Paul Jeffrey
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Codemasters have recently run an online AMA session with Paul Coleman, giving fans the opportunity to ask questions about the newly announced DiRT 4.
With much hype surrounding the upcoming DiRT 4, Codemasters have made the clever move of opening up their Reddit channel for a substantial AMA session with their very own real life co-driver Paul Coleman. To save you having to browse through endless posts and threads, I've attempted to summarise some of the key facts below:
- Damage "much improved" over DiRT Rally. More chances to retire.
- You can pick your own race number and livery design when running your own team.
- AI behaviour improved over recent DiRT titles.
- Significant physics improvement including aerodynamic improvements with support from Kris Meeke and Petter Solberg.
- Hotseat multiplayer designed but unlikely to appear in launch build.
- VR support won't be implemented on launch. Support possible in future, including possible Vive.
- Will support modding, within licence restrictions.
- "Significant" simulation improvements over DiRT Rally.
- 'Your Stage' will only work on rally events, not rallycross.
- Australia - Heavy / Medium gravel, Wales - Heavy / Medium Wet gravel, Sweden - Frozen Gravel with Snow and Ice Spain - Smooth and broken tarmac, Michigan - Light Gravel and Dirt
- No Early Access or Demo release planned prior to launch.
- Multiplayer to feature 8 player simultaneous play.
- MODERN RALLY R5 Up to 2000cc (4WD) / NR4/R4 Group A / F2 Kit Car R2 / HISTORIC RALLY Group B (4WD) / Group B (RWD) H3 (RWD) / H2 (RWD) / H2 (FWD) / H1 (FWD) / RALLYCROSS RX Supercars / RX Lites / Group B (Rallycross) / RX Super 1600 / Crosskart / LANDRUSH Stadium Truck (4WD) / Stadium Truck (RWD) / Stadium Buggy
- Current longest stage that can be made is 13km.
- Running your own team allows you to hire and fire staff / multi car garages and livery editing.
- Game will be cross platform.
- 3 monitor separate rendering support not yet decided.
- Gymkhana style Joyride Modes to be included.
- Multi class rallies with road position.
- Spectator mode.
- Now includes more detailed setups.
- Full 'hand over hand' animations.
- 50+ cars on launch - no DLC decisions as yet.
- 60fps locked on Xbox One.
- Setups can be shared on console.
If you want yet more detail, please see below the questions and responses from yesterday's AMA session:
Q. Does Dirt 4 have a more "destructible" environment compared to Dirt Rally?
A. The edges of the track are more forgiving than in DiRT Rally but a lot of that actually comes from improvements in the simulation rather than making the environments more destructible.
Q. How hardcore is the most hardcore damage model?
A. Damage is much improved now so you should see more rally ending crashes occurring
Q. Is there any chance of picking our own numbers for the cars? Or having our own names on the side windows for RX/rally?
A. When you run your own team you can choose your race number in the livery branding suite.
Q. Will brands like ŠKODA? or older cars like xsara, 206 in DiRT 4?
A. I can't confirm many specific cars. We have been talking to those manufacturers about some of their vehicles though.
Q. Does the AI have any improvements to the way they work?
A. Definitely, driver character and behaviour is very important to us. You'll see a lot more interesting behaviour in the Landrush and Rallycross too.
Q. How will the optimization for the game be on PC?
A. We will be aiming to support as much hardware as we can in the time available. I can't really give much more detail than that at this stage.
Q. Do cars in Dirt 4 have a more noticeable weight transfer than in DR?
A. Yes, Kris Meeke and Petter really helped us dial in the feeling and the cars are much improved now.
Q. Will there be hot seat local multiplayer?
A. Its something we have designed but we don't know if it will make the cut yet. I can't promise it.
Q. Thoughts on mods for Dirt 4? Will it be allowed to happen, and if so, will you do anything to help people who mod the game for non-malicious purposes?
A. We'll be allowing mods where we can but we have to be careful with what we allow access to for licensing reasons.
Q. Do you know anything about Polish translation of the game?
A. We don't know yet
Q. Why can't you add locations from Dirt Rally to Dirt 4? Of course they would not have option of generate new track (Your Stage), but they will add some diversity to the locations. For example Monte Carlo
A. Its a licensing thing
Q. Will we have splitscreen?
A. Not for DiRT 4 but we know a lot of people want it
Q. Do you plan to make Special Edition, like for the final release of DR with movie about Colin’s career?
A. Yes more details of that will be coming soon
Q. How simulation-focused is Dirt 4 going to be?
A. If you want sim then it’s a significant improvement on DiRT Rally.
DiRT 4 is a big game. We want more people to play it and to do that we have Gamer handling and more accessibility options but at its heart the simulation engine is beating stronger than ever.
As for the dudebro. The game will feel more professional in feel and we are not planning on having a Dudebro vibe
Q. Will we get more rally and rally cross locations as dlc in the future?
A. We haven't made any decisions about DLC yet. We are focussing on getting the game done. We will have mixed surfaces within the Locations that we have but they won't be as severe as Ice to Dry Tarmac like in Monte
Q. Can you explain the lack of communication regarding Vive support?
A. We haven't made any decisions on VR at all for DiRT 4. If we can find a way we will support Vive but it needs to work for the business.
Q. Will there be a Photo Mode and will there be any an Perks for The PS4 Pro owners, like visual upgrades or higher frames?
A. We have a design for a Photo Mode but whether it makes the final cut is going to depend on how the rest of the development goes. As for PS Pro we are looking at doing HDR and because we have good experience working with high end PC there are a number of areas where we can make graphical improvements.
Q. Although I'm a sim guy, I was a very big fan of the DiRT 3 party modes. (Outbreak, Transport,ect) These were very fun and addictive modes to play with friends, will we see something similar in DiRT 4?
A. We've got some cool Joyride Modes lined up in the rally school open area but at the moment these aren't going to feature online. I did love those modes though so there is always a chance we can do them in the future.
Q. I really liked the non-licensed soundtracks in the GRID and DiRT games, especially the menu and replay music. Will this be returning in Dirt 4 or will it have a licensed soundtrack?
Furthermore, I'd like to ask if there will be PvP rally stages, with ghosts or even a starting grid with spacing. And, will the PvP rallycross be hidden away until later stages of the game as in DiRT Rally? I found it too hard/take too long to get to.
A. It’s a licensed soundtrack this time. Grid was actually licensed but it was composed for the game. There will be PvP Rally. You'll race at the same time but you won't see Ghosts. PvP Rallycross will be available quicker with more beginner classes available.
PvP Rallycross will be available quicker with more beginner classes available.
Q. What's been the most exciting feature that you guys have enjoyed implementing and can't wait to see how we react to it?
A. Definitely Your Stage. Its been something I've wanted to put in a DiRT Game for ages and its better than I ever dreamed it could be.
Q. Any support for DirectX 12 or Vulkan planned?
A. Not for DX12 - we don't know about Vulkan yet
Q. Will the track generator work for rally cross maps as well?
A. No, its stage rally only
Q. What about mod support in DIRT 4? Also is there any chance to see newest gen WRC cars
A. We'll support Mods where we can. No new gen WRC cars because of licensing. We'll have R5 cars as our top class.
Q. Can you give us some more information on the location characteristics?
A. Australia - Heavy / Medium gravel, Wales - Heavy / Medium Wet gravel, Sweden - Frozen Gravel with Snow and Ice Spain - Smooth and broken tarmac, Michigan - Light Gravel and Dirt
Q. Can you set a sim handling for all the cars including the buggies and trucks, or is it only for rally and rallycross?
A. Its for all the cars and trucks in the game
Q. Will we see an Early Access on Steam for Dirt 4 like there was with Dirt Rally?
A. There are no plans for Early Access because we have already gone past that point in development. EA was perfect for DiRT Rally as we had a lot to tweak with the simulation. With DiRT 4 we are building on that foundation.
Q. Will there be a demo before june?
A. It's unlikely we will have a demo.
Q. Will Steam Workshop integration continue for DiRT 4?
A. I can't promise it just yet but I would like it to continue.
Q. How's multiplayer for rally stages going to work?
A. Get into an 8 player lobby and race against other players simultaneously. We've got some spectator slots and you'll be able to save event formats so that you can have quicker turnarounds of events when you are hosting.
Q. Will there be splitscreen modes?
A. No plans for splitscreen in DiRT 4, sorry. We know people want it though so hopefully we can support in future
Q. How improved is the damage model?
A. The damage model is improved with more stuff that can go wrong with the car. There will be shakedowns but no full recce mode.
Q. Will we see different options for recording and saving replays in DiRT 4 ?
A. We are improving our replays but saving and recording are things that the consoles and third party software handles better than we ever could. Freecam is a cool idea and one I would like to see but we need to do a lot of work to support it so it is unlikely for DiRT 4.
Q. When playing online will all the players be forced to use the same handling difficulty? If not, how will the two difficulties be balanced?
A. It depends on the host settings. We won't be balancing the two we will be keeping them separate unless players specifically ask to play together
Q. Codemasters has made such a fantastic VR implementation for Dirt Rally, wouldn't it be rather simple to apply this feature to Dirt 4? Could you give some idea of the effort it would involve?
A. We are focusing on getting the game finished at the moment – we’ll look into VR once that is done. It's a lot of effort to get a game VR-ready, especially when you're offering the whole game in VR (as we do with DiRT Rally), so it's something we will look at after launch.
Q. Are you planning to realease arcade game like DiRT 2?
A. The idea with DiRT 4 is that it is more accessible to players but I don't think it fits calling it Arcade. DiRT 2 was great fun but it was still grounded in realism and wasn't a full arcade.
Q. Are there any specific improvements to the simulation aspects first seen in DiRT Rally? Can something like telemetry be incorporated into these kind of titles?
A. Aerodynamics has seen a big update across the board making the cars feel more planted at speed. It will also stop them behaving strangely when airborne. This also has a dramatic effect on how they crash with more convincing rolls. We've improved the way we model our suspension geometry. This means you should see more character between the Rear Wheel drive cars based on the type of suspension they are using. We don't know about exposing telemetry yet. If we did it I'd like to make sure it was the best it could be.
Q. What cars can we expect?
A. I can't give specific car details but here are the car classes:
- MODERN RALLY R5 Up to 2000cc (4WD)
- NR4/R4 Group A
- F2 Kit Car R2
- HISTORIC RALLY Group B (4WD)
- Group B (RWD) H3 (RWD)
- H2 (RWD)
- H2 (FWD)
- H1 (FWD)
- RALLYCROSS RX Supercars
- RX Lites
- Group B (Rallycross)
- RX Super 1600
- Crosskart
- LANDRUSH Stadium Truck (4WD)
- Stadium Truck (RWD)
- Stadium Buggy
Q. Will there be crazy car + track combinations in multiplayer like in Dirt 2?
A. Due to licenses and terms of our licenses, this is unlikely unfortunately.
Q. Are there any plans for a parts store in the game to go get better, high performance parts to increase car performance??
A. You can add parts that are more durable so you stay faster for longer.
Q. What modes will be included?
A. Your Stage features in all competitive Rally modes.
- In Pro Tour (Ranked PVP), the server has set parameters for stage generation e.g. rallies get harder as you climb the ladder
- In Jam Session (Custom PVP) you can create public or private lobbies and create your own rallies with Your Stage, creating new stages while the lobby is active or by loading your favourites. You can join a lobby as both a Spectator and a Broadcaster.
- Community Events (Dailies, Weeklies, Monthlies) will generate new stages for each event. The Delta Daily will return and feature stages from the career mode for you to compete against the community average time.
- Clubs (re-named from Leagues) allow you to create your own asynchronous rallies by generating stages on DiRT4game.com.
Q. Will there be the option like in DiRT 2 to set any cars to go all at once down a rally stage next to each other (without being ghost cars)?
A. No plans for this as our stages aren't wide enough to support it. Sorry
Q. What can you tell us about the Rally cars included in DiRT 4 besides the Fiesta R5, Subaru WRX STI NR4, Evo VI, Peugeot 205?
A. Not a whole lot as we are still negotiating with the manufacturers. There are some cool additions though.
Q. Will DiRT 4 implement separate rendering mode on 3 monitors?
A. We don't know yet
Q. Are there going to be real/handmade stages in parallel with Your Stage, or is everything procedural?
A. Everything is procedural for Rally Stages. The level designers do everything they always did but they are making pieces of stage now instead of the whole thing. Your Stage brings it all together
Q. Seeing as DiRT is becoming the definitive Rally car game can we see a more diverse selection of cars? Like the Nissan 200sx S12 rally car or Toyota Celica gt-four st185? Or even more obscure rally cars? Also will there be dynamic weather changes?
A. The selection will grow. There are more modern cars coming to DiRT 4 as well as a few historics.
Q. What is the ballpark longest stage that can be made?
A. 12-13km at the moment
Q. Gymkhana?
A. We've got some cool Joyride Modes lined up in the rally school open area, with time challenges and smash the block challenges, so you'll still get a flavour of that kind of stuff in DiRT 4.
Q. What features will you have when managing your own team?
A. Staff hiring and firing Sponsorship Livery Editing Facilities to improve your team Multi Car Garages
Q. Do you have plans about bringing more competitive things to this game?
A. Yes! We have a Competitive area of the game featuring the Daily, Weekly, and Monthly challenges from DiRT Rally. We also have Pro Tour making a return for ranked PVP, with a more competitive ranking system. You can now get relegated based on your performance, rather than grinding our XP.
We also have fully customisable private lobbies so you can push your competitive streak as hard as you like.
Q. What sort of new features are coming to the leagues?
A. We've re-named them to Clubs for a start! We've brought Championship / Event / Stage messaging more in-line with the main game so "Leagues" didn't really make sense any more.
Here are some new features:
- Improved event creation and curation on DiRT4game.com.
- Full Your Stage integration (generate stages on website, with on-the-fly spline graphics!
- Hidden Points
- Custom penalties
- Brand new, scalable scoring system to support tiny Clubs, huge *Clubs, and everything in-between.
- ...oh, and they're Cross Platform.
A. Yes, multi class rallies Your road position depends on your results
Q. Will the changes to the sim handling have a significant effect on the playability with a controller?
A. The sim handling for DiRT 4 is evolved from the handling we had in DiRT Rally, so you will have just as much fun playing DiRT 4 with a controller.
Q. Do you intend on putting "nfected" in the game again?
A. No plans at this stage but we might do something like that in future.
Q. Are we able to spectate PVP Rally (and rallycross) sessions?
A. Yep we'll have spectate in all of our disciplines in PVP. We're also adding the option to join a lobby as a Broadcaster, which lets you watch the whole of a session from various replay camera angles while hiding the HUD.
Q. Are the Group B rallycross cars the proper big wings/big turbos rallycross specials?
A. They are proper now!
Q. Will we have separate difficulty levels for both arcade and sim modes?
A. Yes, although the difficulty presets carry across both handling models the AI times are adjusted accordingly.
Q. Any chance of a few tracks for the landrush trucks that are in the style of the SST series? Even as a possible DLC later?
A. No sorry, we've focused on the Shortcourse dirt track style.
Q. Any chances to see additional RX tracks as DLC in the future?
A. We haven't decided about DLC yet.
Q. What kind of updates have been made to the vehicle tuning system in DiRT 4?
A. Setups have a bit more detail. We also have some better tuning guides.
Q. Regarding the replay system, can we get manual camera placements on the car at least?
A. We won't be doing manual camera placement for replays although its something we may consider in future.
Q. Alpha dithering of ground cover and trees, particularly on AMD cards. Has this been addressed?
A. We know there is an issue with those cards and we have updated how we have made our trees so hopefully this will help.
Q. Can we expect to see more Hill Climb maps and vehicles available?
A. Hillclimb won't be making it to DiRT 4, but we've introduced a couple of new disciplines and game modes.
Q. Steering wheel rotation? Will there be 360+ degree rotation with hand over animation?
A. We have hand over hand animations now.
Q. will there be more water splashes?
A. Yes we have water splashes in a few locations
Q. What are the longest and shortest rally stages possible to generate?
A. At the moment it is between 1 and 13km
Q. Can we get a minimum account of the number of cars we are to get in the game?
A. We can't confirm the list yet, but we have over 50
Q. Will there be alternative tyre choices available for any of the cars?
A. We change the tyres for you based on the optimum for the conditions. This is somthing we'd like to do better but I think its one for the future
Q. Any plans to have cross play between Xbox One and PC?
A. Not for PVP, but all of our leaderboards (permanent and asynchronous) are Cross Platform between Xbox One, PlayStation, and Steam.
Q. You took a big risk bringing out a full-simulation title (in DR). Was there an element of "I told you so" on your part after it all went well? Would you say that the people who make the decisions at Codemasters are now convinced that the full-sim crowd is a big enough market to be worth catering to?
A. We are really happy with how DiRT Rally has been recieved and it has given us a new found confidence to deliver an even bigger and better game with DiRT 4. We are going to be supporting the sim side of things a lot more now.
Q. Will DiRt 4 be more addictive, or different than previous rally games?
A. It will have a much more interesting career mode that should get you a bit more excited about coming back and playing more.
Q. Can we expect seat driver position options in D4
A. There should be seat position options
Q. What about lights damage? in DiRT Rally if you damage your lights both stops work, can we expect "localized" damage on lights?
A. Lights are more localised
Q. Can I expect the East Asian language?
A. Its undecided at this point but we are talking about supporting some
Q. Xbox One version 60fps? Unlocked or locked?
A. 60 fps Locked
Q. Any chance for a option to have Richard Burns style descriptive pacenotes?
A. We are sticking with the McRae system as it is the most familiar to our fans.
Q. Can you confirm that DiRT 4 will keep DiRT Rally's satisfyingly challenging handling model and keep the more hardcore fans satisfied?
A. I can confirm that its better than it was in DiRT Rally. Aerodynamics has seen a big update across the board making the cars feel more planted at speed. It will also stop them behaving strangely when airborne. This also has a dramatic effect on how they crash with more convincing rolls. We've improved the way we model our suspension geometry. This means you should see more character between the Rear Wheel drive cars based on the type of suspension they are using.
Q. Is rallycross going to be split into 2 groups like DiRT Rally?
A. Rallycross has same format has but has some improvments where you can choose heat or semi final/final style.
Q. Is there going to be any way to share set-ups on console?
A. Yes, you can share setups on console now
Q. How will DiRT 4 feel in terms of racing in various gamemodes like rally versus racing in landrush?
A. The simulation is consistent across the game so Landrush is as simulation as Rally its just that the vehicles are different.
Q. Easier way to check your best times against global times?
A. You can view leaderboards in Event Configuration before you load in. They'll be on the website too
Q. Will the game take full advantage of the PS4 Pro? Will there be 4k HDR etc?
A. For PS Pro we are looking at doing HDR and because we have good experience working with high-end PCs there are a number of areas where we can make graphical improvements
Q. DiRT 4 WRC cars? r5? s2000?
A. We've got R5s and some World Cars from 10+ years ago.
Q. Will the gravel on a track change dynamically?
A. We have focussed on Your Stage track generation for DiRT 4. I would love to do Surface Degradation in the future.
Q. Will Dirt 4 feature long championships like Dirt Rally did?
A. Yes, towards the end of the career there are some really big events.
Q. Will D4 have driving aids?
A. We will have some assists for those players who need some help with the cars.
Q. Will the more arcade options make for a driving experience very similar to that of Dirt 3, or will it still be more of a simulator?
A. The aim is to give players like you a more accessible handling model so that you can get on and play the game without having to learn how to handle the simulation
DiRT 4 will be available to purchase for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC in June 2017.
Check out the DiRT 4 sub forum here at RaceDepartment to keep abreast of all the latest news and discussions around the newest rally game to be produced by Codemasters. We will have all the latest news when it becomes available and of course offer up a place for fans to discuss the game and share in our combined excitement for this new Codemasters title.
Are you looking forward to DiRT 4? Do you think the game can make a successful transition from the arcade focused DiRT franchise to a more simulation orientated theme as seen in DiRT Rally? What have you found most interesting from the AMA? Let us know in the comments section below!
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