Ok, here's some feedback from me.
Graphics:
The overall graphics are quite nice, but sometimes the whole scenery looks a little bit "cartoony". Maybe it lacks better shaders to give the graphics a more real touch. Nevertheless i like the graphics, but improvements are always welcome.
As a sidenote .... i like the swaying trees. These small details adds to immersion.
Big immersion breaker: Corner markers!
I hope Simbin brings us an option soon to switch it with realistic corner/brake/distance markers.
Sound:
Actually R3E has the best sound of all available sims (incl. the sims in beta-, alpha-, pre-alpha-status). But iRacing and pCARS are on the way to close the gap. It seems that more and more developer have recognized now the important role of realistic sounds to improve the immersion.
Just a small point of criticism: In external TV-cam the engine should be a little bit louder and lasts longer on departure.
FFB:
IMHO the FFB is one of the things which needs to improve in R3E. The whole system with different "FFB effects level" is kinda old school. It seems that there's too much "ancient" ISImotor stuff in use.
The effects should come right from the physics (suspension + tires). Just like RealFeel-FFB or/and LeoFFB plugins for rFactor. All these canned effects e.g. for rumblestrips aren't neccessary, if the FFB would come direct from the physics. Furthermore some of these canned effects settings makes it more difficult to get the FFB feel right.
Physics:
Goes a little bit hand in hand with the FFB. If the FFB is badly configured you can't get the right feel for the car/physics. But if you find some good settings for your wheel, then the physics come to live too.
A few times the word "simcade" was mentioned here. I'm not agree with that. Many of us are used to the older sims (e.g. GTR2, rFactor1, etc.) and its kind of "low grip feeling", which makes you believe that race cars are very difficult to drive. But that's not the case. Race cars are well balanced and build to give you tons of grip, and not to kill the driver in every corner. Only driving on the limit makes it difficult and separating the winners from the losers.
I think that R3E has implemented this grippy track feeling very well. That's not a reason to call R3E not a sim (or "simcade").
Pricing:
I think the prices for cars and tracks are quite fair. You can drive a car for years and have much fun on a well-made track, and now compare it with the small fee you must pay for it. Otherwise .... if you want all the tracks and cars, it might become very very expensive. I would like to see some bundled packs as special offer from Simbin.
What i didn't like is the Livery-part.
I have always liked to paint my own car skin. Now i have to pay for a livery and the available real liveries do cost too much. And if you buy a car, i would appreciate that 2-3 liveries (different ones and not only a changed numberplate) are included at least, just to have a basic choice. Look at the leaderboards ........ almost every driver is driving the provided standard livery. And now imagine some multiplayer races later on, where almost everyone is driving the same car skin.
And just to add ....
Marketing:
I think the information policy of Simbin is too quiet referring to what is planned for R3E and what is not. I'm really looking forward to get finally more and detailed informations about the planned features. The lack of these important informations keeps many users from spending more money for R3E, i guess.
And i can't wait for Q&A part2, part3, part4, ......
