RACEROOM for starters
 

RACEROOM starter read:

Physics overview:
https://forum.sector3studios.com/ind...opments.14049/

How to tune FFB:
https://forum.sector3studios.com/ind...er-2019.14067/
AND:
https://forum.sector3studios.com/ind...36#post-191042

Latest patch (Decembre 2019) readme:
https://forum.sector3studios.com/ind...-update.14056/

Remarks on the background of cars updated in Decembre:
https://forum.sector3studios.com/ind...gt3-gt4.14052/
https://forum.sector3studios.com/ind...-procar.14050/

An obligatory must-have in any race sim: Mr. Belowski'S CrewChief app, whcih now seems to be available for every major racing title, originally it was a Raceroom exclusive thing. It does a lot of things, but the most important thing is its spotter function to raise your situational awareness for things happening in close vicinity around you, and the great rise in immersion it provides due to the chatter radio. You must want to get this thing. And for the sake of evertyhign that is holy: listen to your spotter!!
http://thecrewchief.org/

The Car Lookup list, so that you know which car is on what physics status. I just realise that the old physics are practically gone, so there are no longer three but just two standards: "New" and "Newest" You can almost ignore the difference now, the "Old" physics were what had to be avoided. Before "Old", we had the "Floaty Boat" physics. :D
https://forum.sector3studios.com/ind...-58-png.19153/

In the FFB section, Thomas recommends:

Force Feedback Intensity: 100%
Smoothing: 0%
Force Feedback Spring: 0%
Force Feedback Damper: 30%

Steering Force Intensity: 60%
Force Feedback Minimum Force: 0%
Understeer: 10%
Vertical Load: 50%
Lateral Force: 50%
Steering Rack: 30%

Slip Effect: 0%
Engine Vibrations: 0%
Kerb Vibrations: 20%
Shift Effect: 0%
Collision Effect: 0%

I recommend much the same, but in the last four lines you can experiment with higher values, and if the wheel in general feels too light for your taste, increase Force Feedback Spring to something around 10-14%. This value makes a huge impact so handle with care.

Note what they say about the difference between heavy duty motors in expensive wheels, and lighter consumer wheels a la Logitech. Note that hardware option presets in the wheel driver can interact with the in-sim options setup, so act with reason there. In the sim, in the key command options, you can attach a key to the ffb tracker to switch it on and off - USE THAT thing to optimise your FFB so that you avoid clipping and too low feedback as well. Raceroom can be difficult to have wheel and FFB set up completely, but its worth it to get there.

Also, the rotation angle of the wheel must be correctly set in the sim. Logitech has 900° rotation, Fanatech 1080, DD wheels obviously limitless. You control that in a car in the pitbox, in the setup options there, in the runnign session. Set it such that the virtual wheel moves in synchronicity with thebhardware wheel. There is also a steering lock, you use that to increase the sensitivity of the simlated car steering. On some tracks, namely Macau, you do not get around certain tight corners if not increasing the lock! Its no deficit of the sim, its like it is in real life.


Finally be advised that you can alter FFB strength individually per car in the pitbox car setup screen. I think its called FFB multiplier. I do not use it, but that FFB can be individually influenced on a car-to-car basies should be mentioned. The whole screen layout for pitbox car setup has been revamped in recent update, before it all was on one single screen, now they have several tabs and a new design.

There are quite some ingame commands of interest, that are not linked to a keyboard key by default, you must do that manually. Its worth to take a deep look at the keyboard list in the options, to learn what there is in hidden functionality that is unknown to the newcomer. Hint: the replays (you can switch off auto-recording, btw.), can look extremely well when using various in-cockpit perspectives, or the auto-director feature and external cameras. In VR, i do not use that, but in single screen times, i used it a very lot.

A word on Adaptive AI, which is often misunderstood. This setting does not alter the AI in a running race, but it alters the AI level in car class choosen over a series of sessions you have done, means: it takes the first complete lap you do in a session and sees how you perform. After three or four such sessions, you have a base score from where further corrections are done in small changes only. The system works, but you usally get a very weak AI in first try (it starts at minimums), a stronger one in second try, a less strong in third, an increase in fourth race, and so forth. You need to train the adaptive AI, that means, and it all depends on doing clean first full laps, means: the lap after your exit lap is what counts, complete that, and you then can leave the session to have it scoring. For just getting a taste of Raceroom's AI, it probably is better to use a fixed setting of lets say somethign around 97-103, if you are a very fgood driver, of course a higher setting. Like always, alien drivers will never be satisfied with the aI, not in any sim there is. The range is from 80-120. The AI skill varies over car classes, the faster and more agile, aggressive the car is, the greater the chance the AI fails due to too small margins for error - which often are being turned into problems by human players overestimating their own capabilities and beign too optimistic when attacking...!!! Ai cars cannot just vanish when yu turn into them, you need to leave them the room "to breath", like with just any human-driven car. Te slower open-wheeler classes work more forgivingly than the very fast ones.

Finally, if somebody likes Raceroom and wants to start with it, the way to go is to buy the Premium pack. You save hilariously ammounts of money and get everything that is available at that time. When I want into the sim, this did not exist, thats why I by now have paid 3-4 times as much as somebody would need to pay for the premium pack - and I did buy mainly smaller packs as well already! Really - its a no-brainer. A starter NEVER should start buying individual cars and tracks. If you buy all stuff there is this way, you end up in the four digit range of a total costs. The premium packs costs you 100 coins over here, in sales even less - and you get EVERYTHING there is so far. EVERYTHING.

Be advised that with the massive changes to physics and FFB in the decembre 2019 update, some of the cars have issues at some tracks, namely - apparently - cars with loose tails that tend to spin at certain tracks and chicains and then sitting on the track, causing white flags. The AI seems to have not been fully adapted to the FFB and physics changes. This is not the normal status in Raceroom, which usually has an outstanding AI, normally. It will get fixed, but it maybe take them time to sort it out. For the time being, be careful with for example the Porsche classics cup car and the Porsche Cayman Trophy at Salzburg and Falkenberg, I know from experience that these cars are affected there. The GT3 class, touring classics and DTM92, which i also tried since the update, work flawlessly on both these tracks. Bilsterberg and Knutstorp also was not affected.


Its temporary a problem, I am certain.

A word of warning unfortunately is due.



The decembre update with its very fundamental changes to ffb and physics, has broken some things in the AI. many reports now are coming in of ai cars spinning, blocking races, taking lines off the track. Sounds as if they really overlooked something really big.


If you are new and want to try it, this is currently not the best time. Give it a wait. I will report when they have fided it. But it could take them some time.


I must say that it is very unusual and not typical that Sector3 messes something up this dramatically.And i know the game since 5 years.

Beta testers speaking with autority by Sector3 have confirmed that the team is aware of some car classes being affected by a dysfunctionality (my word :) ) of deeper complexity, which will take them some time to sort out. So: some car classes tend to spion on some of the bracks, easily, frequently, constantly. The issue is a.) known, b.) confirmed, and c.) being worked on, and it is d.) new, was not there before. Comes time, comes happiness, says Yoda.

A Hotfix today ended the spinning car issue, at least for me and with the cars and tracks where I was aware that it happened. Status is back on green. Already had two great sessions this afternoon.

This weekend, from Decembre 20th to 23rd, all tracks and all cars are free to play .

Lets get some sound-porn done! This is a direct comparison of the sounds in Assetto Corsa Competizione, and Raceroom, which both happen to be my racing sims of choice. And yes, these two have the best sounds in the genre. I used to think of Raceroom being the benchmark in racing sounds, but then came Competizione, and it stole the crown and sneaked away with it.


Pump up the volume!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_2e...ature=emb_logo

I just learned that Raceroom will get Watkins Glen soon, a track I really like to use since it provides a nice flow and enjoyable driving! :yeah:


https://forum.sector3studios.com/ind...ational.16000/

Raceroom will get a 1977 VW Scirocco (Group 2) soon. I may be wrong, but its the first Scirocco I learn about to be represented in any race sim.

Those classical cars in Raceroom usually are always solid fun and solid challenge. Nice!

Gotta love their humour.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsZW...ature=emb_logo


Its happening. Has been a several-years wait, the running gag of race sims, so to speak.

Raceroom has a jumpstart for christmas this year. The update's content illustrates why I am loyally staying with Raceroom as one of my two race sims of choice, beside both Assetto Corsas. Raceroom since years now keeps getting better and bigger. That it is an old DX9 engine just does not matter. It just does not matter.

https://youtu.be/X82IRH2yM4s

No other racing AI I ever played against writes verses like this into my poetry album. https://forum.sector3studios.com/sty...foro/clear.png

The video was done with a screen recorder by Cyberlink which is not intended to run film making projects like this, thats why there is no sound. I have no screen video grabber, since I usually do not do such videos, only real world videos on squirrels with wildlifecam and bicycle tours with actioncam.

Nothing special, just me (orange car #30) trying to sack the AI car in front of me on the Nordschleife. I am no monster driver, and I do not set up the cars. I just use the default setup, and have the AI at I think 98. With most car classes, and that setting of AI skill, I mostly flow in the middle of the pack. The scene is from unlimited practice. I usually run simple practice sessions and then fight with whatever crosses my way out on the track.

The AI does not give up. It does not let go, it takes revenge. In other games, namely AC and ACC, once overtaken the AI immediately calls it a day and falls back. Not in Raceroom! It stays by my side. It goes over the green just to rub its door on mine. It tries immediate countermoves. It is not unfair, but it is determined. It does not ram, and despite being aggressive, stays predictable and somewhat reliable and responsive. The race is nothing special, nor is my driving displayed, but it illustrates perfectly why I like the Raceroom AI so very much. For my - limited - driving skills, it is a perfect opponent who keeps me fully occupied. This video shows why I keep coming back to RR time and again.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHjeOJq4Rsk

New, new, its all new... the FFB. New, brandnew, from scratch.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSrFmxFt_Rw&t=463s

Finally downloaded Raceroom

I have found how to go up in transmission-but I can't find the key to go the other way...down. Q makes the transmission go up..but if I want to go from 4 to 2nd what key do I use.

I don't have a steering wheel and pedals(yet)
How do I change use of keys.

Want to use my W,A,S,D as steering my car.

Markus

Go into the menu and there look for the keyboard mapping. There is also a new search function now (that I have not tested since I did not needed it so far). - P.S. You can also switch to automatic gear. Take your time and look around, the sim is complex, and complex in setup and other options. But its all there, just maybe not springing right to the eye the moment somethign is looked for. Some functions also are not keymapped by deault, but must be manually mapped first.

The new FFB I am split over. teh effects may be more subtle in feedback, btu the generla feel for my opinion is way too light, lacking to give a feel for the real mass, the weight of the car.

Everyvbody, mind you, you need to start forms cratchj an d have a default setiup scheme for your hardware, the n remap evertyhing new, else it does not work properly.

Went back to auto. again It was there in the setting I changed from automatic to man.

Toke a few practice round. Now I only need a good steering wheel and a good two-par pedals.

Markus