Video game development is rarely about one man, but if it was, then Terence Groening should certainly get a mention for his contributions to the genre as the man responsible for the physics of Sportscar GT, EA’s PC F1 and NASCAR games of the early 2000’s, rFactor, rFactor 2 and every title and rFpro simulator that spawned from ISI’s engine.
This interview with RSC details his early life and career, through to him joining iRacing in 2021.
RSC contains a database of 153 developers, 467 software titles, 374 cars, 42 bikes, 242 tracks and more...Originally working in military simulator design, this Michigan-based studio developed Zone Raiders for Virgin Interactive before moving to Electronic Arts for publishing their second PC title, Sports Car GT, when Westwood Studios (their SCGT development partner) was acquired by the software giant.
Known primarily for their mod-friendly SCGT and rFactor racing platforms, ISI also developed Formula One and NASCAR titles on PC for Electronic Arts, but perhaps their lasting contribution to the genre was the licensing of the isiMotor engine that allowed studios such as 2Pez, Blimey! Games, KW Studios, Motorsport Games, Reiza Studios, SIMBIN Studios, Slightly Mad Studios, The Sim Factory, Tiburon and rFactor 2‘s ongoing developer Studio 397 to begin with or release on an evolution of their software.
Another fork of the isiMotor engine, rFpro, continues to be developed and is used by a wide array of automotive companies for both road and motorsport simulation.
RSC Podcast Episode 7 – Management Simulations, F1 Managers, Always Used To Be Better?Join Jon Denton, Tim Wheatley, Simon Croft and guest(s) as they discuss sim racing and racing games past, present and future.
RSC contains a database of news items. Our #OnThisDay page shows current day and current week of years past...
RSC contains a database of videos back to the 1980s catalogued as intros, laps, trailers, unboxings and more...
RSC contains a database of emulated software you can play in your browser...
Canopus, who produced the Rendition video card for Sierra along with their own card based on the V1000, have done a 180 and now moved to 3DFX instead. The detail came out in the GameCenter news post below:
Canopus is preparing to announce a new 3D graphics accelerator based on 3Dfx’s Voodoo Graphics chipset. Called Pure3D, the card will feature two important firsts for a standalone Voodoo card: NTSC video out and 6MB of memory (4MB for texture storage and a 2MB frame buffer).
As with other Voodoo Graphics cards, users will route the video from their 2D accelerators through the Pure3D. But this card has been designed so that the output from the 2D card can also be sent to the Pure3D’s NTSC video out port (composite and S-video jacks are mounted on the card’s bracket).
In terms of bundling, Canopus is doing a complete 180 from the strategy it followed with its first consumer board, the Total 3D. That card, based on Rendition’s Vérité V1000 chip, came with a bunch of games and 3D LCD shutter glasses; the Pure3D will come with nothing more than its drivers, a VGA pass-thru cable, and a set of long video and audio cables (to reach the back of your TV).
Why no game bundle? “We don’t think people want game bundles anymore,” said Canopus’s product marketing manager, Ken Feinstein. “People who like to play games already have them. We wanted to make the product as inexpensive as possible. We think features like video out and the extra memory are worth more to our customers than pack-in games they probably already have.”
Feinstein said Canopus’s engineers put more memory on the card because “Intel is pushing game developers to use more textures in games because of AGP. It won’t be long before two megabytes of texture memory just aren’t enough.”
Considering that Canopus is one of Rendition’s biggest customers (the company also designed and manufactures the Screamin’ 3D card for Sierra On-Line), we had to ask whether they had plans for Rendition’s as-yet-unannounced V2200. “It’s an excellent chip,” said Feinstein. “We’re evaluating it, but we don’t have a V2200 card to announce yet.”
The Pure3D will be priced at $179 and available direct from Canopus in early September. Look to Gamecenter for a hands-on review in the coming weeks.
