Kazunori Yamauchi Confirms GT Sport Will Support 4K & HDR Via PS4 Pro

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Well that didn’t take long. Sony’s dedicated PS4 Pro event got underway earlier today in London — after news of it broke earlier this week — and details are already starting to leak out. Most pertinent to sim-racing fans is the news that GT Sport will be taking full advantage of Sony’s new powerhouse, as confirmed by Kazunori Yamauchi himself.

With the original release date set only days after the PS4 Pro’s November 10 availability, it was long-assumed that GT Sport would be compatible with the new uber-PS4. Nonetheless, to have it confirmed by the Polyphony president puts another feather in the cap of the anticipated racer.

The news first broke via GameOver.gr. The Greek gaming outlet posted the following images to its Facebook page, showing the GT Sport stand at the event, Kazunori presenting all of the features of the Pro version of the game, and the man himself playing the game:

For those not wanting to squint, the five features mentioned in the presentation are 4K, 60FPS, HDR, Wide Colour, and VR. At this point, it isn’t clear how the game will achieve 4K resolution, though the leading suggestion is the checkerboard upscaling approach found in other titles such as Horizon Zero Dawn. We’ll have to wait for more details to emerge from the event before we have a clearer vision of just how GT Sport will benefit from the Pro.

The mention of 60 frames-per-second will surely please racers that took issue with the occasionally-inconsistent framerates of the PS3-era GT titles.

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Meanwhile, HDR recently appeared in the genre via Forza Horizon 3. HDR provides life-like lighting that literally needs to be seen to be believed (as the majority of PC monitors and smartphones currently don’t support the feature). Sony has already committed to bringing HDR to existing PS4 consoles via a patch.

This is further confirmation that the game will support the recently-released PlayStation VR. Of course, we’ve known about that from the beginning

Keep an eye on GTPlanet for more news on the event as it develops, and don’t forget to swing by our GT Sport forum section for all the latest discussions on the game.

Hat tip to Saidur_Ali for first spotting the news!

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Comments (28)

  1. thorfynn

    I think all this graphical stuff is nothing more than „nice to have“. It´s only for the marketing-department.
    In my opinion much more important things are:
    -stable framerate
    – car physics, tyre physics
    -the possibility to use „older“ steering wheels like the Logitech GT
    – not 100000 cars. Better are 200 well detailded ones….
    – and please please PD. Do NOT waste your time on such things like race suits, helmets and „PAINTABLE BRAKE CALIPERS“…. This „feature“ ist he dumbest thing i´ve ever seen in a „real driving simulator“….. by far. Do your job and just one tip: camber settings have an influence on car handling. I´m sure….. ;-))
    – another nice thing qwould be the possibility to drive 24 hour races in a closed lan system withou the need to be online…….

    1. syntex123

      In this iteration of GT I agree. Except.. Race suits. We need them. We need to portrait ourselves in our way not a generic way for the live events we participate in. I’d rather see my helmet when I’m being spectated and go “yay there I am” instead of seeing a random helmet. Plus when the winners show, their avatars show. Why show a random suit you don’t recognize instead seeing you as you?

  2. Haitauer

    All this pro/4K/HDR -hype does, is raises doubts about the quality of the game/experience of the regular ps4 version.
    Game studios wanting to push forward game tech and sony wanting to push the sales of PS4 pro with just 100$ price gap. I just dont see how these versions could be developed as equals.

  3. EmaNymton

    All this 4k, 3D and VR-thing are hypes, nothing to write home about it.
    Ask again in 2 years who is stupid enough to run around with a pound of stupid goggles on his head, and 3D has never really taken off, one could say it is even dying already.
    I just bought a PS4 when the 1st rumours of GTS came up, and all I want is playing GTS on THAT PS4, Full HD and sufficient frame rate.
    I really wonder if this stupid Kaz, whom everybody considers to be some sort of God, would have the nerve to tell all the millions who own a legacy PS4 that they can scrap it and buy a new one!?
    This could end up with my first trip to Japan and my 1st prison stay!

  4. ExoticMachines

    So the new GT Sport will not play on the regular PS4 (CUH-1215A 500GB – came with the Call of Duty game)? I need to buy the new PS4 Pro?

    1. Just The Stig

      @OP *facepalms* Seriously? It was questioning whether GTS would be compatible with PS4 Pro, and what you got from that was “it won’t be compatible with regular PS4”?

      I do hope you realize GTS was played on the regular PS4 in all the gameplay videos you can see all over youtube…

    1. gladbecker82

      Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter from 2006 on X360 had HDR as well. Its nothing new, just like 3D, but now its pushed as a great gimmick

  5. MrWaflz55

    I wonder if all of this means GT Sport will have a shot at toppling the best looking racing game of all time? (Driveclub)

    1. Just The Stig

      Maybe, maybe not…probably not. There’s still things to be done to the game, cars and features added, etc.

    2. Northstar

      They’re a first party developer and Kaz is on the Sony board. I’m sure PD has known about the Pro since they decided to pull the trigger on it.

  6. turismoslayer

    This still leaves me on the fence with the pro. My Panny plasma is still going strong and for my current and foreseen future environment 4K isn’t necessary. I’m hoping that at the end of the day the standard PS4 will be able to run GT Sport with solid frame rates. I’m a bit burnt out with GT and the PS3 and ready for something new. Even with Project Cars and Assetto Corsa running on the standard PS4, could the Pro model be the better choice? Or am I safe with the slim? 1st world problems.

    1. gladbecker82

      Since the PS4 Pro is more Future proof and just a bit more expensive go with the Pro.

      You will get more detailed Graphics without ging 4K anyway

    2. turismoslayer

      Yeah, there’s that. But for me it’s still a gamble. I don’t sit close enough to my TV to notice the graphical improvement and don’t plan on upgrading until OLED TV’s go down in price. That’s the gamble. How future proof will PS4 Pro be by then? A stable frame rate is what I really want. If the standard PS4 can live up to that then tickle me pink. If not then Pro it is.

    3. Ben Rogue

      @turismoslayer You will still notice a big difference even at 1080p and from a distance. The FPS, AA, texture filtering, screen tearing, pop-ins and shadows should all be improved (if PD don’t screw up by trying to push it too far, yet again). The GPU in the Pro is about 2x as powerful, and the CPU is about +50% over the vanilla PS4. The big thing about the Pro on a 1080p screen is it will super-sample, meaning no more jaggies! Should be a super crisp image!

    4. turismoslayer

      Thanks @Ben Rogue. That all sounds great. We’ll see what Sony and PD came up with when all is said and done. I have a feeling they won’t disappoint. I’m also interested to see how the existing sim titles perform on the new hardware. Not much longer now.

  7. GTAndy36

    I’ll believe it when I see it. We had the same answers about framerates with GT5 and GT6 and we all know how that turned out.

    4k isn’t necessary in the slightest. What racing games need are quality visuals, 1080p at a consistent 60fps. The fps is cruital. Not 4k or HDR.

    1. Johnnypenso

      It would be great though, if you could tick a box and get the graphical output you want, depending on your own equipment.

    2. ShawnPhillips

      Another report I heard says that GTSport will actually run at an 1800P resolution and upscale to 4K to keep performance up. I am playing Skyrim SE at 1800P on a 4K display and it still looks great even without the fancy upscaling tech built into the PS4 Pro.

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