When we saw Gran Turismo 5 for the first time last month, there was quite a bit of discussion about the impressive graphics from the trailer. It was certainly in Polyphony Digital’s visual style, but was it “real”, or had it been rendered independent from the game’s visual engine? That’s what IGN editor Chris Roper got to ask Kazunori Yamauchi during a recent interview, to which he answered “of course it’s real”. To verify that answer, Chris began a frame-by-frame analysis of the trailer to see what he could find for himself -discovering some interesting imperfections that support Yamauchi’s comments.
First, he noticed the shadows from the scene of the McLaren SLR on the Nordschleife. The shadows of the trees can be seen on the surface of the track, but not on the car. He also picked up the shadows of the hay bails on one of the rally stages – they actually hover “above” the surface of the ground while projecting out from the bail itself. The flags from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway could also be seen “waiving” through the flagpole. Chris argues that these shortcuts are evidence that the shots come from within the game’s true visual engine, and were simply not pre-rendered models created by Yamauchi’s team.
He goes on to ponder the green Citroen GT’s accident with a Corvette, throwing his opinion in to the debate about whether or not they actually touched (and should have subsequently been damaged). The article continues with further discussion about the damaged Subaru, the “drag racing” scene from the Top Gear test track, and NASCAR, quickly venturing into the realm of speculation and assumption. It’s still an interesting read though – check it out here.
See more articles on E3 2009 and Kazunori Yamauchi.
What it is, is pre-rendered graphics using in-game assets.
There’s a big difference in the real-time implementation of the shadows, motion blur, and reflections that you see in replays, and what you see here.
PD has done this for many years, the intro to their games use the same sort of pre-rendering. Uses the in-game assets, but uses pre-rendered shadows, motion blur, DOF…etc.
Look carefully frame by frame at that scene where the citröen “clips” the corvette, if you look closely and pay attention to the front right wheel of the citröen, it goes RIGHT THROUGH the corvette’s back end. My guess would be that the citröen was under a penalty from a crash earlier? And was in that phase where other cars can drive through it for a certain period of time?
Anyway the trailer looks absolutely fantastic, I shed a tear when I saw it at E3
I didn’t know where to put this, but read this collumn from jeremy clarkson.
He says something about the japanese walking around on the top gear test track to measure it up. It’s also hilarious to know that the promotional pictures the japanese people took with clarkson are a bit ruined. Clarkson wore a t-shirt with one word on it (it rimes with “bunt”)
Yamauchi DID say something about damage on race cars only. But that was a long while ago, so let’s just hope the licencing issues PD were having won’t be keeping the damage to non-production cars only. :/
Yamauchi said NOTHING about damage on race cars only…
I wish I could slap someone when they take a foreign language interview, run it through Babelfish and post it as fact.
the picture on the Audi R10 tdi, is that the top gear track at night? I hope soo
that would make a simple solution though:
The return of the race data aquisition or how was it called? where you could transform yr road car into a race car with the liverie…
By this every car can be crashable :p
That sucks no damage on road cars just the race cars only??!!
In game there is no reflexion of cars in other cars! Most and in “GT Prologue” too!!!
dont see why he/they cant incorporate damage onto road cars as well as race cars
kazunori says “damaged on racing cars” so not road cars.
One thing that does worry me is the green Citroen GT and the Chevrolet collision. But I am almost certain that every car will have damage, I am sure of it. Kazunori Yamauchi, as said as before, is a perfectionist and so is polyphony digital. If they didn’t have every car implementing damage, it wouldn’t be up to standard, surely. Another point the chevrolet didn’t react in anyway after being hit and kept going on. Also the fact they have been working on it for so long must indicate that it all has damage. If the trailer was real, the game might be in stages where only little things here and there need to be improved.
This game is definatley at the top of my list.
hmmm…In-game video or not???!!!
on the trailer, the characters have a fair few things which support the ingame theory, there not ridiculously detailed. enough detail for crowds ingame. also roughly 43-48 sconds in the clip of nascar cars in garage, im certain the guy with red overalls feet go thru the floor slightly. not that it matters or detracts from the final piece… at the end of the day its about the cars and atmosphere, which look great. when its finally released its gonna come under soooo much scrutiny. so far for deffo lives up to the hype. must buy
To my knowledge, ever since the GT3 days Yamauchi has never done a trailer not rendered by the in-game engine. This guy, and Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Solid, makes beautiful games that challenge the very best in graphics at the time. Given his track record, I never doubted that the real game will look worse than the trailers.
Is this ingame video or not ??
I wonder how can anyone doubt that it is ingame..