Project CARS 2 General Discussion Thread - Out Now on PS4/XB1/PC

[Beezer215]

I'm posting this with great excitement.

I'm always complaining that racing games, at least on console, don't have enough AI mistakes. I'm not referring to mistakes that happened on turn one when cars get bunched up, but mistakes that happen later during a race.

I set up a multi-class at Monza. I set up a 1 hour practice before the race. Before the 44 minute mark there were 2 incidents. They may have been more but these happen to be incidents that I came upon.

I immediately use the record feature on the PS5 and I recorded both of them. Interestingly, the AI aggression was only set at 30

If anyone cares to see the videos (one is about 50 seconds and the other about 15 seconds), I need instructions as how to get them from my gallery to this website.

Or, I'd be happy to do a screen share to show it to you.

There may not be a lot of people who care about this but I love the fact that the AI can make mistakes on its own.

Try the 60's Grand Prix cars on rouen les essarts.
Hang on and watch out for car parts strewn all over the track.

 

[slthree]

Try the 60's Grand Prix cars on rouen les essarts.
Hang on and watch out for car parts strewn all over the track.

Sounds interesting. Do you recall the name of that class of cars?

I'm gonna give it a go.

 

[John Wells]

Sounds interesting. Do you recall the name of that class of cars?

Or try some race's with full damage, with formula Ford, wheels come off.

 

[Bloodytears]

Indy 500, full damage, full AI difficulty, half of them will be retried before 100th lap. This though assuming you will survive that long.

 

[PorscheFan91]

Ended up getting a Logitech G920 and if I loved it before on a pad it's phenomenal with a wheel!

New to the racing wheel side of things and have a lot to learn but having a blast. For me the jewel in the PC2 crown is the Le Mans Classic track - absolutely phenomenal and with the AI up high it's like being in the 1971 film. Hoping to do some online stuff once I get better with the wheel.

 

[ONESPACE]

I'm posting this with great excitement.

I'm always complaining that racing games, at least on console, don't have enough AI mistakes. I'm not referring to mistakes that happened on turn one when cars get bunched up, but mistakes that happen later during a race.

I set up a multi-class at Monza. I set up a 1 hour practice before the race. Before the 44 minute mark there were 2 incidents. They may have been more but these happen to be incidents that I came upon.

I immediately use the record feature on the PS5 and I recorded both of them. Interestingly, the AI aggression was only set at 30

If anyone cares to see the videos (one is about 50 seconds and the other about 15 seconds), I need instructions as how to get them from my gallery to this website.

Or, I'd be happy to do a screen share to show it to you.

There may not be a lot of people who care about this but I love the fact that the AI can make mistakes on its own.

Try setting the AI's aggression at 85 and skill level at 110.
To me they seem much more predictable at those settings. If you can match their times, your doing pretty good.

 

[Beezer215]

Ended up getting a Logitech G920 and if I loved it before on a pad it's phenomenal with a wheel!

New to the racing wheel side of things and have a lot to learn but having a blast. For me the jewel in the PC2 crown is the Le Mans Classic track - absolutely phenomenal and with the AI up high it's like being in the 1971 film. Hoping to do some online stuff once I get better with the wheel.

If I remember correctly, you're on PC, right?
It goes without saying that you need top head over to Race Department and pick up PopsRacer Custom FFB file. It blows any default out of the water and is customizable to your wants with in the file (that's explained rather nicely).
Transforms the game on to another level of feeling.

 

[PorscheFan91]

If I remember correctly, you're on PC, right?
It goes without saying that you need top head over to Race Department and pick up PopsRacer Custom FFB file. It blows any default out of the water and is customizable to your wants with in the file (that's explained rather nicely).
Transforms the game on to another level of feeling.

Yeah, PC. Thanks for the info! Hoping to have time to dive back in today!

Added: Slowly but surely I'm getting there - albeit with quite a low difficulty setting for the AI. The Le Mans Vintage track has the advantage of that really long straight which lulled me into a false sense of security!

 

[IfAndOr]

The Le Mans Vintage track has the advantage of that really long straight which lulled me into a false sense of security!

Yeah those damn corners they put in the circuits are very annoying.

Glad you're enjoying your wheel experience. 👍

 

[slthree]

Try setting the AI's aggression at 85 and skill level at 110.
To me they seem much more predictable at those settings. If you can match their times, your doing pretty good.

I don't recall ever going over 70 for AI strength. I'm not quite confident enough to try to go higher.

When you say "much more predictable" my mind immediately goes to 'makes no mistakes', rightly or wrongly.

Do you experience AI mistakes at those levels?

 

[Johnnn]

Today I tested PC1 against PC2 and finally get what people like on PC2 physics. It's different and I like that style more too. The problem is with gamepad input. In PC1 it's much better (without latencies and dampening) and that's the reason I liked PC1. PC1 physics is not bad but it's different. It's interesting how every possible game has different approach to physics. I can enjoy everything but some are much better to play with.

 

[PorscheFan91]

Today I tested PC1 against PC2 and finally get what people like on PC2 physics. It's different and I like that style more too. The problem is with gamepad input. In PC1 it's much better (without latencies and dampening) and that's the reason I liked PC1. PC1 physics is not bad but it's different. It's interesting how every possible game has different approach to physics. I can enjoy everything but some are much better to play with.

PC2 was a game I really wanted to like with the pad and whilst, as noted upthread, I did get it to work fairly well, something still seemed off with the car handling. With a wheel it's really come alive and I really get why it's so lauded. Out of the big sims I think PC2 is the worst optimised for a pad, ACC is much better IMO.

I've been slowly but surely improving with a wheel and have started career mode and I agree re the physics. I did a race in the wet and had to carefully watch the track to avoid spinning off due to puddles. Incredibly immersive. That being said, I've been playing the original AC and feel the physics are better but PC2 feels more immersive in some respects due to the graphical fidelity (my laptop is more powerful than the last gen consoles but not as powerful as current gen so really have to skimp on ACC).

 

[Beezer215]

I've been playing the original AC and feel the physics are better but PC2 feels more immersive

You got this right here. My feeling too. AC just has a stagnant feel with the 2D crowds and people and the X-Wing fighter trees. Lack of dynamic objects on track. However, it feels better through the physics driven FFB. Hard to complain with 3000 cars and 1500 tracks though. No lack of content, that's for sure.
PC2 can have an immersion level that makes you feel like you're more in a real race. With everything in the highest graphical settings and if you adjust some parameters in the graphicsconfigdx11.xml, PC2 looks really really good. It has a sense of space and dimension that draws you in. Same with AMS2 for that matter. Same Madness Engine.
Taken from reddit:

<prop name="SharpeningStrength" sharpeningstrength="0.100000" />
<prop name="SharpeningClamp" sharpeningclamp="0.08000" /> (these are the values I run)
<prop name="OffsetBias" offsetbias="1.000000" />

The values are used as follows (apologies for the somewhat technical explanations - the only value most people will want to change probably is the first one, strength):

Strength (0.0->3.0, default 0.0) - the strength of the sharpening, zero being off. I find a subtle amount like 0.6 to be a good starting point. Too high a value will cause shimmering effects and a generally unnatural look to the image. Note that having sharpening on at all will have a small performance cost, but the size of that hit doesn't vary with the amount of sharpening. Clamp (0.0->1.0, default 0.045) - limits the amount of sharpening at the local pixel level (if you have a large continuity difference between the original pixel and blurred pixel it limits the amount of offset applied). Offset (0.0->6.0, default 1.0) - the offset from the current pixel for the sampling pattern (so if it's 1 it will sample neighboring pixels, any less and it will bias towards the central pixel, any more and it will start sampling pixels outside the normal kernel).

Couple that with the Custum FFB through a DD2 and it's funny to listen to people complain about PC2.
My personal feeling is it was designed to be run on a high end PC through a DD wheel. All other avenues seem to be more of an after thought but achievable. PC2 still has quirks but it is an easy go to if you know the races you like and what you like using in it.

 

[ctdc67]

I enjoyed the car engine/torque effected the physics. Although maybe a bit over the top. But I'm not a race car driver and my opinion isn't gold. I hope Forza can put that in their game.

 

[Johnnn]

PC2 was a game I really wanted to like with the pad and whilst, as noted upthread, I did get it to work fairly well, something still seemed off with the car handling. With a wheel it's really come alive and I really get why it's so lauded. Out of the big sims I think PC2 is the worst optimised for a pad, ACC is much better IMO.

I've been slowly but surely improving with a wheel and have started career mode and I agree re the physics. I did a race in the wet and had to carefully watch the track to avoid spinning off due to puddles. Incredibly immersive. That being said, I've been playing the original AC and feel the physics are better but PC2 feels more immersive in some respects due to the graphical fidelity (my laptop is more powerful than the last gen consoles but not as powerful as current gen so really have to skimp on ACC).

That's interesting. What were your biggest problems? The best settings I saw was in R3E, rF2 and AC/ACC. In PC you can't set too much. And "sensitivity" settings is so annoying because you can't set it right.

PC2 looks OK to me. It's strange how physics are different. You can have "noflex" feeling like in AC, ACC, PC1, R3E, or you can have more like in PC2, or you can have "megaflex" like in AMS, AMS2 and rF2. On gamepad I prefer the last ones. You can always catch everything and car feels very alive then because you are always in control. Can't imagine how different must be it on a wheel because on a gamepad it's day night difference.

I enjoyed the car engine/torque effected the physics. Although maybe a bit over the top. But I'm not a race car driver and my opinion isn't gold. I hope Forza can put that in their game.

I think Forza doesn't simulate too much and it's probably OK. For Forza gameplay you don't need much simulation rather features. I am not sure if I ever come back to Forza but today I tried Cayman GT4 and it wasn't completely bad. Then I can drive anything in AMS2/rF2 and enjoy it 10 times more. Forza was good to me before but competition is way ahead for me now from driving perspective.

 

[Wolfe]

..."sensitivity" settings is so annoying because you can't set it right.

Which do you mean?

From what I understand of your preferred playstyle, in PCARS2, these settings should create direct 1:1 "RC car style" steering:
Steering sensitivity = 50
Speed sensitivity = 0
Controller damping = 0

With these settings, there should be nothing interfering with your steering at all. Your input is what you get, period.

 

[Johnnn]

Which do you mean?

From what I understand of your preferred playstyle, in PCARS2, these settings should create direct 1:1 "RC car style" steering:
Steering sensitivity = 50
Speed sensitivity = 0
Controller damping = 0

With these settings, there should be nothing interfering with your steering at all. Your input is what you get, period.

Every other game has "normal" sensitivity settings but PC has it's own. Your settings I have for both PC1 and PC2, it's OK.

The problem is it's too sensitive around zero. So I can lower sensitivity, right? No. If I do it skips many steering positions. In other games when I need lower sensitivity it's just lowers the sensitivity but doesn't skip any input.

So in PC you need at least 50 to register everything but even small motion is rather big in game. One workaround is to use higher steering sensitivity with higher speed sensitivity because it works against each other. Steering then is a bit weird because your sensitivity changes a lot. It's possible but not good.

My guess is that's the only reason why people don't like PC settings. But if you accommodate to it, it's not bad, just a bit annoying.

edit:
I missed the speed sensitivity. I have it over 50 for sure. It's possible without it but bad sensitivity settings means not so good steering without it.

 

[Bloodytears]

True, but cars set ups made up for wheel, you can't just ignore that. The main goal is to match actual steering effort and ratio to an narrow range of an analogue stick. I think it should be adjusted too, after I had sorted it out it feels I'm still can get lower Speed Sensitivity and more understeer in car set up and get it right and smooth.

 

[Johnnn]

True, but cars set ups made up for wheel, you can't just ignore that. The main goal is to match actual steering effort and ratio to an narrow range of an analogue stick. I think it should be adjusted too, after I had sorted it out it feels I'm still can get lower Speed Sensitivity and more understeer in car set up and get it right and smooth.

I agree but overall settings is wrong. For instance, AC has everything OK and you don't need to tune anything. Just set correct delays and sensitivity and you are OK.

 

[Bloodytears]

I agree but overall settings is wrong. For instance, AC has everything OK and you don't need to tune anything. Just set correct delays and sensitivity and you are OK.

May be at some point in my life I'll try AC, but now really don't know the difference. Interesting how game engines handle those so. PC at least always felt like it could get used to some polishing, no surprises.

 

[Johnnn]

May be at some point in my life I'll try AC, but now really don't know the difference. Interesting how game engines handle those so. PC at least always felt like it could get used to some polishing, no surprises.

Good thing is almost every other game has better sensitivity settings. It's not PC is unplayable but sometimes you need that fine sensitivity and it's not there. AMS has steering lock settings so you can lower the lock which is awesome feature for a gamepad. I am not sure if PC has it but AMS2 has it for sure even in ME.

 

[Bloodytears]

I'm still thinking this all should be 1:1 and only adjusted in car, because all those conflicts between settings and set ups making configuration painfully long and complicated. In reality analogue stick only slightly narrow than F1 wheel, and every car just could have this F1 steering reel option. Not realistic? No, just tuning at its best, a lot of people can and doing this with their cars for racing purposes, but at less range 'course.

 

[PorscheFan91]

That's interesting. What were your biggest problems? The best settings I saw was in R3E, rF2 and AC/ACC. In PC you can't set too much. And "sensitivity" settings is so annoying because you can't set it right.

I found that often cars were too over or under sensitive with a controller. With a huge amount of tweaking I managed to get the balance right but found I needed to change it for every car. Every time I thought I'd cracked the controller settings (like I thought I had upthread) I had another battle tweaking the settings. That being said, it's still perfectly playable and I've had hours of fun with it with a pad but it's so much easier to play with a wheel.

I'm still thinking this all should be 1:1 and only adjusted in car, because all those conflicts between settings and set ups making configuration painfully long and complicated. In reality analogue stick only slightly narrow than F1 wheel, and every car just could have this F1 steering reel option. Not realistic? No, just tuning at its best, a lot of people can and doing this with their cars for racing purposes, but at less range 'course.

I feel that the F1 series of games does pad playing perfectly. Whilst it may not be realistic handling wise, you get all the aspects of an F1 race but it's perfectly playable on a pad. What ultimately got me to get a wheel was that there didn't appear to be any non-F1 or rally game which was well optimised for a pad (for PC and Xbox anyway) and had all the features of a proper race (practice, quali, safety cars, pit stops etc.). ACC does a good job I feel but my laptop just can't hack running it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a massive rally and F1 fan but variety is nice.

 

[Johnnn]

I found that often cars were too over or under sensitive with a controller. With a huge amount of tweaking I managed to get the balance right but found I needed to change it for every car. Every time I thought I'd cracked the controller settings (like I thought I had upthread) I had another battle tweaking the settings. That being said, it's still perfectly playable and I've had hours of fun with it with a pad but it's so much easier to play with a wheel.



I feel that the F1 series of games does pad playing perfectly. Whilst it may not be realistic handling wise, you get all the aspects of an F1 race but it's perfectly playable on a pad. What ultimately got me to get a wheel was that there didn't appear to be any non-F1 or rally game which was well optimised for a pad (for PC and Xbox anyway) and had all the features of a proper race (practice, quali, safety cars, pit stops etc.). ACC does a good job I feel but my laptop just can't hack running it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a massive rally and F1 fan but variety is nice.

That's exactly it, it's not your fault. You can balance one car good enough and then you change a car and it's nothing special again. It's PC problematic settings. I rather like PC and it's playable but a bit problematic. AMS2 will get gamepad update very soon so I wonder if they add new setting options.

F1 is highly assisted. It's not a good example for sims. You are right if you need sim stuff with assisted gamepad. It's not so popular combination. PC3 is highly assisted but many good stuff from PC2 is gone.

 

[Bloodytears]

@PorscheFan91 No, I didn't mean F1 at all, don't enjoy and never played much of any open wheelers, the point is that steering lock on F1 cars is narrowest from all racing cars, which by analogy closer to narrow stick movement on pad. Only wished that actual car steering could be tuned this way, like if you change steering mech in car and controller inputs wouldn't be multiplied.

 

[Johnnn]

@PorscheFan91 No, I didn't mean F1 at all, don't enjoy and never played much of any open wheelers, the point is that steering lock on F1 cars is narrowest from all racing cars, which by analogy closer to narrow stick movement on pad. Only wished that actual car steering could be tuned this way, like if you change steering mech in car and controller inputs wouldn't be multiplied.

So maybe you would like steering lock settings? I am not sure if it's in PC but in AMS you chosse for every car how many degrees your wheel work. It's pretty cool feature for a gamepad but wheel users like it too. Even with very sensitive settings you choose 10 degrees max for both sides, for instance.

 

[PorscheFan91]

That's exactly it, it's not your fault. You can balance one car good enough and then you change a car and it's nothing special again. It's PC problematic settings. I rather like PC and it's playable but a bit problematic. AMS2 will get gamepad update very soon so I wonder if they add new setting options.

F1 is highly assisted. It's not a good example for sims. You are right if you need sim stuff with assisted gamepad. It's not so popular combination. PC3 is highly assisted but many good stuff from PC2 is gone.

I think there's a middle ground really. I'm a massive motorsport fan and have loved racing games since I got Gran Turismo 3 back in the day, however I don't see myself ever getting properly competitive at sim level. What I like about the F1 series is that you can play it purely for fun as a gamer but still get an authentic race weekend. Playing with a pad has meant I've gotten more out of watching it as well. It's a shame that a game like Forza Motorsport for example is optimised for casual gamers but doesn't have full race weekends. That being said, it's all academic for me now as I've gone the wheel and sim route. However, having said that, an F1 style title focused on other series I could play with a pad whilst travelling/away from home would be fun.

@PorscheFan91 No, I didn't mean F1 at all, don't enjoy and never played much of any open wheelers, the point is that steering lock on F1 cars is narrowest from all racing cars, which by analogy closer to narrow stick movement on pad. Only wished that actual car steering could be tuned this way, like if you change steering mech in car and controller inputs wouldn't be multiplied.

Ah! I get you.

 

[OooAhh Cantona]

If I remember correctly, you're on PC, right?
It goes without saying that you need top head over to Race Department and pick up PopsRacer Custom FFB file. It blows any default out of the water and is customizable to your wants with in the file (that's explained rather nicely).
Transforms the game on to another level of feeling.

Has anyone tried the update to PopsRacer Custom FFB? It's a complete revamp of the FFB structure. I'm still testing it, and I'm curious if anyone has an opinion of like or dislike. I'm using the T300RS setting for my T300RS.

 

[Beezer215]

Has anyone tried the update to PopsRacer Custom FFB? It's a complete revamp of the FFB structure. I'm still testing it, and I'm curious if anyone has an opinion of like or dislike. I'm using the T300RS setting for my T300RS.

Just tried the updated version last night and it's wonderful. He changed a couple of the sliders for the better. Now you can use a slider to go between tire tread in FFB or tire carcass in FFB, or 50/50 both. With the addition of the low force boost, the feeling is very similar to AMS2. I know he keeps saying rF2 and ACC for some reason but in all honesty, it's like AMS2, which is a real good thing.
Your t300rs will feel good.
On my DD2, I had to adjust the overall gain to low force boost ration with some trial and error but when the settings are right, it feels good.
If you have pretty ambitious CPU and GPU, I recommend upping some values in the graphics config file too and it makes PC2 look really sharp and cuts down on some of the tree shadow flickering.

 

[OooAhh Cantona]

Just tried the updated version last night and it's wonderful. He changed a couple of the sliders for the better. Now you can use a slider to go between tire tread in FFB or tire carcass in FFB, or 50/50 both. With the addition of the low force boost, the feeling is very similar to AMS2. I know he keeps saying rF2 and ACC for some reason but in all honesty, it's like AMS2, which is a real good thing.
Your t300rs will feel good.
On my DD2, I had to adjust the overall gain to low force boost ration with some trial and error but when the settings are right, it feels good.
If you have pretty ambitious CPU and GPU, I recommend upping some values in the graphics config file too and it makes PC2 look really sharp and cuts down on some of the tree shadow flickering.

I’m still trying to find the right balance between the in-game FFB settings. I like the direction that the modder is going with this update. More focused feel than the vomit of physics FFB that SMS offered. I think you’re right... PC2 feels like it was developed for high end PC and DD wheel.

I did see your other post about custom graphics config. 👍