RaceRoom: May Developer Notes

[Paul Jeffrey]

A new blog posting from Sector3 Studios details what's been going on at the studio, and what we can look forward to in the near future...

Its been a while since Sector3 put virtual pen to paper and wrote about what's going on behind the scenes with RaceRoom Racing Experience, however this month the crew over in Sweden have given us a nice update on how things are developing with the sim - including some interesting hints about new features and content that is set to release in the coming weeks and months.

If you want to know how things are going with RaceRoom Racing Experience, from the developers own words, check out the blog post in full below..

…….

This is a follow-up to the March 2019 thread.

Yes, I did miss the opportunity of writing one in April... Last month is a big blur for me while we were dedicated to the Volkswagen ID.R project and putting in long hours. I was mostly just focused on that while the team kept cracking on with more good stuff.

So let's catch up together with what they've been doing. But first let's recap the status of all the items discussed in the March 2019 thread:

Progress update on the March thread:

1. Adjustable Tyre Pressure - Shipped! How are you all liking this? We'll be adding this as planned to all new cars and reviewed cars in future updates.
2. Flat spots, suspension damage and damage settings - Still being fine tuned in betatesting, and the damage settings revision is probably going to be the most time consuming to make as it involves UI's, backend, and some refactoring of the game code.
3. New dedi features - Shipped! So, how many griefers have you banned?
4. Shared Mem updates - Shipped! Check out the 3rd party apps section for all kinds of awesome.
5. In-game web overlays - Shipped!
6. Oschersleben new layouts - Shipped!
7. Fanatec SDK update - We had some last minute modifications to allow toggling LED's and Displays in various ways. Support for the DD2 is already added, so we're looking good to include this in the next game update.

What we're working on at the moment

1. Cars : Esports, esports, esports! We are currently busy on the 2019 season of the FIA WTCR. I can't show you much as things still need to go through approvals and all, so here's a blurry car. Which car can it possibly be?

We're doing our best to complete this 2019 set and have them available towards end of June, so expect the esports WTCR 2019 to start soon after that.

Then, probably later due to BOP requirements and WTCR taking priority, we'll be bringing you a BMW M1 Group 4, to fight alongside the Porsche 934 RSR.

Of course, let's not forget the Volkswagen ID.R ! Our initial version of the car will receive several adjustments in physics. The real car has now been on two practice sessions around the Nordschleife and the telemetry and comments from Romain Dumas will allow us to bring the car closer to its real performance. We have several visual updates to the car that are ready to ship, such as adding the DRS box.

Once the ID.R physics are completed and published, a second round of the Volkswagen ID. R Challenge will open with the updated car, and it will likely be finally available in the store around that time.

2. More Cars : Sadly can't say much else than "more cars are being licensed for a release in 2019" at this point. Until papers are all in order, it's all a bit hush-hush.

3. Soon™ cars : The next update should see the release of the Formula RaceRoom X-90. Designed to bring you back to the visuals and sounds of the early 90's formula series, this car will come in three engine flavours : V8, V10 and V12. Do I need to tell you they all sound awesome? After endlessly lapping the Nordschleife in the relative silence of the highly technological VW ID.R, this one will turn your ears back on.​

4. Tracks : 4 active projects at the moment, and not enough time. Sorry but still can't disclose anything until we get closer to release.

5. Force Feedback updates : Working on two separate areas of FFB improvements.

• One started as a bug fix and quickly turned into a feature as we realized the static friction (the fact that turning the steering wheel should be more difficult when your car is standing still) wasn't working at all. As a result we not only now have a working friction, but also a proper fully simulated power steering. Turning off your engine and power is even taken into account. Rumor has it that Anthony is even going to add a sound sample for turning wheels.
• The other is about introducing pneumatic trail effects. ( wiki and some other source that requires aspirin) This will give some very welcome information about the amount of grip available on the front wheels.

6. Moving / resizing HUD elements : Since the release of the in-game overlays feature and its ability to handle moving widgets around the screen, many asked why this wasn't possible for the regular HUD. This will now be possible. (except for the top position bar, which occupies the full width of the screen and could only be moved down in a very impractical fashion to whoever wanted to see what's happening outside of the car) You will finally be able to move and resize that big virtual rearview mirror!

7. Small feature for LED / wheelbase displays: Some 3rd party tools offer the ability to push custom information to the steering wheel displays such as Fanatec's rev LED's. It was unfortunately cumbersome for the users of those apps to prevent RaceRoom from sending data to those rev LED's and diplays. We will offer new controls that will allow those users to cycle through different modes for rev LED's and displays, allowing to just turn them off completely.

8. Moaaaar dedi features : We're currently testing a live penalty system allowing the league admins to hand out penalties during a race: Slowdown, drive-through, stop-n-go or just plain Disqualification. We're also working on the ability to read and send chat messages directly from the dedicated server manager UI.

9. Discord : Thought I'd just mention it here: You NEED to join the RaceRoom Discord channel. Link here. We've just restructured it a bit to bring it more in line with the current standards.

10. Feels like I should reach 10 to look as busy as in March.
​

RaceRoom Racing Experience is a PC exclusive racing simulation from Sector3 Studios, and is available to download now.

Check out the RaceRoom Racing Experience sub forum here at RD to join in the discussion, find some awesome League and Club Racing events, and of course download a mod or two as well..

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[anton_Chez]

The blurry out of focus one.

Pretty sure it wasn't a 5K+ or an 8K. I own a 5K+ and coming from a Rift there is an abyss between the two.

 

[St3fan]

If anything, not having custom liveries limits the possibility of us having more "proper historic liveries".

 

[ears]

Pretty sure it wasn't a 5K+ or an 8K. I own a 5K+ and coming from a Rift there is an abyss between the two.

I respect your opinion, and it's great that it works for you, but have heard many reports, by owners of Pimax, to the contrary.

 

[Leonardo Ratafiá]

 

[M-Bimmer]

Can’t wait for the X90 and that M1 Gr4 along with flat spots

(First time to check the new HUD. Very cool that crew chief pop up as team radio )
R3E_HUD1 by M-Bimmer, on Flickr

 

[anton_Chez]

@ears

I suggest you try the product before you destroy it in a forum thread. For all the faults of Pimax as a company and their latest Kickstarter campaign, the end result is certainly the shining light at the end of the tunnel

But alas, this is not a Pimax thread, so we'll just leave it there.

 

[J-F Chardon]

Thank you for clarifying it

I wish all the best to the people in Sector3. Race07 is still one of my favorite sims, even to this day, along with R3E.

Cheers.

RACE 07 is the game that brought me to work at SimBin through betatesting for it. So yes it also has a special taste for me.

 

[numbersevenhull]

It includes some real world liveries though, but not from F1. I'm sure you'll find very quickly who they belong to

@anthony monteil

And drivers? I can live with thereabouts liveries, less keen on Javid Coolthart taking poll.

 

[PartyPePe]

TLDR. You like them, I don't. I'll take proper historic skins.

How do you get proper historic F1 liveries without mods since they are all full of tobacco adverts?

 

[Filip Carlén]

Looks great! Really hopes some of the 4 tracks in the works are historical tracks to match all the great historical cars

 

[ChaosZeroJK]

TLDR. You like them, I don't. I'll take proper historic skins.

TLDR, you didn't understand a single word of what I said.

 

[BrunoBæ]

shame there are no custom liverys possible.

Conserning custom liveries/paints then it would be great to have - but not easy to implement as Raceroom is constructed.
In this area iRacing is way above the competition but only because the code from NR2003 made it pretty easy to copy this feature.
In iRacing/NR2003 you just have to paint and save the result as a normal tga file - and then include it in the used car roster.
And the really great thing is that when you drive MP others can see your custom paint on your car if you have uploaded your paint to the 3rd party roster library, Trading Paints.

Its a bit laughable to read the people who have all different goofy thing against custom liveries - just to defend that the devs hasnt been able to implement this in Raceroom.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: This was my old GTP(NR2003) reproduction of the RL 90ties Porsche Hippie car that I used in the FSB Racing League - and I really miss messing with such paintings in my prefered modern racing games(Raceroom, rF2, ACC).

 

[kondor999]

TLDR, you didn't understand a single word of what I said.

Hey, I already said I didn’t bother reading it all, dude. That’s kinda what TLDR implies . Being concise is a good thing in this busy world. Sorry if I got something wrong there.

Look, I just think the liveries in R3E are already of uniformly excellent quality, they’re historical, and they don’t slow down my machine to a crawl. I’ve never once thought to myself: “Wow, I wish I could have some extra liveries for this car”. Unlike in AC.

We need custom liveries in AC, but that’s because the stock ones pretty much suck (Kunos branding, fake sponsors, half are just solid colors etc).

Lastly, the great thing about devs retaining control is I don’t have to race against someone in a homemade pink and green 934 with a Pepe the Frog banner on the windshield.

You know. like that. It’s a tradeoff.

 

[erba72]

Absolutely lovely ! I love sector 3, love raceroom !

 

[kondor999]

How do you get proper historic F1 liveries without mods since they are all full of tobacco adverts?

That’s a good point. Still, you can’t have something for nothing. I guess I’ll have to give up the tobacco liveries in exchange for the pleasure of not having to race against some kids psychedelic homemade fake pixelated “kool skinz”.

Maybe I’ve played too much Forza and seen too much of that stuff lol.

I’ve got Custom Skin PTSD, man!!

 

[ARTeam]

Can't wait to see the 2019 WTCR cars,
Especially the Lynk & Co 3

 

[UMC 22]

I wonder if any of these patch/dev note threads will ever stay on the bloody topic at hand instead of descending into petty arguments about features that aren't mentioned and aren't coming.

 

[MarcG]

I love these Blogs and Road Maps we get from the various Sim Devs, all good stuff with little treats and tasters as to what we get next.

 

[AyrtJ97]

Bet S3 have named it something equally ridiculous too..

Hang on a second..

Something like Lynk & Co 03, which doesn't sound like a videogame car maker at all?

Oh wait...

 

[A.K.Racing]

it's make me wounder when they will fix road surface ffb?????????flat like ice cake

What a beta testers are doing it??????????? Compare to ac or acc or RF this games have very solid road surface but not Raceroom. so many years pass no fix!!!!
Mouse user & fanboys please do not disturb please!

Animation is there but road ffb zero or 0.00000001%