[interview] Kazunori Yamauchi to motorsport

[symaski62]

Gran Turismo founder on his mission to save motor racing

 

[Granadier]

He's right. I've always been interested in cars and motor racing, but never have I been as invested in the sport as when I got into GT Sport and started learning some of the actual skills needed to drive fast.

Thank you Kaz.

 

[mastretta_mx]

Even if is not the most realistic simulator we need to give him credit for being the firsst approach to motorsport for many of us

 

[zzz_pt]

Even if is not the most realistic simulator we need to give him credit for being the firsst approach to motorsport for many of us

I still think GT is the best to at keeping the love for motorsports alive. To do that, you need a constant influx of new fans and no "serious simulator" is good at captivating the minds of young people. GT is the best you can get and have fun while on a pad. Then, when you're a mature fan, you'll probably appreciate a Sim like ACC, iRacing, RR or RF2 even more.

Kaz is probably well aware of the competition on the sim side of things (the whole SR DR feature is very similar to iRacing) but also of the compromises needed to appeal to a wider audience.

 

[FoRiZon]

Even if is not the most realistic simulator we need to give him credit for being the firsst approach to motorsport for many of us

Because it's not supposed to be "the most realistic" like Asseto Corsa or PCars. It's supposed to be as realistic as possible while pleases large potential number of people, hence the "from 7 to 77" tagline on the marketing side.

The best analogy would be the DiRT series. Codemasters know that full sim would be very difficult even for average customer, hence the series is split to 2: Rally series for full sim and numbered series for "simcade".

 

[IngRobNy]

Then, when you're a mature fan, you'll probably appreciate a Sim like ACC

I don't know, I have played PS4 AC single player and in my opinion it's not any difference between GT and AC when it comes to driving the cars safe around a track, AC didn't have many road cars with just sport tires, (but AC single player was way harder to win races in compared to GT) so I can't compare any tire grip between those two games, but race cars like GT3 with racing tires feels the same, I don't know how the online is in AC, but my guess is that dirty drivers is everywhere, no matter what SIM racing games you are playing.

 

[05XR8]

I like how he mentions about the sound sir cars. It's a bit of a point I brought up, in a thread, about players warming up to EVs. If EVs are the norm, it'll be great to have such an archive as Gran Turismo. It's a playable visual library/museum of cars we today/future generations may never drive again.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Good to know Kaz and I share the same vision of "preserving" automobiles and motorsport in the virtual world. He's probably the only person in position and with enough resources to do so. A post I made in the AC mod thread a while ago:

Thinking the big picture, my dream would be every auto manufacturer in the world banding together to preserve CAD and performance data for all of their cars (past & present), and make it available to anyone with a reasonable price (cheap for individual license, more expensive for game devs and commercial use). New models' data will be delayed by 1-2 years (game devs can pay more to get earlier) to avoid theft by competing manufacturers. This way racing sim development costs can be driven lower and we'll hopefully start seeing real innovations in the place where it really matters: gameplay. Modding will be pretty much uniform with no good/bad 3D models, just how well each modder translates the data into each game. Extending from this idea would be race track owners around the world also banding together to laser scan each of their circuits, and making it available in a similar manner to above. This way even if we all end up riding in electric autonomous cars in the future and fossil fuel motorsport has gone forever, we will still have the digital replicas of every car and track to enjoy in the virtual world.

The sad thing is though, even if we manage to preserve everything virtually, would the kids of the future even be interested in driving and racing cars? When all cars on the road are electric and autonomous, we won't have the same emotional connection to them. it just becomes another appliance like a phone or a fridge. It will become difficult for future generations to imagine what cars used to be like, let alone think of racing them. I mean yeah a select few will still do it, but how many games and people do you know of that does horse racing for example?

 

[AlanH49]

I like how he mentions about the sound sir cars. It's a bit of a point I brought up, in a thread, about players warming up to EVs. If EVs are the norm, it'll be great to have such an archive as Gran Turismo. It's a playable visual library/museum of cars we today/future generations may never drive again.

I agree. It’s increasingly important for sims to be an audio/visual archive of historic machines. Plus of course being able to drive them virtually.

I used to collect scale models. It was my way of preserving a little of that motorsport heritage and good memories. Putting aside the silly cost of scale models these days. I was never satisfied just owning a fraction of the cars I desired. Nor the accuracy of said models.

After viewing the cars in GT Sport. Seeing them in exquisite detail. I have a new found appreciation for even humble cars like the classic Mini. ‘Owning’ a full fleet of car’s, in their respective team liveries, is a big part of the enjoyment for me.

 

[GTV0819]

I still think GT is the best to at keeping the love for motorsports alive.

Yeah but that was GT4 to GT6 times.

 

[zzz_pt]

I don't know, I have played PS4 AC single player and in my opinion it's not any difference between GT and AC when it comes to driving the cars safe around a track, AC didn't have many road cars with just sport tires, (but AC single player was way harder to win races in compared to GT) so I can't compare any tire grip between those two games, but race cars like GT3 with racing tires feels the same, I don't know how the online is in AC, but my guess is that dirty drivers is everywhere, no matter what SIM racing games you are playing.

You played AC on a pad? And had fun?

 

[IngRobNy]

You played AC on a pad? And had fun?

Hahahah, both yes and no, the campaign was hard and the special events was even harder and in endurance races the AI didn't pit, but I had to, so that was a waste of time .

I had more fun in PC1 (also a SIM at the same level as GT S in my opinion) and are having more fun in GT S, but the AI could have been made a bit harder to beat.

 

[Silver_Wolf]

Read the article yesterday and thought it was quite accurate but if Kaz is serious about preserving stuff from history then we should really
get some more of those older car sounds like earlier F1 cars and so forth.

I just recently repurchased Gran Turismo 2 after not owing it for a very long time and I have a copy of GT3 and 4 but need to fix sound issues
on my PS2 but I may have to revisit the older parts of the franchise soon.

Also if E-Sport's is gonna be a thing Kaz needs to look at maybe some more other events like the Supra Cup example to give us players who are learning online racing and becoming competitive some other experiences.

 

[IngRobNy]

like earlier F1 cars

Maybe Codemasters also have the rights to classic F1 cars?

Edit.

Forgot for a moment that we already have Hamilton's F1 car in GT S, so I have no idea how the licence situation is for classic F1 cars or modern F1 cars for that matter...

 

[Silver_Wolf]

Maybe Codemasters also have the rights to classic F1 cars?

Edit.

Forgot for a moment that we already have Hamilton's F1 car in GT S, so I have no idea how the licence situation is for classic F1 cars or modern F1 cars for that matter...

I was dropping the hints on the earlier version of the Gran Turismo F1 car but not wanting it to turn into a wishlist post that
would incur Famine's wrath!