RaceRoom Free Access For Next Few Days

[Paul Jeffrey]

RaceRoom Racing Experience are helping relieve the boredom for those stuck at home during the Coronavirus outbreak - recently confirming all content will be free to access for the next few days.

A great opportunity to sample that car / track combination you don't yet own, the entirety of Sector3 Studios racing game will be open for anyone to drive for the next few days - and the best way to sample these cars and tracks? Get over to the RaceRoom Racing Experience Racing Club here at RaceDepartment and sign up for an online race or two!


RaceRoom Racing Experience is available exclusively on PC.

Check out the RaceRoom sub forum here at RaceDepartment for the latest news and discussions abou the simulation - and chat with our knowledgeable and passionate sim racing community!

 

[BrunoBæ]

So to me it's more of a promotional move than a "we have a good heart" move. Tomorrow this good heartness ends and we still have more than a week of quarantine, maybe even more.

And so what?
I dont think they have said that they would be able to solve all peoples problems with both the corona virus and the following quarantine.
Or have I missed something?

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: I have to admit that I havent seen all these negative comments about this offer comming.
Sounds like there will always be people who yell Gimme gimme everything for free.

 

[Michael Tobin]

I have no problem with them making it free for everyone but only if the servers have the capacity to handle the numbers joining and not at the expense of the people who have paid for the content. I tried a number of times on Saturday to get a single event going but the game just started loading and after 5 mins just went back to the main screen so thats just not right! Yes it is a business but you gotta look after your regular customers, after all they are the ones who will be buying any new content in the future

 

[Proto 3.0]

In these difficult times of quarantine and lockdowns, it's very important that we take care of each other. As a racing game providing entertainment, we thought temporarily opening the gates and letting you all enjoy the RaceRoom content without worrying about the next paycheck was the best we could do.

Where are these crowds of grateful isolated people? Where are their rave reviews on the forum? On the forum, I saw only a tough moderation of messages of everyone dissatisfied with the current situation. And none of these "saviors of mankind" even turned to us with explanations.

 

[UMC 22]

Where are these crowds of grateful isolated people?

Probably doing something other than sitting on forums, like playing one of the cheap or free games they've managed to get hold of recently. I mean lets me fair here, people are always much quicker to jump on forums to complain than they are to praise, so it's not surprising we're not getting "crowds" of people here or elsewhere expressing their gratitude towards S3 or anyone else. It doesn't mean people aren't taking advantage of the offer though... that much is clear from the server issues.

 

[Szymon Olizarowicz]

Honestly, I’m quite disappointed with how this was handled. I fully support and appreciate making the content free, hell after almost a year of hiatus covid-19 made me come back to sim racing (that and finishing my masters so now I actually have access to my wheel) so free content was a perfect way to catch up. The problem is the obvious lack of capacity to support this many players. At the moment I can’t even access single player practice though.

Don’t have a problem with making the content free but when you can’t access the content you paid for something has clearly gone wrong. What’s really scary though is the idea that sector3 was unprepared for this influx of players, it’s not like the game suddenly went mainstream.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Don’t have a problem with making the content free but when you can’t access the content you paid for something has clearly gone wrong. What’s really scary though is the idea that sector3 was unprepared for this influx of players, it’s not like the game suddenly went mainstream.

Agree that sucks.
I used about 3x 10 minutes waiting to get into the newly launched track(chinese?) but was cut off and launched back to the desktop.
IE 3 times couldnt get in(single player LB mode)
Then tried MP on a ranked server. Same dissapointing result.
Then I tried LB on a track/car combination where I had a position on the board. I had to wait - wait - wait but after 10-15 minutes I managed to get in.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: I dont think Raceroom with such low quality/capacity of servers will be a competition to iRacings 24/7 server service

 

[UMC 22]

It makes sense that the servers are adequate for the usual size of the R3E player base. There's nothing for S3 to gain from having masses of extra capacity since it would be throwing money away for no gain. That said, they could certainly do with having more "backup" capacity than they currently do. We see similar server issues whenever there is a major content release, or a big patch like the one last December.

I still praise S3 for their gesture, but at the same time they must have known this would likely happen given the past problems.

 

[Szymon Olizarowicz]

Had a couple of good public races after 20:00 tonight. Once the servers weren’t overloaded it worked very smoothly and even the collisions seemed quite manageable (usually the bane of sim racing and netcode in other sims). Here’s hoping for more moments like these.

Btw, can someone explain to me the disadvantages to using full traction control preset in gt3? Obviously, gt3 cars are designed to be run with traction control and abs in the real world, but I wonder if there is a disadvantage to having 50% tc vs 10%. It’s a minor thing and I don’t necessarily want to create a new thread to ask that question. Also, does it make sense to lower tc during the race once the tires get to correct temperature and pressures?

 

[UMC 22]

Btw, can someone explain to me the disadvantages to using full traction control preset in gt3?

I'm not an expert by any means, so someone else can probably give you a far better (and more technical) answer. But for me personally, I don't like having TC too high. Up to a point it helps you get the power down exiting corners without losing the rear, but eliminating all spin makes the car feel like it's bogging down to me. Whether that's just a feeling or whether it's genuinely slightly slower, I have no idea. I'm not one for analysing telemetry or chasing every hundredth of a second. Also, I like to have the option to get a bit of spin going to rotate the car if needed. So in GTR 3's, for example, I never go above 30% max, often with none at all.

Also, does it make sense to lower tc during the race once the tires get to correct temperature and pressures?

Again, I'm not one for monitoring things like that too closely. However, it can be an advantage to adjust TC during a long race where tyre wear is a factor. When you start losing grip through wear you can bump up the TC a bit to compensate.

 

[BrunoBæ]

My guess is - and I have partly proven it - that you get only the full power of the car if you set the TC to zero.
And principally thats also the case if you use a car with factory TC in RL.
I say principally because I understand some of the cars are very difficult to drive without TC.

The way I did "prove" it was in some of the high powered cars on Lakeview where I 1st made a reasonable run with full or at least high TC setting.
Then using the same setup I lowered the TC to zero and watching the delta green.
I could see that almost every time I accelerated in the lower gears with full throttle the delta became green(er) than if I raised the TC value again.

 

[PartyPePe]

This play for free event just exposed the silly always online DRM that they are utilizing, I couldn't access content I paid for because servers were down.

 

[BrunoBæ]

@Pepe
If these problems is/was because too many would check all Racerooms temporary free content out then all problems to be able to get in and run should now be over.

EDIT: I replaced "would now be over" with "should"

 

[Amanda]

I dont think they have said that they would be able to solve all peoples problems with both the corona virus and the following quarantine.

Yet nobody said anything remotely close to this.

Or have I missed something?

Yes, you're failing to realize I'm not against the free weekend itself. It's surely a nice gesture by it's own.

What I'm opposing is the reason they said they did it, which to me is completely misleading.

If I can't make my point go across with these images, then that's it, I can put my hands in the air and gladly say "I tried, but I give up".

For some reason RD is embedding one of the images of the imgur post. So CLICK HERE to view the post on imgur.

 

[BrunoBæ]

I can put my hands in the air and gladly say "I tried, but I give up".

Thank you.
Urgent info in these times

 

[UMC 22]

What I'm opposing is the reason they said they did it, which to me is completely misleading.

The problem with what you're saying, especially given the image you linked to, is that this is in no way similar to a survival situation. Handing out permanent free content is not going to make any more difference to this crisis, or people's ability to live through it, than giving full access to a game for a limited period of time. Personally, I don't see that it would show any more "caring" either, given that both options cost the developer revenue.

They could alternatively have done nothing at all like many other businesses in the world, at which point people would probably complain about that too.

 

[WPxNJ]

Just like that-its over? We're locked in until mid April!

Seriously, I just wanted to try Macau...c'mon RaceRoom lets do it again!

 

[ivaneurope]

Just like that-its over? We're locked in until mid April!

Seriously, I just wanted to try Macau...c'mon RaceRoom lets do it again!

I think Sector 3 ended this hours before it was supposed to end. I'm not sure they'll extend the period given that many have experienced server issues.
As people would say: "Well, it was fun while it lasted". Me personally didn't bother downloading R3E.

 

[LTLGamer1]

I have a question: I got the sim while I could but haven't gotten round to downloading it yet. Can I play it at any time I want to (even offline)?

 

[Majuh]

I have a question: I got the sim while I could but haven't gotten round to downloading it yet. Can I play it at any time I want to (even offline)?

No, you need to be online.