SimBin Q & A – September 2008
• In which general direction is Simbin heading towards in the gaming industry? Are we going seeing more variety in terms other forms of motorsports e.g. Rallying, Dirt racing etc.? What other interesting content can we expect?
JR: The short and easy answer is; Yes
DS: In this industry as well as more or less all others it takes funding to initiate and finalize any sort of production. In the gaming industry it works a little like this. An independent developer wants to do a racing game, they write a concept and a sales document. With this they begin to look for funding options, once the funding is in place they begin to work on the licenses needed for the games content. Licensing is far from straight forward and usually licensing has a very big impact on the games content design and/or content limitations. Now that funding and licensing has been cleared the developer can begin the process of trying to find a distributor/publisher for the game.
Distribution/publisher interest in a game greatly depends on the games content list, in other words, publishers are the single biggest limitation on content or rather how varied content a game developer can feature.
That being said SimBin have always tried to deliver lots of different racing classes to the gamers and we will continue to do so. That is a promise!
• What is your view in the subscription base gaming with the likes of iRacing? Is that the way the industry could eventually be headed towards?
JR: We wish nothing but the best of luck and good fortune for iRacing since they broaden the simracing genre with their concept. I personally do not believe that motor sport gamers in the long run are willing to spend money continuously on a subscription model. It´s different in MMO´s where you can build huge landscapes and new environments using only the scope of your imagination adding some cool new arsenal and then you are good to go. But if you are forced to continuously develop interesting enough and sometimes licensed content which costs you money to acquire to be able to keep a subscription model interesting and appealing for all users would be like living with a knife at your throat 24-7.
• Due to licensing issues, GTR Evolution did not include both Porsche & Ferrari made, but we instead furbish with some excellent additions & un-expecting fun cars likes WTCC extreme & production class cars. Will we be seeing more of this in the future or as an add-ons?
JR: The short and easy answer is; Yes
• What will the next quantum leap in Sim-racing & what is Simbin envisioning thus far?
JR: Maybe Lizard on PC! We always try to do our best with the resources at hand but it´s up to you all to decide what games are to be considered as milestones of this genre, we can only try to deliver what you want by keeping an ear to the ground on community sites like here.
DS: in my opinion the Next Gen bubble has burst and to some extent I think the Next Gen phrase pushed games and game development in the wrong direction (with exceptions of course). I believe in a term called Next Level gaming where focus is on making the game standout due to innovation in game play rather than fancy lighting and shader systems. The Next Gen bubble removed (to some extend) the creative responsibility from game play to game visuals, and that is a real shame and in the long run a very unhealthy route for the industry.
SimBin have introduced what I believe are quantum leaps for the SimRacer both in terms of game play and possibilities. Both the Swedish and the Danish motorsport federations have included SimRacing into their portfolios and it is now possible to start your career as a race driver at the wheel of your PC. Who would have thought we would succeed with this a few years back?
When talks fall on SimBin and our contributions to the simRacing scene one must always remember that we are an independent games developer and that this greatly limits the creative freedom and financial risks we can afford to take. Despite these facts SimBin’s company strategy is to be a leading racing game developer and the future will see SimBin push to include new content and new game play features unique for SimBin.
• Can there be a way that our previous legally obtained copies can be combined with evo?! Perhaps via steam?! I was just thinking about it, but then again we'll all need to buy a steam- version of the previous sims..but can this be done?! ..a bit like the hl-story which i have bought 3 times for the same game! Maybe even combining the older simbin-titles in one 'classic-package' or so to be used on steam , just like some other steam-games do!? But then again, i won't be knackered if it's impossible..we do have all the content to play with in the other titles and i'm very VERY thankfull to SimBin and partners for keeping faith and support to all of it's users!
JR: It´s a bit more problematic than one might think at a first glance, but every game on the market is normally tied to various different distribution or publishing agreements, in some cases exclusive ones making it hard to combine games into combo packs if looking at the full scope when you have to combine the interests of so many parties. SimBin has published it´s own games since RACE and possibilities like this are more open to us in since then and in the future.
• Will you make patches for offline version? I only have offline version but there are no update.
JR: Yes
• Why did you include the Nordschleife in GTR Evolution and why did you release an Arcade- version only (flat curbs, no corner markers, no bumps)?
JR: We decided to take on the task of recreating the green hell because we love the track and we have wanted to do it since we started in 2003.
WM: Our track artists had a very tough job optimizing this monster of a track and keep it within the limits of the game engine and the limits of current hardware. Simply put the track in-game is too massive to allow for our usual detailed scenery so we could either shorten the track or we could remove scenery item by item until we crept under the max size possible. We like to believe we made the right decision by removing some of the scenery instead of cutting away some of the actual track ;) To give you some idea of the effort put into this track, our track artists spent days and days removing individual items by hand until the best possible solution was found. The lack of bumps is by far down to the fact that the track has been resurfaces and the surface is now very very smooth. Reviewers and real life races have all pointed to this version of Nürburgring as the most precise and correct version ever created, and we are extremely proud of the level of accuracy and detail we have managed to achieve.
• I always liked the accuracy of your tracks regarding bumps and curbs. When entering the GP circuit again coming from the Nordschleife I find the bump far too extreme. It's more like a jump. But what I really miss is the very bumpy approach to the Tiergarten section at the Nordschleife
DS: When the track was referenced by SimBin it had been resurfaced in many areas and in some areas new curb stones was being added.
What I find interesting is the fact that we actually have the biggest selection of licensed tracks of any racing games developer in the industry. No other developer or publisher has released as many different officially licensed tracks as SimBin. One reason for this fact to be true is that track development is time consuming and extremely costly partly due to license fees and partly due to the cost of sending the reference team to each and every track before and during the development of the tracks. SimBin tracks are created as accurate as humanly and technically possible and if you compare our tracks with those of the competition I am sure you will find that we do a damn good job of it, all nitpicking aside.
• Can the AI be a bit more aggressive when coming from behind - especially in last laps of race? They put up a good fight when you try to pass them, but once you get past them, they seem to "give up" unless you (player) make a mistake.
JE: AI is always in development in our projects and we always aim to do the best within our abilities. It is an extremely hard process and a fine balance to have the AI do what we want, but still have a mind for themselves. The longer we spend time with the AI the better they can get.
DS: AI in general is one of the hardest tasks to get right in any type of game and it is an area where the entire industry is struggling. We do have elements that we would like to include or change and we are constantly working in a positive direction with regards to the AI.
• Will we have 24hour racing in Evo?
JR: No, not in its current form.
• Is it possible for you to make car lights illuminating the road and other cars in GTRe?
JE: The engine in its current state makes it hard for us to create the day/night immersion as we would like to see it. Especially with performance in mind, there are lines we will cross implementing what we would like to see. This will take a huge investment of time. Let’s see what the future will bring!
• Will there be an update to include the following things: setup Start time 00:00-23:59, Day and night racing (with nice sunrise and sunsets effects), 24H race! (on all tracks, with GT Classes and WTCC Extreme), New tires compounds (Soft, Medium, Hard..).
JE: A small explanation seems to be valid here. Any given feature needs a testcycle with any given milestone during a production.
To take GTR Evolution as an example, we have 49 cars and 40 different layout. If we would add three new compounds to the game, in test cycles for us that would mean the following. 3 tire tests for 49 cars to be tested on 40 tracks, each compound tested on each track. Meaning that we have to run 5880 test cycles for each milestone for this feature. Say 3 hours for each test to be done we come to shattering 17640 hours. Which means with calculating with normal office days just over 110 man months of work per milestone delivery. And that is just testing not developing. Please keep in mind this is just a rough calculation so it could be a bit more or less months. Same goes for a feature like 24hour races, that feature has to be tested 24 hours with each milestone, creating an enormous amount of work.
To summarize, we don’t go over one night of ice with features, we carefully think through every small step we need to take.
DS: Another important aspect to always have in mind is that SimBin as an independent developer must sell enough games to cover our investment, there should be an overhead that we can use to start production of a new production after a given release. The day we fail getting a return on our investments we are out of business.
This means that we must try to balance our games so that they cater to both the casual racer and the SimRacer. I in a TV interview once said the single must important aspect for Simracing and the racing game genre to become appealing on PC is that the SimRacer’s accepts to share their passion with the casual racers. It was only after I saw the interview on screen that I realized how right I was. The racing game market on PC is too small and it needs to grow but the only way it can grow is by new gamers taking an interest in racing games and are willing to buy the games as well of course.
With RACE 07 I think SimBin showed that casual and SimRacer’s can co-exist and that games can cater to both types of gamers.
With the above in mind and with great respect for the SimRacing community it must be said that including certain “hardcore” features is simply too costly compared to the estimated extra sales we could expect to gain from adding them.
• Is SimBin happy with the community's reaction on illegal software ?
JE: Yes, once everyone is pointed in the same direction, development studios are able to create better games, which are for all of you to enjoy. In my opinion a pure win/win situation.
WM: Yes it has been motivating and positive to see the reactions from all corners of the widespread communities, and it is one of the reasons we are doing this Q & A.
• What about modding tools? If you had designed Evo to be so moddable, why are we using hex editors needed to put cars into the game.
DS: Mods and licenses in combination create a grey zone in terms of juridical responsibilities and as long as we deliver licensed content we are not willing to risk being charged with a license infringement. It has taken years, lots of money and countless days of working long into the night to get us where we are today, we of course do what ever we can to protect the good relationship with the manufactures and license holders within the automotive industry.
We do what we can to get to where we would like to be in terms of tools and mod-ability but it takes time and takes a huge effort from the company’s management. The inclusion of the WTCC Extreme cars is a clear indication of SimBin being trusted with more creative freedom than ever before, time will tell where it will go from here.
• In the last days a lot of members are asking if track conversions from GTR2 or GTL to Race 07/Evo would be legal, since they´re all from SimBin. We, the managers don´t know how to answer that. What SimBin would say about it?
WM: Questions of this type can be answered by looking at the rules page here at RSC, legally we are not in a position to promote conversions of material to/from our titles.
• Would you please consider offering a tool to import tracks and cars/models from you previous releases into GTR Evo. Such as GTR, GTR2, GTL, Race 06 as I own them all, even two copies of some. If not, would you please state for all modders that SimBin supports this type conversion with CD/DVD check and maybe even provide them with one to D/L and use.
WM: Questions of this type can be answered by looking at the rules page here at RSC, legally we are not in a position to promote conversions of material to/from our titles.
• About add on tracks, will there be a chance of have new licensed tracks as new "official" add ons, or do we have to live with the ones in the game?
JE: Yes
• I would like to know if SimBin would accept GTL and GTR2 to Race 07/GTR Evo conversions if some sort of cd check or other type of protection is needed to install the conversions.
JR: This goes into legals where I can not comment as it involves licensor parties for car manufacturers, track owners, championship promoters etc etc. SimBin would most likely not take legal actions against such solutions though.
• Would it be possible on the next patch to allow the "WheeelColor=" ini code for the standard Race07 models within Evo.
JE: I suggest you take a look again in the new cars that we added for GTR Evolution!
• Is steam anti-cheat bullet proof? If so how? if not how can we improve this?
DS: So far the industry has failed to provide a 100% cheat free environment and I would say that it is more or less impossible to achieve. Not even a closed environment like XboxLive can be considered 100% cheat free, sadly.
• Will there be a "save" feature implemented in a patch or expansion?
DS: That is very unlikely but not impossible. What is more likely but not a promise is that it will be part of a later released title.
• And any plans to increase the number of AI allowable in a race as it's a bit of a come down from GTR2.
DS: Not very likely, this due to several reasons but I would to mention one that many people might not have thought off.
The PC market is flooded with hundreds of thousands of differently configured computers and GTR2 showed us that we had too big trust in the individual’s ability to respect their computers strengths and weaknesses. GTR2 was and to some extent still is too performance heavy for the mainstream consumer PC and when owners of such computers crank up the visuals and max out the number of cars on the grid of a night race they are destined to get a less than favorable experience with our game. With the above in mind it is extremely important to remember that game releases requires a distribution or a publishing deal in order to make it onto the shelves of the game store and any responsible publisher will test the game to insure it has “mass market” appeal. A combination of these two factors has lead to cap the amount of cars on the grid to the levels it has now. Please do note that there are other factors in play as well as those mentioned here.
WM: A good example of this is a recently released mod of one of our tracks with a higher cap on the number of cars. As far as I know this was released with a note saying “If the game crashes then lower the number of cars” and I think everyone will understand we can not let something like that go through quality assurance and into the shops of your hometown. Our tracks, cars and features must work out of the box.
• Why doesn't your game permit to watch another car in the cockpit pov, with gauges working, like LFS?
DS: Different game engines have different strengths, I guess this is one of that games strengths
• Why did you decide not to have any shadows on the Nordschleife track? I love driving it, but it looks dull and lifeless (especially after having driven on it in console titles such as Forza2 and PGR4). I know the graphics engine is ageing, but having shadows on at least the max setting would have been nice
JR: Currently used technology does not allow for Streaming which creates performance, limitations especially on long circuits with lot´s of details, there are lot´s of details we had added on the track which had to be removed to gain good performance. Put it like this, there is room for improvement and perfection in coming titles.
• As per the RaceRoom version of the dedicated server will there be an option to add weight penalties and alter the grid on the fly
JE: We are in the process of improving the dedicated server in this area.
• Why you have this arrow in the pit lane when you could have a guy with the Lolly Pop as in other sims?
JR: We would love to have a fully animated pitcrew working on your car as well as hundreds of people crowding the pitlane area, we actually have all of that done as goes for animations as we have done motion capturing of ditto for all sorts of variables with or without wheel center nut and different types of refueling models, however the game would have suffered from performance issues if we had added it it so it had to be scrapped to be used for the future.
JE: Due to limitations with performance we are looking into better animation systems for future projects. We have spent quite some hours in motion capturing studios, but we have not found the best way to implement those resources into the game. If we would have forced ourselves to add it in the current games, the game would have suffered from bad performance, sometimes it is better to take a step back and see how we can do things better.
• Talking with other users of Race 06, 07 and GTR Evo, we all agreed in the fact that the game looks way too dark compared with other sims (I am talking about the in-game day light), will you improve the illumination in next patches?
JR: This is very different from screen to screen and is in itself an abstract area where feeling comes into play. I don’t think we will change this as this is our interpretation of how it looks in real life.
• Long shot but would it be possible to add the ability to download skins either automatically or manually, using the same system as the new setup download option maybe
DS: This is something we are investigating for future projects; this is however not a feasible option for the currently released games.
• Will we see A way to easily test one car after another on the track with out having to back out of the track and negotiate the menu system. Even if you could only load one set of cars that you pre-pick. That way you would not need to load every car in the game for each session but you could load 10 or so and test drive them in rapid session?
DS: An interesting suggestion but this is not currently supported by the game engine. Making the current game engine support this feature is not feasible so if ever this is a “feature” for future games.
• Can you please comment on the huge difference in terms of physics from GTR (the very first 2003 season FIA-GT game) to GTR Evo? Sadly I don't have much real life racing experience, so I don't want to judge the physics, but I feel that it is much more arcade. Especially in terms of drifting I find the cars too lose - which might be a setup problem - but also easy to pull of a huge drift. I also find it too easy to push the car to the limit with the GT cars. So, did Atari force you to make the game more accessible for the broader public?
JR: We were not forced by anyone to do this ; ) In fact where we are with the physics on GTR Evo is where we would have wanted to be with them already on GTR 1 where you spun out without any chance of catching the car and saving the situation. A real car behaves a lot more like the ones in GTR Evo where you actually can powerslide with full control through every single corner if that is what you want to do.
DS: I think there is something gravely wrong with the community’s perception of what is real and what is wrong in terms of physics. Physics that are difficult and hard to drive does not equal accurate physics. The physics developed for GTR was flawed in many ways, one being the way the cars would loose traction and what happened once traction had been lost. Through feedback from real GT, WTCC and Formula drivers we have learned about these flaws and how to improve the physics to better reflect the real life experience behind the wheel of race car. With the greatest respect for the knowledge and feedback from the community I must say that feedback on our physics from real world race drivers weigh a little heavier than that from the community. We do however read and take into account all the comments and suggestions made by our community.
WM: We have had direct contact with the teams since day one, and we are getting better and better at interpreting the multitude of real life data we have access to. Having a ton of pinpoint specific data means little if you do not process it correct and that’s an area where we are constantly improving. Much of this is down to the limits of your every day gaming PC. We have the raw data to make a CRAY cry for mercy if we tried recalculating all the parameters the many times per second needed to get the game running. So if we e.g. have 10, 20 or 50 different variables pr. tire that we know the data for and that we CAN calculate, we have to chose a mix of the most important and the closest possible approximation possible. So as PC’s gets faster we are able to include more and more of the known equations and add more variables to the physics calculations. This means better and more realistic output even if the input is the same. We believe we have achieved the highest level of realism yet with GTR Evo, but we have lots of more raw data up our sleeves so as PC’s continue to evolve our games will continue to edge ever closer to perfection.
• Are you considering including Open Wheel models (F-1 equivalent) into GTR Evo as an expansion? These do not have to be licensed vehicles as I feel you replica vehicles are fantastic.
JR: Maybe we will….. but it will not be added to GTR Evo but to RACE 07 just like GTR Evo.
DS: Important to explain I guess that RACE 07 is the base game, GTR Evo and STCC are expansion packs to RACE 07. If you purchased GTR Evolution or STCC the Game as a full game it featured the full version of RACE 07 including the Formula 3000 and BMW’s. Any future expansion packs to RACE 07 will be compatible with both GTR Evolution and STCC the Game.
• Are there any additional expansion packs being developed for GTR Evo after the STCC?
JR: Yes.
• Will Simbin develop a GTR3 simulation PC Game?
JR: GTR is SimBin´s IP so who knows what might be done with it in the future, but if you look at RACE Pro you can see that we are merging the IP´s combining GT´s with touringcars etc in what we in the future hope to be the most complete motorsport games available, like a motorsport umbrella
• I have enjoyed everything that SimBin has put out over the last four years. My favorite title is GT-Legends. With the fall of 10tacle is there any chance we could see the GT-Legends title as an expansion for Race07/GTRE?
JR: We would love to do this but he rights lies with 10tacle.
• What's next after STCC? Are prototypes on the bill . Would love to see cooperation with the ACO to get LeMans and the LMS and the LeMans track up to SimBin standards
JR: As stated, there will be more.
• Are there any plans for more fictional or real Open Wheel series to be added in the near future?
JR: Our main focus has been and is still on interesting real life licenses/series but that does not prevent us from exploring additional fictive areas.
• Can we at some point in the future expect again a sim like gtr2? (drivingschool , shadows/lights , 24h nightraces etc)
JR: Yes.
DS: What I find interesting is this whole debate is the choices one has to make when creating a game portrait of something as complex as real life racing. GTR2 is considered more of a simulation because it had night racing but 90% of all GT races in real life take part during daylight hours and in GTR2 we left out countless other significant features from real life racing that no one
faults GTR2 for. I am very proud of what we did with GTR2 but I also think that it lacks vital components from the real racing scene. I will turn this around a little and use a movie production as part of my explanation. Picture our games as a two hour movie in witch we try to tell a story about racing, there is no way we can fit it all in there and therefore have to choose what to show and what to spend time on. In GTR2 we included components we had not featured before. In RACE 07 and through its expansion packs we have tried to show other elements not featured by SimBin before. Weather you prefer one or the other “movie” (game) is very much down to personal taste but in terms of their portrayal of motorsports I think they do an equally good job.
In Future games we will introduce yet new components or elements from racing that we never done before and we will of course re visit previous titles to see what features to carry over into future releases, but fact is that even if we released a new game per year for the next decade we would still not have covered all the fantastic and diverse components that makes up motorsports of today and the past.
We strive to make our games the SimBin way and we strive to give you guys the best possible portrait of real racing, we just cannot show you all of it in one blessed go ☺
• Will SimBin ever use the FIA GT license/brand on the PC market again? (ex. gtr3)
JR: We have the license so maybe.
• Do you have plans for more production / street cars in some later patch/version/game? Driving a regular street car with accurate physcis in a sim beats any kind of racing for me
JR: We will most likely add more production cars in later titles as well.
• Is Simbin going to release a new version of RACE anymore?like RACE08? I heard someone says the contract between Simbin and WTCC is almost finish...
JR: RACE is a SimBin´s IP so that will come.
• Dedi Server options, could you make it possible to Ban people even after they have left the server, at the minute you can't do anything after they leave, it would be great if Server Admin could watch Replays and Ban any Idiots using their Steam or Driver tags, at the minute the entry in the ban file is pretty meaningless.
DS: Work is being done on the dedicated server and the future should see us deliver a new way of doing things with regards to the dedicated server. What we always must have in mind though is that we have to insure backward and forward compatibility and that takes time and effort to get right.
See my answer to lobby questions for more info on this please.
• Will there ever be a Favorites option within the multiplayer
DS: As you all saw not too long ago the lobby system for GTR, GT Legends and GTR2 was not ours. These were run and serviced by 10Tacle and any lack of development on them must be contributed to decision making of 10Tacle. As some of you know SimBin took over the responsibility of these lobbies once 10Tacle lost the ability to run them and now their running and servicing lies with SimBin.
For RACE we created our own lobby from scratch, we service and maintain that our selves, when that lobby system was designed and initiated we did not know that 10tacle would get in the trouble that they did so GTR, GT Legends and GTR2 was not part of the master plan.
Now we are sitting with lobby responsibility for all of our released games and it would make sense for us to try and find a way to have all of them in one big lobby system. Different protection and distribution methods make this quite a task but it’s something we hope to solve at some point.
The same thoughts of course concern the development of a new way of dealing with the dedicated server applet. We hope and believe to be able to offer a simpler and more effective dedicated server with more features in the future but the premise changed in ways we had not foreseen when we first initiated development of a future dedicated server applet.
• Will there be better Steam integration? In "real" Steam games, it is possible to press Shift-Tab and get a list people who are currently on the server, which makes it easy to add them to the friends list. Also VAC2 support would be great otherwise people cheat all over the place and the whole multiplayer part of the game is worthless.
DS: I for one am a great believer in the community aspects of Steam and I think it is safe to say that we are looking into ways of taking better advantage of what Steam has to offer in this area.
• Can PC gamers hope for a Lizard based game in the not so distant future ?
JR: Yes but I cannot comment in detail on the timing.
• Will games with the Lizard engine need a much better PC than Race07 or is the new engine more optimated for new hardware?
DS: I think one aspect of the ISI engine that we can all recognize and are familiar with is its limitations in terms of scalability. That is something we are looking to improve a lot with Lizard for PC, so the answer is no and yes. No in a sense that a gaming oriented PC of today will be far sufficient to run a game on Lizard but yes in the sense that Lizard natively supports graphical improvements not supported by the ISI engine, thus making better use of the newest graphics cards and their featured technologies.
• With the release of Race Pro on the Xbox 360 not far away are there plans to release Race Pro on the PC (lizard engine)?¨
JR: No, RACE Pro is X-Box 360 exclusive.
• How is Lizard Engine development coming along? Can you share any new screenshots or even better videos of WIP?
JR: Just Keep an eye out online, new content is frequently made available from Atari on RACE Pro.
• I just wondering in which degrees evo has been tested... I can hardly see anyone with big error or hardware-conflict (until cause is found!) So i was just wondering if Simbin has tested with several videocard-series and brands , different wheels etc... how does Simbin do this in practise? Do you guys just go simracing for a few months with several hardware pieces or is there just a good understanding with the manufacturers?!
JE: Our SBTT (SimBin Test Team) consist out of simracers all with their own equipment and diversity that is know under PC users. Besides that we have several test PC where we are able to test the most common system configurations. It is impossible to test on all configuration possibilities, it would run into the gazillions of possibilities. But we do our best to cover all bases.
DS: This of course in addition to the testing done by a distribution or publishing partners who run their own test cycles on the products they distribute or publish.
• Will the Mercedes C200 be in STCC-the game and if not, why?
JR: No, due to license issues we were forced to remove the Mercedes from this game.
• Will you be adding custom championship with all the different cars who are on the game, some may say that that unlocking thing fells like a console game but I like to feel a progression it's much more rewarding than having everything the first time. It would be nice for further updates to make little championships, with minis, BMWZ3s with the batch of tracks available on race 07 and GTR evo, it would help casual drivers like myself to try out a different car with specific tracks with specific cars, AIs and lap counts instead of randomly picking a car and wandering on tracks with few practices and races.
DS: I think you are asking and commenting in the same sentence so if I seem to answer in west when asked in east it is down to me misunderstanding the question.
With GT Legends we for the first time introduced progressive game play and that to some extend divided the waters a little bit, some liked it and some disliked it.
With GTR2 and since then we have gone back at the open game approach but then tried to add content with witch the player could create their own progressive game experience.
The idea behind the RACE 07 approach is that the player can decide for themselves how challenging and “sim” the gaming experience should be and at what rate the game should get harder to beat.
With RACE Pro we try out the progressive approach again and with what is coming next we hope to introduce yet a new chapter in SimBin games where the two game methods are seamlessly combined.
As for the custom championship featuring all the released content should be featured in this part of the game.
• I would much like a simulation that had 100% damage/wear, no aids help or anything else not remotely real. Q:"Is that within the realms of possibility for Simbin in the future"
JE: You can do that with our games, just turn damage sensitivity to high and turn of all aids to enjoy what you just described.
DS: As for aids not being real I guess it is only fair to mention that more or less all major GT championships allow and run with traction control. VLN even allows traction control and stability control. So in order to be as real as possible you should be running with ABS off, and possibly stability help off and traction control on.
• Will you be allowing communities to access or hook into the in game advertising? Reasons: 1. Communities could advertise what upcoming events they have for their community, Communities could advertise the community sponsors and Communities could advertise other SimBin titles via the game.
JR: The idea is cool, but no, the system currently used is controlled by IGA, an external in game advertising party.
DS: I think the “custom skin” feature of RACE 07 to a great extent allows for visibility options for league and community sponsors. I know of several leagues and communities that use this feature to great effect.
Speaking of the “custom skin” feature I must say that I am surprised there has not been more focus on this aspect of the game. With focus I mean in competition terms, with all the fantastic talent out there I would have expected more competitions and more highlights on the guys behind the fantastic skins provided to the leagues and communities. I had always hoped that we with this feature could make stars of these talents as we try to do with the drivers.
I do apologize if I am wrong in the above assumption.
Thanks for all the intelligent and interesting questions, we hope you will be satisfied with the answers and that you will continue to enjoy our titles in the future.
From SimBin JR, WM, JE and DS