A presentation given by Polyphony Digital studio head Kazunori Yamauchi as part of the Sony Creators Conference event has revealed that the Eiger circuit location first used in Gran Turismo HD could be returning to the series soon.
Yamauchi was one of the presenters in a keynote speech, from Dr. Hiroaki Kitano, on “Pioneering the Future of Creation”. This covered how the Sony brand is supporting creators, both within the brand’s various companies and for independent parties.
Naturally Yamauchi’s section detailed the Gran Turismo series, and his passion for understanding the real world in order to recreate it within the games over the last 25 years. It’s an interesting presentation, but it was the short video within that caught our eye.
There’s a quite a few cuts and not a lot of lingering in the video, presumably to keep it light and short to suit the audience and allotted time, but we do see a fair bit of Polyphony Digital’s circuit capturing and modelling techniques.
You’ll notice laser scanning and photogrammetry in the clip, along with some wireframe maps of Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and Laguna Seca — perhaps not coincidentally the last two new circuits added to Gran Turismo Sport in 2019.
Of particular note is the helicopter ride, which shows a sophisticated array of Sony Alpha cameras on a rig set to capture the background sequentially. The aircraft is flying past the distinctive triple peaks of the Eiger, Jungfrau, and Monch mountains in the Bernese Alps which form the backdrop of the Eiger location in Gran Turismo HD, 5: Prologue, 5, and 6.
While this could be mistaken for archive footage from visits to the area for previous games, there’s several clues that give a limit for how old the video footage is.
The helicopter used — a Eurocopter AS350 operated by Swiss Helicopter AG — wasn’t painted in its current livery as shown until mid-2016, and one of the DSLR cameras seen in the clip appears to be an α7R IV which launched mid-2019.
We also see some new 3D environment models in the clip, depicting the Kleine Scheidegg railway station — also seen in the “HD”-era Gran Turismo track — and a chalet known as Villa Maria. There’s a 3D topographic map also shown although we can’t positively identify the location.
The original Eiger Nordwand circuit used the location only as inspiration, with the actual route not based on existing roads but closely following some walking paths. It appeared with new mixed-surface courses in Gran Turismo 5 and 6, but — like other legacy fictional circuits — was not part of Gran Turismo Sport.
See more articles on Eiger Nordwand and Kazunori Yamauchi.
