My "review/analysis" on GT5 damage

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Leadfoot53

Leadfoot53

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Hey guys. I wanted to share my views on damage with you all. Be aware, I am NOT trying to rant, I am just wanting to share my views on it, and supply some pointers...

For this analysis, I will compare the Subaru Impreza STI Rally Car as featured in Gran Turismo 5 and also Dirt 2. I hope you enjoy :)

Gran Turismo 5
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First off, I want to say that I feel that GT5 is more than capable of what damage we want from it. For some reason, however, Polyphony Digital REALLY toned it down so we have to really WORK for the damage.

That is not how damage works. I am also not the kind of guy who tries to wreck people intentionally. I am one who likes to race clean, but is aware of the risk of a crash. I feel that we should respect the limits that a race car has. A race car is NOT a perfect handler! A lot of people I've raced against online race like it is, and have no regard to the limits, and then they bounce off of the walls, and then continue racing! I feel like, in order for GT5 to be the "real racing simulator", you need to have real damage! that enables a sense of "fear" in the driver, that can make him/her think twice before attempting that pass.

So now that I got that vent out of the way, here is the pictures I took in the Eiger Nordwand Rally Course:

This is a picture of the first hit I took in the car. I was going about 70 MPH, but the impact looks more like 10 MPH:
eigernordwandgtrail7.jpg


This was my second impact. About 80 MPH this time. There is a little more damage, but not much:
eigernordwandgtrail6.jpg


This is the car after three minutes of trying to get the most damage out of my car. The hood is starting to buckle, and the fender has more profound damage. looks like a 15 MPH impact now:
eigernordwandgtrail4.jpg


The next two pictures are of the car after 5 minutes of crashing. Looks like a 25 MPH impact. The issue is, that is after about 15 impacts of 50+ MPH, with some exceeding 90:
eigernordwandgtrail.jpg

eigernordwandgtrail3.jpg

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I feel that GT5 is off to a good start with damage, but they need to turn up the sensitivity a LOT! Here is some images I took of Dirt 2. Same car, visual damage only:

Impact at 30 MPH:
img20110224005734.jpg


Impact at 60 MPH:
img20110224005819.jpg


Impact at 90 MPH:
img20110224005940.jpg




From what I can see, GT5 is close to capable of damage of this sort, at least in the rally cars! They just need to turn up the sensitivity a lot! Then, they will be able to please both the hardcore racers AND the kamikazes!


What are your guy's thoughts?
 
I think the damage is horrible modeled, specialy on the standard ones, i don't really mind damage though.
 
CRANK UP THE DAMAGE!
:D
If we had more damage, people's driving skills will benefit as they will need to be more careful when overtaking as to not damage the car :)
 
Though I agree that the damage can be improved greatly (primarily visually) it has now become an issue that I'm not even thinking about because I don't crash as often. Heck, best races I've had in GT have all been without even touching another car. Do I want more visual damage? Heck yes! But, it's not a necessity from my point of view. If an accident happens, it'd be nice if the car appeared far worse then it currently does.

Online you can just set the damage on your own but from my experience, people tend to quit out and leave the server as soon as they crash if they can't get the car back up and running in a good speed. Do "they" learn anything from having more penalties from damage? I doubt it, the majority seem to either just give up or quit race. Visually though, it'd be nice to have. :)
 
I agree with the OP when he says that GT5 is more than capable of the damage we want to see.........For some reason though PD dont want it to happen easily. As some of the images show the modeling looks pretty good but that should be obtainable without too much effort.

I remember watching an online race that some off my friends were having online, i clicked to one of the guys who was driving a premuim evo and my eyes nearly pooped when i seen what a wreck he was driving, the rear was hanging off, half the rear was crushed in on itself, both sides had dents and scuffs, a front wheel arch was buckled and the front was a mess. Strange thing was he was driving properly but had had a few shunts, for whatever reason on that occasion the damage model was nowhere near as sensitive and every knock, collision and off track excursion was registering damage......wasnt even a rally or race car either.

That was a one and only expirience. Its kind off annoying because you know the games capable off good damage but for whatever reason the developers choose not to showcase it
 
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I've actually also had some instances in multiple cars, ranging from the Nissan March to the Ferrari F10, where you take a hard hit, it registers relatively decent damage, and then it "dynamically" scales back to make it look very minor! That's another reason why I feel it is severely scaled back...
 
Leadfoot53
I've actually also had some instances in multiple cars, ranging from the Nissan March to the Ferrari F10, where you take a hard hit, it registers relatively decent damage, and then it "dynamically" scales back to make it look very minor! That's another reason why I feel it is severely scaled back...
Click to expand...
I think they tuned down damage because they found out that if pushed higher would have looked way more fake than what is now (take a look at your dirt2 60mph crash, looks terrible!). The real problem is that panels, doors, hoods, etc etc don't fall off so often as they should..... well I've never seen a single piece of a car falling off TBH....

I think that in the end there are just a couple of games that really had a sort of realistic (or at least good looking) damage, GRID for example, and that, maybe, GT5 would have looked less "work in progress" without this kind of last minute damage:sick:
 
Good thread, nice pics, very informative. I've yet to come across any real damage in GT5 despite driving my Lotus Elise 111R into various walls at 100mph +, the level of damage is very unrealistic for "The Real Driving Simulator".

However, I must say that the damage in DIRT 2 looks bad imo just going bu those pics. GT5 definately needs to turn up the sensitivity though.


👍
 
There definitely needs to be more, and more mechanical damage. I'm much more careful in F1 2010 as I know I'll get penalized, and damaged, requiring a pitstop, if I hit another car or a barrier.

In GT I can (and occasionally do) use the other cars to slow me down a bit or bounce off them just right if I'm in a tight spot.
 
We need:
Punctures/blowouts and wheels coming off,
Why do spoilers bend instead of actually coming off the car,
Windscreens and lights need to shatter,
Body panels and parts falling off or dragging along the ground, increasing damage as you continue,
More 'bits' after an impact,
Metal/carbon fibre cracking/bending after a certain threshold, currently it seems the panels will continue to deform without ever cracking(giving the melted look), Ive seen the R10 spoiler was actually larger after a crash then before because of the weird stretching in crashes.

Thats without going into sounds for impacts or mechanical damage of any decent quality instead of damaged engine/damage wheel.....

I'm well aware that this isn't burnout, but this is supposed to be the pinnacle, and we weren't supposed to get damage until it was done right,
This is a long, long way from 'right'.
 
Damage in a racing game does not bring any more fear than getting shot in a FPS. I have mixed feeling about heavy damage when racing online. It's bad enough avoid some gamers without damage but one major hit with heavy damage on totally ruins the race. The only game I've played that I think is successful in discouraging ramming and crashing is Iracing.
 
what would be neat if the damage sustained in a race STAYED on the car. Then include an option in the GT Auto section for repairing car damages

That would give some incentive to racing cleanly
 
Lack of damage (and I could care less about the visual part) leads to bad habits. I find myself caring little if I wall bounce or use other cars. I just have remember to change my driving habits when I play those other "lesser" games. In reality, there's a fine line between driving at the limit and driving out of control. The lack of damage in GT5 makes that line awfully thick and diminishes the enjoyment I have with the game.
 
I think you need to work on your driving skills a bit more.. stop running into things then its not a problem. :)

Im sure there is damage somewhere in this game, but I am yet to see it.
 
I think the problem is PD wanted to "do it right" but didn't realize how had it is to do that... the theory of making a good dynamic deformation model isn't terribly complex but it's obviously quite hard to actually pull off.

I think what PD thought was "we write some code for a damage model, then apply it to all cars and voila! Damage!" what they realized was "crap we have to do so much one off work on each car to make the damage model work right that it's like doing pre baked damage but a lot more detail and time requiring.

Thus... what they could accomplish: Not much.
 
Damage model hard huh?

Let me help PD out: when you hit a wall at 250mph, you die in a massive fireball...
 
While damage isn't a make or break feature for racing games I have to say that the playdoe look is less than spectacular. I'd rather have the entire feature out.
 

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