What to know before getting behind the wheel of Project CARS

maximus

///Member
What to know before getting behind the wheel of Project CARS

http://mygaming.co.za/news/features...getting-behind-the-wheel-of-project-cars.html

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Project CARS releases this week, so here’s everything you should know about this racing upstart, or should we say superstar. From initial impressions thus far, Gran Turismo and Forza have a very real fight on their hands because Project CARS’ breath-taking visuals, car as well as track variety, impressive list of technical specs and overall functionality is exactly what we, and the rest of the racing world, has been asking for.

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Project CARS or “Community Assisted Racing Simulator” is being developed by Slightly Mad Studios. The idea behind the game is to offer a grind-free, sandbox-like approach to motorsport racing. As a result, everything will be at the player’s disposal from launch, giving you access to every car and every track upon starting up the game for the very first time.

The goal is to treat the player like an athlete; to offer them an emulated experience of the real life structures and opportunities for success actual motorsports professionals go through, and all the while still suiting the needs of contemporary gaming.

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There was clearly a lot to be done, however, because Project CARS, initially due for release on February 18th, was delayed until April 2nd. The game suffered yet another delay and is now set for May 8th.

What Powers Project CARS?

Players competing in events that span over a number of days, or that are simply re-racing on a track, will never experience the same track twice thanks to the game’s incredibly dynamic engine. That said, it can also recreate conditions for you, so if you want to feel what it was like to race as Fernando Alonso in the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix, you can.

The game’s engine, the Madness Engine, allows you to simulate the exact weather, sun strength and position as well as road conditions present on any particular day. It’s supposed to allow for endless experiences in racing. In fact, professional racers have used this engine to predict the conditions for their upcoming races. It’s that accurate.

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As for the weather, well the engine dynamically produces the effects – this allows for a wide range of weather effects, lighting conditions and a great deal more to worry about in each race. Best of all, the Madness Engine supports the SETA feature, previously seen in Need for Speed: Shift. This allows for a more dynamic tire in game, rather than the static tire most traditional racing titles use. This SETA model brings a more complex racing experience, but it also means that every screw-up is your fault.

It’s a fantastic engine capable of calculating physics at 600 times per second and even tracks your finger movement at over 250 times per second. This allows for accuracy beyond measure. The engine also tracks race track temperature and air pressure to determine the torque that is available for each car, depending on your engine of course.

What this does mean is that the PS3 and Xbox 360 just do not have the hardware capable of handling Project CARS, and so won’t be receiving it at all. As for the PS4 and Xbox One, well that’s a different story. The PS4 version runs at 1080p at 60fps, whereas the Xbox One version is running at 900p at 60fps. Weirdly, the console versions even have graphical settings to play with. We won’t know how they affect the game until we get a crack at it, but they’re rather curious. And as for the mighty PC, Project CARS will offer up to 12K resolutions – for those six or seven people with the hardware to run it at that spec.

PC Requirements

Minimum System Requirements

CPU: 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400, 3.0 GHz AMD Phenom II X4 940
GPU: Nvidia GTX 260, ATI Radeon HD 5770
RAM: 4 GB RAM, 1 GB VRAM

Recommended System Requirements

CPU: 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 3700, 4.0 GHz AMD FX-8350
GRU: Nvidia GT600 series, AMD Radeon HD7000 series
RAM: 8 GB RAM, 2 GB VRAM

As you can see, the requirements for both minimum as well as recommended specs are fairly reasonable. What won’t be reasonable will be trying to run Project CARS at 12K. It will look spectacular though.

The Cars

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The question is then, what will you be given to drive, to test the capabilities of this engine? Over a number of bundle types, there are 74 cars included at launch, 66 of which are in the Standard Edition release. The Limited Edition bundle grants its owners an additional five cars and Modified Car Pack owners will get an additional three, many of which are available for purchase here. And according to a very recent update from Slightly Mad Studios, there may even be more than that, as many as 80+.

Standard Edition List

Alpine A450
Ariel Atom 300 Supercharged
Ariel Atom 500 V8
Aston Martin Rapide S Hydrogen Hybrid
Aston Martin Vantage GT3
Aston Martin Vantage GT4
Audi R18 TDI LMP1
Audi R8 LMS Ultra
Audi R8 V10 Plus
BAC Mono
BMW 1 M CoupÈ (E82)
BMW 320 Turbo Gr.5 (E21)
BMW M3 Gr.A (E30)
BMW M3 GT (E92)
BMW M3 GT4 (E92)
BMW Z4 GT3
Caper Monterey Stockcar
Caterham Seven Classic
Caterham Superlight R500
Caterham SP/300R
Ford Capri Zakspeed Gr.5
Ford Escort RS1600
Ford Focus RS
Ford Mustang Boss 302R1
Ford Mustang Cobra SCCA TransAm
Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth Gr.A
Formula Gulf 1000
Ginetta G40 Junior
Ginetta G55 GT3
Ginetta G55 GT4
Gumpert Apollo S
Lotus 49 Cosworth
Lotus 72D Cosworth
Lotus 78 Cosworth
Lotus 98T Renault
Marek RP219D LMP2
Marek RP339h (PM 06a) LMP1
McLaren 12C
McLaren 12C GT3
McLaren P1
Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evo2 DTM
Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 6.8 AMG
Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X FQ400
Oreca 03 Nissan
Pagani Huayra
Pagani Zonda R
Palmer Jaguar JP-LM
Radical SR3 RS
Radical SR8 RX
Renault Clio Cup
Renault MÈgane R.S. 265
Ruf CTR3
Ruf RGT-8
Ruf RGT-8 GT3
RWD P20 LMP2
RWD P30 LMP1
SMS Formula A
SMS Formula B
SMS Formula C
SMS Formula Rookie
SMS Kart 125cc (Kart01)
SMS Superkart 250cc (Kart02)

Limited Edition Car Pack


Sauber C9 Mercedes
Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe DTM
McLaren F1
Ford Mk. IV
BMW M1 Procar (E26/1)

Modified Car Pack


Ariel Atom Mugen
Ruf CTR3 SMS-R
Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadster

Free Cars


W Motors Lykan HyperSport

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What about the tracks?

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Project CARS has a huge number of tracks on offer, 31 to be exact, with many of them offering alternative layouts. The full track list is as follows:

Nurburgring 1 – Germany (4 layouts)
Nurburgring 2 – Germany (4 layouts)
Zhuhai International Circuit – China
Chesterfield – UK
Cadwell Park – UK (3 layouts)
Greenwood – Republic of Ireland
Sakitto – Japan (4 layouts)
Summerton – UK
Spa – Belgium
Sonoma Raceway – USA (3 layouts)
Brno Circuit – Czech Republic
Willow Springs – USA (2 layouts)
Le Mans – France (2 layouts)
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca – USA
Donnington – UK (2 layouts)
Snetterton – UK (3 layouts)
Azure Coast – France (5 layouts)
Azure Circuit – France
California Highway – USA (5 layouts)
Glencairn – UK (6 layouts)
Mount Panorama – Australia
Oulton Park – UK
Road America – USA
Watkins Glen – USA (2 layouts)
Brands Hatch – UK (2 layouts)
Dubai Autodrome – UAE (5 layouts)
Hockenheim Ring – Germany (3 layouts)
Imola – Italy
Monza – Italy (2 layouts)
Motorsport Arena – Germany
Silverstone – UK (4 layouts)
Circuit Zolder – Belgium

And there’s more

Project CARS’ free-form career mode allows you to choose your own specific, historic races to compete in. You can even earn accolades by completing specific goals.
You can setup race weekends to compete with up to 17 friends (it supports 18 including yourself). These will allow players to join up and race with you under your desired weather and track conditions, climate and a lot more.
The game will support up to 48 cars on a track at any one time, the first ever game to achieve this amount.
It’s going to be chaotic at times, but it should offer as real and gritty an experience as possible.
Project CARS will support around 30+ wheel peripherals, community apps and virtual reality via the Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus.

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All-in-all, Project CARS has us intensely excited. It’s technically incredible, light on trivial DLC (for now at least), has a lot of variety and avoids the grind. What more could you want?

Project CARS releases on May 8th, 2014 for PS4, Xbox One and PC
 

Major

Active member
Can't wait to pick this up, unfortunately I have to upgrade my PC first. :) Really hoping it'll evolve into a Assetto Corsa/iRacing competitor from a physics and realism aspect, from a few reviews it seems to err on the side of arcade-style steering that makes the game more accessible to newcomers.
 

@ri

///Member
That looks extremely frustrating is it just with the thrustmaster?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

adamr

Well-known member
Got it on PC ... And for me a little bit of a mixed bag. Graphics: yes car design track design awesome. But little details like tress and crowds really really suck. Cardboard like static cutouts for trees and crowds ... Comon ! This is 2015 ... Not 2005 (even if this is regarded as a sim)

Realism .... First two cars on that list I drove was the 1M and the R8 V10. It doesn't feel like the real cars ... So the authenticity in my opinion is off to the real world examples

Having said that, The pagani huayra sounds insanely sick ... All those mechanical and space ship type of sounds ... Wonder if the real thing sounds just the same?

The karts are near impossible for me to control properly and really tough. Normal cars when they go into a slide it's near impossible to bring it back ... And I'm talking gentle slides here. Again when in a slide it's too rigid, for example the 1M felt Like I was trying to control a 1985 Mercedes Benz 380se

It ain't bad at the end of the day, but definitely not awesome ... But maybe my hopes were too high


Sent from my iPhone 6 Plus
 

Divio

Honorary ///Member
Had a build in October last year, worked great with the G25.
Graphics were awesome and physics went too bad.

Sold the graphics card so can't comment on official build


:blueCry:
 
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