Q&A with Slightly Mad Studios: Ian Bell [Read OP]

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Wolfe
Why does getting the word out about the depth of the simulation in PCARS2 warrant a reply of, "No, no and no"...? My point was to make that information known beyond the small circle of people who have already followed the development of PCARS and PCARS2. With all the work that has gone into various details in the game, I think those details deserve a spotlight so it's clear what all goes on behind the scenes in the PCARS2 engine. That's a suggestion for SMS. @IanBell @The_American

And I don't have a smartphone, so those apps are meaningless to me.
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The game has been out for almost 2 years. Small circle of people? Really? There are apps available that do that,that us, small circle of people use.
 
IanBell
Mocap was used yes. The greatest challenge was being able to cover all of the varied pit stop behaviour for each type of car/ruleset/competition. It was massively varied. Each series has its own rules, each car has its own refuelling point, and refuelling rules. Each car has its own tyres and tyre replacement rules and the amount of pitcrew per corner is restricted per series and competition.

It's all a bit mad but we've done our best with the infinitely varied ruleset.
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This is awesome news! So I assume some disciplines allow refueling and changing tires simultaneously while others don't. Some disciplines allow 4 tires to be changed simultaneously while for others it's one by one. If this is all correctly implemented and animated according to reality that is amazing! Stuff like that might be minor in the overall aspect of the race but it's the tiny little details like this (that obviously cost a lot of developer effort!) that make PC2 blow the competition away! :)

You already said a couple of weeks ago that PC2 had a huge marketing budget. All these nifty things like manually driving into the pits, seeing the animated pitstop screw at work, dynamic weather + live track 3.0 and everything that is affected by it, .... this game has such incredable features the marketing guys that create the trailer videos will have a massive amount of work to do. Not sure where most of that marketing budget is going towards but getting all those nifty features well documented in pre-release videos and trailers is IMO a key feature to get all the info out to the public. Word of mouth from the community will do the rest of the work. ;)
 
@IanBell
Can you go a bit into the details of LiveTrack?
What is the complexity or resolution of this technology? If I remember correctly RealRoad in rF2 is made of pretty big grip changing tiles/squares.
Is it made of tiles in pC2 or some different approach is used? If it's tiles, how big are they?
 
From: http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/02/13/project-cars-2-taking-the-fight-to-forza-gran-turismo?page=2

"The competitive racing licence will track how you race in Project CARS 2 and is made up of three elements: your racecraft (basically how professional you are, and it will be impacted when you’re involved in accidents, cut the track, and ignore rules or flags), your ranking (an Elo rating determined by your performances against other players), and finally an indicator of your seniority based on how long you’ve been playing."

This is so important. How far along is this feature?

Just yesterday, I witnessed a fellow driving backwards along Spa Circuit, taking out 4-5 racers in the process. It was sickening! Would the series ever consider a 'ghost' mode online, in which there is no contact? I recall Gran Turismo having implemented a feature like that. I also realize that the collision physics are being re-done, which is quite exciting!; In the original title, the slightest contact with another player was simply a disaster as both racers would veer off-course...

I can see how this ghost mode could detract from "real" racing, though. Thoughts on ghost mode? And maybe you could elaborate further on the online license system...
 
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Ian,

Would it be possible to explain a little more about the rating system? Specifically I am concerned about certain aspects that may effect my ability to play with friends in a public lobby.
I am never the fastest racer among my friends but I am fiercely devoted to clean racing. When I do make a mistake and it effects other drivers I allow them to repass me and get on with racing. I fear the rating system may start to filter me out of races that I want attend with friends because I am not as fast as them or have made a few mistakes here or there.

Thanks for any response,
 
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The_American
Driver changes and any repairs will make the pitstop longer.

There are 4 main components to pitstop duration:
1. Tire changes
2. Fuel refill (and we have different fuel filling rates per vehicle class, I think Indycar is the fastest)
3. Damage repairs (these were magically instantaneous in Project Cars 1 if you remember, each kind of damage repair has its own time so it all adds up or we might just pick the maximum damage repair for this category, I don't think we have decided yet.)
4. Driver changes

Additionally, if you do not hit your marks correctly your team will need to reposition your car and that will add a little time.
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Thanks!
 
seamaster gmt
Ian,

Would it be possible to explain a little more about the rating system? Specifically I am concerned about certain aspects that may effect my ability to play with friends in a public lobby.
I am never the fastest racer among my friends but I am fiercely devoted to clean racing. When I do make a mistake and it effects other drivers I allow them to repass me and get on it. I fear the rating system may start to filter me out of races that I want attend with friends because I am not as fast as them or have made a few mistakes here or there.

Thanks for any response,
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I would think your friends should be able to invite you into a lobby
 
seamaster gmt
Ian,

Would it be possible to explain a little more about the rating system? Specifically I am concerned about certain aspects that may effect my ability to play with friends in a public lobby.
I am never the fastest racer among my friends but I am fiercely devoted to clean racing. When I do make a mistake and it effects other drivers I allow them to repass me and get on it. I fear the rating system may start to filter me out of races that I want attend with friends because I am not as fast as them or have made a few mistakes here or there.

Thanks for any response,
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Here's a good question: Will the new driving license system allow for exceptions?
Example: I set up a public lobby, I adjust the filters and rules but I create an exception for certain players who do not yet have a driving license.

I want to participate in public lobbies or official leagues where all players have a similar level and driving style with the aim of not harming the race of other players and also not being harmed.
 
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Masscot
One last question: does the view change during pitstops (eg, using cockpit view, then PoV switches to chase cam during the stop)? If not, would it be possible to toggle the preferred view as a preset? I quite like the idea of seeing the pit crew hustle around the car.
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Default pitstop view will be external camera (once the crew begins works) but you change the default to "internal only" if you want to remain in the driver/internal camera
 
MABlosfeld
Here's a good question: Will the new driving license system allow for exceptions?
Example: I set up a public lobby, I adjust the filters and rules but I create an exception for certain players who do not yet have a driving license.

I want to participate in public lobbies or official leagues where all players have a similar level and driving style with the aim of not harming the race of other players and also not being harmed.
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For private races, the license calculation can be suspended. So you and friends want to do a private "crash derby" it will not harm your license. For public lobbies there is no player-specific exception. You can only set the minimum settings/filters for the publix lobby.
 
seamaster gmt
Ian,

Would it be possible to explain a little more about the rating system? Specifically I am concerned about certain aspects that may effect my ability to play with friends in a public lobby.
I am never the fastest racer among my friends but I am fiercely devoted to clean racing. When I do make a mistake and it effects other drivers I allow them to repass me and get on with racing. I fear the rating system may start to filter me out of races that I want attend with friends because I am not as fast as them or have made a few mistakes here or there.

Thanks for any response,
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From what was explained so far, the host has the hability to restrict access to the lobby to certain aspect of the CRL. People with at least XXX safety rating, people with at least YYY performance rating, etc.
So, i suppose it will all depend on what restrictions the host has (or hasn't) set.
 
seamaster gmt
Ian,

Would it be possible to explain a little more about the rating system? Specifically I am concerned about certain aspects that may effect my ability to play with friends in a public lobby.
I am never the fastest racer among my friends but I am fiercely devoted to clean racing. When I do make a mistake and it effects other drivers I allow them to repass me and get on with racing. I fear the rating system may start to filter me out of races that I want attend with friends because I am not as fast as them or have made a few mistakes here or there.

Thanks for any response,
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If you are doing private races with your friends, the license filters can be ignored. They are your friends, they already trust you, you know the password so we will not prevent racing.

Really the license system is more to help identify "strangers" or unknown people. Can you trust these new people?

Example, i have a public room with a minimum safety rating of "C" (it goes F-->A i think), and guy named T1Wrekker has safety score F so he cannot join.
 
That's good. Sometimes in the SNAIL league we like to make our random practice rooms public so as to advertise for new drivers. Of course random people show up and mess with things so setting it to the minimum required for safe driving (whether it be D, C, whatever) will ensure only like-minded clean drivers show up. Whether they're already good or are looking to improve their craft, both will be able to join and race together which is great.
 
Hello @The_American when coming to the green will we have manual controls over the car and will there be a parade lap? I remember reading something about this but don't remember where. Also after the checkered flag will the race just be over or can we control car and celebrate/drive back to pits or perhaps victory lane?
 
Wolfe
I agree that telemetry comparisons and testimonies from professional drivers don't exactly prove anything. But I agree with @nrosko that it would be good for SMS to elaborate upon details of the physics and various simulations, not to convince the skeptics, but for people who would want to know about those things but have not been following the game closely like we do in this forum. I don't think many people knew how much PCARS1 had going on under the hood.

I think it would be great to have a brief video showing off some of the details like the atmospheric modelling and volumetric throttle simulation, or an overview of all the components that track temperature and wear. Particularly the things that are uncommon or unprecedented among sims, like parts of LiveTrack 3.0 and the dynamic surfaces.

If SMS had the resources to do a real life comparison video like Enthusia's Data Comparison trailer, that could be nifty too.

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Maybe a more scientific & detailed approach to that video & maybe comparing against other sims as well. I know its not going to happen but i love that sort of thing. Maybe pcars is afraid at what such a study would reveal.;-p
But yes i hope to hear about more detailed technical information.
 
RacerDude08
Hello @The_American when coming to the green will we have manual controls over the car and will there be a parade lap? I remember reading something about this but don't remember where. Also after the checkered flag will the race just be over or can we control car and celebrate/drive back to pits or perhaps victory lane?
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Yeah dog, you can run a victory/parade/cooldown lap now. We make your car non-collidable however.

edit: you also have full vehicle control during rolling starts and you get wanrings/penalties if you break formation.
 
RacerDude08
Hello @The_American Also after the checkered flag will the race just be over or can we control car and celebrate/drive back to pits or perhaps victory lane?
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Driving back to the pits or after coming in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd a drive to victory lane would be great.

Maybe the bigger the race (longer or at the end of a championship)the bigger the end celebration. Nothing worse then finishing a 12 or 24 hour race then have the game just end like any other race. Leaves one feeling a little let down. Like what they just did didn't really mean anything.
 
The_American
Yeah dog, you can run a victory/parade/cooldown lap now. We make your car non-collidable however.

edit: you also have full vehicle control during rolling starts and you get wanrings/penalties if you break formation.
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Nice. What about the formation lap?
 
The_American
Yeah dog, you can run a victory/parade/cooldown lap now. We make your car non-collidable however.

edit: you also have full vehicle control during rolling starts and you get wanrings/penalties if you break formation.
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How about formation laps? I loved those in GTR2, they really helped to ramp up the pre-start tension.
 
The_American
You know, weirdly i havent tested the formation lap yet. But i think that will be manual too. I think it's more coding to make things automatic which makes sense.
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The_American
Nope, you gotta watch your speed in pitlane. It's all manual. We let you map the Pit Speed Limiter button too. There is an option to do auto pitstop and let the AI drive you in/out of pitlane if that's not your thing
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And I though PC1 was the best Sim Game ever on a console.

God this game is going to kick @$$
 
The_American
You know, weirdly i havent tested the formation lap yet. But i think that will be manual too. I think it's more coding to make things automatic which makes sense.
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Going to take a ride on this and fail uni.
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