PC1 What is the future plans for pCars 1?

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

So, with pCars 2 funding being announced, or, "funding" as SMS have enough money to make pCars 2 from the money they've earned on pCars 1, what is the actual plan forward for pCars 1, if anyone know.

There are still lot's of issues with the game, both offline and online, and features that are lacking etc. And with 70% of the staff moving over to pCars 2 now, there is no doubt that the pCars 1 progress will get slowed down.

I don't dare to ask this question over at the WMD forums, because I don't want to take any risks of being banned from forums.

 

[Andy_J]

I was making fun of the haters on here, not having a go at SMS myself though I agree that some SMS people could also use a lesson in common decency.

Who do you regard as "haters" Mr Zytok? Surely the real haters are those nice trolls that come on here trying to stir trouble, you know, like Micass. They hate us and anyone else that might post any negative remarks about Pcars and WMD/SMS.

 

[Zytok]

Which part of some SMS people could use a lesson in decency do you not quite get? I've already told Micas (to his face I might add) that I don't agree with his style on here.

 

[Andy_J]

I've already told Micas (to his face I might add) that I don't agree with his style on here.

Why do I not believe you?

 

[Zytok]

I could copy & paste from the official forums if it'd please your majesty. You'd probably still accuse me of shopping the pic anyway so why bother. Ask Micas if you like? How come you accuse me of being an SMS lap-dog but whenever I say anything that offers a bit of balance you don't believe me? Maybe you only believe whatever's in that tiny head of yours?

 

[ermo]

So, with pCars 2 funding being announced, or, "funding" as SMS have enough money to make pCars 2 from the money they've earned on pCars 1, what is the actual plan forward for pCars 1, if anyone know.

There are still lot's of issues with the game, both offline and online, and features that are lacking etc. And with 70% of the staff moving over to pCars 2 now, there is no doubt that the pCars 1 progress will get slowed down.

I don't dare to ask this question over at the WMD forums, because I don't want to take any risks of being banned from forums.

Hi Ole,

You know that I'm fairly positive toward SMS, so I fully expect you to take what I say with a healthy dose of skepticism. But at least give me a chance, ok?

As I understand it (from Ian's and other SMS develper's posts at the official pcars forum as well as the WMD and pCARS2 forum) so far pCARS 1 and what will (eventually in 2+ years or so) become pCARS 2 have not diverged to any significant extent, meaning that some of the (non-foundational) work on pCARS 2 can (and probably will) crosspollinate to the pCARS 1 code base. Things flow in the other direction as well. Over time as pCARS 2 accumulates new tech, the code bases will diverge to a point where it is likely no longer feasible to port things back and forth (it would be too expensive in terms of development resources and not make financial sense).

In fact I already saw some of the stuff from the just announced pCARS 1 patch 2.0 (which follows patch 1.4 and is currently in testing) posted in the pCARS 2 build 0001 changelist, which makes sense as pCARS 2 presently represents extra testing coverage.

As I understand it, Ian held fire on beginning work on pCARS 2 until patch v1.4 was out the door. From what I understand, there will still be 40 people working on pCARS 1 for the time being (to the tune of $400k or so a month, which doesn't exactly sound like SMS abandoning anything to me!) -- the coders working both on bug-fixes and features that weren't able to make the initial cut for release and the artists delivering assets for both free and paid DLC content in the form of tracks and cars.

The dev work on pCARS 2 is currently in the concept stage as I understand it. It represents a chance to take a look at some of the things that the developers at SMS were really keen to implement in pCARS 1, but ran out of resources (time mainly) to do for the first installment.

In terms of what SMS have planned for pCARS1, the feature set is more or less locked in as I understand it, but any features they plan to deliver as post-release feature updates are being kept more or less under wraps and are only announced when they're ready for inclusion. The same goes for DLC, so I honestly don't know what will come and when, other than what SMS has published on their official "On-Demand" page.

That's more or less what we know at the moment. I personally trust SMS to deliver but I don't necessarily expect everyone here @RD to share my optimism. Time will tell I guess. I hope that answers at least some of your questions?

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

@ermo Thanks for a long and pretty darn good written answer.
I'd just like to point out that I've never believed, nor said that I think pCars 1 will be abandoned.

But ye, your answer, does answer some questions. But as many things are kept under wraps, it still leaves me with "more tracks, more cars, some better performance, some skins, and of course paid DLC's as well".
Also see that "highest priority" fixes will be made. As have been pointed out to my blind eyes earlier today, that a fix for the flat tyres will come in 1.4, together with AI tweaking. Which is nice. It still doesn't fix the multiplayer though, which is essential for me. Kinda the reason why I have racing simulators actually.

I'm closing on my refund-date from Steam, and I haven't seen anything that gives me confidence that the game will be in a good working state for online leagues etc. And thus, I don't see much of a reason to hold on to the game myself. I will probably not be using it, at could use that money on other things

But I really liked your answer, it wasn't what I hoped for, but you cannot always get what you hope for either

 

[Enagee]

SMS have funds already....why not start development now, keep it away from the public and announce crowdfunding once Pcars 1 has had some life and bugs minimized .......least 6 months after release ?

 

[ermo]

SMS have funds already....why not start development now, keep it away from the public and announce crowdfunding once Pcars 1 has had some life and bugs minimized .......least 6 months after release ?

A lot of people have proposed that reasoning.

One of the reaons Ian announced pCARS 2 is that he is actually keeping a promise that he made @WMD: That those who wanted to would be given the chance to see the game evolve right from build 0000.

Normally, Ian and his team would have started the pCARS 2 initial dev process earlier, but as I wrote above, they waited until patch 1.4 was out. Sure, the announcement has surprised a lot of people (mostly because they aren't aware that development on sequels starts fairly early). But it was a business necessity to start the development of pCARS 2, as otherwise people would have had to be laid off.

And just imagine if Ian had decided to only announce on WMD that initial development was beginning for pCARS 2 and then some 'kind' soul had leaked that information to the official forums? Talk about total meltdown. At least this way, no one can accuse Ian of concealing anything as he has a) kept his promise to WMD members and b) acted with full disclosure from the outset.

People may not understand it, but starting development of pCARS 2 at this stage is completely bog-standard business practice in most parts of the software industry.

 

[ermo]

@Ole:

Patch 2.0 release notes here.

Sorry to hear that Project CARS doesn't do it for you at the moment (and in fact that it apparently doesn't do it for quite a lot of people here @RD -- pCARS really does seem to be rather a divisive title).

Here's hoping that you'll have a better experience if you decide to give it a shot in a few patches time from now.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

@Ole:

Patch 2.0 release notes here.

Sorry to hear that Project CARS doesn't do it for you at the moment (and in fact that it apparently doesn't do it for quite a lot of people here @RD -- pCARS really does seem to be rather a divisive title).

Here's hoping that you'll have a better experience if you decide to give it a shot in a few patches time from now.

Read the notes, I like the Physics&AI and Pitting, tuning, setups fixes. I really do. But it doesn't fix any of the online problems, which still can be severe, along with the buggy replays.

I might get a better experience. But to be fair, the chances of this coming back on sale on Steam later on (or retail in shops) is quite big, and I'd rather buy it again later if it does get fixed towards my liking, and take the refund now while I can. I don't trust fairly large -> large game devs enough anymore to take the risk. Especially not with franchises.

With that being said, the 125cc karts was pretty awesome, some strange tracks, but they were awesome to drive.

And lastly, as you are quite active over at WMD, you might've heard about it before. But in my under 2hours of driving the game, I went out on Cadwell Park, with the old Escort. It ran very good, until mid-exit of Chris Curve (T5), there it fell with around 40 fps, and kept with the low fps until mid-end of Mansfield(T8). It happened on all my laps, but for no apparent reason. I was running nicely with 70-80 FPS, until I fell to 30-34 at that particular area. First I believe that it could be because I was seeing so much of the track from that point, but that reason went out of the window when I went down to Mansfield, as you don't see much anymore.

Trackmap for Cadwell, to better illustrate where I'm talking about.

Running_ CPU: I7-5820K, 6-core 3,3ghz. GPU: ASUS GTX 980 Strix SLI

I know this is not a forum for bug-reporting, but I think it's worth a shot. And I am not sure it I would be welcome very long on the WMD/pCars forum, if I state that I cannot go on the track again, to record it, due to the fact that I lose my refund option then...

 

[ermo]

I'm sorry if it sounded like I was trying to talk you into keeping your copy (your money = your decisions obviously). What I meant is that I'm genuinely sorry that it is not fit for your purposes at this point in time and that I hope it will be at some point in the future.

As I understand it, SMS are looking into track optimization. I haven't captured any metrics from the track myself, but thanks a bunch for the detailed report. As an aside, that is the sort of feedback that was always welcome at WMD in case that matters any.

Best wishes with whatever title(s) you decide to drive going forward.

Read the notes, I like the Physics&AI and Pitting, tuning, setups fixes. I really do. But it doesn't fix any of the online problems, which still can be severe, along with the buggy replays.

I might get a better experience. But to be fair, the chances of this coming back on sale on Steam later on (or retail in shops) is quite big, and I'd rather buy it again later if it does get fixed towards my liking, and take the refund now while I can. I don't trust fairly large -> large game devs enough anymore to take the risk. Especially not with franchises.

With that being said, the 125cc karts was pretty awesome, some strange tracks, but they were awesome to drive.

And lastly, as you are quite active over at WMD, you might've heard about it before. But in my under 2hours of driving the game, I went out on Cadwell Park, with the old Escort. It ran very good, until mid-exit of Chris Curve (T5), there it fell with around 40 fps, and kept with the low fps until mid-end of Mansfield(T8). It happened on all my laps, but for no apparent reason. I was running nicely with 70-80 FPS, until I fell to 30-34 at that particular area. First I believe that it could be because I was seeing so much of the track from that point, but that reason went out of the window when I went down to Mansfield, as you don't see much anymore.

Trackmap for Cadwell, to better illustrate where I'm talking about.

Running_ CPU: I7-5820K, 6-core 3,3ghz. GPU: ASUS GTX 980 Strix SLI

I know this is not a forum for bug-reporting, but I think it's worth a shot. And I am not sure it I would be welcome very long on the WMD/pCars forum, if I state that I cannot go on the track again, to record it, due to the fact that I lose my refund option then...

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

I'm sorry if it sounded like I was trying to talk you into keeping your copy (your money = your decisions obviously). What I meant is that I'm genuinely sorry that it is not fit for your purposes at this point in time and that I hope it will be at some point in the future.

As I understand it, SMS are looking into track optimization. I haven't captured any metrics from the track myself, but thanks a bunch for the detailed report. As an aside, that is the sort of feedback that was always welcome at WMD in case that matters any.

Didn't sound like it

Ye, I know it is the kind of feedback that is welcome, but I also know, and understand, that it might want to be reproduced over different settings, with detailed information etc. Which is understandable, and I am not so sure that "Sorry, don't want to interfere with my refund possibility" would be an answer that would give me much time on the forum

I just thought to throw it out, in case more people report it, then you have another one talking about it as well

 

[Andy_J]

I could copy & paste from the official forums if it'd please your majesty. You'd probably still accuse me of shopping the pic anyway so why bother. Ask Micas if you like? How come you accuse me of being an SMS lap-dog but whenever I say anything that offers a bit of balance you don't believe me? Maybe you only believe whatever's in that tiny head of yours?

@Zytok
Roll my eyes again...........you said in person face to face. Chatting on a forum is not in person.
And again you, one of the many WMD investors resorts to insulting behaviour. All in my tiny head is it? Go back to your masters and stop trolling here. There's a good lad.

 

[Tim Lundy]

Yes but they're all money-grabbing sociopathic whores with no sense of decency or personal hygiene apparently so it doesn't count.

Got a good chuckle out of that. When I read the comments in some forums it makes me wonder if the gaming community hasn't been taken over by communists, with all the anti-capitalist vitriol I see