The Verdict: Patch v1.13

[fifomaniak]

Game isn't freezing anymore because of using custom soundtrack. Well at least I've been using it for a few hours and it's fine. That's good.


Edit: Dang it, it has just frozen again. I suppose it's because of that, because music didn't started at that moment. So, don't use 'User BGM'.

 

[Griffith500]

@Griffith500
Did you notice texture degradation? Check out Monaco please. I have no way to my 42" plasma now...
And of course it's anisotropic filtering.

It's hard to say. There's definitely something changed with the texture filtering, whether or not there's an actual drop in texture quality (as loaded in memory) is another matter. Côte D'Azur feels sparser than I remember, though, but it's been a while since I've actually driven around and looked at the scenery.

The HDR system definitely has changed, as you're no longer blinded for half a second coming out of tunnels, although there is still a good deal of glare, especially at night. I like the change, it's more subtle and yet still useful.

I've also only just noticed that spray from cars seems to vary as they drive around the track. I thought this was evidence of differential drying at first, but soon realised it was actually scaling the number of spray particles according to "load" on the GPU / whatever and the distance from the camera. I'm not sure if that is new behaviour.

 

[shirakawaa]

Other than the fact that the F40 is horribly clipping the road, I'd say it looks alarmingly realistic.

The car doesn't get stuck nor suffer from damage from scraping against the slope in GT5 . That's far from being realistic.
It looks like the car chassis is invisible to the road, which makes me wonder if during rollovers special physics are used instead. That might be the reason why they look so weird in the game. Food for thought...

It also makes wonder if cars can really bottom out their suspensions, if their chassis clips through the road.

 

[twohoos]

Also saving game is now a terrible process. Takes much longer.

Perhaps because the game-save data file appears to have increased by about 1MB? There are 3 accounts on my PS3, which under v1.10 had save data sizes of about 300KB, 750KB, and 3.4MB. Immediately after the update the files jumped to about 1.3MB, 1.7MB, and 4.4MB.

 

[UltraGhost]

Perhaps because the game-save data file appears to have increased by about 1MB? There are 3 accounts on my PS3, which under v1.10 had save data sizes of about 300KB, 750KB, and 3.4MB. Immediately after the update the files jumped to about 1.3MB, 1.7MB, and 4.4MB.

Here increased too, 516kb --> 1538kb (just upgrade to 1.11, i no did nothing more)

is more an addition to the FF bug Settings LSD?

 

[Cosbuster]

I've just driven around Monaco to see if there were any noticeable changes and for the first time since playing GT5 I've experienced actual screen tearing...
What were they supposed to fix again?

It's always been there.

 

[MOTORTRENDmitch]

It's ****ed! My game freezes all the time! Exiting menu's, after races. For a minimum of 5 minutes. Before this latest update I never a had to wait more than a minute or discover a single bug, glitch or problem!

Just washed my Falken Skyline...took about ten minutes!

im in a VERY comparible situation!! it will randomly Stop Loading, Freeze, or refuse to load an the controlls are rendered useless!

 

[Nielsen]

I also think they corrected the problem where players were returned to the Open Lounge screen after quitting an online lobby. Hasn't happened to me since the patch.

As I said in another thread which I created earlier today (should have posted here to begin with), the Impreza '05 (premium) has silver rims instead of gold rims now. Garage thumbnail still shows the car with gold rims. I guess it's a leftover if you purchased the car before the patch.

 

[Griffith500]

The car doesn't get stuck nor suffer from damage from scraping against the slope in GT5 . That's far from being realistic.
It looks like the car chassis is invisible to the road, which makes me wonder if during rollovers special physics are used instead. That might be the reason why they look so weird in the game. Food for thought...

It also makes wonder if cars can really bottom out their suspensions, if their chassis clips through the road.

Bottoming out implies hitting the bump stops, so it's a suspension-dependent effect and can be accounted for without considering the chassis (on level ground), unless the bump stops do not prevent chassis impact (that's what they're for, in part). Of course, cars with modified suspension / undercarriage could easily ground the chassis out if the bump stops / suspension geometry aren't properly modified to account for this.

Interestingly, the cars in GT5 do emit sparks when the undersides scrape along curbs etc. Perhaps the chassis / body is ignored beyond the confines of the axles. It looks like there is a lot of special-case physics going on, including roll-over, low-speed etc.

 

[MM1000]

Not a bug. Several cars produce lower PP with a Stage 3 than with a Stage 2, because the powerband in narrower. Some of them even produce less horsepower with a Stage 3.

Yep. It's not a bug. Sometimes bigger is not better. Sometimes you have to optimize for the middle ground.

Most of the bugs are not really bugs. That's not to say the game is perfect. Boy howdy it is not perfect. But it's damn good.

 

[MattZR1]

Still freezes when you go across the line for a second on time trial.. this is the main thing I wanted fixed. Not brilliant tbh.

I've noticed this as well. I think it has to do with your previous ghost loading everytime you do a lap.

 

[rocko100]

I noticed that track maps are slimmer

 

[Griffith500]

I noticed that track maps are slimmer

To the point of nasty aliasing in "full view" at the Nürburgring 24 hr layout in 720p.

 

[shirakawaa]

Bottoming out implies hitting the bump stops, so [...]

For some reason I've written "bottom out their suspensions" in my previous post, but what I really meant was "scrape their underside to the ground".

I've seen sparks being emitted sometimes with certain cars, but that's the worst thing that can happen in GT5 when trying to overcome bumps, high slopes or obstacles, while trying the same in real life can in certain cases endanger both the car's and pilot's health, even fatally.

To tell the truth, of all physics/car dynamics flaws I've seen in GT5, this appears to be one the worst in my opinion. It's that bad, if you think at the implications.

 

[Griffith500]

For some reason I've written "bottom out their suspensions" in my previous post, but what I really meant was "scrape their underside to the ground".

I've seen sparks being emitted sometimes with certain cars, but that's the worst thing that can happen in GT5 when trying to overcome bumps, high slopes or obstacles, while trying the same in real life can in certain cases endanger both the car's and pilot's health, even fatally.

To tell the truth, of all physics/car dynamics flaws I've seen in GT5, this appears to be one the worst in my opinion. It's that bad, if you think at the implications.

Yeah, it's quite funny to see the state of a car, hopping and diving about because of how bumpy it is when you go off-track. But sad that there are absolutely no repercussions for this outside from a loss of traction, part-remedied by forced traction control.

 

[alucard0712]

Multiple shadows in SSR5 or HSR tunnel are gone...

 

[JzAero]

There doesn't appear to be a reduction in image quality for replays, though, at least not at 720p. I checked back-to-back.

The reflections do appear to have been changed. I have thought of three possibilities:

1. They are now of a higher dynamic range themselves, and so must update less frequently (I remember thinking how fluid the reflections looked in 1.10, compared to how they were on the PS2).
2. The "base-shinyness" of the cars has been improved and the lower reflection update rate is simply a performance / bandwidth consideration.
3. The game seems darker now at night / dusk, so the HDR settings have definitely been tweaked - this would have the effect of reducing "bloom / blowout" and allowing for the very bright objects to seem more bright against the now darker background.

The high-powered lamps on the Toscana themed courses show the difference in the reflections, as the reflections of the lamps seem really bright now.

I'm leaning towards number three myself.

I've noticed the differences all round, and however it is maybe a little bit smoother, I don't think PD should've considered this performance change. The performance wasn't bad at all anyway, people who are used to the old 'better' graphics of GT5 1.10 and earlier do notice a big difference. I think Gran Turismo was about the image quality in first place, well at least that's how they promote their game, so why would they downgrade it? I hope it's just a temporarily thing that will improve graphics later on or that this is just a bug that will be fixed later on.

Especially on 720p or 1080p screens this difference is noticeable. I've tried to sit further away from the TV (24") but that wasn't necessary in 1.10. Also, on the 47" TV downstairs it's even worse.

Even if it IS actually number three, then I still don't think they should've done it, because we don't race at night that often anyway.

Can someone explain to me what are HDR and antiscopic filtering ?

Antiscopic filtering is a graphic tweak that in short words will affect the detail of your viewing distance. For example, lets take the track 'Rome'. This track has a lot of stones on the roads which when you are close to them look very detailed. However, the further you look, the worse the quality will be of the stones until they reach a point that it just look like one big blur. In PC gaming terms, you could upper this setting and eventually it will look detailed to the very end of your viewing distance. In this update it seems like it got worse and everything that isn't close to the car is now a big blur.

For example here just a few images from other games:

Yep. It's not a bug. Sometimes bigger is not better. Sometimes you have to optimize for the middle ground.

Most of the bugs are not really bugs. That's not to say the game is perfect. Boy howdy it is not perfect. But it's damn good.

Yep, that's true, a car wont always have more PP with higher performance tweaks. It has to do with how the power builds up and how this power combines with the handling of the car. In short, if all the power is always at the end of the revving range, you will have to keep it in the high revs. With a less aggressive turbo you might get much more grunt out of corners because the power builds up more smoothly, which causes a better handling, rather than an explosive power burst at the end of your rev range. It happens on my Toyota 7 Race Car and however the difference is little, the performance difference is noticeable. So the PP difference ain't really a bug, just more realistic.

 

[Griffith500]

I've noticed the differences all round, and however it is maybe a little bit smoother, I don't think PD should've considered this performance change. The performance wasn't bad at all anyway, people who are used to the old 'better' graphics of GT5 1.10 and earlier do notice a big difference. I think Gran Turismo was about the image quality in first place, well at least that's how they promote their game, so why would they downgrade it? I hope it's just a temporarily thing that will improve graphics later on or that this is just a bug that will be fixed later on.

Especially on 720p or 1080p screens this difference is noticeable. I've tried to sit further away from the TV (24") but that wasn't necessary in 1.10. Also, on the 47" TV downstairs it's even worse.

Even if it IS actually number three, then I still don't think they should've done it, because we don't race at night that often anyway.

If it really were about image quality, and not graphical effects and fidelity, then GT5 would never have shipped with aliasing, posterisation (EDIT: "banding") and all its other pixel-to-pixel flaws. A photograph can vary in image quality, but it's still a photograph. Quake had incredible image quality for its time, but it hardly looked like real life.

Besides, I think you're misinterpreting what I wrote. I have noticed a difference in texture filtering, which does affect image quality, as I commented in another post. I'm commenting on the reflections and HDR in the post you quoted. The HDR settings and tone-mapping itself have definitely been tweaked, which has far-reaching consequences in many parts of the visuals, due to the vast array of screen-space pixel effects in use.

 

[JzAero]

If it really were about image quality, and not graphical effects and fidelity, then GT5 would never have shipped with aliasing, posterisation (EDIT: "banding") and all its other pixel-to-pixel flaws. A photograph can vary in image quality, but it's still a photograph. Quake had incredible image quality for its time, but it hardly looked like real life.

Besides, I think you're misinterpreting what I wrote. I have noticed a difference in texture filtering, which does affect image quality, as I commented in another post. I'm commenting on the reflections and HDR in the post you quoted. The HDR settings and tone-mapping itself have definitely been tweaked, which has far-reaching consequences in many parts of the visuals, due to the vast array of screen-space pixel effects in use.

Oh don't worry, I do understand what you meant with your post referring to the HDR part. I'm just saying that at some points the HDR does appear to be there (for example when you're driving in the dark parts on La Sarthe), but all round in daylight and night, the HDR it does feel changed, not only in the dark. Especially the reflections on the car in daylight are kinda not what they are supposed to be. They look smoother but they definitely don't look better.

The image quality in general, well as I said in the post above, it does look like the filtering and mipmapping behave different as well. I think this is what causes the blur in the image, because honestly it does look different (read: better) in 1.10.

I can't verdict about the replays though, I have opened one since I've updated the game, but I didn't really pay attention to the graphics as it was just to show a friend how he should drive that AMG test to get gold.

 

[Sn1per666]

v1.11 has introduced a new glitch for me. I cannot search rooms in open lobby anymore. It will try to load and then freeze every time. I never once had a problem with this until 1.11. Also the "race never ending" glitch in single player is still there. It happened to me in one of the new time trial events and happened again in practice mode. Cache is cleared and I reinstalled the game data/updates and nothing helped.

 

[Doso Cortoh]

Back to graphics tweaks for me. One big thing I am noticing is in cockpit view. The drivers' gloves are lower quality. They used to have that cool rough leather "fringe" look to them and now they are all relatively flat and lacking a lot of detail from before. This coupled with the slightly blurred instrument panels is really pissing me off. And HDR?! What HDR?! The lighting effects so flat now.

Loving the smoothed out framerate though. Overall this feels like a step in the wrong direction. I had gotten used to the look of GT5 and liked it. I wanted features, tracks, etc. not a game running in 1080p that now looks 720p.

 

[MOTORTRENDmitch]

ive gotten word form many that they have been freezing during loading, and unable to load things

 

[Crispy]

I've noticed that sparks are flying a lot more in Online. I was playing NASCAR and when everyone slightly touched another one lots of sparks flew. Twas cool.

 

[MOTORTRENDmitch]

Nasfireworks > nascar

 

[bluesix]

I think if I'm not mistaken, in Free Run on public lobby, drafting is not possible

 

[Wardez]

Yeah Remy, it's always been like that, are you referring to someone else's post?

 

[alucard0712]

Multiple shadows in SSR5 or HSR tunnel are gone...

Sorry for that! I was driving a F2007. All seems all-right now!
Anyway - new graphics are better to me!

 

[Slash]

I just had 4 consecutive game crashes involving the black screen. All were located in the premium dealership, particularly Honda and Nissan, but others were there. You can pretty much tell when your going to get it because all the thumbnails won't load and then if you highlight that car, the actually spinning car won't show. Then you can either click it and get an infinite spinning cursor, or you can exit and get the black screen. Either way, you have to quit the game and reboot. I recommend saving your game before entering the dealership to avoid losing any data.

 

[aland18]

I've noticed a huge decrease in track load times which is great.

 

[Slash]

So far here is a complete list of changes I have noticed since 1.11. I'd like this to be posted in the OP.



- Most freezes have resolved except Premium Dealership crashes
- Decrease in track load times
- Decrease in menu load times
- No blocky textures or shadows
- Decrease in image quality (very minor, almost not noticeable)
- No longer to change LSD settings on FF cars
- Smoother framerate
- Smoother gameplay
- Less image tearing in-game
- Faster online track loading times




There's bound to be more I missed. I'll add them when I find them.