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 RRE has improved over time - but I'm in the, "this is an outdated platform now" club.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.

 

[BrunoBæ]

As much as id like to see this....there simply aren't enough online users in this title to make it worthwhile....by 5pm north American time your lucky to see 10 people online, unless ESR has a race that evening.

A few yrs back when I was a tester I could have sworn they were talking about adding some type of rating system, but I could be mistaken?

No you are right.
I can remember that Argnovsky(spelling?) in his closed pretendracing.com had an article about this vague promise from S3Studio - about starting some regular multiplayer service in the future.
But it was propably some over-interpretation based on some fantasy hype from the Studio - because the hype has since completely stopped.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: I think you are 100% right there are not online users to get this going.
Virtuel simracing is so small a niche that its impossible to establish a service beside iRacings economical vacumcleaner in this area.

 

[Miguel Batista]

No you are right.
I can remember that Argnovsky(spelling?) in his closed pretendracing.com had an article about this vague promise from S3Studio - about starting some regular multiplayer service in the future.
But it was propably some over-interpretation based on some fantasy hype from the Studio - because the hype has since completely stopped.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: I think you are 100% right there are not online users to get this going.
Virtuel simracing is so small a niche that its impossible to establish a service beside iRacings economical vacumcleaner in this area.

View attachment 338017

I can counter that point that until you start offering the service, you are not going to get the numbers in. It is a bit of a chicken and egg problem. Avoided if they had launched such a service in 2014 or 2015.

Right now, best bet would be to probably sponsor SRS to get more races going. Maybe Hourly races and let SRS deal with the logistics.

 

[UMC 22]

To those promoting a fully fledged online racing service provided by S3 for R3E, who exactly would pay for it? You can't provide such a service free of charge, and DLC revenue is not going to be enough to pay for it long-term. So it would be us paying for it in the form of monthly subscriptions. Thanks, but no thanks.

With people already whinging about paying a few quid for a whole new class of car or brand new track, I hardly think subscriptions is going to bring more people on board anyway. It would also give S3 less reason to bother with any additional features for offline play, which would surely piss off a large part of their current fan base. Online racing may be important, but more people race offline than on.

 

[BrunoBæ]

@Ross Garland
Sadly you are correct

 

[grirvan]

Since this is an opinion topic......I think the sound, FFB, physics and AI are good, but the graphics are not up to today's standards. The graphics look more like a watercolor painting versus real-life when taking screenshots. I am not racing VR. I do have all of the other racing titles you can imagine to compare with. I have bought a lot of the content along the way, but recently uninstalled hoping for an overhaul one day.

 

[Dethrone1427]

Well I do truly love the game but unfortunately it's really let down by AI behaviour in close offline racing. You really can't trust it to race cleaning as routinely they just SEND IT from miles back and end up t-boning you straight out of contention. I've read various forums declaring it's the human players fault, but hand on heart I can race the AI in AMS with literally zero issues. But other than that it's a brilliant title.

 

[UMC 22]

... but hand on heart I can race the AI in AMS with literally zero issues.

And I can do the same with the R3E AI. Once you've taken the time to train the adaptive AI it works just fine.

 

[Dethrone1427]

And I can do the same with the R3E AI. Once you've taken the time to train the adaptive AI it works just fine.

It would be nice to have a working straight out of the box AI, a'la AMS. I'm not meaning to go on a massive bashing of the title, it's just a simple observation I've seen and made of the title. But it's good your experiences are different from mine. Maybe one day I'll find the time to train them so they're a bit calmer and less over- zealous.

 

[UMC 22]

It would be nice to have a working straight out of the box AI, a'la AMS.

I don't think any AI works "out of the box" since you will always need to test it and find the right level for you. Also, the level often needs to be changed between classes and tracks since the AI performs better or worse depending on what you're using. That includes AMS. The fact that R3E's AI can "learn" and adapt to your pace for each individual class and track puts it way ahead of the opposition, in my opinion.

Also, you might want to check out the latest update.

Global AI behavioral improvements, with car specific tweaks using a self-learning algorithm.

I haven't raced them yet, but in practice mode they were far quicker and smoother with zero "training".

 

[Dethrone1427]

I don't think any AI works "out of the box" since you will always need to test it and find the right level for you. Also, the level often needs to be changed between classes and tracks since the AI performs better or worse depending on what you're using. That includes AMS. The fact that R3E's AI can "learn" and adapt to your pace for each individual class and track puts it way ahead of the opposition, in my opinion.

Also, you might want to check out the latest update.


I haven't raced them yet, but in practice mode they were far quicker and smoother with zero "training".

Well in my opinion it worked for me straight out of the box once I purchased the game, so I can't really comment on your experience much in the same regards as you to me with mine. Horses for courses clearly. Hopefully the AI is improved in this new patch!

 

[DND]

Soon to be completing my 40 days of use it probably goes without saying it is now, and has been, my one and only sim as the others have been archived. Sure, occasionally I will roll one out for good measure but it only confirms what I already know...I shouldn't have bothered. My opinion is R3E has provided the easiest UI to get up and going, no outside Mods (sans HUD) that results in inconsistent content. Being a club host here at RD I appreciate the ease of setting up events on the server.

With the recent December 2019 update the AI continue to be improved, full damage with an emphasis put on braking technique, the FFB, and new physics applied to the already preferred classes to name but a but a few....and oh yeah the sounds makes this like an all new sim. Sector3's approach is hard to find, they seem to not over promise and deliver the goods time and time again. I feel they truly believe in Continuous Improvement. wish them all the success.

 

[Stix_09]

It a a great sim but has its problems (all sims do). Like you must have a working internet connection to load the game.
No other race sim I own has that restriction (AMS, rF2, AC, PC2, Dirt Rally etc)

I read a post a while ago about dev talking about looking to change this, still waiting...
(I think its because of the way the store is integrated into the engine, from memory it was a big rewrite to fix this)

FOR ME Its a major issue I very much dislike, but it's not a deal breaker, even if it annoys the hell out of me.

The weird:
There is also something weird about gearboxes and clutches in R3E, odd things like you can put car into gear if engine is not running... so can't restart an engine by roll starting it for example. I'm often trying to figure out what type is being modelled in dif cars. Some are very strange. Car descriptions are not detailed enough (common sim issue)

Content:
Of course if you like open wheel cars, or other exotic cars , well you are in the pretty much go elsewhere park. Only classics ones for me here too, I love stuff like the lotus 49, and 60/70's open wheelers are cool, but missing in R3E, as its mostly touring cars only, with a few exceptions. The generation when people died in race cars all the time and safety was a hay-bail and painting a tree a bright colour.

Graphics:
Good , not great, BUT I prefer good with great game play and physics over the opposite, graphics are decent IMHO. It's why I don't think much of PC2. Its like going to a movie with great special effects , but crap plot and characters. Meh!

Sim Polish:
Because R3E has been around for so long (2013? and having roots in games like race07 and others dating back to early 2000's) and because its still active development , it has a lot of polish right out of the box, setup wheel and controls and you are pretty much good to go. (Helped in part by fact its not modable for most stuff. (which is actually one of the the few advantages of not having mods in a game)

For reference(what I like in a sim):
My car pref is anything 90's and earlier , ie not much into modern aero cars , they bore me (and these are the more popular cars in most sims). I like cars you have to manhandle. R3E does have a nice selection of these, just not enough.
The legends experience pack is my "cup of tea" in raceroom.

My preferred sim(In general):
Assetto Corsa, with Content Manager and Shaders patch, and a number of fixes to things (like sounds) and a properly setup wheel. It takes a lot more stuffing around to get AC working right than R3E does. Once done thought with good mods its a far better sim than the out of box product. R3E does not have enough of the content I like, and with good mods AC covers a lot of R3E content and then some, and I don't much care for modern GT cars.
I'm very picky with the mods I use, as some are not good quality, but many are (and I have even paid for good mods). I find I play AC the most of my sims, but each sim has things I "go to" for dif reasons.

Everyone is going to have a sim that they prefer, depending on what ticks their boxes the most, for me in general that's often AC.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Hey guys - could I ask you to check my newly opened thread up about what the new physics have done with at least my beloved historic FR90xx´ers.
There is something strange going on

The new physics in the FR90xx

I have been a bit hesitant to comment on the new physics - but on the FR90xx the cars have suddenly turned into something a lot more "floating" and also much more forgiving than before this upd. Without joking these former pretty nimble and challenging cars have turned to something...

www.racedepartment.com

 

[Majuh]

It a a great sim but has its problems (all sims do). Like you must have a working internet connection to load the game.
No other race sim I own has that restriction (AMS, rF2, AC, PC2, Dirt Rally etc)

I read a post a while ago about dev talking about looking to change this, still waiting...
(I think its because of the way the store is integrated into the engine, from memory it was a big rewrite to fix this)

No, they certainly never said that they are looking into changing this. The whole game is based on their online infrastructure.

 

[Stix_09]

No, they certainly never said that they are looking into changing this. The whole game is based on their online infrastructure.

it was mentioned in a post on their forums , I'll try and find it.
Its not an issue of copy protection (I think its a dev decision to do this, that's my thoughts)

Anyway it is what it is , I just have a different opinion (like many others also don;t like this "feature")
I'm sure it has had an impact on sales too (certainly has for me)

EDIT:
Here (Jun 16, 2015 )

Is is possible to play without internet connetion?

For iRacing, obviously it is different. The whole game is designed for online racing only. But R3E is not like iR. Tend to disagree that R3E was not...

forum.sector3studios.com

 

[Case_]

simracers are really a weird category.. we spend thousands on hardware and we complain about 100 pound of software...

I...well, let's say "strongly dislike" this argument that pops up in almost every discussion about pricing. It basically just says "I have spent thousands on hardware, therefore I believe you did as well".

There's a large group of people who didn't spend thousands on hardware, but are no lesser simracers than those who did. Probably surprisingly large for many. The people with custom rigs and direct drive wheels and Fanatec gear and Heusinkveld pedals and elaborate triple screen/VR setups are very much in a minority still. They just happen to be the ones who are most likely to be found in "serious" simracing discussions on the internet, and therefore people might tend to think that's who the average simracer is - a wealthy middle-aged man with a dedicated mancave full of toys worth thousands of bucks (quid, euro, whatever).

Meanwhile it might very well be the average simracer just has a second-hand Logitech/TM wheel and an office (or worse, kitchen) chair and is racing with a single 24" monitor on a PC that was mostly bought for browsing internet and watching movies.
In fact I have lately been racing with a surprising amount of people who don't even own wheels, if you can believe it. That caught even myself a bit off guard.

 

[graphicaluserinterface]

If I could go back in time, I'd have probably not purchased any content yet. If I did, I'd purchase single cars (with a single livery) and the handful of tracks I liked during a 66%-75% sale after calculating between getting 2,000vrp or buying it without a phony currency conversion. Performance and UI design remain huge negative factors.

 

[Stix_09]

For new comers, yes the purchasing system is very confusing. I do understand why its been done (to get more $ outside steams huge 30% cut on stuff). However other companies have done similar things on their website without the need for any virtual currency with a 3rd party, which just adds to the confusion.

The hole VRP and purchasing in general is not explained well at all(except via community articles not devs). It's not surprising ppl end up making poor purchasing choices

I am displeased with the performance of the game and how the visual representation of the wheel causes a delayed input response and can destroy a lap.

I have not experienced this , so it makes no sense to me. Performance has not impacted me or caused any visual lag. Maybe you have some kind of hardware/driver/software issue causing this problem. Being an older DX9 graphic engine it outperforms most other sims and works well on older hardware to most current sims. BUT I also normally race with wheel visual off and adjust driver position to suit. (u may or may not be aware , but setting wheel rotation to match actual wheel is also required in this sim in car setup menu)

Personally I have no issue with UI in game in R3E, its simple , and functional, could improve sure but good. The other extreme would be rFactor 2 a UI that's another whole level of bad design, in part due to mods and way they work in this sim (inconsistency and structure of mods)

I always do my homework when buying anything , its just taken longer with r3E to work it out. Still is not my fav sim as it lacks the content I mainly like.

 

[OZ67]

I voted 7 in the sim voting thread a while back, now I would have no problem giving it a 9 , Great progress in the last 3 months or so.

 

[Majuh]

I wish I could get a refund for my purchase. When I got the 10,000 vrp (vrp in itself is a dodgy system) a while back, I was comparing costs of à la carte to packs. But to my ignorance and the game's unpleasant sneakyness, the cars were being displayed with cost for all liveries included (when I thought they were in addition) so instead of buying a couple of cars and one or two liveries, and spending the rest on tracks, the store gave me a much higher price than just wasting my vrp on the Premium pack.

So you bought 10000 vRP and didn't buy the Premium Pack with it? That... doesn't make any sense. Apart from that, the Store displays the cost for the car including a single livery. There are packs including all liveries, but these are pretty hidden actually.