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http://www.webquad.com/forza/content/view/117/41/

I'm excited about the AI

Question 7: The Drivatar AI technology is very exciting and we are really looking forward to racing against the competitive AI. Many developers seem to be lacking in this department, whereas you are truly focusing on this area and we are thrilled to see such dedication! Will there be AI difficulty settings and will every race feature the Drivatar AI or is it a type of game mode or feature?

Dan Greenawalt: Drivatar AI will always be present in the game, as it’s the core of the game’s AI. With Drivatar technology, the AI will learn from its mistakes, while watching other racers to learn from them. It’ll learn the best line through a course, but it won’t become so good as to make racing against the AI a frustrating experience. The AI will take what it learns on one track, and try to apply it to another. It’s an adaptive AI, it learns as it goes and applies what it learns to future races. Basically, the Drivatar Technology is seamlessly integrated into the difficulty settings.

 

[lexi]

I swear I hear the same bullshit about AI in every other game.

 

[Guns N' Poops]

Talking about AI and Forza ( :lol ), what's the latest comment on the supposedly overhauled GT4 AI? Dumb as ever?

 

[Shard]

You know, a picture is worth a thousand word, and the live feed video demo of Forza at CES has said about 10 billon words on the true state of Forza at this point in time.

 

[Gek54]

Watch, this game is going to be hella rushed to make it before Xbox2 noise gets too loud.

Might not be a bad thing if it means they get right to work on Forza2.

 

[ScientificNinja]

30fps

*bows*

 

[Kanbee-san]

I swear I hear the same bullshit about AI in every other game.

Maybe from the voices in yer head :lol

No other games have this drivatar technology.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

I swear I hear the same bullshit about AI in every other game.

took the words right out of my mouth.....

 

[lexi]

As evidenced by the Forza troubles at CES, Perhaps this celestial Drivatar technology - nay, magitechnology, is too good for this world.

 

[Kanbee-san]

As evidenced by the Forza troubles at CES, Perhaps this celestial Drivatar technology - nay, magitechnology, is too good for this world.

But its not good enough to avoid trolls :lol

 

[lexi]

I'm a big fan of Drivatar I await patiently for the Drivatar rapture, whence my soul will take what it has learnt from my life and adapt to the new course upon me.

 

[Shard]

Okay, yea, you just keep on doing that then.

 

[GashPrex]

omg an alpha version demo crashed, the game will suck!

 

[SHOCKIE]

The AI in the demo did'nt impress me just seemed like like any other racer with rubber band AI,i will be getting Forza for the Live play tho

 

[mrklaw]

Drivatar

I stopped reading right there. Are there not enough words in the English language for you!?

I swear that product pitches these days have an added section:

Product name:
USPs (if not really unique just make something up):
Made up words fucking over the English language just so you can quote them in PR:

 

[Keio]

The Drivatar AI technology is very exciting and we are really looking forward to racing against the competitive AI. Many developers seem to be lacking in this department, whereas you are truly focusing on this area and we are thrilled to see such dedication.

I'm just happy that videogame journalists never kiss ass while interviewing developers.

 

[Sho Nuff]

What happened to the Forza demo at CES? Did it crash or something?

I'VE CERTAINLY NEVER SEEN A GAME CRASH AT A TRADE SHOW

edit: Drivatar, lool

 

[AlphaSnake]

I swear I hear the same bullshit about AI in every other game.

It's so true.

 

[TTP]

Let me guess, it will even get more agressive to the player if he hits him during the race right? Oh yeah.

 

[mrklaw]

Why does it need to learn the corners/lines? I don't want to race against 'Little Computer People', who spend the first three races working out how to start the car. Surely there is a baseline that assumes the 'AI' knows how to drive around the fucking racetrack?

As for 'learn from their mistakes'. Bollocks. The only mistakes they make are ones that have been programmed in. So its more like 'number of random stupid forced errors - 1'

All I want from Race AI is cars that go fast around the course but are also aware of my presence and will not drive into me if I'm alongside. Cutting me up if I'm being too aggressive, or if the AI is aggressive is OK, but don't try and drive into my space blindly.

No 'learning the course'. No 'learning from mistakes'.

 

[FightyF]

I swear I hear the same bullshit about AI in every other game.

took the words right out of my mouth.....

It's so true.

Hmm...can you guys tell me a game that uses similar technology for its AI?

Do you guys/gals even know what Drivatar technology IS?

 

[Shard]

omg an alpha version demo crashed, the game will suck!

I think you mean beta version, and remember it wasn't just the crash, but the framerate issues as well.

 

[Kanbee-san]

Hmm...can you guys tell me a game that uses similar technology for its AI?

Do you guys/gals even know what Drivatar technology IS?

Its on xbox, isnt that reason enough to troll around here ?

 

[mrklaw]

Hmm...can you guys tell me a game that uses similar technology for its AI?

Most developers say they use that kind of technology in their racing games. Blah Blah AI Blah Learning Blah.

Do you guys/gals even know what Drivatar technology IS?

Yes, its made up PR bullshit to get column inches.

 

[Blimblim]

I think you mean beta version, and remember it wasn't just the crash, but the framerate issues as well.

The framerate issue was a "crash" too. When Conan crashed the car it was in a place where a car should have been able to go, and thus it was outside the optimized course path where you know exactly what's visible or not at each time. The game then switched to non optimized rendering, and never went back.
I've seen this happen on a lot of games, so I'm pretty sure this is more or less the problem. Remember some videos of Rallisport 2 where there was a 10 meters clipping distance ? The optimizations files were missing. Instead of dropping the framerate, the devs just clipped at a very close distance, but it's basically the same thing.
Forza is content complete since december and the developpers have about 4 months to fix all the bugs and polish the game.
As for drivatar, I'm not 100% sure if it will be something really well done or not, but on paper it looks like are really interesting idea. Being able to train the AI so it plays like you, then sharing it on xbox live so other people can use it as a reference for getting better is really something that could, if well done, be a very cool feature.

 

[DarienA]

Forza damage control...go..Go...GO!

 

[shantyman]

What I want to know is if it will use Blast Processing™.

 

[scarybore]

Forza damage control...go..Go...GO!

Hey look its Batman!

AI in racing games really needs a big rethink, can't say I've found any games that have even mildly satisfactory AI for its CPU drivers.

 

[Blimblim]

Forza damage control...go..Go...GO!

http://www.airforce.forces.ca/grfx/equip_gallery/historic_gallery/wallpaper/parachut.jpg

Any Forza thread on GAF was doomed before CES, but now it seems that you can't say anything even remotely positive about this game at all. Care to explain why you feel what I said is damage control ?
I've played the game for a few hours last month at a press event with the latest build. It was very buggy (had that blue screen a few times, even during Kiki Wolfkill's presentation. Also had these 1/2 fps on a few tracks, requiring a reboot), absolutely not polished, but when it ran it ran really well and the gameplay was excellent. That's what you'd expect from a beta.
I obviously had no time to test the drivatar AI, so I certainly won't comment on it and just hope what they say about it is true. They seem pretty confident about it being a nice feature for this game.

 

[DarienA]

All the Forza explanation folk can stop quoting my post and trying to explain what they were trying to say.... you didn't find the picture coupled with the quote funny at all? Must be too early for humor.....

 

[Blimblim]

All the Forza explanation folk can stop quoting my post and trying to explain what they were trying to say.... you didn't find the picture coupled with the quote funny at all? Must be too early for humor.....

I must be humor impaired because I totally failed to see what was funny with your post.
Honestly, I'm trying to understand teh funny of your post, and... nothing.

 

[Shard]

Never the less, the Forza team does have its work cut out for them, as right now Forza has the precption on being the bizzaro twin brother of Killzone (IE: Killzone being touted as a Halo Killer at one point and completely failing to live up to any of that hyperbole and Forza treading down that same path what with being hailed as a Gran Tourismo killer and so forth.) then live up to it purported potential as the next great Microsoft racing franchise.

 

[pedrothelion]

That would have been funy about two days. However after several hundred posts by people trying to tell the same jolk it's worse then not funy; it's unoriginal......or maybe it is too early.

 

[Blimblim]

Never the less, the Forza team does have its work cut out for them, as right now Forza has the precption on being the bizzaro twin brother of Killzone (IE: Killzone being touted as a Halo Killer at one point and completely failing to live up to any of that hyperbole and Forza treading down that same path what with being hailed as a Gran Tourismo killer and so forth.) then live up to it purported potential as the next great Microsoft racing franchise.

Forza will never be as good as GT4, I just can't see how it could be. GT4 is a much more polished and complete game than anything Forza could ever dream to be. By complete I mean in the Gran Turismo sense, lots and lots of cars and tracks, and excellent if not truly "simulation" gameplay.
But as long as the online mode is at least as good as PGR2's I'll be happy Xbox fanboy.

 

[DarienA]

Forza will never be as good as GT4, I just can't see how it could be. GT4 is a much more polished and complete game than anything Forza could ever dream to be. By complete I mean in the Gran Turismo sense, lots and lots of cars and tracks, and excellent if not truly "simulation" gameplay.
But as long as the online mode is at least as good as PGR2's I'll be happy Xbox fanboy.

Hell Forza can easily be better that GT4 in terms of AI from what I've been reading.... It's already got an advantage in that it allows customization.

 

[Blimblim]

Hell Forza can easily be better that GT4 in terms of AI from what I've been reading.... It's already got an advantage in that it allows customization.

People will forget this and just bitch about 30 fps, ugly interface (it IS ugly) and lack of tracks. It's already started, and it won't get better.

 

[thorns]

Wait, so people are bashing this game because it tries to put more into AI then the horrible joke that is GT4 AI?

It will be nice to see this game get good scores across the board and own all the haters/trolls.

 

[Kiriku]

Wait, so people are bashing this game because it tries to put more into AI then the horrible joke that is GT4 AI?

I think people are hesitant to believe what's being said since it's common practice (based on all the interviews with devs I've read throughout the years) for devs to go on and on about AI without actually delivering any noticable improvement over other games. I've seen it happen countless times, and it's not just limited to racing games.
Hopefully, we'll see an overall improvement next gen when it comes to AI...or just more online-enabled games.

 

[mrklaw]

I think people are hesitant to believe what's being said since it's common practice for devs to go on and on about AI without actually delivering any noticable improvement over other games. I've seen it happen countless times, and it's not just limited to racing games.
Hopefully, we'll see an overall mprovement next gen when it comes to AI...or just more online-enabled games.

IAWTP

 

[Gek54]

Wait, so people are bashing this game because it tries to put more into AI then the horrible joke that is GT4 AI?

It will be nice to see this game get good scores across the board and own all the haters/trolls.

I think its more that we have heard so many times about some kind of revolutionary AI technology, usually given some weird PR name, and so many times we have been dissapointed. Its only that most people dont trust AI PR in general, not that the game is GT compition or on Xbox.

Edit: Damn it, Kiriku beat me to it.

 

[Mrbob]

I, for one, second this opinion. Forza hasn't been in development long enough, and the team doesn't have the experience PD has. It's unfortunate that people simply WRITE OFF this game because of this however, as if it won't be good just because it isn't GT. And that's retarded. The fact that they're trying new things does a good job of distancing them from GT. It's obvious that comparisons are going to be made, as it is filling a void in the xbox's lineup that GT fills in the PS2's, but some people take their animosity/insecurity just a TAD too far.

Well, then better start pointing some blame back at the media. I barely even play racing games as they don't interest me, but whenever I glance by a preview of Forza it is usually labeled as a potential 'GT4 killer'.

Oh, and Drivator! :lol Gotta love buzzwords. Sounds as goofy to me as Liquid AI.

 

[bishoptl]

"Liquid AI? Liquid AI is what ran down their legs after they saw Gameday!"

- Kelly Flock of 989 Studios, in reference to Electronic Arts' Madden team

One of the greatest, most inflammatory Next-Generation mag interviews ever. :lol

 

[Gek54]

Confirmed car list:
totalvideogames.com

Corvette Z06 - Corvette Z06
NSX - Acura NSX 97
Focus SVT - Ford Focus
#1 Infineon R8 - #1 Audi R8
Corvette Stingray 427 - 1967 Stingray
Impreza WRX Sti - Subaru STi
RX-7 Turbo - RX-7 Gen 3
Civic Type-R - Civic Type-R
575M Maranello - Ferrari 575M
Integra Type-R - Acura Integra
RSX Type-S - Acura RSX
300SL Gullwing Coupe - 1954 300SL
#11 D2 CLK-GTR - #11 CLK-GTR
Supra Twin Turbo - Supra TT
Celica GT-S - Celica GT-S
911 Carrera RS - 1973 911 RS
Lancer Evolution VIII GSR - EVO VIII GSR
S4 - Audi S4
TT Coupe 3.2 Quattro - Audi TT
VX220 Turbo - Vauxhall VX220
Golf R32 - VW Golf R32
Corrado SLC - VW Corrado
SC430 - Lexus SC430
Viper GTS ACR - Viper GTS ACR
Eclipse GSX - Eclipse GSX
206 Gti 180 - Peugeot 206
360 Modena F1 - Ferrari 360 F1
350Z Track - Nissan 350Z
Miata MX-5 1.8i Sport - Mazda Miata
AE86 Sprinter Trueno GT Apex - AE86 GT Apex
Prelude Type SH - Honda Prelude
RX-8 - Mazda RX-8
MR2 Turbo T-Bar - MR2 Mark II
250 GTO - 1964 250 GTO
Cobra 427 SC - 1967 Cobra
#8 LMP-02 - #8 LMP-02
Enzo - Ferrari Enzo
F50 - Ferrari F50
GT40 MK II - 1966 GT40
XJ220 - Jaguar XJ220
CC8S - Koenigsegg CC
#32 R390 GT1 - #32 R390 GT1
#27 GT-ONE TS020 - #27 TS020
Zonda C12 - Pagani Zonda
Civic Si Coupe - Civic Si Coupe
3000GT VR-4 - 3000GT VR-4
Series 1 - Shelby Series 1
Tiburon GT - Hyundai Tiburon
New Beetle Turbo S - New Beetle
Protégé MAZDASPEED - Mazda Protégé
G35 Coupe - Infiniti G35
Tuscan S - TVR Tuscan S
Civic Del Sol VTEC - Civic Del Sol
Eclipse GTS - Eclipse GTS
SRT4 - Dodge SRT4
Accord Coupe EX - Honda Accord
3.2 CL Type-S - Acura 3.2 CL
S4 Biturbo - Audi S4 Biturbo
512TR - Ferrari 512TR
C32 AMG Sports Coupe - Mercedes C32
Jetta GLX VR6 - VW Jetta
959 - Porsche 959
Stealth R/T Turbo - Dodge Stealth
Challenger R/T Hemi - 1970 Challenger
Camry Solara - Toyota Camry
Camaro SS - Camaro SS
288 GTO - Ferrari 288 GTO
F40 - Ferrari F40
Viper SRT10 - Viper SRT10
#15 V12 LMR - #15 V12 LMR
#21 SpA Ferrari SEFAC 330 P4 - #21 330 P4
911 GT3 - Porsche 911 GT3

 

[Kanbee-san]

Most developers say they use that kind of technology in their racing games. Blah Blah AI Blah Learning Blah.



Yes, its made up PR bullshit to get column inches.

Make us all happy and go kill yourself.

Thanks in advance.

 

[op_ivy]

Confirmed car list:
totalvideogames.com


Jetta GLX VR6 - VW Jetta

the more i play the demo, the more i love it. heres hoping a decent wheel will show up

 

[DopeyFish]

the more i play the demo, the more i love it. heres hoping a decent wheel will show up

best car on that list = 3000GT VR-4



I loved when i played in GT2 against my friends... and i whipped out my monster 3000GT... they laughed.

When they saw me absolutely plow through them from the start of the race (acceleration which kills almost any car in the game when tuned nicely)... they cried.

Good times

 

[Travado]

2fps

*bows*

Fixed.

 

[op_ivy]

best car on that list = 3000GT VR-4



I loved when i played in GT2 against my friends... and i whipped out my monster 3000GT... they laughed.

When they saw me absolutely plow through them from the start of the race (acceleration which kills almost any car in the game when tuned nicely)... they cried.

Good times

heh.

i'm just thrilled i'll get to tool around in one of these sim games with a car i own finally (gt4 only has the gti vr6 afaik) . cant wait to mod the living shit out of my jetta... and get thrashed online! :lol

 

[Gek54]

the more i play the demo, the more i love it. heres hoping a decent wheel will show up

I agree. 30fps is becoming very forgivable with this level of physics. Its just too much fun with all aids off, such a rewarding experience. Its the best driving since Richard Burns Rally. All those cars and all that tweaking with such a great physics engine. This is already THE GT killer in my mind. I would almost rather play this demo all day than GT4. If Enthusia can top Forza then *spooge*.

 

[Fixed2BeBroken]

I agree. 30fps is becoming very forgivable with this level of physics. Its just too much fun with all aids off, such a rewarding experience. Its the best driving since Richard Burns Rally. All those cars and all that tweaking with such a great physics engine. This is already THE GT killer in my mind. I would almost rather play this demo all day than GT4. If Enthusia can top Forza then *spooge*.

wow, it must be good if this statement is coming from you...i should look into it.