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Project CARS (crowdsourcing) racing sim by Slightly Mad Studios (fully funded 3.75M)

mrklaw

MrArseFace
XB1 version seems solid so far. I'm this close to preordering. I never do that anymore.

similar. But judging graphics from a twitch stream is a bit silly.

I want to know a couple of things
- more info on graphics differences between Xbox and PS4 - if they are both solid 60fps and other details are the same, then I won't mind 900p
- impressions on how the rumble triggers work.
- does the PS4 version support gyro steering. That could be really nice for more subtle steering input.



edit: No lotus elise/exige and no Ferraris make me sad though.
 

cackhyena

Member
similar. But judging graphics from a twitch stream is a bit silly.

I want to know a couple of things
- more info on graphics differences between Xbox and PS4 - if they are both solid 60fps and other details are the same, then I won't mind 900p
- impressions on how the rumble triggers work.
- does the PS4 version support gyro steering. That could be really nice for more subtle steering input.



edit: No lotus elise/exige and no Ferraris make me sad though.

I don't care about graphics..I mean, I do, but they are more than competent on XB1, it seems. My main concern was frame rate. Rumble is in, and that's my main reason for going for XB1 over PS4. I just like the controller better. As far as I know, it's a solid 60 on both platforms. I'm sure DF will get to the bottom of it, but I don't want to wait.

As far as the gyro stuff, even if it was in it wouldn't sway me, as not having something to rest your hands on, like you do with a wheel is why I'd stay clear of that control type. holding my arms out like that for extended periods would get old.
 

OmegaDL50

Member
My only concern with Project CARS is the handling model. I expect it to be very good, I mean a majority of the SMS dev staff worked on SimBin racing titles such as GTR 1 and 2, GT Legends.

So I know the sim aspect is going to be there.

However I hope for realistic handling.

and I don't mean Realistic = Hard. I MEAN realistic = real life.

I never understood this mindset that some PC Sim Racers believe that because it's harder makes it more realistic.

Darin Gangi of InsideSimRacing brought up this point that it's generally false and considering he has driven sports cars in real life and even stated at times some developers make the games harder to drive then the real life equivalent, for the sake of a "gaming challenge"

Assetto Corsa for example was tested by a professional race driver and at his request to dial back the handling model because it was more difficult then what it was like in an actual race. Then after they implemented the patch there was a outcry from the fanbase in that the steering was "too easy" and thus they reverted the change despite it change being for realism.

I hope for that authentic handling experience for Project CARS, and not some artificially difficult handling that stymies the aspect of true realistic handling.

I have a lot of faith in SMS considering their history on PC Racing Sims, so I don't expect to be disappointed.
 

shandy706

Member
My only concern with Project CARS is the handling model. I expect it to be very good, I mean a majority of the SMS dev staff worked on SimBin racing titles such as GTR 1 and 2, GT Legends.

So I know the sim aspect is going to be there.

However I hope for realistic handling.

and I don't mean Realistic = Hard. I MEAN realistic = real life.

I never understood this mindset that some PC Sim Racers believe that because it's harder makes it more realistic.

Darin Gangi of InsideSimRacing brought up this point that it's generally false and considering he has driven sports cars in real life and even stated at times some developers make the games harder to drive then the real life equivalent, for the sake of a "gaming challenge"

Assetto Corsa for example was tested by a professional race driver and at his request to dial back the handling model because it was more difficult then what it was like in an actual race. Then after they implemented the patch there was a outcry from the fanbase in that the steering was "too easy" and thus they reverted the change despite it change being for realism.

I hope for that authentic handling experience for Project CARS, and not some artificially difficult handling that stymies the aspect of true realistic handling.

I have a lot of faith in SMS considering their history on PC Racing Sims, so I don't expect to be disappointed.

This is the problem with a lot of "sims". It's also why I love Forza (it's the closest to matching the feel of the cars I've owned).

I own(ed) a number of sports cars (including Corvettes) and I tend to navigate to the real cars I owned when I test out a game. I also have some experience on tracks in Mustangs and Vettes, so I always make that comparison to how they "feel".

Racing sims that feel like you're on ice coming out of a corner (or heck....even shifting on a straight) instantly throw me off and I don't want to touch them.

The suggestion that sims shouldn't be hard is equally as strange as the one that says they should.

I didn't take what he said to mean that, unless you aren't insinuating that...?

Hopefully PCars delivers in the physics department.
 

cackhyena

Member
This is the problem with a lot of "sims". It's also why I love Forza (it's the closest to matching the feel of the cars I've owned).

I own(ed) a number of sports cars (including Corvettes) and I tend to navigate to the real cars I owned when I test out a game. I also have some experience on tracks in Mustangs and Vettes, so I always make that comparison to how they "feel".

Racing sims that feel like you're on ice coming out of a corner (or heck....even shifting on a straight) instantly throw me off and I don't want to touch them.



I didn't take what he said to mean that, unless you aren't insinuating that...?

Hopefully PCars delivers in the physics department.
Playing Horizon, I've felt like I'm coming out of corners on ice constantly. I only played the demo and the Fast and Furious game, but none of the cars felt as responsive as I'd have hoped. Maybe proper Forza is different? Never played on of them. I'm wanting to start with 6, though.
 

shandy706

Member
Playing Horizon, I've felt like I'm coming out of corners on ice constantly. I only played the demo and the Fast and Furious game, but none of the cars felt as responsive as I'd have hoped. Maybe proper Forza is different? Never played on of them. I'm wanting to start with 6, though.

Horizon is an arcade game ;).

Braking and hitting apexes, or drifting still works in it though. It's not a sim even with the "hardest settings" :).

You're going to have to slow down on the curves and not floor it coming out..heheh.
 
Well the guys at the stream just started a 32 car race on silverstone, starting from the middle(?) there wasn't any noticeable drop in performance, also loads of aquaplaning on heavy rain, might start hyping up!
 

cackhyena

Member
Horizon is an arcade game ;).

Braking and hitting apexes, or drifting still works in it though.

So proper Forza's handling model is pretty different? Obviously I'm ignorant of the series. Shit, I haven't been seriously into a racing game since Dirt 2. Before that...GT2? I'm ignorant, period.

This guy fields questions pretty terribly. He asks questions himself and later asks a similar question the guy has to re answer.
 
So proper Forza's handling model is pretty different? Obviously I'm ignorant of the series. Shit, I haven't been seriously into a racing game since Dirt 2. Before that...GT2? I'm ignorant, period..

Yes. Forza Motorsport is much more nuanced and detailed in that regard. The tire modelling is particularly good. And as others have said - feels convincing without the need to make it harder than driving the real cars.

Horizon is built on that foundation but makes things much looser and arcade like. If you've played a lot of both you can feel the similarities, but they are still very different.
 
Playing Horizon, I've felt like I'm coming out of corners on ice constantly. I only played the demo and the Fast and Furious game, but none of the cars felt as responsive as I'd have hoped. Maybe proper Forza is different? Never played on of them. I'm wanting to start with 6, though.

You only really know if you played with a wheel, because pushing the stick completely to the right gives you different turn-ins at different speeds (depending on the game this can be the same with a wheel, but usually you can turn it off; also some modern real life cars have non-linear steering wheel control as well).

Even though the Horizon physics model is the same as the Forza Motorsport physics model, you are still on to something because the enhanced arcadier grip (and the dialed-down tyre model in general) make cars understeer more. If you know how to tune/set-up a car in Forza right, you can counter that effect.
 
This is the problem with a lot of "sims". It's also why I love Forza (it's the closest to matching the feel of the cars I've owned).

I own(ed) a number of sports cars (including Corvettes) and I tend to navigate to the real cars I owned when I test out a game. I also have some experience on tracks in Mustangs and Vettes, so I always make that comparison to how they "feel".

Racing sims that feel like you're on ice coming out of a corner (or heck....even shifting on a straight) instantly throw me off and I don't want to touch them.



I didn't take what he said to mean that, unless you aren't insinuating that...?

Hopefully PCars delivers in the physics department.

That´s the impression i got in my limited experience with real race. Just last year i was in vacation in the USA and i went into one of those driving school experiences at Las Vegas Speedway and before you got to their track you had to practice in their simulator, which is iRacing made and sponsored.

Needless to say the car was harder to drive in the simulator than in real life. Saying that harder = more realistic is the biggest pile of crap the elitist sim crowd has had over the last decade.

Some cars are just easy to drive in real life, period. You can´t make a GTR handle like a devil in a videogame because the car is just easy to drive in real life.

You should feel some weight on the car when you are playing, this ice skating feel is probably the worst thing they can do. If you´re going to be unrealistic, then please find some other way to make the game harder, skating cars is probably the worst way to go about it.

I can´t wait to see how Collins and Hamilton´s input was used by SMS. Do we have reviews this week? Wasn´t the embargo for like a week before release?

Also, we should have the OT in a few days... who´s making it?
 
feels convincing without the need to make it harder than driving the real cars.

In MY opinion this is true for older cars or race cars where the use of a lot of modern tech is banned. For some more modern cars Forza is harder than real life because tech like computer corrected suspension, AWD-systems with computer controlled differentials or complex torque vectoring systems aren't modeled correctly or at all. Turn10 say they model torque vectoring, but how would they know how the system works in a Nissan GTR, it's not like Nissan or any other car company would give them their data for systems so complex and expensive. Additionally these systems usually can't be turned off in those cars, unlike TCS, ESP or ABS.
 

OmegaDL50

Member
That´s the impression i got in my limited experience with real race. Just last year i was in vacation in the USA and i went into one of those driving school experiences at Las Vegas Speedway and before you got to their track you had to practice in their simulator, which is iRacing made and sponsored.

Needless to say the car was harder to drive in the simulator than in real life. Saying that harder = more realistic is the biggest pile of crap the elitist sim crowd has had over the last decade.

Some cars are just easy to drive in real life, period. You can´t make a GTR handle like a devil in a videogame because the car is just easy to drive in real life.

You should feel some weight on the car when you are playing, this ice skating feel is probably the worst thing they can do. If you´re going to be unrealistic, then please find some other way to make the game harder, skating cars is probably the worst way to go about it.

This is exactly what I'm talking about.
 
In MY opinion this is true for older cars or race cars where the use of a lot of modern tech is banned. For some more modern cars Forza is harder than real life because tech like computer corrected suspension, AWD-systems with computer controlled differentials or complex torque vectoring systems aren't modeled correctly or at all. Turn10 say they model torque vectoring, but how would they know how the system works in a Nissan GTR, it's not like Nissan or any other car company would give them their data for systems so complex and expensive. Additionally these systems usually can't be turned off in those cars, unlike TCS, ESP or ABS.

I agree.

I've long wanted games to move from the assists = bad approach of encouraging "hardcore" play. If you're emulating cars then they should also emulate the sort of computer assistance many feature now. Heck many racing disciplines features ABS and TCS - so it makes sense to use those in appropriate circumstances. However Forza - a series I really like - still offers points bonuses for ditching all assists - even the ones that race series might really use.

Project Cars offers a "real" options along with the usual assists on/off approach. Which means you'll get the assists if those cars run with them. Now I don't know how in depth that goes - but I like the principle of this.

I hope it's something Forza 6 embraces.
 
You should feel some weight on the car when you are playing

but the feel of weight-shifting in FM5 and FH2 is superb! It's the best thing together with FMs tyre model that the series has. It feels unbelievably good with a TX wheel and an older car. And it's still very present in newer and stiffer cars. Try breaking down heavily before a turn, step a little on the gas and drive straight for a quarter of a second before you turn in... you probably can't take that turn because you shifted your weight backwards again before turning in. Try the same with breaking "into" the turn and the pressure on your front wheels will enable you to take that turn.

Edit: Or try to "steer a car on the throttle" if you know what I mean by that. You can do that fairly well in the Forza games from this gen.
 

Helznicht

Member
That´s the impression i got in my limited experience with real race. Just last year i was in vacation in the USA and i went into one of those driving school experiences at Las Vegas Speedway and before you got to their track you had to practice in their simulator, which is iRacing made and sponsored.

Needless to say the car was harder to drive in the simulator than in real life. Saying that harder = more realistic is the biggest pile of crap the elitist sim crowd has had over the last decade.

Some cars are just easy to drive in real life, period. You can´t make a GTR handle like a devil in a videogame because the car is just easy to drive in real life.

You should feel some weight on the car when you are playing, this ice skating feel is probably the worst thing they can do. If you´re going to be unrealistic, then please find some other way to make the game harder, skating cars is probably the worst way to go about it.

I can´t wait to see how Collins and Hamilton´s input was used by SMS. Do we have reviews this week? Wasn´t the embargo for like a week before release?

Also, we should have the OT in a few days... who´s making it?

I was going to make a post about this. thanks. I just got my wheel and downloaded the rfactor demo. I seems to do a pretty god job when all 4 tires are on pavement, but let just one slip off and OH BOY. There is no saving a fuck up, even at a moderate 40-60 MPH. Hell I have saved much worse on the highway @ 60mph with a 4 door sedan in my younger days.

I dont know if PC will be better, but I know PC is already getting flak from the sim side, many calling it an arcade racer at heart. I just hope it feels right.
 
I can't believe I'm posting this but... Google returns absolutely nothing of interest when I search...

Is there a way to lock the game to 30fps? Man the game came along pretty great. I backed it right when it opened up like what, 3 or 4 years ago, and I'm ready to finally play it... But I want all the eye candy and a lock to 30fps, since the motion blur is nice and it still feels 'smooth'. It's just one of those games where I prefer the visuals over frameate.
 
I can't believe I'm posting this but... Google returns absolutely nothing of interest when I search...

Is there a way to lock the game to 30fps?

If you have an Nvidia card, you can go to the nvidia control panel -> 3D settings -> Vertical Sync -> Adaptive (half refresh rate)
(my nvidia control panel is in german, sorry if some words aren't exactly like in your version).

Sometimes the results are pretty shitty though (if you get a cutscene that is already running at only 30fps for example)
 

cackhyena

Member
Yes. Forza Motorsport is much more nuanced and detailed in that regard. The tire modelling is particularly good. And as others have said - feels convincing without the need to make it harder than driving the real cars.

Horizon is built on that foundation but makes things much looser and arcade like. If you've played a lot of both you can feel the similarities, but they are still very different.

You only really know if you played with a wheel, because pushing the stick completely to the right gives you different turn-ins at different speeds (depending on the game this can be the same with a wheel, but usually you can turn it off; also some modern real life cars have non-linear steering wheel control as well).

Even though the Horizon physics model is the same as the Forza Motorsport physics model, you are still on to something because the enhanced arcadier grip (and the dialed-down tyre model in general) make cars understeer more. If you know how to tune/set-up a car in Forza right, you can counter that effect.

Thanks.
 
If you have an Nvidia card, you can go to the nvidia control panel -> 3D settings -> Vertical Sync -> Adaptive (half refresh rate)
(my nvidia control panel is in german, sorry if some words aren't exactly like in your version).

Sometimes the results are pretty shitty though (if you get a cutscene that is already running at only 30fps for example)

Well, how dumb am I. I just did that no more than a couple days ago for Far Cry 4... I guess I forgot. Damn, I can't forget this again. Another awesome Nvidia feature (props to AMD as well if they have the same setting)

Edit: Doesn't work properly. Locks to 30fps but when turning it's like the game jumps around with its camera. Weird. It's unplayable for me. And I can't see them adding a 30fps option in the final release either...
 
I think he's just saying that it should be realistic. A car shouldn't be harder to drive on a game than in real life.
I understand, but it's not as simple as that. All the top driving simulators claim, in a round about way, that they are the most realistic, or at least, that they are aiming for a 'true' or '100%' simulation. And yet, they're all different, and some are considerably less forgiving than others.

Just because one person's favourite sim is more forgiving than another person's, doesn't mean that the less forgiving one is trying to be 'too difficult' for the sake of elitism. There is no sim in development that is being difficult for the sake of it. And by the same token, a more forgiving one isn't necessarily being 'too easy' in order to be more accessible. It may have been developed to be real and come up with a different result. So if they're both claiming to be real, then at least one of them is wrong. But how do you know which one is wrong? They're all created with real data, years of experience and professional input. So it boils down to personal opinion. And personal opinion is usually influenced by a bunch of life experience and anecdotal evidence.

While it's true that there is a group of sim enthusiasts who will use 'overall difficulty' as the gauge for which is the 'most realistic', I'm seeing an increasing number of comments using an opposing argument, saying 'these sims are too hard - cars should be easy to drive because *anecdotal evidence* and *famous driver* said so'. Both mindsets are equally questionable, imo.

In the same way some are too quick to say 'well this version is much harder, it must be more realistic', others are too quick to say 'well this is too hard, it can't be realistic'. There are far too many variables at play to come up with these blanket statements.
 

Bobnob

Member
Still not sure what date this game releases for Uk digi version, mod in the chat before the stream checked and said the digi version gets released on the 7th,8th physical copy yet when the guys doing the stream said all Uk versions are released on the 8th. I just looked on the X1 storefront and it says the 7th WTF. It would be nice to have some clarity. Whats it say on PS4 sf ????
 

MaLDo

Member
No exact analysis, but it seems that PS4 version is using lower than medium shadow quality and more or less medium track quality. LOD cars are around medium/low. AA is only FXAA over 1080p frame. AF is low, visible in the marks in the center of the track. Impostor reflections for rear lights are deactivated for now.

Car shadows dissapear at too small distance, the first line cars don't have shadows. Track shadows a bit further. Shadow resolution and filtering is visible in balconies shadows in the right and in the shadow of the car peering on the left.

But globally, it is more than worthy.



01.png


2.png


3.png
 

EBreda

Member
No exact analysis, but it seems that PS4 version is using lower than medium shadow quality and more or less medium track quality. LOD cars are around medium/low. AA is only FXAA over 1080p frame. AF is low, visible in the marks in the center of the track. Impostor reflections for rear lights are deactivated for now.

Car shadows dissapear at too small distance, the first line cars don't have shadows. Track shadows a bit further. Shadow resolution and filtering is visible in balconies shadows in the right and in the shadow of the car peering on the left.

But globally, it is more than worthy.

Should the XO version be identical (except for the resolution)?
 

vanty

Member
I haven't paid much attention to this before but I was just looking at the track list and saw a number of tracks like Catalunya and Laguna Seca have different names. Are they the actual track just without the licence for the name or are the tracks changed up a bit because of the licence issue as well like the fake Bathurst back in FM1?
 
I haven't paid much attention to this before but I was just looking at the track list and saw a number of tracks like Catalunya and Laguna Seca have different names. Are they the actual track just without the licence for the name or are the tracks changed up a bit because of the licence issue as well like the fake Bathurst back in FM1?

I think it's just renames except Sakitto, which is suzuka without the final chicane and I think the senna esses are 3 instead of 5
 

SMSRenderTeam

Neo Member
No exact analysis, but it seems that PS4 version is using lower than medium shadow quality and more or less medium track quality. LOD cars are around medium/low. AA is only FXAA over 1080p frame. AF is low, visible in the marks in the center of the track. Impostor reflections for rear lights are deactivated for now.

Car shadows dissapear at too small distance, the first line cars don't have shadows. Track shadows a bit further. Shadow resolution and filtering is visible in balconies shadows in the right and in the shadow of the car peering on the left.

But globally, it is more than worthy.

A few corrections/updates to your analysis:

- PS4 uses EQAA(MSAA) and not FXAA.
- PS4 shadow detail is between the medium to high equivalent PC setting - more precisely PC medium shadow settings are 1024x4096 with 16 bit precision and PS4 is the same resolution but with 32 bit shadow precision.
- PS4 track detail/quality is equivalent to the high PC setting.
- PS4 car detail is equivalent to high with lod scaling between medium to high for the car shadows.
- Imposter reflections are activated on both consoles in the D1P after a concerted optimisation effort.
 

MaLDo

Member
A few corrections/updates to your analysis:

- PS4 uses EQAA(MSAA) and not FXAA.
- PS4 shadow detail is between the medium to high equivalent PC setting - more precisely PC medium shadow settings are 1024x4096 with 16 bit precision and PS4 is the same resolution but with 32 bit shadow precision.
- PS4 track detail/quality is equivalent to the high PC setting.
- PS4 car detail is equivalent to high with lod scaling between medium to high for the car shadows.
- Imposter reflections are activated on both consoles in the D1P after a concerted optimisation effort.

Thank you. Only a question, you're talking about final version, right? Because my analysis is for released videos in gamersryde and they don't match what you say in any way.
 
I haven't paid much attention to this before but I was just looking at the track list and saw a number of tracks like Catalunya and Laguna Seca have different names. Are they the actual track just without the licence for the name or are the tracks changed up a bit because of the licence issue as well like the fake Bathurst back in FM1?

Track names have changed quite a lot recently. Many were listed with fake names as licenses were not completed. However most now have the correct names.
 

Makikou

Member
Backed pCARS since end of 2011. Shame they didnt bother fixing their rather herpderp tire temperature modeling. Decided to polish the game out instead and still managed to left the car setup menu's super unclear.

I am not too impressed :( but hey, atleast it's much better than GT/Forza on consoles!

Edit1: Group A touring cars are still quite fun, i wish iRacing/AC had them too. R3E got them now but it's not as good as their '92 DTM expansion.
 
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