Project Abstract

In this project, I investigate how to improve the performance and results of competitive drivers in the Formula 1 (F1) video game. Competition in motorsport video games is growing ever popular, particularly F1, where every millisecond in a race counts. To progress and develop as a driver you are required to have substantial skill and knowledge in the sport. Some of these key factors of performance include braking points, racing line, throttle management, tyre management and much more. In this project I studied the different methods of assisting players to improve their performance, some of the key highlights being, input suggestions, virtual racing lines, in-game displays, and more. Following the research, I developed two software solutions for the most recent F1 game F1�? 23 (F1 23). One of the solutions, a virtual race engineer that allows a user to query in real time information about an ongoing race, allowing them to the user to be kept well informed about the race situation around them. This software would imitate the interaction and information a real race engineer would provide during a race. Secondly, a brake assist program, which compares the braking distance of all the drivers to the lead driver and presents this information via a dynamic visualisation. Upon assessing the use of my software with F1 23 players, especially the brake assists software, there was evidence to suggest that it helped the player match aspects of their performance to the lead driver of the race, however, there was not enough evidence to prove it directly improved performance. My project just scratches the surface of the possibilities of virtual assistance in motorsport games and has shown that there are multitude of factors that need to be accounted for when attempting to improve the performance of these drivers.

Keywords: Visualisation, Telemetry data, User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

 Conference Details

Session: Poster Session B at Poster Stand 118

Location: Sir Stanley Clarke Auditorium at Wednesday 8th 09:00 – 12:30

Markers: Tom Owen, Randell Gaya

Course: BSc Computer Science, 3rd Year

Future Plans: I’m looking for work