New to Project Cars - some questions

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AlexDB9

AlexDB9

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I just got Project Cars 2 because it's newer than the first and a sim while 3 is arcade.

Is this the best Project Cars to date?

What should I expect going to this from GT Sport?

Specifically got the Deluxe edition. Is this edition still missing major DLCs or is it mostly complete?

Thanks!
 
I've never played GT Sport so can't answer that myself.

Best pCARS to date - for me yes, by far, however there are some that prefer the first.

The Deluxe edition is missing the Japanese pack, but includes everything else.
 
Yeah. I've played a month's worth of hours on PCARS2 since launch day and played a decent amount of PCARS1 and still finding cars I haven't driven properly. The driving experience is so much more alive than GT Sport.

Class balancing isn't as good as GT Sport. In most classes, there are one or a handful of cars that drive the best and it's pretty clear. Touring Cars is a great example of that with the Renault being the best all-rounder.

I'd stay away from Formula C. I've never had a great feel on how they drive. They feel like the pace of a Formula 4 with none of the grip of one. If you want to try that level of open-wheel car, PCARS1's Formula C and Formula Gulf are great but the game is less pick-up and play than PCARS2.

There's a lot of content so I'm sure you'll find something you like. LMP1/2s are great to drive too. The slower classes are great fun too despite being slow.
 
AlexDB9
I just got Project Cars 2 because it's newer than the first and a sim while 3 is arcade.

Is this the best Project Cars to date?

What should I expect going to this from GT Sport?

Specifically got the Deluxe edition. Is this edition still missing major DLCs or is it mostly complete?

Thanks!
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Start with the Formula Rookie, Ginetta Jnr or Clio Cup car.

Keep in mind that you are going to need to learn to deal with warming tyres up correctly and not pushing until they are warm enough, managing tyres realistically, etc. GTS doesn’t do this well, and it may be a bit of a culture shock (but a good one in my view).

Oh and road cars are slow on track and have long (realistic) stopping distances because of the road tyres, again a big difference from GTS.
 
Planning to play mostly these 4 racing games with my first wheel I will soon get:

GT Sport -> F1 2018 -> pCARS 2 -> Dirt Rally 2.0

Is that order from more arcade towards more sim accurate? Or you'd alter the order?
 
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AlexDB9
Planning to play mostly these 4 racing games with my first wheel I will soon get:

GT Sport -> F1 2018 -> pCARS 2 -> Dirt Rally 2.0

Is that order from more arcade towards more sim accurate? Or you'd alter the order?
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Move Dirt 2 down below PC2, the Rally cross in PC2 is great as well.

When it’s cheap on PS4 pick up Assetto Corsa as well, it’s pretty ugly but drives amazingly.
 
Scaff
Move Dirt 2 down below PC2, the Rally cross in PC2 is great as well.

When it’s cheap on PS4 pick up Assetto Corsa as well, it’s pretty ugly but drives amazingly.
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Whoa! Clearly AC is by a long shot the most "sim" out of all those titles. "Looks ugly"? Not at all! It looks great: not as richly detailed as GTSport, for sure, & doesn't have all the fancy TOD & weather effects that PCars2 has ... but it's still a pretty nice looking game. I can say that on my basic PS4 ProjectCars2 has really bad jaggies as (I suppose) it's not capable of handling all the "special effects". It's not nearly as crisp looking as AC.
 
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Biggles
Whoa! Clearly AC is by a long shot the most "sim" out of all those titles. "Looks ugly"? Not at all! It looks great: not as richly detailed as GTSport, for sure, & doesn't have all the fancy TOD & weather effects that PCars2 has ... but it's still a pretty nice looking game. I can say that on my basic PS4 ProjectCars2 has really bad jaggies as (I suppose) it's not capable of handling all the "special effects". It's not nearly as crisp looking as AC.
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That's a saying for a reason.

I have ACC on my PS4 Pro and in still photos it is beautiful but when racing it is a little (or a lot) choppy and a little blurry due to the poor frame rate.

It is most definitely SIM but so is PC2.

It may be argued that the car handling and physics are better in ACC but I don't see how it can be argued that it is prettier than PC2.

I can play PC2 for hours on end with no strain on my eyes but I certainly cannot do that with ACC.
 
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slthree
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That's a saying for a reason.

I have ACC on my PS4 Pro and in still photos it is beautiful but when racing it is a little (or a lot) choppy and a little blurry due to the poor frame rate.

It is most definitely SIM but so is PC2.

It may be argued that the car handling and physics are better in ACC but I don't see how it can be argued that it is prettier than PC2.

I can play PC2 for hours on end with no strain on my eyes but I certainly cannot do that with ACC.
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I was talking about AC. ACC doesn't look at all good on my PS4. PCars2 doesn't look that good either, but I assume in both cases they would look much better with a more powerful processor. AC looks fine on my PS4 - crisp & clear, but there's a lot less going on than in ACC or PCars2.
 
Biggles
I was talking about AC. ACC doesn't look at all good on my PS4. PCars2 doesn't look that good either, but I assume in both cases they would look much better with a more powerful processor. AC looks fine on my PS4 - crisp & clear, but there's a lot less going on than in ACC or PCars2.
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My mistake. Apologies
 
Biggles
Whoa! Clearly AC is by a long shot the most "sim" out of all those titles. "Looks ugly"? Not at all! It looks great: not as richly detailed as GTSport, for sure, & doesn't have all the fancy TOD & weather effects that PCars2 has ... but it's still a pretty nice looking game. I can say that on my basic PS4 ProjectCars2 has really bad jaggies as (I suppose) it's not capable of handling all the "special effects". It's not nearly as crisp looking as AC.
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Each to their own, but for me on console its vehicle models are fine, but the perma-fog between the tyres and track surface combined with the flat and lifeless lighting just doesn't make it a good looking title at all.

It's not much better as a vanilla title on PC either, needing the Custom Shaders Pack and Sol to actually bring it to life and get the most out of it (with these however it does really look stunning).
 
Scaff
Each to their own, but for me on console its vehicle models are fine, but the perma-fog between the tyres and track surface combined with the flat and lifeless lighting just doesn't make it a good looking title at all.

It's not much better as a vanilla title on PC either, needing the Custom Shaders Pack and Sol to actually bring it to life and get the most out of it (with these however it does really look stunning).
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It's an old game & has limited aspirations graphics-wise, but the point I'm making is it certainly doesn't look "ugly" - it looks perfectly fine on a PS4, unlike PCars2 which is full of jaggies & ACC which is clearly beyond the abilities of the PS4.
 
You definitely need the pro or the x to appreciate PC2, it looks fantastic on my x, I bet it looks nice on your new laptop @Scaff?
Was slightly disappointed AC never got any pro/x enhancements though, but then again they left it down to the modding community on PC to make it what it is today.

Also there's a massive xbox sale going on atm, over 700 items (games/dlc) reduced, Assetto corsa ultimate edition is £12 same as PC2 deluxe edition, ACC & dlc reduced aswell.

Still interested to see if the series x adds auto hdr to the original AC, no videos anywhere so far.... Hmm.
 
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Scaff
It certainly does, also has the added bonus of mod cars as well.

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New to the PC gaming malarky? Exactly what I need! Please tell me Scaff: if you are pretty tech inept (like myself) how difficult is the transition from console to PC? I think I could quite happily stick to PCars2 & AC for several years to come if I had access to their breadth of content + mods, in addition to what appear to be very significantly improved graphics. Might be better to invest in a decent PC capable of playing AC, PCars2 & ACC than upgrading to PS5.
 
Biggles
New to the PC gaming malarky? Exactly what I need! Please tell me Scaff: if you are pretty tech inept (like myself) how difficult is the transition from console to PC? I think I could quite happily stick to PCars2 & AC for several years to come if I had access to their breadth of content + mods, in addition to what appear to be very significantly improved graphics. Might be better to invest in a decent PC capable of playing AC, PCars2 & ACC than upgrading to PS5.
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In all honesty its been remarkably easy.

I opted for a laptop (as I needed a new one) and if you get a custom built one (I went for a Cyber Power one) you don't get any of the crap you do with the likes of Dell, etc.

Steam makes it's nice and easy to get going, and the internet is awash with guides of how to set stuff up. With AC it's even easier, as a tool called Content Manager makes it pretty much drag and drop to add mods., CM also includes the Customer Shader Patch, which makes AC look great. Throw in Sol and you have dynamic time of day as well.

The end result looks stunning...

CUxtaDW.jpg


...the laptop cost me a grand and has been the best sim-racing investment I've made in years, and Steam sales let you get everything you need very cheaply.

If you do go down that route give RaceRoom Racing Experience a go (best AI around and second only in physics to RF2), its free to try and it's brilliant, as is AMS2 (this is the real Project Cars 3), RFactor 2 (the finest tyre model and physics around - limited only by a horrible UI). The list goes on, plus retro stuff is easy to find and cheap (Race 07, GT Legends, RBR).
 
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Scaff
In all honesty its been remarkably easy.

I opted for a laptop (as I needed a new one) and if you get a custom built one (I went for a Cyber Power one) you don't get any of the crap you do with the likes of Dell, etc.

Steam makes it's nice and easy to get going, and the internet is awash with guides of how to set stuff up. With AC it's even easier, as a tool called Content Manager makes it pretty much drag and drop to add mods., CM also includes the Customer Shader Patch, which makes AC look great. Throw in Sol and you have dynamic time of day as well.

The end result looks stunning...

CUxtaDW.jpg


...the laptop cost me a grand and has been the best sim-racing investment I've made in years, and Steam sales let you get everything you need very cheaply.

If you do go down that route give RaceRoom Racing Experience a go, its free to try and it's brilliant, as is AMS2, RFactor 2. The list goes on.
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I've been a Mac user for 25 years, so never ventured into the world of PCs ... or PC gaming. A GTPlanet friend tried the shift from PS to PC a few years ago & ran into problems that led him, eventually to abandon it. My interest in gaming is limited to sim racing. As PCars2 & AC hit the nail on the head for me & both have (especially with modding) a huge amount of content, I don't really see the need to go to other games in the next few years. If $1,000 could build me a PC capable of running those games well for 3 or 4 years, I'd be happy.
 
Biggles
I've been a Mac user for 25 years, so never ventured into the world of PCs ... or PC gaming. A GTPlanet friend tried the shift from PS to PC a few years ago & ran into problems that led him, eventually to abandon it. My interest in gaming is limited to sim racing. As PCars2 & AC hit the nail on the head for me & both have (especially with modding) a huge amount of content, I don't really see the need to go to other games in the next few years. If $1,000 could build me a PC capable of running those games well for 3 or 4 years, I'd be happy.
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I would almost certainly do that for you, I get an easy 60fps 1080p out of AC and PC2 at high settings. Not much modding for PC2 and its a pain in comparison to AC, as it wasn't designed as a modding platform. AC, RF2, AMS and the early SIMBIN titles are all easy. AC, however, has enough stuff to keep you going for years on its own.

Oh I forgot to point out, the photo above isn't from a 'trick' photomode in the way GTS does it, but rather that's direct game play.
 
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Long downloads for retail titles, gigs of updates, unfinished games, issues caused by DRM, strange errors to troubleshoot (maybe never resolved), poor framerates, graphics set to "low" or "medium" to cope, HDD space management, mid-life upgrades...these are reasons I don't do PC gaming as much as I once did. Now it's the Playstation/Xbox experience too.

...except without mods or file tweaks, free multiplayer you can dip into just when you're in the mood, or other advantages of a PC. And I need a PC anyway (and use this thing all the time).
 
@Biggles I echo what @Scaff is saying. I've gone down a slightly different path with a second hand desktop although a similar spec but for just £500 including a monitor. I'm lagging behind where @Scaff is in terms of games, all I've got so far is AC & PC1, I'm still on vanilla AC, but both games are running maximum graphics on my rig, AC for example runs at 129fps AVG & both games were transformed, even compared to my XB1X. Smoother, better graphics, many more options on AC etc etc. I'm the same as you, all I wanted to do was play AC/PC1/2 & for this its easy, you don't need to spend much at all to get access to the best version of these games. The fact that I can play many others in the future, (I keep an eye on what @Scaff mentions), means I'm sorted. I don't need a next gen console at this point, I've got a good few years playing just these three games, and with the option of VR :) Go for it 👍
 
Wolfe
Long downloads for retail titles, gigs of updates, unfinished games, issues caused by DRM, strange errors to troubleshoot (maybe never resolved), poor framerates, graphics set to "low" or "medium" to cope, HDD space management, mid-life upgrades...these are reasons I don't do PC gaming as much as I once did. Now it's the Playstation/Xbox experience too.

...except without mods or file tweaks, free multiplayer you can dip into just when you're in the mood, or other advantages of a PC. And I need a PC anyway (and use this thing all the time).
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This is the boat I'm in as well. Did PC from 2001-ish-sometime around PC1, eventually you just get sick of fighting and just want to play. Although, now that we seem to have some titles released that will entertain for some time, and more importantly a hardware target to aim for that should hopefully stay relevant for a while, I'm very tempted to jump back in myself. And to build an offline XP or 7 rig so I can run some of my old favourites that I can't get running on Win10, that's very tempting as well.
 
r_outsider
And to build an offline XP or 7 rig so I can run some of my old favourites that I can't get running on Win10, that's very tempting as well.
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I kept the last desktop I built to serve as an offline XP rig for the oldest stuff and emulators that won't run on the Wii, but procrastination means it has only served as a place for my laptop to sit when I hook it up to the gaming space. :lol: It needs a format and re-install of XP, and I'm not 100% sure I've rescued everything I want from it.

My dedicated PC gaming days were from the late 1990s to about the mid-'00s. Lots of late nights on Live for Speed with my Logitech G25, which is still a fun combo to assemble once in a while.
 
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Wolfe
Long downloads for retail titles, gigs of updates, unfinished games, issues caused by DRM, strange errors to troubleshoot (maybe never resolved), poor framerates, graphics set to "low" or "medium" to cope, HDD space management, mid-life upgrades...these are reasons I don't do PC gaming as much as I once did. Now it's the Playstation/Xbox experience too.

...except without mods or file tweaks, free multiplayer you can dip into just when you're in the mood, or other advantages of a PC. And I need a PC anyway (and use this thing all the time).
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I had many of those same problems with consoles before switching back to PC, except the obvious technical issues due to the variety of system configurations. And now that it seems mid-generation upgrades are a constant thing on consoles too there's even less reason to switch back. I also don't have to worry about buying a new wheel just because the console company can't be bothered to make existing ones compatible in the new release. Those things aren't cheap and I intend to use each one until it dies a hero's death.
 
Biggles
New to the PC gaming malarky? Exactly what I need! Please tell me Scaff: if you are pretty tech inept (like myself) how difficult is the transition from console to PC? I think I could quite happily stick to PCars2 & AC for several years to come if I had access to their breadth of content + mods, in addition to what appear to be very significantly improved graphics. Might be better to invest in a decent PC capable of playing AC, PCars2 & ACC than upgrading to PS5.
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In your case switching to PC would also enable you to play ACC with your T500 wheel, something to consider when you ponder your investiment options, namely PS5 or PC.
 

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