Forza Horizon 6 Features New Refraction-Based Shaders on Car Lights and Long-Requested Window Decals

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Playground Games has made five fantastic Forza Horizon games, and they really know what players want. With Forza Horizon 6, they’re focusing solely on one console – something they haven’t done since the previous generation of consoles. This has allowed them to make detailed improvements, like more realistic lighting effects for headlights and taillights.

This is a significant upgrade for the game, especially considering it includes over 550 cars, with more on the way. According to production director Mike Bennett in an interview with IGN First, they’ve made improvements across all vehicle types. For example, the headlights and taillights now use a new shader that creates a more realistic sense of depth and texture.

You know those polycarbonate headlights? They create this cool rainbow effect, almost like an iridescence, when the light hits them. It’s a neat visual thing we’ve added. We’ve also gone through and updated the materials on all the cars in the game, just little tweaks like that, even before you start customizing them.

New vehicles always come with new parts, but we’re especially excited to add something the community has been asking for a long time: window decals! While they seem straightforward, supporting decals for every single car is a surprisingly complex task.

As a fan, I was really excited to hear Bennett explain how much work went into the customization options! Apparently, adding all that detail – everything from massive, elaborate designs wrapping around the whole car to something as simple as a sun strip – needed a huge investment and a complete overhaul of how every vehicle is designed in the game. It’s awesome they were able to pull it off, letting us add everything from big, eye-catching graphics to little touches like window stickers. It really adds a personal touch!

I really like how this game ties into the main story as you play. You unlock cool little art pieces that you can show off in the game, which is a nice touch. It really makes you feel like you’re on a journey, exploring Japan and collecting memories in the journal. And yeah, you can even make stickers that fill up the whole screen if you want!

Players can adjust how see-through their window decals and liveries are. They can make them completely solid or almost invisible, even blocking the view entirely if they want. Bennett explains that the team decided to give players that control instead of making the decision for them.

It’s not the most convenient solution, but it’s definitely a fun one! Although you won’t be able to directly use custom paint jobs (liveries) from Forza Horizon 5, the developers at Playground Games will let you import the individual vinyl pieces to create new designs. They haven’t revealed exactly how this will work yet, but it will be available when Forza Horizon 5 launches on May 19th for Xbox Series X/S and PC, and later this year on PlayStation 5.

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2026-03-19 22:11