Opinions on R3E: What's yours?

[Nigel Mansell]

This is fine for ppl happy to dry-lap. RRE has improved over time - but I'm in the, "this is an outdated platform now" club. Best way to vent my frustration = stop buying DLC. When S3 care enough to drag RRE into modern times, I'll restart support. I buy the DLC, yet hardly lap with it - makes zero sense. I'm fed up of dry lapping. it's a personal thing.

We had rain in sims many years ago, then it all went tits-up IMHO. YMMV of course, that's fine. Why were Microprose ahead of their time. How long have I supported this stale engine for now, jeez. I've been doing this for a great many number of years - too long (dry-lapping) tbh. Hence the frustration. Approaching my mid 50's, I'm going to be more selective about who I give my savings to. Free to play software isn't the future. Otherwise S3 would have taken RRE to a modern place already. RRE, feels like a pay-to-improve model to me. By that I mean, RRE just releases tweaks here and there, but the fundamental tech is missing. We own this sim software, but at a UK track, we can't create a cold/overcast/low grip/wet or even damp scenario.

Fair play to Kunos for gambling, and having the passion/balls enough to deliver what some of us long for. By that I mean, driving at differing times of the day, in low grip situations. I get that we all don't see this as the "be all" of simracing. We all have opinions about SMS. At least they could be bothered to create time of day/weather, and moved the genre along. S3 is holding back the only genre I purchase games from. I'm unhappy about this lol. RRE started to feel stale, years ago. Much like how people feel that Codemasters have stunted the growth of the F1 platform, in the many years they've had the licence. Like a huge number of you, I've sunk huge amounts into regularly supporting S3. I hope one day, that a scenario arrives where I look forward to booting the platform and using the content I've purchased.

I know SimBin UK supposedly works on a modern game engine, supporting time of day/weather. Both platforms will likely share the tech. For me, it long overdue. Sorry S3, this is the only genre I enjoy. You starved your own engine of the features I've wanted most for years. It can't get any more broken than it is. You'll get nothing more now, until you care enough to update your engine tech.

 

[herve45]

Something happened lately with T300RS and RaceRoom. The default setup has nothing assigned except for steering and FFB is very bad. I don't know what happened, it used to be good straight out of the box...

For testing
Modify your rcs like that
Documents/My Games/SimBin/RaceRoom Racing Experience/UserData/ControlSet

FFB flatspot magnitude="0.0" // How strong the flatspot rumble is. Range 0.0 to 1.0, 0.0 disables effect.
FFB flatspot wave type="0" // Type of wave to use for vibe: 0=Sine, 1=Square, 2=Triangle, 3=Sawtooth up, 4=Sawtooth down.

 

[UMC 22]

For testing
Modify your rcs like that

That's just a workaround for the issue with flatspots and some Thrustmaster wheels. It won't change the overall feel of the FFB.

 

[Ray Charlebois]

It's only been within the last 2 years that I've gotten back into SIM racing. I love all kinds of motor racing. Cars, trucks, bikes, I could go on... A year and a half ago I bought a Logitech 920 wheel and pedals. When I build/buy a rig, I'll get the shifter too. So I got on Steam and got the full Assetto Corsa, complete with all DLC's for a crazy good price! Up until about 3 weeks ago It's been full on AC. I pretty much love everything about AC. The drawback is my CPU is an AMD quadcore and AC sys requirement is AMD 6 core. Though buying through Steam, the system requirements weren't obvious, or perhaps I didn't look very hard. Practicing on a track alone is fine, everything works great. But if I put more than 4 cars on the track, plus myself, my CPU gets maxed and the driving gets choppy and sometimes freezes. Almost constant warnings of CPU occupancy greater than 99%. I upgraded my graphics to a Radeon RX570 with 8GB GDDR4, but only a slight improvement as it's not so much a graphics problem but the AC driving engine.
I started looking for other SIM racing titles and found RaceRoom. I checked the hardware requirements and was very happy to see it was exactly what I have. (plans for better in not too distant future). I signed up and tried the free stuff and I was really happy that I could race with 20, 30 other cars on the track! That was the biggest selling point for me.

The other features that I found to be really good are;

Graphics - color temperatures are warm and very easy on the eyes. I feel it also adds to better realism with the tracks, trackside and especially the cars.

Race Cars - So many of the past and present classes, most with many different manufacturers and models. GT3 for example, has the Vette C6, C7, the Camaro, Mustang, BMW M4, Mercedes SLS.. The first four are mixed in Assetto Corsa that I know of. Some AC leagues, like SRS, has the Vette C7 classed as a GT2. Nice to finally drive it among other GT3s.

Great Sound - So far all the sounds are really good. Though one observation I made was watching a replay of taking a P4/5 out for a spin. There was more growl and pops when the camera view was outside the car and much smoother inside the car. I'm not sure if it's the same with all cars as I've not run R3E for very long yet.

Integrated Online Ranked Multiplayer - I did some Rookie racing and just recently gained enough reputation to join the amature racing class. Though I haven't yet. The server page is very functional and there seems to be quite a bit of frequent races.

During my recent acclamation to R3E, I purchased the Premium pack, and lucky for me, included the DTM 2020 cars, but not the Cupra E. But that's ok. I feel like a kid in a candy store I tell ya!
I'd like to say more but have run out of time as usual. (better than running outa gas, eh!) I suppose the greater portion of idea here is the hardware requirement. From a marketing perspective it increases the number of possible installs. Not only high end systems but the so so ones too, like mine. Maybe R3E lacks some luster with the physics and tire models but I believe if S3 brought the engine up to top form, then the recommended sys req would become the minimum. After I upgrade my PC, it won't matter as much to me. But in some ways, it will. As I will think of all the race loving people that can't get a high end PC. But can still get on the track because of R3E's current build. I think it would be a good idea to provide their product with dual hardware platforms. They could still reach a greater number of users and satisfy the hard core SIM racers with a highly sophisticated physics engine. S3 seems to be working on their product and I can see a more complex R3E on the horizon. I just hope they don't eliminate the racers with slightly lower systems from the track.

 

[Mekonrider]

To be fair, if you're having trouble running AC then perhaps it's getting near upgrade time. I can't imagine many future sim racing games will run on your hardware.

Look into used motherboard/ram/cpu bundles, there are some good deals on Ebay sometimes.

 

[UMC 22]

I just hope they don't eliminate the racers with slightly lower systems from the track.

I have to agree with Mekonrider. My rig is strictly mid-range but can still handle any of the latest sims with respectable graphics settings. Even VR if I lower the settings a bit and settle for constant ASW. My brother also runs the same sims on a rig a bit worse than mine.

I think that anyone who wants/expects to play games as a hobby really needs to invest in something half-decent, rather than expecting developers to dumb-down their games to work on obsolete hardware. I realise not everyone has the money for it, but not everyone has the money for a lot of things they'd like to do... that's life. There has to be a cut-off somewhere, and in gaming that cut-off is going to constantly move with the times.

 

[Jan Larsen]

To be fair, if you're having trouble running AC then perhaps it's getting near upgrade time. I can't imagine many future sim racing games will run on your hardware.

And thats where I found myself a year ago when ACC released. Driving the first few yards in the game back then, I was made painfully aware of just how inadequate my hardware really had become. Even in R3E it struggles from time to time. So I knew I had to upgrade soon or be left behind.
In a way its a shame as games like ACC REALLY(!) favors simracers with lots of horsepower, but at the same time it means graphics and performance are next level.

 

[PiotrGT]

ACC works well for me, my CPU and GPU usage is very high but the game works good, yet when I race on Nordschleife in R3E, I have drops to like 40fps. Happens only in cockpit view, chase cam is smooth. Other tracks (except for Spa maybe, I think it had some drops as well) work well. I have 1660ti and I5 9400f. It seems the GP part of the track isn't well optimized. Even on severly lowered settings I just can't seem to get smooth gameplay, only when I'm driving alone or in chase cam (even on almost maxed out settings, only reflections and motion blur aren't completely maxed out) it is possible. Tried a lot of setting combinations to no avail.

 

[Ray Charlebois]

I think that anyone who wants/expects to play games as a hobby really needs to invest in something half-decent, rather than expecting developers to dumb-down their games to work on obsolete hardware.

I agree Goffic, that would be an unreasonable expectation.
I appreciate the replies to my post and I feel I should clarify myself. When I talked about my problems running AC, I was just adding some background to a point I was making about the system requirements of RaceRoom's current build. When I bought my current PC I wasn't expecting to be doing any CPU demanding gaming on it. But then my passion for SIM racing got rekindled and I've been pushing my CPU to the limit. I got the graphics card partly to help alleviate the CPU tax in the meantime but also that I can continue to use it after I upgrade the board and CPU.
I also did say,

After I upgrade my PC, it won't matter as much to me.

I've known all along that I need the proper hardware to fully appreciate high end, robust software. And my love for racing will inspire me to upgrade asap. In the meantime, I can experience the thrill of racing with a full grid thanks to RaceRoom's current build.

 

[Jan Larsen]

yet when I race on Nordschleife in R3E, I have drops to like 40fps

So do I (with my current compu), nearly every other track is like double that. Nords is very demanding graphics wise, dont know why.

 

[Kenny Paton]

Nords is very demanding graphics wise, dont know why.

The size of the track and its surrounds play a large part.

 

[Wilko Jones]

Before my upgraded my setup. I had an old Z77 Motherboard and an Intel 3570k CPU and 16Gb of DDR3. For the most part I didn't have a lot of trouble with running R3E, up until dynamic time of day was added. Then if I ran the Nordschleife with dynamic time of day activated, the sim would stutter every time the sun position updated. After the old mo-bo gave up the ghost (and I bent one of the pins in the CPU socket) I upgraded and haven't had the same problem on the Nordschleife since. I'm even getting better performance out of ACC, but that was essentially going from running that game on potato wedges to running it on a whole potato. I'm partly GPU bound on ACC with an old 1070.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

ACC works well for me, my CPU and GPU usage is very high but the game works good, yet when I race on Nordschleife in R3E, I have drops to like 40fps. Happens only in cockpit view, chase cam is smooth. Other tracks (except for Spa maybe, I think it had some drops as well) work well. I have 1660ti and I5 9400f. It seems the GP part of the track isn't well optimized. Even on severly lowered settings I just can't seem to get smooth gameplay, only when I'm driving alone or in chase cam (even on almost maxed out settings, only reflections and motion blur aren't completely maxed out) it is possible. Tried a lot of setting combinations to no avail.

Try to disable time progression.

 

[UMC 22]

Try to disable time progression.

^This. For whatever reason, R3E's time progression is a huge performance hit for some users, even if they have a half-decent rig.

 

[Will Mazeo]

^This. For whatever reason, R3E's time progression is a huge performance hit for some users, even if they have a half-decent rig.

Old isimotor shadow calculation issue afaik, happens in AMS1 too for some people.

 

[UMC 22]

It's been mentioned before, but I'm going to say it again anyway... always online is a total pain in the arse! There's clearly an issue on the the server side right now, so although I've managed to get the game started, I can't start either an offline race or even a practice session.

I can maybe understand having an initial online check when starting the game, so that it can connect to your account and figure out what content you own. Fair enough. But why oh why does it need to connect to the servers every single time you want to do anything in the game, especially offline features?!

So bloody frustrating to not be able to play a game you've set up all your sim-racing gear to use.

 

[amsterDAN]

It's been mentioned before, but I'm going to say it again anyway... always online is a total pain in the arse! There's clearly an issue on the the server side right now, so although I've managed to get the game started, I can't start either an offline race or even a practice session.

I can maybe understand having an initial online check when starting the game, so that it can connect to your account and figure out what content you own. Fair enough. But why oh why does it need to connect to the servers every single time you want to do anything in the game, especially offline features?!

So bloody frustrating to not be able to play a game you've set up all your sim-racing gear to use.

I agree 100%, to me this is the most glaring problem of the entire game. The reason I've chosen RaceRoom as my #1 go-to sim is because of how wonderfully consistent it is, all the content is made to a similarly high degree of quality, performance on my PC is beautifully stable, everything just works right whenever I'm running the game with minimal fiddling with settings, and just about any race I run is guaranteed fun. So it's kind of ironic that the one thing holding the game back is an inconsistent ability to actually get into the dang game. I feel like my timezone causes my usually scheduled sim racing sessions to fall squarely into RaceRoom's maintenance periods or something, because I see quite a lot of those smoking-car error screens.

Had a particularly painful experience a few days ago where I spent about two hours practicing Bilster Berg, felt I finally had it mastered and was extremely eager to run a race against the AI, so I backed out to the main menu to set that up. But of course, while I was practicing the servers had gone down, and funtime was officially cancelled. Seriously the only reason I have as many hours in AMS2 as I do is because of all the evenings RaceRoom has decided to deny me.

 

[Romandevison]

I have approximately 220 hours in the RRE.
Overall, I am satisfied with the game, but I would like to:

1. A little better graphics.
2. New GT Masters series - RRE could be the face of the series, as it is with DTM.
3. Built-in HUD. OtterHUD is good, but it has to be built in.
4. New interface.

Otherwise everything is great - ffb, sound, tracks, cars. To be honest, I like the RRE better than the ACC, which has 450 hours.

 

[UMC 22]

Built-in HUD. OtterHUD is good, but it has to be built in.

Why's that?

 

[Romandevison]

Why's that?

Need have to run dash.exe from desktop every time.

 

[UMC 22]

Need have to run dash.exe from desktop every time.

Or just run Crew Chief. It has numerous other super-helpful options included as well, for most current sims. I use it offline and online.