official Project CARS - Community Assisted Racing Simulator

[LeviathanPT]

I think this needs some more context.

Yeah but i have no further info to fill it.

Still waiting for the devs to post an official announcement in the main page with the changes, so far the news have been spread all over the internal forums ^^

Pretty cool updates, and the fact that you're developing for PS4 is a bonus, if you can get this out in a stable format before the inevitable GT6 you're in for some serious dough! :p

Well if the rumours are correct GT6 is coming for PS3, so we will probably one of the first Racing games in the PS4. But beating GT6 is hard, they surely will have alot more cars than we will and people like GT mostly because they can collect them ^^

[HawkMan]

Well as it is right now I have no idea what any of all that was about.

[LeviathanPT]

Ah darn i thought i posted the Eurogamer article here, my bad. Check out this article HawkMan and you will understand: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-04-18-driving-ambition-pcars-crowdfunding-and-the-fsa

[TruckWEB]

I just want to play that game!!! I want IN! Darn...

[LeviathanPT]

I just want to play that game!!! I want IN! Darn...

Now that the FSA issue is solved that chance is closer than ever ^^

[SMELTN]

ok ok, so you have my attention. Whats the cost of this game? Is it out yet? Give me details!!

[LeviathanPT]

ok ok, so you have my attention. Whats the cost of this game? Is it out yet? Give me details!!

This is a game that is still under development, currently a pre-alpha state that you can only access if you help with the funding (currently closed), it will be out in 2014 for PC, PS3, Xbox360, Wii U, PS4 .

More details on the pre-alpha access in the upcoming weeks.

[Chasethebase Veteran]

Thanks for linking that article, good to hear you've got that all sorted and cleared up. I hope the game does well :)

[Dreamspell]

I'm excited for this, I loved Shift 1 and 2. Any plans for Oculus Rift support?

[LeviathanPT]

I believe the oculus rift support will come, currently they are waiting for their dev kit.

[Andre S. Veteran]

This is a game that is still under development, currently a pre-alpha state that you can only access if you help with the funding (currently closed)

Only pre-alpha?! That should mean no release this year then. You guys are killing me.

[LeviathanPT]

Yes due to the FSA issue, the devs couldnt take more fundings in and the time had to be stretched, the release is likely to be in 2014.

[LeviathanPT]

Hi everyone,

So after the turbulence created by the big news of last weeks there's usually a calm, at least this is what you would expect... but i must say the fun never ends with Project CARS, so lets dig into the new stuff!

As you read last week, Mercedes is now officially licensed and to celebrate the developers released the first export (read as early WIP) of the Mercedes SLS AMG GT3.

As you might notice, for a early export it looks already really good, sadly theres no cockpit images as its still lacking a lot of detail but that will come out eventually.

Besides the new vehicle theres also some pretty hot stuff, so hot we only heard about it today, Oculus Rift Dev Kit has just arrived at the Studios and the PC Render Coder is already fiddling with it, expect exciting news SMSoon!

The community has also been attacking strongly the API and have been developing some pretty amazing apps for everyone to use, you can find some videos through Youtube and there's already an Android version available for the public to test @ Google Play Store

To finish this up here's another amazing video by Jonz showcasing one of the biggest multiplayer events in Project CARS:

Hope you guys have enjoyed the new info, have a great weekend!

[+Warwagon MVC]

Oculus Rift support?

[LeviathanPT]

It will come eventually, its only a matter of time now since they have the dev kit in their hands ^^.

[Nilus]

Oh man I can't believe I just found out about this game and its too late to get involved :/

[LeviathanPT]

A new month has begun and with it comes some great news about Project CARS development that i believe you will enjoy.

Two new tracks were announced, Old Northampton (Historic Silverstone ?75) and Fort Felix (fictitious). The last one looks just fabulous and has been the stage of some amazing screenshot sessions by the community as you can see below.

There have been also a lot of amazing new implementations in terms of physics and car behavior into the game that have changed the feeling and the way the cars respond greatly.

Penalty Systems (Ballast Weight): Is a weight ballast system for performance balancing of cars/players, particularly in MP but also for single player stuff as well, they will allow cars with different performance levels to compete with each other in a much more balanced way.

There will be 2 modes:

Manual - Ballast can be added to balance the performance of cars when setting up an event/championship for single and multiplayer modes by the event creator. Ballast weight can be added up to a maximum defined for each vehicle in 1kg steps.

Automatic - Additional weight will be added to a player?s vehicle, up to a pre-defined maximum, based on previous race results in a series/championship/group of races in either single or multiplayer mode. This weight penalty would not have an effect outside of the specific series where Success Ballast is set to be active.

Air Pressure and Altitude Based Air Temp ? Now it?s possible to generate air pressure (pa) and altitude base air temp based on altitude of the track. This will affect your car performance greatly depending on the track height which adds more realism into the game.

Volumetric Throttle System ? This is a new feature that calculates torque output using an approximated manifold pressure. Side effects include air restrictor effects, possible better metrics for sound system to use, fun engine response changes with the atmosphere among other things. One of the things it will also do is change the 'neutral' throttle position - where the engine is producing zero net torque - to be much lower in the pedal's travel. You'll have much better precision over the torque and the sensitivity curve will change naturally through the rpm range. A great side effect is that you get much more of a feel for the clutch bite point from standstill. Because you have a certain amount of air going in to the engine at idle and air is directly related to torque, as the clutch starts to bite and rpm drops the air available produces more torque.

Brake Mapping - This controls the level of engine braking and is a fairly abstract value. Think of it like a vacuum line connected to the throttle, so that it opens up more at high rpm to relieve some of the intake manifold vacuum (the major source of engine braking torque). All you really need to know is that 0=lots of engine braking and 10+=very little engine braking.

Restrictor Size - This changes the size of the restrictors/throttle bodies on the engine to control the amount of power produced. This will ultimately move out of the setup screen and become part of the event setup, only adjustable by the event administrator. For now it needs to be somewhere everyone can work with for testing. As a result it's possible to create a 600hp Asano X4, for example. Honor system will be required for multiplayer with these cars. Do play around with this on the cars that have it enabled. A particularly cool one is the Caper stock car which has a minimum restrictor size similar to what was used at restrictor plate tracks in 1990. You'll notice that not only does the power level reduce from 650 to 400hp, but it also moves down to a much lower rpm simulating the choking effect of the smaller air aperture. Cool stuff.

So as you can see, all these features will work together, gone is the time of the large 'deadzone' when you start to press the pedal; the engine starts producing positive torque very quickly now and you will have a much larger range for modulation.

Snappier throttle response at low rpm. A car's peak power may vary a bit from track to track. This is because we now use ambient air pressure as part of the engine torque calculations, so things like elevation and weather will have an impact on engine performance.

A improved tire model was also included, it?s a non-race able version currently, that allows us to see how flat spotting will work in the future and so far the results have been great !

Amongst these changes there have been some new info about Project CARS moving to Steam in the near future allowing everyone to access all the great features that Steam allows:

For those unaware, here are some of the benefits of the Steamworks platform:

Authentication

Friends system

Invitation system

Achievements

Matchmaking

Ranking system

Leaderboards

Ghost storage for all players

VOIP

DLC packages

Community portal

Digital delivery and automatic updates

These are just some of the great features and benefits but there will be more.

That's all for now, here's some images and videos for you to check out, also be sure to join us at our Steam Group for the latest news and info about pCARS.

[MightyJordan]

They're moving to Steam?! :woot:

[Evolution]

Does anyone know what the current graphics/system requirements are? What would I need for at minimum 40 fps at 1680x1050?

[MightyJordan]

Does anyone know what the current graphics/system requirements are? What would I need for at minimum 40 fps at 1680x1050?

According to this thread, the minimum specs are as follows...

CPU - 3.0GHz Dual-Core / 2.4GHz Quad-Core

Graphics - NVIDIA 9600 GT 512MB / ATI Radeon HD 4750 512MB

RAM - 2GB (3GB-4GB recommended)

[LeviathanPT]

The requirements change at a monthly basis with new features, currently to be able to run at that resolution with maxed out settings a Quad-Core processor with a 570GTX should be enough.

[Andre S. Veteran]

Is it just me or the physics look somewhat too "floaty"? Perhaps it's just the relative lack of camera shake vs real on-board cam views.

[LeviathanPT]

Camera movements are something really subjective to each one taste and the game currently allows each one to adjust it at their own taste.

My camera doesnt act like the one in the video and i also use speed sensitivity to increase a bit of sense of speed, currently i only have this small video available but ill be sure to record something with the Capri this week.

http://youtu.be/kphZfGb3tUI

The developers also announced that there are some further changes coming in the following months for the camera system.

[LeviathanPT]

Another month, another update on Project CARS.

Nicolas Hamilton, brother of Lewis Hamilton, visited recently the Slightly Mad Studios and met with the developers, eager to get more hands-on with the Project CARS title and having always wanted to make a video game, Nicolas joined the developers for an informative and entertaining afternoon at their studio near Tower Bridge, London.
During his time with the developers they discussed his time in the Renault Clio UK Cup, his current participation in the European Touring Car Cup, and how his experience on the track translates directly into the game.
Nicolas grew up with his brother Lewis playing on some of the previous highly-acclaimed SMS titles GTR and GTR2 and has been an active member of the WMD community since November last year giving valuable feedback and suggestions since joining (WMD members can check out Nic?s thread right here).

 

 

Project CARS, from today onwards is integrated with Steam for every member of the Project CARS Community.
All the current members can access Project CARS by getting their personal key from their official forum profile and adding it to steam, there?s still a lot of work to do before we can say it has a full integration (ex: with multiplayer features) but we are on the right track and this represents a big step forward in the development.

Along with these great news, the development in terms of sound and visuals has been progressing quite nicely, currently there not much I can show you in this area but in the next update I?ll be sure to post some new images.
Modders now have the ability to make their own driver suits and helmet designs, the community already started making some crazy outfits and helmet designs.

To end this up, here? s an amazing new trailer by Jonz.

[Andre S. Veteran]

This game looks so good it's silly. I hope my Haswell/dual GTX 760s build will be up to the challenge.