Crash n Burn developer discusses how the game's tracks are rendered

From an old thread from 1994
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.games.video.advocacy/Jojzp1BxduQ

I think this technique resulted in Crash n Burn being able to have the insane draw distances it does without significant pop in - something that could not have occurred if they let you have more control over your car (e.g., being able to go backwards or crash and shift the camera view 90+ degrees.), a criticism of the game by folks at the time and now. Needless to say, it seems Crash n Burn is not pre-rendered FMV a la Megarace as some folks still believe.

 

I always wondered how it rendered that level of polygons.
Saturn never reached that level of draw distance

 

That's pretty cool. Crash 'N Burn looked pretty good for its day.

 

Yeah, it's always pretty sweet to see games from generations like this where you have always known the game for its quality, without understanding how they worked around that particular generations limitations.

Nice find!

 

What about need for speed? That was pretty much the same thing from what I remember.

 

The original Crash Bandicoot used pre-calculated visibility data as well IIRC (if I am interpreting what he wrote correctly) which combined with the non-standard resolution led to a lot of claims that ND had access to some "secret" Sony libs during development.

 

Very interesting interview, thanks for sharing!