Gran Turismo 7 Update 1.31 is Now Available

[Pulsar-NX]

The Porsches are lovely.

The Alphard is hilarious.

120hz VRR is 😍

 

[Canucks_9419]

Boy does Unreal Engine 5 ever  not have anything to do with this update!

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

I loved driving the 959, the Alphard felt faster than expected.

Also, did the sounds get an update too? I'm driving the GT-R GT3 to grind on La Sarthe again and I swear the turbos and shifting sound are louder than the last time I drove it.

 

[Abelardo]

Can VRR be used at 60hz on a compatible TV?
What improvement do I get with VRR at 60 hz??
The resolution is lowered when activating VRR in GT7 ???

 

[Artremis]

Can VRR be used at 60hz on a compatible TV?
What improvement do I get with VRR at 60 hz??
The resolution is lowered when activating VRR in GT7 ???

As long as your TV / Monitor supports VRR over HDMI 2.1, you can use it in the game by enabling it on the PS5's settings. There's no lower resolution or quality at 60hz, you'll simply have VRR to smooth out those sub-60FPS drops that can happen in heavy scenes.

 

[AllMightyVTEC]

Some say it has the sound of the Audi S1 Quattro which has 5 cylinders but the RS5 DTM has 4 cylinders.

It does have the Quattro sound file. That’s not right. On the same topic the 904 has the wrong sound file as well, given it should sound like a 4 cylinder and it had 180 hp in game, but it sounds like a flat6, which I know it had in some configurations but not in the one it’s presented as in the game

 

[Abelardo]

As long as your TV / Monitor supports VRR over HDMI 2.1, you can use it in the game by enabling it on the PS5's settings. There's no lower resolution or quality at 60hz, you'll simply have VRR to smooth out those sub-60FPS drops that can happen in heavy scenes.

Using VRR at 60hz in GT7 would avoid frame drops in replays in Performance Mode at 60fps?

 

[DJShadesUK]

Sadly this update has done nothing to quell my niggling doubts about Kaz's continued leadership of PD.

While the update has "fixed" some of the more bizarre aspects of vehicle handling I suspect they've achieved this by largely reverting wholesale back to the physics engine of GT Sport in addition to almost certainly reverting back to GT Sport BoP settings. However, to make matters worse a combination of changes to the tyre model (more under and oversteer!) and the algorithm for controller steering (much slower) has generally made lap times slower than even GT Sport!

Gr.3 WRX. BoP on, no tuning, RS tyres, ABS on, auto gears, no assists. Also, DS4 with right stick throttle/brake and cockpit view:

	GT Sport	GT 7 (1.30)	GT 7 (1.31)
Nurb Nord	6:28	6:24	6:33*
Alsace Village	1:49	1:48	1:51
Mount Panorama	2:00	1:59	2:01

* Top speeds along certain fast sections where tyre grip, downforce and steering sensitivity make no difference, completely align with GT Sport, hence why I believe PD have gone back to GT Sports BoP.


Gr.3 Mustang. BoP on, no tuning, RS tyres, ABS on, no assists. Also, DS4 with right stick throttle/brake and cockpit view:

	GT Sport	GT 7 (1.30)	GT 7 (1.31)
Tokyo Expressway - South Counterclockwise	N/A*	1:53	1:56
Deep Forest	N/A**	1:24	1:26

* I used to run the Gr.3 Lambo here but switched to the Mustang so don't have a comparable time.
** for obvious reasons.

This wholesale change suggests, to me at least, that there was something fundamentally wrong with the physics engine up to 1.30. In fact, I would go as far as to say there was definitely something fundamentally wrong with the physics engine on account of the sheer amount of people I saw completely ignoring apexes by going into a corner way deep, turning as sharply as possible, powering out of the corner and still pulling away!

 

[Tired Tyres]

I can't believe you're right, but you're right! We have a full day/night cycle on the 24h layout, but not on the Sprint and Endurance layouts. I'm now here thinking... why? What kind of technical limitation is that?

The Sprint can go to 9 p.m and the Endurance can go to 10 p.m. It's so weird because the sky, the sun and the lighting is already there for the 24h variant.

The type V track only races during the day.

 

[Artremis]

Using VRR at 60hz in GT7 would avoid frame drops in replays in Performance Mode at 60fps?

The framedrops would still happen, but they will be less noticeable due to VRR being engaged. On a simplified way, with VRR disabled the game has a 16ms window to present a new frame to the display, and if it misses that frame (say, it takes 18ms to render it), then the monitor will not present a new frame until the next 16ms window, causing a noticeable framedrop as you had a 33ms time period without the display updating. With VRR this 16ms window is dynamic (with ranges depending on your TV itself), so when the game misses the 16ms window, the monitor can still display it at 18ms, and while there will still be less than 60FPS, the difference between preseting a frame at 16ms and 18ms basically imperceptible for one-off frames.

 

[Nathan88]

I loved driving the 959, the Alphard felt faster than expected.

Also, did the sounds get an update too? I'm driving the GT-R GT3 to grind on La Sarthe again and I swear the turbos and shifting sound are louder than the last time I drove it.

The 918 has a different sound (or maybe just louder?), seems to be something to do with the hybrid coming in. Not sure if it's a mechanical 'click', or a pop from the exhaust.

 

[Dave A]

You can and most devs do create custom pipelines within unreal. Nanite absolutely can run at 60fps. Their car models could be directly imported into unreal 5 and look far better in action as they wouldn't have all of the LOD issues.

Of course you could use UE5 for a Gran Turismo style racing game on PS4/5, but there's nothing to suggest it will look better than what we have. Ignore the tech demos and look at practical applications like Lyra:

Mortal Online:

The Bus:

Rennsport:

As you can see, results vary. UE5 isn't some magic wand that just makes amazing looking games with no pop in or jarring LOD changes.

Sure, it can make great looking games, the ones above aren't too shabby for the most part, but you're looking at wildly different hardware specs to run the above games and the PS5 cannot replicate the higher spec PC's anymore.

Given the work involved in converting to a new engine and integrating your own physics systems etc. into that engine, I'm not sure PD would deem it worthwhile when the final result might not be all that different if indeed better at all.

It's all well and good using tech demos but the specs they're running on are immense. As for The Matrix Awakens, yes it looks great, but does it really look better than GT7 on PS5 when running on the PS5?

 

[Freeman_Cruz]

I don't think you've researched unreal 5. Nanite works best on rigid bodies like cars and scenery. You can create one highly detailed model and it will automatically take those billions of triangles and only use those that are required for the highest possible quality so you literally will never have an LOD transition. That is perfect for a racing game.

Of course you could use UE5 for a Gran Turismo style racing game on PS4/5, but there's nothing to suggest it will look better than what we have. Ignore the tech demos and look at practical applications like Lyra:

Mortal Online:

The Bus:

Rennsport:

As you can see, results vary. UE5 isn't some magic wand that just makes amazing looking games with no pop in or jarring LOD changes.

Sure, it can make great looking games, the ones above aren't too chabby for the most part, but you're looking at wildly different hardware specs to run the above games and the PS5 cannot replicate the higher spec PC's anymore.

Given the work involved in converting to a new engine and integrating your own physics systems etc. into that engine, I'm not sure PD would deem it worthwhile when the final result might not be all that different if indeed better at all.

It's all well and good using tech demos but the specs they're running on are immense. As for The Matrix Awakens, yes it looks great, but does it really look better than GT7 on PS5 when running on the PS5?

Rennsport beta in UE5 has quite noticable shadow pop-in

 

[Magog]

Of course you could use UE5 for a Gran Turismo style racing game on PS4/5, but there's nothing to suggest it will look better than what we have. Ignore the tech demos and look at practical applications like Lyra:

Mortal Online:

The Bus:

Rennsport:

As you can see, results vary. UE5 isn't some magic wand that just makes amazing looking games with no pop in or jarring LOD changes.

Sure, it can make great looking games, the ones above aren't too chabby for the most part, but you're looking at wildly different hardware specs to run the above games and the PS5 cannot replicate the higher spec PC's anymore.

Given the work involved in converting to a new engine and integrating your own physics systems etc. into that engine, I'm not sure PD would deem it worthwhile when the final result might not be all that different if indeed better at all.

It's all well and good using tech demos but the specs they're running on are immense. As for The Matrix Awakens, yes it looks great, but does it really look better than GT7 on PS5 when running on the PS5?

Yes. The Matrix looks better on PS5 than any other game on the PS5 and it's not even really close. UE5 is still a work in progress. They are still releasing new modules for it. By the time GT8 is due polyphony's own engine is going to look extraordinarily dated in comparison and frankly it already does. You may get occasional geometry pop-in with UE5 in those low budget games you've shown but you absolutely won't get any noticeable LOD transitions which would be huge. The lighting and materials demos they have shown are also far in advance of GT7 or any game released thus far.

 

[hyperspeed980]

It does have the Quattro sound file. That’s not right. On the same topic the 904 has the wrong sound file as well, given it should sound like a 4 cylinder and it had 180 hp in game, but it sounds like a flat6, which I know it had in some configurations but not in the one it’s presented as in the game

The situation with the 904 and RS5's sounds is interesting - it seems like they've taken a flat-6 and inline-5 sound file respectively, and pitched them to sound like their actual engines would at that RPM. It's a lot like the Honda Beat, which has an I3 engine, but in-game sounds like an I4 pitched to how an I3 would sound at that RPM.

Although equipping the racing exhaust completely fixes the 904 and Beat.

 

[platocplx]

Although I agree with you, Kunos used UE4 in ACC. So it’s doable. Granted they said they will use a custom engine for AC2 so maybe it didn’t go as expected.

Migrating to mainstream engines has the benefit of being easier to hire devs, but nothing will come close to a custom engine. They need to customise UE4/5 so much that at some point it’s a custom engine on top of UE.

Pretty much you prove the point since they went custom as well.

 

[Dave A]

Yes. The Matrix looks better on PS5 than any other game on the PS5 and it's not even really close. UE5 is still a work in progress. They are still releasing new modules for it. By the time GT8 is due polyphony's own engine is going to look extraordinarily dated in comparison and frankly it already does. You may get occasional geometry pop-in with UE5 in those low budget games you've shown but you absolutely won't get any noticeable LOD transitions which would be huge. The lighting and materials demos they have shown are also far in advance of GT7 or any game released thus far.

Really, you really think the Matrix Awakens is by far and away the best looking game on PS5? It's a good looking game, but at a glace you can see how many fewer polys are bing used in the cars and the buildings are pretty basic shapes. The textures are good, the lighting is very Matrix, but the actual PS5 version is running much simpler graphics than GT7 is.

There is no magic wand that can do what you are suggesting UE5 would acheive if PD just used that. If it was that good why isn't everyone using it for everything? Because like everything it'll be great at certain things, less great at others and there's a tradeoff on a technical and a practical level for using it over any existing engine.

 

[Arkseven]

The chase cam for the Alphard is horrible. I was expecting to be higher. Right now it's way too low

I did a custom one-make race with this car on Tokyo and it's actually pretty fun. I bet with the right tune it can be competitive at Le Mans. It sound so gound with the Sports silencer!

 

[Galvston]

Yes. The Matrix looks better on PS5 than any other game on the PS5 and it's not even really close. UE5 is still a work in progress. They are still releasing new modules for it. By the time GT8 is due polyphony's own engine is going to look extraordinarily dated in comparison and frankly it already does. You may get occasional geometry pop-in with UE5 in those low budget games you've shown but you absolutely won't get any noticeable LOD transitions which would be huge. The lighting and materials demos they have shown are also far in advance of GT7 or any game released thus far.

I don't know about that. The IQ that was needed to run Matrix on consoles, in my opinion is really bad. Plus, it ran at 25-30fps. I prefer GT7's look.

I played Matrix on the C1, the first sequences were nice but the open world looks quite blurry at times. It's their temporal upscaling solution. I think UE5 could really come forward for the PS5 Pro, too. For PS5 i'm not exactly sure.

Fortnite is UE5 now, but it looked better when the UE5 patch came about a few months ago, than now, where they have optimized it a little more for performance, and now you get vegetation pop-in and LOD transitions, even while using nanite.

 

[Magog]

Really, you really think the Matrix Awakens is by far and away the best looking game on PS5? It's a good looking game, but at a glace you can see how many fewer polys are bing used in the cars and the buildings are pretty basic shapes. The textures are good, the lighting is very Matrix, but the actual PS5 version is running much simpler graphics than GT7 is.

There is no magic wand that can do what you are suggesting UE5 would acheive if PD just used that. If it was that good why isn't everyone using it for everything? Beucase like everything it'll be great at certain things, less great at others and there's a tradeoff on a technical and a practical level for using it over any existing engine.

You think the environments in GT7 have more polygons? Just no. The textures are also far far better in the Matrix. The car models look better in GT7 but that is more down to the time spent on the models not the technology behind it. Why isn't everyone using it? Because UE4 wasn't quite up to doing everything every first party wanted to do but UE5 is and then some.

As to what this has to do with the update the slowdown now present shows how their current engine has surpassed it's limits and for what? It doesn't look much different on the PS5 than the PS4 besides resolution. It shouldn't be struggling like it is.

 

[Boxster]

The chase cam for the Alphard is horrible. I was expecting to be higher. Right now it's way too low

I did a custom one-make race with this car on Tokyo and it's actually pretty fun. I bet with the right tune it can be competitive at Le Mans. It sound so gound with the Sports silencer!

So you now see what I already thought right from the start: it's got a bland fat a$$ 😂

 

[Artremis]

"UE5" by itself means very little. A game can be on UE5 and not utilize Nanite, Lumen, or any new feature and it will be pretty much indistinguishable from an UE4 game, but it's fair to say that if Polyphony utilized these techniques the quality achieved would be far higher than what their engine can do at the moment.

It's a pointless discussion because they won't abandon their engine, the best we can hope is that they develop alternatives. Some microgeometry alternative to Nanite in particular would seem like the most obvious thing to do considering the level of detail they pack into these cars, for lighting I don't really care as long as it's something that works across all tracks and all times of day unlike what they do now.

 

[Magog]

I don't know about that. The IQ that was needed to run Matrix on consoles, in my opinion is really bad. Plus, it ran at 25-30fps. I prefer GT7's look.

I played Matrix on the C1, the first sequences were nice but the open world looks quite blurry at times. It's their temporal upscaling solution. I think UE5 could really come forward for the PS5 Pro, too. For PS5 i'm not exactly sure.

Fortnite is UE5 now, but it looked better when the UE5 patch came about a few months ago, than now, where they have optimized it a little more for performance, and now you get vegetation pop-in and LOD transitions, even while using nanite.

The "bluriness" was a choice. The motion blur makes it all look far more realistic. Soft things like swaying vegetation can't use Nanite as I understand it so you may get LOD changes but that doesn't apply to much in Gran Turismo.

 

[Dave A]

Why isn't everyone using it? Because UE4 wasn't quite up to doing everything every first party wanted to do but UE5 is and then some.

So, why isn't everyone using it again? If it can do everything any developer wanted and then some, why isn't everyone using it now they have access to it should they want to? You are a talking contradiction here. Because UE4 isn't an answer to that question.

What you can do with UE5 will be heavily dictated by the hardware you are developing for. Much like any game engine worth its weight. It's a great engine on the surface, but I think your expectations for it are somewhat unrealistic. If it were the silver bullet for everything, every new game would be being developed on it.

 

[thenardo55]

Yeah I'm noticing severe framerate dips on pretty much all tracks. Not sure what's going on, VRR off btw.

I also have this problem when using Prioritize Frame Rate + 60hz graphic setting.

Framerate is less stable than before, especially if there are many cars on screen at the same time.

 

[Bojador]

Pretty much you prove the point since they went custom as well.

I know. Just saying it’s not as ridiculous as some people are saying.

 

[Suzuki-Cara]

I tried both the Alphard and the Mazda 3, and turns out the Alphard is one second slower, but for a minivan, it's pretty damn fast, if you ask me. Just imagine a minivan being able to beat a hatchback just like that.

The Mazda 3 is surprisingly fun to drive, too.

Haven't tried the 959 with slicks, but that thing cheeses the historic car races ezpz.

 

[Artremis]

The "bluriness" was a choice. The motion blur makes it all look far more realistic. Soft things like swaying vegetation can't use Nanite as I understand it so you may get LOD changes but that doesn't apply to much in Gran Turismo.

The motion blur was a choice, the sub 1440p internal resolution was a neccesity to hit a filmsy 30FPS target, let alone 60 like you would need on a racing game. Though to be fair, that was a much earlier version of UE5 than the one available today, using heavy settings like hardware acceleration for Lumen which are not required to get great-looking results.

Also, UE5.2 actually supports Nanite for vegetation now but it's hard to tell how well it could perform on a console instead of a high-end PC.

 

[Magog]

"UE5" by itself means very little. A game can be on UE5 and not utilize Nanite, Lumen, or any new feature and it will be pretty much indistinguishable from an UE4 game, but it's fair to say that if Polyphony utilized these techniques the quality achieved would be far higher than what their engine can do at the moment.

It's a pointless discussion because they won't abandon their engine, the best we can hope is that they develop alternatives. Some microgeometry alternative to Nanite in particular would seem like the most obvious thing to do considering the level of detail they pack into these cars, for lighting I don't really care as long as it's something that works across all tracks and all times of day unlike what they do now.

That's half my point. Why should they spend years trying to copy something that already exists? Sony has invested millions into Epic for that very reason. Whatever solution they come up with will probably be half assed and cobbled together like their weird lighting solution which severely limits gameplay limiting weather and lighting changes to certain tracks. It's probably also what is keeping them from making a track editor as they can't bake in lighting to a custom track the way they do to the ones they design.

 

[samppa_944]

Not sure yet what to think of the bop and physics changes. But they friggin FINALLY got rid of the snap oversteer on some MR cars. Tried the Deep forest a few laps with the Huracan GT3. You go off the throttle at the tough hairpin and car doesn't snap you to death anymore. So well done PD on that part 🤝