EA Sports WRC Update 1.3 Brings Performance Fixes

EA Sports WRC Update 1.3.jpg

EA Sports WRC Update 1.3 Brings Performance Fixes

Upon release, EA Sports WRC was criticised for poor performance, but with update 1.3, the developers hope to eradicate such issues. But will their efforts succeed?

EA Sports WRC has now been out for over a week. Upon release, we enjoyed the game, and continue to have fun with the title. However, to most that play it, it is obvious that performance and stability are not there.

Framerate issues plague the title, strange glitches exist throughout the game and soft-lock crashes are not uncommon.


Upon release, EA announced it would release a post-launch patch to address some of these optimisation downfalls. Well, the update releases today with the developers keeping their fingers crossed for a smoother, more enjoyable experience for the player base. Here is all you need to know about update 1.3 to EA Sports WRC.

Shader Pre-Compilation resolutions​

As many will know, the biggest problem affecting the EA Sports WRC experience in its current state is frequent stuttering. Early on in the game’s release, it was said that this was due to the Unreal Engine’s tendency to compile shaders whilst running through a stage.

With this new version, the engine will pre-compile shaders during the stage loading process. Accordingly, we should expect the driving to run far smoother after installing the update.


Elsewhere, the title also suffers from countless crashes and soft-locks. In fact, our own Michel experienced this in his video review, with a crash at the Monte Carlo rally. Whilst no specific crash events are noted in the changelog, the notes do point out that several known moments have been rectified.

Other additions in this latest update touch on stability in menu screens. Whilst we rarely experienced issues outside of the driving gameplay, this is sure to be a much-awaited fix for many. Furthermore, a series of graphical bugs such as 3D model inconsistencies and audio glitches will no longer feature.

EA Sports WRC Update 1.3 Patch Notes​

Aside from performance and stability fixes, the latest patch also brings quality of life improvements. Indeed, one must note some UI touch-ups as well as co-driver call optimisations.

EA Sports WRC Update 1.3 - Any better than before.jpg


Finally, the game is now able to launch on the Steam Deck, whilst improvements come to Ultra-wide screen support.

As previously announced, Virtual Reality support and the final 2023 WRC missing event, Central European Rally, will feature in an update next year.

To see how the update impacts things, we are going to put it through its paces right after release on November 8 at 2pm CET. Join Michel and Yannik for some WRC community multiplayer action in the OverTake WRC club or check out the livestream on our Twitch channel!

Want to discuss EA Sports WRC and anything and other titles of the WRC series? Feel free to head to our forums to become part of the conversation!

How does update 1.3 affect your EA Sports WRC gameplay experience? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
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Angus Martin
Motorsport gets my blood pumping more than anything else. Be it physical or virtual, I'm down to bang doors.

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Premium
I also remember som stages, gravel stages if i remember correctly was overly bright but I don't remember which so I have to try and see if I can find them again.

At least Sweden and Mexico. Mostly from cockpit view, and depending on the car. When the dark interior of the car takes up much screen space, the exposure is cranked up to keep the average correct, and the bright sunny outdoors is then overexposed to keep the interior bright enough.

The autoexposure doesn't know that we need to see the road, and we don't care if the interior is pitch dark.

Hence, the same tracks are ok from other camera views.

Are you guys using HDR, both Mexico and Sweden look fine in HDR without any tweaks?

No HDR here. But it might also be because you use a different camera?

Regardless, the tweak in engine.ini that @BazzaLB mentioned really fixes the whole issue.

HDR might help as well, as the dynamic range could be wide enough to prevent overexposure.
 
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OverTake
Premium
When we tried the update, neither Sweden nor Scandia were an issue regarding overexposure from the interior views. Personally hadn't tried them myself before, but even Chile had rather bright gravel - could be that the update remedied that at least on my end.

Good to see that other fixes (albeit more complicated than they should be) are around as well, though!
 
There are some nice lines we can put in engine.ini, to disable bloom and dof entirely, and adjust the autoexposure. There should be settings for this in-game, but at least this is two more problems fixed for me. :)

Also discovered that DLSS quality seems to run smoother than balanced, but still far from smooth enough.

For me the choppy gameplay is now the only major thing really bothering me.
Can you elaborate? Link?

Edit: nevermind..found it in comments, thank you
 
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At least Sweden and Mexico. Mostly from cockpit view, and depending on the car. When the dark interior of the car takes up much screen space, the exposure is cranked up to keep the average correct, and the bright sunny outdoors is then overexposed to keep the interior bright enough.

The autoexposure doesn't know that we need to see the road, and we don't care if the interior is pitch dark.

Hence, the same tracks are ok from other camera views.



No HDR here. But it might also be because you use a different camera?

Regardless, the tweak in engine.ini that @BazzaLB mentioned really fixes the whole issue.

HDR might help as well, as the dynamic range could be wide enough to prevent overexposure.

Tried Sweden and Mexico post patch and although Sweden was quite bright which it is IRL it was not overly bright as I remember it pre patch !

Will have another go after breakfast !
 
Premium
Tried Sweden and Mexico post patch and although Sweden was quite bright which it is IRL it was not overly bright as I remember it pre patch !

Will have another go after breakfast !
After fixing the bloom, dof and exposure, and with the added telemetry support for SimHub, I can clearly see that I am ready to change my mind about the game - if they now can iron out the stutters some more.

Adjusting exposure, disabling bloom and dof should also be easily available as in-game options for those of us that really care about these things. :)
 
I like the game. After the update I have almost zero stutters and I can run it on triples 7680x1440 with mostly ultra gfx settings (except reflection on ultra low, crowd on high) with fps 60-70. But I cant help myself but going through the stages I get a lot of dejavu moments. I drove Chille for the first time but at some point I was driving through the sequence of corners that highlly reminded me the Greece rally from DR1. Different vegetation but I was completely confident about what corners are coming at me without listening to pace notes. So it feels to me like a recycled content. Just saying. Still enjoying it A LOT.
 
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OverTake
Premium
Great to read that so many people report less stuttering. We tried it in the OverTake stream and unfortunately, the stutter is like crazy once your lobby is a bit fuller :/ hope there is still space for improvements.
 
D
The only thing missing in TrackIR support. :(
 
Premium
View attachment 706212

These guys at Simhub are quick !!!! :thumbsup:
You mean this guy at SimHub. Best software ever, hope he's a millionaire.

Regarding performance hacks, I've swapped the DLSS to version from the included 3.1.1 back to 2.5.1, which by many is regarded as probably the best and most stable one. Looking just as good, and perhaps faster? Need more time to evaluate, but at least for me it seems that DLSS causes additional choppiness, compared to FSR, temporal or no upscaling.
 
You mean this guy at SimHub. Best software ever, hope he's a millionaire.

Regarding performance hacks, I've swapped the DLSS to version from the included 3.1.1 back to 2.5.1, which by many is regarded as probably the best and most stable one. Looking just as good, and perhaps faster? Need more time to evaluate, but at least for me it seems that DLSS causes additional choppiness, compared to FSR, temporal or no upscaling.
I pretty sure he's not by himself anymore.
 
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Let me know what you think of Generations and Loeb. I have read mixed reviews. Hard to gauge really but if you are into Rally, by all means let me know your thoughts (I didn't buy them). Personally think that all Rally titles have issues - including RBR/RSF/NGP. I love Rally as a sport. Have done for a very long time so I tend to cut some slack to Rally titles if they at least have some strong points.
Both titles are dirt cheap (sorry!) around the price of two Big Macs and medium fries last time I went to the terrible drive thru. Never again I got no large fries, cold & wet conditions too. After 10 or so hours in both well worth a punt and graphically with Reshade they can look pretty. Generations does have some weird setup quirks which you have to suffer/workaround. As always research is my best advice.
 
Premium
I seem to have fixed the stuttering on my side. The two jokers that I had a hard time identifying were these two:
1. DLSS in any other mode than quality causes microstuttering.
2. Steam overlay was also causing constant microstuttering.

Vsync enabled in NV control panel also seem to help.

I realise that number 2 is a rookie mistake, but it's never caused me any problems in any other game, so I kind of wrote it off when disabling it alone didn't fix it. But it's obvious that it was one of the culprits.

I still get the occasional hiccups, often at the start of stages and at specific choke points, and sometimes even seemingly randomly - but the constant microstuttering is now gone, and I can finally try to enjoy the game. Because there is certainly much to enjoy!

It's obvious though, that the game is sensitive to a number of things that shouldn't really matter, and what solved it for me might not solve it for others.
 
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