Exclusive: How Codemasters worked to make F1 2019 as realistic as possible

In less than a month, racing fans will be able to play F1 2019 for the first time. GPToday.net spoke exclusively with the game's director Lee Mather from Codemasters about it. 

F1 2019 is the tenth edition of the Formula 1 games launched by Codemasters. The objective of the game developer is to make the control of the car as realistic as possible, but at the same time, keep the game is accessible to all levels. To celebrate the fact that Codemasters has created its tenth F1 game, it has added a number of extra features to it.

Before the game can be played, it must first be completely designed and built. Of course, there must be cars that can be taken and thrown around the circuit in F1 2019. According to Mather, the cars enter the game in different ways. The team at Codemasters partly depends on the data of the teams, but also the cars are scanned by the company itself.

More attention on circuit details

"When it comes to things like the circuits, we get CAD or LIDAR data, depending on what is available to us," Mather said. "We have people who generate proper elevation models so we know exactly the cambers and height changes of the circuit.

"We have photographers who take circuit photos, all the way around at regular intervals, 360-degree photos so we get all the detail. For the cars, we get CAD data from the teams and we scan them where relevant. For the classic cars, we regularly scan them in full 3D and build the model from that."

The design of the circuits is done by an individual or group of photographers. The photographers who have analysed and documented the tracks are called in, as according to Mather, they can catch more details than simply using a car with a camera attached. 

"It may be that there's a building that's just off the track that's particularly iconic," Mather commented. "We can get a number of more detailed photos of that particular thing. That's something you'll see this year, there's a lot of extra details that weren't in F1 2018.

"In Montreal, there's extra detail on the pit buildings or that large sphere that sits just off the circuit. We've got more detail on that, and that's because we have more people to get detailed photographs of that particular element."

"We scan the drivers with a 3D scanner ourselves and then the driver is built up from multiple parameters. There are lots of things that build up the character of a driver on the track and how they race. We do that based on what we see when we watch at the sport and what commentators say. It's also based on how they perform."

Davidson helping with driving model

In the first few years of making F1 games, Codemasters used Anthony Davidson's knowledge for the driving model of the cars. According to Mather, the former Formula 1 driver is still helping.

"We still work with Anthony, he's someone that helps us and we keep in touch with him still," Mather stated. "He does some of the commentaries in the game as well and he still tests in Mercedes' simulator, so his knowledge of F1 is super up to date.

"He often gives us feedback on the cars and how they feel, but also something that we do is when we scan the drivers. Another thing we do, when we're scanning the drivers, we'll take an early copy of the game with us if there's something available for them to play.

"So they can start playing if they get the chance. We'll get the scan and then say 'Look, we've got the game set up over here, come and have a quick go'. One of the guys will be there asking 'How does that feel? Does that feel like a Formula 1 car?' 

"So we get really great insight that way. It often comes out a lot better when we get little anecdotal things that they'll say. You think, 'I never thought about that, that makes sense'. We can then try to include it in the game."

Apart from getting CAD data, Codemasters doesn't need to count on the help of the teams to build F1 2019. For advice on how a Formula 1 car works and feels Mather believes Codemasters can turn to a lot of experts in the motorsport community to help.

"Of course, the teams are super secretive, so real information is something that's hard to get hold off. We have a lot of close contacts at the teams but also in Formula 1 who have great technical knowledge.

"They can help us understand how a Formula 1 car works. While we don't the absolute decimal point data that they have, we get a great understanding of how an F1 car behaves, and how the aero is in relation to tyre grip, weight bias, things like that."

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