The compilers back then were horrible (gcc2 something?). Our next project was the other way around - porting IHRA Drag Racing from PC to Playstation... now that was a bitch, and showed how inexperienced we were :) (it's much easier to port to something where you have better hardware and software all along).
The IHRA Drag Racing game (PC) version had a full simulation of the engine (valves, torque) - e.g. for any configuration it'll calculate right away the torque/gear ratio tables (okay, I was never a car buff, and my memory is very short here), but essentially there was an algorithm, which I later understood certain car-tuning services were using to adjust real cars! - I mean there were DOUBLES and lots of fortran-looking code written in "C".
Where we failed was trying to reuse this code on the PSX. First there was no hardware floating point, and what took 10 seconds of calcuation on PC took 45 minutes on PS1 - unacceptable.
Again our boss made a crazy idea - why we don't precalculate some values and store them on the CD - way more limited than the PC, but still something. Not sure how the values were chosen, but overall the game was not a success - one magizine rated it, as one of the worst PSX games ever... I left the project early on, as I felt it wasn't doing good (and was feeling really bad since then about it, as I felt like deserting the person that took care of me, and brought me to US) - http://www.mobygames.com/game/playstation/ihra-motorsports-d...
I'm guessing the compilers got better with the modern game consoles? They should be great for latest since it's just multi-core x86.
Regarding engine simulation, that's a trip that it was useful enough mechanics were using it. Kind of disturbing they were using it though... Yeah, precalculation is kind of the goto way to deal with this sort of things for many resource- or performance-constrained systems. Always worth remembering.
I looked up the game on eBay. I can't get a consistent price because everyone starts at $10 and works down from there. Still worth somewhere from $1-9 plus shipping. Your worst project is at least helping people with bill money. Not the worst outcome. ;)
The IHRA Drag Racing game (PC) version had a full simulation of the engine (valves, torque) - e.g. for any configuration it'll calculate right away the torque/gear ratio tables (okay, I was never a car buff, and my memory is very short here), but essentially there was an algorithm, which I later understood certain car-tuning services were using to adjust real cars! - I mean there were DOUBLES and lots of fortran-looking code written in "C".
Where we failed was trying to reuse this code on the PSX. First there was no hardware floating point, and what took 10 seconds of calcuation on PC took 45 minutes on PS1 - unacceptable.
Again our boss made a crazy idea - why we don't precalculate some values and store them on the CD - way more limited than the PC, but still something. Not sure how the values were chosen, but overall the game was not a success - one magizine rated it, as one of the worst PSX games ever... I left the project early on, as I felt it wasn't doing good (and was feeling really bad since then about it, as I felt like deserting the person that took care of me, and brought me to US) - http://www.mobygames.com/game/playstation/ihra-motorsports-d...