Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi has revealed some interesting facts regarding Gran Turismo 5’s weather system in an interview with the British Playstation Magazine:
“Night racing is going to be a part of GT5, but with things like dynamic weather, the choice is about whether it will improve the experience. The functionality is not a problem – we’ve got the weather system done – but if we are not sure about the quality of it, and how it improves the driving experience, we are not going to have it in the game.”
While it is understandable that they´re not willing to include a feature that does not meet the GT quality standards, it’s rather odd to think about whether or not weather adds to the driving experience. Missing weather has been the point of complaint in many simulations such as rFactor as driving in the rain is one of racing’s most intense challenges – Lets hope that the guys at Polyphony Digital manage to come the same conclusion…
Furthermore, Yamauchi has been commenting on the rumors that Gran Turismo 5 may be released in an unfinished state to meet the release deadline (March 2010 in Japan), relying on online updates to complete the title’s content.
“Let me be clear on this. There is a massive amount of content in this game, I don’t think there are many teams that put as much into a game as we can. The launch of the game isn’t a start, we are releasing a full game. Everything we want to put into the game is on the disc when it ships. Having said that, we do have a sizeable online team that will look after it once it’s launched.”
Via GTPlanet
Ark
November 19th, 2009 at 05:47
“…the choice is about whether it will improve the experience.”
The answer is a resounding “YES”.
Next question. lol
kill4f00d
November 19th, 2009 at 06:35
A weather system, especially one up to GT5 quality, might impact the frames per second rate. Today’s consoles don’t have much rendering power when compared to a modern gaming PC.
michael
November 19th, 2009 at 08:26
Well, no. The answer isn’t “yes” unless it’s far better than the weather in any existing game to date.
It’s not simply a case of lowering grip and tweaking a few parameters, and this is why many sims haven’t implemented it.
Whatever challenge driving in the rain IRL brings, the challenge game developers face is recreating that to a level of realism that matches the level of realism they get in dry weather.
That’s their point. It’s not whether the weather is up to some “GT standards”, it’s the simple fact that modelling the effects of rain on the cars handling is far more complicated than the rather easier task of rendering spots of water on the screen or track, adding wipers etc that a few games have done in the past.
IWE
November 19th, 2009 at 09:45
And it fits to “GT standarts” to release totally unfinished game?
I can anyway partly understand this. They have been showing F1 car, rally cars, Nascar cars,.. And like many people have been guessing they might have problems with some companies having already rights (even exclusive ones) for some of these series. Easier to say “those things havent been finished yet and might be added as dlc in next few years”. They also wont have damage for normal street cars, but only for racing cars.
And what comes to weather effects these news are absolutely poor. They had wet track in GT4 (or was it already in GT3) and it was so much fun to slide around.
carbonfibre
November 19th, 2009 at 19:30
GT6, PS4, same engine, has weather, shorter production time.
Ark
November 19th, 2009 at 21:46
“Far better than what is out there”?
RFactor? No
LFS? No
iRacing? No
GTR 2/Evo/Race? Yes
Forza 3? No
Race Pro? Yes
It doesn’t have to be “far better” than what is out there. There isn’t much “out there”. lol Even a somewhat “poor” weather system is better than absolutely nothing……maybe.
The GT series has supposedly always been the brand that seperates itself from the competition. The addition of night racing is GREAT news, IMO, no night racing (or weather) in Forza 3 completely ruins it for me. Racing ONLY during the day is boring. Weather would make it that much better. On the other hand, if weather degrades so much performance that we would have to start sacrificing things like FSAA, than I would have to put a big NO on the weather.
Personally, I think if the weather systems is in fact done, PD should release a video of it in action and let the community decide if it should be in the game. Perhaps PD could also list what the players would be sacraficing with it’s inclusion (I am not sure if that is plausible).
Either way, I am looking forward to the night racing. Can’t wait until iRacing gets it as well! Good times ahead!
Jos
November 19th, 2009 at 23:32
it has night racing, but does it also day/night cycle?