Q&A with Slightly Mad Studios: Ian Bell [Read OP]

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The track list is simply amazing and I applaud your team for having done so well in this department!

However, regarding the expanding car list: is the goal of Project Cars' car list to emulate what Forza and Gran Turismo have achieved? (large numbers of both road and race cars). Or does the series have other aspirations?
 
CorvetteConquer
The track list is simply amazing and I applaud your team for having done so well in this department!

However, regarding the expanding car list: is the goal of Project Cars' car list to emulate what Forza and Gran Turismo have achieved? (large numbers of both road and race cars). Or does the series have other aspirations?
Click to expand...

We're at or above where GT is for their cars now I believe. What I don't want is for our game to become a 'car collecting' experience. We want every car to have a purpose in terms of gameplay. We're at over 170 (we think excellent!) cars now for pCARS2.
 
Quality over quantity, you might say!

To follow up on the GT/Forza discussion, I do hope you intend to keep the September(ish) release window (if no bugs, of course). Even if the sequel is released around the same time as the competition, I believe you'll be quite happy about which simulation game the players choose.

The original Project Cars may have had reason to fear the competition (I remember the original was aiming for a hectic November 2014 release), but this time, the competition is fearing you! Go get 'em!
 
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CorvetteConquer
Quality over quantity, you might say!

To follow up on the GT/Forza discussion, I do hope you intend to keep the September(ish) release window (if no bugs, of course). Even if the sequel is released around the same time as the competition, I believe you'll be quite happy about which simulation game the players choose.

The original Project Cars may have had reason to fear the competition (I remember the original was aiming for a hectic November 2014 release), but this time, the competition is fearing you! Go get 'em!
Click to expand...

We are working overtime to try to hit that date. The issue is simply that we've added so much to the game that we need a very long QA and polish period. We 'think' we have that so we're still currently hopeful. If later it is clear that we're not there then we'll delay as we are insisting this one is sensibly bug free.
 
IanBell
Yes.
Click to expand...

That's terrific news. What particular challenges did the team face in getting animated pit stop included? Obviously the different fuel cap positions, tyre sizes/widths/positions etc for so many different vehicles needs to be overcome. Was some sort of tethering system used so that the pit crew automatically adjust their positions and animations depending on the car in question, or did all vehicles need animating individually?

Also, was mocap used? The human animations in the original pCARS intro movie were very lifelike, so I'm hoping this level of believability is carried over to the in-game pit stops. I guess one particular challenge is getting the frantic (but well-practised and perfectly-executed) hustle & bustle of a pit stop conveyed adequately, rather than slow, almost robotic animations that have been in previous games.
 
Masscot
That's terrific news. What particular challenges did the team face in getting animated pit stop included? Obviously the different fuel cap positions, tyre sizes/widths/positions etc for so many different vehicles needs to be overcome. Was some sort of tethering system used so that the pit crew automatically adjust their positions and animations depending on the car in question, or did all vehicles need animating individually?

Also, was mocap used? The human animations in the original pCARS intro movie were very lifelike, so I'm hoping this level of believability is carried over to the in-game pit stops. I guess one particular challenge is getting the frantic (but well-practised and perfectly-executed) hustle & bustle of a pit stop conveyed adequately, rather than slow, almost robotic animations that have been in previous games.
Click to expand...


Mocap was used yes. The greatest challenge was being able to cover all of the varied pit stop behaviour for each type of car/ruleset/competition. It was massively varied. Each series has its own rules, each car has its own refuelling point, and refuelling rules. Each car has its own tyres and tyre replacement rules and the amount of pitcrew per corner is restricted per series and competition.

It's all a bit mad but we've done our best with the infinitely varied ruleset.
 
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The biggest question I don't recall seeing asked...

Cross platform multiplayer?
Is that going to be a possibility?
While I understand that pc will have dedicated servers, what's the chance of consoles having it?
 
IanBell
Mocap was used yes. The greatest challenge was being able to cover all of the varied pit stop behaviour for each type of car/ruleset/competition. It was massively varied. Each series has its own rules, each car has its own refuelling point, and refuelling rules. Each car has its own tyres and tyre replacement rules and the amount of pitcrew per corner is restricted per series and competition.

It's all a bit mad but we've done our best with the infinitely varies ruleset.
Click to expand...
Crikey, I didn't even consider the different rule sets for different disciplines. Sounds bloody complicated..!
Thanks Ian, can't wait to see them in action.

One last question: does the view change during pitstops (eg, using cockpit view, then PoV switches to chase cam during the stop)? If not, would it be possible to toggle the preferred view as a preset? I quite like the idea of seeing the pit crew hustle around the car.
 
@IanBell
@The_American

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/02/13/project-cars-2-taking-the-fight-to-forza-gran-turismo

Disregard previous question, I see all is well and have been taken care of in the article above from Feb 12. HUGE thanks to having Ben Collins and Vaughn Gittin Jr working on this issue. We really can appreciate having a real world pro drifter involved! I am pumped to get hands on with this especially in VR. Project Cars 2 stands to be a revolution for the drifting world!

Thanks again!
 
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DaHammas510
@IanBell
@The_American

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/02/13/project-cars-2-taking-the-fight-to-forza-gran-turismo

Disregard previous question, I see all is well and have been taken care of in the article above from Feb 12. HUGE thanks to having Ben Collins and Vaughn Gittin Jr working on this issue. We really can appreciate having a real world pro drifter involved! I am pumped to get hands on with this especially in VR. Project Cars 2 stands to be a revolution for them drifting world!

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

You're very welcome and very decent of you. We have the world's first fully dynamic and real time tyre model shipped in a commercial game. There are no lookup tables, no Brush models, no Pacejka formulae... This is truly a next generation real time, live node based model. Our tyre model takes up two whole cores on the consoles. Ignore AI, contact, collisions, and anything else remotely tyre based, we're using that amount of horsepower for the base tyre simulation.

So, it's very new but also very complex. We have 7 full-time real racing drivers on the payroll with the single remit to tell us where we're not good enough. They post this feedback on our WMD2 forum constantly. We've been iterating constantly based on their feedback. And yes, drifting behaviour is a huge part of our improvements and we're continuing to listen to all that Vaughn tells us and iterating appropriately.

I'm not saying we'll be perfect but we should be the best.
 
About that Multiplayer question. This is on the Fb page from yesterday:

Today's ESL Project CARS GT3 multiplayer event is conquering the corkscrew as we're heading to Laguna Seca!

Enter on any platform by signing up at the link below. Check-in for the races opens at 17:30 GMT. Racing starts at 18:00 GMT.
Click to expand...
 
IanBell
You're very welcome and very decent of you. We have the world's first fully dynamic and real time tyre model shipped in a commercial game. There are no lookup tables, no Brush models, no Pacejka formulae... This is truly a next generation real time, live node based model. Our tyre model takes up two whole cores on the consoles. Ignore AI, contact, collisions, and anything else remotely tyre based, we're using that amount of horsepower for the base tyre simulation.

So, it's very new but also very complex. We have 7 full-time real racing drivers on the payroll with the single remit to tell us where we're not good enough. They post this feedback on our WMD2 forum constantly. We've been iterating constantly based on their feedback. And yes, drifting behaviour is a huge part of our improvements and we're continuing to listen to all that Vaughn tells us and iterating appropriately.

I'm not saying we'll be perfect but we should be the best.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that very detailed response, it sounds like truly amazing work you guys have done and you are getting the real feedback from the people we always wanted in on the building process!

I accidentally left out the question regarding the option to increase steering angle to drift spec(upwards of 65 degrees) if needed. If you guys by chance haven't talked about that please mention it to Vaughn Gittin if you remember, he may have some more input on it but if he is there all should be well!
 
Theothermexic
So is it a case that they nominate games that can use that feature?
Or is it just a long drawn out process that just isn't worth the time?
You've got me curious!
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Are there any XBox/PS4 cross platform games that allow cross platform gaming?

Ninja'd by Masscot
 
Theothermexic
I'm probably wrong, but isn't rocket league across all 3 now?
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05XR8
About that Multiplayer question. This is on the Fb page from yesterday:

Today's ESL Project CARS GT3 multiplayer event is conquering the corkscrew as we're heading to Laguna Seca!

Enter on any platform by signing up at the link below. Check-in for the races opens at 17:30 GMT. Racing starts at 18:00 GMT.
Click to expand...
 
@IanBell
I know I'm in the minority of PCARS fans on this forum but, are you considering a way to swap cars in the middle of a championship?
I, like a lot of other people have a busy schedule outside of this game and only manage to play 3 to 4 hours per week; that means that I'm stuck in career mode driving the same car for a good 2 to 3 months, which is a crime with all the great GT3 cars in the game. I actually bought the american car pack just for the corvette but I'm sort of tired of it. Yes I've driven the other cars too (but not on career mode) and that makes the progress even slower.
I understand that with the gameplay in PC1, where you need to sing up with a team, this car swapping doesn't makes a lot of sense, but what about PC2?
 

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