Which is entirely my point. People DO greatly care about superficial qualities and that does have a meaningful impact on enjoyment (immersion). Their sound design, for example, I adore and miss sorely when I'm over in iRacing. Conversely, when I play AMS2 and jump over to R3E...well, I feel like I'm definitely playing an outdated game all around. R3E serves as a game after all, and not just a sim tool. We can have it both ways these days.
If they finally upgrade their much-needed graphics engine, I REALLY hope they will be able to keep their Best sim-racing sounds Best sim-racing setup screens with tooltips and slider menus Recently released physics/FFB Amazing textures maps and specular maps on the tracks Great music during menus.
Iracing does pretty well and it looks like a ballsack. It's got better lighting than raceroom but everything else about it is meh in terms of looks.
For sure. iRacing's graphics are dated as well, but mostly just flat lighting and lacking some environmental object detail (trackside, far detail, grass). But their car models are high quality-high(er) poly where it counts (steering wheels...) What I appreciate most about their "simple" graphics is that their shadows don't cascade detail in/out and don't flicker. That's maddening in some sims. iRacing sounds, on the other hand, are....junk. Obviously iRacing is sort of irrelevant to compare to R3E since they don't compete in the same market segment. Their MP system is better in every way and that's why I keep it around.
I always turn steering wheels off. Why would you want an on screen wheel and a wheel in your hands. That's just weird.
And if AMS 2 is so good why does it have consistently lower user numbers than raceroom? It has the graphics, it has the weather, it has all the bells and whistles......
Terrible AI, poorly executed multiplayer UI with no official servers, competitons or anything like that and a general lack of promotion I guess. Add the underwhelming release and stigma associated with Project Cars and the lack of some basic manufacturers and tracks in favour of obscure Brazilian ones and dinner is served cold. Those were all issues with ACC back in the day too. TBH outside of the iRacing and the Kunos and Codemasters games, everyone else is pissing in the wind in terms of PC player base, they are niches of niches.
AMS 2 inherited multiplayer from Pcars2 which has Safety/Rating but no official servers like RR. Undeniably RR's multiplayer is much better and Free to play economic system which increases player base. Not everything is to be thrown away in RR but to increase a player base you have to listen to criticism. There are better things elsewhere too, not just the graphics
The problem with launching an entirely new game in an already saturated market is that you are inevitably going to lose players. AC still has more players than ACC, for instance as does PC2 compared with PC3. A lot of these games are released as WIP and we end up being beta testers while paying for content. Looking at the launch of W11, does anyone think it is a better more finished product than the last evolution of W10? Missing functions, processor incompatibility both requiring workarounds in exchange for supposedly better security and that´s for a product in development for years with a big development and testing team. There is still a lot that can be done to RRE, starting with telemetry, HUD and UI plus the ranked multiplayer. iRacing, RF2, AC and even ACC have all implemented graphics updates (official and modded) to the base game.
Yeah, but that's where I would look at those people and ask: really? You're going to choose a worse sim just because it looks nicer? Just because it makes you LARP a racing driver easier? One thing is the market. The market is always right. You need to listen to your market to make good business calls. That's it. Other thing is the community and the values it holds. I think the simracing community has some questions to answer to itself about what values it holds higher and what products it should support for the good of the genre. Because I think this focus on superficial qualities also means that fundamental qualities of a racing sim are disregarded in general and the most popular titles are the ones that are fundamentally flawed in a way that Raceroom isn't - for all the less fundamental flaws it certainly has. And there's no push for those sims to fix those issues, because of that disregard, there's a lot of rationalization and excusing instead. I think that's the conversation we should have instead of just putting down Raceroom because it's graphically and technologically dated, when it does so many core elements so well.
Every sim has flaws and limitations. But every other sim is constantly developing while RaceRoom are happy to keep selling the same WTCR cars for the fourth year running, not even the incorrect dashes have been fixed after ten years. Yet RaceRoom hardcore players will keep telling themselves the FFB and physics are amazing and the sim is unfairly disregarded, despite the fact that the game has been bleeding players ever since the "celebrated" FFB update and the physics are pretty much an outlier compared to every other modern sim out there. Now there's still some nice content in the game, but unless some kind of fundamental update is on the cards I'm afraid the player numbers will only go down from here. And the ranked servers being dysfunctional for months on end does not help retain the few players left.
The graphics engine and connected capabilities to implement day/night cycle cycle and weather is much more than just eye candy. It has massive impact on racing dynamics. Raceroom races more often than not devolve into hotlapping challenge, because they are completely static. Player never has to react to anything like changing track temperatures, rain making racing line slippery due to rubber build up, puddles building, racing line drying up, challenges with visibility with sun position etc. The track is always at completely perfect condition, never changing temperature or humidity or rubbering status, which I would say is definitely quite a fundamental aspect of racing completely missing. And we haven't even mentioned the fidelity and accuracy of tracks, which is again an aspect where Raceroom is lagging behind competition. Driving model is ok. Then again, so is driving model in most other sims. AI is hardly excellent. They don't conform to the same physics as the player, and their pace is somehow tuned by hand, which makes them stupidly fast in some corners and too slow in others. They also make ridiculous pitting decisions like pitting one lap before the end of the race for no reason and completely ruining the race as a result, or forgetting to pit when they should, running out of fuel and again, completely ruining the race as a result. It's an AI which is serviceable at best if you get lucky with it, and disastrous if you don't. The only thing I would say is excellent is the multiplayer and the netcode. Dedicated servers are nice and there aren't many instances of netcode based collisions. But the fact online works as it should is less of a testament of Raceroom brilliance and more of a testament of other games lacking.
The graphics engine has nothing to do with dynamic track, track and air temperature and many of the things you mention. They are all possible, they just aren't at the moment. Lots of stuff that is possible was removed from the code at the very beginning of the games development. Doesn't mean it has to stay out.
Do you think they will implement day/night cycle or other after 10 years of development on the same graphics engine? Me no sry
I am not saying all the aspects are limited by graphics only, but they do fall under technical fundamentals for me. And some of them are indeed tied closely to graphics. Track temperature changes are most relevant with regards to day/night transitions, which are not possible to do with engine supporting only one light source, and all the weather related stuff is also irrelevant if you cannot render any weather. You could do rubbering without changes to the graphics, but then again, Raceroom doesn't do it for whatever reason, so it's not exactly a point in RR's favour.
maybe they don't want to or don't have enough working power or have other priorities it can be done for sure, look what happened to old ac engine and how rfactor is developing graphic wise crying over different graphic engine is little bit not in place when I see what's going on with these titles
I think AC engine at least supported more than one light source, same with rF engine. As far as I know R3E engine does not at this point, which is a major obstacle for night racing (no headlights possible, no track lights possible). Sure, if they rework the engine and implement bunch of stuff, it could be possible, but we are back in the beginning - currently the game looks outdated and doesn't support tons of features other sims do. Theoretical musings on what could be possible to do with the engine are ultimately irrelevant when nothing on that front has been done for years.
I really don't know why even people talking about these thing it not gonna change or speed up anything at all there is so many platforms on the market where u can go if this one lacks of these features for u I'm here because I don't like jerking off over 0.1 psi to get proper handling and I even don't want any of the things u mentioned I don't like rain or night racing at all maybe because to this day I didn't saw good rain in any game till it not gonna dry the line where cars move instead of drying programmed racing line I don't want it also most popular title also don't have rain to this day they working on it now after 15 years but it's a fact also I don't think anything "random" would be good for rankeds and this is the thing where main focus is in this game