DiRT Rally 2.0 DiRT 2.0: Greece Rally Now Available

[Paul Jeffrey]

The stages of Greece are the latest piece of content to be made available in DiRT Rally 2.0.

Deployed to the simulation today as part of the substantial post release DLC package for DiRT 2.0, Rally Greece is the latest in a long list of returning favourites for Codemasters most recent rallying adventure.

One of the more popular venues that have featured in the franchise recently, the technical and often brutal stages of Greece return today, and as usual the event has been given the benefit of a substantial facelift to bring it up to the current DiRT 2.0 game standards.

The Greece Rally location is accessible through My Team, Custom Championships and Time Trial.

Although the new event has released on all platforms today, Codemasters have confirmed the Oculus store version of the title is still awaiting a date for the new content to hit - with more information expected to be revealed by the studio at a later date.

DiRT 2.0 is available for Xbox One, PS4 and PC now.

Check the DiRT 2.0 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for news, mods and community discussion about this excellent rally game.

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[Marc Collins]

The stage in Greece 'Kathodo Leontiou' is fantastic and has a lot of hairpins throughout the stage...not sure what you mean 'analogue handbrake' as I have a Thrustmaster TSS Handbrake Sparco Mod with my 'Rubber Mod' (link below)and it works brilliantly, a must have (personal opinion) for Rally Games that support them...so I would only assume the Fanatec and Heusinkveld Handbrakes would work just as well
https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/thrustmaster-tss-handbrake-rubber-mod.168695/
View attachment 324358

You have right- and left-hand duplicate sequential and h-pattern shifters?!? Wow, my single Fanatec dual-mode shifter seems so quaint and inexpensive now

 

[Deleted member 197115]

I am still not sure about

I love Greece in Dirt Rally 1. There are some stages which are full of hairpins where I can enjoy using my analogue handbrake. What a shame we will not be able to do the same in Dirt Rally 2!

With you on that, real shame. May be if we whine enough it could happen.

 

[M D Gourley]

You have right- and left-hand duplicate sequential and h-pattern shifters?!? Wow, my single Fanatec dual-mode shifter seems so quaint and inexpensive now

LOL...the 'TSS' on the left is set up in 'Handbrake' mode with the TH8A H-Pattern Shifter next to it which is native to the country I live in so this feels more natural when driving in H-Pattern then grabbing the Handbrake..
The 'TSS' and the TH8A Shifter on the right are both set up as 'Sequential' which I use for GT3 and others when in cockpit view driving left hand drive cars then shifting gears with my right hand, as to me this feels more natural.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

The stage in Greece 'Kathodo Leontiou' is fantastic and has a lot of hairpins throughout the stage...not sure what you mean 'analogue handbrake' as I have a Thrustmaster TSS Handbrake Sparco Mod with my 'Rubber Mod' (link below)and it works brilliantly

Analogue brake acts more like on/off switch in DR2, there is little to no progression. There were some claims that only initial 8% are progressive and it goes full 100% after that. Not sure, to me you just control it by the duration of the hold, not the force applied, I am on HE handbrake which definitely worked as real analogue axis in DR original.

 

[Marc Collins]

LOL...the 'TSS' on the left is set up in 'Handbrake' mode with the TH8A H-Pattern Shifter next to it which is native to the country I live in so this feels more natural when driving in H-Pattern then grabbing the Handbrake..
The 'TSS' and the TH8A Shifter on the right are both set up as 'Sequential' which I use for GT3 and others when in cockpit view driving left hand drive cars then shifting gears with my right hand, as to me this feels more natural.

It's a great set-up. Just maybe wins the most-elaborate-of-the-year or something

 

[M D Gourley]

Also, speaking of DR2 and Greece, Greece stages and the R5 cars are a match made in heaven. Just amazing.

Thanks for the recommendation, and yes that R5 series is fantastic...spent the afternoon going through all cars...lol
Still thrashing the Greece stage 'Kathodo Leontiou' in search of that perfect 'Scandinavian Flick'...it's quite elusive...lol

 

[Case_]

So, @milord37, how's the "Disagree" clicking going today? I mean I find it pretty funny there are people that just always go through the majority of someone's posts and click Disagree, all things considered, but feel free to join the discussion at any moment and participate with something more substantial than that, that's after all generally considered the main point of forum discussion. I'm interested in knowing what your thoughts actually are apart from the obvious fact you disagree with mine constantly.

Edit:

 

[Elaphe]

It seems Codemasters will include the analog handbrake in 1.9 (October 1st).

 

[Deleted member 197115]

It seems Codemasters will include the analog handbrake in 1.9 (October 1st).

I love you.
https://forums.codemasters.com/topic/42152-analog-handbrake/?do=findComment&comment=463512

 

[Marc Collins]

So, a 60% off Steam sale made me pull the trigger!

First impression: sorry to say, console crap with extremely limited tire, suspension, and road surface dynamics.

The steering is very heavy, yet slow and somewhat lifeless at default levels. I left everything alone, but turned off the steering centring force because it seemed both fake and redundant (there is a self-aligning torque setting already) and made sure there were no dead zones anywhere.

Are there settings for various wheels that work well, or should it be OK at the defaults?

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Drop wheel friction, it's fidelity killer.
Good post explaining at high level what each setting does with recommended value for DD wheels. For lesser wheels just scale Torque up.
https://community.granitedevices.com/t/dirt-rally-2-0-and-simucube/2223/69

BTW. centering force only centers wheel after vehicle reset, not what you thought.

 

[Ville-Samuli Mutanen]

So, a 60% off Steam sale made me pull the trigger!

First impression: sorry to say, console crap with extremely limited tire, suspension, and road surface dynamics.

The steering is very heavy, yet slow and somewhat lifeless at default levels. I left everything alone, but turned off the steering centring force because it seemed both fake and redundant (there is a self-aligning torque setting already) and made sure there were no dead zones anywhere.

Are there settings for various wheels that work well, or should it be OK at the defaults?

I'm pretty sure once you get your FOV and FFB dialed in your opinion will change atleast a bit. I've had people who has driven rally cars in anger sitting in my rig screaming pretty much nothing but positive things about DR2.0. It's not perfect but it's very very good on soft surfaces. Tarmac is still not as enjoyable as we're used to with our proper circuit sims but you can still have fun with it. As long as you just take the tarmac as it is and try to get most of it.

For DD wheels the FFB was really solid from the get go (if you forget the tarmac) with a ~30% driver side damping. I think I've slightly reduced the SAT and all of those effect-sliders are set to 0%. You have to remember that steering feel on gravel is not similar to the feel you get on track though. It is on the numb side but everything you need IS there. Just bells and whistles are missing. There is a tad of canned feel for example the rumble effect when going through gates at New Zealand. Even those effects are not distracting when you go through at race speed. In comparison the DR1 FFB with the same wheel was nothing but a wrist ripping nightmare in its best form. Never managed to make it even semi-useable. All of those less experienced simmers but experienced drivers have been comfortable with the feel. One asked for a slight drop in overall forces than what I've used to drive with.

 

[Marc Collins]

I'm pretty sure once you get your FOV and FFB dialed in your opinion will change atleast a bit. I've had people who has driven rally cars in anger sitting in my rig screaming pretty much nothing but positive things about DR2.0. It's not perfect but it's very very good on soft surfaces. Tarmac is still not as enjoyable as we're used to with our proper circuit sims but you can still have fun with it. As long as you just take the tarmac as it is and try to get most of it.

For DD wheels the FFB was really solid from the get go (if you forget the tarmac) with a ~30% driver side damping. I think I've slightly reduced the SAT and all of those effect-sliders are set to 0%. You have to remember that steering feel on gravel is not similar to the feel you get on track though. It is on the numb side but everything you need IS there. Just bells and whistles are missing. There is a tad of canned feel for example the rumble effect when going through gates at New Zealand. Even those effects are not distracting when you go through at race speed. In comparison the DR1 FFB with the same wheel was nothing but a wrist ripping nightmare in its best form. Never managed to make it even semi-useable. All of those less experienced simmers but experienced drivers have been comfortable with the feel. One asked for a slight drop in overall forces than what I've used to drive with.

I'm not questioning that it is better than DR, but your comments above just seem to confirm that I shouldn't expect much. I have no issue with others who like it, but as a hard-core simmer, it leaves A LOT to be desired.

I already turned all the canned stuff off, of course. So, no way to get rid of the numbness on gravel? I haven't even tried asphalt yet...not much point (for me) if the loose surface is so bad. I do not want any bells and whistles. I just want physics-based handling and FFB. Even if it's crude by today's standards (RBR), actual simulation is 1000% more immersive than these console tracks that are floating ribbons of canned effects populated by cars that are barely recognizable as vehicles (versus a hovercraft, e.g.). The semi-canned weight-shift effect in the FFB does not fool me into believing there is more substance happening than there is. Feeling the car actually react even in a half-simulated manner to ruts or stones or bumps through a corner, and having to manage that, is what makes a rally racing game exciting (to me). So far, I don't sense any of that, and the dull/numb FFB is only a small part of the problem. Of course, if actual calculations and dynamics were present, the FFB would "magically" have something to process and transmit to the end user.

The dynamics are about on par with Wreckfest. I like that game as an occasional distraction and given the absurdity of what you are doing in it, the limited physics are not really so much of a problem and in fact, you wouldn't even be able to drive the cars when damaged if they used anything close to real simulation. If I wanted a "distraction" in a rally game, this would be a good one. A sim of any description it is not. No real surprise there--it's why I waited for the 60% off sale. DR (1) taught me never to pay full price for a Codies product again. After years of garbage, DR was supposed to be a new direction and not just another in the long line of disappointments. It wasn't. DR 2 is a small increment better, but that's it.

 

[Case_]

I left everything alone, but turned off the steering centring force because it seemed both fake and redundant

The purpose of the steering center force is to make the wheel straight for you when the car gets reset to track. It has absolutely no effect outside of that, so if you're feeling some, it's placebo at its best.

I have a thread in this section with the FFB settings I use on my T300. The default is indeed quite heavy, because people were complaining the FFB was too weak (it wasn't, they just wanted a FFB that rips their hands off instead of giving them nuanced information about the car).

However, reading your comments, I'm also quite tempted to say to you to just not bother and go refund the game instead while you can (if you still can). It's very clearly a game that is unlikely to satisfy your expectations.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Numbness on gravel? That doesn't sound right, but guess as a "hard-core simmer" your rally game standards are way higher than average crowd.
Good luck finding one meeting your requirements.
Don't forget to drop a line here if you succeed.

 

[Ville-Samuli Mutanen]

The purpose of the steering center force is to make the wheel straight for you when the car gets reset to track. It has absolutely no effect outside of that, so if you're feeling some, it's placebo at its best.

I have a thread in this section with the FFB settings I use on my T300. The default is indeed quite heavy, because people were complaining the FFB was too weak (it wasn't, they just wanted a FFB that rips their hands off instead of giving them nuanced information about the car).

However, reading your comments, I'm also quite tempted to say to you to just not bother and go refund the game instead while you can (if you still can). It's very clearly a game that is unlikely to satisfy your expectations.

I wouldn't recommend the same action because my thoughts at first were pretty much the same.

Then I managed to find a good harmony between FOV, FFB strenght and a camera angle (back then my display was quite far away because of VR only rig and I was using a bumper cam). When I made some changes to the rig and took my 40" right behind the wheel I changed back to proper cockpit view and my experience became even better. On the other hand during this years Neste Rally Finland I tried a good rig with Simucube 2 and Heusinkvelds bolted into it but with a smaller curved display very close to my eyes I felt like hovercraft and were crashing all the time. Absolutely no feel at all. I'd love to be able to tinker with the settings a bit just to see what made it so strange because IMO that experience was quite bad. I haven't seen similar troubles when I've put those non-experienced simmers but real-life petrolheads into my rig. That's why I felt a bit weird to see myself so uncomfy with the said expo rig with almost 1:1 same hardware.

To the FFB discussion I have to say I've always felt myself comfortable with the FFB because it just feels so natural and because it tells me exactly what the front tyres are doing without ripping my arms off (max force limited to 35% driver side and 300mm QSP rim). Even back in the days when everyone was screaming how broken it was, I felt good with it like you can probably see from this example.

Spoiler: Video (warning: mobile "only")

 

[Marc Collins]

The purpose of the steering center force is to make the wheel straight for you when the car gets reset to track. It has absolutely no effect outside of that, so if you're feeling some, it's placebo at its best.

I have a thread in this section with the FFB settings I use on my T300. The default is indeed quite heavy, because people were complaining the FFB was too weak (it wasn't, they just wanted a FFB that rips their hands off instead of giving them nuanced information about the car).

However, reading your comments, I'm also quite tempted to say to you to just not bother and go refund the game instead while you can (if you still can). It's very clearly a game that is unlikely to satisfy your expectations.

I didn't feel anything from the centring force--I turned it off immediately after seeing there was a self-aligning torque slider. You don't need both of those, so I determined the centring was the fake/redundant one. You clarified that is something altogether different that I also do not need.

I have no issue with heavy FFB...you can just turn down the strength (although there does not seem to be an overall strength slider here....is there?). The heaviness is the numbness and lack of useful feedback relative to the degree of resistance. The wheel is not transmitting road surface information via the filter of the car's steering rack, suspension and tires, I am just needing to guide the car with the wheel as if I was using a game pad that happened to have a proper steering wheel for me to hang on to.

I won't bother refunding it. If I had paid full price, for sure I would. Maybe @Ville-Samuli Mutanen will help guide me to some decent settings? I do think I have to try a closer FOV as part of the problem is the feeling that I am in the middle of the car instead of the driver's seat.

 

[Marc Collins]

I also have a question about some settings. I turned off automatic wipers, yet they still come on by themselves. And, I have picked manual h-pattern and manual sequential shifting, which works properly in terms of switching depending on the car, but despite mapping my clutch, it is never needed. There is some sort of automatic clutch working in the background.

???

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Manual H + Sequential + Clutch option
It should show up after you map the clutch. Same as original DR.

 

[Ville-Samuli Mutanen]

I also have a question about some settings. I turned off automatic wipers, yet they still come on by themselves. And, I have picked manual h-pattern and manual sequential shifting, which works properly in terms of switching depending on the car, but despite mapping my clutch, it is never needed. There is some sort of automatic clutch working in the background.

???

Wipers shouldn't work automatically if you have disabled them. Make sure to select "sequential or h-shifter + clutch". After that the game should use the correct method depending of the car. There's also an option for "clutch override" which is needed if you want to clutch-kick out of hairpins in seq-shift cars but if I remember correctly there's a downside of always having autoclutch in the background when enabled.

What comes to adjustments you pretty much just have to find a good balance between everything. FFB-side I'm using very raw nearly non-filtered but dampened wheel. The game doesn't have gain slider (how ridiculous is that?) So I have to limit the strenght driver side. Downside is that the Max Force option in MMOS-driver doesn't work the same way than those typical gain sliders so it changes the feel a bit. Hard to explain but it kinda flattens the feel slightly. FOV is a tricky one because there are no "value" to just set and forget. You just have to trial and error that one. As I said before when my display was still further away, I had to use a bumper cam because I couldn't make it feel good otherwise. These days when my display is right behind the wheel I don't have such issues. 40" 90cm away and my FOV is set to something like 3rd or 4th lowest option.

When learning R5 cars are easy to drive but on the other hand VERY direct cars which needs smoother and smaller steering inputs. Those cars are agile as **ck and have so much mechanical grip that some slower cars might be better learning tools.

Also make sure you've calibrated the wheel and checked the axis-settings so you have fully linear steering response and pedal inputs. Those settings might not be easy to find at first. If I remember correctly it took some time to find those settings in my early days. Crappy console UI's you know..