The upcoming driving simulator digitize driving data from specially-equipped cars.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. After reading through the Gran Turismo driving manual as a young adult, I thought I knew how to perform weight transfers and high-speed cornering in the real world. Turns out, my beatup Astro van didn’t have the handling prowess that my in-game cars did. Yet, I somehow survived into adulthood with both my life and insurance premiums intact. Today, those lines are blurring, as Gran Turismo 6 can import performance and driving data from the real world into the game, as demonstrated in a new video.
The clip shows a side-by-side comparison of a real-life run down the “Streets of Willow Springs” course at Willow Springs International Raceway, showing how accurately it duplicates real drivers. A “CAN-Gateway ECU” might sound like a Star Trek MacGuffin, but it’s actually a handy gizmo that records all kinds of driving data. Cars equipped with the special device can download information about position, speed, RPM, steering angle and more to a USB drive. Gran Turismo can then use that data to generate a virtual driver that you can race against in-game.
That’s pretty cool if you can get the right gear and have a local track that’s in the game. Even if it’s not, you can still map it yourself using GPS data from your phone and the upcoming Course Maker app. It’s a good thing that Gran Turismo is a sensible driving game; one can only imagine what would happen if Burnout did this.
Gran Turismo 6 gets the green light on December 6th on the Playstation 3.
Source: Playstation on YouTube via Gran Turismo
