Race Sim Studio Interview and Prize Draw

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We sat down with Ali, head director of Race Sim Studio, to talk about the past, present and future of the team.

"Race Sim Studio is a leading 3D modelling service specialising in the creation of vehicles for businesses, personal users, and driving simulators. The team combines the talents of some of the best 3D Modellers, Sound Designers and Physics Experts to create the finest examples of vehicle simulation projects currently available".

This small excerpt is what you can find written on the RSS website, in the 'About us' page. I tried to come up with an opening that could present this Studio and explain who they are in a concise yet eloquent way. I kept thinking and thinking, looking for an inspiration, lost for words because how do you synthesize the work that this team produces without inevitably missing some small but significant piece along the way? Then I found that passage, and with it the wording: the finest examples of vehicle simulation projects currently available.

Here lies what Race Sim Studio not only does, but is. A small group of like-minded and passionate people, eager to produce what is more than the simple result of a beautifully executed work, but an expression of art in its own way. We are not yet living in an age where modeling is considered a true art form, except for a few unique cases, but when you look at something like this, you wonder why it still isn't. Each curve, each joint, each line, perfected by the dedicated eye of those who have poured their intelligence, heart and soul into it. Given a "skin", a likeness, through high-quality texturing, and then suddenly a growl, a snap forward... it is alive.

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What is the philosophy behind Race Sim Studio? Which is the objective that you guys pursue?

In its simplest form: to bring a new high-quality standard to the world of sim racing and to really put it on the normalized global map for casual, simulator and eSports consumers.

Race Sim Studio (RSS) began as a group of people who had a passion for sim racing and motorsport who somehow found each other through Assetto Corsa (AC) in early 2014. As with most things in life, none of us began with the expectation of how things turned out today. It was just an organic process of people who had the expertise from various technical fields miraculously coming together without a plan. That’s what is really hard to replicate for anyone who wants to do this long-term: it must be real to be real.

What’s funny is we all quit the scene back in 2016 to varying extents; we just couldn’t put out such high standard content (for the standard at the time) and balance it with our normal life. Until one day our physics lead decided “we have all this expertise, all this know-how and connections, why let it go to waste?”

It’s important to remember we work exceptionally hard. It’s not a punch in and punch out timeclock. We’re always actively working and questioning our work and thinking of new or improved ways to do things, so we’ve always strived to produce beyond what was already available in sim racing.

Every product you see from us is the result of each person’s life experiences put into practice: this person’s engine sounds are that way because he picked up the guitar as a teenager and learned about sound design, or this person really understands his physics design process because his childhood upbringing made him a rational and deep thinker inspired by complex possibilities. Again, that’s what we’re conveying in our work that it should feel as real as possible beyond just the sim racing world.

During the years you have been focusing on GT and Formula type cars, producing exquisite, high-quality content. Will you delve in the future into different categories too or will you keep focusing and expanding on the aforementioned classes?

We love to look for new and emerging categories or try to fill in a gap elsewhere. Yet we always get asked to supplement categories that have already been done several times over. I suppose that’s the trust in our work at play.

I think we’re at that transition point where you may get renditions of your favourite cars from time to time given that this is the reality we’re familiar with, but we have further ambitions for other categories to work on including more of our own designs to fit into various tranches of motorsport. You’ve seen this already with Formula Hybrid and will see more of this in the future.

Beyond that, we do get requests from drivers and teams from varying motorsport disciplines to produce content for them to use in their simulators. Working with teams, manufacturers, as well as governing bodies behind the scenes for driver training tools and eSports has been a great experience we’ll continue to push.

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Has the pandemic affected your business or team workflow in any way?

We were lucky in the sense that the “stay at home” message meant the gaming industry itself was booming. This helped us stabilize throughout 2020, but it could have easily been the other way.

The events of the past year have been devastating for most of the world, and as individuals rather than the company, we’re contributing privately to causes that can support some of those most affected by the global pandemic. Regardless of circumstances and beliefs, nobody is “immune” from the lasting effects this can have on the behaviour of society.

Some of our contractors working alongside us were affected in such a way that it made us reassess the intensity of our projects. You know, as past industry professionals from the Finance sector, a couple of us know first-hand how the office life has transformed, yet the corporate objectives of large businesses remain the same. So, anything we could do to be the opposite of that, focusing back on the reality and backbone of our company which is the people has been the most important aspect to our activities from years before.

Where do you see Race Sim Studio, 5 years from now?

Shall we make a game? Does RaceDepartment even want another game in their ever-growing list? We see a real demand for competitive (and realistic) eSports.

Currently, we’re investing in ourselves as (feels odd to say it now) gaming industry professionals, learning new skills in the industry that can take our team to further heights as time passes. An example, each of us specialize in multiple disciplines of sound design, coding, graphical design, 3D modelling. It’s that kind of weird mix of being a jack-of-all-trades that makes the ethos and work-ethic of RSS quite interesting to say the least.

While it still has some years to go, AC has been far too good for all of us in the sim racing community and we’re thankful it entered our lives. Although our artists have produced for many of these simulators already prior to RSS forming, we’re hoping our paths cross professionally again if Kunos chooses to do something after ACC and wants to work with us.

Otherwise, we’ll be a visual effects company and you can spot our work on Netflix’s Drive to Survive Season 8 with Max Verstappen battling for his third world championship.

Either way, whatever we do until then every single one of us (that’s you included) has an obligation to sim racing to uphold its standards so those that come after us can continue to do the same.

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What has been the highlight of the team all these years, a moment you guys will never forget?

It has to be three types of highlights all connected to the people since there’s a lot of reasons that make us get up out of bed and travel the long commute away from the fridge and to the computer table each day.

The first would be the number of real-world drivers and teams that use our cars. How crazy is it that drivers and brands from Formula 1 among others are using these cars in a professional or leisure capacity?

The second comes from the numerous stories we received about how our work provides people positivity. This is probably one of the biggest achievements you can get as a content developer. We’re real people behind the logo, ultra-protective of our work; we have our good and bad days too, so it means a lot for people to take the time in their day to talk to us about their experiences.

Finally, AC and sim racing gave us a platform to shine; one that we didn’t expect. These days we do the same for developing livery artists and 3D developers. Our cars have been a canvas for people to discover their passion in content creation. All the success stories from people who were just like us and used our content to grow and grow and then connect to companies in motorsport resonates closely with what the scene has done for us.

A special thank you to RaceDepartment for keeping us all connected in our ever-growing bubble of sim racing. ⦿

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Prize Draw​

While thanking Ali at the end of this interview, and Race Sim Studio for all the good fun they provided us with their content during the years, we were also lucky enough to be gifted with 3 coupons for their Formula Hybrid Ultimate Pack, an homage to the RaceDepartment community from RSS!

Yes, you got it right, all of the Formula Hybrid cars ever made by Race Sim Studio, from the 2017 to the 2022 one, can be yours!

How can you win a coupon?
Simply leave your comment, telling us which is your favourite RSS car and why! Random winners will be selected on Friday, 30th of April, at 19.00 CEST, so that you will be able to enjoy the F1 weekend at Portimao both on your couch and your simrig.

You already own the pack or the individual cars included, or you simply fancy something different from their selection? Not to worry, Race Sim Studio are currently running a sale lasting till Sunday, 2nd of May.
Do not miss it!
About author
Davide Nativo
Petrolhead and Simracer, passionate since the cradle about cars, motorsports and simracing. I read a lot, and I love to share what I've learned with others!

Comments

Premium
Hard to pick a favourite as all of their mods are outstanding but if I have to choose it is the RSS GT pack. Great era for racing, fantastic cars, not as easy to control as modern GT cars. Imo one of the best car mods out there.
 
Most recently, I really enjoyed exploring the track limits at Imola with your Formula Hybrid 2018. I look forward to trying the 2021 as well. Thanks for stopping by and sharing the passion your team has for creating such quality work.
 
My favorite RSS car is the Hyperion 2020. I love the brute sound and the raw power. Would love to see the missing brands.
 
All the RSS mods are fantastic even if I have a big preference for their F1 F2 F3 ... cars
My favorite F1 is the formula rss 1990 v12, it is so powerful that it allows us to understand what driving an F1 should have been like in the 90s and also because I was a big fan of Prost as a child, I would love to drive his cars.
 
I have bought a few of their packs and the GT1 pack is the one I have used the most, in particular the Ferrari. Thank you guys for all the good cars!
 
Premium
Really hard to pick a favourite as each car is just top quality and it really depends on what you want to drive.

I bought everything from RSS and whatever they release has been a no-brainer to purchase over the years.
 
Premium
Not a big Formula fan at all, so its the GT Pack for me, nothing else quite like it out there for AC. Every car is a total hoot to drive, loud, brash & brutal. What's not to like?
 
Premium
Thank you again Davide and, thanks to all the RSS crew. Even part timer, Gary... Awright fella?...

I have idea's, of series'/cars I'd love to be brought to one or all the platforms I own. I'd absolutely give RSS the call, if I could ever find a method that doesn't sound like a demand.

I won't claim to own every RSS car and despite my aversion for modern open wheel cars, I do own most of the Hybrid F1's (give them to someone else). Using someone else's tag line "Once you pop... and so on". GT1, nGT cars are just immense, the two modern GT's brilliant, the '79 F1... I'll stop before I list them all.

Thank you again Gentlemen
 
Hyperion 2020 is my Favorite because its the most fun to drive out of all the versions of the V8's out there. RSS is top mod maker in my opinion, never had a bad experience ever, and with just a few small tweaks for my style, I always get a great set up. I wish more SIM's had great cars and good set ups like RSS.
 
well Formula RSS 2 or the Formula America, tough choice but i would say the RSS 2 is my favourite because when i look at a replay from league race i did, i always notice how this car make my driving "natural" i don't notice it at first while driving but in replay when i see what i'm doing with the wheel i'm amazed. Also the RSS2 have power but not too much and aero but not too much to, wich is really fun to drive on the limit.
 
Premium
It’s a tie between the Formula Americas and the Hybrid 2019 for me. Both are IMO the best modern formula cars in AC. I haven’t tried the later versions though, hopefully my luck will change that ;)
 
My favourite RSS Car is the RSS GT Tornado (Lister Storm GT) because my first contact with racing games as a kid was through a copy of "Total Immersion Racing" included in a box of cereals, and I used to always drive this particular car there because I loved the colorfull livery.
 
Hyperion was a pleasant surprise for me even if i don't watch a lot of Nascar and oval racing...but my favourite is the 90s formula. OH god that sound-power combination amazes me every time i drive it. :inlove: Thank you RSS team for your work. :inlove:
 
My favourite RSS car has to be the Formula RSS 1990 V12. Absolutely gorgeous with an awesome V12 soundtrack.
 
Outstanding quality in every RSS car. You can't go wrong with any of them. They're bascially making the DLC's Kunos didn't want to do anymore after a few years.
The F1 79, 1990 and the GT's are my top picks (difficult to pick just one!)
 
RSS Formula 79 for me. Firstly, because, unlike other mods from these people that have some heavy duty company, being from either Kunos work or other modding groups, the glorious Ground Effects era has little stuff at AC. But this one reeks quality from every single aspect, and feels glorious to drive and push, really portraits a very particular era, and the one single car that severed F1's history in two clear halves. It deserved a proper virtual recreation, and RSS totally nailed it.
 
Formula RSS 90 V12 best mod ever from Race Sim Studio i am looking forward to a 2021 Porsche 911 RSR
 

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