In the latest issue of the Official UK PlayStation Magazine, Kazunori Yamauchi made yet another statement about the questionable status of Gran Turismo 5’s weather system:
“Night racing is going to be a part of GT5, but with things like dynamic weather, the choice is about whether it will improve the experience. The functionality is not a problem – we’ve got the weather system done – but if we are not sure about the quality of it, and how it improves the driving experience, we are not going to have it in the game.”
He has expressed concern with dynamic weather affecting the “quality” of game for some time now, remarking that Polyphony Digital is simply “experimenting” with such a feature. By confirming that its implementation is actually complete, he may have greater confidence the weather system will, ultimately, make the cut.
Yamauchi also made it clear that he has no intentions of sending GT5 out the door without all of its content and features:
“Let me be clear on this. There is a massive amount of content in this game, I don’t think there are many teams that put as much into a game as we can. The launch of the game isn’t a start, we are releasing a full game. Everything we want to put into the game is on the disc when it ships. Having said that, we do have a sizeable online team that will look after it once it’s launched.”
As you may or may not be aware, there is an ongoing “debate” about updating games via the Internet. On one hand, it gives developers the opportunity to fix any bugs or problems after the game hits store shelves. On the other hand, they may be more likely to sell a game with known problems or with a lack of content just so they can meet a particular deadline. Fortunately – and perhaps, unsurprisingly – Yamauchi remains focused on quality.
One final comment, however, does cause concern:
“They’re spending less time with a single game and this is reflected in the design of GT Mode.”
Although see GT5’s “GT Mode” surely won’t be as inconsequential as what we saw in GT PSP, this statement still makes those of us who enjoy the enduring challenge of GT games just a little bit uneasy. Thanks to calvins48 for sharing this interview!
See more articles on Kazunori Yamauchi, PlayStation Official Magazine, and Weather.
GT5 is a simulator. So why should not we have simulated weather? I do not have PS3 but if all the rumors are correct, then I probably do not refrain from buying it.
This is the latest news if you didn’t know:
I’ve just finished reading the latest edition of Official PlayStation Magazine UK with their “huge” GT feature. And, to be honest it is huge, spanning over 10 pages chroniclling GT’s 11 years history and 13 games. It dedicates 4 of those pages to the present, with 2 about GT5 and another 2 about the GT Acadmey.
If I’m gonna be honest, nothing really NEW is revealed like we expected, all it talks about is what we already know, graphics, and how good GT5 is gonna be. GT5 was road-tested at least and things to report back include “a brand new sense of feeling between the car and the tarmac”. Apparenty one can “feel exactly when the car’s about to lose control”, AI has also been siginifcantly improved. “AI drivers are now a lot more aggressive, trying to block you from passing any way they can, and in a sensible, realistic fashion.” One other thing was that audio now changes significantly depending on the camera view. True, this has been present in past GT games but GT5 has apparently turned things up to 11.
OPM also included a list of features that will be present in GT5. After visiting PD’s offices, they found out the following (word for word):
950 cars, 70 circuit layouts and 20 variations.
The ability to fully damage and deform 170 of the cars and scrape up the rest.
Motorsport licenses in the shape of NASCAR and World Rally Championship, including famous drivers like Miko Hirvonen.
A fully featured online mode including open and private lobbies, photo and race replays, and a replay output to YouTube.
Electric cars such as the Tesla Roadster.
The Top Gear Test track and, hopefully, the Chevrolet Lacetti and Suzuki Liana – the show’s Reasonably Priced Cars.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which yearly hosts the Indy 500.
A new physics engine and moveable objects on the course such as tyre barriers that come apart when you smash into them.
Progressive downloading for GT TV videos and the option to export them to your PSP.
Animated pit crews.
And rumour has it that a track editor will be making its series debut in GT5.
I know you’re thinking, “so what’s new?”. Well, from the way it was written “70 circuit layouts” could mean more like 70 circuits, rather than 20. The inclusion of famous drivers could mean another layer for the game. And has the Indianapolis Motor Speedway been confirmed before?
Sorry there isn’t more news.
Calvin 48
@W89rnr – Let’s hope so!
I have all the confidence in the world that rain will make it’s way into GT5!
I’m pretty confident this will make the final cut for gt5, especially of kaz is so open about the subject this far from the game’s release
Weather System? Beautiful! It might just be me, but i’ve been to the “Le Man” race, and anyone who have been there, knows how the experience is. I would love to drive the 24 hour race, while slowly see how the sun goes down and turns into night racing. Perhaps some rain also.. But I think we will have to wait for the PS4 to make that happen ;(.
I would rather have rain in GT5 than DLC.
If they had to cut the number of cars on the track back to 8 due to the addition of dynamic weather, I would still love the fact that GT5 had dynamic weather over the issue of how many cars are on the tarmac.
Still, 10 cars + dynamic weather + day/night races sounds perfect to me – now, lets hammer out the “20 world locations, 70 tracks” issue. ;)
Wow! Great news, I can’t wait for GT now. I hope they don’t give up on DLC, I would like to get new cars that aren’t included at launch. Couldn’t PD create demos of features that they wanted to perfect on one track, with 4 cars (FF, FR, AWD,&MR) and let us beta test them. they could generate cash while geting info. I think it’s time for smaller GT5P size games, If GT were to be focused down on a specific theme like Nascar, WRC, F1, Ferrari…..the quality would be insane!
No no no no, the weather system MUST be included.
@styer – It can.
If the frame rate and textures will be hit by weather effects , I don’t want it. I don’t know if ps3 can handle a lot of cars with damage effects and weather all at once.
How could adding realistic weather conditions affect the game “negatively”?
Active rain would only serve to increase the realism and enjoyment of Gran Turismo 5 – by a lot, actually.
Bring on the rain Kazunori-san!
O yes and lets not forget the Top Gear Test track at dawn.
@Zenith @ralph89
No, (my links don’t work). But just look at the GT by Citroen Debut video. It shows a night race in tokyo and Daytona in the evening. Plus the first ever video of GT5(E3 07) showed the Nissan Fair-lady Z running at night as well. That’s as much proof as I have to offer. I rest my case.
@Sam_NY
It was not confirmed back in 2008, it was just a hint that there’s gonna be a weather. But right now nothing is still confirmed with dodgy answers. Until we can see the proof in gameplay video, weather in GT5 will still be a mystery to all of us until the game is released.
P.S. Can someone call PD? Yell at them and tell them to show just the 1% of the game. :)
I’m satisfied with night racing and 1000 cars. we don’t need anything else. publish the game now please.
you only have [less than] 4 months!
@sam_ny
do you have a link to prove it?
Why does everyone think this weather feature is something new. Weather was basically confirmed back in 2008.
The final concerning comment can also be pointing to what Kaz said in an earlier interview about GT Mode, that it would be easier to unlock/buy cars.
I hope they won’t make less races or something than in previous GT games if that’s what he means, that would be a shame.
@aleksandar
Although I do a bit of online gaming and I enjoy it; I totally agree with your comments.
Why is weather such a big deal? A wet track like the ones in gt4 would be fine..
I want weather system, but not if the game gonna be delayed again then i rather want it in gt6 or an update to gt5 later. But whutever gonna happen, GOOD WURK KY, U THE MAN ;)
How you can say that single player IS NOT important!!!!! I don”t play game online because I can see my rivals, if I play game in multiplayer then I use splitscreen or lan play. For me GTmode is most important part of Gran turismo and SOUl of game!!!!!!
Didn’t GT4 have both wet tracks and night racing? Sounds to me like the only concern is the dynamic effects and their impact to the racing (e.g. wet tires on a dry or drying track).
I’ve just heard that GT5’s release date has been set back again, in order to include the Model T Ford, Rainbows & cats n dogs crossing the road right in front of you, to make things more realistic. Waddya think ? LOL
Night Racing + GT5P Graphics (or better) + Cockpit view = happy snicker3s
@ S3 Racer
Why do you think all race tracks will have night-mode option?
Where is this confirmed?
I just want to say that I appreciate and respect Kazunori Yamauchi for taking the time to bring out the game with all it’s features and hopefully it won’t have any problems. If it does I am sure it is something that was truly unforseen and I am sure they will fix it as soon as they can. I am glad they are putting in the time to make it a quality game instead of releasing a half baked game and continously releasing patches to fix all the problems it has unlike all those other games out there.
Will the night-racing apply optional to all race circuits available in GT5?
Or will there be just a few circuits fixed in night-racing, like in GT4 e.g. Hong Kong or SS Stage Route 5?
That should be clarified!!
@ Razor
If GT5 online plays anyting like GT5P, then its FTB (For The Bin) not FTW.
@Bodman: i know that , but here all tracks may have night options which is amazing .
With the 60% to 90 % is damn sweet . No we will not get it for x-mas (damn!) but maybe we get a release date pretty close to the japan release or the same or even before as Europe is the biggest addict.
yeah we’re all addict and neet to go to Agt
My biggest concern is still Kaz. Don’t get me wrong but he is a perfectionist and I know how that can be. He can easily lose the objective from sight because of improvements he want to make. As Corey, I just hope he will not push the game back, in order to do some featurettes (as told many times before)
But KAZ. RESPECT & Thank you.
Can’t wait …
Gt’ing the world
I hope it makes it into the game but I can understand where PD are coming from. You can’t have every race with changing weather so you need to decide which events it applies to and then maybe have licence tests where the conditions change to teach you how to adapt, it opens up much more that could be added to the game.
Personally, I find it strange that they have gone to the trouble of doing the weather system only to say they aren’t sure if they will include it. How many other things have they done that won’t make it into the game? If they don’t add value to GT5 then how can they add value in GT6?
GT mode, as well as all other “single player” modes will be less and less important, because everyone is shifting these days (and in the future also) to multiplayer. So there is no need to spend lots of resources to GT mode.Online FTW.
@ Brettjr25
I absolutely agree with you in concern to “mood-setting effects”. That is what I am personally enjoying the most about GT in terms of its potential.
In my opinion, dynamic lighting would enhance the overall experience to a whole new level, it also offers new innovative features. Like, for example…someone recently stated the idea, that the courses and tracks could respond to the time of day you are actually playing the game. You play at midnight, so does the track. You play early in the morning and you actually got a sunrise-like scenario in the game and so on. You could even advance this kind of feature with dynamic weather effects in the game and your local weather, like synchronizing real-time weather with the game. I mean, the moment you are connected to the internet, it would be an ease to get the game synchronized to all this.
Imagine you turn on your PS3, selecting SUZUKA, knowing it should be around midnight in Japan and rainy at the racing track and getting this exact scenario in the game. So a couple hours later you select the track again, the scenario updates itself and you get a different one, but always corresponding to the real-time, real-life local conditions. Of course, all of this should be optional.
What bothers me, is, Kaz confirmed night-racing…nice indeed…but not detailed how it is going to be implemented in GT5.
He could easily just refer to kind of night-racing like in GT4, where there are just a few SELECTED tracks, which you can ONLY play at night and which were strictly designed therefore.
The real thing would be…and I hope it’s going to be that way, if you can select any race track and optional select, whether you want to play at day or night.
This would truly give you a new experience to already known tracks, even those which are not obvious for night racing.
City circuits are likely, because of their city-lights at night, traffic lights, street lamps and so on, giving a well-lit scenario for night racing.
But imagine having the option of driving the Nürburgring Nordschleife at night in the game, merely with the car’s spotlights and the moon with the stars as a source of light having lit the complete environment….
Now, wouldn’t that be an experience???
Okay …
PD can make this simple by making the”WEATHER/NIGHT RACING OPTIONAL” Let it be our choice to select it.
Sweeeeet. But yeah, the last comment concerns me, hmmm.
And I also hate it when people say it ‘has’ been delayed =]
/half joking
I hate when people say it hasn’t been delayed. When clearly they abandoned their major advancement at TGS because they delayed the game further.
However I hope this isn’t one of those ‘We can release it at any time’ comments about weather being done, only to be a month before release and, ‘we needed more time to perfect it’
@new user
i never knew GT5 had been delayed. :lol:
This is BS. If he even spends resources to develop a dynamic weather system and finishes it 100%, why wouldn’t he just include it in the game? What he really means is: the core of the feature is done, but it’s not perfected yet so we don’t know whether it’ll be finished in time for launch or not. Kind of like how the core damage system was done for Gamescom (and many thought it was to be released in Dec 2009 with this feature), but following severe critics, they decided to refine it and ‘delay’ the launch. He just won’t admit that it’s not perfectly ready yet, so he gives a dodgy answer with a lame excuse.
Nice, hopefully it will not take Dec 2010 before we see a EU and USA release. How about February, i think it is feasible
hallelujah………! finally some decent news, ive been waiting for something to happen, this week has been a bomer and now thanks to jordan its seems less stressful.
btw Gran turismo 5 should come out soon before i deliver my portfolio to uni. so i can have some ideas…
hurry up KY!!!!!
here in the official playstation magazine Australia they interviewed KAZ after TGS. and i remember he mentioned that cars look nicer at night, and that they were including night racing in gt5. i should have posted it back then lol
Ok, where is the drama when it’s already done to polish it till the end (the team who worked on that area sure have time to do this now) and F*CKING include it the way it is in March 2010.
If it will be “bad” nobody will lament as it wasn’t there before anyway. If it’s terrible, we can try it and ignore it, if it’s implementated in such an unlikely PD kind of terrible way. It can NOT cause harm. Give us this additional weather feature. We will like it no matter what.
To not include it is the worth way of decission Kaz can make, now that he has already confirmed the existence. Japanese people are strange in so many ways and Kaz is no exception. (You’ll have to like em, right?)
@Adam
there was a comment saying in the full interview that the game is at near 90% by ‘The Masfer’, i dont know either but i thought a 65% from 2 months ago to 90 is a big jump!
i think you gonna be disappointed.. Cuarache_GTR. I cant see such rain detail plus car detail running smooth on PS3 … just too much math. My guess…
I hope we get rain to be honest the rain track in Gt4 (tsukuba) looked like someone turned the sprinklers on i actually wanna see droplets cascading from the bonnet puddles forming active screen wipers beads of rain being swept across the car by the moving air cloud formations maybe even lightning and thunder storms and the change in lighting which is customary with rain and i want this to happen realistically e.g. When its happening outside not just cause the game thinks the lead you’ve opened up is too big. I agree with kaz if he cant maintain the game quality and implement these features with lifelike fluidity then maybe waiting for an update, Gt6 or even ps4 may not be such a bad thing
yesssssss about time we have change weather and damage cars this what i have bring waiting for all does years thanks kaz your best and keep up the good work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can’t wait to drive at night with some sexy central cluster LED’s!
where has 90& come from? Am I missing something here?
@ Paulo
we all hope so LOL!
@ Walsall FC
“near 90% is a good number, considering it was only 65% about 2 months ago….massive jump!”
If that’s the case we should have this game by January!!! j/k
Finally some “concrete” news. The weather system seems like it would be a great way to improve the limited track list. A Zr1 on a raining nurburgring would make a great challenge.
Didn’t we already have wet tracks in gt3 and rain in gt4? How hard could this be?
About NIGHT driving.. how will it be in the game? GT4 style? or in game live cycle that you can acctually see the sun set and rise!
i can wait for another 6 months to let them make a complete Gt simulation mode
near 90% is a good number, considering it was only 65% about 2 months ago….massive jump!
I’d rather have an long GT mode than weather. Without the single player GT mode GT5 will be hurt.
@Brettjr25
“It sounds like they are passively telling us they don’t want to put weather into the game. Maybe they think it’s too hard to imitate wet/snowy road physics. *shrugs*”
Have you seen the making of GT4’s behind the scene? They are testing cars in a wet road. I’m sure the reason they didn’t manage to get the best physics (as their physics data recorded since GT4 prologue) for PS2 is because of it’s limits and very underpowered compared to PS3. I’m sure the PS3 can make it happen with it’s brute processing power.
Oh, stop with this please, just let Kazunori-san work, and then we can possibly have a release on schedule…..
That’s completely understandable. I think Kaz and his team is making it a priority to run the game at 60 fps/1080p, and with multiples cars on one track of up to 16. Running dynamic weather with those specs may be something the PS3 is not yet ready for, and perhaps the PS4.
So yeah, I think Kaz doesn’t want to sacrifice graphical quality and framerate issues too much if the dynamic weathering does so.
I’m REALLY hoping GT5 includes rain. Aside from th game itself, it’s the feature I mos want. It really added to F1 Championship (a launch game for PS3) and also to SuperCar Challenge. It’s a MUST imo. It’s just an effect that needs to be added to wet tracks, there’s no reason to leave it out. Any “wet track” should be raining in GT5.
I hope that they wont make boring GTmode for me it”s place where I spend most of my time!!!!
This news make my days. Thanks Jordan.
Impressive as everytime Kazunori-dono. Keep it up!!!
night racing FTW!
i like how GT5 has massive content availble right away unlike flopza where DLC is available in the first week. i bet flopza’s DLC is already in the disc and you are just buying an unlock code for stuff in the disc you already bought.
He said “the disc” not discs. The full game is on a single disc. Now we know.
If anything else comes in the box it’s not the game.
How hard is that ??
NIGHTTIME RACING at the press of a button. I don’t need rain, c’mon Kazunori that’s baby shit. LET THERE BE NIGHT
It sounds like they are passively telling us they don’t want to put weather into the game. Maybe they think it’s too hard to imitate wet/snowy road physics. *shrugs*
Honestly, I don’t want weather for the extra challenge or the different spin it puts on driving, to me I just want it as a mood setter. I would love doing time laps with my soundtrack playing ingame at night while it rains. It’s just more inspiration to keep going.
Nods to people who want to master cornering on a wet track though.
He said in the full interview that gt5 is now at almost 90%.
If they keep this up gt5 could be released by the new year.
The title of this article got me a heart attack…nice stuff, jordan.
that just made my evening,
keep the dynamic weather in, thats so awesome especially when you play online: who will pit first when it starts to drizzle?
Hope for the best, expect the worst! (always works :P)
“The functionality is not a problem – we’ve got the weather system done – but if we are not sure about the quality of it, and how it improves the driving experience, we are not going to have it in the game.”
KY doesn’t sound confident about dynamic weather at all. I seriously doubt it will make the cut. No worries. As long as they have night/day/wet again, then I’ll be happy with that.
Please don’t take what I said wrong, Jordan. I intended no harm.
These comment sections are usually full of constant bashing and speculation without basis, right? I do not understand why things have to be so negative sometimes.
Wow….Hopefully, PD will include dynamic weather.
Sounds promising, I can only imagine how much content will be on this disc, or discs. Glad to hear they are at least experimenting with dynamic weather, and that they aren’t cutting corners or just throwing something into the game which they know will devalue the experience. I PRAY it will release on time, the wait has been long and hard.
@maxpontiac: That’s an expression of concern, not a snap judgment.
Thanks IronM@sk..
“Let me be clear on this. There is a massive amount of content in this game, I don’t think there are many teams that put as much into a game as we can. The launch of the game isn’t a start, we are releasing a full game. Everything we want to put into the game is on the disc when it ships. Having said that, we do have a sizeable online team that will look after it once it’s launched.”
This quote above, is all us Gran Turismo fans need to read.
Thing is though S3racer, night racing has always been in the GT series. What most people are looking for is dynamic lighting, especially for the endurance races.
It’s fine if they further develop the weather system until it has reached the quality standards of Gran Turismo, but please include it! If not for DLC, then include it in GT6 which will launch a lot sooner after GT5, I hope…
Agreed max. I’d also like to say that that “final comment” is also quite vague and perhaps something was lost in the translation, cos it didn’t actually make perfect sense in English.
WOW. That’s pretty sweet. Night races are in. Now I just hope it hit’s the selves at the date announced and don’t get pushed back.
Weather system is sweet too. and probably if he talks directly as that about it, we got pretty good chances to see it in GT5.
HOw now I gone play a GT5P. Just finished working, and this news motivate!!!
Gran turismo’ing the world km by km
If it is really “done” (as in to the standard the rest of the game is at), would Sony really let them cut it from the final game?
I wonder what else has been implemented in the game but disabled?
It’ll certainly be interesting to see what the dev. time is for GT6, it might just be crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s with a bit of a wax and polish and then out the door with it.
Here is an idea. Lets wait and see what the game offers before making any snap judgements.