Project CARS 3: General Discussion Thread - Out August 28th, 2020 on XB1/PS4/PC

[Northstar]

LOD is usually distance based, so for example that’s the cause of pop in and also cars having a lot less detail the farther they are from you. Here the cars in the pause menu are at the same distance as when I unpause. Also the jaggies and pixelation goes away when paused. I have a suspicion it may be some kind of an issue with their implementation of AA that makes it worse during racing.

Games usually have several different internal settings for LoD depending on what exactly is going on. Static situations usually have a higher LoD as there is more resources to devote to graphics. Some games are better than others as disguising the transition between the different levels.

 

[FuriousDemon]

Games usually have several different internal settings for LoD depending on what exactly is going on. Static situations usually have a higher LoD as there is more resources to devote to graphics. Some games are better than others as disguising the transition between the different levels.

I still doubt it’s LOD scaling and either AA issue or heavy adaptive resolution downscaling during the race. It doesn’t look like the car models take that big of a hit but pixelation and jaggedness increases a lot when in race.

 

[slthree]

Umm, am I the only one who doesn't know what l o d means?

 

[Northstar]

Umm, am I the only one who doesn't know what l o d means?

Level of Detail.

 

[Ak1504]

 

[cosme]

Wow that was hard. Road D, Silverstone Stowe, pace setters. Spent around 1,5 hours beating it. Tried Aston Martin first, but quickly realised I needed something with better handling. Alpine with 399 PIR didn't help at first. I was able to dramatically improve my lap times, but still was almost one second off the 00:56 target. Reset all the upgrades to stock and tried to max out other things, like brakes, suspension and especially weight reduction. Helped a lot, plus after such a long time I finally found the best way around a track.

My nerves were on the verge, but still an amazing challenge. Finding the best way to beat it was a journey on its own.

PS
Anyone knows where I can find a bit more info on this Stowe Circuit? Why it's called this way, some trivia, stuff like that? Quick google search gave me almost nothing.

 

[FuriousDemon]

Wow that was hard. Road D, Silverstone Stowe, pace setters. Spent around 1,5 hours beating it. Tried Aston Martin first, but quickly realised I needed something with better handling. Alpine with 399 PIR didn't help at first. I was able to dramatically improve my lap times, but still was almost one second off the 00:56 target. Reset all the upgrades to stock and tried to max out other things, like brakes, suspension and especially weight reduction. Helped a lot, plus after such a long time I finally found the best way around a track.

My nerves were on the verge, but still an amazing challenge. Finding the best way to beat it was a journey on its own.

View attachment 953383

Yeah, these are my favorite kinds of events. It feels great once you actually beat them or once you climb to a higher tier when playing Rivals.

 

[Scaff]

Wow that was hard. Road D, Silverstone Stowe, pace setters. Spent around 1,5 hours beating it. Tried Aston Martin first, but quickly realised I needed something with better handling. Alpine with 399 PIR didn't help at first. I was able to dramatically improve my lap times, but still was almost one second off the 00:56 target. Reset all the upgrades to stock and tried to max out other things, like brakes, suspension and especially weight reduction. Helped a lot, plus after such a long time I finally found the best way around a track.

My nerves were on the verge, but still an amazing challenge. Finding the best way to beat it was a journey on its own.

PS
Anyone knows where I can find a bit more info on this Stowe Circuit? Why it's called this way, some trivia, stuff like that? Quick google search gave me almost nothing.

View attachment 953383

Stowe is a Small circuit inside Silverstone and is named after Stowe corner, which in turn is named after Stowe school which is just south of the circuit.

Is this Sim Racing's Most Unloved Track?

 

[slthree]

Level of Detail.

Thank you good sir!

 

[Chikane_GTR]

A few fun facts

Spoiler

At Level 11 you only get 20K credits

Spoiler

When you get a car to car level 95 all upgrades for that car are 100% off which means all the upgrades for that car are FREE

👍

 

[NLxAROSA]

When you get a car to car level 95 all upgrades for that car are 100% off which means all the upgrades for that car are FREE [/SPOILER]
👍

Spoiler

I would assume that by level 95 you'd have it maxxed anyway.

 

[MagpieRacer]

For those struggling with graphics/frame rate/framed drops etc on consoles, turn off hud shake and camera shake.

 

[PJTierney]

I swear that Viper from today’s Rivals wanted to kill me.

Looking at the boards on Xbox there were no “non assist” wheel players in Platinum, and the majority of the board was pad. I dragged that thing to top of Gold though, happy with that.

 

[Marqus]

What I've learned so far: If there is a choice between a tyre stage upgrade and a weight reduction stage, go with the weight reduction and make up the PIR difference with a suspension stage upgrade.

Go with weight reduction in general, for that matter.

 

[Ske]

Wheel users: How does handling/feel/ffb compare to GTS/FM7 with assists off?

If anyone else is wondering, here's my 2 cents after just a few races.
Not willing to break the 2-hour mark just yet as I'm on the fence about asking for a refund...

Can't say I'm not dissappointed.

In terms of "realistic" feel and handling (I'm not an RL race driver) I'd actually put this title quite far below FM7 and GTS, especially when it comes to turn-in response and braking.
I don't have much experience with full-on arcade racers, but it handles like I'd expect an NFS title to...

Also worth noting (and as many have said before me) is how dull the engines sound, and how little detail there is in the FFB.

 

[FuriousDemon]

For those struggling with graphics/frame rate/framed drops etc on consoles, turn off hud shake and camera shake.

I have it off since the beginning. I guess it’s even worse with those in huh? Unbelievable.

 

[tonybarnaby]

How does this game compare to GTSport in terms of driving feel, sense of speed and fun factor?

 

[FuriousDemon]

How does this game compare to GTSport in terms of driving feel, sense of speed and fun factor?

For me on all those fronts it’s ahead. Only thing GTSport does (waaaaaay) better is graphics.

 

[oneloops]

How does this game compare to GTSport in terms of driving feel, sense of speed and fun factor?

Compared to GTS (I've done 162.000 kms in it) here are my comparison :

Driving Feel : PCARS3 is "more assisted" even with all aids off, abs off and wheel, it's a lot more difficult to loose control (and easy to recover), so in PCARS3 you can run less focused or less stressed if you want but the fun part compensate so it's good.

You can drive PCARS3 and GTS like an arcade game without taking care on not crashing
or you can drive both like a sim, taking care at the maximum with braking and turning references, optimised driving lines, real driving techniques, over the kerbs, etc.
In my opinion in both it's a lot more rewarding when driving them in a sim way.

The problem is some inconsistence among cars, there are some that drive superb and in a very accurate way (bmw 320 e90 or GT3 cars, classics car in general for example) and other cars that drive like "muted", too much assited or not enough alive (like ferrari 355 or stock corvette C8 for example)

GTS is more balanced at this point and almost every car drives in a very credible way. But if you find your good cars in PCARS 3 it's very challenging and fun !

Sense of speed : a bit or quite more in PCARS3

FUN : I think that PCARS3 is more easy to find fun because the sense of speed and variety of races + AI way more challenging.
With GTS I have a lot of fun in a more abstract way, with more inmersion, more realistic graphics and more realistic and nuanced handling.

 

[HBR-Roadhog]

I had high hopes for this game, especially with no new Forza this year. The talk about an economy, buying cars, upgrading and such was appealing. Having played the first 2 PCars. I knew the tuning and handling were good but then I get this one and the tuning has been toned way down, my wheel doesn't work properly so the handling is garbage at present. It seems like everything I liked about PCars is gone. They did add the credits system and ability to purchase and upgrade cars but the hope was that they would add that to the game not remove all the good stuff. After several hours of trying to get my wheel to work properly in game I gave up and requested a refund. Guess I'll be playing something else for a while.

 

[tonybarnaby]

It’s almost worth it for me just for the IMSA Audi and road America, but I already have that on PC2

 

[FuriousDemon]

I guess I’ve played too much pCARS today. That dubstep song that plays in the menus (parampam pam pam pam parampam) is now firmly stuck in my head.

 

[tonybarnaby]

What would you say PC3 offers that PC2 didn’t? I’m tempted to pick it up now that I beat last of us 2 and I have some room on my hard drive. But if it’s basically the same game just with easier controls and worse graphics, I’m not sure I “need” it.

 

[FuriousDemon]

What would you say PC3 offers that PC2 didn’t? I’m tempted to pick it up now that I beat last of us 2 and I have some room on my hard drive. But if it’s basically the same game just with easier controls and worse graphics, I’m not sure I “need” it.

If I wanted to play on PC or with a wheel, I would probably just continue with pCARS 2. However, I wanted a PS4 game that I could play with the controller that had good physics, so in that case pCARS 3 fits perfectly.

 

[oneloops]

What would you say PC3 offers that PC2 didn’t? I’m tempted to pick it up now that I beat last of us 2 and I have some room on my hard drive. But if it’s basically the same game just with easier controls and worse graphics, I’m not sure I “need” it.

Some new cars (20?) + some new tracks (Jerez and Mugello for example, SPA and LeMans go out but if you have PCARS1 or 2 you can drive them from time to time...)
Smoother handling and physics, but in my opinion this should be in the middle between pcars2 and pcars3. Pcars2 is too sharp-bumpy physics and Pcars3 is too permisive when you make mistakes.
The career mode (different from pcars2 and fun)
Rivals is a very nice addition, updated very often and challenging.
Sounds are better in general in my opinion (but it depends in each car and can be worse in some cases).
Graphics are a little better in my opinion.
And a quicker time to load every race !!! (very very slow in pcars2 ---> Edit: at least on ps4)

 

[Zeitoss]

It would be interesting if anyone manages to tweak PC2 controller settings to replicate PC3 handling with controller.

The best of both worlds will happen.

 

[notsofast]

It would be interesting if anyone manages to tweak PC2 controller settings to replicate PC3 handling with controller.

The best of both worlds will happen.

That would be awesome! No matter what controller settings I've tried it isn't a very controller friendly game.

 

[Jezza819]

And a quicker time to load every race !!! (very very slow in pcars2)

My Pcars 2 races load very fast. Much faster than Pcars 1 and Forza. If I'm starting too close to the front I can cancel that race and reload it again in probably less than 15 seconds or so.

 

[Chikane_GTR]

Sounds are better in general in my opinion (but it depends in each car and can be worse in some cases).

The gtr sounds like 🤬 in this game 👎

Graphics are a little better in my opinion.

Pcars 3 is one of the ugliest games i have ever seen.

AA is worst then pcars 2
The cars become so pixelated it can look like a ps1 game. <And that's only with one car on track.

 

[OooAhh Cantona]

What would you say PC3 offers that PC2 didn’t? I’m tempted to pick it up now that I beat last of us 2 and I have some room on my hard drive. But if it’s basically the same game just with easier controls and worse graphics, I’m not sure I “need” it.

This youtuber presents an interesting opinion on capitalism/consumerism in gaming. 5:58 - 10:30 in the video may help you with your question. "It's the exact same engine, the exact same models, and the exact same underlying physics code. Except with a whole bunch of it disabled. So it's actually a lesser game by an objective standard."