How Did Polyphony Digital Pull Off Graphics and Dynamic weather on PS4

[ArR29]

I don't think I've seen it mentioned here yet, but it's possible we could see PD's first (?) implementation of dynamic resolution scaling to particularly help the base PS4 version. This is how PCARS 2 achieved what it did. That game didn't always run well on consoles, but PD's go of it would of course be better/more efficient at least thanks to their intimacy with PlayStation hardware.

This is speculation of course, but I think the PS4 Pro could do well at 1440p with little/no DRS. It's a small step down from GT Sport's 1800p, but perhaps necessary to make room for the added system load that dynamic weather/lighting introduces. I see a 900p future for base PS4.

They can easily implement AMD FSR. It's open source and imo better than dynamic scaling.

 

[HyperSpeeder]

Regarding the topic title, if the PS4 is no longer the developmental priority, it's possible. Project CARS had all that and then some. Ran like crap and was further hampered by SMS' bad coding, but it had that.

 

[Imari]

It also looks to have a (small) monthly subscription fee and also needs three other mods to look like that. There's a reason why this game is so niche, even on PC.

You say that, but when it sells as many units as a Gran Turismo game it's not that niche.

Assetto Corsa Sales Top 12 Million Units

The parent company of Assetto Corsa publisher 505 Games, Digital Bros, has published its results for the third quarter of [...]

www.vgchartz.com

 

[zzz_pt]

I don't think I've seen it mentioned here yet, but it's possible we could see PD's first (?) implementation of dynamic resolution scaling to particularly help the base PS4 version. This is how PCARS 2 achieved what it did. That game didn't always run well on consoles, but PD's go of it would of course be better/more efficient at least thanks to their intimacy with PlayStation hardware.

This is speculation of course, but I think the PS4 Pro could do well at 1440p with little/no DRS. It's a small step down from GT Sport's 1800p, but perhaps necessary to make room for the added system load that dynamic weather/lighting introduces. I see a 900p future for base PS4.

PC2 ran atrociously on the base PS4, especially in these three conditions: night, anything other than sunny day and large grids. Combine all three and it was painful to drive.

I’m sure GT7 will be much better optimised but still, using PC2 as a reference is not that great.

I’m still waiting to see how dynamic weather works in the game. Dynamic time of day is already heavy for the hardware, with weather effects on top, I fear people on the base PS4 will have a thought time playing at a stable frame rate, even at 30.

 

[FPV MIC]

You say that, but when it sells as many units as a Gran Turismo game it's not that niche.

Assetto Corsa Sales Top 12 Million Units

The parent company of Assetto Corsa publisher 505 Games, Digital Bros, has published its results for the third quarter of [...]

www.vgchartz.com

So according to reports in a gtplanet article it only sold 1.4 million copies until the 2017 Digital Bros. takeover, and then over 10 million since? Seems a bit odd. Could those units be all the separate DLC's as well? Still seems high though, even at less than €6 per unit.

Assetto Corsa Has Sold Over 1.4 Million Copies

The recent acquisition of Kunos Simulazioni has (maybe) shed some light on the sales figures for the developer's sim racer.

www.gtplanet.net

Edit: While I don't know how accurate SteamSpy is the updated data is up from the 400k reported in the gtplanet article to between 1 and 2 million now so it's hard to see where all these sales are. There's no way (IMO) they've sold 10 million copies on console.

Assetto Corsa -

Steam Spy automatically gathers data from Steam user profiles, analyzes it and presents in simple, yet beautiful, manner. Steam Spy is designed to be helpful for indie developers, journalists, students and all parties interested in PC gaming and its current state of affairs.

steamspy.com

 

[Samus]

Well it's in their financial reports, you don't lie in those unless you want serious trouble.

 

[FPV MIC]

Well it's in their financial reports, you don't lie in those unless you want serious trouble.

In their Assetto Corsa section they also call ACC an episode and make referance to it using the Unreal 4 engine (ACC does, but not AC) in it's bullet points so I'm not sure it's just purely Assetto Corsa the game in those sales figures. Pretty impressive if it's true though.

 

[ScottPye20]

PC2 ran atrociously on the base PS4, especially in these three conditions: night, anything other than sunny day and large grids. Combine all three and it was painful to drive.

How the hell did I manage then?

In their Assetto Corsa section they also call ACC an episode and make referance to it using the Unreal 4 engine (ACC does, but not AC) in it's bullet points so I'm not sure it's just purely Assetto Corsa the game in those sales figures. Pretty impressive if it's true though.

View attachment 1091024

12 million copies sold on PC, Xbox and PlayStation.

 

[zzz_pt]

How the hell did I manage then?

Maybe we have different standards but going from GTS to PC2 the performance was noticeable worst when those factors were at play. Maybe that’s why PD decided not to implement them in GTSport back then (dynamic weather, ToD and large grids).

 

[Freeman_Cruz]

"Asseto Corsa" is a game available on both Playstation now and XBox Game Pass. Does anyone who tests the game on these services count as "sale"?

Still I find these numbers hard to believe. Project Cars has been much more present in the general conversation having sold just over 2 million between PS4, XBox One and PC.

PROJECT CARS POWERS TO 2 MILLION UNITS SOLD

PROJECT CARS POWERS TO 2 MILLION UNITS SOLD: Slightly Mad Studios is today honoured to announce that sales of its genre-defining Project CARS racing simulation has surged past the two million mark.

www.slightlymadstudios.com

 

[OldSilentHill]

Asseto has not sold almost the same as Gran Turismo 3 or Gran Turismo 4. These numbers are product of the Gamepass, with some other parameters. I remember there was a game with the same "wording", I think it was Horizon, and they clarified it included Gamepass under certain conditions (not sure if it was the amount of hours played). Please, don't be so naive.

 

[Whistle Snap]

The weird thing to me about your videos is that how have we seen FPS fluctuations in the main game with out having remotely close to the things you're testing. Something really isn't adding up between your videos and what we've seen.

My videos are recorded by the PS4, so would any dip be less noticeable with its halved frame rate capture? The 38 car / rain combo performance in GTS is damn good, and better than any other PS4 racing game I've experienced. I tip my hat to Polyphony.

I've just been doing some storage cleaning and found another video from game play view.

 

[Tired Tyres]

In their Assetto Corsa section they also call ACC an episode and make referance to it using the Unreal 4 engine (ACC does, but not AC) in it's bullet points so I'm not sure it's just purely Assetto Corsa the game in those sales figures. Pretty impressive if it's true though.

View attachment 1091024

If I recall, each element of DLC counts as a sale. No way they have sold 12 millions copies of the game itself. It doesn't behave like that in steam usage charts.

 

[FPV MIC]

If I recall, each element of DLC counts as a sale. No way they have sold 12 millions copies of the game itself. It doesn't behave like that in steam usage charts.

I agree, there's no way it's sold 12 million copies/units on it's own merits. Whether it be by Gamepass, DLC, adding ACC figures or Humble Bundle being used to inflate the numbers it's still a niche title (a good one too IMO).

 

[Imari]

Asseto has not sold almost the same as Gran Turismo 3 or Gran Turismo 4. These numbers are product of the Gamepass, with some other parameters. I remember there was a game with the same "wording", I think it was Horizon, and they clarified it included Gamepass under certain conditions (not sure if it was the amount of hours played). Please, don't be so naive.

It's a good job that there was never such a thing as hardware bundling that could also throw off the sales numbers like that.

 

[05XR8]

And I can’t wait to see how the PS4/PS5 combo package, ticks the sales for either system. Still wonder if a potentially 10 million PS5 users, buy the GT7PS5 25th anniversary with the PS4 code, does that mean there are also 10 million GT7PS4 sales.

 

[Dave A]

And I can’t wait to see how the PS4/PS5 combo package, ticks the sales for either system. Still wonder if a potentially 10 million PS5 users, buy the GT7PS5 25th anniversary with the PS4 code, does that mean there are also 10 million GT7PS4 sales.

Surely it’d have to based on the number of codes activated. I don’t know for certain, but that would make sense to me.

 

[05XR8]

Surely it’d have to based on the number of codes activated. I don’t know for certain, but that would make sense to me.

I’d like to think so, but if people bought physical copies and never open the box, is that a sale or not? I’ve got a PS4 only, but bought the Delux Digital PS5/PS4. Of course, the game will be on my PS4, but when I get a PS5 and start playing with my PS5 download, does it then count as a sale? What if I don’t play the PS4 and just wait til I get a PS5? I don’t need a definite answer, but those are the questions I’m pondering.

 

[5thwheel]

In response to the OP: 30fps, 1080p maximum - perhaps lower than that on base PS4.

That may be how plus since release there may have been years of development time devoted to engine and optimization. Looking at GT Sport's tracks and comparing it to e.g. the detailed environments and weather effects of Driveclub I can't help but think that GT is not maxing out the PS4. If Polyphony will devote enough effort to doing that is of course another topic.

Seems unlikely though that this is a full-on PS5 dev project that had to be retargeted to PS4 at the last minute at the request of corporate. More likely that they always had a PS4 build and were only scaling up and enabling features on top of that.

 

[ICEYOU3]

[*]Daytona International Speedway / Weather Changes / Time Changes

Man racing NASCAR Stock Cars at the Daytona oval in medium to heavy rain conditions was such a thrill on GT6.

 

[ICEYOU3]

Deleted

 

[anthonyfa18]

Can it be we will get a drying track, i don't see how the ps4 cpu will handle this task

 

[Magog]

Can it be we will get a drying track, i don't see how the ps4 cpu will handle this task

They are in record saying the track will dry as cars race and create a drying line. They also are going to simulate atmospheric humidity.

 

[JD_18]

If Xbox One can do it whit FM7, I dont know why people have worries about this.

 

[ImaRobot]

If Xbox One can do it whit FM7, I dont know why people have worries about this.

Because PD has always put importance on visuals over a lot of other things, so it's hard to imagine that they'd take a step back to get it going. I'm interested in seeing how it fares and the compromises made, but it sounds great that they even got it going in the first place. As long as it's not detrimental to the way the game runs, than thats a win for everyone.

They are in record saying the track will dry as cars race and create a drying line. They also are going to simulate atmospheric humidity.

I'm pretty sure they've been on record saying it's only a visual representation, too.

 

[Magog]

Because PD has always put importance on visuals over a lot of other things, so it's hard to imagine that they'd take a step back to get it going. I'm interested in seeing how it fares and the compromises made, but it sounds great that they even got it going in the first place. As long as it's not detrimental to the way the game runs, than thats a win for everyone.


I'm pretty sure they've been on record saying it's only a visual representation, too.

They didn't say that anywhere.

 

[ImaRobot]

They didn't say that anywhere.

You may be right, looking back it looks like just conflicting information within a question posted a while back. The only part that I had seen was when Kaz said "We don't have a system for simulating the amount of rubber that's laid on the track.." when asked about the weather. Looking it up, later down the line he says that the line that is driven will have a better surface grip as time goes on because of it being actively used.

 

[ICEYOU3]

"How Will Polyphony Digital Pull Off Graphics and Dynamic weather on PS4"​

You'll be forced to connect your PS4 to your Komodo Dragon's PS3 via Ethernet to utilize the Cell Processor's 8 core apu for proper day to night weather transitions in 4K/120. The combined power of the two consoles will effortlessly outshine the might of the PS5 Version.

 

[Emet_PL]

If Xbox One can do it whit FM7, I dont know why people have worries about this.

FM7 has predefined, directed change of weather, not real time / dynamic, all with prebaked lighting and shadows (only cars cast real-time shadows in Forza Motorsport games.. that will probably finally change with Forza Motorsport 8). GT7 is going to have fully real time lighting, weather and time change. That's a HUGE difference.
Only Forza games that have real time lighting, weather and time change are the Forza Horizon series, which aim for 30fps standard framerate (of 60fps with reduced resolution / graphics fidelity).
So... there's concern how PS4 will handle a more extensive real-time lighting than GT Sport, which has real-time shadows but lighting (global illumination) of the world (surroundings) is pre-baked.

 

[warp9engage]

We don't really know how scripted the time/weather will be in GT7. It should be noted that such systems can be both dynamic and scripted. Dynamic simply means it keeps changing over time, but all these changes can be scripted and then the system has them play out in real-time, instead of jarring, sudden changes. The marketing materials make it look complex, but we have to remember marketing is marketing, and only once we play it, will we have an idea. Even then, only Polyphony will know the details of the implementation.

However, considering the game will have highly competitive e-sports, and will allow crossplay between PS4 and PS5, they don't have a choice but to make sure dynamic time of day and weather, work on both. Unless those features won't appear in Sport mode. You cannot have one person running static time/weather, playing someone with dynamic time/weather, as there will be competitive advantages and disadvantages. They also have to keep framerates identical, as low framerate can also be a competitive disadvantage.