Kazunori Yamauchi on the Future of Gran Turismo Sounds

[CodeRedR51]

It's good to see the desire to improve. However, I really don't like the tire screeching. I understand it tries to provide some audible feedback for the driving, but IMO, it's very intrusive, fake, and unlinke what I hear in the real world or motorsports videos. For me, this is the most needed audio improvement in GT8...

I have the tire sounds turned all the way down in settings. I use them as a feedback tool, if I can hear the squeal, I'm probably pushing too hard.

 

[ice311man]

The jump in audio quality from GT6 to GT Sport was huge and very much welcomed.

Honestly for the vast majority of cars im happy with the sound. I dont expect GT7 with such a huge car list to have amazing detailed sound for all cars like ACC does.
Would I want better audio? Yes. Is the audio that bad? No and nowhere near PS3 era audio.

100% agree

 

[Jordan]

@Jordan hello, not a single Word or question about the next gran turismo title? No one said a word?

No. To expand on @Famine's comments, only a few attending media were invited to the interview, and we were asked to submit questions in advance on a limited range of topics. Regardless, asking direct questions on future plans is a waste of time. Kazunori simply gives non-answers to subjects he can't talk about.

So, uh... was the media invited to PD's Tokyo HQ this time, or just the Fukuoka one?

I visited the Fukuoka studio, but unfortunately can't share anything from my time there.

 

[Auditore]

The biggest issue is actually the volume,” Yamauchi explained. “The human ear has an optimum level for picking up the character of a sound, which is around 86 decibels. When you drop three decibels at a time from that level, the allure of the sound just keeps dropping

Jesus christ Kaz 😂


Anyway, i like the "muffled" sound design, you can notice it more in replays, doesn't work for some cars but i love the effect it gives for the espace F1.
It is nice that Kaz recognizes sound is a priority for them, worst thing we could hear from him is a "we think it's good enough"

 

[GTRedman]

I would like to see more customized options on how the game looks,feels, and sounds rather than PD having too many fixed decisions, whether it be AI difficulty,FFB options, or HUD customization etc.

As for sound, I like the PS5 'audio focus' feature (boost low pitch) which can be used to amplify engine sounds; I find this better than the in-game engine volume sounds, which only have a small effect.

 

[05XR8]

I love the audio while cameras are a good distance above circuits. Also the demo videos of cars circulating a circuit before hitting the button to start a race.

 

[eykxas]

I imagine it may be a ton of work due to the number of cars ingame but it would be more realistic if they have the cars volume be in line to how it is IRL. Ex. A Zonda R should be very loud while a 60s VW Beetle is very quiet in comparison. The cars should also have intake sounds incorporated with camera view so if i'm driving Alfa 155 the intake should be very loud when I turn the camera to face the front of the car and for certain mid engine cars it should be louder on first person view such as the Carerra GT. These help with immersion and help driving the car feel more realistic. The external sounds should also be made to be slightly more "crisper" as some of the cars sound muffled and made into a stereo sound track as that makes the sound pop more with better sound systems.

The sounds as they currently are are okay for the most part as most of the cars are accurate just made weaker sounding when they shouldn't. The Roadster Shop Rampage shows they can make a car sound "Extreme" as that car sounds pretty crazy so i'm not sure why some such as the Ferrari FXXK sound really weak. The latest power pack and DLC cars sound pretty decent aswell so hopefully they continue making the cars sound clearer going forward.

Because some of the car are actually recorded while the others are still synthesized like the FXX K.

 

[Mathaios_C]

No. To expand on @Famine's comments, only a few attending media were invited to the interview, and we were asked to submit questions in advance on a limited range of topics. Regardless, asking direct questions on future plans is a waste of time. Kazunori simply gives non-answers to subjects he can't talk about.

I visited the Fukuoka studio, but unfortunately can't share anything from my time there.

Thank you! It is always cool to have those insights!! Really appreciate it

 

[Grand_Tourist]

I think the sound currently is more than fine, using a sound bar with sub woofer in cinema mode at +80db. I can tell the audible difference when installing a turbo or different exhausts. In current times we are truly spoiled with all the possibilities to change a car's behaviour, sound and looks at premium quality in a racing game with a vast variety in cars and car types.

I remember the pixel cars and vacuum sounds in GT1 - GT4 yet I played the games endlessly because it was more than sufficient quality at the time. Now with PS5 performance this game looks and sounds premium.

 

[Ande3200]

I think the sound currently is more than fine, using a sound bar with sub woofer in cinema mode at +80db. I can tell the audible difference when installing a turbo or different exhausts. In current times we are truly spoiled with all the possibilities to change a car's behaviour, sound and looks at premium quality in a racing game with a vast variety in cars and car types.

I remember the pixel cars and vacuum sounds in GT1 - GT4 yet I played the games endlessly because it was more than sufficient quality at the time. Now with PS5 performance this game looks and sounds premium.

And 50% of the cars you can also notice when you install highlift camshaft, engine balancing, titanium connecting rods and Pistons ex that the car sounds completly different much more raw.

I would like to see pd fix it on the cars that dosent allow for it to change.

Most of the new cars added to gt7 have that feature at least.

 

[eykxas]

Also, the weight reduction changes the loudness of the sound. Due to less internal insulation.

 

[Famine]

What exactly is that Ferrari in the image?

296 GT3, 488 GT3, 488 GTE, some other Ferrari Challenge car etc?

488 Challenge (Evo model judging by the Rear Wing endplates)

Interesting considering that car isn't in the game... yet.

When we posted the original article about this car's audio capture a couple of years back, I guessed/surmised it was used as a sound reference for the F8 Tributo due to the extremely similar engine/exhaust setup.

Recording Gran Turismo 7 Car Sounds: Polyphony Digital Gives Rare Behind-the-Scenes Look

https://youtu.be/QUs9CctKEDk A group of Polyphony Digital sound engineers and designers gave an extensive presentation on Gran Turismo 7's audio production at the CEDEC+KYUSHU game developer conference in Fukuoka, Japan. The session was led by sound designer Masao Kimura and audio engineers D

www.gtplanet.net

As we've still not seen... any 488, much less a racing variant, I'm sticking with that.

 

[xXMann07]

One of the bigger leaps is audio processing power in PS5 over PS4, it will allow for a lot more sound sources and complexity. They could allocate more resources to audio than the whole CPU processing power on PS4 just to audio if they could make the game for PS5 and upwards only. Power saving mode requirements and PS6 handheld might actually lower the potential peak performance they are allowed to push but still will be a huge upgrade over having to support PS4.

GT7 is solid for a PS4 title but it shows as going from base PS4 to PS5 Pro, there is not really a big difference. GT7 is kind of like GT 2000. GT8 has much more possibility to revamp the title in all areas like graphics, physics and audio pipeline. Even though 3D models will largely remain the same, the gameplay could take biggest leap forward and the ceiling of performance is so much higher, it is more down to development team than hardware limitation to continue progressing the game than previously which was always severely limited in what they could do. Only real limitation now is what can be done in terms of real-time lighting that will be much improved in future platforms but apart from that, it is very solid so they will likely support this platform well into the next decade and maybe even one after if they wanted to.

It is good to see they are keeping to realism. I think they should let sound systems decorate the audio by actually pushing the real sound correctly. Sound is in a way one of the most butchered mediums as so many devices have poor speakers that produce tinny audio.

In a way, sound you hear when you drive a car in real life with helmet and earplugs, you don't really hear the ferociousness of car and everything sounds muted but without, cars can sound spectacular. I think it is important for the World Series events, they improve the theatre the game provides through improvement of the next game. Long term I think it will have a big positive impact for the franchise if the level of the product is much better.

Hopefully next GT game, the V6 Mégane sounds closer to this onboard:



Also if they just update the tyre sounds, it will be sound like a completely different game.

They should use opportunity of GTA 6 release date being pushed back to release another GT title before then. I would prefer a vertical slice of a next-gen GT than any new update for GT7. It is kind of crazy that we are approaching towards end of this hardware generation without really any developers pushing capabilities much beyond the previous generation, might be only when PS6 starts launching, we get more games that couldn't be done on PS4. I know for a lot of games this doesn't really matter but for real driving simulators, this has a big impact of what can be achieved in terms of realism.

Wow. This engine is on madness mechanical route