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Developer Playground Games has been detailing the technological advancements they’re using to recreate Mexico’s skies & weather in Forza Horizon 5‘s when the open-world racer lands later this year.
The information came in the second episode of Forza Horizon 5: ¡Let’s Go! The episode focused on the game’s impressive skyboxes, revealing that the team utilised an enhanced version of a similar rig used in the two previous Forza Horizon games. This rig, made up of three cameras all taking pictures in an 8K resolution was taken to Mexico and filmed over several days. The resultant images were so large in filesize, the hard drive had to be physically shipped back to the studio in the UK rather than be uploaded via the internet.
As explained by Lead Lighting Artist Lukas Koels, some 400 hours worth of sky photos are then filtered through by the team to select the best skies for the types of weather and time of the day they want in the game. Compared to Forza Horizon 4, Koels says, the system had around 300 pre-sets of sky to pick from depending on selections made by the player. “This time we have over 2000, so there’s quite a lot more variety.”
There’s going to be plenty of changes in Forza Horizon 5‘s weather too. Weather will now be regional, with different types of rain depending on where you are. An example given includes a light smattering of rain when you’re racing around the desert, and a torrential downpour in the jungle area. There’s also new seasonal weather effects that will include towering dust storms and tropical storms, which don’t just happen around you but you’ll be able to see them in the distance and approach them.
Forza Horizon 5 was formally revealed at E3 and will be set in Mexico and it’s looking to be an absolute stunner in the looks department. We’ll find out if it plays as good as it looks when it launches on November 9 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC.
