Sector3 Evaluating RaceRoom Engine Upgrade

[Paul Jeffrey]

In an informative post Sector3 Studios Producer J-F Chardon confirms the developers are "evaluating" the possibility of upgrading R3E to a more recent DirectX engine.

With an eventual move to the impressive Unreal 4 set for some time in the future of RaceRoom Racing Experience, it has come to light that the developers haven't abandoned the possibility of performing an intermediate upgrade to the game engine of the versatile racing simulation, with J-F confirming in a forum post that they "have an investigation going on to upgrade our current RaceRoom engine to a more recent directx version".

Far from abandoning the idea of eventually migrating to Unreal 4, Sector3 are interested in seeing if a short term move to a more recent DirectX version can be achieved without producing too serious a diversion of resources, with a view of helping the simulation get "a bit of fresh feel and performance to keep the engine relevant while waiting for UE4".

Elaborating on the state of play regards a move towards UE4 for RaceRoom, Chardon went on to confirm that "What I can maybe share is that we do already have artists busy bringing our RaceRoom cars and tracks to UE4", although it must be cautioned that the absolute focus of RaceRoom and Sector3 is to continue development of the present incarnation of the title while further technical developments around Unreal 4 and GTR3 are being undertaken by sister outfit SimBin Studios. So don't expect anything from Unreal 4 and RaceRoom in the immediate future, hence the interest in bringing DX upgrades to the title for the short term.

With the news that the team are continuing the hunt for performance and graphical enhancements, whilst still maintaining an impressive array of new content and feature improvements means that RaceRoom is here to stay for the long term...

Interested in learning a little about how cars are developed in RaceRoom? Check out our interview with Sector3 physics expert Alex Hodgkinson below:

RaceRoom Racing Experience is a PC exclusive racing simulation by Sector3 Studios. You can download the base game with limited content for free, with further cars and tracks available to purchase at an additional cost.

Check out the RaceRoom Racing Experience sub forum here at RaceDepartment for the latest news and discussion regarding the simulation. We have a few select mods to download, a ton of setups created by our community and our pièce de résistance the RaceRoom Racing Experience Racing Club. Head over to our club and join in a selection of races for all different skills and experiences. Top TeamSpeak banter and great racing, exclusive to premium members of RD.

Looking forward to R3E in UE4? Do you think it would be a good idea to upgrade to a high DX level prior to the move? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[felippekiss]

The evolution is necessary to not end up getting behind, the big question is how it will be done, give a slap in the visual just by slapping the visual for me does not make sense, now if the engine change was beneficial as a all for the addition of options that are not possible in the current engine there I consider interesting

 

[Shovas]

I understand the potential move to a newer dx version for vr users...as for updated graphics I could care less.....its all the missing features that GTR2 and Race 07 had that I really want in this game and have been waiting patiently for the past 5 yrs.

Had they have played there cards right they should have done what Reiza did with the rf1 and remastered/add onto the Race 07 engine instead.
Only feature missing was real road rubbering which they could have coded in.

Totally agree all the missing features are the real issue.

I doubt they'll add in tonnes of new features, they probably want to save that for GTR3, but a new graphics engine opens possibly easier day/night transitions which would be great to see in R3E. iRacing's already doing it in DX11 so it looks like it's doable.

 

[Case_]

Once again I think we should point out the common misconception - upgrading the engine to a higher DirectX version or even to a different engine altogether does not equal changing the look of the game, automatic addition of visual effects or anything like that. It mostly just opens more possibilities in performance optimization, modern hardware support/compatibility and stuff like that. Regarding visuals, it offers the option of slightly better quality stuff (like say a better looking motion blur) or the option to add more detailed objects, but not a completely different visual style - that's the game designer's job regardless of engine (though he/she might obviously be limited by the engine's capabilities).

I expect the potential update to a higher DX version would be mostly noticed by VR users - VR should not even technically be possible with DX9 if I'm not mistaken, and S3 are working around it in some clever way to get it working. So I would also expect VR to be one of the main reasons they are even considering this intermediate step.

 

[Christian Moreau]

There's one thing that should interest you guys about this, and that is multithreading. Bring me that sweet sweet improved core and GPU usage.

 

[Deleted member 503495]

It will be nice to make this game perform better than it does or should. Really looking forward to the Unreal 4 update and other (very necessary) future improvements to the core.

 

[The Oligopolist]

I don't see the point.

RRRE looks good as it is. Texture work is more important than what engine they are running. Though if they want to add weather or a day night cycle I could understand switching to another graphics engine.

 

[InsaneOzzie]

Don't understand why this game wasn't built with DX11 from the get go, seeing as DX11 has been the game standard since 2009 and RRE was released in Feb 2013. A little forethought from the developer might of saved them all the problems and extra work they face now, to bring the title in line with the competition.

By the time they get around to implementing UE4, in 4 to 5yrs, it will be out of date and years behind the competition, no real difference to RRE now. If Raceroom Entertainment AG had put game innovation ahead of shareholder revenue (profits) at the start, releasing a sim that had 75% of what GTR2 had while building it on DX11 and included the occasional free content release in the past 5yrs they might be on par with their competitors and have a higher player base to boot .

I know many will disagree & I'll be berated by others, but remember, it's just my opinion, have a good day

 

[Nick Hill]

^ yup, this guy gets it. I love R3E and they have done a great job with the sim, but it's right now at the absolute limits of CPU performance. CPUs are not getting faster, it's all about cores. Getting the right stuff offloaded to the GPU and leveraging modern multicore CPUs would represent great performance boosts and future-proofing.

 

[Case_]

seeing as DX11 has been the game standard since 2009

Not really. It's been adopted pretty slowly, in fact. It might've been introduced in 2009, but it only started to become a (kind of) standard in around 2013 or 2014. That was about the time when DX11 exclusive titles started appearing more frequently, before that, DX11 support was mostly just tacked on a DX9 or DX10 compatible game.

Also, how is R3E "out of date and years behind the competition"? Can you give an example?

 

[natedogg1867]

Once again I think we should point out the common misconception - upgrading the engine to a higher DirectX version or even to a different engine altogether does not equal changing the look of the game, automatic addition of visual effects or anything like that.

I dont understand how people can still come up with wild assumptions like that when we already have 2 examples proving your point beyond any possible doubt.

iRacing went through the DX9>11 upgrade first, and looked literally the exact same. Since different visuals/aesthetics werent the point of that update at all. And then rF2 went through it most recently, and looks nearly identical aside from the extreme overuse of the Yebis effects and post processing.

Not really. It's been adopted pretty slowly, in fact. It might've been introduced in 2009, but it only started to become a (kind of) standard in around 2013 or 2014. That was about the time when DX11 exclusive titles started appearing more frequently, before that, DX11 support was mostly just tacked on a DX9 or DX10 compatible game.

I think you could also mention that DX12 has been around since... 2015? And that is nowhere close to being the 'standard' considering how few games are even using it when they have been releasing in the past 2 yrs.

As you alluded to, just because tech exists, doesnt mean it is an accepted standard.

 

[Boby Kim]

Isn't SIMBIN making GTR3, not Sector3? Georg Ortner had stated a while back on YouTube that once GTR3 was released using UR4 that Sector3 would evaluate switching to UR4, but that it wouldn't be for at least 4-5 years. I hope he's wrong on the timeline.

Personally, I think the game looks fine as it is. But if they want to bring it closer in line to the competition, then I'm all for it.

No...Simbin is Sector 3. Just a strong marketing stunt to revive the name Simbin and announced GTR3 for a second time. R3E has everything the need: just isolate all R3E GTR3 content, wrap it in a new paper, call it GTR3 and sell horseshit while peeps think its a sucsessor of the amazingly GTR2.

 

[Case_]

I think you could also mention that DX12 has been around since... 2015? And that is nowhere close to being the 'standard' considering how few games are even using it when they have been releasing in the past 2 yrs.

That's probably at least in part thanks to all those people absolutely refusing to update their almost a decade old OS to a more up-to-date one.

It sucks, though, because updating to DX12 would likely be considerably more beneficial than updating to DX11.

 

[Deleted member 6919]

That's probably at least in part thanks to all those people absolutely refusing to update their almost a decade old OS to a more up-to-date one.

Yeh but to be honest most of this problem is due to MS being D*** heads, arrogant, and like most companies that don't have real competition, money grabbing Bastards, also the fact that win 10 is full of bloatware, and we don't have control over the updates, especially third party ones, and the fact that the major updates always seem to come with a new added problem..Long Live 7..

 

[Case_]

Let's just agree to disagree on that.

 

[MarcG]

I understand the potential move to a newer dx version for vr users...as for updated graphics I could care less.....its all the missing features that GTR2 and Race 07 had that I really want in this game and have been waiting patiently for the past 5 yrs.

I wish they had done what Reiza did with the rf1 and remastered/add onto the Race 07 engine instead.
Only feature missing was real road rubbering which they could have coded in.

Racing features draw more fans than graphics

I wholeheartedly agree with this, the lack of a Dynamic Track is one of the major tun offs for me with this Sim, that and the abrupt "End Of Race" when you cross the S/F line (immersion killer especially in VR) if that's still in (not tried for a while). Whilst fancy graphics are all nice nothing beats proper Racing Features in a Sim, I just hope with the Graphical update that a Dynamic Surface is also top of the To Do list.

 

[JusTiCe8]

IMHO, the scattering of will, power and human resources into x racing games challenging each other around (unfortunately) which is the prettiest for making cash will lead to get x average buggy games with a lot's of feature missing.

Look at what we have for now: the same game, more or less, made by various companies with all the same missing features.

If only all authors merge into a single one studio, working all together to finally make a proper racing sim with what is really needed: tyre management, engineers around, actual driving school and not stupid challenges, weather, super accurate physics, IA, etc build on an open engine which allow to include new features as they are coming, quite like Doom3 with huge texture size support far ahead its time.

Race for money will just lead to gravel trap for us all. Where are you Geoff ????

I understand the potential move to a newer dx version for vr users...as for updated graphics I could care less.....its all the missing features that GTR2 and Race 07 had that I really want in this game and have been waiting patiently for the past 5 yrs.

I wish they had done what Reiza did with the rf1 and remastered/add onto the Race 07 engine instead.
Only feature missing was real road rubbering which they could have coded in.

Racing features draw more fans than graphics

 

[Charles Amyouni]

I don't care much in regards RRRE at the moment, so just hurry up and bring GTR3. We've been waiting since December 2011 where you guys unveiled the website (now closed) with the sample of Engine Sounds.

http://www.virtualr.net/gtr3-website-reveals-first-sound-samples

Then after 6 years, GTR3's tech demo powered by UE4 was unveiled and no further news afterwards. So yeah don't keep us waiting any longer. Bring out the big guns Simbin! Do It!

 

[Lukasz Milewski]

That's good news. I'm sure they'll do a great job of it. There is some clever dudes in that team, just look at their VR implementation on DX9. If anybody can hammer DX11 in to a game it's them boys.

 

[Yetch]

I have 4 PC's, running 3 versions of Win 10 and I have full control of all my updates on all 4, none update any 3rd party software and all 4 run flawlessly.
I always postpone any update for a couple days to gauge opinion but generally, apart from one recent one, the updates have gone without a hitch.
I'm no Microsoft fan but imho the Win 10 bashing is totally unfounded and only delays the development of everything, as backward compatibility has to be maintained, which in turn holds us all back.
Why so many people are insistent on treading water belies belief. The people raving that Win 7 is so good (which it was) are the same that were once, still using XP and demonising said Win 7.
I'm all for caution but not just for the sake of it. I let experts (of which there are many) keep an eye on Microsoft while I get on and enjoy using my PC's for what they were designed for.
Feel free to sit in your Faraday cage with your tin foil hat on by all means, just remember that you're most of the reason we're all not driving DX12 sims, with all the bells and whistles.
Nvidia released a driver this week which broke RR for triple screen users, big companies make mistakes, due mainly to the diversity of hardware and software that they have to maintain compatibility with, whilst also trying to push new boundaries.
Far too late to worry about big brother, his arm is fully up our arses, colon cupped in hand, ready to yank out at a moments notice.
Evolution baby!!!

 

[F_B]

Moving to a newer DX version would probably eliminate the stutters I get in VR....so keep it coming.