Pcars WIP makes a mockery of the F1 2012 demo, and F1 2011 the game, certainly with my G27, so it's still on track to be a good racing game, but more work is needed on the driving model and FFB.
Beautiful graphics, absolutely photo-realistic graphics are fantastic. If graphics stayed at the level of Race07 (AFTER correcting bugs in shaders or simply add better ones), I'd be delighted, though, as we could invest a lot more cpu time into the physics. But that is obviously my preference, as I'm more in favour of physical realism than graphical realism.
I also don't care much about FFB, so I've learnt to separate it from physics (a lot of people haven't and mix the two).
That said, pCARS tire physics (chassis physics and aeros seem to have settled, my friends tell me) is not exactly a WIP. They're developing the STM, which will replace at some point the current tire model by Eero (for the PC, that is). In the meantime, some tweaks here and there may happen in the current tire model - AJ himself acknowledged Eero did a very good job given the constraints (hardware but also mathematical).
I see little point in discussing something you know will be replaced soon - in the PC arena, that is.
These comments you sometimes here about so-called sim racers who used to drive this or that sim till they discovered pcars doesn't make any sense to me.
Fanboys are fanboys: iRacing fanboys, pCARS fanboys, rF2 fanboys, AC fanboys.
I have read quite a few saying they couldn't go back to other sims, but most explain it due to things other than physics. From the perspective of an hardcore simracer (me, for one) it doesn't make sense, but hey, that's their opinion.
As I have had no direct experience of pCARS in more than 6 months and have none of rF2 or AC, I can only say nothing beats GSC or Race07/GTR2/rFactor when properly modded - not even iRacing.
It needs to be emphasized that there's a HUGE difference between sim and simcade, so that's why my comments can seem rather harsh, but the best sims are precise weapons, they never let up, they almost always feel connected.
As I dislike that name (it's mostly used to decry this or that sim), I won't comment on the "HUGE difference".
All that matters is this: whether we like it or not, a big part of the physics engine will be replaced at some point. It's not even a matter of being WIP as you and others are not given the opportunity to test the STM while it's being developed. But it is a matter of correct perspective: what you see now, for whatever reason, did not produce the results they wanted or the community expected, and as such will be replaced, so why keep pointing out the flaws?
Consider GTR 2005, I went in too hot at the Donington chicane, induced a huge transfer of weight and spun, but it only happened once, as the game informed me that it won't tolerate imprecise driving thru there, same with the hairpin at the bottom, you need to be mindful of when you get on the gas, make sure your wheels are mainly pointing straight and you can flatten it, but try and "race" thru it and you'll do a 180.
From GTR to GTR2 many (MANY) things changed. The whole physics suffered a big improvement, most notably in the area of numerical instability and grip assessment past the limit. Still not perfect, but much much better than GTR.
Plus, the devs themselves acknowledged the problems and the solutions implemented thereafter.
Some of the things introduced by GTR were, imo, ground breaking, but as you mention above "HUGE" differences between something and something, you might as well keep in mind the (big) differences between GTR, GTR2 and GTR Evo.
I agree with you whole heartedly Peter about the physics and FFB, but everytime I try and say something about them, I get accussed of trolling or I just get sarcastic comments.
Why do you care about those accusations or comments, Adrian? For some reason, they're allowed, and for some reason these people can't do any better than mockery/insults. Your opinion is no less important than theirs.
Personaly I think they need to scrap the singular turning dynamics and write a floating turning motion (like a gyroscope) that carries weight and velocity calculations.
Then they would get a much better immersion when adding the physics software.
If you are referring to the "center pivot physics" issue, this was already exposed as non-issue and a matter of POV/FOV. A serious mistake at any rate in my opinion, because it induces the wrong impression in people, but not the actual issue in itself.
The last racing game I remember which had the center pivot physics was TOCA RACE Driver 3, and even that one suffered a big improvement over TRD 2 (center pivot physics wise).
Maybe you can elaborate a bit?
