Project CARS adds Silverstone in New Build Release

The “crowd sourced” Project CARS seems to be moving at an impressive pace with good results, direct feedback, and trust in the contributing members from the technical side of development. In recent years, the gaming community has been taking a hit in their ability to produce and implement community-based mods. Games that were once a haven for mod development and community generated game play, have slowly been replaced by a business model that includes characteristics such as premium downloadable content (DLC), digital rights management (DRM), and the limiting of server control and sources. One of the first of its kind in terms of game development, Project CARS  has provided an alternative to the mainstream ideas mentioned above. While Project CARS has certainly been approached with speculation and doubt in terms of commitment, it has had an impressive track record so far and continues to impress with exceeding levels of commitment from it’s World of Mass Development. It may very well prove to be the spearhead towards an evolution in community-based gaming.

The latest 134 and 135 builds has been released to all registered users of Team Member status and above. The most notable features that are added to these builds is the addition of the  Northampton (Silverstone) circuit, FFB updates, and major tweaks to the Formula B and Atom V8 in the form of tires, brakes, aerodynamics,etc.

Here is a full list of the changes posted by the WMD team and SMS  that has taken place over the past week:

 Build 135 (20/1/12, Team Member+)

• FFB updates. New spring code, revised rumble strip effects, effects can now be modified by F1 menu.
• Expose opponent type selection to GUI.
• T500RS wheel spring forces enabled and functional (may require some tuning)
• Ariel Atom: All suspension animations finished
• Reduced motion blur a little.
• Caterham: New liveries added
• New physics on Racer cars based on the new tyre direction. Dropped main grip / increased sliding grip. Also even out front and rear base grips and staggered the load sensitivites. Misc chassis balance changes to suit.
• Darkened race groove a little.

Build 134 (20/1/12, Team Member+)

• Fix for NULL deref that can occur if the stats callback occurs after loading is complete
• Ariel Atom Mugen: fixed halfshaft bone orientations
• Bumped all vehicle versions ready for stat wipe
• More detail changes to the Ariel Atom models. Mostly braking balance, aero drag and a bit more work on the tyres base grip vs sliding grip amounts

Build 133 (19/1/12, Senior Manager)

• Removed hard-coded sync instructions which caused stuttering on DX11 front end
• Livery names set back to colour names until liveries are checked in on Caterham
• New Atom 300 liveries
• New changes to all 3 Ariel Atom versions. Same as previous cars featuring new direction with the tyres and any balance changes need to suit. More control over the peak with a bit more sliding before the peak
• New Formula B. Lots of detail changed besides the new tyres. Aero drag a bit too high so re adjusted that down. Also the top gearing was dropped to match the default aero setup better. The brakes were overheating so revamped the cooling parameters and default duct settings. Tested at 360 degrees lock
• Slight tweak of the grip for less understeer on Asano X4
• Updated pixel shader input
• Tweaks to brakes, aero and gearing, Formula B and Asano X4
• Tweaks after driving the Leonus F68. Mostly dampers. Removed alot of the slow speed damping and made the high speed more promonent
• New Connecticut Hill’s export
• New Bologna export
• New Bathurst export
• Northampton added to the game

Build 132 (18/1/12, Senior Manager)

• Fixed the FFB gravel state not working correctly
• Atom V8: template fixed (added air intake front)
• Livery names update
• Fix: RIG: bone name corrections
• Atom V8: new collision meshes
• Atom 300: QA checks and fixes on all 3 versions. All 3 are Beta1 now

Build 131 (17/1/12, Manager+)

• Minor FFB yaw and bump tweaks
• Some jolt ffb changes reverted
• 1Reduced client-side stat & leaderboard cache duration to one minute
• Fix for graphics config, whereby it would fail to match up a requested mode in certain circumstances
• New Gumpert export
• Added 10% more brake torque to each wheel of the Asano
• Some new physics. Change to allow more sliding by dropping the base grp considerably, and leaving the sliding grip higher. Also change cornering stiffness and braking stiffness to get the right feel. Lossened the differential up Leonus F68
• Added more accurate cut tracks. Left somewhat liberal for curb use up En Rouge and in some of the faster corners with larger runnoffs as it dosen’t affext lap times really. Also added 36 start spots to match a new start graphics placed by the artists

Build 130 (16/1/12, Senior Manager)

• FFB updates: raised gear change and brake slopes for balacing reasons. Reduced jolt levels and other constant forces that were too strong. Fixed problem with sudden unexpected force throwing the car off its driving line. Fixed the collision/impact force which wasn’t working. Added steering weight when in gravel. Players MUST press Reset in their controllers panel or start a new profile. Tested on Logitech G27 with 100% Logitech force, 360 degree rotation, 75% in-game controller strength.
• Reduced the level before the sounds become virtual, so low RPM/offload engine sounds stay alive even when all volumes are set to low. Also removed the optimisation from PC as the AI swapping is smoother and the cost is minimal.
• FFB yaw force increased
• Ariel Atom: fixed axis alignment of halfshaft bones. increased droop travel to align things correctly
• Ariel Atom 300: Ultra detail now uses chassis_lodx and ignores interior
• New changes in an attempt to get more sliding grip once over the peak as noted by Ben Collins. Also balance changes to each chassis if needed. Gumpert also got the grip and downforce lowered.
• Cars affected with this release:
• Caterham R500
• Asano LMP2011
• Gumpert Apollo
• Vehicle list: Ariel Atom V8 added
• Ariel Atom 3: better fitting ambient shadow

Source: “Builds – World of Mass Development Forums”