Sim Racing, But Chill: Why You Should Try Free Roaming

Free Roaming in Sim Racing Here is Why You Should Try.jpg
Sim racing is extremely versatile. There is barely any era that it is impossible to find cars or tracks of, be it modern or vintage. Different disciplines are no problem, either. If the actual racing gets too intense at some point, it is possible to make use of a relaxing alternative: Free roam tracks are perfect to just switch off and drive.

I have to admit that I did not understand the draw of these free roam maps for a long time. Driving around aimlessly while being far from the limit in a non-racing car did seem rather boring to me. The moment of realization came at RETRO CLASSICS BAVARIA, where one of the simulators of the Virtual Racing Lounge was running “LA Canyons” in Assetto Corsa for a while. I had heard of it before as it is one of the most popular tracks in RaceDepartment’s download section, but up until then, I had never tried it.

After repeated recommendations, this changed at Nuremberg. And suddenly, I got why this kind of sim racing, or rather sim driving, is popular with a lot of people: You can choose your own tempo to enjoy the driving itself, search for the limit if you want to, or just cruise around the streets in a relaxed manner.

I gave “LA Canyons” another try on my rig at home afterwards. At dusk, the track by modder Phoenix77 that uses real-life roads north of Los Angeles, looks absolutely spectacular. My car of choice was a Ferrari F40, and to get some more 80s flair, I put on a Synthwave playlist on YouTube in the background. Manual transmission, an exciting location, darkness creeping in – this scenario was tough to beat in the atmosphere department.

Time flew by, and the session did not get boring at any point despite there not being any other traffic on the road – the free base version can be upgraded to a paid VIP version to add this feature and more road sections as well to make the canyons come alive a little more. Another free roam map by Phoenix77 called “Pacific Coast” does the same using a voluntary donation system, so it can be done for free as well. Numerous YouTube videos of both maps show that it would be absolutely worth it.

Another alternative to enjoy free roam scenarios is BeamNG.Drive: As a racing sim, the game is not up to the standards yet, but as a vehicle physics simulator, it is far above anything else, especially when it comes to crash physics. The sim is extremely detailed when it comes to driving physics and the effects of different components on the driving feel – and it is being improved steadily. Even rally scenarios are very well done now, so there is a ton of potential in BeamNG – not just for racing, but also to kick back and enjoy driving cars.

Should you have never tried a free roam map, maybe for the reasons mentioned above, I can only recommend to change this and jump into it. You might miss out on a really cool feature sim racing has on offer otherwise.

What are your favorite free roam scenarios? What is you favorite sim to do them in? Let us know in the comments below and feel free to leave some recommendations, too!

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About author
Yannik Haustein
Lifelong motorsport enthusiast and sim racing aficionado, walking racing history encyclopedia.

Sim racing editor, streamer and one half of the SimRacing Buddies podcast (warning, German!).

Heel & Toe Gang 4 life :D

Comments

I've taken a break from circuit racing due too enjoying the free roam in fh4 and 5 so much, ffb is good on 4 but not so good on 5 but that's getting looked into by support as effects are missing in my T300rs, but just love going at my own pace trying too learn using my new shifter and Load cell pedals and enjoing the scenery, having fun with the boy racers etc.
 
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really? FH4 was fun in a lot of ways, but the FFB and basic physics kept me from playing it too much.

I got FH5 for my kid and still haven't had time to give it a proper go. I might break out the wheel and check it out. Of course if I like it, I'll have to get my own copy.
It's very strange, but the version of FH4 that I bought on the Microsoft Store for PC was completely unplayable on the steering wheel - either it's a lag, or a non-switchable filtering for the gamepad, it's almost impossible to play. In the fall I bought the Ultimate version on sale on Steam - and oh my goodness, it steers very differently, with no noticeable lags or anything like that. But FFB of course is not interesting, also USB handbrake is not connected (in MSStore version it works). And FH5 is much better from this point of view. So in between self-destruction in sims :) just driving around Mexico and England :)
 
Premium
I use a lot (more and more) assetto corsa with free road tracks.
It is a shame not to drive all the fantastics street cars we have available .
Cruising the F40 or gt3 rs or ... on LA canyon, fonteny , feldbegring, transfagaran, .... is just a pure pleasure.

I unfortunately don't have the time to race a lot, and just going for halo a hour on a free roam map is always a relaxing moment.
It doesn't improve myself as a simracer, but i enjoy it and it is all

I also enjoy some laps on the nordschleife with every type of cars.
(Favorit combo porsche 964 cup at nordshleife raceroom)
 
For roaming the immersion is always broken for me as most roads are not driving on the left. Also when you get in the car the steering is not on the right anyway so never feel real. How hard would it be to introduce this as a setting.
 
As quite a few have already mentioned, while not being the most realistic sim in the world, the Forza Horizon series, and especially FH5, are great fun (the driving does seem to be improving as well). I get that they're not to everyone's taste, but I recently got FH5 over the Christmas period and have been loving it. Makes a great break from hard-core hotlapping as well.
 
i freeroam much more often than i race, mainly because its hard to just jump into a race at any time in AC unless its gt3 at spa or lotus exos at monza :whistling:. and the ai in ac just doesnt cut it. that being said, f40/LAC/synthwave is one of my go to combos, you have good taste :thumbsup:. basically 80s-90s exotics at LAC, PCH, or SRP are what i do 90% of the time. in VR or course. touge with something small and japanese with eurobeat is another pretty special experience.
 
Personally if i wanted free roam i'd get Forza Horizon.

Each to their own i guess, but the types who like free roam on say AC tend to be the types who organise drives and meets for dead people, which is weird.
They tend to spell meets with a Z too....
whys that weird? do you go to cemeteries and make fun of people leaving flowers at graves?
 
The most immersive Assetto Corsa experience was driving around the Targa Florio in a Porsche 718 Spider. I started as the sunset and then i was driving around at night with the headlights on. It was even more realistic when I ran out fuel and had to pull over on the Buonfornello straight because the default amount of gas wasn't enough to get around a 72 km circuit. In that moment I was transported to another age and time.
 
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I just can't get into freeroam huge maps in AC. Being huge they never look even closely as detailed and polished as the best race track mods, without CSP the physics engine of AC cannot even deal with such huge tracks (vibrating car), and they feel lifeless without proper traffic AI.

I think it's a shame that so many (even tiny) race tracks still haven't been created in a high quality version, yet we are getting so many of these tens of kilometers of roads, while 95% of these huge freeroam projects... stay only projects with visuals and features far from even average for all the content AC offers.

I wish all that work went into creating smaller race tracks, however the world doesn't revolve around my wishes, so... here I am sharing my opinion.

Of course, modders should make whatever the hell THEY want, it's their time and passion invested into creating content for the community. And not everyone is as grumpy and picky as I am, thankfully.

So to those who enjoy it, have fun.
That vibration can be fixed with CSP. Under general patch settings in Content Manager, find "Double precision physics engine" and turn it on. Had this exact issue. That stopped the vibrations on really long tracks.
 
i did actually used to do this with my friends. we'd make a private lobby in the full Azure Coast and just drive around with our favourite road cars in PC2. we mostly put the weather to thunderstorm and midnight without time progression.
 
There seems to be some misconception about these open tracks. If it's one that can run traffic then if you have two way traffic and the AI set to madman then it's like a Cannonball Run! You're thrashing it, all the AI are thrashing it, it's fun as hell. It's Forza Horizon basically.

It's certainly not just people driving around at 30mph unless you've joined a lobby to do that sort of thing. Free roam is what you want it to be.
 
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Not much because I’m only driving in AC-VR, so: 2D models, shimmering, massive green colored surfaces that suppose to be mountains, lakes that have oil pollution looks, constantly repeating stroboscopic roadwalls of bricks , flat/fuzzy/pink-color tarmac and low poly objects, are in a VR perspective an absolute immersion breaker. Especially in free roaming roads, maybe as here the driving speeds are much lower and we all trying to enjoy the entire environment. Did try lots of free room tracks for AC, only never did saw an free roam AC-track that did cope all these aspects into a real free-roam masterpiece for VR. While driving in a lonely flat dessert free roam is on the other-hand a bit boring.
 
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My car of choice was a Ferrari F40, and to get some more 80s flair, I put on a Synthwave playlist on YouTube in the background. Manual transmission, an exciting location, darkness creeping in – this scenario was tough to beat in the atmosphere department.
I see you're a man of culture as well! :D

Love roaming in AC! Hope to see more great content from the modding community... :inlove:
To me it's very relaxing too! Just put some music on, drive some miles and start to meditate. :)
 
whys that weird? do you go to cemeteries and make fun of people leaving flowers at graves?

Would it be weird to turn up at sabine schmitz wake uninvited crying ?

It's weird to arrange a drive for a dead celebrity on AC.
I guess these types have an RIP Brian O'Conner "I nearly had you at the lights" sticker on their Corsa's.
It's just a type of person who does this stuff.... the ones who say they have a 'crew'....
I am a snob and i find its a lack of class.
It's very facebooky.....
Just an opinion...
Each to there own i guess...
 
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I just can't get into freeroam huge maps in AC. Being huge they never look even closely as detailed and polished as the best race track mods, without CSP the physics engine of AC cannot even deal with such huge tracks (vibrating car), and they feel lifeless without proper traffic AI.
Not sure i agree with your point here. LA Canyons VIP is, in my opinion, as well detailed as anything out there. Same goes for High Force 1.0. Both looks absolutely stunning with the right time of day. Especially High Force impresses me in terms of level of detail; i'd *love* to try this in VR someday! Coming from someone who's enjoyed hundreds and hundreds of cruisin' free roam hours! ;)
 
Not sure i agree with your point here. LA Canyons VIP is, in my opinion, as well detailed as anything out there. Same goes for High Force 1.0. Both looks absolutely stunning with the right time of day. Especially High Force impresses me in terms of level of detail; i'd *love* to try this in VR someday! Coming from someone who's enjoyed hundreds and hundreds of cruisin' free roam hours! ;)
LAC is probably one of the best, yeah. What's missing is micro-detail from these maps. The AC graphics engine is not bad, but certain scenarios, especially with long viewing distances, can look very unflattering. have tried High Force for the first time before writing this post. I never downloaded it before as the images on the download page already tell the story that I wouldn't like it.

Let's load into the map. For a "fictional" track we get a very unflattering first impression, looking at trees that don't fit their environment, comparably "off" distant textures.
acs_2022_01_11_16_42_56_239.jpg


We get on the road among the cardboard trees that quite often merge through fences and stuff. Like 99% of Touge tracks have the same problem.
acs_2022_01_11_16_44_07_935.jpg


We come to some gaps between the trees and take a look at blurry textures of the hills in the distance.
acs_2022_01_11_16_44_45_015.jpg


The whole image just isn't cohesive. I don't get to be immersed in the countryside, I just see a road, trees, textures, that don't work with each other, for my taste.

Even the highest quality race track mods also have similar issues at times. The Kunos Red Bull Ring also has terrible textures on the mountain heading into T2. But in race tracks you can hide the distant stuff much easier, on country roads the distant stuff should be the part that is breathtaking.

I am very picky, I know, I don't like that about myself but I can't help to get immersed more. But saying this has even similar detail and quality to say the Watkins, Road America mods here is just objectively false.

And just to add, making nice, cohesive distant environments can be done in AC. Kunos did it. I haven's seen many mods that came close though.
acs_2022_01_11_17_01_23_855.jpg


Just to say, I have nothing against that mod in particular, I know I don't like it, I am not giving it a bad review, I just wanted to show on pictures what I experienced in one minute of driving there. I even continued a bit and found other things that bugged me. Anybody who likes it and likes similar mods, feel free to enjoy it to the fullest. It is about... immersion, if you get immersed, you won.
 

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