DiRT Rally Dirt Rally: 'Tarmac Terrors' update released

[Howard]

Codemasters have released the latest update for Dirt Rally: Tarmac Terrors. The update brings 12 new stages, 5 new rally cars and a number of other updates and fixes.

"Month three of DiRT Rally and our next big update is now live. Version v.0.5 - more commonly known as the Tarmac Terrors update - has now been added to DiRT Rally; it’s fast paced, technical and is going to require all your focus. Here’s the full run down of what you can expect in this month’s update."

The update adds a number of new cars, and tarmac stages set in Germany:

• 12 new rally stages based at Baumholder in Germany
• Owners Club Online Events – A second DiRT Daily where you compete in your own car
• A second weekly event where we’ll be experimenting and throwing new challenges at you
• 5 new rally cars featuring new Group B RWD & Kit Car Classes
• Opel Kadett GT/E 16v
• Opel Manta 400
• Lancia 037 Evo 2
• Seat Ibiza Kitcar
• Peugeot 306 Maxi
• New calibration and options screens in “Advanced Wheel Settings” (added in v.0.4.5)

Along with new features, Codies have been busy fixing a number of bugs.

• Error 41 – Fixed instances of the game not booting when there is less than 2GB of free space on C:\ drive. This was one of the causes of the dreaded error 41.
• Achievement – “Going up in the world” will now pop if you had previously purchased a Hillclimb car but not received the achievement.
• Stability – Driving the Peugeot 405 T16 would sometimes cause stability issues, we’ve fixed those now.
• Graphics – Quite a few changes for users running Nvidia SLI. That weird black and orange screen bug is fixed and we’ve solved the graphical corruption when using SLI and anti-aliasing on high/ultra graphical presets.
• Audio – The engine audio level in cockpit view can now be properly controlled by the slider.
• Gameplay – The reset button should appear sooner during those awkward moments when you beach your car at the side of the road. Though we advise not beaching your car.
• Gameplay – Sometimes you could rev the engine so hard on the Audi Sport Quattro the “Recover vehicle” prompt would pop up, it won’t do that anymore.
• Gameplay – We’ve planted some trees and shrubs in areas of Greece and Wales where we spotted that some of you were taking shortcuts. Taking some cuts in rally is cool but these cuts were definitely not cool.
• Gameplay – Fixed a loophole which would let you continually repair your car in Online Hillclimb events.
• Gameplay – Online Hillclimb events will now factor in slower times from Run 2 and they won’t overwrite faster times from Run 1.
• Message box – Stopped the Promotion message box from incorrectly displaying when you have completed the Masters Championship and finished in the top 3 positions.
• Save – Your advanced set ups should now save as expected
• Oculus – Sometimes the background on the main menu would vanish, we’ve fixed that now.
• Online Events – You’ll now be disqualified if you don’t start moving within a minute
• Leagues – Made the text on the league screens easier to read on lower resolutions.
• Audio – Pre-update your co-driver may have become a little disinterested if you left the centre of the track from time to time, we’ve spoken to him about his attitude.
• Audio – Ever had two sets of music play over a replay? That’s not a remix version and it should stop happening from now on.
• Controller Fix – Fixed an issue which meant players couldn’t change the stage conditions when using the Microsoft Sidewinder Wheel.

"To get the latest update you don’t need to do anything, simply fire up Steam and the full update should automatically download to your PC."

Are you excited for the new update? We sure are. Tell us your thoughts below.

 

[Richard Eriksson]

Although you look at first glance , these are the issues with all codemasters games ,its the lighting and effects , they tend to always really saturate the games with loads of color and still makes it look arcade ish , but look at the same picture with less saturation and bloom , it looks more natural to the eyes , and I take notice of everything when playing games and saturation is the key killer to any game or screens taken , in reality you will never see a fully saturated photo not to that extent

Saturation is mind blowing!

Totally agree on this. It looks REALLY good, but like in many recent titles the strange overuse of saturation and bloom (not to mention the sometimes weird depth of field stuff) makes it less natural. I would like to see a color option in the game actually.

The worst offender in this area by far is pCars however. That depth of field effect together with the insane amount of specular makes you question your eyesight at times

 

[CC]

Totally agree on this. It looks REALLY good, but like in many recent titles the strange overuse of saturation and bloom (not to mention the sometimes weird depth of field stuff) makes it less natural. I would like to see a color option in the game actually.

The worst offender in this area by far is pCars however. That depth of field effect together with the insane amount of specular makes you question your eyesight at times

Yeah they just straight oversaturate stuff , I think its to attract kids has they watch a lot of cartoons lol , god knows , but changing the settings slightly just in saturation alone makes a massive difference to your eyes

 

[Tobbe Bergman]

Why would it make it less believable? It was in contrast to YOU stating that YOU had experience of real life racing as well... It feels good to me, with the experience i do have. For instance, the Escort feels very much like my real life Escort back in the day... Especially on gravel.

Stefano is partially right however... The FFB needs a lot of work. The physics in my view are quite good, but many times you lack the road feel. I would advise Codemasters to get more forces from the steering rack, rather than applying "ghost forces" as i believe they are now.

That would give you more feel for the roads, given that there is a fully simulated suspension/rack model, which i don't know.

But the cars behave real enough to me, so as i said, i think Stefano is onto the same thing as me here... FFB needs to improve.

On the other hand there are some problems with AC physics as well, especially the tire models. So lets not hold that up as some sort of pinnacle here.

There are issues with every sim approach, aimed for the consumer market, due to compromise.

Codies are aware of the issue that makes the cars stop to quick.
It's been discussed @ the official forum.

A car with hundreds of kilos mass just simply don't stop that fast, especially when you're going downhill and just easing off the throttle on a tarmac road.

It's a feeling thing and getting used to the current state might be hard to set a side once you've become comfortable with it.

I personally noticed this just after a few corners on the first track I tried.
However my friends did not notice this right away.
But after I pointed out the issue they all agreed.

IMO AC has the optimal FFB/Physic + Roadfeel to date.

 

[Tobbe Bergman]

I would like to higlight the fantastic look of this title now as well. Especially the german environments. With a good rig it looks awesome. The light and shadow work, as well as the dense foliage is really natural looking. It easily rivals the best DX11 titles in this regard, and surpases AC for instance.

Looks is only one thing of course, but it is tasty

Offering some unedited screenshots from my german adventures

I also think it looks fantastic except for the wet reflections where it looks like one big mirror instead of many many small mirrors like in real life.

I'll give it 8 out of 10 on the graphics

 

[Richard Eriksson]

I also think it looks fantastic except for the wet reflections where it looks like one big mirror instead of many many small mirrors like in real life.

I'll give it 8 out of 10 on the graphics

Not to mention the size of the droplets on your windshield. I mean, in DR those are like bird sh*t size HUGE.

 

[function9]

Yes great screen shots. But the replay sucks. I am absolutely fed up up of the silly codemasters arcade replay system.

Then please, drop a comment here:
http://forums.codemasters.com/discussion/6749/dirt-rally-needs-a-new-replay-system-whos-with-me
I don't understand why it seems most people just accept the way replays are. It's been virtually the same since CMR05 at least (that's the only other CM game I have experience with), so over 10 years they've been using this. I don't get it.

 

[Leynad777]

Tried it, and it was a good improvement earlier, but now i feel the updates have brought the default FFB profiles closer to what i like, so i dismissed it for now. But yeah, the tweak makes it better, but still no steering rack feel. A LOT better now than on release though.

I think you mix something up here. This tweak came out after the FFB-Update two weeks ago and improves the new FFB by far. There´s a very fresh one out which seems even slightly better: http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/impact-force-feedback.6603/

 

[Richard Eriksson]

I think you mix something up here. This tweak came out after the FFB-Update two weeks ago and improves the new FFB by far. There´s a very fresh one out which seems even slightly better: http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/impact-force-feedback.6603/

Missed that completely, will try it, thanks!

 

[Arne Dopudja]

The best replay camera from the whole game is on the Frauenburg/stein whatever stage. Car comes towards the camera, brake, open hairpin right into acute left behind some bush. Such a realistic and nice shot. Ofcourse then it immediately switches to the rear side window back facing worthless crap.

 

[Richard Eriksson]

Tempting not owners with the rest of my screenshots of the new content for today

The Kadett in the rain is lovely...

 

[Tobbe Bergman]

Richard -What's your view regarding the brakes in DR ?

 

[Leynad777]

But any chance of proper replays from trackside without codemasters arcade view switching?

I can switch between cameras with wheel-buttons.

The cars still stop too fast !
Just try to ease off of the throttle and the cars stop soo fast even when you're driving downhill ?
.

This is nonsense. Just watch some Rallye-Onboards. DR pretty much nailed it with their car behavior. Only on snow and ice there is way to much grip in DR.

This are all light cars so they don´t have the weight and inertia of street- and GT-cars and can break an accelerate faster. The average speed is quite slow, barely parts over 100 mph. And when there´s a hairpin after you have to break early enough i think.

 

[Richard Eriksson]

Richard -What's your view regarding the brakes in DR ?

I think it feels quite good on gravel as well as tarmac, except for monte carlo (monaco) which feels weird all over, with both steering and braking.

For me the brake feel is natural and intuitive, and the lower power fwd and rwd cars do what i expect them to do (the type of cars i have experience in in real life)...

Using Fanatec CSP Elite load cell brake pedal, might feel different on say a G27 stock pedal set, i don't know.

What all the cars lack however is the squirming under braking. All rally cars i've ever driven for real, as well as track racing cars ALL squirm under braking, especially FWD cars, that tend to brake steer when braking on variable camber. This never happens in DR. The cars are easy to brake in a straight line when applying heavy braking.

Also, the cars in DR are easier to brake flick than real life cars. For some real life cars like my own old GRP H Golf back in the day you basically had to manhandle it like a brute and really slamming the weight forward to be able to flick it like in DR

 

[Richard Eriksson]

I think you mix something up here. This tweak came out after the FFB-Update two weeks ago and improves the new FFB by far. There´s a very fresh one out which seems even slightly better: http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/impact-force-feedback.6603/

Tried it now. It feels better with this setup, on my Fanatec wheel... I feel more weight shifting. The rattling of the wheel is too much though and is annoying. It feels like vibration effects rather than some real road surface force feedback. But definitely an improvement. Maybe i can dial down the vibes some in the settings manually.

Still it lacks the camber feel i would like, however. This is probably more due to DRs engine not simulating these kind of forces properly (yet).

 

[Leynad777]

The rattling of the wheel is too much though and is annoying. It feels like vibration effects rather than some real road surface force feedback. But definitely an improvement. Maybe i can dial down the vibes some in the settings manually.

Find the line
<!--Traction Loss from Surface Detail-->
<FFBSkid device="wheel" wheelMask="1" scale="0.10"
Reduce the scale value to your liking.

 

[function9]

If you have the time Richard, I do hope you leave your thoughts where the devs can get a look at them. This is what they need to read. It feels like sometimes there's too many people on the other forums proclaiming how great and perfect everything is so far.

 

[Tobbe Bergman]

I think it feels quite good on gravel as well as tarmac, except for monte carlo (monaco) which feels weird all over, with both steering and braking.

For me the brake feel is natural and intuitive, and the lower power fwd and rwd cars do what i expect them to do (the type of cars i have experience in in real life)...

Using Fanatec CSP Elite load cell brake pedal, might feel different on say a G27 stock pedal set, i don't know.

What all the cars lack however is the squirming under braking. All rally cars i've ever driven for real, as well as track racing cars ALL squirm under braking, especially FWD cars, that tend to brake steer when braking on variable camber. This never happens in DR. The cars are easy to brake in a straight line when applying heavy braking.

Also, the cars in DR are easier to brake flick than real life cars. For some real life cars like my own old GRP H Golf back in the day you basically had to manhandle it like a brute and really slamming the weight forward to be able to flick it like in DR

I heard that Codies own test driver"REAL Rally driver " Kevin Abbring
said the cars had way too weak brakes compared to real life cars ! -I think he meant that real Rally brakes was a lot more effective and would stop cars faster.

 

[bogani]

The brake pressure are all set to 50% of max in default setup. Crank that up higher.

I really enjoy the Kitcars. It's just silly driving around on gravel with these high powered screaming FWD cars, but that is what I think when I see footage of them IRL too. They behave like I expect. When the rear lets loose(it will), for the love of god, do not release the throttle!

 

[Andy_J]

I can switch between cameras with wheel-buttons.

Thats really great for you. Many people are asking for external proper track replay cams which the game has not got, but yours does. Nice one. Can you share the secret that makes yours different to ours?

[SARCASM MODE OFF] Yes you can switch cams with a button, but the external track side view does not stay external unless your version is different to every one elses. It always reverts to that arcade style silly CM replay system.

 

[Sam Hill]

I'm really glad Steam brought in the refund feature because Dirt Rally was a complete waste of money. Finally got my money back!