DiRT Rally Randomness

[Kronzky]

I'm really interested in this title, but I am wondering if there is any randomness in the stages, e.g. ice patches, puddles, rocks, etc., or if the surface is exactly the same on every run.

If not (and somehow I suspect that there won't be any, otherwise "fair" competition would be hard) I'm afraid that races will only be won by those that spend days (or weeks) memorizing a stage, with every little bump, and every perfect brake point — somewhat contrary to the spirit of rallying, where some "creativeness" and quick thinking is required.
I'm also afraid that it would get a bit boring; as in other types of racing you'd always have the other participants (AI or human) to add a randomness factor, but in rallying you only have the road — and if that's exactly the same each time you run it, it might get a bit repetitive...

 

[Arne Dopudja]

No randomness indeed. Online events field pretty much the same top ten people. So those who memorize and train like a circuit.

It will get a bit better when they add more tracks.

 

[Kronzky]

Yeah, I now watched the videos of some of the faster finishers, and their driving looks nothing like rally racing.
They know by heart where every little obstacle is, they know exactly how much they can cut a blind corner, or where to use shortcuts through the brush — stuff you would never get away with IRL.
It looks more like road racing, where you know every inch of the track, and drive accordingly (except, without the opponents breathing down your neck...)

But I'm not sure that's a solvable problem. Even with more or longer stages, those people will just spend more time memorizing the road, and looking for shortcuts.

I guess, unless we have a game that procedurally generates a stage, which then will be new to everybody, every time they race it, it might not be possible to reproduce the "surprise factor" that's so inherent in rally racing.

 

[Arne Dopudja]

Yeah, I now watched the videos of some of the faster finishers, and their driving looks nothing like rally racing.
They know by heart where every little obstacle is, they know exactly how much they can cut a blind corner, or where to use shortcuts through the brush — stuff you would never get away with IRL.
It looks more like road racing, where you know every inch of the track, and drive accordingly (except, without the opponents breathing down your neck...)

But I'm not sure that's a solvable problem. Even with more or longer stages, those people will just spend more time memorizing the road, and looking for shortcuts.

I guess, unless we have a game that procedurally generates a stage, which then will be new to everybody, every time they race it, it might not be possible to reproduce the "surprise factor" that's so inherent in rally racing.

Yes. This is very apparent in online rally racing. Even in RBR. If you didnt know how and where to go in Japan stages, you were a minute off just because others kew where you can cut and send your car sideways through a pile of bushes to gain 2 seconds.

This procedural generation is a long way to go if you want it to look on par with 2015 graphics and detail customer demands. Only thing they could do is variable surfaces as in different road bumps, potholes, ice patches, snow sheets, rocks and water puddles, together with terrain deformation of some sort.

However, if you look at WRC, the stages are pretty much the same every year and they train them all year round. The do know the line like on a circuit and it's apparent since they drive within seconds or even tenths over a stage and a few seconds over the whole event. The only things that vary are the variable things I mentioned before.

 

[xnorb]

This procedural generation is a long way to go if you want it to look on par with 2015 graphics and detail customer demands

I don't think that's a real challenge for an experienced team of coders.
There are many landscape generators around that create authentic looking areas.

The problem is that it would make the game for each driver completely uncomparable.

 

[Arne Dopudja]

Terrain yes, but surface and details that are lifelike? You can make thousands of random but bland tracks and that is worthless. Then come the pacenotes...

Everyone would drivebon the same tracks, only they would be generated for each league. Could also be an option to save tracks and reuse them...

 

[Ricoow]

The only thing they could do is add some Dakar style events. Various dunes generated etc. yet still that would be terribly hard to do create.
It would be awesome if they could provide major websites with specific tools to create new tracks just for usage in their own leagues.