RaceRoom Racing Experience Updated | Dubai Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

Sector3 Studios have updated RaceRoom Racing Experience alongside release of the Dubai Autodrome circuit.

Having been on the tease for the last few weeks, the latest circuit addition to RaceRoom Racing Experience is here - the Dubai Autodrome.

Available now for via the RaceRoom Store, the new circuit comes in four different configurations (Grand Prix - 5.39 km | Club Circuit 2.46 km | National Circuit 3.56 km | International Circuit 4.29 km), and retails for around £4.44.

Although very much the headline of the new update, other highlights from the latest build of the title include improvements to the AI behaviour of the quality WTCR touring car content within the game, various very welcome online improvements and quite a few other small improvements, details of which can be seen below:

Update details:
Download size = 2.1 GB
Client version = 0.8.0.6592
Client BuildID = 4249150
Dedicated server version = 55.0.1028
Dedicated server BuildID = 4249152

Dedicated Server:

• Added ability to determine the starting position of the race. When a starting grid is defined on the server, qualifying session will be skipped entirely. The server will place players on the grid in the exact order defined by the server administrator and will not perform any sorting by performance index.
  
• Added ability to import users from a given leaderboard and a given team name to pre-populate the starting grid.
  
• Added a chat box in the dedicated server interface to allow the broadcasting of messages to all players from the server admin.
  
• Added a Weight Manager tool to easily manage the administration of success ballast for a large amount of players throughout a league championship. The manager can be pointed at the result of a past race and all players can be assigned weight following any kind of regulation with the help of custom formula's.
  
• Added a latency indicator next to each of the connected players. It shows an average value that is calculated over a full minute.

Game:

• Adjustments to Slowdown penalties that have been too harsh since the previous update, especially in high speed corners.
  
• Increased connection timeouts from 30 seconds to 60 seconds in the hope to reduce the amount of disconnects from multiplayer sessions.
  
• Improved automatic choice of graphic settings (at first start) based on the detected hardware.
  
• Improved visibility of the message stating a game restart is required after switching to another monitor in fullscreen mode.
  
• Attempt at getting rid of weird laser weapon sounds when cars transition from track to their garage position ( example )
  
• Fixed saving of two identical screenshots when pressing the screenshot key while on a menu

Content:

• Dubai Autodrome is now available with 4 layouts ( Grand Prix ; International ; National ; Club )
  
• Audi R8 LMS - Fixed cockpit camera that was slightly off center
  
• Audi TT cup - Fixed underbody feelers that were 2,5cm too low and made the car scrape the tarmac when it in fact should not.
  
• Formula RaceRoom 90 - Updated physics (suspension and differential, rev limiter logic, increased oil cooling slightly); Improvements to AI behavior
  
• GTR1 car class - Updated physics (aerodynamics, turbo buildup, rev limiter logic, tuned dampers) ; Improvements to AI behavior
  
• GTR2 car class - Updated physics (Traction Control logic, dampers tuned, improved gearshifts) ; Improvements to AI behavior
  
• Honda Civic TC1 - Fixed an issue where this car couldn't easily alternate between forward and reverse gears.
  
• NSU TTS - Improvements to AI behavior (no more rolling over big curbs)
  
• Pagani Zonda R - Updated physics (Traction Control logic, ABS improvements, dampers tuned, improved gearshifts)
  
• Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport - Updated physics (tuned dampers, tyre model, Traction Control and ABS improvements; Improvements to AI behavior
  
• Porsche 911 GT3 Cup - Updated physics (tyre model refinements to have much more response to tyre pressures, tuned dampers and rear camber, differential tweaks) ; Improvements to AI behavior
  
• Porsche 934 RSR - Tweaked rearview mirror UV
  
• Porsche 911 Carrera (964) - Updated physics (rev limiter behavior, differential, suspension and dampers, tyre model, ABS improvements); Improvements to AI behavior
  
• WTCR - Improvements to AI behavior

RaceRoom Racing Experience is a PC exclusive racing simulation, available now.

The RaceRoom Racing Experience sub forum here at RaceDepartment is the place to go for news and discussion about this excellent racing title. In the forum you can chat with fellow fans and take part in our excellent RaceRoom Racing Experience Racing Club - a great way to race in a clean, fair and fun online environment.

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[Insert Coin]

At high resolutions their engine is not very demanding on modern CPU's. You would gain 10% more fps?

That's why: I have a i7 2600k from the stone ages (@4.5 GHz).

 

[Miguel Amorim]

I'll enjoy what we have, rather than worry about what we don't.

Just for the record, I do enjoy RaceRoom. Otherwise I wouldn't be playing it and buying content.
However I sure would welcome some evolution in the sim, as I'm sure many other people also would.

 

[pastranario3]

Sorry for my ignorance, Raceroom's graphics engine, can it stand rain? Has the developer ever talked about this?

 

[Miguel Amorim]

Sorry for my ignorance, Raceroom's graphics engine, can it stand rain? Has the developer ever talked about this?

I just posted regarding this subject. The actual engine is DirectX 9 and doesn't have dynamic weather effects nor day and night cycle.
That's why so many people talk about DirectX 11 and upgrades.
We have to wait and see what developers have in store for new updates.

 

[Andrew Harper]

I'll take R3E in DX9 over Unreal Engine 4 ANY day...

Still one of the best looking and sounding sims in existence and it's on old AF tech.

Yes that's what occurs to me as well. I can run this game in 4k at ultra everything and it looks brilliant. Headphones with that lovely Sector3 soundtrack.

Sector 3 take a lot of time on things like textures and details and I think that's what makes the difference too.

I suppose the main advantages to a DX/Graphics engine update would be weather and day/night cycle, however I'm not a games engine expert so could be wrong. I've seen far more advanced titles running far more advanced engines and only looking half as good as what Sector3 can produce.

On a side note, please give Sector3 the BTCC license, even if they made it simcade like we all know they've done a brilliant job with WTCC and TCR. Just a thought

 

[anton_Chez]

I suppose the main advantages to a DX/Graphics engine update would be weather and day/night cycle, however I'm not a games engine expert so could be wrong.

Didn't rF2 have night on the DX9 build? What about AMS? I think that's DX9 too and it has night, although I'm not 100% sure it's DX9. I think it is. Even if that were the case, that it was made possible, it's not like converting to DX11 is going to give those night and weather features out of the box. That's very much a game design choice and would need to be properly implemented.

 

[alexSchmurtz]

GTR² had night and rain on an older version of this engine... It was more a design choice to remove features than a technical limitation (but now it might be difficult to get them back, all the content has been done without the needed assets...)

 

[Nick Hill]

DX11 update guys please. I'm waiting this for reinstall

In defense of poor Jordan here, since some of you seem to be jumping on him as a malcontent. Sure, there are a few in every crowd who are never happy and like to bitch for the sport of it, but that doesn't mean that people who genuinely love the game and want to see it pushed forward to be even better shouldn't be able to offer up their wishes. My guess from reading his post is that Jordan falls in the latter category.

As far as the "why do you care what DirectX version is being run?" counter argument goes, that strikes me as either genuinely misinformed or deliberately obtuse (around here, I'm happy to say that I would lean towards the former assumption). No right minded gamer cares about DX version for the DX version's sake...but the majority of us care about graphical quality and performance (all other things being equal, most of us would take better/faster graphics in a heartbeat). Newer DX versions open the door to that.

Sector3 have made the most of what they have to work with and R3E is a really nice looking game, IMO. But given infinite time/resources, if you don't think they would have jumped on DX11 a long time ago, you're crazy. If the next RD R3E article is "Raceroom going to DX11, here are some previews..." you'd have a thread full of drooling enthusiasts (self included)...and a couple people bitching that they want Brands GP instead!

 

[Andrew Harper]

Didn't rF2 have night on the DX9 build? What about AMS? I think that's DX9 too and it has night, although I'm not 100% sure it's DX9. I think it is. Even if that were the case, that it was made possible, it's not like converting to DX11 is going to give those night and weather features out of the box. That's very much a game design choice and would need to be properly implemented.

Yes that's true, I just wasn't too sure if the newer tech made the transition easier to create. With DX11 you seem to be able to have slightly better lighting, etc.

 

[thundercat]

Sector 3 were talking about unreal 4, DX11 and then ACC came out and nobody cares anymore. ...or something like that!

 

[pastranario3]

We are in a simulation stage where you can not ignore the transitions of day and night and of course rain, it is not enough that it looks beautiful during the day, it is necessary that current simulators have these basic characteristics.

 

[Case_]

Only for one reason for me: DX11 lowers CPU usage.

It's not as simple as that. DX11 by itself doesn't really do that. It allows for certain optimizations, but lowering CPU usage is not something that is guaranteed to happen. Case in point - rF2 has basically the same CPU usage in DX9 as it has in DX11. (And it's also a good example for the visual difference between the two - before they started to implement some DX11 specific features, the only real difference between the DX9 and DX11 versions of rF2 was...that the DX11 version had a blue tint and arguably somewhat better looking antialiasing.)

At high resolutions their engine is not very demanding on modern CPU's. You would gain 10% more fps?

Quite the opposite, actually. Raceroom is very demanding on modern CPUs. You just can't really tell that at a glance, because it only uses 2 or so threads. But especially at higher framerates, it will easily max out the CPU (like most current sims), it's just that, again, it will only max out a few threads, so you might normally not even notice that.

I suppose the main advantages to a DX/Graphics engine update would be weather and day/night cycle, however I'm not a games engine expert so could be wrong.

Weather and day and night cycle are not dependent on DirectX version. Raceroom used to have day and night cycle originally, it was taken out due to what the game was originally intended for.

As far as the "why do you care what DirectX version is being run?" counter argument goes, that strikes me as either genuinely misinformed or deliberately obtuse (around here, I'm happy to say that I would lean towards the former assumption). No right minded gamer cares about DX version for the DX version's sake...but the majority of us care about graphical quality and performance (all other things being equal, most of us would take better/faster graphics in a heartbeat). Newer DX versions open the door to that.

Again, it's not as simple as that, though. While it is true newer DX might "open the door" to some improvements, you also have to take advantage of them to benefit, and that's neither a simple nor a guaranteed thing.

And I would also point out that the original comment suggested the guy is downright avoiding Raceroom because it doesn't run on DX11. That's the part I find silly. I understand why someone would like the game to run on a newer DX/engine. I would as well. I just find it bizarre to literally avoid it because it doesn't.

 

[Andrew Harper]

Sector 3 were talking about unreal 4, DX11 and then ACC came out and nobody cares anymore. ...or something like that!

It was odd, because on the "jobs" section on here, they advertised for UE4 coders some time ago so they were certainly looking into it (it seems).

However like you say UE4 is a great engine but it has some disadvantages when it comes to sim racing and until those are ironed out I can't see anyone else going to the trouble of using it.

 

[Patrik Marek]

DX11 offers more compelx shaders, so that you can do things additonal textures that control things liek amount of reflection, blurriness,specs., all per pixel, rather then entire mesh , which is what you get with DX9, it then also adds things like tesselation, ssao and all kinds of modern stuff like this , but if you simple run in on DX11 without chaning anything, it will look the same and the performance could be worse

night would be nice in R3E for sure, but again, if their new engine choice is UE4, it doesn't really make much sense to keep improving their current engine , casuse it's money down the drain a bit

 

[Slowdive]

Is it just me or are the Raceroom AI murderous a-holes?

 

[Nick Hill]

Is it just me or are the Raceroom AI murderous a-holes?

Ha, they can be!

Kind of hit & miss, like most AI in my experience. R3E AI is not perfect and certainly varies from track to track, but on the whole I find it as some of the best out there.

 

[Patrik Marek]

Is it just me or are the Raceroom AI murderous a-holes?

yeah, it's based on real people behavior in MP

 

[thepharcyde]

Getting left behind....not buying any new content until something revolutionary comes along.

Bar the sound engine, I struggle to see what this game really has to offer?

 

[Isaac Chavira]

I'm doing a TCR event as soon as I get home.

 

[Brandon Wright]

Is it just me or are the Raceroom AI murderous a-holes?

They are, but I typically found that if they were murdering me dead it meant I was taking that corner too slow. So it actually became kind of a learning tool for me by showing me which turns I could take faster, and once I took them faster the murder rate dropped drastically.

Bar the sound engine, I struggle to see what this game really has to offer?

This game used to be the ugly duckling of the sim racing world but it's really blossomed into one of the true swans. IMO, aside from the lack of time transition and rain it might well be the most complete sim racing package going right now. Oodles of cars, many of which you never see in other games. And not just one or two from a class, these are well-fleshed out if not complete classes and you get the rulesets for the specific series too. Old cars, new cars, open-wheeled cars, prototype cars, hillclimb cars. Also oodles of tracks that are full of atmosphere, many of which you never see in other games. Lots of options for multi-player, and now you can even set your own starting grid. With the recent addition of adjustable tire pressures I think you now have all the car setup options you could want. AI that's adaptive, actually challenging, and satisfying as hell to beat. Custom championships. Functional DRS zones. Full pitstops and pit strategies (and I believe animated pit crews?). Good physics and FFB. Online leaderboards. Monthly challenges and eSports. VR and triple-screen support. Hell, you even get a few cars and tracks for free before ever spending a penny. Probably the friendliest players and devs in the community too. Oh, and don't forget Eat.Sleep.Race. And the sweet sweet icing on the top of all of that is the best soundtrack in the business.

Bar weather/time cycle, I struggle to see what this game is lacking?