Gran Turismo Creator On VR: "Once We Get To Dual 8Ks, It'll Be Pretty Nice"

Developer Polyphony Digital is currently working on PlayStation VR support for Gran Turismo Sport, but it's going to take a bit longer to get to an acceptable level of visual fidelity than the studio originally hoped for. According to creator Kazunori Yamauchi, that's because VR headsets are simply not powerful enough yet.

In an interview with GamesBeat, Yamauchi expressed disappointment in the current state of virtual reality hardware, saying that he had expected the tech to have come a lot further by this point in time. "The first head-mounted display was created before I was born, around 1962," he said. "I've been waiting for more than 50 years. After all that time, I'd hoped it would be something more incredible than it is today."

He explained, however, that Polyphony has worked hard to make the game run well on PSVR and that he thinks it'll still end up being a good product. The team hopes to get even closer to photorealism with the VR version, just like it is known for doing with the normal console Gran Turismo games, but it'll take more time to squeeze enough power out of the system. "We've done the best we can with what's currently available," he stated.

Yamauchi expects that it'll take much more power to get to the point where virtual reality is on par, graphically, with the two-dimensional versions of games. "Once we get to dual 8K [screens], it'll be pretty nice," he estimated. "Dual 8K and about a 200Hz refresh rate. Maybe in another 50 years?" Currently, the PSVR's screens are only 960x1080 per eye, with a 120Hz refresh rate.

You can read much more from the interview with Yamauchi over at GamesBeat.

Gran Turismo Sport launches on PS4 this fall, and will support 4K and 60 frames per second on the PS4 Pro. Be sure to check out GameSpot's interview with Yamauchi from E3 2017, as well.