I started the following thread on the official forums - I wanted to make a fairly well-written positive contribution to getting a major bug fixed, and a couple of minor ones, and offered to help even myself. Within a day it was moved to a far less conspicuous place below a related but very minor post...seems any criticism of the New Order of vehickle sims will get you labeled as a traitor, or ignored which is worse.
ORIGINAL POST ON OFFICIAL FORUM
Now moved to:
http://forum.projectcarsgame.com/showthread.php?40640-Changing-steering-ratios&referrerid=128681
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I think what SMS/WMD have produced with Project Cars is amazing, innovative and frankly jaw-dropping so often, and have been enjoying it immensely even with a number of issues, large and small. I dont think there's a forum in the world I havent scoured for an answer to every one of them. Although a newcomer to these forums I reckon Im fairly expert in reading and understanding most of the major gripes and genuine complaints people have had about the game. One things sure though, anyone trouncing this game as unplayable would probably stare at our amazing sun without shades on (it burns!) or walk in a thunderstorm without an umbrella (its wet!). I could go on here, but if you like driving cool cars, fast and pushing them to the edge against 'challenging' (chose that word carefully) AI on accurate world tracks in realistic (and realistically annoying) weather conditions you should find something to love here. It's not everything for everybody but it hits that sweet spot for so many in so many ways. IMO!
Version PS4 v7(+8). Logitech G29 Wheel/Pedals. Pcars Dash Telemetry.
My MAJOR problem (bug/glitch?)....
AT LEAST ONE TUNE SETTING IS NEVER APPLIED TO CAR UNTIL AFTER GAME REBOOT
(This small but important find may have had devastating effects on all my cars tuning/handling in the past.)
I can state as an absolute proven/tested fact that when I change the steering ratio in the car setup it is NOT applied until after I exit the session, then the game and restart the game and session. It is then working fine. The PS4 itself does not need to be rebooted just Pcars (I have tested this also). It is a very obvious setting to change and test the results. I have ONLY tested/confirmed this one setting so cant confirm any others suffer from this bug/glitch (cannot be deliberate software behavior). However, once I nailed this problem down I remembered all the awful under-steering I had when I tried different cars out when starting the game, never being satisfied with each and moving on to others. Multiple posts on internet forums complain about under-steer in Pcars or awful handling even after tuning. If any of these people had tried to lower their steering ratio and noticed no difference they may have messed around with other tuning settings (I certainly did). Once getting the car to steer well, exiting the game and starting again with the same car the correct altered steering ratio suddenly kicks in and COMBINED with the users other steering tweaks makes the car undriveable in a straight line, spinning out at the slightest wheel or pedal input (Lord help controller users). This would also explain the huge amount of OVERSTEER twitch handling problems people have reported.
Although it is only happening to ME on MY PS4 with MY wheel, I have tested this extensively and after completing every tier of the career (except LMP2 doing that today) this is proven without any doubt at all. On a PC I would re-install the software but surely the PS4 does not have conflicting driver/config file issues? Should I re-install again? (already done once)
To be absolutely sure of this issue, I have changed the steering ratio from normal to absolute lowest in multiple cars, which should produce open-wheel like behavior. NO change shows at all during driving until after the reboot when the car responds very quickly and precisely to every wheel movement (the way I need it so I never select downshift instead of up with the paddle shifters anymore!)
I mentioned this last point on another forum and it was suggested my wheel calibration was at fault. This is definitely not the issue and would only serve to further mask the problem (like desperately tightening springs, changing brake balance etc did before). Wheel calibration is actually handled by the API I understand, direct X in Windows and whatever its called in the PS4. When the system is turned on the wheel spins/calibrates NOT when the game is started. The calibration IN game is to check all is working fine and to allow the user to make changes that suit his/her style. Like making 360 degrees emulate 720 in the actual game world car wheel. This WOULD work with the problem above but only temporarily. During the current game session the car would steer differently (but only tighter as you cannot emulate the other way ie 720 degrees your wheel = 360 degrees car and why would you…?). However as soon as you loaded the game up again bingo your new steering ratio works and now your wheel calibration is messed up (causing massive oversteering once more). If you needed to change your wheel calibration when you changed the steering ratio then you would need to do this EVERY time you changed car too, as each one has different steering ratios. No-one would tolerate this in 2016, its not like the nineties when you would need to edit a text file to config your hardware BEFORE you loaded a game…
If this issue is happening on MY PS4, then Murphy's law states it is almost certain to be occurring on at least ONE other person's too, and quite possibly EVERY PS4/Pcars (G29) install?
Changing a setting in the tuning menu should take place immediately when you drive in that session or else it should NOT be there, but in another place such as My Garage, and if rebooting the game is a requirement for the change to be applied it should state a reboot is required after making that change, like Windows programs often used to ask you to do. I cannot believe Pcars writes to/controls wheel hardware directly as this would be against a whole number of software licences...and bypasses the PS4 API so closely guarded by Sony (sympathy to all those G27 owners..)
Would LOVE to be shown as an idiot here..would be the quickest fix of all!
MINOR issue(s) (game design) - only here as not worth whines on their own:
DRONING REPETITIVE ENGINE SAMPLES WHILST IN THE PITS (someone else complained about this..doesnt bother me at all but while we there....)
This is explained in qualifying by the fact that all the AI cars will proceed out to the track in an obviously predetermined fashion, with equal short gaps in between. As this is unrealistic and robotic it accounts for the robotic sounding samples...VROOM….WHEEEE...VROOM...WHEEEE...VROOM...WHEEE...etc
A way more serious issue with this method of 'AI pit extraction' is in qualifying itself, especially when combined with fast (more delicate) cars and higher difficulty AI. As AI cars apparently do NOT have to warm up their tires during qualifying they bomb around the track like lunatics whilst I am carefully trying to warm my tires up. On most tight tracks getting around the track for the first lap without receiving any damage from the AI is just, well impossible Im afraid for my limited dodgem car skills (with full damage on). Ive quit many qualifying sessions under a cloud (literally)and gone straight to the race in last place with zero AI difficulty to get around this on multiple occasions.
At the moment I use Pcars dash to show the track and cars on it. I press DRIVE the moment it appears with less than 10ms delay (note there are usually 2 cars ahead of me at this point), then proceed to exit the pits and park on the side of the road whilst I wait for all the cars to pass in exact pinpoint time-spaced precision, literally like a spaced-out train. I then follow behind at a safe distance so I can warm my tires up and qualify at full speed without being taken out by the AI behind (Ive sped up now of course) or encountering slow AI in front.
This approach whilst effective is totally silly and takes all belief away that I may be racing real opponents (although its perfect for lining up that coffee/beer/snack etc).
IF its not easy to force the AI to use cold tires (slowing them down artificially for a lap is a work around but a bodge) then at least could the devs use a random algorithm for their pit exits? That way a gap would appear BEFORE the last of 25 odd cars has passed (good luck at Azure circuit…) and you may for once actually be able to get out on the track FIRST now and then! This would be easy to implement/change surely? For those of us who tune their cars before we drive them a restart would not be required anymore too so we dont run out of time.
Tires wearing down whilst parked?:
As a by product of the above workaround I have discovered possible unrealistic tire modeling? On two occasions I have parked on the side of the track straight after the pits at the start of a session then gone on to another task, come back to the game much later and noticed my tires are down to 10% after an hour or so. Is tire wear directly related to actual rubber/track/distance interaction or a simple time formula? In both cases my mileage was less than 400 yards, and the engine was turned off on the second occasion too. Will test this more as its only in “pcars dash” Android app telemetry that the wear has shown, but am presuming its only reporting the game data it is receiving.
Footnote: just left car in garage during setup in 30 min qualifier did NOT select drive, left game for 3 hours tires on 2% when I got back. In pcars dash...cant check cars telemetry as session over but Ive noticed the tire telemetry still degrades even after session is over (in dash app).
Once again AWESOME sim/game, loving it to death - now back to Zolder after rebooting the game to get correct steering ratio applied. Happens when SAME car (all of them) is used at any DIFFERENT track/config. Once set it remains set for good. A workaround I just thought about would be to change steering in garage BEFORE using car, save to all circuits THEN restart game. Wont work now as it would wipe all my sweet, adorable tunes ;D