Leading racing game developer forges alliance with the automotive industry’s premier high-end visualisation systems provider.

Codemasters®, developer and publisher of award-winning video games, and Realtime Technology AG (RTT), a leading provider of 3D realtime rendering and visualisation technologies and services for the automobile, aviation and consumer goods industries, today announced a strategic partnership of technology and knowledge co-operation.

Under the partnership, Codemasters and RTT will share expertise in automobile modelling, rendering and realisation projects, such as RTT DeltaGen and RealTrace tools that enable car designers to render CAD models in realtime, and Codemasters’ EGO™ Game Technology Engine, which drives the critically acclaimed racing games Colin McRae: DiRT™ and Race Driver: GRID™.

“Both companies share common goals, including a passion for technology excellence and attention to detail and quality,” said Bryan Marshall, chief technical officer, Codemasters. “These goals are demonstrated equally in such executions as the beauty of realtime ray-traced light clusters in RTT’s DeltaGen software and the mesmerising race action and environmental detail in our own Race Driver: GRID. Any collaboration with RTT that delivers advantageous results for our development pipeline will be immensely valuable.”

“We are really happy to enter this partnership with Codemasters”, said Ludwig A. Fuchs, co-founder and member of the RTT AG Management Board. “The cooperation is of mutual interest and benefit. Together we can utilise synergies and push forward the boundaries of the 3D realtime visualisation market.”

As a worldwide leading supplier of 3D realtime visualisation technologies and services, RTT’s clients include Adidas, Airbus, Audi, BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Dodge, EADS, Lamborghini, Maserati, Porsche, Sony Ericsson and Volvo (for full list, see Notes). The company supports its customers during the design and development phases creating virtual displays of product development concepts (Virtual Prototyping), and during the marketing and sales stages in presenting the products in the showroom, on the Internet, at fairs or at the point of sale (Virtual Marketing).

Codemasters is renowned for its genre-leading racing titles, Colin McRae: DiRT and Race Driver: GRID. Both titles are powered by the EGO Game Technology Engine, a highly versatile middleware technology that can be used in the development of games across all genres and platforms. Its advanced graphics and physics technology brings an unmatched cinematic quality and realism to interactive entertainment.

The EGO Engine is also being deployed in the development of Operation Flashpoint™ 2: Dragon Rising, a modern conflict game that will simulate many real-world military vehicles and aircraft. Codemasters is the recipient of the UK Developer of the Year title from the 25th Golden Joystick Awards and, most recently, the EGO™ Engine was named Best Technology 2007 in the awards hosted by TIGA, the Independent Game Developers Association.