Bsimracing Sim Racing Resources and News for the racing enthousiast.
KW Studios continues promoting its upcoming Graphics Update for RaceRoom with a new video showcasing the soon to be released BMW M4 GT4 at the Nordschleife.
On September 4th, KW Studios and RaceRoom Entertainment will deploy one of the biggest updates yet for RaceRoom Racing Experience, introducing significant visual improvements, and performance enhancements for its game engine.
BMW M4 GT4
The lightweight (1400Kg) BMW M4 GT4 (G82) is a track-focused race car built for the GT4 category of motorsport. It’s the latest iteration of the M4 GT4 series, based on the G82 generation of the M4 car.
The M4 GT4 is powered by a six-cylinder inline engine with M TwinPower Turbo technology, which is able to deploy up to 550 horsepower and 650 Nm of torque.
Alongside the update, KW will also introduce two classic DTM cars in the form of the Opel Calibra V6 and the Alfa Romeo 155 2.5 V6, and three popular classic tracks to go with it, being the AVUS Circuit, the Diepholz Airfield Circuit, and two layouts of the classic Hockenheim Ring.
The two new cars will be available for €10.99, while the new tracks will cost you €6,99 a piece.
For more previews of the upcoming graphical enhancements for RaceRoom, check out the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II and video Mercedes 190E Evo II videos.
Summary of Graphical Updates:
- Optimized frustum culling: By optimizing the frustum culling system, we can now skip rendering of a lot more objects that are not in the view. This results in significant gains, especially on large and complex tracks, such as the 24 Hours layout of the Nordschleife.
- The rearview mirror and reflection optimization: The improved frustum culling system now allows us to render only what is necessary for the rearview mirror and dynamic car reflections. Furthermore, we have improved the looks and efficiency of the lowest car reflection setting significantly, which makes it a great option for those looking for extra performance.
- Time Progression: The performance of the time progression feature has been significantly enhanced, which means the performance difference to static time is now almost negligible.
- Color System Upgrade: Transition to a LUT (Lookup Table) Color System. This change allows for more accurate and vibrant color representation, enhancing the overall visual fidelity of the game.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 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 artifacts.
- 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.
- Improved Vegetation lighting: Trees are now blending in much better in the lighting environment.
- Track Grass normalmaps: Our normal maps are now properly reacting to the orientation of the light
- Track material specular: Until now, only a few objects have been specular around our tracks. This is now addressed so all objects reflect strong lights.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 setting will be off.
About RaceRoom
First released back in February 2013, out of the ashes of a well-regarded racing game developer, SimBin Studios, the core RaceRoom Racing Experience racing simulator is Free-To-Play and can be installed from this Steam link, with commercial add-ons available via the RaceRoom Store.
Official Webpages – game.raceroom.com – sector3studios.com
