Project CARS – Dynamic Clouds Time Lapse

Slightly Mad Studios’ Project CARS title will come with a fully dynamic time of day & weather system that has been getting more and more complex in recent months.

The newest development build of Project CARS introduced a new pass at dynamic clouds that allow for some spectacular graphical effects as the clouds interact with the shadows & lighting of the environment. As everything in Project CARS, the feature is still very much work in progress but already makes for some very stunning footage.

Below is a time-lapse video made by WMD member Ben Buja, showing the new dynamic clouds in effect at Watkins Glen.

For more info on Project CARSmembership pricing and benefits, please check out the WMD website.

GTOmegaRacing.com

  • Andrew McP

    I came here expecting to think… “meh”. But I find myself surprisingly impressed. :-) 

    I really hope they can crack the physics & tyre model and make this live up to its incredible potential.

  • http://www.facebook.com/m4rr5 Marcel Offermans

    The video has been removed unfortunately.

  • k m
  • http://racingrenders.com/ F1Racer

     The only thing missing is the clouds changing shape and formation as they move.   Apart from that, pretty damned impressive !    
    I hope we get rain drops as good as those in CM’s F1 game (yeah I said it!)     Drops on the vehicles and dribbling off the windscreens with speed.  

  • http://racingrenders.com/ F1Racer

     Heh, is that last sentence obligitory when liking something in pCARS these days ? :)
    Just asking as I see this format so often.

    “xxx is good and yyy is nice. yada yada

    Just hope the physics will improve……”

    We ALL hope it improves, I’m sure.

  • Anonymous

    Back up :)

  • Anonymous

    Not for me. k m’s link works though. :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1711429307 Chris Wright

    Totally stunning. The only worry I have is does it represent a big fps hit? 

  • Anonymous

    I hope the physics improve too because they need to, badly.

    Cloud demo is cool, i like it! I think i read that rf2 is going to have something like this to, or am i mistaken? I’m sure I heard it somewhere.

  • Anonymous

    It’s unoptimized code for now.. so yes. It’s still pretty playable for me though.
    But I think they go bug hunting now before improving that. ;)

  • Anonymous

    I think all the Sim racers are hoping we can have a game that finally drives at or close to the level of  , RF2 , NKP, i racing ,LFS but with AAA graphics. 

    At the moment the only sim that seems it will have legit graphics as well as the deep physics is Assetto Corsa.   ( even then it will be more functional graphics than eye candy) 

    Mind you I often like the clean muted style graphics found in games like i racing and RBR.  

  • http://twitter.com/kjc24 Ken Coughlin

    Looks like they are only 100 feet off the ground and they all look the same, but it’s still impressive.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/JQ22BC4RZTPRPQDRGYVMN22R4E Stuart

    Looks like its the same old story with project cars. Okay, yep that looks amazing but we don’t really care if it doesn’t drive well. This isn’t saying that the final product won’t be amazing in terms of the driving experience but this is almost the tagline of the entire project now – looks amazing, now give us physics. I remain optimistic.

  • gt3rsr
  • http://racingrenders.com/ F1Racer

     The more the better :)

  • http://racingrenders.com/ F1Racer

     Yeah, thats what I’m talking about (Copyright Sebastian Vettel).

    Clouds that move and change their formation as they do.  Nice.

  • Mark

    pretty impressive stuff indeed. 

  • Anonymous

    This is about the one thing that is keeping me interested in pCARS at the moment, they’re putting some good effort in to the Time and Weather system.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003712360365 Lachlan Salter

    that would be a nice screen saver

  • noro ardanto

    So much effort for something we wouldn’t really notice when racing, but the developers are slightly mad aren’t they? :D ..Apparently they aim very high, kind of reminds me when Papyrus released the GPL (the “madness’)

  • Anonymous

    pCars is really starting to come together even in this alpha state, some of the cars need work still as they still feel too stable but I’m looking forward to testing the multiplayer code when it’s ready

  • http://www.facebook.com/gulyopapa Gulyás Tamás

    Amazing. Great job! :)

    Yesterday I’ve played rF2 AND pCARS paralell and unfortunatelly rF2 has still much better car handling … :(

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1021316392 Fabian Bonora

    Ben Buja is the man, though he should make some more GTA IV videos!!

  • Big Ron

    Same old story in kind of your comments. The coding for tires and dynamic physics will take several months. So you will not see anything in the next weeks. Do you think, that people snap their fingers and bang: the best physics available is installed? Do you think iRacing or rFactor had that good physics within a day?

    Graphics development is in fact faster than physics development since SMS and a lot other developers using an existing engine, can build on existing codes. That´s not the case for the physics (here for SMS) since most parts get changed or will be done completely from scratch.

    If you are not able to be patient or just watch the development, it´s not worth to discuss such articles with same lame comments every time. Especially if you can´t discuss about the topic but have nothing better to say than “…now give us good physics”.

  • Anonymous

    whats that? rfactor2? … oh rf1 even! nice work

  • Anonymous

    I have to play rf2 directly after some laps in pCars to improve my driving taste. Unfortunately only the graphics cant hold me there. Wont race it anymore.
    Looks great but in other aspects nothing for me.

    anyways respecting that its still in progress, so wont hate on it. :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=720446041 Nazirull Safry Paijo

    Still car sounds like cartoons fr trackside camera….
    good graphics undone with rubbish environmental sound

  • Big Ron

    Two weeks ago you posted exactly the same stuff. Just for you: new code for track side cameras (and therfor the corresponding sound) will not change for the next weeks/ month. Track side cameras are not on the high priority list, yet. So you will hear the same flat, cartoonish and rubbish sound over and over again ;)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Markus-Ott/100000878526131 Markus Ott

    Really nice and impressive detail work for a racing game.

    But I hope SMS won’t take all the haters serious and keeps its way how this game should feel and drive, and doesn’t make it like iRacing, rF2, nK pro or LFS.

  • gt3rsr

     And how should this game feel and drive?

  • Big Ron

    Like the community and devs think it should. What do you want to hear? Realistic? Natural? Comprehensible?

    The devs serve, the community tests until a point everybody is satisfied.

  • Anonymous

    What a ridiculous comment? so you want it to drive like NFS?! and not like the sims we have that do a fairly decent job of simulating driving a car!? this has the potential to be incredible but yet its just that…potential! Until they sort out the driving model its a waste of time from my perspective!

  • Anonymous

    Hey i dont want to be pCars like iracing, rfactor or so on… Those sims are not casual.. But even in casual game for wider spectrum of potencial players i want feel “someting” when i drive a car…. Just a littlebit belive that you are driving :)

    That would be really cool especialy when game looks like this. I dont think the easyest way is everytime the best one .)

    + here is full house of simracers, dont be surprised then when they are talking about their experience with pcars.

  • Eric Zehnder

     Every single pCARS post turns into the EXACT same argument every freaking time. God, just enjoy racing games, people! Enjoy them! They. Are. GAMES.

  • Anonymous

    Dynamic shadows are definitely something I would notice, especially when one lap a turn is in sunlight and the next in shadow. I definitely want this kind of thing in iRacing.

  • http://racingrenders.com/ F1Racer

     ”The devs serve, the community tests until a point everybody is satisfied.”

    Tell that to Codies.

  • Big Ron

    I think I used the wrong word. Serve means submit or lay before here, not serve in the matter of slave.

  • noro ardanto

    I think what the video is trying to show is the dynamic clouds.. off course dynamic shadows are something we can enjoy in any sim game :)

  • Ricoo

     I hope it will be in friday’s build. :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/alan.dallas.1 Alan Dallas

    Now this is what I’m talking about! The more graphically immersive the environment the more I ‘feel’ like I’m in that environment. About time a Race sim dev figured that out. It’s like they played some more modern First Person Shooter(BF3 for example) and the little light bulb went on over their head. Focus on getting the modeling, lighting, and environment looking awesome and the rest will fall into place after. Black Box could have done sooooo much more with The Run on the Frostbite 2 engine. They barely scratch the surface.

    A year from now when pCARS will be ready to ship I think it will be a must have Title. Of course that’s my opinion since I already believe it’s a must have. I drive a highly modified version of Shift 2 as it is now more than any other sim I own. :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/alan.dallas.1 Alan Dallas

     Speak for yourself please. Never say WE when commenting and expressing your opinion. I in fact do CARE. The better it looks, the more immersed I feel.

    You all making these comments about pCARS physics still can’t seem to wrap your head around the fact that the Engine is still in it’s Alpha state. They’re still building the Frame work in which to build a Simulator in, so that is were the focus is right now. The physics code monkey at WMD/SMS is nowhere near finished. I’ve been involved with a lot of game development projects for over a decade and they all use the same recipe. Alpha = Build the Frame work and all major features, Beta = Fine tune and optimize the code(major features are locked in so no new additions during this period before release).

    Were does SMS stand with pCARS right now? Oh that’s right, they’re still working with an Alpha engine.

  • http://twitter.com/Pascalwb Pascal

    same for me. Try pCars for 30 min, than rF2/rF for few hours :D

  • http://racingrenders.com/ F1Racer

    Eh ?   Your reply seems out of place.  No-one’s arguing and we’re all enjoying it.

  • http://twitter.com/StarFoXySxv550 StarFoXySxv550

    You can’t have dynamic cloud-shadows without dynamic clouds… can you? I think that is what he meant.

  • http://twitter.com/StarFoXySxv550 StarFoXySxv550

    How does this work? It looks as simple as a rotating sky dome

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Krisfalusci/100000457306764 John Krisfalusci

    wow! JUST amazing ^_^

  • http://twitter.com/WallyMasterson Wally Masterson

    Don’t forget guys, that the weather team is not the physics team.  While the physics guys are in their caves poring over maths and graphs, the weather guys are making pretty things.  One is not at the expense of the other.

  • http://www.facebook.com/sebastian.keijmel Sebastian Keijmel

    go play GT or Forza lol

  • Marcus Caton

     Jesus i thought it was real for awhile…

  • Anonymous

     Already boored from both .)

    But when i alreay payed junior member, i want to use it one day :)

    So will hope in some progress in physics.

    have a nice day .)

  • http://twitter.com/Michael_42 Michael

    “Do you think, that people snap their fingers and bang: the best physics available is installed?”

    Well, according to Ian Bell Shift 2 has the best physics available. So yeah, you would have expected (if that had been true), it wouldn’t have even required the finger snapping part.

    But, on the other hand, perhaps their “legacy” (GTR2 said “absolutely authentic physics” and still does ( http://www.simbin.com/games/gtr2/ ) is to be full of hyperbole and BS?

    This title on PC has no audience. The vast majority of the PC sales have already happened.

    It’s a eye-candy movie and screenshot maker to help flog pared down console versions of the game (which will, if it’s on PS3 and 360, look and play like Shift 2)

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