Polyphony Digital Shares More Details on GT Sport’s 4K & HDR Support

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While Gran Turismo Sport may no longer be scheduled for release this month, that hasn’t prevented the veritable explosion of news coming out of the PS4 Pro event in London which came to an end this past Thursday.

Eurogamer’s Martin Robinson communicated what the improved console brings to the table with Gran Turismo in mind. Kazunori Yamauchi confirmed that GT Sport running on the Pro will be the first game in the series to accurately reproduce colors that were outside of the capabilities of previous console hardware, chief among them being Ferrari’s distinctive red.

It’s all thanks to the game’s utilization of the BT.2020 color specification, which provides a more vibrant color range. “With Gran Turismo Sport on Pro, the red of the Ferrari is accurately represented. All the McLaren cars, the colour is outside of the colour space that’s been represented in the past.”

With GT Sport supporting deeper color bit depths, nuanced colors will no longer be a simple shade of red or blue.

For those interested, BT.2020 is a digital standard in the Ultra HD space that addresses the color space limitations in today’s available high-def televisions.

The current standard is 8-bit, meaning there are 256 shades of red, green, and blue each, for a combined total of 16.78 million. While that may sound like plenty, the BT.2020 standard currently mandates 10 or 12-bit color reproduction. 10-bit would offer 1,024 shades for a total of 1.07 billion colors, while 12-bit would offer 4-times that at 4,096 shades for a total of 68.7 billion. With this in mind, it’s clear to see how the new technology could reproduce the more nuanced paint jobs found on GT’s cars.

Furthermore, GT Sport will be “future-proof” when the topic of HDR is considered. Utilizing BT.2020 to its fullest, the engine will support up to 10,000 nits of brightness. Modern day sets are considered above average if capable of achieving more than 1,000 nits. The end result being it will be a considerable length of time before TV’s are able to catch up and take full advantage of the game engine.

sRGB (green outline); Movies: DCI-P3 (blue outline); GT Sport: BT.2020 (red outline).

It doesn’t end there: further news coming from the event is GT Sport will support 4K resolution and a 60 fps frame rate using 1800p Checkerboard Rendering.

The basic idea being half of the pixels in a frame are rendered, while the remaining pixels are then reconstructed from a previous frame of data. What this means is the game will be rendered at 1800p (3200×1800) and the resulting image will be of higher quality when everything is said and done.

Kazunori asserts that the human eye would struggle to differentiate between 1800p and 2160p when in motion, thus the decision was made to prioritize the game’s stability over the additional 18% resolution gain, as detailed by Stefan L. of TheSixthAxis.

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GT Sport is undoubtedly proving to be the most advanced entry in the franchise as more details are shared on the title expected to release sometime in 2017. Polyphony has updated the official webpage for the first time since the announcement of the game’s delay with more details on the matter.

Head on over to the GT Sport forum section to discuss this, the possibilities of the game running on the souped-up PS4, and more about the game with other fans.

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Comments (31)

  1. Oyashiro-sama

    PD…. seriously… no matter how gorgeous the cake looks, if the inside tastes bad, there is no point. PD should focus on the little easy to implement details: a solid single player campaign with qualify and nice AI without the chase the rabbit idiocy (is that simulation, coming from last to first at the last minute?), decent offline race creation, improved online settings and stability, rear mirror in all cameras, etc… And if you want to spend time with big things, then you can focus on having decent day/time and weather changes, damage, and if nothing else, at least more non-fantasy cars and tracks. THAT’S WHAT PEOPLE REALLY WANT!

    (If the meme thread was still around, I’d love to see the ferrari true red color memes flying everywhere)

  2. letdown427

    OK, so now if you have the right TV and a PS4 Pro, your on-screen Ferrari will be the right colour.

    Previously you would have only known the difference if you’d seen a Ferrari in the flesh, and ideally had it there to compare.

    Think about it, everyone’s interpretation of what colour red a Ferrari is is based almost exclusively on non-HDR, 16.7million colour content. PC screens, phone screens, television etc.

    None of our reference imagery for Ferrari’s red has ever portrayed the red correctly, so we don’t actually know what the correct colour is, unless we have a Ferrari parked next to our screen to directly compare.

    As such, meh, I couldn’t care less. Everyone will just paint it matte black or chrome anyway ;)

  3. MockngBrd

    That’s what i’ve always thought was missing from Gran Turismo, an properly accurate red color for Ferraris! roflol

  4. ROFFATI

    Really?? Seriously?? The problem GTsport has was not lack of 4K or HDR support and if they delayed it because of those things, they are completely lost.
    The Game is missing HEART and SOUL and INNOVATION, 4K and HDR won’t help in that department.

  5. Mr Latte

    I have to laugh how this illustrates movies at 1000 nits and oh look GT SPORT can be upto 10,000 nits. Totally misleading advertising for anyone not aware of how this works or what are factors regards displays.

    Someone without a clue would look at this and think HDR on GT Sport can be upto 10x times better than current 4K tv/movies.

  6. Griffith500

    I’m still just so impressed that HDR displays are actually a thing. Well done people.

    Of course, it’s probably just a side-effect as far as the “consumer” market is concerned, what with all the professional print and design applications of HDR displays.

  7. RaceFuchs

    The game will surely look stunning in 4K and with HDR, but there are people on this board that dont even own a PS4 or a wheel, the kind of people who will eventually even wait for GT7 when GTSport comes out. I guess these people wont buy a 4K HDR TV within the next ten years. Even for anyone else, this is an exciting but really expensive prospect. Not only you need a new TV, you will need a PS4Pro, too. And everyone should keep in mind that entry-level HDR TVs wont provide the ultimate HDR experience gamers are after. Digital Foundry has already proven this.

    Right now im personally tempted to jump onto this HDR hype train, but i think there are more important things Polyphony should care about, like a dedicated single player career or proper VR support, which is propably off the table for now. And the gap in image quality between 4K HDR and VR must be shocking to say the least.

    1. Mulan

      Yes and life goes on and technology moves forward regardless if some here cant afford it. Would be crazy to slow down just because there are people that cant afford new tech or dont want to even if they can afford it. So keep it coming, cant ever please all anyway.

  8. Sasek

    This is nice but for me it is not a game seller feature. All I want from GT franchise is a good single player experience, a lot of cars to choose from, a lot of tracks, events etc. If this is not provided then I don’t care about everything else.

  9. apexpredator100

    So does this improved color range only apply to the paint on the cars, or does it apply to the entire graphical environment? If it’s the latter, then this game will definitely be a thing of beauty on the PS4 Pro (and it’s already is on the standard PS4).

  10. Reydawg Rey

    Seriously! For all of you that are stating someone does not buy a game because of the accurate color representation, Polyphony is obviously using it as an example. They’re merely stating what the upgraded technology is capable of. Some of these comments are so immature it’s a wonder why you’re even interested in Gran Turismo anymore. Go on play everything else because no matter what you say we are still going to love this franchise and we are going to buy it. It’s amazing that you have to turn everything around and put it into a negative aspect when this is clearly a positive aspect of the new technology and this is fact not opinion.

    1. ZEROTHEKNIGHT

      You have a big respect from me X)
      When you think about the colors you’re thinking about the circuits enviroment colors – the color of the sky depending on the weather – the way the color changes based on the time & the moment the sun ray reaches a certain objects based on the angle & the reflection of the sunlight depending on the object & the angle of the light.
      That also applies to the different windows colors based on the car on different enviroments.
      How does the car paint color gets altered by the dust & water on the body – the dust & mud on the tires depending on the enviroment – time & light reflection & brightness, and more and more X)

    2. ZEROTHEKNIGHT

      Thinking about the colors is like caring for an art.
      To make the game becomes a true art is to care about the colors to show a true achivement on simulating the true colors in reality X)

    3. Oyashiro-sama

      It’s the way they are doing the marketing, they even did a whole page for the hdr color feature when everything else (the things that matter) are kept in secret. It’s been bad news after bad news – few cars and races, specially when you do not count fantasy cars/locations, VR only in free race mode or whatever they call it, weather and time changes are more limited than before (and they needed improvement), still no damage, etc… – and the best they can come up with is this? Okay…

      BTW: I made the mistake of buying a 3D-TV for GT6… I won’t fall for the same trick again… I mean, I even doubt I will even buy a PS4+GTS, much less HDR TV. But that’s just me (and maybe the majority of people here)

  11. ZEROTHEKNIGHT

    Improvement is an improvement – either be small or big :)
    I remember a certain real car where it’s color wasn’t represented correctly in GT6 – now i can have more hope on seeing it being more accurate :)

  12. Johnnypenso

    Ferrari red is output from the game engine accurately and then goes through a tv picture that has a near infininte combination of hues, contrast, black levels, saturation etc. and that perfect colour is nowhere to be seen. Talk about wasting energy on something pointless.

    1. Griffith500

      It’s not just about exact shades (gamut) but also the range of shades you can display on the screen (crucially:) at the same time. Some TVs fake broader gamuts by messing with channel luminance levels, but it only works with some combinations of colours on the screen, not all. Colour correction still has to work within the hardware gamut.

      Think about exposure bracketing in photography; the depth of what we see cannot be captured in RGB, or even on HDR film. Many TVs don’t even use the full RGB gamut (hence GT having two colour output modes, since it’s already windowing from the HDR buffers in the game).

      Of course, much of this expression is pointless if you play in a brightly lit room with lots of reflections off the screen. (The analogy with HDR / “HiFi” sound should be obvious).

  13. vrossi

    If someone had been in the comment section for the last year complaining about GT’s colors, they would have been laughed off the site.
    (has anyone checked to see if some sort of chemical is leaking into the ventilation system over at PD studios?)

  14. blackjack

    Thank god all the Ferrari fans that held off from buying Gran Turismo in the past (because of incorrect colour rendition) will finally be able to purchase the game in confidence.

  15. Mulan

    As ive posted a some year/s ago that UHD was not that far is now a fact, most tvs are 4k that are sold and if you exclude 40″ and below almost all are 4k in Nordics…a year later that trend is global. This years big talk is HDR and games are perfect to represent the tech at faster pace than movies. Xbox is at this stage already (HDR/4k player) so PS4 needs to catch up and GT is the perfect game to market this. 2years from now 100fps and more will be the big talk for TV:s.

  16. CarBastard

    The end result being it will be a considerable length of time before TV’s are able to catch up and take full advantage of the game engine…and before PoDi is able to catch up to it’s competition and take back it’s leading place in the racing genre.

    While PoDi has been pushing this admittedly interesting technology, they are still being smashed by rival franchises both on the sim and the simcade front, even by small developers like Kunos and by ones who arrived very late to the party like Playground. But hey, more power to them if they want to focus on pointless gimmicks like 3D, VR, “futureproof” graphics and GPS systems that work only for the owners of a couple of cars instead of of catering to their fanbase demands and of paying attention to the strides of their rivals.

    Plus, from a bang-from-your-buck perspective you’re way better off buying a more than decent gaming PC than endulging Sony. Plus, you’d get to play much better racing simulations and games on your new platform like R3E and FH3. Talk about futureproof!

  17. Racecarman

    This is the stupidest article I have ever read, who cares, Ive never raced a sim and said to myself , Man my Ferrari’s color, it just isn’t right, if only they got the color right. Give me a brake, more propaganda to sell a new PS4 that no one needs. Now if they could only get the cars to handle as good as A.C. I just don’t get it, make the best looking,handling sim without a 4k tv. How long has the PS4 been out and where is GT, and i supposed to buy a PS4 Pro and a 4K TV just for GT Sport ? Oh and a PSVR system that is a joke from the footage they showed, if I wanted to be on a boat I would but a boat. all for the low price of $1800.00 Get it together man.

    1. AbsoluteBarstool

      Well, you don’t have to get hold of all of that to play GTS. You can just put it in the standard PS4 and it’ll be no worse an experience for all you care.

      People who do have UHD TVs, however, will more than likely want an experience more substantial than a great heap of pixels.

      It does appear that in all your shrouded jealousy for those with the money for such things, you’ve almost completely missed the point.

    2. dualshock

      I don’t think HDR is just about accurate colours, maybe having MORE available colours means that SDR might just show a plain red square, but that square in HDR could have a pattern in it made up of different shades of red that SDR cant display, subtle things like that will add to the REALNESS I’m sure. As for GT handling like AC..Well I hope it NEVER does, you said ‘Give me a brake’ well I say to AC ‘Give me a gearbox that actually works!’ and also stop me feeling like I’m being time warped back to that pencil through the roof handling of Total Immersion Racing.

  18. Eager Snake

    As always, graphically they’re going to be leaders in what they do. In my honest opinion, they probably have the best representations of cars in the industry, talking about premium cars of course.
    Now, I’d love to have the same level of commitment to the physics, sound and damage.
    It’s still too early to say anything, but if we take into account what has been said regarding the whole package, the visual aspects are priority with the online side of the game. I’m not actually complaining, I’m in love with the visual side of it to be honest, but it would be awesome to have an entire press conference showing off how awesome and accurate the physics are, how impressive the new sound system is and how incredibly realistic the damage is, giving us an amazing and realistic representation of the sport.
    And lastly but not least, I’m not trashing the game, I would just love to see more of that too. And I say it because is probably the only racing franchise that I truly enjoy even with its faults. So, yeah…

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