When Gran Turismo Sport was announced and the hype train had well and truly left the pits, a promotional video surfaced that featured Martin Brundle and son Alex Brundle talking about how life like the game was. Using Brands Hatch as an example and regaling us of stories of both playing the older Gran Turismo games as Alex was growing up, the pair raced. Then Alex tried the game in VR. Here’s what he said.
“You really get the sensation of being inside the car. I now realise that’s one of the key differences between a simulation where the camera is in a static position. Having the freedom to look wherever I want, it’s something you never do when the camera is static, and it’s something you always do in a race car in reality.”
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The second problem is that you might find that you end up, initially, being quicker out of VR because of track familiarity. When I did my initial testing on this, I was quicker in VR. But, once I came out of VR and tried again, I was quicker still because I knew the track better having seen it in virtual reality. I knew where the kerbs were even though I was in a static camera view.
Which is probably a good time to explain why I find that racing in VR is quicker. It echoes the sentiment of Alex Brundle in that you can see a whole lot more. You can turn your head and see where the apex of a corner is and aim for it, hit it as cleanly as possible and get out with excellent speed.
That kind of track knowledge that you gain from seeing so much more does carry through to when you are no longer using VR, which is why in my testing I was faster after I had done my VR testing. Of course going back to VR I was even faster still but it improved my non-VR racing.
But for the best test in how much quicker you are, I’ve found that Dirt Rally shows the most improvement, as long as you can stomach it. The freedom of head movement really allows for you to look where the cuts are, look how close the big stones really are and look ahead to see what your co-driver is actually calling. Especially when you are in a car like a Renault 5 where the smaller size of the car makes you inch ever closer to danger.
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Source: Drivetribe