Support NeoGAF

[Pug]

Edge has a n interview with Kazunori Yamauchi, this month the most interesting points being,

GT4 online was up and running but they didn't think it was technicallly possible to get a stable game world wide. The online component will not appear soon and they think it needs a 1mbs connection to make it what they want.

The six car limit remains because the high technical standards they employ means the PS2 can't do any more. adding 3d credible models of humans also meant the car number stays at 6.

The game offers Pro Logic 2 in game only.

"The physics engine has been totally rewritten for GT4, making the cars feel more natural, my goal was to be able to allow an old women to be able to drive a car in our game as long as she doesn't try to go to fast, just like in everyday life I guess." "People who are used to GT3 maybe will stick with that game"

"The AI cars are more natural and less aggressive, so much more polite"



"I'm pretty confident we'll have the same physicsw on the PSP. The problem comes with the games graphics. I think we won't be able to keep the same number of cars on screen with the same level of grahical quality. I guess we're looking at four, maybe even three cars on screen at the same time. In a worse case scenario we'll have two!"

"The PSP has meant that development cycles have changed as they have another platform to deal with and it makes our work harder."

 

[Project Midway]

two cars? awesome.... :\

 

[Grubdog]

"The PSP has meant that development cycles have changed as they have another platform to deal with and it makes our work harder."

Damn, that sucks. PSP is taking resources away from PS2 games that I can actually buy.

 

[Elios83]

I think they should downgrade everything a bit and leave the number of cars unaltered.

 

[Project Midway]

I think they should downgrade everything a bit and leave the number of cars unaltered.

Agreed.

 

[Master Chieftec]

Well...so far for PSP being more powerful than the PS2.

 

[Tekwar]

they think it needs a 1mbs connection to make it what they want.

 

[Ghost]

512 is the new 56k.

 

[Mr_Furious]

Sounds like Polyphony isn't starting off PSP development very well.

 

[xexex]

this is rich

 

[Guns N' Poops]

Sounds like Polyphony isn't starting off PSP development very well.

Of course, they weren't given the same time to learn the hardware as with PS2. Talk about rushed and taking resources (=last bits of polish for GT4) from console part. *sigh*
That's why NDS and PSP are such utter shit.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

GT4 online was up and running but they didn't think it was technicallly possible to get a stable game world wide. The online component will not appear soon and they think it needs a 1mbs connection to make it what they want.

Online expansion in late '05...and GT4's possible delay would not be about adding in the online portion. Sounds like online wasn't even something built-in from the start, though I thought that was one of the big things with GT4.

 

[FriScho]

even Sega Saturn could do 40 cars in Daytona. They need to tone down the graphics a bit and they can have 6 or more cars. 2 cars... what a joke.

 

[pilonv1]

Surely they could skimp on some features with the smaller screen? Two cars is woeful. I wonder if anyone here would sacrifice 30fps for more cars?

 

[Shinobi]

GT4 online was up and running but they didn't think it was technicallly possible to get a stable game world wide. The online component will not appear soon and they think it needs a 1mbs connection to make it what they want.

Garbage...limit online play to a player's region, and throw a rankings board up for world times.

The six car limit remains because the high technical standards they employ means the PS2 can't do any more. adding 3d credible models of humans also meant the car number stays at 6.

Bleh...racing against just five cars simply sucks.

"I'm pretty confident we'll have the same physicsw on the PSP. The problem comes with the games graphics. I think we won't be able to keep the same number of cars on screen with the same level of grahical quality. I guess we're looking at four, maybe even three cars on screen at the same time. In a worse case scenario we'll have two!"

:lol Why not just make it one car and be done with it?

 

[Kiriku]

Bleh...racing against just five cars simply sucks.

And I thought you liked Rally? j/k

 

[Deg]

Sounds like Polyphony isn't starting off PSP development very well.

No what they are saying is that PSP isnt that powerful. Its no PS2 for sure. But i am sure they will do 6 cars with a high standard of graphics.

 

[Mr_Furious]

No what they are saying is that PSP isnt that powerful. Its no PS2 for sure. But i am sure they will do 6 cars with a high standard of graphics.

Polyphony's making it sound as if they plan to just slap GT4 on to the PSP as is with little to know optimizations and rework done on the art side. I mean, come on. 2 cars?!?! Rework the cars to get 6 on screen like they should, not remove the cars as-is so that it becomes a 2 or 3 car race.

 

[Belfast]

Good lord, do the words "worst case scenario" mean anything to you people? You'll latch on to the worst possible news and run with it.

 

[Shinobi]

And I thought you liked Rally? j/k

Haha, you know that's a completely different thing...rallying is all about battling time and the elements. Road racing is about getting down and dirty with opponents, drafting, fighting the other guy for the best racing line. I thought GT3's six cars on track was lame as hell...it's beyond stupid for GT4.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

Now, I know when I actually see this game and how nice the cars look on the Vegas strip I'll probably buy it....but all the other details that have come out about it since it's come near release...are simply unimpressive.

 

[Culex]

1mbps upload or download?

Because if they mean up..........

 

[cja]

Cracking summary Pug, surprised no-one had mentioned the interview before. Really liking the neo-Edge content outside of the inflated review scores and the rather cheap looking graphic design.

Just because Yamauchi says they'll have 2/3/4 cars on screen at once on the PSP doesn't mean they won't have 6 car races. They'll just tweak the AI so you only get that amount of cars on screen at once, this happens in arcade racers all the time, most notably this year with Burnout 3's Road Rage events, never more than three cars in the near vicinity. He also mentions earlier in the interview "My objective is to have GT4 running as it is on it [PSP]". Though the Spring '05 release date looks unlikely since Yamauchi makes a remark about "doing some serious research before we start anything on it".

We can forget about a quick release for GT4 online "The online version will not be released any time soon after GT4 because we want to maximise the game sales".

 

[Sullichin]

They'll just tweak the AI so you only get that amount of cars on screen at once, this happens in arcade racers all the time, most notably this year with Burnout 3's Road Rage events, never more than three cars in the near vicinitity

That would be terrible. GT4 is supposed to be realistic. :/

 

[sprsk]

can we bail out yet.

 

[Dylx]

GT4 online was up and running but they didn't think it was technicallly possible to get a stable game world wide. The online component will not appear soon and they think it needs a 1mbs connection to make it what they want.


............................so what they are saying is that they have terrible netcode and thier netcode programmers suck

well this be playable over LAN at least??????

 

[Guns N' Poops]

well this be playable over LAN at least??????

Yes. The geeks from X-Link are making a tunneling software for it right now. Whatever.

 

[mr2mike]

with the old lady/GT3 comment, does he mean that GT4 drive significantly different than GT3? if yes, Yay!

 

[Luminescent]

How about they keep the six cars and PS2 quality by means of some good use of programming and research. Tayloring the game to the PSPs strenghts would go a long way.

Use the TnL engine in place of VU1, make use of the rasterizer's combiners for layering the effects that are multipass on PS2, let the reprogrammable processor take a load of sound responsibility from the cpu (as the sound processor in PS2 is fairly reliant on the host cpu), use the mips core, FPU, and VP for AI and physics (and whatever custom vertex/lighting setup that may be required for nifty per-pixel lighting/deformation). I know I'm not the one doing the programming, but it seems there is more than enough in there to allow PSP to match or better PS2.

As PSP software ages what I'm saying now will be more believable.

 

[DarienA]

GT4 online was up and running but they didn't think it was technicallly possible to get a stable game world wide. The online component will not appear soon and they think it needs a 1mbs connection to make it what they want.


............................so what they are saying is that they have terrible netcode and thier netcode programmers suck

well this be playable over LAN at least??????

OK Junior Member, you and I have a problem. Your avatar size is violating the TOS anyway.

 

[DCharlie]

"Yes. The geeks from X-Link are making a tunneling software for it right now. "

gonna sound stupid here, but if the netcode is bulky and horrible, how will this help?
you still have to move the same data over the same bandwidth, and if Poly can't get it working, the tunnelling software surely won't help (?)

 

[kaching]

Cracking summary Pug, surprised no-one had mentioned the interview before.

http://www.ga-forum.com/showthread.php?t=21060

 

[Lord Error]

I think they should downgrade everything a bit and leave the number of cars unaltered.

Hell no... I'd rather have them go with even just four or even two cars if that means unaltered graphics.

 

[Project Midway]

Good lord, do the words "worst case scenario" mean anything to you people? You'll latch on to the worst possible news and run with it.

The mere thought of them considering using only two cars makes me sad. :\ Even if its only a "worst case scenario".

But I trust that they make the correct choice....

 

[Panajev2001a]

How about they keep the six cars and PS2 quality by means of some good use of programming and research. Tayloring the game to the PSPs strenghts would go a long way.

Use the TnL engine in place of VU1, make use of the rasterizer's combiners for layering the effects that are multipass on PS2, let the reprogrammable processor take a load of sound responsibility from the cpu (as the sound processor in PS2 is fairly reliant on the host cpu), use the mips core, FPU, and VP for AI and physics (and whatever custom vertex/lighting setup that may be required for nifty per-pixel lighting/deformation). I know I'm not the one doing the programming, but it seems there is more than enough in there to allow PSP to match or better PS2.

As PSP software ages what I'm saying now will be more believable.

What big rasterizer combiners are you talking about ? The PSP Rasterizer might have more features than the GS, but it is no Flipper nor NV2A with Pixel Shaders.

Once again, pixel fill-rate difference (untextured) between the two platforms is enormous: games need to be re-thought for PSP GPU. Comparatively the GPU is stronger in terms of textured fill-rate compared to the GS.

Think about MGS2: Substance on Xbox: the Xbox is more powerful than PlayStation 2, but the Xbox version had clearl moments of slow-down.

The conversion from VU1 to T&L unit in the GPU will not be so easy as there are probably some things that they are doing on VU1 which are not replicable on the fixed-function T&L unit: splitting the T&L code from VU1 to VFPU + T&L unit is not trivial.

Second, they may be hitting RAM limitations (PSP has less RAM available to games than PlayStation 2).

Sound processing is likely not the limit.

You know, I think the physics engine and the MIPS core are the limit once again and that influences the number of cars they can handle at a given time.

They did not say that they think the PSP can do a peak of 2 cars: they gave a rough estimate of what they think they can do.

Still he has not given finite numbers: mainly because they probbably have not started much work on the GT4 PSP engine.


For GT4 to feel like GT4 on PSP they need few things to stay the same.

1.) The Physics engine should be unaltered: you would really like to have 6 cars that drive like Carmageddon cars ? I want the full GT4 experience and it is not the number of cars on screen that gives it to me.

2.) The frame-rate must be the same: I rally would like to have a smooth 60 fps driving experience.

3.) Graphics: do you really want to look at 6 cars that look obviously worse than GT4 and with obviously worse looking backgrounds ? I do not. I much rather have less cars and the full graphics engine intact.

I think we should trust Polyphony a little bit: they have delivered so far and very well.

 

[Lord Error]

The mere thought of them considering using only two cars makes me sad.

Rally races in GT3 = only two cars = best part of the game. That's why I don't really care.

The PSP Rasterizer might have more features than the GS, but it is no Flipper nor NV2A with Pixel Shaders.

OK, how do you really know that it doesn't have combiners? (Or how does he know that it has them for that matter)? I mean, one of the demos demonstrated very imressive looking bumpmapping effects on PSP, so obviously there's 'something' in there.

 

[Project Midway]

Rally races in GT3 = only two cars = best part of the game. That's why I don't really care.

You should buy WRC4 or some other rally game and let us others play Gt4 as it should be played..!!

 

[snapty00]

Seems to me that the PSP and PS2 aren't the problem. Their priorities are the problem. "Yeah, we had to make the humans look realistic, so we had to take the cars out." WTF?

Good-fucking-grief. And people say Western developers put graphics over gameplay. This guy is the epitome.

 

[Lord Error]

You should buy WRC4 or some other rally game and let us others play Gt4 as it should be played..!!

Well, to be quite honest, none of the rally racers I've tried was as fun. Sure, they pretty much all look better than rally courses in GT3 (ugliest courses in the game), WRC uses satelite data to model courses and whatnot, but the rally in GT3 has that same sweetness that Sega rally had in the arcade.

 

[Project Midway]

yeah, they should be able to lose some details from cars and roadside objects and it would still look comparable on "tiny" PSP screen.

Well, to be quite honest, none of the rally racers I've tried was as fun. Sure, they pretty much all look better than rally courses in GT3 (ugliest courses in the game), WRC uses satelite data to model courses and whatnot, but the rally in GT3 has that same sweetness that Sega rally had in the arcade.

Maybe Polyphony should make separate GT4 Rally Racing game for PSP with only 2 cars but with PS2-quality graphics? =)

 

[Panajev2001a]

Seems to me that the PSP and PS2 aren't the problem. Their priorities are the problem. "Yeah, we had to make the humans look realistic, so we had to take the cars out." WTF?

Good-fucking-grief. And people say Western developers put graphics over gameplay. This guy is the epitome.

Which is why they re-did the Physics engine to make it even more realistic...

 

[Panajev2001a]

Rally races in GT3 = only two cars = best part of the game. That's why I don't really care.


OK, how do you really know that it doesn't have combiners? (Or how does he know that it has them for that matter)? I mean, one of the demos demonstrated very imressive looking bumpmapping effects on PSP, so obviously there's 'something' in there.

Something, but to convert all the effects that on PlayStation 2 rely on the MASSIVE untextured fill-rate for tons of rendering passes to fewer passes and fewer cycles would require a very very nice and powerful set of combiners and quite a bit of time.

MGS2: Substance on Xbox is the proof of what I am saying.

 

[Argyle]

I have a feeling his comments are because the PSP version currently can't draw 6 full-LOD PS2 cars - and redoing all those cars at a lower level of detail for PSP...well, that's a lot of work...

 

[mr2mike]

Then they should just use lower spec graphic assets from GT3 instead of GT4...

 

[Lazy8s]

The PS2 car models are relatively low on polygons to beign with. They might be better served by remodeling the backgrounds, but those are making prominent use of bitmaps as it is.

 

[ravingloon]

OK Junior Member, you and I have a problem. Your avatar size is violating the TOS anyway.

Give me a break. If you don't think Junior is speaking the truth, you need to dislodge your head from Sony's ass. There's no excuse for it. None. Especially since it was never scheduled to have more than 6 players at once to begin with. It's not like the goal was 40 player races.

 

[SolidSnakex]

Give me a break. If you don't think Junior is speaking the truth, you need to dislodge your head from Sony's ass. There's no excuse for it. None. Especially since it was never scheduled to have more than 6 players at once to begin with. It's not like the goal was 40 player races.

:lol You do realise that Darien was talking about Dylx having his avatar?

 

[ravingloon]

I don't know why you're laughing. He quotes him and his netcode remarks and then says he has a problem with him anyway because of the avatar. Two different problems.

 

[AlphaSnake]

I'd be ok with 4 cars. Seriously, think about it...with 6 cars you almost never compete against the last two cars anyways. If you're in 4th, 5th, or 6th place - you lose. If you're in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, you continue. There really isn't much point in having more than 4 cars, ideally.

 

[Rainbow L33T]

On how many UMD's will this game come out again

If I'm not mistaken,GT4 will use a DVD-9.How will they do it if they don't make compromise?

It will be interesting to see how faithful the PSP version remain to the PS2 game.Some corner will be cut for sure.