Sim racers who play RaceRoom, the PC racing simulation by KW Studios, can look forward to a comprehensive update at the beginning of September.
The new version, scheduled for release on Wednesday, September 4, 2024, will offer a significantly improved gaming experience in terms of the visual presentation of vehicles, tracks, and environments.
This will be achieved through improvements in rendering quality, resulting in increased frames per second and the elimination of visual issues that could previously disrupt immersion.
While the game will still be RaceRoom at its core, the numerous revisions aim to make the simulation feel refreshed. KW Studios describes the improvements as “a significant step forward in the visual and performance-related quality of RaceRoom” and plans to further modernize the engine by delving deeper and unlocking highly efficient rendering techniques available in newer DirectX versions.
In a summary, the developer studio outlines the key changes and showcases screenshots with before-and-after comparisons.
Performance Improvements
“We’ve optimized the game’s performance to ensure better frame rates. This means you can enjoy the new graphics without sacrificing smooth gameplay. The improvements were achieved through:
- Optimized Frustum Culling: By optimizing the frustum culling system, we can now skip rendering a lot more objects that are not in the visible area. This leads to significant improvements, especially on large and complex tracks like the 24-hour layout of the Nordschleife.
- Optimized Mirrors and Reflections: The improved frustum culling system now allows us to render only what is necessary for mirrors and dynamic vehicle reflections. Additionally, we have significantly improved the appearance and efficiency of the lowest car reflection setting, making it a great option for those seeking extra performance.
- Time Progression: The performance of the time progression feature has been greatly improved, making the performance difference compared to static time almost negligible.
Color System Upgrade We’ve switched to an LUT (Lookup Table) color system. This change allows for more accurate and vibrant color representation, enhancing the overall visual fidelity of the game.
Cloud Cover Selection A new feature has been added to the game menus and the dedicated server, allowing players to choose the cloud cover. You can select from clear, light clouds, overcast, and covered skies, adding a dynamic and realistic touch to the racing experience.
Improved Shadow Rendering Shadows have been significantly improved, offering more realistic and dynamic lighting effects in various environments. This includes soft shadows with anti-aliasing, higher resolution, and considerably longer rendering distances. Shadows are now also rendered in the rearview mirror.
Auto-Exposure Function An auto-exposure function has been introduced, dynamically adjusting brightness to match the lighting conditions of the scene. This feature enhances visibility under different lighting conditions and provides a more immersive experience.
Improved Material Rendering for Vehicle Paints and Parts We’ve added better support for all types of paints and colors found on racing cars. Chrome, matte, and metal parts, in particular, can now be displayed with much greater accuracy.
Improved Vehicle Cockpit Cockpit lighting has been enhanced to provide a more realistic and immersive view.
Improved Vehicle Reflections Vehicle reflections have been improved to better mimic reflective surfaces in the real world, adding depth and realism to reflective parts of the vehicle, such as windows.
Improved Specular Reflections Specular reflections have been fine-tuned to create more realistic highlights and shine, especially under varying lighting conditions.
Improved Track Surface Lighting The lighting of the track surface has been improved to more accurately depict light reflection on the road surface and rubberized tracks.
Improved Depth of Field Blur Depth of field effects have been refined to achieve a more realistic background blur, enhancing the sense of speed and focus.
Improved Motion Blur Motion blur has been updated to provide a more natural and realistic sense of movement, reducing artifacts.
Improved Rendering of Headlights and Taillights The rendering of headlights and taillights has been improved, making races at dawn, morning, noon, afternoon, and sunset even more impressive and realistic.
Improved Vegetation Lighting Trees now integrate much better into the lighting environment. Track Grass Normal Maps: Our normal maps now respond correctly to light direction. Material Reflections: Previously, only a few objects around our tracks had reflections. This has now been corrected so that all objects reflect strong lights.
Performance Mode via Vulkan Rendering Pipeline The Vulkan-based implementation of d3d9 by Philip Rebohle has already been a popular rendering mod in the RaceRoom community, providing a noticeable performance boost. Our engine now officially supports this modification, as we have fixed some visual issues that previously impacted the gaming experience. A Steam launch option will be available to start RaceRoom with Vulkan.
Eliminated Z-Artifacts We have completely eliminated Z-fighting artifacts by adjusting the engine to use the more modern ‘Reversed-Z’ approach for handling depth in rendering.
Particle Lighting Particles now respond correctly to different lighting conditions.
Sharpening This effect enhances the visual sharpness of the game, making textures and fine details stand out more clearly. However, as the visual experience depends on individual preferences, this effect is disabled by default.”
- Remember that you can download RaceRoom for Steam for free by clicking HERE.
- You can watch more videos here!
Happy Racing!
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