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

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*cough* are you allowed to say on how many cars I am wrong? :)

Acura NSX GT3
Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3
Audi R8 LMS
Bentley Continental GT3
BMW M6 GT3
Cadillac ATS-V.R GT3
Ferrari 488 GT3
Ginetta G55 GT3
Lamborghini Huracan GT3
Lexus RC F GT3
McLaren 650S GT3
Mercedes-AMG GT3
Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3
Porsche 911 GT3 R
Renault R.S. 01 GT3

My guess is going to be this except:

Remove:
Renault, Lexus, and Hurácan GT3.

Add:
BMW Z4 and Hurácan Super Trofeo.
 
Remember that time Vettel ran an F1 car in the dirt when they were constructing Circuit of the Americas? That was cool. Check the youtube.
Wonder how many takes it took to create that video? I just want a realistic working game. If that's what SMS and it's fans want, have at it. Have invisible walls and landmines been addressed in the new game? They, at times killed our league races.
 
Timed Race duration is a clock now HH:MM in increments of 5 minutes up to 24:00

(Can still do laps up to 999 laps also)

Time acceleration choices: "x2, x5, x10, x15, x20, x25, x30, x40, x50, x60"

GT3 class we are already in double-digit for vehicle count including all the major brands. You'll be fine ;)

That's great for timed race duration, but is there any plans for adding x3, x4 and x6 time acceleration in the near future? The time acceleration choices are somewhat still the same as pCARS 1.

As for GT3, nothing less than happy, can't wait for an officially licensed 2nd gen R8 LMS, BMW M6 and Porsche (yeah!) racing on pCARS, in addition to the announced Nissan and McLaren cars. And maybe even Ferrari, Lamborghini and Lexus! (Hopefully the Ginetta G55 is updated?)

Other questions:
  • Are we going to have multiple cars occupying a single pit box (e.g. Nurburgring)? For example, Spa and Dubai can be raced with a maximum of 36 cars on pCARS 1, but we've seen races that carry such a larger field than this!
  • Any optimizations for Ryzen soon? (Too early for now but hopefully this will come into mind as Ryzen racks up more months to its credit while we continue to wait for pCARS 2...)
 
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Oh c'mon, who hasn't had a laugh trying to drive 650PP Supercars on the indoor kart track in GT6? I know I have.

That's also kinda the point of these games too isn't it? To try things that could NEVER be done in real life just to have some fun? Sounds like a great way to say "here, hold my beer" without the risk of injury or property damage.

"Hold my beer"?
Not very realistic imo...they'll have to pry my beer from my dead cold hands before i trust someone else with it...:cheers:
Sorry for the off topic...
 
I just want a realistic working game.

We all do, but who said anything about the race cars being driveable at anything but snail's pace on dirt tracks? :)

Have invisible walls and landmines been addressed in the new game? They, at times killed our league races.

1. I haven't seen any landmine issues for a long time but no game will ever be completely bug free. What we're focused on is ensuring this release is MUCH more solid than the first.

It may be too early to tell, but will we be able to join WMD again for pCARS 3 as well? I was part of WMD with the first one but couldn't join for 2. I would jump at a chance to help out again however with the next title.
 
Remember that time Vettel ran an F1 car in the dirt when they were constructing Circuit of the Americas? That was cool. Check the youtube.
this says enough:




BTW: what you and your colleagues are doing is an example for the industry. Great interaction with the (virtual) racers lots of Q&A and at the end we all feel we are part of a great GREAT racesim. thumbs up!
 
7. "local weather"....I don't remember the answer to this. I will say no for right now, Ian might surprise us.
Livetrack 3.0 without patchy weather would be a massively missed opportunity, I reckon.

Rainclouds from a moody sky slowly travelling across a track?
Pockets of mist in low-lying areas on a cold morning?
Localised light showers on an otherwise sunny Nordschleife?
Snow flurries on high exposed areas?
Heading towards black skies at a far corner of Spa and knowing there might be a cloudburst?
Breaks in a cloudy sky after heavy rain, allowing patchy bright sun to dry areas of the rack faster than others?

It would be amazing if SMS could pull off these types of variable real-weather scenarios.
 
I know some cars illuminate rear fog lights in PC1, as well as the GTE cars' driving lights switch on.
The rain lights are a must for PC2 I feel. On many occasions, I've raced in pouring rain in PC1 and just could not see the cars in front of me, because they didn't have any lights on.
It's interesting, that in PC1 the AI turns their lights on when it's foggy. Shouldn't be too hard to implement the same for rainy conditions I hope?
Even, if there's no separate "rain or fog lights" and full beam lights.
 
Livetrack 3.0 without patchy weather would be a massively missed opportunity, I reckon.

Rainclouds from a moody sky slowly travelling across a track?
Pockets of mist in low-lying areas on a cold morning?
Localised light showers on an otherwise sunny Nordschleife?
Snow flurries on high exposed areas?
Heading towards black skies at a far corner of Spa and knowing there might be a cloudburst?
Breaks in a cloudy sky after heavy rain, allowing patchy bright sun to dry areas of the rack faster than others?

It would be amazing if SMS could pull off these types of variable real-weather scenarios.
ok I was wrong, we do have this "patchy weather" in the game. So can be raining on one part of the track and not raining in another distant part. Tire strategy is gonna be a thing to manage, good luck!
 
@IanBell and @The_American (This is a long one, I know)

1) On the official page presenting the Nissan GTP-ZX Turbo, the fifth picture shows the car leaving pit stop and some of the pit crew are shown as well. Logically the skin/livery and suit color those guys have, match with the car. Because of course it wouldn’t make sense to see them in yellow and black or green and yellow right? So why, with all due respect, you (The_American) didn’t take much seriously my post the other day about doing something in the game that would avoid annoying situations caused by glove/suit colors being random? Or is it that pit crew suit colors will also be random? But interestingly enough it doesn’t look a random selecting on the presentation picture. So this isn't a ridiculous and silly detail is it?

2) People ask for faster AI, but I realized the main reason it is slower than the player it’s because it brakes or slows down in certain parts of the circuits for no reason.
I can give specific examples of this:
- La Sarthe: at the entrance of the Porshe Curves and halfway through Maison blanche;
(on dry weather, the AI can lose around 2 seconds to the player)
- Spa: from Blanchimont to the chicanes (the AI always slows down a bit even when they have cars that would allow them to go flat out)
- Dubai: turn 6 and 7 (most times one can get multiple overtakes there)
- Road America: turn 7 (AI hit the brakes after completing the turn, it’s silly, easy overtakes there)

I could go on… The point is: If this didn’t happen, the AI would actually be pretty fast and competitive. Will it be fixed?

3) I know the AI runs on simplified physics and in terms of setup I guess it was attempted to come up with something that would work well on all circuits. But have you considered adding a low downforce setup for the AI on circuits with long straights? It’s on those that the races look unbalanced because some cars reach significantly more top speed than others. In GT3 some cars reach 270/280 kmh and the rest max at 260 kmh for example. And in LMP1 the most drastic case is the TS040 Hybrid, which struggles to even reach 290 kmh which is ridiculous, it can’t compete with the other cars, and it is such a fast car in real life. In fact, when I race with it on 0 downforce I can only reach about 310 kmh on no slipstream conditions, but this car is suppose to reach 330 kmh on its own… I don’t get it, it’s like the car is underpowered, even though its KERS is monstrous.

4) On console there is a problem when racing with 45 cars. The time gets desynchronized or something. For example, at Le Mans, all lap times show 10 seconds more than usual. Any idea if this could be fixed? I have to race with 40, sometimes 38 cars so lap times don’t get messed up.

5) Maybe it’s only on console but there is a bug which happens while loading before entering a race, sometimes one of the car sounds is missing. Mostly it’s that roaring sound when one accelerates, sometimes it’s the sound the car makes when pressing the brakes and desacelerating. Will this be fixed?
 
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@IanBell and @The_American (This is a long one, I know)

1) On the official page presenting the Nissan GTP-ZX Turbo, the fifth picture shows the car leaving pit stop and some of the pit crew are shown as well. Logically the skin/livery and suit color those guys have, match with the car. Because of course it wouldn’t make sense to see them in yellow and black or green and yellow right? So why, with all due respect, you (The_American) didn’t take much seriously my post the other day about doing something in the game that would avoid annoying situations caused by glove/suit colors being random? Or is it that pit crew suit colors will also be random? But interestingly enough it doesn’t look a random selecting on the presentation picture. So this isn't a ridiculous and silly detail is it?

2) People ask for faster AI, but I realized the main reason it is slower than the player it’s because it brakes or slows down in certain parts of the circuits for no reason.
I can give specific examples of this:
- La Sarthe: at the entrance of the Porshe Curves and halfway through Maison blanche;
(on dry weather, the AI can lose around 2 seconds to the player)
- Spa: from Blanchimont to the chicanes (the AI always slows down a bit even when they have cars that would allow them to go flat out)
- Dubai: turn 6 and 7 (most times one can get multiple overtakes there)
- Road America: turn 7 (AI hit the brakes after completing the turn, it’s silly, easy overtakes there)

I could go on… The point is: If this didn’t happen, the AI would actually be pretty fast and competitive. Will it be fixed?

3) I know the AI runs on simplified physics and in terms of setup I guess it was attempted to come up with something that would work well on all circuits. But have you considered adding a low downforce setup for the AI on circuits with long straights? It’s on those that the races look unbalanced because some cars reach significantly more top speed than others. In GT3 some cars reach 270/280 kmh and the rest max at 260 kmh for example. And in LMP1 the most drastic case is the TS040 Hybrid, which struggles to even reach 290 kmh which is ridiculous, it can’t compete with the other cars, and it is such a fast car in real life. In fact, when I race with it on 0 downforce I can only reach about 310 kmh on no slipstream conditions, but this car is suppose to reach 330 kmh on its own… I don’t get it, it’s like the car is underpowered, even though its KERS is monstrous.

4) On console there is a problem when racing with 45 cars. The time gets desynchronized or something. For example, at Le Mans, all lap times show 10 seconds more than usual. Any idea if this could be fixed? I have to race with 40, sometimes 38 cars so lap times don’t get messed up.

5) Maybe it’s only on console but there is a bug which happens while loading before entering a race, sometimes one of the car sounds is missing. Mostly it’s that roaring sound when one accelerates, sometimes it’s the sound the car makes when pressing the brakes and desacelerating. Will this be fixed?
1. It's cosmetic: car livery, driver suit and crew suits...I think it's all unrelated. Yeah doesn't look the best but doesn't affect your laptime. Woulda been lotta work to create matching suits as there are tons of car liveries. I know what you're gonna ask next : "So how will I find my pit location if the suits are totally random?" We're gonna have visual aids and the spotter dude will do a countdown as you approach your pit. So we feel we've done a few things here to make it near-zero risk.

2. Yeah, AI code got gutted. Still being worked on. They got new tires etc. Working hard on their behavior (cornering vs. straights) and intelligence (aggression/preservation logic)

3. Fixed. AI now employ high and low downforce setups (for applicable cars) and also taller gearing when needed. You're not just gonna be able to outrun them on the straights at Le Mans anymore. They can do better than 290kmh.

4 & 5. Not sure, will check. We hate bugs too.
 
Oh interesting. Will the AI defend it's position now?
It was kind of easy to make them yield by putting your nose in the gap they left on the inside during braking, because they were not protecting it.
 
@The_American Do all cars have default setups, for each track, for those players who don't bother much with tuning?
Not for each track, that would be like ~ 180 x 60 matrix (more if you consider "layouts"...and then what about weather?). We'll make sure the 1 default isn't junk though. Least we can do. Won't get you to the top of the Leaderboards off the bat, but car will feel raceable at least. Road cars will get a "track day" setup...not the OEM setup. It's a racing simulator not a "driving simulator" ;)

For players "not into" tuning, we're doing in-game tuning setup sharing/download. You can share tuning setups with each other...no more webpages and Excel sheets or screenshots. Those days are in the past (well, will be later this year!)
 
Not for each track, that would be like ~ 180 x 60 matrix (more if you consider "layouts"...and then what about weather?). We'll make sure the 1 default isn't junk though. Least we can do. Won't get you to the top of the Leaderboards off the bat, but car will feel raceable at least. Road cars will get a "track day" setup...not the OEM setup. It's a racing simulator not a "driving simulator" ;)

For players "not into" tuning, we're doing in-game tuning setup sharing/download. You can share tuning setups with each other...no more webpages and Excel sheets or screenshots. Those days are in the past (well, will be later this year!)

But I fear I will not be competitive against the AI if I don't tune. Will the car at least adapt to certain types of circuits?
 
Not for each track, that would be like ~ 180 x 60 matrix (more if you consider "layouts"...and then what about weather?). We'll make sure the 1 default isn't junk though. Least we can do. Won't get you to the top of the Leaderboards off the bat, but car will feel raceable at least. Road cars will get a "track day" setup...not the OEM setup. It's a racing simulator not a "driving simulator" ;)

For players "not into" tuning, we're doing in-game tuning setup sharing/download. You can share tuning setups with each other...no more webpages and Excel sheets or screenshots. Those days are in the past (well, will be later this year!)

Good news is this for console also?
 
Not for each track, that would be like ~ 180 x 60 matrix (more if you consider "layouts"...and then what about weather?). We'll make sure the 1 default isn't junk though. Least we can do. Won't get you to the top of the Leaderboards off the bat, but car will feel raceable at least. Road cars will get a "track day" setup...not the OEM setup. It's a racing simulator not a "driving simulator" ;)

For players "not into" tuning, we're doing in-game tuning setup sharing/download. You can share tuning setups with each other...no more webpages and Excel sheets or screenshots. Those days are in the past (well, will be later this year!)

This is great news! Do you have any info on how this sharing exactly works? Do we just make it public for friends to find? Or do we upload them to a server? And is the sharing cross-platform? Will this sharing be general or per track?
 
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