Gran Turismo 7 has real-time weather simulations on PlayStation 5

Gran Turismo 7 will have real-time weather simulations that dynamically change tracks and in-game environments, Polyphony Digital confirms.

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi confirms a host of new details about the upcoming cross-platform racer. Some details--like campaign being online-only--are a bit disappointing, but the game promises to push the PlayStation 5 to its limits with high-performance features like real-time weather effects and in-game simulations.

According to Yamauchi, GT7's real-time weather effects will change track conditions based on things like humidity and temperature. Water will have a huge effect on gameplay too, and rain physics can change how cars handle quite a bit with drift and hydroplaning depending on tires, car type, etc. There's also time simulations that tie right into the dynamic weather effects--for example, mid-day sun can quickly evaporate any rainwater on a track.

2

"The weather simulation is actually a weather simulation, not just a weather change. So it does have an effect on the physics of the game. I think that will be very interesting," Yamauchi said.

"We don't have a system for simulating the amount of rubber that's laid on the track, but we do have a simulation of where the rain would create a level of water over the track. When a car passes over it, it will spray aside, and so the racing lines will dry quicker than the other parts of the track. That's something that is simulated and does affect the grip of the course accordingly as time goes on, and the track begins to dry in different places.

The air temperature, the humidity, and then the road surface temperature will also be affected by these weather changes as well."

2

• GT7 has been in development since 2017
• Cross-play between PS4 and PS5 confirmed
• 24-hour races are possibly coming
• Online-only campaign mode
• Arcade mode can be played offline
• Dynamic time and weather effects

The dev also spoke about the internet connectivity requirements:

"Anything that has to do with the save data requires a connection," he said.

"For example things like the livery data as well - that's something that is downloaded from the online server...It's just to prevent cheating overall from people trying to modify the save data, so that's the reason for the online connection."

Other GT7 high-end optimizations include 4K 60FPS support, ray-traced reflections, improved shadows, lighting, and ultra high-res textures, and of course full Dualsense and PS5 SSD support for lightning-fast loading.

Gran Turismo 7 releases March 4, 2022 on PS4 and PS5.