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Each of the six lookalike cars (plus a few secret unlockable ones) will be comprised of about 1000 polygons and will closely resemble their real world counterparts. In contrast to earlier reports, Rage chose not to license the real cars when they decided to include damage. As most carmakers are loath to see their pride and joy scared, even with virtual dents, the game element choice determined the licensing decision. The real-time body damage will be displayed on the vehicle using vertex deformation with the resulting car performance degradation managed on the fly for a realistic feel. For arcade mode, cars will have higher speeds and be able to sustain more damage.
The exception is in the "Pininfarina Mode" which, due to its invincible cars, allowed for the licensing of eight Pininfarina designed cars including the 1999 Alpha Romeo Dardo. A truly wonderful choice and good enough for the Sultan of Brunei (apparently he has pre-ordered one or twelve). Pininfarina mode will also include the Honda Vivo, Peugeot Nautilus, Pininfarina Mythos, Pinifarina Ethos & Ethos II, Pininfarina Chronos and the Ferrari Modulo. There are 'Junior' and 'Senior' mode designations indicating the extra unlockable car versions and allow for up to eight invincible vehicles in single or multiplayer mode.
All the cars have loads of nice detail goodies: functional head and tail lights (even backup lights when you reverse), drivers will have face maps and be equipped with a vocabulary of graphic gestures for expressing road rage (no, that wasn't that the international symbol for 'Have a nice day'). Much of the game's special effects will be focused on the vehicles including some pretty nifty on-car specular lighting and environment mapping. The usual colored lighting and smoke effects will help bring out the best in local scenery.
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