RaceRoom | Porsche, BMW, Ningbo International & New Features!

[Paul Jeffrey]

A large new update for RaceRoom Racing Experience has been deployed - and it contains plenty of new content and feature improvements - including amongst others a first iteration of daylight progression within the system.

Surprise! The new December build update of RaceRoom Racing Experience contains more than a few new feature enhancements for the title when it dropped earlier today - with new time of day effects, a fresh look for car setup screens, various physics and AI changes and plenty more besides!

Of course the new build release is exciting stuff in its own right, however today also marks the release of some interesting new pieces of content, namely the already previewed Porsche Pack DLC #3, a nice new GT4 car from BMW, the BMW M1 Group 4 machine, the WTCR hosting Ningbo International Speedpark circuit and a free Nürburgring Grand Prix Fast Chicane layout update for owners of the circuit!

Update details:

Download size = 4.5 GB
Client version = 0.9.0.911
Client BuildID = 4480845
Dedicated server version = 56.0.1058
Dedicated server BuildID = 4480917

New content:

• GTR4 car class - Added BMW M4 GT4
• GTR4 car class - Added Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport
• GTR3 car class - Added Porsche 911 GT3 R (2019)
• Group 4 car class - Added BMW M1 Group 4
• Added a new car class - Porsche Motorsport GT2 Supersportscar, with the Porsche GT2 RS Clubsport
• Tracks - Added Ningbo International Speedpark with 5 layouts
• Tracks - Added new layout: Nürburgring Grand Prix Fast Chicane, free for all owners of the track.

Features:

• Added a first iteration of daylight progression, from morning to evening. A multiplier is available to set progression from x0 (static sun), up to x25.
• Sun position is now astronomically accurate for each of our tracks as per a typical summer solstice day.
• Dedicated server - Added possibility to set a "Message of the Day" that all players will be presented with upon joining. The message can be dismissed by pressing the brake, or leaving the pitlane. The message can be formatted using very basic html tags.
• Damage overhaul - The old settings separating Visual and Mechanical damage have been merged into just one Damage setting which can have the following values:
  - Off (cars will not take any damage)
  - Limited (this is equivalent to having both mechanical and visual damage enabled before today's update)
  - Full (Suspension can get damaged, and tyres can have flat spots after lock-ups)
• Damage model - New deformations and systems for detachables parts, cracks in windshields, etc.
• Damage model - Tyres can now get punctured from collisions or from driving off track, and the probabilities of getting a puncture increase with the wear.
• Car Setup Menu - One of our goals is to modernize the user interface and the first menu that we decided to tackle is the car setup. It is reflecting the future look and feel of the RaceRoom interface as we head into 2020.
  It is divided in three areas, the left will display some telemetry data from your last laps, the center has all the possible changes sorted into tabs, and the right side is dedicated to display helper texts and the steering settings.
• Force Feedback - Added Pneumatic Trail to the physics engine, which results in self-centering forces on corner exits.
• Force Feedback - Added Stationary Friction effects
• Global AI behavioral improvements, with car specific tweaks using a self-learning algorithm.
• Sounds - Improvements to tyre sounds (skid and scrub).
• Added an option to display opponents of other classes in the HUD position bar
• Added an option to force the HUD track map to remain static and not rotate with the player's car orientation
• Added an option to show or hide the chat messages in Multiplayer
• Added extra bindigs for Shift Up and Shift Down, allowing to mix paddles and a sequential shifter

Content updates:

• DTM 1992 - Updated physics ( Details @ Sector3 forums )
• Touring Classics - Updated physics ( Details @ Sector3 forums )
• GTR3 - Updated physics ( Details @ Sector3 forums )
• GTR4 - Updated physics ( Details @ Sector3 forums )
• Hillclimb Icons - Updated physics ( Details @ Sector3 forums )
• BMW M1 Procar - Updated physics ( Details @ Sector3 forums )
• Performance index values of all car classes have been readjusted (DTM 1992 and Touring Classics are no longer merged)
• Brands Hatch - Updated curbs, advertisement, vegetation
• Gelleråsen Arena - The last turn has been modified, but the starting grid is still located on the old stretch.
• Knutstorp - Updated with 2019 modifications
• Macau - Improved performance
• Mantorp - Updated with 2019 modifications

Fixes:

• Dedicated server no longer loses its settings when the IP address of the hosting machine changes.
• Loads of bug fixes and improvements overall

RaceRoom Racing Experience is available now exclusively on PC.


Want to learn more about the tips and tricks of RaceRoom Racing Experience? Ask a question to our awesome sim racing community at the RaceRoom Racing Experience sub forum here at RaceDepartment.

 

[Case_]

It has been mentioned before, but if your FFB feels weird and/or the car handles weird, make sure to:

1. Create a whole new preset for your wheel from scratch. There should be a default one in the Controller Profiles options available.
2. Reset your car setup to default. For the updated cars, the old setups are not compatible, but the game seems to pick up the old ones at least under certain circumstances and load them for you automatically, which results in both car handling and the FFB being quite off.
3. Reset your wheel settings for that car (top right corner on the car setup screen). It's independent of the rest of the car setup, so it doesn't reset even when you reset the car setup to default.

Then give it another go. Chances are it will now feel very different, for the better of course.

But at least some of the cars seem to have their FFB multiplier set...well, perhaps not wrong, but sub-optimally in my opinion. For example the M1 Procar (the old one) has a multiplier of 1.7 by default if I remember correctly. Yet to get as much dynamic range from the FFB as possible (which is what you should do IMO, outside of direct drive wheels), I had to set the multiplier to around 3.8.

 

[CrimsonEminence]

On the fast righthander on Paul Ricard, you get a pretty damn good impression about the new GT3 physics, in my opinion. The GT3-R doesn't behave like on rails, but sticks like crazy, so you can play with it pretty naturally, but once overdone, you will not make the corner properly. It was more of a point-and-shoot thing before, just yank it in and let it go through, now it is more of "lead it in and take one step after another".

 

[dreamer al]

My heart skipped a beat when i read Brands Hatch update, but no, its still only the Indy track

Edit: Nice update, all the same.

 

[muzikant]

after settings I like the Bmw gt4 very nice drive

 

[Case_]

My heart skipped a beat when i read Brands Hatch update, but no, its still only the Indy track

Apparently the rudimentary version of Brands Hatch GP track that has been there the whole time behind the barriers has been updated too, though, so who knows.

 

[Mikec87]

For some reason I have not played this for a while and it was not installed on steam after my last PC update.

Downloading now....35+GB

 

[mclaren777]

Can somebody please make a video of Ningbo?

 

[roadyroad]

I must admit I had written about my disappointment about raceroom ultimately, especially about the lack of updates for the older cars. But this update looks really promising, although there's no mention of the group 5 cars. It seems sector 3 is revisiting the physics of all cars and they became teally good on that crucial part. I'm looking forward to testing this update.

Well done, keep on the good work.

 

[Nick Hill]

Ok, yeah, this is kind of a big one (that's what she said). Took me quite a few laps to develop an impression...I have been lapping in R3E a lot lately, my instinct says that should make it faster/easier to form an impression, but I found the opposite to be true. It took a good number of laps to get my brain to stop saying "this is different!". I couldn't really judge good or bad I was so out of sorts from the change. Once I did settle in:

- FFB feels a lot smoother and, after sampling a good number of cars, I'm going to say better. As I have said over and over, I absolutely love the FFB feel in R3E (I find it to be most like real life), so you are not going to hear me make really bold statements here. It's like going from great to great+.

- Some have brought up rF2. I will say I think, post update, R3E feels incrementally more like rF2 to me, but I would not be so bold as to say it feels like rF2. R3E definitely feels smoother and more even to me, but rF2 is just a notch above anything else I've ever played in this regard.

- When the car is at a dead stop, the wheel is (realistically) harder to turn. What implications (if any) this has at higher speeds, I'm not smart enough to say. But it was a nice touch of immersion if nothing else.

- I think the cars are a bit easier to drive now, specifically in the sense that they seemed to be generally more planted under heavy braking and heavy accel. I think whether that's a pro or con is really pretty subjective. I think the racers mentality towards this would be "now I can push harder".

- To somewhat balance out this perception of the cars being easier to drive...the new damage model. I confess to not really testing with any real schwere unfall (as our German friends say, please excuse my awful German!) but I had some experiences with relatively minor contact creating what my instincts tell me are pretty believable suspension damage consequences. A particularly delicious example was driving the x17 at Road America. I ran a bit too wide for a bit too long at track out on T1 and - OOF - got a pretty good jolt. Pre update, that would have just been another day at the office, wouldn't even have lifted. Post update? Bent the hell out of my suspension! Car was wandering like a drunk sailor but at 150+ mph! Really cool, gotta watch your ass on those curbs now, fellas.

- A couple new sound effects are very evident and all changes for the better (again, this is a "great to great+" situation for me). Tire squeal is now a bit more...squeal-y. Rumble strips now sound like they are higher fidelity and a faster frequency which is a nice +1 for immersion.

Good stuff, keep up the amazing work, Sector3! This sim has been the best surprise of my sim racing (heck, maybe even gaming in general) life. When I first tried R3E back in, I don't even know when - maybe circa 2014/2015, I was really underwhelmed. The sounds were already quite good, but the only other thing I found remarkable was how strong the vibration effect was! Car/track selection was OK, but I really couldn't find a reason to play it. Fast forward to now on the eve of 2020 and - wow - this is one hell of a sim! Being a greedy, ungrateful turd, I would still love to see Sector3 really blow us away with some kind of outrageous X factor (like an iRacing-like rating system for online competition or some kind of license deal from out of left field like IMSA or IndyCar), but if this is as good as it gets, I really don't have much to complain about. It's brought me many hours of fun and is well worth the $ I've put into it.

 

[bgil66]

Amazing update, just had a GT3 blast at Zand

 

[STF YVR]

For me, no other sim comes close to replicating the "oneness" you feel between yourself and the car on a real track like R3E. The cars feel grippy and forgiving without being a simcade. They've found the sim Goldilocks Zone as far as I'm concerned.

ACC will give you that feeling too ...

 

[Marc Collins]

ACC will give you that feeling too ...

As has AMS for the past 3 years...

 

[fireballr18]

A lot of issues with server response yesterday. Thus I couldn't test the update seriously. I will have it's a try this evening again.
1 lap on Nords with the M4. Great fun. The diversity of the cars and their individual feeling makes the GT4 class the most interesting to me among the modern race cars.

 

[Eliottk1]

Are anyone able to LOAD Car setups in the setup menue?
It doesn't mather if it is a new one or old one, I can't see my saved setups and so I'm not able to load them, does this only belongs to my installation?

 

[fireballr18]

Are anyone able to LOAD Car setups in the setup menue?
It doesn't mather if it is a new one or old one, I can't see my saved setups and so I'm not able to load them, does this only belongs to my installation?

Yes. Works.

 

[Eliottk1]

so normaly there schould be my setups listed in this window:

 

[ziogzzz]

Removing the SimBin folder from ...documents/my games/ fixed the weak FFB for my totally.
You have to make new settings then, but after this, the game feels fine.

I will check it, thanks

 

[Michael Payne]

It's known by the devs. A small fix for this will come asap

Thanks, I guess I will have to wait until that patch arrives.

 

[Robes]

I've deleted all my presets but the FFB just feels dead to me, there is no indication of loss of grip even though I can hear the tyres squealing. I think something must be wrong because this can't be what they wanted me to experience. This is with a TS300.

The game also seems to run much more poorly after the update. I specifically race in VR and it would rarely glitch for me, but now it happens quite often.

 

[2stains]

New 92 DTM physics is great, selected new controller profile and FFB is new perfect straight up.
The new Ui in car setup section looks nice, seems we may have a new Ui in R3E before rF2, lol