Nearly Better Than the Real Thing: Porsche Taps Video Game Tech to Break New Ground in Automotive Design

Porsche has grown rather chummy with the video game community of late. In 2017, the automaker used North America’s largest gaming expo as a platform for the debut of the 911 GT2 RS. You can attribute that to a relatively recent marketing push that resulted in its vehicles appearing in interactive media after a long-standing absence. Porsche, for whatever reason, spent years being exceptionally choosy about which developers can license its vehicles for their games. This usually results in blockbuster titles using “RUF” as a placeholder or simply abandoning Porsche vehicles entirely.

The last five or six years have been different, however. Automakers want to broaden their marketing approach and get away from the big industry trade shows. For Porsche, that means video games, and the relationship is only getting stronger.

This week, Porsche Epic Games and the graphical processing wizards at NVIDIA gathered to showcase what they claim is a major breakthrough in computer design rendering. While we can’t say with any authority that this will forever change automotive design, what they’ve managed to accomplish certainly looks impressive.

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  • Michael Gallagher Some math! The cost to produce US Shale derived oil is between $35 to $55/bbl. Middle East oil cost about $15/bbl. If OPEC wanted, they could produce more , driving oil prices below our costs and decimating our domestic industry. We have whispered in their ear that they should endeavor to keep the price above our cost, in exchange for political, economic and security favors. Case in point, during COVID when gas dropped below $2/gal , producers were losing money, Trump had to approach the Saudis requesting them to cut production to raise the oil price above our cost. If the global oil industry was truly competitive, our industry would be out of business very quickly due to our much higher cost of production. Those that long for those covid prices need to realize it would be at the expense of our domestic industry.
  • Norman Stansfield I'm training to be a mechanic, and have been told this or a Harley would be a good start.
  • SilverHawk I watch out of loyalty to the sport even though it's often not as entertaining these days. But then, you have a race like Miami that gives us a driver's first win and my enthusiasm is refreshed. Congrats to Lando.
  • Oberkanone Nope. No interest.
  • SilverCoupe Tim, you don't always watch F1 as you don't want to lose sleep? But these races are great for putting one to sleep!I kid (sort of). I DVR them, I watch them, I fast forward a lot. It was great to see Lando win one, I've been a fan of McLaren since their heyday in CanAm in the late '60's.