PSP World

DiRT 2 PSP Features Realtime Shadows

The original Colin McRae: DiRT was one of our favorite racing titles on consoles, and now Codemasters are bringing the realistic rally racing game to the PSP in the form of DiRT 2. One of the most appealing things about the console game is the graphical presentation, which really makes it feel like you are in a high-tech machine, careening down a dirt road at more than 100 miles per hour. While the PSP platform is obviously less capable than its console counterparts, DiRT 2 PSP is still looking quite good on the small screen. In addition to a variety of events, track conditions, and car models, the clever developers at Codemasters have found a way to pull off another neat trick fromt he console version: real-time shadows. In the screenshots below, you can see that a realistic shadow is rendered beneath the player vehicle, and will move according to the direction of lighting as the player races around the track. It appears as if only the player's car will feature realtime shadows, with compeitior cars given those little "coaster" shadows instead, to save on CPU cycles. Still, the effect looks nice, and we can't wait to see what the game looks like in motion.