Almost All of Gran Turismo 7 Will be Playable in VR
Playstation VR support has been hotly anticipated for Gran Turismo 7, and Polyphony Digital has finally confirmed that most, not all, of GT7 will be supported by PSVR2.
Virtual reality gaming, though it’s had something of a slow start when it comes to gorgeous, cinematic games, is a step into the future. It especially works for sim racing, adding an almost final level of immersion to virtual driving. VR has been widely supported for PC-based games for years; finally, Gran Turismo 7 is taking advantage of Sony’s next-gen VR hardware in PlayStation VR2.
Announced by series director Kazunori Yamauchi in a post on the PlayStation blog, GT7 will come with almost total support for PSVR2. Emphasis on almost. The initial announcement that GT7 will support the new system was only two weeks ago, promising to be a day-one title for the anticipated next-generation VR headset. At the time, it was unclear how much of the game would support VR.
It is now confirmed that nearly any race is supported in VR. Gran Turismo Sport supported the first-generation PSVR, but was incredibly limited and restricted to races with a single AI car. The primary bottleneck was hardware capacity. VR is incredibly demanding on any system and requires optimization and raw power to run, which has made its integration into consoles difficult. Gaming consoles run incredibly optimized systems that make the most of their hardware without much room to spare. Compared to the average gaming PC, there isn’t much left to find.
Yamauchi confirmed that nearly all races, including online races, will be supported by PSVR2. The only omission is 2-player split screen, which would be useless in a gaming system attached to your face. Either way, this is about a complete of an implementation as the fans (like me) could hope for.
The update that will make GT7 compatible with PSVR2 will be free, but the VR headset will still be $600. In the grand scheme of VR, it’s a fairly reasonable price, even considering the cost of a PlayStation 5. It certainly costs less than a high-end PC VR headset with the PC to match it. This is a major step up for console sim racing, and all that’s left to see is if the VR integration will be good. That will make-or-break VR for fans of GT7.
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