Just wanted to give everyone an idea of what's planned for the next few months in Project CARS. The following list represents the priority items we'll be working on and that you'll be seeing added to the builds over the coming months (well, there's a few behind the scenes bits but put them in to keep you all informed)
Continued work on cars and tracks
GUILib upgrades - Essential 'behind the scenes' work to ensure that GUI work can be better distributed amongst the team, and improve GUI texture management. Also begin work into supporting new GUI additions such as tab screens and list boxes.
Audio improvements - These will include a gear change sound, gear wobble/shunt effects, improving engine load, adding global balancing tweakers, and some other behind the scenes work to increase audio efficiency.
Basic qualifying sessions - On enabling qualifying, the game will be split between two sessions: qualifying, then race. The qualifying session starts in the pits with a race overview screen, where lap information is visible, and the player can advance session when ready. The grid positions of the race session will be determined from the qualifying lap times. This will not (for now) include the ability to pit, or global concept of qualifying session duration.
Championships - Work has already been ongoing on developing the code needed to have functional championships, so you'll start to see some of these being added - initially just in a sample way to test functionality but later they will more closely follow some of the career plans.
Customisable HUD - New system to allow users to customise their HUD display. This will be editable via scripts, which will use our new Scribe system. Eventually, this will also allow editing of the HUD display in-game too.
Camera system improvements - We will be implementing improvements to the camera controls for various situations. This is intended to make it easier to get good screenshots and videos, and will include changes to the free camera, the attached camera, and replay cameras.
Hybrid timer - Advance the Timer code that was previously test by WMD members and integrate it into the physics manager tick for further testing. It is still not clear if it will be suitable as a final solution yet but it is now ready for the next stage of evaluation.
Particle editor - The particle system and effects (i.e. rain on car and windscreen, spray on cars, engine smoke, explosions) are being re-written in order to 'raise the bar' in this area. This is being done in conjunction with an overhaul to our editing tools, so the new particle system will allow live editing of the particle in-game (as well as having its own offline visual editor).
Physics tech improvements - Including contact domain optimization, additional deformation mode for RigidCarcass, better brake settings for kart, better clutch settings for kart and FlexiCarcass
Various shader fixes/improvements - There are numerous shader fixes and improvements planned. These will include...
* Raindrop visuals on bodywork will be improved to reduce the over-bright reflections seen, particularly in cases where the reflected light ought to be blocked by the car itself.
* Raindrop visuals to be added to other types of bodywork, e.g. carbon fibre.
* Bodywork shaders when in cockpit need to allow a choice of environment mapping technique, so that not all parts use the bonnetcam reflection system, as this looks wrong on internal components.
* Skinned bodywork shader needs to support bonnet cam envmap.
* Skinned carbon bodywork shader needs support for flat clearcoat layer.
* Shaders in general will get an extra option to use the ambient occlusion value to reduce reflection strength (both environment map and specular irradiance).
* Windscreen banners need to use transmissive lighting, rather than be transparent.
* Specular lighting will be improved across a range of shaders, to give a more consistent look to similar surfaces.
* Fresnel to be permanently on in road and overlay shaders, to be consistent with other track surfaces.
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