Different types of surface degradation - what do they mean?

[Tranzitive 309]

I've largely ignored this until now as have been doing My Team and the online events. 

In preparation for Wales dropping i was messing around with custom championships and see you can choose what type of surface degradation the championship has - full, authentic, optimal, or off.

'Off' is pretty self-explanatory but what do the other 3 mean? this isn't explained anywhere in the game. i tried to search Reddit and also this forum and unless i missed it, this hasn't been explained here or on the sub-reddit either. 

one would expect that 'full' would mean the worst deg all the time, optimal the least, and authentic the most realistic - but i've noticed in My Team and the online events that surface deg is always set to 'full' but the amount of degradation varies depending on the running order.

so the names of these options don't really seem to make much sense, considering that.

thanks in advance.

[chukonu 476]

My guess it's like this.

Full: Full degradation for all.

Authentic: Degradation based on start order.

Optimal: Best degradation for everyone. Full degradation for tarmac and no degradation for gravel.

Off: No degradation at all.

[Tranzitive 309]

that is what i thought but the community events and My Team AI career mode or whatever use full degradation and it behaves like you've described 'authentic' degradation (and like i thought authentic deg was), with the level of degradation varying according to start position (at least according to the little diagram). 

the absence of any in-game explanations for things like this is a bit strange. 

anyway i will maybe do some tests tonight to see what's up.

[chukonu 476]

Maybe authentic or full includes the other classes that run before/after your class?

[A-M-A-R-85 66]

Yes I would also like to know exactly how each of these settings work because I am also confused when I choose FULL for example, and see the icon of the lowest degradation before the stage starts. Id like to know from Codemasters, rather than people thinking they know or guessing what they all mean.

-Does OFF mean everyone drives as if they were the 1st car on the stage (loosest surface)?

-Does FULL mean an exaggerated version of authentic OR the worst conditions all the time for everyone?

-Does OPTIMAL mean there is no degradation at all?

Please can someone from Codemasters let us know exactly what they mean as it was made to be such a big part of the game. @PJTierney  ?

[75Vette 509]

If I remember correctly there was a video interview with Jon Armstrong about DR2 he said Optimal was probably something like 5th to 10th run, because the loose stuff had been swept but the substrate wasn't degraded.

[MJV1973 115]

For clubs there´s 5 levels of degradation:
 

[75Vette 509]

Cool. So now we have:

Off

Full

Authentic

Optimal

Low

Medium

High

Max

and..... no explanation as to what any of those mean.

[Tranzitive 309]

bump.

[MJV1973 115]

They are too busy to hype and advertise DLC´s so no time to this kind of things or fixing clubs...

[Tranzitive 309]

still hoping to get an answer for this, and would really appreciate one.

perhaps some clarification could be included in one of the Dirt Rally roadbooks?

[PJTierney 4,910]

I got a PM about this too.

Have pinged a mail to a few people. If I get some notes I'll scribble them in a Roadbook 😉 

[Tranzitive 309]

21 hours ago, PJTierney said:

I got a PM about this too.

Have pinged a mail to a few people. If I get some notes I'll scribble them in a Roadbook 😉 

great, thanks so much PJ, really appreciate it 😁

[PJTierney 4,910]

I've got some stuff, will drop it in the Roadbook this week 🙂 

[PJTierney 4,910]

http://blog.codemasters.com/dirt/08/the-dirt-roadbook-august-23-2019/

 

Quote

Stage Degradation: What do the settings mean?

 

One of the big features in DiRT Rally 2.0 is the inclusion of Stage Degradation, where the surface of the road performs differently based on how many cars have driven a Stage before you in an Event. There’s been a few questions recently about what the different settings for Stage Degradation mean, given that more people are creating their own Championships in Clubs.

Here’s some comments straight from our Principal Games Designer, Andy Stewart, giving great insight into how this part of the game functions:

 

Authentic

• Provides track degradation similar to real life. The change in degradation between any two places in the running order is quite slight, but accumulates with each place.
• In a Custom Event of 20 entrants, you therefore only get to see the early stages of degradation.
• By contrast in a Career Event, where there may be 150 entrants across multiple Classes, those running late in the order would see much more degradation.

 

Full

• Provides the full range of track degradation regardless of how many entrants there are. It allocates the full range of effects, proportionally, to the number of entrants in the running order.
• This means that in a Custom Event of 20 entrants, the entrant running first experiences the untouched track, and the entrant running last experiences the most complete track degradation. For the latter, it’s as if 150 entrants had raced the Stage ahead of them instead of 19.
• This is unrealistic given the number of entrants; but it means that running order has a more pronounced effect on the race result than with the Authentic setting.

 

Optimum

• Ensures all entrants experience the same track degradation, similar to running 6th in the Authentic setting.
• This is considered the best for racing performance, for most players. This is the “sweet spot” after the road has been swept of loose material and before ruts and bumps have started to form on the racing line.
• This setting is great if you want a level playing field; everyone gets the same, yet authentic, experience.

 

Off

• Disables the degradation effects altogether. All players get the same experience, regardless of where they are in the running order.
• This also provides a level playing field, like “Optimum”, but it’s as if no-one has raced along the track.
• Pace may not be as good as with the Optimum setting, depending on the track.

 

[Kuul 1]

How about none, low, medium, high and max in clubs?

[MaXyMsrpl 281]

@PJTierney I've read recent dirt roadbook. Thank you for insights.
I would like to ask for a VR related feature, partially similar to what is stated in the roadbook. Is CM considering adding "2D" fullscreen replay mode for game run in VR?

I mean, currently, if I play in VR, I cannot record full screen replay video (ie for YT) because monitor shows VR content.
In addition there is no option to save a replay, so even with option of running game in 2D or VR, it will be impossible to left the game, re-run in 2D mode to record the replay.

I hope I succeeded to describe my motivation.

yeah.. and I would like to be able to watch replays in real VR mode - instead of 2D in VR environment as of right now. This is something which is available in DR1.
The best would be to copy what is in DR1, with additional possibility to switch replay mode on the fly. But the latter might be too much, right?

 

 

[Tranzitive 309]

those explanations are fantastic, really clears things up a lot, thanks so much!

1 hour ago, Kuul said:

How about none, low, medium, high and max in clubs?

i would assume that these lock the degradation at the various levels for all entrants, regardless of how many there are.

so 'low' would lock degradation at that level for all entrants regardless of how many, same with medium, high, and max, so that everyone experiences exactly the same amount of surface deg regardless of running order and number of entrants. the road conditions would essentially be equal for everyone in the event.

 

[A-M-A-R-85 66]

@PJTierney Thank you so much for clearing that up! You explained it very well indeed. It would be nice for future games if you include these kind of descriptions in the game itself. Same goes for descriptions for assists/ force feedback settings etc. 

Please can you confirm if none, low, medium, high and max options in clubs are in fact "fixed" levels of degradation, providing a level playing field no matter the running order. Also please let us know whereabouts in the running order each of those options simulates, eg none=1st, low=5th... etc etc. 

Thanks again!

[Mike Dee 1,248]

12 minutes ago, A-M-A-R-85 said:

Please can you confirm if none, low, medium, high and max options in clubs are in fact "fixed" levels of degradation, providing a level playing field no matter the running order.

I can give super anecdotal evidence that in the clubs I manage (one which has 200+ drivers) it definitely works as a FIXED level of wear from everything we have seen and tested. Plenty of our drivers are AM/Semi-Pro and record their runs or stream it for people to watch and you will see the exact same surfaces on the stage Friday when it first opens as you will see the following Sunday when it closes (our club runs 10 day events).

I'll let PJ hop in here and confirm it 100%, but I am very confident in saying they are FIXED levels of deg. This is what also tells me that it would be very possible to get fixed levels of deg in customs too instead of just rough degrees of deg.

[PJTierney 4,910]

42 minutes ago, A-M-A-R-85 said:

Thank you so much for clearing that up! You explained it very well indeed. It would be nice for future games if you include these kind of descriptions in the game itself. Same goes for descriptions for assists and other settings. 

Can’t take credit for that definition, Andy wrote it up and I merely slotted it into the Roadbook 🙂 

[mickeeiemouse 37]

so...... my question would be is there a 'cleaning' effect? do the 1st few runners suffer from sweeping the road(dry stages), then the stage hits the sweet spot, then tails off as lots more cars run the stage?

or is 1st on the road getting the most grip?

 

MM

[PJTierney 4,910]

1 minute ago, mickeeiemouse said:

so...... my question would be is there a 'cleaning' effect? do the 1st few runners suffer from sweeping the road(dry stages), then the stage hits the sweet spot, then tails off as lots more cars run the stage?

or is 1st on the road getting the most grip?

 

MM

Optimal is equivalent to 6th or so in the order, so I imagine the first few runners sweep the Stage.