With five excellent games under its belt, Playground Games is more than well-versed on how to deliver a great Forza Horizon across multiple platforms. However, for the first time since, well, the last generation, it’s focusing exclusively on a single console with Forza Horizon 6. This allows for numerous improvements on a granular level, including new refraction-based shaders for its headlights and taillights.
Considering that this is for over 550 cars (with more to come), it’s a pretty big leap for the franchise as a whole. “So there’s work we’ve done across our whole suite of vehicles in carrying them forward,” says production director Mike Bennett to IGN First. “So, for example, if you look at our headlights and taillights, we’ve got a new refraction-based shader on them, which gives them this really authentic look of depth and feel.
“Also, with things like where you have the more polycarbonate-style headlights, there’s a sort of rainbow refraction effect that you get through there, like an iridescence as the light is cast through it. We’ve also reworked our materials used across the library of vehicles as well. So we’ve done some basic stuff like that outside of customisation.”
Of course, new vehicles mean new parts, but another big addition is one that the community has requested for years: Window decals. As simple as it sounds, adding support for every car is anything but.
“That requires a massive investment,” per Bennett. “You have to go back and do work to every single car in order to support that. So we’re really thrilled that we’ve been able to bring that to players, and that allows everything from doing huge ornate designs that span across the windows – wrap all the way around the car – to simpler stuff like having a sun strip in the windscreen. Or even just smaller, low-key things like having window stickers that you can go and place on there.
“And that’s kind of a fun one as well, because we link that into the campaign as you progress. You’ll unlock little graphics you can go in and proudly display in there as well.” It certainly helps reinforce the “journey” aspect of the title, where you’re discovering Japan and even capturing all those core memories in the Collection Journal. And before you ask, yes, it’s possible to create decals that cover your entire field of view.
“When a player applies liveries or decals to their windows, they can tune their opacity level. This means they can set them to [be] fully opaque or highly transparent, so yes – if a player really wanted to, they could completely block their visibility through the windows if that’s what they choose! Rather than making that decision for the players, we thought it was better to allow them to make that choice,” says Bennett.
Practical? No, but certainly hilarious. While Forza Horizon 5’s liveries aren’t supported, Playground will offer a way to bring livery vinyls into the experience. How remains to be seen, but it will be available when the sequel launches on May 19th for Xbox Series X/S and PC, with the PS5 version out later this year.
