Preview: DTM Experience by Simbin

[Bram Hengeveld]

Bram Hengeveld submitted a new blog post:

Preview: DTM Experience by Simbin

After visiting the Dutch round of the DTM series I was lucky enough to have a sneak peek at SimBin's newest racing project "DTM Experience" that will be released for PC this winter. Time for a little hands-on preview.

The last time I've played an official licensed DTM game was back in the days of Codemasters' DTM Race Driver 3 which wasn't particular a full blown sim. Apart from the car models, liveries, tracks and driver names it didn't offer me an experience like in DTM Race Driver...

Continue reading the Original Blog Post

 

[Peter]

The BMW sounds closer to IRL I must admit, but the real version still has more rasp, more mechanical noise, it's hard to describe but the game just sounds less aggressive.

It's good that the game is still being updated and Anthony isn't satisfied with less.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

Yeah I can always hope for that little extra, feel the need to say however that it's not that the sound in the DTM Demo is BAD, by no stretch of the imagination, it's still above and beyond most sims I run on a regular basis, but I've come to expect more from SimBin after that Saleen and the 138 Judd in R3E, to be perfectly honest most cars in even R3E are quite boring compared to those two, audiovisually speaking.

 

[zombieshark6666]

I think the sounds in the demo have the right frequencies and tonality, but they're lacking body and fat. The core sound is there, but there isn't much lower grumble, sputtering, so they sound a bit too focused, like what a directional microphone would pick up in a cockpit, rather than ears.

 

[Aaron Markham]

After taking the time to configure my G25 in DTM I must say Simbin has did a great job! Other than iRacing this is the only other sim where I can drive by myself lap after lap and not get bored. I wish AI was included in the demo so we could get a taste of how they are.

For anyone wanting to try my controller settings here is what I did. I have my G25 set to 900' in the Logitech Profiler. In DTM I have all the speed sensitivity settings to '0' and the steering lock to '40'. I also made sure to change the steering wheel range in the graphic options to 900' so the drivers wheel matches mine.

I had a couple questions if anyone could answer them.

Are their separate physics for each manufacturer? The reason I ask is I can consistenly lap faster in the Audi vs the Mercedes & BMW.

Do the real DTM cars use traction control? If so do they have the different levels like we do in the demo?

Will there be different shader profiles? The graphics look great but the colors seem a little bland to me.

Will there be changeable weather?

 

[David Hester]

I like the fact that you can purchase it as a standalone but the question I have is will you be able to run a full championship as you were able to do in other past Simbin titles?

 

[Justin Swan]

I like the fact that you can purchase it as a standalone but the question I have is will you be able to run a full championship as you were able to do in other past Simbin titles?

That's what is says on the box

 

[David Hester]

I like the fact that you can purchase it as a standalone but the question I have is will you be able to run a full championship as you were able to do in other past Simbin titles?

That's what is says on the box

Awesome! I cannot wait! I can only hope that templates will be released with the final release so we can create our own cars

 

[Ernie]

Do the real DTM cars use traction control? If so do they have the different levels like we do in the demo?

AFAIK in the technical regulations of the DTM season 2013 is specified, that electronical driving aids like ABS and TCS aren't allowed. So i hope that the full version of DTM-Experience will based on the same rules, at least in GetReal-mode.

Are their separate physics for each manufacturer?

Good question. I would like to know this too.
So far i've tested only the BMW.

 

[zombieshark6666]

So far i've tested only the BMW.

They all feel different, which is cool. I thought the Audi was all over the place with weird FFB, I liked the other 2.

 

[Peter]

I am faster in the BMW.
The cars have no TC but in the Demo the driving changes to Amateur automatically.

 

[anthony monteil]

The BMW sounds closer to IRL I must admit, but the real version still has more rasp, more mechanical noise, it's hard to describe but the game just sounds less aggressive.

I understand what you mean with the sound being more agressive IRL. The problem is that I simply couldn't leave as much distortion in the game because it was a pain to play with such level of treble frequencies. And in the end, it didn't sound as realistic as I expected. But as I said, I made these sounds with the material I had access to this year, but I'm clearly determined to improve these sounds for the next season, with some new and better recordings. This will hopefully take us even closer to the real DTM experience. Let's wait for 2014 technical specs to be defined first and I'll start to work on it

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

I understand what you mean with the sound being more agressive IRL. The problem is that I simply couldn't leave as much distortion in the game because it was a pain to play with such level of treble frequencies. And in the end, it didn't sound as realistic as I expected. But as I said, I made these sounds with the material I had access to this year, but I'm clearly determined to improve these sounds for the next season, with some new and better recordings. This will hopefully take us even closer to the real DTM experience. Let's wait for 2014 technical specs to be defined first and I'll start to work on it

Awesome! Thanks for your reply!
A quick question however, have you tried adding a little bit of bottom end, or low mids to the merc? IMO the Mercs has a lower tone and more growl than the other two, which might be possible to add just messing with filters?
I'm not gonna nag though, the sound already there is decent, I just wish it ripped my ears off like the Saleen and Judd does ^^

Edit: Also, I'm not gonna pretend that I'm a game sound engineer, cos even though I've dabbled with sound and music I'm clearly not that ^^
I am however a audiophile, and sound is equally important as graphics for me.

 

[Ernie]

Let's wait for 2014 technical specs to be defined first and I'll start to work on it

This sounds like we could expect a "DTM Experience 2014" too?

 

[Victor Ivanov]

So I'm impressed. I so much love DTM and I've been waiting for this game sooooo long. I played the demo I just love it! I can't wait for the full game! Is it confirmed it's going to be released this winter? What do you mean by "this winter" this is kind of wide range of dates... and last question - Multiplayer, pitstops, drs?

 

[t.o.]

Anyone having problems with this game and CrossfireX setups? I noticed both this game and RRE won't use my 2nd card in Crossfire. Any help?

 

[stefaandk]

I tried it out and maybe it was because I just raced a 40 lapper in rfactor that lead me to this first impression but somehow I don't think so.

The cars don't seem to have turn realistically to me at all, I feel like I'm playing Grid where I can swing cars round corners at crazy speeds, there doesn't seem to be any connection to the road.
When I switch from rfactor to GTR2, race 07 or the recent GSC they all feel different to some extent and one could argue that one is "better" than the other they still all manage to convince me that this is a car I'm driving, not playing a video game.
DTM provides what RRE does I suppose and maybe that's not a bad thing for the people who enjoy it, comes down to what it's aiming to be which I still haven't quite figured out from Simbin latest products yet, if it's meant to be a sim it's disappointing, if it's meant to be simcade then I guess it delivers and I'll have to face the reality that this is not a product for me.

So not saying this is bad but I fear that it's not going to give me the "sim" experience I personally was hoping for.

 

[Ernie]

The cars don't seem to have turn realistically to me at all, I feel like I'm playing Grid where I can swing cars round corners at crazy speeds, there doesn't seem to be any connection to the road.

Referring to "connection to the road" i agree, because the lack of road feel, but it seems more like a FFB issue and not a physics problem. But FFB improvements are announced.

But it's worth mentioning, that DTM cars are just prototypes with a touring car silhouette. The whole aerodynamic stuff on these cars give them a lot of downforce and grip. These cars are build to be grippy as hell.
Yes you can throw the car very aggressively around the corners. It's the nature of these cars. However, sometimes there are moments where you can lose the car anyway. If it doesn't happen to you, ..... well .....then you're driving not at your limit.

And comparing DTM-E with a rFactor mod isn't fair, because many rFactor mods are lacking grip. Yes they give much fun to drive, because of making you believe that you're always at the limit, and it's satisfying if you can control it. But otherwise these mods almost have unrealistic low grip.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

Had a lot of fun in the BMW yesterday, sadly I have to run Nosecam as mentioned to feel the speed, but when I do it feels really good.
A note to @stefaandk though, make sure you change the difficulty setting to Get Real mode and make it the very last thing you do before you hit the Drive button, the mode seems to have a habit of going back to Amateur by itself.

 

[Andi Goodwin]

you can also try dropping the car to the floor setting coast to 3 / rear antiroll bar to max : hack some wing off brakes to 100% 56/44 makes it a bit more racey if thats what your looking for

Andi

 

[Cedric Germain]

Was so stoked when I downloaded the demo, but so incredibly disappointed when I finally got to test it. Dunno if there's a issue with my PC not being good enough or some setting that I should tweak, but this game gave me absolutely no sensation of speed, what so ever. I can't see a difference between going 50 or 150 km/h, so weird.

Kjell, I had the same feeling in the cockpit view yesterday as I tried the demo for the first time. I'm running a new PC equiped with a GTX 780.

I had this problem with assetto corsa Tech preview as I changed the FOV (I wanted to be more in front in the cockpit) .Since this, I play with the standard FOV, and there was no problem, the sensation of speed was back)

So, I will try again with DTM Experience without modification of the FOV and by using the standard config..