Infrastructure Details in FH5 (Positive and Negative)

Forza Horizon Forza Horizon 5 FH5 Discussion
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Let me replace my normal glasses with thick black ones held together with tape in the middle…

Alright, I’m veeerrrryyyy excited for Forza Horizon 5, and have spent quite a bit of time in Mexico. I’m also an infrastructure nerd so I’m going to focus on that today.

One thing that stuck out to me, was the lack of signage for this highway junction.

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So, not all Mexican highway junctions have signage, depending on if they fall under municipal or federal jurisdiction. Looking at the full map that was released, it appears to be this junction.

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Looking at the map and the scale that Playground Games have used, this intersection seems like it would fall under SCT (Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes) regulations which would mean that signage would be required. Interestingly, Playground did get it right with this highway junction. Note the sign for the highway and on the other side of the bridge before the cloverleaf.

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Moving on from that bit… I was really happy to see the yellow guardrail bridge. Anyone that has driven through Mexico has seen the ubiquitous yellow guardrails on almost every bridge on main roads.

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Why are these guardrails yellow? CAPUFE (Caminos y Puentes Federales) and SCT regulations! One things that is missing, is that every bridge in Mexico has a sign before it that is white with black letters. It may be something like Puente del Mezcal 666 or whatever. Doesn’t matter, regulations requires it. Here’s an example that shows a little bit of all of these things together.

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So it was a little disappointing in the Copper Canyon section to see this bridge which features sidewalks (not a thing on Mexican bridges), brown guardrails, and a lack of signage.

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This led me to my other finding that not only is the yellow paint required for road bridges, but it’s also required for train bridges. In fact, every recent photo of the El Chepe train in Barranca del Cobre has at least the metal portions painted yellow.

And finally… For my nerd levels to be over 9,000. Bridge height signs. Every bridge, be it 1 lane or 12 lanes, has these height signs on them.

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Anyway, like I said… I’m being a nerd. It would be absolutely awesome if devs fixed these things, but I also understand that if they don’t.

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I have a great appreciation for details myself. It’s the little things… for example, the splashes of teal paint that run through Ambleside’s bike lanes or the orange roadwork fencing and cones in Ashbrook, or the asphalt patching found, well, everywhere. While that’s all artistic, aesthetic touches and you’re talking about real-world details, I’m sure there’s a certain amount of creative license at work in deciding exactly how realistic they want their product to be and where to draw the line. Leaving out a finer detail that many players would never even be aware of, like an underpass height sin, is far less of a sin than getting a greater, more visible detail wrong, like having pink guardrails instead of yellow ones.

Perhaps focus on all the things in-game the devs get right, rather than what was omitted.

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Oh, for sure, I’m very excited for the game still. Like I said, this is just me being a huge nerd. Getting the tiny details right really makes it for me, especially with how often we see pictures and have to ask whether its real life or Forza. I love taking pictures that blur that line as much as possible, and tiny details make it easy to trick people.

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Dev build.

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I sure hope Mexico has fewer stone walls.

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There will be some type of wall to persuade you to stay on the roads and slow you down if you are trying to cut a corner or gain an advantage during the race.

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Depends on how you define stone walls. It’s usually a veneer over concrete, so if you see one… Probably don’t hit it. :grimacing: