PC1 Project CARS: Patch 1.4 release notes

Project CARS Audi LMP1.jpg

Stephen Viljoen of Slightly Mad Studios released the notes of the upcoming 1.4 patch that will resolve various issues with Project CARS on the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One platforms.


Currently the developers have not yet given out a release date for this patch but it's expected as soon as they receive green light from various external parties.

General
  • Pagani Monza Clubday invitational event - No longer causes the game to crash when using a specific livery on the Pagani Huayra.
  • PC - Fixed an issue that would cause the game to crash while watching saved replays, when shared memory is enabled.
  • PS4 - Anisotropic filtering has been increased to help reduce blurry textures.
  • PS4 - Temporal anti-aliasing has been further optimized. This reduces the ghosting effect and additionaly gives the player full control via a slider to tweak the resulting image according to personal preference.
Performance improvements
  • Xbox One - Various performance optimizations, adding up to an average of 5-6% performance improvement. This results in an overall smoother experience.
  • PS4 - All shaders have been rebuilt using new shader compiler, giving a significant performance boost in some areas.
  • PS4 - 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 – The lobby browser now displays random lobbies instead of always the oldest lobbies.
  • PS4 – Fixed an issue where network features could not be used after resuming from rest mode.
  • PC - 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 - 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 - 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 – Fixed an issue where matchmaking was not filtering the race length correctly.
Controls – 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 – 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 – 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 - 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 – Improved the collision model to prevent vehicles wedging in under other vehicles.
  • Formula Gulf, Gumper Apollo, Formula Rookie - 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 - 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 - Reworked the Karts optimization to help address performance drops with a lot of Karts on track.
  • McLaren 12C GT3 - Adjusted the vehicle pose to more closely match the real car.
  • BMW M3 GT4 – Improved the accuracy of the levels at which the oil and water temperature warning lights will activate.
  • Ford Escort RS1600 - Improved the collision and wheel contact model to prevent climbing over other cars in collisions.
  • 250cc Superkart – Improved the default setup to address controller issues on higher speed tracks, and improved the AI handling.
  • Lotus 49 – Improved the AI handling of the vehicle in corners and in close racing.
  • Pagani Huayra - Reduced fuel consumption to around 3mpg in hard track use, and improved cooling to prevent engine overheating.
Tracks
  • Bathurst – Removed cones in the pit lane that was causing cars to get stuck.
  • Watkins Glen – Fixed a number of accuracy issues around the track.
  • Lemans 24h – 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 – Vehicle grid placement reworked to more closely align with the painted start boxes.
  • Hockenheim (various layouts) – Reworked the wet weather reflection mapping to address incorrect object reflections.
  • Willow Springs – Fixed an issue where the vehicle could drive through the barriers when exiting the pits.
GUI
  • Driver Network Profile - 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 - Fixed an issue where the vehicle being viewed would automatically reset to the player’s vehicle on leaving the monitor screen.
 
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The madness engine is a evolution of the gmotor engine, just like R3E have done that they both used in the GTR series I believe.

Perhaps, but I can't find any evidence supporting that. pCARS doesn't show up on this list of games using ISImotor. And here SMS claims that "Project CARS runs on Slightly Mad Studios' proprietary MADNESS game engine that was built specifically for next-generation platforms and is scalable to a wide variety of modern PC specifications". Also, according to this better triple screen support is currently being worked on.
 
Well it's all good if it is coming. I will believe it when I see it, if it was built on a modern platform perhaps it would be easier to implement.

There is no way that SMS have built there own scratch built engine to rival ISI and not used elements from games they have previously created which are built on gmotor.

I need @Spinelli to verify I am not completely talking out my arse, but I saw a post by him that I can't now find that explained this.
 
Well it's all good if it is coming. I will believe it when I see it, if it was built on a modern platform perhaps it would be easier to implement.

There is no way that SMS have built there own scratch built engine to rival ISI and not used elements from games they have previously created which are built on gmotor.

I need @Spinelli to verify I am not completely talking out my arse, but I saw a post by him that I can't now find that explained this.

Quite possible, I only know what I could find doing a few quick searches and previous reading. I hadn't read anything about it being on an ISI motor, but it could be that if you dig far enough into its lineage it does share some bits. Just because they claim it's a "proprietary" engine doesn't necessarily mean much, could just be marketing woo. But I do tend to think that if it was in anyway built from ISI motor then they'd probably want to make that well known to stop the "Shift 3" claims.
 
Just to comment, the Madness engine did start out being the isiMotor engine. You can see some of the same file structure. However, just about everything has been re-written so it only resembles the isiMotor engine from the file structure standpoint.

Triple screen support is suppose to come with enhanced Rift support. The render lead said that most of the work for the Rift is similar to what needs to be done for proper triple screen support so it's going in tandem. However, stability and current game feature bug fixing will take priority over triple screen and Rift enhancements so I wouldn't expect them for another patch or two (and yes, I'm a triple screen user as well).
 
Just to comment, the Madness engine did start out being the isiMotor engine. You can see some of the same file structure. However, just about everything has been re-written so it only resembles the isiMotor engine from the file structure standpoint.

Triple screen support is suppose to come with enhanced Rift support. The render lead said that most of the work for the Rift is similar to what needs to be done for proper triple screen support so it's going in tandem. However, stability and current game feature bug fixing will take priority over triple screen and Rift enhancements so I wouldn't expect them for another patch or two (and yes, I'm a triple screen user as well).

I stand corrected. :thumbsup:
 
The potential is here for a very decent game. For me FFB tweaking, improvements to the UI (saved setups, folder style ala AC, gtr, rfactor etc) and the obvious MP touch ups will make this a very enjoyable experience. Nice to see a solid patch coming, hopefully this will pave the way for more.
 
Hopefully i can play this game one day soon without crashes and bios blue screens.I like the game but it's useless if i cant play for more than 10 or 15 minutes.All other sims i own (and games for that matter)runs fine with no problems.
 
So this patch is at least a couple of weeks away according to this. Honestly, I don't know why they even bothered to release the patch notes knowing it was so far away. Maybe to appease angry customers?
A couple of weeks:confused:

That will be about 2 months from first release. Disappointing, guess it will be July before I can carry on with my career as the AI wet weather tyre issues just ruin it for me.
 
I find the FFB improved by using Jack Spade - FFB Tweaker Files http://forum.projectcarsgame.com/showthread.php?22938-Jack-Spade-FFB-Tweaker-Files

The developers have said we won't see any enhancements to saving/loading Setups until pCARS 2.

The potential is here for a very decent game. For me FFB tweaking, improvements to the UI (saved setups, folder style ala AC, gtr, rfactor etc) and the obvious MP touch ups will make this a very enjoyable experience. Nice to see a solid patch coming, hopefully this will pave the way for more.
 
People were asking for roadmaps and/or insight as to what's coming next. It's funny, they do this then people complain about seeing what they don't have yet...
I don't find it funny when there is no point me carrying on my career mode because of the AI wet weather issues. Normally in the PC sphere of gaming when we get patch notes that means the patch is imminent because they have fixed said issues, this leads me to believe this is a wish list of fixes and not actually patch notes.
 
People were asking for roadmaps and/or insight as to what's coming next. It's funny, they do this then people complain about seeing what they don't have yet...
People are complaining because most if not all of the fixes in this patch should have been included / fixed before they released the game... The game is fundamentally broken as it stands... Having an almost 2 month wait (maybe longer if the issues persist after this patch!) after paying a lot of money for a game is ridiculous. I bought this game for the career mode which was hyped by the developers as the next best thing since sliced bread. As Lazarou said above, the AI in the rain makes it unplayable. It's broken. I'm annoyed at the length of time this patch will take to implement and I have every right to complain.
 
Normally in the PC sphere of gaming when we get patch notes that means the patch is imminent because they have fixed said issues, this leads me to believe this is a wish list of fixes and not actually patch notes.

They way I read Ian's post, everything was/is complete but they found a crash with the patch. Obviously, introducing a new crash is not something they want to nor should do which means they have to address the crash before they can ship it.

I know at least for the AI pieces listed in the patch notes, those are complete as the AI lead has been posting up details on his testing.

It's always a damned it you do, damned if you don't scenario for developers. If you don't post any news, people complain they want to know what's going on. If you do post news, people complain they don't have what's being worked on... Most developers just go the silent route and don't post anything. I applaud SMS in this area as myself working in software development, I don't provide the amount of transparency they are providing.

I have every right to complain.

Yes you do. However, complaining doesn't change anything. If it makes you feel better, keep on going! There are a lot of coulda, shoulda, woulda's out there around this title. Most of them will be addressed, some of them may not.
 
Good lord, I think I've just about lost all hope in humanity at this point. If they had, yet again, delayed the game two months to fix these issues, there would have been massive whinging. So they release it as-is and put together a massive patch to fix the issues and there's massive whinging because it takes a couple months to get it sorted and ready (for three different platforms). They let us know what they're working on, and there's massive whinging because it's not fast enough. If they had stayed silent there would have been massive whinging because they won't tell us what they're working on. Apparently the world is going to end in the next week or two, which is going to prevent people from ever playing the career mode properly? It's a shame there aren't any other computer/video games available to keep us entertained while we wait for the patch. :rolleyes:

I'm not defending SMS in any way, I think this new model (that pretty much all developers have adopted) of releasing a broken or incomplete game and then fixing it through a drip-feed of patches is ridiculous. Kunos did it, Polyphony Digital did it, Sector 3 did it, I'm sure the list is long, it's a sad state of affairs but unfortunately we have to live with it. But I find this entitled "I want what I want and I want it right f'ing NOW" attitude even more ridiculous. Obviously SMS should have hired people from the forums to build this game, because that's where all the experts are. :O_o:

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get down from my soapbox and go prepare for the impending apocalypse.
 
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Good lord, I think I've just about lost all hope in humanity at this point. If they had, yet again, delayed the game two months to fix these issues, there would have been massive whinging. So they release it as-is and put together a massive patch to fix the issues and there's massive whinging because it takes a couple months to get it sorted and ready (for three different platforms). They let us know what they're working on, and there's massive whinging because it's not fast enough. If they had stayed silent there would have been massive whinging because they won't tell us what they're working on. Apparently the world is going to end in the next week or two, which is going to prevent people from ever playing the career mode properly? It's a shame there aren't any other computer/video games available to keep us entertained while we wait for the patch. :rolleyes:

I'm not defending SMS in any way, I think this new model (that pretty much all developers have adopted) of releasing a broken or incomplete game and then fixing it through a drip-feed of patches is ridiculous. Kunos did it, Polyphony Digital did it, Sector 3 did it, I'm sure the list is long, it's a sad state of affairs but unfortunately we have to live with it. But I find this entitled "I want what I want and I want it right f'ing NOW" attitude even more ridiculous. Obviously SMS should have hired people from the forums to build this game, because that's where all the experts are. :O_o:

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get down from my soapbox and go prepare for the impending apocalypse.

Is the above paragraph not a defence though Brandon. I agree the world is not going to end etc etc. But as has happened time and again with games, they release a fundamentally broken game then fix it afterwards, in this regard SMS are no different than any of the others.

The problem for me is PCARS had been in testing for years so I had high hopes that the worst of bugs would not make to release, but alas the testers were either too blind or blinded to pick up on fundamental issues.

If I bought a Kettle for instance and it did not boil water I would take it back and get a refund or swap it for a new one. PCARS career mode is broken and unplayable at the moment for me with no fix imminent after a month of release but yet I am stuck with it. How anyone can defend and then argue in favour of the developers is beyond me.

It's the apologists that allow this practice to continue and become acceptable.

Hopefully with Steams new refund policy this may start becoming a thing of the past.
 

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