Carmakers Warm To "Damage Modeling" In Games

The final hurdle of realism may be crossed in Gran Turismo sooner than expected. Kazanori Yamauchi, the creator of the famed series, recently said:

We've had a lot of discussions with the manufacturers and although at the beginning they hated the idea of deformation, now they're slowly coming around to it. We've still got a few to convince, but we will. Expect deformation in the very near future: very, very soon.

And by "deformation" he of course means damage modeling, i.e. enabling the cars to show the evidence of wrecks, rollovers, and collisions. Believe it or not, the likes of Porsche and Ferrari aren't too keen on amateur drivers smashing the hell out of their glorious automobiles, even in a virtual realm.

Gran Turismo is one of the more realistic driving simulators available, but without damage modeling, it's still simply a video game. If its developers hope to get it to that next level, they need to convince manufacturers to greenlight the results of inadvertent mayhem. Even though it pains me to see amazing cars smashed to hell by our gaming-deprived editors, there is something thrilling about knowing my driving fuck ups have real consequences. [Kotaku] (Image)

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