“The graphics are from Unreal Engine. You can adjust the colors on the home screen before you start. And there’s an easy mode if you’ve yet to learn to drift.“
Are we talking about the latest installment in Forza Horizon or the latest Ford Mustang? It’s getting hard to say.
(The answer this time is the Mustang. Forza games have their own engine).
The Mustang uses the Unreal Engine 3D design tool to render its graphics.
Ford
The Mustang 2024: Graphics and Easy Mode
FordF,
has raised the curtain on the seventh – and latest – generation of its classic muscle car.
The 2024 Ford Mustang stands out for its classic proportions – park it next to the 1965 original and you’d immediately know the two were related.
It’s notable for the way its technology hasn’t changed — buyers can choose from two petrol engines, zero hybrid powertrains and nada electric options.
And it stands out for its remarkable emphasis on graphics, especially. In its first press release describing the 2024 Mustang, Ford devoted more words to discussing the 7th-generation pony car screens than the optional Coyote V-8 engine.
Even the language designers borrow more from the industry that gave us the Playstation than the one that gave us Camaro vs. Mustang has given.
“We take advantage of every pixel,” said Craig Sandvig, Ford’s interaction design manager.
The car uses the Unreal Engine 3D design tool to render the graphics. Drivers can adjust settings such as steering feel and engine response by swiping around a 3D model of the car “in true gamified style,” says Ford.
The Ford Mustang from 2024
Ford
Electronic drift brake
Perhaps no aspect of the Mustang owes as much to the Xbox as its new “electronic drift brake.”
We’ll let Ford explain:
“A segment-first electronic drift brake brings new technology to the track, unlocking the Mustang’s rear-wheel drive drifting capabilities with the visual appeal and functionality of a traditional mechanical handbrake. The Performance Electronic Parking Brake comes standard with the Performance Pack on all Mustang models, designed for novice drivers to learn and improve their drifting skills, while also providing experienced drivers with a competition-ready system.”
This thing has an electronic system designed to make drifting easier.
Drifting is, of course, one of the notoriously hardest driving skills to master. A precisely controlled loss of differential control, it is a gentle side turn with the front wheels facing the direction opposite the turn.
It’s murder on the tires. It’s hard to learn. And it’s not safe off track conditions.
It’s mostly something millions of gamers have learned on screen, but few drivers can do it in real life. So Ford built an easy mode as a marketing tool.
Also see: The best car technologies to look for when buying a new car
Other cars: the boost button
It’s not just Ford. Over the past year, we’ve seen a succession of cars with a Mario-Kart-style boost button.
The Hyundai Elantra N has arguably the most blatant (and fun) version. It’s a button on the steering wheel in the high-performance version of Hyundai’s HYMTF,
affordable compact car. Tapping it will give you 10 extra horsepower for 20 seconds.
But Dodge has also built it into the all-new 2023 Hornet (the one Eric Brandt loves so much). Dodge calls it “Powershot.” You pull the paddle shift to access a short horsepower boost.
Mercedes-Benz has given much of its 2022 range a piece of technology initially developed in Formula 1 race cars, an integrated starter generator. It can give a short electrical power boost for a few seconds of extra passing speed. The cars will not give you a flashing button to activate it.
But it does have a meter in the display cluster that refills as it charges and flashes to let you know it’s ready. You know… like a boost function when you press the A button.
Read also: What the California Gasoline Car Ban Could Do for You Even If You Don’t Live There?
This is all a good thing
Let’s be clear this all sounds like old man flu: the gamification of cars makes sense.
For starters, a new generation of drivers has their first driving experience long before they get behind the wheel. Many have driven Laguna Seca and crashed onto the screen at the Nürburgring before reaching driving age.
They learn the romance of cars through gaming, and they are the ones who will carry the gear flame to the next generation.
After all, the love for cars is a modern expression of the age-old human need for art. The French philosopher Roland Barthes once wrote: “Cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals; I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and digested into image, if not used by an entire population who appropriates them as a purely magical object.”
For today’s youth, that art cannot be found in stained glass and stone. They are pixels. Let the new Mustang share magic with Warhammer III. Which brings us to a new generation of inspiring cars.
For others, driving should be accessible. Features that make it easier to get the most out of your car are always welcome.
We hope Ford has an electronic rating brake so no one gets too confident on the open road.
Checking out: 3 reasons why the Hyundai Ioniq 6 makes the Tesla Model 3 look a bit boring
The new Mustang will hit dealers in Summer 2023, electronic drift brake, Unreal Engine graphics and all.
This story originally ran Autotrader.com.
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