During the Gran Turismo 7 State of Play event on Wednesday night, time and weather simulations were discussed for about four to five minutes during the 30-minute video.
While it’s been unclear if we’d have a complete inclusion of dynamic time and weather in the upcoming game, the State of Play did reveal that it would be included in some form for GT7.
Dynamic clouds, but not dynamic weather on all circuits
However, as revealed in a question and answer session with Gran Turismo series creator Kazunori Yamauchi by Japanese gaming website Famitsu, the feature won’t be on every track or course in the game. Only certain courses will have full daily and nightly cycles, and only some course will have full dynamic weather and track surfaces to go along with it.
Yamauchi explains in the interview on Famitsu: “First of all, the change over time, but the change from morning to night is in every course. However, the change from night to morning is only used in some courses. For example, it’s a place where 24-hour races are held, such as the Nürburgring.
“Also, regarding the change in weather, the change from sunny to cloudy can be experienced on all courses, but it is limited on the course where it rains.
In the detailed video from earlier this evening (2nd February), we saw a lot of a very wet Tsukuba track, that also change from clear, to rain, to clear again. But, such a precise example of weather transitions, other than clouds and time of day, were not seen in detail for other venues.
“The biggest challenge with time and weather changes this time is not just visual changes, but digital physics simulations,” the creator continued.
“In addition, the time and weather changes will interact with the car running on the course. For example, factors such as lower road surface temperature, rain, and wind are physically calculated and are involved in driving.”
Essentially, the factors for a fully dynamic weather-to-surface immersion will exist in the upcoming simulation, but it won’t be at all 34 locations or 97 layouts that will be included with the launch of the game.
Breathtaking detail
Still, the fact that the technology to make such a system work, which was also revealed in the same interview to be simulated with data from NASA, is incredible nonetheless. There are still some simulations that don’t even have wet weather at all…
According to TheSixthAixs: “Polyphony has sampled real-world atmospheric and meteorological data, right down to ensuring the sun and moon rise in accurate locations and the starry nights shift depending on the date, and time.”
A new raincloud radar was also shown in action at the Red Bull Ring, and it is said that at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, parts of the track can dry, while others wet. Puddles, shown only at Tsukuba (again) in any great detail are said to form in real-world locations, and dry after the main racing line.
If you want to watch the part in the State of Play that discusses the time and weather simulations, jump ahead to 27:10 in the video below. Let us know what your initial thoughts are about these dynamic weather and time developments in the comments below.
