Ian Bell's Straight4 Studios Launches Website, Showcases Key Staff

straight4.jpg
It seems like Straight4 Studios is going all in. Now they have released a website with a blog. Furthermore, they promised a monthly newsletter! What's more interesting, however, is the information that has already been published on the blog.

The first blog post on Straight4's website features two different interviews with key members of the development team for the upcoming title GTR Revival.

Before we dive into the post, the key takeaway is that it seems like the original team is really back together. Henrik Roos, one of the key people of SimBin back in the day, is the first person featured in this post.

The Key Personnel Introduced​

As mentioned before, Henrik Roos is introduced as the Straight4 handling consultant.

If you don't know Henrik Roos, he has been a racing driver, especially known for early 2000s FIA GT racing.

His role at Straight4 includes translating how the cars feel IRL to the simulation of GTR Revival.

Furthermore, Straight4's Physics Director AJ Weber gets introduced. He "has gone on to work on many bestselling AAA-sim racers over the years". According to mobygames.com, he has been working on the first two Project Cars games in the physics department as well as Fast & Furious: Crossroads.

Physics Philosophies​

What follows is an intricate introduction into the philosophy behind the direction the physics department is supposed to go.

The post goes into detail on how realism is supposed to be portrayed in GTR Revival. Furthermore, tyre models and the fact that the physics engine is built from the ground up get featured.

You can read the full blog post here on Straight4's official website.

What do you think of this approach? Is Straight4 getting you interested in the ongoing development of GTR Revival? Let us know in the comments down below!
About author
Julian Strasser
Motorsports and Maker-stuff enthusiast. Part time jack-of-all-trades. Owner of tracc.eu, a sim racing-related service provider and its racing community.

Comments

Premium
What’s your role in Straight4?

Henrik Roos: My experience is how a racing car feels and how to translate that to simulation. The feeling of a simulation is the most important thing. It’s now almost 20 years since GTR, so a lot of the cars from that era have become part of racing lore. The graphics will of course be amazing with the Unreal 5 Engine, and I really would love to get back behind the wheel of my old Viper—but this time without burning my feet! Can you imagine what that would be like with this new generation of physics engine and graphics.
 
This is simply wait and see.
PC1/2 leaves the bad track of been somewhat lose in the physics side and also a mess for modders to work on.
AMS2 could pay a big price for these matters, setting up physics has been a tough but to crack and there is no documentation for modding tracks.
I'll be in the lookout for GTR revival but not keeping my hopes up
 
On the website: "That’s around the time he joined up with Ian Bell with whom he developed one of the most beloved sims of all time—GTR" Yeah really! Which part exactly did they develop? In fact, GTR used rFactor (the first edition). You could see it as a DLC for rFactor with a different user interface. So the fact that the physics engine is built from the ground up has nothing to do with the fact that Ian Bell and Henrik Roos developed one of the most beloved sims of all time—GTR. But we will see what they are going to deliver.
Weird, when I google those two titles it says GTR was released before rFactor... Don't forget that livetrack was in GTR2 and never in rFactor. Could you say GTR2 is a DLC for rFactor, like ACC is a mod for Fortnite? They share an engine...
 
If it's anything close to GTR(2), GT legends or even Race07 (however I preferred GTR2's looks and physics) I'm totally in. I wouldn't care about DLC, as that is what it is nowadays, but please don't go the route especially R3E has gone. That game was also such a 'great coming' at the end of the '00s but then actually became really expensive and barely had any good community like GTR2 and GTL had.

Of course I know everything from Ian Bell after Race07 was not 100% what I and seemingly the community really hoped for. Shift because of EA I think, teast Drive Ferrari Legends I'm not sure what happened there. Got the game on X360, but couldn't really like it.. and well PCars1 needed too much resources for me at the time, even though I invested in that game prior to release. PCars2 was pretty ok, but no modding scene, and PCars3 is first class fail.

But still hyped for GTR Revolution or whatever it will be called..

Btw, who remembers Race Pro on X360, with that Lizard engine. It looked pretty neat, especially for a sim at the time. has that ever appeared on PC?
 
Last edited:
Premium
Seems odd some people are happy to wait and see what Rennsport brings but won't even get close to potentially buying a Bell game.
Live by the sword, die by the sword. In all fairness, Ian Bell Promotions does seem to have a bit of history promising more than they can deliver. That being said, I wish Ian and his colleagues the very best in their new endeavor.
 
Last edited:
I would bet that if every sim racing participant drove every car, at every track, in every game they already own, there would never be a need for another sim racing game. :whistling:
 
Lots of potential on the horizon from multiple developers. Straight4 and Rennsport both apparently using UE5 which doesn't bode well for VR. AC2 though, has the greatest potential of them all with its own proprietary game engine. And it could be right around the corner. Can you say Early Access?
Assetto Corsa 2 will be released at some point in 2024. “It's curious that I don't remember where the 2024 [date] comes from. I don't know, it could be, but definitely not later,” Marco Massarutto, co-founder of Kunos Simulazioni.
 
Last edited:
Is there really demand for a ne GTR title when ACC already exists?GT3 racing is by far the most popular type of racing but Raceroom,ACC,AMS2,Iracing and RF2 already do GT3 pretty well & Rennsport is also concentrating on GT3.

Personally I would develop a sim that took 1 year from 1 series with all the actual cars,driver & tracks & if the licences were difficult or expensive to put in the game then make it customizable with mods.
They could start with a current GT3,series,Porsche Carrera Cup,Lamborghini,Ferrari Challenge,Minis,Caterhams,F4 etc to keep the title up to date.
Then have
1971 Trans Am
1998 BTCC
1989 DTM
1964 GTs
1992 Indycar
1991 Imsa GTP
1967 F1
1980 DRM
They could then release further DLC seasons for each series with some very basic changes to cars,tracks & drivers.AMS2 has some of the cars but it is not very satisfying without a full field of cars.
 
another gt3 at monza sim, this time form Ian Bell
truly a golden age for simracing
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Maybe you missed the part where it will have full mod support? So when you see people racing 60's/70's Can Am cars at Bridgehampton, don't be too startled. :D
 
Considering the promise of the AI commentators that Austin Ogonoski just posted, I'd say this company is one to watch if they can not pull a Project Cars again.
 

Latest News

Article information

Author
Julian Strasser
Article read time
2 min read
Views
21,684
Comments
140
Last update

What is the reason for your passion for sim racing?

  • Watching real motorsport

    Votes: 174 66.9%
  • Physics and mechanics

    Votes: 114 43.8%
  • Competition and adrenaline

    Votes: 121 46.5%
  • Practice for real racing

    Votes: 45 17.3%
  • Community and simracers

    Votes: 71 27.3%
Back
Top