While the seeds have been planted for quite some time now, Slightly Mad Studios have now made it official: announcing that the critically-acclaimed WMD-powered racer will be an Oculus Rift launch title.
The game already supports a plethora of racing peripherals, 12K resolution, and a number of second screen apps, but the Oculus Rift will offer the most immersive and natural perspective of the on-track action to date.
“Ever since the announcement of the Oculus Rift and the team getting their hands on one of the early devkits we immediately knew the racing genre was going to be a perfect fit for virtual reality.
With players already having an understanding of what it feels like to sit in the driving seat of a car, wheel peripherals already existing that provide a natural driving input, and the nature of racing being one of (hopefully!) forward motion, the ability to now wear a virtual helmet and experience the action through the driver’s eyes is the final piece of the puzzle allowing you to get as close as possible to the real thing.” – Stephen Viljoen, Game Director.
When the game is available on the Oculus Store later this month, it will be accompanied by the complete collection of On Demand content added over the last year, in addition to further VR-specific improvements coming to this version of the title.
Furthermore, when the Game of the Year edition hits the shelves this spring everyone who has purchased the game on the Oculus Store will then automatically be upgraded to this version at no additional cost.
Racing games and virtual reality go hand-in-hand, perhaps more so than other genres that will make their way onto the platform, allowing for an unprecedented level of immersion in a racing title, as Creative Director Andy Tudor continues:
“Project CARS has always been regarded as one of the most beautiful racing games out there already but we’re always looking for new gameplay experiences too.
Once you’ve peered closer at the fine detail we put into the cockpit of a supercar like the Pagani Huayra BC, hastily glanced left at a IndyCar trying to overtake, looked towards the apex whilst trying to nail a perfect lap, or even looked out of the back window whilst trying to reverse you’ll never be able to go back.
Without a shadow of a doubt, virtual reality makes you a better racer and we fully expect many of our fans and Esports pros that already own sim racing setups will eagerly be adopting the Rift as the way to take their game to the next level.”
Project CARS will be available day one on the Oculus Store, March 28th.
See more articles on Accessories, Oculus Rift, and Project CARS.
News is coming out everywhere today! This sounds good! I hope any GT iteration will be good on PSVR!
This is the reason why I am happily awaiting GT on PS4, driving using VR will make cockpit mode so viable, hopefully it returns to the fully viewable interiors like in GT5 Prologue looking over your shoulder in VR and actually see the same thing you would if you did it in real life would feel so natural. Looking into corners would feel natural, only issue would be how would it keep pace with there you are looking when you aren’t moving your head. Either way exciting times are ahead, exciting times indeed. Will PS4 PRoject Cars support PSVR?
Since I like to drive from roof cam, it would be interesting to see how much more it feels like I’m sitting on the roof! I bet that’s a rush and a half. And those guys racing from bumper cam? I wonder how many times they’ll klonk their heads jerking out of the way of something.
This is good news for the PCARS fans, but I’m with you. Makes me hungry for what I consider to be a better sim.
@SavageEvil SMS is on the PSVR supporting devs list.
Notably, I don’t recall seeing PolyD on that same list.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, virtual reality makes you a better racer”. This is actually the part that I have doubts about when it comes to VR tech. I’d be curious to hear from someone who has made the jump from the box to Oculus about what happened with their lap times and consistency. Obviously you’ll be able to see things better and move your head to see details you wouldn’t normally see on a single screen, but it’s also true that we’ve trained ourselves to pick up mostly fixed visual cues from a monitor in order to get fast and consistent. This curb here, this shadow there, this tree etc. When you are able to move your head those visual cues also change position and it may affect your speed or consistency. I’d be curious to know if anyone who was a consistent racer before has noticed any differences in terms of pace and consistency after making the switch.
I take that comment to reference race craft more than consistency and speed. Dealing with other cars on track is still one of the harder things to do with a traditional game setup. Tapping a button to look back or to the sides still tends to be a little jarring and unnatural – at least for me – so this could help. Though I imagine with the huge increase in the sense of speed, it’ll make for quite the test of reflexes.
Prob not getting it, since I have a rig, and no desk to put the sensor on. XD
Looks beautiful, but such a head trip. I’m dizzy just watching it. O_o
yea, i dont think i can handle this for to long.
Does anyone know if the Oculus will work if the user has only one eye?
Yes, the Rift will work if the user only has one eye. The only thing that won’t be the same in that senario is 3D. The user would only see out of one eye so the depth produced from having each eye being shown the proper angle for 3D depth won’t be able to work. But that being said, everything else will still work perfectly.
Cool. I’ve been in hibernation until GT:S drops (which I know may not be until 2020), but this is good news! I may have to dust off the old glitchy Project Cars soon; however I remember hitting an invisible Mack truck in the middle of the track before Arnnage at Sarthe the last time I played ruining my race, so maybe I won’t be dusting it off lol….
So you’re saying you have acess to a Oculus Rift-ready set up and PCars (and probably a wheel) dusting around and you’re here saying you’ve been hibernating because it’s ‘glitchy’? That actually pisses me off…
Well, mine is gathering dust because it was sold to me by the fans as the bestest racer evar. And it’s not. It tastes too much like a portion of Need For Speed, a serving of Forza 1, and a chunk of GT4. With a lot of glitches, a lot of bugs, a lot of quirks, not the least of which are tire sounds you can barely hear. Yeah, that’s just what I don’t need to drive a car with authority, and it’s sure not what I consider to be the recipe for a good racing sim.
It’s a nice game, a weirdly nice game, but no more than that, and if Simply Mad can’t polish the PCARS 2 physics to something even as good as a mix of GT6 and Assetto Corsa, they need to start from scratch.
Maybe they can ice this cake somehow to make it tastier, but I’d have to see it first.
Cloud cuckoo land.
TenD please enlighten us on the issues with PCars physics and which features of GT6 physics should be melded with AC physics to improve PCars2. I eagerly anticipate your response. I’ll preempt your usual tirade about how everyone thinks PCars is paaarfect etc. and acknowledge that the game has many flaws and glitches. Flaws and glitches =/= problems with physics unless it’s a specific issue related to physics. I’m asking specifically about the physics since that is what you yourself mentioned.
I refer my friend to remarks I made some moments ago in the GT Sport debate thread.