Project CARS 2 General Discussion Thread - Out Now on PS4/XB1/PC

  • Thread starter jake2013guy
  • 12,199 comments
  • 1,143,688 views
^^
I haven't changed any controller settings for PC 2 on the SX and its a lot better to me than ACC on a controller, I feel like I have flat tires when the TC kicks in on ACC (?) I know you're on PC, so it should be fine, but PC3 still has a bad framerate even on the SX, which killed the career mode for me.
 
Last edited:
I agree about the frame rate in PC3 on SX but I've looked past it and accepted it. It doesn't happen enough to ruin my enjoyment of this great and controller friendly game.
 
For me PC2 didn't but once I used, I'm going to say, Mr Grumpy's controller settings with a few tweaks it's good enough with most cars.
 
SuperSportX
I've never played this game before so I have 3 questions that i'm wondering about:

1. I plan on purchasing this on PC, is it easy to play via a controller? Assetto Corsa is a fun game but almost impossible to play on a controller and required me purchasing a steering wheel which I sadly cannot use at the moment due to limited space.

2. By the general consensus of the topic it seem like this one is much better over PC3, so would this + any of it's DLC be the better choice?

3. Can custom races be setup using multi classes of cars with me being able to choose each individual car? I am a huge fan of 90s-early 2000s racecars/supercars and this game has a very good list of those, i'd like to make custom races with some of the lower end ones - the LMP900 cars.
Click to expand...
You can't buy Project Cars 2 anymore. It's done. You can however download a complete full demo with all the DLC and use that, but you can't buy it anymore.
 
Beezer215
You can't buy Project Cars 2 anymore. It's done. You can however download a complete full demo with all the DLC and use that, but you can't buy it anymore.
Click to expand...
You can still buy it off CDKeys and such, ALLEGEDLY you can still activate the code. Of course, I have it so it's not my money I'm gambling with here.

www.cdkeys.com

Project Cars 2 Deluxe Edition PC

Buy Project Cars 2 Deluxe Edition PC ✔️ CD Key ✔️ Instant download ✔️ Fantastic price ✔️ Digital Download ✔️
www.cdkeys.com www.cdkeys.com
 
Hmmm, I guess if they still have stock in Product keys? Weird though. Wouldn't it have to download from the original repository? I wouldn't know, I don't know how that stuff works.
 
Beezer215
Hmmm, I guess if they still have stock in Product keys? Weird though. Wouldn't it have to download from the original repository? I wouldn't know, I don't know how that stuff works.
Click to expand...
Basically, Steam (and Sony and Microsoft) still have it to download if you own the product. If say, we needed to upgrade a PC or buy another Seroes X or whatever, we'd still be able to download our purchased content. So, a co. like CDKeys scoops up a bunch of keys while the game is still available for sale from whichever platform, the keys are sold product so can still be redeemed, apparently. Never tried doing so myself so, like I said, it's not my money we're gambling with here. But it's supposed to work.
 
I've used cdkeys loads of times for the cheap 3 years of gold converted to gamepass ultimate upgrade before microsoft stopped it. No 1:1 conversion rate anymore.

I've grabbed a couple of xbox & switch games for the kids as well because sometimes they run better discounts than the official stores.

They're quick too, the second you pay you instantly get an email with your redeem code.
 
Beezer215
Hmmm, I guess if they still have stock in Product keys? Weird though. Wouldn't it have to download from the original repository? I wouldn't know, I don't know how that stuff works.
Click to expand...
I bought F1 2021 from CD Keys last month despite it being delisted in March. I got a code from them and downloaded the game from the MS Store.
 
Last edited:
Everything that @IfAndOr stated is spot on... although, I have no idea about PC3 (never played it) -as far as PC2, there's not a lot better than doing a race with day-night-day transition and have multiple weather slots filled in to have variable track conditions.

As far as the controller settings, just google it and you can find multiple variations either on YouTube or wherever to help you out. Project Cars and Project Cars 2 are truly gems. Not saying they are perfect and without issues. But a lot of fun can be had in the game.
 
This game is still a blast, my main concern is AI behavior on rain, they aren't impact by the weather conditions, so it's pointless to race them, they are too fast, it kills imertion, tool bad, otherwise love it, especialy on serie x
 
kartman21
This game is still a blast, my main concern is AI behavior on rain, they aren't impact by the weather conditions, so it's pointless to race them, they are too fast, it kills imertion, tool bad, otherwise love it, especialy on serie x
Click to expand...
??? Fast....
Through my experience they're slow, I have to bump the difficulty up from 100 in the dry to 105 in the wet to get a good race (110 on snow)

They don't drive full speed down the straights & slow down to much in tight corners, fast flowing corners are a different story.

The only issue is they're not affected by puddles so they drive through em without aquaplaning, but to avoid this don't use storm or thunderstorm with accelerated time or the track will become a swimming pool, other rain settings are ok though (light rain, rain, light fog + rain, heavy fog + rain etc)





 
kartman21
This game is still a blast, my main concern is AI behavior on rain, they aren't impact by the weather conditions, so it's pointless to race them, they are too fast, it kills imertion, tool bad, otherwise love it, especialy on serie x
Click to expand...
This depends heavily on the car and maybe the track. in extremely high powered cars(and for some reason... career mode Ginetta Jrs? ) they can be damn near impossible but in many other cars they become a joke in the rain and offer no resistance. Part of the issue is also that tire temperature doesn't affect them properly so if you can't keep your temps up, you can't keep up(there's a midnight rain race that demonstrates this). Usually I found they were insanely good in slightly wet conditions(even on slicks) but once it gets fully wet they slow way down. They do slow down for puddles too, you can overtake them easily through many puddles just by lifting a little and keeping the car straight. The worst issue with puddles is they don't get sent out of control like you do, so they aren't dangerous for them.

That inconsistency is the biggest problem(like the AI's inconsistency in general probably). The major weather acceleration in career mode makes the issue much worse than in stand-alone races. There's a 2.4 hour race at classic Hockenheim that goes from decent race in the dry... to pathetically slow bots in the wet losing a few seconds per lap... to the track becoming undriveable due to huge puddles but the AI being able to handle it so gaining like a minute on you in 4-5 laps... to then drying and the AI slowing down massively for the remnants of puddles you can just drive around and blow them away again.
 
Beezer215
Hmmm, I guess if they still have stock in Product keys? Weird though. Wouldn't it have to download from the original repository? I wouldn't know, I don't know how that stuff works.
Click to expand...
I think it'll work. If you delete the game you can still reinstall so its being hosted at A server somewhere. I suppose thats one advantage of digital..
 

PC2 - The guide for setting up the AI in Project Cars 2

There are several interesting guides for setting up AI (eg. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfCbw0TGbnY). In my opinion, I agree with those who say that the player must somehow adapt to the AI, as no game responds perfectly to every type of player. This guide is primarily intended for those who prefer...
www.racedepartment.com www.racedepartment.com

Found the guide in the link above. Some interesting points like agression to 100, and the fact that they dont actually run qualifying setups. That last point does explain a lot where I'm easily faster in quali but get wrecked in the race itself. Only took me a few hundred hours to discover this lol.
 
Mr_D

PC2 - The guide for setting up the AI in Project Cars 2

There are several interesting guides for setting up AI (eg. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfCbw0TGbnY). In my opinion, I agree with those who say that the player must somehow adapt to the AI, as no game responds perfectly to every type of player. This guide is primarily intended for those who prefer...
www.racedepartment.com www.racedepartment.com

Found the guide in the link above. Some interesting points like agression to 100, and the fact that they dont actually run qualifying setups. That last point does explain a lot where I'm easily faster in quali but get wrecked in the race itself. Only took me a few hundred hours to discover this lol.
Click to expand...
You know, as many GD hours I have into this game, I don't think I've ever really understood the AI as well as that guide just explained. Probably would've saved me a ton of aggravation if I'd realized that. Thanks!
 
The AI adapt to realism settings aswell.

If you race AI with damage off at 100% aggression chances are they'll ram you alot more than if you run with race ending damage on.
 
r_outsider
You know, as many GD hours I have into this game, I don't think I've ever really understood the AI as well as that guide just explained. Probably would've saved me a ton of aggravation if I'd realized that. Thanks!
Click to expand...
No problem, hope it helps with getting better races. It seems this guy definitely put in some effort to test different settings and find out what they mean.

I'm still working my way through the multiclass WEC races (currently at the final race of the season in Le Mans), and one thing I've noticed is the erratic behaviour when passing a car under blue flag. I think it's likely an AI car getting a blue flag just lowers it's agression to zero making it behave unpredictable. And I think the same happens in lap 1 for every AI controlled car.. so I had my suspicions about agression being part of the problem and allready ran it pretty high at 80.

I didnt think that the lap times would be coupled with agression too. I'm going to do some testing on my own too :)
 
Mr Grumpy
The AI adapt to realism settings aswell.

If you race AI with damage off at 100% aggression chances are they'll ram you alot more than if you run with race ending damage on.
Click to expand...
Thats interesting too. I allways drive with full damage though so never noticed the difference
 
Was reading back the thread and saw some posts around PC3 frame rate vs PC2.

I am running PC2 on a Ryzen 7840U/780M (internal GPU, so no dedicated one) at 25W TDP, with 32GB LPDDR5X at 7500 MT/s and PC2 runs 60FPS locked with 16 cars AI everywhere except the most extreme situations (e.g. heavy rain at night and AI grouped close together in front of you on a track with known frame rate issues). 1920x1200, High settings. 780M is roughly equal to a 1650Ti or similar (depending on TDP of course). So runs very well on a modern AMD CPU, even without a dedicated GPU. Can probably add a full grid of AI as the CPU is not even close to being saturated.

But PC3 refuses to run anywhere close to that. Closer to 35-ish FPS. Bringing down resolution doesn't help either, it just kind of stays there. GPU/CPU utilization both well under 100% so it's bottlenecking elsewhere. Haven't figured out a workaround yet. Not sure I will put the time in because PC2 fills all my handheld simracing needs at the moment. :D
 
Last edited:
Did my first race with agression on 100, dialled in the opponent strength in qualifying while driving a race setup (full fuel load and radiator open). Came first with a gap of .8s. So I increased difficulty by 5 and can confirm it was very close racing. It was a 2 hour race on Le Mans so a very long track with many pitstops. The slower GT3 classes (I was driving LMP1) were more spread out than on a shorter track and the long straights make for easy overtaking. So I dont think it was entirely representative and I did see some erratic behaviour from them.

It was hard to gauge how well I was driving because of different pitstrategies so I went up and down the grid constantly as we were pitting one by one. But I was just barely leading the final lap after 2 hours of racing. However a miscalculation in my fuel load meant I came 1 lap short on fuel and had to make a pitstop on the final lap.. I was hasty and entered the pit too fast which gave me a 10s penalty. Even after the pitstop I finished 3rd but lost another position due to the penalty. I won the championship regardless but decided to restart the race because I want the lifetime achievement goal of winning the 24h Le Mans (among others) :P
It was enough fun to do a 2hr race again lol

Maybe a short track with a lot of cars will be messier this way but at least for this particular race it was a big improvement!
 
I was wondering, how do you guys judge the optimum tyre pressure for a new car youre driving? The game is kind of a black box in this regard (and many others). All I have is some post from a developer on the official forums (it circulates somewhere on gtp as well) but to be honest it doesnt seem right.

Yesterday I did some testing with formula C. The post said 1.7 bar front 1.45 rear for formula cars. But when testing I gave front and rear the same pressure and it was much more balanced. Then I lowered by increments of .2 and did test runs in timetrial. I found the lower you go the more grip you get. Period. Even down to 0.8 bar hot pressure. However it's a bit of a trade off as you increase roll resistance and it starts to get noticeable at a certain point.

I'm not sure the same is true for all cars and perhaps there is a point where under or overinflating the pressures lead to diminishing returns in terms of grip vs roll resistance.

It'd be interesting to hear your opinions on this.
 
Lately I haven't used setup tweaking much, because the group I usually race online with always opts for fixed default setups, where you only usually have Loose or Stable (works well and "equalizes" the cars for everyone, we're not THAT serious about our online fun races).

But this is an interesting topic, back when I was finding my way through offline mode and my first online adventures (open lobbies) usually setup tweaking was an important part of playing PCars2. And what I remember, regarding tyre pressure, is that indeed the cars come with higher pressures than what is good for them. This could be apparent from the first lap, or become a problem throughout the race (tures heating, pressure going from high to very VERY high). I do remember two cars where lowering tyre pressures made a world of difference. The GT3 Bentley and the Caterham SP300. Especially the last one, I just couldn't handle it until I found out that I needed to lower tyre pressures A LOT. Can't say exactly how much, but no less than 0.5 bar from default values (front and back)

Downside of lowering pressures were, of course, tyre degradation was faster and tyre temperature could become a problem.
 

Latest Posts

Back