Gran Turismo Officially Acts Against Wallriding Exploit

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A bit more than 2 weeks ago, top esports Gran Turismo players raised concerns over an exploit that could be used to gain an advantage in the second round of GTWS Manufacturers Cup season 2, hosted on August 20 at the iconic fictional High Speed Ring track.

The exploit allowed people to go flatout in T2, wallriding without getting penalized for it by getting bumped by another car before the corner, to trick the penalty system by thinking it was accidental. Despite the public warnings of renown personalities of the Gran Turismo community, the event still went as initially planned, which triggered various approaches in different regions.

For context, the Manufacturers Cup is divided into 3 regions : Asia/Oceania, EMEA (Europe/Middle East/Africa) and Americas, who race one after the other in that order. Standings are separated into 3 leagues according to driver ratings at the start of the season, with only the top GT1 league being able to qualify for special online and live events. Following the race and various reports, Polyphony Digital reactively changed the combo for a following race, and implemented a significantly increased damage sensitivity for contacts with walls in the 1.20 update.

It appears they have now reviewed GT1 splits and decided to penalize players who used this exploit by settings their individual points to 0 for this round. Additionally, that round is now being excluded from the constructors standings, but only in the Asia/Oceania and Americas regions. The results will still count for the EMEA region: following a call on socials by multiple top players, every high split racer in the region agreed to not abuse the exploit, showing a display of sportsmanship that many observers didn't believe would be respected.

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As Asia/Oceania players were the first to enter the race, everyone there expected some people to use the exploit and nothing to be done about it, so pretty much every racer there chose to level with others. As for America's, players made an effort in the first slots, inspired by what happened in EMEA, but as no formal agreement was made, some people in the later slots started to use the wallriding strategy, resulting in crashes and general chaos.

In the official statement released in game and on the Gran Turismo website, Polyphony Digital also stated their esports regulations have been amended, with the following additions:

Forbidden Actions
  • It is forbidden for a competitor to simultaneously participate in the same championship and season with multiple accounts.
  • It is forbidden to participate using another person's account for PlayStation®Network.
  • It is forbidden for a competitor to intentionally support another player during a race where they are not part of the same team.
  • It is forbidden for a competitor to exploit unintended gameplay mechanics and issues found in the software in order to gain any type of advantage.
  • Unsportsmanlike conduct.
If players are found engaging in forbidden activities, they will be dealt with accordingly, including but not limited to being banned from the championships.
About author
GT-Alex
Global motorsports enjoyer, long time simracer, Gran Turismo veteran, I've been driving alongside top drivers since the dawn of online pro leagues on Gran Turismo, and qualified for the only cancelled FIA GTC World Tour. I've left aside competitive driving in 2020 to dedicate myself to IGTL, a simracing organisation hosting high quality events for pro racers and customers, to create with friends the kind of events we wished we could have had. We strive to provide the best events for drivers and the best content for viewers, and want to help the simracing scene grow and shine further in the global esports scene.

Comments

it is not human nature to cheat, it is human nature to be honest and decent.
Human nature is like any other animal is to survive
This is why humans are "cheating" when they can because it's our nature to find the best way to win
Fair play is a thing created by society. Mother nature never made fair play. Mother nature did just one rule.
Adapt and evolve or die and get lost

It's PD fault to not dealing with the issue before
But PD is a joke so it's normal they made this stupid mistakes
 
Human nature is like any other animal is to survive
This is why humans are "cheating" when they can because it's our nature to find the best way to win
Fair play is a thing created by society. Mother nature never made fair play. Mother nature did just one rule.
Adapt and evolve or die and get lost

It's PD fault to not dealing with the issue before
But PD is a joke so it's normal they made this stupid mistakes
...and yet, what is society if not a reflection of human nature?

Humans invented fairplay, gamenship, and rules to better their life, and as a reflection of a higher plane of existance.

I see too many people comparing us to animals these days. There is a reason why humans are the only rational animals on earth. And its not because they behave like other animals.
 
Cheating is way too "tolerated" in sports, professional ones at that. If i were in charge, cheating would be dealt much much harshly, akin to the penalties that exist now for dopping, where you can be banned for life even.

Professional fouls should have no place in sports, period. Or else i might as well start watching things where cheating is impossible by design, like chess.
Totally agree with this :thumbsup:
 
Come on guys let's differentiate here for just a minute. If you are talking about a league where you and some buddies race on whatever nite even if there is a few bucks up for grabs then I agree using an exploit is out of bounds.

However at the professional level sim racing is just another discipline of racing. To quote Dale Jr. "If you ain't cheatin you ain't trying."

Michael Schumacher blatantly cheated with traction and launch control where they "removed the menu item" yet kept the functionality.

Jimmy Johnson got caught blatantly cheating I can't count how many times.

Jeff Gordon & Dale Earnhardt. Well their crew chiefs have wrote a book and did a speaking tour about how they used to cheat.

When you view sim racing as a hobby I can see where you are coming from. It can be enjoyed as a hobby but what it truly is another racing discipline. In the analog world you exploit the grey areas of the rule book. In the digital world you exploit the game engine where you can.

I can put it another way. I use bass shakers to tell me when I'm slipping the tires and almost no force feedback. I could build a full motion sim and use a direct drive wheel. I don't because my objective is to be the fastest sim racer I can be. While more "realistic" those things would make me slower so I don't use them. By some of your definitions I should be sanctioned for this?
 
If people really need to be told that wall grinding is not a part of motorsport I think they might have picked the wrong hobby.

Of course I fully agree that devs need to fix games when they are broken but idiotic behavior can't be fixed by game developers.
The reason why wall grinding isn't part of real racing is because you will ruin your car doing that. In a race people want to win. If its a known exploit, and they think polyphony allows it because they never took action against it or tried to fix it, its no surprise they would try to do it.
 
if its real competition stream on tv let em make exploits and race, let one winning kiddo exploit game to wina nd be happy.. but then.. disqualify him xD that would be so funny. i mean all race as they would in real life but one or more kiddos found glitch so exploit it. let em do it. but then lets say on 20 racers 10 was exploiting and race is finished. lets say top 10 "racers" was exploiting, so make the 11 th driver who was driving fair make him winner. that would be hilarious as foock , and stream facial expressions of exploiting "winners" as they told they been disqualified . xD
 
Come on guys let's differentiate here for just a minute. If you are talking about a league where you and some buddies race on whatever nite even if there is a few bucks up for grabs then I agree using an exploit is out of bounds.

However at the professional level sim racing is just another discipline of racing. To quote Dale Jr. "If you ain't cheatin you ain't trying."

Michael Schumacher blatantly cheated with traction and launch control where they "removed the menu item" yet kept the functionality.

Jimmy Johnson got caught blatantly cheating I can't count how many times.

Jeff Gordon & Dale Earnhardt. Well their crew chiefs have wrote a book and did a speaking tour about how they used to cheat.

When you view sim racing as a hobby I can see where you are coming from. It can be enjoyed as a hobby but what it truly is another racing discipline. In the analog world you exploit the grey areas of the rule book. In the digital world you exploit the game engine where you can.

I can put it another way. I use bass shakers to tell me when I'm slipping the tires and almost no force feedback. I could build a full motion sim and use a direct drive wheel. I don't because my objective is to be the fastest sim racer I can be. While more "realistic" those things would make me slower so I don't use them. By some of your definitions I should be sanctioned for this?
sim should sanction you for this making you out the track and got u buried in gravel
 
Well I have thought for 20 years all sims should have Pro and AMA versions.

Pro you would have nothing to turn off, nothing not real life, like virtual mirrors, just admit it you can't race without them, yeah brain washed ;)

AMA version would be what sims are today
 
Well I have thought for 20 years all sims should have Pro and AMA versions.

Pro you would have nothing to turn off, nothing not real life, like virtual mirrors, just admit it you can't race without them, yeah brain washed ;)

AMA version would be what sims are today
yeah so u must buy 3 monitors to play? and what you mean "nothing to turn off" u mean abs and tc? is it pro ?? pro hardcore simracer wooo
u know tey use tc and abs in real life ???
but reminding to mirrors. you know iracing is such most realistic simulator they even dont let you have 3person camera? and u can only use real assists as real cars? they not make artificial assists in any car. but guess what! they allow mirrors. as mirror is personal preference how you adjust them to see behind you. so people using one monitor can have virtual mirror wide as 3 monitors in real car, so no need to spending money od 2 more screens so they can see whats behind them
 
I use 1 monitor I race bad rF2 AI and other sims without using virtual mirrors or look back by setting a FOV and mirror position that is useable not because it is an advantage. Oh I also hosted a online room for years I did the same.

Of course Pro sim would have ABS and anything else real to their series, never said otherwise ?

I believe sims would be better built around one series like they used to be.

Yes I am saying iRacing " Pro" version would not have those mirrors but the AMA version would. How fairer can you be then that ?

Virtual mirrors just sustain another arcade feature of using a lower FOV then
real life so they don't even see real mirrors right ?

If you think virtual mirrors and other unrealistic things are okay good for you, not trying to change your view or argue about it. ;)
 
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Another thing to me has always been funny considering how serious online take themselves.

In real life in many series hip checking someone off track is fine as long as you are along side, i saw it dozen times Laguna replay this morning alone.
Nascar, V8, BTCC DTM are also diabolical for it ... so it is part of real racing right ?

Yet anyone does it online is a bad driver, cheater, troll, whatever etc.

:O_o::roflmao:
 
In my humble opinion, people who do not respect normal driving standards should not be "penalized" with zero points. They should be banned for deliberately cheating.

Whether this is wallriding in Gran Turismo or racing through the grass in iRacing, this is not how real life motorsports works and this is also not how esports should work where we simulate real life racing.

Got no respect at all for people doing this. Especially not pro's who should represent our sport in the best possible way.

They should be praised, they are finding holes in the physics engine. Also in real life racing they try to use everything they can find to go faster, that is the competitive mentality. In real life the people race in "the proper way" because it is the fastest way that the real life physics allow, not because of idealism. The real world physics punish you if you try to cheat them, the computer world allows you to get away with it. If the simulation allows you to get away with setup/driving exploits then the developer has failed.

What is wrong is the physics engine in the game, you are not going to find in any FIA rulebook that a driver gets a lap invalidated or a black flag if he does a wallriding, and the reason is simple: because in real life the car slows down by the friction of the contact, gets damaged, and the most meaninfull of all it is slower and it would put your car out of the race due to damage.

If GT trully were "the real driving simulator" it would had proper crash physics, proper friction against guardrails, proper car damage model and proper guardrail damage model. The problem is that the devs receive the order from the beancounters of the company of not pursuing a betterment of the physics engine nor the damage physics model.

They could loose the licenses from the car manufacturers if the cars would get proper damage both physically and visually, and the casual gamers and kids that purchase this game in masse would leave the game it if were so easy to end a race with a minimal crash as in richard burns rally.

If the company don't pursue a simulation in the proper way, they the competitors shouldn't be cast away for finding physics exploits in the game, if they found them and other people not it means that they worked harder in understanding the game physics, that should be praised instead of shunned, those exploits were there available to anybody else to find and use them.
 
Following the event many of us were upset that iRacing chose to only hand out what were slaps on the wrist. In the least they should have vacated any podium finishes for teams that chose to use the exploit, and ban the entire team from a set number of future races.
Just make the grass a bit stickier, nobody will use it anymore.
But hey in iRacing grass and gravel are more like ice for many years already.
 
If the exploit is there and is possible to execute it is going to be done at one point.

On the other hand, yeah: drivers who are expected to come and respect the rules should be banned at the instant they exit the session where they've done it.

Fix this two problems and your software will be considered a bit more ̶s̶i̶m̶ serious.
 
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Esports will never be the pinnacle of virtual motorsport. Its just a bunch of hot-lappers that will do anything to win. The whole concept of "esports" is a win at all cost situation. Its always going to be about exploits/cheats that all games have. Some we will see in public and some are hidden. You cannot take this thing seriously its just a joke. With "esports" we have opened that door to the wrong people without any sort of driving standards and ethics. Devs and event managers needs to do more and ban such behaviour.
 
What does that say about you as a person?

Would you hold it against me if I told you that your decision to partake in that type of behavior is morally wanting?
No I would not, because if I were to use tactics like that, especially after the posts I made, would make be a hypocrite. If you find me cheating in order to win, then yes: call me out on it.

I have no problem with people pointing out when I have done wrong. Yes, I may initially take offense, but I also do what I used to tell my children, or my students:

"Are you mad because I am calling you out for your behavior, or are you embarrassed because your behavior was found wanting and you now do not like what you see when a mirror is held up to you?"

It takes awhile for understanding to dawn, but...

No.

Yes. there's no way to sugarcoat it. We all raced to win, you race to lose.
No, I race to win in an ethical manner. Being ethical does not mean one has to be constantly told what is right and wrong, it means knowing that one acts in a manner that is not questionable even when others are not watching, or when others are acting in an un-ethical manner.

Just because someone, or many, are acting in a manner that is un-ethical does not mean you have to. Even if it means you "lose".

If I copied what others are doing, even knowing it is wrong, then I not only let myself down, but I let those down whom I have tried to instill ethical behavior in: My children and my students. How do I proudly point to my accomplishments if I achieved them by, essentially, skirting the rules? Have I truly won that race?

Every person must make that decision for themselves, but each person must also be able to honestly look at their actions. If the "accomplishment" is achieved by taking advantage of an exploit, with full knowledge that by using that exploit you are violating the spirit of the rules, then have you truly "won"? Or have you "won" because you skirted known rules?

Because some one was not watching?

To me that win is a hollow victory.

IMO, if one needs to take advantage of an exploit then they are not really better than I am: how successful would they have been if they had not taken advantage of the exploit? Can they look in the mirror and tell themselves that the win was well deserved; earned? Or was the win due to "getting over" on others?

In the iRacing Spa fiasco I held much more respect for Williams E-Sport for dropping out of the race, because they refused to cheat to win, than I do for Coanda who not only flaunted the spirit of racing by cheating, but their drivers had no problem with cheating in order to win.

That is not, in any way, shape or form, a win. It is, rather, an indictment of the Coanda drivers who readily shed their ethics in order to chalk up a "win".
Just make the grass a bit stickier, nobody will use it anymore.
But hey in iRacing grass and gravel are more like ice for many years already.
Granted. This exploit should have been corrected, yet it also should not have been used by drivers who are not only paid to drive for the team, but are very public ambassadors of that team.

Would you trust them to race cleanly if they were going up against you? Or would you be just a little miffed that you are racing against known cheaters?
 
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Ok boomer
Actually, I am Gen-X, you know: the American generation that had to raise itself? What does that say about the following generation (my kids generation) and the subsequent generation when the Gen-X parents decided they were not going to do what their parents did, instead choosing to hover over their children constantly.-yet those later generations have a stunted ethical outlook?

I know what it says about my generation: We did a pretty crappy job.

Yet, my generation raised itself, and I was able to develop a pretty good (IMO) sense of what is ethical and what is not. Why have ethics of the following generation changed? Later generations blame us for what we "did", yet when the moment comes where the later generations have a chance to shine and show improved ethical standards, they pass their behavior off as: " Well, I was just doing it because everyone else was doing it", and calling those of us who choose to be ethical "losers".

One may, rightly, blame prior generations for the failure to pass along strong ethical fiber, or act unethical and setting a poor precedent, but, again: My generation raised itself, yet you fault me for having developed strong ethics in my life.

In that light, doesn't your intended ridicule kind of fall on its face?

Ridicule me for my ethical beliefs, but if one does that then one truly must take a look in the mirror if they so offhandedly reject ethical standard in order to win.
 
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How about this then.

You have no right to tell me how I can and cannot drive a pretend race car. Stop writing 1000 word essays (too long didn't read) over something as stupid as this.
 
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How about this then.

You have no right to tell me how I can and cannot drive a pretend race car. Stop writing 1000 word essays (too long didn't read) over something as stupid as this.
Then don't get salty when the organizers disqualify you, because they DO have the right to decide how you should drive your pretend race car in their competition. How about that?
 

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