Physics

Gran Turismo 3 has already been used by professional drivers for practice and simulation. With GT4, the physics engine was improved, and with GT5, a new “Professional” physics engine has been introduced as an option, promising even more realism. In our GT5 Prologue Demo Preview (Tokyo Motor Show Edition), I commented that the new Professional simulation mode offered a better overall feel of driving dynamics between different cars. While I still couldn’t do the donuts, use the clutch to drift, or generate the outrageous drift angles that are possible with Enthusia Professional Racing, the responsiveness of the cars on the track under “normal” racing conditions seemed very natural. Unfortunately, having never driven an Evo X, IS-F, BMW 135i, or WRX STI, it was impossible for me to comment on the physics realism.

At least the hatchback is practical

Another shot of the coupe

I’ve been in a 750hp twin-turbo 350Z… with an automatic transmission.

The 350Z is due for a model refresh any time now.

With Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, the impossible is now possible. GT5: Prologue allows you to drive cars that exist in the retail market, and I’m happy to say that the realism of the driving simulation is better than any previous Gran Turismo iteration. With a force feedback steering wheel, the cars handle realistically. Grip with “sport tires” mirror the performance of real-life. More importantly, the audio in GT5: Prologue has been upgraded tremendously allowing you to rely on the sound of screeching tires in conjunction with the force feedback to get a feel for the grip of the car on the road. Engine audio is also significantly improved from the previous iterations of GT4, though my audio system isn’t equipped with a big enough subwoofer to figure out if Polyphony Digital captured the full tonality of a real engine. One thing I do know is that while the game supports Dolby Digital, it is also possible to enjoy a native 7.1 PCM mix over HDMI.

The STi

The Evo IX remains one of the best cars ever built

HDR-style lighting is frequently used in GT5

I was planning on getting the EVO X but the delay on the SST killed the deal

A Disclaimer

It’s easy to hand wave about “realistic physics.” After all, every reviewer can claim to be a car expert on the Internet and every iteration is “near perfect.” As “near perfect” as GT4 was, when Edmunds.com and IGN compared Gran Turismo 4 to real-life lap times at Laguna Seca, they consistently found that the game offered faster lap times. They attributed this to the fact that “you can’t die in Gran Turismo, so you’re prone to take greater risks.” It’s also easy to say that Enthusia Professional Racing is the most realistic game because it’s one of the few games where you can do donuts or huge drifts. In my experience, the more time I spent with Enthusia, the faster I was with Gran Turismo, so they were doing something right even if it was just penalizing the gamer for being any imperfection.

Even though GT5 won’t let me do donuts, I still think the physics realism is the best of any simulator I’ve played so far. The disclaimer is that this is based purely upon the driving dynamics of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles. Those are simply the cars I’m most familiar with in real-life. Do the Evo X and WRX STI handle awesomely in GT5? You bet. Is that handling performance realistic? I don’t know – I haven’t driven those cars yet.

The R34 GT-R

End of an Era: Integra Type-R

Where’s the new R32?

You know it’s a game because it’s too sharp

It is worth noting that when we interviewed Bob Earl a few years ago (a championship driver with 24 career victories including 24 hours at Daytona and 12 hours of Sebring and the Macau Grand Prix), he found the time differences between Laguna Seca in GT3 and Laguna Seca in real-life to be less than one second. In fact, he was also able to identify the exact turn of Laguna Seca which deviated from real-life. Bob Earl was a fan of GT3 as a simulator… he drove for the Nissan Performance GTP team and was the lead development driver on the Nissan P35 V12 Group C car.

Edmunds.com saw huge differences between lap times in a Ford GT, Dodge Neon SRT-4, Mazda RX-8, and EVO 9RS. No Nissans. Bob Earl and I think Gran Turismo is realistic, and we’re Nissan drivers. Is there a common theme here? Actually, there’s one more piece of the puzzle. Nissan factory drivers have been the primary consultants to the Polyphony Digital Team for the Gran Turismo series. They’re the ones who are giving the software developers the most accurate feedback on how “realistic” a car feels in the game. The connection between PD and Nissan is so close that NISMO worked with Polyphony Digital to design a 350Z aero kit, and the electronic gauges in the new GT-R were designed by Polyphony Digital. Perhaps by providence, the cars I happen to drive in real-life are the cars that are more accurately portrayed in the game.

The driving dynamics of the Nissan’s in GT5 is superb, but are the lap times spot on? I haven’t driven any of the tracks featured in GT5: Prologue, so I can’t talk about lap times.