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

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Penalties.

We've gotten rid of the 5-sec engine power cut.

In pC2 the penalties are real world penalties including: warnigs, time penalties, position "give backs", drive-throughs and black flag (DQ)

We don't mess with your car physics anymore.

We had to consider WEC, IMSA, FIA, PWC so our implementation is a blend of all these.

We also had to think of weird cases like "penalty on the last lap/corner".

I cant list it all out (cuz i'm on iphone for starters), but rest assured we're going for much more realism now and moving away from "fake penalties"

I'll admit we still got some fine tuning to do here, the system has a hard time in some cases assigning "fault" or blame but thats a problem even in real life. We'll be doing a lot of community testing next few weeks/months to make this as fair and accurate as possible.
 
During Practice will we be able to driver out from the garage or just from the pits? Will there be a tier for IMSA in career?
 
@Ian Bell, Might as well make my first post a bit edgy ;)
So, are you going to get creative with the game title with something like "Project Cars Unleashed" :dopey: or "Project Cars Redeemed" :mischievous: etc, or is boring old "Project Cars 2" already cast in stone?
 
IanBell
The real drivers told us that this is all automated. They don't interfere at all (that came directly from Rene Rast BTW, who races in the 24Hr of Le Mans).

EDIT, I'm talking rubbish, the drivers don't interfere but the engineer does set the strategy and my last second reading confirms we're working on exposing that to the player ;)
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Rene rocks during the 24h races! :cheers:

Back on subject, maybe there is a difference between his LMP2 car and the LMP1 hybrids? I'm really clueless about the tech behind it but aren't the LMP2s just combustion engines and the LMP1s cumbustion + all that hybrid recovery boost stuff? :)
 
ReXzz
To achieve even quicker laptimes the drivers lift off ahead of a lot of corners (especially the heavy braking zones). This lifting is also called "sailing". It help's to recover even more energy and the additionall boost gains them more time than they lose by sailing.
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Out of interest: Does that mean they are already recuperating energy while coasting?


After watching your videos, another question for @IanBell and @The_American:
Do the cars have indicators, as seen in one of @ReXzz's videos? Yeah, it's a minor thing for a racing sim, but could nonetheless be helpful in a crowded online qualifying session. ;)
 
@breyzipp

breyzipp
Rene rocks during the 24h races! :cheers:

Back on subject, maybe there is a difference between his LMP2 car and the LMP1 hybrids? I'm really clueless about the tech behind it but aren't the LMP2s just combustion engines and the LMP1s cumbustion + all that hybrid recovery boost stuff? :)
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The last time Rene Rast raced an LMP1 Hybrid was in June 2015. In 2016 he drove an LMP2 car.
The P2 cars only have a combustion engine.
The P1 Hybrids have a combustion (>500hp@rear axis) and an electric motor (<400hp@front axis for a limited amount of time). The energy is generated through braking and by a spinning wheel that is powered by the exhaust gases. The 500hp of the combustion engine are always available, the electric motors 400hp are only accessable as long as it has not exceeded a limit of using 8MJ of electrical energy per lap.(These 8MJ referr to a lap at Le Mans - On other tracks like Bahrain you take the length of LM and divide it by the length of the other track, in this case Bahrain, and get 13,629km/5,412km = 2,518. Now divide the 8MJ by 2,518 and you get 3,17. That multiplied by 1,55 results in a maximal available Energy of 4,92MJ. In Shanghai for example it's 4,96MJ. But both of these results are for petrol powered cars only. The Diesel powered Audi's( :( ) had a slighlty different way of calculating their maximal allowance of electrical energy...) If this would be implemented in Project Cars 2 my life would be complete :D
 
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@Telstar

="Telstar, post: 11718877, member: 268619"]Out of interest: Does that mean they are already recuperating energy while coasting?
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Yes that is exactley how it works. But the brakes are only one part of the entire ERS (They basically are the K - ERS (kinetic - energy recovery system)). The second part is a wheel that is positioned behind the turbocharger and rotates when the exhaust gases pass through. This means it is always active when the driver has his foot on the right-hand pedal.
But back to your question: Yes, the recuperation process starts exactley when they start sailing.(Btw. there is an extra button for it^^)
 
@TexasTyme214

TexasTyme214
There is a pretty big different, but Rene was in Audi LMP1 for 2015 Le Mans. I think he set the best lap of the race.
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Nah it was Lotterer with 3 hours to go. I remember it being within the 3:17,xxx but I do not now the exact time. The funny thing about this is that this lap was 3 seconds faster than the quickest Audi In Qualifying :D
 
As a controller user, I always want to know who I am competing against. I want to know if I lost/beat a wheel user or a controller user. For the online lobbies, would your team consider implementing the wheel & controller symbols that were seen in the time trial section?

Also, regarding the car classifications: for instance, we know there's a bunch of divisions for the road cars: A,B,D,C1,C2, etc. While that classifies the cars by general means, would an even more specific approach benefit more? For example, a road B Mustang GT has quite a bit less horsepower than the RGT-8 or R8 V10. Not to mention the incredible power to weight ratios of some of these B class cars! GT and Forza use a number-based system to further categorize the cars. Thoughts?

P.S., please don't kill RUF just because Porsche is back in town. :)
 
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FuriousDemon
Just want to say, best of luck to Ian and his team. It was fun being part of WMD for pCARS 1 and financially it was and still is great too. Too bad I have little time to play games these days, otherwise I would have definitely signed up for part 2.
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You're very welcome. I think we passed 300% returns to investors recently. We could not have done it without you guys and it's very much appreciated.
 
Hello Ian, The_American, how are you?
I really appreciate Mojave's tracks in Project Cars 1. The only thing that annoys me is the lack of stands that would allow for qualifying and refueling during races. I know this is a test track but it would be nice to have stands. Would you like to add stands in Mojave in PC2?
My other question concerns the Touring car. Will there be a good choice of Touring car in PC2? In PC1, there was not a lot of Touring car in my opinion. I like the BMW 320 TC and I would like to see others cars in this class : Chevrolet Cruz TC, Volvo TC, Lada TC, Citroen TC, Honda TC .... The TCR is a series that rises, can we hope to see some cars in pc2?
If answers have already been provided, I apologize.
Thank you
 
@IanBell I am not sure if this has been answered but in PC1 some start finish lines were incorrect, as in Bathurst the start line used in PC1 was correct but using the same line as the finish line is incorrect will this be fixed in PC2? Thanks
 
Hello guys,

Could Ian or The_American enlighten us about the different available views ?
(here's the screenshot I'm using as the base of my thoughts)

replays_1_orig.png


The rotating "onboard" view intrigues me the most ; does it allow watching all around the car ?
Would be sweeeeet during overtakes :-)

What about the "all" view ?
Does it split the screen and shows the 7 other views ?

In spite of not knowing everything about the views, I sense that there might not be enough views imho ;
What view should a spotter use in order to do his job in team races for instance ?
Is the "broadcast" view suited for this task ?
Maybe do spotters have access to a different menu, with other views available ?

Thanks :-)
 
Hello, @IanBell, I have a few questions:

1. Will we be able to resize elements of the HUD? I like playing while sitting quite far away from my TV and the tire wear indicators can be a pain to read sometimes.

2. Does every track take advantage of the cycling seasons and dynamic weather?

3. Will you continue to use the fictional Formula A/B/C/Rookie cars, or will they (or some) be replaced by their real-life counterparts? If not, then could you shed some light as to the reasons behind that decision? (I hope I don't come off as a bit of an arse here, I'm a huge fan of open-wheel racing and am just curious about that). Also, if you decide to stick with the old system, will the FA car be updated to resemble the current set of regulations in F1?

4. I heard you guys have the official IndyCar license. Are you planning to add more series' licences onto that?

5. Are you going to include point-to-point rallies? I'm guessing it's not coming at launch, but maybe DLC?

6. Probably the most impressive aspect of your games is the damage model, allowing for stuff like losing wheels, thus immoblilizing cars, as well as the flag system. Have you considered adding a proper safety car to the game? Maybe even recovery vehicles and marshalls that would clean up the scene of the accident?

7. Will the "Allow Real assists" setting return? Probably the most brilliant, simple setting in Project CARS 1.

That's it for now, hopefully it's not too much. Love your games and wish you the best with pCARS 2 :)
 
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Good afternoon @IanBell n @The_American

I have to say I am enjoying the Q&A , thank you for taking the the time and explaining this great game to us all.

My question, On the home page of PCAR, you have a link to , Vehicle Setup Database, Which not only list numerous tunes from all racers in one convenient location, but also includes a tool, Jussi's Calculator , created by RimanDk and Jussi. This calculator has saved many racers endless hours when trying to create a tune. Gone are the days of pencil and paper and unreadable notes the next day.

Will the database and more importantly, the calculator, be included in PCAR2 ?


If not included directly in game , are you currently working with RimanDk Jussi with game specs so as they can continue this great tool?
 
I know this is something I'll probably have to live with because all cars are different but one that annoyed me with PCARS one is that I would set the FOV/POV up for one car so I could be in nice and close but still see all mirrors and then the next car I go to I can't see the mirrors etc.
Will we be able to change the camera settings from inside a race or make our own presets?
 
RacerDude08
I know this is something I'll probably have to live with because all cars are different but one that annoyed me with PCARS one is that I would set the FOV/POV up for one car so I could be in nice and close but still see all mirrors and then the next car I go to I can't see the mirrors etc.
Will we be able to change the camera settings from inside a race or make our own presets?
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Not sure about the PS4 version, but on PC with a keyboard, you can adjust in car already in PCARS1. I have the same issue, but between the in car FoV, Seat forward/backward, Seat up/down and Seat angle adjustments, it's pretty easy to find the right position in any car. Like I said, all are controlled in car by keyboard.
 
F1Racer68
Not sure about the PS4 version, but on PC with a keyboard, you can adjust in car already in PCARS1. I have the same issue, but between the in car FoV, Seat forward/backward, Seat up/down and Seat angle adjustments, it's pretty easy to find the right position in any car. Like I said, all are controlled in car by keyboard.
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This can be done on console too as long as you have the seat up/down mapped.
 
@IanBell Also apologies if this has already been addressed. Started reading through and got sick of the mindless banter from all the children.

Ian, can you please shed some insight on what improvements we might see regarding AI driver habits and driving styles?

Cheers
 
daarsk
@IanBell Also apologies if this has already been addressed. Started reading through and got sick of the mindless banter from all the children.

Ian, can you please shed some insight on what improvements we might see regarding AI driver habits and driving styles?

Cheers
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True, the banter can detract from the point, but the original post does have some answers updated for your convenience. Boo ya!

ec45ac26b1.png
 
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@IanBell, can we please have the option as an online host to disable the racing line in our custom lobbies?
I like to run full sum lobbies but we can't really do it in PCars 1.

I can't wait to get my hands on Pcars 2, give us hell!
 
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