Paul Jeffrey
Premium
Sector3 Studios have today deployed a brand new build of RaceRoom Racing Experience, with it bringing a very early first pass of VR support and adding new content in the form of the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, plus a little free surprise...
Today's build is the first release as part of a proposed new schedule of monthly updates to RaceRoom, and addresses many of the current outstanding issues with the sim. The January update is also significant as the team over in Sweden have implemented their first pass at OpenVR support for the title, bringing the much requested compatibility of Virtual Reality headsets to the game. It must be noted however that the studio accept this VR build is in its early infancy, and performance issues as well as general design issues are evident and are being looked at by the team. If users experience issues with VR and wish to offer feedback on future development, please either post in the comments section below or directly on the Sector3 forum with your computer specs, game settings and a description of the item you wish to offer feedback on.
Other points of interest from today's sizeable new patch include an update to the various DTM seasons within RaceRoom, updating the 2013, 14, 15 and 16 seasons to all run on the same physics structure as the latest release.
Manual pitstops also debut in this latest build (see image below). A feature missing from many modern simulations, manual pitstops in RaceRoom now require the driver to manually activate their pit lane speed limiter when entering the pits and place the car on the allocated pit garage marker. I am personally a fan of this kind of attention to detail and look forward to seeing the added strategic element to the gameplay as you attempt to shave off those valuable seconds during your pitstop in multiplayer and offline racing.
In terms of content Sector3 have finally released their version of the epic Silverstone Grand Prix circuit in England, as used for the British round of the Formula One World Championship. The Silverstone track will be a welcome addition to the simulation as many fans have been calling out for more circuits to be added to RaceRoom following a little lull in track additions over recent months. The new track will retail for 499vRP and will be available in four configurations - Silverstone GP, International, National and Historic. What's more, the team at Sector3 have also added the little represented in racing sims Silverstone Stowe circuit to the game, as a free piece of bonus content to all users. Silverstone Stowe will be added for free to RaceRoom Racing Experience as part of the new update and the Silverstone Grand Prix track can be purchased from the game store for 499vRP.
The new patch, Silverstone and VR support are all available to play right now.
What’s New (Summary)
- First pass of VR support
- Leaderboard divisions.
- Multiplayer Browser Revamp.
- Manual Pitstops in Get Real.
- AI Stress factor.
- All DTM seasons updated to latest physics.
- Silverstone and Stowe.
- Added a first pass of support for OpenVR. Read more about it HERE.
- Fixed an issue where turning the virtual wheel in vehicle settings on/off would not apply in game until session restart.
- Tweaks to Memory usage of Instant Replays and changed so instant replays always request 300 seconds length. Memfiles are now written to disk when becoming too large.
- Player is now allowed to pit in non race sessions (to practice pitstops, change tires, refuel…). Before, the player would automatically be brought to garage menu after entering pitlane.
- Fixed issue with timing on single lap layouts (ie Nordschleife Tourist) when starting from garage in non race sessions.
- Fixed issue with best individual sector times being calculated incorrectly.
- Fixed a case where enabling Manual Depth of Field mode wouldn’t always lock the focus plane on the currently selected car
- Fixed AI pitting in last lap on certain occasions by adding precision to calculations for refuelling.
- Fixed incorrect stance for certain cars, fixed this for replays as well now.
- Updated the Fanatec SDK to version 2.2
- Added support for Fanatec CSL and added a default profile.
- Moved the message area used for displaying current camera, chat messages etc. down a bit so they don't overlap with the text field that displays which leaderboard division the player is in.
- Fixed issue with mouse steering resetting to zero position when looking left/right in cockpit & hood cams.
- Fixed an issue with race position overlay sometimes missing entries if they get processed in the wrong order.
- Fixed an issue where player would see pit lane speed window when off track on certain areas.
- Fixed an issue in timing screen where multiple entries of the same driver would appear.
- Minor tweaks and fixes to protocol that communicates to backend and web to support the additional data in the MP browser.
- Fixed DQ on late penalties being treated as it was ON when it was OFF.
- The Pit menu and Pit In Now overlays should now be hidden when restarting a non race session.
- Fixed an issue where cars could remain ghosted after receiving a slow-down penalty
- Fixed a crash occuring when game attempted to save pit presets on certain occasions.
- Fixed a rendering issue with cars that would occur when changing visual preset from low to custom and changing shadows from off to lowest.
Multiplayer:
- Fixed issue with the dedicated server writing a backend log file in the wrong folder when too many liveries were allowed on the server.
- Fixed an issue in timing screen where multiple entries of the same driver would appear.
- Introduced “Stress factor” for AI. AI’s can now be pushed into making mistakes when under pressure. Likelihood of those mistakes increases from being chased and from collisions. ● Improved AI awareness of opponents on their sides.
- When two AI’s are side by side reaching a braking point, one will brake 3% earlier and the other 2% later, depending on longitudinal position and relative speeds
- Increased awareness for AI when under blue flag and upon leaving pitlane for incoming traffic
- Punctures : occurrence of tire punctures are now tied to wheel rotation speed rather than vehicle speed.
- Reduced the bouncing of certain cars upon spawning in their garage location.
- Fixed a case that would cause 4WD cars to run with differentials wide open
- Fixed a case where DRS could disengage when driving over bumps
- Audi TT Cup and TT RS VLN : Added rear downforce to AI cars to keep them more stable in high speed weight transfers where they are often caught losing control. Tweaked AI versus players collisions to be more fair to the player
- DTM : Ported 2016 physics and sounds to all past seasons of the DTM.
- GTR 3 : AI update, Improved standing starts for all cars, AI versus player collisions tweak to be more fair to the player
- Mercedes C63 DTM 2016 : Fixed the noisy suspensions and increased engine volume
- Raceroom FR3 : updated sounds
- RedBull Ring GP : Cut rules update for more strict rules
- Chang: Adjusted IBL to match the new light setting
- Zandvoort : fixed missing terrain, fixed missing generics, fixed terrain normals, redone sets for generics/audience, swapped 2d audience with latest models, fixed underpass shadow on track Alpina B6 : Fixed incorrect windscreen banners in certain liveries.
- Revamped Multiplayer Browser.
- Implemented Leaderboard Divisions. Leaderboards with over 100 entries will now divide into divisions.
- Added thumbnail support to MP Browser. Dedi admins can now upload their custom image to represent their servers (PS: Servers with offensive images will be removed.)
- Fixed some scrolling issues in certain sections of portal
- Fixed an issue where clicking the race button in MP browser while it is greyed out would lock the game.
Silverstone Circuit Trailer
Silverstone Stowe Circuit (free addition) Trailer:
RaceRoom Racing Experience is a free to play racing simulation from Sector3 Studios. Available to download with a limited car and track selection for free, gamers can purchase additional content such as the DTM or World Touring Car Championship DLC for an additional cost.
If you like RaceRoom and want to keep up to date with all the latest news and discussions, head on over to the RaceRoom Racing Experience sub forum. We host a whole range of top quality club racing events in our Racing Club, plus we offer a great place to hang out and discuss the game with your fellow R3E fans. Pop over and say hello today!
Do you like the new RaceRoom patch? Are you happy to see both Silverstone and Silverstone Stowe added to the game? What do you think of the new AI "Stress Factor" feature? How does VR perform for you? Let us know in the comments section below!
Last edited:
