Project Cars

[DChaps]

PC Gamer Review - 83

Not really much depth in this first review, but overall positive.

http://www.pcgamer.com/project-cars-2/? ... 0&ns_fee=0

It’s the most polished racer I’ve played in a while, for sure. While contemporaries like Codemasters have struggled to deliver a game worthy of the most up to date graphical expectations with its F1 series, Project CARS really shines. The engine that Slightly Mad has built is impressive, from the interior detail on all 60 or so cars to the environmental design on every single one of its many varied circuits across the globe.......
It’s crystal clear that Slightly Mad knows what its hardcore audience wants, and I’m really happy that it stuck to its guns in order to deliver it. That’s pretty rare nowadays, especially when your vision comes at the expense of wider audience appeal. With more content on the way and a hardcore community already set to get involved in its 24-player lobbies, I’m really looking forward to seeing how this game evolves over the next few weeks and months.

From virtualr.net the official release trailer and info:

http://www.virtualr.net/project-cars-la ... r-revealed

The trailer shows off the broad scope of content in the simulation that has been funded and developed by using the studio’s innovate World of Mass Development portal since 2011.

The music in the video trailer has been provided by famous electronic musics producer deadmau5, who’s among the many people around the world that are waiting to get their hands on Slightly Mad Studios’ much-discussed and much-anticipated title!

Project CARS will be available starting May 7 (Europe & Australasia), May 8 (UK) & May 12 (US & Canada), the PC Steam version will be released across all territories on May 7.

Features

-The largest track roster of any recent racing game with 110+ unique locations
-A wide variety of motorsports including GT, Touring, Le Mans Prototypes, Karts, and modern Open Wheel and 80+ cars available at launch
-Dynamic weather, pit stops, and pit strategy creation
-Dynamic time of day and endurance races including the Le Mans 24H
-World-class graphics running at 60 fps with up to 45 drivers onscreen
-Next-gen physics running at 600 fps and deep telemetry & tuning features
-Competitive multiplayer for up to 16 players and the ability to create public, private and friend-based lobbies with ‘Join In Progress’
-Asynchronous Time Trial with downloadable ghosts
-Regularly-scheduled community events
-Social connectivity with photo and replay modes powered by The Driver Network
-Support for 30+ wheels, community apps, and virtual reality via Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus
-Continual updates and further content after launch

[TCrouch]

IGN was pretty good, too. A buddy has the PS4 and XB1 versions for review and he's streaming it now. Looks solid.

Steam version unlocks this evening, so I know what I'll be doing all night.

[DChaps]

IGN was pretty good, too. A buddy has the PS4 and XB1 versions for review and he's streaming it now. Looks solid.

Steam version unlocks this evening, so I know what I'll be doing all night.

Sadly, after being part of the beta development program since 2011, my PC will no longer run the most recent builds of Project Cars, so I already have the Xbox One version pre-downloaded and ready to go.

I already bought the Dirt Rally early release, and my PC can't run that either. Guess it's time to get a new PC!

[TCrouch]

Yeah that's not good. Time to pull the trigger, Don!

[GB_Simo]

My XB1 pre-order arrived in the post today, but I need more time with it before I really know what to say. Very early impressions all revolve around the word "twitchy" and it being bastard hard to stay on the track but I'm not sure whether that's my fault or the game's fault.

More to come at some point soon. I can try to answer any questions you might have too, once I'm done crashing into things.

[DChaps]

How does the frame rate and overall graphics compare to Forza 5?

[DChaps]

Games Radar has a good review of the Xbox One version of Project Cars. Below are some highlights. The good news is that I am very confident that any bugs will be addressed. This team is dedicated to this for the long haul. I was concerned that the Xbox One version might get the short straw compared to PC and PS4, but is sounds like visually and frame rate wise it is working well, at least according to this review. If I am able to get my PC version going tonight I will try to do comparisons between the platforms at least with regards to the bugs and AI issues mentioned.

http://www.gamesradar.com/project-cars-review/

When it all works, Project CARS is so good, it may as well be reality.

Even with 30 exquisitely-detailed cars jostling for position around this magnificent, sunshine-drenched, HD circuit, the frame-rate remained smooth and the overall effect equal to real life.

If you've ever been to a real race track, you'll know that they're nothing like TV would have you believe. It's surprising how 'outdoorsy' they feel. You are, after all, standing in a field, looking at a ribbon of tarmac surrounded by piles of tyres and concrete kerbs. It's actually much less glamorous than you expect… but then a racing car zooms by and something undeniably magical happens. It's this 'real' experience that's reproduced in Project CARS, and there's nothing even remotely video gamey about it.

So how is that driving? Well, in a word: difficult.

Even though the difficulty is so punishing, I would recommend gritting your teeth and just having another go, rather than lowering the settings. Because each time you shave something from that core simulation, the more you compromise the experience.

Project CARS goes to such great lengths to simulate every aspect of driving a racing car, it deserves to be played properly. And when you do qualify first and convert it into a win, it feels amazing.

There are more small annoyances everywhere you look.

Considering the fact that the game's target audience is the kind that uses manual gears, the default pad calibration is all kinds of bonkers.

Similarly brow-furrowing is the abundance of bugs.

Prior to release, it was noted that the console versions have PC-style graphics settings. The same is true of the final game. But while you can toggle special effects in the options, such as post-processing, lens flares and crepuscular effects, they're all switched on by default except for heat haze. And the frame rate is fine. Nothing to worry about there, then.

There are two important questions that I feel I need to address. Firstly, as I know you're wondering: is it actually fun? Answer: hell, yes.

Secondly: Will everyone find it fun? Answer: hell, no. You need a certain mindset to get the most out of Project CARS. You need patience, discipline, knowledge of racing theory or at the very least a willingness to learn.

Personally, I love that approach. And the game is undoubtedly made for people like me. It is a landmark for racing sims. Whereas Gran Turismo 6 managed to fool my brain for a few seconds into thinking I was looking at reality, this has entire minutes of perfection where I simply can't believe my eyes. If only it were a little more polished and consistently awesome, it would be a classic.

When it works, Project CARS is unbelievably good. But overly-aggressive AI, odd collision physics, imperfect pad controls and several bugs mean it's just shy of greatness.

[TCrouch]

Like many other reviews I've seen around, it's tough for me to put much stock in what they say when they're using a gamepad. I know, I know, a lot of people do, but when they mention about how it's tuned for "reality", that means it's not tuned for a gamepad. I won't know for a few more hours what I think, but watching some streams this morning, it looked very twitchy on the default controller.

Tough to judge anything that tries to be realistic based on how it controls with a gamepad. I'll beat that dead horse all day.

[DChaps]

Wow, there is already a very nice bench marking comparison between the PS4 and XBox One. PS4 wins out, but it looks like Project Cars has the potential depending on settings to bring either console down to the 30fps range. Still overall sounds promising given how much Project Cars has going on (More AI cars, dynamic weather, dynamic day/night, etc.)

Performance Analysis: Project Cars
PS4 and Xbox One frame-rates - plus a look at the game's visual effects settings menu.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digit ... e-analysis

In early career mode races with a car count of 20, Digital Foundry typically saw 50-60fps on both platforms, with the drops occurring when more cars were on-screen. They add, “It’s a modest test, but overall PS4 hits this peak 60fps figure sooner than Xbox One, and holds it for longer without resorting to drops and screen-tear.”

In a stress test on solo mode, which included rain, 45 cars, and more on the 24 Hours of Le Mans circuit, the two consoles are similar at around 35fps. Switching to tracks like Imola and Azure Coast and lowering the car count to 31, the PS4 version rarely dropped to 30fps, and sometimes carried a 15fps advantage over Xbox One.

We intend to look into Project Cars visuals in greater depth with the upcoming Face-Off, but certain points bear mention right now. Firstly, Xbox One still retains a curious advantage in texture filtering, where static screens show PS4's roads blurring over at a closer proximity. Added to that we also see the same motion blur effect on PS4 as before, with moving objects producing an unusual banding behind them - while Xbox One's blur is more refined (UPDATE 6/5/15 8:16pm: Slightly Mad says that the PS4 artifact is an additional temporal component to its anti-aliasing). Even on update 1.01, these are two areas that remain unchanged from when we last saw Project Cars in action, and similarly, PlayStation 4 retains a quality advantage in its rendering of shadows.

The side-effect of pushing the engine to such an extreme is a bizarre one: the differential we see between PS4 and Xbox One in most races begins to disappear. With all vehicles visible ahead on Le Mans, both consoles lurk around 35fps on this circuit as we pass the stands, and frame-rates remain neck-and-neck until we cross the finish line. Given the PS4's strengths on the GPU side, there is an evident trail-off in its benefits with so many cars on screen. In this case, a CPU bottleneck is the likely culprit given the commonality in this area between the two consoles.

By comparison, tracks like Imola and Azure Coast show a clear PS4 advantage, even with the car count cranked up to a lesser 31 and weather effects engaged. In this case Sony's platform glances the 30fps line only briefly as its very worst case, while Xbox One slips just below it. Elsewhere the margin is as wide as 15fps in favour of PS4, and the heavy alpha effects used for rain sees the Xbox One buckling more noticeably. It's an expected outcome given the sheer scale of the task, and impressive in the context of what Project Cars is doing over and above other console racing games.

[DChaps]

At some point I will get off my lazy butt and post my reviews and experience with the Project Cars development life cycle. Overall, it is an awesome example of how the internet, crowd-funding, a dedicated development team, and a passionate niche community can help to make a great product come to life that otherwise would never have seen the light of day from the traditional publishing houses. I am proud of Slightly Mad Studios and the Racing Sim Community that got this game out the door. Project Cars is an ambitious "project" and truly is still a work in progress that I believe will only get better. That said, it is not yet going to have me cancel my iRacing membership and stop playing the Forza series. This review linked below actually gives a very good summary of how I would rate this sim, at this point in time. I am really excited to see if it will allow us to reignite our former DSP TOCA League races with qualifying, pit stops, AI, etc. The options will all be there, the question is will us old farts still be there?

http://www.trustedreviews.com/project-cars-review

Perhaps the biggest criticism you can aim at Project Cars is that it tries to be all things to all racing game fans....

It tries its best to please everyone through a mixture of in-depth configuration options and variety of cars and tracks, but it’s a little muddled and inconsistent as a result. We love Project Cars, but we can’t stop thinking that Slightly Mad Studios bit off more than it can chew....

Still, let’s start by praising all the good stuff. Like those old Codemasters racers this is a racing game with all the nonsense stripped away. You’re not here to fill your garage, earn style points or build a better, faster Mustang; you’re here to sign up for championship seasons, enter races, qualify high and finish higher. The Career mode plays like the old Race Driver career mode, but with all the old cut-scene chuffing filtered out....

What’s more, it all looks magnificent. Right now this is the best-looking racer around (sorry Forza Horizon 2), crammed with beautiful cars, gorgeous, detailed scenery, rich, naturalistic lighting and superb weather effects. It’s cockpit views might not be the last word in authenticity, but they’re impressively immersive, going one better than rivals with a helmet cam that begs for a VR racing setup. The great thing about Slightly Mad’s last game – Need for Speed: Shift 2 – was that it made racing such a visceral experience, conveying the impression that you were being knocked around in the seat of a stripped-back sportscar, just inches from catastrophe at any time. Project Cars manages the exact same thing, then does it better....

You can adjust everything from race lengths to pit stop strategies and car setups, or simply coast from event to event with the tyre wear and damage dialled down, taking pit stops when you’re called in. It’s up to you....

All the same, this isn’t the Forza-killer we hoped it might be. In some respects that comes down to the handling. It’s not so much that it’s dull – though it sometimes is – or that it’s weirdly skittery – which it sometimes is – but that it’s just so inconsistent. With some disciplines, some tracks and some vehicles you’ll struggle to keep your vehicle going in a straight line. Touch the edge of the track, you’re off. Brake slightly too late on your way into a turn, you’re off. Get tapped on the rear corner by a rival racer and – you guessed it – you’re off. It drives you mad.

Then you race a similar vehicle on a similar track, and the handling seems to go the other way. You feel almost glued to the track. You qualify first, start the race and barely see another driver all-race-long. Sure, the frustration has gone, but so have the thrills.....

Let’s not go overboard. When it settles down – or you settle into it – the handling is very good. It’s just that where Forza seems to have found a happy halfway house between authenticity and tyre-squealing, back-end sliding thrills, Project Cars can feel like it’s giving you a choice between dumbed-down racer and more hardcore sim. Those who love GTR and Assetto Corza may be in hog heaven, but – for some of us – this will mean Forza still comes out on top.

[GB_Simo]

Don, the Digital Foundry analysis sounds about right to me. There are drops in frame rate on XB1 which are large enough that I can register them (I'm not usually all that sensitive to dropped frames and so on), but I haven't had anything yet that's been too dramatic. I've noticed some tearing and on the Azure Circuit, which is Monaco in all but name, I've had what I'd describe as very mild judder coming through the tunnel. That was in a qualifying session with 26 cars, though, so I'd given the game plenty to think about. I've always found Forza 5 to be butter-smooth in motion and it's a fact that Project Cars is less smooth, but it's nothing that's caused me any great upset and I've usually been asking the game to draw an awful lot more - it managed 30 cars going down the Craner Curves at Donington without any obvious difficulty, for example.

Terry's right that it's not tuned for a gamepad, but there's more to it than just the idea of it being developed with wheels in mind. The triggers are absolutely fine for accelerating and braking, but the best I've managed to achieve with the steering is still not really satisfactory. By default, the steering doesn't utilise the full range of the thumb stick's travel, which is what makes everything you're seeing from controller users look so twitchy. In both directions, the car is on what seems to be full lock at just under half the thumbstick's range of travel and everything after that is basically dead space. With all of the car's steering lock condensed into a few millimetres of stick movement, it's tricky to get the right amount of steering input when things are going well and trickier still to gauge how much opposite lock you need when things are going less well. You can get around this to some extent by being very gentle and smooth on the left stick (though it's always an issue when you're on cold tyres, which seem to take an eternity to warm up for me but not for the AI) but the quicker the car, the bigger the issue I have keeping everything pointed straight. If there's a way of tweaking the in-game settings to utilise the rest of the left stick's travel, that'll make things much less twitchy and more controllable, though I haven't found that way yet.

An odd gremlin I experienced earlier: I had 3 tries at getting the Marek LMP2 car to the end of a 6 lap race on the Watkins Glen Short circuit. I blew the engine on the first 2 attempts and while I made it home safely on take 3, I'd had water temperature lights flashing on the dashboard from lap 2 and oil temperature lights from lap 4. The temps just skyrocketed whenever I accelerated - I even deliberately shifted up a thousand revs early on attempt 3 just to make absolutely certain I wasn't mistreating the car. Whether that car has shipped with a default setup that trashes the motor or whether I got some sort of quirky bug, I know not, but it was very peculiar.

I'm aware this post is thunderingly negative, so should really point out that when it's good, it's really good. The AI are racy enough to provide entertainment but seem generally to know when it's time to lift off and stop fighting, which is pleasing. They also don't mess about when you're getting blue flags and being told to let them past - Codemasters F1 games in particular suffer from AI that can't tell when you've pulled aside for them and just sort of bumbles along behind you for a bit, where the PCARS AI doesn't hesitate. They do have an odd tendency to leave other cars a bit too much room, to the extent that if you have a look on the inside under braking for certain corners, your rival will drive off the road to give you (or another AI car) space, but apart from that and the midfield being a very alarming place to be at the start, they're very raceable. If you hit that sweet spot, with a car you can manage on a track with passing opportunities, Project Cars is an absolute ball. I do worry, though, that console gamers without a wheel might, on XB1 at least, find that access to the ball is blocked by their left thumb stick.

I'll keep trying, though. Looking forward to some more impressions of the PC version with a wheel from those who can - I suspect I'll end up going in that direction instead.

[dbdynsty25]

I'll keep trying, though. Looking forward to some more impressions of the PC version with a wheel from those who can - I suspect I'll end up going in that direction instead.

Yeah I guess I am going to start leaning that way too. Hate hearing how bad games look on competing consoles when I've got a highly spec'd PC sitting right next to them. Ugh. Not like us West-Coasters w/ kids have time to play online w/ the rest of the crew, so that's really not a deciding factor.

[pk500]

Simply Mad is making a HUGE mistake if it's catering to the wheel crowd with the console version of Project Cars. I would guess that less than 20 percent of console racing gamers use a wheel.

Idiotic.

[10spro]

Simply Mad is making a HUGE mistake if it's catering to the wheel crowd with the console version of Project Cars. I would guess that less than 20 percent of console racing gamers use a wheel.

Idiotic.

Indeed. In fact I am contemplating whether I should cancel my pre-order (it's already pre-loaded, so I don't know how) and must as well go for the prettier version on the PS4.

[DChaps]

There are a many threads in the WMD forums on Xbox One and 360 Controller setup for the PC, although I don't know that it transfers to the console. I will try to post some of that info here, as I think you need a login to get to these older threads. I know ALOT of discussion and modifications went into the controller aspect for consoles. It was definitely not ignored, and I would say it is more likely a heavy focus of the console development. That said, I did not have any visibility into those builds and I always use a wheel on PC, so never tried the gamepad stuff. Here is one of the videos I was pointed to, but it does reference builds from last summer, so your mileage may vary. I would not give up on it yet.

For the video above: "Build 867. These settings should work well with most gamepads and are a good ground for further tweaking based on your personal preference. I am using an XBOX 360 controller. I'm also showing you a lap using the Mclaren MP4-12C GT3 at Monza so you can see how it behaves using these settings (all assists disabled).
The steering isn't twitchy, you can approach both slow and fast corners without any issues."

Post from the WMD forums: Hey Jerry and people, I've seen a lot of requests about explaining the controller modes (and how the game feels with pad overall, which I certainly feel like it's pretty great with the Mode 3) and I tried searching this topic, but it's a bit too bloated for me to find that information quickly (having a bit of a crunch with our own game atm due to a conference deadline) so could someone explain the differences in the modes and the advanced setting so I can help people not on WMD?

Which brings me to another part; I personally feel that given how important the controller modes are I think they would be better suited at the top of the controller configuration and there should be some explanations for them given that console players especially won't be the ones going to internet to find answers. I also personally feel like the Mode 3 should be the default as it's the closest in feel to comparable games easing the learning curve for the "mainstream" players. But then again, it's very much up to personal taste and I feel like all modes are certainly viable options.

Apologies for being this late with my post and not being here to provide my opinion when it would have been more useful; I simply haven't even had the time to play the game, but I'll do my best to inform our non-WMD fans on how to tune the control to their taste. Having played the game for over 3 years with a pad I do feel like the support has improved by miles since the start though.

[dbdynsty25]

Grabbed the PC version, and just ran a few laps w/ my 360 controller...it's definitely twitchy as Simo suggested. But damn do the cars feel good. Nice and weighty...never really have felt that before in a racer. They really feel good. Need to get out my wheel now I suppose.

Graphics are ridiculously good, just like Dirt Rally...impressive work by these developers.

[pk500]

Thanks, Don. I'm definitely not giving up on this game. It's been my most anticipated title for at least six months.

[DChaps]

Thanks, Don. I'm definitely not giving up on this game. It's been my most anticipated title for at least six months.

I will be honest I had never paid much attention to the gamepad discussions during development. Apparently, it was a very hot topic and continues to be (threads well over 300 pages). I will say based on what I have read since last night, that it will not equal Forza 5's implementation of the Xbox One controller with the feedback in the triggers, etc. That seems to be the pinnacle. Hopefully, this is not a game killer for our DSP crowd. As there is more info on how best to configure, I will post links or quotes, but ideally it would not require a lot of tweaking. That is annoying. On the other hand, I probably tweak my wheel controller/FFB settings in iRacing on a weekly basis. The good and the bad of offering customization is that I always think I can make it just a little better. Sometimes I would rather just have to stick with something and either learn to like it, or give up.

[Rodster]

I'm trying out the PC version before I buy it on Steam. Anyone get the PS4 version?

[TCrouch]

Console versions don't release until next week, but some reviewers have the PS4/XB1 versions already.

[Rodster]

Console versions don't release until next week, but some reviewers have the PS4/XB1 versions already.

Thanks !

[pk500]

Don:

FFB for the triggers isn't essential for me. I am a former iRacing subscriber, so the FFB offered through any console title never will match the exquisite feel of iRacing through a G25.

But steering sensitivity is a big deal. I want consistent, smooth control with a gamepad. I want the cars to be a handful to drive, but Adam's comments about the tiny range of motion and large dead zones with the stick scare me.

Hopefully I can find a sweet spot, or I'll ditch this game quicker than a six-wheeled Tyrrell.

[DChaps]

But steering sensitivity is a big deal. I want consistent, smooth control with a gamepad. I want the cars to be a handful to drive, but Adam's comments about the tiny range of motion and large dead zones with the stick scare me.

Yep, I hear you on that. I hate using gamepad's for racing games these days (I am spoiled and not coordinated enough), but the last few Forza titles, and even Codemasters F1 titles, were very playable and smooth using the 360 controller. I do hope that there is a sweet spot found as well, or it is something that can be patched. Worst case scenario, Forza 6 is not too far away!

[DChaps]

The public Project Cars forums are now open for business:

http://forum.projectcarsgame.com/forum.php

[TCrouch]

Here is one of the videos I was pointed to, but it does reference builds from last summer, so your mileage may vary. I would not give up on it yet.

These settings are money. I plugged in a XB1 pad and easily went from 23rd on the grid to a 7th place finish in GT4 cars at Road America in 4 laps (only 80% AI, the default).

I then took the Formula Rookies around Willow Springs, and it was great. The Group 5 cars were a little scarier around Laguna Seca, but I wrecked due to dropping the hammer too hard off of a corner. Not from twitchiness.

I will say that anybody using these with Project Cars will find a lot of similarities to how Forza handles on a XB1 controller.