When new Forza . sports car racing Launched later this year, it will deliver advanced physics, vivid images with ray tracing reflections, detailed damaged car and new routes — like Kyalami and Mid-Ohio — complete with time of day and changing weather. It will also bring a groundbreaking set of accessibility features designed to help sim players with vision impairments relax on the digital asphalt in a way they never could before.
In case you lost it:
Blind Driver Assist uses a series of visual audio and speech cues to convey information — like a car’s position on the road or the type of corner to come — that you would normally have to see to react. It was developed with the support of Brandon Colea blind gamer who helped architect support accessibility features in several titles, including The last of us 2.
Of course, stealthily navigating zombie-infested corridors is an entirely different challenge than driving a touring car around Suzuka at high speed. Cole said CNN underlined in an interview published Thursday that the Forza’s autopilot assist – the mainstay of the franchise goes back to the 2009 years. Forza Motorsport 3 — better than nothing, but that doesn’t bring blind simulation racers close enough to a clearly visible vehicle control experience. The solution is to develop the right combination of signals to guide players and give them the freedom to use only those signals they require:
Cole joked: “One of the first things I did was listen to a video of the current prototype in action and let them know how wrong they were about all of that. “No, they’re not completely wrong, but basically, a lot of things are basically just very similar audio signals. So we worked really hard to take those things apart, figure out what different sounds we could use for each of the different audio signals and how they work together. It’s not just a feature, it’s a set of features that work together to make this game blindly accessible, and you can turn off any of them completely if you feel like it. found it unnecessary.”
You can watch Cole test out the Blind Driver Assist System himself in the video below. Notice how certain tones increase in frequency as Cole gets closer to hitting the track limit, which helps he nail the first vertex of the Casio Triangle without venturing into a gravel trap:
As Cole goes on to note, many blind car enthusiasts have never had the opportunity to drive on their own. Forza . sports car racing offers the opportunity for them to participate in that experience in a way that no other racing game — or real car — has ever had or been able to:
“The level of control we are providing will now require [blind gamers] to learn things about cars that they might not need to learn before if they want complete control of the vehicle,” says Cole. You know, there’s a learning curve, there’s a lot to learn, but it’s largely because they’ve never driven and that’s the approach we had to take when designing these features.”
Forza . sports car A release date has yet to be announced, but all indications are that the game will release in 2023, possibly as soon as the summer.
