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Best. Helmet Cam. Ever.  And it’s not even finished.

Just had a race at Bathurst in the Caper stock car with the sun starting to set, just brilliant fun.  Going over the Moutain in deep shadows and then blasting out into the light again down Conrod Straight, great moment.

To me, Helmet Cam is just confusing. Of course it looks where it wants to look, not where I want to look and the result is a pure disorientation :D.

I can’t imagine using it without some form of head tracking (i.e. w/ TrackIR).

Great stuff SMS; Love the helmet Cam… so realistic! Of course I use triple Screens; which allows me to see more of the track/car! Which is why I think other folks dislike it somewhat!

I found it disorientating in Shift 2 but in the current build it is excellent.  The Formula B is brilliant with helmet cam and the HUD completely off.

It was really nice to only have to download a smaller patch instead of the whole build this time. I’m really impressed with the progress they have made and it is becoming more and more of a sim as the days go on. 2 months ago the f1 car was near impossible to drive and how it drives like a dream with great ffb. Here is a video I made and have been posting so people can see some of the progress. I drove it on suzuka in overcast conditions and am by no means pushing the limits in this video :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXqRBYtvMSs

I agree with you Max, The helmet cam movement is so subtle when you are actually driving that it is hardly even noticed but just enough to be helpful. I dont think watching videos of it does it any justice, you have to be physically turing the wheel and seeing the screen to realize that it’s not a distraction at all :)

Honestly it looks unreal with this smooth steering wheel movement and almost zero corrections. There is no fighting nor aggressivity on the car. Too much grip imho.

Nice video and beautiful graphics btw…:)

 +1 the steering wheel seems lifeless

Exactly this. Wanted to like the helmet cam in Shift 2 but hated it. After using helmet cam in pCARS for a week I can’t image using anything else. Will be great when we get a choice of visors as the slight tinting can darken the shadows too much.

”
and am by no means pushing the limits in this video”
As he said he’s not pushing at all.. The Formula 1 in pCars is quite hardcore to drive on the limit right now.. There’s also no tyre deg in the Formula 1 car yet so it’s all perfect condition tyres.

pCARS is progressing nicely.  I took the Apollo out today and my Buttkicker was really shaking me to the point that after 1 lap, it cut out to save itself overheating :)    I turned the gain down to sort that out.
The steering has improved for me although I still have to use 10-20 LINearity in the Fanatec wheel.   On some fast turns, like turn 3 at Monza (the long sweeping right,  some cars (Form B) hardly require any steering input.  But in other cars (DTM) I need to turn almost half of the wheel lock.   Maybe thats how it’s meant to be.

Anyway I mashed up a lap of Monza (not in HD) in the Formula B with default setup and still not quite perfect steering setup.  Much much better than before though. 

I’m still irritated with those still arcade-style on-streen messages though.  Surely a better solution can be found for that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM32kgogZvA

You don’t need to pushing the limits to fight with a formula one car and a time of around 1:43″ isn’t a slow run during the first part of a suzuka race… In the video is clear that the car can miss apex and/or keep almost a free line without problems and it seems floating on a train rail. The car, the brakes, the gearing and the steering wheel seems totally disconnected from the road surface, in terms of physic of course. :)

Very nice video!! And the Formula B behaviour looks much more realistic than the F1 car.

Current fastest time on the leaderboard in pcars is  1:32.832 at Suzuka The f1 can look pretty much like the Formula B vid below with the same camera settings ( gforce etc.. ) only faster of course :)

Ok mate, I do not want to argue on this. What I saw looks unreal (it is) for my experience and taste…but I’m not searching a fight about this…:)

The GFX compartment still remains a piece of art.
Ciao.

We’re not fighting, are we ? ^^
I’m gonna make a vid showing how violent the F1 can be.. I do agree that vid gives quite a wrong impression but he’s just coasting most of the corners.. I don’t think you need to fight any car coasting around the corners ;)

Here’s an onboard lap of Suzuka in the wet, which I would think would require the most corrections and there are almost none at all barring wheel shakes, very smooth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOeIImrnQ_M

 Indeed it’s that wheel shakes that are totally inexistant in pCARS and that don’t make it feel real.

A good FFB should look like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4Pnl9GYQkg

Wheel shakes have been taken out quite a while ago to make input lag testing easier.
The code for it is already in.

This is a BAR 007 with Traction Control, a wet rev limited map (more gentle curve on the engine power) and the steering wheel is still shaking.

Furthermore…shaking and corrections are two differents stuffs; reaction by the car, reaction by the driver.

 And heres another…   P86 Turbo at Monza,  T-cam view this time but its in 720p (sort of)

Parabolica nearly caught me out too. ;)

http://youtu.be/5wjZd4dIkM4

Completely dead physics. The fact that people defend it is hilarious. 

I guess some people´s bar just sits that much lower then for other simracers. 

Odds are Nathan was using the default setup which has aero turned all the way up. It makes it easy to stay on the track even when taking completely wrong lines and usually won’t let things go unless you’re going too slow for aero to take affect.

I just ran quite a few laps at Suzuka in the Formula “A” with the proper aero balance for max top end speed but still making the turns and it’s a handful. Keep it on the racing line and on the limit and you’ll be tensing up all over the place trying to get on the power a bit earlier and not spinning out. Without full aero packages you have to be careful because just a bit too much throttle and you’ll be fighting a near spin. Be stupid with the throttle and you’ll spin out every time.

The new helmet cam is amazing, btw. I hated the helmet cam in Shift 2 but it’s so much more immersive and realistic in pCARS so far. I just leave it in that view and turn off HUD all the time.

P.S. – The tires, once up to temperature, don’t degrade or wear out much at this point. For the most part you’re looking at perfect qualifying tires. The Audi A4 DTM car got some new wear/degradation and temperature changes that are a really good step. They’ll probably make it on to the rest of the cars by next week – odds are.

Man, I just cant win around here can I? That lap is a good 10 seconds slower than the record time. My main reason for this video was to show that you can make smooth inputs because one one video I posted a while back it was so jerky that people accused me of using a gamepad. So I was trying to show that it is working much better with a wheel now than 2 months ago.

Once you start pushing the car and and trying to get the power down, it wont drive like it’s on rails. My number of spins under power are numerous and there are many times i’ve had to counter the steering to keep the car straight. I guess its my own fault for making a video and I should expect criticism but I did try to state that I wasnt pushing at all, thats the only way I could get a nice clean lap. Besides, F1 cars are based on aerodynamic grip so at high speeds these things should corner like a dream. Most of the wheel jostle you see in a video of a real f1 car is because of the bumps on the road and nothing to do with trying to wrestle the thing from spinning. Like has been said before, anyone can probably drive an f1 car around a track, but only the very talented can drive it fast. This video was by no means a fast lap so I should hope it looks like its on rails :) Either way, videos can not tell what actual feeling does and I can say there is a huge difference for the better in the handling.

Comparing the F1 to Ferrari Virtual Academies F1s: The physics are getting there. Not quite there on the limit but for 1 year from release it’s quite good.

The video looks unreal…and that’s all I’ve got to say about that..:) Why get defensive?? 

Ok I understand. Looks unreal maybe because you’re using maxed wings (but wings setup doesn’t give you linear results in physics turning a F1 car into a locomotive…:)) Maybe because tires are not finished yet.. Maybe because SW shaking was not completely implemented into the FFB chain..Maybe because the game is on a alpha stage…etc..etc. But the video looks unreal.

That’s all. :)

not defensive tuttle, I know it’s hard to tell from written word but i was trying to be humourous lol. I guess I failed :)

Here is a video showing me driving this thing, wheel included. I already know that i’m an idiot, my wife tells me that every single day :P I’m just trying to show that if you push thing thing you will lose it and that it doesnt drive on rails. I also slow down at one point and show that I have absolutely no input lag.(6:06) I’m sorry you cant see the screen too well, I recorded this with my tablet. I have only driven f1 simcars a few times in my life, usually opting for the gt and touring cars :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRoQNqINIjo

Also agree – helmet cam is great here. A member posted a mock up of the helmet interior moving around the viewpoint which in some ways doesn’t make any sense but actually seemed quite effective in giving a sense of the forces whilst cornering. I wonder if they will include something like that as an option.

is a sim.  isn’t a sim.   Who cares, those are some pretty bad ass looking screenshots. 

A little video montage I strung together to mark the 200th build

http://racingrenders.com/vids/pCARS200.mp4

 Very nice tribute vid !

If its a sim most people on this website will enjoy it and likely play it for many years , if its not a sim few people on this website will enjoy it and maybe play it for a year. 

Mind you the way its shaping up I think it might do well as a competitor to forza and gt5 on the next generation of consoles. Its going to be at least 3-6 months until they finish coding the new tire model and other aspects of the physics to know if it will make a good simulator. 

 It should be linked to road, not faked one.

I agree. 
Love how you make it sound like it must be fake if it can be taken out though. ^^

agreed –  it looks kinda dead.  it exhibits the same issues we’ve seen all along.  I’m not at all optimistic for the actual driving experience in this.  Though of course, the gfx are stunning (in stills, at least).

One thing people must remember is that the Formula A car hasn’t had any work done on it in a while. There’s important feedback provided by Derrrrrr Stig on a few vehicles, but it seems SMS is getting everything put into the game first, and then will fix, tweak, and polish. That’s how it’s been looking since I joined.

Formula B is far ahead of the Formula A, SMS got their original pre-alpha build very well done in it. It’s really, really pleasant!

I’m a team member on WMD so I know this stuff since november 2011 when I was in love for its stunning gfx quality but now I’ve parked it just because I can’t enjoy nothing due the FFB and honestly…I don’t like too much the game physic and the car settings system, but please do not try to convince me to the contrary, it’s just my taste…

I think I will stop to talk about this because It’s really boring. :) 

Ciao.

Really nice driver animations.

 Absolutely. I think it’s especially good in all the open-wheelers, and as I’m not using a multi-screen setup, I can still have a great field of view because the cockpit does not take as much space.

It’s a shame that most of the stock car photos show the only skin in the game right now that is not plain colours. So many nice custom skins out there for this car. Some are fictional too so will hopefully make it into the game once the livery competition finishes.

LOL. Well aren’t you a special flower.

 You will get settings to customize the helmet cam, even turning look to apex off. It is not comparable with the SHift 2 helmet cam (which I really hated). This one is really intuitive and connecting. can´t even imagine to use any different camera in future.

This is it, people call anything a sim these days, but to me, the real sims are more like the best cars in iracing and rfactor2.
pcars has arcade written all over it.

10 secs slower, man that’s just bad, you shouldn’t be promoting this as a sim, as you clearly don’t know how to drive a sim at/near the limit and make a proper judgement.
Have you tried GT5, that could be more fun for you.

WTF…I have FVA, and pcars doesn’t feel remotely like it, FVA is damn hardcore and has incredible braking feel, but pcars is really lifeless under brakes.
Without feedback, you can’t find the limit unless you just do 100′s of laps and point and click.

Yes sir, but we need to remember that these investors are attempting to pass off pcars as a sim just by making constant reference to it being a sim…..too bad it feels like Dirt3 on the front and like a bag of jelly babies on the rear.

OMGX5….now that’s what I call a “SIM”…..praise the lord@!!!!!!!!

 The physics expert is back. One can set the clock for your hater posts.

I deal in TRUTH my good friend, you and other pcars boosters deal in Howard Erickson style truths, LOL.

I deal with the truth I want and what´s best for my expectations in playing games….kid.

 Yep. Also there is a tool created by community members to switch between them.

You’re confusing physics with FFB.

What are the FFB effects reacting to….a duck waddling??