The difference between a racing simulator and a racing game can be subtle for the uninitiated. A simulator tries to emulate real world racing as accurately as possible, and the simulators of today have virtual models for tire wear, break heating, damper curves, etc. “Regular” racing games aren’t as focused on realistic models, but rather focus on creating fun and exciting gameplay.

These simulators are so realistic today that they also function as practice tools for drivers in real vehicle sports. The tracks are laser scanned and the cars are simulated based data from their real world counterparts in collaboration with car manufacturers and racing teams.

Game engines, including racing simulators, are comprised of several interconnected engines, such as a physics engine, a graphics engine, a sound engine and a networking engine. The physics engine calculates and simulates all the physical aspects of driving, such as downforce, engine power, steering, roadholding, etc. The graphics engine only handles the graphical representation, i.e. what we see on the screen.

For Formula Infinity, we will need to develop a physics engine that also simulates the separate sub-systems for a car both during construction and during driving. To accomplish this, we will use all of the expansive competencies within our universities.

Within the Formula Infinity concept, engineering is as important as driving. The design of realistic as well as imaginative race tracks will give players and teams very interesting engineering challenges. How would you build a car that could handle a race on the moon, on the inside of a volcano or to drive through a breathtaking loop?

The novice might suffice with driving pre-constructed cars and out of curiosity might disassemble them to see how they work. When we’ve sparked interest for modifying something on the car, such as wheel size or engine size, we let a pedagogical and inspiring virtual engineer help the player do this.

During the first Formula Infinity workshop, we identified that the key to engaging young people would be to step outside of the purely theoretical facts and to let them explore through play and "trial and error”.

Formula Infinity is by its nature a so called “sandbox” game. In such a game you give the player a set of tools for creating and interacting without any larger goals or linear progression. In a lot of games in the genre, it is up to the players and community to set individual or mutual goals within the game, such as competing, exploring or just playing around. Many games within this genre have been gaining a lot of fame - games such as Minecraft, Kerbal Space Program, Factorio and ARK: Survival Evolved to name a few.

The swedish game Minecraft quickly became one of the world’s most renowned and played games. Minecraft can be said to be the digital representation of a LEGO world, where you can freely build whatever you like, or play a survival campaign in which you get to build yourself a home, gather resources and food and fight skeletons during the nights.

In Kerbal Space Program, you take the role of a rocket engineer that gets to design, build and then fly your own rocket into space, to the Moon, to Mars, etc. The rocket is built from pre-existing components and is then simulated according to its structure at flight.

In Factorio, you land on a new planet with knowledge about technology, but no technology with you. Your task is to gather resources to build machines that will then gather more resources for you so that you can start building automated processes for gathering even more resources. Simply put, Factorio is an industrial automation simulator.

This is a more unforgiving version of Minecraft. In this game, you are to survive on a tropical island filled with dinosaurs alone or together with other players. You gather resources, make shelter, develop technology and tame dinosaurs to slowly gain control of your island.

It is important to build test environments in the game that will give you direct and clear feedback on how your changes impact your car and its subsystems. When players have become curious about why a system behaves the way it does, we can offer pedagogical tips and facts to help them improve the construction.

The game builds on playfully gaining knowledge about vehicle engineering. The knowledge isn’t forced on the player, but is always available through help and information systems concerning:

• Fysik och teknik
• Material och hållbarhet
• Mekatroniska och digitala system
• Optimering och testning
• Designprocesser för bilkonstruktion

To drive vehicles at the edge of their capabilities means that you very closely encounter the effects of physical laws. Cornering at high speeds creates centripetal acceleration, which needs to be handled by the wheels. The wheels are connected to the wheel suspension, with springs, dampers and axles. As a player, you will gradually start understanding the physics by observing these effects. There is a great opportunity for us to then explain the underlying theories and motivate current technological choices within race car engineering.

Within extreme technological fields, such as racing, material properties are very important to functionality. To build light and strong is always a series of compromises and decisions. Some materials are firm and delicate, others are soft and durable. In every decision, you also have to consider sustainability choices such as energy consumption and environmental impact of production, use and recycling. The material choices therefore rely both on function as well as ecological impact.

A modern race car is loaded with mechatronical and digital systems. The electrical systems need to be as developed and engineered as the mechatronical systems. As a player, you will gradually start to understand these governing systems and learn to create and program steering systems for gearboxes and breaks, among other things.

In this context, artificial intelligence is a very important component. In Formula Infinity, the player can, via sensor data, develop everything from regulation of subsystems in real time to completely autonomous cars that compete against each other.

When a race car is being developed, you need to keep testing it in many ways to achieve optimal performance. These tests need their own facilities and laboratories, where specific properties such as engine effect, or aerodynamic forces can be measured. At other times, you want to be able to test the car on a race track, measuring forces, temperature and velocity.

To build a race car or a subsystem for a race car, you follow certain design processes. You might start from a given construction base, or develop everything from scratch. As a player, you will start understanding and using the development processes within the industry today.

In computer games, progression and pedagogics are important tools for keeping players interested. Formula Infinity needs to be pedagogical and educational through direct interactive feedback, always reacting to the players choices. Packaging specific information into videos and interactive episodes is an important part of player progress.

Here are three ways in which Formula Infinity as an open source platform will create value:

• Teachers and scientists can keep creating new and improved physics models to make Formula Infinity more complete as a platform for education and simulation.
• Formula Infinity as a platform for the industry to build their own initiatives and software, just as with other open systems.
• Game development companies, communities and others interested can use Formula Infinity to build their own games and software.

The term “Open Source” initially referred to Open Source Software. Software code open for anyone to download, modify, add to and distribute. Open Source Software is decentralized and transparently further developed by a community, rather than by separate individuals or companies.

Today, the term applies to much more than computer code. The Open Source movement applies values such as decentralized and transparent production models to find new ways to solve problems and innovate.

Digitala system som används inom industri eller i mjukvara är idag stora och komplexa bibliotek av interagerande funktionalitet. Många sådana byggs av enskilda företag för intern användning eller för att säljas som en del av funktionalitet i mjukvaruprodukter. Den nya open source-kulturen som vuxit fram på nätet har däremot skapat nya typer av initiativ. Nätverk av enskilda utvecklare, experter och andra intressenter bygger mjukvaruplattformar för specifika användningsområden som blir åtkomliga för andra. Detta har i många fall också influerat till nya industristandarder och ibland ändrat hela discipliner. Ett sådant exempel är tex ROS, Robot Operating System: en öppen mjukvaruplattform för simulering och styrning av robotar.

Today, almost no games are built from scratch. They are all developed based on an existing engine or platform, with varying implementations for physics, graphics, sound, networking, etc. On top of this, there are plenty of additional third party libraries for specific functionality that can be licensed or used for free for your software. Formula Infinity aspires to become such an engine or library for physics simulation of vehicles. The engine should be free for download and used by both companies and individuals as an addition to existing game development environments such as Unreal Engine or Unity.

Unreal Engine and Unity are two of the biggest game development environments available, and are free to use for private and small commercial projects. The environments include complete engines for graphics, physics, sound, networking and much more. All of this is connected via graphical interfaces for easy game creation. Each aspect of the engine and the game can then be expanded upon with your own code. These engines are used by large communities of hobby developers as well as professional teams developing AAA-titles. Via these environments, games are created for computers, consoles, mobile and web. Each environment also has a marketplace where users can sell plugins, functionality, art, sound, music, etc

The main purpose of Formula Infinity is to give anyone, young and old, access to the content - engineering and competition. To then make the game sustainable in the long run, we need to develop smart financing models, involving both companies and schools. We also want to support the swedish game industry through partnership by giving them the possibility to keep developing the game community and content with possibility for profit. Such a solution assures further development and maintenance of the game, keeping it updated and alive

We see that the universities involved need to be in mutual majority ownership of the game. This is to be able to ensure that we protect our interests in making Formula Infinity an open educational platform for stimulating interest and education in engineering and technology within Sweden. Furthermore, we want to share this ownership with commercial interests, such as industry and game development companies, that drive and sponsor the development of the game.