PC2 First Impressions......

[PaulH]

So it's out!
What's your "first impression" on the game...

Me, I've tried it for 99mins, under the 2 hour Steam refund. Will I be refunding? Nope

Very positive so far

FFB - Big improvement, still needs quite a bit of tinkering, but out the box feels much better

Physics - Big big improvement over PC1, you now actually feel connected to the road, you can feel what the front wheels are doing(my biggest gripe with PC1), although still early days, much improved

UI - Much much better, like the way you can change game settings in the pits now, car/track/skin choices much better

Sounds - Much improved too, gear change sounds are much more mechanical sounding, engines sound better than PC1 but that wasn't hard

and lastly Graphics - Looks stunning!, crisper, light snow on the windscreen looks bloody real!

So, although early days, I'm feeling very positive........so far

 

[Jacco van der Zaag]

It is great. However, multiplayer has it's bugs. Can't join MP lobbys, while hosting, people can't select cars. AI is still terrible, and I can keep up with an LMP in my GT car.

On the other side, weather, day/night, the amount of cars, and even the physics aren't bad. Some noises are weird, like the tires. But okay.

 

[Nick Hill]

My advice to anyone taking the time to evaluate the title - try out one of the GT cars (the Ford LM GTE is a good option). For my money, they've felt absolutely *amazing*. Completely different stratosphere than anything PC1 pulled off even in one of it's wet dreams.

It really does feel like rF2, but someone set the "grip = true" flag in the most recent build.

On the sim vs simcade front, I will reiterate it's solid "sim". It's in the same general vicinity of R3E and AC (my 2 faves)...this game will kick some non-sim racers' butts. Cold tire behavior, in my early testing, seems spot on so far - blows AC out of the water in this regard (AC with tires properly "in range" = oh, hell yes. AC on cold tires = wtf).

I have had some triple screen config issues (to the point where I've already had to delete the Documents/Project CARS 2 folder once), but those are very possibly self inflicted (and/or easily patched, since so many run triples sure it will be very loudly reported in short order).

 

[JoelGL]

...I have had some triple screen config issues (to the point where I've already had to delete the Documents/Project CARS 2 folder once), but those are very possibly self inflicted (and/or easily patched, since so many run triples sure it will be very loudly reported in short order).

Can you describe the issues? Wasnt it straightforward entering the dimensions?

 

[Adam#81]

As soon as I set the FFB to RAW and bumped up the volume and other sliders just a bit, I was very satisfied. It's like a mix of rFactor 2 without the dry harsh feel there used to be and Raceroom, which is a bit more rubbery.

Without knowing which wheelbase you are using, for my T300 I used RAW with almost all cars and just lowered a little bit the volume to 40-45 and the FX around 35.

 

[Nick Hill]

Can you describe the issues? Wasnt it straightforward entering the dimensions?

For me, no.

When I go to track, the HUD/menu/track map show, but the rest of the screen is black.

One thing is I think maybe I don't want "surround" configured via Nvidia - I might just need to retry configuring PC2 with just plain old triple screen setup.

 

[JoelGL]

For me, no.

When I go to track, the HUD/menu/track map show, but the rest of the screen is black.

One thing is I think maybe I don't want "surround" configured via Nvidia - I might just need to retry configuring PC2 with just plain old triple screen setup.

Ive had that happen as well, more than once. Not sure if it has to do with not restarting PC2 after some change in settings. Weird really. Ive setup my triples (in cases I want to rest from the Rift), and entered dimesions, but not sure what FOV its using. Hope theres some way to see the numeric value to ease gauging it.

 

[Nick Hill]

Ive had that happen as well, more than once. Not sure if it has to do with not restarting PC2 after some change in settings. Weird really. Ive setup my triples (in cases I want to rest from the Rift), and entered dimesions, but not sure what FOV its using. Hope theres some way to see the numeric value to ease gauging it.

Glad to hear I'm not alone!

Being without triples sucks, but one nice side effect is that on a single monitor I can crank the graphics to 11 and enjoy the plentiful eye candy!

 

[Kyle Pearson]

For me, no.

When I go to track, the HUD/menu/track map show, but the rest of the screen is black.

One thing is I think maybe I don't want "surround" configured via Nvidia - I might just need to retry configuring PC2 with just plain old triple screen setup.

Disable Super Sampling and only use MSAA.

 

[Brandon Wright]

Glad to hear I'm not alone!

Being without triples sucks, but one nice side effect is that on a single monitor I can crank the graphics to 11 and enjoy the plentiful eye candy!

Setting up my triples worked fine. Entered the dimensions, restarted the game, good to go.

but not sure what FOV its using. Hope theres some way to see the numeric value to ease gauging it.

You can see/set your FOV value in one of the settings screens, and you can even map keeps to adjust it up and down while on track (though I didn't see any visual indication of the FOV value when doing this).

 

[Skidmeister]

About 90 minutes in without any major issues. Physics seem great, love the ability to store multiple setups now. Graphics, sound and handling are exceptional on my rig. Only problem so far was Simxperience did not have a profile ready for the game but I was able to do a workaround for that so my Accuforce controller works fine Looks like I will be spending hundreds of hours enjoying this one.

 

[ionONE1]

Anyone has a solution to lock the camera to the horizon, its like a roller coster at the moment i tried all the camera options. Feels like the g forces are still applied at 0.

 

[bmanic]

Locking to horizon is either Zero or 100 on the World Movement setting. I'm not sure which one but you need to be at the exact extreme of the slider. G force slider at Zero should give no extra movement of the screen due to forces.

 

[dcully]

Keen to hear opitions of AMS users, in my opinion AMS has the best FFB and physics of them all.

 

[Kurupt CDN]

For once living on canadas west coast worked out for me gaming wise as the game was unlocked at 5pm my time
I was able to put in a good 6hrs last night....yes thats a bit much but also shows how much I was enjoying it.
Firstly there are some bugs....but in all honesty it was released in better shape than any other modern sim I can think of.
Ui- is great very easy to navigate and setup things.
Audio- its no raceroom but greatly improved over pc1....some cars sound fantastic....that old school camaro is the scariest thing ive ever heard lol
FFB - completely subjective - night and day compared to pc1. I quickly tested all 3 settings and found I prefered the Raw effect, I still need to make a few more tweaks but its alot easier this time around and great out of the box.
Personal opinion I find its a nice balance of AMS and RF2. Its not as tight as AC or RRE or have those extra canned effects but I dont mind them in those 2 titles as they are very well done.
Cold to warm tire transition is nicely done as they heat up the wheel tightens up and more ffb detail starts coming through and lap times start dropping.
Higher downforce vehicles have an excellent downforce effect when hitting top speeds on the straights as the wheel really tightens up and gets heavy than lightens up as the speed reduces
Good feel under braking and lock ups are very detailed.
Vehicles- all are nicely detailed! Like every sim some cars feel great, some....meh but honestly if you thought all 180 cars were gonna be sublime you have very high expectations
The dirt vehicles are amazing, especially the f150 feels very natural and realistic (personal experience....i do alot of offroading in big vehicles)
Weather- looks amazing and rain puddles add another aspect to racing that ive never experienced in any other title and changes your line on every lap.....awesome!
Though i think it still needs some tweaks.
All my race settings have been set to real including weather. I did a session at laguna seca, practice started dry with light rain in the forecast. As i started my way down pitlane it started to spit a few drops but within seconds the track was drenched and puddles everywhere which made it almost impossible to get around back to the pits to put wets on.
The build up and drying of precipitation seems to happen way to fast.
Once wets are on driving is great.
Inregards to puddles....these need some tweaking for some vehicles....ex the ford f150.....if you hit a puddle in the mud at any speed while turning and hit the throttle it will spin you around almost instantly like you hit ice. A puddle in mud will have a soft base in most cases and will suck you in not spit you out like slick ice or wet pavement.
AI- I havent seen any crazy driving or been punted off track. It will take time to find the perfect strength, sadly though they vary from track to track and class so your constantly trying to find the right balance on every track. My experience is there either really fast or terribly slow even on max 120.
I havent ventured into mp yet but checked out the server settings and I really liked the options available and should only get better once they implement the driver matchmaking and community league options which were not included at launch.
Performance - looks great and runs great on my old system.
I7 2600 gtx 970 @ 3440 x 1440p
High settings with fxaa medium I was getting 90-120 fps in dry with 15 ai and 70-90 fps in the rain. With msaa low I was get mid 50-70s. I also enabled adaptive vsync and it helped tidy up the picture a bit.
Few things I really disliked.....pc1 had that silly slowdown extra grip when off track on the grass.....pc2 SUPER slippery when you go off track you can hardly give the throttle 50% without doing donuts and almost impossible to get back on track if its raining. Throttle management is a must.
When off track the ffb is very minimal and transition coming back onto track is a bit lackluster...where most sims the ffb is pretty violent and bumpy. Could just be the track I was running?
And for the most dissapointing part I experienced so far and is actually a big deal for me @Ian Bell
I cant change my steam gamer id to my real name ingame due to my last name Slute and in career mode my name shows up as David *****
Profanity chat was dissabled in options. Alot of leagues require the use of real names.
Yes I know what your all thinking, ive heard it my entire life
I need to start up a discrimination law suit against SMS/playstaion/xbox maybe I can get some free products for life!
Overall iam really enjoying the driving experience and look forward to digging deeper into the game.

Oh ya.....more dirt content! Torc series

Cheers
David

 

[Stnry]

i didn't want to preorder it, but i couldn't withstand and did it a week ago... i've been fearing that i woud be disapointed upon release. i had some fun with pcars1, at least until i got up to the "real" sims.

Now after i know what pcars2 delivers, i'm simply amazed. i expected little improvements at some point but hell have i been wrong. The FFB is crisp, graphics and sounds are amazing! The sheer amount of cars and tracks is overhelming.

It just feels amazing to drive, the weather and daytime conditions are well made and it's just so immersive and a ton of fun even at the very beginning of getting into it. Sure, the AI need some tweaks and there are minor bugs here and there, but we didnt see anything else with AMS or AC in the beginning. (Raceroom AI is still terrible atm. )

So i like what i got and i believe that i'm going to have hours and hours of fun with pcars2.

 

[Nick Hill]

Do you have Nvidia surround con

Setting up my triples worked fine. Entered the dimensions, restarted the game, good to go.



You can see/set your FOV value in one of the settings screens, and you can even map keeps to adjust it up and down while on track (though I didn't see any visual indication of the FOV value when doing this).

Fi

Setting up my triples worked fine. Entered the dimensions, restarted the game, good to go.



You can see/set your FOV value in one of the settings screens, and you can even map keeps to adjust it up and down while on track (though I didn't see any visual indication of the FOV value when doing this).

Do you have your triples configured with Nvidia surround (i.e. making it look like you have one, really wide desktop), or are you just running 3 different desktops?

I tried to configure it both ways with no luck. When I look at the in game PC2 triple screen configuration, it looks like they've got it built right into the game bezel adjustment, etc, so I assume there is no reason to be messing with Nvidia surround (which is a pain in the butt, anyways).

 

[Brandon Wright]

Do you have your triples configured with Nvidia surround (i.e. making it look like you have one, really wide desktop), or are you just running 3 different desktops?

I tried to configure it both ways with no luck. When I look at the in game PC2 triple screen configuration, it looks like they've got it built right into the game bezel adjustment, etc, so I assume there is no reason to be messing with Nvidia surround (which is a pain in the butt, anyways).

Yes, I had Surround enabled just like with all my other games. It worked right out of the box, plugged in my dimensions to get the picture dialed in and that was that.

 

[beetesjuice]

Just passing by, not on triples, but might help out:

 

[Nick Hill]

Yes, I had Surround enabled just like with all my other games. It worked right out of the box, plugged in my dimensions to get the picture dialed in and that was that.

So if I've already done my bezel correction within Nvidia control panel, I should just set bezel values to "0.00" in-game - is that your interpretation?

 

[MPortnoy]

Refund requested.

Horrible optimisation and the same micro stutter exists as in pCars 1.

I am struggling to see the relevance of this game at all....same tracks, a few new cars, a slicker menu and shiny new puddles.

Sound is dreadful....everything sounds downsampled, clipped and compressed to ****. And the same fake "crowd cheering noise" underlies all the races.

1 out of 10 for the fancy puddles.

Back to Assetto Corsa, which in every way possible makes this dog turd look like it's an early access indie game (apart from the shiny puddles).

I have no micro stutter either so it must have to do with your hardware.

Everyone is entitled to play the game they want, but I'd just argue regarding the relevance of it, especially in single player.

Not really the same tracks. Yes you can get basically 90% of them as mods in AC, not official content, which sometimes means terrible AI, which kills the experience.
No mandatory pit stops in AC either, no random weather, no day/night transition and no real career.....Again, i'm talking single player experience.

AC is awesome but thankfully PCars 2 is now covering some of the holes AC has, which for me is great.