First Impressions are pretty good... Graphically it's breathtaking in many ways... Controls are a bit iffy, but not too far off what I need, and with a bit of further tuning it could be better...

New lighting engine looks good, only I think the sky is too dark.

Version 164's out, with the new lighting system.

It does look very good, but expect a massive FPS hit if you don't lower your settings. I've always ran at whatever it's had them set at on the install and always averaged 42-45 FPS at Bologna in a Formula A the past couple of installs, no matter where I was on the track. Now, it's at 26-29....same exact settings as always have been installed.

No massive super PC here...AMD 3.4 quad BE, AT 5870, 8Gig of RAM...but enough to make most things look purty and still stay fast.

They did say in the forums that there's NO optimization at all on this lighting system, so I imagine it will get better.

Ironically my FPS actually improved with 164 lol

Lighting looking good for a first pass but obviously still lots of tweaking needed. It will look stunning once the track lighting is in effect and clouds etc are reinstated. The new Belgian Forest export is amazing, especially at dawn.

Definitely an 'experimental' release though. It has a few annoying bugs but it's great to see things taking shape.

BTW. Just is case you missed it there's a 'dirty' performance fix. Haven't tried it yet though.

http://forum.wmdportal.com/showthread.ph...ull=1#post88707

How much is project CARS geared towards realistic physics in terms of car handling? Is it trying to be a simulator like GTR2 or more like Shift series that was targeting more for mass appeal and consoles.

I'll take my answer off-the-air :P.

Chris

That depends on your take on 'realistic physics'. Most real world drivers agree the sims cars are much harder to drive that their real world counterparts. C.A.R.S are making it their goal to use the feedback from Ben Collins to create handling that is as close to the real world cars as possible. In most cases that means the cars are a little easier to control than us hardcore simmers are used to. One interesting case in point was when they introduced the Formula A car and many people complained that is was on rails. Ben said that he thought it should have even more grip to be close to a real F1! However C.A.R.S is anything but easy, especially when you push the limit and the 'feeling' of driving a race car is pretty good.

To answer your question, i guess the handling is currently somewhere between the two but there are still changes being made on a daily basis. Whether this is a good thing or not depends on your perspective. Personally i think if they can iron out a few continuing controller issues it will give them an interesting position in the marketplace. For 'casual' racing I'm enjoying it a lot.

I've been thinking about trying RFactor 2. Thought, looks pretty good, but too bad it can't look like Shift2. Then I see this. Wow! No reason not to have both, I suppose.
At the moment, though, both sound pretty buggy. I realize, of course, that RFcator 2 is a beta, and this is only an alpha build.
Are they gearing C.A.R.S. more towards off line, or is this going to be an on line game like the RFactor series? Seems to be a lot going on in the racing sim genre. At the moment, Shift 2 is my only racing game, but I want to get into this. Might finally be time to take a break from flight sims.

It will include a hefty multiplayer component but it's not likely to make an appearance until the main features are finalized. I suspect we're a good few months from that yet.

As you are aware, both CARS and rF2 are in a very unfinished state. By all means pick them up as a glimpse at what's round the corner. Both are amazing in their own way but i'm not sure they would be the best entry point for someone looking to get into sim-racing.

Have a look at rFactor1, GTR Evo, GTR2 and iRacing. All offer different experiences and will provide tons of enjoyment while the next generations of sims take shape. Here at SimHQ we support rF1 and iRacing with rF2 currently under testing. New sims will be considered on their own merits as they appear. In fact with the rF1 Skoda Series about to kick off there's probably never been a better time to jump on board

In short -
rFactor1= cheap, massive content, hugely popular online but creaking at the seams a little.
GTREvo- Slightly better graphics, still a decent amount of content but less online presence these days. Good offline and great for honing your skills.
GTR2 - possibly the best offline recreation of a single race series (FIA-GT) ever, great AI. Still plenty of addons but not as popular these days. Along with GTREvo, the best choice for offline sim racing.
iRacing, - Takes itself seriously, massive online presence with structured online 'career' progression and more stats than you know what to do with. Limited content but all very high quality. Micro transactions can make it expensive.

Here's a good discussion thread about the merits of various sims and what might suit you best.

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3493385/1.html

Also a shameless plug for mine and Jens article about what to expect during 2012

http://simhq.com/_motorsports5/motorsports_163a.html

If you need any more help or advise, just ask! there's plenty of us here, all with completely different opinions to confuse the heck out of you!

Watching the screenshots and reading your impressions make me very much want to buy this. Sorry if I missed it, but do we already have information regarding the business model, micropayments for cars, tracks, online, a monthly fee for multiplayer?

The final product will be a one off purchase probably in the region of 45 euros. Currently there are no plans for micro-payments, monthly subs or any of that stuff. I'd be surprised if we didn't see some DLC at some point though.

If you want to get on the action early then you can make a prepayment for access to the development builds. The amount you invest dictates the level of access and also counts towards the final purchase price. If you decided to get in early then please remember this is alpha code and still has lots of unfinished content and bugs.

More details can be found on the website

http://www.wmdportal.com/projects/cars/