Sector3 Studios have dropped a rather tasty posting on their RaceRoom forum - detailing many of the very interesting plans in store for the simulation in the months ahead...
  • New TCR car in the works.
  • Improved and overhauled Force Feedback system coming soon.
  • Sparks and particles being worked on.
Pretty exciting words from the world of Sector3 Studios in recent days, the Swedish development team having dropped a surprise 'Developer Notes' post about some of the things that are happening behind the scenes - with plenty of work apparently under way on both features, graphics and content in the not too distant future of the title.

In terms of probably the hottest topic from the May Dev Notes post, RaceRoom Producer J-F Chardon has informed the sim racing world that RaceRoom is set to enjoy a whole new Force Feedback system - bringing the simulation feedback up to par with the latest physics improvements, and hopefully improving the driving experience for the many players of the title.

Old FFB:
  1. Steering geometry of the car is ignored, resulting in little differences in FFB between cars. It results in the steering torques being wrong, as they depend only on tyre forces rather than the actual characteristics of the car
  2. Lack of longitudinal tyre forces
  3. Lack of gyroscopic forces from the tyres
  4. The tyre forces from physics are badly translated into FFB torque
  5. Tyre contact patch movement is ignored, no dynamic change while driving
  6. Too many sliders in the FFB options menu, some of them making promises the FFB could not deliver
New FFB:
  1. Steering geometry is used: much more uniqueness between cars, the resulting steering torques have real meaning
  2. All tyre forces are taken into account
  3. Gyroscopic effects of tyres taken into account
  4. 100% Physics-based calculations
  5. Tyre contact patch movement is used: much more dynamic feel while driving
  6. Only crucial settings to adjust the FFB to the various steering wheels
Other highlights from the dev notes post include details about replay interface improvements and new UI options - plus sparks and dust particles are coming to the title... at some point in the future anyway...

All pretty exciting stuff indeed... check out the dev notes for the full details of what Sector3 have in store.