DiRT 4 More DiRT 4 Previews Break Cover

[Paul Jeffrey]

With today marking the announcement by Codemasters of DiRT 4, yet more preview images from the new game have surfaced on the internet showing off the impressive visuals of a title that has aroused more than a little conversation amongst our sim racing community.

DiRT 4 has been pitched to the gaming public as a cross between the hugely successful simulation focussed DiRT Rally and more arcade orientated DiRT 3 release, with several forms of offroad racing due to be represented in the new game. Judging from the comments over on our announcement article, it appears the traditional rally portion of the game is attracting the most interest from RD readers, and luckily that is the area of the game the newly released images seem to mostly cover.

Across these five new screenshots we can see the new for DiRT 4 Kartcross machine in action on one of the Rallycross circuits in game, a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6, a Ford Fiesta Rallycross vehicle in unlicensed fictional liveries and probably of most interest a Subaru Impreza R4 from 2016 - a new addition to the DiRT franchise. Also expected to be making an appearance in the game will be the Peugeot 208 R5. Other cars, locations and formats of racing are yet to be revealed outside of the traditional rally mode, Rallycross, Kartcross, Trucks and Buggy disciplines.

Other confirmed goodies due to be added to the upcoming title include cross-platform multiplayer by default, with both Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC joining together on the game leadboards for the very first time, coupled with a new PvP multiplayer rally feature that allows groups of up to eight players starting on stage at the same time, effectively allowing you to run a "live" rally and revolutionising the way multiplayer works within the new release.

Something that was missing from DiRT Rally and left the game all the worse for it is now due to make an appearance in DiRT 4 - in offline mode you will see broken down cars by the side of the road, with your crew giving you an audio warning before you encounter the obstruction on stage. This is only a relatively minor addition to the title, but something that makes a welcome addition and adds to the immersion of competing in a full blown rally event.

Also confirmed to be making a change in the new title will be the removal of the "instant-finish" way stages end in the current release. Now when you cross the line, you retain control the car until the Time Control area. This will require the player to not simply accelerate across the line but to moderate your speed in anticipation of stopping the car in the correct area at stage end, somewhat similar to RBR.

DiRT 4 will be available for Windows PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 June 2017.

Check out our DiRT 4 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for all the latest news and discussions regarding the latest edition to the DiRT Rally franchise of games. Get yourself over to the new sub forum today and join in the discussion!

Looking forward to DiRT 4? Do you think the game will be closer in feeling to the previous DiRT Rally release or closer to the more quick fire fun oriented DiRT 2 and 3 games? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[bogani]

18km is well enough for me. Sure a 20 minute stage now and then could have been nice but I doubt I would have done them often.

 

[-Alf-]

Lifting the Stage Lenght limit, from EGO Engine, is one of the primary goals, for Paul Coleman, in future. It wasn't done for DiRT 4, because it isn't so simple like we think, and it could end in catastrophic delays, for the game. Paul explained this on Oficial Forums.
So guys, expect to see very loooooooooong stages in future

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Lifting the Stage Lenght limit, from EGO Engine, is one of the primary goals, for Paul Coleman, in future. It wasn't done for DiRT 4, because it isn't so simple like we think, and it could end in catastrophic delays, for the game. Paul explained this on Oficial Forums.
So guys, expect to see very loooooooooong stages in future

Well, it is 2km longer than the longest stages in DiRT Rally, and those are the flat out Finnish ones. And 6km longer than the longest "not flat out" stages in DiRT Rally, so it will be a longer ride, small progress is still progress

 

[Celestiale]

Is 18km not long enough for you? On the hardest difficulty these stages in an R5 will take 10mins + to complete.

Not really, i prefer stage lengths that are comparable to real life. When we look at the Sweden Rally, which isn't really known for long stages (rather the opposite), 10 out of 18 stages are longer then 18km. I just want the same variations the real rallies have...ultrashort stages for the opening, one or two short "special" stages, a few ones around 8km, and the rest (most) between 15 and 30km, with a few extralong ones, around 50k or even longer, like we have IRL.
But as the collegue mentioned, it is in works...which i am very glad to hear. The stages in Dirt Rally where annoyingly short, especially when you did career, and were forced to drive 2/3 those 5k stages

 

[AadHofman]

In fact, there is only one real stage per country in Dirt Rally, which is cut to half to present two "long" stages (other two are just reversed).

 

[MaDMaXX]

In fact, there is only one real stage per country in Dirt Rally, which is cut to half to present two "long" stages (other two are just reversed).

I think it's two, split to give 4.

 

[AadHofman]

I think it's two, split to give 4.

Nope, it's one real life stage per country.

 

[bogani]

Yeah, it's one stage. Col de Turini in Monte, Vargåsen in Sweden etc.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

the main word here is "real life", no matter wether it's split in halves, triples whatever. Will be diffficult to reproduce that with the new generic track system. After all, real is real, anyone who over painted a landscape out in nature "en plein air" and then tried doing it over a month later at home will be able to tell you about the difference.

 

[samekyo]

Update:
The longest stages will be 13km long (NOT 18km).

 

[Thomas Lambaerts]

As i am one to love longer stages. It's only the sim racers that want them. Tbh at first i found the long stages in dirt rally a bit long to.
Most casual racers don't want them because there are to many places to go wrong. Most just want to do a blistering run on a short stage, save, and then do next... If they crash, its only 2 minutes worth of driving.

 

[samekyo]

Yeah, but that's kind of non issue since you can simply generate shorter stages if that's what you prefer. Having a longer stage as an option is always a plus.

 

[Thomas Lambaerts]

They should allow modding to the open stage generator. So people can use google earth to add roads.
Stelvio pass stage using spain templates...

 

[Celestiale]

Seems my fear was unjustified, and the system they use is really procedural and not just some "corners and straights patched together". In a current interview the chief designer stated that there are 10^48 possibilities of how a track will be generated, which indicates that it's really procedurally generated from the very core, and not just a finite number of roadpieces patched together....
Since this is a feature i was dreaming about for a large part of my life, i guess Dirt 4 will be my first racegame/sim preorder ever


PS: whole interview here:

 

[Majuh]

Seems my fear was unjustified, and the system they use is really procedural and not just some "corners and straights patched together". In a current interview the chief designer stated that there are 10^48 possibilities of how a track will be generated, which indicates that it's really procedurally generated from the very core, and not just a finite number of roadpieces patched together....
Since this is a feature i was dreaming about for a large part of my life, i guess Dirt 4 will be my first racegame/sim preorder ever

I'm afraid you misunderstood that. You would have an infinite number of possible tracks with procedural generation, and this obviously is not the case. Let's say there are 10 different types of corners and straights, and a stage consists of 48 roadpieces. This results in 10^48 possibilities. Apart from that, there have been previews stating that the generated stages appeared quite repetitive at the London event.

 

[bogani]

I'm afraid you misunderstood that. You would have an infinite number of possible tracks with procedural generation, and this obviously is not the case. Let's say there are 10 different types of corners and straights, and a stage consists of 48 roadpieces. This results in 10^48 possibilities. Apart from that, there have been previews stating that the generated stages appeared quite repetitive at the London event.

Please link to the previews that stated it appeared repetetive. I haven't come across those.

 

[TzZyO]

To be honest, even Dirt Rally's stages appeared quite repetitive to me. Ironically, at the time more than once the thought crossed my mind that procedurally generated stages might look like that.
These appear even more repetitive (no wonder). What's with all the fences, anyway?

 

[AadHofman]

To be honest, even Dirt Rally's stages appeared quite repetitive to me.

That's because it used only one real stage per country cut to smaller sections.

E: I seem to be repeating myself, eh?

 

[TzZyO]

That's because it used only one real stage per country cut to smaller sections.

E: I seem to be repeating myself, eh?

That's not what I meant. Even on the same stage it lacked variety to the corners. It was especially obvious while doing the very first runs on a particular stage, and especially in Wales.

The best examples of good, organic rally stages are some of the RBR mods. Particularly, Czech ones.

 

[MaDMaXX]

Alright, couple of trolls here;

1) This is a completely incorrect statement and it was not what was said in the video either. ("Let's say there are 10 different types of corners and straights, and a stage consists of 48 roadpieces. This results in 10^48 possibilities.")

2) The stages in DR were real life modeled stages, sorry if real life is too repetitive to you.


Re the stage generation, Paul said that their environment was modeled and the track when generated, winds it's way through the items/obstacles in the environment, which is how/why you get so many stage possibilities