UPDATE 27/11/17 4:15pm:[/B] We've spent the day checking out the Project Cars 2 demo, which features three separate and distinct presentation modes for users with PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X hardware. These modes are currently unavailable in the full game, which we cover in the main piece below, but we can reasonably expect the full patch to arrive in short order. Three separate modes are on offer - with an emphasis on resolution, visual quality or frame-rate - so while testing is only preliminary based on demo content alone, we wanted to put it to the test to get a flavour of what we can expect before the main game is updated.
There's only limited material available in the demo and users can't control car count or weather conditions, so we can't say that this is the definitive word on what the full game offers, but we can offer a broad outline of what each mode delivers. First up, resolution - this targets the highest pixel counts possible out of the three modes, and our measurements from the demo serve up a dynamic resolution window of 1152p to 1440p on PlayStation 4 Pro, rising to 1440p to 1620p on Xbox One X. Certainly on Xbox One X, this is similar to the current build users have available.
Next up, there's the enhanced visuals option, which ups the detail level considerably, and brings many of the trackside detail options up to par between PS4 Pro and Xbox One X - something that doesn't happen in the current version of the main game. Here, our resolution measurements are again dynamic, delivering the same 1440p to 1620p window on Xbox One X (skewing lower to 1440p during gameplay). The resolution window is wider on PS4 Pro - we found a minimum 882p, rising to 1440p max, but mostly sticking at 1080p. Although trackside detail is similar, Xbox One X has improvements to LODs and shadow quality here.
Finally there's the performance mode, which aims to deliver a 60fps lock on both systems. Based on what we've measured from the demo, Xbox One X's upper bounds remains at 1620p, but resolution tends to settle at 1080p through gameplay. There's a very similar presentation overall on PS4 Pro with the 1080p pixel-count remaining in place for most of the action, but the resolution range we found tracks between 972p to 1440p.
Performance-wise, while we have limited data points in the demo, we found that both Pro and Xbox One X ran nicely at 60fps in performance mode, though Pro could drop in wet weather conditions. Resolution mode looks pretty solid on both systems, while the enhanced visual modes can drop - we logged minimums of 55fps with tearing on both consoles, but again, only in wet weather conditions. Right now, first impressions suggest some interesting choices for users added to the mix then, and the sense is that the performance balance between the two consoles may have shifted. We'll update with more detail once the title updates for both consoles arrive.
