I’m still playing Gran Turismo occasionally. I’m slowly working through the challenges and completing racing tasks. It’s still great fun and a really nice way to shut the brain off.
How It’s Going – Gran Turismo
I have currently driven a total of 8395.10 miles. I think my favourite statistic is that my average fuel consumption is 35 litres per 100km driven. The real car I drive can do 2 litres per 100km. I suspect that in the future, driving virtual cars will be the only way to enjoy the noise and feel of these vehicles. They should be banned already. Oh, by the way, electric cars aren’t the answer either – they won’t save the planet, they will only save the car industry.
I’ve been playing Stray on the PS5 recently with guidance from Legend and it’s been really enjoyable. A Lovely story with a completely believable world. The detail was amazing and I’m looking forward to exploring the game some more, there are a few trophies I’d like to get.
It’s been a while since my last update to the list of airports and countries I have visited as part of my around the world flight in short hops. I can now confirm that I have reached all seven continents and am about to start making my way back home to the UK. There are some other communications from the first part to the second. So, here are the places I have been since the last communication and since updating X-Plane a short while ago.
Klyuchi Air Base Airport, Russia Adak Airport, Alaska, U.S.A. Lihue Airport, Hawaii, U.S.A. Pacific Missile Range Facility, Hawaii, U.S.A. Wheeler Army Airfield, Hawaii, U.S.A. Kahului Airport, Hawaii, U.S.A. San Francisco International Airport, California, U.S.A. Monterey Regional Airport, California, U.S.A. San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport, California, U.S.A. Santa Barbara Airport, California, U.S.A. Naval Outlying Landing Field Imperial Beach, California, U.S.A. San Felipe International Airport, Mexico Loreto International Airport, Mexico La Paz International Airport- Manuel Márquez de León, Mexico Los Cabos International Airport, Mexico Mazatlán International Airport, Mexico Tepic International Airport, Mexico Lázaro Cárdenas Airport, Mexico Chilpancingo National Airport, Mexico Puerto Escondido International Airport, Mexico Commercial Cd Ixtepec Airport, Mexico Ángel Albino Corzo International Airport, Mexico Toncontín Airport, Honduras Juan Santamaría International Airport, Costa Rica Enrique Malek International Airport (DAV), Panama Ruben Cantu Airport, Panama Tocumen International Airport, Panama Enrique Adolfo Jiménez International Airport (ONX), Panama Airport Antonio Roldan Betancur, Colombia Olaya Herrera Airport, Colombia Aeropuerto Antonio Narino, Colombia Aeropuerto Mariscal La Mar, Ecuador FAP Captain José Abelardo Quiñones González International Airport, Peru Jorge Chavez International Airport, Peru Aerodromo Maria Reiche, Peru Juan Simons Vela Airport, Peru Juan Mendoza Airport, Bolivia Diego Aracena International Airport, Chile San Pedro de Atacama Aerodrome SCPE, Chile Las Breas Airport, Chile Aeropuerto de Fiambalá, Chile Aeropuerto Internacional Domingo Faustino Sarmiento – San Juan, Argentina Santo Domingo Airfield, Chile Mocha Island airport, Chile Melinka Airport, Chile Caleta Blanco Airport, Chile Drummond Twins International Airport, Chile Porvenir Airport, Chile Almirante Schroeders Airport, Chile Ushuaia Airport (USH), Argentina Guardiamarina Zanartu Airport, Chile – moved to X-Plane 12 O’Higgins Skiway, Antarctica RAF Mount Pleasant, Falkland Islands, UK
Boeing 737-800 Antarctic Ocean
So, that’s all the continents completed. Now to head up the east coast of South America, North America and then home to good old Great Britain – not so great these days!
On Friday I was chatting to the Legend and I said I wouldn’t buy X-Plane 12 because XP 11 is pretty good and most of my payware might not transfer over. Well, it took all of about 12 hours to change my mind and buy X-Plane 12 even though it’s the development product. It took a while to download because I got the scenery for the whole world – why wouldn’t you!
I had to set up the joystick and configure the keys so they work as I like. This didn’t take a massive amount of time but it’s frustrating when all you want to do is fly around and see the world.
Citation X in the Andes
The scenery is amazing. I have turned most graphics settings up to maximum and this works well with my RTX graphics card. I’m getting >20fps which for a flight simulator, especially X-Plane, is pretty darn good. Also, using the taskmaster I can see that the GPU is being used at around 90% and this pleases me. It’s worth having something you’ve paid for working as it should.
Citation X in the Andes
I’ve added in some of my custom scenery and it seems to be working well. So, I have my airport in Keswick, which doesn’t exist in reality but it does mean I’m in the Lake District immediately and can fly around and bomb shit.
F-14D in the Lake District
Now all I have to do is continue my flight around the world and get back to the UK so I can attempt to learn more. My payware aircraft from XP11 kinda work. I’ve tried the T-7 and as long as I keep the throttle high enough it seems to work ok. If I drop the throttle to idle the engine dies and that’s a touch embarrassing.
Citation X in the Andes
I’m somewhere in Chile at the moment and I’m heading to an airport on Antarctica. I have no idea what will exist when I get there and I’m only doing it so I can say I’ve “been” to every continent in my around the world flight. Here’s to many more hours of fun.
I’ve written here about my current Flight Sim challenge which is to fly around the world in short stages. Each leg is somewhere from 50 miles to 2000 miles, sometimes you have to fly over the Pacific and there isn’t a load of airports there. I’m currently in Peru and my previous journey had me landing at Aerodromo Maria Reiche in Nasca. While heading there I flew over the Nazca Lines and so I decided to download a scenery pack and go back and see what it looks like. I didn’t want to zoom over at 500 knots so decided to take a Grumman Goose out for a trip. As I’m heading to Lake Titicaca next I might make that trip in the Goose and land on the lake. It’s not very fast so I’ll have to see how much time I have. I might take the T7 to closer to the lake and then swap.
I’m still playing Gran Turismo 7 as it’s most likely the only game I will be able to get a Platinum trophy. There’s quite a bit of work to do, but I’m not in a rush. I have plenty of time. I just enjoy playing the game. I know there’s been annoyance from players because of lots of the internal economic market but I don’t really care about that. I’m happy to just keep playing.
I don’t currently spend huge amounts of time online racing as other people can be terrible and it’s hard t get the balance right. I’m happy to nudge an AI car now and then but it’s different when it’s another person. This is not something most people think about it would appear given how many times I’ve been knocked off. Anyway, I recently did some qualification laps and I was surprised that I claimed Pole Position. Not entirely sure how that happened and I don’t know how Polyphony allocate people to races to it could be entirely random. Anyway, I got Pole. I also won the race and got fastest lap. This was the first time this had happened for me and I was super proud.
I’m still flying around the world in X-Plane. There are a few very boring communications about this within this site. This communication is just to have my recent Avro Vulcan landing published somewhere other than my YouTube channel. I think most of my landings in that airplane had been “less than satisfactory” but this one went ok. I’m still going to keep trying. I’m starting to vary the aircraft a little to see how they are different and to stave off the boredom of another flight sitting at 35,000ft for half an hour.
I’m still playing on the PS5. Recently I’ve been messing around in Minecraft and organising some things in that game within a new world – expect some videos at some point. The first thing I build, once the resources are ready, is a kelp farm with XP generator. This is handy for enchanting equipment and fixing equipment, anything where you need plenty of XP. I’m also still working my way through Gran Turismo. I reckon I’ll be able to get my first Platinum trophy on a Playstation Game within a year. I’m nearly there, just have to take part in 100 online races and 100 time trials. This will take time. Oh, and I need to buy three of the most expensive cars. Anyway, there’s no rush.
In the meantime I’ve been working my way through the circuit experience challenges. You have to complete sectors of each circuit within certain time targets and then the final challenge is a complete lap. Sometimes I smash this easily and within a few goes. Sometimes it takes a little longer. I don’t mind it taking longer, I get a better sense of achievement when I do get a Gold lap in.
Goodness, did I just take 122 miles of Laguna Seca to get a gold? Yes I did. #GranTurismo7
I reckon the 122 miles I did of Laguna Seca is tiny in comparison with the distance I did around Spa to get the I-10 licence gold. But I’ve got the dedication to keep going in this game even with all the frustrations.
I’ve recently found the 4k screen recording option within the PS5 for capturing clips of play. I only really capture stuff that I’m proud of and normally this will be a replay of a decent lap or race that I’ve saved. I can’t imagine anything worse than watching actual gameplay! Can you imagine seeing me crash fifty times in different places on a lap as I build up to a complete Gold medal win? Here is a 4k video I took of my gold lap around the Dragon Trail Seaside Circuit as part of the circuit experience. It took a while, mostly because of the walls of death and not being allowed to scrape the barriers!
Along with this here’s my lap around Deep Forest in the circuit experience. I got gold but it took some time to completely hook up a decent lap in every sector!
I spent some time racing around the gorgeous circuit of Spa-Francorchamps. I was slightly bothered about the challenge being made in a Porsche but it turns out this particular car was very well behaved. This will be a 4k video [when processed] which I recorded and uploaded. My god, it looks amazing.
While I was watching the replay I noticed the amazing graphics of the brakes getting hot and decided to take a photograph. This was taken at the end of the long straight after Eau Rouge.
Heavy Braking at Spa Francorchamps
When I played this session it was far more satisfying than some recent gameplay. I’ve been attempting some races that I’ve actually struggled in! I also really love the dynamic weather but it’s a bit irritating to not know at the start of a thirty minute race what weather might be affecting you about fifteen minutes in! I will persist and get better.
I’ve been playing a lot of Gran Turismo 7 because it’s fun and looks nice. There’s a photo mode which I mess around with now and then but it’s not really why I play the game. You can take a car and place it somewhere in the world where GT7 people have got high res images of certain locations. Then you can pretty much adjust every aspect of the car, position, lighting and camera details until you get the photograph you want. I then screen shot the best ones and we are at a stage in device connectivity that these media files now appear on my phone in the PS app. I quite like how it all links up. This makes it quite a bit easier for me to save the pictures rather than using a USB memory stick or sharing to Twitter and then downloading that file.
German In Germany
This image was set up and taken quickly for a bronze trophy within the game. You have to photograph a BMW Gr3 car at the Nürburgring. Fortunately I had won a BMW Gr3 car for completing some challenge or other so I already had that vehicle. The other photograph trophy is an Audi R18 at Le Mans and I’ve got to save up to buy that particular car as it’s three million credits in game and I only have about 1.2 million at the moment. The time will come though. In a short while I’m going to work on the Dirt Track trophy so look out for that tweet.
Bora Horza Gobuchul Racing Form
This is my car at the Nürburgring, I own a grey Prius like the one on the photograph except mine doesn’t have a body kit fitted to it, or a wing. While you can’t see the details in this photograph I have modified the car body as far as I can and reduced the weight of the vehicle by taking out everything that’s not needed. The engine has been tuned to a high degree and the suspension and brakes have been uprated. I’ve install some super sticky racing tyres and added a few racing details for fun. I think I’ll take a few more photographs of this car with a standard Prius next to it so the details stand out a little more.
I still don’t have the real Bora Horza Gobuchul because, oddly enough, the parts that are needed to replace the stolen parts are in high demand because too many of the catalytic converters are being stolen. I probably could get a decent one from eBay, and it might even be the one from my car, but it’s with the garage people right now and I’ll leave it there. Meanwhile I have an FR branded Ibiza which you might think was a little hot hatch but it most definitely not. I’ve counted the cylinders and I got to THREE before I ran out of cylinders to count.
Today was the day I managed to complete all Gold in the Gran Turismo 7 Licence section of the game. I had been struggling with the final test which was a drying lap around Spa in some crazy-assed Porsche. I struggled so much that I even watched some YouTube videos about completing the lap. I spent around 300km yesterday going around Spa and in that time I think I managed to complete about THREE laps. I constantly went off track or crashed. Today I spent another few hours working on this. The idea being that the track settles in my brain over the night time and I get better each day. I’m not sure I got better because it took another 395km to get a lap completed within the Gold time. I did find that I was getting better at Eau Rouge and was generally coming off in the later part of the lap more and more so I knew I was getting better and it was only a matter of time before I smashed it!
It doesn’t look much, the video. But trust me. It took a fuckton of effort to get to that point. If you touch the wet line you are fucked. If you touch a kerb you are fucked. If you accelerate too much in some corners you are fucked. Basically you are pretty much fucked at every stage of this track. You need to pull off a perfect lap and also make sure you don’t crash on the last few corners which you only see a few times because you spend the rest of the time in the chuffing barrier.
Here’s a map of Spa and here’s my list of troublesome corners in this test:
La Source
Eau Rouge
Radillon
Les Combes
Malmedy
Bruxelles
Double Gauche
Las Fagnes
Paul Frere
Blanchimont
Chicane
That’s right people, pretty much every shitting corner caused me problems and I crashed regularly at every single one [except Kemmel]. Obviously I crashed most at La Source because once you’ve crashed there you can’t crash anywhere else around the circuit.
I’m clearly still playing Gran Turismo 7. I have the PS5 version and I have to say it looks absolutely amazing. The lighting is fantastic. I’m enjoying the game but it is quite challenging and I’ve struggled at a couple of the licence tests and also some of the circuit experiences.
Goodness, did I just take 122 miles of Laguna Seca to get a gold? Yes I did. #GranTurismo7
I took quite a while to complete the Brands Hatch circuit experience mostly because it was in a Radical and they are a touch twitchy as you head around the track. I got there but it took about an hour. I’m currently on about two hours of work on the final licence test. I’ve passed at the silver level but I really want a gold. That would mean I have every licence at gold level and I would consider that an excellent achievement. The test is around a drying Spa circuit in a 1970 Porsche beast that doesn’t like a single wet patch. You have to really stick to the dry line around the circuit and so you don’t have any room for error. I’ve found it so frustrating I’ve even watched a few people on YouTube to get some tips.
This is not a helpful comment – GT7
Sometimes when you come off the track again at any of the bloody corners – I’ve crashed at every corner multiple times – you get this chap popping up onto your screen telling you to watch the demonstration. At first this seems like good advice but after two hours of trying and seeing this comment multiple times you end up telling that person to “fuck off” whenever they show up. I almost want to scream “leave me alone”. It’s emotionally challenging and I’m not sure how I will feel when I finally shave the last three seconds off my time and get gold.
Air Display while at Spa – GT7
At least the whole game looks amazing. The above clip is from a race at Spa and these aircraft I could only hear while the race started. I couldn’t see them from the car. I had to go to the replay to see them. Such attention to detail is pretty good. I also think the lighting in the “winner” screen is gorgeous and it makes me feel good:
Winning screen – GT7
Right. I have to get on the PS5 to have another day of swearing at the Spa circuit and hating my car.
I was a little upset the other night as I had finished a particular championship on Gran Turismo 7 and I got the ending movie! I wasn’t expecting it so soon. I’m hoping they add more championships over time but there’s still plenty of game content for me to work through. Apparently I have 294 trophies to get through to unlock the platinum trophy. Now, I have never unlocked a platinum so maybe I won’t make it but it is something to aim for. I had the following in a nice email from the Sony people:
I have been quite impressed with the capabilities of the PlayStation 5. The graphics look amazing, the load times are impressively short and the sound is great. They recently added the ability to link screen captures into the app on a mobile phone making it much easier to save images and videos from games. I can now save a short video, get it on my phone and then send it anywhere I want. This is brilliant. PlayStations have had the ability to directly share with YouTube and Twitter for a while, they might even do Faceshit but I don’t really do that one. Having said that it’s impressive that I can now get this stuff on my phone I’m going to show you some captures I made recently and then uploaded to YouTube.
This first video I captured from Gran Turismo 7 was me driving a Ferrari thing and absolutely smashing it. I really enjoyed this short test. This most definitely wasn’t the first go at this licence. You see, the first go is generally learning about the car; how good are the brakes, how well does the thing turn in, what’s the oversteer like, what’s the engine sound on gear shift? Once you’ve got a grasp of all of that you can then start with a solid run to get the licence and then build up to the limit to get the Gold. Well, that’s how I do it.
This video is another Ferrari but this time a complete circuit around Monza. I really enjoyed this but it definitely wasn’t the first attempt. See the previous paragraph.
The final video I put on YouTube, for now, is me completing one of the Super Licence tests which is a complete lap around Interlagos in a Pagani. This took quite a few attempts and was good fun, although I don’t really like the accidental change into first at the last slow corner.
Getting Gold on every licence test is a bit of an obsession. I mean, why wouldn’t you? One of the Super Licence tests is an F1 clone type car around Laguna Seca. I think it took about an hour of my time to get gold. Sometimes I went off at the third corner, sometimes the last corner. It’s quite frustrating to get close to the end of the circuit knowing you are a couple of tenths ahead of the ghost car [your previous best lap] and then bin the car in the gravel.
Goodness, did I just take 122 miles of Laguna Seca to get a gold? Yes I did. #GranTurismo7
Having said all the stuff above I am enjoying the game. I like the challenge and I’m happy plodding along doing a little each day. I know there’s been quite a backlash to the rewards and “lucky dip” that the game designers have made but I also wonder if people just aren’t patient enough to want to play a game long term. I very rarely finish a game but one thing I know for sure is that I’d rather enjoy it that complete it, if that makes sense. I don’t see games as movies which I suspect is how many other players see them. If the game can allow me to do something I can do in real life and make it fun then I’m happy.
I am still flying around the world in a series of flights on the flight simulator. I’ll have to look back through here to figure out when I started but I’m currently on the Kamchatka peninsula heading towards the Bering Straights. My most recent flight looks like this:
Kamchatka Flight
I’ve generally been doing flights of a few hundred miles but every now and then I put in one of a few thousand. I’m not sure if I’m going to Hawaii or not at the moment. I wonder if I head there, then California and on to South America. I honestly am not sure. I do know that once I get to Iceland I am pretty much done and then what do I do? It’s been fun planning the flights and heading around the world in this simulated world.
The last communication that covered a list of airports ended at Tenzing Hillary Airport in Nepal and so here is the rest of the list to bring us up to date:
Tumling Tar Airport, Nepal Lhasa Gonggar Airport, Tibet Paro Airport, Bhutan Yonphula Airport, Bhutan Kyaukhtu South Airport, Myanmar Yangon International, Myanmar Kyaukhtu South Airport, Myanmar Dawei Airport, Myanmar Myeik Airport, Myanmar Kawthaung Airport, Myanmar Singapore Changi Airport, Singapore Brunei International Airport, Brunei Syamsudin Noor International Airport, Indonesia Selaparang Airport, Indonesia Sumbawa Besar Airport, Indonesia Sultan Muhammad Salahuddin Airport, Indonesia Komodo International Airport, Indonesia El Tari International Airport, Indonesia Darwin International Airport, Australia Broome International Airport, Australia Port Hedland International Airport, Australia Karratha Airport, Australia Kalbarri Airport, Australia RAAF Gingin, Australia Bunbury Airport, Australia Albany Regional Airport, Australia Ravensthorpe Airport, Australia Esperance Airport, Australia Norseman Airport, Australia Port Lincoln Airport, Australia Adelaide Airport, Australia Kingston Airport, Australia Portland Airport, Australia Warrnambool Airport, Australia Apollo Bay Airport, Australia Moorabbin (Harry Hawker) Airport, Australia Burnie Airport, Australia Hobart Airport, Australia in the Avro Vulcan Te Anau Airport, New Zealand Invercargill Airport, New Zealand Ryan’s Creek Aerodrome, New Zealand Queenstown Airport, New Zealand Christchurch Airport, New Zealand Woodbourne Airport, New Zealand Wellington Airport, New Zealand New Plymouth Airport, New Zealand Auckland Airport, New Zealand Nouméa Magenta Airport, New Calendonia Honiara International Airport, Solomon Islands Rabaul Airport, Papua New Guinea Lae Nadzab Airport, Papua New Guinea Goroka Airport, Papua New Guinea Kagamuga International Airport, Papua New Guinea Dortheys Hiyo Eluay International Airport, Indonesia Rendani Airport, Indonesia Domine Eduard Osok Airport, Indonesia Buli/Halmahera Island Airport, Indonesia Sam Ratulangi International Airport, Indonesia Naha Airport, Indonesia General Santos International Airport, Philippines Francisco Bangoy International Airport, Philippines Lumbia Airfield, Philippines Surigao Airport, Philippines Panan-awan Airport, Philippines Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport, Philippines Catarman National Airport, Philippines Legazpi Airport, Philippines Bagasbas Airport, Philippines Fort Magsaysay Airport, Philippines Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport, China Wenzhou Longwan International Airport, China Zhoushan Putuoshan Airport, China Jeju International Airport, South Korea Pyongyang International Airport, DPRK Orang Airport, DPRK Yanji Chaoyangchuan International Airport, China Vladivostok International Airport, Russia Sapporo Okadama Airport, Japan Monbetsu Airport, Japan Iturup Island Airport, Russia Elizovo Airport, Russia Klyuchi Air Base Airport, Russia
And there we have it. The list so far since the last communication. Not sure how to conquer the Pacific, will keep thinking about it.
Kamchatka Peninsula Flight
This is communication number 2021 and so here are some things that happened in that year of our lord:
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter performs the first powered flight on another planet in history.
Ryanair Flight 4978 is forced to land by Belarusian authorities to detain dissident journalist Roman Protasevich.
The number of recorded deaths from COVID-19 surpasses 5 million.
Barbados becomes a republic on its 55th anniversary of independence while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
So, in this new Gran Turismo version we get to try and complete all the licences again to be able to race in all the different series. I think I’m on the third licence and it’s not really one of those parts of the game I really enjoy. Mind you, I find it incredibly frustrating so when I do pass the actual licence I am cheered by it. Some of the licences I have got gold first time, others have taken me about half an hour on continuing to try.
Just So Frustrating
The above licence I missed out on gold by four one thousandths of a second. That was really annoying.
I like that GT Auto is back and you can wash your car. I also like the fact we can change the oil and other parts. There are options for a whole new body and also a new engine so wouldn’t that mean it was a brand new or different car? Looking at my profile I can see that my average fuel consumption is 2.47 km/l this is 6.9 miles per gallon for the UK and USA audience. I’m going to have to see if I can get that more uneconomical.
I’ve been writing a few things that happened in the year of the communication number and this is number 2020 so here are some things that happened then:
Covid 19 causes a heap of shit around the world and it is amplified by poor leadership in many countries.
Brent Crude falls to $27 a barrel. It is currently $109. But there’s a war going on and shortness of supplies.
King Salman issues a royal decree, declaring that people will no longer be executed in Saudi Arabia for crimes they were convicted of when they were minors. Well, this means they were doing it before this date. It’s bloody 2020!
The Royal Astronomical Society announces the detection of phosphine in Venus’ atmosphere, which is known to be a strong predictor for the presence of microbial life.
Just a short communication today to point out my first screen share video uploaded to my YouTube channel. I’ve uploaded a few short clips to my Twitter feed but this is the first I’ve really thought about. I saved the replay of this in GT7 and then video captured it. I guess I should have a go at streaming from the PS5 but that can happen later. The video shows me attempting, and passing, one of the challenges. I had to overtake all three jeeps in front of me [well, the couldn’t be behind me]. I passed, but only just. I was really impressed with the dirt graphics and the headlights. Man, the headlights.
This is communication number 2019 and in keeping with a recent tradition and genuinely not having a clue about what to do in three communication’s time here are some things that happened in that year:
A mine dam breaks in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil. At least 248 people are killed, with 22 missing.
Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project announce the first ever image of a black hole, located in the centre of the M87 galaxy.
The redefinition of the SI system of measurement adopted by the majority of countries in the world takes effect.
First known human case of Coronavirus disease 2019, in Wuhan, Hubei, China.
So, Gran Turismo 7 was released last Friday. I’ve played some every day since and I’m starting to build up my licences and get a semi-decent collection of cars together. Clearly I’ll end up with about six or so cars that I tend to use mostly. These will be a mixture of FR, FF, 4WD, MR and a couple of race cars too. It’s been fun and frustration. When doing a licence test and you end up a few thousands too slow for gold and then you have to keep trying! I guess that’s part of the game.
Current GT7 Profile
At the moment there’s too much to do in GT7 and I’m trying to pace out my activities. I keep trying bits of pieces of the game each day and I’ve even tried the photo mode. I’m kinda skeptical about the photo mode. I’m not enough into cars I think to want to create the perfect photograph. That and there’s always racing to be getting on with. Maybe I’ll spend some time in a few months getting used to the livery editor and photo mode. I know they’ve made that a big part of the game but for me it’s the racing I enjoy.
Honda Integra in Cambridge
The above photograph is quite stunning in terms of the detail you can edit. If you look carefully you can see small amounts of dirt on the front of the bonnet of the car, this is optional. I could decide the dirt on the tyres and how much dust to have in the air to create that glowing effect. It is quite lovely. And I wasn’t even really trying that hard!
Druids at Brands Hatch
The above photograph was me having a go at the replay race mode photography. I had raced the Mustang around Brands Hatch and thought this overtake at Druids would make a good shot so during the replay I entered into photomode. Although I’ve got blurring on and created a panning shot the level of detail is quite stunning. Just look at the light reflecting off the cars! I drove a race recently at Deep Forest and it turned from daytime to night and the headlights of my car searching through the forest to find the track almost had me weeping with delight.
This is communication number 2018 and so here are some things that happened that year:
Russia murders double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK.
The world’s last male northern white rhinoceros dies in Kenya.
Saudi Arabia allows women to drive.
A tsunami hits the Sunda Strait, Indonesia, killing at least 430 people and injuring nearly 1,500.
Today is an exciting day. I hit my peak week time tiredness yesterday at around 11am and so anything from now on is pure bonus, I’m hoping I’ll cope for the rest of the day. However I feel I can not dismiss that it is Gran Turismo 7 release day and I got up a little early to play this morning before having to do the things that I need to do to earn money.
So, I watched the opening movie and loved it. There are minigames that I enjoyed but I also wanted to get going and play straight away. It took a little while to get through those explanation screens but I didn’t mind. The game looks amazing and it’ll be great fun to progress as far as I can. I’ve already got a few trophies and two gold medal driving licence tests.
I’m not sure why my indicator is going in the clip above. It happened in the next thing I did but I don’t think it was a thing I did. Anyway, doesn’t matter. Expect plenty of shares via twitter and some within the PlayStation system as well I suppose. There are a few bonus cars that haven’t appeared yet but I’m sure that’s something I can sort out over the next day or two.
So, here’s hoping the day goes fast and I can get home after my chores and get playing. I’m super looking forward to exploring a bit more and trying to buy some better tyres for my cars. Yes, my first car is an Integra. It always is. I love that car.
This is communication number 2016 and I’m happy that this one fits nicely with number 2000. Here are some things that happened in that year:
Zika virus outbreak.
Jo Cox MP is murdered.
The UK votes to leave the EU. Thus ensues years of political shit-storming and chaos. Well played Mr Putin.
Russia interferes with the USA election process and Trump is outed as a sexual predator.
Trump wins the 2016 USA general election.
I did not enjoy this year. I have struggled since the start of the Brexit campaign and seeing the lies and misinformation used in the country. Once the vote result was in I was devastated. I didn’t really know what being in the EU meant, I’ve learnt a lot since then, but I knew that the best place to be was in the club. I feel as though the world has constantly disappointed me since early 2016.
It’s been just over a week that I’ve owned the PS5 and after the initial joy of cabling and getting it in place I have been messing with some of the settings to get the best experience. The good thing about modern appliances is that they can “see” what they are connected to and output the correct formats for whatever gear you have. So, the PS5 is outputting 7.2 sound into the amp. I did have a problem with the picture format though!
The Current Set Up
The above picture shows a real mix of technologies and brands. There’s a Logitech G29 steering wheel, an Nvidia Shield Pro, the Sony PS5, a Sony AV amp, a Sonos unit, some Bose speakers, the Philips TV, a Sony speaker and a Sony PS camera. I think it all works together pretty well and even if people freak out about it they should realise that audiophile types are rare and most people can’t hear or see the difference between many basic makes and low end cables! I used to think that expensive cables were a thing that could improve your experience, but the answer is “no” they do not. Most of my speakers are connected by quite think mains cable. There isn’t a need for expensive cables.
So, back to the picture output from the PS5. I tried selecting a 4K HDR output but the PS5 was adamant that the receiving device wouldn’t be able to handle this. The PS5 wanted to downgrade the signal to 1080P for HDR rather than 2160P. Well, if I have to choose resolution over HDR then it’s the resolution that’s going to win every time I reckon. Every couple of days over the last week I would remember this issue and I played with the TV settings trying to find the magic button that would clear the way for these signals. I was pretty sure that 4k HDR was possible on the television. I couldn’t find the correct combination of settings.
I once again tried messing around in the PS5 settings to see if there was a thing I could do to fix this. I even bypassed the PSVR thinking there might be a thing inside that unit that meant it couldn’t bypass a 4k HDR signal. I also tried plugging the PS5 directly into the television but this didn’t change anything – I am aware now that this is because only one of the HDMI inputs to the TV is really set up for the best quality signal. I tried googling again and found a Forbes page which looked promising. The page suggests setting an input device to “enhanced”. This seemed like some kind of BladeRunner reference but I decided to go ahead and see if I could find this setting. Then, I remembered the AV Amp.
Why an amp needs to have a HDMI throughput setting set to “enhanced” I am not sure. But there it was, in the amp settings. The option to allow the HDMI bypass to be set to “enhanced”. I switched this. Then I restarted all the devices, because it seemed sensible to do so. I headed over to the PS5 and it was in “screen set up” mode. It wanted me to set up screen size and some HDR settings. I was reasonably excited and once the settings were made the PS5 is now outputting 4k HDR. It took a week of not-really-worrying about it but also knowing in the back of my mind that I could improve the look of the games.
I will say that once I’m engrossed in playing a game I don’t really concentrate on what the graphics look like. I don’t really notice the little details. It’s something I’ve always been conscious of. It’s the gameplay that makes the difference for me as a player. I know there a people out there who quite like just watching games and I understand that the graphics can really make a difference to them, but, for me, if the game play is good enough then you don’t really notice the rest of it?
This is communication number 2003 and so here are some things that happened in that year:
Space Shuttle Columbia breaks up over Texas.
Massive protests against an illegal war in Iraq. Governments do not listen. This is the start of my realisation that governments do what they want, not what we want.
Two people [not Musk] start Telsa.
China launches people into space for the first time.
