Sector3 Evaluating RaceRoom Engine Upgrade

[Paul Jeffrey]

In an informative post Sector3 Studios Producer J-F Chardon confirms the developers are "evaluating" the possibility of upgrading R3E to a more recent DirectX engine.

With an eventual move to the impressive Unreal 4 set for some time in the future of RaceRoom Racing Experience, it has come to light that the developers haven't abandoned the possibility of performing an intermediate upgrade to the game engine of the versatile racing simulation, with J-F confirming in a forum post that they "have an investigation going on to upgrade our current RaceRoom engine to a more recent directx version".

Far from abandoning the idea of eventually migrating to Unreal 4, Sector3 are interested in seeing if a short term move to a more recent DirectX version can be achieved without producing too serious a diversion of resources, with a view of helping the simulation get "a bit of fresh feel and performance to keep the engine relevant while waiting for UE4".

Elaborating on the state of play regards a move towards UE4 for RaceRoom, Chardon went on to confirm that "What I can maybe share is that we do already have artists busy bringing our RaceRoom cars and tracks to UE4", although it must be cautioned that the absolute focus of RaceRoom and Sector3 is to continue development of the present incarnation of the title while further technical developments around Unreal 4 and GTR3 are being undertaken by sister outfit SimBin Studios. So don't expect anything from Unreal 4 and RaceRoom in the immediate future, hence the interest in bringing DX upgrades to the title for the short term.

With the news that the team are continuing the hunt for performance and graphical enhancements, whilst still maintaining an impressive array of new content and feature improvements means that RaceRoom is here to stay for the long term...

Interested in learning a little about how cars are developed in RaceRoom? Check out our interview with Sector3 physics expert Alex Hodgkinson below:

RaceRoom Racing Experience is a PC exclusive racing simulation by Sector3 Studios. You can download the base game with limited content for free, with further cars and tracks available to purchase at an additional cost.

Check out the RaceRoom Racing Experience sub forum here at RaceDepartment for the latest news and discussion regarding the simulation. We have a few select mods to download, a ton of setups created by our community and our pièce de résistance the RaceRoom Racing Experience Racing Club. Head over to our club and join in a selection of races for all different skills and experiences. Top TeamSpeak banter and great racing, exclusive to premium members of RD.

Looking forward to R3E in UE4? Do you think it would be a good idea to upgrade to a high DX level prior to the move? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[St3fan]

Good news. With most of the games moving on to newer engines, hopefully soon I no longer have to explain to friends why I play racing games that don't look as good as what they played quite a few years ago.

 

[MarcG]

I've never been a Graphical Junky when it comes to games, partly due to being brought up with Repton on the BBC Micro in the 80s when Graphics were "out of this world", and when I preferred Sensible Soccer gameplay over the better looking but worse playability early incarnations of the FIFA & Pro Evo series. (SWOS FOREVER!!)

For me it's all about the feel and immersion, so whilst some racing games are generally considered "poor" visually that's never bothered me. RRE is a perfect example, for me - in its current form - it's just fine as is/were AMS and RF2 in DX9. RF2s upgrades in DX11 alongside lighting improvements have made it a better looking Sim so I'm sure RRE will follow suit.

Add to that owning a Rift for 20+ months where graphics are anything but crisp it means that word immersion comes to fruit more so than ever before, so I'm happy with what I've got but any improvement the Devs of any Sim go through to make the games look better are welcomed. If S3 feel an interim update is needed that's great, I'm happy with that, but for me personally there's more to a Sim than having to have it look good for the sake of it.

Now to find that Repton Clone and play in BigScreen VR....oh my.....classic graphics!

 

[Steve Worrell]

So does this mean GTR3 is still in the works?

 

[RMR1]

So, that’s an official announcement that GTR3 is dead....?!

 

[FeltHat]

Vern- yes
RMR- no

 

[RMR1]

Muahhh

 

[Lefthook]

This is a stupid idea IMO. A bridge fix? The game looks fine. How about add tire pressure and improve on the game physics? I'd much prefer resources go to that than a temporary graphic solution.

 

[Shovas]

I like this. It'll bring some life to R3E for now. I don't have a lot of hope that GTR3 can be what GTR2 was...but I hope it does. I'm also not looking forward to buying all new cars/tracks for GTR3.

More and more I'm appreciating sims that are open and "I get to keep it" although they are very rare these days. I guess AC was the last of that kind and even it's tied to Steam. I doubt ACC will be more open, unfortunately.

 

[Brownninja97]

I think a new engine would work wonders for raceroom. As much as people say that the graphics dont matter they really do make an impact on the community. Times change and the bars keep rising, im not saying that substance doesnt matter though. Its fighting an uphill battle so it would be a welcome addition.

 

[Shovas]

This is a stupid idea IMO. A bridge fix? The game looks fine. How about add tire pressure and improve on the game physics? I'd much prefer resources go to that than a temporary graphic solution.

Also kind of agree with this but from a business standpoint they probably need the cashflow new flashy graphics will provide.
It must mean GTR3 is *years* off if they're willing to put that kind of effort into R3E.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Idk I only wish they'd add 24h cycle and weather, would play nothing else if they added this. I dont have a problem with RR looks, it's polished, looks decent and best part: performs great.

 

[UMC 22]

This is a stupid idea IMO.

This isn't just about how pretty the game is. R3E supports VR, but DX9 is no longer supported by VR. Switching to a later version of DX would restore support and allow great improvement of the VR experience for those of us that have it. I fully support that.

 

[CC]

Once the penny drops the dominoes will fall and they all will follow...................

 

[Crashhard Banger]

I've never been a Graphical Junky when it comes to games, partly due to being brought up with Repton on the BBC Micro in the 80s when Graphics were "out of this world", and when I preferred Sensible Soccer gameplay over the better looking but worse playability early incarnations of the FIFA & Pro Evo series. (SWOS FOREVER!!)

For me it's all about the feel and immersion, so whilst some racing games are generally considered "poor" visually that's never bothered me. RRE is a perfect example, for me - in its current form - it's just fine as is/were AMS and RF2 in DX9. RF2s upgrades in DX11 alongside lighting improvements have made it a better looking Sim so I'm sure RRE will follow suit.

Add to that owning a Rift for 20+ months where graphics are anything but crisp it means that word immersion comes to fruit more so than ever before, so I'm happy with what I've got but any improvement the Devs of any Sim go through to make the games look better are welcomed. If S3 feel an interim update is needed that's great, I'm happy with that, but for me personally there's more to a Sim than having to have it look good for the sake of it.

Now to find that Repton Clone and play in BigScreen VR....oh my.....classic graphics!

Ha ha. My first computer was an Acorn Electron - playing Elite on that was the most amazing immersive experience then. A couple years later I upgraded to a Beeb model B and was amazed how much better it was. Unlike the Elk, it was powerful enough to generate bends in racing games! REVs was my first sim title.

 

[tomdella]

Keep the good physics and the almost perfect FFB, but the DLC system and the marketing strategy need a big change to get more peopple in to it, RRE is too good to be an offline sim.
btw the recent update in the AI just made it worse than before.
Assetto is still my main because you always find online servers with a decent amount of players.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Keep the good physics and the almost perfect FFB, but the DLC system and the marketing strategy need a big change to get more peopple in to it, RRE is too good to be an offline sim.
btw the recent update in the AI just made it worse than before.
Assetto is still my main because you always find online servers with a decent amount of players.

As someone that only race online their DLC system is the best to me.
Should have a livery editor tho

 

[Lefthook]

This isn't just about how pretty the game is. R3E supports VR, but DX9 is no longer supported by VR. Switching to a later version of DX would restore support and allow great improvement of the VR experience for those of us that have it. I fully support that.

Yea I understand what you are saying and while that does make sense, I'd prefer they stick to the plan. This diversion means that things aren't going well with UE4 and that is a bad sign to me. We are now talking about it being probably YEARS away. It's a very expensive Band-Aid.

 

[Matt Percival]

Isn't SIMBIN making GTR3, not Sector3? Georg Ortner had stated a while back on YouTube that once GTR3 was released using UR4 that Sector3 would evaluate switching to UR4, but that it wouldn't be for at least 4-5 years. I hope he's wrong on the timeline.

Personally, I think the game looks fine as it is. But if they want to bring it closer in line to the competition, then I'm all for it.

 

[Kurupt CDN]

I understand the potential move to a newer dx version for vr users...as for updated graphics I could care less.....its all the missing features that GTR2 and Race 07 had that I really want in this game and have been waiting patiently for the past 5 yrs.

I wish they had done what Reiza did with the rf1 and remastered/add onto the Race 07 engine instead.
Only feature missing was real road rubbering which they could have coded in.

Racing features draw more fans than graphics

Edit: all for any performance improvements especially if it uses more cores as currently the games performance in vr on low settings is terrible on "MY" system compared to other titles.