RaceRoom Updated and Imola Circuit Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

RaceRoom Racing Experience has received a major update today, applying plenty of fixes and enhancements as well as the Imola circuit DLC...

Complete with the usual abundance of fixes and improvements, the new update for September also contains some very interesting feature updates, not least of which is the inclusion of tyre compound choices coming to the sim for the very first time. Available as Primary and Alternative variations, the new compound feature has been added to the Formula RR US and Formula X-17 cars, with further updates to a wider selection of vehicles scheduled to be released in future build updates.

Other highlights from the latest release include a very promising reduction in the amount of join lag experienced by players driving on when another car enters the multiplayer event. This has been something of a long running issue with RaceRoom, and should be a very positive improvement for those who spend time driving the title in online events.

Also related to multiplayer racing, Sector3 have included a new warm up session option prior to online races. Brought to the simulation as a selectable option, the warm up session can be applied to the multiplayer event setup before any race event, either standalone or multirace formats.

Imola
On the content front, Sector3 Studios have made available the Imola circuit to the game, available now for £4.49 and coming with a single layout, the modern 4.909 km variation of the circuit reflects the current layout and artwork in use at present by the real world venue.

Imola can be purchased from the RaceRoom Store HERE.

September 2017 Change Log

Game:

• Reduced Join Lags in multiplayer
• Fixed car-to-car collisions that could sometimes have “magnetic” effects of either repulsion or attraction.
• Results files generated by the dedicated server now include car class information and results per class.
• Added warmup option to dedicated servers. When multiple race sessions are enabled, a warmup will be taking place before each of them.
• Sessions such as free practice, leaderboard challenge, competitions, “try before you buy” are now set to last much longer than anyone could reasonably have a need for (24 hours)
• Decision to inflict Stop and Go and Drive Through penalties is now more lenient.
• Slow Down penalties will no longer increase once the player has triggered the automatic slow down of his car.
• Wall Riding prevention no longer triggers if player is applying pressure on the brakes at the moment of impact.
• Graphic options : Car reflections can now be set to Low, Medium or High. High has smoother moving reflections, at the price of some performance.
• Improved AI decision making in pitstops when it comes to tire wear and changing tires.
• Cases like Hillclimb Icons where there are only 2 liveries in total no longer result in AI all picking the same car.
• Custom Championship default naming now includes the car class name instead of just the date and time.
• Resetting the car on the track now takes the raceline in consideration to avoid placing a car right on the ideal line.
• Added variables for tire compounds in shared memory.
• Made the “near pitlane” speed overlay warning only show up if player has requested a pitstop. Should prevent accidental occurrences on tracks where the pitlane entry is close to the ideal raceline (ie Salzburgring).
• Added a default profile for Fanatec 2.5 wheelbase.
  
• Fixed a short freeze of the game that was occuring when setting a faster lap in time attack modes.
• Fixed a typo in a driver name “Roberto Ravaglia” (DTM 92)
• Fixed an issue with Hockenheim alternative layouts that did not have a defined amount of turns and were messing up ranking/safety rating calculations and results in general.
• Fixed an issue with the opponents revlimiter being too low on replays recorded in multiplayer that included a Formula RaceRoom X-17
• Fixed an issue with cursor becoming invisible when using Mouse Steering and coming back from an instant replay.
• Fixed an issue where player could see the menu disappear when clicking on the timing screen right at the moment of a session switch.
• Fixed an issue where the pitlane speed overlay would remain visible on screen when finishing a race by driving through the pitlane.
• Fixed an issue where mouse scrolling in certain menu pages wasn’t working after moving the window or changing the resolution of the game.
• Fixed an issue with the fuel gauge in the BMW M235i Racing that could sometimes be lighting on and off.
• Fixed an issue with the data display in the Formula RaceRoom X-17 where it would state P2P instead of DRS in Time Attack modes.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could sometimes end up in Garage phase (prior to race) without having the menu visible.
• Fixed an issue where the player’s car would sometimes use the min/max steering lock values of the previously loaded car.
• Fixed an issue where the game would sometimes load the low detailed version of the cockpit on top of the high detailed version.
• Fixed an issue where exiting from an instant replay while in free camera would result in a mouse cursor being visible on top of the gameplay.

Sound, Physics & AI:

• Audi R18 : Fixed the default driving camera that was too high
• BMW M235i Racing : New cockpit sounds, louder, grittier, gruntier.
• Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3 : Fixed the rearview in triple screen resolutions
• Formula RaceRoom U.S. : 2 compounds are now available. Primary and Alternate. AI behavior and speed tweaks.
• Formula RaceRoom X-17 : 3 compounds are now available. Soft, Medium and Hard. AI behavior and speed tweaks.
  
• Chang International : updated cut detection rules
  
• Nordschleife : tweaked a TV camera at Aremberg that could go behind an advertisement board.
• Spa-Francorchamps : Fixed a TV camera that was set behind ADAC advertisement banners on Kemmel straight when driving GT Masters 2015 cars.
• Suzuka : Fixed a cut detection around the pitlane entry of the GP layout where you could get a cut while only driving near the pitlane path.

Art:

• BMW 134 Judd - New driver animation
• BMW M6 GT3 : improved the yellow headlights visuals
• Chevrolet Daytona Prototype : New driver animation
• DMD P20 : New driver animation
• Mistral M530 : New driver animation
• Mistral M531 : New driver animation
• Formula RaceRoom X-17 - New DRS animation for the rear wing. Much more visible.

If you want to learn more about the new tyre compounds in RaceRoom Racing Experience, check out our preview article and test race video found HERE.

For those of you looking to get the most from your RaceRoom experience, don't forget we are hosting our first ever RaceRoom GT3 league soon, find out how to register HERE.

RaceRoom Racing Experience is a PC exclusive racing simulation available as a free to play base software with additional paid content available through the RaceRoom Store.

Take your RaceRoom Racing Experience online with RaceDepartment. Check out our Club and League Racing sub forum for a great place to sample a popular and wide cross-section of cars and tracks from Sector3 Studios current racing simulation. As well as organised Club and League events, we also host a number of mods and car setups, plus a thriving sub forum dedicated to this racing title.

What do you think of the latest update? Enjoying Imola? Happy to see the inclusion of tyre compounds and Imola? Let us know in the comment section below!

 

[MapoUK]

I thought I had the same issues with the AI but after studying the replays, most of the incidents I blamed on the AI were almost all my fault! I had a few races tonight in the DTM 1992 cars on various tracks including Imola and only had one issue with the AI and when I checked the replay, yet again it was my fault and not the AI's. The offline races I had tonight were some of the best I've had in any racing game, including an epic 15 lap long, 3 way battle for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

 

[Kurupt CDN]

yeah yeah...and now lets talk about physics and tyre model . i need someone convince me to use my abandoned sim since i try it. (each 2 months i go and try it agan in case they improve it....i have hope)

I could but iam not gonna bother.....you have the game try it for yourself. If you dont like go back to playing your sim of choice. Comparing or complaining isint gonna change anything. Each game has its flaws or doesnt meet certain needs for some, luckily theres plenty of options out there for us sim racers.
At the end of the day there nothing more than videos games, play what makes you happy!
Is that a good enough answer ?

 

[Tony]

I am interested to see the profile for the 2.5 fanatec, every time I play this game I turn a corner and the FFB meter just saturates and it feels like I am on ice, anyone have any tips to stop this happening and get some feel out of the tires on cornering?. Only way I can do it is lower the FFB so much that I get very little feeling at all. Any help would be appreciated.
Do you ever think rre will support triple screens? Or should I just give up on that.

 

[Pyrofrog]

So, did this fix the AI in general, or just this track release? The AI is what keeps my far from R3E. Constantly ramming into me etc. Would be nice if this were fixed.

Have just run 5 full field races with the AI and haven't had to restart once.
Massive improvement! Seeing as AI improvements aren't mentioned was it all down to the overly harsh collision physics that have been improved? Either way its great now. Running side by side 3 wide no problems unless I run out of talent/grip. Its a pity they are still way too weak on the brakes tho.

 

[Kurupt CDN]

I am interested to see the profile for the 2.5 fanatec, every time I play this game I turn a corner and the FFB meter just saturates and it feels like I am on ice, anyone have any tips to stop this happening and get some feel out of the tires on cornering?. Only way I can do it is lower the FFB so much that I get very little feeling at all. Any help would be appreciated.
Do you ever think rre will support triple screens? Or should I just give up on that.

I am not ffb guru but i would start with one of 2 options in the controller/ffb options.
1. Check what the min ffb force is set too...anything above 10 id suggest lowering to about 2-5% i only say this as they redid the thrustmaster controller profiles and they were set to 20% and switched to 2% default which I felt made a big difference in the feedback.
2. Try lowering the lateral force in increments of 5

Another thing to check is that your wheel is set to 900 degrees rotation in your fanatec profile and your using automatic wheel rotation ingame.
If a certain car feels odd you can change the rotation as well as increasing the ffb per car in the garage/steering settings

 

[skidmark33]

This AI is a joke since the day one. But, the fanboys will say that you are too slow... yup... the AI is blind and stupid...but the problem it's up to you.

Do we really have to resort to name-calling in anticipation that someone might disagree with you about the AI?

I have 600 hours in this sim and I can count the number of times I've been unreasonably punted off by the AI on one hand (it happens but its very rare - otherwise I'd never finish a race and I've finished hundreds of races across most classes and tracks without incident).

Just like in real life if you brake unexpectedly early or if you cut across another car's line a collision will likely result. That's what happens when the car behind is on your bumper and trying to pass...

The AI is not perfect, but it is among the best I've seen in 20 years of sim-racing.

 

[RichardHessels]

I'd easily select Raceroom if it could be played offline. The others are just not complete enough.

It can. Go in to steam offline mode, and it should work.

 

[Tony]

I am not ffb guru but i would start with one of 2 options in the controller/ffb options.
1. Check what the min ffb force is set too...anything above 10 id suggest lowering to about 2-5% i only say this as they redid the thrustmaster controller profiles and they were set to 20% and switched to 2% default which I felt made a big difference in the feedback.
2. Try lowering the lateral force in increments of 5

Another thing to check is that your wheel is set to 900 degrees rotation in your fanatec profile and your using automatic wheel rotation ingame.
If a certain car feels odd you can change the rotation as well as increasing the ffb per car in the garage/steering settings

Thanks David, I tried the new Fanatec 2.5 profile today and the FFB feels much better than ever before for me. No more clipping of the FFB when I turn a corner. Happy days.

 

[Dady Cairo]

Just like in real life if you brake unexpectedly early or if you cut across another car's line a collision will likely result. That's what happens when the car behind is on your bumper and trying to pass...

No,the cars behind me had to watch,what i'm doing and react to my behavior and wait to pass-just like in real live.
This can be seen in AA and RF2.
DC

 

[Chobonator]

It can. Go in to steam offline mode, and it should work.

I'm talking about Raceroom Racing Experience.

 

[RichardHessels]

I'm talking about Raceroom Racing Experience.

I thought verification runs trough Steam, like all my other racesims.
When you put it in offline mode before you run the game those other ones work without internet.

 

[Andy_J]

I thought verification runs trough Steam, like all my other racesims.
When you put it in offline mode before you run the game those other ones work without internet.

Raceroom is an "always online " game. Try playing RRE with your router switched off.

 

[skidmark33]

No,the cars behind me had to watch,what i'm doing and react to my behavior and wait to pass-just like in real live.
This can be seen in AA and RF2.

There are a lot of excellent racing games where the AI don't hit you. Problem is they don't pass you all that much either. Once you've got past you can forget about them.

If we were talking about RaceRoom Traffic Experience then I agree, they should never make contact no matter what you do.

But if you want to race bumper to bumper at 250+ kmph there simply isn't time for them to realistically react to unusual and unexpected manoeuvres.

 

[Andrew Harper]

Thanks David, I tried the new Fanatec 2.5 profile today and the FFB feels much better than ever before for me. No more clipping of the FFB when I turn a corner. Happy days.

That's good to know, I was pleased when the game started recognising the wheel properly (which was the last update I think) so it was no longer seen as a normal wheel device without rotation settings but with an approved profile that's even better

 

[F1Aussie]

Bit disappointed that the inclusion of new features is still dreadfully slow but new content keeps rolling on out regardless. Yes I am sure they are different teams working on both but would like to see more features rolled out at a quicker pace.

 

[Andrew Harper]

Bit disappointed that the inclusion of new features is still dreadfully slow but new content keeps rolling on out regardless. Yes I am sure they are different teams working on both but would like to see more features rolled out at a quicker pace.

Sorry my friend I'm going to have to disagree with you slightly

Sector 3 do roll out fixes frequently and features at a reasonable rate and probably at the same pace as most of the other developers.

The issue is all the testing that has to be done to make sure these new features work the way they should. If it's a technical change they have to try and simulate many different types of PC setups to make sure they are stable as well. I've listened to a few of their video blogs whilst at home and they are always working on new features it's just all the coding and testing that takes the time.

Sometimes the simplest issues are so buried within the code of the original game engine that figuring out how to implement changes can unfortunately take a long time. Reiza have done an amazing job with the changes they made to AMS for example and I applaud them for it.

In contrast S397 released the DX11 version of RF2 with very little testing and basically asked the sim racing community to help them test it out. A very risky move as when the DX11 version was released about 70% of the users couldn't run the title properly anymore. It was about three months before it ran properly on my setup for example. I can just imagine the backlash when they shut down the DX9 version in a few months time!

As others have mentioned. No sim is perfect, they all have their good points and bad points.

On the subject of the Imola circuit release, yes it would have been cool to have the historic layout as well I agree but it looks like a really nice piece of work as usual by the team, looking to forward to trying it out

 

[Chobonator]

Bit disappointed that the inclusion of new features is still dreadfully slow but new content keeps rolling on out regardless. Yes I am sure they are different teams working on both but would like to see more features rolled out at a quicker pace.

Indeed, it would be nice to be able to switch the MOOD files from inside the game, like AMS with the filters in the launcher.

I'd like to organize the content in a better way also, and not on a bunch of pages with a lot of wasted space.

Make all the content unlock once you've spent a certain amount.

Some AI slowdowns haven't been fixed on the early DTM circuits.

I don't need weather effects and seasons and all that, but a bit of ambiance and a more advanced lighting/shaders could rejuvenate the look a little bit.

I'm glad they're slow, however, because the Unreal engine seems to have several problems, including anti-aliasing, so I might drop the game entirely whenever that happens.

And of course, offline mode.

 

[Case_]

Indeed, it would be nice to be able to switch the MOOD files from inside the game, like AMS with the filters in the launcher.

The mood files are a long deprecated experiment and are not meant to be used at all (even though they still work).

If you want to alter the visuals of the game, you can use something like ReShade without any issues (which is basically what AMS does as well).

 

[thatmotorfreak]

I haven't bought anything for RRE (nor will I ever do so) but I love how there's a Senna memorial on the track.

 

[Deleted member 205301]

I haven't bought anything for RRE

...so...thanks for coming ...

Would I talk about he AI ? Considering my experience, I would say that RRE has a good AI"generally speaking", the only thing anoying is when they "always" try to push you out on straight...I mean, closing a door is a thing, but going on to you on straight line, is another thing...
Some will says that drivers does the same IRL (ask to Ocon and Perez, lol), but it's annoying, every others things are pretty correct (off course, never perfect, but much better than some other titles)

To finish, I'll say that I only use titles like AC or RRE "FOR AI RACES), if I want to "really" fight against people, there is nothing better to iracing (not bothered with bad drivers of some suffering from a lack of speed)

@++