At an upcoming car tuning event, RaceRoom is holding an in-person final for a sim racing community cup. But it will also showcase some drifting action...
When you think of stylish sideways sliding, RaceRoom is perhaps not the first game or simulation that springs to mind. CarX Drift Racing Online routinely sits in the most-played Steam charts, and there is a slew of drifting mods with matching communities for Assetto Corsa.
If I was after official DTM content, or underrated tracks in Sweden, RaceRoom would be my first port of call. 2013 WTCC cars around Pau or Macau, sign me up. But drifting, aside from perhaps the Ford Mustang Mach-E 1400, I would traditionally look elsewhere.
Turns out, however, the KW Studios-stewarded sim racing platform can do big skids, you just may never have seen it.
RaceRoom's Ford Mustang Mach-E 1400 recreation could eviscerate tyres, but not quite in a 'traditional' drifting sense.
“We've had a concept drift car in our beta builds for a while now, dating back to our force feedback refactoring,” explains Head Of Studio for RaceRoom at KW Studios, Jean-François Chardon to OverTake.
“While we were redoing our FFB with pure physics, a couple of drifters approached us seeking something more realistic than the various mods available.
“It made sense to take on this project as a way to validate the purely physics-based FFB we had in beta at the time. I knew (and still know) very little about proper drifting techniques, but what I understood is that the natural movements of the steering wheel must be accurately reflected in the force feedback
“Any noise or artificial effects would be counterproductive to maintaining a controlled slide.
“The drifters were quite satisfied with the work we had done, but it remained in beta builds as this content didn't quite fit RaceRoom as a game title. We lack gameplay mechanics for drifting and it is also a completely separate list of content to produce.”
As the development team is part of a large entity, KW Automotive, the drifting set-up within the beta builds could still be used as a testbed – even if a public RaceRoom
One of the group's brands, ST Suspension, for instance, is used by pro drifters, as evidenced in Steve “Baggsy” Biagioni’s ‘Return To Driftenberg’ video.
However, things are about to emerge from the private versions into the public consciousness at the Tuning World Bodensee gathering this weekend.
RaceRoom will host an in-person final for a recent community sim racing competition in Friedrichshafen, alongside which it will have a drift-specific rig for the public to try some new content combined with a variation of those beta drift builds.
“We've been wondering if this content would appeal to players at all. After all, to truly enjoy it, you need a high-end direct drive wheelbase, making it a niche within a niche in terms of audience,” continues J-F.
“So, we reworked our Counter Steer driving assist to be a bit more helpful in that regard, and I've heard and seen footage from beta testers managing nice slides using just a gamepad with the assist enabled.
“At this point, the Tuning World fair is a way to gauge player interest in such a content drop. Perhaps it will open some doors for further developments; we will see.”
The drift-specific update to RaceRoom Raceway
Should the content prove of interest to the community, it would be in the form of a ‘physics sandbox’. There is a fresh area for drifting, added to the existing fictional RaceRoom Raceway – filling in the inner lake and adding containers and barrels.
Then there is the BMW M3 E30 (main image), with a body kit featuring extended wheel arches, allowing for a drift-based suspension setup.
“Even if we don't end up developing the drift aspects further in RaceRoom, I still think it can be interesting for some one-off events, like a drift competition stream with human judges and commentators,” J-F tells us.
It comes as the team is looking to expand its development resources – it is currently looking for a Lead Programmer – and explore new content possibilities across 2024 and the years ahead.
Would you be interested in drift content for RaceRoom? Let us know in the comments below, or on X: @OverTake_gg.
When you think of stylish sideways sliding, RaceRoom is perhaps not the first game or simulation that springs to mind. CarX Drift Racing Online routinely sits in the most-played Steam charts, and there is a slew of drifting mods with matching communities for Assetto Corsa.
If I was after official DTM content, or underrated tracks in Sweden, RaceRoom would be my first port of call. 2013 WTCC cars around Pau or Macau, sign me up. But drifting, aside from perhaps the Ford Mustang Mach-E 1400, I would traditionally look elsewhere.
Turns out, however, the KW Studios-stewarded sim racing platform can do big skids, you just may never have seen it.
RaceRoom's Ford Mustang Mach-E 1400 recreation could eviscerate tyres, but not quite in a 'traditional' drifting sense.
“We've had a concept drift car in our beta builds for a while now, dating back to our force feedback refactoring,” explains Head Of Studio for RaceRoom at KW Studios, Jean-François Chardon to OverTake.
“While we were redoing our FFB with pure physics, a couple of drifters approached us seeking something more realistic than the various mods available.
“It made sense to take on this project as a way to validate the purely physics-based FFB we had in beta at the time. I knew (and still know) very little about proper drifting techniques, but what I understood is that the natural movements of the steering wheel must be accurately reflected in the force feedback
“Any noise or artificial effects would be counterproductive to maintaining a controlled slide.
“The drifters were quite satisfied with the work we had done, but it remained in beta builds as this content didn't quite fit RaceRoom as a game title. We lack gameplay mechanics for drifting and it is also a completely separate list of content to produce.”
As the development team is part of a large entity, KW Automotive, the drifting set-up within the beta builds could still be used as a testbed – even if a public RaceRoom
One of the group's brands, ST Suspension, for instance, is used by pro drifters, as evidenced in Steve “Baggsy” Biagioni’s ‘Return To Driftenberg’ video.
However, things are about to emerge from the private versions into the public consciousness at the Tuning World Bodensee gathering this weekend.
RaceRoom will host an in-person final for a recent community sim racing competition in Friedrichshafen, alongside which it will have a drift-specific rig for the public to try some new content combined with a variation of those beta drift builds.
“We've been wondering if this content would appeal to players at all. After all, to truly enjoy it, you need a high-end direct drive wheelbase, making it a niche within a niche in terms of audience,” continues J-F.
“So, we reworked our Counter Steer driving assist to be a bit more helpful in that regard, and I've heard and seen footage from beta testers managing nice slides using just a gamepad with the assist enabled.
“At this point, the Tuning World fair is a way to gauge player interest in such a content drop. Perhaps it will open some doors for further developments; we will see.”
The drift-specific update to RaceRoom Raceway
Should the content prove of interest to the community, it would be in the form of a ‘physics sandbox’. There is a fresh area for drifting, added to the existing fictional RaceRoom Raceway – filling in the inner lake and adding containers and barrels.
Then there is the BMW M3 E30 (main image), with a body kit featuring extended wheel arches, allowing for a drift-based suspension setup.
“Even if we don't end up developing the drift aspects further in RaceRoom, I still think it can be interesting for some one-off events, like a drift competition stream with human judges and commentators,” J-F tells us.
It comes as the team is looking to expand its development resources – it is currently looking for a Lead Programmer – and explore new content possibilities across 2024 and the years ahead.
Would you be interested in drift content for RaceRoom? Let us know in the comments below, or on X: @OverTake_gg.
![Luca [OT]](/data/avatars/s/3235/3235113.jpg?1697196734){kind=avatar}