Gran Turismo 4
Developer(s): Polyphony Digital
Publisher(s): SCEI (JP, AS, KO), SCEA (US), SCEE (EU)
Genre: Racing
Wikipedia: Link
Game review links: Metacritic: 89/100
Game description: With authentic cars, courses, and car physics, Gran Turismo 4 adds an even more realistic racing simulation to the series. The characteristics of each car take into account weight, speed, friction, and more to deliver realistic handling. Test-drive new vehicles in courses located in various sites, such as Nurburgring Nordschleife, New York City, the Grand Canyon, and Tsukuba Circuit. Along with Career mode, Gran Turismo 4 highlights the new GT Photo mode and GT Online mode, which lets players around the world compete over the Internet.
Gran Turismo 4 is the fourth game in the Gran Turismo series. It features over 700 vehicles, 51 tracks, B-Spec mode, Photo mode, and 1080i support. This game was released on February 22, 2005 to critical acclaim.
Test configurations on Windows:
Environment | Configurations | Comments | Tester | ||||
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Region | OS | CPU/GPU | Revision | Graphics | Sound/Pad | ||
NTSC-U | Windows 7 |
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0.9.9 r4878 | GSdx r4873 |
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Hacks: EE CycleRate (3), INTC, Wait Idle Loop, mVU flag hack. See Hacks and Performance | Machina |
NTSC-U | Windows |
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1.1.0 r5480 | GSdx 5442 SSE41 |
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Runs near full speed. | |
NTSC-J | Windows |
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1.1.svn5832 | GSdx |
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USA v02.20(10/02/2006), Can be hard for CPU and GPU. Can have some glitches in hardware mode in the races, but software mode is fine. | |
NTSC-U | Windows 7 64-Bit |
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1.2.1 r5875 | GSdx 0.1.16 r5875
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Game runs fine at 5X native resolution. Some slight hiccups/slowdown in the menus. One weird glitch I saw was on dirt tracks, the plumes of dirt seem to be transparent and can be seen through hills and can be seen coming out of the middle of the back of the car. Still use recommended hacks for maximum performance. Bios v 2.0 was used. | Zrooney |
NTSC-U | Windows 7 |
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1.2.1 2014-02-02 | GSdx 0.1.16
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Great FPS at the menus, bad FPS at races or showing cars. Slow-Motion FPS at the races, almost unplayable. (EE 3, VU 0, INTC, Wait Loop and MVU) | Berto |
PAL | Windows 7 |
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1.2.1.r5873 | GSdx32 sse4 r5875 |
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MVU and MTVU enabled, +60fps in menus but goes below 50-45 in race or licence tests, with Speedhacks (EE cyc. 2 & VU CS 1) the FPS are pretty stable, 55-60 FPS in race with multiple cars. | KX64 |
NTSC-U | Windows 8.1 |
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1.3.0 | GSdx |
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Extra rendering threads set to 2, Direct3D11 (Software), (EE 1, VU 1, INTC, Wait Loop, MVU and MTVU) ran with 60 FPS | Apihl1000 |
PAL | Windows |
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PCSX2 1.3.1-20150618094926 | GSdx32-SSE4.1 |
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Runs above full speed. Needed to set EE clamping mode manually to full so the text that says the time between you and the first car to display correctly. Looks like this needs to be added to game fixes GameIndex.dbf so it can auto change the EE clamping mode to full. Some rare random slowdowns that happened randomly in the races, no specific reason but in last less than a second. Other than that the game works perfect. | |
NTSC-U | Windows 7 |
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1.4.0 | GSdx32-SSE4 |
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D3D11 hardware, MSAA 2x, FXAA enabled, AF 4x, Full CRC Hack, native resolution 4x, all other options default, game runs smoother than on the real PS2, besides problem with licence test crashing everything works perfectly, I did notice licence test uses way more RAM than actual races, and I crashed when I ran out of RAM in certain tests. Other than that it's perfect. (at 4x native with MSAA and AF enabled, I'm peaking at 10+ GB of RAM usage) | Infini |
PAL | Windows XP SP3 |
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1.5.0-dev-20160126 | GSDx32-SSE4 20160126 | SPU2-X 20150912 | On some menus, a minor slowdown occurs (ca. 2–4 FPS). On normal racetracks, FPS stays around 50 (PAL), but on more graphically-intensive tracks like street circuits, slowdowns can be slight (ca. 5–18 FPS) on Single Race / 2-players mode. On Time-trials, minor slowdown may occur on tracks like that (ca. 2–5 FPS). On Software-mode: Usually about 10 FPS slower than hardware-rendering (with 4 threads). Settings: EE/IOP: Clamping Mode=Full / VUI: Clamping Mode=Extra. Speedhacks: EE=0 & VU=2, INTC, Idle loop, mVU & MTVU ON. Graphics: Interlacing=Bob tff, Resolution: 2x Native (Required for smooth replays, otherwise Custom resolution: 1920x1080 doesn't give any extra slowdowns.), 8-bit=ON, BF=Forced, CRC=Full, HW-hacks: ON (Half-pixel Offset, & Align Sprite ON), Logarithmic Z=ON, AC=ON, Shader: Shade Boost: 40, 100 & 65. Other bugs: a red flash occur at every race start, but shade boost tones it down. Lower edges on menus may have white lines. | Titus03 |
Environment | Configurations | Comments | Tester | ||||
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Region | OS | CPU/GPU | Revision | Graphics | Sound/Pad | ||
? | Kubuntu 12.04 64 bit |
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1.0.0 | GSdx 0.1.16 |
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Only problem is that in a race it is too slow (20-30 fps) and the game doesn't work with frame skipping. With hardware video acceleration enabled in GSdx, it is twice as slow. The problem seems to be the CPU. | T-dome |
NTSC-U | Fedora 22 64 bit |
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1.4.0 | GSdx 1.0.0 |
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50% speed with hardware accel. 25% with software. playable otherwise. | kerpal |
Hacks and Performance
- The MTVU hack may increase speed in quad core CPUs. This varies in dual-core CPUs as it may increase depending on the race but may cause slowdown in others.
- Other hacks can cause crashes or the game won't boot. This game requires a ton of personal tinkering to get it to run decent.This game also has very, VERY high system requirements (expect to use at least an i5 or an FX 6300 above). Don't expect a smooth or stable game. Slowdowns are heavy and very prevalent. It mostly depends on track, the lighting and the amount of cars on screen.
- EE Cyclerate can give speedup during the races, but may also cause slowdown to the track-selection screens where videos are shown at the background.
- The "Allow 8-bit textures" in GSdx may help with speed a bit more and maybe reduce the VRAM slowdowns.
- If you are using software mode and have 4 cores or more (this includes hyperthreaded cores, as PCSX2 takes advantage of this), set the "extra software threads" to the amount of total threads in your CPU minus one (4 cores, threads to "3", 8 cores, threads to "7", etc.). This can provide a noticeable speedup in any game running in software mode, but beware that only native resolution can be used.
Trivia
- Original names: グランツーリスモ4 (SCPS-17001) & (SCPS-19252), 跑車浪漫旅4 (SCAJ-30007), 跑车浪漫旅 4 (SCCS-60002), 그란 투리스모 4 (SCKA-30001)
Known Issues
Heavy crashing
- Status: Active
- Type: Severe
- Description: Crashes pretty often. This happens because of spikes in VRAM use.
- Workaround:
- In recent PCSX2 GIT revisions as of May 7th, 2016, VRAM spikes have been greatly reduced.
- If you get lots of crashes during license tests use a lower internal resolution in GSdx. Running the game with native resolution seems to help as well.
- (Not available in OGL HW Renderer) In GSdx, Hardware AA can cause the game to crash a lot. Set the AA level to 0.
- In Windows XP, even in native resolution, you may get instant crashes when starting races if you do not have enough VRAM. Using a custom resolution lower than 512x512 seems to help.
Photo mode is broken
- Status: Fixed
- Type: Major
- Description: In hardware modes, garbage replaces the area in which the photo is displayed.
- Workaround: Update to the latest nightly version of PCSX2.
Garbage all over screen in races
- Status: Fixed
- Type: Major
- Description: Happens when using color/brightness options other than 0.
- Workaround: Update to the latest nightly version of PCSX2.
- Type: Not an issue
- Description: The first letter of a sentence is missing in menus.
- Workaround: Set VU Clamping Mode to "Extra" to fix.
Demo races do not work
- Type: Not an issue
- Description: Demonstrations return back to the menu as soon as they start.
- Workaround: Demonstration races will only work with EE clamping set to full.
Game doesn't load past copyright screen.
- Status: Fixed
- Type: Severe
- Description: Due to dual layer issues the game might not load past the copyright screen.
- Workaround: Update to the latest nightly version of PCSX2.
Improper interlacing
- Type: Not an issue
- Description: The interlacing in-game is improper and "shakes".
- Workaround: Update to the latest nightly version of PCSX2.
The gallery
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Gran Turismo 4 (SCES 51719)
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Gran Turismo 4 (SCPS 17001)
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Gran Turismo 4 (SCAJ 30007)