Course Maker in GT6?

[poumpoum]

I'm hoping for this as well. All we need is a few people to visit their local tracks with a GPS and we could have dozens of new tracks to share. VIR, NJMP, Firebird International, Road Atlanta, Watkins Glen...

I'm dreaming of that since we've seen the pre-order cover

But I d'ont think it's true, my opinion is like R1600Turbo.

 

[eran0004]

I'm hoping for this as well. All we need is a few people to visit their local tracks with a GPS and we could have dozens of new tracks to share. VIR, NJMP, Firebird International, Road Atlanta, Watkins Glen...

We just need to make sure they drive in the dead center of the track
But the question is, does GPS measure altitude? Or would it be a 2-dimensional layout only, mapped to the topography of the course creator location?

 

[analog]

GPS to me means you could use a GPS device to drive on a track with your real car, and then import that data into the game to get a rough version of the track you drove on. Obviously it wouldn't be 100%, but close enough is good for me.

My guess is that you scan the coördinates (which'll include things like elevation changes and obviously distance) of any route you choose to drive with a certain distance limit (and the ability to stop scanning at any point) and your particular driving line on that route becoming the basic outline for a track (which would mean that when recreating an existing race track you'll perhaps have to drive in the middle of the track at all times to get some sort of accuracy) which you can finetune by using the course creator tools

Obviously it won't model your real life route Google Street View style but perhaps there are more scenery options available.
And even though this could be a great gadget offering a lot of possibilities, right now I'm more intrigued by that huge Andalucía map (and maybe there are more like that).

If you can really select a track through those town sections (Citta di Aria style but with far more options) or even have some sort of free roam option instead of it just being scenery (seems a bit too elaborate for that) it could be epic.
In the trailer we see a car slowly driving over that bridge so I believe it could be more than just a backdrop.

 

[CodeName]

I didn't understand how the course maker is gonna be in GT6. I heard locations will be bigger but nothing else... Do you know anything about it???

 

[eran0004]

I didn't understand how the course maker is gonna be in GT6. I heard locations will be bigger but nothing else... Do you know anything about it???

They said it would give users more freedom and control in creating tracks. They didn't specify how though. One guess is that you'll get more parameters to control.

When it comes to that city map it seems like we'll be able to create a track from the existing street layout.

There's also something about a GPS feature, but I have no idea what they meant.

 

[Scaff]

My guess is that you scan the coördinates (which'll include things like elevation changes and obviously distance) of any route you choose to drive with a certain distance limit (and the ability to stop scanning at any point) and your particular driving line on that route becoming the basic outline for a track (which would mean that when recreating an existing race track you'll perhaps have to drive in the middle of the track at all times to get some sort of accuracy) which you can finetune by using the course creator tools

Obviously it won't model your real life route Google Street View style but perhaps there are more scenery options available.
And even though this could be a great gadget offering a lot of possibilities, right now I'm more intrigued by that huge Andalucía map (and maybe there are more like that).

If you can really select a track through those town sections (Citta di Aria style but with far more options) or even have some sort of free roam option instead of it just being scenery (seems a bit too elaborate for that) it could be epic.
In the trailer we see a car slowly driving over that bridge so I believe it could be more than just a backdrop.

Some of this tech is already readily available and cheap as well. I use an OBD2 bluetooth adapter (which cost £10) to connect my cars ECU to my phones (Galaxy S2 or S3 Mini), running an app called Torque (£3).

That allows me to get ECU data on my phone, but also using the phones GPS then overlay that with google maps and get true telemetry overlaid on the exact route.

Now if we could get something like this linked into a course maker, it would be great. Street view and the actual building etc. could be replaced by a theme (as it is at the moment) giveing the ability to turn real routes into tracks and point to points.

 

[poumpoum]

Like you guys I'd like to have this "record track GPS feature", but honestly I don't believe it...
The only one moment Kaz spoke about that was the slide with the Toyota GT 86. In my opinion, the feature will be exactly like R1600Turbo describes it :

"GPS to me means you could use a GPS device to drive on a track with your real car, and then import that data into the game to get a rough version of the track you drove on."

The purpose is to see a virtual replay of what you've done in reality. An I think that, to get the benefits of this feature you'll need an "CAN-ECU" hardware in your car like the one Toyota provides with the GT 86.

I hope I'm wrong.

When it comes to that city map it seems like we'll be able to create a track from the existing street layout.

I'm also quite curious about that ? (nice avatar by the way )

 

[Johnnypenso]

In the launch presentation they said, "tens of square kilometers" of area available for course creation, which indicates to me the area for creating courses is still limited and GPS is not a part of it, otherwise it would have said "unlimited" and been a really dramatic part of the presentation. I think what you will see is iconic countrysides and towns/cities from around the world available for track creation, with much more control over road placements, and individual corners and straights. You'll also see DLC locations available for download.

Make no mistake, this will be a DLC heavy release. My guess is close to $100 DLC in the first year.

 

[eran0004]

I'm also quite curious about that ? (nice avatar by the way )

You too
And on the same track even! And similar time of day?

I think what you will see is iconic countrysides and towns/cities from around the world available for track creation, with much more control over road placements, and individual corners and straights. You'll also see DLC locations available for download.

Location, location, location. I hope those new sceneries will have more environmental details than in GT5. The Ronda location looks promising.

 

[poumpoum]

You too
And on the same track even! And similar time of day?

Sunset at Nurburgring I hope I will drive there this summer

When I look this, I really think that the GPS feature will only be used for replays

 

[MOV Games]

I really hope this improved course maker can make point to point races, but any improvement on it is great for me. I used to use it all the time until the created courses were oddly blocked from being used in Split Screen.

 

[LarryL]

What I'm hoping for is that the game either has a fairly current world GPS map system actually on the disc, or is connected to a simple server based GPS system that we can all use, and it works just like any GPS where we plug in an address or location and it brings up the local road map from that area (houses not included if they actually have a deal with google maps/streets because you know idiots online would show people they're in a fight with where they live, lol), elevation data would be nice too. Then we could just mark out the route on the map we want to transpose into the course creator and the game just kinda lays the route on top of the course creator's scenery.

We'd basically be able to make a course out of our own neighborhoods, or anywhere else in the world that's mapped out by whatever GPS system PD has a deal with. That would be my ultimate fantasy about the GPS course creator integration, though that is being EXTREMELY hopefull and in fact unrealistic....and that is not my actual expectation. That said, I do think what I described is MORE than possible, even on a console game's track creator.

 

[HaylRayzor]

There were really 3 things that pushed me away from the GT5 track creator.

The limited variety of course locations and scenery.

Poor handling of elevation changes, especially at the sector transitions.

The lack of tight corners/hairpins/chicanes.

I hope for those things to be fixed.

I also hope for more control over layouts, although I'm not hung up about making copies of real tracks. I'm happy with making things new and unique.

The best tracks in GT5 (imo) were the Tokyo tracks, but the narrow width and lack of a pit road made them too limited. A Tokyo GP theme would have been a great improvement.

 

[Geoff]

...The Ronda location looks promising.

i had the chance to go there 2 years ago and believe me or not, from the bridge view you have for like 1 sec in the trailer, you can see the hotel i was in ( the Don Miguel )
the area is simply amazing! the valley around the bridge is very deep and gives you a panoramic view on miiiiles around! trully epic!

best part was that i was there to go work ( no holidays here ) ...
...........to the ascari racetrack 👍
it's like 10 mn away from the bridge outside of ronda, in the middle the mountains and again, i've seen a very few racetracks so far in my life but this one, this one is really one of the most beautyfull you could dream of.

 

[analog]

The lack of tight corners/hairpins/chicanes.

You can 'create' very tight corners/hairpins and even chicanes already if you experiment with the settings but you can't really control it.
I've created some very nice tracks by simply experimenting a lot before switching to a new PS3 and found they couldn't be carried over and after that I sort of lost interest to fully dedicate any more time to it, other than casually generating a track on the fly.

Giving us full control over the layout instead of generating stuff would be great, although the biggest downside for any track creator is that you can't really expect to use any track online for serious racing since it's unknown to anyone else but you, unless you use it in private lobbies where everyone eventually gets to know it over time (after downloading it).

I do believe the course creator will expand, there's what we currently have (with more basic themes, scenery options and more possibilities, hopefully full control of the layout), then there's the GPS option which could need a separate kind of platform since importing real life data into premade ingame landscapes might not work (with elevation changes) but maybe I'm wrong.

And then there's that Andalucía map, which to me looks like another element, a premade fully detailed existing map where you have to use the existing roads to define a path or route which becomes a track once selected (at least I hope it works this way).

 

[sinbad]

How has this GPS course generation rumor come about, from the statement which quite clearly explains what the GPS function in the GT86 will offer?

 

[daus26]

In the launch presentation they said, "tens of square kilometers" of area available for course creation, which indicates to me the area for creating courses is still limited and GPS is not a part of it, otherwise it would have said "unlimited" and been a really dramatic part of the presentation. I think what you will see is iconic countrysides and towns/cities from around the world available for track creation, with much more control over road placements, and individual corners and straights. You'll also see DLC locations available for download.

Make no mistake, this will be a DLC heavy release. My guess is close to $100 DLC in the first year.

Agreed all the way. If I were to be on the safe, I'd definitely go with what Kaz actually said about the course maker. To be frank, he said absolutely NOTHING about using your smartphone and GPS system to help aid you in course maker. The only things he mentioned are the available "themes" that spans tens of kilometers and that you can layout your tracks on THOSE streets, not your custom made, local street.

I hope all these wild speculations about GPS data and scanning isn't real or expected, otherwise prepare to be heavily disappointed. If it ends up being true then great.

 

[HaylRayzor]

You can 'create' very tight corners/hairpins and even chicanes already if you experiment with the settings but you can't really control it.

Not so (unless you're talking about the kart themes). In the eifel and toscana themes, you can get "kindof" tight corners, and "sortof" chicanes.

And I don't say this as someone who played with it once. I spent tens of hours making hundreds of tracks.

If you choose a turn tightness setting of 5 you should get a real 1st gear corner.

 

[analog]

Not so (unless you're talking about the kart themes). In the eifel and toscana themes, you can get "kindof" tight corners, and "sortof" chicanes.

And I don't say this as someone who played with it once. I spent tens of hours making hundreds of tracks.

If you choose a turn tightness setting of 5 you should get a real 1st gear corner.

The tightness selecting system isn't really what it's name suggests, it's more a way of making a corner smoother I've found.
However, I did make quite a few tracks (particularly Tuscany but also Eifel) where there were indeed very tight corners (first gear corners indeed).
I also don't think that spending tens of hours necessarily has something to do with it if you for example use the same or similar approach (not saying you did but you seem to get different results than me).

Like I said, I experimented a lot (since nobody seems to really know how it works that seemed the best way) with the section/corner/tightness numbers and all other options in wildly varying combinations (which has a completely different effect depending on theme by the way) and for example I refreshed a lot, worked on one of the newly suggested possibilities and refreshed again, etc. (saved a few I liked inbetween to try out later and carried on) which seems to produce different results than starting from scratch.

I never set out to 'create' a particular type of track as that seemed a pointless and frustrating pursuit with this system but just messing about produced some great results I wouldn't have imagined beforehand.

 

[brycepunk]

Scaff, if we could get something like that... People could not only do real tracks but could create replications of roads. I'd be hooked.

 

[sinbad]

Scaff, if we could get something like that... People could not only do real tracks but could create replications of roads. I'd be hooked.

I still want to see just whatever it was that caused this speculation. The GT86 GPS thing was made perfectly clear. People are reading what they want to see into the words they are reading. It's like me taking the part where Kaz is discussing the customisation and the wheels and deducing that I'll be able to create my own custom wheels to my very own designs.

If this feature did exist, there would have been no ambiguity about it imo.

 

[The_Rpg_Moogle]

I think indeed people's expectations are a bit through the roof! In my opinion the course creator in GT5 was a good start. I'm very excited to see how it has involved and the new features and themes it has. The one thing I really just want to see is more random stuff on the side of the road. All these self made tracks looked empty, that was the only problem with it.

 

[poumpoum]

I still want to see just whatever it was that caused this speculation.

I think that's what you're looking for :

 

[eran0004]

I think that's what you're looking for :

I wonder how legit that picture is though. It's odd that this is the only picture that exists of that flyer (or whatever it is). If it was handed out at the 15th anniversary event, shouldn't there be more pictures of it somewhere?

The only source is @VirtuaMe, which is a Twitter account. But I can't find the picture there. Perhaps I haven't looked properly, but it's suspicious.

 

[poumpoum]

I really think it's a fake even if I hope not

Like you, I've looked everywhere and I didn't find other pictures of this...

 

[sinbad]

Anybody could have knocked that up in 10 minutes, printed it off, photographed it. The fact that it's advertising for pre-orders is just something that makes no sense to hand out at a press event and if, in the unlikely event that they were, we would have seen more than just this image of them, and I think probably someone would have asked about Brands Hatch, if not this GPS track generation thing.

 

[another_jakhole]

I really hope we can transfer our tracks...

This is one of the things I hope for. The transfer of cars is an obvious one.

 

[Griffith500]

I really hope we can transfer our tracks...

This is one of the things I hope for. The transfer of cars is an obvious one.

Since the algorithms will be different, it's not certain. But then again, they changed the algorithms for GT5's course maker in an update, and the older tracks are still driveable (just not editable.)

 

[eran0004]

Anybody could have knocked that up in 10 minutes, printed it off, photographed it. The fact that it's advertising for pre-orders is just something that makes no sense to hand out at a press event and if, in the unlikely event that they were, we would have seen more than just this image of them, and I think probably someone would have asked about Brands Hatch, if not this GPS track generation thing.

Indeed. But after going through the tweets from VirtuaMe it seems like he had this info hours before the presentation. So if it is a fake, it was done by someone who had access to accurate info, because at least 3 out of 4 statements are correct.

 

[Brutaka]

I wonder what would happen if they made a GT game with no tracks but implemented the greatest course maker ever in the game? You could literally replicate all your favorite tracks from real life.
I know this definitely won't happen any time soon, this is just one of my crazy ideas