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

[Motard33]

We'll have cloud saves in PC2, there's also some restructuring done to the way the game saves data in order to avoid those kind of situations.

Thanks for the reply it's very much appreciated

 

[TexasTyme214]

@IanBell @The_American
Not sure if this has been asked/answered but for online will the host have the ability to force a tyre change or force a tyre compound change and minimal fuel drop in a race?

I've asked this earlier, and I don't recall getting an answer unfortunately.

 

[Lerroyy]

Will the saved replays be fixed? I remember in pcars1, Cars would go missing, and or swapped around with others.

Cheers.

 

[imported_rik19]

So have I read correctly, replays are going to be 30 frames per second. Oh bummer, that takes aways the realism look 30 frames.. Just look at your ps4 video capture of say a dirt rally replay, plays at 60 frames nice, play it back on the ps4 capture at 30 frames, looks rubbish..

 

[jake2013guy]

So have I read correctly, replays are going to be 30 frames per second. Oh bummer, that takes aways the realism look 30 frames.. Just look at your ps4 video capture of say a dirt rally replay, plays at 60 frames nice, play it back on the ps4 capture at 30 frames, looks rubbish..

Replays are at 30fps so they look better. Just look at the quote below.

^this. Most other driving games (GT5) do 30fps replays to inject extra quality and effects (motion blur etc.) to make them look really nice. We're going the same route this time on consoles (will be unlocked for PC, again a tech difference....not a different game feature). GT5 has very nice smooth realistic replays (we think).

making FPS (and few other graphics things) player-selectible is a big SONY/MSFT no-no

 

[davidt33]

Replays are at 30fps so they look better. Just look at the quote below.

Well that settles that.

 

[imported_rik19]

Replays are at 30fps so they look better. Just look at the quote below.

They dont tho, 60 makes them look nice and fluid and life like, 30 dosent... unless its just the capture on ps4 that turns the 60 frames a second game into rubbish playback..

 

[Masscot]

So have I read correctly, replays are going to be 30 frames per second. Oh bummer, that takes aways the realism look 30 frames.. Just look at your ps4 video capture of say a dirt rally replay, plays at 60 frames nice, play it back on the ps4 capture at 30 frames, looks rubbish..

I'm not too happy about it either, but SMS seem confident that all the added effects (particularly enhanced motion blur) will offset any negatives of halving the frame rate during replays. I'm keeping an open mind. Hopefully there will be an option to unlock the replay frame rate on PS Pro/Scorpio.

And I REALLY hope that the framerate won't switch from 60fps to 30fps as soon as you cross the finish line, like Foza Motorsport used to do. My god, THAT was bloody awful.

 

[F1Racer68]

They dont tho, 60 makes them look nice and fluid and life like, 30 dosent... unless its just the capture on ps4 that turns the 60 frames a second game into rubbish playback..

Then I would blame that on the PS4.

You guys do realize that until very recently all movies and TV broadcasting was 24 - 28 FPS? The first use of anything higher was the first of the Hobbit movies which was filmed in 48 FPS.

Watching a replay on Youtube at 30 FPS is more than acceptable, as it is equivalent to what you see on a live tv broadcast. If the replay on the PS4 loses it's "fluidity" at 30 FPS then that is an issue with the console.

To clarify, I am talking specifically about spectating a replay here and NOT in game, while racing framerate. That I want as high as possible.

 

[davidt33]

Then I would blame that on the PS4.

You guys do realize that until very recently all movies and TV broadcasting was 24 - 28 FPS? The first use of anything higher was the first of the Hobbit movies which was filmed in 48 FPS.

Watching a replay on Youtube at 30 FPS is more than acceptable, as it is equivalent to what you see on a live tv broadcast. If the replay on the PS4 loses it's "fluidity" at 30 FPS then that is an issue with the console.

To clarify, I am talking specifically about spectating a replay here and NOT in game, while racing framerate. That I want as high as possible.

Well that also settles that.

 

[imported_rik19]

Watching a replay on Youtube at 30 FPS is more than acceptable,

No it`s not, I had to buy a 60 frames per second capture device because ps4 capturing at 30 frames made the fluid nice looking replays look awful.

 

[ojgt]

@IanBell @The_American

Any chance we could have pedal graphs on the hud? In pCARS 1 we could see pedal inputs on telemetry page I think, but would be great to be able to have it on the screen all the time as a hud element.

 

[Sch@dows]

They dont tho, 60 makes them look nice and fluid and life like, 30 dosent...

Replays aim to give a TV-like broadcasting, and most racing them are ~30fps (F1 is strangely broadcasted at 50fps), so what is more "realistic"? I don't say pcars2 should aim towards 30fps replays, but, indeed, compared to what it is mimicking, it IS acceptable.

Also, pcars1 had to remove some physic and sound data to reach 60fps (which it rarely did by the way), resulting in car behaviour not really being what they should be.

We would all want perfect replays with full physics data, eye candy, and 60fps ... but that's not possible on consoles. and between inaccurate replays which struggles to reach 60fps, and more accurate and more beautiful stable 30 fps replays ...

 

[The_American]

And I REALLY hope that the framerate won't switch from 60fps to 30fps as soon as you cross the finish line, like Foza Motorsport used to do. My god, THAT was bloody awful.

No it wont. It will only drop to 30fps when you get to the actual "replay menu"

No info on PS4Pro/Scorpio. I can say generally SMS likes to give options to players (easier for us to code), mainly first party takes away options that we can expose on the PC version.

Also for the record, the IMSA replays on youtube are 60fps and look hella-real.

 

[Sch@dows]

Well most (that doesn't mean all) console players don't want to meddle too much with settings. Surely, a "better quality" / "better fluidity" should be enough (in fact it should be the bare minimum unfortunately even SOny's first party tend to only offer "better quality" for PS4 Pro users)

 

[Jason Wilko]

@The_American @IanBell a question about the fuel/abs and traction control mappings while diiving, how many modes are there? Eg. for fuel do you only have high medium and low fuel mode. Or does it vary from car/series?

 

[Andy404]

Hi @The_American @IanBell, Quick q on steering wheel button mapping. Lots of the race cars have too many in car adjustable options than a most in market steering wheels can map to. However, some wheels (eg. G29/G920) have knobs & +/- adjustments.
Is there a possibility we can map the say the knob (or d-pad, or +/-) to cycle through adjustable values (TC, ABS, anti-roll bar, brake bias...), and then use buttons like +/- to adjust?
Thanks!

 

[The_American]

we will have the "in cockpit menu" (ICM) to help you do these ABS/TC adjustments with d-pad.

 

[The_American]

@The_American @IanBell a question about the fuel/abs and traction control mappings while diiving, how many modes are there? Eg. for fuel do you only have high medium and low fuel mode. Or does it vary from car/series?

ABS and TC have 10 mappings. I forget how many fuel mappings we will have but it should be something like 10 also

 

[The_American]

Will the saved replays be fixed? I remember in pcars1, Cars would go missing, and or swapped around with others.

Cheers.

Hated that bug. Yes, will make sure that one is super-dead

 

[CorvetteConquer]

My biggest controller concern is the sensitivity of the R3 stick. For my settings, you accelerate by pressing the stick up. Except, it only began accelerating at about 33% up. Not fun. If I feather the throttle, about 1-5% up, I expect acceleration to begin. I know Ian has worked extensively with controllers and wants to optimize them. Maybe you have had experience with throttle control and steering inputs...

 

[Jason Wilko]

ABS and TC have 10 mappings. I forget how many fuel mappings we will have but it should be something like 10 also

Ohh wow! That's well more then I expected for fuel! I'm one to be always adjusting brake bias/ roll bars on my wheel so now I'll have all the other settings to play with I think I'll be to busy looking at the dash I won't be focusing on the track!
Are all those settings the same for every car? Gt3s have a lot of settings but going to road cars/ touring they don't have that much if not any

 

[F1Racer68]

No it`s not, I had to buy a 60 frames per second capture device because ps4 capturing at 30 frames made the fluid nice looking replays look awful.

So you just CONFIRMED the fact that it is the PS4 messing up the replay. It's not the fact that the replay is 30FPS, it's the fact that the PS4 is doing something unacceptable to it.

 

[F1Racer68]

Hated that bug. Yes, will make sure that one is super-dead

Thank you! This one is super critical for leagues as we "try" to use the replays to review incidents.

 

[jake2013guy]

@The_American @IanBell

In career mode, there is a bug when the AI are slow but when you sim to end of session, they're at the pace they should be. Has this been fixed for PC2?

 

[Masscot]

No it wont. It will only drop to 30fps when you get to the actual "replay menu"

No info on PS4Pro/Scorpio. I can say generally SMS likes to give options to players (easier for us to code), mainly first party takes away options that we can expose on the PC version.

Also for the record, the IMSA replays on youtube are 60fps and look hella-real.

Many thanks. Hope springs eternal!

 

[bramvanuytven]

@The_American american can you put 1 car in the game that is verry easy to drive.
So my 6 year old kid can start racing to?
You can't start to soon with shese guys. :-)

 

[TheoSkullz12]

And are go karts coming back. Probably this time with new ones. Also i know it's a bit of a stretch but, this would be the ultimate racing game and would probably kill any competition for PC3. Has there been any talk of adding a discipline other than the four wheel base if you get my drift. If you do than I am also with the understanding that doing this would be fairly difficult and much testing would be needed and of course licensing but maybe licensing wouldn't have to be a problem. You can create your own vehicle like the RWD and the other LMP1 car (sorry running a blank). Im not trying to be a marketer or anything but i think that would boost your game to high new levels and i believe you guys would be the first sim to do it.

 

[TheoSkullz12]

Thats also another question i would like ask. Will there any chicane less tracks like the Le Mans. Of course i mean the ones that can actually be removed no fictional ideas.

 

[TheoSkullz12]

@The_American @IanBell

i thankyou for your contribution