Hey RaceRoom Fans,
A comprehensive graphics update and brand-new content to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the DTM is out now! You can read the detailed changelog down below.
https://game.raceroom.com/store
Graphics Update: More Realism, Better Performance!
Motorsport in RaceRoom is about to get even more realistic. Get ready for a visual revolution! With enhanced rendering and smoother gameplay, your racing experience will be more intense and lifelike than ever. Our developers have focused on eliminating anything that could distract or disrupt your immersion.
One of the new features are the Cloud Coverage options: from clear skies to scattered clouds to fully overcast conditions, the sky will add variety to your races. We’ve also made significant improvements in detail, such as more realistic shadows and light reflections. Paint finishes and colors, including chrome, metallic, and matte surfaces, are now displayed with even greater precision.
This update marks a major leap forward in visuals and performance, delivering an even better gaming experience. You can find more detailed information about our update here.
DTM Anniversary: New Content for True Fans!
To celebrate the DTM's 40th anniversary, we've prepared something special. Along with the existing Mercedes lineup, you can now relive the "old DTM" with the Alfa Romeo 155 V6 Ti and the Opel Calibra V6. The matching tracks: Hockenheim Classic, Avus, and Diepholz complete the journey back in time.
But that's not all! We have the brand new DTM 2024 car package for you which will be available a bit later. The special highlight: For the first time in RaceRoom, the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 and the McLaren 720S GT3 Evo will be on the starting grid.
FREE Track Updates
The Nordschleife, Red Bull Ring, and many other tracks have been updated for the 2024 season, with improvements in accuracy and appearance!
Update details:
Download size = 26GB
Client version = 0.9.6.05
Client BuildID = 15563458
Dedi version = 98.0.1506
Dedi BuildID = 15585973
Changelog:
Graphics:
- Performance improvements: Reduced CPU overhead, resulting in higher frame rates on any system.
- Cloud Coverage Selector: Added a new feature to the game menus and dedicated server allowing players to select cloud coverage options. You can now choose from clear, few clouds, scattered clouds, and overcast skies, adding a dynamic and realistic touch to the racing experience. In Single Player, the “Random” option, in combination with a non-null time multiplier, will result in dynamic transitions during sessions. Multiplayer server admins have new tools for full control over weather transitions.
- Improved Shadows Rendering: Shadows have been significantly improved, providing more realistic and dynamic lighting effects across various environments. This includes soft, anti-aliased shadows, with higher resolution and much longer draw distances. Shadows are now also rendered in the rearview mirror.
- Auto-Exposure Feature: Introduced an auto-exposure feature that dynamically adjusts the brightness based on the scene's lighting. This feature enhances visibility in different lighting conditions, ensuring a more immersive experience.
- Eliminated Z-Fighting: We have completely eliminated z-fighting artifacts by adapting the engine to use the more modern ‘Reversed-Z’ approach to handle depth in the rendering.
- Improved car paint and car parts materials rendering: Better support has been added for all different types of liveries and paint found on racing cars. Most notably, chrome, matte and metallic parts can now be represented much more accurately.
- Improved precision of car models meshes: Most noticeable on small and rounded details such as buttons in the cockpit.
- Improved Car Cockpit: Improved lighting inside the cockpit, to achieve a much more realistic and immersive view.
- Improved Car Reflections: Car reflections have been enhanced to better mimic real world reflective surfaces, adding depth and realism to vehicle reflective parts, such as windows.
- Improved Specular Reflections: Specular reflections have been fine-tuned to provide more realistic highlights and shine, especially under varying light conditions.
- Improved Track Surface Lighting: The track surface lighting has been improved, giving a more accurate representation of light reflection on road surfaces and built-up rubber.
- Improved Depth of Field Blurring: Depth of field effects have been refined for more realistic background blurring, enhancing the sense of speed and focus.
- Improved Motion Blur: Motion blur has been updated to provide a more natural and immersive sense of movement and a reduction of artefacts.
- Improved Vegetation lighting: Trees are now blending in much better in the lighting environment.
- Track material specular: Until now, only a few objects had specular around our tracks. This is now addressed so all objects reflect strong lights.
- Track Grass normalmaps: Our normal maps are now properly reacting to the orientation of the light
- Improved Rendering of Headlights and Taillights: The rendering of headlights and taillights has been improved, making dawn, morning, noon, afternoon, and sunset racing more visually striking and realistic.
- Performance mode through Vulkan rendering pipeline: The vulkan-based implementation of d3d9 by Philip Rebohle was already a popular rendering mod among the RaceRoom community, providing a significant performance boost. Our engine is now supporting this mod more officially as we addressed some visual glitches that had been impairing the experience. A start-up option in Steam will be available to start RaceRoom using Vulkan.
- Particle lighting: Particles now properly react to different lighting conditions
- Sharpening: This effect increases the visual crispness of the game, making textures and fine details stand out more prominently. However, because the visual experience is based on individual preferences, the default value for this setting is off.
- Improved Graphic Settings Menu: Settings now have useful descriptions as well as indicators for GPU / CPU / Visual impacts. The new “High Impact” tab regroups all settings that the user should look at first when looking to increase performance.
- Graphic Settings Presets: Tweaks to the values used in each preset, added a new “VR Optimised” preset.
Content:
- New Car - DTM 1995 - Alfa Romeo 155 TI
- New Car - DTM 1995 - Opel Calibra V6 DTM
- DTM 1995 - Added new liveries to the AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse ( #22-Uwe Alzen and #24-Gerd Ruch)
- New Track - AVUS ( Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungsstraße ) with 1994 and 1998 layouts
- New Track - Fliegerhorst Diepholz
- New Track - Hockenheimring Classic with GP and Short layouts
- Assen - Tweak to white line material that resulted in excessively harsh cut detections
- Bathurst - Various tweaks and fixes
- Dubai - Moved brake distance markers further away
- Knutstorp - Various tweaks and fixes
- Mantorp - Updated using new drone survey references
- Most - Tweak to white line material that resulted in excessively harsh cut detections
- Nordschleife - Updated to 2024 specs, with accurate bumpiness at the Carousel. Note: Work still being done in the Hatzenbach area, coming in a future update.
- RedBull Ring - Updated to 2024 specs
- Slovakiaring - Updated to 2024 specs
- GTR 1 car class - Physics improvements
Gameplay changes:
- Flash Headlights keybind is now renamed to simply “Headlights” - pressing it will toggle the headlights on or off. Holding it for a second will start a flashing sequence.
- Added Headlights state to shared memory ( -1 = N/A, 0 = off,1 = on, 2 = flashing).
- Some car classes have headlights always on, some have them off. Depending on brightness, A.I.’s will decide to turn their headlights on or off. Usually, race leaders will be among the first ones to have their lights on.
- Added ABS level property to shared memory
- Sounds - Added support to play specific exterior sound samples when a car is viewed from the front, and different sound samples when viewed from the rear.
- Steering wheel animation should now default to “Match Car Setup” except for gamepad controller profiles.
- Dedicated server - Added a setting for “Starting Grid From Leaderboards” - When toggled on, the dedicated server will search leaderboards and time attack competition results of all connected players and build the starting grid from that leaderboard order.
Fixes:
- Fixed a case where “Adaptive AI” levels would never change due to special characters in the Windows username and path to My Documents.
- Improved Multiplayer session flow and proceeding immediately once all the players have finished the race.
- Improved Multiplayer timing screen not always properly updating when laptimes were posted or a new player would join the session.
- Possible fix for some Multiplayer results showing the wrong position, for example when finishing early but with an unserved penalty.
- Fixed a case where a Multiplayer race could end with a non leader crossing the s/f line behind the leader.
- Fixed a case where some race regulations would wrongly apply during a single player championship
- Fixed a case where AI used minutes instead of laps when adjusting the starting fuel, resulting in AI’s pitting one extra time