GT Series and PD History "For Dummies"

[another_jakhole]

This post was made a couple months ago when I was replying to someone's post. I decided to hold off on it.

There are a lot of things that I haven't included about the history of this series, so don't think this is all there is to it. This isn't all that much, actually.


__________________
1one

Are there any car makers that won’t be appearing in GT5 that you’d like to see in GT6?

GT5 will have a few historic models in it, but looking back at automotive history there are a lot of cars that would be nice to have. I couldn’t narrow it down to one manufacturer, but Porsche is definitely at the top of my wish list.

2two

In another vein, we also discussed the balance that had to be constantly juggled in the development of Gran Turismo. On the one hand, an easy game anyone can play, and other, the harsh realism of simulation. According to Yamauchi, both must be present in a game of this nature, but it is difficult to combine in an elegant and convincing way. He said that within the first 20 seconds of first contact with the game, you can see that something has changed. You can feel that balance. He also told us that the demo version that was installed on both the Tokyo Game Show and the booths present at the premises of the company lacked the latest damage build. It is a feature in which they are still working on, car to car. Just thinking about it makes you giddy.

3three

The game boasts more than 1,000 real cars. How long does it take to construct one car from start to finish?

"For a premium model in which even the interior is completely re-created, it takes six months for one car. For a standard model, it takes around four weeks."

"At one of the desks, there was a guy touching up details on the complex model of a Ferrari. It was a delight to see him work, slightly altering the model in three dimensions using high tech design tools. Yamauchi said that within the total time of game development, modeling cars has consumed 60 percent of available resources (edit - this interview was made over a year before GT5 released). Without doubt, they have wanted to give this issue top priority, and it was revealed in the space occupied by the modeling division, well over half the total team."

4four
Dec. 2007

How long did it take to model all the cars?

Yamauchi: A designer spends roughly 6 months in average. 50 cars are 300 months. That's 25 years. The tracks are a lot more work. It's longer than a year each. We have 30 people working on the tracks.

5five

"Yamauchi began to speak, first concerning the portable version of Gran Turismo, GTPSP. The first thing mentioned is that it was a challenge to develop something as big as a GT for a machine so small. They had to redesign many aspects of the game, and come up with new methodologies to take advantage of the technology of the handheld."

"He also said he was particularly proud that the modeling of the cars comes from the PlayStation 3 version and not previous versions. Clearly this aspect has been simplified so that PSP can represent them on screen, but that’s the only change. All details are there, even the interiors."

6six

"Yamauchi then went on to reel off a string of various aspects of game development that have caused the fans to suffer bitterly through such lengthy delays. Nearly all belonged to the technical aspect of Gran Turismo 5, due to the proverbial search for perfection in which the sensei is famous for worldwide."

"And then it was time for the detailed figures. In the final game will be over 950 cars and 20 circuits. Various configurations of these increase the total to more than 70 tracks. How different from those 178 vehicles and 11 circuits of the first version of the game that started it all, I thought to myself. And especially, the difference between the two versions in the case of polygon count. Unlike, for example, the time constraints which forced the development team to reduce the 650 cars of Gran Turismo 2 (released two full years after GT1) for PlayStation to just over 150 for Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec (released one and a half years after GT2) for PS2. For reference, consider this: the last game for the PS2, GT4 (released three and a half years after GT3), had more than 700 cars and 51 race courses."

All about GT4

"Some of the cars are multiple variations on a single base model; there are 20 different Subaru Imprezas and Legacies, 25 Mitsubishi Lancer/Lancer Evolutions, and 48 Nissan Skylines, including the Nissan GT-R Proto. (edit - Duplicates much?)

"Much of the recent news about GT4 has focused on disappointment - the promised online mode has been deleted. For now. Sad, but don't get too caught up in that. There's plenty to celebrate. No other driving game - possibly no game full stop - has ever been created with such scope, depth and ambition. It's huge. It will be huge. And, for the first time since the series began, a lot of it is genuinely new.

"All previous GTs had the same physics model (with a few tweaks), but GT4's has been built from scratch. We've tested it at length and can tell you it's at once instantly recognisable and completely refreshed.

"Polyphony is claiming an enormous 650 cars, of which 450 are new. Well, new to the game - although it focuses mostly on the '80s and '90s, the selection runs from now all the way back to 1945.

"When you know that it takes one designer a month to create one car, and there are 650 cars, you begin to understand the delay.."

Forget the "man-hours" per Premium every 3-6 months that a lot of you thought it was. ONE person is assigned to work on virtually replicating ONE car for the next approximate six months.

7seven
"In GT and GT2, both for PS1, a designer spent a day (edit - Kaz has said it took 1 week each for GT2) to model a car. In GT3 and GT4, for PS2, the same worker spent a month (edit - I read from Kaz elsewhere that it was 2 weeks for GT3 and 1 month for GT4 car models; GT4 + Tourist Trophy were the only PS2 games that could render gameplay in 1080i) modeling the same car due to the increased amount of polygons. In GT5 for PS3, they require six months to do the same job," Yamauchi explained.

8eight

“With PS3, we finally have the power we need to turn our ideas into reality. Before PS3, our ability to create vehicles with the desired visual quality was limited by the hardware. Now we can really obsess over every little detail to the extent that over-obsessing is now our concern…. (Laughs) Apart from real-world vehicles, the cars in GT5P are probably the most precisely engineered in the world.”

The cars have forms that could be mistaken for real-world models. Does GT5P represent the ultimate in realism?

“No. I’m sure we haven’t reached that stage yet. We need to be more modest about what we’ve accomplished thus far, and continue to proactively move forward to explore the power of nature and physics so that we can reproduce cars perfectly. Not even PS3 has the capacity for that. We’d need a performance boost of around four orders of magnitude” (Laughs).

Recreating the Vast Natural Vistas of the Eiger Nordwand a Daunting Task

Hiroshi Samatsu worked on the racecourse design and played a central role in the design of the course on the North Face of the Eiger. “My challenge was to achieve sufficient intensity in the local photographic material to match the improved image quality of PS3. The Eiger is closed to vehicle traffic, so I had to climb the mountain on foot and use a helicopter to obtain photographs of the 4,000 meter peak. Changeable weather conditions further complicated the task of capturing the best possible pictures.

9nine

The GT games are known for their meticulous realism and accuracy. Have you ever been agonizing about some minute detail—like, say, the sound a windshield wiper makes on a 2003 Mustang Cobra—and thought to yourself, Okay, now we’re just being silly?

I think if you look through GT5, you might find in many places that we’ve gotten “silly.” I think that over-the-top attitude is what gives Gran Turismo its character. We don’t want something that is just well made; we want to make it something that makes you feel a bit of crazy madness.

edit - https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?p=5939862#post5939862

10ten

How did you first get into cars and games?
I remember falling in love with cars back when I was about three. I got into video games when my parents bought me a computer; I was around ten years old, I think.

How did the Gran Turismo series come about?
I've always liked racing games. When I was around 15 years old it just came to me as an idea of a race game I wanted to play. A game in which there would be an accurate physics simulation and, of course, real-world cars.

How did you map out the TopGear test track on Gran Turismo 5?
We had a helicopter taking aerial photographs of the circuit, and had ground crews taking photos and measurements of the track all the way around. It took about three to four days to finish the whole thing.

What did you think of the TG track?
I tried driving it myself, but it's really hard to find the driving line. It's so wide that it becomes difficult to find markers and visual points. It was only after I sat with the Stig as a passenger that I finally realised where all the turn-in points and the correct driving lines were.

Did you drive the Reasonably Priced Car?
No.

Were you faster than the Stig?
[Laughs] Not at all, actually. However, I didn't really have an opportunity to go all out on the test track either, so...

Why did you include the TopGear test track?
Simply because the TopGear programme is so funny and interesting!

https://www.gtplanet.net/clarkson-meets-yamauchi-wearing-offensive-t-shirt/

http://www.psu.com/forums/showthread.php/168883-This-is-how-the-guys-at-Polyphony-Digital-work

I guess it's true what they say. If you love what you do, it's not really work. Which might explain why almost every desk at Polyphony has a cot or sleeping bag underneath. And even when it doesn't...

they improvise.

What's the next step for Gran Turismo?
[Laughs] We'll be able to show you something some time in the future. I want people to experience it to find out...

edit - A lot of these things are implicit in that they let people know about the way PD works.
With, "I want people to experience it to find out...", it clears up the thing about people somehow DEMANDING that Kaz needs to tells us what's next. As some of us realize, Turn 10 people look at this forum for ways to bring the features and content that we want into FM4. It's one of the reasons why I don't care about the lack of "hey! this is what we're bringing to GT next!" tweets and information on the official GT site.



I'll just add some of the videos that I've kept of GT over the past year and a half.

The music of the video and detail of the track sum up GT (to me).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUtmlf2ZFdQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7keKVJerK4

Only true about Jann and Lucas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=6-D4C9lBMFo#t=101s

 

[another_jakhole]

I'll keep "updating" it.

I added a lot (a bit) in the past half hour.


http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/yamuchi-gt5-not-using-all-ps3s-power


This thread is for the people who think a certain way that makes them think I only defend PD. The last paragraphs in that link are good ones to sort of prove wrong one of the things some people wrongfully believe.


and

Gran Turismo has come a long way since its humble origins, when the now revered Kazunori Yamauchi and his seven man development team started work on the original Gran Turismo back in 1992.

AW: How hard was it to make that first game?

KY: It took five years. In those five years, we could not see the end. I would wake up at work, go to sleep at work. It was getting cold. so I knew it must be winter. I estimate I was home only four days a year.

I didn't know about this one until now.

What's your funniest PlayStation moment?



Kazunori Yamauchi: This was back in 1999 when we had GT2 showing at E3. As always, we worked until the very last minute at the Polyphony Digital studio in Japan to prepare the demo version for the show. Qualities we had hoped for were difficult to achieve, and I remember spending 100 hours in the development room prior to departure, with no sleep at all. I started sleeping the instant I was seated on my plane to LA, and did not wake up until we had arrived. I didn't even take advantage of the seat reclining, nor go to the restroom throughout the flight, and I cannot recall take-off and landing either. I had warped from Tokyo to LA in a blink of an eye.

In 1998, he founded Polyphony Digital with a team of just 10 employees. Now he has around 110, although this hasn’t eased his work/ life balance. Yamauchi’s routine typically involves 24 hours at his desk, followed by nine hours’ down time. “I operate on a 33-hour day,” he laughs. Relaxation, he adds, is fulfilled by reading voraciously. “It’s been like that since I was 10.”

 

[Samus]

This thread is for the people who think a certain way that makes them think I only defend PD.

Really? Because this whole thread appears to be a compilation of all of the things you post when you feel the need to defend this game to the death. It's hardly a balanced history of the series.

 

[another_jakhole]

Kaz made a comment about motorcycles in December 2010.

PSM3: Is there any possibility of seeing motorbikes in GT5, or a new Tourist Trophy?

Kazunori Yamauchi: The environment we have right now allows us to drive motorcycles, but we need to get Gran Turismo 5 done first. Once that's out of the way, if there's a strong demand for bikes that's something we'd consider

FYI, I was going to put in the first post that I'd prefer that no one posted, so that the people that always have to be negative will be showcased.

Gran Turismo 5: Reality Bites
"GT5 creator Kazunori Yamauchi talks about the highlights and challenges of the new game, and how his real-life race experience in this year's Nurburgring 24-hour race might shape future editions..."

http://www.motortrend.com/features/consumer/1009_gran_turismo_5/viewall.html

 

[ghsnu]

Hmmm...wasn't this supposed to be a GT history lesson? By the looks of it, all I see are tidbits I've seen before about GT5 (a few I haven't seen) and a couple bits of actual "history". All-in-all, a good thread for GT/GT5 information...

 

[another_jakhole]

Really? Because this whole thread appears to be a compilation of all of the things you post when you feel the need to defend this game to the death. It's hardly a balanced history of the series.

That's what I said, "There are a lot of things that I haven't included about the history of this series, so don't think this is all there is to it. This isn't all that much, actually." Thank you for taking everything so literally like the few of you always do. Should the thread title be longer to include everything that this thread is about? That's why I'd prefer others to not post here. It's so that the people that ONLY/mainly (you'll take it too literally if I only say ONLY) say negative things about GT in the ONLY two sections that I post in can be seen. That video of FM4 I posted for the comments is a good example of how different SOME people who love FM are from the many people who (generally) love GT.


I defend PD purrrty much only when the people act like the others who've posted in this thread do. I point out the wrongs of people's statements, but I only sometimes point out the faults of GT, because there are some people that only do just that.

 

[Bluntified]

Another legitimate information thread gone to the flamers. I don't see why people need to post if they don't like what they read, move on!

Good information in the OP by the way. Could use a bit of cleaning up (a little hard to read with all the quote boxes) other than that, good to know info.

 

[Samus]

I defend PD purrrty much only when the people act like the others who've posted in this thread do. I point out the wrongs of people's statements, but I only sometimes point out the faults of GT, because there are some people that only do just that.

Let me ask you, why do you feel the need to defend PD? You don't work for them, have no affiliation for them so why do you feel the need to crawl the forums looking for any negative posts and try to correct someone. You also do it on the new stories, if someone posts a negative comment there you are, making a reply.

 

[another_jakhole]

Another legitimate information thread gone to the flamers. I don't see why people need to post if they don't like what they read, move on!

Good information in the OP by the way. Could use a bit of cleaning up (a little hard to read with all the quote boxes) other than that, good to know info.

That was one of the things I tried to make more obvious about this site with this thread; a reply to A post would be seen by only a few people. Often, those negative nancies post without getting any warning, because they're mostly not going against the AUP.

...Could use a bit of cleaning up (a little hard to read with all the quote boxes)...

I tried to keep it as readable as possible . They're only quotes of interviews and articles, but I'll try to fix it.

 

[Samus]

I don't see why people need to post if they don't like what they read, move on!

The same can be said for the people who go around arguing with people who post negative comments.

 

[another_jakhole]

http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/kazunori-yamauchi-interview-gran-turismo-5?imageNo=9

TG: If you were a car, what would you be?
Kaz: I might be a German car. Maybe a BMW...

No way!

I know a good number of people would have said they thought he would have said Nissan/"GT-R".

Then there's

TG: Any cars you'd wish you had created?
Kaz: I was already involved in the development of the Nissan GT-R, which was like a dream come true. But if we're talking about another dream, I would have loved to help build the McLaren F1.

___________



I don't like how the couple of people (three) who posted only had something negative to say.

Another legitimate information thread gone to the flamers. I don't see why people need to post if they don't like what they read, move on!

Good information in the OP by the way. Could use a bit of cleaning up (a little hard to read with all the quote boxes) other than that, good to know info.

👍

It doesn't have to stop with them. As long as I keep bringing up information about GT or anything GT related, this thread won't stop. It's like the people who only have something bad to say, those things won't stop. They're like that member BWX. He's ONLY (literally) been a negative poster for the past few months.



FYI simonk, I've had you and bwx "blocked" for a while now. I only check your posts when it's needed, so your very last post I didn't check.

__________________________

Really? Because this whole thread appears to be a compilation of all of the things you post when you feel the need to defend this game to the death. It's hardly a balanced history of the series.

Fine...

Gameplay compilations of the series

 

[Samus]

You really do get wound up about what people have to say, don't you?

 

[another_jakhole]

You really do get wound up about what people have to say, don't you?

I've looked away to not read your post, but I read the first words of it unintentionally.




:]

It's fitting.

Another legitimate information thread gone to the flamers. I don't see why people need to post if they don't like what they read, move on!

Good information in the OP by the way. Could use a bit of cleaning up (a little hard to read with all the quote boxes) other than that, good to know info.

I do that all the time. If you see someone saying something bad about GT/PD/Kaz in the "Gran Turismo 5" section and "Questions & Answers" section, and I don't reply to it, then you know I skipped it. These are the only two sections I post in.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

I know right!

I defend something, while some people only attack and act disrespectfully toward the makers of this game. ALL on a GT fan forum.

Pointing out that a member's avatar is against the AUP is fine. Deciding to hurl insults at them not just once, but twice, really weakens your case. The constant double-posting in this thread doesn't do much, either. If you'd prefer, I can hand out infractions for all AUP infringements in this thread.

Any interesting articles/videos you dig up are tinged with bad experience; how you present them is all wrong. This isn't going to be a closed-off thread so that you can freely shove your opinion down the eye-throats of any who enter it. This is a message board, and you can expect discussion on any topic. Yes, even if an opinion doesn't match yours.

If you want to use this thread solely as a dumping ground, I highly recommend starting a blog.

 

[another_jakhole]

Pointing out that a member's avatar is against the AUP is fine. Deciding to hurl insults at them not just once, but twice, really weakens your case. The constant double-posting in this thread doesn't do much, either. If you'd prefer, I can hand out infractions for all AUP infringements in this thread.

Any interesting articles/videos you dig up are tinged with bad experience; how you present them is all wrong. This isn't going to be a closed-off thread so that you can freely shove your opinion down the eye-throats of any who enter it. This is a message board, and you can expect discussion on any topic. Yes, even if an opinion doesn't match yours.

If you want to use this thread solely as a dumping ground, I highly recommend starting a blog.

My bad. I thought double-posting was when you didn't edit your posts or didn't use the Multi-quote function. I tried to only make a separate post when someone else did before me.

If the guy with the avatar and tasteless "label" thing isn't warned to change that stuff, then this forum's AUP is too flexible and not very good. Like I said, my post a few months ago was deleted when I made it clearer what the cuss word in a post I quoted was that gave me the infraction/warning for working around the AUP. And I've said it that this thread has a point in making some things known that should be brought to light.

Accidentally, I figured out that guy's avatar shouldn't be allowed and if we can't use cuss words on this site, how is having the label thing "Rdp616 Is doing your mom, it's" allowed? It's disgusting and offensive.

Any interesting articles/videos you dig up are tinged with bad experience; how you present them is all wrong. This isn't going to be a closed-off thread so that you can freely shove your opinion down the eye-throats of any who enter it. This is a message board, and you can expect discussion on any topic. Yes, even if an opinion doesn't match yours.

I don't get what you mean by that.

I DO know what you mean by the rest of your post, but again, it was to make a point. Even after I pointed out the "showcasing" thing, two people cared to disrespect the initial nature of this thread.

Where's the guy who does the sounds so i can slap him...

And the guy sleeping at this desk is kind of disturbing. Overworking is 1 reason Japanese suicide rates are so high..

It's completely unnecessary to post that. I was provoked with that one. Then the other ones, I sort of was too. Nothing I posted, besides calling the guy a douchebag, was against the rules. I only said that after ghsnu said something about douchebaggery.

 

[Samus]

If you're going to post quotes from interviews you don't need to bold and underline all the parts you think are more important. People reading can make their mind up for themselves. You don't see Wikipedia or any other informational website like that with certain parts bolded and in larger font.

Some of it you also seem to be making suggestions which make no sense:

How long did it take to model all the cars?

Yamauchi: A designer spends roughly 6 months in average. 50 cars are 300 months. That's 25 years. The tracks are a lot more work. It's longer than a year each. We have 30 people working on the tracks.

Forget the "man-hours" per Premium every 3-6 months that a lot of you thought it was. ONE person is assigned to work on virtually replicating ONE car for the next approximate six months.

Are you really trying to highlight that he means one person works on each car? Because common sense and simple maths should make it pretty obvious that's not the case.

 

[another_jakhole]

Hey, look! Famine's in this one.






This 1 minute, 30 second video will show you how many people worked at PD by the end of Gran Turismo 4's developments at the 30 second mark.


The preview image of the video is actually around the 30 second mark.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

My bad. I thought double-posting was when you didn't edit your posts or didn't use the Multi-quote function. I tried to only make a separate post when someone else did before me.

For some reason, I'm having a hard time believing that.

That's all just in one page. And incidentally, it seems even you yourself can't keep on topic in your own thread.

If the guy with the avatar and tasteless "label" thing isn't warned to change that stuff, then this forum's AUP is too flexible and not very good. Like I said, my post a few months ago was deleted when I made it clearer what the cuss word in a post I quoted was that gave me the infraction/warning for working around the AUP. And I've said it that this thread has a point in making some things known that should be brought to light.

The staff will deal with AUP infringements. Just because you haven't been personally notified of what actions are being taken with other members doesn't mean actions aren't being taken.

I DO know what you mean by the rest of your post, but again, it was to make a point. Even after I pointed out the "showcasing" thing, two people cared to disrespect the initial nature of this thread.

Calling people names is to make a point?

It's completely unnecessary to post that. I was provoked with that one. Then the other ones, I sort of was too. Nothing I posted, besides calling the guy a douchebag, was against the rules. I only said that after ghsnu said something about douchebaggery.

Quite frankly, I don't care how you attempt to justify it: don't do it.

 

[JDMKING13]

Damn this is a informative thread I hope it doesn't get closed off of people foolishness. It's always good to get a history lesson, some really good stuff in here. 👍

 

[GTPM118]

I congratulate you buddy. This makes all the hard work from PD can be recognized, like a PD Diary. I was looking for something like these tread; actually... is it Ok if I use your post for my personal blog( it would with a link and bring them here)? All credits to all who cooperate with "another_jackhole"