[quote="DGFone"]Current gen consoles have much stricter hardware limitations, so you see things like a lack of damage models in even "realistic" sims like Gran Turismo.[/quote]
Gran Turismo does have damage modeling, it's just not done very well.
And it's not because the PS3 can't handle it, either.
It's because modeling damage for over a thousand cars is downright absurd. You've made 3D models and animations before, so you should know that.
Also, the creator of the Gran Turismo series wrecked his car once.
[quote]however, the most interesting thing about this video comes from Kazunori Yamauchi, telling a story of an R32 Skyline purchased after college that “passed away” after having been involved in a high speed accident.
Now, more so than ever, it’s becoming clearer why Kazunori was so hesitant to introduce damage into the series.[/quote]
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[quote] But unlike flying a plane, when you race a car, you are quite expected to crash, and knowing what happens when you do crash is vital.[/quote]
The only thing that is not actually modeled in GT5 is the damage. Some of the less serious crashes, like flips and roll-overs, are not modeled all that well, but I digress. If you're concerned about the crashes, you're not concerned about the racing.
I'm concerned about the racing.
I mean, you should see some of the races we have on GT5. It's absolutely amazing.
The only thing that isn't realistic is the crashes, and we have that turned off anyway. Why? Because in a lobby of 10 people, at least 5 of them are idiots. With damage, the 5 idiots screw up on the first lap and eliminate the entire field. What fun is that?
[quote]So like Regulus said, GT6 aims to be as realistic as possible, but all the previous games... not really. And what hurt them the most was the simple fact that they were made for boxes with great specs such as 512 MB of RAM. (RAM is required for things like hit detection).[/quote]
All of the games have been very realistic for their time, with the notable exception of damage.
I know the PS3's RAM is subpar, and I know other developers that complained about that. But, think about this logically:
Gran Turismo is not X plane.
Gran Turismo does not need to draw 50 square miles of terrain every second.
Gran Turismo does not need to draw thousands of buildings, cars, roads, boats, and trees.
Gran Turismo does not need to draw clouds.
Gran Turismo needs to draw one track, that's no bigger than 12 miles long.
Gran Turismo needs to draw, at most, 16 cars in detail.
In Gran Turismo, the environments outside of the track are all sprites.
Gran Turismo runs in 1080p HD. Even Gran Turismo 4, on the PS2, was able to output HD.
Considering that, Gran Turismo obviously puts much of those resources into lighting. Gran Turismo has quite an impressive light and shader model. This is actually in-game; notice the driver's helmet says Gran Turismo.

All Gran Turismo needs to simulate in detail are the forces between the wheels and the road. Guess what? It does that almost flawlessly.
[quote]
So don't expect miracles out of GT6, since it's on the PS3 and not the PS4 as I thought. RAM is RAM. You can't pull it out of nowhere.[/quote]
Gran Turismo doesn't need all the ram in the world, because it isn't generating a model of all the world.
[quote]Remember all the promises GT5 made? How many of them came out true?[/quote]
All of them, actually.
[quote]With PCs, simulators are part of the package. But consoles are the direct descendants of the arcade: people get them to have fun, and not to get nerdy and learn things.[/quote]
That's hardly even a trend. How many PC games are the same arcade-style games as console games? Probably upwards of 90% of the market.
You can have simulators on consoles, and you can have arcade games on PCs. To say otherwise is quite foolish.
The only driving simulators I can think of for PC are iRacing and rFactor. I've tried both before and I was as impressed as a hippo with a hernia. rFactor feels just as real, but looks much worse than GT5 and has no damage model. iRacing is still stuck in 2003; in fact, its the same game as Nascar 2003 for PC, only rebranded like a new game of CoD.