PC1 Project CARS Patch 11 Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

Slightly Mad Studios title Project CARS has reached patch 11 and brings a host of Virtual Reality features to the game.

VR is seen by many in the sim racing community as the next step up in gaming realism. With VR headsets now commonly available from a number of manufacturers Project CARS have been quick off the mark to ensure their racing title offers players a strong Virtual Reality experience.

Patch 11 brings a number of compatibility features for full HTC Vive support.

"We support SteamVR's room customization option when using the HTC Vive, so whenever you're in the game menus, you'll see the SteamVR room in the background. This allows you to customize the look of the 3D space surrounding the menus via the SteamVR Workshop. We're looking forward to seeing all the creative Project CARS themed custom backgrounds that our fans come up with.

We've also implemented the often-requested VR mouse support, Gaze control support, and the ability to seamlessly swap between them and use them along with Custom Controllers and Gamepads".

Having recently released the Game of the Year Edition it has been a busy few weeks for the team over at SMS. The latest patch is available to download via the Steam platform now.

Patch 11.0 Changelog:

Virtual Reality

• HTC Vive support
• Gaze control implemented, providing hands-free interaction with the User Interface
• Mouse pointer control in HMD view implemented
• Photo mode is now fully functional
• Depth of Field effects now work correctly
• The game will now retain controller focus when the player removes the HMD
• Improved rendering system for Crepuscular rays and Sun flares
• Improved rendering of dirt and rain drops on Helmet visor
• Improved the default seat position
• Improved the default HUD position
• Improved default camera settings to prevent the car tilting independently from the player at steep inclines
• Fixed a refresh issue on the UI when returning from a race to the main menu

Other

• Nürburgring Combined - Fixed an issue where a pit stop operation would fail to initiate correctly, leaving the car stuck in the pits
• Fixed the starting lights not working
• Fixed an issue with the pit-in trigger potentially initiating when the player is on the main straight
• Improved system for Opponent Labels
• Added support for the Thrustmaster TMX ForceFeedback wheel
• Fixed an issue with Fanatec wheels where at times it would cause dropped frames at the start of a race
• Fixed an issue with Fanatec wheels where LEDs and pedal rumble motors failed to work after a disconnect/reconnect

Project CARS HTC Vive Teabag John YouTube Video:

RaceDepartment has a vibrant Club Racing scene for Project CARS across all three platforms, don't forget to have a look and join your fellow sim racers out on track in a number of car and circuit combinations. Why? Because racing is more fun when you test your skills against your fellow sim racers!

Have you purchased the recent Game of the Year Edition? Do you use VR with Project CARS? If so, how does your experience rate given the latest update? Let us have your opinions in the comments section below!

 

[aka2k]

The video just looks like someone playing with TrackIR (or similar) hardware. Guess that's the kind of thing that doesn't translate well in a video.

 

[Rob]

Racers go to great lengths to keep their heads stable, as it is their eyes that move -- just barely at that, usually on one plane.

 

[Dennis]

The video just looks like someone playing with TrackIR (or similar) hardware. Guess that's the kind of thing that doesn't translate well in a video.

Yeah it's really one of those things that you need to experience to get the idea (similar to "How does ice cream taste?").

I think that this picture does a good job at explaining the difference between VR and "flat" gaming though:

So if you take a video in VR, you essentially remove the whole VR component and make it "flat" again.

Have you purchased the recent Game of the Year Edition? Do you use VR with Project CARS? If so, how does your experience rate given the latest update? Let us have your opinions in the comments section below!

I'm playing it exclusively in VR since late last year and finally having a mouse pointer and gaze control is a relief, as I no longer need to remove the headset for setup adjustments or for navigating the menus.

The biggest issue for me now is the GPU bottleneck, as a GTX 970 limits down sampling to DS2XM if you still want to achieve good FPS. The new Pascal series will hopefully improve this at a reasonable price point.

Overall I think that Project Cars is probably the best sim* to have VR support, as there are so many cars with different cockpits to try out. Dynamic weather and day/night is a huge plus as well for immersion. (*inb4 pcars is not a sim).

With Dirt Rally, iRacing and AC getting support as well it will be interesting to see how the implementation will compare.

 

[Boby Kim]

Well, at least SMS has created a new very tiny and wealthy happy community with this patch
Instead SMS should have bought themselves a nice GPS so they are able to find the way back to earth

 

[ears]

Project CARS has very, very good VR implementation. The problem is, once you get over the excitement of being 'in the car' and 'at the track' and start driving, it's still Project CARS.

I'm surprised to see the poll having a negative bias at the moment. I think people are reading the question as 'is Project CARS good?'. Whether or not you think the game is good, I'd be surprised if anyone who had experienced it in VR would say the VR implementation is not good.

You can't polish a turd, but you can sprinkle it with glitter.

 

[Ben Milden]

Couple of spaces in our league just opened up TNGTC

 

[ThugUK]

Great patch, but sorry to see so much hatred by those against VR. It would be interesting to see how many have actually 'tried it' though.

And to say its only for the wealthy is a strange point too.
Ok, you need a fairly good graphics card, one that has been out for about 3 years now, so not really a newer one as such, but still a decent one, but then again most people who play newish games will also need one, so nothing new there.
As for the VR set itself then it can be FAR cheaper than a 3 monitor set-up, or even a single monitor for that matter, and is FAR FAR better.

People go on about the ultimate SIM, yet sit 2 foot away from their screen in their boxer shorts, racing on a PC with spotty teenagers as they watch their cat out of the corner of their eyes licking their private bits (the cats, not the players).

VR puts you IN the car and ON the track. If you are in a F1 car, you look left/right and SEE your cockpit a couple of inches from your face, you look down and see a VR body dressed in overalls, boots and gloves, EXACTLY where YOUR body is, the VR arms are YOUR arms too. You lean out of the car and see the road itself a few feet away. Look over your shoulder and see a car behind you (unless you are me, then they are all in front). Look up and there is nothing but sky.

A monitor (or 3) will always be 2 foot away from you and static, so you could NEVER experience that (even with TrackIR). When 'you' look down you see your hairy legs sat on a swivel chair, when you look left or right, you see your pet cat or a computer desk covered in junk with that mornings breakfast bowl still on it. When you look behind you, you see a wall and a door. Look up and there is a lampshade covered in dust. It doesn't matter how good a sim is, you are never immersed in the same way as you are in VR.

 

[Boby Kim]

I do not own VR at the moment. So there is no "hate" (i never hate anything in my life) against VR support. A decent PC with the Rift or Vive will cost about three to four thousand euro's and i guess the vast majority of Pcars players do not have or not willing to spend so much money on a product that is new in the market. As being a non VR user i think SMS should concentrate on other aspects of the game. Anyways, for the users that own a VIVe i would say: enjoy

 

[Andy_J]

Agree with Boby Kim. There is no "hatred" and people saying that are being a bit childish in my opinion. I'll give it a couple more years and I'll probably jump on the VR bad wagon. But for now I'd rather SMS fix the game and deliver on their promises.

 

[ears]

No. There is hatred towards VR and several threads on the Assetto Corsa forums, in particular, underline this.

£600 for a VR device, £1000 for a PC to run it.

3000 Euros is off the mark.

 

[SteinA]

I do not own VR at the moment. So there is no "hate" (i never hate anything in my life) against VR support

How can you then tell if it's a good vr experience or not?

 

[ThugUK]

No. There is hatred towards VR and several threads on the Assetto Corsa forums, in particular, underline this.

£600 for a VR device, £1000 for a PC to run it.

3000 Euros is off the mark.

Most of us on here will have a reasonable PC in order to run Pcars/AC/Dirt etc, so you will only need a VR set.
I still use the DK2 and it is fantastic.
You can pick them up for a few hundred pound, so NOWHERE near a 3,000euro.
Even if you have to update your graphics card, then that might only be another couple of hundred.
Its unlikely you will have to buy a new PC, you may not need new hard drives, memory, motherboard, case, etc.
So it might only cost £400 all in and not £1,600.
Not sure why people think you need a new pc, when most of your existing components will work just fine.

Out of interest Boby Kim, what spec is your PC?

 

[Boby Kim]

Asus Maximus Hero VII // I7-4790K @ 4,8 // 2 x 8GB Corsair Platinum 2400 DDR3 // 1 x Asus STRIX GTX 980Ti // 1 x Samsung 256 GB Pro SSD + 1 x Samsung 500 GB Pro SSD + 2 x Western Digital Blue 1 GB in raid // Win 7 64 bit
So i could run VR i guess. But that would be another Thousand(!) euro and that is a lot of money while there arent much games (three out of hundered) in my steam list that supports VR.

 

[Alex72]

I want VR, but i need a video card with it. VR is about 800-900€ where i live, and a 970 or 980 video card is around 300-400€ (could get used one possibly). Im not too fussed about it even though i cant afford it atm. What i am fussed about is that VR before it was released was to cost around 300€. I remember Rift gave that impression. Lots of people i talked to thought the same thing. And i remember they said "we want the whole world to have access to VR". Thats not gonna happen with a 800€ price tag. I wonder how they could have been so wrong. It wasnt long before they released it.

 

[Neil Farren]

I do not own VR at the moment. So there is no "hate" (i never hate anything in my life) against VR support. A decent PC with the Rift or Vive will cost about three to four thousand euro's and i guess the vast majority of Pcars players do not have or not willing to spend so much money on a product that is new in the market. As being a non VR user i think SMS should concentrate on other aspects of the game. Anyways, for the users that own a VIVe i would say: enjoy

So you don't own a VR headset at the moment but you voted that it is not a good VR experience. How could you possibly know? PCars is a fantastic VR experience.

 

[thewarmer]

Here is the problem as I see it . the PC market is stagnant at the moment GPU sales are slow & PC hardware is not selling in the volumes it was a few years back.

One of the main issue for the slow down I would say is the fact almost every game is made for console, this as held the PC market back as a good PC set up is always going to be better than a locked into a 5 or 7 year fixed hardware loop.

The industries as a whole is looking for a way to get people to by more hardware this is where I see pushing VR coming in along with the sudden return of interest from major Developers to make more games for the PC market & even talking about making games that were only Console for the PC to.

Even sharing cross platform support across all formats Car based sims are booming & lots of those playing these types of game can afford multi displays . advanced controllers Powerful PC set-ups .

VR is made for Sim's be it cars Trucks or Planes . FPS games been the other target for VR . that is a very good target group to get a good return off profit wise .

Its tends to be market were players on some part money to spend on new GPU's & VR head sets.
The push for the market for the next few months & next year is going to be very much about VR & the hardware needed to make it run.

For some that will be a lot of money depending on the age of you PC .
Almost everything now will have its VR support with less been provided for those on flat screens.
SMS will push VR just as much has many other developers will be doing.

I still holding back & wait & see the likes of MS will bring to the table.

 

[ThugUK]

Asus Maximus Hero VII // I7-4790K @ 4,8 // 2 x 8GB Corsair Platinum 2400 DDR3 // 1 x Asus STRIX GTX 980Ti // 1 x Samsung 256 GB Pro SSD + 1 x Samsung 500 GB Pro SSD + 2 x Western Digital Blue 1 GB in raid // Win 7 64 bit
So i could run VR i guess. But that would be another Thousand(!) euro and that is a lot of money while there arent much games (three out of hundered) in my steam list that supports VR.

So you have a decent PC and one that could easily run VR.
You could also buy a used DK2 for a couple of hundred euro, so its not just for the wealthy and need not cost another thousand.

Ok, there may only be 3 out of the hundreds of games you have in your Steam account that will run in VR, but how many of those hundreds do you actually play?
I only have 3 that I can use my steering wheel, play seat and butt kickers on, but wouldn't call them a waste of money because of that.
I have 2 that I can use my HOTAS on, but its still worth it.
I have 8 that I use with my VR set, but I couldn't play them any other way now.
To some, that ONE game is all you need to make it worth while.

 

[xnorb]

VR is the smallest niche ever, but i get it, you need to put VR out now as it's the one thing that gets lots of attention even if less than 5% of your consumerbase are actually able to use it.

As i don't have a VR headset (and will not buy one anytime soon) i can't vote

 

[ears]

VR is the smallest niche ever

Any stats to back that up?