C.A.R.S - Community Assisted Race Sim

[PANiC]

i think a few ppl scoffed at this when i mentioned it on TS after reading about their idea on nodrift forums but its going ahead [info from ocuk forum]

 

Developer: Slightly mad studios

 

 

Three months ago, Slightly Mad Studios? Ian Bell shared his vision of a community-funded simulation title right here on VirtualR. What many may have dismissed as a very much utopian vision has gotten extremely real as the studio has been hard at work for the past few months to turn a great idea into a working project.

 

Named Community Assisted Race Sim, or C.A.R.S. for short, the project will allow ordinary sim racers to become investors in a racing simulation title and get a share of the profits and unmatched access to the development process and a say in the title?s direction.

 

For the past few months, the guys at Slightly Mad Studios have been hard at work on all fronts as Ian Bell has revealed some exclusive details on the team?s progress. The legal work on the project has just been completed and SMS is ready to launch the project?s website and accept investors within the next 2-3 weeks.

 

The studio will be offering investment options that will fit any budged, starting out with a 5? option ending with gold-level commitment of 1000? and beyond. All investors will be getting access to downloadable development builds throughout the development process, the level of investment will determine the amount of influence each member has though.

 

While every investor will get to vote on the direction the new title will take, gold members get to participate in board meetings where the bigger calls will be made, always considering the requests from the regular investors. Gold members will even get source-code access to the simulation while smaller investors will be given script access to play with.

 

Slightly Mad Studios promise a completely transparent development process as all investors get to follow every single bit of progress and every single discussion the developers will be having. The SMS team will work out in the open for all investors to see, there will be no closed-off development forum as all investors get to follow everything the development team does, ?even the arguments,? as Ian Bell points out.

 

C.A.R.S will be used the stripped-down Shift 2 Unleashed engine as starting point, as the team will be adding new modules to it during the course of the development process, including a new DirectX 11 renderer, a new physics engine and new AI. Slightly Mad Studios expect a development cycle of at least 12 months until the finished product is ready, however all investors will be getting access to development builds throughout the process to keep everyone entertained.

 

Below is a first high-resolution preview, showing an immensely-detailed historical Lotus Formula One car in the garage. SMS is planning to release the first build shortly after the first investors joined, the first release will include a handful of cars and tracks to try out. The base content won?t be too advanced though as the investors will have the final say in the direction that the title will take and what content will be included.

 

SMS is planning to have fully-licensed content in the finished product, the team may be dealing with generic content in the development builds though while the licensing is being finalised in the background.

 

For years now, sim racers have been bemoaning the publishers lack of interest in sim racing and the missing influence on developing titles. It looks like Slightly Mad Studios will be changing all that with C.A.R.S.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Screenshots

 

 

 

The model seen in the previews is made up of around 250.000 polygons and will run in-game in this kind of quality, thanks to DirectX 11 and the complexity of the used shaders as SMS is aiming to set a new benchmark in visual quality. Aside from pushing the limits in terms of graphics, the studio is also putting equal efforts into the input & physics department.

 

C.A.R.S., which stands for Community Assisted Race Sim, is a new project by Slightly Mad Studios that will allow sim racers to invest in an upcoming simulation title. In return, the investors will get to have a major say in the direction the title will be taking, get development builds and get to follow a completely transparent development process that shows the SMS team at work.

 

C.A.R.S. Frequently Asked Questions

What is C.A.R.S.?

C.A.R.S. = Community Assisted Race Sim. The game will be funded by and developed in close cooperation with the (sim) racing / gaming community. People can invest an amount of money up-front, entitling them to receiving profit and taking part in testing of weekly game builds. Depending on the magnitude of his/her investment, an investor has a bigger or smaller voice in what content will get into the game. The game starts as a base game with a few cars and tracks, and will be expanded from there depending on what the community decides.

The game will be free-to-play, with paid extra content (microtransactions).

How can I invest?

Everything will be explained soon on the website http://www.wmdportal.com

 

What platform will it be developed on?

The game will be developed on PC, DX11, and back-ported to DX9 and consoles.

 

Will it be a hardcore sim or arcade?

In the end that will be decided by the community/investors, but the initial aim will be a full/hardcore sim with aids and adjustments to cater for the casual player as well.

Will the game have surround sound?

The game will use a 3D Sound system is using fmod so 5.1 and 7.1 are supported.

 

What will the graphics engine look like?

The graphics are DX11 including FXAA, depth of field, screen space ambient occlusion, motion-blur and shadows will be improved in DX11 initially, with appropriate back-ports to DX9 and consoles. The engine will use deferred rendering like in Shift 2.

Are those screenshots really in-game graphics?

Yes they are, they show the actual game rendering engine at work with the car in the pit/garage.

 

What cars will be in the game?

The game will provide a base car from each of the main types (single seater, endurance, historic etc, asphalt racing only) so the investors can feedback on input, handling FFB etc. After that, additional content will be decided on by the investors.

As for the car brands that will be featured, this will also be depending on licensing (=money).

What tracks will be in the game?

TBA

 

 

[PANiC]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK8P7s-LecU&feature=player_embedded

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq4Q_w3V5pE&feature=related

[PANiC]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoVoeHRHXlk&feature=related

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0CVQNguFkA&feature=related

[PANiC]

Shift 2: Unleashed developer Slightly Mad Studios has launched a new project to build its next game - and it wants your help.

 

The London developer will use crowdsourcing to create new games in a project called World of Mass Development. The idea is that subscribers to Slightly Mad's technology work alongside the studio to develop games from scratch. You'll even be financially rewarded once the games are launched.

 

First up is free-to-play racing game C.A.R.S. (community assisted racing sim). SMS describes the game as "an authentic and visceral racing experience that allows players to carve out a career starting in the karting world and progress to a specialization of their choice".

 

"Pursue that career either solo or with friends via co-op and full team management and share your experience via a suite of tightly-integrated social features."

 

You start as a Karting cadet and become champion in the most popular disciplines of Formula One, GT/LeMans, Touring Car, Rally and IndyCar. Expect day/night weather, upgrades, customisation and "world-class visuals and physics".

 

C.A.R.S. includes microtransactions priced from 10 cents to $10. A number of tracks and manufacturers have already been licensed.

 

The community will play the game as it's being built. You can subscribe to packages in the game at $5, $10 and $250 price points. Small businesses can get involved for $1000. You can even contribute $100,000, if you fancy it. Pay $5 a month and you'll get an in-game opponent named after you.

 

According to Eurogamer sister site GamesIndustry.biz, based on a two-year development cycle at a cost of $5 million, Slightly Mad estimates a $10 share will return $35 if the game hits a $25 million profit, or 657,000 traditional retail sales. A $250 share will return $875 and a $100,000 share $350,000.

 

Slightly Mad wants three million sales of C.A.R.S., a 90 per cent Metacritic and a profit of $52 million.

[custard~SPARTA~]

The first vid in the second post is awesome. Not sure it's my bag, I enjoy the not too serious racing and the speedwall (just not Nord) but this looks a little too hard core for my skils.

[Rizzla~SPARTA~]

looks very interesting!!

[SkeleTele~SPARTA~]

is this rfactor2?? <--------thats a joke... looks cool and a different concept power to the player! I love me a good racing sim.

Edited October 17, 2011 by SkeleTele~SPARTA~

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Will it be a hardcore sim or arcade?

In the end that will be decided by the community/investors, but the initial aim will be a full/hardcore sim with aids and adjustments to cater for the casual player as well.

[Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~]

Just for the hell of it, I've thrown some money at Slightly Mad Studios and have been playing Project C.A.R.S. for a couple of hours now. My initial impressions:

 

1) The game looks as good if not better than what you see in the videos above. Of course, I'm playing with a more recent build than what is shown above. The DX11 version runs just as smooth as the DX9 version, although it's difficult for me to tell the difference between the two while racing; the lighting is noticeably better in DX11, but that's all I could discern while trying to keep my car on the track.

 

2) The controls are SPOT ON, unlike the issues I had with SHIFT Unleashed. I used both my Logitech MOMO Force and an Xbox 360 gamepad, and the controls seem very responsive. Which is terrible, because now I have only myself to blame when I roll my car off-track.

 

3) The HUD elements are nearly identical to the SHIFT games, as are the menu option screens.

 

4) As the developers have taken their lead from the people that are investing in the game, the feel of the game seems to lean much more towards "simulation" than the SHIFT games do. I have yet to try the game with the most difficult settings, but even with various assists and concessions to accessibility, the game difficulty is greater than that of the SHIFT games.

 

At some point here very soon, I'll put up my own video footage of the game and, if my streaming software works with the game, I'll even broadcast a live stream of the game (most likely on Wednesday; I'll test the streaming tonight).

Edited January 17, 2012 by Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~

[Rizzla~SPARTA~]

could this see the return of Sunday night Racing???

[Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~]

As promised, here's some footage of that I recorded while playing C.A.R.S.

 

http://youtu.be/S3tmi8C9SLw

 

I'm also going to try Livestreaming some gameplay tomorrow at approximately 2PM Eastern/7PM GMT. Honestly, it just depends on whether or not I'll have to go dig myself out of snow as to what time I'll be starting the stream.

 

** EDIT **. Duh. I forgot to include the link I use for Livestreaming.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Fatal_Papercut~SPARTA~

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Looks good, this is a brilliant project, I hope it takes off.

[PANiC]

Ultra High Detail Glory In Project CARS

 

Even though Project CARS is already considered to be the most stunning looking simulation out there despite still being in pre-alpha state, work on graphical improvements is far from stopping.

 

Slightly Mad Studios have released a bunch of new preview screenshots today, showing off the new ultra high detail models on track.

 

The ultra high detail option allows players to check out their car in unmatched graphical detail that goes down to the smallest nuts and bolts as you can see below. Also included are first previews of the new historical driver model & helmet that is a perfect match for the historical Formula cars in Project CARS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

src:WMDportal

[Sort]

It looks great.

How is the progress on the status for the game?

How and where can i get it?

[SirSmokalot]

This has peaked my interest as eventhough I've invested in both Shift 1 & 2, I spend more time (25x) in Gran Turismo despite it being a PS3 game. Looking for something new, has a Porsche "911's" (930, 964, 996, 997, 991, etc) (or derivative at least like Ruf, TechArt, etc).

 

I can't exactly hook up my wheel in the living room since moving recently and re-arranging our living room layout. No wheel stand, yet in the office I have a desk the wheel mounts to perfectly!

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I have put some money their way.