Forza Motorsport’s New AI and Physics Make Every Race Competitive

Forza Motorsport delivers clean, fun and competitive racing in both single-player and multiplayer. We’ve prioritized our development efforts on circuit racing with modern race cars and modern production cars. This focus impacts the entire game, from the cars and tracks we’ve included to, the new rendering features, physics, AI and gameplay experiences that we have built.

With that in mind, we want to let you know we will not have drag or drift game modes available at release. We will, however, have drag tires, as well as drift suspension, available as car upgrades and you can enjoy them in experiences like private Meetup lobbies.

Today on Forza Monthly, we took a deep dive into our all-new advanced AI opponents and tire physics, comparing the technologies in Forza Motorsport 7 to those players will experience this October 10 in Forza Motorsport. We also demonstrated these improvements through a series of in-development video clips.

How AI Drives Forza Motorsport

How do AI controlled cars get around a track in Forza Motorsport? There are two components at play; the AI controller and the driving line. The AI controller is how the game uses throttle, brake and steering inputs to move a car around the track. The driving line is the path that the AI controller follows.

To create AI opponents as fast as the fastest human drivers, we had to do it without any cheats, hacks, and rubber banding. These often cause racing incidents for players and unrealistic competition. We also needed to reduce aggressive driving behavior to ensure cleaner, more competitive racing. Therefore, in Forza Motorsport we have evolved the Drivatar system to use machine learning. It no longer replicates the driving behavior of your friends; however, it still pulls in their cars, drivers and customizations.

Our new AI controller has mastered every possible car and track combination with car upgrades and weather conditions factored in. New optimal driving lines define the desired path an AI car takes through the corner, ideal braking points, and target entry and exit speeds. The computer drives each track 26,000 times to achieve the fastest line through every layout! Just like actual players, the AI also uses a lot more of the track – pushing out to the track limits and even onto the curbs.

The new AI can make mistakes; however, these scenarios are not scripted. Instead, they will make natural mistakes like real humans do, such as braking too late and going wide or even off track. Players can scale the AI difficulty from 1-8 with 8 considered “unbeatable.” Everyone can learn from the skills and driving professionalism of the AI to find the best driving lines and braking points.

These AI opponents lead to clean, tight and thrilling racing in Forza Motorsport. We will continue to fine-tune and improve the AI behavior overtime based on our data and player feedback.

Master the Curbs with Improved Tire Physics

We’ve already told you that the physics leap in Forza Motorsport is bigger than Forza Motorsport 5, 6 and 7 combined. This 48x improvement in tire fidelity results in a more fun and rewarding driving experience with how the car accelerates, corners, and brakes.

Previous Forza Motorsport games had only a single point of tire contact on the surface that moved at 60 cycles per second. This was problematic for curbs and rumble strips which could cause inconsistencies and unrealistic changes in suspension forces. This could also lead to tires briefly losing contact with the ground as they rolled over bumps resulting in unrealistic loss of traction.

Our new tire physics has 8 points of contact with the track surface running at 360 cycles per second. This allows tires to find grip on any type of uneven surface. The result is better drivability everywhere and realistic behavior on uneven surfaces like curbs.

Choose Your Tire Compound

Forza Motorsport features a variety of tire compounds to support great racing and different types of competition across several decades of production cars and race cars.

Production cars will have the option to use Street, Performance, Race, or Drag tires along with the Wet tire. The Race tire is further broken into three separate compounds – Soft, Medium, and Hard. Each compound has different grip and wear characteristics. The Soft compound has the most grip, but wear out the fastest making it ideal for a Qualifying tire. The Hard compound has the least grip, but lasts the longest making it ideal for longer stints without having to pit for new tires.

There is also a Vintage tire that is used for classic cars, but it is not a selectable tire for other cars.

We’ve also dialed in the tire heat model. The biggest change is in the grip fall off at extreme tire temperatures. There is a much smoother fall off as tires reach higher temperatures, which allows for better drivability and predictability even when you are overdriving your tires.

See You at the Starting Line

Forza Motorsport is coming October 10 to Xbox Series X|S consoles, Windows 10 and 11 PCs via the Microsoft Store and Steam, and Xbox Game Pass for console, PC and Cloud Gaming (Beta). Pre-order the Forza Motorsport Premium Edition and play the full game 5 days early. Here is where you can discover the included add-on packs and the other versions of the game available for pre-order.

Steam players, add Forza Motorsport to your wish list today to be notified of when pre-orders are available for you.

There is so much more to share on our journey to launch. Future topics include Featured Multiplayer, wheel support and features, Free Play, PC features, Forza Race Regulations, additional car and track reveals, and more!

If you missed it before, check out our gameplay walkthrough of the Builders Cup, Forza Motorsport's new single-player career mode.