Publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment and developer Polyphony Digital debuted 35 minutes of new gameplay and information for Gran Turismo 7 running on PlayStation 5 during the latest State of Play broadcast.
Get the details below, via series creator Kazunori Yamauchi.
■ Introduction
Hello everyone, I am Kazunori Yamauchi, producer of the Gran Turismo series. Today I’m here to give you an update on our latest game, Gran Turismo 7, releasing March 4, 2022.
Over its 25-year history, the Gran Turismo series has demonstrated a serious love and respect for cars. What’s more, Gran Turismo 7 represents the 25th anniversary of the series.
Gran Turismo 7 will represent the pinnacle of the Gran Turismo journey. We think of it as our most complete Gran Turismo to date.
We have designed Gran Turismo 7 so that those who have never come into contact with automotive culture until now can really get to know the deep, rich world of cars.
Our aim was to create a driving simulator that ALL players can enjoy. Whether you’re a hardcore Gran Turismo fan or brand-new to the series, I think Gran Turismo 7 will be enjoyable for everyone.
The history of cars is long, and the world of cars is massive, with lots of attractive cars contained within.
For Gran Turismo 7, we have prepared over 400 cars from automobile brands around the world. We’ve also prepared 34 locations from around the globe with over 90 layouts. And more tracks and cars will be added in future online updates.
Now let’s take a closer look at the Gran Turismo 7 player experience.
■ World Map
Here’s the new map screen.
The map is a menu that allows access to the various features in Gran Turismo 7. Our inspiration here was to create a paradise, a vacation resort that celebrates car culture.
When you begin the campaign, you’ll use provided in-game credits to purchase a compact car. You’ll then progress through the campaign by participating in races, unlocking new cars, and by tuning and upgrading your vehicles for better performance. This is ultimately the classic Gran Turismo Campaign Mode, but Gran Turismo 7 has more to offer.
Gran Turismo Cafe
One new feature is the Gran Turismo Cafe. This will be the center of the map in Gran Turismo 7. Here at the Cafe, players will be given a Car Collection Menu. You complete each Menu by winning races and championships while exploring this car resort.
Sometimes the people who actually designed those cars will appear to talk about the design in person. By completing Menus for a variety of car collections at the Cafe, players will naturally come into contact with the history of cars, and the culture behind them.
Brand Central
Brand Central is a shopping mall where a player can purchase new cars. Here, players can purchase roughly 300 car models from 2001 and later. Automotive manufacturers from around the world have assembled here.
Museum
And not only are there showrooms for purchasing cars, there’s also a Museum for each manufacturer where you can learn about the history of individual brands.
This is the Museum of Porsche. And it begins with the birth of Dr. Ferdinand Porsche establishing his own design firm.
Used Car Dealer
Gran Turismo 7 also houses a world of used cars. At the Used Car Dealer, players can purchase cars for more affordable prices. However, some very popular used cars may be sold at an even higher price than when they originally came out. These include the Japanese sports cars of the 90s that are seeing a big boom in popularity worldwide. This car lineup will be updated and changed slightly every day.
Legendary Car Dealer
Certain iconic cars have marked their names in the history books. Even after 100 years, their allure will never fade. The Legendary Car Dealership specializes in these types of famous vehicles.
■ World Circuit
In the World Circuit, you’ll have access to a variety of tracks. At launch, Gran Turismo 7 will feature 34 locations and over 90 layouts. This includes real-world and fantasy circuits. Legendary fantasy tracks from past Gran Turismo games such as Trial Mountain, Deep Forest, and High Speed Ring return for Gran Turismo 7 with stunning modern visuals.
There are various races and championships hosted at each track. And the “Circuit Experience” activity can help you learn these tracks.
In the Custom Race Mode, you can combine things like weather conditions and AI cars of your choice to create personalized races.
Gran Turismo is well known for its License Tests. Many people look back and remember how hard they tried to achieve Gold results in this mode. Naturally, Gran Turismo 7 includes License Tests where you can learn driving techniques from the ground up. Here, there are many short mini games that teach you these skills.
■ Mission Races
Mission Races is where you’ll find unique events beyond typical races and time trials. For example, here is drag racing. You’ll need to tune your car for more power, while also remembering the important of throttle control from a standing start. There are also Drift Trials where players compete using their drifting techniques.
There are several ways to play and interact with other players in Gran Turismo 7.
First, there is a two-player split-screen that you can play together in your living room with family and friends.
Second, there are Lobbies and Meeting Places that you can enjoy with your friends online.
Finally, in Sport Mode, you can enjoy serious racing with players all over the world.
■ Visuals and Simulation
Completely recreating beautiful cars is the essence of the Gran Turismo series. The PlayStation 5 version of Gran Turismo 7 features photo-realistic graphics using ray-tracing. Ray tracing aims accurately depict lighting and reflections. But the application that it’s most suited for may actually be in the expression of cars. This is because the shiny surfaces of cars reflect the world around them. While ray tracing, the graphics of Gran Turismo make a jump into the next dimension.
■ Time and Weather Simulation
The color of the skies and the shapes of the clouds you see every day are determined by the energy of the Sun, and the Earth itself, and the condition of the atmosphere that surrounds it.
If you look at it on a global scale, air containing moisture from the oceans flows into the continents. That air warmed by the Earth’s surface heated by the Sun, which produces ascending air currents. The air containing moisture will continue to rise in altitude due to this air current, and once at certain altitude and temperature, it creates the clouds you see in the sky.
In Gran Turismo 7, we have simulate the process of how these clouds are formed, based on the vast amount of meteorological data, temperatures, humidity, and air pressure specific to each to each region, skies in Japan will change like they do in Japan, and skies in California will change as they do in California.
The Gran Turismo series has always placed an importance on starlit skies at night. In Gran Turismo 7, we have aimed for an even higher quality of expression. Starry skies seen in specific locations at certain dates and times will be drawn using a simulation that includes not just stars, but even planets. The moon will rise and set in the same way that the sun rises and sets. The color of the stars will change depending on whether the atmosphere is clear or hazy.
Time changes and weather simulations are expressed in the scenery and light. These factors can affect atmospheric and suface temperatures, and by doing so, affect the tire grip, engine power and strength of the slip stream effect, integrating with the automotive physics simulation. Puddles form in locations that are prone to them. The rain ends, and the surface starts to dry from the areas that tend to dry first. The areas with puddles will remain wet the longest. And these kinds of changes will occur naturally.
One simple example of this weather simulation is the raincloud radar that many players will be familiar with. Players can look at this display and predict the coming weather to a certain extent. One a huge circuit like the Nurburgring, it can rain on one part of the track, while being sunny on a different section.
■ Replay Mode
Gran Turismo is a “real driving simulator.” But we always place the same level of important in being able to watch your driving in a replay, as we have with the fun of driving. The high-quality replay mode is also present in Gran Turismo 7.
Music Replay
We have developed a new “Music Replay” that dynamically generates a replay camera to match the background music. Unlike past replay modes where the cameras were fixed on the track, camera positions and image cuts are now generated randomly every time to match the music, allowing you to enjoy a different camera replay every time you run it back. Now let’s show you a part of the Music Replay.
■ Car Physics
The automotive physics simulation in Gran Turismo has 25 years of history. Our team gathers feedback from many expert advisors, including Lewis Hamilton, top drivers of the FIA-GT Championships, and our technical partners at Michelin. This feedback fuels our automotive simulation, which means that track lap times are consistent to their real-life counterparts, and that the driving experience accurately reflects fine sensations.
The effects of front and rear vehicle height changes on a car, the effect of wind direction at a circuit, and slip stream effects are all recreated through an aerodynamic simulation using CFD.
To fully express reality, devices that can convey information that goes beyond graphics and sound are very important. Thanks to the adaptive triggers and haptic vibration capabilities of the DualSense wireless controller, we’re able to enhance the player’s level of immersion on the PlayStation 5 consoles. Adaptive triggers will allow your fingertips to feel the vibrations of a tire lock state while braking.
When a real car goes into a corner with too much speed, the front tires will be felt on the steering wheel. With Gran Turismo 7 and the DualSense controller combined, it will be possible to feel the state of the front tires in the form of vibrations. With the DualSense controller, you’ll feel as if you’re holding the steering wheel of a real car, feeling the track underneath.
■ 3D Audio
On the PlayStation 5 console, 3D audio expresses the positions of various sound sources and their movements in a 3D space. In real life, we can perceive where a sound is coming from. Whether it’s from the left or right, or the front, we can identify when the sound is above us or behind us. We sense the fine differences in sound affected by the shape of our head, our earlobes, and the difference in speed in which the sound reaches our left and right ears, in order to determine where that sound is coming from. 3D audio is a technology that recreates these sensations.
Here’s a quick demonstration of some of the sounds of Gran Turismo 7.
■ Tuning and Car Customization
We have prepared approximately 60 types of performance parts per car. By combining these, you can change the performance and overall driving experience as you like.
Let’s actually try it then. This is a first-generation Volkswagen Beetle. The “people’s car” designed by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche is a rear-engine car, which is fairly rare nowadays. Let’s try tuning this car.
While tuning involves changing a car’s performance, car customization at Gran Turismo Auto allows you to change its appearance. Over 650 aerodynamic parts, 130 types of wheels, 1,200 colors of measured paint data… we can go on forever with the numbers. But there are several dozen types of parts per car, totaling to several thousand customization parts. You can even install roll cages and do wide body modifications.
The Livery Editor for decorating and painting cars has also evolved. You can now apply stickers to areas that did not allow sticker placement in the past. The limit to the number of stickers that can be applied to the cars has also been increased.
Gran Turismo Auto will include your familiar Car Wash and oil changes as well.
■ Scapes
Scapes offers a new world of photography, and is a mode where you can travel the world with your favorite car. You can place the car of your choice in over 2,500 spots around the globe, and take cutting-edge HDR photos. By combining true-to-life information with photo effects, this mode allows high-level photographic expressions that are mostly impossible in real-life photography.
Race Photo Mode
The Race Photo Mode allows you to photograph races you’ve participated in. Going to a real circuit to take photographs is a lot of work. But in Gran Turismo 7, you can photograph dynamic, beautiful shots that even photographers would struggle to take, with much greater ease.
■ Showcase
Gran Turismo 7 is also a creative tool that players can use to produce various content. Replays, photographs taken in-game, livery designs, and more. The Showcase is a place where this content can be shared for other players to download.
■ Conclusion
Finally, please settle in for a look at some new Gran Turismo 7 gameplay. Our closing segment shows two new features added to Gran Turismo 7. The Music Rally, where you enjoy music while you drive, and the Music Replay that syncs replays to music. These are all real-time images captured on the PlayStation 5 console.
Thank you for watching. See you on the track on March 4, 2022.
Gran Turismo 7 is due out for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on March 4.
Watch the full State of Play below.