RaceRoom: May Developer Notes

Paul Jeffrey

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RaceRoom Group 4 BMW M1.png

A new blog posting from Sector3 Studios details what's been going on at the studio, and what we can look forward to in the near future...


Its been a while since Sector3 put virtual pen to paper and wrote about what's going on behind the scenes with RaceRoom Racing Experience, however this month the crew over in Sweden have given us a nice update on how things are developing with the sim - including some interesting hints about new features and content that is set to release in the coming weeks and months.

If you want to know how things are going with RaceRoom Racing Experience, from the developers own words, check out the blog post in full below..

…….

This is a follow-up to the March 2019 thread.

Yes, I did miss the opportunity of writing one in April... Last month is a big blur for me while we were dedicated to the Volkswagen ID.R project and putting in long hours. I was mostly just focused on that while the team kept cracking on with more good stuff.

So let's catch up together with what they've been doing. But first let's recap the status of all the items discussed in the March 2019 thread:

Progress update on the March thread:
  1. Adjustable Tyre Pressure - Shipped! How are you all liking this? We'll be adding this as planned to all new cars and reviewed cars in future updates.
  2. Flat spots, suspension damage and damage settings - Still being fine tuned in betatesting, and the damage settings revision is probably going to be the most time consuming to make as it involves UI's, backend, and some refactoring of the game code.
  3. New dedi features - Shipped! So, how many griefers have you banned?
  4. Shared Mem updates - Shipped! Check out the 3rd party apps section for all kinds of awesome.
  5. In-game web overlays - Shipped!
  6. Oschersleben new layouts - Shipped!
  7. Fanatec SDK update - We had some last minute modifications to allow toggling LED's and Displays in various ways. Support for the DD2 is already added, so we're looking good to include this in the next game update.
What we're working on at the moment
  1. Cars : Esports, esports, esports! We are currently busy on the 2019 season of the FIA WTCR. I can't show you much as things still need to go through approvals and all, so here's a blurry car. Which car can it possibly be?
RaceRoom Lynk & Co WTCR.jpg

We're doing our best to complete this 2019 set and have them available towards end of June, so expect the esports WTCR 2019 to start soon after that.

Then, probably later due to BOP requirements and WTCR taking priority, we'll be bringing you a BMW M1 Group 4, to fight alongside the Porsche 934 RSR.

RaceRoom Group 4 BMW M1.png

Of course, let's not forget the Volkswagen ID.R ! Our initial version of the car will receive several adjustments in physics. The real car has now been on two practice sessions around the Nordschleife and the telemetry and comments from Romain Dumas will allow us to bring the car closer to its real performance. We have several visual updates to the car that are ready to ship, such as adding the DRS box.

Once the ID.R physics are completed and published, a second round of the Volkswagen ID. R Challenge will open with the updated car, and it will likely be finally available in the store around that time.

2. More Cars : Sadly can't say much else than "more cars are being licensed for a release in 2019" at this point. Until papers are all in order, it's all a bit hush-hush.

3. Soon™ cars : The next update should see the release of the Formula RaceRoom X-90. Designed to bring you back to the visuals and sounds of the early 90's formula series, this car will come in three engine flavours : V8, V10 and V12. Do I need to tell you they all sound awesome? After endlessly lapping the Nordschleife in the relative silence of the highly technological VW ID.R, this one will turn your ears back on.​
RaceRoom FR90.png

4. Tracks : 4 active projects at the moment, and not enough time. Sorry but still can't disclose anything until we get closer to release.

5. Force Feedback updates : Working on two separate areas of FFB improvements.
  • One started as a bug fix and quickly turned into a feature as we realized the static friction (the fact that turning the steering wheel should be more difficult when your car is standing still) wasn't working at all. As a result we not only now have a working friction, but also a proper fully simulated power steering. Turning off your engine and power is even taken into account. Rumor has it that Anthony is even going to add a sound sample for turning wheels.
  • The other is about introducing pneumatic trail effects. ( wiki and some other source that requires aspirin) This will give some very welcome information about the amount of grip available on the front wheels.
6. Moving / resizing HUD elements : Since the release of the in-game overlays feature and its ability to handle moving widgets around the screen, many asked why this wasn't possible for the regular HUD. This will now be possible. (except for the top position bar, which occupies the full width of the screen and could only be moved down in a very impractical fashion to whoever wanted to see what's happening outside of the car) You will finally be able to move and resize that big virtual rearview mirror!

7. Small feature for LED / wheelbase displays: Some 3rd party tools offer the ability to push custom information to the steering wheel displays such as Fanatec's rev LED's. It was unfortunately cumbersome for the users of those apps to prevent RaceRoom from sending data to those rev LED's and diplays. We will offer new controls that will allow those users to cycle through different modes for rev LED's and displays, allowing to just turn them off completely.

8. Moaaaar dedi features : We're currently testing a live penalty system allowing the league admins to hand out penalties during a race: Slowdown, drive-through, stop-n-go or just plain Disqualification. We're also working on the ability to read and send chat messages directly from the dedicated server manager UI.

9. Discord : Thought I'd just mention it here: You NEED to join the RaceRoom Discord channel. Link here. We've just restructured it a bit to bring it more in line with the current standards.

10. Feels like I should reach 10 to look as busy as in March.

RaceRoom Racing Experience is a PC exclusive racing simulation from Sector3 Studios, and is available to download now.


Check out the RaceRoom Racing Experience sub forum here at RD to join in the discussion, find some awesome League and Club Racing events, and of course download a mod or two as well..

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^^This. That's the only real "news" we've had on the issue, everything else has been rumour and guesswork. Last proper news we heard about that title was end of last year, when SimBin guesstimated a release date of Q2 2019. Hahahahahahahaha :roflmao: Since then, nothing but a change of offices and talk of "discussions"... which suggests to me that they don't even have the licenses needed to complete the game yet.

So yeah, don't hold you breath for GTR 3 or a new engine for R3E. :sleep:
 
Yeah, their own website says all you really need to know about how SimBin and GTR 3 are doing. A single page with three paragraphs of writing on it, one of which describes the delights of Liverpool rather than saying anything about SimBin or sim racing. GTR 3 gets just a single line and an unrelated photo.
August 2018 said:
Guys we're working hard developing our racing project and will release more detail over the coming months!
September 2018 said:
Sorry we’ve been quiet. Our team and partners are keeping focus on development!
February 2019 said:
We’ll be sharing some game content very soon.
April 2019 said:
We hear you loud and clear in terms of sharing content, as soon as we can we will.
August 2019 said:
We’re continuing with discussions regarding what will be the best release window for the highly anticipated GTR3.
So close to release yet they can't spare five minutes to post an actual in-game screenshot or gameplay video? Either they're about to pull one of the biggest shocks in sim racing by suddenly releasing GTR 3 out of nowhere, or they're full of BS. Take your pick. :rolleyes:

Note: I truly hope it's the former, but I have my doubts...
 
So close to release yet they can't spare five minutes to post an actual in-game screenshot or gameplay video? Either they're about to pull one of the biggest shocks in sim racing by suddenly releasing GTR 3 out of nowhere, or they're full of BS. Take your pick. :rolleyes:

Note: I truly hope it's the former, but I have my doubts...
Well, Codemasters launched one of the best rally sims out of nowhere, when nobody was expecting it... maybe they are following that path? We will see...
 
Which is this now? The one that was in Early Access for ages before actual release? Or the current one that we all knew was coming? :O_o:
Well, DiRT Rally was in Early Access for less than one year and was a pretty solid launch since the first build, unlike this Early Access they claimed is a full build... So Simbin could follow the first DR path
 
The waporware-ish info about the comming GTR3 was probably published for the exact same reason as the Raceroom marketing department has now for about ½ year plastered each start of the game with "We are hiring very clever IT people to our very clever IT department - could it be you?"
Showing how succesfull we are:roflmao::roflmao:
 

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