14 DAY TRIAL // Driveclub developer Evolution Studios is intent on delivering a realistic driving simulation experience to the PlayStation 4, and nowhere is that more evident than in the game's sound production.
In order to remain faithful to their goal of creating an immersive experience, the team decided to forgo the push for 60 frames per second and opted to have the game run flawlessly at 30 frames per second, at a 1080p resolution, so they could focus on more realistic visuals.
The drive for realism is also the reason the game's audio has been handled with a sort of autistic focus. As such, developer Evolution has had hands-on time with each and every car in the game, capturing the sounds they make with more than 18 different microphones, with the goal being to replicate the exact driving experience with utmost precision.
In the game, each car has around 90 different samples, and with the aid of a little granular synthesis, it allows the devs to present probably the best aural simulation on the market. If you rotate the camera around the car, you'll visit soundscapes varying from a throaty exhaust at the back of the vehicle, up to the rush of air at the front.
Audio Director Alan McDermott says that the team's work is of such high quality that both Mercedes and BMW requested Evolution's recordings to replace their own sound libraries, as EDGE magazine informs.
"I'm fighting now to get it so that in the race, music's off by default. The music is the car engine; that's what you want to hear. And the sound's going to improve by the time players get their hands on the game as well, [since] we're just finishing hooking up the drive train so that you get the oscillation as you switch between the gears. It sounds great, especially in cars like the [open-top] BAC Mono, where it's a very direct noise from the engine," game director Paul Rustchynsky says.
The game suffered from quite a delay, but all that time has been put to good use by Evolution Studios, cramming an unprecedented level of detail and polish into Driveclub, from the painstakingly detailed car models to the reverence for engine sounds that permitted the team to have their in-game samples almost indistinguishable from the real thing.
Driveclub is scheduled to come out exclusively for the PlayStation 4 next-gen computer entertainment system from Sony on October 7 in North America, and October 8 in Europe.