RaceRoom to go Unreal 4 in Future

[Paul Jeffrey]

Sector3 Studios to upgrade RaceRoom Racing Experience to Unreal Engine 4 and include day / night cycle, enhanced weather and improved physics in future development plans.

When RaceDepartment went to visit the new UK office of SimBin Studios a few weeks ago we had the chance to have a chat with Sector3 Studio Head Christopher Speed, where we took the opportunity to speak about the future of RaceRoom Racing Experience and gauge how the Swedish developers plan to prolong the relevance of the title in light of an increasingly competitive sim racing marketplace.

Many of us know the history behind RaceRoom Racing Experience, and the great strides the game has made under the leadership of Sector3 following their formation back in 2014. However with many top quality games such as Project CARS 1&2, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista and many others flooding into the racing game space, what do Sector3 intend to do with RaceRoom Racing Experience in order to improve their positon in the sim racing pecking order?

"We know with R3E the game engine is old in comparison to the competition, there is no doubt we are missing certain elements and eye candy the others have. We took the decision that Unreal is the way to go" said Chris Speed.
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This is indeed exciting news for RaceRoom fans, and with a new graphics engine sat in front of an already very enjoyable force feedback experience and some incredibly well made content, a move to the Unreal engine and the addition of all the benefits that will bring could prove to be somewhat of a game changer for the title - proof positive that the current investment of both time and money fans have dropped on RaceRoom Racing Experience won't be wasted in light of the GTR3 announcement.

"Eventually RaceRoom will move across to this new technology, but first and foremost it's GTR3. Then we look into what we can do with RaceRoom afterwards.... he continued.
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Of course with SimBin Studios UK dedicated to working on the new game, and Sector3 still progressing with the current RaceRoom project as well as lending support to GTR3, it will be some time until the benefits of the Unreal 4 development see light of day in RaceRoom.

"There is no doubt that the work that is going on for GTR3 we will see in RaceRoom when we make that decision to switch, which means day night cycle, weather, improved physics, AI and visuals. All these goodies will be coming across when the time is right" added Speed.
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This is very positive news for fans of R3E. With the long term aim of SimBin and Sector3 to get the Unreal Engine 4 working to it's maximum potential, Speed was at pains to stress that the continual development of RaceRoom remains Sector3's priority. He went on to acknowledge the fact that many currently missing features that fans consider to be essential content are in development and should be included in the title as part of future update.

"No doubt there is still some key elements missing in RaceRoom... Flag system, tyre compounds on certain cars is being worked on. Multiclass racing we have a design on paper and will at some point work towards that but first and foremost we have to get the structured MP racing features done"
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When pushed on the subject of the sheer volume of work to be undertaken in order to get both games where they want them to be, Speed explained a little more about the division of resources

Think of it like this, two separate studios working on two separate products. We are under the same umbrella but we are two separate entities working on different things. We are supporting one another in different areas and provide feedback where necessary, but the Swedish studio is still solely responsible for RaceRoom whilst the UK studio is responsible for GTR3.​

This is a very intelligent move by both development teams as it allows Sector3 and RaceRoom Racing Experience to benefit from a considerable jump up in technology and graphical standards, without the need to undertake a costly development exercise in terms of both money and resource if the team were to go it alone with just the RaceRoom product. Basically by developing a shared structure of support with SimBin and GTR3, Sector3 will be able to utilise the hard work and development effort that goes into producing the new GTR3 game for the benefit of R3E, a move that may have been more difficult and costly to achieve otherwise.

For a sim running an older engine and DX9, RaceRoom still looks a very visually pleasing title and stands well amongst it's sim racing rivals. The studio are well known for the quality of their content, and have some very impressive licences already under lock and key in terms of the WTCC, DTM and ADAC deals, plus some interesting open wheel vehicles and a number of official licenced cars and manufacturers, so a move over to the latest generation graphics and inclusion of weather, time of day, improved physics and all those other things that are yet to be revealed, it looks like the future of this game is very secure and rather exciting indeed.

In case anyone wondered how much more development RaceRoom has in front of it in light of the new announcement, I'll leave that over to Chris to put those doubts to rest.

"We want to assure everyone that RaceRoom is going to be here for a long time."​

We will be publishing the full RaceRoom interview sometime in the next couple of days. We will talk more about the future development, have a deeper look at the focus on eSports racing, chat about some new content coming to the sim and take a look behind the scenes at what RaceRoom has in store for their fans heading off into the future.

Stay tuned to RaceDepartment over the weekend to read more!


RaceRoom Racing Experience is a PC only racing simulation from Sector3 Studios. Available to download for free with limited content, further cars and tracks can be added either as individual items or full packs via the in game RaceRoom store.

Here at RaceDepartment we do club racing. We do club racing very well indeed. If you feel the need for an online fix then please head over to our RaceRoom Racing Experience League and Club Racing forum to have a look what we have on offer and sign up for an event - all skills and experiences welcomed.

If you don't want to get involved in the racing action then head on over to the RaceRoom Racing Experience sub forum to catch up with all the latest news and discussions regarding the game, download a mod or two or just simply hang out with like minded individuals. All here at RaceDepartment.com!

Do you feel excited for the future of RaceRoom Racing Experience? What do you most anticipate? What series licences would you like the developers to secure for the game? What new features are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Case_]

I haven't touched the game in a year. Loaded it up yesterday

Very informed and hundreds of hours driving it.

Well, obviously it was a very long day yesterday.

 

[Patrik Marek]

Feb2017,.. hmmm, now we are August 2018

 

[Case_]

Well, the switch was clear to be years away, so no surprises there. But it's been mentioned some of their staff is already working on converting the content to UE4, even though we're likely *still* years away (I'd say 2020 is a reasonable assumption, or at the earliest late 2019).

 

[UMC 22]

Didn't they also mention that a lot of the groundwork was being done in GTR3 first by their sister company? I would assume R3E's conversion would be well after the release of that title, and there's no confirmed date for that yet. (And probably wont be for quite some time.)

 

[Case_]

Yep, they're supposed to switch only after the groundwork has been laid down by GTR3.

 

[Patrik Marek]

but I can't wait that long .. I guess I have to make my own touring car game

 

[racingdud3]

but I can't wait that long .. I guess I have to make my own touring car game

Epic answer! hahaha

If i am right .....We are on 2020 where is my Unreal R3Experience?

 

[UMC 22]

If i am right .....We are on 2020 where is my Unreal R3Experience?

Probably nowhere. Nobody ever gave any dates. The only real mention of this even happening at all was as a direct result of GTR 3 laying the groundwork first, and R3E following. Since GTR 3 seems to have become vapourware, there is no groundwork to follow. To me that suggests it might not happen at all, unless S3 make the decision to do all the work themselves. I think they have enough work to do already with their plans for the core sim, without changing the entire engine for the vocal minority demanding rain and fully 3D trees.

 

[Kurupt CDN]

A few months ago, could have been yrs now? ....after I just realized this thread announcement is nearly 3 yrs old lol
The devs mentioned the possibility of adding dx11 before the engine move to boost performance and VR.
I would like to know where they stand on that?
I'd be happy with that and running VR in a smooth 90fps as opposed to asw 45 fps

 

[Robes]

I hope they aren't going this direction anymore, as a VR user I don't think Unreal is a great solution. It's taken ACC a long time to get to a position where VR is acceptable.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

I would not call that acceptable, still unplayable garbage.
R3E on the other hand is easily the best looking and great performing VR title.

 

[Neils on Wheels]

This last update added time progression, is there any scope at all for day/night cycle in the current engine?

 

[Kurupt CDN]

I would not call that acceptable, still unplayable garbage.
R3E on the other hand is easily the best looking and great performing VR title.

Tell me your VR secrets please!

I've tried all the suggestions on the Sector3 forms. The menus alone in VR make me wanna vomit when navigating them, in-game looks like a slide show when watching other cars drive by in the pits.
Only way I can get the game to run decent but degrades the visuals is by lowering the VR experience from 90hrz to 60hrz in the wmr portal.
I just upgraded my system and VR performance in this title is terrible on low settings.
I5 9600k/RTX 2060S 8gb/16gb ram
Of all the race sims I run I find iracing is hands down the clearest and very well optimized.

 

[Robes]

I agree, AC, iRacing and rF2 all seem to perform better than Raceroom in VR, the only one worse is ACC. Still, since upgrading I can get a suitable performance for VR, but it’s certainly not the most efficient game engine.

And yes, the menus are terrible, no idea why. I get 27fps in the menus.

 

[BrunoBæ]

This low menu fps thing could also have another cause than poor VR optimizing.
Because a lot of times in Raceroom I have seen very low fps while in menus even if the fps on track(LB mode) is very high.
And Im only running a flat 2D screen.

 

[Slapped]

Tell me your VR secrets please!

It's no secret - RTX 2080 ti

That said I've seen some horrible performance in R3E on the Rift S, however quitting R2E and relaunching seems to mostly cure the issues a lot of the time.

Menus will still have a major stutter though.

 

[thepharcyde]

It's no secret - RTX 2080 ti

That said I've seen some horrible performance in R3E on the Rift S, however quitting R2E and relaunching seems to mostly cure the issues a lot of the time.

Menus will still have a major stutter though.

For rendering video, a beefy CPU is needed too for AI

As a DK2 user, I can run solid at 37.5 half of the 75 using ASW.

This is using an i5 6600k o/c to 4.6 and an o/c 1070 blower

When FSX 2020, is released is when I will update into current Gen hardware.

 

[Romandevison]

Probably nowhere. Nobody ever gave any dates. The only real mention of this even happening at all was as a direct result of GTR 3 laying the groundwork first, and R3E following. Since GTR 3 seems to have become vapourware, there is no groundwork to follow. To me that suggests it might not happen at all, unless S3 make the decision to do all the work themselves. I think they have enough work to do already with their plans for the core sim, without changing the entire engine for the vocal minority demanding rain and fully 3D trees.

For example? I like RRE, but I'm embarrassed by the unhealthy amount of content released as cars/tracks, even though game changes are minimal. I understand that the company has to pay its employees' salaries, but there are reasonable limits to everything. Obviously, technical changes bring a lot of work, but not money.

Rain in game 2020 - it should become the norm, not some whim. By the way, the trees are definitely not worth changing - they are an example for 2D modeling.

 

[Andy Kettler]

2D trees are long outdated. Only some race sims are still using them.

 

[Romandevison]

2D trees are long outdated. Only some race sims are still using them.

Sure, but it can affect the old systems, as it does in ACC. Choosing between 2D and 3D would be ideal, but too laborious.