Gran Turismo 7 on PS5 promises a richly detailed car-culture ‘paradise’

polygon.com:

Polyphony Digital is striving to send players to “a paradise that celebrates car culture” with Gran Turismo7, the studio said Wednesday, and to get there, it’s focusing on small details. A video showcase introducing PlayStation’s latest driving simulator made it clear that developers are digging deep into the PS5’s capabilities to deliver photorealistic visuals and virtuoso performance across a fleet of 400 virtual vehicles.

For example, in Gran Turismo 7, nighttime skies will show the stars in scientifically accurately configurations for the location and time of any given race. Rain will collect and dry variably, depending on the parts of a track where it usually puddles or runs off. Ray-tracing will be supported in one of two graphical performance modes, providing more lifelike shadows, shines, and reflections than ever before.

The advanced haptic feedback of the DualSense controller will communicate the difference in one car’s brake pedal vs. another’s, and transmit the feeling of driving or drifting across different surfaces through players’ hands. And three-dimensional audio engineering will present your car’s engine note rumbling somewhere in front of you, rain drops plunking against the roof overhead, and the sound of another driver dopplering by on the track.

“We want to excite people to the allure of cars, even without any prior knowledge, and become aware of just how fun it is to drive, own, or tune [them],” series creator Kazunori Yamauchi told media in a recorded presentation earlier this week. Yamauchi lamented that in the present day, “you won’t find as many people talking about car culture anymore.” Gran Turismo 7, he said, “was produced with an understanding of this new day and age.”

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