Touchsense technology for new official pad:

The upcoming rumble-enabled edition of PS3's Sixaxis controller will feature a brand new feedback technology called 'touchsense'. It'll mean that the pad won't just rumble as per usual, instead Sixaxis will be able to output a variety of levels of feedback from several different points on the controller.

The new technology can create more powerful and more intense rumblings than any other pad. It will be possible for developers to create more subtle and appropriate feedback effects - the sharp kick of a bullet, say, or a slow increase in feedback while accelerating a race car.

Fortunately, touchsense isn't going to send the price of Sixaxis rocketing. It's unclear whether Sony plan to have two versions of the controller on sale - one with rumble, one without - but, according to the French Official PlayStation magazine who revealed the new tech, the cost of including feedback will only cause a slight raise in the retail price of the controller.

Source: Gamesradar
Sounds promising to me, now all we need are the games and a price drop

I'm sure about everyone has used the "New Setups" sidebar that's located on every GTVault web page. In the past, this section listed just the "new" posted setups and ignored any existing setups that had been recently updated. In discussing possible enhancements, NSXType-R and ukproracer both had a good suggestion, which was to include updated setups as well. I've made the necessary changes so that both new and updated setups are displayed in the now renamed "Latest Setups" sidebar.

Setups are displayed by date in descending order. As an example, let's say I posted a new setup five minutes ago, and NSXType-R updated one of his existing setups just three minutes ago. NSXType-R's setup will be displayed at the top with mine just below.

Thanks for the suggestion!

I've been thinking about a couple enhancement ideas and wanted to bounce them off of you guys to gauge interest. First, I know virtually all tuners will tweak and edit a setup over time, each time making a small adjustment to gauge it's effectiveness. I've been tracking and storing setup changes since September 6, 2006. That is, I am storing a "Setup History" of any new or changed setup since that date. Do you guys think it would be a good idea to open up the history for viewing, so that tuners can view previous versions of their setups? I can think of a lot of benefits, namely that of being able to see what changes were made to a setup over time.

With a feature like this, GTVault could track and display items that were changed from the prior version of a setup. For instance, let's say Tuner XYZ changes Front Spring Rate on their setup from 8.9 to 9.3. GTVault could highlight the 9.3 and display the prior 8.9 when you mouse over Front Spring Rate. GTVault could also potentially track Best Lap times over the history of a setup so the tuner can see what changes made the most/least impact. What do you think?

Another item I've been thinking about is private setups. I know a lot of tuners, especially those who compete in online racing, are very protective of their setups. The net effect is that some tuners choose not to enter their setups in GTVault since it would be out there for the world to see. What do you guys think of the ability to enter private setups that only you can view? I think this could be a very useful feature, especially when combined with the aforementioned Setup History idea.

I appreciate any and all feedback!

I bit the bullet awhile back and purchased a PS3. I have to say it is an amazing machine, especially for HDTV owners. The first generation games are very impressive, and I can't wait to see the results when developers really begin to harness the PS3's power. I of course downloaded the Gran Turismo HD Demo as soon as I got everything hooked up. I'm pretty impressed with all aspects of the game. As with all good demos though, it leaves you salivating for more. It's been awhile since I've posted, so I thought I would comment on some of my observations.

Graphics
Everyone knows the GT series has been the benchmark which all other racing games (and other genres for that matter) games are held. Going back to GT1, the attention to detail given to the car models themselves has always been astounding. However, I feel that most will agree that the commitment to the cars themselves left other areas graphically lacking. Most notable are the low resolution texturing on some backdrops and 2D "paper" race fans. I imagine this could've been a function of previous consoles only being able to push so many polygons through the video processor. Regardless, the GT HD demo hits the ball out of the park. The mountain view scenery is purely jaw dropping, and the realism of the crowd cheering you on makes for a very enveloping experience. I found myself wrecking constantly during my first few laps, not because I couldn't drive the cars, but because I found myself stealing looks at the scenery a little too often. This is unfortunately how I observe many people driving in real life! I am also excited when I read about an in-car view, but GT HD does not feature this. edit - Thanks to Flasawoo for the link to a screenshot of an in-car view. Now that I see this, I recall having seen it before. Having a true in-car view will be an awesome addition to the game.

Sound
Much has been said about the unrealistic engine sound in prior GT releases, especially when dealing with fully tuned vehicles. The GT HD demo contains a very limited number of cars, but you can unlock a tuned version of each after beating a compulsory benchmark time. There are 0 tuning options outside of driving the hopped up versions of each car, so it's difficult to say with any veracity how realistic tuned motors will sound in GT5. That being said, I feel the sound quality of the engines is a marked improvement over prior releases. As always, the environmental sounds such as wind noise, tire squeal, etc., are all top notch. A decent 5.1 surround sound system is a requirement for those who want the whole experience.

Control
Alongside graphics, the physics is another hallmark for the GT series. I was blown away when I first played GT1. The tuning model aside, frankly I've been nonplussed ever since. I feel physics in the GT series has taken a very evolutionary track bereft of any continued innnovation. I didn't notice it so much until I played Forza on XBox. I kept going back to Forza again and again simply because I felt more connected to the cars I was driving. I'm sure some of you will disagree with me, especially when thinking of GT4. But having played all games mentioned extensively, my preference from a pure racing standpoint stands with Forza. It seems PD has swallowed a bit of their hubris and taken a cue from the Forza team, as I was pleasantly surprised with the overall physics in the GT HD demo. They've included a dedicated drift mode that is sure to excite the burgeoning drifter community. I'm not a huge drifter, but having played a few laps in drift mode, I did have quite a bit of fun with it. I admit I am a bit remedial in my capacity to explain the nuances of physics models, however I feel like I'm right there in the car when I careen through the corners in GT HD. Believe it or not, the GT series has always been about racing for me rather than tuning. Hell, I built GTVault because of my lack of tuning ability.

An area in which the GT series is painfully lacking is damage modeling. There is an pretty interesting thread over at the official Playstation forums about damage modeling in GT5. To distill it, a member there exchanged some private messages with a PD developer. The developer indicated that, due to PD's perfectionist tendencies (uhh, tell me why there's a boatload of bugs in every release!), the time it would take to incorporate damage modeling renders it an impossibility. I share MasterGT's view in that it ain't over till the fat lady sings. I couldn't care less about the musings of an individual developer insofar as he isn't an official spokesman for the game. Of course, if a damage model doesn't make it into GT5, that's a huge boon to any other racing franchise that does a decent job of it. The bottom line is that there needs to be accountability for crappy driving like wall riding and using cars as turn shields. The one true way to do so is to make racers pay for these decisions. Many people do not share my view and say that a damage model would make the game "too hard". I call bullshit. A damage model will accomplish an important goal, and that is to separate the wheat from the chaff. Not having a damage model in a game that pays so much attention to all other aspects of the racing experience is akin to manufacturing a car without a steering wheel. WTF? There is simply no good excuse for not including a damage model.

On a side note, as I said the genesis of the aforementioned thread was a private message exchange between the developer and another member. It was amusing to see the original poster manufacture defenses of his violation of the tenet of a private message. I personally feel that the developer was dumb for saying anything in the first place, assuming PD didn't want what he said to become public knowledge. Never write anything down assuming that it won't eventually be scrutinized by the public. I also feel that the member who posted the private message in a public forum showed his true colors in doing so, especially when attempting to justify what boils down to a violation of privacy. We have enough of that coming from the powers that be, let's not make it any worse by doing it to one another. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Online
While there is no online racing in GT HD, top times are automatically submitted to a central server. Additionally, replays of the top ten times are available for your viewing pleasure. It is nice to be able to directly see and learn from the techniques of the top racers. I'm sure there's a write-up about it somewhere, but there seems to be some sort of rotation on the top times. I keep seeing different times and racers at the top. I assume this type of thing will go away with an official release. Online racing is, from my standpoint, the biggest selling point of racing sims these days. I hope that PD addresses issues I've seen with other games, such as ghosting (cars on top of one another) and lag.

All told, I am very excited about the possibilities for GT5. The level of immersion becomes ever more impressive with each successive generation of consoles, and PD has always done a good job of harnessing that power. Again, without comment on tuning specifics, the major elements are all there for a truly astounding experience. Let's just hope that PD listens to their customers' salient points on damage modeling.

Somebody somewhere asked me if I could add power to weight ratio to the search criteria on the Advanced Car Search page. Well, I finally had some free time to add both Stock and Tuned P/W ratios as searchable criteria. I hope this helps some of you out.

Enjoy!

Thanks to Flasawoo for linking this article. The headline about sums it up: "Sony Drops Gran Turismo HD". So it looks like the micropayment (the pricing was never "micro" to me) scheme is gone, at least for now. That and we may see an earlier release of GT5. I wonder if the public outpouring of disgust had anything to do with this decision? Having developed and run this website for 5+ years, contributing to the community and asking nothing in return, I hope it did... just a little.
This is how a demo is supposed to be priced - FREE.
They say that online is going to be in GT5... good good. Does anyone want to take a stab at the GT5 release date? I'd say don't expect it before 2008.

Many of you have read news of the "micropayment" strategy that Polyphony Digital has devised for the upcoming Gran Turismo HD on PS3. Quoting from an article on 1up:
I've seen many discussions and debates on the particulars, such as how much the basic GT: HD Classic vs. GT: HD Premium will cost up front. Who cares? The bottom line, as anyone familiar with the corporate world already knows, is to make more money. Period. End of story. A la carte purchase of cars and tracks is nothing less than a stab in the back to the racing simulation genre. The idea of earning your way through the game by achievement is rendered null and void. You may say, "But, Kerr, you still have to get X license and beat X race series before you will be allowed to purchase X vehicle and/or X track!". Doesn't matter. Nickel and dime me to death for content that should be part of the game, and you can count me out. I couldn't care less how good the graphics, etc. may be.

There is also news that core features will be released later as downloads as opposed to shipping with the game itself. An an article on qj.net states:

Seriously, car damage and AI released as downloads? These are considered core aspects of a racing sim, not additional "content" that can be shelved for when there is more time.

As has become custom, it appears that GT development is behind schedule. Those of us who waited through the good end of two years of release delays for GT4 are very familiar with this scenario. Considering said delays, I and many others were somewhat disenchanted with the end result. The major difference here is that GT4 was not a launch game for the PS2. Intense pressure is on to release a GT game coinciding with the PS3 launch. Release delays will translate to mountains of lost revenue for Sony. The only way out is to release a half-baked game, tack on a capitalism-is-king downloading scheme, and watch the money roll in. Frankly, this makes me sick.

People are quick to blame the MMORPG genre for the start of this madness, but I also believe there is a corollary with the mobile phone ringtone industry. Talk about a complete ripoff scheme that went gangbusters! A bit of searching reveals that the phenomenon began in 2001 in Finland, then quickly spread to the other side of the Atlantic by 2002. In 2005, the four year old ringtone industry raked in 11 billion dollars selling 30 second lo-fi sound cliips to users. Am I alone in thinking this is flat out retarded? Regardless, it's obvious that the public at large has lovingly embraced the ringtone scheme. This sheeplike behavior encourages large corporations to create like revenue streams in other markets. The success of iTunes has further demonstrated that people are willing to pay, in aggregate, large sums of money for low quality, restricted content.

The application of micropayments in video games undermines the essence of a video game being a test of skill and turns it into nothing more than another shopping experience. That people aren't enraged at this industry wide shift in strategy is appalling and yet not the least bit surprising.

There are conflicting reports across the web as to whether Sony will actually pursue micropayments in the U.S. market. From a post on qj.net:

Make no mistake that Sony and many other corporations are committed to jumping on the micropayment bandwagon. As I illustrated above, there is plenty of market precedent indicating a potential windfall in revenues. I have been a loyal Gran Turismo addict since day one, and this is how Sony intends to reward me? If micropayments are introduced as part of the new Gran Turismo, Sony can expect zero business from me in the future. Really though, how surprising is a move like this from the company whose philosophy is embodied in words like Betamax, MiniDisc and Blu-Ray? As consumers, the only opportunity we have to tell a company like Sony how we feel is to not spend money with them. The gaming public is talking a good game now, but how will it play out in the end? Me, I'm going to continue playing the original Forza on my XBox while I wait for Forza 2. At least I have Porsches, Ferraris, a great selection of race cars, a damage model and aggressive AI that doesn't act like a robot on a string. Oh, and there aren't 50+ redundant versions of the Skyline.

From time to time I have received questions from tuners about who is voting for their setups. The data required to present this information has always been there, and I've finally managed to capitalize on some free time to code the enhancements. I've implemented three ways of viewing detailed, sortable vote data:

• Votes cast for an individual setup
  
• Votes cast by an individual user
  
• Votes cast for an individual user
  

The first view is accessible directly from each setup. Assuming a setup has at least one vote, you can click on the quantity to display each voter's name and the date their vote was cast. The second and third views are accessible from any tuner's information screen, and display Game, Setup, Voter/Tuner, Make, Car, and Vote Date. As with all GTVault pages, all relevant information is cross linked with it's corresponding area in the site.

Living in the Midwest, one doesn't have a lot of opportunity to see relatively rare cars. There's a guy with a black Diablo that I see often, I've seen a Lingenfelter modified C5 a couple times, and then there are a few Ferraris and other exotics sprinkled about. One car I can honestly say I've never seen around here is a GT-R. While at lunch in a ritzy area with a friend, I was fortunate enough to spot my first GT-R ever west of the Mississippi and east of, say, Colorado. I was even lucky enough to snap off a pic with my camera phone before he sped off into the horizon.



It looked different than most GT-R's, plus I think it had been modified by some aftermarket shop as it had the extra "ES" suffix. I can only guess at what that means - "Extra Shot"? Does anyone have more information on this car? Did I happen upon the upcoming stateside version of the GT-R? I know that Nissan has a big presence in Tennessee, but I'm not very close to those parts y'all.

Hey all. Has anyone played Tourist Trophy at length? Looks pretty interesting, but what little I've read on it suggests there isn't much in the way of tuning. I'm pretty far away from gaming right now as I've not had my PS2 hooked up in over 5 months. That will hopefully change here in the next month or so.