Le Mans Ultimate: Sebring, Corvette and Cadillac Previewed, Roadmap Expected Soon

Le Mans Ultimate Cadillac V-SeriesR RD.jpg
Following the recent early access trailer, further Le Mans Ultimate images have been released, while the official Discord has revealed additional details.

Images: Studio 397/Motorsport Games

As we edge closer to the early access release of Le Mans Ultimate, a torrent of information is charging towards us faster than a Ferrari 499P down the Mulsanne.

Today, 8th February 2024, the title’s social media channels released the first images of the Sebring circuit.

Le Mans Ultimate Sebring Lexus Building


The Floridian venue, primarily known for bumpy endurance events, was briefly shown in last week’s gameplay trailer – but blink and you’ll miss it.

Now we know some of the finer details about the replication seen in the official 24 Hours of Le Mans and FIA World Endurance Championship title.

Seemingly based on the representation seen in rFactor 2 and then updated, according to Motorsport Games it now features new advertising boards, trackside buildings and a general visual ‘lift’ for LMU. Dynamic time of day and weather systems are in play.

Sebring specifically will see the pitlane used by the WEC series, along the Ulmann Straight, as opposed to that used by IMSA in between Sunset Bend and Turn One.

Le Mans Ultimate Sebring Pitlane entry

Corvette GTE And Cadillac V-Series.R Showcased​

Another content piece only (very) briefly seen prior is the Chevrolet Corvette GTE, but now we can see (stills at least) the mid-engine C8.R placed at Sebring – a track where the team was victorious last season.

The Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin and Chevrolet in Le Mans Ultimate are not completely rebuilt (unlike the Vanwall and Oreca 07 LMP2), but rather take existing rFactor 2 models and update them to fit in with the new title’s content roster.

Le Mans Ultimate Sebring Chevrolet Corvette 2023 GTE


Something that is all-new, however, for the upcoming sim racing platform is the Cadillac V-Series.R that runs in both IMSA and WEC championships.

The LMDh (GTP in IMSA) vehicle is known for its sonorous V8 engine sound, paired incongruously with near-silent electric low-speed running – the switch between two propulsion methods replicated here unlike in some contemporary virtual rival titles.

These images showcase the exterior’s front for the first time. As the thundering prototype has previously featured in several racing games and sim platforms, its looks are no surprise and as with the other cars featured so far, the recreation appears to be authentic.

Le Mans Ultimate Cadillac V-Series.R


A Cadillac gameplay video is expected to be released tomorrow, 9th February 2024.

Roadmap, Triple Screens And Damage Modelling​

As the official Discord for the title is now live, Motorsport Games team members have been replying to community questions.

While we knew that virtual reality would not be supported on early access launch day, we were unable to seek clarification about triple screens last week.

However, Will Bennett, Licencing Manager, has now confirmed that this feature will be supported on the 20th February, while Senior Video Editor Cameron McMillan has teased ultrawide gameplay as looking ‘awesome’.

A roadmap of planned post-launch support during the early access period is also to be expected, thanks to VP of Competition, Ben Rossiter-Turner: “…there will be something before release, I’m sure.”

Le Mans Ultimate Sebring Track


While a new system for cars to accrue dirt over race distances has been implemented, the damage system will remain similar to rFactor 2’s (at least initially) and also analogous to the lionised sim platform, tyre warm-up procedures will be pivotal to avoid flat spots.

How is Le Mans Ultimate shaping up for you as we near the early access release? Let us know in the comments below or discuss on our forum.
About author
Thomas Harrison-Lord
A freelance sim racing, motorsport and automotive journalist. Credits include Autosport Magazine, Motorsport.com, RaceDepartment, OverTake, Traxion and TheSixthAxis.

Comments

With my old GTX 980, 62 cars on tracks only means I will run the game at 5fps :roflmao::D

Seriously, I need to upgrade my graphic card (since the PC is already up to date, with a 13th gen i7), but I don't want to spend 500€
If you do, make sure to get 16GB VRAM. I upgraded recently from an 8GB VRAM card to 16, and I was amazed by the metrics how much games utilize more VRAM. ACC a bit over 10GB, AC with a lot of mods and a big grid nearing 15GB. Since it doesn't have to swap stuff so much, there's also less microstutter.
 
That's exactly the issue. If a sim does not feature VR I just won't buy it. It's essential for me.
Releasing the game with with buggy or incomplete VR implementation will be way more damaging for the launch than just not launching with the feature all together.

Yes, they won't get sales from those VR users but they'll also not have a vocal minority bashing the game for that one reason, which could sway no VR users to not even give it a try.
 
It better be as good if not better than AMS2(massive DLC, great effort to fix bugs) or running hypercars in Assetto Corsa.
 
20% are VR users on the RD site which is for die hard sim fans.So the actual figure is between 5-10% when you factor in more casual users.Its a very niche,expensive and uncomfortable way to play a sim in a niche hobby.MSG make no profits and have not released a acceptable,playable sim yet that works on a monitor.Why would they prioritize VR?

I think 20% on RD is a representative sample of the people who will buy the game. Its not really looking like a casual game, it’s endurance racing which is a niche interest. Disagree that it’s uncomfortable, things have moved on In terms of comfort. Triples are used by fewer people, and they say that’s working. Albeit easier to implement but they did put resource into it.

Do agree with what you say about them not even releasing a game yet, for all we know the game is poorly optimised. Which means VR would be awful leading to that 20%, which is small but very vocal community, leading a day one backlash, if the game comes out with performance issues.

As somebody else said 20% is a big chunk of sales. It can’t be ignored.
 
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I want to have a more realistic experience:
- Give us debris on track after crashes (which can cause tyre-punctures)
- Slippery Oil- and water-spills on track after crashes or engine failures

Why is no studio implementing this?
I believe it was Aris from Kunos, who said it in reply of a question about safety cars and full course yellows in ACC, that it would just simply take the fun away from the game.
Imagine you just got home from work, have a couple of hours of free time to fire up the sim, you do a 1-1.5 hour race, having fun, fighting for positions and then in the last couple of laps you just crash out because some AI backmarkers collided off screen and left some debries and oil on the track. And that's it, you crashed, game over. No time and energy to restart, that was it. All the fun you had in the past 2 hours, gone because of something completely out of your control. I'd be pissed, and most would just probably ragequit and delete the game.
Not to mention multiplayer races with this enabled. The new meta would be people deliberately driving off the track to pull in dirt, to f*ck with the others. No thank you.
 
At the risk of being stoned by you.
The merchant on the corner has large stones, small stones, thick stones, red stones or soul stones. I don't get any commission for buying stones.
LeMans.
The name alone makes motorsport enthusiasts' mouths water. So far so good.
But why should I buy a game that already contains the content of what feels
like 1000 games?
In my opinion, the buyer group will be very limited.
On the one hand, there are those who burn money for everything that has a car pictured on it. It's okay, it's your money. Then there are those who want to support the software company. Very honorable, but just give them your money via Paypal.
Then there are people, myself included, who only buy a cockpit game if it suits their tastes and has VR functionality. That's what VR is made for.
Then there is the sofa and controller group. The game must therefore be easy to access. Then there are those, myself included, who are seriously wondering what this game is actually about. As far as I know, AC has the largest LeMans scope.
Race track variations from various decades including cars.
Mods indeed, but the content is there and cannot be explained away.
AC doesn't have multi-class support, but for people who just want to drive that's secondary. They want to drive. The race track specifies starting positions.
AMS2 also has LeMans content through the DLC. So far only the modern version, but others will follow. Plus everything a LeMans driver's heart desires.
GT1, GT2, GT3, GT4, GT5, GTE, LMDh, LMP1, LMP2, LMP3. There can also be multi-class racing. The number of vehicles is limited by the race track.
Is it the racetracks?
That can not be. At least not with AC. I think every route where long-distance races take place or have taken place is available as a mod. If that's not the case, wait and see.
The only thing missing is the driver change. Whether AI or human.
What, other than the driver change, should make me buy this game?
I just want to drive, like most people. This is not a religion, not a way of life.
Do the CEOs think that just because I package an expensive license with content that is available for free in other games, the simulants will rip it out of my hands?
Sure, the geeks will take it in stride, but the average person will certainly think twice about spending money on a game with a limited scope.
I won't spend any money just on graphics and a 0.000000000001% better driving experience. Especially since I already have everything I need to complete the LeMans race. Of course not like in real life, but I don't need the whole set of rules.
Car plus racetrack equals fun for me.
The future will show whether this is profitable.
One LeMans game has already been completely lost because it was limited in scope.
24h of LeMans by Infogrames. RIP.
The reason why this product is more interesting than the alternatives is pretty easy to answer. First and foremost it comes with all cars and tracks out of the box while in other games I have a bit of this, a bit of that, everything in varying quality, in some cases not really balanced or as in the case of AC with very few features or AI that isn't that good to keep me attracted to the platform. Thatswhy I don't get the "but it won't be as good as the one car from VRC" comments. If I want to just hotlap the not-9X8 around a heavily modded AC track then that might be good enough. In AMS2 I only have a very small fraction of the 2023 season, with the 962, Caddy, C8R, the RSR aswell as only Le Mans, Spa and Monza . In LMU I get all the features in one package without having to download content manager, skin packs, SOL or what ever.

You need to keep in mind that this isn't just about Le Mans but everything that is connected to ACO similar to how Kunos features all the SRO sanctioned content in ACC. There are alot more potential car and track combinations than anyone of us will ever be able to master in their liftime. If they offer all ACO sanctioned series from 2024 there are 11 new tracks coming. The car content is pretty much unlimited. Just don't get your hopes up for Nords.

Eventhough that track was part of the WSC in 1983 ... :rolleyes:
 
With my old GTX 980, 62 cars on tracks only means I will run the game at 5fps :roflmao::D

Seriously, I need to upgrade my graphic card (since the PC is already up to date, with a 13th gen i7), but I don't want to spend 500€
With 99 starters on the grid in my composite GTR2 combined Le Mans several mixed classes mod events almost 15 years ago with my fantastic Sapphire HD5770 Vapor-X 1Gb GDDR5 VRAM (still in use in my Linux sandbox as of today and for testing sims in Wine-like terminal software), it should be possible for today's developers with just as intelligently performance maximizing coding.
Moreover my experience is that large grids of mixed classes now primarily tend to go beyond CPU performance, and first in the next row the GPU.
 
With 99 starters on the grid in my composite GTR2 combined Le Mans several mixed classes mod events almost 15 years ago with my fantastic Sapphire HD5770 Vapor-X 1Gb GDDR5 VRAM (still in use in my Linux sandbox as of today and for testing sims in Wine-like terminal software), it should be possible for today's developers with just as intelligently performance maximizing coding.
Moreover my experience is that large grids of mixed classes now primarily tend to go beyond CPU performance, and first in the next row the GPU.
Just doing a fast research should give you an indication that your Saphire was released in 2009. At that time hardware propably had cought up to the hardware requirements of GTR2, wich I remember as being very demanding when it was released back in 2006. If I am not completely off the mark this was also the reason why they stripped out working whipers from the game. Anyway, I don't think coders were smarter than today in terms of performance optimization.
 
Releasing the game with with buggy or incomplete VR implementation will be way more damaging for the launch than just not launching with the feature all together.

Yes, they won't get sales from those VR users but they'll also not have a vocal minority bashing the game for that one reason, which could sway no VR users to not even give it a try.
Agree with your take. Sure, I'm a little down about missing out on the early days of LMU, but if they are taking their time to do VR implementation justice and bring it up to the standards of AMS2, AC CSP or beyond...I'm all for it. Hopeful it doesn't fall off their radar when trying to patch the game, fix any issues and get the rest of their planned content and features online. Looking forward to our monitor brothers giving us the low down on the early access version of the game.
 
Premium
Releasing the game with with buggy or incomplete VR implementation will be way more damaging for the launch than just not launching with the feature all together.

Yes, they won't get sales from those VR users but they'll also not have a vocal minority bashing the game for that one reason, which could sway no VR users to not even give it a try.
Agreed.
If they add proper VR support later, the reviews are good and physics are Rf2 level I'm very interested in this title.
 
Why would you want a boring car that was only doing a demonstration run?
The impression I got was a whole bunch of people in attendance loved it... it might be "low tech" compared to the other classes but boring doesn't seem to be how most people felt about it. However, even as a NASCAR fan (though not my favorite), I have to laugh any time they try to associate themselves with "innovation". They're the most dinosaur cars of all major racing, I mean great they finally went to unleaded fuel, independent rear suspension, sequential transmissions and digital dashboards... decades after everyone else! But that doesn't mean they aren't still visceral brutes of racecars that can't put on a good show. There's room for that in modern racing, and I like that they're still kind of old school. Also, "easy to drive" doesn't seem to be a description applied to them.

With regard to the car being excluded from LMU, it would be cool if it was there but I completely understand why it isn't. Besides licensing, it ran just one race with no other class members to compete against, and the car itself is literally the only one in the world (that I know of). As close as it is to a NASCAR Cup car, it was substantially modified for Le Mans - including better aero and being something like 400 pounds lighter, it should run circles (no pun intended) around a standard Cup car on a road course. The existing S397 Stock Cars in RF2 are the previous generation, I don't know which car they used/modeled for their disaster NASCAR stand-alone game but I'm guessing it wasn't the current gen that the Garage 56 entry was based on. To do it right would probably take more time and work than is feasible for such a limited scope car in a title that already seems strained for development.

Maybe if LMU ends up being successful it could show up some day as an add-on, but my bet is if you want to drive the NASCAR Garage 56 machine, hope for a mod in another title (if it isn't out there as such already).
 
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First and foremost it comes with all cars and tracks out of the box
That is not what I understood, I might be wrong.
Are you saying the EA comes with all the cars and track, or is it, in the future, as it develops, all cars and tracks will be available?
 
At the risk of being stoned by you.
The merchant on the corner has large stones, small stones, thick stones, red stones or soul stones. I don't get any commission for buying stones.
LeMans.
The name alone makes motorsport enthusiasts' mouths water. So far so good.
But why should I buy a game that already contains the content of what feels
like 1000 games?
In my opinion, the buyer group will be very limited.
On the one hand, there are those who burn money for everything that has a car pictured on it. It's okay, it's your money. Then there are those who want to support the software company. Very honorable, but just give them your money via Paypal.
Then there are people, myself included, who only buy a cockpit game if it suits their tastes and has VR functionality. That's what VR is made for.
Then there is the sofa and controller group. The game must therefore be easy to access. Then there are those, myself included, who are seriously wondering what this game is actually about. As far as I know, AC has the largest LeMans scope.
Race track variations from various decades including cars.
Mods indeed, but the content is there and cannot be explained away.
AC doesn't have multi-class support, but for people who just want to drive that's secondary. They want to drive. The race track specifies starting positions.
AMS2 also has LeMans content through the DLC. So far only the modern version, but others will follow. Plus everything a LeMans driver's heart desires.
GT1, GT2, GT3, GT4, GT5, GTE, LMDh, LMP1, LMP2, LMP3. There can also be multi-class racing. The number of vehicles is limited by the race track.
Is it the racetracks?
That can not be. At least not with AC. I think every route where long-distance races take place or have taken place is available as a mod. If that's not the case, wait and see.
The only thing missing is the driver change. Whether AI or human.
What, other than the driver change, should make me buy this game?
I just want to drive, like most people. This is not a religion, not a way of life.
Do the CEOs think that just because I package an expensive license with content that is available for free in other games, the simulants will rip it out of my hands?
Sure, the geeks will take it in stride, but the average person will certainly think twice about spending money on a game with a limited scope.
I won't spend any money just on graphics and a 0.000000000001% better driving experience. Especially since I already have everything I need to complete the LeMans race. Of course not like in real life, but I don't need the whole set of rules.
Car plus racetrack equals fun for me.
The future will show whether this is profitable.
One LeMans game has already been completely lost because it was limited in scope.
24h of LeMans by Infogrames. RIP.
I do not agree that VR is created on the sim. I also ride endurance, 8-24 watches and I can't imagine having a watch on my head. In addition, there is no need for peripheral vision, which is necessary when driving a car. So, not VR, but the support of three monitors is basically more necessary.
 
Agreed, and watching the Caddy onboard it looks like rFactor 2 (handling, camera, AI) in a very fresh coat of paint. And I am honestly glad about it.

Well...I hope better than what I recently experienced on Le Mans in rF2. If it is like it was in rF2 a couple of years ago, then it will be a pretty good start.

Man....the new clip on X. Awesome! Vids get loaded up on youtube in a couple of hours.
 
Premium
I want to have a more realistic experience:
- Give us debris on track after crashes (which can cause tyre-punctures)
- Slippery Oil- and water-spills on track after crashes or engine failures

Why is no studio implementing this?
As much as I would like these features, I believe that it would only work for offline. As the online crowd would complain too much, I think. A lot of online racers were a no on full course cautions in a recent article. To not give back markers a chance to reset. People would be p!ssed if a back marker crashed and they had to pit for a new tire or if they slid off the track due to antifreeze. Also you would need to implement clean up crews too, as it would be lame if it just disappeared over time. I wouldn't mind offline having things like... in a series race, you could crash and be hurt and not able to race in a few of the races in the series because of a broken leg. Or in 60s f1 cars, you have a crash and you get killed and you'd have to start a new season. How about risk of tire puncture from bumping and rubbing with other cars.
 

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How are you going to watch 24 hours of Le Mans

  • On national tv

    Votes: 164 35.2%
  • Eurosport app/website

    Votes: 126 27.0%
  • WEC app/website

    Votes: 91 19.5%
  • Watch party

    Votes: 36 7.7%
  • At a friends house

    Votes: 9 1.9%
  • At Le Mans

    Votes: 40 8.6%
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