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

[ojgt]

@IanBell @The_American

Don't know if you'll be able to answer this yet but.. Will the fictional Formula A cars be more or less the same as in PCars 1 or will we see newer versions that would be more like the recent hybrid F1 cars? With mgu-k, mgu-h systems etc.

 

[05XR8]

Okay, so quick question @IanBell @The_American @The Owl : Will vintage turbo cars have boost controllers? Like the Nissan(R92CP) for qualifying at Fuji(full boost was about 1200hp)?
Also, tyre technology back then, only allowed one flying lap and the tyres were done. Will this be simulated this time?

 

[SilentShadowfox]

As for the DLC, is their a way the Community will be able to vote for the Cars you guys would add? If not cars maybe the Livery?
Out of all the DLC from Pcars, I only raced the R18,TS040,C7R,ATVR and a few others.
I'd have no problem dropping 20 bucks on a Full on Race Pack.
Maybe bundle the types in packs?
IE Lmp1 pack (2012 908 HY, 2011 908HDI fap, 2016 R18, 2016 TS050, 2016 919, community car)
LMP2 Pack ( Lmp2 cars and DPI cars from 2005-2015)
Then a GT3, GTLM/GTE pack
A classic racer Pack ( Group C cars, Early GT1/GT2 Cars, etc)

Finally a Streetcar pack .

From a Customer POV, I would definitely pay $15-20 bucks for a 10 ish car pack with a new track . Where as paying for a pack with 1 race car and some street cars I'll never touch.

 

[breyzipp]

@Ian/American/Owl/SMS/WMD/thepope/....

One of the most awkward things (visually) in Project Cars was the outside camera views when driving in the rain. Now I know you guys wanted to simulate raindrops on the camera lens but that went completely south IMO. Those raindrops are massive and they move in such a weird way that they more look like alien-blobs are crawling over the lens. Even if you are driving at 200 km/h where the wind from the speed would blow most water off the lens (or at least in tiny drops), those aliens just keep crawling and crawling.

 

[bramvanuytven]

When we broadcast , can the host/streamer see the gap between te cars , so it's easy to see where te action is?
While not broadcasting al that data.
Some sort of replay in case of crash would be nice , i asume it's easy for the game to notice who damages his car , rewind a few seconds and "showtime"?
Just some idea's.
Good broadcasts can make te game more popular then it already is.

@IanBell can you answer me please? :-) instead of al those internet trollls? tnx

 

[Ian Bell]

@IanBell can you answer me please? :-) instead of al those internet trollls? tnx

To be honest I've not been that involved in the multiplayer and broadcasting work. My time zone is in South East Asia which makes this part difficult for me time wise (and would skew things like ping etc). Over to The American.

 

[The_American]

@IanBell can you answer me please? :-) instead of al those internet trollls? tnx

Ok, broadcasting/streaming. It's a big deal for us in this game. One of our design staff was hired from the community (like me) and he loves doing broadcasting. He had some great ideas about how to do this better for pC2.

So not only will you have timing info & leaderboard information, you'll also have much smoother camera control/switching and driver status (outlap, inlap, penalty, joker, etc.). Finally, we see on TV that it takes 2-3 man team to properly cover the races and so we will allow a similar "team" of guys to broadcast the races. So one can be speaking and the other working the cameras. You'll learn more about this soon. It's the foundation for our major efforts towards further promoting simracing in the eSports arena.

 

[DesertPenguin09]

@Lessen you will love the above post

 

[TexasTyme214]

@The_American on a typical track, how much faster is GTLM/GTE compared to GT3? Since they aren't in the same class anymore, I'm curious how much they have been separated.

 

[05XR8]

How many "types" of default avatar, pilot the various cars?
Male, female, open face helmet: European, Asian, African, gentleman racer, young gun, ?

 

[rono_thomas]

One of our design staff was hired from the community (like me) and he loves doing broadcasting. He had some great ideas about how to do this better for pC2.

Hmmm? Curious...

 

[warp9engage]

@The_American Speaking of broadcasting, will we have this sort of data with timings etc during our replays?

 

[thuGG]

@IanBell @The_American
I have a general question about various modern systems simulation. I mean nowdays, cars have lot of systems like electronic differetnials, various traction control levels, torque vectoring, energy recovery systems, torque limiting based on selected gear (like 488 GTB), multiple electric motors etc.
Does manufacturers share information about these systems and how they work or is it something you have to guess?
How accurately these systems are being simulated?

 

[breyzipp]

@Ian/American/Owl/SMS/WMD/thepope/....

One of the most awkward things (visually) in Project Cars was the outside camera views when driving in the rain. Now I know you guys wanted to simulate raindrops on the camera lens but that went completely south IMO. Those raindrops are massive and they move in such a weird way that they more look like alien-blobs are crawling over the lens. Even if you are driving at 200 km/h where the wind from the speed would blow most water off the lens (or at least in tiny drops), those aliens just keep crawling and crawling.

Bleh I actually forgot to ask my question. Will this be improved for PC2?

 

[snypa]

@IanBell or @The_American ,

I try my chance a second time on these questions.
These features would be really welcome for some of us who like to play online with a few friends and the AI to fill the grid.

Hello to all and special thanks to Ian for the valuable informations here , great topic so far.
Some specific questions about the private lobbies possible enhancements (on consoles at least) :
- Will it be possible to customize the starting grids (ie set a grid starting slot for every human player)
- Will it be possible to make changes on the lobby such as the AI difficulty (and not be obliged to start a new lobby)
- Will it be possible te restart the race easily (some of us still have the tendancy to be over optimistic un the first corners )

I also hope that the inclusion of the new legendary brands will help to provide 70s and 80s endurance cars....

Thanks in advance for the feedback

Thanks in advance,

 

[Ryzza5]

Hmmm? Curious...

That'll be Yorkie, if I had to guess.
Here's one broadcast from pC1 that he helped commentate (see video description)

 

[stucar17]

@IanBell @The_American Thanks for your responses here, 20 pages of light reading !

As a league organiser at Raceonoz we are really hoping that the talked about improvements add that little bit of polish to what we try to provide.

Some questions that i believe directly relate to leagues

1. To run "random" weather, the pit options were way too complicated and time consuming when mid race. Did i read correctly that these options will be much more adjustable on the fly, or when entering pit lane for races with the 'random weather' option?
2. The proposed "leagues option" i have read about, will it allow drivers to be added after the 'season' has started ?
3. What are the chances of running your own name and number on your car ? Would help greatly with league adjudication so long as the livery glitch from PC1 is fixed.
4. Is the magnetism issue sorted ?

Thanks in advance

@The_American @IanBell has this been covered already ? Thanks

 

[Speedster911]

@IanBell

Hi Ian!

Big fan of your product, play it just about every day.

I'm not sure if this has been asked already but I'd love to see car sounds that are completely spot on with a high dynamic frequency range, rather than just being really loud. PCARS get a few right like the classic and modern day race cars but the road cars (SLS, Apollo etc.) and some cars in particular like the V8 Supercar for instance did not sound impressive at all. There are others, but all in all, not a bad mix, considering it was the first CARS game.

CARS offers really good physics and I'm comparing that to my RL driving experience as opposed to a game or simulator. It would be simply amazing to have the package nicely rounded off in order to have all car sounds faithfully doing justice to the real thing. One thing I really appreciate about you guys is that you don't go overboard with the car count probably so that sound and handling/performance characteristics can be paid the attention that it deserves, for each respective set of wheels.

Looking forward to CARS2, and if you wonderful folks at SMS can pay a little more attention to car audio (including tire screeching and wind noise effects), I think I'll be sticking to pretty much your franchise for the most part.

 

[Jason Wilko]

@IanBell @The_American i asked a question about the in car mappings (abs, trac, fuel modes) and got an exciting answer but.. will the driver in game move these dials ect when changing them (like codemasters F1 games)? Or with ALL the cars in the game would that take too many years to get into the game

 

[bleeder]

@IanBell @The_American i asked a question about the in car mappings (abs, trac, fuel modes) and got an exciting answer but.. will the driver in game move these dials ect when changing them (like codemasters F1 games)? Or with ALL the cars in the game would that take too many years to get into the game

They didn't animate the paddles last time due to all the extra work so I'd be surprised if the dials are in. Paddles could well be static again this time but I hope not.

 

[Jason Wilko]

They didn't animate the paddles last time due to all the extra work so I'd be surprised if the dials are in. Paddles could well be static again this time but I hope not.

Really? I swear paddles are in pcars 1 already haha I mean they've got the driver changing gears in h-pattern cars and all cars you can see the drivers feet hitting the accelerator/brake/clutch? I'll have to check the paddles.. if it's not then maybe it shows the immersion of driving on my wheel in cockpit view haha

EDIT: I just checked and the paddles are animated..? Corvette at Bathurst and there is definitely paddle shifting going on, I'm on the PS4, what are you playing on @bleeder ?

 

[Ian Bell]

Really? I swear paddles are in pcars 1 already haha I mean they've got the driver changing gears in h-pattern cars and all cars you can see the drivers feet hitting the accelerator/brake/clutch? I'll have to check the paddles.. if it's not then maybe it shows the immersion of driving on my wheel in cockpit view haha

EDIT: I just checked and the paddles are animated..? Corvette at Bathurst and there is definitely paddle shifting going on, I'm on the PS4, what are you playing on @bleeder ?

Correct, we animate the avatar pulling the paddles as appropriate...

 

[bleeder]

Really? I swear paddles are in pcars 1 already haha I mean they've got the driver changing gears in h-pattern cars and all cars you can see the drivers feet hitting the accelerator/brake/clutch? I'll have to check the paddles.. if it's not then maybe it shows the immersion of driving on my wheel in cockpit view haha

EDIT: I just checked and the paddles are animated..? Corvette at Bathurst and there is definitely paddle shifting going on, I'm on the PS4, what are you playing on @bleeder ?

PS4. Fair enough, I'll check again next time I play. Always thought it was just the fingers that moved, not the paddles themselves.

 

[The_American]

@The_American Speaking of broadcasting, will we have this sort of data with timings etc during our replays?

correct. You'll have a nice TV-style overlay for the replay now (can also be disabled for clean image). Same one we use for broadcasting/streaming. Gonna look lot more professional now.

@IanBell @The_American
I have a general question about various modern systems simulation. I mean nowdays, cars have lot of systems like electronic differetnials, various traction control levels, torque vectoring, energy recovery systems, torque limiting based on selected gear (like 488 GTB), multiple electric motors etc.
Does manufacturers share information about these systems and how they work or is it something you have to guess?
How accurately these systems are being simulated?

Much of it is proprietary, not like McLaren/Toyota/Pirelli are gonna give us exactly their "secret recipe" right? That's where they compete.

So we approximate their logic based on performance output data they provide us, and the test drive sessions with their factory drivers (videos forthcoming) and our generally open communication lines with them. Also, for some homologated series the Bosch ABS system is universal (or mandated) and so we can research things like this independently and avoid getting blocked waiting for the manufacturer to respond on series-wide 3rd-party technologies.

 

[Eh Team]

correct. You'll have a nice TV-style overlay for the replay now (can also be disabled for clean image). Same one we use for broadcasting/streaming. Gonna look lot more professional now.

Your community hired broadcast fanatic, does he happen to go by AJ? If he does I cannot tell you how excited that makes me, I might even break my own never pre-order policy.

 

[F1Racer68]

Your community hired broadcast fanatic, does he happen to go by AJ? If he does I cannot tell you how excited that makes me, I might even break my own never pre-order policy.

Pretty sure it is Matt York, who goes by Yorkie065 on YouTube. He joined the SMS team last year and has a very active channel (or had before he joined, for obvious reasons he has had to.streamline his content ). He also does a lot of the AOR broadcasts.

 

[RacerDude08]

@IanBell @The_American Since Texas Motor Speedway is confirmed to be in the game, will the newly repaved version be in the game or the old surface? If it is the old surface, is there any plans to add both configurations in the future?

 

[Ripper83]

Have to say regardless of the reasons and priority the omission of custom championship offline is a massive disappointment.

I will still get the game and hope the career mode is more immersive this time around but nothing beats the personalisation of creating your own series on a game.

Just very surprised after the noise made about this on the forums for the last 18 months.

Hope classic cars like Group A DTM get their own full series in career.

 

[jake2013guy]

Hope classic cars like Group A DTM get their own full series in career.

If you can't have DTM, have old DTM. Would work and make for an enjoyable Touring Car series.

 

[Jhonatas1981]

Hi IanBell, First of all I'm sorry for my English.
In PCars1, one of the things that discouraged me a lot was the individual force feedback settings per car, with all those settings X, Y, Z, M, Tire Force, Gain, Bleed, Clamp, Scoop etc. And I got a satisfactory result using the settings provided by the user Jack Spade in the forum.
Is there anything that can be said about this on PCars2? Simplify or adjust? Still have to resort to independent settings?

I understand that each steering wheel may need an independent adjustment that can vary by the user's taste, but the cars should respond as the original cars respond with fixed values.