Bizarre crowds out Xbox 360

By Kristan Reed Published 14 September, 2005

PGR3: spectator frenzy.

Fed up with cardboard cut-out spectators cropping up in every racing game since the year dot? It seems that Project Gotham Racing 3 developer Bizarre Creations is too, having created a spectator system for its forthcoming Xbox 360 title that's capable of displaying 35,000 individuals at once.

On the latest update to the bizarreonline site, a screenshot shows its system off in its full glory, although Bizarre is quick to remind viewers that it's "just a test to show how crazy our crowd rendering system… and not representative of the crowd size which will be present in the final build of PGR3".

Even so, "You can still expect many thousands (yes, thousands) of spectators per track," which should make it all look pretty spiffy, if ultimately not actually something that makes the racing any better. Now, if avoiding suicidal spectators was part of the fun, we'd certainly enjoy some pseudo-Carmageddon action in return for some Kudos points.

He added: "The most remarkable thing to me was that [the spectator test] was all running at the game's normal frame rate. Not a bit of slowdown. It takes a while for our expectations to adjust to the "next generation" of video games, but I suppose things like this are what we will be seeing from now on..." And by "things like this" he went onto elaborate that members of the crowd are fully motion-captured, some waving cameras and taking pictures, some eating prawn sandwiches, some pick-pocketing others, some making love. Guess which ones we made up?

"What you can't see here are the extra details added around the courses to make things seem more "lifelike". There's ambient traffic, camera crews, racing teams (complete with huge big rigs), massive spectator stands, etc. etc. In fact, if you look carefully, you'll be able to see some Bizarre Creations staff members skulking around in the masses. There are also some Bizarre t-shirts in there too..." By which, we hope he means T-shirts with crazy logos, like, you know, 'I'm with stupid' or those post-ironic ones the ladies like to wear to announce their chest size to the world. T-Shirts; more of them in games please.

As for Project Gotham Racing 3? We'll be off to X05 in a few weeks, so look out for our hands-on impressions of this potentially glorious title soon.

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (31) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Tiiti #1 7 years ago

    PGR3 ftw!

  • Teeth #2 7 years ago

    Pretty neat. If it were me I'd keep them billboarded though, as an inside joke.

  • Beano #3 7 years ago

    Still no news regarding the framerate ?

  • Talha #4 7 years ago

    I think PGR 3 is set to be what NFS series should have evolved into. Great stuff guys!

  • sleepless #5 7 years ago

    Is it only me or do they (spectators) look like shit..particularly faces?. It looks like Bizarre put 2D photos straight on models. But in the end it doesn't really matter too much because in 200 KM/h I tend to watch track and drivers in front of me not spectators :)

  • jumpdeveraux #6 7 years ago

    I hope they have included throwing beer cans onto the track for the US tracks just like the Grand Prix this year.

    Rather than devote dev effort on the crowd they should instead give me a high poly piece of skirt sitting beside me in the car that I can ogle and promptly veer off the road.

  • gamesb*tch #7 7 years ago

    Lower left corner of their screeny - errrrr same guy twice!!11

  • Ali #8 7 years ago

    A good racing game is one of the first things I look for when buying a new console. PGR3 might just be the one to swing me towards the 360, because frankly, Gran Turismo bores the arse off me.

    I eagerly await the day when you can career into the crowd and scatter them like skittles - can your next-gen console do that yet, Mr. Microsoft?

  • tonynibbles #9 7 years ago

    When I first read this I thought it meant spectators like real in-game spectators, with EyeToy style face capture and then being planted in to the audience.

    o_O

    Then I noticed the 35,000 and slapped myself.

    The screenshot foreground reminds me of the GT5 screenshot from E3 - that one in the pits with all the shitload of people, only they're actually doing stuff and busy, so its uberer. But then this one has a fuckload more people, so maybe this is uberer.
    Uberer or ubererer, it looks pretty uber anyway.

    [edit: slap comment :p]
    Edited by 1 at 14/09/05 @ 12:32

  • DrPhil #10 7 years ago

    I'm with stupid ^

    he he he

  • dbeamish #11 7 years ago

    im not sure i'll buy this if the "normal game frame rate" is a pathetic 30fps.. pgr2 was great but it hurt my eyes. if the next gen consoles cant manage 60 frames per sec for every game then they should be shot out of a cannon.

  • smelly #12 7 years ago

    "errrrr same guy twice"

    Erm.. it's a rendering test to see how many rendered people they can have on screen at once. It's not for an artist to draw 35000 faces!!!

    This is why im against devs showing tech stuff, people cant think what that is really showing them.

  • martyngates #13 7 years ago

    didn gt4 have this on the rally stages?

    still look too much like celebrities from south park for my liking

  • kangarootoo #14 7 years ago

    I bet if there had been 35k rubber ducks, people would be preordering right now.

  • Bill-Lumberg #15 7 years ago

    This is soooo gonna be late!

  • gamesb*tch #16 7 years ago

    "capable of displaying 35000 individuals at once"

    so how is two of the same guys 'individuals'? :)

    "This is why im against devs showing tech stuff, people cant think what that is really showing them."

    Thanks. I 'love' being patronised during lunch
    Edited by 1 at 14/09/05 @ 12:41

  • tpfkanep #17 7 years ago

    ----
    It takes a while for our expectations to adjust to the "next generation" of video games, but I suppose things like this are what we will be seeing from now on...
    ----
    My expectations have have not been dissapointed so far. Way to go Bizarre.

  • souljah #18 7 years ago

    Hopefully you can have car parts such as wheels career off the track after a crash and plough into these crowds.

    Muhahaha

  • Boomzilla #19 7 years ago

    People complaining about spectator faces, people that somehow just know that in motion everything is going to look like 'ever worse', people who see the same guy twice... Now, do some of you people care enough to actually READ these studio updates, or do you just look at the picture and make up wild theories about everything PGR3-ish?

  • tengu #20 7 years ago

    Perhaps they call it as they see it, no?

  • gamesb*tch #21 7 years ago

    heh, exactly, tengu.

  • Boomzilla #22 7 years ago

    Not really, since that picture isn't in any way really representative of the final product, not even of the final in-game crowds.

  • tengu #23 7 years ago

    It could be.

  • Boomzilla #24 7 years ago

    Right. Whatever. Shitty game, with shitty crowd, with shitty framerate, then. (Demagogy rules.)

  • renzo #25 7 years ago

    "Not really, since that picture isn't in any way really representative of the final product, not even of the final in-game crowds."

    Then why bother to show it at all if it's not representative of anything?

  • jellyhead #26 7 years ago

    does it matter when you're supposed to be tearing past them at 60mph minimum?

  • bootsy_NL_30 #27 7 years ago

    well at least they have realised that even though the empty streets of major capital citys looked great in MSR,PGR 1+2 etc(and were a whole lot of fun to tear around)the missing pedestrians was really the only major missing element in this series.
    I just hope that the point system returns to PGR 1 or MSR or at least gets a bit of an overhall ....PGR 2 was way too easy in sigle player.

  • Boomzilla #28 7 years ago

    "Then why bother to show it at all if it's not representative of anything?"

    Well, because it's interesting to see how things are progressing over at Bizarre. Because you get a general look into the work that goes into the making of PGR3. That's what the idea behind the Bizarre's Studio Updates is, or at least that's what I make of it. :)

  • PES_Fanboy #29 7 years ago

    so how is two of the same guys 'individuals'? :)

    Two of the 35,000 are identical twins.

  • Pirotic #30 7 years ago

    low poly, unshaded people eh? you can chuck around as many as you like but they'll always look pish :D lets hope the smaller crowds in the game are not made up of the same people, at least chuck some shading in.

  • The-Bodybuilder #31 7 years ago

    >"Then why bother to show it at all if it's not representative of anything"

    It was not made to be reported by every single website, it was made as an update to thier fans following thier progress.

    EG: Land of the cynics

  • Seifer #32 7 years ago

    The still pic does look a little dodgy but once it's all moving it will be fantastic , I've never seen 'better' crowd scenes in a racing game, I dont think anyway.