Project CARS Receives Substantial Patch

Project CARS crowd funding development model gave backers the opportunity to provide feedback and ask for changes to the handling model as well as other tweaks. The ability to work so closely with the development team resulted in a game which reflected the style of its core audience. Unfortunately, Project CARS suffered from some atrocious AI issues and bizarre bugs after the closed testing period. Although, the last two patches have improved things a great deal and made the experience more realistic. The developer, Slightly Mad Studios has just released the latest PC patch which features a number of major fixes including optimization refinements. Here is the complete list of changes in full:

PC patch 5.0 changelog

Online
* Enforce fixed (default) setups – fixed cases where enabling this would still allow players to use custom setups. Enabled the player’s custom controller settings to still be used when using fixed setups.
* Mojave layouts – fixed an issue where, if the host were disqualified, it would force end-of-race for everyone.
* Fixed an issue with tyre choices being ignored during pit stops.

Physics & AI 
* Improved AI behaviour in pit lanes to further reduce cars hitting the pit walls when driving out of the garages.
* Fixed an issue where cars under AI control would struggle to drive correctly on tracks with high banking.
* Fixed an issue where some car parts that were dislodged during a collision would not be removed when the track is cleared.

Career
* Fixed an issue where the maximum amount of contract and invitation emails could be exceeded with DLC installed, resulting in the player not being notified of newly unlocked contract offers and invitational events.

Controls
* Fixed a bug on the splash screen where the controller used to press the A Button to start was not selected as the current controller.
* Logitech G29/G920 – updated default controller map sets for the layouts to be consistent between wheels and across platforms.
* Logitech G920 – fixed an issue with the gearshift mapping.
* Removed default assignments for wipers and lights, as this was disabling the wipers/lights turning on automatically when it started raining or got dark.

Tracks
* Nürburgring GP, Sprint, Sprint Short – fixed an issue that caused issues for cars pitting in the first pit spot.
* Nordschleife – fixed an issue that caused cars to get stuck against the pit wall when driving in the pit lane.
* Nürburgring Sprint Short – fixed a cut track issue at the NGK Chicane.
* Barcelona GP – fixed cut track issue when entering the pit lane.
* Watkins Glen – improved overall track performance to address frame rate drops in certain areas.

Vehicles
* Aston Martin Vantage GTE – tweaked cockpit exposure to work better with rainy conditions.
* Aston Martin DBR 1-2 – set the car up so that the steering wheel remains in a static state when the user chooses the ‘hide wheel’ option, so that the user can still read the vital info displayed on the wheel.
* Aston Martin DBR1 1959 – fixed an issue where the wrong helmet was displayed when using Helmet View, tweaked inertia and roll stiffness to improve collision behaviour.
* Audi 90 IMSA GTO, Audi R8 V10 plus, Ruf Rt 12R – fixed an issue where the KERS bar would appear on the HUD of these cars, even though they don’t have KERS.
* BMW 320 Turbo – fixed an issue where the car would start ‘wandering’ in straight lines after a few laps.
* Bentley Continental GT3 – updated engine and minimum ride height to match latest; mapped real world balance of performance; updated gearbox ratios to current FIA specifications, putting it more in line with the other GT3 cars.
* Ford Mustang GT – improve braking power to better match the car’s weight.
* Ginetta G40 – partial fix for front tires overheating if pressure goes over 1.8bar.
* Historic Lotus Formula cars – improved the Helmet View exposure settings
* Lotus 98T – fixed an issue with missing bodywork in the cockpit
* Mercedes C Class DTM – adjusted steering wheel shift lights to better match the engine’s power band.
* Ruf CTR – changed to a more durable brake pad for track use and added an optional brake duct to help control temperatures at slow tracks.

GUI & HUD
* Display correct message when trying to toggle assists when assists are disabled.
* Fixed an issue with the Leaderboards navigation that prevented the user from changing the vehicle or location.
* Changed the displayed values for Lateral and Longitudinal weight bias, to make it more intuitive.
* Fixed an issue with bad Text spacing on the Telemetry screen.
* Fixed various issues with the HUD gearshift indicator during replays.
* Fixed an issue where making real time changes to the stability control would display incorrect information.
* Fixed an issue where the in-game Standings screen ‘Lap time’ was cleared too soon.

General
* Fixed an issue where the ‘Sync to Race’ option was unavailable when configuring Weather Progression.
* Fixed an issue where the Best Driving Line assist appeared in the rear view mirrors.
* Localisation – added ‘United Arab Emirates’ used by Lykan to non-English language sets.
* Fixed an issue with Quick Race Weekend, where running Qualifying and Race without a Practice session would cause the Qualifying session rules to not work correctly.
* Fixed a case where the ‘One more for the road’ achievement would not unlock correctly.
* Fixed an issue where the player could still toggle driving assists on via buttons, even when driving assists was disabled.
* Fixed an issue where the external driving camera would clip through the track on steep banking.
* Fixed an issue with random cloud ‘popping’ in and out of view.
* Fixed an issue with clouds disappearing when using time acceleration.
* Fixed a render timing issue that would at times cause a black screen when the processor is under heavy load.
* Fixed an issue that caused the player’s view to switch from helmet camera to cockpit camera during pit stops.
* Fixed an issue with Enhanced Mirror, where enabling it could at times cause occasional drop-outs of mirror content

Oculus Rift 
* Improved support for Oculus Rift rendering to desktop and headset simultaneously.
* Added command line option -vrfullscreen for use when using second screen, to use whole screen instead of windowed mode.
* Amended driver head offset when in Oculus Rift mode – defaults to 0.0 but can be set using command line -vreyeoffset amount.
* Added HUD position editing control keys to the existing HUD editing setup: AD – left/right, WS – up/down, ZE – in/out. (Note that this doesn’t save yet between game restarts. We have this working internally now but it missed this patch, so will be coming your way very soon)
* HUD and Menu system is now located in world and car space instead of attached to the player’s head.
* Updated to Oculus SDK 0.7.0.0.
– NOTE – If you experience a black flicker/flash in the right eye view when playing in VR, please ensure that you have VSync enabled.

Personally, Project CARS was the most disappointing game I’ve played for some time. However, I have to commend the development team for sorting out the weird bugs, and erratic AI behavior post-launch. The latest patch features a huge array of essential updates which might be enough to make me re-evaluate the game. Please note, the console version of this patch should be coming very soon.

Thank you TeamVVV for providing us with this information.