RE: Project Cars: Preview

[PJDubyaM]

ajprice said:

Is there any kind of paintshop in the console game, or a way of getting paints/skins into the game?

This is PC-only for the moment. But our community has been (and is!) active in making skins for the game, and there are some corkers out there.

[PJDubyaM]

kowalski655 said:

Love the fact that there are loads of tracks,some im sure have not been in a game before. That was the disappointing thing with FM5.

Yeah, I feel your pain. I have nothing but respect for Forza and Gran Turismo (any belittling I do is with tongue firmly planted in cheek!), but I too was a bit disappointed with FM5's track list.

(...that said, I love slinging a 2-Eleven around their Prague track.)

But yeah, we're certainly shipping with (we think) more tracks than any contemporary competitor.

[PJDubyaM]

Mini1275 said:

Are there any updates on the game's incompatibility with Logitech wheels on the Playstation 4 version?.

The inability to be able to use one of the most popular wheels with a 'simulation' game is a major letdown for a large number of people.

I'll have a look into it, let you know (although bear in mind that my answer may be tempered by what information's actually been made public at a given point).

I do know that we're looking at supporting as many wheels as we can. I'm not sure of the ins and outs of this particular case, but the current-gen consoles are different in terms of peripherals than previous ones. I've learned that the hard way by having to junk my Microsoft Racing Wheel. Fortunately I've been able to, um, 'borrow' a Mad Catz Racing Wheel from the office for my newly acquired Xbox One / FM5, but yeah. A real shame when hardware isn't intergenerationally compatible.

[PJDubyaM]

craste said:

I cannot wait for this game!

Couple of questions:

1.) Will there be any 1980's hot hatches available in the future like Escort RS Turbo, Renault 5 GT Turbo, MG Maestro Turbo, MG Metro, Peugeot 205 GTI, Vauxhall Astra GTE 16 Valve?


2) I have a PS4 and a PC - would you recommend buying a decent graphics card for the PC to play it on there or is the PS4 really good enough looking to not warrant playing it on PC (I aim to buy a nice wheel too for Christmas)

I would love to see a Sierra RS Sapphire Cosworth and the original 3 door whale tail in the game - would love to see them too as normal road cars not racing versions!

Cheers

Craig.

Hey Craig - thanks for your interest!

1) Can't really answer that in any way that'll satisfy you, I'm afraid! We do have Old Stuff in the game (check out our Gamescom trailer for a sneaky-peaky), but I can't go into details as to the car list or DLC plans at this point.

2) Hmm. I'm a console nut, so will be getting a PS4 when there's a decent driving game available for it (*ahem* ours!). PS4 is going to be 60fps, 1080p. It looks lovely. But the PC version is always going to be that bit better. With enough graphics horsepower, you can have it running at 4K at 60fps. It's a thing of beauty, it really is.

[kowalski655]

PJDubyaM said:

(...that said, I love slinging a 2-Eleven around their Prague track.)...

That is a good track,but I prefer my Mini 1275
Speaking of which,are there going to be any classic old or slow cars?I know most people like the hypercars but I personally love the slow old bangers(in FM4 I rarely left F class... Not that I was any good )
Either way I am getting it-just need to decide on XBone or PC

[N0ddie]

PJDubyaM said:

PS4 is going to be 60fps, 1080p. It looks lovely.

Will the Xbox One run at the same level or like many other cross platform titles run at less than 1080P eg. 900P?

It really does look like it'll be THE next racing series.

[PJDubyaM]

kowalski655 said:

Speaking of which,are there going to be any classic old or slow cars?I know most people like the hypercars but I personally love the slow old bangers(in FM4 I rarely left F class... Not that I was any good )

Old, yes. Slow - not so much. This is a motorsport simulation, remember! To give you a taste, there's things like some Classic Team Lotus stuff, Ford 1972 Escort RS1600, 1978 BMW 320 Turbo Group 5, and so on. Got to be careful as it's very easy to lose track of what's been 'officially' officially announced, but because of the unique way we've developed the title (in full view of, and with the priceless input of, the community over at the WMD forums), there's plenty of information already out in the public domain.

[PJDubyaM]

N0ddie said:

Will the Xbox One run at the same level or like many other cross platform titles run at less than 1080P eg. 900P?

It really does look like it'll be THE next racing series.

We're absolutely aiming for platform parity. Please don't read that as a cast-iron guarantee that that's what we'll end up with, but it's certainly the target.

[N0ddie]

Just seen that Watkins Glen and Mount Panorama in in the game.

Onto a winner straight away with that.

[356Speedster]

PJDubyaM said:

Mini1275 said:

Are there any updates on the game's incompatibility with Logitech wheels on the Playstation 4 version?.

The inability to be able to use one of the most popular wheels with a 'simulation' game is a major letdown for a large number of people.

I'll have a look into it, let you know (although bear in mind that my answer may be tempered by what information's actually been made public at a given point).

I do know that we're looking at supporting as many wheels as we can. I'm not sure of the ins and outs of this particular case, but the current-gen consoles are different in terms of peripherals than previous ones. I've learned that the hard way by having to junk my Microsoft Racing Wheel. Fortunately I've been able to, um, 'borrow' a Mad Catz Racing Wheel from the office for my newly acquired Xbox One / FM5, but yeah. A real shame when hardware isn't intergenerationally compatible.

This is a critical question for me and many others too. Sony & Logitech are refusing to comment and it's leading to a lot of speculation. To not support the most popular wheels (I'll include Fanatec in that statement too) on the market is a massive miss.

I got Drive Club last week, but as my DFGT isn't compatible, I'm not enjoying it on a pad at all. It's going on eBay soon. I have this on pre-order, but if I don't get confirmation that my DFGT is supported, I'll be cancelling (as I suspect will many others) and continuing with GT6 on the PS3. What use is a driving sim without market leading wheel support?!?

If you could get us some feedback on support, we'd appreciate it! Our fingers are firmly crossed!

[iloveboost]

RobGT81 said:

Not really. Not really sure how you could tell if you had the assists turned on? Feels a lot more arcadey when compared to the usual suspects.

From the videos and forums so far it doesn't seem like it's going to be a 'simulator' but then neither is 'Forza Motorsport', and it's still my favourite racing game series.

I think 'Project Cars' will be like a multi-platform 'Forza Motorsport', and that sounds good to me. If they go down the arcade racer dressed as a sim route like 'Grid' and 'Shift' I'll be disappointed, but it's not my decision to make. I think 'Project Cars' is aiming for Forza/GT fans or people who want that kind of game but only own a PC.

The most realistic handling racing game I've played is called 'Assetto Corsa'. However it's not much fun right now as it's not a full release yet. It also looks, and sounds, dated. Plus it will never have the depth of content that 'Project Cars' already has.

One suggestion to the developers if they ever read this:
Many racing games are fun against mates but bad against random people. Especially on consoles and everybody has a massively different skill level. Some players even cause grief for fun. It would be great to be able to ban individuals from racing with you and to have individual skill level automatically estimated to match drivers for races. This would make races far more fair and fun.
Also if you could make the cars automatically ghost if a collision would cause either car to lose control, or separate the physics of movement from the physics of collisions that would also help.

[Housey]

I am yet to find a racing sim that has the feel of GP Legends. There are many that looks much much better and have better track accuracy but it still has something special in the physics space that I have not seen improved on. I think iRacing is probably the best at the moment on that front, but I find it mixed in terms of car physics.

[PJDubyaM]

356Speedster said:

This is a critical question for me and many others too. Sony & Logitech are refusing to comment and it's leading to a lot of speculation. To not support the most popular wheels (I'll include Fanatec in that statement too) on the market is a massive miss.

I got Drive Club last week, but as my DFGT isn't compatible, I'm not enjoying it on a pad at all. It's going on eBay soon. I have this on pre-order, but if I don't get confirmation that my DFGT is supported, I'll be cancelling (as I suspect will many others) and continuing with GT6 on the PS3. What use is a driving sim without market leading wheel support?!?

If you could get us some feedback on support, we'd appreciate it! Our fingers are firmly crossed!

Here's my take on it.

We, the developers, are doing everything we can to support the wheels that are out there (there's a list of confirmed compatibility over at http://www.projectcarsgame.com/beyond-reality.html ). But it's the 'everything we can' bit that's key.

For us to be able to support a wheel, a number of things have to happen, and they're things over which we have little to no control or influence.

1) The wheel has to be compatible with the hardware. It is not a given that wheels compatible for last-gen consoles are compatible with current-gen consoles. Although Old Wheel A and New Wheel B might both use a USB connection, that's not the end of the story. Security is a big thing to the platform holders, and they tend to beef it up each generation. It may be the case (and this is me speculating, rather than having knowledge) that a current-gen platform needs a peripheral to 'reply' to it in a certain way so that it knows what it is (a so-called 'digital handshake'). In this example, Old Wheel A cannot have the response that the current-gen platform is looking for, as it pre-dates it. This leaves owners of Old Wheel A unable to use their peripheral on the current-gen platform. It's something that caught me out with the incompatibility of the Microsoft Racing Wheel with the Xbox One. Again, this isn't me knowing what the situation is; it's me giving you an example of the sort of thing that can go wrong between console generations.

2) The wheel has to be approved by the platform holders. Sony and Microsoft must give their official stamp of approval that the peripheral is An Okay Thing. This allows the platform holders to ensure that minimum quality standards are being met, and so on. It's like when a game has to go to certification and be approved for the platform in question, except for hardware.

3) The console firmware must have caught up. That is to say that a console sold in January 2014 must be updated with the correct drivers to talk to a wheel launched in November 2014. This is likely done via a console firmware update. These won't be done every single time a peripheral is approved, but will likely be delivered as part of a larger update, the timing of which is in the hands of the platform holders.

4) The peripheral manufacturers must give the developers the support they need to implement wheel support. That might be delivering up to date drivers, and so on. Peripherals don't work 'by magic'; each one needs support within the game code. And different peripherals have different features, and need different support, and that needs to be added to the game.

Those are the sorts of things that have to happen before we're able to support a wheel. Of course it's in our best interests to support as many wheels as we're able to, as those that own wheels are the most likely to buy and enjoy our game. But if any of the above points (and potentially others that I've forgotten about / don't know about) are missing, then we can't roll out support.

Naturally you're completely within your rights to cancel your pre-order if things that are outside our control aren't done. But we hope you'll reconsider, and give our game a shot anyway. You have my assurance that we'll support as many wheels as we're able to, with support for newcomers patched in at a later date.

Edited by PJDubyaM on Tuesday 14th October 21:30

[PJDubyaM]

iloveboost said:

From the videos and forums so far it doesn't seem like it's going to be a 'simulator' but then neither is 'Forza Motorsport', and it's still my favourite racing game series.

We had Rene Rast using Project CARS to practice for the Le Mans 24H, so we reckon it's quite simulationy, thankyouverymuch! Seriously, though, we have the input of professional racing drivers (Nic Hamilton, Oli Webb, Ben Collins aka the Former Stig) giving us their feedback, and making sure this thing is right. And they post pCARS lap times that are within tenths of a second of their real-life ones using the same car. Not bad.

iloveboost said:

One suggestion to the developers if they ever read this:
Many racing games are fun against mates but bad against random people. Especially on consoles and everybody has a massively different skill level. Some players even cause grief for fun. It would be great to be able to ban individuals from racing with you and to have individual skill level automatically estimated to match drivers for races. This would make races far more fair and fun.
Also if you could make the cars automatically ghost if a collision would cause either car to lose control, or separate the physics of movement from the physics of collisions that would also help.

This is being done, yeah. Full matchmaking in there (and I'm fairly sure that hosts can kick players). Should make sure that you're matched against the sort of people that you want to be matched against.

We don't have a mode where we switch off collision detection entirely – but cars are ghosted just after a reset (to stop them being hit by faster traffic). You can also race ghosts for an approximation of what you're talking about. I don't think I've ever heard of a racing game that allows collisions to be turned off completely, but I'll put it to the team!

[pcarsftw]

PS4 Wheel support unfortunately doesn't depend on the IP/Dev, but rather on the console it self. From my understanding none of the legacy wheels are supported via PS4 (G25/G27 or the DFGT, due to driver incompatibility, USB Security). Maybe SONY will release an update that adds support in the future, but right now the CONSOLE doesn't support those wheels, thus the game can't use them even if support is native to the game.

PC on the other hand...

[trashbat]

Have you tried Assetto Corsa? If so, can I tempt you into a comparison with Project Cars?

Also, is it likely to be actually playable with a keyboard?

[356Speedster]

PJDubyaM said:

....Wheel compatibility stuff...

Sincerely many thanks for taking the time to reply, I do appreciate it. It feels like there's a lot to this situation, potentially with Sony / Logitech chiefly and the consumer is the one left in the mire. If only Thrustmaster wheels are offered, I'm out. I neither want a cheapo non-force wheel or another £300+ investment in a wheel to play a game (Thrustmaster's only options). Driving games are not the same on a pad, either.

Fingers crossed something changes and we get positive news soon

[N0ddie]

Removing collisions from a sim racer (or any racer) is a bad idea. Yes it's annoying when you are wiped out by some other player. However the satisfaction is much better in a race where you had to work your way past (cleanly obviously) as opposed to ghosting through someone on the racing line.

Anyhoo! Got my pre-order in for the Ltd Edition version for Xbox One (though that could change to PS4) is quality/spec parity isn't the same. Xbox LIVE for me is this the best online service for fun/banter.

[Ved]

So you're saying you have a realistic game, with accurate graphics, physics (and sound?) and it'll come out on time and complete?

Have you been approached by Sony to sort that Gran Turismo crap out as you guys seem to be doing this just right

Any scope for standard road cars later on?

[ThePhilSProject]

I love it when a dev comes to the forums to answer questions!

A feature I think is lacking these days from games is LAN support, it's almost always easier than online if everyone is already round at your place. Will Project Cars have this feature? How about dedicated servers?