UFO Spotting 101

  • Thread starter Thread starter Der Alta
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Der Alta

Der Alta

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DerAlta
Deserved credit given to Player2 over at Granturismobynumbers.com

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Arcade -> Single race -> Grand Valley (easy)

Pick a car; I did it with the first 'C' (Altezza) and the first 'A' (Calsonic)

Dive round to turn 7. Pull in to the verge on the left at the end of the inside kerb, against the Autobacs hoardings, and wait. Roofcam is best. You need to hold the brake to stop the car rolling.

Observations:

There are five UFOs in the squadron.

They are running a UFO race.

They first appear tightly grouped, in my first run it was just before the two minute mark, my second try it was at 1'22 to 1'23. The group remains in sight for about a minute, second time I timed it and the first one disappeared at 2'08 and the last one at 2'11.

Their lap times seem variable. In my first run, they were lapping in around 4 minutes. Second run their lap time was about 3 minutes.

This range encompases about the right time for two laps of GV, so it is possible you could be lapping exactly synced so you see them every second lap, or exactly in antiphase, so you never see them. But stopping and looking is guaranteed to work and the max wait time should be ~4 minutes.

After the UFOs first lap, they start to disperse as they are all going different speeds. By their third lap, they are > 0.5 minutes apart, so one or more is visible nearly half the time.

The view is subject to a foreshortening effect - if you view them from the exit of turn 7, they look a long way away, but once you know what to look for, move down the straight towards turn 8, then they seem much closer and have a definite shape.

Run 1.

squadron appeared ~1'46, remained visible ~1 minute
reappeared 5'46 disappeared 6'46
reappeared 9'46, disappeared 11'48 (starting to disperse)
reappeared 14'13 disappeared 17'55

Run 2.

Appeared 1'22 thru 1'23
Disappeared 2'08 thru 2'11
Appeared 4'27 thru 4'30
Disappeared 5'15 thru 5'18
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I have tested this and they are indeed there.

AO
 
So let me get this right, there are UFO's actually racing on the track?

to sound like a complete and utter race idiot.
 
Nope, they're flying over the lake off to the Left of the track.

AO
 
Damn.. Now I REALLY have to skip out early and go home to the PS2....
 
Follow the directions exactly like they are written above. If you're parked up tight to the armaco, and looking down into the valley at the lake, you'll see them come out just above the trees off in the distance.

AO
 
As I'll explain later, it's not an easter egg, but rather a programming glitch.

AO
 
Heh, nice glitch. And now to wonder, how could anyone have found this glitch. Apparently they had a lot of free time in their hands, and decided to spend it with GT3.
I bet some newcomer to GT3 could be fooled though. :)
 
..How would you even find something like this? I mean..I have a lot of spare time on my hands. (Usually about..23 hours a day) And I wouldnt think to sit there and watch UFO's race around. and then record their visible time, when sighted and so on..Well, whatever. Nice find, I'll have to check it out.


(Andrew)
 
They find it the same way they found the monkeys. Got bored racing, and just went for a drive.

AO
 
Originally posted by Der Alta
They find it the same way they found the monkeys. Got bored racing, and just went for a drive.

AO
Click to expand...
What monkeys ? :D

And hold on to your clownshoes - Have just verified Der Alta, and damn, there are UFOs over the water.. Cool..

Nice find AO 👍
 
Originally posted by Der Alta
Deserved credit given to Player2 over at Granturismobynumbers.com
Click to expand...
This guy deserves the credit.

The Monkeys are on Trial Mtn, reverse and forward but you can't see them if you're driving the wrong way on each.

To find the monkey: TM II arcade, Free run. When the game starts hit the brakes and back-up. He is standing in a dead tree that hangs out over the track in the middle of the S turn. If you go into the tunnel, you've gone too far.

Basically, as you start going through the Esses, you'll see the tree on the left.

Works best when you are using the camera view outside the car.

He's there on the track no matter if you run it in free run, arcade, or sim mode.

AO
 
OMG its just other cars!!!!:mad: im sorry but that makes you look dumb:rolleyes: its just cuz theres a scenery cut off but u can still see cars
 
Originally posted by spike10h
OMG its just other cars!!!!:mad: im sorry but that makes you look dumb:rolleyes: its just cuz theres a scenery cut off but u can still see cars
Click to expand...

:rolleyes:
 
Yes, I know very well that it is a bug and they are the other cars on the track.

Just for a moment, I was giving a few other players an ejoyable "look again" at the game. Since Spike10h is so aggravated at the rest of us having a spot of fun, here's the full deal.

The UFOs are the genuine view of the cars in their correct positions on the track as they drive around. It's just that the track is not visible, so they appear to be flying. And the default background to that view is the lake (because the foreground scenery really IS the lake), so they appear to be flying over the lake.

Techie details:

The game renders the on-screen view by piecing together: the camera angle, the light sources, the cars in view, the track scenery and a distant generic background. This involves a lot of calculation.

The game always tries to draw any car that is in view. 'In view' means in the direction the camera is looking and not obscured by the track scenery.

The game tries to draw as much track scenery as it needs to, but as there is a lot of scenery, it economises by only drawing the scenery which is within a certain distance of the camera, on the assumption that scenery beyond a certain distance is of little value and is in any case unlikely to be visible, as it will be obscured by nearer scenery. All 'out of range' track scenery is replaced with the generic distant background scenery.

However, in this case, there is no naerby scenery to obscure the view across the 'lake'. The far lake view and the distant hills are 'generic scenery', hence they are behind everything else. But the scenery which is part of the circuit up ahead, eg. the bridge and the hills near it, are 'out of range' so they don't get drawn. Since this scenery isn't drawn, the program infers that the cars are not obscured from view, therefore it draws them in the correct places as they drive round the southern part of the track.

Thus the cars are shown driving round, but the track on which they are driving is invisible.

The reason they appear 'in the sky' is because (a) they are above lake height, obviously, and also (b) the place where you are looking from is on a downhill slope, so that raises the apparent elevation of the view looking ahead.

AO
 
Whoa, Yeah, I saw the UFO cars. Neat stuff. Now for that Monkey..what else is there lying around..?
 
:D Thanks. But no need to welcome me, I'm not that new. But thanks, I'll look right now. I still can't find that damned moneky though..:irked:
 
You can do this UFO trick at other tracks as well. My favorite is the Swiss Alps Rally Course. The other car looks like a smoking airplane. I mean UFO. :D

BTW, see if you can find the third "monkey"(Bigfoot) :D, and the cameraman in the rally courses.
 
ok im srry i used the angry smily but i couldnt find a more proper one to express my fellings, also on the bridge ongrand valley if you look behind you it looks like a big floating island
 
Pic please??

The monkey is actually quite obviouse. i mean its right there. I noticed it myself when i was going i looked up and WTF was that, turn around and its a munky

And Honda's whachamacallit robot is on Rome. Just turn left right as you come out of the pit you should see it. just make sure your not flooring it so you dont go too far
 
Originally posted by DoZeRxXx
Pic please??

The monkey is actually quite obviouse. i mean its right there. I noticed it myself when i was going i looked up and WTF was that, turn around and its a munky

And Honda's whachamacallit robot is on Rome. Just turn left right as you come out of the pit you should see it. just make sure your not flooring it so you dont go too far
Click to expand...

ASIMO!!!:D
 
Theyre not UFO's, check the directtions earlier and you'll see them, they're not UFO's though.
 

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