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Undoubtedly, a great majority of the Gran Turismo gaming community would have been looking forward to the February 18th 1.06 update, including the GTPlanet Race Admin team and all Online Racing (OLR) enthusiasts. The update provided improvements to many areas of the game and even new features which expanded the appeal and accessibility of GT5. However, it appears that the latest updates to GT5 with regards to performance points and the adjustability of power and weight have made it even more difficult to conduct a fair and clean time trial competition of significant size where adherence to regulations and restrictions can be suitably monitored and enforced.
From the very beginning, it has been common among GT communities and forums to run time trial/hotlap-based championships, contests, events and races. Before the advent of online racing, this was the only way of competing against fellow gamers locally or across the globe. This was followed by LAN racing, where users would meet up and connect their PlayStations via a local area network and take advantage of the LAN feature to actually race live against other human competitors.
Arguably, the peak of OLR Time Trial popularity occurred with the release of Gran Turismo 4 in 2004/2005. GT4 provided unprecedented flexibility for OLR organisers, with more than 700 cars and over 50 tracks. The "Arcade Mode" on GT4 allowed players to choose from a small list of cars and tracks that were available from the outset of the game. But as players progressed in GT Mode, and acquired more cars and unlocked tracks, those aforementioned cars and tracks were made available for use in the Arcade mode of the game, eventually allowing organisers of hotlap competitions to use any vehicle or circuit combination they desired.
Not only did GT4 provide this level of flexibility when it came to choosing cars and tracks, it contained several features that allowed organisers to create clear rules that were easy to enforce. Creating rules that can easily be verified and enforced has always been central to these competitions. The rules level out the playing field, and make the competitions a focus on the ability of the drivers, rather than allowing participants' knowledge of the game to provide them with an unfair advantage. Those features included -
• Limited tuning features (Drivers were only able to affect the weight, horsepower, tires, and top speed of their vehicle)
• The horsepower adjustment allowed was + or - 20%, while the weight adjustment allowed was + or - 10%
• Race tyres were only made available on race cars
• The top speed adjustment (effectively final drive ratio) was only made available on race cars
Importantly, the game included several features that made verification of rules simple and straightforward -
• The car name, track name, horsepower and tyres were all shown at the beginning of each replay
• Driving aids (TCS and ASM) had indicator lights that allowed verification of their use, in the case of events where their use was restricted
• Photo Mode allowed for the freezing of replays and an uploadable picture, allowing organisers to provide proof when a participant ran off-track.
• A Data Logger, which allowed organisers to verify wall touches, by showing abrupt changes in speed in a short time frame when a participant made contact with a wall or other object.
The only significant concession organisers had to make was to always allow participants to set the vehicle weight at -10%. The weight of the vehicle was not shown anywhere on the replay, making it impossible to verify whether or not participants took advantage of the weight reduction feature.
OLR flourished for many years on this platform. GT4 was used for 3 International Board Challenge competitions, and for more than three and a half years provided the platform for 184 Weekly Race Series (WRS) events here on GTPlanet.
With the worldwide release of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue by the spring of 2008, and the move to the PlayStation3 platform, organisers of OLR events had some tough choices to make. The diminishing popularity of GT4, which was already more than 3 years past release at the time, was becoming abundantly clear. However, Prologue presented many unique challenges for event organisers. Those included -
• An extremely limited selection of Cars and Tracks (The game contained approximately 60 vehicles and 10 track variations)
• Lack of a Photo Mode or Data Logger
In addition to the limited content and lack of verification tools, Prologue had many loopholes that would allow participants to skirt the rules. Competitors were able to set a lap time with a particular vehicle configuration, change the configuration in the menu, then save the lap. The saved replay would not show the configuration of the vehicle when the run was made. Instead, it would show the configuration that the menu had been updated to.
For example, if the event was restricted to Sports Hard tyres (S1), participants could make their run on Sports Medium tyres (S2), then exit, change to S1 tyres in the menu, and save the replay. The replay would show they made the run on S1 tyres, when in reality they had used a grippier S2 set.
The impact of this loophole was not limited to tyre selection and vehicle configuration. Prologue also featured two separate physics engines, “Standard” and “Professional”. If organisers required Professional physics for an event, they had to trust that participants were not going to take advantage of the loophole in the game. It was possible for a player to set a time in arcade mode using Standard physics, change the physics to Professional in the menu, then save their run. Subsequently, when viewing the associated replay it would show that Professional physics had been used, with no way of proving otherwise.
In addition to these complications, Prologue also allowed for Downloadable Content (DLC) game updates. A major update was made to the game physics with the update from Spec II to Spec III. As a result, long term measuring sticks such as qualifiers had to be adjusted as time went on. Despite these hurdles, the popularity of OLR Time Trials was widely unaffected throughout Prologue’s life span. GTPlanet was host to 107 WRS events, and also hosted the highly popular Interforum Time Trial Championship (IFTC).
Gran Turismo 5 was released in the fall of 2010, to much fanfare and anticipation. OLR organisers had high hopes that the release of GT5 would provide unprecedented flexibility for event selection, while making significant improvements to verification tools. While GT5 has provided significantly expanded content and the addition of verification tools, many issues that were present on Prologue still remain.
Even now that GT5 offers private lounges as well as open lobbies with up to 16 spaces, there is still a place for time trial competitions, evidenced clearly by the fact that GTPlanet’s own Weekly Race Series for GT5 attracted 150 competitors in its first week, and the numerous hotlap competitions taking place across other popular GT forums and within smaller GT racing teams and communities. The appeal of bettering one’s own driving technique and overall speed is undeniable and will always remain a significant aspect of any racing or driving game. The enduring appeal and relevance of hotlap competitions is further evidenced by the enormously successful and popular first time trial phase of the GT Academy, still their preferred format for distinguishing the most talented virtual racers of a given region or territory.
Speaking of the GT Academy, SCEA recently had to take drastic action to curtail the blatant exploitation of track boundaries to gain lap time in the second round of GT Academy USA. This bold move towards the enforcement of fair play standards in such a high profile competition, and the widespread desire of GT5 gamers to compete on a level playing field with their peers is the inspiration behind this article. Update 1.06 has apparently introduced stricter penalties for track-cutting and wall-riding, misdemeanours first spotted among the top drivers in the US Academy through the viewing of their replays by other competitors. And thus we approach the crux of the matter; the GT5 replays.
GT5 still features two separate physics engines. However, they are no longer presented as “Standard” and “Professional”. Instead, an additional aid called Skid Recovery Force (SRF) has been added to the game. Experienced OLR participants have been able to verify that this aid provides an advantage of nearly 1 second per minute of laptime. However, use of the aid cannot be verified when viewing replays. There is no indicator evident when the aid is in effect, and it can be used on the majority of events on the game. The areas in which it cannot be enabled are the Online racing lobbies, Seasonal Events Bonus Time Trials, Special Events AMG Driving School and one race in the Special Events Grand Tour section currently. In all other areas of the game, players can enable the Skid Recovery Force (SRF) aid.
Additionally, the Arcade Mode of the game is limited to 52 cars that are available from the outset of the game. These 52 cars cannot be tuned in any way. Without the SRF aid issue, these vehicles would provide a nice platform for the operation of several OLR events, but organisers would still be limited to these 52 vehicles. "Favourites" are also available for use in Arcade Mode. However, the Favourites have all of the upgraded parts and tuning flexibility provided to participants in GT Mode. Since the installation of tuning parts cannot be verified when watching a replay, this requires organisers to allow all upgrades to be added to these vehicles. Additionally, it requires organisers to allow complete freedom of vehicle settings. This moves a significant portion of the focus of events from driver skill to tuning skill. While this is certainly fine for the occasional event, turning all of the events into a tuning competition has never been the focus of OLR TT's. The main focus is raw driver ability and performance, and GT5 simply does not allow for competitions that focus on those aspects. Many will point to the lack of stock-settings time trial leaderboards that were present in Prologue as a similar shift towards tuning prowess compared to fundamental driving technique and ability.
In order to make OLR TT's viable on GT5, we as organisers need the following solutions added in the form of a game update -
• All vehicles from participants' garages made available for use as Arcade Mode vehicles, without tuning.
• Skid Recovery Force (SRF) aid indicator visible during replays
• Performance Points (PP) of vehicle visible during replays
• Horsepower, torque and car weight visible during replays
• Indication of tuning parts that were in use visible during replays
• Settings/Options used visible during replays
With these additions, GT5 will provide the platform for OLR TT's to thrive for many years to come.
All the best,
Kevin Michael (EDK) / Maziar Shahsafdari (Synwraith)
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