Inside the AI-Powered Rendering Tech Polyphony Digital Is Building for Gran Turismo’s Future

[Jordan]

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

Inside the AI-Powered Rendering Tech Polyphony Digital Is Building for Gran Turismo’s Future​

Polyphony Digital is developing a new rendering system for Gran Turismo that uses neural networks to determine which objects in a scene need to be drawn, and the early results suggest it could meaningfully improve performance on PlayStation 5...

 

[RobertHammer]

GT8 is coming , obviously for PS6

 

[GlamFM]

Fascinating stuff.

 

[05XR8]

When people are wondering about this and that with PD, there’s usually a silent interview that pops up with more insight into what Kaz has been doing. I wouldn’t be surprised if such an interview pops up at some point.
Besides, I recall recently(the gtplanet 25th anniversary or preview 2026 video?) Jordan has mentioned he was shown or told about exciting things of what is to come for GT7. Maybe an interview by gtplanet gets posted after whatever PD release to players.

Not the kind of article about AI I was saying, but it’s more info about what PD are doing while we wait.

 

[evldave333]

That was a demanding read, very interesting. A cocktail of algorithm's is similar to an old school hardware upgrade now, bring on the pssr2!

 

[NekoPufferPPP]

A way to use AI in a purely beneficial and positive way with no negative effects? Very nice. I hate the recent trend of "modern" graphics using various "optimization" methods that just end up making everything look mushy and grainy.

This must function in VR as well.

 

[brockie]

its amazing to think this this game can actually get visually better,

 

[kjb]

Very interesting article. It's always good to get some information about the tech behind the game. I am always fascinated about they create these all of these different techniques to make the game look great

 

[Old_Setzer]

I'm really looking forward to seeing how far the next installment can go visually if the game runs on PS5/6, especially since they managed to make GT7 look this good while running on a 2014 machine.

 

[SaycoPWorrell]

This is awesome.
If Sony had won the CELL/RSX architecture war and developers gave more time to learn how to use rather than quick buck with the older x86 way... I bet the advance version CELL and RSX with added AI assistance could blow away current graphics and parallel physics computation. PS3... was ahead of its time.

 

[notarjy]

I do find it interesting that in the more mainstream gaming space, you often hear people saying they dont need a PS6 yet, they cant imagine games looking or running better, etc. Personally I am ready for the next Playstation and Gran Turismo is the main reason why. I am primarily a high end PC gamer but with Sony now pulling back on releasing their games on PC, I am looking forward to how they can improve the GT experience on new hardware. Graphical improvements will be nice for sure, but even more I hope they will be able to expand technical aspects like car counts, AI driver capability, AI crew chief/strategy, things that will really enhance the racing experience.

 

[StephanCTR]

I suppose these rendering technologies, cleverly working with what is and what is not seen by the player, are the reason why Gran Turismo looked so good on older PlayStations. Of course the technology was not as advanced then. I also read about how God of War or Killzone squeezed so good visuals from PS2 also by working with rendering and computing strictly just the visible parts.

 

[VR-SORN]

We have already seen DLC being sold in the form of AI updates in GT7 (Sophy version). Moving forwards instead of cars and track being paid for extras it could be a bump in FPS and graphics with an AI feature update.

 

[fardoche]

It is interesting to observe that they are still investing time in optimizing their pipeline on the current gen hardware.

Although this will probably serve for next gen console as well.

 

[traind]

Very good work translating both the Japanese as well as the technical detail for us! The PS6 is designed for ray tracing and AI to make a leap forward and these hidden tech advancements will all add up. If you are a fan of game visuals you have to be excited to see what PD will do with GT8 on new hardware.

 

[Mattylatvala]

GT8 is coming , obviously for PS6

With today's economy it will be cross gen

 

[Auditore]

most if not all games have some tech like this but it's great to see the process evolving.
It's also always welcome to hear AI news about things that AI SHOULD be doing.

 

[Mathaios_C]

We just need Gt8 trailer before the end of the year. That’s all we need.

 

[Lomic]

We just need Gt8 trailer before the end of the year. That’s all we need.

There's no "we".

 

[Dragonwhisky]

We just need Gt8 trailer before the end of the year. That’s all we need.

Oh yeah. Because, you know, if we don't get a GT8 trailer by the end of 2026, the earth will stop spinning, the magnetosphere will fail and we'll all float off into space and our cadavers will float to the sun. It's on the Incan calendar somewhere I bet.

 

[Sir Crashalot]

Fascinating stuff. But ngl, I don't understand everything about the tech behind this. Would this also help with object pop-in and LOD? Because that are the things I find really annoying. The frame rate itself is mostly fine for me.

 

[suomi1]

They are always trying to get the most out of the platform they have; it's impressive to see what goes on behind the scenes.

If only it had inspired other studios... lol

 

[Ande3200]

We just need Gt8 trailer before the end of the year. That’s all we need.

Fully agreed even if its a year or 2 away having trailer would generate hype.

 

[Sum1s2pid]

Heheh... "nature stuff". 😅

 

[ShiftingGears]

That's cool

I hope they channel this the right way so that they prioritise more cars being added in races rather than using it to just add more assets to the tracks

 

[mastretta_mx]

With today's economy it will be cross gen

Yes, but some of ud think than some aspects like the weather effects, AI and number of cars per race are being hold by PS4, so even if is crossgen PS5/PS6 a quality jump on some of those aspects is expected

 

[Lux Klonoa]

They are always trying to get the most out of the platform they have; it's impressive to see what goes on behind the scenes.

If only it had inspired other studios... lol

View attachment 1520753

Nah, that's just Nintendo for ya. They've always intentionally been a gen behind since the Wii.

 

[Theufcveteran]

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

Inside the AI-Powered Rendering Tech Polyphony Digital Is Building for Gran Turismo’s Future​

Polyphony Digital is developing a new rendering system for Gran Turismo that uses neural networks to determine which objects in a scene need to be drawn, and the early results suggest it could meaningfully improve performance on PlayStation 5...

Thanks for the article and the translation! Always like to read about PD's tech showcases.

 

[the Interceptor]

Great read!

 

[Freeman_Cruz]

This looks like a highly specialized pipeline designed specifically to push frame boundaries. In modern general-purpose engines, geometry virtualization (like UE5’s Nanite) tackles the same bottlenecks automatically and with higher visual fidelity, but it’s essentially a 'brute-force' solution that’s extremely heavy on the hardware.

The fact that Polyphony is doubling down on this custom AI-driven culling instead of a Nanite-style approach suggests a very specific long-term play. I’m betting this tech is the foundation for PS6 (desktop & portable).

Yamauchi has gone on record saying 240fps is the true ideal for racing sims. You aren't hitting those numbers with brute force alone, even on next-gen silicon. They need these surgical, AI-powered optimizations to bypass traditional rendering overhead if they ever want to make that 240Hz goal a reality. It’s about efficiency over raw power.