GTPlanet Community Spotlight: Building a Dream Car

– Corvette Daytona Prototype, July 15th, 2015, courtesy of Arixant.

This has been a much calmer week, and graciously so with everything that’s been going on throughout the past several weeks; GTPlanet’s expansion is taking quite the toll on us all and for the strangest of reasons I find myself wishing, nay, craving that this week had been as hectic as those that have preceded. Make no mistake, there’s still plenty in the pipeline that you’ll all be privy to soon enough, but I suppose I’ve grown accustomed to the frantic, fast-paced deliverance of all things racing – down with the sickness I guess you could say.

In a move I don’t think anyone expected, Turn 10 have introduced a free bonus expansion that includes Porsche’s, more specifically the 2012 911 GT2 RS and 2012 Cayenne Turbo. You can see for yourself by having a look over at the article here. Now say it with me: free Porsche’s. That rolls off the tongue in a way I wouldn’t have thought possible until now.

This is a great time to be a racing gamer as there are a number of options available to you and even more as the year progresses, but there’s one particular game, an oddball if you will, that absolutely needs to be mentioned but won’t be until later on in the Spotlight. All I’ll say is it involves using a car in a most unorthodox manner and involves goals.

While you ponder that, I have but only one question: who’s ready for the Spotlight?

GTPlanet Picture of the Week

This week’s featured image comes to us courtesy of Tomcat79 and features the Renault 5 Turbo taking in the Southern European sights in a style unique to its rally-bred nature.

If you like what you’re seeing and have a suggestion for next week’s featured image, start a conversation with me, entitle it “GTPlanet Picture of the Week” and fill it to your heart’s content with suggestions and they’ll be featured in upcoming Community Spotlight articles. NOTE: You cannot elect your own work.

GTPlanet Gallery of the Week

Once a month, instead of highlighting a single gallery and placing the spotlight on one individual, the spotlight will be placed on multiple people at once, thus allowing for even richer discussion and participation.

This week’s featured gallery is yet another community effort maintained by budding virtual photographers and veterans alike with an added competitive twist.

“This weeks theme is all about chrome. It can be a close up shot of any chrome part, or a whole car in a shiny chrome paint, but it should be the main focus of the image. Motion or static shots are allowed, but no phototravel locations please.”

You can use any car at any location, the only limitation is that chrome be the focal point. You can have a look at this week’s competition and submit your own entry by stopping by the thread here and getting with the program!

If you like what you’re seeing and have a suggestion for next week’s featured gallery, start a conversation with me, entitle it “GTPlanet Gallery of the Week” and fill it to your heart’s content with suggestions and they’ll be featured in upcoming Community Spotlight articles. NOTE: You cannot elect your own gallery.

GTPlanet Thread of the Week – Virtually Transitioning to Reality

– Audi R8 LMP at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, July 16th, 2015, courtesy of carfanatic45.

It’s no secret that we’ve all wondered how well Gran Turismo compares to the real world, and while some of us have experience with just this very thing, the opinions range from person to person as they well should. This week we’re highlight one of those opinions in this thread created by our very own sk8r913 and is one that cuts straight to the point: using knowledge obtained in the virtual world of Gran Turismo and applying it to the real world albeit with an unexpected (and unpleasant) surprise.

“Severe, moderate, and minorly incorrect issues are categorized based on how big of an impact it has on driving at the limit. You are encouraged to suggest a change if you feel that it is in the wrong category.

In game and real life designate if the description is what happens in real life or in the game Gran Turismo 6. You are again encouraged to suggest changes if you feel like it would improve it.

Better simulated by list is a compilation of games that simulate that particular issue better than Gran Turismo 6 on force feedback wheels. It’s not saying that it’s a better as a whole and This is definitely not meant to put down or praise ANY SIMULATION GAME! This section is meant to help gamer to racers practice and prepare for the real world using simulation racing games.

Contribution list have people who have added to that topic.

Well Simulated list are things players think is well simulated in this game, if you would like to add something to this list, tag me.

Endorsement list have people that agree with that post, if you would like to be added to this list, tag me. Endorsements are preferred to be members that have experienced this in real life and in game.”

If you have the experience in both disciplines, and I know a couple of you out there do, then you’ll want to stop by sk8r’s thread and share your experiences for better and for worse, all the while making things that much more accessible for those looking to break into the real world of racing.

Petrolicious: Building Your Dream Ferrari

Nicolas Hamilton Back On Board for Project CARS 2

– Caterham SP/300.R, July 16th, 2015, courtesy of [Nor]McLarenF1.

Slightly Mad Studios has recently announced that racing car driver Nicolas Hamilton, brother of the current F1 Drivers Champion Lewis Hamilton, will continue to serve as Handling Consultant for the recently announced Project CARS 2.

“I am mega excited to be a part of the Development Team at Slightly Mad Studios for Project CARS 2,“ Hamilton commented.

“When I first joined SMS back in 2012, it was an absolute dream come true to work on Project CARS 1, which was a great success and an amazing experience for me. To be a part [of] another fantastic project yet again is just something I always dreamed of and I hope we, as a team, can deliver another fantastic product.”

For more on the continued partnership be sure to stop by the official announcement on the WMD page here.

Raceroom Racing Experience (R3E) – Circuit Paul Ricard Preview

Sector 3 Studios, formerly SimBin Studios, have released the first preview of the technical Circuit Paul Ricard set to make its way to the game soon and features the BMW Z4 GT3.

Project CARS PC Patch 2.5 Now Available

SMS have just rolled out a PC-only patch that addresses a number bugs experienced by users and also includes a number of wider fixes and new features that will make their way into the other platforms’ patch 3 release.

Game Crashes

We spent a lot of time working directly with a number of users who were struggling with game crashes, and resolved as many of these as we could. The various fixes in this patch should help a great deal in making the game more stable for those of you who were experiencing these instabilities.

Pitting, tuning, setups

• Fixed a case where the in-game tuning Setup was not being saved under certain conditions.
• Fixed the issue with cold and current tyre pressure mismatches in pitstop strategy, as well as cold pressure not being correctly applied in the tyre system.
• Ensure that the Default pitstop strategy is selected as the Active one when starting a new session.
• Fixed an issue where the wrong vehicle setup would at times be applied to the player’s current vehicle.
• Fixed another case of where cars would sometimes leave the pits with an invisible reattached wheel.
• Fixed an issue with the Pit Strategy screen where the displayed values did not reflect the saved settings.
• Fixed an issue in online races where the pit crew would ignore any changes made to the pit strategy once the player’s car was stationary in the pit box.
• Reworked some tyre compound names as displayed in the setup screen to ensure that all compounds are named to be indicative of the type of compound it represents in the pit strategy screen.
• Restrict the selectable pit strategy tyre compound types to only those available for the current vehicle.

Online

• Fixed an issue where the Drive button would remain permanently locked when joining an in-progress session.
• Fixed an issue where, when the player progressed from qualifying to the start of the race, the player’s car would sometimes begin moving without player, resulting in false jump-starts.
  

Controls

• New Feature – Implemented the ability via menu sliders for the user to manually tweak the menu spring strength, stationary / low speed spring strength, and overall steering gain.
• New Feature – The Force Feedback Calibration screen now features a multiple force feedback profile selection whereby the user can select a base FFB style that suits personal preference, and then tweak it further as desired. This will then create a ‘Custom’ entry in the profile selection list in addition to the current options: “Default” (matches the FFB default settings in Patch 2.0) and “Classic” (matches the FFB settings in the original release).
• Fixed an issue with sudden loss of FFB after a crash.
• Reduced the strength of the menu spring for custom wheels.
• Fixed an issue where Mouse controls were showing a deadzone in the centre regardless of deadzone setting.
• Fixed an issue where rumble on the gamepad could at times cause the game to slow down.
• Added support and profiles for the Logitech G29 and G920 on PC
• Added accelerator slip vibration to the wheel rim of Fanatec wheels where available, and fixed brake rumble not working.

Vehicles

• Formula A – Added a new tire set which now includes two slick tires – soft and medium. Also rebalanced the heating and wear across all four tyre sets. Wear will now more closely match real-world Formula cars. Heating is more even front to rear also. Further rebalancing of the AI speed as was required, and tweaks to the base setup to accommodate the heat change.
• Modern street cars – New stiffer tyres for improved drivability to more closely match the real world experience, making these cars more fun and engaging to drive. Made tweaks to the individual setups of the FWD and most Supercars to accommodate the change.
• Mclaren P1 – Stiffened up the default suspension to help prevent bottoming out at tracks like Nordschliefe.

Rocket League – The Most Insanely Fun Game Ever?

Rocket League is a game that features fictional rocket-propelled cars, a large soccer ball, and opposing goals on both ends of the stadium. Do I even need to say more to entice you to play this? It’s free for all PlayStation Plus members for the month of July, and costs $20 USD on the PlayStation and Steam Stores if you’re not a PS+ member – wait are you waiting for, a video demonstration showing you just how fun this game is?

[Language Warning]

What do you want now, testimonials from GTPlanet’s own community?

“Okay, this game is awesome.” – sems4arsenal
“This game is so much fun, haven’t done ranked yet but unranked 3×3 and 4×4 has been a blast.” – Jahgee1124
“Got the PS Plus 2 Day Trial just to give this a try and it is one of the most fun games I have played on PS4!” – JASON_ROCKS1998
“I love games like this. Finally managed to play through a few games in MP and while random, it was a blast. Such a simple game that just feels right. I think I played last night for 4 hours straight.”  – Oso Actual

On a serious note, Rocket League is ridiculously fun and if you have the means to play it I would highly recommend doing so, even more so if you’re a fan of soccer but always wanted to play it with the “Top Gear twist”. Stop by the thread in our forum and help GTP’s Rocket League community grow!

GTPlanet Vehicle of the Week

GTPlanet Tune of the Week

This week’s featured tune is yet again aimed at this week’s Seasonal Events but instead turns the attention toward one of the reward vehicles, the McLaren F1 Stealth Model. The F1 is undoubtedly quite the handful but in capable hands it is more than capable of being an absolute monster around any venue.

Be sure to stop by Praiano’s GT6 Tunes thread and give this one a go, but be warned: the McLaren F1 is not for the faint of heart. Can you rise to the challenge?

The Last Lap

This week I’ve upgraded my PC setup yet again but not with a new piece of internal hardware, no, I’ve gone with an external upgrade: audio. For the past several years I’ve been using the fantastic Logitech X-530 5.1 surround speakers and while I only ever used the full setup a handful of times, namely while playing Crysis 2, the speakers themselves have been great for just about any and everything I’ve thrown their way but I’ve been eyeing a superior set of speakers for more than a year now and I finally pulled the trigger.

I’ve been wanting Corsair’s high-powered SP2500’s since they hit the market but always held off for one reason or another and now that I finally have them I can’t help but think to myself what it was that took me so long in the first place. I’ve only had them for less than a day at this point so there isn’t a lot I can say at the moment, but the initial impression of nothing short of incredulous; that is I’ve yet to bring myself around to believing how stellar these speakers perform.

The Spotlight was a little on the “light” side this week and was a much-needed relief, but don’t fret as things will return to normal next week, and on top of that there will be another new Member of the Week to celebrate!

There’s still some E3 news to wade through and we’ll comb through that in next week’s issue in addition to some other worthy bits of news, but as I’ve rambled on for long enough it is once again time to bring the Spotlight to a close but not before asking what it is that you all would want to see in the Spotlight as it continues to evolve. Any and all ideas are welcome so don’t be shy because that’s not allowed. Seriously, you’re not allowed to be shy.

I will find you and I will arrest you. For being shy. Don’t do it.

Until next week, keep racing!

See more articles on GTPlanet Community Spotlight.