Paul Jeffrey
Premium
The Forza Motorsport 7 holiday season update arrives December 4th, and with it adds new content, improved force feedback and quite a bit more...
Turn 10 Studios and Forza Motorsport 7 have made a habit of late with recent monthly updates, and as we wave goodbye to 2018 the developers are not about to break that tradition now.. the new December update is scheduled to land on Xbox One and PC December 4th - adding plenty of fixes and improvements to the game as well as the very impressive BMW M8 GTE as the latest 'Spotlight' free car addition.
One of the most noticeable updates due to land tomorrow will be a brand new UI overhaul for the game, adding a fresh new look to Forza Motorsport 7 and improving the functionality and usability of what could sometimes be a bit of a cumbersome design...
Alongside the new update and BMW M8 GTE, Turn 10 also plan on making available some new events within the software, adding the 'Engaged Engines' league, new hopper races and of course a range of updated #forzathon races.. Plenty to keep players happy of the Christmas season.
FM7 Update Notes
Updated Force Feedback
The December update introduces some important changes to force feedback in Forza 7. The new force feedback is a full physically based system utilizing Forza Motorsport 7’s suspension kinematics and tire modeling to send tire loads to the steering wheel. It produces a more intuitive feel with more accurate align torque and a solid feeling of connection to the road.
Importantly for wheel users, this new wheel update completely replaces the old system, which means players’ tuning values from before December will be reset. Wheel users will need to tune from scratch to take advantage of this new and improved system. For a full rundown of the new force feedback system, check out the updated FM7 Wheel Guide on the Forza Support site.
A Fresh Coat of Paint
When you start up Forza Motorsport 7 after Tuesday’s update, straight away you’re going to notice some visual changes. In addition to a new splash screen, we’ve made some significant improvements to the main menu. The old slightly angled menu is replaced with a new flat layout. The car and driver have moved to the right-hand side of the screen. In addition, we’ve replaced the black and white image backgrounds for the menu tiles with beautiful new color images. Sharp-eyed players will also notice that we’ve changed the tile highlight color from red to blue, and we’ve changed the opacity of tiles that do not have artwork, to make those tiles feel more active. The team has also improved transition times for certain menu items; for example, it now takes less time to get to the Forza Driver’s Cup menu when selecting that tile from the main menu.
New Opponent Labels
The menus aren’t the only items getting a visual overhaul in December. This update also introduces a new opponent label system into the game. These labels are the information panels that you see in multiplayer lobbies, showing a player’s Gamertag, Forza driver level, and badge above the car. The new opponent label system brings a uniform, flattened look to these labels. Labels will also be dynamic, shifting between three “states” depending on an opponent’s proximity to the player.
The closest “full” state presents a player’s Gamertag, their position in the race, and some event-relevant information such as distance ahead (or behind, when looking backwards), total drift score, or “It” status when playing Tag games. At medium distance, opponent labels will be shown in condensed state, with just a player’s GT and position shown. A furthest distance, labels will appear in “far” state, showing just the player’s position in the race.
We’ve also made some design adjustments to in-race HUD information items with the December update. For example, the lap time HUD elements have been made more uniform and the lap counter has moved to the upper right corner of the screen.
The new menus and new opponent labels are part of an ongoing effort to offer players a great looking and informative Forza Motorsport 7 experience. Look for more updates to these aspects of the game in the coming months.
Other Updates
The December update is bringing more good stuff with it as well. Rivals players will now automatically get a new ghost car to challenge after they’ve beaten a Rival. In addition, Specialty Dealer will now display the original collector score alongside the updated collector score, as well as both original price and “sale” price, along with the discount percentage.
Forza Motorsport 7 is available for Xbox One and Windows 10 PC now.
Check out the Forza Motorsport 7 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for all the latest from the smash hit Forza racing game franchise.
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