particles and rigid body dynamics to work with any player speed. I use vehicle position and velocity to drive the animations of my avalanches so that they feel intense no matter how fast you're going.

Anyways, shameless self promotion, because I'm proud of my work!
Check it out.

I haven't played this game since it was "The Need for Speed" back in the '90s.
Edit: Actually I take that back, I did play a very little bit of the "NFS: High Stakes" when it came out in the later '90s. I probably still have those discs.

Graphics today seem a bit better. :laugh:

I haven't been a fan of the NFS series recently (Since NFS:Hot Persuit) but I blame that on the fact that it's a much more arcade style racer while I have started to prefer Forza/GTR Evolution/etc.

That and EA hasn't been rubbing me the right way recently in general. I actually refuse to get BF3 (PC) due to the fact that it's Origin only. Oh well, life goes on. I understand that Origin is a work in progress and I also think I have an idea into the EA/Valve discussions and why the game wasn't released on Steam... but I've seen some Origin related customer service nightmares recently and just don't want to get into that just yet.

That said good luck with the project!

xcm said:

thats funny that you mention frostbite2 being your engine, as thats what badcompany2 uses. what other games have you worked on?

Click to expand...

Didn't BF:BC2 use frostbite 1 or 1.5? Or did they update that? I haven't played the game in ages but I could have sworn BF3 was the first of the series to use frostbite 2.

kndrewa said:

I've been trying to get my XJ into this game for a while now!
Apparently, Jeep Cherokees aren't fast enough...

Click to expand...

If Forza 4 can have a freakin' Hummer H1, NFS can have an XJ. Speaking of which I wish Forza had an XJ...

I actually bought need for speed hot pursuit a while back, hated the game. Sorry OP I just hated the game, nothing to do with the visuals though .

The load times killed me. I would start a race, do badly and want to restart and it would just take Forever. You had to watch the load screen, a pre-race animation that you could skip, the 2nd load screen after skipping the cutscene, then an un-skippable cut scene would have to play... It was just too much when you are going for a perfect run and restart the event over and over.

I also didn't like that the cars for the most part are all super street machines, then in every event I am pretty much forced to take the shortcuts that are Offroad. Why am I driving a porsche offroad...?

/rant

iwannadie said:

I actually bought need for speed hot pursuit a while back, hated the game. Sorry OP I just hated the game, nothing to do with the visuals though .

Click to expand...

No worries! I hear you on those horrible load times!
I can vouch that The Run is an exciting blend of arcade/sim.
It definitely isn't as dry of a simulator as Forza - our game is much more arcade based.
At the same time, the cars FEEL like you might expect them to - without the hassle that comes with pure simulation racer controls.
This game is easy to play, and rewarding.
The visuals are the best in the series.

But I want to let you guys be the judge!
I hope a few of you pick it up, and review it in this thread!