Dopo aver annunciato nei giorni scorsi la nuova licenza BMW per il suo Project CARS, già oggi il team Slightly Mad Studios ci mostra i primi screens di anteprima della prima vettura della casa tedesca ad essere entrata "dal carrozziere": si tratta della BMW Z4 GT3.

A few days ago, Slightly Mad Studios proudly announced a partnership with BMW that will see ten of the German car maker’s legendary vehicles being included in Project CARS. Our talented development team has gotten instantly busy as the 2012 BMW Z4 GT3 is the first BMW in line to join the title. You`re invited to take a sneak peak at the car’s production today as we show off first development previews of the Z4 in the gallery below. What you see are first work in progress shots of the car’s highly detailed car model, including a closer look at the car’s suspension detail. As usual, our car designers aren’t cutting any corners to bring the most faithful and accurate digital reproduction of this highly accomplished race car to Project CARS.

The Z4 GT3 is BMW’s top end customer race car designed to the FIA GT3 rules that are used in various series around the world, including the iconic Nürburgring 24 Hours race. Weighing 1190 kilograms. the Z4 GT3 is powered by a BMW 4.4 liter V8 engine providing 515hp of power that is transmitted using a six-speed sequential gearbox with paddle shifters. Next stop for the Z4 is next weekend’s Total 24 Hours race at Spa Franchorchamps where several BMW customer teams will be gunning for the overall race win, facing over 70 competitors.

Il distributore del nuovo Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends ha confermato che il gioco in versione PC è stato rimandato. Previsto inizialmente per il 27 luglio 2012, la versione per piattaforma Windows del nuovo titolo sviluppato da Slighly Mad Studios e interamente incentrato sulle auto e la storia della Scuderia Ferrari è ora previsto in uscita per il 24 agosto 2012.

Sempre grazie al Project CARS degli SMS, l'esperto regista DigiProst ci mostra un nuovo video tutorial che ci aiuta questa volta ad imparare l'impegnativo tracciato spagnolo del Montmelo.

Aspettavamo notizie fresche riguardanti GTR3 sin dall'inizio di Luglio e finalmente oggi il team Simbin ci ha accontentato, presentando ufficialmente il nuovo circuito di Bathurst – Mount Panorama, mostrandocelo con alcuni screens di anteprima davvero spettacolari.

Time to stop the teasing… well for this particular subject at least and finally tell you guys what some of you already have guessed after seeing the other images. When we started this project we decided that we should try and get certain tracks in the game, tracks we love to see racing on, known or unknown, modern or classic, circuits we have never done before, and we would really like to do. So we set our goals out to get these track in, and we are very proud to tell you guys that we have licensed the Bathurst – Mount Panorama circuit.

On that subject we called the community and within days we had negotiated the terms, signed the contracts and were ready to go. It is not a lie, Australians are easy to work with! Opened in 1938 but today reckognized as one of the best known racing tracks on this planet. With 6 kilomter in length it indeed is a small bit of motorsport heaven. One of the best track & race introductions I have ever seen is the 2009 Bathurst 500 intro, it is just an amazing video to watch and it beats reading!

Puntualissimi al venerdi, il team SMS ha rilasciato la nuova versione aggiornata del suo Project CARS: la Build 261, destinata questa volta ai Team Member+, porta con sè come consuetudine numerose novità e migliorie.

Build 260-261 (20/7/12, Team Member+)

Quick fix for clouds popping. I am rendering the clouds in order of their cells. So no fancy sorting , therefore no switching of render order and thus no poping because of it

Changed Event Queue processing to use new Online Event Filters

Add new Online event Queue which will eventually replace all previous online related event queues

Modified DX11 handling of default texture to correctly set "write by CPU" flag (this removes an error reported by DX11 debug version)

Cloud Optimisations , spawning and rendering fixes:

- CloudLayers regions can be configured to sizes and we can vary their total densities

- Clouds share primitative resources and materials so no need for thousands

Added in code so IBL can be used forward and phase3 render passes. Changed the order so then I seed the enviroment random variable

Changed the camera far render clip plane. Added in code so IBL can be used forward and phase3 render passes in dynamic env maps

Change so percloud formation factor is stored in the clouds w.w component.. this is done cause we do not store 1 material per cloud instance (why because that would be a massive overhead)

Overlay shader modified to properly cope with being only in phase 3 of deferred rendering, which fixes specular and normal map issues

Removing experimental IBL Lighting from clouds

Fixed new_ground shader broad normal map to use correct UV mapping

WTC tweaks to optimise a couple of conditions. Cloud meshes re-exported with a single texture applied. Slightly lower res as a result but looks OK. console specific versions added for the new texture

Fix new_ground.fx not doing normal mapping properly

Caterham Classic max file: damage added

Various cars: fixed issue with tabs and readability in physics files

Ghosts system:

- Added texts to global text database, used primarily for save game support in the ghost system

- Ghosts that the cache manager knows about are of two distinct types now: server-side ghosts (present either on the server or in the local disk cache), or save game ghosts. They never mix together, and searches for one type igno

Adding experimental stratus cloud set up into the light rain slot, which is currently just a placeholder anyway

Belgian forest - 1st pass for trees done

Removed downward facing quads in stormy and thurnder stormy conditions as they don't add much and are a frame hit. Also halved the number of clouds for further optimisation

Belgian Forest Circuit - add new textures for Atrium

Eifelwald - new slope grass texture psd source file

Eifelwald - new slope grass texture

Eifelwald - wirefence texture tweak

Metallic Matte paint support added to bodywork2 and bodywork2_skinned shaders

WTC edit to add new cloud densities for optimised weather system

Also added horizon altitudes for clouds. Setting these to just above the top of the sky ring looks best for now, but they will noticeably pop in until other issues are sorted

Belgian Forest - update crowds for new terrain and changes

Belgian Forest - create more darker temporary grass texture for outer terrain

Tweaked settings in CSD for Caterham Classic

BFC grass textures checked in

Caterham Classic: Fixed speed calibration

New Belgian Forest export

New Eifelwald export

New Sakitto exports

Bumped version of all vehicles for Friday’s stat reset. Fixed times not uploading