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looks ugly :S

Night shots look ok rest looks plain unrealistic.

I think this is an example of promo shot release fail. Photoshopping to death is bad but providing uber low quality images is a lot worse. Looks like a screenshot taken from a recorded gameplay video instead of a direct gameplay screenshot. Still, I have high hopes for them to erase the bad taste Shift 1 left and perhaps beat F1 2010 or even GT5.

I think you are right about “they are from video”, because of high resolution and low quality

Indeed, the only thing we can say is “Let’s wait for the video”. They definitely don’t look so good, with such a high compression. :(

They certainly aren’t doing themselves any favours with these images … Could we please have the option to turn off all those, banners, circus tents, etc

Regardless of the quality of those shots, that Beemer is sexy. I really hope with all my heart that this game will be a worthy rival to other sims like Race On and rF2 etc.

Thumbs up for EA for putting in Bathurst. It’s one of the best tracks in the world, but sadly it is very un-recognised.

fia gt1 and gt3. a very nice selection of race cars, this carlist is better than the 8000 expensive street cars of gt5 :)

fia gt1 and gt3. a very nice selection of race cars, this carlist is much better than having like 8000 expensive street cars (*cough* gt5) <img src=”extra/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif” title=”Smile” border=”0″ alt=”Smile”/>

I don’t like being districted by shitty banners while I drive.

These were early WIP shots that were put up to test the website. They were never meant to go live. They’ve been removed now.

Unfortunately even these shots look waaaaaaaaaay better than anything i saw from rF2 so far.

@SMS
Are you a stuff from SMS or just another guy who named “Sam Mxxx Sxxx???”??

If you are a stuff from SMS, please tell your boss bring back the SHIFT 1 early build physic for us, and also remind him all cars should turn from the front and the centre or rear~

Apart from any quality issues if these represent physics it looks like they got the brake balance sorted out

:)  

We’ve made huge strides in the physics for Shift 2. The elite mode is the best racing I’ve ever had. And yes, I’m from SMS, Rob can confirm that.

I suggest you don’t go real racing then. This is how most circuits pay the bills. :)

Right. These were low res heavily jpg compressed images to test functionality. They’re also from a very old build. the game looks much better than that.

Just notice the coment of “SMS” and look at the site on SMS – like in the coment the shots have gone.

For the race community it’s a great thing that there is coming a new race title (close-sim/sim) – no gtr, rfactor, wtcc, etc so I don’t really get why do many people b*tch so about the upcoming shift? I’m sure that guys from Slightly Mad Studios do check time to time virtualr, nogrip, racedepartment, etc as also did get maybe few mails/infos about the first shift and what’s wrong with it. Be patient, let em work and in a time show us what they gat.

Many people are counting on a good career – more entertaining/believable, not what was in shift 1. Also the way of tuning cars, the phisics! and of course online racing. Everything needs to be redone and many people belive that SMS/DICE will do it on a high standard ;)

I see the over-the-top banners/tents/circus wheels are still present. While most tracks have advertising, none of them have it spashed all over the track in such a vulgar fashion.

Whats with the advertising on the road surface too? Uggh.

I guess SMS haven’t learned the art of restraint yet.

We read every forum pretty much. Initially it would get to us but we’ve learned that even those cursing us are at least giving us attention, showing some passion and have a desire for something that fills their niche so we take the rough with the smooth now. 

We do try to please the community as much as we can within the remit’s we’re set. When you work for a publisher they do call the shots but EA are giving us more rope this time around and I think things have moved in the direction the community wants.

Don’t know why I apostrophised ‘remits’. Must get some sleep.

IMO looks like a rfactor screens with ridiculously bad photoshop makeover… i have no hope for this title.

morda-pl gets the award for worst troll attempt of the day.

As a guy from SMS is here: give us full race weekends and dedicated servers. at least we need something to sort out the crashers from online games!
and give us more than 16 cars max on the PC. we need 32!

Developers don’t control in game advertising, not unless they own the IP and self publish. Regardless it fits better here than most FPS games for example. at least there is real world precedent.

at least 24 …

Allot of game maker wannabes post here. The prettier the material posted the more they howl, “they could do better”.
Take all the grumbling as a compliment.   Looks like some of the best tracks I’ve seen.  And to all the people who have never been to a real big event race.  Yes, they do have ad’s galore and circus, rides, tents. etc. Even at Le Mans, Daytona and all the rest.    

Assuming that you are from SMS, any chance that ye are going to branch out with yer own ip

Its still overdone and half of the banners are “need for speed” anyhow.

Thankfully I assume we can still mod the game to remove all that junk.

The main thing that ruined Shift for me, was the fact that it wasn’t well developed for a computer. No TrackIR support. I couldn’t get it to span three monitors and work good, with SoftTH. Because it was blocked by the Exe.  Running it in Window Mode would span. But run a half speed and freezes every lap. Going back to one monitor after driving on three, is just to big of a let down. 

It’s every dev’s dream really. The problem is that top line games (ie those that compete with the competition) cost 10-25 million dollars. It’s hard to get that together to own your own IP. We have some cool concepts though and all being well you’ll be hearing of some new stuff from us starting soon.

Because underneath some of the overdone effects(mostly bloom) and track circus is a great looking game.

It’s overdone for you. But a busy race day can look like that. Busy adds a sense of speed, energy, vitality, parallax and of course, the kids love it, which equals sales. 

Looking forward to hearing what that might be,
Given that Dice are devs for Battlefield and EA are the publishers and ye have a member of Dice working with ye and Dice say they are going to release mod tools for Battlefield, whats the chances that the extremely talented modders of Shift 1 might get some help in the form of documentation or tools from ye for Shift 2.
 Sorry about the way i posed the question – a bit long winded , but i assume you get where im coming from.

SMS, any chance you’ll be updating the Shift 1 with new physics and a fix for the controller lag and stuttering problems on the PC. I’ve only played about 1/3 of the game and just get so frustrated with stuttering that I’ve been waiting and hoping for a real fix because the community patches only help to a point.  Really would like to finnish the first game before investing in the 2nd. :-D

Thanks SMS, and hope you really know that I(or may be we) really care about your product, not because I have bought it, because you guys have the best driving simulator developers in your studios,  and that’s sad if you don’t make use their talent on your product, e.g. no Stephen Baysted’s music in SHIFT, please, fight for the chance of bring a real racing simulator for us, anyway , I will support you forever~

a guy from SMS

Right!
allow me to doubt about that,but then again who am i to doubt  ;)

Yes they have a lot of adverts but not in the way that is portrayed in Shift, why not reproduce them as they would appear in rl, cause im sure for those of us who bought Shift didnt forget the title or the name of the publisher 30 secs after walking out of the shop that we needed reminding every 10 – 20 seconds in the game.

We’ve reworked the FFB so it transmits the effects directly from the steering column in a different way than before. It’s a big improvement. 

The stuttering didn’t come up in testing. I don’t have it on the 5 or so PC’s I’ve had since we shipped so maybe it’s an edge case. Is there any consensus on where it comes from, are others seeing it?

Thanks Todd. We’d love to do a crazy sim with crazy sim features down to the fluid dynamic level. The problem is publishers don’t want to pay for them right now. We’re aiming to beat GT5 in the sim stakes on the consoles though this time.

We do the permanent real life ad’ boards as they appear on the real tracks, we have to for licensing purposes. We also add the temp ad’s circuits have and these feed the IGA. I don’t get why people get so pissed off about this. it adds a nice sense of speed to the racing.

http://www.gamereactor.eu/media/04/hogrevaxelshift_230440b.jpg

Another new screenshot~

And i think if people take this comment onboard now as it’s intended, ie it’s not competion for iRacing and NetKAR then we should all be happy with the final product. For me that is good enough tbh as i have heard very good things regarding GT5. Ok, it’s not as deep as the best PC sims but more than good enough and has belieavble physics to enjoy.

Wish you luck guys taking on the established games like GT5 and Forza and tbh we should be happy we are getting something along the lines of this game on PC. Agree about the circus vibe though around the track if i’m being honest but hopefully that is adjustable.

As long as we can still mod it out its all good.

HDR resolve from looking down (at a black interior) is causing the exterior to blow out in that shot. I’m surprised that got out.

i just hope hey got rid of the arcade bs this time, so no “points” for crashing cars and “drifting” (lol) and stuff like that.

@Todd: those are some really horrible lighting effects, seems like there was a nuclear explosion nearby

Yeah that looks a bit funky too me as does the 3d arms that nowhere near the level of the first SHIFT

We’re using military level encryption to keep those circus tents in your face this time. ;)

Apparently the guy who said that they want to hook up 12yo was right

the kids love it, which equals sales

*DONT_KNOW*

haha… Welcome the challenge.  BTW its not the tents/people etc. that bug me personally,  its the rash of banners and track graffiti that get to me.

Hi SMS,

I have always thought this problem lived in the thread management of i/o vs graphics vs physx.  I don’t usually suffer from it (core2duo 2.4ghz) but I can engineer it into happening as described by a lot of people by playing with background load and what cores/priority shift runs at, doing things that increase ai car cpu load, etc.  This type of stutter relates to events where the car stops moving (and all other physical objects) but the HUD timer and particle effects keep on going.

The damage system (vertex deformation and damage/scratch texture assignment) seems to also have a role to play in this, and disabling this from doing anything but panel removal in the configuration files works for a lot of people to cure (a) cause of this.  This is what people call “collision stutter” and you can see what the fixes do by downloading the bugfix mod here:

http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=25713

You must rock at parties Defrun.

I think you have beaten them in SHIFT 1, the head movement is quite similar to my kart experience…..kart…kart….oh ya, any news from the Kart Attack~

Forget it, I still put my hope on SHIFT 2, hope you guys beat GT5 once again~

Hello SMS Guy :)

Can you answer us if we get all GT3 and GT1 Cars (like Ferraris) and Tracks? Do we get the Nordschleife again?

I would love settings to “remove” the Tents and other things from circuits. If you don’t do this, modders will do it anyway ;) . 

And PLEASE no Crashing Rage AI this time! At least a Slider how aggressive are they

What about Pit Stops, Training with Tuning without reloading the race? 

And please support Modding with SDK or something like that :)  
Other devs working for EA can Release Modding Tools as well.

Team VVV said there are possible for Nordschleife in track list again, and from the screenshots and teaser, only DBRS9, 430 GT3 and Mustang GT3, for old/new GT3 cars like SLS or XK is really a unknow~

Will you guys add the feature that adverts will change in every race even in quick race, that’s can give us a better experience that the tracks in the game just like real world – always changing~

They are just developer, they have no choice on something, allowance must be made for their difficulties, otherwise you can give them money for producing your best game~

I heard something about the SLS !! It is there!

I mean the SLS GT3~

phuck it im the real sms guy the other one is fake

Let the Rob guy to judge it~

Stop this nonsense right away or I´ll ban your account.

The SMS account is legit.

Sorry~

Is there any chance the PC version will support more than 16 cars?

Comment on “Update” – Look how negative feedback did the job once again :D

I think that’s how the tech works Todd. The feeds come via the publisher though, we just provide the container. 

Sorry, I can’t speak of specifics. Huge NDA signed. 

@SMS Will there only be racing cars, or will it be similar to Shift 1 with road cars and tuning opportunity? Is tyre physics as forgiving, as it was, or has elite mode a more challenging handling?

Yup, lots of tuning. All cars can be upgraded all the way to Works level. 

The handling is more challenging, and more fun IMO.

What about car sounds after upgrades? Will upgrades affect them? And yes, road cars are very important. Many people want to try them on the track, especially if you own one ;)

Does the game feature rain? I’ve read it somewhere in a preview but I can’t find confirmation.

Not sure if you’re a troll or not, but will the game be optimized better? The load times were embarrassing in the last game. And I think you know all about what the community thought of the physics.

We weren’t embarrassed. 

Good to see someone from SMS joining the discussions here. At least it shows you have some interest in the sim racimg community.
Looking forward to more info on Shift 2, really hope it doesn’t suffer from dumbing down like Shift did.

All I want from a new Shift game is that they fix the fucking retarded AI. I’d be playing Shift every day even now if the Ai wasn’t so damn broken. I mean, I’m used to dodgy AI in racing games. I get it; it’s hard to program, but Shift was just ridiculous. I call the game NFS: Shunt. The guy that programmed the original Shift’s AI should be sacked. All the claims about improved physics and the realism of the tracks advertising :eyeroll: are fucking pointless if you can’t complete a single fucking lap without some spastic monkey slamming into you for no fucking reason. Teach your AI to drive Mr. ‘SMS’, or it’s all pointless. I certainly won’t be giving you my money again without a thorough test.

You’re a tough task master Mr Underpants. 

The AI is all new. We’ve worked very hard on it and the general feeling is it rocks.

Also, consider the phrase ‘Load Complete’… ‘Please wait. Loading…’, and be thoroughly ashamed. Especially considering that your customers see it every damn time they start the game.

We’re not ashamed of Shift.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

You should be when you make your customers jump through so many pointless hoops just to get to the fucking menu.

Good talk.

SMS, you said S2 is much better now… is it on par with GT5? Please, will it be possible to get a more realistic graphic tone? NO bloom, No monochromatic filters!! Shift 1 with some mods to remove these graphic features were very close to GT5. 

I feel better now I’ve got that off my chest.

“you said S2 is much better now” I mean on a graphic point of view

I must say that i am very glade to see someone from the developers on here to give some feedback about the game. I think a lot of companies forget that it is us the people that buy the game and we may cry bloody murder but it is for the games we invest in to be more like what we will want to play.

All of the problems that other people stated I agree with. But the in car view was ace! The best of any game I have played hands down. I don’t know if track IR was supported in this title but I would hope that it will be in the new one.

As far as what I would love to see is great telemetry info in game like forza and maybe support for motec. Also I would like some setup help in the game to help explain wtf I am doing to get better performance from the car. Also please oh god please give an option to turn off music in replays.

Other than that I really hope that you guys are gunning for a multi platform option to forza and gt5 becasue the pc community needs it.

Oh last request, I want the ability to miss shift when using the clutch, more rims for the cars and the ability to paint them, and an sdk for the modding commuinty. The only reason I bought the game is I found out it could be modded.

Keep up the great work and don’t be shy about letting us know what is going on and if you do that I will purchase first day for sure! :-D

I think he is saying that the menu system was pretty frustraing to say the least, first I have to load it up, then sign in, then go through another load screen for the intro, then sign in again, then sign into my EA account then load then menu screen. It takes forever to get into the main menu. Also I had terrible performance on my HD 5970 but it runs ace except for the slight stutter once in a while on my gtx 470. Please give better support for ATI cards because my 5970 is being swaped with my gtx 470 when I sli it so it will be my htpc card and be the one used for this game.

I am 100% sure the SLS GT3 is in Shift 2 ;)

Source German Games Aktuell Magazine

WHER AR DA PHOTOZ?!?! PLZ!!

On every site/forum the interest about the upcoming Shift game is groving, what’s a great think if it goes for for DEV team and not only (it have to sale good to think about a next titile like this).

But with the groving interest the expectations are higher – many ppl make a Vs between shift and forza/gt5/some gt series or rF. I think(finger crossed) that will win on that line (gt5 is a car porn so can be tough), since all the info that we did get right now from SMS and DICE (Marcus Nillson) have to be like in 99% true – otherwise they would put a line to hang on their necks … all the tests on Shift 2 and players opinions would be unforgiving.

Like it was said here befor (by SMSman) – the shots were “old” so I guess virtualr did took it off or SMS did ask em for it.

Youre just mad because vettel won the formula 1 world championship

The biggest upturn for Shift 2 imo is just having the partisipation of an official in here.

I’m most happy hearing there is a bigger incline to competing with Forza and GT this time.
I’ll have rF2 for all hardcore racing, so the only way Shift 2 can appeal to me is by being the only alternate that capitalises on a mass amount of licensed high quality street stock that will only be available in Shift 2. 

So please allow bigger space in Shift 2 for stock racing at higher levels with AI this time, because there is a massive gap in the PC market (the least important market I know) for this type of racing. Shift 1 focused to much on streamrolling into racing mods.

Give the sound team a nudge in the realism direction too, the artist decision to go with “larger than life” sound had larger negative affects when engines are distorted and processed to be unrecognisable to their real life counterparts, and over powering transmission whine that morphs out of tune and pitch. So improvements and focus needed in all depts.

First you need to stop getting your underpants in a bunch and change them now and then. Second you need to get real with your confidence in A.I. They will never, I repeat never, react like a real human. That is why there is online playing! P.S. They’re not slamming into you for no reason. It’s because you won’t move your slow ass car out of the driving line and let a dumb ass A.I. pass you.      P.S. I love you.

You’re an idiot.

FIA GT1 and GT3?  BMW Z4 GT3?  Sold.  The original shift (1.2 patch) was worth my purchase regardless of the gripes I had with it.  Thankfully some mods came around to improve the game to more my taste and i’m sure they will continue with Shift 2 so I guess i’m not overall concerned with how the game comes stock.

One question though to SMS,  I saw somewhere it was stated you were aiming for 30fps which I assume/hope is console specific.  Will the PC version be unlocked to whatever our systems can run it at?  I run Shift 1 now at 1920×1080 with max details 4xaa and get 60-100 FPS.  Can you comment any on how Shift 2 performs compared to Shift 1 so far in development?

I gotta say, SMS coming in here and posting is pretty darn cool of them.

Feel the love

@SMS Thanks for the answer on my earlier question. It’s really good to see, that you care about our opinion, and its great to hear news from an insider.
On more thing I hope for, is same physics for drifting and racing. At least in elite mode. It would be cool, if I would have to build/set up a car different for track racing and drifting. Set bigger steering lock, more diff lock, choose different tyre… I’m almost sure, that it won’t be this way, but it would be more realistic -> way better IMO.

Some of your wishes are in there Saleem ;)

30 FPS is console specific. I’m running a nice steady 60 on PC here. We have though completely rewritten the render to be deferred. This allows us multiple lights among other things but the ability of the engine to allow multiple shadows casting and cascading from all objects is where we’re really pushing the limits with it. It will need a better PC than Shift but in exchange you get the best looking racer on PC (in our humble opinion) plus a physics engine running at 360Hz.

The race and drift physics use the same system now. We have made changes to the input system and we bump the power a little in drift to make it possibly in lower powered cars, but apart from that, they now use the same code all the way.

@SMS is it possible to make more options for PC version? Most PC sims allow to adjust everything and everywhere, well not everything but they are more flexible than console and multiplatform games. Now I am waiting for Shift 2 race in Live for Speed and amazed how many options allow this game. I understand that you are limited in time, money and other resources, but many little, but useful mods change a couple of parameters in config files. Why not to implement it in in-game interface? Ok I know it’s unlikely to be done but, let us choose our own music in replays at least  :)

Please install the 1.02 patch and don’t unpack the game~

How about disable the in-game steering wheel? That’s a good option for player who has a gaming steering wheel and don’t want to see two wheel at the same time~

Or you can add a camera which just can see the dashboard, a pillar and the hood but not the gauge, steering wheel…..so no need to disable anything~

So, if I have a car, do I need to tuning the car to drift? Or default handling(elite mode) can also drift a car easily?

BTW, one the biggest problem in SHIFT 1 is the tuning option only available in Main Menu, so one setting can be tune for online racing and Career’s series racing, it is so sad for the car performance can’t tune to the best in each race, how about the tuning option available before each race?(even Online racing)

P.S.  Do “ready” option and chat function available in SHIFT 2 online?

Sorry for both of my poor English and so many question that I really care about~

That’s what I mean, but to do it not with mods, but done by the developer from the beginning.

@scca1981 check out the Game Trailer Interview video, the gameplay seem like running on 60 FPS~

@sms looks like the physics engine run 3 times quicker than SHIFT 1~ That’s cool!

That sounds good, a little more power isn’t bad at all. What do you mean by input system? The reaction of the wheels/engine to steering input/gas? Does it affect only keyboard, or wheels too?

@scca1981 check out the Game Trailer Interview video, the gameplay seem like running on 60 FPS~

@SMS That’s cool to have a new graphic render Engine but can you tell us that’s will the reflection refresh rate will vary when the frame rate change, beecause I found that the reflection refresh rate is quite low(reflection not smooth enough) in 30 FPS but it is smooth in 60 FPS~ 

Those are great news! :D

This area has all been transformed. We use real time reflections (at runtime fps) blended with an IBL sphere as well as dynamic AO and other trickery. We’re pushing the limits of the consoles. The expectation is we’ll use more than 95% of all the SPU power of the PS3 as well a maxing out the GPU and PPU. 

It’s simply a case of us reusing as much as possible over all formats to get things done in time. There are many options on PC we don’t have on consoles though (necessarily). Our style of game is more a case of us trying to make it right from the outset for all systems (with the exception of graphics settings of course).

Then we end up with youtube vids of an empty looking car :)

We auto tune the car with more lock and the small power ramp I mentioned to allow lesser powered cars to at least manage to drift. You can go and make drift specific setups though for all cars.

Simply filters for the pad to make drifting something most users have a chance of doing. 

I think we look better than GT5 at its best, but I’m biased :)  We certainly look less sterile and clinical. 

Yes, broken wrist bone there. That’s an early build shot.

That’s one for our tech chaps. Way above my head unfortunately :)  I’ll pass it on though.

We’ve improved the tuning system (setups) to make it more accessible.

Thanks for posting that link soup – looks like it might be my ray of sunshine.  I’ve always suffered from colliision stutter, so will give this a go later.  I guess if it works, I’ll have a lot of catching up to do with other mods, to make this the best driving experience it can possibly be with my old momo racing wheel :) .

Hope you can reuse some cars in NFSUG or NFSC like Celica, MR2, Europe S(I think Carbon is the only game have New Europa S), Soltice GXP, GTO, M3 GTR(Few of use notice that you delete from the SHIFT 1), RSX and R33 GT-R(from the classic Overdrivin’ [Japanese version NFS])

Sure, those just my car suggestion and you can’t speak of specifics, huge NDA signed, but I don’t like you tell us too soon either, it can make people more exciting about the game if you keep this as a secret before the game release~~

So the collision system has been rewritten and optimised to hell and back I’m told. 

Many thanks for that piece of news :)

The issue with thread management seems to be something off in async execution for different threaded game systems, if anyone wants to take a look at that.  I don’t think the first type of stutter would be so bothersome for people if [b]everything[/b] stopped in the game, but having the timer continue when you are facing timer-based challenges is extremely offputting.

If you could possibly also direct the tech/physics teams eyes over to the Unofficial Community Patch:

http://www.virtualr.net/need-for-speed-shift-community-patch-1-05-released/

One thing we noticed is that Shift has a lot of bugs that are simply typos.  Not “you coded this wrong” stuff but “someone had a sticky finger” wrong.  Typos in car data, typo in the upgrade files, and some amazingly simple seeming error that disconnected the Advanced Tuning screen’s GUI control from the brake bias setting it was meant to connect to.  If you have anyone spare at all, could you get them on making some kind of auto-checker for syntax of commands and symmetry settings in car setups?  Those typo bugs ended up having a very large to small-but-still-noticable effect on about 70-80% of all of the cars in the game.

Yeah, our coders are a bit think in anything but code :)  Thanks for the link, I’ll point them to it ;)

‘Think’ was supposed to be ‘thick’. 

Most of the startup process in Shift can be avoided by:

1. renaming languageslanguages.bml (removes language select menu)

2. renaming moviesAttract.bik and moviesFranchise_Ident.bik (skips EA and Shift intro movies)

3. adding -skipmenu to your Shift launch shortcut (removes profile select screen)

4. disabling auto-login to EA through the in-game online options menu.

Which brings you down to effectively 2 button presses to get to the main menu.

Very nice to see SMS active here. I wonder who is behind the name, one of the old devs that I might remember or one of the newer guys (or maybe multiple people)?

Anyway…

A lot of the changes sounds nice, but then again Shift 1 also sounded like a very nice game before I bought it (but happened to feel way too broken in too many areas to be enjoyable for me).I just recently tried the overhaul mod, which seem to solve a lot of the “problems”. It felt a lot more enjoyable to drive, but it still misses some game modes (like an open practice/time attack mode with no time limit and adjustable setups without having to return to the main menu).

Can we expect a demo before or not too long after launch?

And I sincerely hope that you someday will be able to make a game more similar to GTR2 again, with all the features that most PC simulators have (and of course some new features that they don’t have).

I really hope shift2 works better than shift1 on my ati system

SMS: a physics engine running at 360Hz

That’s actually a downgrade from the original Shift

“SHIFT is built on the most advanced physics engine we’ve made, and is by far the most advanced and realistic physics engine of any of the mainstream racing games. We’re talking about an engine that can run unlimited threads, detailed physics parameters running at around 400 Hz on consoles. Things like tire deformation based on g-forces, tire pressures, rubber thickness, which only the most diehard sim fans will notice, but we know it’s there.

http://www.virtualr.net/need-for-speed-shift-new-screens-interview/

He’s a coder!  Get him boys!

Nope, Shift shipped with 360. We dropped it 40 Hz a few months before shipping as it fit our FPS multiplier better (and was a touch more efficient). 

I thought SHIFT was running at 120Hz~
http://archive.videogamesdaily.com/features/need-for-speed-shift-huge-interview-p1.asp

I thought SHIFT was running at 120Hz~  http://archive.videogamesdaily.com/features/need-for-speed-shift-huge-interview-p1.asp

Nope :)   The input files should show 180, and it ticks twice internally. For every 1 frame on console (at 30FPS) the physics engine updats 12 times. Jesse dropped a boob there. 

Also, you have to consider what is updated at the given Hz. This makes direct comparisons between different engines difficult. We update the full suspension based on 3d node and arm positioning 360 times per second (no lookup tables) Same for tyres, no static slip curves.

Look the file name

http://www.slightlymadstudios.com/site_sms/gallery/shift-2-unleashed/shift2_unleashed_mazda_rx7fc_vw_gt1mkv_koenigsegg_ccx_lexus_lfa.jpg

Looks like LF-A is back but the problem is, is that 07 concept version or the 10 final version? Anyway, good to see tier 4 cars can modify finally.( Another deleted content in SHIFT 1, look at the McLaren Wallpaper or early build SHIFT 1 screenshots which Zonda F was tuned~

I bet it is concept version, and the challenger is concept version too~ :-P
“It’s simply a case of us reusing as much as possible over all formats” :’(

Good to hear that you maxing out the GPU and PPU, but does IBL sphere mean that reflection is based on photo/image? And any use of HDRI image?(I saw some render is very beautiful with those image) Also, any possible for DX10/11 into Madness Engine?? And any chance for GPU support PhysX put into the engine?

Sorry for too many question, but thanks for consider our question, even some of the answers I don’t really understand~

Thankyou so much for clarifying this.  Along with “pro grip is 1.2″ this generated a lot of weird debates on forums.  I figured it had a kind of rising/falling edge of the clock somehow but all the same it’s nice to know.  I think the correct 360hz figure was given out in the AutoSimSport interview just around release time.

Ian Bell has said (AFAIK) he hoped to get an SDK out for Shift 1 but this was largely up to the publisher.  I know the SDK is probably a bit much to hope for, but I was wondering if SMS might be up for some kind of Q&A answering some questions from modders on some of the other engine functions – nothing major, just with the aim of providing at least an ISI file comment style 1 line description for things that are currently undocumented?  There are a few things we see reference to in the .exe, but not by any in-game physics data that we would appreciate any information you can give us on too.  

I loved NFS shift 1, especially after some tweaks. One thing I’d like to see though on the PC version though is better ability to adjust FOV and seating position. A small request but it makes all the difference.

That’s wrong djotefsoup

Ian bell in that interview mentioned for a 420hz engine

Here’s the AutoSimSport interview (Page 37)

http://issuu.com/autosimsportmediallc/docs/vol5num1

http://i54.tinypic.com/34hjuys.jpg

Check vol5 issue 3 page 72 :)

That’s Eero piitulainen tho,not ian bell

As well as the helmet cam there is a more forward positioned cockpit cam. The head physics on the latter a bit less dynamic for us pipe and rocking chair guys.

It did ship at 360.

I don’t think I said it was him who said it was 360, just that he wanted the SDK out :)

We have a full, real time 6 way dynamic reflection read from the surroundings as well as the other stuff mentioned. There’s a lot more trickery but I’m not the expert.

So it won’t have an effect if I play with a wheel, right? Input filters can ruin the whole experience, if you play with a steering wheel. The wheel/pedals in the game should do exactly the same thing in the same time, as the real wheel on my table.

I’m already excited about the release. I hope that the publisher lets you really loose this time, and you can show your best, because I’m sure, that SMS if capable of doing the best commercial racing game. I hope, that we’ll see a gameplay video soon (of course with elite settings and proper driving).

at SMS can you make the PC Version modable please  ? :-D
adding new cars and graphical adjustments?

yes, it would be nice, PC games that succeed in time often had a LONG modding crowd behind them (ISI based engine game, first NFS, etc…) Look at TDU too… And thanks to modders, Shift 1 was MUCH better with new physics input, modded graphics, Track only cam replay, etc…

@SMS:  thanks to have answered my question… you must admit that Premium models and the LIFE-LIKE lighting and reflections of GT5  are the best graphics in town ATM. What I don’t like with the usual PC game trend is to hide the innability to match LIFE as GT5 do with cheap graphic tricks like overused Bloom, monochromatic filters, Bad BLur other poor directx effects. Will you allow option settings to be change for more GRAPHIC REALISM? As I said before, Shift 1 modders did wonders allowing us to remove these CHEAP graphics tricks and it made SHIFT1 very nice indeed.

3 others little questions:
1/ Will a nice only TV llike Track cams replay possible in SHIFT2?
2/ Will you provide a better PHOTOMODE features? (like in GT5 with virtual DSLR functions?)
3/ Will the FF will be on par with LFS/Iracing/Netkar references? The only grip I had in S1 was to not feel the road noise enough and the behaviour between tire and road surface, will it be better this time?

I honestly dont see why they would even bother with a Photomode. Shift 2 is about racing, not staring at pretty pictures of your car. I would assume you would still be able to take screenshots from the replays.

Photomode is also a GOOD way to sell game ;) (look at F3 and GT5)…

Will we see Ferraris on PS3 and 360 ?

And PC? 

The 458 Italia would be a sweet addition to Shift 2 *drool*

After losing the championship you have all the reason to doubt, Alonso, Yourself! :)

Full race weekends is one of the biggest points I’m looking forward to in Shift 2. If it isnt featured, it will break the GT1 and GT3 championships in game. I hope SMS make an official anouncement soon.

Oh yeah. console exclusive DLCs sucked BIG TIME, SMS.
If you can’t bring content for everyone, don’t bring it at all. The way PC players were treated in Shift 1 was a bad joke.

This has nothing to do with us. Publishers decide formats and delivery. 

Again they can’t answer it due to NDA signed~

Actually seem SMS never sleep~ :)

Indeed, we’ve all been on 16 hour days plus weekends lately. Worth it in the end though.

but still, PC and PS3 crowd felt cheated (I was one of them)… you can easliy bypass that by releasing Modder’s tools to import new cars and tracks, which is YOUR choice. ;)

That sounds like their isnt options in the menu system to alter the view that you have picked
Fov is another thing i would like to alter , also i dont need look to apex, not rocking chair age yet but as close to it as my teenage years.
No harm in the game having those things but no need to force it on people.
Ye are part of the team that developed GTR2 , would like to see at least that many options available in shift 2.

Modder’s tools release is also determine by publisher, so sad :’(

Modder’s tools release is also determine by publisher, so sad 

You should grab some sleep after the game release and put the remains jobs to the debugger~ :)

This isn’t our choice either :)

 i thought that SHIFT was a fantastic first try , really great stuff 
 the star rating system could use some redoing , something more straightforward and especially more engaging

also , helmet cam looks way too twichy , sure it should move like a motherfucker , but it’s kinda distracting , slower moment of the ‘view’ or something , also lateral g helmet movement … ah you know , i’m reffering to what shacknews also said .

oh , i loved the presentation in the teaser , i’d love to see ambiental and less shitty music in the menu , no synthetizer bullshit 
 the atmosphere of the teaser trailer would be awesome if implemented in the game’s menu and overall ‘theme’ i’d say 

will severe weather be included in the game ? 
thunderstorms , heavy rain and stuff like that 

anyway , game looks great , even tho shift was a job well done ,hope you won’t cut corners like codemasters did with f1 2010 (and fucked up badly )

Wow, SMS is here…
As a real life amateur (unfortunately…) racer and in the past a FIA licensed motorsport marshal I’d like to ask about racing classes. And I don’t mean just ‘tier 1′ ‘tier 2′, etc. I’m talking somthing more realistic, such as for example ‘class 1: sport tyres and stock engine, up to 3.5l’, ‘class 2: competiion tires, N/A engines, rollcages required, over 3.5l’, ‘class 3: class 2 + forced induction and aero mods’ etc. Any chance of seeing something like that?
In Shift it just bugged me that it was OK to enter the same race with a stock 20 year old Nissan without even a basic rollbar and also with a Works car… and both of these would be still tier 1!

Great to see SMS here :)
I’m wondering, as something that I haven’t really seen done before, could it be possible to set the assists (ABS etc) options to ‘use manufacturer setting’ or ‘use my settings’?  That way we can drive the supercars etc with the assists that are on in real life, without feeling like we’ve put it on ‘easy’ mode by enabling assists, but if people want to disable/enable them all they can?

I think Shift 1 on a good PC has graphics tht outshine GT5 in many ways.  In particular, the cockpit view in Shift 1 on the PC is better than GT5 and that is where you spend most of your time. GT5 has some great moments but it also has many graphic let-downs.

I think it’s more a question of LIGHTING and High poly models (for the premium cars)… more than pure resolution. Forza 3 hhave great cars but the look with saturated colors and too much texturing make the whole thing cartoonish… I really hope that S2 will have Match-life LIGHTING (not too satured a very slight bleuish tint in the car reflections like in reality, the cars reflect the color of the sky).

yeah adjustable fov is a must for me. hope you guys put it in the option menu

Hi SMS, thanks for joining in! The number of comments shows much the community appreciates having you here.

I’m curious about how you guys feel about the various modding efforts by the community. You may not be able to answer this but I’d love to know if there were any mods that you guys actually used yourself – and if they’ve had any influence upon development of Shift 2?

In particular, I wonder what you guys think of the brake bias bug and the “Unofficial Community Patch”?

http://www.nogripracing.com/details.php?filenr=30380
(sorry, not sure how to insert functional link)

Oh, it looks like the links work automatically. Nice.

I sincerely hope that Shift 2 has tuning options like LFS/GTR2/Evo, etc and clean online racing.  Destructo Derbies are for kids…my kids are grown.  From the press material I have seen so far, I am convinced that much of what will be online will be “car battles” and not “car racing”.  God help us all if this is the case.

My opinion is that there are gamers who are older, wiser and less tolerant than some more youthful fans.  Only the publishers know the demographic makeup of your comsumer base, but your focus group studies should prove that you have a decent percentage of potential customers who are interested in online gaming that is mature – anything else simply undercuts the game.

I have been gaming online since Doom was modded to use DWANGO and I have seen it all.  Inevitably, unmanaged online activities wreck any long term playability of a title.  The customer longevity cycle is VERY short if activites online do not get the attention it needs.  iRacing’s driver rating and license system is an example of what to do that is right…in fact, iRacing gets nearly everything right.

Of course Shift is a different type of game, but it is much more and can be much more in Shift 2 if you really pay attention to your customers.  I mention my thoughts because I think Shift was outstanding, but it needed desparate help in physics and AI.  Matt, djosoup, Headsoup and others are vigilant modders who worked tirelessly to make Shift into its real potential.  See nogripracing.com for some great work from these guys and others.

What you or E/A think should be in S2 and what your fans want in it may or may not be the same.  You cannot be everything to everyone, but you have to get some things right to have a shot.  To me it’s easy:

Great graphics + good selection of cars + great tracks + clean online racing + perfect physics = $$$

$$$ is what you want and I will give you mine if you get this right.  Good luck and thanks for reading!

DeeMoNay

Hey Derek, you should probably replace me with JDougNY and yourself in that list, I’ve only contributed feedback really, it’s the other guys doing all the fantastic modding and putting in the hard work :)   I’m still loving shift, especially with the latest Overhaul and the extra cars/tracks :)
I sometimes wonder if the Devs are on the other forums signed in and testing out the mods under an alias… :P
In regards to all the whining about ‘drifting’ physics in Shift, no one seems to notice that if you take all the aids off in GT5 and use anything but soft tyres all the cars in that drift all over the place with little effort (TGTT intermediate, Lambo tour in the dark, any standard car for example) and it’s considered the most realistic so far, hmmm….

Hey Derek, you should probably replace me with JDougNY and yourself in that list, I’ve only contributed feedback really, it’s the other guys doing all the fantastic modding and putting in the hard work <img src=”extra/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif” title=”Smile” border=”0″ alt=”Smile”/>   I’m still loving shift, especially with the latest Overhaul and the extra cars/tracks <img src=”extra/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif” title=”Smile” border=”0″ alt=”Smile”/>  
I sometimes wonder if the Devs are on the other forums signed in and testing out the mods under an alias… :P 

Hey Derek, you should probably replace me with JDougNY and yourself in that list, I’ve only contributed feedback really, it’s the other guys doing all the fantastic modding and putting in the hard work :)   I’m still loving shift, especially with the latest Overhaul and the extra cars/tracks and the FFB feels really good now!  Thanks Matt/Dj :)
I sometimes wonder if the Devs are on the other forums signed in and testing out the mods under an alias… :P 

+1 , Thanks SMS

Hey there SMS

Is there going to be weather conditions like rain and snow.

SMS put these tracks in the game

Lemans
Monza
Istanbul Park
Hockenheim
Nurburgring 24 hour layout.

Surely you have some input on the PC side of things.  You can’t just blame everything on the Publishers for how the ball was dropped for the PC particularly with ATI users.

If you mean that ATi graphic cards in SHIFT 1 problem please install 1.02 first~

Yeah we need the 24h layout of the ‘ring, and Lemans with dynamic weather :)

Zero input in those areas. 

I don’t think devs even know about these mods as they are very busy and not payed for that. I am still wondered that someone from SMS found some time to show here and answered some questions. I don’t know whether it was a good will or somebody responsible for communication with the community. I guess and hope a good will, because the answers are technically proved and not just a market bla bla. Anyway if the SMS guy is still here this is what or great modders managed to do, and what kind of things we expect from Shift 2.
Overhaul Mod
http://www.nogripracing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=208349

Actually some feature of Overhaul Mod is quite weird:
- disabled intro movies
- remove blur/grey when crashing (That’s what SHIFT 1 famous for)
- skip intro screens
- removed speed field of view (FOV) camera effect
- removed speedshake camera effect
- replaced loading screen
- polished marble garage floor texture
- all tuning options available on all purchased cars
- enabled reverse driving to double available tracks

Apart those features, Overhaul Mod is really a good mod

But there are also some minor bug the mod never fix:
- Your own car data will also replace the same car in quick race/stock cars ~
- Automatic accelerate when you shift to >2 gear in inclined road
- Zonda R’s RPM shown on the dashboard digital speed gauge RPM is not the same for that of steering wheel analog speed gauge.
- The oil tank gauge and engine temp. gauge in cockpit of cars move crazy during replay

Crazy gauge moves can be fixed by enabling vertical sync in graphics options. And of course your fps will drop as usually. Replays are generally buggy in Shift – crazy gauges, AI cars stuttering, brake glows. Only hope they will pay more attention to it in S2.

All of those are stock game bugs. #1 is incredibly rare (you can trigger it by rapidly moving in and out of advanced tuning/car lot sometimes) but is generally not something you should expect to happen.  #2 is simply a result of you turning automatic clutch on, the engine is automatically kept above the point at which it will stall out while in gear.  #3 is due to the extreme compression they used to store replays.

Perfectly happy to take blame for anything stupid the mod does!  But not that :)

Sorry if I said anything offensive thing, Overhaul Mod is really a good mod, and may be I shouldn’t put the “the” before the “mod” word, and use “strange” replace of “weird”, sorry for anything~ (and sorry actually I mean those bug is from stock game, but no mod go to fix those, not blaming everything…)

#1 is incredibly rare, not for my version
Check this out~
My Car
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/2605/shift2010052217441940.png
Stock car
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/6897/shift2010052217444495.png

#2 IDK, but the car just can induce speed and that’s weird for me~
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/9785/shift2010052217564107.png
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/3586/shift2010052217564593.png

Seem SMS guy won’t come back, looking forward to next discussion~

Hi gang,

No matter some of the still-yet-to-be-addressed details by the mod community, the fact that some guys we know take time from their lives to mod this title shows their dedication to it.  That thousands of players download their mods, their work is validated.  Moreover, Shift is not a game that lends itself to being too easily modded; take JDoug’s track converion, for example!

I understand that the publisher and developer have different objectives, and we can probably heap the blame on the head of E/A for rushing Shift out the door, so it’s my hope that a lesson from that one is realized.  There’s a ton of data in the Shift1 world that can help to guide the development of Shift2.  I hope both E/A and SMS paid attention to it.  However, from some of the press I have seen, I am not completely convinced this is the case, especially the multiplayer part.

Separately, I didn’t want my acknowledgement to some of my acquaintances here to be read as a valaidation.  The list of mods and those who work on them would be lengthy.  My opinion is that anyone who takes the time to make a mod and release it to others deserves thanks even just for the effort of doing it.  It’s a sense of community that drives the motives.

I think it’s practical to acknowledge this argument from E/A’s position.  E/A wants to sell games.  They will probably sell 5+ million copies of Shift2.  That’s significant revenue.  Many will buy it, play for a bit and move one.  Some will stay in for the long haul.  Some will be Shift 1 owners and some will be new to the genre.  In my opinion, if Shift2 wants to be “TOMA” (Top Of Mind Aware), then it must get the things in my OP correct to stand a chance.  When the question is asked in ten years what is the best racing game ever to be released, Shift 2 will be TOMA if it is seen as the one. 

My remarks are aimed at the fact that it could have this potential.  Who knows, though.  The competition for the top racer of all is tough.  Time will tell.

Shouts to all :)

d

Greetings SMS
you say that now Shift 2 looks better than the screenshots, which you lead with an early version, so why do you post screenshots of early versions of the game?Put please a screenshot with the new version of the game. ;)

Greetings SMS  you say that now Shift 2 looks better than the screenshots, which you lead with an early version, so why do you post screenshots of early versions of the game?Put please a screenshot with the new version of the game.  :)

For me and many of my friends the game started to be playable only with mods… I loved Sharp Tyres mod and now I love Overhaul Mod. Game without mods have very bad tire physic and force feedback is not accurate.