Article Intro
Eternal City
What inspired this track?
Scott: The way we approached Eternal City (based on Rome) offers a near-complete contrast to the way we handled Motor City. We still did the movie research, of course. Films like Ronin and the original Italian Job quickly appeared on the Burnout reading list! But our main stylistic inspiration for the Eternal City track was Rome itself. When using a visually rich art style, it helps when you're working with a visually rich city. We had our choice of landmarks to work with, and tons of resource images of narrow, rustic alleys to use as gameplay.
The city fitted our art-style so well that we actually sent two of our artists to Rome with a digital camera, just to get us some images to use as resource and textures. So, if you happened to have been in Rome back in May 2005, and saw of couple of tourists taking photographs of cobbled stones or park benches, they were probably with us!
Our artists aimed to capture the essence of Rome through photos ranging from grand vistas to the most minute texture details
When we saw the photographs that our people took, the rest of Eternal City's art-style just fell into place.
This street scene is based on photographic reference, and every texture in this shot is taken from the city upon which it was based.
With tracks like Motor City, we were very cautious as to how far we could go visually. How much bloom can we use in the sky? How far can we go with the palette timing? With Eternal City, we could just copy the photographs. In Rome, sometimes the sky does indeed bloom out to the point of being white, so let's put that in the game. The city uses a lot of muted ochre tones in its architecture, so let's make that our palette. Our reference was so meticulous for this track that we were able to do all the graphics for it in four days!
Four days?
Scott: Four days. Four nights. Four artists. Seven hours later, people were playing it at E3. True story.
What makes the gameplay individual on this track?
Scott: Eternal City had a unique approach to the world design.
When driving the track, you won't always have every gameplay element visible all at once, but when you are driving a gameplay area, it will flow gracefully into another one, and another one, enabling the player to "link" gameplay elements.
Early concept sketches of potential gameplay elements for Eternal City
For example, after you leap from the Spanish steps in the long course, you can slip into a tunnel that launches you over the main race route (pictured below), into an arched tunnel, and out through a row of destructible market stalls.
Alternatively, you could turn left at the Spanish steps, drive under the other route, slip through an alleyway and land on the freeway. The Burnout gameplay flows gracefully in this track, and each route can be handled effortlessly.
Early concept sketches of potential gameplay elements for Eternal City
And the Crash courses?
Richard: Eternal City proved a great place to play with things like roundabouts (which our American cousins aren't so accustomed to!) and large plazas, which they told us couldn't be done, but with which I was happy to prove them wrong!
Standout sections in the Eternal City Crash course are the sunken ruins, and the plaza jumps.
Did the restrictions in hardware create any particular challenges with this track?
Richard: In the Eternal City Crash course the plazas were a challenge, as I mentioned before, as well as the view all the way from the market plaza to the sunken ruins, which was difficult to pull off because of the draw distance.
Any tips or tricks to share with us?
Scott: My favourite trick in Eternal City is in the short course. As you may know, there's a high route and a low route (pictured below). If you and an opponent take the high route, and you just knock them a little to the left just before they leap off the bridge, you can crash them into one of the bollards that line the far edges of the bridge. This trick doesn't work so well on Burnout 360 because the boundaries on the bridge are more clearly marked with lampposts, but on the current gen versions, it's a quick and dirty takedown!
Early concept sketches of potential gameplay elements for Eternal City
As for cool things to look for, I'm thinking draw distance. Despite our budgets and limitations, our engine is great at just throwing polygons around at high speeds. Take the fastest car in the game, and leap off the Spanish steps in Eternal City. While you're in mid-air, you'll see the race route, you'll see a small city in the distance, and if you jump high enough, you'll even see the coliseum a half-mile down the road! Most racing games can't even come close to doing this, and we just do it because it looks cool. Brilliant.
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