Project Motor Racing was meant to be the second coming (or third, or fourth) of the Project CARS creation team. It wasn’t.
Since the calamitous launch in November last year, the embattled Straight4 Studios creation team has released almost unurmerable updates, watches, hotfixes and, recently, DLC.
There’s still a lot of work to do, but if our recent interview with recruit Aristotelis Vasilakos is anything to go by, there is a recovery plan.
“There is a very big long-term vision,” said the new Chief Creative Officer to Traxion.
“[Publisher] Giants is supporting us extremely long-term.”
One element of the plan is virtual reality. Touted – and it seems a long time ago now – originally as one of the reasons for not using Unreal Engine for the then-nascent sim racing game, by August last year, it was erased from the guaranteed launch feature list.
With good reason, as it would transpire, as I don’t think the title was in a fit state to handle the 3D world.
Recently, Founder and Chief Development Officer, Kevin Boland, provided a brief update:
“One of the things we need to improve upon before we go to VR is our submission list. We need to make the CPU side of the rendering cheaper.”
But now, at the SimRacing Expo Charlotte, we’ve been able to actually test, see and drive in VR.
It’s still not finished, clearly. When donning the Pimax Dream Air SE headset, other visitors to the show cannot see what you’re doing on the monitor. It means you look like you’re a child pretending to drive a simulator…
We also couldn’t capture in-game footage or images. Shame, as inside the diminutive device, we were wowed by remarkable cockpit and mirror detail, plus smooth performance.
Not something I would expect from Project Motor Racing, given its graphical fidelity issues. Clearly, there’s been a concerted effort to nail the VR fundamentals, and of note, this was on Straight4’s PC setup, and there were no other on-track opponents.
The jury is still out, especially considering the strange shimmering effects in the track surroundings, which indicate that improvements to anti-aliasing are still required. The user interface for virtual reality users wasn’t present yet, either.
The inherent appeal of VR, however, is there. I could imagine glancing in the rear-view camera by subtly moving my head in an immersive fashion, as a car tried to overtake. It runs, it works well, and it surpassed my (perhaps cynical) expectations at this early stage. And once again, with all the usual exhibition caveats.
We’ll deliver a full verdict when the feature finally ships, and glean more technical details once development is further along.
But it’s there. No bullshit. VR is in development for Project Motor Racing. More than that, all things considered, it works well.