The Short and Concise
Rennsport held a Discord Q&A session recently. In it, some questions were answered by Competition Company GmbH CEO Morris Hebecker and Game Development Lead Krzysztof Szczech. This is the first part of our Rennsport Discord Q&A Articles.
Before we get into the deep end let me give you an overview of the content of this article.
First, we have a paraphrased TL;DR and afterwards, the full answers as transcribed from a sound file will be shown. So prepare yourself, this is a long one.
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, this is one of the things we'll definitely have in our game
2. Is Rennsport considering a similar system for ranked racing as LFM?
Krzysztof Szczech: We are developing our own platform which will allow ranked racing, leagues, or whatever you want.
3. Will Rennsport have endurance races?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes. Our goal, when we started Rennsport was to allow you guys to race however you want to race. Endurance racers will have the possibility to do endurance races and sprint racers do sprint races.
4. Endurance events in the past had problems with DDoS attacks, how will Rennsport handle that?
Krzysztof Szczech: We have a whole team working very hard to create the most robust and best possible system for online racing.
5. How do you plan to deal with punishments for dirty drivers?
Krzysztof Szczech: We are planning to implement an automatic penalty system, but server owners will have the chance to turn that off to do manual race directing.
6. What is the maximum amount of drivers that will be able to join a server?
Krzysztof Szczech: The beta will have a maximum of 12 cars. We aim for a much larger number for the final release.
7. Will Rennsport have built-in Broadcasting and Photography tools?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, of course. There will also be APIs to use the data in external tools and you will be able to configure everything as you wish.
8. Can we expect a sophisticated damage model for cars?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, of course. We hope you will be able to experience it soon.
9. What sets Rennsport apart from the sims already on the market?
Morris Hebecker: Integrate the external tools needed for running some events on existing sims into the game's ecosystem from the start.
10. Which cars and tracks will be in Rennsport?
Morris Hebecker: Hopefully, in 3 or 4 years, we will have hundreds of cars and hundreds of race tracks at the end. We're only starting with GT3 cars. Tracks like Nürburgring, Hockenheimring, Red Bull Ring, Monza and such are definitely coming. More unknown tracks will come as well.
11. Will there be oval support?
Morris Hebecker: At the moment, we are not working on it. It is on our list, however, to support it at the final release.
12. Will racers be able to compete in special events like 24 hours of Spa, 24 hours of Nürburgring, etc?
Morris Hebecker: All the famous race tracks will be included and you can race on these tracks however you want.
13. Will Rennsport support real-life series?
Morris Hebecker: Technically it's possible. We are not in negotiations or contact about that at the moment, though.
14. Will Rennsport be at the Sim Racing Expo?
Morris Hebecker: Maybe with 2 containers and some sim rigs.
15. Will Rennsport support some kind of API to get the car or session data to use in third-party software?
Krzysztof Szczech: Like I said earlier, yes.
16. Will we have the documentation for the API ready on time?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, of course!
17. Will there be a safety car?
Morris Hebecker: I would like to drive the safety car myself, but the development team tells me we don't need it. Technically that wouldn't be an issue to implement, however.
Krzysztof Szczech: Maybe, we'll add it as an optional feature.
18. How restricted, or not, will modding be?
Morris Hebecker: Modding is very important. We will do our best with tools and API to make modding as easy as possible.
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, we want to make modding extremely easy while allowing you guys to use the same tools as we use to make the game.
19. Custom Liveries?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, custom liveries are planned and should be shared within the game's ecosystem. No need to worry about downloading external files.
20. Will Rennsport support DLSS and Raytracing?
Krzysztof Szczech: DLSS is already supported.
Morris Hebecker: We are experimenting with Raytracing, but are not happy with the current technology we are using. We are working very hard to implement it, however.
21. What are the limitations of UE5 as a game engine?
Morris Hebecker: We think Unreal Engine is our best choice for the game for the next 10 years.
Krzysztof Szczech: Many things are possible with Unreal 5.
22. Will there be Gridgirls?
Jokingly, both agreed to add it to their agenda.
23. Which hardware will be supported?
Morris Hebecker: All important hardware manufacturers will be supported for the beta.
24. What will the payment model look like?
Morris Hebecker: As I explained at the summit, it's important for us to have a free-to-enter system. Esports drivers and hardcore players will be able to jump into a subscription model and then have access to all tools and options in the ecosystem.
Furthermore, part 2 of this article will soon follow.
What do you think of this outlook on this new sim racing title? Let us know in the comments down below!
Before we get into the deep end let me give you an overview of the content of this article.
First, we have a paraphrased TL;DR and afterwards, the full answers as transcribed from a sound file will be shown. So prepare yourself, this is a long one.
The Short and Concise Paraphrasing
1. Will there be a ranking system?Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, this is one of the things we'll definitely have in our game
2. Is Rennsport considering a similar system for ranked racing as LFM?
Krzysztof Szczech: We are developing our own platform which will allow ranked racing, leagues, or whatever you want.
3. Will Rennsport have endurance races?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes. Our goal, when we started Rennsport was to allow you guys to race however you want to race. Endurance racers will have the possibility to do endurance races and sprint racers do sprint races.
4. Endurance events in the past had problems with DDoS attacks, how will Rennsport handle that?
Krzysztof Szczech: We have a whole team working very hard to create the most robust and best possible system for online racing.
5. How do you plan to deal with punishments for dirty drivers?
Krzysztof Szczech: We are planning to implement an automatic penalty system, but server owners will have the chance to turn that off to do manual race directing.
6. What is the maximum amount of drivers that will be able to join a server?
Krzysztof Szczech: The beta will have a maximum of 12 cars. We aim for a much larger number for the final release.
7. Will Rennsport have built-in Broadcasting and Photography tools?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, of course. There will also be APIs to use the data in external tools and you will be able to configure everything as you wish.
8. Can we expect a sophisticated damage model for cars?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, of course. We hope you will be able to experience it soon.
9. What sets Rennsport apart from the sims already on the market?
Morris Hebecker: Integrate the external tools needed for running some events on existing sims into the game's ecosystem from the start.
10. Which cars and tracks will be in Rennsport?
Morris Hebecker: Hopefully, in 3 or 4 years, we will have hundreds of cars and hundreds of race tracks at the end. We're only starting with GT3 cars. Tracks like Nürburgring, Hockenheimring, Red Bull Ring, Monza and such are definitely coming. More unknown tracks will come as well.
11. Will there be oval support?
Morris Hebecker: At the moment, we are not working on it. It is on our list, however, to support it at the final release.
12. Will racers be able to compete in special events like 24 hours of Spa, 24 hours of Nürburgring, etc?
Morris Hebecker: All the famous race tracks will be included and you can race on these tracks however you want.
13. Will Rennsport support real-life series?
Morris Hebecker: Technically it's possible. We are not in negotiations or contact about that at the moment, though.
14. Will Rennsport be at the Sim Racing Expo?
Morris Hebecker: Maybe with 2 containers and some sim rigs.
15. Will Rennsport support some kind of API to get the car or session data to use in third-party software?
Krzysztof Szczech: Like I said earlier, yes.
16. Will we have the documentation for the API ready on time?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, of course!
17. Will there be a safety car?
Morris Hebecker: I would like to drive the safety car myself, but the development team tells me we don't need it. Technically that wouldn't be an issue to implement, however.
Krzysztof Szczech: Maybe, we'll add it as an optional feature.
18. How restricted, or not, will modding be?
Morris Hebecker: Modding is very important. We will do our best with tools and API to make modding as easy as possible.
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, we want to make modding extremely easy while allowing you guys to use the same tools as we use to make the game.
19. Custom Liveries?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, custom liveries are planned and should be shared within the game's ecosystem. No need to worry about downloading external files.
20. Will Rennsport support DLSS and Raytracing?
Krzysztof Szczech: DLSS is already supported.
Morris Hebecker: We are experimenting with Raytracing, but are not happy with the current technology we are using. We are working very hard to implement it, however.
21. What are the limitations of UE5 as a game engine?
Morris Hebecker: We think Unreal Engine is our best choice for the game for the next 10 years.
Krzysztof Szczech: Many things are possible with Unreal 5.
22. Will there be Gridgirls?
Jokingly, both agreed to add it to their agenda.
23. Which hardware will be supported?
Morris Hebecker: All important hardware manufacturers will be supported for the beta.
24. What will the payment model look like?
Morris Hebecker: As I explained at the summit, it's important for us to have a free-to-enter system. Esports drivers and hardcore players will be able to jump into a subscription model and then have access to all tools and options in the ecosystem.
The Full and Uncut
The un-paraphrased details of this can be found on the next page of this article.Furthermore, part 2 of this article will soon follow.
What do you think of this outlook on this new sim racing title? Let us know in the comments down below!
Full Length Transciption
Will there be a ranking system?
Krzysztof Szczech: The plan for the game is to have more than just online racing, but also ranking system which we saw that you really want to … how it looks like. So many questions and propositions how it would look like. So, definitely we want to have such system in our game since it’s a very good way for you guys to have a target to become better and improve yourself and compete with each other so of course, this is one of the things we’ll definitely have in our game.
Is Rennsport considering a similar system for ranked racing as LFM?
Krzysztof Szczech: So, basically, we are developing our own platform which will allow you guys to compete with each other and which will have your own leagues, … to just create whatever you want to compete with each other, however you want to compete with each other. So, yes we want to have a system, very sophisticated system for rankings integrated with the game out of the box, so you don’t have to do anything, you’ll just download the game and you can just use it.
Will Rennsport have endurance races?
Krzysztof Szczech: Our goal, when we started Rennsport was to allow you guys to race however you want to race. So if there are endurance racing enthusiasts here, we want them to have a possibility to do endurance races here. If there are enthusiasts of sprint races, we want you guys so you can play sprint races here. We have a schedule on how we go with that so we have a plan when we want those things to happen as probably many of you noticed with our summit, we start with GT3 cars and we have a plan for later development and adding new car types later on.
Endurance events in the past had problems with DDoS attacks, how will Rennsport handle that?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yeah, we also noticed that those servers can sometimes have problems with DDoS attacks and other technical issues and we definitely want to avoid this as much as possible, technically, we have a whole team working very very hard to create the most robust and the best possible system for online racing so you don’t have to suffer with DDoS attacks so you can have a stable connection without any hickups and stable netcode so you can just race with each other and don’t suffer any issues during that.
How do you plan to deal with punishments for dirty drivers?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yea, you can clearly see that punishment system is one of the biggest things, one of the hardest things to implement for racing games since racing rules are very complicated and a good system for judging who for example caused the collision is a hard thing to develop but we want to spend a lot of time creating the best solution possible and this will be available for daily, normal racing with random people on the internet and I would say for user who just play the game, this is the most important part, so they don’t have to worry about sending some videos for reviews. If we manage to implement it the way we want it to look like, you probably have no, you won’t feel the need to review it manually, because it will work out of the box the way it should but for like offline racing or esports, or maybe just for guys who just like to be race directors, because that’s also a fun thing to do, we also plan to add very very complex system for manual race directoring and so we can just use a special way to be a race director and give penalties or change the grid order or deploy safety car or whatever you need as a race director.
What are the maximum amount of drivers that will be able to join a server?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yeah, since game is pretty much a early development right now, we don’t have that final number that we aim for ready yet. For now, for sporting and that, we plan, for the beta launch we will have possibility to race with 12 cars on the map. Later, we plan to add more. We also tested it with more players, you can definitely do it, but for now we feel comfortable with that value and that’s how we have it prepared. To be honest guys, we aim for the really big numbers and only need to solve some technical issues to have like, very very big amount of players on servers.
Will Rennsport have built-in Broadcasting and Photography tools?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, of course and if you watched our video from Rennsport summit which we had in May you could see some of those features already in the game so we have a spectator system. You can just join the server as a spectator and take some cool shots with different camera angles and use it later, publish it somewhere and just to show how good a racer you are, how good a director you are. Also, since we also have a big, we want to help other parties with creating broadcasts, we have special API during development which will allow the game to integrate with external tools to create some custom overlays or send some comments to spectator system so we don’t have to use keyboard or game UI to change cameras, you just use external tools or whatever you like to use or even implement yourself to steer all of those features and yeah, also one thing: replay system. If you just race with your friends and later you want to take cool shots from that, that will also be possible pretty soon.
Can we expect a sophisticated damage model for cars?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, of course and I hope you will be able to see them soon since we spent a lot of time implementing them already. Things like flat spots on wheels you can already feel them, if you have a flat spot on your wheel, if you have a, for example, direct drive wheel you should be able to feel it already and things like sophisticated damage: We are getting close to having a pretty good version for that so we can show it to you and hopefully you will be able to experience that soon.
What sets Rennsport apart from the sims already on the market?
Morris Hebecker: Yeah I think … First of all there are a lot of really good games out there and really the idea of Rennsport was to add several parts to the game where we thing that they are really needed for the next years and doing great sport on the platform while doing great sport with the game and so I think some of the websites out there really show what is needed to have some add-on things at a game which makes the whole game infrastructure and the environment really better and then other things we also had in mind really creating not only a game also developing a new platform which really enables the community and stakeholders to do additional things on the platform beside of the game so when it comes to broadcasting or when it comes to sporting so make it really easy to create leagues or sporting scenarios by your own and working together with esports companies like ESL to create esports and so on and there was a bit, really, the things we had in mind when we started the project not only developing a AAA game, also developing an environment an ecosystem from technical side which is able to involve all the websites out there and also sim-enthusiastic guys into this ecosystem, so that was definitely the idea.
Which cars and tracks will be in Rennsport?
Morris Hebecker: Hopefully, in 3 or 4 years, we will have hundreds of cars and hundreds of race tracks at the end so that’s my goal, really having these futuristic cars, traditional cars and so on. What we’re doing at the moment is we start with, as we said at the summit, with a lot of GT3 cars, we really would like to have and with these cars we will start the sporting next year and we will definitely have most of the famous race tracks for the beta as well so talking about race tracks like Nürburgring, Hockenheimring, whatever, Red Bull Ring, Monza, so the goal is really at the end having all these famous race tracks and a lot of maybe unknown race tracks which are not shown in games at the moment and the third part will definitely be: creating own content and race tracks on Rennsport.
Will there be oval support?
Morris Hebecker: At the moment, to be honest, we are not developing an oval race track but it’s definitely on the list. I don’t know when we will have it. I’m quite sure there will be some oval race tracks at the release but I have no idea where they are on the timeline at the moment. What I definitely know, at the moment we are not working on an oval race track but they are definitely on the list.
Will racers be able to compete in special events like 24 hours of Spa, 24 hours of Nürburgring, etc?
Morris Hebecker: Okay, we will definitely have all these famous race tracks in Rennsport and when it comes to the release, that is really our goal so we are talking to all these partners and I’m 100% sure we will have these famous race tracks in Rennsport at the release and if it comes to, yeah, the possibility to do a digital race for these kind of partners and maybe do a digital twin of these famous racing events, it would be a dream of all of us in Rennsport to have the chance to do that, but that’s a thing we definitely have to discuss, we’re really not sure at the moment if this will happen, but the race tracks will be in Rennsport when we release.
Will Rennsport support real-life series?
Morris Hebecker: Yeah that’s possible, from technical side that’s exactly what we do. We develop a platform and a game which makes it super easy with APIs in all directions to integrate existing racing formats, integrate real road, yeah, racing events, so from the technical side: definitely, absolutely no problem to do this and there will be a lot of new options for these kind of partners to do special digital motorsports events on our platform but we are not in negotiations or contact at the moment to implement one of these real road race series, but from technical side it is definitely possible and I’m quite sure, if it comes to the release we will have one or two of them integrated as partner.
Will Rennsport be at the Sim Racing Expo?
Morris Hebecker: I would love to go there, I know these guys doing the sim racing expo and I like them a lot and we were sitting together two weeks ago and had a great conversation of digital motorsports and all the things that happen out there at the moment and they also have a great vision and I am quite sure they will do a great show beginning of December in Nürnberg. We have no final decision at the moment. The plan would be, that would be my plan but I’m not sure if we really can make it happen to go there with 2 of our containers and having some rigs there, really to show the core audience of sim racing what is Rennsport and giving a chance to test the game, but it’s not 100% at the moment so if there is not a chance to go there with out containers and our team, definitely I and some guys of our team will be to sim racing expo and would be happy to do some meetings there and talking to the guys.
Will Rennsport support some kind of API to get the car or session data to use in third party software?
Krzysztof Szczech: Like I mentioned earlier when we talked about spectator and broadcasting stuff, yes we are implementing an API to allow users to read some data from the game. For example, to use it with external tools or external hardware and also to have better broadcasts and you will also be able to send some comments to the game, for example to use it to control spectator system instead of your keyboard or UI in the game.
Will we have the documentation for the API ready on time?
Krzysztof Szczech: Yes, of course! We try to be good developers so we document our code so hopefully once the game is released for you guys you will be able to access those things, I hope.
Will there be a safety car?
Morris Hebecker: From the technical side, absolutely no problem and to be honest, I’m an old white man and I always talk about to the team that I would love to have, if it comes to offline events, I would love to have the sim rig only there for a safety car driver and having a safety car in the game. They always laugh about me and claim that I’m coming from the old world, that’s not what we need for the sporting. So I’m not 100% sure what we need, but I would love to have it and to be honest, from the technical side, there’s absolutely no problem to have it in the game so this is not a question.
Krzysztof Szczech: Yeah, maybe we’ll just add that feature and choose if you want to use it or not.
How restricted, or not, will modding be?
Morris Hebecker: Modding is for me a thing which really comes from my heart, that’s with me since I’m working in the gaming industry so modding really makes a lot of titles huge and big and I’m a big fan of the whole modding scene, the output which comes from this side is sometimes amazing and definitely a lot of them are on the same quality as the bigger teams from the studios so that’s really amazing to see what’s coming from this side and that’s a thing we definitely have on the map. We are working on some modding tools so that’s a thing which will come by end of the year when it’s coming closer to the release. Really having the modding community deeply involved, giving them the chance to create the best possible content and showing the quality they have and then it comes to the next step, a technical possibility from our platform definitely will be that these guys could bring their content to the platform and really monetise what they created and where they are the owners from and this is the thing which is super important, to make that happen and giving these guys a chance, really, to monetise what they worked on for months in all their creativity. So that’s really a big, big part and we will do our best with APIs and tools to make the access as easy as possible.
Krzysztof Szczech: Yeah, one of my main things that we want to give you guys is the system to be extremely easy to use so many of you who work with mods probably know that it’s usually pretty painful, we want to simplify that as much as possible because we want you to have exactly the same tools as we have when we create that game.
Custom Liveries?
Krzysztof Szczech: Basically, just as with modding support, we want to have the best possible, fully integrated with the game system which allows you to create liveries, share it with other players and so, you can just play the game, don’t worry about downloading stuff and just click play and everything happens, that’s our goal for liveries.
Will Rennsport support DLSS and Raytracing?
Krzysztof Szczech: To be honest, DLSS is already supported by the game so once you have access, you can just enable it and use it. About Raytracing, we are experimenting with that, so probably Morris Hebecker will tell you more about that and we are …
Morris Hebecker: So Raytracing is definitely a thing and we are, I’m told to be open, we are not 100% happy with the raytracing we are using at the moment. This is not the final quality we all have in mind for the game. So, we are just checking options, what we can do on this side at the moment we will definitely have raytracing at the end, but, yeah, that’s a topic that we’re working on very hard at the moment.
What are the limitations of UE5 as a game engine?
Morris Hebecker: Up until October last year, then we made the decision to jump on Unreal 5, super early. Was really risky and I spoke to a lot of really experienced guys in the gaming industry and they said: Okay, I wouldn’t be sure if I would do it at this moment. But we made this decision and, yeah, to be honest It was really hard for Krzysztof Szczech and the team, working with Unreal in the beginning because it was really a step back for us, but in the long-term perspective, if I see where we are at the moment this engine has such a huge potential for this game and for our plans that it was worse to do it and to invest additional manpower over the last months, for the future, we will get it back and I’m 100% sure this engine and this environment of Unreal is the best we could have for the next 10 years.
Krzysztof Szczech: Yeah, since we are aiming for years from now the only good choice was to switch to Unreal 5 since this is the future and just like Morris Hebecker said, I think many things will be possible with that engine, especially if we get used to all those new features that come up with that and we learn how to use them. Maybe add some more from our side. Many things will be possible.
Gridgirls?
Morris Hebecker: Never had this in mind to be honest, but I would love to be part of the motion capturing activities of the team if they have to do it. I have no idea.
Krzysztof Szczech: I’m not sure if we are going to be models for that that are going to be good.
Morris Hebecker: I don’t know. Krzysztof Szczech, what to you think?
Krzysztof Szczech: I can’t see why not.
Morris Hebecker: It’s not planned at the moment to be honest, but maybe, If you wish, let’s take it on the list and think about.
Krzysztof Szczech: Yeah, adding it to our Jyra, immediately, right now.
Morris Hebecker: Please don’t do an internal vote, I’m quite sure what the answer will be.
Which hardware will be supported?
Morris Hebecker: Definitely, we start with VRS hardware during our prototype phase and that helps us a lot but it’s totally clear, we are now speaking to all the important hardware manufacturers so having Fanatec, Simucube involved and for the beta all these really important hardware will be in the game and possible to connect.
What will the payment model look like?
Morris Hebecker: It’s definitely as I explained it at the summit. For us it’s super important to have a kind of a free-to-enter system so giving race tracks or several items for free so that the big audience really has the chance to jump in without paying money. So this is super important for us and then if it comes to the professionals and the hardcore users, it will be a subscription model as we know it from other games. So, free-to-enter, super important, having the chance to test the game without paying for it and if you love the game, which will be hopefully most of the free-to-enter users, you can jump into a subscription model and then you are 100% happy and you are in the ecosystem and you could use all the options that we have on the game and the platform and the esports and so on.
Part 2 of this article will soon follow.
What do you think of this outlook on this new sim racing title? Let us know in the comments down below!
