PC1 Latest Build testing.

[Andy_J]

As you all know, Ian gave me a free pass to test the latest builds and that's what I have been doing for the last week. I will report here as and when I see fit to tell all about my findings.

But I will say that the latest build (296) is quite good. Now lets make some sense of my statement. I used a Lotus 98T in helmet cam using my antique MOMO red wheel and I can honestly report it is coming along much better than I anticipated. The actual feel and immersion is damn fine at this point. The handling is strange at first compared to say...RF2 and FVA, but it grows on you within minutes. At this point in time, this actual car feels good. I like it and I love the Milan circuit. The damage model has come on leaps and bounds.

I am doing some more testing all of next week using a G27 and I will also test some of the other cars that don't interest me as much (I am a F1 nut) and see how the feel in comparison to Shift 2, because that is what I was initially comparing PCars to.

I would like the replay function to have a directors mode though. Something that jumps from action to action and from car to car.

Aside from that, the replay's do crash my PC quite often but I understand that is being looked at.

Watch this space.

 

[Peter]

Starting to think that outside of the wmd forum the love for pcars has more or less swept away. The German forums show a similar frustration with the ffb and how people get muzzled at wmd as soon as they ask for the poor physics and ffb. ANd now here nobody tests it anymore?

I still test it.

 

[RaceNut]

I will continue to watch and test from time to time. I cannot see how this can be compared to Shift at all though, Shift 2 had terrible controller lag and was lacking in driving feel. While not exactly SIM-like, Pcars handling is miles better than Shift 2 already and they still have a long way to go in the development.
Ye have little faith . . .

 

[Rob]

Re: Shift 2 -- At least on the xbox, you could fix the controller (e.g. wheel) lag in the car setup and wheel settings, especially if you have independent wheel settings. I found shift to be one of the best handling games for the xbox once you dialed it in. Only Race Pro was better, IMO. Forza is just eye candy, as the cars are too heavy regardless of what you do. I do realize a PC has MANY more advantages. Plus, while "feel" is important, I'd gladly compromise (at least on xbox) some feel for content, race realism, tuning, and a decent penalty/A.I. system.

 

[traind]

No sim pleases everyone. pcars won't either. Testing right now gives you very different experiences between cars-- some fun/good, some less so. They are doing a lot of experimenting so it appears some rides are far ahead of others in development. Personally, I am enjoying the GT40, Lotus 49, Hyuara and the SLS quite a bit. I think the FFB feel of these has come along nicely.

A few of the other cars I tried recently have their FFB weighting very different and it really hurts the feel. Still, overall the game is coming along nicely, in my opinion. It remains to be seen how the feel will stack up against the best out there but I think pcars has a chance it will hang in there near the great handling titles. Time will tell. Certainly it has a lot to offer regarding track & car selection, graphics, 24 hour cycle, weather and, more an more, sound.

 

[ONT]

Build 567


Did a race in the Zakspeed Ford Capri felt good, FFB set to 95 and TireForce 40.

And a race in the Formula Gulf also good.

Feels like the CPFT is progressing nice.


Did some runs around notDAYTONA, starting to look like the real thing.

Still lots of BUGS but good to see some action on the OVAL front.


The CAPER oval car is still extremely loose, the road version of CAPER

with final drive changed to 2.79 for max speed works for bug finding.



CPFT, Week 10, Racer V8, Dubai GP

CPFT, Week 10, Ariel Atom 3, Heusden

 

[Chris Partridge]

I think the FFB is getting to be amongst the best around - something that certainly wasn't the case earlier this year. The SLS GT3, Ford Zakspeed Capri, the BMW GT3 all feel brilliant. Once pitstops are fully implemented (partly working now I believe) it'll get really interesting. Once everything is in place for release next year, it'll have a huge impact. Great input from community and also their pro drivers Ben Collins and Nic Hamilton making the difference.

 

[traind]

I think the FFB is getting to be amongst the best around - something that certainly wasn't the case earlier this year. The SLS GT3, Ford Zakspeed Capri, the BMW GT3 all feel brilliant. Once pitstops are fully implemented (partly working now I believe) it'll get really interesting. Once everything is in place for release next year, it'll have a huge impact. Great input from community and also their pro drivers Ben Collins and Nic Hamilton making the difference.

I hadn't driven those three in a quite a bit but just tried them per your recommendation. All feel quite good right now. The Capri sounds particularly good (audio is another area that is coming along very well, depending on if the car you drive has the latest updates or not). The newer GT cars rotate very nicely under power-- the Capri seems to stay planted--maybe a bit too much? But it feels good overall.

Collins has been hammering them pretty hard on some of the cars over the last few weeks but his specific and candid feedback, having driven so many of the cars in real life, seems to be invaluable.

 

[Tom]

Any news for T500 users? I.e. is it playable by now and did the FFB stop being worse than on my ancient N64 with it's rumble pak?

 

[Peter]

Any news for T500 users? I.e. is it playable by now and did the FFB stop being worse than on my ancient N64 with it's rumble pak?

Last week it wasn't any better, tried some tweakers but the ffb was to light or no ffb.

 

[ONT]

Not a T500 user (got a HOTAS Cougar for flight sim and that can be a little daunting on the settings) this thread may help http://forum.wmdportal.com/showthread.php?149-Thrustmaster-T500RS


Make sure to delete the CARS folder in My Documents folder on every new patch.


On a side note, some admins use the T500 ,Rob Parange.

And it looks like the fastest pCARS driver Joni Vares use one

" | Core i7 4770K 4.4GHz + Corsair H100i @ 4x SP120 Quiet Edition Push Pull | Asus Maximus VI Hero Z87 | 8GB Corsair Vengeance 1866MHz CL9 | Gainward GTX 780 3GB | Samsung 840 Pro 128GB (OS) & Intel 330 120Gb SSD + 2x 1Tb HDD | Corsair Carbide Air 540 |
| Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit | Corsair AX850 | Thrustmaster T500RS + F1 Addon | Asus VG278HE 144Hz |"

 

[Peter]

@ONT
For me it's not about speed but experience. If it was about speed I use a Gamepad.(that's a good idea)

 

[Tom]

So I gave it a shot yesterday and it was actually fine. I then noticed that I didn't even calibrate my wheel...after doing so the feeling & FFB was completely wrong.

 

[Chris Partridge]

Today i have been trying out some telemetry software developed by a talented member of the pCARS community. I took the Z4 out to thrash a few laps around "Northampton" - sunny day in height of summer. Saw some impressive temperature build ups.

Blue = Lap1 practice
Grey = Lap 5 practice

Don't know what tyres are being modelled here, but I spoke to an engineer from Avon Tyres a couple of months ago and he said the ideal operating window for temps was just under 100C for the GT tyres they supply to the current British GT Championship.. You can see the tyres peak over that but that here was after some hard running.

 

[ONT]

So I gave it a shot yesterday and it was actually fine. I then noticed that I didn't even calibrate my wheel...after doing so the feeling & FFB was completely wrong.

I'm glad it worked fine for You.

Should be easy to go back and calibrate the wheel for the sim You ran before
pCARS

There may be a BUG in the calibration stage for the F500.

With all the different testing on tires, new tire values on a daily basis some are doing this :

"One tip from Andrew on FFB lately was:
Try pressing F1.
Go to the 'Input' menue and disable every force under 'force mask' except 'Steering Force'."

 

[Tom]

This is about the pCARS in-game calibration...no chance in hell I'll touch this game before another 6 months passed. Who knows, maybe it'll be at least acceptable by then.

Tom

 

[traind]

...no chance in hell I'll touch this game before another 6 months passed. Who knows, maybe it'll be at least acceptable by then.

Tom

From my own perspective at least, that seems to be missing the point. The development process is fascinating to watch (and feel). I jump in regularly to see the changes and how they are approached. Many times cars take a step forward and then a step back. If I was treating it like early access to a near finished game this would be frustrating. Instead I think of it as a window into game development.

Overall I find the experience is feeling better and better but then I try a car that just isn't near being right. But that is the process unfolding.

 

[Tom]

From my own perspective at least, that seems to be missing the point. The development process is fascinating to watch (and feel). I jump in regularly to see the changes and how they are approached. Many times cars take a step forward and then a step back. If I was treating it like early access to a near finished game this would be frustrating. Instead I think of it as a window into game development.

Overall I find the experience is feeling better and better but then I try a car that just isn't near being right. But that is the process unfolding.

Thing is, my wheel never worked properly in pCARS. That only adds to my frustration about physics etc. (but that's not something I'd like to start a discussion about) and I'll rather stay away from a game and play something that's good already (GSC2012 / 2013, FTruck etc.).

Tom

 

[Chris Partridge]

Tom, what wheel do you have? I've been very critical of the FFB in pCARS before but I now feel very differently about it - because it has hugely improved. Some of the cars deliver some of the best FFB experiences around - very close to the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 I raced for real at Brands Hatch. There is impressive work going on at SMS. Worth a second look.

 

[Tom]

@Chris Partridge

T500. I've tried it recently (as per my post) but once calibrated it was awful - strangely it was good when it wasn't "calibrated". Then again, the car felt like it was on rails...although I had no aids enabled at all.

 

[Chris Partridge]

@Tom Endres - check out this thread: http://forum.wmdportal.com/showthread.php?149-Thrustmaster-T500RS/page113 ... there is bound to be some v useful help in there.

As for rails, I drove the Ferrari 430 at Silverstone last year and that was was like it was on rails. It can be quite disconcerting how planted these machines really are, and this was the standard road-going version. pCARS actually should feel even more planted in some conditions - there is an issue with the cars spinning out in certain conditions when in RL it should not be the case. I have managed to get a sweet spot set up wise (I usually increase front ARB and loosen the rear ARB two clicks and one click respectively to dial out snap oversteer on corner exit) with my favourite cars and with the FFB, and generally it feels just "right". More tweaks on the way but it's definitely heading waay in the right direction.

Strangely, the thing that really helps the physics -- is the visuals. I have cranked up the "world movement" option to 90% and suddenly the car and the feel at the wheel is doing what you subconsciously expect to see from a visual perspective. I was quite surprised. I also added 30% damping to the FFB and this makes for a more accurate sensation. I have Tyre Force at 90% and FFB Strength at 100% for my G27.