GT6 ideas for GT Life and Main Menus

Hi everybody!

I hate GT5 life menu. Its boring and it has way too many buttons which clutter everything up.

Also on the main menu where (you spend the least amount of time on) have these scenes playing in the background of your current selected car in certain locations why has PD not used these on the GT-Life menu where you spend most your time on.

So I had an idea of cleaner menu with those scenes playing in the background. I believe something similar can be achieved in a future update.

Here some Ideas I have:

• Cleaner simple menu
• Animated background like the main menu
• Have your current car shown
• More A-spec/B-spec races
• Combine Photo Travel/Replay into one
• Move modifications to GT AUTO
• More events with time/weather change

I made before the Spec 2 update but I never posted them and please ignore the bad photo editing as I made the quickly.

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update : 6/5/12

This is what I think GT6 gt-life menu should look like



quick mock up made from some sketches i posted in this thread.

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update : 7/5/12

Just another quick mock up on a gt6 menu (Loading times I think will not be a problem as I think GT6 will be on the PS4)



Remember guys I am just having a bit of fun here I am no expert on games development. I believe PD could have done a better job when designing a simple, clean interface. I hope to see that desktop/mouse style setup gone for GT6.

Agreed. The menu needs a ton of work. This would be a good start.

I love this! This reminds me of people that mocked up a bunch of examples for Battlefield 3. The developers of BF3 eventually caught sight of them and their popularity and eventually contacted the original creators to help them implement some of the ideas.

Keep up the work!

This inspires me to make my own version of an ideal online lobby GUI.

I agree with you Nismo a lot! It keeps the mind less of a hassle on where to find things, especially when there are too much things to look at in a screen.

Nice Amuro Ray icon Nismo.

Man, I loved those modifications you made. Send them to PD!

Just wish PD spent sometime on the interface. Its GT5's major flaw. Also those anyone remember those cool pre-race start ups GT5P had? those should have also been implemented in GT5. It gave a feel of an official race.

Those look sharp!

O kay, this is some nice stuff.

I'm probably the only person who actually sort of like's GT5's home menu.. That being said, great job on those screens, they're really cool!

Compared to GT3 and GT4 (possible GT1 and GT2, but I've never played them), GT5's menus are too complex and occasionally confusing to use. It's as if PD tried to make them too "fancy."

Instead of the loading black screen and the screen where it has driving options, settings etc, they should make it like NFS Shift 2, where u have ur car and driver and some women...
but instead, have your driver standing next to the car waving with all the other drivers.(this is after u choose ur settings) then when u press start race, it has a camera which goes through the middle of the field, u cant skip it because the race is loading. It would work much better online, as it goes past, each driver has an action that they do and a saying.

It's not so much just the screen that sucks, it's the entire menu system. Having to go 3 or 4 levels deep and then back out all the way to do an oil change, then back in to get to where you were.

Wow great work on those Remade versions of the Main menu's ..well done

Icons are too small, considering most people play far away from the screen using their DS3s.

I think the best solution is to have multiple themes. Customization is (and always has been) the way to go in this videogame genre, having simple yet effective menus but at the same time having lots of room for personal preferences in every aspect of the game.
Also PD could take a look at its current competition (mainly forza4 and shift2) and from older racing sims/games.

As a side note, I think that in GT6 the menu system should be reworked completely since it goes way too deep and in online racing there aren't some crucial menus available.
For example, I think GT auto must be removed completely, including oil change, chassis restoration and so on since those add nothing to the game and are easily one of the most annoying parts of the game (the other one being the UCD). Changing car paint and adding aero parts should be a part of the general tuning options, already available when playing online.
Another suggestion is to add more filters to online lobbies as well, such as stock tires, tuning prohibited, same cars, car types, fixed host, mic disabled, race quality, and so on.

I too am of the opinion that all of the menus, not just GT Life, needs a serious rework. I hope a lot more thought, and ideally, player contributed ideas, go into the GT6 menus.

My biggest gripe, as others have already mentioned, is with GT Auto and the Tuning Shop. I can't imagine how much time I have wasted going back and forth between those two menus and my garage...I would be surprised if I've spent 5-6 hours in the loading time for those menus alone. I am probably one of the few people who actually likes the features located in GT Auto (Oil changes, and the associated brake-in period, rebuilding motors and chassis etc), I just think all customization related things should be located in the same menu.

My second biggest issue is with accessing my garage. I like that, since release, they added the option to access your garage from race selection screens, but I think they need to take that idea farther. I think there should be an "Open Garage" icon located at the bottom of every single menu screen, right beside the "Home" icon. And most importantly, when you close the garage, you are returned to the same menu you were at when you opened the garage. Even better than that would be the ability to map one of the unused shoulder buttons to "Open/Close Garage".

Third, I'd like to see the "settings" menu tweaked. The overall design is ok, but the mouse movements really bug me. I know that they have been slightly improved since release, but still, the mouse ends up going to places that I did not intend it to go, and worse, when you move too far past where you want to go, if you try to make one move back, you don't end up where you came from. I end up chasing the bloody mouse all over the screen (vertical movement is actually ok, but horizontal movement is pretty bad).

A few other things I would really like to see is the ability to manually rotate cars in the garage and showroom, along with in any visual modification menu (paint, rims, aero).

When in the "settings" menu in either an off or online race, I would like to be able to see how many miles are on the car (or have a working odometer in the actual cockpit).

I also think we need more options in the pause menu while in a race, or in the pre-race menu. We should be able to access audio, visual, and general options without having to exit all the way out to the main menu.

Garage organization needs a good amount of thought put into it. I'm not exactly sure how to go about making things better, as I am unsure if there are some technical limitations that would effect garage organizing. That said, I would really like the ability for the user to sort cars into any sub-garage that they wish to create.

Lastly, the paint system needs to shipped to the moon ala Tom Cruise in South Park, but that pretty much goes without saying. Again, I'm probably one of the strange few who actually likes the paint chip system. I like unlocking and hunting for specific manufacturer colours, as well as rare colours (mattes, colour shift etc). But I think the paint chip system should be implemented along side a colour customization/creation system. And we need to be able to see one use paint chips on the car/rims before we use it. I'm quite baffled how the current system made it through testing. Are the testers actually people who put more than a few hours into a GT installment?...seriously, c'mon man!

@ OP,
I really like the screens you've come up with, and I think you've got some great ideas going there. Definitely on the right track.

However, and not saying that your designs would necessarily cause this, just a general thought - I would much rather see simple, streamlined, effective, fast, smooth flowing menus, as opposed to fancy, visually spectacular, but require a longer time to load, menus. Ideally, I would like to see zero loading time between any menu, going either forwards or backwards (except loading to the race menu, that I can live with).

Anyways...just my two cents. Sorry for the wall-o-text lol

I liked GT5p's menu with the weather reports from different cities and that cool looking map. Haven't seen it in forever though.

BWX

I liked GT5p's menu with the weather reports from different cities and that cool looking map. Haven't seen it in forever though.

Click to expand...

Yeah I agree, much prefere GT5p menu.

I just worked with PD orignal menu and Icons and see what I can come up with. I have some sketchies but I thought it be more intresting to see what i could do with paint.net

@twitcher

I also agree with you on the whole simple streamlined menu, I really like Forza 3 menu but hated the white background.

twitcher

I like that, since release, they added the option to access your garage from race selection screens, but I think they need to take that idea farther. I think there should be an "Open Garage" icon located at the bottom of every single menu screen, right beside the "Home" icon. And most importantly, when you close the garage, you are returned to the same menu you were at when you opened the garage. Even better than that would be the ability to map one of the unused shoulder buttons to "Open/Close Garage".

Click to expand...

👍

And/or go back to GT1 and 2 we had shortcut buttons to the race screen, garage etc no matter where in the menu system we were.

After reading the replies in this thread, im looking forward to see what menu's you made.
(The pictures are blocked at work. -.- 🤬)

Firstly, nice work on the mock-ups Nismo!

Now onto my reply -

I know everyone would like to see an overhaul of the GT5 menu system but truth be told it's never going to happen since the menu system is the front-end of the game and more importantly, embed into the games mainline code. It would hurt the end user (us), if we were to receive such a thing, since it would be well in the size of 1.0GB download, possibly even more! I like the mock-ups a lot, but we could extend this idea even further. I'll have a go myself later on I think.

What PD has to do, is peel-back the menus right back to the bare code. Then rework it. Merge the GT Auto menu with the Tuning Menu, all the car dealerships together and then split them into sub menus. My gripe really is just the layer deep menus, and then having to back-out every single one, when they can easily implement the "Home" as a shortcut into the UI.

Really the best way for me to explain what idea I have is to go make a mock-up... I'll post back here when I'm done. >.<

Will27

👍

And/or go back to GT1 and 2 we had shortcut buttons to the race screen, garage etc no matter where in the menu system we were.

Click to expand...

I like the idea but adding more buttons to the menu clutter things up. Having a "quick options" tied to the select button which can be accessed on every screen will solve the clutter.

Although I think that the menus could be done better in a number of ways, I'm not convinced by what the OP is proposing. It looks fine as a screenshot, but basically you're suggesting making all items smaller to be able to look at some picture (or animation) in the background.

You can do that as long as you're sitting close to the TV and your screen resolution is big enough. If not, well, then it's just a waste of space.

Also: Bear in mind how long the animations need to load in the starting screen. You want to endure that in GT Life where everyone's annoyed by long menu loading times already??

The primary function of the GT Life-Desktop is to choose what you want to do. And I think there's nothing wrong with the overall concept that PD has chosen.

The execution is what's a little bit flawed, because the online icons (Lobby, Seasonals, OCD) basically sit there like they weren't planned and someone just had to fit them in somehow afterwards. The size of the different icons is also somewhat debatable.

But all in all, I think they should stick to using the whole screen as navigation, only reorganize the icons a bit.


What really needs some reorganization is the track-navigation in Practice!!

snowgt

Although I think that the menus could be done better in a number of ways, I'm not convinced by what the OP is proposing. It looks fine as a screenshot, but basically you're suggesting making all items smaller to be able to look at some picture (or animation) in the background.

You can do that as long as you're sitting close to the TV and your screen resolution is big enough. If not, well, then it's just a waste of space.

Also: Bear in mind how long the animations need to load in the starting screen. You want to endure that in GT Life where everyone's annoyed by long menu loading times already??

The primary function of the GT Life-Desktop is to choose what you want to do. And I think there's nothing wrong with the overall concept that PD has chosen.

The execution is what's a little bit flawed, because the online icons (Lobby, Seasonals, OCD) basically sit there like they weren't planned and someone just had to fit them in somehow afterwards. The size of the different icons is also somewhat debatable.

But all in all, I think they should stick to using the whole screen as navigation, only reorganize the icons a bit.


What really needs some reorganization is the track-navigation in Practice!!

Click to expand...

I understand where your coming from, Its just that I prefer an interesting interface rather than having buttons scattered all over the screen. I have sketched a few ideas just using a similer layout(desktop look) that PD had done but a lot more cleaner, I only posted these screenshots as they had colour to them.

Also those screenshots are just ideas to make the GTlife interface more interesting and combine a lot of the options into single option.

NISMO_GTR_

Hi everybody!

I hate GT5 life menu. Its boring and it has way too many buttons which clutter everything up.

Also on the main menu where (you spend the least amount of time on) have these scenes playing in the background of your current selected car in certain locations why has PD not used these on the GT-Life menu where you spend most your time on.

So I had an idea of cleaner menu with those scenes playing in the background. I believe something similar can be achieved in a future update.

Here some Ideas I have:

• Cleaner simple menu
• Animated background like the main menu
• Have your current car shown
• More A-spec/B-spec races
• Combine Photo Travel/Replay into one
• Move modifications to GT AUTO
• More events with time/weather change

I made before the Spec 2 update but I never posted them and please ignore the bad photo editing as I made the quickly.

Click to expand...

You made these? These are incredible looking! You did a really great job. I wish GT5 used your idea's.

Forza 4 already does something very similar to this, and it works out just fine. Polyphony Digital just badly needs to optimize the game better. Even after a few dozen patches, it's still obvious that GT5 was a rushed job, and if we get GT6 on the PS3, i'm sure it'll perform much better.

nascarmaniaco99

man, i loved those modifications you made. Send them to pd!

Click to expand...

+1

Will27

👍

And/or go back to GT1 and 2 we had shortcut buttons to the race screen, garage etc no matter where in the menu system we were.

Click to expand...

Yes! I thought about that after I posted, and I think that would be the best solution. There should be a "menu bar" either at the bottom or side of every menu, with icons such as "Home", "Race", "Tuning Shop" etc etc. That way, you can access pretty much any menu from anywhere in the game, no need to back out to the home screen.

I still think having the garage mapped to a button would work beautifully though.

Edit: just remembered something else I would love to see.

Allow menu navigation with the RIGHT STICK, as well as the left and d-pad. As silly as this sounds, it would allow players to navigate the menu system with only one hand on the ds3. Why would I want this? I spend a ridiculous amount of time surfing the menus, whether it's tuning, painting, shopping for cars etc...and while I'm doing that, I like to do other things as well, like eating, drinking, surfing the Internet, scratching my ....the list goes on and on. Anyone else with me on this idea?

I think that might be a pretty simple thing for PD to implement in gt5, whereas that previous poster pointed out, some of the other menu changes would more than likely have to wait until GT6.

I miss the GT4 menu. It was clunky also, but visually it was interesting and made it seem the game actually had a "living world" vibe to it.

BWX

I liked GT5p's menu with the weather reports from different cities and that cool looking map. Haven't seen it in forever though.

Click to expand...

Same here

Ah mate that first picture is inspired (the pic with the 200sx and the Blue Driver). If gt6 is exactly like that setup I would be delighted. It has always been a niggling annoyance to me why PD placed all of their beautiful cut scenes into an area you will always skip by. GT5P had a wonderful gt life page that would show different cut scenes while you were deciding what to do. The current Gt Life screen gets so boring, Its like GT5 was so close to being a truly brilliant game. Little issues like organization is probably why the reviews were low for a GT game. Kaz knows this and GT6 will be increadable I bet.

Now I think about it I miss the little weather updates and local time clocks from around the world that we had in Prologue. I'd love for that to come back. Oh look it is snowing at Hockenheim