RaceRoom Racing Experience Update Deployed

[Paul Jeffrey]

Sector3 Studios have deployed a substantial new patch for their RaceRoom Racing Experience title, adding a number of updates and enhancements to the sim alongside a redesigned front end experience.

Much anticipated by RaceRoom fans, the November 15th patch for the title is now live for players to download. For those expecting new content, today's patch adds the locked 2016 version of the DTM series and the Audi TT Cup from 2016. Highlights of the patch include the unification of 'experiences' within the game, bringing a selection of series specific rules and regulations into the full RaceRoom car spectrum, SimXperience Accuforce steering wheel compatibility, several crash fixes and the rather cool ability to run two race format events and reversed grids during multiplayer racing...

With the new patch now deployed and the game back online, fans can begin to pass the time before several new pieces of content are due to hit the game in the coming weeks. More on that later...


November 15th Patch Notes:

Game:

• Added new content for upcoming releases and competitions.
• Unified Experiences and moved some of the experience specific settings to R3E.
• Added “Depth of Field” visual effect. Active in TV cameras, Hood camera, Action cameras and Free Camera. CTRL-M enables a simple UI to adjust the blurring effects and focus position.
• Shared Memory API overhaul, added various additional data and potential for backward compatibility starting this patch.
• Added support for SimXperience Accuforce steering wheel.
• Extended freedom of movement for the freecam and added two modes for it: “Attached to the car position and its rotation” and “Attached to the car position only”. Pressing the key bound to free cam will cycle through the three modes.
• When under a slow-down penalty, collisions with the car are disabled.
• When under a slow-down penalty, the amount of speed the player is still allowed to carry has been increased, but keep in mind you will be giving back any time gained at a slower rate by driving faster.
• Fixed an issue where the ghost car was producing audio while waiting for the player’s car at the S/F line.
• Fixed so compact data display shows fuel in gallons if mph/imperial units are selected.
• Fixed replays missing the first 60 seconds of a race by pausing replay recording during garage phase.
• Re-enabled hud during garage phase while waiting on the grid.
• Changed position bar so it doesn’t display information during garage phase.
• Fixed the issue where you would get disqualified immediately after the lights in hillclimb tracks.
• Fixed using arrow keys for increase/decrease in pit menu going through settings very fast.
• Fixed a crash that was occurring when leaving a Hillclimb session after finishing a run.
• Fixed rear lights flashing when pressing the headlights button
• Ensured that certain reset commands are sent to DirectInput devices when effects are disabled.
• Changed “off” steerForceVibe period to be 2000000.
• Increased maximum execution time for all communications from 30 seconds to a minute or higher.
• Disabled FFB when reaching the spring based lock if it's active.
• Cleaned up the ffb code a bit while fixing the above issue. Removed mimic code and made sure all ffb effects are turned off during AI control.
• Fixed game crashing while navigating in the portal while in a competition session.
• Fixed an issue with damage when downshifting without clutch.
• Disabled foreground window lock when playing fullscreen.
• Disabled game minimizing when losing focus.
• Fixed game crashing/freezing when pressing pit request button while no audio device is connected.
• Changed throttle pedal zero magnitude and vibe slope default values to 0.

Multiplayer:

• Added 2 race format and reversed grids.
• The netcode is now IPv6 compatible.
• Removed some unused functions from netcode that were somehow triggering crashes for some players.
• Potentially fixed an issue where cars not within Peer to Peer range would become invisible.
• We now allow duplicate server names to avoid admins not being able to access their settings if a condition such as their IP changes. (Also means we no longer have to remove their names from the associated server list manually).
• Added so the associated server list clears names that have been inactive for 30 days.
• Removed the gridwalk camera phase since it’s irrelevant with the introduction of garage phase.
• Fixed issue with xinput controllers ending up in an unusable state after disconnect/reconnect/usb port switch etc.
• Fixed issue with opponent cars briefly disappearing during starting light phase.

Sounds, Cameras, Physics, AI:

• Significant AI logic improvements.
• Added punctures to the tire model. Past the lowest possible wear value, tires have a chance to puncture.
• It is now impossible to disable autoclutch aid on sequential gearbox’d cars.
• DRS effects on the aerodynamics of the car have been reworked
• DRS allowance is now 3 activations per lap with a gap detection of 1 second at the S/F line.
• Push 2 Pass is now disabled in qualifying and competitions to comply with the changes made in 2016 to the Audi Sport TT Cup official rules and regulations.
• Downshifting without clutch on a H-Pattern gearbox now properly damages the gearbox.
• BMW 635 : Interior cockpit texture update
• BMW M1 Procar : Better standing starts for AI, made AI less easily roll up on curbs.
• DTM : DRS adjustment to previous seasons so they also benefit from DRS aerodynamics improvements.
• DTM 1992 : Removed Traction Control ranges
• Ford Mustang GTO : Coast revs sounds adjustments in cockpit.
• Formula cars : New internal gearshifts sounds (except the Junior which is H-pattern)
• Silhouette class cars now have new action cameras
• WTCC 2015 : AI optimizations for new code
• Hockenheim : AI optimizations for new code
• Indianapolis : New sets of TV cameras (reminder : use End key to cycle through them)
• Laguna Seca : New sets of TV cameras
• Lausitzring : New sets of TV cameras
• Macau : AI optimization for new code. Hairpin is a no-overtake zone (for AI only for now, until we have a flag system for players)
• Monza : New sets of TV cameras
• Moscow : AI Optimizations for new code on the FIM layout
• Norisring : New sets of TV cameras, AI optimizations for new code
• Paul Ricard : AI optimizations for new code, tweaks to cut corridors
• Portimao : New sets of TV cameras, AI optimizations for new code
• Slovakiaring : Sector gates are now matching the real track
• Sonoma Raceway : AI Optimizations for new code
• Spa-Francorchamps : Runoff tarmac areas now properly have lowered grip, fixed faulty cut rules near the pit exit on Combined and Classic layouts
• Zandvoort : AI optimizations for new code

Art:

• LOD system improvements on many cars
• Adjustment of distances for the fog effects for smoother transitions on zoomed cameras
• DTM tracks have received their 2016 season advertisement dressing as well as various bug fixes
• Audi TT cup : adjustment to the invisible collision box of the car, size adjustment of the drop shadow area under the car.BMW 635 : Fixed a hole in the engine bay when the front of the car is damaged
• Chevrolet Camaro GT3 : Fixed a slight blurb of paint on the trunk of livery #16
• Mercedes SLS GT3 : Fixed an issue with the visual damage on the hood, fixed a few issues on various liveries
• Volvo 240T : Interior textures update
• Hockenheim : Updates of the 3D curbs, various bug fixes
• Hungaroring : Updates of the 3D curbs, various bug fixes
• Oschersleben : Updates of the 3D curbs, slight tweaks to camber and elevation in certain areas, reduced some nasty bumps on the track surface.
• Macau : Resurfaced the track to be less bumpy, various bug fixes
• Monza : Visual tweaks
• Nuerburgring : Distance markers for the chicane are now visible, various bug fixes.
• Spa-Francorchamps : Fixed various bugs, added one advertisement location at La Source.
• Zandvoort : Made the exit curb at turn 4 (Hugenholtzbocht) 20 meters longer.

Portal & Backend

• Revamped Portal Store with new theme and new structure.
• Fixed some issues with certain special characters causing issues in initial username on new accounts.
• Implemented Essential Packs and Car Class Packs.

RaceRoom Racing Experience is available via the Steam Network. You can download the game with limited content for free, and various track and car packs are available to purchase both in the in game store and on Steam.

Check out the RaceRoom Racing Experience sub forum here at RaceDepartment. We have some of the best conversation, all the latest news and of course our epic Racing Club, where you can take the sim out on track against your fellow R3E players.

Are you happy with the new patch? How are you finding the game post update? Looking forward to the new content? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Erick Goldner]

They all have the ups and downs!

I've already raced 2 champs on R3R with the 2 systems:
Slow Down (WTCC 15) and now DTM15 with the Drive Through and both are really just harmfull in certain conditions.
The Slow down can crush your race if you take it and someone bumps your hear! They are the 3 longest seconds ever!
The DT is more acceptable, but it doesn't seem to have a pattern where it will give you a Warning or just give you the DT!
In either way, on both you race most of the time with fear of getting a DT and just have your race fu** up!

 

[Will Mazeo]

In a perfect world the cut track system would consider more variables, could split sectors into even more sectors to compare times, check if other cars are much slower around you (in case you just had to avoid a spinnin car) etc. Right now all these seems like black and white "touch this line and you are done noob" kind of system.

 

[Andy_J]

This slow down penalty system would be fine if you only got a penalty for cutting the track and getting all 4 wheels over the white line, but you also get one for going off track accidently or by being pushed off. I would be happy with drive through penalties every time for offenders though and just bad/sticky traction for those who go off track completely if you know what I mean? I just wish all racers could race clean and only get 2 wheels over a white line like I and other fair racers do. That would solve a lot of the problems in RRE.

 

[Kenny Paton]

They should have done it in a way you have a few laps to do this so people can pick a better side of the track and slow down.

What they have done is implement exactly what the online community has been asking for. Unfortunately drive through and stop n' go penalties normally result in a quit so this works best. I like the idea of instant punishment, it is the same for all and is over and done with, no need for post race nonsense.

 

[Kenny Paton]

This slow down penalty system would be fine if you only got a penalty for cutting the track and getting all 4 wheels over the white line, but you also get one for going off track accidently or by being pushed off. I would be happy with drive through penalties every time for offenders though and just bad/sticky traction for those who go off track completely if you know what I mean? I just wish all racers could race clean and only get 2 wheels over a white line like I and other fair racers do. That would solve a lot of the problems in RRE.

Good point on the offs Andy, maybe in a future patch they'll look at that.

 

[Will Mazeo]

What they have done is implement exactly what the online community has been asking for. Unfortunately drive through and stop n' go penalties normally result in a quit so this works best. I like the idea of instant punishment, it is the same for all and is over and done with, no need for post race nonsense.

That's not the point. Transparent cars is ridiculous for a simulator

 

[Kenny Paton]

That's not the point. Transparent cars is ridiculous for a simulator

It works fine when we're racing in the club, and since that's my main concern and the members seem happy with the new implementation then to be honest I don't really care what the sim fascists think.

 

[RaceNut]

@RaceNut Just spotted your settings on the accuforce forum, ill be giving those a try, did you leave any of the canned effects on? Im finding the gear shift effect very odd, kinda like driving over a tiny rumble strip unlike automobilista where you can feel the car move slightly through the wheel.

Any of those profiles are quite old by now so I wouldn't use those as a good reference; with the AccuForce, SimXperience is recommending starting with the RR AccuForce default setup and tweak from there.

I've tried mixing in a little of the canned effects but, didn't get anything from a small amount of Shift effect so turned it off. The main thing I found is that the RR Vertical Forces setting should be adjusted cautiously as the bumps & curbs can get rather violent.

Something feels strange with some of the high-rise curbs though, where the wheel pulls in the opposite direction than expected; I'm not sure what that's about.

 

[Will Mazeo]

It works fine when we're racing in the club, and since that's my main concern and the members seem happy with the new implementation then to be honest I don't really care what the sim fascists think.

"sim fascists" for having an opinion, oh man... the internet is becoming such a crazy place. Too bad this is moving to IRL too. And this folks, comes form a RD "Staff" member. All that is left now is my comment edited and me banned for this lol

My point is: people have been trying to remove risks that exist in real life racing. This is not nice, it's not like we'll get killed in a sim or anything. You gotta let people deal with accidents and its virtual risks/frustrations too.

 

[Kenny Paton]

"sim fascists" for having an opinion, oh man... the internet is becoming such a crazy place. Too bad this is moving to IRL too. And this folks, comes form a RD "Staff" member. All that is left now is my comment edited and me banned for this lol

My point is: people have been trying to remove risks that exist in real life racing. This is not nice, it's not like we'll get killed in a sim or anything. You gotta let people deal with accidents and its virtual risks/frustrations too.

As someone who has been involved in several very real accidents including a high speed one where a driver turned right in front of me and I would have killed him if I had hit him, in a game I'm perfectly happy if that situation doesn't arise. The game had the slow down, they are not going to remove it, so what the have done is what members of the community asked for. Yes it is not to everybody's taste but since it is a game we play for enjoyment then I think that's fair.
The fascist remark was not directed at you personally, but over the years in racing games I have observed that there is a school of thought that would impose on every game a restricted vision of what constitutes a racing game. I notice that those of us who take a more casual approach are less likely to appear on threads complaining and demanding. And since i can't get the damn game to fire up I'm on here whingeing.
I'll just go and have another play at my AMS beta, the patch of which worked flawlessly as usual.

 

[Vangelis Parginos]

@Will Mazeo my friend no matter how much i like all good simulators, if something not so much of a sim, helps me and all the others that we are racing for fun to have some fun and not frustration and nerves, then its more than welcome. And the truth is that no matter how much of simulation we want to have in our games, its always gonna be simulation.
I don't say its the best solution to become transparent, but if that have happened couple times i remember crashing or being crashed from that stupid slow down, definitely i prefer the transparency.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Oh I'm rather casual too, I don't mind if gears need to be fully unlocked if the real car isn't for example. But some things like transparent cars is going too far. We'll soon see devs start giving people bonus seconds to their lap times so they don't feel too bad being much slower than the aliens

 

[Andy_J]

That's not the point. Transparent cars is ridiculous for a simulator

Got to ask you, would you be happy if you were on the racing line around a fast corner just to smash into a car that has been slowed down to a crawl by a penalty? And you were racing for a podium finish too?
Just curious as to how you would like it done? Me, well I don't like them either because they don't happen in real life. I would really like a system that's clever enough to count the times you cheat by getting all 4 wheels over the white line and then it deducts time/and/or positions from the final result at the end of the race (* Sector 3, IS THIS A BRILLIANT IDEA OR WHAT? You are free to copy it and all I want in return is 2000 vrp ). That would work for me. The racing doesn't get slowed down and no cars become ghosts. And the cheats who cross the lines get penalised.

 

[Kevin Bradley]

@Andy Jackson what an ingenious solution! First or second time the driver goes outside track limits he gets a warning - after that a 10 second time penalty to be applied to the post race result. A message flashes up on screen to all participants stating who has got the time penalty so that everyone knows the situation at the time the penalty is incurred. Best of all no in-race slow down penalty required!

 

[Keith Joyce]

Got to ask you, would you be happy if you were on the racing line around a fast corner just to smash into a car that has been slowed down to a crawl by a penalty? And you were racing for a podium finish too?
Just curious as to how you would like it done? Me, well I don't like them either because they don't happen in real life. I would really like a system that's clever enough to count the times you cheat by getting all 4 wheels over the white line and then it deducts time/and/or positions from the final result at the end of the race (* Sector 3, IS THIS A BRILLIANT IDEA OR WHAT? You are free to copy it and all I want in return is 2000 vrp ). That would work for me. The racing doesn't get slowed down and no cars become ghosts. And the cheats who cross the lines get penalised.

Great idea Andy - surely someone thought of this before???

 

[Bez]

Any of those profiles are quite old by now so I wouldn't use those as a good reference; with the AccuForce, SimXperience is recommending starting with the RR AccuForce default setup and tweak from there.

I've tried mixing in a little of the canned effects but, didn't get anything from a small amount of Shift effect so turned it off. The main thing I found is that the RR Vertical Forces setting should be adjusted cautiously as the bumps & curbs can get rather violent.

Something feels strange with some of the high-rise curbs though, where the wheel pulls in the opposite direction than expected; I'm not sure what that's about.

Yeah Ive started a fresh profile, the settings i was referring to were in a new thread you replied to yesterday where you mentioned the vertical forces, Im fairly impressed with the improvements so far and seems SX is still tweaking the settings as another update dropped on SC4 that mentions further improvements, finally get some use out of the content ive got sitting in rrre.

 

[Kenny Paton]

I would really like a system that's clever enough to count the times you cheat by getting all 4 wheels over the white line and then it deducts time/and/or positions from the final result at the end of the race

That would get everyone's vote I think.

 

[Vangelis Parginos]

It should be easy, its happening at the F1 games for many years.

 

[Kenny Paton]

It should be easy, its happening at the F1 games for many years.

I would imagine it's a KW thing, as the MP is geared towards their wishes. You're probably not going to get many happy answers form me regarding R3E right now.
On the upside Reiza have done a brilliant job with Imola, all incarnations look great.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Got to ask you, would you be happy if you were on the racing line around a fast corner just to smash into a car that has been slowed down to a crawl by a penalty? And you were racing for a podium finish too?
Just curious as to how you would like it done? Me, well I don't like them either because they don't happen in real life. I would really like a system that's clever enough to count the times you cheat by getting all 4 wheels over the white line and then it deducts time/and/or positions from the final result at the end of the race (* Sector 3, IS THIS A BRILLIANT IDEA OR WHAT? You are free to copy it and all I want in return is 2000 vrp ). That would work for me. The racing doesn't get slowed down and no cars become ghosts. And the cheats who cross the lines get penalised.

That's rather a dumb question, nobody woud like that. As I said in previous posts... slowing down penalty is nice but could be done different like give people a few laps to complete it just like a stop and go penalty would be, so the driver can pick a better moment to do it, you could even add a key telling the game "I'm doing my penalty now" so it can kind of assist you with the speed. There are many ways this could be implemented safely and easily with a HUD to the driver with a penalty and some HUD/radio messages to the other drivers around telling the car ahead has got a penalty to serve.
Meh in real life all people have is some radio, a few leds on their wheel and marshalls waving flags when they are at 250kph+
But yes adding time in the end is better as long as the game is telling you what is going on and give you the chance to give the time back before because you could have situations like avoiding a car that just crashed and then you get time added for nothing.
This is no rocket science.