F1 2018 visuals: "we've really pushed it this year"

As we're nearing the release of F1 2018 on August 24, Codemasters has been releasing a series of dev diaries revealing new features coming to the game. But we get the chance to interview game director Lee Mather ourselves and get some new information about the upgraded physics and visuals coming to the game.

"We're always pushing the visuals, and always pushing the physics," Mather explained. "So this year, physics-wise, we've got suspension running at a higher rate so that feels really compliant on the track, the way the car handles the bumps feels very realistic, the way it crashes into the curbs.

"We've also worked on modelling the carcass temperature. So, for people who are playing long races, that really comes into it. You know those consistently hot laps will start to heat up the internal temperature of the tyre not just the outside of the tyre."

"And from the visual perspective we've really pushed it this year; we've now got new in-game fogging effects so ... the environmental fog looks really cool. We've got the heat haze from the engine, also the heat haze from the environment, we've also got the mirage effect that you see on the track's surface. And also the kick up on the offline section when the Formula 1 car drives onto the dirty part of the circuit, you get that kick up as well."

What do you think about the new visuals and physics?