DiRT Rally Is DiRT Rally a sim?

[Chris]

I love rally, but I've never had time to get into RBR, the old DiRT series were abissmal as were the WRC games. So is DiRT Rally at least more realistic than its predecessors? certainly from the gameplay footage it looks really nice!

People who've played the game let me know your thoughts and opinions before I go giving out me hard earned dosh cheers!

P.s. I am aware that it's an early access, so I'm not expecting it to be a fully finished game

 

[mesa]

Yes it is a simulator, however not finished yet.

 

[Tobbe Bergman]

I like the menus and the fact that you don't need a mouse (ala RBR)

 

[Andy_J]

I like the menus and the fact that you don't need a mouse (ala RBR)

.........yawn................!!

 

[Tobbe Bergman]

.........yawn................!!

Wow constructive !

Here's something that suit you perfect

 

[Andy_J]

Yawn............................. !

And this was also constructive? ^^^

You are right, it was very childish. No need for it eh?

 

[Tobbe Bergman]

And this was also constructive? ^^^

You are right, it was very childish. No need for it eh?

You're simply pathetic

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

A reminder:
Please stay polite and within forum rules !
Simple rules:
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This was 25 hours ago. Time to follow it!

Last warning!

 

[Kazumi]

Their chief designer has been doing a bit of rallying of his own (he is the co-driver in the game too, they wrote a blog about it), they have rally drivers on board. Might have something to do with the change of heart in direction? They have never had this stance of wanting to make a sim before.

It's punishing, they removed all the fluff and are having a stand against stuff like flashbacks (gone). If you restart you take a cash prize penalty, if you reset your car you take a 15 second penalty.. The only difficulty level is the championship level and you have to repair your car with limited time between checkpoints (after 2 stages). It's a brutally punishing game compared to their previous offerings and shows a grown up authentic approach to rallying.

All of the stages in the game are tight, punishing and incredibly challening. I know from the Rally Wales that they are real stages, not fictional creations... I actually live next to the Afon stage, I grew up there in those forests on my mountain bike, or watching the WRC/Mintex rally with my dad as a kid. The level of attention to detail is quite frankly staggering and it's so far above anything they have ever done before.

You talk about people with actual sim feedback helping them... Sure that is great, what is not great is "Oh arcade game bullshit, codemasters rubbish, this FFB is just ****, **** this going back to RBR" followed by berating anyone with a constructive or balanced view on the subject. It's not helpful.

It's not helpful helping them to make a decent semi-sim package (which included at least as good as possible handling & FFB for me) ? I can't even tell if you are serious with saying this.

 

[Ryan Vickery]

It's not helpful helping them to make a decent semi-sim package (which included at least as good as possible handling & FFB for me) ? I can't even tell if you are serious with saying this.

You're right, it's better to just log on to their forums and start making posts about how the game is arcade or simcade and that the FFB is so rubbish and that I'm just gonna go back to RBR, because Codemasters can never make a sim as they are Codemasters. If anybody posts anything constructive it's best to just fob them off with a few insults, because they are clearly idiots.

That will definitely have the best effect in helping them create a good sim instead of an arcade game. People generally respond well to this kind of feedback when talking about their hard work. If you disrespect them and show their work to be worth nothing then they will respect your opinion and listen to what you have to say, they will stop making simcades.

Balanced viewpoints and constructive feedback have no place in this world, it will only result in simcades, or worse still... Arcade games.

 

[Brian C Hayes]

I love rally, but I've never had time to get into RBR, the old DiRT series were abissmal as were the WRC games. So is DiRT Rally at least more realistic than its predecessors? certainly from the gameplay footage it looks really nice!

People who've played the game let me know your thoughts and opinions before I go giving out me hard earned dosh cheers!

P.s. I am aware that it's an early access, so I'm not expecting it to be a fully finished game

It is a sim .. and its utterly brilliant and this is just week 1 ... I just played Project Cars . a full game apparently and its not scratch on this wonderful game/sim .... running a stage is just on the edge of your seat stuff ... its fun fun fun ... the first night I fired this up .. I kept saying to myself just one more stage ... I went to bed at 3.30 am

 

[RaceNut]

Dirt Rally has been quite a nice surprise fro me. The telemetry-driven FFB is great with a broad range of adjust-ability and detail.

There are some glaring issues with the handling, primarily ridiculously high rolling resistance that seems to simulate the high compression of a diesel engine at work in all cars but, with a fix there and some grip reductions, this could be a great Rally title. The steering certainly could benefit from some increased adjust-ability and tuning options as the turn-in feels a bit too slow to respond in some cars where it shouldn't.

The stage design is good and very challenging with plenty of close-in bumps that can launch the car off course, and they look great. The overall lighting works quite well and the night lighting is nicely done too.

The sounds are mega-good IMO; the sound team (Mark Knight and Dave Sullivan) use a granular synthesis system to create the sounds and the results are impressive. The in-car resonance is really well done and the rev's seem to climb forever - love it! The externals are very convincing in replays with very nice backfire effects and slow fade of engine sounds as the car travels into the distance. These are very challenging effects to get right and it's done to a very high standard in Dirt Rally.

Overall, I'm very excited about the potential Dirt Rally has to become something closer to our beloved but, outdated RBR. We should be getting behind the effort of the developers and supporting them with feedback and suggestions; without it, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves in the end if it turns out to be poo. This is a rare opportunity in Sim-racing, lets not waste it.

 

[Brandon Warren]

From the latest DiRT Rally Roadbook blog:

"One of the key areas we are focussing on at this early stage is how our Wheel Settings and Force Feedback are working in DiRT Rally. I’ll be honest, while we had poured a lot of effort into our new physics engine we hadn’t gotten round to unravelling our wheel settings and FFB and many of you have quite rightly noticed that the settings the game have shipped with are more suited to a console racer than a PC Sim. We want to get this right for you but to do it right we need to get under the hood and change the way that we do things. We’ve been reading your feedback, speaking the fans directly (big thanks to Betta Lines for his time) and we have a decent handle on how to improve things.

Our simulation team are now hard at work removing legacy stuff and adding in elements that you have been asking for. We hope to have more info on how this is progressing in the coming weeks but rest assured the early results are looking extremely positive. This isn’t all we are looking at though. There are plenty of refinements and updates that we are making based on stuff you have been calling out as well as working through any bugs that have crept into the game.”

 

[Kazumi]

It is a sim .. and its utterly brilliant and this is just week 1 ... I just played Project Cars . a full game apparently and its not scratch on this wonderful game/sim .... running a stage is just on the edge of your seat stuff ... its fun fun fun ... the first night I fired this up .. I kept saying to myself just one more stage ... I went to bed at 3.30 am

That was my point in the other thread. Compare it to other Dirt games and semi-sims, it's not looking bad at all. Now if we pick 1 or 2 of the best sims then things start to look a bit different. But it's Codemasters so I dunno why people would do that. Even merging Dirt 1 - 3 with the tracks from their previous games would have been a major improvement. And it looks like they are trying to do more than that with Dirt Rally.

You're right, it's better to just log on to their forums and start making posts about how the game is arcade or simcade and that the FFB is so rubbish and that I'm just gonna go back to RBR, because Codemasters can never make a sim as they are Codemasters. If anybody posts anything constructive it's best to just fob them off with a few insults, because they are clearly idiots.

That will definitely have the best effect in helping them create a good sim instead of an arcade game. People generally respond well to this kind of feedback when talking about their hard work. If you disrespect them and show their work to be worth nothing then they will respect your opinion and listen to what you have to say, they will stop making simcades.

Balanced viewpoints and constructive feedback have no place in this world, it will only result in simcades, or worse still... Arcade games.

I'd take the essence of that feedback serious, work on the game harder, and then hope that Mikaela's (and other peoples') reaction to it will be better

 

[Msportdan]

frankly who cares what Mikaela' thinks or says to be honest... he/she is clearly someone out to hate and doesn't say anything contructive on how to improve the title...

Best thing to ignore spoilt immature brats like this....

and continue posting your feedback on this great title.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

I learned something when I was a kid, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

 

[Kazumi]

frankly who cares what Mikaela' thinks or says to be honest... he/she is clearly someone out to hate and doesn't say anything contructive on how to improve the title...

(...)

Make a thread "How to improve Dirt Rally" if you want to read constructive criticism.

 

[Rhys Gardiner]

I'm not 100% sold on it, but it has just about everything it needs to be a great rally sim.

FFB with the tweaks that Oscar, Msportdan and others have posted is feeling alright. Not mindblowing, but the road-feeling is definitely better than I was initially expecting. I'll wait until CM start adding those new parameters to the FFB that they were talking about before making another judgement.
My feelings about the other aspects of the driving are hard to put into words. There's something about the whole driving feeling that is a bit... flat to me. I'm not sure how else to describe it. Slides feel a bit "binary" to me - the car is either a) gripping to the point that I feel like I'm taking the corner too slowly or b) sliding almost out of control. It doesn't feel like there's any in-between for me, no balancing the car through a turn or making micro-corrections as I feel the rear end going. Maybe I just need to spend more time with it, but I'm not getting the same feeling of complete control over the car that I get from Richard Burns Rally (with NGP physics I should point out). I dunno, looking at replays it looks like I'm really hustling the car, but it doesn't feel that way from in the cockpit.

Despite that, I feel cautiously optimistic about DiRT Rally. Its success as a sim is going to depend heavily on how Codemasters takes on and implements feedback from sim racers, but since they seem so willing to engage with us at this early point I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Graphics and sound, as others have said, are phenomenal. And the promises in later updates are getting me excited.
Also, PIKES PEAK PIKES PEAK PIKES PEAK AAAAAHHHGHGHGHGGGHGG so good much happy

 

[Jason Murphy]

Rhys Gardiner, I agree completely. I think it is probably more of that typical Codemasters behind the scenes "gamey" stuff that is making the cars feel 2D, instead of 3D. Hopefully they delve into the physics a bit more seriously and remove all the hidden assists that are typically in their games!

Btw, go here and upvote my post to help show how much we want CM to go full sim mode with DiRT Rally!
http://forums.codemasters.com/discu...g-game-up-to-2015-racing-sim-standards#latest

 

[bogani]

Dirt Rally has been quite a nice surprise fro me. The telemetry-driven FFB is great with a broad range of adjust-ability and detail.

There are some glaring issues with the handling, primarily ridiculously high rolling resistance that seems to simulate the high compression of a diesel engine at work in all cars but, with a fix there and some grip reductions, this could be a great Rally title. The steering certainly could benefit from some increased adjust-ability and tuning options as the turn-in feels a bit too slow to respond in some cars where it shouldn't.

The stage design is good and very challenging with plenty of close-in bumps that can launch the car off course, and they look great. The overall lighting works quite well and the night lighting is nicely done too.

The sounds are mega-good IMO; the sound team (Mark Knight and Dave Sullivan) use a granular synthesis system to create the sounds and the results are impressive. The in-car resonance is really well done and the rev's seem to climb forever - love it! The externals are very convincing in replays with very nice backfire effects and slow fade of engine sounds as the car travels into the distance. These are very challenging effects to get right and it's done to a very high standard in Dirt Rally.

Overall, I'm very excited about the potential Dirt Rally has to become something closer to our beloved but, outdated RBR. We should be getting behind the effort of the developers and supporting them with feedback and suggestions; without it, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves in the end if it turns out to be poo. This is a rare opportunity in Sim-racing, lets not waste it.

Yes they have captured that mean aggresive sound that where mosts sims just feels flat and digital(AC im pointing at you). The M3 intake sound gives me goosbumps. Seriously

 

[Arne Dopudja]

I have played RBR for quite a while, as did many of my friends. We all come from a rally orieted "province" in Slovenia. If it wasn't your neighbour, then it was your neighbours neighbour who had something to do with rally so when RBR came out it was the thing to play as far as sim racing goes. Nothing else was played before nor after.

Except I did play various other sims, mainly LFS and I learned all my car physics from that game. RBR was as good as it gets when it comes to rally, but it never felt natural, like LFS did to me. RBR physics always felt that the cars had no inertia. There was no "give" in the chasis and they were simply too light. I fiddled around in the .ini files of the lancer and upped the grip for maybe 5% while doubling the weight and approximately upping the engine to match the p/w ratio together with stiffening the springs in order to carry the weight. And hey, it worked. The car had that "grab" to it when it tackled corner not like default physics, where cars feel pretty floaty.

DR, however, comes from the other side. It is Dirt1 with a grip reduction mod. Still too artificial and not enough physics-based. But the bright side is that I've played Dirt1 with a grip reduction/realism mod, together with damage mod (which kicked ass to no end) and as far as believable physics go, it was damn near perfect for a game that had no intention of being a sim.

For me, DR is trying to be a sim, but not there yet. If it is just CM's gimmick to collect sim fans money, we will see.