Project CARS Build 254 Released, Wet Weather Effects, Daytona (Volusia)

Project CARS Build 254 Released, Wet Weather Effects

Project CARS Build 254 has been released and is available to Team Members+. In addition to numerous updates and fixes (full list below) it features new wet weather effects (see impressive WIP rain effects released back in May), an early build of Daytona (AKA Volusia) and a Game Launcher/Updater to manage the downloading and installation of game updates.

Quote Originally Posted by Dave Flynn View Post
I’ve integrated Darren’s latest changes into the wet weather systems and updated p4 to the latest we have running here. We’ve tweaked the mist so it fills the gaps better, the texture has been optimised and this also has Darrens work on velocities added. The newer trails are now in, with better fading from generation to when they dissipate, and all the effects have had their alpha / brightness levels tweaked for generally ‘rainy’ conditions.

Unfortunately despite trying many different ways to get effects appear across all cars in the pack we’ve been unable to get this working so far. It’s so frustrating because at times when the effects come together it’s really looking nice, but often there will be a few cars generating no effects at all, and sometimes the trails will simply drop out on one wheel and so on.

I also pointed out to Rob that the culling is happening on a render basis, and the particles are still there on their calculated paths, as sometimes they will disappear for a few frames only to re-appear moments later, and I had another case where when paused, I could circle around the pack of cars and suddenly all the mist would disappear and re-appear once I’d rotated round to a different viewpoint. We can’t see any settings in the effect systems or materials that would control this.

At the moment the effects systems are set up with 64 emmitters of each type, and the effects are generated from the back wheels of each car, so this should be enough for 32 cars currently. The cut down AI set is also present in the definitions file, but is currently unused by the code, so when connected this should give us some performance increases. But we do need some assistance now to figure out why the effects in general are acting in such an unstable way.

Project CARS Screenshots

Build 254 (13/7/12, Team Member+)
Added new variable m_renderfarZ to the camera code. This allows us to have a seperate far clip plane for frustum culling and what we actually use when rendering
Fix for the shadows not matching up correctly with recent camera changes
Ghost system:
- Ghost manager ensures that only ghosts known to the cache manager are added to the list of selected ghosts
- When the cache manager replaces a ghost with a better one in the same settings and the old ghost is selected for inclusion in race, the reference will be updated to the new better ghost
- Fixed assert in debug code when a ghost was selected to the race.
Added new camera specs using the new camera code for seperating the far clip plane for frustum culling and what we actually use when rendering. Should fix the issue of disapearing objects
Fixed turbo spool so it can only trigger when the turbo rate is increasing
Northampton pits texture update
Rain spray texture tweaks and system tweaks so that it blends between conditions
Added new temp blend texture for Eifelwald track
Pagani Huayra textures. Some more metal tweaks
Northampton pitbuilding texture update
Reduced spray particles colour from 1 to 0.5, so back to previous col setting
Generic emissive control map checked in
Increased wet weather spray emmitters from 24 to current max (64)
Updates to wet weather effects – trails now as lines, changes to min/max particle numbers per system
Belgian Forest Circuit – update trees and crowds for new terrain
Added Volusia
Volusia Circuit – first pass on AIW. Main path, raceline, corridors, cut tracks. (no pit lane path)
Grassbase template for Volusia
Volusia – Updated track names to “Volusia Raceway” and “Volusia Circuit” – added location data for weather and ordered the tracks with the Oval First
Volusia – Added the placholder “Under Construction” icons for the track select maps
Volusia – Traffic cones to indicate the circuit entry
Volusia – Changed Oval trackname to “Volusia Speedway”
Volusia – Track logos added
Volusia – Fixed incorrect Timezone data in TRD and also Added placeholder Track Photo’s which were missing
New Formula Rookie export
New Belgium Forest export
New Eifelwald export
New Northamption export

Build 253 (12/7/12, Senior Manager)
Fix for timecycles in tweakit not reloading when coming from the frontend
Remove command line from crash dumps
Fix for cPlayer::GetFocusDevice()
Improvements to the playback of the turbo dump sound. They can now interrupt a previous dump rather than failing to play, but have added a new CarSoundConfig to stop it retriggering too often. Tweaked existing wastegate parameters in CarSoundConfig to get it working better
Ghost system:
- Added game identification to ghost files. This prevents ghost data from being loaded in a different game than it was recorded.
Formula Rookie: added new livery
Cloud pivot updates. console specific versions of the large cirrus texture added
Formula Rookie: enabled rim variations for liveries
New water spray systems, .mtx, .psx, .dds files
Fixed turbo fdp to separate Turbo2 and the new Huayra turbo sounds. Fixed up file paths and switched Huayra CSD to use the new turbo name.
Belgian Forest Circuit – add new textures for House02

Build 252 (11/7/12, Senior Manager)
Now clears live edit setup state so that TimeCycle vars are re-created on entering a track
Use high detail shadows in FE
Fix for ps3 compile and pod errors
Added Xbox 360 and PS3 rich presence tech
Updates to cloud rendering: added in clouds render to env map.. first pass on rim lighting solution wip checked in
Vehicle basic shaders modified to use emap scaler correctly in all cases
Debug info removed for new water spray effects (not yet rigged up into game), .psx files only
Vehicles: disable multi-element light flares until we have a proper way to control their brightness levels
Lightglow_billboard.fx: removed rotation of flare with viewing angle. (Not photographically correct) Reduce flare size as they fade out
Ariel Atom: cockpit vibration animations added, brake light glow range set for steel discs, light brightness adjustment #1
New Ariel Atom 3 export
New Ariel Atom Mugen export
New Ariel Atom V8 export
New Formula Rookie export
New Eifelwald export

Build 251 (10/7/12, Manager+)
Implemented game datagram “send packet to session members” API. Packets can be sent to set of session members or to all session members except specified players. The implementation will automatically choose how many packets should be sent directly p2p and send the rest via rebroadcaster if needed, based on uplink bandwidth and p2p connection availability
Added public API for the SendTo function and to set the uplink bandwidth available for game datagram communications
Audio integration. Silencing one of the non-critical FMOD errors introduced by the channel swapping optimisations, as it can spew the debug output at times
Downgraded a parameter range audio assert and clamped the input value
Audio integration. Stop race sound effects immediately on quit race
Partial Audio integration. LevelSounds now recycle their sounds more efficiently
New hiss loop for the Huyara
Lotus 49: tire adjustments to add straight line stability under power
Pagani Huayra cockpit animation skeleton initial check in
Pagani Huayra collision. Fixed mirrors clipping through walls
Pagani Huayra textures. Minor tweak for chrome/glossy metals tests
Lotus 49 wheels textures. Minor tweak for Chrome/glossy metal tests
Improvements to Huyara turbo hiss loops (much longer now). Balance of turbo component samples
Pagani Huayra textures. Chrome/metal texture updates
Lotus 49 textures. Chrome/metal updates
Huyara gentle spool and gentle dump
Formula Rookie: added new livery
New Lotus 49 export
New Pagani Huayra export
New Eifelwald export

Build 250 (9/7/12, Senior Manager)
Updates to BDbgMetrics
- Also added option to set the App’s project folder location in the Windows Documents area (PC Only)
- This folder is now used as the root for memory dumps on PC (to the dbgSession subfolder)
Force shadow detail to ULTRA in the Frontend and flip the track rotation in the garage 180
Pass vehicle discontinuities down through the vehicle audio so queued overspills can’t play after a reset. Moved scrapes into the same system
Adding Huyara turbo spool and dump sounds
Adding Huyara turbo hiss sound (stretched out)
1st pass of Huyara turbo system
1st pass on Huyara turbo sounds
Instanced trees and treewalls texturemaps darkened
Patching Bind script : Removed user interaction requirements for patches
added global envmap scale factor to all vehicles_basic shaders to allow easier manipulation for standardising materials
Formula Rookie: added new livery
New wet weather particle effects integration – .edx, .mtx, .psx, .dds

[ Source: WMD Portal ]