Gran Turismo and Virtual Reality
The announcement that Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo 7 would get a patch to enable PSVR2 support wasn’t that much of a surprise, but it was still a hell of a joyous occasion for some people. Sony’s then-CEO Jim Ryan took the stage at CES 2022 to discuss PSVR2 and confirmed not only the existence of the GT7 update but also the fact that it would be available at launch for free. We also soon learned that all the game’s modes would be playable in VR – after the more experimental PSVR mode in Gran Turismo Sport, which only offered dedicated VR races against a single CPU-controlled opponent, this was exactly what VR fans had been hoping for. So, how did GT7 VR turn out?
First Steps
It’s never nice to start negatively, but one of the first things to note about GT7 VR is rather unfortunate. While all of GT7’s actual racing gameplay is playable in VR, everything outside of it – the opening movie, menus, Cafe story sections and the like – are all presented identically to the non-VR version of the game, on a virtual screen in the PSVR2’s Cinematic Mode. This is hardly a game breaker – the virtual screen looks perfectly fine and serves its purpose – but it is a little dull in comparison to a lot of other VR-only games on the platform, which seek to immerse you at every point, including 360-degree menus. However, this at least means you don’t have to relearn how to navigate the game and accessing Missions, Sports Mode, Championships, etc. is as easy as when playing the normal game.
A VR-Exclusive Mode
First off, you should know about the one genuinely VR-only mode in GT7 – VR Showroom. While the VR update for GT7 on the whole is about taking racing and translating it into VR, VR Showroom is all about Polyphony Digital showing off the intense quality of their car models. You can take any car in the entire game – a long list that continues to grow over time with free updates – place it into one of several environments (such as inside a garage or out the front of the GT Cafe), and simply move around in VR space, admiring it. Polyphony has been absolutely stringent with their attention to detail, recreating these cars exactly as they appear in real life, so the mode is quite worthwhile from both an aesthetic and an educational standpoint.
VR Immersion in GT7
The feeling of playing GT7 in VR is difficult to describe for those without VR experience, but the word “immersive” does the job as well as any other. It’s an incredible feeling, even the way I play it, with motion steering on a regular controller – things like actually moving your head around to look at your mirrors (or even behind you) and proper, seamless 3D offered by the PSVR2’s dual screens combine incredible well with the game’s more traditional features, like its robust and precise driving simulation and proper 3D audio for headphones. It all adds up to what virtual reality marketers like to call “presence”, that combination of various technologies in the headset that adds up to a feeling of really being there. Even the physical sense of wearing the headset can add a touch of realism by feeling like a racing helmet. It feels great, but it also prompts an additional question:
Does VR Make You Better in Gran Turismo 7?
The PSVR2 isn’t exactly cheap, and while it can be used to play hundreds of games at this point, there are almost certainly some who look at it primarily to play GT7 in VR – similar to how they might spend anywhere from several hundred to over a thousand dollars on a chair/wheel/pedals just to increase the immersion and – critically – personal competitive performance. Sony and Polyphony Digital don’t call it “The Real Driving Simulator” for nothing – this is the sort of game that enthusiasts can really dedicate a lot of their lives to. A wheel can make you better, but can VR? I think so. I can’t be sure, since I switched to GT7 VR when the VR2 came out and never went back, but I do think so. The immersive aspects of the VR Mode fundamentally make the game more like actual driving, meaning those skills transfer over directly, and the addition of the aforementioned 3D that’s key to VR presence means you can use your real-life depth perception to judge distance – another critical driving skill. How much this will all help when you’re still using motion steering on a controller like me is down to the person, which is precisely why I’ve been tempted to go for a wheel. The experience might even make for a good series of articles.
Speaking of spending hundreds more on a video game…
The PS5 Pro Effect
I bought the PS5 Pro on launch day, and I was hoping for PSVR2 games far and wide to get improvements utilising the console’s power. It’s been slow-going so far, especially since the Pro-exclusive PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) will apparently need further tuning before it can be used effectively on VR games, but GT7 is one of the few examples – and the news is very positive. There’s a general increase in resolution, which is very welcome, but the best feature is buried in the menu – the PS5 Pro-exclusive VR Positional Reprojection. The base PS5 version also uses reprojection, a software trick called asynchronous time-warp. It warps frames to improve VR games that run at only 60fps vs the recommended 90-120, but unfortunately, it causes unsightly motion artifacts in the form of blur, ghosting and double imagery. The Pro’s Positional Reprojection, according to Digital Foundry’s John Linneman (https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2024-gran-turismo-7-on-ps5-pro-rt-8k-vr-performance-modes), is a heavier but improved variant called asynchronous space-warp, so named because it goes beyond merely working off the player’s head movement and takes into account the game’s actual animation and camera. The end result is simply far more comfortable, to the point that I even suspect it could mitigate some players’ VR motion sickness issues. Overall I highly recommend the Pro for GT7 VR. It seems the budget for the “perfect experience” continues to climb.
Conclusion
GT7 is called the PSVR2 killer app, and while I don’t necessarily think it has the extremely broad appeal that some games granted that title do, I fully agree. It drastically enhances the whole experience, turning the playing of a PS5 racing game into something closer to what used to be restricted solely to arcades. It’s an upgrade that could inspire you to play with real dedication – Sony runs frequent GT7 tournaments, and I could easily see some veterans considering the VR2 as critical as a wheel and pedals. And even if not, I think it would surprise you just what kind of a racing simulation experience is available at home nowadays. I hope you all get to enjoy the feeling of playing it soon.
