Let's start with the patch that was scheduled for this month, which is a prelude for a better news and actually sign that development is progressing.
The date I’d previously give out was incorrect because the situation changed after the fair we had in March.
Instead of a public patch what will actually happen is a progressive release of testing versions throughout the summer (and I’ll tell you why in a moment), so you will be able to try out the new features before the release date if you want to, but we warn you that they will be very raw with minimal interface and we don’t guarantee that they will work for everyone, you will may need to modify some files and stuff like that if it doesn’t work for you.
The public version will always be there for those who just want to play without any hassles and are not interested in previewing the new features, like VR.
We still have to finalize the way the previews will be sent to you, it will probably be a side executable that will be updated with new stuff as development progresses.
This decision came because we are quickly progressing toward Racecraft 1.0 now, and it isn’t efficient to implement features on a build that will soon be deprecated. Instead the idea is to pack everything in the new version and launch directly Racecraft 1.0, which will be preceded by a beta after the summer.
Things are now getting better each week, RC Arcade is giving us some more resources to put in to the online version of the game, and from now on development will only get faster.
We are also hiring 2 programmers, 1 to work on the procedural engine and 1 for vehicles, I will link you a page with more informations about that soon.
But now I would like to share with you some of the ideas orbiting the project, the current state of things and what you can expect for the near future of Racecraft.
TaaTT4 will post an article more focused on the new engine.
Vision for RC 1.0:
The vision for Racecraft 1.0 has changed quite a bit since early this year.
The team is in the process of making some important decisions on the direction to take productionwise. We are trying to reach version 1.0 in a reasonable time frame but without compromising quality.
What we understood ultimately is that we were trying to make the game too big for the current size of the team, ending up having 3 unfinished sections of the game that required a considerable amount of time to develop and didn’t completely meet the expectations of players, creating disappointment and doubts among many of you. Add to that the gigantic black-hole that was the period before last summer and there you have it.
So now after a reorganization of the studio and gather of the necessary resources we are escaping from the event horizon, and to do so we needed to redefine what RC 1.0 would be.
The first obvious solution is to cut unnecessary features in order to get the core experience as polished as possible, and then expand from there.
Since the core experience of RC is multiplayer with procedural tracks generation, that is what we are focusing on right now.
Single player modes will be developed in a later stage (but you will still be able to drive in solo time-attacks!).
Asynchronous events will keep on rocking, with added functionality and communication features, while synchronous multiplayer races will finally be a thing!
The second step is to list the secondary gameplay elements required to complete the core of the game, such as characterization, sense of achievement, social interaction, VR, and so on.
The work toward this new vision of Racecraft has already begun and the following are some of the things on which the team is working on right now.
Progress toward RC 1.0:
- Menu
One of the big changes RC is undergoing involves the main menu interface, which will be completely web-based, kind of like iRacing does but with advanced interactivity between players and ongoing events.
This will be very beneficial for future development of other social tools and companion apps.
- Crafting and customization
Some anticipated features like car parts crafting and other personalization modules will be very simplified for version 1.0 of the game, and will be developed in more detail in a later stage.
- Car
Car physics is still being worked on. Although prised for the most part, we still see room for improvement. On top of that, all strategic elements from tire wear to fuel consumption will be added accompanying hand to hand the synchronous multiplayer.
New vehicles series will come next.
- Controls
Controls will receive a complete overhaul, you will be able to bind them, and support for the various steering wheels will be revised.
- Assets
As you saw with the buildings preview, 3D and 2D artists are working on new assets for Camilla, from skyscrapers to tents and trees the environment will feel much more varied. Other 3D objects that you can expect include 2 new start buildings (and matching grandstands), intermediate bridges, crossing bridges and some characteristic landmarks. There are many more assets on the list though, and the work on the environment extends to the creation of splines for modular and dynamic positioning of objects, creating rules and classifications for the procedural generation of objects in the different biomes, resources optimization, and so on.
- Graphics engine
The new engine will solve all the problems that many of you are having regarding performance, UI unresponsiveness, and others, while also improving loading times, visual quality and post-processing fx.
TaaTT4 will give some details on the problems and limitations of the old engine, the current state of the new one, and future developments.
- VR
With the new engine VR will finally be on board!
As said in a previous thread, the rewriting of the engine is necessary for VR, because the old one just couldn’t reach the required performance (FPS) to be appreciable and avoid sickness.
So after this quick overview I hope some of your questions have been answered, if you have more don’t hesitate to leave a comment.
We’ll be back soon with more!
