DiRT Rally Road Book - 25/09/15

[KickUp 0]

2,200 miles down the yellow brick road that is the French and Spanish motorways and we have finally made it all the way back to a warm and sunny Warwickshire. Without a doubt that is the most intensive road trip and PR activity I have ever done while working on the DiRT Franchise and while things didn’t always go according to plan we had a great time showing the FIA World RX drivers the latest version of DiRT Rally.

FIA World RX Driver Feedback

Perhaps the coolest part of the weekend was getting the drivers onto the D-Box and getting their feedback on how the game was feeling. The last time many of them had played was back in Holjes and we have made a whole heap of changes to the simulation to respond to the feedback they gave us then. Those drivers who had played back in early July were very complimentary of those changes. They were happy with how their cars were feeling and were satisfied with the adjustments we had made to the tyres. I think it’s fair to say that there are still some areas that we can improve upon but we are a whole lot closer to what those guys get to drive in real life than we were back in July.

There were also a bunch of drivers that didn’t have the chance to play the game in Holjes that came and had a go in Barcelona. Liam Doran, Jean-Baptiste Dubourg and James Grint from the World and European RX Championships and guest driver and two times DTM Champion Timo Scheider all took time to get hands on with DiRT Rally and they were all very complimentary about how the game felt. It’s always good to get a fresh perspective from drivers as first impressions are often the most valuable. It’s one of the coolest things watching drivers using the same techniques that they use in real life to hustle their cars around the tracks we have in game and it speaks volumes to the depth of the simulation the vehicle handling guys have put together.

Research

The reference material we gathered from the circuit and the paddock area has all been stored in our research library and I am hopeful that it will all become useful in the future. It was definitely a new experience for me doing that kind of photography and it certainly gave me a new found respect of the eye for detail that our Environment Creation teams have when they head out on those trips. The good news is that the photos all came out well and weren’t all blurry so apart from the odd one that had @Hatward in it I think they should do the trick.

Flying Finland Update

This is the bit that I am sure most of you are waiting for and seeing as @jamielowesdev did such an awesome job of detailing what we have got lined up there is not a whole lot more for me to add. This week we gave our trusted testers a sneak peak of the update so that they can give us some preliminary feedback before it heads out into the wild next week.

For the most part they have been extremely complimentary of the update. The general consensus is that the new Finland stages and the 2001 Ford Focus and 2001 Subaru Impreza are great fun to drive. These cars come with our new v.2 handling and that has been met with a very positive reception. That also translates into the other car classes that we have updated (60s, 70s, 80s RWD, and 2010s).

The key difference that people have noted is the fact that the Force Feedback now feels a lot less informative in the v2 cars, especially on Tarmac. This is because the FFB is the same but the car now has significantly less downforce compared to what we originally launched with. As a result the car is not being pushed into the ground as much so therefore the FFB is coming across lighter. The trouble is that if we crank up the global FFB settings then any car with the original handling will feel over saturated so for now we are going to leave it as it is but once the other cars have had their v.2 pass we’ll be adjusting the global FFB to make sure that we get that feeling back.

Leaderboard Resets

With the introduction of the v.2 handling we will be resetting the leaderboards of the car classes that are getting the new handling. This is quite a laborious process and one which takes a fair amount of time so there will be a period of time after the update goes live where your times may not show up or they might get erased. It should all be sorted by the end of the day but if you are looking to set fastest times on the Steam leaderboards then you are probably best to leave it until the day after the update. For those of you who have set great times and are proudly sat atop of the current leaderboards - I’m sorry. It’s one of the necessary evils of progress and hopefully you won’t mind the challenge of getting to grips with the new v.2 cars and setting about getting to the top of those leaderboards again.

That’s all for this week’s road book. Have a great weekend and make sure you save up some in game credits for those iconic rally cars that will be jumping into your lives next week!

[thecraicbear 0]

2001 Focus!? YAAAAAAAS!! 

(15 chars too short) 

[RodgerDavies 933]

Condemned to pressing F5 on a 10-minute basis at work all day Monday! Nice to hear about the improvements to FFB too, no worries if you need to break some eggs to make an awesome omelette. 

[dgeesi0 305]

cheers for news update must be very busy getting the update ready for next week.

as for leader boards being reset. i kinda expected that anyway so no worries.

[Skroxs 0]

I did notice that the kit, grpB 4wd and grpB rwd wasnt on the list, does these already have the v2? (or some v1.5 version?)

[dwkGravey 0]

Cannot wait to take the new Impreza through Finland—and the old Impreza with new sounds too for that matter.

Impreza, most Impreza.

[Giesta 0]

Please make something on shader detail settings, a lot of people must turn to ulta low shader detail to gain fps but it´s impossible to do a good night stage and put a litlle more dust when we have shader detail on ultra low. Gravel rallyes without dust looks like rally simulators of the XX century!

[Dytut 89]

Skroxs said:

I did notice that the kit, grpB 4wd and grpB rwd wasnt on the list, does these already have the v2? (or some v1.5 version?)

Kit cars are already v2 I think. Group B will get v2 next patch I presume?

[Rallycameraman 241]

Kit Cars aren't on V2 yet, and neither are Group B cars. The 80s rwd cars are on V2. 

[OzoreXS 0]

Saving some credits to buy new cars!
Cant wait to see whats coming. Lets hack some server! xD

[GroupBFanatic 0]

great News update ! Can't wait ! pls Codies , release it Monday right away ! :p

[griev0r 15]

GroupBFanatic said:

great News update ! Can't wait ! pls Codies , release it Monday right away ! :p

Yep I'm definitely leaving my computer on all day so when I get home from work I can get straight on it!  No update for DR has had me nearly this excited!  Legendary cars, the best stage in the WRC, and V2 physics!!!  :D

Although if it comes out early here in the US, I might start feeling sick all of a sudden... cough.

[Basti237 0]

Carlos Sainz, Colin McRea, Richard Burns and Petter Solberg....
Four legendary names...and at least two iconic cars!!!  ;)

Can´t wait till monday!  <3

[KaRally 0]

Can't wait too ! especially on physics v2, but why everyone writes about Monday? in the timeline is Saturday 26 September !

[GroupBFanatic 0]

KaRally said:

Can't wait too ! especially on physics v2, but why everyone writes about Monday? in the timeline is Saturday 26 September !

how I wish I would just press F5 now and its there for DL :p

[Bongomaster 3]

"the Force Feedback now feels a lot less informative in the v2 cars"

Ooch, this sounds worrying to me. I don't care if the handling isn't uber-realistic, the feeling is what's most important. This game has the most immersive FFB I've ever played, it would be a shame to see that go to waste. Anwyay, fingers crossed that it's not too subdued and also hoping they get it sorted in V3 as they mentioned.

Speaking of things that were subdued, I hope they've brought back the gravel sounds to an acceptable level.

[csabi0805 0]

Hi!
There will also be rallycross tracks in the game?

[OzoreXS 0]

Bongomaster said:

"the Force Feedback now feels a lot less informative in the v2 cars"

Ooch, this sounds worrying to me. I don't care if the handling isn't uber-realistic, the feeling is what's most important. This game has the most immersive FFB I've ever played, it would be a shame to see that go to waste. Anwyay, fingers crossed that it's not too subdued and also hoping they get it sorted in V3 as they mentioned.

Speaking of things that were subdued, I hope they've brought back the gravel sounds to an acceptable level.

Yep, I´m worried too.I´m not an expert but I think physics and FFB have nothing to do.

In one hand physics is what makes car react against floor and elements (gravity, g-forces, grip,...) forces wich are usually well translated to an active racng seat; and FFB is how "other forces" are translated to your wheel such vibrations, wheel torque, suspensions...

I dont know much, but maybe a V3 physics will not be necessary.

[shadow118 18]

Can we maybe get some info, on how much the new cars ar going to cost? Are we talking Group A money or closer to 2010s?

[SkiddyMcCrash 311]

500,000                                                                                 

[KevM 44]

Bargain!  lol

I just spent a load of credits on a Fiesta WRC to get it up and running in full spec for Finland!

[bogani 756]

Bongomaster said:

"the Force Feedback now feels a lot less informative in the v2 cars"

Ooch, this sounds worrying to me. I don't care if the handling isn't uber-realistic, the feeling is what's most important. This game has the most immersive FFB I've ever played, it would be a shame to see that go to waste. Anwyay, fingers crossed that it's not too subdued and also hoping they get it sorted in V3 as they mentioned.

Speaking of things that were subdued, I hope they've brought back the gravel sounds to an acceptable level.

Ok, the FFB on gravel is perfectly fine, I really don't feel any difference. It's the tarmac that feels different. I wouldn't say it lacks much information, it just feels less heavy. The V1 cars feel like the weigh twice as much on tarmac compared to V2.

Oh and the gravel sound on the finnish stages are more than ever. I actually had to turn the surface sound down to hear my co driver ;)

[Canuck59NHL 0]

https://twitter.com/Kick_Up/status/647708856202723328

[Porkhammer 78]

bogani said:

I wouldn't say it lacks much information, it just feels less heavy.

It feels like a boat and very, very few people will enjoy it for the short time it's in-game before the fix...

[minaite 0]

Where is the Toyota celicas and Mitsubishi lancer evo´s..? and why group b 4wd and rwd different groups? If this is simulating game so why group b lancia`s, audi`s, peugeot and metro has handbrakes? Real cars in those years didn´t. And please make that recovery work. If one tyre goes of the road in wales and auto recovery hits, greece is the same some junctions and germany too. In wales is the final uphill in geufron. If you drive little too much(left side wheels) of the road the recovery comes.