Gran Turismo 7 Physics

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Do you want more detailed and realistic physics on the next GT


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Well Gran Turismo hasn’t always been much of a sim so GT7 has been a big step forward.

It’s odd we can’t adjust suspension not only front and back but including left and right. Tire pressures? Not even sure that’ll be in GT8.

It’s a tight rope trying to balance fun with sim.

I think they’re doing good, they just have to get rid of some of the goofy stuff that’s in the game. Focus on racing, maybe lean a little more into setting cars up in the future, less weird challenges and extremely focus single player races that you’re stuck repeating all the time. No career mode really.

As for physics, well it’s miles ahead of what it used to be. Although I never played GT Sport. Only GT5 and a bit of GT6 which felt like the same old.
 
I am away and can't test drive anything... So please share your observations after you take some test drives please.
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I’ve just had a quick race around Grand Valley in the 430 Scuderia, using the controller. Apologies but I don’t know how to articulate the change in physics/car behaviour terms, but it feels weird to me. The main thing I’ve noticed is the car seems to wiggle when steering centres. So if I do a slight dab of the steering, it feels like the auto-centre is a lot more aggressive than previously? I’m not sure I’m explaining this correctly tbh. But rather than a more gradual return to centre, it’s feels a lot more digital now to me.
 
yes car wiggles much more. overall now it more twitchy.

and here comes the important question? do they approach the physics updates as FOTM? so the sole point of the physics update just to make game feel different? or do they try to make it more realistic? i have a feeling it's just FOTM so players get excited/entertained.
 
I’ve just had a quick race around Grand Valley in the 430 Scuderia, using the controller. Apologies but I don’t know how to articulate the change in physics/car behaviour terms, but it feels weird to me. The main thing I’ve noticed is the car seems to wiggle when steering centres. So if I do a slight dab of the steering, it feels like the auto-centre is a lot more aggressive than previously? I’m not sure I’m explaining this correctly tbh. But rather than a more gradual return to centre, it’s feels a lot more digital now to me.
Does adjusting steering sensitivity helps ?
 
I’ve just had a quick race around Grand Valley in the 430 Scuderia, using the controller. Apologies but I don’t know how to articulate the change in physics/car behaviour terms, but it feels weird to me. The main thing I’ve noticed is the car seems to wiggle when steering centres. So if I do a slight dab of the steering, it feels like the auto-centre is a lot more aggressive than previously? I’m not sure I’m explaining this correctly tbh. But rather than a more gradual return to centre, it’s feels a lot more digital now to me.

yes car wiggles much more. overall now it more twitchy.

and here comes the important question? do they approach the physics updates as FOTM? so the sole point of the physics update just to make game feel different? or do they try to make it more realistic? i have a feeling it's just FOTM so players get excited/entertained.
Havent tried yet, but wiggle is wxactly what ive been missing. Im intriqued..
 
I did a lap of the nurburgring in a fully ugraded Supra Mk4 (something I did 2 days ago pre-update) to get an idea of differences. On controller it seems like:

-Less wheelspin. The car has more grip when accelerating, so muscle cars might be more viable now
-Slightly more understeer when accelerating out of corners. Feels like the front end is lifting more
-More instability when braking, but the trade-off is there's less understeer, so trail braking is easier
-More understeer at speed. I had to lift in places that could be taken flat out before. Maybe related to the front-end lift so something my setup might be causing
-Overall more body movement. Despite high natural frequency and body rigidity increase, the car feels more wallowy and wobbly than before
-Kerbs seem to unsettle the car a tiny bit less, but it still has the pogo-effect on landing
-Grass feels like it has more grip reduction than before. So dropping a wheel on the grass may cause more problems than before
-Catching a slide is easier. Haven't tried drifting yet but seems like it might be less of a knife-edge than before.

My lap time pre-update was 6:10.509. I've got thousands of hours in the last 2 years on those physics. After the update, my first successful lap (slightly messy, could improve without much struggle) was a 6:10.083. So basically half a second quicker with no experience. Looks like general lap times will be faster now. Most of that is likely down to wheelspin. Cars put power down better now.

A lot of this could be placebo - I'm not really sure. In some ways it feels more flowing than before, but in others it feels less predictable, more unnatural, but it could just be that I'm used to how it was.
 
Few things I've noticed so far:
  • No more annoying throttle curves
  • Braking without ABS is much more controllable (less inside wheel locking and easier to recover tire rotation)
  • Cars become little unstable under hard braking
  • Trail breaking is much easier
  • Tires accept much more slip angles
  • No more understeer like hell (most cars tend to oversteer now)
  • Lightweight cars (like BAC Mono) now have reasonable tire grip
 
From my A+ driver rating perspective after around 8 hours of testing, the new physics are a mess. For Gr3 cars with chase cam and BoP on. Understeer, oversteer, way too much grip on the rears. My settings are at maximum sensitivity and the rears hardly break traction. Unpredictable each corner. Almost impossible to save it clipping the grass. Reduced top speeds. These Gr3 cars need more power in alignment with real GT3 cars which might bring the rears alive. Weight transfer is horrible and the BB has been reworked to a level where it seems better just not to change it. With Gr3 being the meat and bones of online racing this isn't great.

It feels like a step back to physics used before, not new.
 
The more you do to a car, the harder it is to tell if a single variable has changed, or is making an impact....

V1.71 has changed the spring values of (so far) every road car in the game I've checked, the min/max values have changed and for some cars, this has meant the manually 'tuned' value on a setup might not as optimal as what it was.

If you have a car that has 'everything' done to it, or using high grip tyres etc it's not going to be as noticeable as a car that has reduced grip (lower tyres) and just one variable i.e. custom suspension. The difference with these cars are noticeable from the first few corners.

For some cars it could be an improvement because the car had the 'wrong' springs on the wrong end of the car (stronger/higher springs at the end with less weight - like Afla Mito), so the correction PD have done (even out the springs fr to rr) would make it feel better.

For other cars, especially those that have a variable that makes a difference to springs i.e. aero and especially aero that isn't changed and is at default value, then this could work the other way and make the car feel worse.

For many games PD have had the spring values of some cars the wrong way round, the stronger/higher spring is at the lighter end of many cars, for some insane reason they thought that now would be a good time to sort this out...crazy...
 
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On controller.

Road cars feel too soft, even with stiffness and rigidity jacked up, and the wheel centering combined with the softness makes you feel you have to fight with the car all the time.

Improved turn-in due to increased tire grip.

Wheelspin is more manageable but, with the softness, the car veers left and right when slamming the throttle.

Behavior over kerbs is somwhat improved, meaning you can attack them more aggressively.

I have to test more and maybe it's a matter of getting used to it, but currently I'm leaning towards disliking this physics update, mainly due to the first point. Feels like all chassis are made of papier mache honestly. :P

Ah, and they nerfed the F1 GTR Longtail further while BOOSTING the CLK-LM. The Longtail is barely better than its sibling (F1 GTR '95) now. Even more useless in WTC 900 events, it's now even more entrenched into WTC 800 territory.
 
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I’m on crontoller. Tested my JTCC Chaser, Impreza 22B and ‘98 Integra(to mimic the Honda Accord) at Fuji Speedway.

On RH with aero and the diff settings with 4.7 final drive, when braking it feels like there’s more engine braking slowing the cars. Applying the brakes feels like I’m really shaving off speed nearly to a halt at Turn 1.

Was the same at Tsukuba. Heading into Turn 1 feels like I’m braking too hard and the car is really shedding speed.
 
First impressions are rather positive. Things that I like about the changes (based or driving road cars on Comfort/Sport tires):
  • Grip is much more progressive - it doesn't feel like on/off switch anymore. This makes many cars really dance under hard acceleration while cornering, but not actually sliding - best example C7 Corvette ZR1 on CS tires. Lateral grip feels overall reduced across the board (cornering G are lower in most cases), but longitudinal isn't. Lap times are about 2-3 seconds slower on Laguna Seca - which is a good thing, because many, especially old cars were much too fast in corners even on Comfort Hards.
  • Weight is more pronounced - heavy cars feel really heavy, especially in stock form on Comfort tires. They are also the ones, that are much slower after the update
  • 4WD are finally nerfed - IMO they were too fast before in comparison with their period competitors (like Celica ST205)
  • FWD finally have decent grip under throttle
  • we can finally install open diff in cars that should have one from factory - like BMW Z8 or Alpine A110 (new one). Fully customizable LSD can be set to 0/0/0.

Things that I'm not sure I like:
  • MR cars feel more skittish and nervous - a little bit like in GT6
  • Not 100% sure, but I think stock springs/dampers/ARB have been stiffened. IMO it should have been other way around.

Overall, I' happy about the update - interesting that such profound changes have been implemented that late in game life cycle. GT8 might really be very, very far ahead.
 
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Not enough time w the tires, but not really complaining yet. Does feel more progressive in the S and C series, need some more time for Rs

However ABS off seems too insensitive now. I’ve been driving no ABS for some months now and there was a range of sensitivity across various cars, some easy to lock up and others more progressive

Now I’m barely getting any lock up, at least w road cars which is mostly testing so far. Even my most sensitive car seems pretty tolerant, others I had to check to see if ABS got turned back on

Dialing it back half way towards previous woulld feel about right

The understeer rattle feels much more natural now

Mostly positive so far - if the Caterham is anything to go by. It feels pretty convincing to me as to how I’d expect it to feel
 
I just sat down and did 3 laps in the GT-R GT3 at Road Atlanta as that was the last thing I was doing in the game, so it's fresh in the memory bank. I will need to get more time with the changes, but first impression is that the car understeers more, and maybe as a consequence requires more steering input. Does not feel as sharp on turn-in anymore. Maybe it just needs a new tune. Also ~2 seconds slower in lap time.

Edit: Noticed in the suspension settings on the car that the toe was -0.45 / +0.45 :crazy: Changed it to -0.10 / +0.10 and my steering complaints went away. Feels much better.
 
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So far I'm finding that my brake pressure during trail braking has to be more intense. I used to apply 80% brake on corner entry and just gradually drag it down to 20-10% to the apex. Now I have to stab at 100% and hold around 30% brake pressure to finish corner rotation into the apex. Without this adjustment the cars are crazy understeery and won't rotate all the way into the apex. Every now and then I'll still under press the throttle on corner entry and then understeer off the track.
 
Rally is waaay harder now, tested a bunch of scenarios on the dirt tracks and Lake Louise.

I'm no professional, but I noticed a few things. Self-aligning torque angle is much "narrower", no more full send 90 degree high-speed handbrake turns and snapping back to full grip. What that also means is going outside the SAT range causes you to lose control completely and just slide, and grip/steering doesn't come back until you've slid to a slow speed.

It also seems turning in general scrubs more speed than before, but that most likely has to do with the previously mentioned narrower SAT; grip just falls offer faster at shallower angles than before.

Finally, braking is cooked (as it should be imo). Even with full ABS, if you're not braking in a straight like, you just skip across the dirt with no steering control whatsoever.

All this being said, I do like that rally is more challenging and less "slot car" than it was before; much smaller margins for error and less cheese. But man, Lake Louise is tough now. Even the AI ends up in the wall if they mess up even slightly or get tapped by another car.
 
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Haven't done a whole lot but tested a bunch of cars for a lap or two. Seems like there's a lot more rear end grip at low speed, maybe a bit too much in some cases. Otherwise it seems to have fixed some of the cars that had really bad snap oversteer on throttle out of slow corners. Lots of aero changes too, many road cars have either gained or lost front downforce and the Gr.1 cars are completely different. I feel as if the LMP1 Hybrid cars have too much drag and you can't lower the rear downforce below 1500 so you're stuck with it really, they also still have the nerfed hybrid system so they're not that fast sadly. Gr.2 2016 GT500 felt about the same which is good because I really liked them before.

Biggest thing I've noticed on cars without ABS in real life is that they have a lot better brake bias now, I get far less lockups on 2-3 bias than I used to. However it does also feel like maybe some cars have too much grip while braking and the brakes then end up being insanely good, something I need to test more. Other thing that seems to be different is that on a lot of road cars you can run lower ride heights without the tyres rubbing, even the '97 M3 seems a lot better than it used to be so I wonder if they've changed how they measure the heights.

I'll have to do a lot more testing to see if these things hold up but so far it actually seems good. I should also point out that I never use the default setups on race cars so I can't speak for what those are like now, most of mine just needed small changes to the diff, aero and ride heights but otherwise work just as well as before.
 
When I was driving the Caterham around Brands Hatch last night I could feel the tyres moving across the road surface a lot more than I remember. It is therefore much easier to gauge the amount of grip you have at any moment, increasing the involvement and your confidence.
 
I just sat down and did 3 laps in the GT-R GT3 at Road Atlanta as that was the last thing I was doing in the game, so it's fresh in the memory bank. I will need to get more time with the changes, but first impression is that the car understeers more, and maybe as a consequence requires more steering input. Does not feel as sharp on turn-in anymore. Maybe it just needs a new tune. Also ~2 seconds slower in lap time.

Edit: Noticed in the suspension settings on the car that the toe was -0.45 / +0.45 :crazy: Changed it to -0.10 / +0.10 and my steering complaints went away. Feels much better.
To add to this, all of the Gr.3 cars are set to pretty crazy toe settings like that. Which means that we'll have to deal with it during official events with settings locked.
 
My controller don't give feedback through vibrations when going over different surfaces, only haptics from R2/L2 buttons, they are still working when you change cars and they simulate the engine starting up.

Maybe this update messed around with the controllers and wheels in general.

I like the changes so far but I think there is too much grip, it's been a struggle on the wheel to go through slow chicanes like monza and yas marina.
 
I’ve just had a quick race around Grand Valley in the 430 Scuderia, using the controller. Apologies but I don’t know how to articulate the change in physics/car behaviour terms, but it feels weird to me. The main thing I’ve noticed is the car seems to wiggle when steering centres. So if I do a slight dab of the steering, it feels like the auto-centre is a lot more aggressive than previously? I’m not sure I’m explaining this correctly tbh. But rather than a more gradual return to centre, it’s feels a lot more digital now to me.
I think that's due to a change in how the steering input is processed rather than a physics change.

I'm using the motion sensors for steering and I don't get any wiggle.
 
Grid starts using my Super Touring Toyotas yield no wheel spin. 1150kg, RH, 295 BHP @8300 rpm, default PD full diff settings, 4.7 Final drive with a 106km/h first gear.
I could induce wheel spin in my 300-320 BHP E30 with similar gearing before the update. If it had big horsepower like my Group A RS 500 sure, but really disliked lower BHP cars doing burn outs off the line. Feels like a real start to a touring car race.
 
Thinking of it, if I was a coder I would try using tire overheat on gravel/snow opposite to asphalt - make it give more grip. That could simulate the "dig-in" of the tire.
 
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