Project CARS General Discussion Thread

[Kadzido]

Hey, it's me again!

I have been observing this game for a while, and even though I haven't purchased a tool pack, I still have the ambition to provide as much feedback as possible, because this game is going to be amazing, for sure.

I do have something to give thought about, and it regards the mirrors. It's kinda bugging me how the reflections aren't really revealing the car itself, including the interior, as if the mirrors are hiding it.

I think this would be a really cool feature to add, as this would provide an additional layer of realism to the game.

 

[Johnnypenso]

No reason why not, the sounds are already separated in the game engine, they just need splitting at the user level and adding to the UI. As I say I think it's in the works for the final game but I need to check.

Yes in fact I just found it. These all come from the audio director, although they were quite some time ago. No reason to believe it's not still the plan though.

Awesome...thanks:tup:👍

 

[VBR]

Hey, it's me again!

I have been observing this game for a while, and even though I haven't purchased a tool pack, I still have the ambition to provide as much feedback as possible, because this game is going to be amazing, for sure.

I do have something to give thought about, and it regards the mirrors. It's kinda bugging me how the reflections aren't really revealing the car itself, including the interior, as if the mirrors are hiding it.

I think this would be a really cool feature to add, as this would provide an additional layer of realism to the game.

The mirrors should definitely reflect the car like in your iRacing pic, otherwise it's just gonna shout 'unrealistic compromised arcade nonsense' like GT & every other semi-sim out there. It's all these little clichéd vestiges of games past that I'd like to see eradicated in P Cars.

 

[DG_Silva]

This has been discussed, and I think they are intending to have some kind of mask in the mirrors. The issue is in iRacing it has much less graphical intensity as pCARS, so they can render the separate rear views for the mirrors, which also includes the body panels.

 

[VBR]

...I think they are intending to have some kind of mask in the mirrors.

I don't exactly understand what that means, please elaborate.

 

[Timppaq]

Not rendering the cockpit 'live' in the mirrors (?)

 

[DrJustice]

The mirrors should definitely reflect the car like in your iRacing pic, otherwise it's just gonna shout 'unrealistic compromised arcade nonsense' like GT & every other semi-sim out there. It's all these little clichéd vestiges of games past that I'd like to see eradicated in P Cars.

An extremely humongous gigantic piece of super exaggerated utter nonsense? (see what I did there Not out to rile you, just making a point)

I'd also like to see the car body in the mirrors. However, every sim has some compromises and this may be one of those. Incidentally it's a compromise shared with e.g. Game Stock Car, rFactor 2 and Assetto Corsa. I don't think those are being viewed as arcade nonsense games because of that. AFAIK you have to make quite a resource sacrifice to have the car body in the mirrors.

 

[Johnnypenso]

An extremely humongous gigantic piece of super exaggerated utter nonsense? (see what I did there Not out to rile you, just making a point)

I'd also like to see the car body in the mirrors. However, every sim has some compromises and this may be one of those. Incidentally it's a compromise shared with e.g. Game Stock Car, rFactor 2 and Assetto Corsa. I don't think those are being viewed as arcade nonsense games because of that. AFAIK you have to make quite a resource sacrifice to have the car body in the mirrors.

It's hard enough, for me anyway, to see everything around me when driving. If sacrificing part of the car body in the rear view mirror means I'll see more I'm good with that

 

[Punknoodle]

It's hard enough, for me anyway, to see everything around me when driving. If sacrificing part of the car body in the rear view mirror means I'll see more I'm good with that

I completely agree. It's all good and well simulating something for the sake of realism, but unless you have three 42" displays in front of you, it's hard enough to see what's in the mirror

 

[VBR]

AFAIK you have to make quite a resource sacrifice to have the car body in the mirrors.

If it's just a matter of not having enough CPU to power it, fair enough. However, if it's because of laziness or just mindlessly following the same tired old formula of cliches, then no.

 

[mister dog]

A mate told me yesterday about the steam console. Seeing i know nothing about it i was wondering if it is powerful enough to run PCARS like you would on a pc, and does steam give the possibility to download other race sims like Raceroom etcetera?

How will PCARS be on steam? Is it a worthy and cheaper alternative than buying a pc to play race sims?

 

[Myles Prower]

The Steam consoles will have varying performance and will be quite expensive

 

[Imari]

However, if it's because of laziness or just mindlessly following the same tired old formula of cliches, then no.

Normal developers don't leave stuff out because of laziness, they leave stuff out because there was better things to spend their time on.

You sure you're not just jaded from exposure to a certain developer's apparent laziness of late?

 

[Myles Prower]

Project CARS has more driveable cars in its present state that DriveClub will at release, that's a plus against it's PS4 rival

 

[DrJustice]

ssssfdf

If it's just a matter of not having enough CPU to power it, fair enough. However, if it's because of laziness or just mindlessly following the same tired old formula of cliches, then no.

If I'm not mistaken the mirrors work roughly like this: A strip of the scenery behind the car is rendered, then an area of that strip is "cut'n'pasted" into each mirror. With this technique there can't be a car body there since it would not fit the different mirrors' view in any sensible way. If there was to be a car body in view, they'd have to render three separate scenes with the correct perspectives to show the body correctly placed in each, and that would just be too much rendering to sustain the framerate and image quality we've come to expect.

 

[mister dog]

The Steam consoles will have varying performance and will be quite expensive

That's what i read also, probably a release in 2015 and 500 bucks for the cheapest. I wonder how it will compare against gaming pc's though.

 

[Myles Prower]

I can't see the point of it, why not just buy a PC?

 

[fatkrakr]

I can't see the point of it, why not just buy a PC?

Yeah maybe Im missing something, but it they aren't cheaper than a PC Im not seeing the reason you would get one.

 

[VBR]

...that would just be too much rendering to sustain the framerate and image quality we've come to expect.

So they've tried this already then, & it had a negative impact on the frame rate?

 

[Sele1981]

Yeah maybe Im missing something, but it they aren't cheaper than a PC Im not seeing the reason you would get one.

And with varying performances you cant call them a console... How will this work? You get a message "your steam console is too slow to play this game"? I keep being sceptical about this...

 

[DrJustice]

So they've tried this already then, & it had a negative impact on the frame rate?

I don't know if they've tried it, I was speaking of the general case. Since it would involve rendering a scene two more times, although at a lower resolution and detail than the main image, the overhead would be known (and out of scope), just as for other sim titles. I.e. there little use in spending the time and resources on trying that since it's known that the overhead would be too much.

If there was enough, CPU/GPU power, budget and time, the developers would have done it - after all, those guys live for making the coolest possible stuff

As PCs and consoles get ever more powerful, I hope (and expect) that we'll eventually get that kind of detail, together with near photo realism, as a matter of course in future sims on future platforms...

 

[Marqus]

http://www.virtualr.net/project-cars-solo-play-features-revealed

 

[DG_Silva]

I don't exactly understand what that means, please elaborate.

Basically, instead of rendering three separate images from the back of the car, as described above, it has a strip of a rear view which then gets applied to the mirror sections of the car. To mask the bodywork on top of this, you would have a bitmap render of the rear of the cockpit and bodywork, and then apply them over the strip of rear view, giving the impression of seeing the inside of your car in the rear view mirror. It's a cheat's method, but given the enormous grunt needed to get the game running smoothly, it's really the only option to keep everyone happy.

 

[DrJustice]

^ I wouldn't mind such a "cheat" at all

Has there been talk on WMD of doing it (I might have missed it...)?

Edit: I can see how it may create a bit of work for the programmers as the bodywork and cockpit rear section bitmaps has to be captured from 3D renderings (either dynamically each time a car is selected or as static resources) for every car and applied correctly. Lighting would have to fudged somehow. And what about reflections... It would probably be easier, as in less work, to just render the appropriate images if the CPU/GPU/memory resources were sufficient (which they aren't).

 

[VBR]

http://www.virtualr.net/project-cars-solo-play-features-revealed

Nice find. However, they said that Ben Collins was doing the pit to car radio, I thought it was Oli Webb who was doing it. Have SMS changed them around, or is the article wrong?

 

[Marqus]

Nice find. However, they said that Ben Collins was doing the pit to car radio, I thought it was Oli Webb who was doing it. Have SMS changed them around, or is the article wrong?

Says it here too. I think Ben Collins is meant to give the player a better insight of the nuances of tuning and pit strategy.
Oli Webb may play his part yet.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

http://www.virtualr.net/project-cars-solo-play-features-revealed

but who calls it "solo play"? Everyone calls it Singleplayer.

 

[DG_Silva]

Nice find. However, they said that Ben Collins was doing the pit to car radio, I thought it was Oli Webb who was doing it. Have SMS changed them around, or is the article wrong?

Nope, Ben Collins is the new pit to car radio voice, either Oli couldn't spare the time, or just found the voice acting work too difficult to give an even tone (easier said than done) than Ben could


In reply to the doctor, the best way to do it would be with static resource (say for example black or dark grey roll cage and chassis) gained from LODX renders, then apply the mask to the rear view mirror. The side mirrors are a little harder, but if the car had a segment from x1y1z1 to x5y5z5 that it saves a a bitmap in the editor, then calls for it in the model, it would be possible. However, is it a good use of very limited resources? Doubt it. It's a nice to have, not a need to have.

 

[VBR]

I hope the Pit2Car radio is gonna be like what we get in European motorsport, & not like in NASCAR or iRacing. I don't want to be told that there's someone right next to me & to leave room!

 

[DG_Silva]

The pit to car radio will be appropriate for the discipline. Oval racing needs spotters, so you will get them, circuit racing requires a different structure, more technical and timing information, so that's what you'll get. We've also been told that there will be lots of phrases for the same thing, so instead of being told to hurry up for the hundredth time, there will be multiple ways of telling you you're too slow, as well as different tones and moods of your technician, ie he's a bit annoyed...