Project Cars Info

[Jason]

Only played a handful of races last night but my initial impression is VERY good. Amazing graphics, great controls and tons of options. I'll have to play some more tracks, but it may be better looking than Drive Club. No regrets with this day-one purchase....yet.

[Jason]

Still enjoying the game a lot. The funny thing is I spend a majority of my time running free practice and time trials...it's that much fun driving. I've also come to the conclusion that the graphics are better than Drive Club (with the exception of weather effects) and the 60fps has spoiled me. I've never made a big deal over the whole 60/30 fps issue, but it's definitely noticeable when going back to Drive Club now.

There are some issues that certainly need to be patched like weather not affecting the AI drivers and the terrible UI. My biggest complaint is that you need to completely exit out of your current session to make any game/option/controller changes. This is especially annoying when trying to fine-tune your driving sliders, but the devs seem very involved with the community and have promised improvements.

[Brad Company]

I'll vulture this once it's patched up and cheaper. I'm happy to hear the PS4 version is in better shape than the Xbone one.

[Jason]

I'll vulture this once it's patched up and cheaper. I'm happy to hear the PS4 version is in better shape than the Xbone one.

It's a very different experience than Drive Club so they compliment each other well. Project Cars has a NFS: Shift 2 vibe...not really sure why I feel that way though. It may be how the cars handle.

[Jason]

Project Cars has a NFS: Shift 2 vibe...not really sure why I feel that way though. It may be how the cars handle.

Apparently Slight Mad Studios was also the developer of NFS: Shift and NFS: Shift 2, so that explains my feelings.

[Jason]

SMS have released details of the upcoming patch 1.4 for Project CARS, and it covers a wide range of areas. The patch will be for the PC, PS4 and XBox One.
No date has yet been provided for the release of the patch, with SMS saying that they provide one “as soon as we have the date confirmed by the various external parties”, full details of the patch are as follows:

General

   
• Pagani Monza Clubday invitational event â€" No longer causes the game to crash when using a specific livery on the Pagani Huayra.
• PC â€" Fixed an issue that would cause the game to crash while watching saved replays, when shared memory is enabled.
• PS4 â€" Anisotropic filtering has been increased to help reduce blurry textures.
• PS4 â€" Temporal anti-aliasing has been further optimized. This reduces the ghosting effect and additionally gives the player full control via a slider to tweak the resulting image according to personal preference.

Performance improvements

   
• Xbox One â€" Various performance optimizations, adding up to an average of 5-6% performance improvement. This results in an overall smoother experience.
• PS4 â€" All shaders have been rebuilt using new shader compiler, giving a significant performance boost in some areas.
• PS4 â€" CPU performance gains due to new more aggressive code optimisations.

Physics & AI

   
• The AI loss of grip that results from tyre degradation as a result of wear is now more noticeable.
• The AI will now show much more realistic grip loss when running on slick tyres in the rain.
• First pass improvements on various tracks to enhance the AI performance and ability (Azure Circuit, Donington GP, Watkins Glen, Bathurst, Nordschliefe)

Pitting, tuning, setups

   
• Fixed an issue where certain street cars would pit for tyre change during rain when they already had the correct tyres fitted.
• Fixed an issue where custom vehicle setups were lost when progressing through sessions.
• Improved the system used to select the most appropriate tyres based on current and predicted weather conditions.
• Ensure that the AI always pit when they need to change tyres based on the weather conditions.
• The Default strategy will now correctly show the tyres that will be fitted on the player vehicle during a pit stop.
• The pit stop routine will no longer start during online races until the player closes the pit stop menu. This ensures that the player has enough time to select or configure an appropriate set of actions before the pit crew start working on the car.
• Tyre pressures will now be correctly set when the player changes to a new set of tyres.
• The currently-active Pit strategy will now remain in action when advancing through race sessions.

Online

   
• Fixed an issue where the player was sometimes given a large time penalty when exiting the pit lane.
• Fixed an issue where the remaining session time displayed an incorrect value in the Tuning screen.
• Fixed an issue that at times would prevent a player from entering a race, after joining a second online lobby.
• Fixed and issue where the Track Location popup would at times appear on some screens.
• PS4 â€" The lobby browser now displays random lobbies instead of always the oldest lobbies.
• PS4 â€" Fixed an issue where network features could not be used after resuming from rest mode.
• PC â€" The lobby browser now automatically extends the search distance for lobbies when not enough of them are found using the default filter. Lobbies that are hosted further away (and therefore have potentially worse latency to all peers) appear at the bottom of the browser, and are colour coded with yellow or orange icons do indicate the quality of the connection.
• PC â€" The session host now regularly sets the current timestamp into a session attribute, so that sessions with too old timestamps are not displayed in the browser. This prevents stale sessions with no active host from appearing in the session browser.
• PC â€" When joining a session, the client now attempts to request the member details multiple times before giving up. This helps to improve the success rate of joining online sessions.
• Xbox One â€" Fixed an issue where matchmaking was not filtering the race length correctly.

Controls â€" All platforms

   
• Fixed pedals and triggers that vibrates during replays.
• Fixed an issue that causes the wheel centring spring to be active during driving.
• Improved force feedback strength and tweaked the default force feedback parameters for all supported wheels based on community feedback.
• Further enhancements to the steering feeling â€" Improved blending between the tyre force spring and the steering lock spring.
• Improved behaviour of the wheel force springs while navigating the menu system.

Controls â€" PS4

   
• Fixed an issue where the player got stuck on the career screen when entering driver name using a wheel controller.
• Improved the support implementation of several older Fanatec wheels, such as the GT2, GT3, and CSR.
• Fixed the Fanatec CSS so that it works correctly in sequential mode.
• Fixed the Fanatec CSP pedals to save the calibration correctly if player calibrated only pedals.
• Fixed the Fanatec CSP ABS rumble.
• Fixed the Fanatec CSW handbrake.
• Game Pad â€" Tilt Control support implemented to allow controller tilt to be used to control the vehicles.

Vehicles

   
• Adjusted handbrake strength on vehicles which are equipped with handbrakes.
• Fixed an issue where the rain wipers’ state did not reset correctly when restarting a session.
• Fixed an issue where light glows from a vehicle behind the player would sometimes appear in front of the player.
• Fixed fuel pressure gauge calibration in several cars.
• Fixed an issue where a white border would at times appear around the brake light glow of certain cars.
• Ford Mk.IV â€" Improved the collision model to prevent vehicles wedging in under other vehicles.
• Formula Gulf, Gumper Apollo, Formula Rookie â€" Fixed and issue with the livery sets that caused the livery selection to display wrong liveries.
• Lykan Hypersport -Statistics updated to latest manufacturer specification.
• Lotus 72D â€" Improved handing characteristics, exposed bump stops to be adjustable in the vehicle setup, reduced cold sensitivities of the slick tyres, adjusted the AI speed, wear and rain tires to match the player’s experience.
• Karts â€" Reworked the Karts optimization to help address performance drops with a lot of Karts on track.
• McLaren 12C GT3 â€" Adjusted the vehicle pose to more closely match the real car.
• BMW M3 GT4 â€" Improved the accuracy of the levels at which the oil and water temperature warning lights will activate.
• Ford Escort RS1600 â€" Improved the collision and wheel contact model to prevent climbing over other cars in collisions.
• 250cc Superkart â€" Improved the default setup to address controller issues on higher speed tracks, and improved the AI handling.
• Lotus 49 â€" Improved the AI handling of the vehicle in corners and in close racing.
• Pagani Huayra â€" Reduced fuel consumption to around 3mpg in hard track use, and improved cooling to prevent engine overheating.

Tracks

   
• Bathurst â€" Removed cones in the pit lane that was causing cars to get stuck.
• Watkins Glen â€" Fixed a number of accuracy issues around the track.
• Lemans 24h â€" Improved the race line at a few corners to keep the LMP cars off the curbs as this was causing the cars to lean over on two wheels.
• Silverstone National â€" Vehicle grid placement reworked to more closely align with the painted start boxes.
• Hockenheim (various layouts) â€" Reworked the wet weather reflection mapping to address incorrect object reflections.
• Willow Springs â€" Fixed an issue where the vehicle could drive through the barriers when exiting the pits.

GUI

   
• Driver Network Profile â€" Visual tidy up to improve usability.
• Fixed an issue where very thin lines would not always appear.
• Added support for better info display on the Community Events page.
• Fixed the issue where HUD customization was not saved on exiting a session.
• Fixed an issue where the Potential Lap time display on the Lap Info board would be inconsistent with the sector times being displayed.
• Monitor/Spectate mode â€" Fixed an issue where the vehicle being viewed would automatically reset to the player’s vehicle on leaving the monitor screen.

[Jason]

Patch 2.0 Release Notes

Below are the current list of issues that are addressed in patch 2.0.

PLEASE NOTE - The patch is not yet finalized and is still in testing, meaning that some of this may still change. I will post up the final list, or confirm that this one is final, as soon as the fixes are all confirmed and the patch is in final submission.

Finally, please be aware that this patch is not yet in submission with Microsoft and Sony, so we are most likely looking at a few weeks before it will be released. We will post the final release dates as soon as we have them.

Performance Improvements
* PC â€" up to 5% frame rate improvement when using Ultra settings
* XB1 â€" up to 17% frame rate improvement in extreme conditions

Online & Community Events
* Multiplayer search filter 'Skill' now finds games based upon certain lobby game configuration criteria. For example, “Pro” setting now searches for Full Damage, Auto-start Engine, Forced Cockpit, Mechanical Failure, and so forth.
* Community events page â€" when an event cannot be entered, it will now display the reason why: ‘Coming Soon’ along with a countdown, or ‘Expired’.
* Online â€" Ensure that vehicle light repairs are synchronized in MP races so that repaired headlights are visible by other racers.
* Xbox One - fix attempt for a hard-to-reproduce issue where the game would at times freeze or crash when 8 or more players joined a session all at once.
* Xbox One â€" fixed an issue that at times would prevent a player from establishing full connectivity when leaving a lobby and trying to reconnect to it.
* PS4 â€" fixed an issue where, after the PS4 resumes from Rest Mode, no network features can be used.

Controls â€" All platforms
* Adjustments made to the gears system, to prevent gears being skipped under certain conditions. This addresses an issue where gears would at times jump straight down to 1st, potentially causing engine blowouts.
* Steering wheels â€" reduced the centering rate of the steering spring. This improves the feel of steering wheels at very low speeds.
* Added support for the use of all active controllers for menu input. You can for example now use a steering wheel to race, and a gamepad to control the menus and photo mode.
* Gear shifters â€" when using an H-shifter on a car that has a sequential gearbox, the gearbox will now switch through the gears until the gear selected on the H-shifter is reached.
* Fixed an issue in Force Feedback calibration that would prevent a player from setting "Soft Clipping (Half Input)" back to 0 after modifying it from the original value.

Controls â€" PS4
* Thrustmaster T100 Force Feedback improvements.
* Fixed the Force Feedback dynamics for wheels with physical steering locks which were less than the steering lock of the vehicle in-game. This fixes the Force Feedback on the Thrustmaster T100 and similar wheels.
* Added a Motion Sensor controller profile.
* Fixed a crash issue when disconnecting and reconnecting Fanatec wheels.
* Enable support for USB keyboards to be used for in-game controls.

Controls â€" Xbox One
* Built in protection to prevent unsupported controller devices from crashing the game.
* Gear shifters â€" fixed an issue that prevented the selection of neutral when using an H-gate shifter add-on with a car that has an H-gate shifter in-game.
* Implemented accelerator vibration on the gamepad right trigger to indicate when and how much the tyres slip under acceleration.
* Madcatz wheel - fixed an issue where the switch on the wheel to change between 270 to 900 degree mode stopped functioning.

Physics & AI
* Slowed down the AI opponents in the rain when using racing tyres, to make racing against them better balanced.
* Adjusted the AI tyre wear rate to better match the player’s tyre wear rate.
* Adjusted wear of Slicks and Rain tires to more realistic levels where needed. Typically GT/LMP/Formula cars will get slightly more than a full fuel load on soft or default slicks (depending on fuel load amounts).
* Adjusted the heating of slicks and rain tyres to more realistic levels.
* Adjusted tyre temperature sensitivity on several cars.
* Adjusted rain tyres to generally be more sensitive to overheating, and less efficient in the dry.
* Improvements to AI navigation to lessen collisions during cramped race starts, improve detection of other cars during cornering, and improve clean overtaking
* Improved the AI pitting logic during practice and qualifying so that the AI cars run more realistic stints before pitting.
* Reworked the AI’s fuelling logic during qualifying sessions where no refuelling is allowed, so that they don’t always fill up the fuel tanks and negatively impact their qualifying ability. The AI will now deliver far more competitive lap times during qualifying.
* Fixed an issue where the AI would set impossible lap times during races with pit stops.
* The AI will now pit as soon as possible when low on fuel to prevent them running out of fuel and retiring from the race.
* Reduced the effect of damage to the car’s cooling system when suffering aero damage. This prevents engines from overheating and blowing at an unrealistic rate.
* Fixed an issue that prevented bump starts from working properly on some cars. An example case â€" with gears and clutch set to manual, take an Ariel Atom out on Brands Hatch. At the first right hander, stall the car, ignition on, 2nd gear, roll down the hill up to about 15kph and drop the clutch. The car will now bump start. Exact conditions for a successful bump start will vary slightly by car.
* Fixed an issue where at times some AI drivers in a race would use much higher skill levels than the rest of the field.
* Fixed an issue that prevented the AI from pitting within the final 3 laps of a race
* Further tweaked the AI ability in wet races to more closely match the player car’s ability in the wet
* Improved the AI’s efficiency in pit timing when needing to change tyres due to weather conditions.

Pitting, tuning, setups
* Fixed an issue where wet tyres were fitted too long before the rain starts, causing excessive overheating and wear on the tyres.
* Fixed an issue where, when running low on fuel, the Pit Board would appear to tell the player to do a scheduled pit stop when the player did not schedule a pit stop.
* Fixed an issue where flat tyres were fitted to the car during a pit stop, by ensuring that the tyres are correctly inflated.
* Fixed an issue where the car’s bump-stop value decreased after leaving a race session and joining it again.
* Reworked the brake bias display information so that changing the values is more intuitive.

Tracks
* Performance optimisation pass done on: Brands Hatch layouts, Cadwell layouts, Oulton Park layouts, Bathurst, Azure circuit, and Zolder. This helps improve the overall smoothness when racing on these tracks with large grids of cars.
* Track cutting tolerances reduced on all tracks where it was too forgiving.
* Fixed an issue where a pit crew character would at times appear floating above the race track on various tracks.
* Silverstone Stowe â€" fixed render issues on some tyre stacks, and addressed an issue with cars driving through certain objects.
* Road America â€" fixed an issue where a line of grass line appeared in the air near a concrete barrier.
* Spa Francorchamps â€" fixed an issue where cars under AI control would bump into the pit wall when exiting the pit lane. Fixed an issue where the AI were running too wide over the exit curb at the Bus Stop Chicane.
* Brno â€" fixed an issue where cars would at times start in the same grid positions, fixed garage six to prevent the AI from getting stuck on the right side wall when exiting the garage spot, fixed an issue when running more than 20 cars in a race would cause the car in 21st to slide into the pits.
* Le Mans â€" fixed an issue that would at times cause the car to crash while in the pit lane, leading to a disqualification. Improved the AI race line for better speed, and improved the AI behaviour on curbs.
* Laguna Seca â€" improved the AI performance as they were running too slow in some sections.
* Imola â€" Improved the pit lane AI navigation, and fixed an issue with a section of the fence at the pit entrance that appear to float.
* Bathurst - fixed a render issue with shimmering edges in parts of the track.

Career
* Added a new RUF RGT8 GT3 contract to ensure that the player can enter the RUF GT3 series on contract renewal and not just when starting a new career.
* Fixed the unlock details for the Supercar Ardennes Club Day Invitational.
* Fixed an issue where skipping the session during a race caused the player to move up in the session results.

Vehicles
* Group 5 cars â€" adjusted the gearshift timing tolerances to fix an issue with the gearing when pausing and restarting a session.
* Gumpert Apollo â€" fixed an issue with the livery sets that caused the livery selection to display wrong liveries.
* Aston Martin Vantage GT3 â€" tuned engine lifetime and brake cooling parameters for better accuracy.
* Lotus 98T â€" tweaked turbo to improve AI estimation of top speed.
* McLaren F1 GTR â€" modified the default setup and reduced front bump steer to improve straight line stability, fixed an issue to ensure that the car’s specific HUD motec display is used
* McLaren F1 - Fixed an issue that caused the car to use the wrong default tyre compound.
* Ford GT40 MK4 â€" Reworked in several areas to improve handling and match the real car closer - Bump stops settings exposed in setup with better tuned setup defaults, increased wrap around stiffness of the tire carcass, rebalanced base vs tear grip, rebalanced player vs AI rain performance against the AI.
* All Formula vehicles â€" Stop brake light reflections appearing on cars that don’t have brake lights.

General
* Fixed an issue where the player position would at times change to last when player crosses the starting line during rolling starts.
* Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash when selecting the ‘Edit Tuning Setup’ option in the ‘PIT BOX’ screen.
* Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash while watching a saved replay.
* Driver Network Profile â€" fixed an issue where entering Free Practice mode would count toward Races Entered.
* PS4 â€" fixed an issue that required the game to first restart after installing an in-game DLC before the DLC would be available for use.
* Audio â€" rebalanced the volume of skid sounds to make them a bit more audible.
* PC, Oculus Rift â€" added Oculus 0.6.0.0 SDK support, enabled positional tracking in non-helmet player camera views, implemented initial menus and HUD support, auto reset player view position at the start of a race, and disabled all non-VR-friendly scripted pre-race camera sequences.
* PC, D-BOX â€" fixed an issue that caused cars to lose power when playing with D-BOX connected.
* Updated the achievement "I am the 5%" to ensure that it can be achieved in non-Pro-modes as well.
* Fixed a game crash issue caused by an overflow of the email inbox when the player received above a certain amount of invitational emails.
* GUI â€" fixed an issue where the controls configuration arrows in Options would not respond correctly to mouse input when attempting fine adjustment.

[Brad Company]

Lol, buggier than a swamp in summertime.

[Jason]

Patch 2.0 is out today on PS4. Hoping to try it out tonight.

[Jason]

Project CARS â€" Patch 3.0 â€" Release Notes

New & Enhanced Feature Summary
* New â€" Friends Leaderboards â€" players can now toggle between viewing ‘ALL’ and ‘FRIENDS ONLY’ on the leaderboards screen.
* New â€" Multiplayer Spectate Mode â€" players can now choose to ‘Retire to Pit Box’ during a race, and then spectate the ongoing race.
* Enhanced MP vehicle grouping â€" online races now use real-world vehicle classes. This results in far better vehicle performance matching for online races.
* New â€" Xbox One â€" added an Online Browse feature whereby the player can browse for specific lobbies.
* Enhanced Setup and Pit Strategy system â€" players are now provided with information regarding current and upcoming weather, remaining session duration, current track temperatures, and more.
* Enhanced HUD and Telemetry tyre info system â€" players can now see in real time which tyre compounds they are currently using, what each tyre’s pressure is, and how much each tyre is worn.
* Enhanced Cut Track detection system â€" the system used to detect cut tracks is now far more accurate and 'fair'.
* DLC Career Contract support â€" the game now supports the addition of career contracts for new DLC vehicles so that players can use applicable cars in their core career series.
* Enhanced Replay system â€" players can now access Photo Mode from within a replay, and can switch between cars during a replay.
* New â€" Force Feedback â€" implemented the ability via menu sliders for the user to manually tweak the menu spring strength, stationary / low speed spring strength, and overall steering gain.
* New â€" the Force Feedback Calibration screen now features a multiple force feedback profile selection system whereby the user can select a base FFB style that suits personal preference, and then tweak it further as desired.
* Enhanced Weather system â€" all vehicles are updated with new window rain effects, featuring dynamic rivulets, much more realistic looking water drops, and wiper blade trail effects.


Online
* New â€" Friends Leaderboards â€" players can now toggle between viewing ‘ALL’ and ‘FRIENDS ONLY’ on the leaderboards screen.
* New â€" Multiplayer Spectate Mode â€" players can now choose to ‘Retire to Pit Box’ during a race, and then spectate the ongoing race using the ‘Retire to pits’ and ‘Spectate’ options (note that this is currently only available on tracks that feature a pit lane).
* Enhanced vehicle grouping â€" online races now use real-world vehicle classes. This results in far better vehicle performance matching for online races.
* Implemented support for Leaderboards reset across all platforms.
* PS4: Fixed an issue with the browser getting stuck at ‘Looking for sessions’.
* Added support for Multiplayer Quick Random to also join in-progress sessions
* New â€" Xbox One â€" added an ‘Online Browse’ feature whereby the player can browse for specific lobbies.
* Fixed an issue where the Drive button would remain permanently locked when joining an in-progress session.
* Fixed an issue where, when the player progressed from qualifying to the start of the race, the player’s car would sometimes begin moving without player, resulting in false jump-starts.
* Fixed an issue where using the ‘Amateur’ skill filter would at times not show any lobbies.
* Fixed the case where changing the time of day from daytime to night-time in a lobby failed to switch the skill level from NOVICE to AMATEUR.


Time Trial
* Fixed an issue where restarting a Time Trial session would not remove the ‘best of session’ ghost from before the restart.
* Force Time Trial weather on consoles to always be set to Light Cloud to match PC settings.
* Ghost split and lap times are now displayed on timings/pause screen.
* Updated the in-game timings board to provide a visible distinction between the ghosts and the player’s entries: all ghosts now have status set to ‘Ghost’, and the Session best ghost has DRIVER text set to ‘Session Best’


Pitting, Tuning, Setups, Strategy
* Enhanced Setup and Pit Strategy system:
- - Players are now provided with information regarding current and upcoming weather, remaining session duration, and current track temperatures.
- - In Setup, players can choose to apply different compounds to the front and rear sets. In Pit Strategy, players can now choose to change tyres symmetrically instead of configuring each wheel individually.
- - The Setup and Pit Strategy screens will now display an estimation of how many laps the player can expect to run with the current fuel load, and updates in real time as the player adjusts the fuel slider.
- - Players can now define pit strategies with less fuel than the initial fuel load.  During a race, the fuel slider indicator will turn red to warn players when the strategy offers insufficient fuel for the remainder of the race.
* Enhanced HUD and Telemetry tyre info system:
- - Players can now see in real time which tyre compounds they are currently using, what each tyre’s pressure is, and how much each tyre is worn. Each individual wheel’s tyre graphic will fade out from top to bottom to indicate the level of wear. The tyre temperature display on the HUD now uses a smooth colour gradient fade to more accurately indicate temperature changes and match the display on the Telemetry screen
* Fixed an issue where a damaged headlights would not get repaired if the player had damage level set to ‘Visual Damage Only’.
* Fixed more cases where a vehicle’s default setup would not be correctly applied.
* Reworked the naming of several tyre compounds to make the names more indicative of their purpose, and to ensure that front and rear compound names match when set to the same compound.
* Restrict pit strategy tyre compound types to only those available for the current vehicle.
* Accessing Pit Strategy in single player during non-race sessions no longer pauses the game.
* Tweaks to AI pit logic to ensure they pit in proper mandatory window in races that feature a mandatory pitstop.
* Fixed an issue that at times caused a setup from one car to be applied to a different car.
* Ensure that the Default pitstop strategy is set to the Active one on each session start, to prevent issues with previously configured and now irrelevant strategies being active.
* Fixed an issue where, if you customized a setup that was automatically loaded from your saved setups, and then drive and return to pits, the customized setup would be lost and your setup will be reset to the previously saved setup.
* Fixed an issue in online races where the pit crew would ignore any changes made to the pit strategy once the player’s car was stationary in the pit box.


Physics & AI
* Improved AI rain speed realism when using treaded tyres in the wet.
* Fixed an issue where, if a player has steering assist on and fuel use set to real, when low on fuel, the steering assist will pull them into the pits as they go past
* Increase tyre wear for AI if driving wet tyres when track is drying or dry.
* Improved AI behaviour during crash recovery to further minimize the chances of AI cars getting stuck.
* Fixed an issue that would cause a car to leave the pits with no visible wheel attached after pitting to replace a lost wheel.
* Various tweaks and improvements to how AI responds to tyre wear in regards to pitting strategies.
* Fixed the issue with cold and current tyre pressure mismatches in pitstop strategy, as well as cold pressure not being correctly applied in the tyre system.
* Fixed an issue with the player vehicle rolling backwards after entering pre-race tuning.
* Fixed an issue where AI drivers would remain stuck in their pit boxes when using accelerated time.


Cut Track / Off Track System
Enhanced Cut Track detection system â€" the system used to detect cut tracks is now far more accurate and 'fair'. Many tracks were reworked to address specific issues where the cut track detection was either too loose or too strict. Players will no longer receive warnings for driving off track in the grass and other surfaces when not actually gaining time by doing so. The new system provides for scalability in strictness across game modes, to match real life application. The rules enforcement gets progressively stricter from Free Practice to Race to Time Trial.


Career
* DLC Career Contract support â€" the game now supports the addition of career contracts for new DLC vehicles so that players can use applicable cars in their core career series.
* Added Career Contracts for core career sport DLC cars:
- - GT3: Bentley Continental GT3
- - LMP1: Audi R18 e-tron quattro
* Career Invitationals â€" corrected Russian translation in two Invitational unlock descriptions.
* Fixed an issue with pre-DLC save games not unlocking DLC career content.


Audio
* Fixed tyre skid sound when car is sitting against a kerb at zero speed.
* Tweaked the dirt surface sounds.
* Fixed an issue where there would sometimes be missing race audio in a subsequent race if there's an immediate quit at race start.


GUI, HUD, Telemetry
* GUI â€" sliders throughout the game interface now supports smaller increments and decrements when changing their associated values.
* Monitor/Spectate screen â€" the timings table now supports mouse clicks to change the driver that’s being observed. The screen now features the ability to view the selected driver’s info when playing online, by clicking on the new Gamercard button. Fixed several cases where the map would at times randomly freeze and/or be locked on the screen when telemetry overlay is displayed.
* When browsing Leaderboards, changing the car and track being browsed will no longer change the player’s currently selected car and track in the other game modes.
* Reworked the Replay/Spectate/Monitor interface to a more consistent design.
* Main game loading screens â€" fixed the Road America track logo that went missing, updated the Logitech logo to the new Logitech G logo, updated the Oculus logo to their new logo.
* Driver Network Profile â€" practice and qualifying sessions will no longer count towards races entered.
* Community Events â€" added a 'DLC required' indicator to events that require DLC content, added an event number indicator.
* Career post-race podium screen â€" fixed Lap times formatting to use the more logical MMSSTTT formatting (e.g. 01:20.457).
* HUD now reports correct split times to vehicles that are in the pits.
* Updated the Class logos used by Road cars to better differentiate the various road car classes.
* Fixed an issue with the Field of View slider not working.
* Fixed an issue where Cut Track warning messages appeared in the centre of the screen instead of to the side, out of the player’s line of sight.


Replays
* Enhanced Replay system â€" players can now access Photo Mode from within a replay, and can switch between cars during a replay.
* Replay Cameras â€" Azure Circuit â€" reworked the draw distance and positioning of a number of cameras to fix background issues and views being obstructed by trackside objects.
* Replay Cameras â€" Hockenheim National â€" improved the positioning of a number of cameras to fix views being obstructed by trackside objects.
* Fixed a crash that occurred when the player loaded a replay that was saved with an older version of the game.


Controls & FFB
New â€" implemented the ability via menu sliders for the user to manually tweak the menu spring strength, stationary / low speed spring strength, and overall steering gain:
Menu Spring â€" the strength of the wheel centering spring in the front end and in-game pause menu.
Low Speed Spring Coefficient & Saturation â€" the weight of the steering at slow speeds (<10mph) and when the car is stationary. The saturation is the maximum force for the spring and the coefficient is how quickly the spring takes effect. To avoid "cogging / notching" effects when stationary its best to leave the spring coefficient high and lower the saturation.
Steering Gain â€" the gain (multiplier) applied to all steering effects (steering force, jolts, kerb rumble etc) after they have been mixed. For a clean more detailed experience set at 1.0 or below, for stronger feedback at the expense of clipping set higher (maximum value 5).

New â€" the Force Feedback Calibration screen now features a multiple force feedback profile selection system whereby the user can select a base FFB style that suits personal preference, and then tweak it further as desired. You can now switch between current FFB settings (Default) and pre-1.4 (classic) by using the FFB Calibration presets. These presets are available under Options > Controls > Calibrate Force Feedback. The presets are set on top of this page and the new sliders to control the spring/steering effect are at the bottom. Whenever you change these values it becomes a custom preset. You can switch back to either Default or Classic by selecting them at the top of this page.

Fixed:
* Fanatec â€" added accelerator slip vibration support for Fanatec wheel rims that support this feature. Added sequential shifter profiles for Porsche 911, GT2, GT3RS V2 and CSR wheels. Added accelerator pedal rumble support for the ClubSport Pedals V3, and fixed brake rumble not working.
* Logitech wheels â€" added LED support for the G29.
* Custom wheels â€" reduced the default menu spring strength.
* Fixed an issue where the in-game menu spring centered the wheel when pausing while driving, which was jarring when both entering and exiting.
* Handbrake and boost controls assignments are now no longer mandatory.
* Fixed an issue where mouse controls were producing a deadzone in the centre regardless of deadzone settings.
* Fixed an issue where there was a sudden loss of FFB after a severe collision.
* Xbox One â€" fixed an issue where Force feedback was lost when focus was lost to the onscreen keyboard, other overlaid system apps or snapped apps.
* PS4 USB keyboard â€" corrected mapping for keypad '.' / 'Del' keys, removed Pause being incorrectly hardcoded to the 'P' key.


Vehicles
* 125cc and 250cc karts â€" adjusted automatic gearbox algorithm for better shifting.  This reduces the occurrence of the rapid fire downshifts from 6th to 1st when locking the rear brakes.
* Audi R18 e-tron quattro â€" added the missing gear readout to cockpit display. Fixed ‘quattro’ to lower case in the showroom (licensing).
* Aston Martin Vantage GT3 â€" fixed the impact test position for the rear centre brake light, to ensure accurate impact damage effects on the light.
* Bentley Continental GT3 â€" fixed slight asymmetry in rear suspension design which was causing some unintentional cross weight.
* BMW M3 GT â€" set to use same tyre widths as the other GT3 cars. This helps equalize performance and acts to level the playing field, as this car would have used such tyre sizes if it ran beyond 2012 against the rest of the GT3 cars.
* BMW V12 LMR â€" fixed engine lifetime numbers to match other similar cars.
* Group 5 cars and BMW M1 â€" tweaked rain tyres heat and sensitivities to prevent them from overheating in light rain.
* Escort MK1 and DLC BMW 2002 Turbo â€" rebalanced the AI performance.
* Formula A -â€" added a new tyre set that includes two slick tyres: ‘Soft’ and ‘Medium’. Rebalanced the heating and wear across all four tyre sets. Reworked tyre wear to more closely match real world Formula 1 cars. Heating is now more even front to rear. Further rebalancing of the AI speed (now faster) as was required, and tweaks to the base setup to accommodate the heat change and its effect on the balance. The medium slicks make consistent grip between 180-220F, making this compound more useful as a strategic, lower wear choice. The soft slicks are the default dry tyre.
* Formula C â€" dropped the AI ability in the rain a bit more for this car, as the AI was still too fast in the rain.
* Lotus 98T â€" new setup to help handle the power better, new rain tyre tweaks for better heating. Some change for the slick heating and inflation pressure sensitivity of the carcass.
* McLaren MP4 12C â€" adjusted the default setup to match the change to stiffer tyres.
* McLaren P1 â€" stiffened up the default suspension to help prevent bottoming out at tracks like Nordschliefe. Changed tyre walls to Pirelli (licensing).
* McLaren F1 GTR â€" added suspension animations to limit front wheel movement in order to stop them clipping through the bodywork on large compressions.
* Pagani Huayra â€" corrected the default dry and wet tyres so that the correct tyre is selected when using ‘Automatic by Weather’.
* Radical SR3 and SR8 â€" reduced the backlight on the gear LCD in the cockpit to make it easier to read at night.
* Renault Clio Cup â€" updated suspension tuning and gear ratios to match exactly with correct reference data for the X98CUP Mk.4 car.
* RWD P20 LMP2 â€" recalibrated oil and water temperature warning lights to turn on when the engine is starting to overheat.
* Various DLC Vehicles â€" rebalanced the in-cockpit exposure levels.
* Various cars â€" recalibrated the tyre deformation effect. This fixes many cars which were seeing too little or reversed lateral tyre deformations.
* Various cars â€" graphical issues addressed â€" Mercedes C-Coupe DTM, Sauber C9, Audi 90, Audi R8 LMS Ultra, Audi R18, Audi R18 e-tron, Aston Martin Rapide, BAC Mono, Bentley Continental GT3, Bentley Speed 8, BMW 1M, BMW Z4 GT3, BMW 320 Group5, BMW M3 E30 GroupA, Caterham Classic, Caterham SP300R, Ford Capri Group5, Ford MkIV, Formula C, Formula A, Ginetta G55 GT4, McLaren F1, Ruf RGT8 GT3, Ruf RGT8.
* Various cars â€" updated to use the correct tread textures for various tyre compounds
* Modern street cars â€" new stiffer tyres for improved drivability, to more closely match the real world experience. This makes these cars more fun and engaging to drive. Made tweaks to the individual setups of the FWD and most Supercars to accommodate the change.
* 4WD/hybrid vehicles â€" enabled visual backfires.

[Jason]

Tracks
* Azure Circuit â€" reset the AI track grip for the faster Formula A cars, and tweaked the driving lines to help with AI getting stuck in barriers.
* Bathurst â€" fixed an issue where cars would collide against invisible objects in the pit lane, and fixed an issue with black shapes appearing in the rear view mirrors on some parts of the track.
* California Highway â€" reworked the allowable driving surfaces in the final section on the double lane highway to allow the player to drive on both sides.
* Dubai layouts â€" fixed a graphical anomaly on the track surface.
* Glencairn East â€" fixed a false cut track warning that would trigger while driving on-track.
* Nordschliefe â€" fixed an issue where AI attempting to leave their pit spots was being blocked by cars in the pit spot directly in front of them.
* Ruapuna layouts â€" improved the texture quality on the distant trees, and reworked the wire mesh on the marshal posts to prevent them from turning opaque at a distance.
* Sakitto GP â€" unblocked pit lane and added pit lane directional signage.
* Sakitto International â€" fixed an issue where the AI would run too wide and collide with the barrier in the downhill left handed sweeper.
* Silverstone layouts â€" fixed a false cut track warning at the pit entrance.
* Snetterton 200 â€" fixed an issue where the player would receive a cut track warning when entering the pits’
* Spa Francorchamps â€" fixed an issue where a number of bollards marking track limits had stopped appearing.
* Watkins Glen layouts â€" fixed an issue where the pit entry would trigger if a player drove very close to the pit wall on the main straight, and fixed a few graphical pop-up issues.
* Various tracks â€" Imola, Oschersleben GP, Oschersleben C course â€" cut track detection adjustments.


Oculus Rift
* Implemented support for Oculus 0.6.0.1 SDK.
* Added support for a separate Graphics profile “GraphicsConfigOculusDX11.xml” when running with the Oculus Rift. This means that you can now set your graphic details to high/max when playing without the Rift, and turn the details down for optimum performance when using the Rift and the game will maintain both configurations and apply the applicable one automatically.
* Auto disabled Crepuscular rays, Vignette and full screen raindrops.
* Fixed excessive object pop-in in Oculus Rift mode that was caused by the modified field of view used in VR.
* Shadow support â€" further work towards getting shadow support fully implemented.
* Fixed SLI/XFire windowed mode performance issues â€" SLI/XFire isn't available in windowed mode, but several Renderer paths were still active, resulting in reduced performance, most notably for Oculus Rift which fakes a windowed mode.
* Added a command-line option "-vrnomirror" that disables the desktop mirror. This will gain around 3-4% performance.
* Fixed the issue where non cockpit view cameras were not incorporating the head-pose position correctly, which caused the camera to be spawned very low down.
* Fixed the issue where the view in the Oculus Rift froze when returning to the main menu after a race.
* Fixed the issue where using FXAA caused black/opaque rendering when using Oculus Rift.


General
* Players are no longer disqualified for running out of fuel after finishing the race.
* Fixed an issue that would award players with a race win when skipping session after a false start.
* Fixed an issue with 24Hz 4k Monitor modes causing the graphics code to fail to load.
* PC â€" added support to enable Opponent Car Reflections by using the “-insane” command-line option.
* Jumpstart tolerances adjusted to make the penalty more realistic when the player starts moving his vehicle before the green lights.
* Fixed an issue that caused vehicle windows to appear invisible in the player’s rear view mirrors.
* PC â€" fixed an issue with Real-time weather not working.
* PS4 â€" fixed a crash that occurred when power cycling or when disconnecting and reconnecting a wheel.
* PS4 â€" anisotropic filtering adjusted to improve the visual quality of some materials, mainly brick walls which were appearing blurred at some angles.
* PS4 â€" fixed an issue where car bonnet reflections at times were out of sync with the environment being reflected.
* Xbox One â€" implemented background DLC check optimizations to eliminate instances of stuttering in Main Menu.

[Brad Company]

Looks like the game is almost finished and ready for release now.

[Jason]

It's actually a really good game and a steal now that it's down to $40. I've had a hard time going back to Drive Club after playing this.

[Brad Company]

I'll grab it at around $20.

[Brad Company]

Is this game worth $15? Is it too hard to dial in the controls, as some have said?