noch mehr GT5 material (habe extra einen neuen post damit es nicht unübersichtlich wird), besuch bei polyphony:
ich weiss nicht recht woher das ist und von wann... der redet ganz unten von der GTHD demo (die europäer seien die besten) aber mittendrin wird die ganze zeit wieder von GT4 HD/Premium/classic usw. geredet!? ich kapiers ned recht...
edit: ist es dieser bericht?
http://www.jeux-france.com/blog156758_Blakguy der wär ja aktuell? kommt doch ein GT4 HD?
All of the monitors are on, revealing everything. New cars & circuits being modelled, even future packagings can be seen.
We enter the sacred buildings, revealing it's industrial design. Our photographer, translator and our pilot are waiting for us. For the occasion, we have asked Benoît Tréluyer (Formula Nippon champion, Super GT race driver for Nissan and a 24hrs of the Le Mans 2007 participant for Pescarolo) to accompagny us.
It's a real mad house, car nuts everywhere. Polyphony really is a studio like no other. A studio where everything is dedicated to the game, not towards money. Stacks upon stacks of car catalogues, racks collapsing under the weight of more automobile books you'll ever see. The desks are hidden under maquettes, models and sketches.
A hymne to the automobile.
Our visit
3pm: we start our visit. Kazunori Yamauchi is the guide for the day. We could've had worse...! When walking around, it felt surreal, unique. Our eyes couldn't capture everything there is to see. In one of the boxes, I spotted a GT5 logo... They don't hide anything from us. All of the monitors are on, revealing everything. New cars & circuits being modelled, even future packagings can be seen.
Other studios have strict tours, timed to the second and finish off with a standard drink and a set of rules about what can be published and what can't.
to return
- all cars & circuits from GT4
- ability to download more cars & circuits
- 4 camera angles to drive
- all Ferrari cars
- F1 cars
- new city circuit(s)
- at least 12 online players, maybe up to 20
- changing weather conditions
Little black boxes contain technical fiches of nearly every vehicle in existence.
The boss explains us the studio works in total anarchy. He shows us a room filled with musical instruments, fitness equipment, a library, game consoles, movies, magazines, books, etc. Everyone can find something to relax. When a game is nearing completion, most programmers want to stay behind their computers and finish the game, they even have a kitchen, showers, sleeping rooms and even washing machines !
The visit continues. Kazunori opens a few drawers, grabs a couple of brochures and explains us to model vehicles,
Waiting. In this part of the studio, it's possible to relax, play music, watch movies. On top of that, there's a large selection of car magazines. The first floor is dedicated to travel books and the cinema. The basement contains the technical stuff belonging to the actual development studio.
(GT HD Classic or Premium...)
Kazunori Yamauchi explained to us we'll be able to create our own GT via PSN. All of GT4 will be downloadable in HD, but you'll have to download each track & car seperately. We received no confirmation / details regarding the price or game modes. The Premium edition will be a GTHD Concept, with two tracks and about thirty vehicles.
No confirmation about Porsche nor Lamborghini.
120 people work here, 120 working on the next Gran Turismo.
(In the driver's seat)
There are days when you have all the luck in the world !
When arriving, we weren't expecting to try the next GT. And yet, here we are, driving a Nissan 350Z GT500 around the Nürburgring. On a 46" screen in full HD, the driving sensations are amazing. GTHD has been designed to be played with a steering wheel, that's why each game version is tested with different models to enqure maximum compatibility. In a similar fashion, 4 screens are connected to the game (SD, HD720, HD1080i and HD1080p) to ensure the same with monitors.
It's here Kazunori Yamauchi tests GT during it's development.
Kazunori coming at the job in a Porsche GT3 he has two Ford GT parked on the roof of the building.
- The studio can live in total autarky if need be, in particular in the end of development of the game when the developers spend their time in the Polyphony's building : they have all, they have rooms (to sleep), a kitchen, a room of gym, rooms of relaxation (dvd, consoles, library, magazines), showers, washing machines… They receive also the majority of the automobile reviews published in the world.
- They use infos of the manufacturers to design the cars.
- Their very big server which is in a air-conditioned room, it would be the 4th biggest in Japan. It manages the whole of the data of the games of Polyphony.
- The studio is currently composed of 120 people. Staff get bigger with time, and nobody left the studio, all those which were there for the first GT are always present. Kazunori speaks about a true “family”.
- The guy of Joypad went to Polyphony with a French pilot who run in Super GT in Japan (he drives a Nissan), and who won Formula Nippon this year and which makes also "Les 24 Heures du Mans" (on a Pescarolo). He made a race against Kazunori, and Kazunori won (like against Loeb). Kazunori often invite Japanese pilots of Super GT in Polyphony's building, to make them test Gran Turismo and to have their opinion. The French pilot makes a reproach, for him it's difficult to feel the limit of braking. According to Kazunori, it is a problem involved in the current wheels which are not enough advanced to retranscribe this subtlety. According to the French pilot, GT is the best driving simulator on console.
- The guy of Joypad could test the game on the circuit of Nürburgring, but that it was not finished, it missed parts of the set. -
There are 4 “positions” of driving : two external views, hood view, and internal view.
- Kazunori could drive on the true circuit of Nürburgring last year, and he estimates that after having played his game he could find the same reference marks in reality.
- For Indianapolis… in fact, after having tested the circuit of Nürburgring, the guy of Joypad saw a black screen with incomprehensible Japanese lines, and the only word he could understand was "Indianapolis”. So : Indianapolis in GT5?
- For the next GT which will not be GT5. it would be just a version of GT4 in HD. “all GT4 will be downloadable in HD, but it will be necessary to download the circuits and the cars likely to interest you”. In fact, it's not clear, I wonder even if the journalist understood what Polyphony will do exactly with GT4 HD/GTHD Classic/Premium. GT4 HD would be the GTHD Classic about Polyphony had spoken 6 months ago. There will be in a sort of “GTHD Premium” too, which would be a GT 5 prologue with 2 circuits and about thirty cars, and the real GT5 graphics.
What we learn in the interview:
- I pretty sure the guy of Joypad was received by Kazunori at the same time as the team of Turbo (french TV, they had the interior of 300SL and the information : interior views for every cars of GT5).
- Kazunori says something interesting: about the cars of GT: “some of them are claimed by the manufacturers, but the majority of the vehicles of the game are personal choices”. In fact, the manufacturers must impose models of car (like family cars) because it's a good advertising , and there are maybe even negociations (“you include these small family car and we let you include this top model or this concept car”).
- At the beginning, Polyphony was called “the team Yamauchi”, it was a small division integrated into Sony. They became Polyphony DIGITAL in 1998.
- Yamauchi confirms that they are 120 people today at Polyphony. When they began the development of the first GT in 1992 (!), they were 7 and they spent 5 years to finish the game.
- Yamauchi dreams about creating a Formula 1 game, according to him it would be a game very different from what still exists. Unfortunately, according to him this type of game costs to much money and there are too many stakes with FIA.
- The car he preferred in the GT is the Nissan Skyline GTR. The better car in the game (better graphics and modelisation, and better technichaly) “is without question Nissan 350Z Nismo Super GT”.
- He does not know other games than Gran Turismo, so what he does not admire any other creator of games (by ignorance). The only game he noticed, it is LittleBigPlanet ("different", "original").
- There will be a game between GT4 and GT5 but they do not have a name yet. We will be able to download cars when there are update (he says : "it will be possible to make updates of cars")... And he thinks it will be possible to download cars when there will be new models. (he does not speak about downloading the 750 cars of the game !).
- All the Ferrari range will be present, and they're trying to have Porsche and Lamborgini, but as long as it is not signed he cannot answer positively (let us cross the fingers).
- About new circuits : there will be traditional race circuits (like Nürburgring) + 1 or 2 circuits in town.
- The Drift mode will be very important in GT5. (japanese gamers really like it)
- Astonishing, he says that it will be possible to go online and see the other gamers connected driving and trying to make their best time, we could also be seen by other gamers when we drive (the spectator mode).
- About GTHD demo, he says that Europeans are very strong (), he sees very less American people in the classifications of best times… (Amis können nicht fahren, Europa Rocks )
- There will be always driver's license in the next GT.
- About F1 cars, there is a problem of rights, to make a F1 game you need to pay the FOM (Formula One Managment) and they ask a lot of money. However we will find true F1 in GT5, like old Ferrari F1 or like F1 of manufacturers who still are present in the game (Mercedes, Lotus).