GT5 Prologue Physics

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Here's what I think: I think GT5 Prologue *does* have proper physics implemented with understeering situations. The problem is that a lot of people will be playing this game with a controller and it's simply impossible to navigate a car around a track with such an input device if all the physics elements would be in effect. People would most likely get into an understeering situation constantly because the controller stick doesn't allow for finegrained input. Would anyone dare driving your car in real life with a PS3 controller?? I think not.

I believe Polyphony tried to solve this problem by somehow maximizing the amount of steering input when the car is cruising at higher speeds. In effect letting the amount of steering be controlled by the speed of the car and not the steering input of the controller. I think Polyphony considers the controller as the main input device and us wheel users are suffering from this same limited behavior. I wouldn't be surprised if all they'd have to do is to simply remove this routine and everything would work as expected.


Quote:
Originally Posted by RC45
But be careful what you ask for - because I am getting the idea the majority of users/posters of this forum have little to no on-track experience, and are really "imagining" what certain aspects, feedbacks and impressions should be like... and are not basing their criticisms and requests on real life exposure.

You're right RC45. I've never been on a track. You are the expert and I'm not. I'm simply getting a feeling that something isn't right and am trying to translate that feeling here. I was actually hoping someone like you could provide us with proper insight! So are you saying that GT5 is properly simulating an understeering situation? Do real life cars behave the same way? Or are you saying we shouldn't be too critical and accept some shortcomings? Your experienced input is greatly appreciated.

Something else, RC45. Most of us unfortunately don't have the luxury of visiting a track. Are you going to be on a track soon? I think it would be seriously cool if you could do some understeering tests in real life and perhaps put some video's online.
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Der nachtblaue Geist Today, 7:12 PM Post #40

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tenacious D
I think the main problem with GT, and I think it's the bigger one, is that the grip envelope is a bit too mushy. If the tires, including the N class street tires, lost and regained grip more tangibly and distinctly, I think that would be a big help.



I think it's more than just the tires, though. Ever since GT3, the series' suspension modelling has been getting slower, mushier, and more vague. Hell, when I drove the V35 Skyline in GTHD:Concept, I could have sworn I was in a dinghy on the open sea, tossing and turning in the waves. The games appear to have simply lost any sense of sharp handling.


Quote:
Originally Posted by ebart
This is, however, the first GT for the PS3. The PS2 simply didn't have enough processing power to do real-time simulation calculations.

Sure it did. Richard Burns Rally and Enthusia Professional Racing are prime examples of this. In any case, it doesn't really matter anymore now that the latest Gran Turismo will be on the PS3.


Quote:
Originally Posted by RC45
Remember - again - the actual development team have tons of track time and vast experience driving a huge variety of cars in high speed situaiotns and are all car nuts - so for a moment why not imagine they know exactly what they want and how it should feel based on their first hand experience, and don't assume they are bunch of accountants in a boardroom.

Actually, when Polyphony Digital is working on a game, they tend to stay inside the office, living and sleeping there, not even driving between home and work (no, seriously). And I doubt any track testing sessions they've performed were done with the entire development team getting a chance behind the wheel. They probably have dedicated drivers so that any data they take is reasonably consistent.


Quote:
Originally Posted by RC45
I am not trying to be an arse here - just wondering exactly how many of the loudest "counter pointers" have actual experience to base their oppositions and requests on.

If everyone here commenting has multiple car track time then I am sorry for doubting anyone and will shutup and go sit in the corner... but I am guessing its a safe bet the minority have real high speed track time not the majority (and "high speed street driving" is NOT the same a race track time)

I will be pleasently surprised and suitably impressed if I am proven wrong - afetrall the more tarck enthusiasts the better

I drove two laps around the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 2005, participated in an autocross this last fall, and over the years have done plenty of performance driving of questionable legality. I drive a RWD car daily and year-round, and when it rains or snows I enjoy probing its oversteer-related handling limits in an empty and relatively safe place.

I base my perceptions of handling and driving physics on my real-world experience and physics discussions with knowledgable GTP members like Scaff, and also use that experience and those discussions to evaluate the areas in which Live for Speed (which I consider to be the closest thing to reality available) could be considered questionable. From that point, for convenience and safety, I often use Live for Speed as a benchmark against other driving sims for testing high-speed maneuvers that would be impractical to attempt to perform in real life.

However, my real-world experience is all I need to conclude that I have yet to play a Polyphony Digital game I consider reasonably "realistic." GT3 was the closest they've come, though I bet GT5P is significantly better.


Quote:
Originally Posted by ebart
Here's what I think: I think GT5 Prologue *does* have proper physics implemented with understeering situations. The problem is that a lot of people will be playing this game with a controller and it's simply impossible to navigate a car around a track with such an input device if all the physics elements would be in effect. People would most likely get into an understeering situation constantly because the controller stick doesn't allow for finegrained input. Would anyone dare driving your car in real life with a PS3 controller?? I think not.

I believe Polyphony tried to solve this problem by somehow maximizing the amount of steering input when the car is cruising at higher speeds. In effect letting the amount of steering be controlled by the speed of the car and not the steering input of the controller. I think Polyphony considers the controller as the main input device and us wheel users are suffering from this same limited behavior. I wouldn't be surprised if all they'd have to do is to simply remove this routine and everything would work as expected.

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- no matter what control input you use, the physics remain exactly the same. A physics engine does not have to be compromised by the need to cater to a controller-user, either -- the very thing you described in that second paragraph is what console sim developers use to make the controller usable. They have the game "second-guess" your inputs so that you can't go from full-lock to full-lock in a fraction of a second and you don't have to worry about moving the stick half way for pretty much every corner.

Don't worry about your experience with a wheel being tainted by the game being designed for a controller. That hasn't happened since GT3. Trust me, you're getting the fullest experience PD can give you.

As for the topic of understeer, again, I have yet to play GT5P, but in GT4 and GTHD, the problem isn't that understeer is excessive. The problem is that oversteer is inaccurate (and in the case of GT4, severely underpronounced). To put it another way, understeer is simulated just fine, but the game can't really simulate anything else, so it's all you get.

I am 100% agree with you. Nice to know somebody who is modest about his driving ability and enjoy probing oversteer-related handling limits in his real life. 👍 Unfortunately I don't have any video to proof my real life experience..so I would not bother to story on it. :)

Once again, well explained:tup:👍 The oversteering is not modelled accurately. Seems like lack of inertia especially when you want to start flicking the car with the throttle.The car doesn't want to counter turn with it. And I only feel this in GT5P at lower speed when traction started to loose. Probably that explained why you can't do proper countersteer donuts and long drifts?:dopey:
 
Even in real racing, donuts are done. They're 99.9% done by accident and they're pretty much never a full donut. But when it is done is when a driver spins out. Instead of taking the time to just turn around like you have to in GT in the past, the driver will implement a little bit of power to suddenly whip the car around and take off. A 180 donut, if you will. GTR2 can even accomplish this, and I've had to do it a few times and it's not easy.

Yes true, which is good you can do that in GT5P now. A little easier and faster with the clutch. If I could make a video of it I would.
 
can i just say, doing dohnuts isnt easy.

ive done caterham driving, Formula Palmer Audi Race Day, inc more caterhams, and VXR track day at oulton park, and i have never managed to do a full dohnut!

i did manage to spin a porsche off at the FPA day though:):)

oh yea and i think that GT5:P Has by fasr the most "realistic" handling of any of the GT games so far, i love it.

infact it did give me issues when i went back to driving my daily car as i just wanted to floor it everywhere! quite surreal actually..
 

that isn't the sort of doughnut they're talking about. the doughnut they're talking about is easiest done with RWD or MR car, where you can define the size of the doughnut by countersteer and throttle, not by smashing the throtthe while holding the wheel turned to lock.

Anyways, from my point of view, doughnuts are irrelevant, even though they DO happen IRL racing. drifting is acceptable, in some racing classes where downforce isn't available ( such as Legends ), small angle racing drifts are often unavoidable. (not to mention in Formula Fords which are generally like Formula 3's but without downforce if I recall right)
 
Sometimes I wonder where someone bases how difficult or easy it is to be able to do a drift/donut. Is it by visually seeing it and thinking that it's just simple countersteering?

Just because it's possible in NFS and LFS doesn't mean they are correctly modeling driving physics. They could just be masking it by making sure that doing drift/donut is simple and possible to appease the crowd that doing one is easy.

This then carries over into Gran Turismo and where it is then expected to be done the same way. Just because drift/donut in Gran Turismo don't happen the same way doesn't mean the game loses all credit for it's driving physics.

FWIW...I can do drifts/donuts just fine in this game. I do drifts/donuts in my real life car and I'm doing them the same way in Gran Turismo. Saying this to give you some background. Pretty realistic to me...


This is turning into the GT4 Drift forum. People claiming to know how a car operates and arguing about it. I can't stand forum arguments without proof. I'd like to see these drift/donut attempts and I will try to help explain what you are doing wrong.

 
just curious , what does everyone think about the front drive cars ? The integra rotates a little off throttle not too bad but the alfa understeers relentlessly. Yes im aware that FF cars have understeer tendancies but having never driven either car i wonder if the they behave that way irl (more or less) I'm in proffesional mode , N3 tire.


nice vid breakerohio
 
Red7,

On lift off, it corrects the understeer and the car does rotate a bit.
The Integra is engineered well for a Front wheel drive car. For a Front wheel drive, it should have a natural tendency to understeer as you mentioned. But Front Wheel drive is one of Honda's forta and I think that difference you notice with the Integra to the Alfa is showing this. It's one of my favorite Front Wheel Drive cars in the game.
 
Thanks for the video Breaker. Nice one:tup:👍

I also had managed doing the donuts in GT5P like you did which in big radius. The one that I meant was the pivoted countersteer as in the video from my first post.

I used to do it a lot in Toyota KE70. Done once in M3 E36 a year ago and then thats it. The steering will counter near to full lock easily as I full throttle. I don't have my own video, but this is the closest with a KE70 doing pivoted counter donut as what I mean (although the guy doesn't countersteer enough)

 
Thanks for the video Breaker. Nice one:tup:👍

I also had managed doing the donuts in GT5P like you did which in big radius. The one that I meant was the pivoted countersteer as in the video from my first post.

I used to do it a lot in Toyota KE70. Done once in M3 E36 a year ago and then thats it. The steering will counter near to full lock easily as I full throttle. I don't have my own video, but this is the closest with a KE70 doing pivoted counter donut as what I meanalthough the guy doesn't countersteer enough)

I have to ask - how come people are looking for and excpecting the "grip" of a old car on bald tyres doing donuts in a wet muddy greasy alley? ;)

Perhaps the "problem" isnt with the cars physics engine, but perhaps with the friction coefficent that the PD team have modelled into the tyres and track surfaces :)

Its almaost as if a lot of folks want a D1 game..
 
You know, with all this physics talk, one thing I'm really looking forward is seeing a race car. Will you be able to hear the much more brutal sound, and will the whole car react to every bump in the road because of it's stiff suspension and so on.

But I think the GT5 engine in general has lots of potential. It's just an (to some degree) uncut diamond, and GT5 Prologue is the cutting process :p
 
You know, with all this physics talk, one thing I'm really looking forward is seeing a race car. Will you be able to hear the much more brutal sound, and will the whole car react to every bump in the road because of it's stiff suspension and so on.
Brutal sounds like the Bentley in GT4... that car I think had the most brutal sound of all the race cars...

But I think the GT5 engine in general has lots of potential. It's just an (to some degree) uncut diamond, and GT5 Prologue is the cutting process :p
Perhaps that should be the subtitle of the GT5 instead of "the real driving simulator" hehe
 
Sometimes I wonder where someone bases how difficult or easy it is to be able to do a drift/donut. Is it by visually seeing it and thinking that it's just simple countersteering?
Donuts can be figured out visually, yes. All you need is an idea of what a car needs to be able to do one (ie. horsepower, differential type), and what it looks like. Then you crank the steering wheel, nail the throttle, and see if the game replicates the correct motion. There was actually a thread about this (with video) here. Scaff demonstrated what a proper donut should look like in post #17.

Drifting and oversteer are a bit more complicated to verify, but you don't necessarily need any experience for that either -- for example, it's very clear that what Tiff Needell does in his track tests is practically impossible to replicate in GT4, and if you watch the episode of Top Gear where Jeremy Clarkson compared GT4 to real life, his calm, somewhat understeery lap in GT4 turned into an oversteer-plagued mess in real life.

You can have the right idea without much real-world experience. It just makes it difficult to back up your claims in an online discussion. :)

Just because it's possible in NFS and LFS doesn't mean they are correctly modeling driving physics. They could just be masking it by making sure that doing drift/donut is simple and possible to appease the crowd that doing one is easy.
By grouping Live for Speed together with Need for Speed, and theorizing that LFS's developers would "appease" anyone by making something easier than it should be, I get the feeling you've never seen or played Live for Speed before. :indiff:

LFS isn't perfect, but it doesn't make any sort of effort to cater to donut/drifting fans. Donuts and drifting just happen to work in LFS because of the realism of the engine.


Wow, if that 350Z was stock then that video gives me more hope for GT5P's physics. :) 👍
 
Wow, if that 350Z was stock then that video gives me more hope for GT5P's physics. :) 👍


There is no tuning in GT5P so that is a stock 350Z but probably with N tyres.
 
There is no tuning in GT5P so that is a stock 350Z but probably with N tyres.
Good deal. 👍 N tires is fine; S tires are more like track tires that wouldn't be street legal in real life. Well, that's what it is in GT4, but I assume PD would keep things more or less the same.
 
By grouping Live for Speed together with Need for Speed, and theorizing that LFS's developers would "appease" anyone by making something easier than it should be, I get the feeling you've never seen or played Live for Speed before. :indiff:

LFS isn't perfect, but it doesn't make any sort of effort to cater to donut/drifting fans. Donuts and drifting just happen to work in LFS because of the realism of the engine.


Wow, if that 350Z was stock then that video gives me more hope for GT5P's physics. :) 👍

Ok LFS doesn't sit on the same stage as NFS. I know LFS has credibility as a good simulation engine. I've played it on my PC but I have not purchased the full product to keep enjoying it.

Let me rephrase that....where games like NFS lack the realism in simulating how weight shifting is important in drifts and the finesse involved in countersteering to control a drift is needed, I think the game play has to dumb down to cater to the audience that buys the games to make it more enjoyable and playable. It would be hard to sell otherwise.

By doing so, the expectation levels of how a car really operates is skewed when carried over into other driving games.

That was kinda the point I was trying to make. :)

Anyways...
Whats up with the graphics in LFS? haha I play it to test out the realism, but I really can only stand so much before I have to switch back to Gran Turismo to see some quality looking replays.


There is no tuning in GT5P so that is a stock 350Z but probably with N tyres.
No tuning
N1 tires.
 
Except that "professional mode" IS supposed to be the much more realistic and accurate mode of play in GT5.
I think some folk are accidently on purpose forgetting that fact.
It shouldn't HAVE to be dumbed down for anyone, that's what the other mode is for.
Arcade mode or whatever it's being called is basically a refined GT4 anyway, for those that do not want it more realistic and accurate.
 
Ok LFS doesn't sit on the same stage as NFS. I know LFS has credibility as a good simulation engine. I've played it on my PC but I have not purchased the full product to keep enjoying it.
Okay. :)

Let me rephrase that....where games like NFS lack the realism in simulating how weight shifting is important in drifts and the finesse involved in countersteering to control a drift is needed, I think the game play has to dumb down to cater to the audience that buys the games to make it more enjoyable and playable. It would be hard to sell otherwise.

By doing so, the expectation levels of how a car really operates is skewed when carried over into other driving games.

That was kinda the point I was trying to make. :)
It was clear before, I was just wondering what LFS was doing there. :lol: I agree completely, and probably the strongest NFS example is Carbon, which has one of the worst bastardizations of drifting physics I've ever seen, but is quite controllable if you force yourself to become accustomed to it (although I don't know why anyone would)...

Anyways...
Whats up with the graphics in LFS? haha I play it to test out the realism, but I really can only stand so much before I have to switch back to Gran Turismo to see some quality looking replays.
The game's engine dates back to 2002. The physics have been worked on and refined quite a bit since then, but the graphics haven't exactly received the same attention. It's also technically a public alpha that isn't anywhere close to a "final release."
 
I have wondered if the "Event" physics is more GT5P and the "Arcade" physics is dumbed down a little.
 
I have wondered if the "Event" physics is more GT5P and the "Arcade" physics is dumbed down a little.

There is no "Event" and "Arcade" Physics, just "Proffessional" and "standard"

Event is just where you do races/challenges to earn credits and complete the game, Arcade is just practicing/fooling around/time trials etc. They have the same Physics choices.
 
There is no "Event" and "Arcade" Physics, just "Proffessional" and "standard"

Event is just where you do races/challenges to earn credits and complete the game, Arcade is just practicing/fooling around/time trials etc. They have the same Physics choices.

My question is whether perhaps the "Arcade" mode, may have some dumbing down built in - not whether the "Pro" or "SIm" modes are different, as I just ASSumed that everyone here was choosing the Sim mode ;)

BTW, I am not sure what the fuss is though, I have been able to do donuts, J-Turns, hand brake turns etc in 1st gear with the Viper, Mustang and Corvette.

Granted they are not opposite lock donuts, but they are rotating around the inside front wheel.

I do believe there is a shortcoming in the physics engine in that they dont consider what to do when the front wheel changes direction other than to "move in the direction it is turned" - perhaps without considering the forward movement may be zero because the rear tyres are being boiled off in smokey burnout - so they ar ejust modelling a full "turn" of the car driving around a circle of a very small radius... perhaps they never considered a radius of zero.

Its almost as if the game needs a linelock to do the donut ;)
 
Well, being able to do donuts is something that would indicate to the drifters that GT was drifter friendly, like Forza is. But really, the biggest drift communities are in the Forza and NFS camps, so I'd think they really should just go there.
So you are basically saying that drifters should just go play NFS or Forza? Why should we be discriminated against just because we want a quality game to drift AND race in? Tight donuts are needed to compete in gymkhana since the course is very tight, its the only fast way to go around the track.
 
So you are basically saying that drifters should just go play NFS or Forza?
Well... I do get in moods sometimes. :p

I'm not sure what that original post was about. Maybe someone was complaining - you maybe? I shouldn't just brush a whole class of racers off, especially since Kaz and the lads gave us the Drift Competition in GT HD. And if they want to call GT5 home, I should be cool with that. I do have to admit that I'm not a big fan of drifting, though some of the cars look awesome.

So far in Prologue, drifting is kind of hit and miss. Some of the physics is better for it, some not so much. But the biggest bonus seems to be the Logitech G25 clutch. I'm not sure how much give vs bite it has, but that should really help out the drifters, if they can afford one. And I have a feeling that with a year's time to refine the physics engine, GT5 itself should be a nice game for all driving gamers.
 
My question is whether perhaps the "Arcade" mode, may have some dumbing down built in - not whether the "Pro" or "SIm" modes are different, as I just ASSumed that everyone here was choosing the Sim mode ;)

Well I know it's the same because it is just as hard to get the same lap times in "Arcade" mode as it is in the "Event" time trials using the same settings. J-PaP and I know this because we where doing the Viper Trial in Arcade mode and its the same. Don't let the Arcade name fool you, Just like in previous GT's Arcade is just a free race/free lap type mode.
 
I have to ask - how come people are looking for and excpecting the "grip" of a old car on bald tyres doing donuts in a wet muddy greasy alley? ;)

Good point, and I think that's where most people have had their objections of the GT physics models of the past; that is, precisely how the tyres' grip was modeled for different situations. I've yet to play any of the PS3 incarnations of GT, but the manual for the original GT on the original PS went to great lengths detailing driving dynamics and the grip levels associated with different tyre loadings (e.g. acceleration alone or braking and turning at the same time.)
So PD have had the intent from the start and it's interesting to see that they're still struggling to implement it to a "satisfying" degree.

I beleieve that in the past PD were limited by the technology in terms of raw per-frame processing power that negated the use of any high-fidelity tyre models. With the PS3 comes the first real chance for them to do so, and I hope that they grab hold of it with both hands.

In terms of the current and past engines, grip levels are already dynamic; at least in terms of tyre choice and individual tracks/circuits (e.g. Deep Forest and Grand Valley,) but if we were to get some sort of static weather choices for each track then clearly that adds another level of on-the-fly simulation, or at least pre-computation for the folks at PD.
If on-track dynamic weather is to be included, then a dynamic tyre-track surface contact model (temps, water coverage/depth/flow, aquaplaning!) will be needed, especially if we are to expect a drying track situation on some of the longer tracks (Nürb-Nord springs to mind.)

This, I believe, is purely in the realms of experimentation for the games industry, and would require heavy processing to achieve good results, and immense play testing to ensure the effectivenes of traction/stability control as well as the common range of controllers.

So, it all depends on how far you want the simulation to extend as, invariably, the more detailed the underpinnings of a sim, the better it mimics real life, and hence the more difficult to play it's likely to be (not to mention trickier for the developer to balance.)
I'm more concerned about the suspension model, as I feel the "normal" tyres in the past few GTs have been quite accurate (excluding small details that may very well be subjective, "snap-back" being an immediate example that I experience with the DS2 controller, but not the DFP) but the suspension still feels and appears to be very mushy, as someone said before.
Of course, the use of better suspension modeling will require some sort of damage modeling otherwise we'll be getting away with murder (the 'jump' on Eiger Nordwand, anyone?)

All that being said (apologies for the long post, people!) GT is a remarkable accomplishment of simulation and customisation, but it's never too late to influence the development; just don't expect miracles within one year.
 
You know, with all this physics talk, one thing I'm really looking forward is seeing a race car. Will you be able to hear the much more brutal sound, and will the whole car react to every bump in the road because of it's stiff suspension and so on.

But I think the GT5 engine in general has lots of potential. It's just an (to some degree) uncut diamond, and GT5 Prologue is the cutting process :p

me too. we still don't know how a race car will behave/sound in GT5. i also think the game has a lot of potential and the only gripe so far i have with the game are the tires/grip. it's not like the physiscs are bad, is that sometimes the tires can make one car behave a lot more differently than in real life.

i always thought to myself that N tires were the ones found in cars like a corolla or a camry. S tires would be the ones for cars like a viper or a vette Z06. then the R tires are the slicks for racing.

if i recall, you couldn't even put N tires in some cars, like they were already standard with S tires. (in GT4)

just mentioning that because if the 350z has N1 tires and S would be illegal for street, then what do those R tires mean?
 
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