CAN YOU TELL THIS CAR ISN’T REAL? HDR MAKES ‘GRAN TURISMO 4’ UNBELIEVABLY BELIEVABL

CAN YOU TELL THIS CAR ISN’T REAL? HDR MAKES ‘GRAN TURISMO 4’ UNBELIEVABLY BELIEVABL

Unbelievable wpb   01:02

 

Your TV has been letting you down, racing game fans.

You’ve been using a color format known as standard RGB, and it’s not quite capable of modeling all the colors the human eye is capable of seeing. No matter how closely the developer of the Gran Turismo series, Polyphony Digital, came to rendering the real-life cars that appear in its driving simulator, they were never quite perfect — some colors just were beyond the capabilities of technology.

“Over 10 percent of the cars in the real world that have been included in Gran Turismo in the past were actually outside the color range of the sRGB that TVs were compatible with,” said Gran Turismo Producer Kazunori Yamauchi earlier this month at Sony’s PlayStation Experience.

That’s going to change in 2017’s Gran Turismo Sport, Yamauchi explained during a technical briefing at PlayStation Experience. Today, the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro support High-Dynamic Range (HDR), increasing the range of usable colors in an image, and “wide color gamut,” which increases the number of colors the screen can produce. Combined, these new technologies produce far more realistic graphics, allowing photographers, videographers, and game designers to recreate even conventional images in a whole new light.

More: Sony Playstation 4 Pro Review

The easiest example of how HDR and wide color works is an image of a sunset. On a standard set there are, in general, fewer colors, and less contrast between them. The screen can’t display subtle color and brightness variations very well, and it’s stuck rendering a smaller set of colors. HDR and wide color make it possible to see more subtle variations in color (say in the shades of orange in the sunset), and give the display more color capabilities in general. It’s a lot easier to show than to tell.

In other words: Gran Turismo Sport is going to be even prettier than most players expect.
LEARNING, AND CREATING, A NEW TECHNOLOGY

Yamauchi said Polyphony has been looking to take Gran Turismo Sport into HDR and wide color since the developer started working on the game three years ago. To do that, Polyphony had to capture real-world images in HDR and wide color in order to recreate them. It doesn’t sound that crazy except that, at that time, they were entering unprecedented territory.

“Three years ago when we started developing Gran Turismo Sport, there were actually no HDR images anywhere in the world.”

“The world of HDR is something that most of the world hasn’t stepped into. It’s really uncharted territory.” Yamauchi said. “Three years ago when we started developing Gran Turismo Sport, there were actually no HDR images anywhere in the world.”

But the Polyphony team still needed a way to recreate our world in HDR and wide color, so it set about finding a way to do it.

“In order to make the game compatible with HDR, we had to start by developing a camera that can actually capture the world within HDR format,” he said. “As a result, we ended up developing a camera that has 100 times the dynamic range over a standard digital camera today.”

With the new camera, the team was able to shoot images of cars in conditions that showed them how they wanted Gran Turismo Sport to look. They set about developing the game to get that sort of visual fidelity, and in a big way, Polyphony started to revolutionize television and gaming visuals.

During his presentation, Yamauchi showed images from Gran Turismo Sport of cars from manufacturer McLaren, first in sRGB, and then in wide color and HDR. In sRGB, one paint job appeared more orange, but flipped to the HDR image, it was obviously red. The same was true with deep yellows and oranges. In sRGB, Polyphony had no choice but to flub the actual colors of the cars it was trying to recreate. Yamauchi said the majority of the colors McLaren uses for its cars actually fall outside the sRGB range — with Gran Turismo Sport, Polyphony can finally show them as they really are.

Where HDR really shines is in lighting. Much of Yamauchi’s presentation was dedicated to showing how Gran Turismo Sport handles light in different weather conditions. Dramatic images that use a lot of light and contrast, like sunsets, look gorgeous, but subtler things, like how cars look as they pass through different lighting conditions as they move around a track, are also benefiting from HDR to better approximate what you’d see if you watched a real race.

It’s all about producing a greater range of light intensity, or luminosity. On standard TV sets, the range of luminosity the screen could put out went up to about 100 “nits,” Yamauchi explained — a nit is a unit to measure light intensity. Blu-Ray video and HDR movie theaters, by contrast, are going for a range of about 1,000 nits. The TV used in his presentation was capable of a range of about 1,500 nits.

“In order to make the game compatible with HDR, we had to start by developing a camera that can actually capture the world within HDR format.”

Gran Turismo Sport, Yamauchi said, will support a range of up to 10,000 nits, far beyond what even the upcoming crop of TVs’ capability to handle — Polyphony has to wait for TV tech to catch up.

While the PS4 Pro’s ability to output up to 4K resolution undoubtedly improves the game’s visual fidelity, it’s the realism offered by HDR that seems to make the biggest difference. That said, combining all of these technological capabilities is what creates the best possible picture, and that is only possible on thePS4 Pro.

“As of today, the world of 4K 60-FPS HDR and wide color is something that’s only available on the PS4 Pro,” he said. “It’s something that’s only available to be seen on a game console. So the package media that you’re used to today, the movie theaters and the broadcast media, they’re not going to reach this level for some time to come.”
KEEPING UP WITH PS4 PRO

The good news is that even if you’re not a PS4 Pro owner, you can still tap into some of Gran Turismo Sport’s visual capabilities. HDR and wide color do require new, high-end TV sets to enjoy, but Sony’s update adding HDR support to all PlayStation 4 consoles means that even older PS4s are compatible with the tech. You don’t need a PS4 Pro to enjoy some of the improvements Gran Turismo Sport has to offer, if you’ve got the TV for it.

During the demo, Yamauchi showed a direct comparison between Gran Turismo Sport running on a standard RGB, non-HDR TV, and the game running on a set that supported HDR and wide color. And while there was definitely improvement to be seen, we should point out that the standard version of Gran Turismo Sport is a looker, too.

Still, though, the visual improvements, and all the work that it took to create them, are helping Polyphony reach its overall goal: recreating the real feel of driving.

“What we’ve been doing really hasn’t changed at all since we started with the first Gran Turismo,” Yamauchi said. “For 20 years, we’ve been always aiming toward a single objective, and that was to show beautiful cars, to show beautiful lights, and that objective hasn’t changed since the first Gran Turismo.

“It’s a little bit at a time, but the driving physics has improved over the years, the sounds as well, and the expressions of light have improved. But still, I don’t think we’ve reached the point where we’re able to really represent how fun it is to drive a car yet. But you do get a sense that you are getting much, much closer than we’ve ever been.”

The TV Presenter who got her lost passport back via Twitter

The TV Presenter who got her lost passport back via Twitter

Unbelievable Stories wpb   04:35

Most of us can identify with the inconvenience of losing a passport. So celebrity offspring Peaches Geldof was understandably relieved when she got hers back - via the unlikely route of social networking website Twitter. The 20-year-old's passport fell out of her bag, which meant Peaches faced having to change her travel plans. But a woman found the document as she took a stroll through an East London park with her children. When the mum realised who the passport belonged to, she sent a 'tweet' to Peaches who then sent a courier to collect it. Peaches was resigned to the fact that she would need to apply for a new passport. Then she received a Twitter message from someone telling her that they had found it - she was over the moon. (Source)

The couple who had their house trashed by 150 drunken teenagers that gatecrashed a party announced on Twitter

The couple who had their house trashed by 150 drunken teenagers that gatecrashed a party announced on Twitter

Unbelievable Stories wpb   04:34

A retired couple's home was trashed after 150 drunken teenagers gatecrashed a party advertised on a social networking site. Brian and Glennis McDonald, who were attending a wedding, had given their 15-year-old granddaughter Victoria permission for two friends to stay the night as a treat. They even left her a note saying: 'Bye darling. Have fun with your two friends.' But just hours later, they were called by police and forced to return home to a scene of devastation after the gathering snowballed out of control when details were posted on Twitter. Patio doors were ripped off, televisions and windows smashed, paintings ruined and empty beer bottles strewn across the garden, leaving the elderly couple with a £1,000 repair bill. Bottles of champagne and ornaments were also stolen. The neighbour said Victoria appeared to have been taken by surprise when dozens of teenagers began to arrive at the house at around 9pm. (Source)

The Tenant who faces $50k lawsuit for defamation in Twitter to her 17 followers

The Tenant who faces $50k lawsuit for defamation in Twitter to her 17 followers

Unbelievable Stories wpb   04:33

A tenant who used Twitter to complain about her 'mouldy' flat is facing a $50,000 lawsuit. Amanda Bonnen was accused of defaming her landlords after updating her online status to say ‘Who said sleeping in a mouldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it's okay.' The Chicago company says Bonnen's flat was one of several affected by an overnight leak in March when a contractor was making roof repairs. Jeff Michael, general counsel for Horizon, said Bonnen moved out on June 30 of her own accord. The company claims her tweet was published 'throughout the world' and severely damaged its good name. Mr Michael told the Sun-Times: 'The statements are obviously false and it's our intention to prove that.' Bonnen was not contacted before the lawsuit was launched or asked to remove the message. Although Bonnen's account was set to public, meaning any Twitter user could see it, a Google-cache of the now deactivated account shows she had just 17 followers, so it doesn't look like the message could have travelled far. (Source)

The man who was blasted to death with a shotgun after argument via Twitter with friend

The man who was blasted to death with a shotgun after argument via Twitter with friend

Unbelievable Stories wpb   04:33

Police in the U.S. are investigating what they believe is the first murder carried out because of messages posted on Twitter. Detectives in New York say a deadly confrontation between two friends came about after angry comments were posted on the micro-blogging site. According to police, Blake, 22, and Dancy, also 22, had spent weeks sending each other angry messages via their Twitter accounts. The pair, childhood friends, lived on the same floor of a high-rise block of flats but had fallen out over a girl. The pair had started to send each other spiteful messages on their Twitter accounts. Other friends joined in the row by adding to the tweets. Hours before Dancy was blasted in the neck with a shotgun, Blake sent his victim a tweet which said: 'N------s is looking for u don't think I won't give up ya address for a price betta chill asap!' Dancy, who was training as a nurse, died after being shot as he left his home in Harlem, New York on December 1st. The murder weapon was later found abandoned in Central Park along with a spent shell. Two days after the killing Blake took to his Twitter account to post the message: 'R.I.P. Kwame'. (Source)

The groom who stopped his wedding ceremony to tweet about it at the altar

The groom who stopped his wedding ceremony to tweet about it at the altar

Unbelievable Stories wpb   04:31

What is the groom supposed to do after the vows of love and obey? Kiss the bride? Hmmm, not in a geek's wedding. Before kissing the bride, Dana Hanna, a Software Developer took his cellphone and updated his relationship status on Facebook and Twitter. As a stunned congregation looked on Dana he told cyberspace 'Standing at the altar with @TracyPage where just a second ago, she became my wife! Gotta go, time to kiss my bride.' He also handed one over to his new wife to do the same. We appreciate you keep us informed Dana, but I hope you don't do the same at every stage of your honeymoon… We get the picture anyway.(Source)