擬真賽車遊戲利與弊 (英文)

[lemans]

Posted in Driving Technique, Our Opinions, Reviews by Noah on March 16th, 2009

There are a myriad of different driving simulators on all different gaming platforms. Some emphasize entertainment over realism, but the Gran Turismo series for the Sony Playstation is probably the most realistic game on the market. My roomate has Gran Turismo 4, and I’ve taken quite a liking to it as practice for actual track driving. Countless other websites go into all the specifics of the game, what tracks and cars are offered, and how to advance through it. That is not the point of this article. Rather, we’ll take a look at just how realistic of a driving experience such games can provide.

GET A WHEEL AND PEDALS!!

This may seem like a no brainer, but you absolutely MUST have a wheel and pedal to get anywhere near to a realistic driving experience. Nobody drives a car with a controller, and thus using a controller in the game will in no way emulate what it is like to actually drive a car. The controller quite simply lacks the nuanced control of a wheel and pedals. The joystick may be analog, but the movement is very coarse and you cannot make fine steering adjustments with it. I’ve found the best technique (for me at least) when using a controller is to rapidly press the arrow buttons fast or slow depending on how much steering input is desired. But this is akin to sawing the wheel violently back and forth. Thisjust isn’t done in any situation, let alone a performance driving situation. The gas and brake buttons also are touch sensitive, but have nowhere near the fine control of pedals.

Some people complain that the steering wheel has a delayed or otherwise unrealistic response. I thought so too at first, but I’ve come around. The key is getting acquainted with the feel of the controls, much like you need to get up to speed with how a go-kart feels compared to a road car. Once you’ve adjusted to that, I’ve found the wheels and pedals to be a natural connection to the game, and very similar to an actual car.

The Lack of G Forces and other Visceral Cues is a Major Limitation

The main limitation of any driving simulator is the lack of g forces and other physical feelings you get from the car and from driving the car. Threshold braking is done almost entirely be feel - both the feel of how much pedal pressure and travel you’ve given and the feel of the g forces the braking induces. I can get get a good sense of the level of braking I am at just by these g forces. All of these cues are absent in the game, and thus there is no practice whatsoever for threshold braking. Just push the brake pedal all the way to the floor and the game sorts it out for you. Not quite what happens in a regular car, though I suppose its akin to a car with ABS.

This same technique comes into play when cornering too. You can get a good sense for how fast and consistent you are based on the amount of lateral gs you feel. You can also get a sense of the balance of the car by how the weight is getting shifted around. Both of these cues are absent in the game because your body isn’t moving.

Then of course there are all of the smaller vibrations and nuances that get communicated to you through the car. Things like general steering feel, slight bumps and variations in the road, and other such nuances simply aren’t present in a video game. This makes the experience much less immersive, and as such it is harder to interact with car and track and to drive your best consistently.

Feel of the Cars is Good

Despite the lack of g forces and physical traits mentioned above, there is still a definite feel to each car in the game. Moreover, changes in the car setup - notably different types of tires, but other things too - are readily apparent. The trick is NOT treating the game like a virtual driving simulator, but rather treating it like a different medium entirely. The distinction I draw is like the difference between driving a road car on a road course versus driving a go-kart on a karting track. The basic concepts of the Line and vehicle dynamics are of course the same, but platform is different. Different enough that it will take some time to adjust when going between the two (and more when trying one for the first time).

I have found that the same holds true for driving simulators. The Line and basic vehicle dynamics are the same as actual driving, but you have to adjust to the different feel of the medium. Once you get used to how the game acts and reacts, you can drive within those expectations.

The Behavior of the Cars is Very Realistic

Once you get used to the medium of the driving simulator (as mentioned above), I’ve found the behavior of the cars to be extremely realistic (at least in Gran Turismo 4). You get understeer, oversteer, brake oversteer, and recovery (or failure) from all of them just as you’d expect in an actual car. And just like with different cars in reality, different cars in the game are more and less sensitive to different types of oversteer, and more or less recoverable. Some of the cars (like the Mazda racecar available in the Time Trial mode) are completely unforgiving when you get more than about 2 degrees of oversteer. Others can fishtail forever at your whim.

The only thing that isn’t realistic (at least in Gran Turismo 4) is damage. It just isn’t built into the game. Normally, hitting a wall at 180 mph will end that car’s ability to do anything ever again. You don’t just come to a sudden stop and the try again. There are more subtle things too. In real life, you have to be careful going off of the track into the grass or dirt. Pebbles or other things can work into your tires and cause flats, or otherwise damage or compromise your suspension or car. Plus the grass can be bumpy, causing futher problems. Or, your wheels can dig in, get caught, and literally cause your car to flip over. These nuances are all absent from the game.

On some tracks in the game, this can be used to your advantage. On long sweepers with a solid wall on the outside of the corner, you can literally ride the wall at a much higher speed than if you slowed down to take a proper line through the corner. While the Protege might survive such treatment, such tactics are generally frowned upon at actual racetracks.

The Main Limitation: Visibility

Visibility is the primary handicap of any driving simulator. There are 2 issues: 1) details of the track and reference points, and 2) side visibility and the inability to look through a corner.

Details of the Track and Reference Points
GT4 operates at the relatively low resolution of a standard TV. While this is fine for watching a movie, it simply lacks the detail you get by looking out of an actual window of an actual racecar at the actual pavement wizzing by you. A discoloration the size of your fist (or less!) may be a crucial reference point on the track for you on a real track. In GT4, the game doesn’t even display this level of detail. The only real reference points you have are usually off the track along the walls. But these too are very difficult to use, again because of the lack of detail and because you can’t look out the side windows to get a better view at them (see below). In the game, these problems are compounded further the faster you go. With even moderately fast cars it is very easy to have a reference point accuracy of +/-200 feet or more, depending on the corner in question. That is HUGE, especially at 200 mph!

I’ve actually found the best reference point (in GT4) is the flashing shift number that appears above the tach before you enter a corner. The gear it tells you to use may not always be correct, but the number usually first appears at roughly the same point every lap. Simply get a “feel” for how long to wait to hit the brakes after seeing the number. This is hardly as precise as an ACTUAL reference point, and by no means a valid technique for a real track. But that is a limitation of the game.

Side Visibility and Looking Through Corners
This is another major visibility problem. You can only see as if you were looking directly ahead through the windshield. And that doesn’t even take into account any extra visibility you’d normally get from moving your head all over the place to see around the A pillar. Your head is welded in place, and thats all you get.

This is a much more serious limitation than you might imagine. Quite a bit of information can be gleaned from looking to the side, through a corner. Even though I tend to look closer in front of me than most people, looking ahead will always be useful in some instances. Slow corners are the worst in the game, as you have to just sit and wait for the straight to come with no way of seeing how much farther it is. If I had a dollar for every time I got on the gas too early in such corners, well, I’d have a lot of dollars right now.

No Fear

Fear in motorsports is a very interesting factor that isn’t given nearly the attention it deserves. Fear determines whether you will tend to under or overdrive your car and your abilities. My greatest concern with any student isn’t their experience or whether they have 800 million horsepower - it is whether they have fear. And watching someone play a driving videogame is a perfect example of why that is.

The best approach on a real track is to SLOWLY work up your speed around a corner to see what your car (and you!) are capable of. You want to work up slowly because if you race right in and discover you are 20mph too hot, you can crash, destroy your car and possibly yourself. In a videogame you just go, “eh,” and try again.

Videogames thus allow you to push yourself in the game more than you might on the racetrack. But it can also make you sloppy and tend to push harder than is proper for a good clean line.

How to Use the Game to Imprive Your Driving

The best way to use the game is to treat it like free, unlimited track time. As we say on the track, seat time is the most important part of getting better. I would recommend sticking with 1 car and 1 track for a while, rather than constantly switching things up. You want to develop a feel for how each car handles and responds. And as mentioned above, you really need to memorize the tracks because your visibility is so limited.

Gran Turismo v Arcade Mode
As I mention above, I treat GT4 like free open track time. I don’t care about progressing through the “game” - the only reason I would care about that is to open up more tracks and cars. My ideal driving simulator would simply have all of the tracks and cars in the games available immediately, without having to complete any prerequisites. Admittedly, I am not the average user in this regard, so I doubt the gaming companies will change this anytime soon.

That said, you do get more or less what I’m looking for in Arcade mode under Time Trials. And additionally, this mode shows yourself from previous fast laps as a ghost. That means you can always see and gauge how you are improving and/or how consistent you are. This feature is HUGE, and cannot be replicated on a real track for obvious reasons.

原文: http://www.pansypatrol.com/the-benefits-and-limitations-of-gran-turismo-and-other-driving-sims/

這文章是基於GT4而寫.

而當中的重點在於擬真賽車遊戲不能模擬G-Force等,對,我還沒有看完,稍後再講...

[lemans]

No Fear

Fear in motorsports is a very interesting factor that isn’t given nearly the attention it deserves. Fear determines whether you will tend to under or overdrive your car and your abilities. My greatest concern with any student isn’t their experience or whether they have 800 million horsepower - it is whether they have fear. And watching someone play a driving videogame is a perfect example of why that is.

The best approach on a real track is to SLOWLY work up your speed around a corner to see what your car (and you!) are capable of. You want to work up slowly because if you race right in and discover you are 20mph too hot, you can crash, destroy your car and possibly yourself. In a videogame you just go, “eh,” and try again.

Videogames thus allow you to push yourself in the game more than you might on the racetrack. But it can also make you sloppy and tend to push harder than is proper for a good clean line.

個人分析#1

他提及了在擬真賽車遊戲中沒有恐懼,這點我同意.

的確,在擬真賽車遊戲中,即使是發生意外,對大家亦沒有影響,而大家亦不需要負甚麼責任,最多只是再開始過;相反,真實賽車在發生意外時,車手除了需要負責外,亦甚至會傷害到自己或他人,所以大家會非常小心.