After a bit of thinking, I decided 'our' (a friend and myself) latest desperate act deserved a topic of our own! 
It all started with the purchase of two Caterham Super7 seats. The plan was to build them into my friend's '91 Mini, but after a bit of leisure, they ended up just sitting somewhere in the garage collecting dust. Then, Gran Turismo 4 Prologue launched in Europe. Naturally, being two hardcore Gran Turismo fans, we bought the game and later the new Logitech Force Feedback Pro wheel with 900° rotation to go with it.
It was pure gaming heaven - well, despite it being stuck on to some pathetic chair that required desperate measures to keep it from flying with every turn. Naturally, it didn't take long to come up with the solution:
After a lot of planing (see above image of concept art that took us a whoopy 40 seconds to draw up and realize), we were ready to go in building our very own, state-of-the-art Gran Turismo 4 simulator.
Enjoy the following images (click to enlarge):
our vision:
...then we started working on it:
...at last, after 4 hours of work, we were almost finished:
once we got it back home, our simulator was finally ready:
....finally, the racing begun!!!
The game - well, let me just say that this games improvement over Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec is incredible. This improvement is mainly due to a few factors:
1.) Physics engine is greatly improved
2.) The inclusion of time penalities when touching other opponents or walls.
3.) The new Logitech Force Feedback Pro wheel with 900° rotation
Thanks to these 3 factors, the game is so much more realistic in any way imaginable. It also makes driving with slower cars so much more challenging as well as interesting because you can feel the difference just as you would in real life. The sense of speed is more evident, even in slower cars.
The Logitech wheel is amazing. Especially with the above 'simulator', it feels so real to be driving. Even the pedals are on the right side, so you'll be only using it with one foot, just as you would when driving an automatic car. The wheel is very precise and the force-feedback is very powerful. Actually, at times a bit too powerful, as I painfully had to learn. My hands must of been quite dried out after building the above, because once we had a game on it, I was lucky not to ripp of some skin at times (the wheel is that powerful and the rubber really has a strong grip). After getting used to it though, the old wheel just feels like a cheap toy.
The inclusion of time penalties is great and really makes it more challenging. Although the game only registers hits from the front it can quickly end a good race if you smash or touch the wall. Each penalty consists of 10 seconds in which the speed is limited to 50 km/h. Unfortunately this also brings up the game's biggest flaw:
AI.
As with Gran Turismo 3, the biggest flaw is most definately going to be AI and I for one am not betting on any improvement. The cars still drive their straight line and will not make any attempt to avoid head on collisions with you. This in itself isn't bad, but if you've ever driven the McLaren license test and tried to go for gold, you will notice that the game will end when touching one of your opponents. So, even if you don't touch them - chances are, they will touch or smash into you and you can look forward to receiving one of those 10 second penalties. If it's a licence test - game ends and your close race to gold was for nothing (most likely gets you after lap 9 out of 10).
Racing in arcade is just as annoying with opponents enabled. Once you get passt them, it's all okay - but people looking for a challenge with the AI will be disappointed as they'll be getting penalties at a consistent rate. At this time, it also doesn't as if the AI gets penalties too. Hopefully (but I'm not holding my breath on this one) Polyphony will at least solve this problem.
Graphics. Nothing much to say here: The graphics are outstanding. The one and only thing really annoying is the pop-up which is only really noticable on the city tracks. Everything else is simply *beautiful*. The textures are very detailed and the thing that stroke me as most impressive are the actual backgrounds which actually get bigger as you drive closer to them. On the italian track, the background is that detailled, that I could have sworn to see little details such as houses etc. Great stuff. The crowed looks better - but are still 2d in Prologue. Still very nice.
As far as image quality goes - I really can't be disappointed. When racing, you'll hardly notice any flickering beyond what you'll see in other good games. It also doesn't hurt your eyes. I guess it really depends on what kind of tv set you're playing and what cables you use. Personally, I found the pop-up more disturbing and that in itself is very rare. Funny thing was, the other day at one of our local stores (MediaMarkt, in Dietlikon, CH), they had two Plasma setups side by side - one running Rallisport 2 and the other GT4 Prologue. Up close, both looked about the same, with Rallisport having slightly more detail thanks to the bump mapping which, of course, is totally absent in GT4. However, from a distance from 5m or more, Gran Turismo 4 looked imense better and looked more like a tv showing some real rally footage. No pun intended, but Rallisport next to it, looked like a bland PS2 game. Of course, this doesn't mean that one game is better technically then the other, but purely that the artistic talent of Polyphony is remarkable. In short: GT4p is the most beautiful and realistic looking racer I had the pleasure to be playing as of yet.
Enough of that said, for more impressions, here are some GT4p videos from the same angle as the above racing photos I took. Just for the record, it's my friend that is racing, trying to catch up to my ghost car. It's good fun, so try to check them out. Before you wonder what language we're talking, it's swiss-german.
Enjoy!
Testing breaks and accelarator
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2520.AVI (1.2M)
Racing in New York (going for gold in licence test: NSX)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2605.AVI (3.7M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2606.AVI (3.2M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2607.AVI (2.1M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2624.AVI (3.6M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2625.AVI (3.7M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2626.AVI (133k)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2627.AVI (3.7M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2645.AVI (3.7M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2646.AVI (3.1M)
Racing Rally Grand Canyon Course with Ford Focus (going for Gold)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2653.AVI (3.2M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2654.AVI (3.7M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2691.AVI (3.7M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2692.AVI (3.7M)
In case the videos don't work, use
http://www.videolan.org/
hehe, this was just too good not to share! Feedback?
It all started with the purchase of two Caterham Super7 seats. The plan was to build them into my friend's '91 Mini, but after a bit of leisure, they ended up just sitting somewhere in the garage collecting dust. Then, Gran Turismo 4 Prologue launched in Europe. Naturally, being two hardcore Gran Turismo fans, we bought the game and later the new Logitech Force Feedback Pro wheel with 900° rotation to go with it.
It was pure gaming heaven - well, despite it being stuck on to some pathetic chair that required desperate measures to keep it from flying with every turn. Naturally, it didn't take long to come up with the solution:
After a lot of planing (see above image of concept art that took us a whoopy 40 seconds to draw up and realize
), we were ready to go in building our very own, state-of-the-art Gran Turismo 4 simulator.Enjoy the following images (click to enlarge):
our vision:
...then we started working on it:
...at last, after 4 hours of work, we were almost finished:
once we got it back home, our simulator was finally ready:
....finally, the racing begun!!!
The game - well, let me just say that this games improvement over Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec is incredible. This improvement is mainly due to a few factors:
1.) Physics engine is greatly improved
2.) The inclusion of time penalities when touching other opponents or walls.
3.) The new Logitech Force Feedback Pro wheel with 900° rotation
Thanks to these 3 factors, the game is so much more realistic in any way imaginable. It also makes driving with slower cars so much more challenging as well as interesting because you can feel the difference just as you would in real life. The sense of speed is more evident, even in slower cars.
The Logitech wheel is amazing. Especially with the above 'simulator', it feels so real to be driving. Even the pedals are on the right side, so you'll be only using it with one foot, just as you would when driving an automatic car. The wheel is very precise and the force-feedback is very powerful. Actually, at times a bit too powerful, as I painfully had to learn. My hands must of been quite dried out after building the above, because once we had a game on it, I was lucky not to ripp of some skin at times (the wheel is that powerful and the rubber really has a strong grip). After getting used to it though, the old wheel just feels like a cheap toy.
The inclusion of time penalties is great and really makes it more challenging. Although the game only registers hits from the front it can quickly end a good race if you smash or touch the wall. Each penalty consists of 10 seconds in which the speed is limited to 50 km/h. Unfortunately this also brings up the game's biggest flaw:
AI.
As with Gran Turismo 3, the biggest flaw is most definately going to be AI and I for one am not betting on any improvement. The cars still drive their straight line and will not make any attempt to avoid head on collisions with you. This in itself isn't bad, but if you've ever driven the McLaren license test and tried to go for gold, you will notice that the game will end when touching one of your opponents. So, even if you don't touch them - chances are, they will touch or smash into you and you can look forward to receiving one of those 10 second penalties. If it's a licence test - game ends and your close race to gold was for nothing (most likely gets you after lap 9 out of 10).
Racing in arcade is just as annoying with opponents enabled. Once you get passt them, it's all okay - but people looking for a challenge with the AI will be disappointed as they'll be getting penalties at a consistent rate. At this time, it also doesn't as if the AI gets penalties too. Hopefully (but I'm not holding my breath on this one) Polyphony will at least solve this problem.
Graphics. Nothing much to say here: The graphics are outstanding. The one and only thing really annoying is the pop-up which is only really noticable on the city tracks. Everything else is simply *beautiful*. The textures are very detailed and the thing that stroke me as most impressive are the actual backgrounds which actually get bigger as you drive closer to them. On the italian track, the background is that detailled, that I could have sworn to see little details such as houses etc. Great stuff. The crowed looks better - but are still 2d in Prologue. Still very nice.
As far as image quality goes - I really can't be disappointed. When racing, you'll hardly notice any flickering beyond what you'll see in other good games. It also doesn't hurt your eyes. I guess it really depends on what kind of tv set you're playing and what cables you use. Personally, I found the pop-up more disturbing and that in itself is very rare. Funny thing was, the other day at one of our local stores (MediaMarkt, in Dietlikon, CH), they had two Plasma setups side by side - one running Rallisport 2 and the other GT4 Prologue. Up close, both looked about the same, with Rallisport having slightly more detail thanks to the bump mapping which, of course, is totally absent in GT4. However, from a distance from 5m or more, Gran Turismo 4 looked imense better and looked more like a tv showing some real rally footage. No pun intended, but Rallisport next to it, looked like a bland PS2 game. Of course, this doesn't mean that one game is better technically then the other, but purely that the artistic talent of Polyphony is remarkable. In short: GT4p is the most beautiful and realistic looking racer I had the pleasure to be playing as of yet.
Enough of that said, for more impressions, here are some GT4p videos from the same angle as the above racing photos I took. Just for the record, it's my friend that is racing, trying to catch up to my ghost car. It's good fun, so try to check them out. Before you wonder what language we're talking, it's swiss-german.
Enjoy!
Testing breaks and accelarator
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2520.AVI (1.2M)
Racing in New York (going for gold in licence test: NSX)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2605.AVI (3.7M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2606.AVI (3.2M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2607.AVI (2.1M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2624.AVI (3.6M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2625.AVI (3.7M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2626.AVI (133k)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2627.AVI (3.7M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2645.AVI (3.7M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2646.AVI (3.1M)
Racing Rally Grand Canyon Course with Ford Focus (going for Gold)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2653.AVI (3.2M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2654.AVI (3.7M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2691.AVI (3.7M)
http://www.conceptics.ch/_temp/gt4p/MVI_2692.AVI (3.7M)
In case the videos don't work, use
http://www.videolan.org/
hehe, this was just too good not to share! Feedback?
