Project CARS 2 General Discussion Thread - Out Now on PS4/XB1/PC

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Hi, Ian. Just wanted to know how the engine audio is doing in pCARS2? I found some of the cars lacked a bit of a visceral edge in pCARS1, like grunts, growls and pops. The in-your-face stuff. Has much of the audio been re-recorded or tweaked for the sequel?

Also I remember watching (drooling over) 6-8 months of youtube build videos before the first game released, will users be allowed to post that stuff this time around?

Looking forward to the game and can't wait to get back in the BAC Mono!

We've completely changed our audio. We've moved to the fmod rev based system with custom plugins. Therefore we've had to recreate all of our base audio input for pCARS2. We have a wonderful team that are working overtime now to transform all of our extant audio to the new system. I think it sounds massively better for those cars that have been converted thus far. It's a case of polishing now. Those cars that are polished sound epic if I may say so :)
 
Thank you, happy to be here. This is a great forum.

Yes we did. The main issue we saw with pCARS1 was that the AI were excessively eager to drive into you under braking and in corners. We've had coders full time on this for the last 2 years working on the 'AI personalities' to make them more human. We've also worked hard on the 'sticking issue' where when you contact an AI driver you seem to lose input and you merrily understeer off together. This should be fixed.

With AI you will never create a perfect scenario in all conditions. They are not human after all. But what we have created is what we feel is a set of AI personalities that approach humanity without the downsides that we coded before.
Unreal. Thank you for continuing to respond and elaborate. 👍
 
Hi Ian. I know the chances are low, but can you please consider putting The Isle of Man and Dundrod into the game? They are two of the greatest tracks in the world. Do yourself a favor and drive some of the Formula 1 cars around those two tracks in 60's sim GPL to see what I mean.
 
Thank you, happy to be here. This is a great forum.

Yes we did. The main issue we saw with pCARS1 was that the AI were excessively eager to drive into you under braking and in corners. We've have coders full time on this for the last 2 years working on the 'AI personalities' to make them more human. We've also worked hard on the 'sticking issue' where when you contact an AI driver you seem to lose input and you merrily understeer off together. This should be fixed.

With AI you will never create a perfect scenario in all conditions. They are not human after all. But what we have created is what we feel is a set of AI personalities that approach humanity without the downsides that we coded before.
Yay, Thanks for replying !
That's cool, we'll all be happy to know that they kept their humanity. Can't wait to see that in action :-)
Will you let us *choose* 'personalities' (which would apply globally, or directly to each AI opponent) during race creation, through sliders or drop down menu for instance ?

[edit] for I forgot one word, *choose*, making my question weird O:-)
 
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Hi Ian. I know the chances are low, but can you please consider putting The Isle of Man and Dundrod into the game? They are two of the greatest tracks in the world. Do yourself a favor and drive some of the Formula 1 cars around those two tracks in 60's sim GPL to see what I mean.
I was born 2 miles from Dundrod in North West Belfast. So it holds a special place in my heart. About 17 years ago I actually created a virtual Dundrod in Max for my own jollies which I later passed to the nascent SimBin team I started in 2002. I'm not sure what happened to it but these days it would need some laser scanning :) I'll probably do it for nostalgia at some point.
 
Hello @IanBell, good to see some two-way talk going on here :)

I have a question regarding controller performance on console.

One thing I see a lot of racing games struggle with on console is the balance in performance between what a player can do on a controller compared to what they can do on a steering wheel. Depending on the game the steering, throttle or braking on a controller could be not sensitive enough, too sensitive or something similar (steering linearity etc.).

With Gran Turismo 6 I often felt a lot of understeer in non-tuned cars when driving on a controller for example. In F1 2016 (Xbox) the throttle wasn't sensitive enough for me to be able to drive without Traction Control. The only series that I have felt has gotten it right every time is Forza Motorsport, where the top controller players and top wheel players are largely on an even-footing in terms of potential laptime.

I haven't played Project CARS yet (it's coming up as a Games With Gold title so I'll download it) but from what my regular Forza friends have been saying it didn't perform too well with a controller unless you did a lot of tweaking in the advanced settings.

For Project CARS 2, will there be improvements in the "out of the box" settings for controllers, so that users won't have to dive deep into the advanced settings menus to get the most out of a controller?
 
Hello @IanBell, good to see some two-way talk going on here :)

I have a question regarding controller performance on console.

One thing I see a lot of racing games struggle with on console is the balance in performance between what a player can do on a controller compared to what they can do on a steering wheel. Depending on the game the steering, throttle or braking on a controller could be not sensitive enough, too sensitive or something similar (steering linearity etc.).

With Gran Turismo 6 I often felt a lot of understeer in non-tuned cars when driving on a controller for example. In F1 2016 (Xbox) the throttle wasn't sensitive enough for me to be able to drive without Traction Control. The only series that I have felt has gotten it right every time is Forza Motorsport, where the top controller players and top wheel players are largely on an even-footing in terms of potential laptime.

I haven't played Project CARS yet (it's coming up as a Games With Gold title so I'll download it) but from what my regular Forza friends have been saying it didn't perform too well with a controller unless you did a lot of tweaking in the advanced settings.

For Project CARS 2, will there be improvements in the "out of the box" settings for controllers, so that users won't have to dive deep into the advanced settings menus to get the most out of a controller?

This is a great question mainly because I have a great answer :)

We've massively reworked our pad input filters to try to pre-empt what the user wants to happen, in coordination with what actually happens in game. It's been rewritten from scratch and we've been influenced a lot by what our competitors do here.

What we want to happen is that we don't need to build in subtle understeer for controllability to allow the average person to enjoy the experience on a game pad. I personally have put away my wheel for pCARS2. I'm using a pad exclusively and I'm insisting that we retain the dynamics of the car but allow the player to control such things as sharp front end turn in and on the apex and on-throttle balance with full throttle oversteer and opposite lock controllability (if that makes sense)... That was our aim 2 year ago and I think we've achieved it. I think it's a very affirming experience for pad users now.
 
Yes. We have new physics and from that falls out new FFB. For this one we're shipping (as of now) 3 FFB preset options (we default 1 of course) that you can single click and get (hopefully!) the feel you prefer from the feedback. I'm biased but it's a huge step forward from the rocket science we had before. That rocket science is still hidden in sub menus and accessible for the more masochistic :)
This is good to know.

However, from what I understand, you're talking about general FFB here, am I right?


To complement this, I'd like to know if the FFB settings specific for each car will already be dialed in (and not all cars with the same 100/100/100/100 settings), according to how each car feels in real life?

I think this is important because a) on consoles it's a pain to introduce all the values to every single car and b) because, in my opinion, each car should come from the developers of the game already with its characteristic FFB dialled in - it should not be left for users to guess the feeling for each car.


Thanks in advance.
 
1. Not on consoles. The work (and expense) required is insane and we're not EA but we have worked our peer to peer system massively to improve the experience.
2. It depends on which wheel but we've rewritten the FFB and I suspect you'll be very happy.
3. Join in progress is a substantial area of work for us over the last 6 months so I'll be very disappointed if it's not greatly improved.
4. We think so... There will always be edge cases and no sim in history is free of 'physics explosions' but we've worked very hard with our team and with our thousand of users at WMD on this area and I haven't seen it occur for many months now.
Peer to peer will never work right on racing games every one who's connected to each other has got to have a good internet connection and this will never happen.. So p cars 2 is going to be a let down on consoles just like p cars 1
 
LIVERY Resolution
1 - Actual default size is 1024*1024, and have "Poorly defined textures and draws". i wish a default 2048*2048 size or 4096*4096. Will this be changed ?
RUMBLE:
2 - With Xbox-One gamepad rumble is available on Acceleration and Brake trigger or as actual on body.
Ex : On forza Motorsport, rumble is available on trigger and gives sensation.
Will this be changed ?
MISC.:
3 - Engine smoke or first rain are not visible in beginning from the cockpit, just from the external view.
Will this be changed ?.
HELPS:
4 - i think it's difficult to setup car. a "more complete" will be provided ?
 
Hi @IanBell first thanks for your time here on GTP....much appreciated!

I'm still enjoying your sim on PS4 and happy to now you will improve the FFB for the wheels.

On Pcars 1 the forced settings (no ability to change your car settings) on the lobbies wasn't working correctly... (cars on grid with different fuel levels, different tyres... Piting problems)... Will that be fixed for Pcars 2?

Can you give some information about the multiplayer how the good driver behaviour will be praised and the bad drivers "punished" by a behaviour system?

Sorry for my English, cause it isn't my native language.

Thanks in advance and I'm on the hype train for your Pcars 2
 
@IanBell

Thank you for the huge amount of information that you allready have provided.

Q1: Since we've seen rallycross and other interesting looking locations. Can you take any vehicle on any track in PCars2? Or will it be locked like Dirt Rally, where you can only take out the Rallycross cars on the Rallycross tracks?

Q2: Will there be a lobby setting where you can force the drivingline off, for all players in the lobby?
 
Peer to peer will never work right on racing games every one who's connected to each other has got to have a good internet connection and this will never happen.. So p cars 2 is going to be a let down on consoles just like p cars 1
You're negating the influence of our new rebroadcasting code.

We are shipping a dedicated server setup for PC and we're using Sony and Microsoft systems for consoles.
 
This is a great question mainly because I have a great answer :)

We've massively reworked our pad input filters to try to pre-empt what the user wants to happen, in coordination with what actually happens in game. It's been rewritten from scratch and we've been influenced a lot by what our competitors do here.

What we want to happen is that we don't need to build in subtle understeer for controllability to allow the average person to enjoy the experience on a game pad. I personally have put away my wheel for pCARS2. I'm using a pad exclusively and I'm insisting that we retain the dynamics of the car but allow the player to control such things as sharp front end turn in and on the apex and on-throttle balance with full throttle oversteer and opposite lock controllability (if that makes sense)... That was our aim 2 year ago and I think we've achieved it. I think it's a very affirming experience for pad users now.
You've just sold me on pCARS2 (even as a wheel owner). I really hope this is as good as you say here. :)
 
@IanBell

Thank you for the huge amount of information that you allready have provided.

Q1: Since we've seen rallycross and other interesting looking locations. Can you take any vehicle on any track in PCars2? Or will it be locked like Dirt Rally, where you can only take out the Rallycross cars on the Rallycross tracks?

Q2: Will there be a lobby setting where you can force the drivingline off, for all players in the lobby?

Yes, to some hilarious results occasionally.

Unsure. I'll get back to you on the second question.
 
Hi Ian,

Big fan of PCARS1! We ran a league last year but some players with slower connections had lots of issues with AI and other players teleporting and colliding with them or scenery. Even when we were using a DS.

Will PCARS2 have any new netcode that will address this? Cheers.
 
Hi Ian,

Big fan of PCARS1! We ran a league last year but some players with slower connections had lots of issues with AI and other players teleporting and colliding with them or scenery. Even when we were using a DS.

Will PCARS2 have any new netcode that will address this? Cheers.


Yes. We've greatly improved the interpolation and we're working with distant player throttling code. We're also working with ghosting players who have a very bad connection, within limits, before they're removed.
 
Hi Ian,

Thanks for answering questions here!

Great to see the Ferrari license in there, presumably Porsche is on the way and Lambo is clearly in there too (with a Blancpain race number no less). Does having that holy trinity of notoriously difficult to secure licenses offer more options for negotiations with real life race series?

Cheers,

Mike
 
Yes. We've greatly improved the interpolation and we're working with distant player throttling code. We're also working with ghosting players who have a very bad connection, within limits, before they're removed.

Thanks Ian, the ghosting would certainly be useful.
 
Hi Ian,

Thanks for answering questions here!

Great to see the Ferrari license in there, presumably Porsche is on the way and Lambo is clearly in there too (with a Blancpain race number no less). Does having that holy trinity of notoriously difficult to secure licenses offer more options for negotiations with real life race series?

Cheers,

Mike

I love how you worded that to get me to confirm the holy trinity subtly :)

Yes. We have all three.

You heard it here first.
 
I love how you worded that to get me to confirm the holy trinity subtly :)

Yes. We have all three.

You heard it here first.

Wow awesome news, thanks for responding. Personally I secretly hope for a cheeky licensed GT championship or two like you guys did with Shift 2. :sly:
 
This is good to know.

However, from what I understand, you're talking about general FFB here, am I right?


To complement this, I'd like to know if the FFB settings specific for each car will already be dialed in (and not all cars with the same 100/100/100/100 settings), according to how each car feels in real life?

I think this is important because a) on consoles it's a pain to introduce all the values to every single car and b) because, in my opinion, each car should come from the developers of the game already with its characteristic FFB dialled in - it should not be left for users to guess the feeling for each car.


Thanks in advance.

The FFB is transformed in pCARS2 and we have a one click three option 'feel' system (as of now, this may change) to allow you to get the feel you want instantly. The FFB should not need to be tailored per car. It should reflect the nuanced differences of each car.
 
hello Ian
Thanks for all the answers, and for the great work you are doing.

some questions:
1: you can change car setup during the race?

2: the problems have been resolved to the replay?

3: the maximum number of pilots per room will always be 16?

4: Contacts between the cars have been improved? (Snapping)

Thanks in advance...
 
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