Today’s Xbox & Bethesda Developer_Direct showcase has revealed more details about the upcoming Forza Motorsport game — although one important piece of information was curiously absent: a release date.
In fact, having previously stated a launch window of Spring 2023, the title is now listed as “Coming 2023”. This more vague date may reflect that its internal launch target has been pushed back once again.
However, there’s plenty for fans to look forward to whenever the game does launch, with Turn 10 revealing the approximate car and circuit location count in the stream — as well as tacitly confirming that post-launch DLC is in the picture.
At launch Forza Motorsport will include over 500 vehicles, with 100 of those being new to the Forza series and — according to vehicle art director Gabe Garcia — the largest roster of modern race cars ever featured in a FM title.
The vehicles will be customizable with over 800 unique upgrade parts and modifications, while the Forza team has been using new technology to capture the vehicle materials and surfaces to ensure more realistic lighting.
As well as real-time raytracing in gameplay, Turn10 has worked with Windows Sonic and Dolby Atmos to improve the vehicle and environment sounds. Upgraded cars will sound different, and the audio system has new features like a regional track announcer.
Although the team didn’t go into any specifics about the game engine physics, we heard that the advancement in the simulation from Forza Motorsport 7 is greater than the it was across the previous three titles combined.
There’ll be 20 environments at launch, with multiple track layouts at each. This includes five new-to-Forza locations, including the first ever South African track, Kyalami, and Circuit Hakone as we’ve previously seen.
Arthur Shek, director of motorsport content, stated that the tracks in FM will feature ten times the detail of previous Forza games, with the photographic capture of the circuits alone taking up 3TB of data from the environment teams.
All of the circuits will have full dynamic time of day, with weather and circuit evolution that includes rubbering in — promising that “no two laps ever play the same”. The environment effects include a procedurally generated cloud system and volumetric fog.
We’ll hope to hear more in the Forza Monthly presentation coming tomorrow, January 26, but in the meantime you can watch the entire six-minute presentation again below:
