Mr. Yamauchi's demonstration featured several new points, was followed by a Q&A session, and then we all got to see the creator drive the latest rev of his game, via a newfangled steering wheel peripheral that included force feedback, acceleration and brakes foot pads.
The Steering Wheel Peripheral
After iterating that he was following up on his lengthy E3 demo, Yamauchi made three central points that were as subtle as the game's graphics and the driving strategies themselves. As is his style, Mr. Yamauchi constantly refines and alters his game until it reaches a shine like the cars he creates. At this point in development, he stated he has fixed graphics areas, gameplay areas, and added a surprise by declaring that the new steering wheel peripheral completes his realization of the ideal driving game. Polyphony and Sony are apparently looking into partnering with what is most likely a Japanese peripheral manufacturer of steering wheels to recommend with GT 2000, with Yamauchi's strong recommendation on it.
Heat Waves
Although shown in the first two games of the series, the new heat waves in GT 2000 are incredibly noticeable now. They streak upward from the cars as if the temperature outside was 100 or 100 degree F. These are especially noticeable in the replays. This effect does give off the real effect of heat as it rises from the ground, but it mostly adds sheer realism to the game. GT 2000 looks more like real life in every build we have seen so far.
Flickering and Anti-aliasing
Mr. Yamauchi made a clear point when he said that the graphics had indeed improved. That was putting it mildly, as anyone could see that the game is phenomenally better looking than even the last version that was incredibly good looking. The best way to describe these changes is to simply look at the accompanying screenshots, which don't even look as good as the game looks right now.
The team has eliminated flickering and the resolution has increased. The way it was done was to increase the vertical but not the horizontal resolution on the screen. You can clearly see a difference in the movie we'll deliver in the next day. The anti-aliasing has also been added, though he gave no details as to exactly how this was done. But by increasing the vertical resolution part of the aliasing problem was dealt with. Mr. Yamauchi said that eliminating these elements were among the most challenging part of the process.
A few important bullet points also were highlighted:
- There will be 150 cars in the game, which is short of the 500-plus that were in GT 2000, but there are 5,000 polygons for each car in this game, whereas in GT 2 there were only 300 polygons. Likewise, each car takes two weeks to create, whereas with GT 2 each car took a day. GT 2000 has as many manufacturers as GT 2. So, although there are fewer cars, there are not fewer manufacturers.
- All of the sounds in GT 2000 were re-recorded. So each of the 150 cars in GT 2000 has been individually recorded to take advantage of the PS2's superior sound quality. In addition, while you are playing the game and a car comes up behind you, you won't only hear that car, but every single other car will be heard. In GT 2, you only heard one car coming from behind.
- GT 2000 includes a rally mode.
- There are 15 tracks and the new levels are the Monte Carlo City track and a new Japanese track.
- The tuning aspect of the game is more detailed and more realistic.
- The game, despite Yamauchi's mention of network play at E3, will not be network or Internet compatible. It's a one to two-player game. The next game he makes, he said, will have network play.
- GT 2000 will arrive in DVD format. At some point in development, GT 2000 was going to be fit onto two DVD discs. Polyphony has been able to squeeze the game onto one DVD.
-- Douglass C. Perry
