The game The Division by Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment has mainly impressed with its graphics through the gameplay material released so far. The post-apocalyptic shooter MMO had quite an unconventional start – as a prototype made of papier-mâché – as our colleagues from PC Games Hardware found out in a conversation with studio head David Polfeldt and Art Director Rodrigo Cortes.
5 Days to Build
In the beginning, it was just an idea. Then Ubisoft wanted to have an initial concept within 5 days… and thus, in this short period, a first setup of The Division was created. Although made of papier-mâché, it was relatively close to what we had already seen in trailers, at least in terms of the environment.
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2 Playmobil figures represent players shooting at a car. The line of fire was represented by threads. Apparently, Ubisoft was so convinced that they said, “Sure, let’s do it!”.
From Sweden to the USA
Massive Entertainment is a Swedish studio based in Malmö. Testing weapons that should make The Division even more realistic was therefore not feasible. But fortunately, there is Red Storm, a U.S. subsidiary of Ubisoft, who promptly invited the guys from Sweden to North Carolina. And in the USA, gun laws apparently only exist on paper.
So, they shot at car doors on a training ground with various weapons. Why all this? The experiences flow directly into the development of The Division. A car exploding in GTA-style after 5 shots is therefore not a reality. Windows don’t shatter after a single bullet – pure reality.
We noticed that safety glass in vehicles doesn’t shatter as quickly under fire as one might think.
Physically Correct Weather
So far, trailers for The Division have always shown a somewhat wintry weather condition. The developers promise that snowflakes are not just simple textures; no, they realistically fall from the sky, accumulate on clothing, and melt when entering a heated room.
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Our brain is extremely good at detecting any minor irregularity in the flow of its environment. The reason it rarely snows in games is probably that it is both very resource-intensive and difficult to implement. The snow has cost us quite a lot of nerves.
The guys at Massive Entertainment are putting in a lot of effort to make The Division one of the most realistic gaming experiences ever.
