PC3 Project CARS 3 | Developer Blog: Handling Upgrades

Paul Jeffrey

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Slightly Mad Studios have revealed a new development blog posting about their new Project CARS 3 game... handling.
  • PCARS 3 available now on console and PC.
  • New game features heavy focus on car customisation.
  • Latest title moves away from the original sim roots.

Another new developer blog insight post about the new Slightly Mad Studios created Project CARS 3 videogame has been released recently - this time with a view to the way handling upgrades are represented within the title.


Casey Ringley, Vehicle Technical Art and Handling, gives you an inside look at Handling Upgrades in Project CARS 3

Handling part upgrades in Project CARS 3 aren’t “fudged”, they work directly with this physics engine, and that results in some interesting choices when it comes to your upgrade path. Adding an aero’ upgrade will benefit your handling, for example, but the extra drag is going to cut your top-end speed. As with power upgrades we covered last week, there’s a balance to be found.

PCARS Upgrades 1.jpg


Tyre Upgrades
Your tyres (if you’re doing it right!) are the only part of your car that will ever touch the track, and that means all handling upgrades will ultimately affect this one key component of every car.

Upgrading from the harder default-spec’ Sports tyres to Track tyres (with a medium compound) and finally to full-blown soft compound Race tyres with affect both your grip and, with less rolling resistance, your top speed and acceleration as well. The softer the compound, the better the grip.

Moving to softer compounds for increased grip will also install wider tyres where beneficial. The wider contact patch not only increases grip, but also changes the slip curve to feel sharper and more agile at the expense of quicker breakaway when driving over the limit.

Brake Upgrades
One of the first upgrades many drivers and tuning shops will consider when upping performance of any car is the brakes. It won’t make you any faster on a straight line, and it may not even help you get more grip through a turn, but braking stability is paramount driver confidence and performance. Sports brakes will give you the cutting edge when you stomp on the middle pedal while Track and Racing brakes will give you even more stopping power with the added benefit of being able to adjust brake pressures, brake balance, and bias.

Suspension Upgrades: Road Cars
Your suspension is how you can make the tyres work more efficiently out on-track and that’s key to handling performance. With a Sports Suspension, you can get the ride-height lowered—which will improve handling—while also getting some camber thrown in to aid with both turn-in aggression and apex-hugging performance. Add a full Track Suspension upgrade and you get to tune your ride-height the way you want as well as adding anti-roll bar rates, dampers, ride heights, camber, and toe angles—essential to managing the way your car reacts under brakes, in turns, and when you load up the throttle. The suspension upgrade is a vital element for race-winning performance.

Suspension Upgrades: GT Cars
Certain GT cars—especially those in the GT B and GT C classes—use suspension tuning as a balance of performance measure (restricting ride height, camber angles, etc.). The first stage of suspension upgrade for them removes these BoP restrictions, allowing the cars to run much lower ride-heights. This not only improves handling agility, but also can have significant gains to the car’s aerodynamics; a lower car has less drag and more downforce as the underbody becomes more effective. The top-level suspension upgrade for GT cars, like in road car classes, enables tuning of all aspects of the suspension.

Aero Upgrades
Leaning-up the bodywork for road cars will also add mild amounts of downforce. On GT cars, they both add downforce and increase the tuning range. Lift:Drag efficiency goes up with these upgrades, but just remember, they don’t come for free, and the cars will see some additional aero drag to pay for the downforce gains.

Weight Reduction Upgrades
Less mass to move around is a universal positive to car performance. Colin Chapman’s mantra remains the backbone of your upgrade path: “Simplify—then add lightness.” Reducing the weight of your car has plenty of benefits: faster top speed, better acceleration, and better handling. With a Sports and Track reduction, you’ll see significant weight loss. Add a Racing reduction and you’ll strip weight and add the benefit of being able to alter your weight bias, useful to find that ideal weight distribution. Upgrading your car’s bodywork in race cars can also result in better aerodynamics, which will give you top-speed gains as well by giving you the ability to adjust your splitter rear-and-front as well as an aero’ package.

Differential Upgrades
A diff’ makes a big difference to the handling capabilities of your car, even in factory spec’. Upgrading will give a big boost to your cornering capabilities. The diff’ works by allowing the outside wheel, while in a bend, to turn faster than the inner wheel, thereby increasing grip and stability. Upgrade to a Race Spec C, or B to obtain both Preload and Power Ramp tuning, while the Race Spec A will add Coast Ramp as well for the kind of deep-dive setup tuning that will give you a big advantage out on-track. This can be really useful in fine-tuning the car to a driver’s personal style.


Original Source: PCARS 3

Project CARS 3 is available now for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Got questions about the sim? Want to share your thoughts and opinions about the latest title with the sim racing community? No worries, head over to the Project CARS 3 sub forum here at RaceDepartment and start up a new thread today!

PCARS 3 Footer.jpg
 
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Mario Kart 64 physics blog. Introducing upgrades:

packin-mariokart3.JPG


Handling part upgrades in Mario Kart aren’t “fudged”, they work directly with the physics engine. :confused:

That results in some interesting choices when it comes to your upgrade path. Slipping into a banana peel will not benefit your handling, for example. As with power upgrades we covered last week, there’s a balance to be found (and lost if you hit a banana).

Not enough info? I can write a longer essay about bananas if required
More banana info please mate? Heard the banana engine is based on real world bananas.
 
Awesome, 19gb update.

Seriously i have not played the game since the opening weekend on the premise of waiting for this. I'm just glad they've come to the fore with fixes before they discount the game.
 
Both PC3 and GO are quite simply, obligations. Both of these games had been announced before Codies bought them. It becomes quite obvious if you take a look at the development-release history of SMS.
As soon as they released the last DLC for PC2 they started working on PC3. Wikipedia says Bell himself said this.
Things didn't work out with PC2 and because of that PC3 was delayed. I mean come on...does it look like a game that was 3 years in the making? Hell no.
So,Codies bought them and now they had to fulfill their obligations towards Bandai and Gamevil so that they can start working on whatever Codies is planning next. It's not a coincidence that PC3 is almost as bad as F&F. It's obviously a half finished product.
I only hope Codies will make an effort to put the Madness engine to good use. It does have potential, and it terms of circuit racing, it's probably better than anything Codies currently has.Hell even the "rally" part felt pretty good.
 
As a Pcars1 backer i have a lot of time for Casey Ringley, His technical posts about the cars development etc on the Pcars forum were golden, I kind of feel that Casey is wasted where he is, It would be great if he could get in with someone like Kunos or Rieza, Also he would run rings around so called experts on here! :roflmao:

He should just shut up for the absolute mess he provided us in the last five years...
 
no idea if update had anything to do with it, or placebo, but try this (if you have a g29/920)

slide the 3 feedback sliders to 100%
load up the SR3 and WIllow Springs.
Race.

I was catching slides, powering grinding through corners, generally its was damn awesome. Response on the wheel was very good.

Seems like some work must have been done as it was a lot "duller" prior to the update. Also might just be a good car/track combo for this game?

And then this consipracy theory, based on my overconsumption of breakfast sausage.. Reiza came out guns blazing to defend and praise SMS in their last update... while never saying pcars3 anywhere, its pretty obvious in last paragraph what the reference is.

wonder if some of that love is going upstream into PCARS3 to fix up handling/physics/ffb....

from steam update, AMS2, 2nd August.

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

This seems like an appropriate time to give a shout-out to Slightly Mad Studios and their considerable contribution in the making of Automobilista 2 - not just for developing a great sim racing engine and licensing it out to a small studio such as our own, giving out well over one year of continuous support to help us get the best of it, but doing all of that without taking a single penny in advance, or even for a few months into its release to ensure we were able to continue developing it to the best of our ability - all this made clear to us that more than anything they wanted us to get as much out of it as we could, and they certainly went out of their way to supply us with the means to do it.

This is most unusual in the gaming industry and for all that we owe them an immense amount of gratitude, as we did to ISI before them - anyone who already enjoys AMS2 or comes to enjoy it in the future as we continue developing it should be able to appreciate their contribution to making it a reality.


Wherever you land in the spectrum of racing game preferences, we should also all try to be happy with the range of great options currently in the market catering for the diversity of tastes that does exist, and recognize the role SMS played from GTR onwards in helping making sim racing what it is today - we are all better off for it :)
 
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Thanks SMS! I play now to PC2 (again) and AMS2 and have fun and pleasure!
My evening: try to play PC3 15 minutes, getting sad, and 2-3 hours online PC2, AMS2 or ACC :)

About Champaign on yacht: I think no

View attachment 406633

Thanks for this data.. we should also consider the implementention cost of PC3..Given that is a bad copy and paste of PC2 they could still making profits although sales volumes are not the same.
 

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