Friends of mine are claiming the Replay videos to be post-processed..

  • Thread starter Diversion
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Diversion

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And not played back in Realtime.. is this true or not? I don't own the game so I can't visually tell.. but i've been watching the replays in HD on gametrailers.com and they look absolutely stunning.. The cars look REAL as life on the track during the replay.. They claim that the game looks worse when you are racing versus than what you see in the replay.

So whats the word on this so I can shut them up.
 
Diversion
And not played back in Realtime.. is this true or not? I don't own the game so I can't visually tell.. but i've been watching the replays in HD on gametrailers.com and they look absolutely stunning.. The cars look REAL as life on the track during the replay.. They claim that the game looks worse when you are racing versus than what you see in the replay.

So whats the word on this so I can shut them up.
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They're right and wrong. The replays look exactly like that on the screen. But the game does look "less good" when racing compared to in the replay. This has been the case for all Gran Turismo games as far as I'm aware.
 
It's simply a case of the angles used to show the graphics off. You don't get as much of a benefit from certain lighting effects or angles when playing te game from a chase or bumper view as you do from panning shots and wide angles etc. All that's done is PD have made good use of the camera shots used in the replays, nothing actually changes graphicaly from the game to the replay.
 
Well my buddies strongly believe they are post-processing (re-rendering) the replays before it's played back. I don't believe this for a split second considering i've never heard of any game or console being able to post-process an entire replay to make it look better.. the time it would take to process a 5 minute replay would take an hour probably.. The fact that you can change angles and manipulate the replay while it's playing tells me it's 100% real-time.. no pre-rendering/post-processing/what have you.. Every replay in every Gran Turismo was done in true real-time, no trickery or modifications.. But they don't believe me still. They say "Well then why does the game have to load the replay?" Which is a idiotic question considering the system has to load up all the commands and positions of the controls of the car for the replay, then load the graphics into memory.

The only post-processing i've seen the Gran Turismo series do is in GT4 when you take a photo.. there's a small 3 to 5 second delay where the system is processing the photo to higher resolution and applying anti-aliasing and whatever else... It takes the PS2 3-5 seconds for a single FRAME.. imagine how long it'd take the PS3 to do 18,000 frames @ 1920x1080 resolution for 5 minutes of replay footage.. You're outta your mind if anybody thinks the PS3 is powerful enough to process that in a reasonable amount of time.

Jay
 
Diversion
They say "Well then why does the game have to load the replay?" Which is a idiotic question considering the system has to load up all the commands and positions of the controls of the car for the replay, then load the graphics into memory.
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You may want to go back to them and let them know that GT:HD does not have to load up a replay at all, finish a run (no matter how many laps) and as soon as you finish it and hit the replay button, the replay starts. No significant delay and certainly no loading.

If they are referring to the viewing of leaderboard replays, then yes a short load period does occur, which is no surprise as it does have to download the replay information. It is however a very quick process and no more than one would expect for the load and transfer of any replay (replay files from PS2 games other than GT took longer with AR Max).

I would have to ask if any of them have actually seen this in action or is it just what they have heard?

Regards

Scaff
 
Hi Diversion, I am not sure "which" reply your friends were referring to...what i mean is the reply you see from some internet website or the in-game reply on the ps3 while playing the game ...

the in-game reply is real time, that's no doubt about that ....

but the reply videos downloaded from the website (eg. gametrailer.com, gthd japan site...) are actually better looking than the in-game reply...(just in my opinion...) the shadow on the car is better... and the graphics look less jag to me .... I'm not sure if anyone here agrees with me, but seems PD shows us the "better" reply on the internet...

but don't get me wrong, I think the in-game replay is actually very good already, but I hope it will be better on GT5...(have to fix the self-shadow of the car...)
 
Diversion
I don't believe this for a split second considering i've never heard of any game or console being able to post-process an entire replay to make it look better.. the time it would take to process a 5 minute replay would take an hour probably.. The fact that you can change angles and manipulate the replay while it's playing tells me it's 100% real-time.. no pre-rendering/post-processing/what have you...

...But they don't believe me still. They say "Well then why does the game have to load the replay?" Which is a idiotic question considering the system has to load up all the commands and positions of the controls of the car for the replay, then load the graphics into memory.
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Sounds to me like you didn't need us to tell you that your friends are wrong. 👍 And they are.
 
There are only two differences between the play mode and replay mode

1. A blur is added to simulate the cameras aperture
2. A simulated heat blur is added.

Like mentioned before the different angles take advantage of the lighting very well. But all in all, the replay wasn't re-rendered.
 
In a video interview I saw not too long ago they were talking about GT5 and how the replays run at 30fps but the races at 60 and that was because they threw as many effects in as they could into the replays. I was wrong when I said it was just the abngles, I still think the angles make up a large part of the effect, but the graphics are improves by virtue of additional effects.
 
Dave A
In a video interview I saw not too long ago they were talking about GT5 and how the replays run at 30fps but the races at 60 and that was because they threw as many effects in as they could into the replays. I was wrong when I said it was just the abngles, I still think the angles make up a large part of the effect, but the graphics are improves by virtue of additional effects.
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Graphics aren't improved. Effects are added. That's two different things. But the actual graphics that you saw during the race aren't altered in anyway.
 
they can add extra effects into the replays because the game no longer has to process what you're doing, it only has to display what you've done. Therefore the processing power that would normally go towards physics is able to be set aside for fancy effects. It's definitely not post processing, it's more like...if you were playing a computer game and you changed the lighting effects from "medium" to "high"...things like that.
 
BonzoHarry
they can add extra effects into the replays because the game no longer has to process what you're doing, it only has to display what you've done. Therefore the processing power that would normally go towards physics is able to be set aside for fancy effects.
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That's not quite right. For the replay, the game still processes graphics, sounds and physics in real time. The only thing it doesn't process anymore are your imputs, which only take a fraction of processing power.
 
The replay doesn't have to process the physics anymore though. You drive through the level and the physics engine will determine how you slide and the game records where you slide, therefore if it the replay just retraces where you've been exactly, then it doesn't have to calculate the physics because they've already been calculated when determining where your car go goes.

The replay doesn't record your inputs on a time line and then reenact everything you just did for that lap, if it did it that way THEN it would need to process the physics again.
 
BonzoHarry
The replay doesn't have to process the physics anymore though. You drive through the level and the physics engine will determine how you slide and the game records where you slide, therefore if it the replay just retraces where you've been exactly, then it doesn't have to calculate the physics because they've already been calculated when determining where your car go goes.

The replay doesn't record your inputs on a time line and then reenact everything you just did for that lap, if it did it that way THEN it would need to process the physics again.
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Then how do you explain the fact that replays with gameshark-enhanced cars are all screwed up when played back later? You'll find the car turning early, running into walls, and generally being useless.

If you pay attention, even though it could be doing a 40mph burnout against a wall at the time, you'll see that the car is following the same steering, braking, and throttle inputs that you used with the gameshark car -- but because the gameshark enhancements don't work anymore, the car isn't fast enough to navigate the track with those inputs.

A replay system that tracked your position and orientation for every moment in time would have to have a very high resolution in order to look good (a replay that only updated your position, say, 30 times per second would look choppy and weird). This would drain a lot of processing power during a race, and it would lead to big replay files that couldn't fit on the tiny memory cards that Sony gives us. Instead, the game simply keeps track of what inputs you use and at what time, and then plays them back again through the physics engine.
 
Absolutely spot on Wolfe! 👍

The replay function actually only records your steering inputs, the physics are re-processed in real time during the replay.
 
speedy_2
Graphics aren't improved. Effects are added. That's two different things. But the actual graphics that you saw during the race aren't altered in anyway.
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Effects are all part and parcel of graphics. If you have two games with the same sized poly models and the same resolution textures, but one had no additional effects and the other had loads, the one with the effects would have better graphics.
 
Dave A
Effects are all part and parcel of graphics. If you have two games with the same sized poly models and the same resolution textures, but one had no additional effects and the other had loads, the one with the effects would have better graphics.
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Technically yeah. But here in GT:HD I'd hardly constitute a heat blur and different camera angles as better graphics. It just plain looks awesome whether you're driving or watching the replay.
 
I have had the demo since it was available and the 1st thing I noticed was the true to life feel when driving these cars. I drove like I would if I was in an actual car on an actual track and was completeley impressed with the way they responded.
I really dont watch my own demos much although my times are always top 5 but I do watch the top replays from time to time in hopes of learning a trick or 2 and if you hit the x button at the start of the replay it gives you a bumper-cam view (which is how I drive) and it has the same feel as if I were driving.
Hope this helped you.
J
 

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