VR and triple-screen support for PC expected to leave alpha before the end of AugustHypercar class next in line for a ‘rebuild’Revised rain tyres so drivers “feel” dynamic water build-upAI errors and strange multiplayer collisions also on the (long) list
There’s a new Chief Executive Officer in town, Kevin Boland, and, well, it’s not exactly a seismic shift for Project Motor Racing. Or, rather, it shouldn’t be.
You see, he’s been involved from the off as Chief Development Officer, prioritising features, altering code and overseeing progress.
“Well, basically, I’ve already been running the day-to-day, so it’s just a D changes to an E,” says Boland to Traxion.
“It’s not like I’ve suddenly got this new throne. I just have to sign a few different things when it comes to bank accounts. That’s about it.”
It does, however, follow a period of extensive change at the Straight4 Studios development team, including Aris Vasilakos joining the c-suite.
Hypercar rebuild, VR and triple screen to exit alpha
One of the recent notable changes has been the ‘Version 2.1’ update with touted ‘rebuilt’ GT3 and GT4 category physics. Work, naturally, continues, and August should see further fundamental tweaks, as Vasilakos waves his machete around the Haydron physics code.
“The GT3s and GT4s, we’re not saying that they’re perfect and that they’re finished, but we’re saying this [Version 2.1] is the next step for us and Hypercars are next,” explains Boland.
“Very tricky ones,” expands Vasilakos, regarded for his previous work on the Assetto Corsa franchise.
Another contemporary class on the priority list then, as opposed to the surfeit of historical content that differentiates Project Motor Racing from some of its immediate rivals. Vasilakos has a deliberate plan to focus on the more ubiquitous vehicles first:
“GT4s, GT3s and Hypercars are so famous right now because they are a great driving experience in real life and in sims as well
“So it is important to have them in a great state because newcomers who come into our game can be like ‘Hey, let me drive a car that I know and that I have experience with and see how this sim feels’.
“If it doesn’t feel adequate, then they could simply abandon the game. You need to have [them] in a perfect state, so that people do not dismiss the rest of the game.”
Another recent addition, at long last, was native triple screen support for PC drivers, in an alpha form. It joins virtual reality in the status; however, these are both scheduled to become a straightforward public feature before the end of this month.
“[In] this next patch, we’re going to bite the bullet and no longer say the VR is beta [alpha],” explains Boland.
“We’re going to make sure that we have as many of the bugs that we can find and got feedback about fixed, and the same with triple screen. So, they’ll be active in-game.
“Then we’re doing the [aforementioned] hypercar [rebuild], but [also] we’re actually focusing on making sure there’s a lot of little, small things that have been annoying people. We’ve been so focused on doing all these big, grand features, so the next patch before Gamescom [26th-30th August] is going to be just about making sure that those small little bugs are fixed.”
Further base car setups
Like all contemporary sim racing titles, racers can adjust car setups to their liking. Unlike other contemporaries, however, there are curated setups delivered through PMR’s ModHub – although, of course, it would be remiss not to mention the vibrant communities for most titles around setups, and even entire third-party business models.
One of the near-term aims for the Straight4 Studios team is to add further track-dependent base setups across popular vehicles, according to Boland:
“One of the other things that’s coming along, and it’s been coming on little by little, is we’re starting to put into the [car setups] the type of track they are.
“[For] each vehicle, we’re trying to make what we would call the good default setup for that track. So, if you turned around and you drove Spa and then went to Lime Rock with the same setup, you’re going to have a very different experience.
“If you’re not into the minutiae of trying to do all of that [custom setups], we’re going to build really good defaults to help. We’re going to have good ones tailored for each track, and it’ll be part of the [base] package.”
Sounds obvious now, although it does beg the question why that wasn’t the case at launch, mind you.
“My point being that time for people is precious and some people want to spend time doing the setups and some people want to have good [default] setups,” concludes the new CEO.
AI, collisions and multiplayer
Aside from those upcoming goals in the coming weeks, the team seems to be well aware that there’s much, much more to work on.
Of these, two key complaints presently are the sporadic performance of AI-controlled on-track rivals and consistent strange multiplayer quirks. It’s two areas that both Boland and Vasilakos agree on.
“AI, we need to first eliminate all the bugs and then also improve the racing experience with the AI, which is very important for the next patches,” emphasises Vasilakos.
“Some AI can’t handle getting bumped. Some AI will be like a tank,” provides Boland as an example.
“We know that we’ve improvements to make on certain elements.”
In regards to online multiplayer, Boland doesn’t shy away from the platform’s current issues, which sometimes even prevent players from being able to join a race after several patches:
“We have, we believe, stabilised and fixed some of the connection issues.
“The other good thing about the joining progress [a feature added in Version 2.1] is if you disconnect, you can reconnect.
“We are working really hard on the collision issues. Collision issues happen, usually, because someone with a really high ping or a really bad connection has come in [to the race] and the systems come along interpolating for the person, and then the system’s got it wrong, and it jumps.
“We need to fix it. First and foremost, we’re going to make sure the collision system is exactly the way we would expect it to be in offline [AI racing].
“There are a couple of little issues there that we have come across and then we’re going to promote that to online. We’re going to look at how we do our prediction model with certain things.
“[Fixes like this] are all happening and they’re happening every single patch.”
New rain tyres
Multiplayer stability, AI predictability and car drivability; all fundamental core assets to any sim racing title.
Not every platform has dynamic weather, however, but Project Motor Racing does, and at every venue, through a system dubbed True2Track.
Except… it’s not a major feature if the tyres (and thus the cars) don’t react to water in a naturalistic fashion.
“One of my favourite things that I know people don’t use that much, but they adore to have, is the whole live track system and rain,” says Vasilakos.
“The system that we have in Project Motor Racing is fully active. We even have water draining down on the slopes and filling places because they are physically modelled to have a concave surface.
“The cars go over it, and they splash the water out, and you can see that, and then the water comes back in again.
“But all of it is not important because you drive in it and you don’t feel anything.
“So we’re going to focus on creating for the next patches tyres that react properly to the film of water, the puddles and the water drains and all of that stuff.
“It’s amazing to feel that and I think it’s going to be very important to showcase it to people.”
The list continues then, slowly being whittled away, with Traxion’s John Munro revisiting the title this week on our livestream. The verdict: Much improved in many key areas, but still a huge amount of work left to do…
You can listen to, and watch, Traxion’s full interview with Project Motor Racing’s Kevin Boland and Aris Vasilakos on YouTube and Spotify.