The online racing simulator
C.a.r.s.
(968 posts, started )
I haven't been on the forum for ages, but I remember that Ben Collins' feedback was full of myths about how cars handle. I'm sure he's an excellent driver, but I'm not convinced he understands the physics behind it, or how a sim should feel with consumer FFB, no g-forces etc.

Remember, professional drivers helped with iRacing (ha ha) and Grand Turismo (ha ha) so as claims to quality go it's not a good guarantee.

But I'll fire it up soon.
I've tried the Z4 GT3 at Brno and I couldn't be less impressed. No feeling at all, it is too easy to drive, feel very arcadish.

Then tried the BAC Mono at Oschersleben (dry track but everything else wet), and it is nice too se how the grip improves after some laps due to tire heat, but it felt too slippery all the time, and again too easy to just control the slides of the back.

On the other side, playing at 35~ fps is not the ideal scenario to judge the physics :/
Quote from Born2BSlow :Ollie Webb helped with the BAC Mono handling because he is the BAC company's official development driver. Ben Collins and Nick Hamilton regularly post feedback on car handling and tyre behaviour to allow the devs to tune them. I believe what I see and read on the forums, which is the interaction between dev and driver. Rene Rast signed up to WMD as a Sim racing fan and with his latest YouTube video included his setup for people to try out. Maybe like all other WMD members (well the ones who can be bothered and actually get involved) he just wants to share his love of PCARS, SMS have stated he is not paid to do it. You say PR BS, yes it's good PR but I don't think it's BS.

How many other drivers just randomly post very well thought out, well written tweets about a commercial product just because they 'want to'? Come on. Don't be so naive.

If a well known starts Tweeting or Youtubing about a product (I've seen the ones you've referred to) it's almost certainly PR driven. In this case it's PR driven.
They barely write anything, they mostly post videos of themselves, and horror of all horrors they call it realistic and fun. Read them, there's no spin doctoring on Rene Rast's posts, and he has an awesome sim rig. You are as cynical as I am naive so between a half empty glass and a half full one we could have a pint and agree to disagree?
Just had a bit of a play with this.

Is it possible to invert the force feedback? I'm not 100% sure if that's what I need, but the FFB is definitely very very poor or wrong, and I'd like to try inverting it to see if it helps.

I tried a few cars, and the physics/handling model is decidedly poor. Cars just don't drive like that, either slowly or quickly (in fact at lower speeds [<50mph] the physics are quite frankly embarassing).

I can see why I only play this game for half an hour at a time. It's way more NFS than LFS/AC.

The sounds aren't great. The visuals are nice if you've got the power, but to get an acceptable frame rate I have to turn more off than in AC - it looks a lot worse then.

The weather was nice (it's an impressive model I think), but I didn't do anything other than dry/sunny today (at Spa!).

Maybe they'll improve it next time, but it's a thumbs down still from me. Sorry.
I don't have pcars but apparently there is still a lot of variation between cars. Some being a lot more finished than others. That is what the fanboys at virtualr are saying. What cars did you try?
Quote from Born2BSlow :They barely write anything, they mostly post videos of themselves, and horror of all horrors they call it realistic and fun. Read them, there's no spin doctoring on Rene Rast's posts, and he has an awesome sim rig. You are as cynical as I am naive so between a half empty glass and a half full one we could have a pint and agree to disagree?

Except you're not naive, you're obviously on the PCars payroll. No one can possibly think it's as good as you seem to think, and no one is feeble enough to buy into the marketing garbage of "<professional driver> says <x> is <positive quality>" after a video.
I never find myself playing more than 30minutes of it, it just looks, feels and sounds like a Shift 3. I was optimistic to start with but it just doesn't give me a decent feeling when driving
Release date in Europe May 7th, 8th for the UK and 12th in the US announced today.
So I threw myself into pCARS quite early (feb 2012) and found it exiting at first. A lot of "good" talk of plans and ambitions in the forums. On the road, the first cars didn't do too bad, actually. It showed some real potential with both the car physics and dev attitude/ambition.

At some point it took a turn in the physics where I suddenly couldn't continue to like it. I went through the setups over and over again to find the sweet spot but the whole experience just felt inverted and awkward.

Then came AC. I felt at home. Just like LFS, but with a little more magic in some areas. pCARS started to collected dust, but I followed the forums.

Now, pCARS is considerably better again, and I enjoy a race every now and then, but I'd say I do 1 pCARS race for every 10 in AC. Mostly, just to check and compare if there's been any changes for the better. And now with some activity in LFS I enjoy being back on Westhill (and the other tracks). pCARS serves a lot of bling and a more complete "racing event/career experience", but for me, it's the time on the tarmac that counts and in that area both LFS and AC shines brighter. On my rig, in my brain, I should add.
game is out now. I have a server up for the Formula A (F1) car with no aids, and nobody is joining. maybe it isnt showing up in lobby Frown
Quote from Gabkicks :game is out now. I have a server up for the Formula A (F1) car with no aids, and nobody is joining. maybe it isnt showing up in lobby Frown

I was skimming over the Steam Discussions and apparently people are changing their server region in Steam to EU so they can find multiplayer games.

NA DED
Yeha i just learned the regions are separated :/ it's time for me to go to sleep anyways. I had one half decent race in the GT3 cars at laguna seca.
the Formula A cars are fun with the DRS and KERS. tried to use DRS too soon out of a corner and spun myself out :/
I am considering to buy it some time soon and I want some more feedback from LFS drivers.

The question is -- is it better than Assetto Corsa? I am interested in formula cars mostly. In Assetto physics were terrible, and force feedback was not really good either. Not gonna spend 21 euros again blindly...
No.

Which OW in AC is terrible?
Quote from vitaly_m :I am considering to buy it some time soon and I want some more feedback from LFS drivers.

The question is -- is it better than Assetto Corsa? I am interested in formula cars mostly. In Assetto physics were terrible, and force feedback was not really good either. Not gonna spend 21 euros again blindly...

lol what? I love LFS but AC is pretty much LFS S3 (without the awesome MP system) with prettier graphics.

While PCARS is a dissaster, honestly not a single step above Grids and Shifts.
Crap physics, as expected. I get almost no feeling through the wheel. Arcade, but it's ok if you just want to race and ignore realism. Tried Le Mans at night, was kinda disappointed, there's still too much light. I was hoping for some challenge, watching those mad night onboards with almost no visibility... But I had no such "issues" ingame.

The UI is nice, I quite like it. Also tracks load fast which is positive.
What is "OW"
Quote from Boris Lozac :
Quote from vitaly_m :I am considering to buy it some time soon and I want some more feedback from LFS drivers.

The question is -- is it better than Assetto Corsa? I am interested in formula cars mostly. In Assetto physics were terrible, and force feedback was not really good either. Not gonna spend 21 euros again blindly...

lol what? I love LFS but AC is pretty much LFS S3 (without the awesome MP system) with prettier graphics.

While PCARS is a dissaster, honestly not a single step above Grids and Shifts.

Heh, go tell them that on the forum.. So much butthurt rage.
Here's a short Video I did:



pC is fun, but it is definitely more on the game spectrum than AC. Also, you feel your car much less, allthough it's not as floaty as the NfS Shift series was.
I don't have AC, but saying PCARS is like Shift or Grid is pure ranting... I'm not a PCARS lover but I think it is side by side with rF2...

For FFB there are quite good videos explaining how you can improve your experience working with the ffb calibration values. I'm not saying it's perfect or the 8th World Wonder, but you can really improve the ffb feeling, that is way way more improved than LFS.

I hate the fact it has ai controled car in pit lane, some cars don't have the best ffb config by default (but you can work it out individually) and the car setup scheme is totally stupid. Almost every car has a drivable default setup, all tightened up, that's why it seems easy, but if you want to be fast you will need to unleash them in setup.

However, this is all a matter of personal taste. There are people spending money on Race Room Racing Experience and I uninstalled the free fontent after 3 days of testing, to give it a try... but it was useless. Only the sound was good. :P
Quote from NunoMike :I'm not a PCARS lover but I think it is side by side with rF2...

I agree, physics are similar compared to rF2 if not betterThumbs up

C.a.r.s.
(968 posts, started )
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