GTR2: Why are Modern Sims Still Not as Good?

[Paul Jeffrey]

GTR2 is 11 years old, features a series that no longer exists and was developed for technology less advanced than a modern smart phone. Unbelievably it's still one of the best sims available today.

What I want to know is why? Why in the last 10 + years have some of the many awesome features found in this now long forgotten game not made their way into something more modern? Ok granted many different games feature some of the bits in GTR2, but no single title has taken what was already an incredible base and expanded upon it with the aid of much advanced technology we now have at our disposal.

Driving School? Check
Fully animated pit workers? Check
Animated flag marshals? Check
Day - night transition? Check
Weather cycle? Check
Full official series licence, over two separate seasons? Check
...and the list goes on and on...

Simply put GTR2 was massively overdeveloped, period. SimBin Studios quite literally took every single aspect of the then premier GT racing series in the world and recreated it all into a compelling racing experience that still stands out as a top simulation even by the standards of today, 11 years after the game hit our shelves.

I just find it all incredibility bizarre. In very few industries outside of sim racing will you see a decline in product quality and content as the years progress like we have to put up with today. When GTR2 first shipped in September 2006 the game was a complete package, not splattered with ridiculous bugs that prevented anyone having a good time, not bombarded by wave after wave of disparate DLC content with little or no relevance to the main experience and not hanging on by the merest thread for dear life as another iteration of something that's been released by someone else already. It really was a golden time for sim racing fans, and those who witnessed it all first hand really did think this would be the beginning of something big in sim racing.

Fast forward to 2017 and sadly the progress expected post GTR2 has quite simply not materialised. The game, the official simulation of the FIA GT World Championship, was probably the very last fully feature complete racing simulation we have seen in our niche genre. We've had loads of new games since then, some of which have even been released by the same people responsible for GTR and GTR2, but none have even come close to matching the level of features and polish afforded fans back in 2006. It's down right strange.

Take RaceRoom Racing Experience for example, developed as the next GT game from the people behind GTR and GTR2, when the title first hit public beta stage back in February 2013 what did we have? Basically a hotlapping simulation with limited content, no official series licence, no AI to race against and precisely zero multiplayer features. Added to the still missing animated flag marshals and a range of other GTR2 items that haven't made the move over with time, it's all rather a depressing scene in which to take in.

Ok I appreciate Sector3 have worked exceptionally hard at improving RaceRoom to get to a level where it is barely recognisable now to what it looked like on launch day, but still to even consider releasing a game that was basically stripped of everything that made GTR2 great is simply mind boggling.

And it's not just RaceRoom that are guilty of missing out some key features considered par for the course 11 years ago, everyone is doing it! You only have to look at one of the most popular sims on the market Assetto Corsa as a perfect example, they consider themselves to be perfectionists on a mission to produce the most true to life experience possible, and they even miss out the core basics like weather and day to night transition, never mind such "nice to have" features like a driving school, proper flag implementation and multiclass racing options. It's simply amazing to realise that these features quite simply only exist in a game that was designed and released over a decade ago. Unbelievable.

GTR2 still looks pretty good on top graphics settings, still feels very nice indeed with my trusty CSW V2 and still sounds like it belongs in the very top tier of audio experience. All that whilst replicating a seriously mega international championship in a exceptionally detailed simulation that really does pick out all the little features that makes driving on a virtual track feel like the real thing. With that said and the pretty compelling physics considering the age of the title added up with stuff that no other sim has all together in one package, this is why I still believe GTR2 is, without reservation, the very best simulation racing experience one can purchase during 2017.

I love the game, it's just a bit sad that no one has thought to try and make something similar in the following 132 months since it was released.

GTR was released by SimBin Studios exclusively for PC. The game is still available to purchase on Steam for £4.99.

Like GTR2? Well lucky you, we are seriously considering a brand new informal league! Check out the GTR2 sub forum for general GTR2 discussion or our new GTR2 RDGT Championship forum for more details of the new league season. To prepare for the league all we ask is you have Premium membership, a fresh GTR2 install and these two additional patches HERE and HERE. Get ready for a return of the legend....

Do you still enjoy GTR2? What did the sim do right in your opinion? Why do features present in GTR2 still not appear in moderns sims? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Bjarne Hansen]

GT Legends got the same same shaders as GTR2 except it doesn't have wet road reflections.
The reason that GTL tracks often looks better are two fold.

1) Morning and evenings it uses in my view much better track colors for directional (Sun) light.

2. Nearly all tracks are using specular shaders for grass/ terrain while the other games are using diffuser shaders for that.
That is why you see low sun position reflections on grass on most tracks in GTL but only on the roads in GTR2.
On top of that there are numerous faults in the diffuse and diffuse related shaders which often downgrade those shaders to DX8.
I have corrected most faults and added dx9 shader versions to most shaders.

Newer had GTR1! Interesting info about the corner info?
Does GTR1 work on W10 64 bit?

 

[David Wright]

One other difference between GTL and GTR2 tracks is the tarmac shade is much darker in GTR2. I joined the team at the point this was done but can't remember the reason why it was done. It may be it worked better for wet tracks. It is one reason the marbles are not as obvious in GTR2 as they were in GTR1.

 

[roby13]

GT Legends got the same same shaders as GTR2 except it doesn't have wet road reflections.
The reason that GTL tracks often looks better are two fold.

1) Morning and evenings it uses in my view much better track colors for directional (Sun) light.

2. Nearly all tracks are using specular shaders for grass/ terrain while the other games are using diffuser shaders for that.
That is why you see low sun position reflections on grass on most tracks in GTL but only on the roads in GTR2.
On top of that there are numerous faults in the diffuse and diffuse related shaders which often downgrade those shaders to DX8.
I have corrected most faults and added dx9 shader versions to most shaders.

Newer had GTR1! Interesting info about the corner info?
Does GTR1 work on W10 64 bit?

Would be nice to share your work if u could

 

[GTR233]

It is already included in gtr2 10th anniversary patch v9.6 and it will be updated for next v9.7 in february

NB: in my readmes when you read syhlif32 then I speak about Bjarne just because I am used to his old name when we met many years ago at nogrip

 

[charly222]

Which is exactly what most do. Steam has an "offline" mode but it will eventuallly cry that it "needs" to connect. A few years ago Ubi stepped knee deep in it when they released Silent Hunter V with the requirement of a constant connection while running; this irritated people so, the hackers didn't bother with the game, they hacked Ubi's site so no one could play. Soon Ubi released an updated SHV that only "needed" to phone home when started.

same with ubisoft and hawx 2 - great game but destroyed with DRM - just read all the threads...

 

[Bjarne Hansen]

Would be nice to share your work if u could

Sure no problem!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SpjVfWxae6529p2gUOmaY74rB4M_2WBN
But as Paul 'GTR233' write the final version will come out in a few weeks.
Unpack and rename to gfx.gtr.
Rename or copy original gfx.gtr to safe location.
Issues:
Standard skies not look great so use any of the HD/ updated ones. Working on changing that.
Shadow shaders while working fine will also be changed again.

 

[roby13]

Hey bjarne! Thx for your kind reply. If i knew you're syhlif32 i wouldn't bother you. I'm a fan of both of you and gtr233. waiting eagerly for the new version.

 

[wowbagger]

a little tip for a performance-boost for GTR2, espescially at night-races with AI. It really works wonders, kinda strange, but if you set your CPU-Affinity to use all 8 cores/threads the games uses all of them, or atleast spreads them wisely to all cores/threads.... by default it would drop to 30-40fps on night-races....with all cores/threads assigned to gtr2.exe, steady 60fps. Using ProcessLasso to assign it automatically when GTR2.exe starts

This tip is golden. If you haven't adjusted the processor affinity for GTR2, definitely try it. It increased my framerate 2x-3x.

However, I tried using a .bat script and also a shortcut to set processor affinity upon start, but neither method worked so I had to resort to using ProcessLasso. It works well, but it's not the most elegant solution.

Does anyone have a better solution to accomplish this?

 

[Shovas]

Yes, great tip for modern GTR2: Enable all cores. SO much more FPS!

As I understand (I've experimented) it's the AI that are threads and the more cores you have the less AI are on each cpu so you free all that up.

Bill's Process Manager is preferable to Process Lasso in my opinion. Fully automatic and free, not
nagware.

 

[wowbagger]

... Bill's Process Manager is preferable to Process Lasso in my opinion. Fully automatic and free, not
nagware.

Thanks for the suggestion. This one seems definitely preferable to Process Lasso for my purposes and it works well. Good Stuff.

Cheers

 

[umma gumma]

wow there is a new patch coming for GTR2??

amazing!!

good to see ppl are still using & working on the game, it is one of the greats IMO

 

[gwaldock]

wow there is a new patch coming for GTR2??

amazing!!

good to see ppl are still using & working on the game, it is one of the greats IMO

Speaking of greats; it is good to hear you are still around, sir. You created some of the most beautiful cars & skins for GT Legends that I ever downloaded. You were especially fond of Corvettes, as I recall. I have been going through my backups trying to find your awesome work; I can't believe I somehow lost track of them. I WILL FIND THEM and when I do may I have your permission to post them here?

btw: I appreciate your "liking" my "Big Willow v.0.98 for GT Legends" but I think you will be happier with the latest rev: https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/willow-springs-big-willow-v1-01-for-gt-legends.24380/

I also ported that track to rFactor, GTR2, and even Race 07.

EDIT: I found many of your awesome mods. Here are a few screen shots for those that may not know your work...

 

[FRANKDMS]

Hey guys do you know a way to improve controller sensitivity for this game? I tried to edit the PLR file but GTR2 resets it back when i try to write negative numbers...

 

[GTR233]

If you ask then I suppose that you did not find a good setting in controller menu ?
I suggest you to use notepad++ (freeware) then open all *.HDC files (do a search in GameData\Teams directory) and choose replace function :
replace "steeringFFBmult=1.0" by "steeringFFBmult=2.0" (apply to all)
Save all files, try in game and if not enough then try another value either by increasing or decreasing till you find good steering for your joypad.
For HQ cars I have set between 1.0-1.3 if I recall but it is for a wheel, so 2.0-3.0 should be better for keyboard and joypad I think.

 

[FRANKDMS]

Thanks for the tip. Btw i encountered a bug, cars spawned underground in championship mode wtf

 

[GTR233]

I guess you've modified something you should not.
First try to reset your PLR : delete your profile folder in UserData directory.
If bug still there then you're good for a new fresh install...

 

[FRANKDMS]

I guess you've modified something you should not.
First try to reset your PLR : delete your profile folder in UserData directory.
If bug still there then you're good for a new fresh install...

I think the issue was caused by a graphic option that enabled track crowd. The game was stuttering like crazy and cars spawned underground.

EDIT: the bug happens when you quit the game during a weekend session. I was doing a qualifying session, i quit the game after doing some horrible laps instead of skipping it. When i started the race the cars spawned outside of the track or underground.

EDIT 2: can somebody try the same thing i did? I want to know if am the only one experiencing this glitch. Basically you have to start a championship, then go to qualifying. At that point you need to go out onto the track (out of the pits), then quit the session and restart it. If you skip to the race you will see the cars underground. It's really fast to notice.

 

[GTR233]

Ah ok I see, it is written in my readme, if you continue a championship, cars go grazy sometimes (don't know why???) so the solution I have found is to restart session (not championship): just after LOAD SAVED, hit ESC key then select RESTART and you should be able to continue your championship.

 

[Cristian Luis]

Turbo modelling? Nope but only one of the 23 cars in GTR2 is actually turbocharged.
Chassis Flex? Nope but then most current sims don't include this either. Why? Because chassis flex isn't significant for a modern GT racing car. It is of course very helpful if you want to simulate gokarts which rF2 does.
RealRoad? Nope but it does feature Live Track which was the first dynamic track grip simulation.

Just for curiosity. Is chassis flex significant in Formula One? (80's and 90's to be exact)

 

[charly222]

updated my game today. amazing stuff! thanks to all modders making this game so great!
this is nordschleife 2007 in 3k