SIMBIN Raceroom Racing Experience

Discussion in 'Game Discussion' started by TheStig13, Jan 24, 2013.

  1. TheStig13

    TheStig13 Professional Super ROOZ

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    [​IMG]
    Raceroom Racing Experience is a 'Free to Play' simulator from Sector 3 Studios (formerly Simbin - makers of GTR, GT Legends and Race 07). The free portion of the game includes the 5 cars and 3 tracks listed below:
    Cars
    • Aquila CR1 Sports GT
    • BMW 134 Judd V8
    • Canhard R52 (fictional Silhouette racer)
    • DMD P20 (fictional Le Mans Prototype)
    • Saleen S7R
    Tracks​
    • Lakeview Hillclimb
    • Portimao
    • Raceroom Raceway
    Even though it is considered free to play, this content mainly acts as a demo for the game. The rest of the cars and tracks are paid content, with prices displayed in vRP (Virtual Race Points - 100 of these equals approximately 1 Euro). If you want to get into Raceroom, the best way of going about it is to buy one of the Experience packs (DTM or ADAC) as they give you 8-9 tracks plus a full grid of cars for a reasonable price (especially when there's a sale on). This will also give you a discount on any other packs that include those tracks or car models.

    The content that is available to purchase is rather varied, from current WTCC and GT3 cars, to 1992 DTM cars and 1970's Group 5 monsters. Many of the classes in the sim have a wide selection of vehicles, not just the one or two popular cars from a class like many other sims have done. There's also a good range of tracks, most of which are from the calendars of the officially licensed series in game with a few others included... one of which being a 6.213km road circuit in country NSW.

    If there was one aspect that Raceroom really shines in, it's the sound department. Each car sounds much like it's real world counterpart, plus there's a lot of subtle effects, such as transmission flex and the chassis creaking as the car hits a kerb. Coming from GT, to have sounds like this in a sim is simply phenomenal (it really does make GT sound like a bunch of Hoovers in comparison).

    The only real disadvantage to this is the pricing model, especially for those who want all of the content. In saying that though, whilst the single cars and tracks are a bit expensive, most of the content packs are reasonably priced. It's still certainly a lot cheaper than a certain subscription based sim that has tracks for $15 USD each at least.

    Post edited to better reflect the current state of Raceroom - Original post below in the spoiler tags
    This is Simbin's new "free to play" sim that's just about to enter open beta, Raceroom Racing Experience, and if you've already watched the video, you'll have noticed a certain mountain course that is 6.213 km in length and that many of us on ROOZ really want in GT5.

    Sadly, for fans of previous Simbin sims, this isn't GTR3. Instead it's free to play, with a mix of different vehicles and track types. You'll get 5 cars, plus two tracks for free with the download, though all other cars and tracks will have to be bought (unlike the other free to play sim, Simraceway, where all tracks are free). Different game modes will be available for purchase as well, with the "Get Real" (no driving aids) mode costing the equivalent of about $1.50aud - which does seem to be a blatant cash grab, seeming you can get older Simbin games for a dollar or so more in some Steam sales.

    This seems as if it'll be a good or even great sim, possibly ruined by the "free" to play model that the developers have decided on.
    Last edited: Jun 15, 2015
  2. xNeVeR_eNoUgHx

    xNeVeR_eNoUgHx Brett

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    Not too impressed with the current crop of cars however Mt. Panorama is a pleasure to drive!
  3. TheStig13

    TheStig13 Professional Super ROOZ

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    Got back into this recently and it has improved quite a lot - mainly as you can actually race in it now as opposed to just hotlapping, plus the force feedback has been improved considerably. The content prices are still relatively high, however there are now some series packs that are reasonably priced, especially in comparison to iRacing.
    The main strength of this sim has to be the sound - easily the best sounds I've heard in any racing game on the market (GT really does sound like a bunch of vacuum cleaners in comparison to this :p).
  4. AJ.Scott

    AJ.Scott Team Driver

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    Had my first drive of the game and tour of "The Mountain" last night in a Zakspeed Turbo Capri in H-pattern shift, I bought some content some 2 weeks ago spent $60Aud and got 5k points, purchased a heap of stuff and still have 2k points to go, I did pick up the ADAC Cup & another series on special which did save me a heap of points, I must admit. Potentially it would be a tidy $130 - $150 possibly more to own all there is so far in RRE. But if it keeps Sector 3 Studio's (A.K.A SimBin) doors open it's all good :).
    Car tuning is very simple to navigate and settings are easy to understand and alter, I did feel there could be more in the bump & rebound area of the setup, but what is there is enough to get the car doing what you want it to. I was impressed by the graphics being the first thing you really notice once your in the cockpit of the car, looking around the office :D the dash seems very accurate in it's detail and does look like the dash of a Zakspeed, I was pleasantly surprised to see the needles on all the gauges in the dash move:D. Once you give the pedal a squirt of motion lotion your ears are immediately greeted by what I can only describe as the sweetest ear candy Ive heard in a Race Sim in 16yrs of simracing, without doubt S3S has done what most dev's try to do, recreate the sound perfectly. The Zakspeed sound is just feking unbelievably accurate, you can't help but grin, its as if they put several mics into a Zakspeed and drove it flat out for several laps and then used the captured sound data in game. The Mountain is incredible to drive, somewhat scenic when you have the time to look, and really quite close to our Iconic Bathurst in real life, and was a blast in the Zakspeed, I did have some shifter issues, missed my downshifts points heaps and also mixed my downshifts up by missing 5th to 4th, could take some getting use to, been sequential shifting for to long :p.
    For a freeby with limited content I'd say give it a bash if you have a PC and Steam, S3 Studios have done well, just a shame it's a bit overpriced for us Aussies, but what isn't in this country ATM :mad:.

    I'll take a vid and post it a bit later :thumbsup:
    Cheers
    Peter Wise likes this.
  5. AJ.Scott

    AJ.Scott Team Driver

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    As I said earlier I was going to publish a video of the ZakSpeed Capri @ Bathurst so here it is :)

    Don't know why it's ended up so :poop: and pixelated :eek: :oops:, its was captured with Shadowplay then edited with Camtasia 8, I use the term edited lightly too, all I did was copy & paste a section from the qualify session, then Camtasia produced it as MP4 1080p. But it looks :poop:, can someone offer some advice on the subject? :confused::unsure: Ive no idea :whistling:
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2014
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  6. colin-50_

    colin-50_ Professional Super ROOZ

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    what packs did you get you said something about a cup pack or something
    there is a couple of good packs on offer now i am concidering
  7. DoogleDave

    DoogleDave Team Driver

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    These links might help you AJ - note the suggested bit rates depending on the resolution you are using.

    https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en
    http://www.videomaker.com/article/17034-encoding-youtube-videos-at-the-highest-quality

    If you want to minimise the size of your video file (and therefore minimise the upload time) you could try converting or recording at 720p instead of 1080p.

    As for the pixelation, it's usually all about the bit rate used. Higher bit rate means less compression but bigger file size (and longer upload time), but too little bit rate adds too much compression and creates pixelation artefacts etc.

    In addition, ShadowPlay is rendering a copy of the recording for you, which you are then in turn opening up in Camtasia and re-rendering again...which will of course degrade the video quality to some extent (depending on settings/codecs used etc). And then I am sure Youtube re-encode the videos again during upload as well as they never seem to look quite as good as the original video being uploaded.

    There are some programs out there you can get which allow you to trim existing MP4 video files without the need to re-render the video - some work better than others. Personally I just do similar to you except I use Sony Vegas Pro instead of Camtasia and whilst the videos aren't "as good" as the original ShadowPlay recordings I can create video files that still look pretty good but are ALOT smaller in size - and I generally stick to 720p recordings (at around the 4-5 Mbps mark)....and always try to use the 2-pass method if you can, it gives better results. :thumbsup:
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  8. AJ.Scott

    AJ.Scott Team Driver

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    ADAC Cup, is the one. I also have and the G5 series which is a Zakspeed Capri & BMW320 Turbo, I have the Radicals SR9 and most the GT3 cars as they're discounted :D.

    @DoogleDave
    Thanks for the links & tips mate, I actually have a nice version of Vegas Pro11 just need to install it :D, but I'll be formatting next week.....fingers crossed :laugh: been trying to get it done for weeks now, so I'll install it then.
  9. TheStig13

    TheStig13 Professional Super ROOZ

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    I've been playing a lot of this lately - I'd even go as far as saying it's my favourite sim at the moment. Ever since the content packs were introduced it's not as expensive to get a decent collection of cars and tracks up. The next pack that is coming up is a Group 5 Classics pack, with 7 absolute monsters of race cars from the 1970's and 80's included.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    There's also a Falcon FG and Volvo S60 V8 Supercar coming up eventually...
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  10. Mustafur

    Mustafur World Champion

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    I remember that R30 Nissan from GT2.
  11. TheStig13

    TheStig13 Professional Super ROOZ

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    DTM Experience 2013 is on sale at the Humble Store at the moment for $6.24 USD, which is probably the best deal if you want to start on RaceRoom - there's 9 tracks with the pack plus the three DTM cars. There's also the DTM 1992 carpack on there which I highly recommend.
    https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/racing_weekend/
  12. Clevohead

    Clevohead Taswegian Ambassador Team Raceonoz

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    So as the title suggests I am currently downloading Raceroom, as I missed the AC sale, plus it is free, so it will be a good test for this laptop, and see what it can handle without flushin' a pineapple down the toilet.

    So does anyone run it, and is it worth the effort?
  13. TheStig13

    TheStig13 Professional Super ROOZ

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    Raceroom is my sim of choice at the moment, it seems to be (in my opinion) the best overall package in sim-racing at the moment. The physics are believable (no low speed spins like iRacing had back when I tried it), the graphics are ok (not up to AC or PCars level, but they do the job), the AI in single player is reasonably competitive and doesn't force you off the road at every opportunity, multiplayer has relatively clean pick-up and play races, most classes have a full grid of cars rather than just 1 or 2 models... however what Raceroom does best is the sounds. All of the cars sound just like their real counterparts - the classic Group 5 cars are especially brilliant - and there's even effects such as the chassis squeaking as you hit a kerb.

    The free content is a bit hit-and-miss though, which I think has given a lot of people a bad opinion on this game. There's no real starter car in the free content that will help with getting up to speed with the game, plus there's only a fictional track, a hillclimb (which isn't used online) and a single real circuit in the free content. However, the competitions give you a free sample of some of the cars and tracks in the game, plus you can test drive any car on the store page at one of the free tracks.

    As an aside, there's rumoured to be a Steam sale starting tomorrow morning, so you should be able to pick up a good deal on some PC sims - including some RaceRoom content. If you're going to get content for Raceroom, buy whichever DTM or ADAC Experience is the cheapest on Steam... this will give you a bunch of tracks and the way the in-game store works with packs, you get a discount based on the content in the pack that you already own.
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  14. Clevohead

    Clevohead Taswegian Ambassador Team Raceonoz

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    Cheers, will check it all out, bout 3/4 through the download now :)
  15. Clevohead

    Clevohead Taswegian Ambassador Team Raceonoz

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    So how do I fix this:

    The game opens in the top left of my screen with most of the window outside my screen, I cant stretch/move the window, and I even tried tweaking the graphics settings I read in another forum????:oops::oops::oops:
  16. TheStig13

    TheStig13 Professional Super ROOZ

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    Sounds like the game is running in a different resolution to your screen... right click on the desktop and look in the screen resolution tab, then go into the game and select that resolution in the graphics options.
  17. Clevohead

    Clevohead Taswegian Ambassador Team Raceonoz

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    Got it sorted mate, had to plug laptop into 2nd onitor, then I could get to the settings and set it to fullscreen.

    Had a run on the hill climb, then had it crash with a 503 error, stuffed around with it some more got it going again.

    Tweaked the graphics, so far the dell can handle some settings on high, some on medium, and things like the wheel and hands turned off.

    I am just learning on tweaking things as I go, I am new to this pc gaming thing, so I figured this will be a good starting point.

    The frame rate was smooth, and the FFB is pretty strong!

    When I got in the first run I didn't like it much, then I tweaked some settings and took the a BMW v8 thing for a run, and wow that was fun, I liked it more and more each lap.

    I will have to have a tweak and play over the weekend. :)
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  18. Peter Wise

    Peter Wise Professional

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    Welcome to a new world of gaming Clevo, Like you I was never a huge pc gamer as I liked the plug and play option of console but since the cost to move to ps4 was to great for me (wheel req'd as well) I updated my pc a bit, bought AC and love it, Pcars is pretty good as well but my CPU struggles a bit with it.
    I do have raceroom but have not had a good go at it yet
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  19. Clevohead

    Clevohead Taswegian Ambassador Team Raceonoz

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    Just getting my head around all these settings, and researching what to do with graphics settings on the computer itself as well as in the game.

    This will probably be more of a side thing for me as I have a PS4 on laybuy, but while my work laptop can run these games why not? Who knows I might get the PC bug ;)
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  20. Clevohead

    Clevohead Taswegian Ambassador Team Raceonoz

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    @Peter Wise, bout time we hold the inaugural Tasmanian Rooz AGM, with snacks and refreshments of course!