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...
If you didn’t see my interview with Ian Bell this week, finally confirming “GTRevival” as the official name of the product Straight4 Studios are working on, then you should certainly check it out. Ian’s answers detailed the first studio he setup, early modding years, imperfections of Project Cars 2 and finally tells the slightly sad rather than Slightly Mad story of Project Cars 3 that I was certainly curious about.
But, equally important for those of us who like to race retro cars more than modern ones, Straight4’s newsletter this month seems to squish the belief that the new sim would be a modern GT3 simulator that stemmed from the first screenshot by including the following text and image:
Some of you who follow Ian on social may have seen the GT3 we’re talking about. Next job (happening now) is for the dev’ team to bring in the next batch of cars into the sim. We can’t name ’em (well, aside from Ian, so keep an eye on his social channel because that’s what we do too!) but it’ll represent a proper cross-section of the kinds of cars and eras you can expect to land with the upcoming WMD program. (And no, none of these are modern-era GT3s.) And if you promise not to tell anyone, here’s a little show of something we’re all itching to get our hands on in-game with our new physics model. (And again, nope, we’re not confirming what car that is so don’t ask! Those who enjoyed GTR though will recognize the mythical icon from the early noughties.)
