Game Update – 2023-11-24 (Patch Notes Beta 1.6.0)

General Fixes

  • Fixed random physics crashes when joining servers

New content

  • Tracks
    • Added Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta (GP layout)
    • Added Daytona International Speedway® (Road Course layout)
  • Cars
    • Added Audi RS3 LMS
    • Added Hyundai Elantra N

Physics

  • Reworked driving behavior of all GT3 cars
  • Reworked driving behavior of Praga R1
  • Reworked driving behavior of Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992)
  • Improved physics thread code to fix some problems with inconsistency within the physics tick loop which leads to more accurate and stable simulation
  • Changed gravel and grass material physics to make it harder to drive on it
  • Implemented V2 damage system for all cars available in the game
  • Increased default BoP engine power by 0.125% Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)
  • Changed rear wing drag increase to 0.0625 * rear wing drag per step Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)
  • Modified cars underbody collisions to fix problems with cars sometimes being launched on curbs
  • Changed wheel blur calculations for better visual effect

Cars

General

  • Improved wheel blur effect visual quality
  • Fixed bad dithering on car window stickers
  • Fixed some random crashes caused by incorrect thread synchronization between game and physics
  • Mercedes AMG GT3
    • Fixed problem with low-res icons on car’s dashboard
    • Integrated new baseline setup:
  • Adjusted front dampers setting
  • Modified differential coast setting
  • BMW M4 GT3
    • Slightly reduced rear wing drag
    • Integrated new baseline setup:
      • Adjusted front dampers setting
      • Modified differential power setting
  • Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)
    • Changed RPM lights threshold to actually show the best levels to change gears

Tracks

General

  • Implemented system for opening / closing garage doors when players join / leave game server
  • Placed corner cut-detecting cones on all maps available in game
  • Improved sky and lighting quality on all maps
  • Improved foliage quality on all maps
  • Increased fence cull distances on all maps
  • Reduced grip levels on grass to make it slightly harder to drive two wheels on grass

Spa

  • Fixed grid start positioning
  • Changed track limits on turn 3
  • Fixed sausage curb mesh being stuck underground and generating collision issues

Nürburgring GP

  • Adjusted track limits
  • Fixed grid start positioning
  • Improved GPU performance

Gameplay features

  • Implemented badges feature
  • Implemented a simplified first version of rolling start procedure.
  • Improved algorithms for calculating time gained on corner cut to increase its accuracy
  • Fixed problem where second corner cut was sometimes ignored if two cuts were performed one after another
  • Added system which triggers corner cut violation when player touches cones placed in selected areas of each track
  • Fixed problem with corner cut detection system sometimes catching fake corner cuts under certain conditions (like next to Nürburgring GP pit exit)
  • Implemented open lobbies feature
  • Implemented “Did Not Start” status for players which were unable to start playing during gameplay stage
  • Fixed some problems with calculating gaps between players (especially on crossing start/finish line)
  • Reworked yellow flag zones system to fix some problems reported by players
  • Fixed problem with countdown time being included in telemetry data as part of first lap
  • Fixed problem where penalty warnings counter was reset when penalty is given as instant penalty
  • Fixed problem with mirrors not working correctly when “Use One Render Target for Mirrors” option was enabled
  • Fixed problem with color correction for mirrors
  • Fixed problem with incorrect players sorting when players receives give back position penalty during lap-based gameplay stage
  • Fixed edge-case scenario where corner cuts system was reset on start/finish line
  • Fixed issue with Rolling start rules sometimes ending start sequence after leader crosses start/finish line
  • Reworked speed limit parameter logic for rolling start. From now on it’s not implemented as hard limiter and player needs to manually adopt to it
  • Added possibility do configure length of both countdowns used during rolling start procedure
  • Added possibility to define minimum distance between cars during rolling start procedure
  • Fixed problem with corner cuts sometimes being ignored if player finished cutting just before the finish line
  • Added possibility to define max allowed speed and max allowed travel during grid start procedure
  • Fix yellow flag notification flickering when driving outside of track bounds

Input

  • Reworked force feedback thread loop to fix problems with inconsistent/numb force feedback feeling under certain conditions reported by players
  • Added secondary gear-up and gear-down input actions
  • Fixed issue with first direct input device axis always being scaled with an operating range instead of applying it only to steering axes
  • Fixed problems with the wheel calibration tool not resetting some settings before calibrating the wheel
  • Fixed issues with binding wheel input axis that also reports pressing a button leading to unexpected game behavior
  • Added more input presets and fixed some problems with input presets applying
  • Added possibility to enable/disable gamepad rumble in-game settings

Liveries

  • Added new Redline and Faze liveries provided by the teams
  • Updated Garage livery thumbnails
  • Fixed problems with BMW livery colors
  • Added R1 DreamHack Winter 2023 Liveries 

Audio

  • Improved Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) sounds
  • Improved Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) sounds
  • Improved Mercedes AMG GT3 sounds
  • Improved Praga R1 sounds
  • Improved Audi R8 LMS Evo II sounds
  • Optimized number of sounds playing at once by the audio system
  • Fixed some problems with disappearing sounds when playing or spectating
  • Fixes for sound bugs (missing sounds, wrong events etc.)

The new TCR cars are running on our new sound implementation system, which we will also use for all other cars in the future, expect more updates to audio in the future.

VFX

  • Lowered number of particles spawned during collisions

UI

  • Fixed some problems with UI refreshing in replays
  • Added scrollable texts in places where texts might overflow
  • Option selectors are looping when last option gets selected
  • Adjusted tire and brake temperatures display to show the data about temperatures more accurately
  • Implemented leaderboards menu
  • Improved how long strings are displayed on game UI
  • Implemented On HUD engine state indicators
  • Fixed some problems with replay / spectator UI
  • Adjusted penalty messages to always include time gained on corner cut
  • Added possibility to change opacity of proximity radar
  • Added possibility to quickly change slider values with keyboard / controller
  • Fixed problem with minimaps sometimes displaying markers for disconnected players
  • Fixed some problems with players not being able to navigate between tabs with mouse
  • “Press any key” popup on game launch can be closed with mouse click

Network

  • Improved collision behavior between cars when playing online

Spectator/Replay System

  • Improved accuracy of recorded replay data by better time synchronization between clients and server
  • Improved performance when spectating races
  • Improved performance when scrubbing replays
  • Changed the way of displaying “ghost” cars when spectating servers with R1-like qualifying mode
  • Fixed issue with driver’s head being visible on interior camera during replay playback
  • Fix for disappearing audio when scrubbing between stages in replays
  • Fixed issue where vehicles that were not locally controlled during replay recording would not be located in a proper position in replay after scrubbing
  • Fixed a problem with players sometimes not being allowed to spectate while sitting in pits
  • Changed replay naming convention to avoid problems with replay files being overridden

Known Issues

  • Rolling Start Limitations:
    • No UI to aid player in what their position/speed in the rolling start should be
    • UI position warning for P1 & P2 drivers can flicker 
  • If master volume slide is at 20 or lower, engine sound is not audible in Porsche 911 GT3 R
  • Garage will only display the “allowed” cars that are selected in the single player tab.
    • Workaround if you can’t see the newly added cars: Go to “Single Player”, “Quick session”, select “Drivers” go to “Allowed Cars” and then select all the cars. 

UNDER THE HOOD – 2023-11-17

Racers! It’s been a while since we did our last update. But today, we want to talk a bit about what is going on here at RENNSPORT. Since we launched the closed beta, we’ve been hard at work on making improvements to the core game while also working on new content. We know it’s been a while since we added anything to the game, so without further ado, here are some things that are coming in the next beta update on November 24, 2023. Note that some of this might change and that every single thing coming is not listed here, but this is what we’re aiming for. 

Introducing, RENNSPORT 1.6.0-beta

Let’s get the elephant out of the room first. 

Physics

We’ve gone through everything to tune and make the general driving experience better. Every single car has been touched and some of them are very different from what you can experience right now. For example, the Praga R1 does have significant downforce now and behaves more like a car of this type should behave. To give you a better understanding, here is Krzysztof from our development team: 

Hello, 

We’ve been focusing on three main topics related to physics and driving as a whole over the last few months, let’s have a look at them: 

  • The first thing we noticed is that some parameters we received from the real-life car data seemed not to work as expected when we put them into the simulation. We identified some problems which occurred during the real data-to-sim translation process. We’ve fixed many of them, so the cars you are driving after this update are more like you would expect them to be.
  • The second thing we spent our time on was improving the tire behaviour. In the past, we received a lot of complaints about them from players and R1 drivers. Now all of the tires used by cars in our game have been tweaked to give players better results in terms of feeling.
  • The third thing which we have spent some time on is adding more data to our force feedback output. The way it used to work lacked some detailed information and there was no feeling when you’re about to lose control over your car. This one is still being worked on but, we’ll be able to release it in one of the upcoming patches soon. 

It’s quite hard to explain the significance of these tweaks, but you will notice them right after the update hits on November 24th. 


Thank you, Krzysztof! So, what else is coming? There are new cars, new tracks and new features that we’ve been working hard on for the last couple of months, let’s break them down by category: 

New features

  • New stats 
  • Leaderboards
  • Rolling Starts

Some of these features are minor updates to the experience while others are new ways to interact with the game. New stats and leaderboards will be visible in your profile, some online races will now be with rolling starts. The rolling starts, like everything else in the beta, is constantly being tweaked, after the update is live we will do a focused feedback gathering on the Discord to hear your feedback.

New tracks

  • Daytona
  • Road Atlanta 

As you might have already seen in ESL R1, we’ve made it across the Atlantic to include two iconic US tracks; Daytona and Road Atlanta. Both are unique in their own ways and great additions to our growing tracklist. For this update, we’re focusing on the Road Course of Road Atlanta, with the Oval being saved for something else… 

New cars

  • [REDACTED]
  • [REDACTED]

We won’t spoil it just yet! But, a completely new car class will be introduced in RENNSPORT next week! There will be a Beta Trailer premiering during the ESL R1 Pre-Show on Friday, November 24th, with the update released shortly after the livestream. This marks the biggest update we’ve done so far, by quite a lot. To dig into everything, read up on the patch notes the day the update is live. 

What else you are asking yourself right now? Well, a couple of things.

Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland

Some other exciting news! Today (actually like 20 minutes ago as of writing this) it was officially revealed that the next season of Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland will be held on RENNSPORT. There is €25,000 on the line and it is going to start very soon! We recently added the Cup car that will be used in this competition into the closed beta, and we’re stoked to have even more use for it now. In the coming week, we will share more details together with Porsche, how to register, what the format looks like and more, so stay tuned!

Discord Talking Session

Last week we held our third Discord Talking Session! Lucas, Jan and Morris got together to talk about what’s been going on at RENNSPORT for the last year (!). It was a good talk and if you have the time you should listen in. We’ve also committed to doing a talking session at least once per quarter in 2024, with the first one coming in January already, more information on that in due course.

Keys. Keys. Keys. 

There wouldn’t be much of a beta update without a massive key drop right? You might have seen on our social media accounts that on November 24, we’re dropping 15,000 brand-new closed beta keys. We will also make sure that anyone who signed up in 2022 will have a key before the end of the year. We are also getting ready to talk about the open beta… soon. 

Keep an eye on your mailbox next Friday!

ESL R1 Major at Dreamhack Sweden

The fall season is coming to an end! Next week we’ll be watching the best sim racing drivers battle it out to close this season, and also ESL R1 for the year. If you happen to be located near Jönköping in Sweden, swing by, we’ll have a couple of rigs set up where you can experience the latest beta update and have a chat with our team.

https://dreamhack.com/winter/

I think that’s it for now. We have another update coming in December, so expect to hear more soon. In the meantime, catch you trackside. 

-Kim

Game Update – 2023-09-22 (Patch Notes Beta 1.4.0)

New content

  • Added Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992)

Gameplay

  • Modified checkpoints detection code to improve accuracy of lap time calculation system

UI

  • Changed tabs order in main menu

Introducing the Porsche Esports Carrera Cup Challenge – Road to Hockenheim in RENNSPORT.

With the 1.4.0 update to RENNSPORT we have a new car and a new way to compete in the game; the Porsche Esports Carrera Cup Challenge Road to Hockenheim.

Overview

We are excited to bring you our first ever hot lap competition in RENNSPORT! The Porsche Esports Carrera Cup Challenge – Road to Hockenheim! Starting September 22, 21:00 CEST, you will be able to set your fastest laps in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car at the Hockenheimring for a chance to win an exclusive experience together with Porsche and RENNSPORT. 

How the enter

You need to have access to the RENNSPORT Closed Beta to be able to enter. Don’t have a key yet? Sign up for a chance to receive one. 

The Porsche Esports Carrera Cup Challenge – Road to Hockenheim will be held from September 22, 2023 to October 5th, 2023 on RENNSPORT. To enter the competition, simply sign up to the contest named PECCC – Road to Hockenheim. These contests will be held daily, several times per day. Leaderboards are updated automatically and can be viewed in the RENNSPORT App.

How it works

One track and one car is available for this event: 

  • Hockenheimring
  • Porsche 911 GT3 Cup

Tyres will refresh on every lap, meaning you can keep driving without worrying about degradation or managing tyre temperatures. Same goes for fuel load, every lap will reset you to the initial load for the fastest lap possible.

How to win

After October 6th, the three drivers with the fastest recorded laps are considered winners of the Porsche Esports Carrera Cup Challenge – Road to Hockenheim and will be contacted for confirmation and given further details.

Prize

The top three drivers will win an experience at the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland finals together with Porsche, on October 22. Included in the experience:

  • Taxi Rides
  • Paddock Tour
  • Meet the Drivers
  • Gridwalk

More details will be given to the winners.

IMPORTANT: To be eligible for winning you must be a registered citizen of a European country and at least 18 years of age. 

Terms and Conditions 

All drivers that enter the Porsche Esports Carrera Cup Challenge – Road to Hockenheim must agree to abide by the Terms and conditions.

Game Update – 2023-08-28 (Patch Notes Beta 1.3.4)

General

  • Introduced fix for game freezing (and crashing) due to potential deadlocks encountered by the RenderThread
  • Fixed issue with vehicles sometimes becoming invisible for the owning players for modes with players being hidden from each other
  • Fixed problem with car wheels picking color from objects nearby
  • Increased max allowed connection bandwidth between server and clients

Liveries

  • Updated R1 liveries’ thumbnails
  • Fixed problem with Team Redline liveries not using correct IDs

Tracks

General

  • Updated banners on all available tracks

Nürburgring

  • Fixed problems with culling when using non-epic video settings

UI

  • In-game leaderboards can now show 15 players before switching to “compressed” mode
  • Incident points for followed player are not displayed to spectators
  • Fixed problem with yellow flag warning sometimes not displaying text correctly

Game Update – 2023-08–17 (Patch Notes)

Game

Physics

  • Reduced lag effect felt by players caused by recent changes in vehicle movement algorithm
  • Disabled anti-stall for Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, BMW M4 GT3 2022, Mercedes-AMG GT3 2020 and Porsche 992 GT3R
  • Reduced rear wing drag for BMW M4 GT3 2022
  • Updated default setups for BMW M4 GT3 and Mercedes-AMG GT3
  • Fixed problems with misfunctioning auto clutch
  • Introduced 3 km/h minimum speed threshold to activate antilock brake system
  • Forced automatic clutch to be always enabled when automatic engine starter is enabled
  • Added engine autostarter selector to auto clutch step of pedals calibration popup. Moved engine autostarter selector close to auto clutch selector on driving aids module of gameplay options

Input

  • Added possibility to define 2 input axes for clutch, throttle and brake inputs (NOTE: You need to reset your input settings for input axes scaling to work properly)

Tracks

Hockenheimring
  • Updated track bounds (T1 exit to old system, finetuning all corridors to avoid false positives)
Monza
  • Updated track bounds (finetuning all corridors to avoid false positives)
Nürburgring
  • Updated track bounds (T8/T9 kerb counts as track, T11 exit kerb counts as track, finetuning all corridors to avoid false positives)
  • Fixed some problems with banners
Spa
  • Fixed problems with culling for some objects

Liveries

  • Updated team liveries for R1 fall season (note: this is still work in progress, so there might be small errors for now, like R1 logo on Apex’ car or spelling Nikodem’s name and liveries may appear twice. Another update will follow before the season.)

Sounds

  • Lowered and adjusted curb volume , Porsche 992 GT3R Gear whine adjusted and lowered in overall Volume

RENNSPORT UNDER THE HOOD – 2023-08-08

Racers! Summer is here, but that doesn’t stop us from just spending as much time driving racing games as humanely possible, right? Here at RENNSPORT, we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes to bring out the first major beta update!

But before that, I just wanted to take this moment to thank everyone who has been driving in the beta, testing out our cars and tracks and battling it out with other players across the world. We are getting valuable feedback every day and together with you we aim to make RENNSPORT the best racing game out there. 

Since our last update, a lot has been going on internally here. You might have seen the GoodWood trailer that featured an upcoming car, the Porsche 963, our first LMDh! We will have more to share on this in the future, but for now, you can have a look at the beautiful trailer:

We’ve also been working hard at the beta and right now we’re getting ready to launch our first update, and it’s a big one. And it’s coming today!

Beta Update August 8th!

Since we opened the doors to the closed beta back in June, we’ve heard your cravings for more content. So, more content coming up.

Here is a summary of what arrives in RENNSPORT today.

  • New car: Praga R1
  • New track: 8ETA 
  • Damage V1
  • Updated curb sound
  • Updated BMW M4 GT3 sound
  • Updated Porsche 992 GT3 R (992) sound
  • Improved cut detection
  • Improved movement correction algorithm

So, what does all this mean? One new car and two new tracks open for more diverse gameplay. We’ve developed this car in the game directly with the experts at Praga, and it is a very fun car to drive in RENNSPORT. We will have dedicated online races with full Praga grids, starting today. As we teased in the last UNDER THE HOOD (are we ready to call it UtH?) we will also release a very special track called 8ETA, created because of the “Only 8 Beta Keys” memes that flooded our Discord when we released the beta. This track is… crazy, there is no other way to put it. Give it a go, upload your best clips, tag us on social media and most importantly, be ready for carnage!

The improved cut detection system is something we’ve been working hard on, let’s have a look on what goals we set up to achieve:

  • More reliability
  • More transparency
  • Less unrealistic driving

Let’s break these goals down a bit:

More reliability
The current cut detection system used the middle of the tyre as a detection point. Now, the outside of the tyre is relevant. This way, the game can detect accurately, if a driver still is on the white line or not. As a consequence of this change, all cut corridors needed to be redrawn.

More transparency
The track limits are now based on the white lines (part of 2 tyres on the white line = always legal). In corner exits, when a kerb is followed by tarmac runoff, we allow 2 wheels on kerb, and 2 wheels beyond. In places where there is a clear green area, we allow the whole green area to be used. In places where there are no clear markings, we placed cones or bollards to make it easier to understand.

Less unrealistic driving
We have noticed that the game allows for some lines that are never used in professional motorsports. The end of the qualifying lap at Monza was the most obvious example, where drivers run close to the pitwall, but also on many corner exits, we have seen that it is faster to have two wheels on the gravel. Therefore, we needed to tighten the track limits in these places for now.

In addition, we have implemented a calculation that RENNSPORT can determine if you gain time or not when you leave the track boundaries. The system is very customisable in the backend and allows for many different consequences for different severities such as slowdowns, incident points, warnings and so on. Throughout the next weeks, we will try some different configurations to find the best settings.

Also starting today, we have our first implementation of a damage system. Since there are no ways to repair damage at the moment, we will have it enabled on all tracks in multiplayer, expect for the new 8ETA track for reasons you will understand when driving it. This is a very first version of the damage feature in RENNSPORT, we want your feedback to keep improving and will test it in several ways during the beta.

So, that last point. Improved movement correction algorithm? This is quite the change, and far too complex for me to to explain, but lets just say, close racing just got closer, and it looks amazing. You will experience it for yourself when driving with the new update.

What about the rest? Updated sounds? We got them. New tyre rotation animation? You bet! Bug fixes? Plenty!

I won’t go through all details here; we have patch notes for that.

Get in there, drive, tell us what you like and don’t like. If you don’t have beta access yet, go to www.rennsport.gg/beta to sign up.

ESL R1 x Gamers8 x RENNSPORT

Some of the team just came back from our first ESL R1 x Gamers8 in Riyadh, and what a show it was! Probably the best looking esport stage ever seen. Four consecutive days of intense racing where we saw Maximilian Benecke win the driver’s championship and the Porsche Coanda Esports Team being crowned winners in the Team Championship. This was a mid-season event with a whooping price pool of 1 million US dollars. You read that right, 1. Million. Dollars. Insert Dr. Evil meme here.

Even though we just brushed off the celebration confetti from Gamers8, the fall season of ESL R1 starts by the end of August, and it’s going to be even more spectacular than the spring season. For full schedule and details, visit www.eslr1.com. The autumn major will be held at Dreamhack Winter in Jönköping, Sweden, and if you are close by in late November you should come up and say hi!

That’s it for this UtH (It’s growing on me). I will be taking some time off In Sweden in the coming weeks, but as soon as I am back, I will be in those Praga lobbies every single day making a fool out of myself. I hope you’re excited about the coming update and I hope to see you in our Discord, sounding off your feedback with the rest of our inspiring community. 

It’s time for me to box, box box, I will catch you online in RENNSPORT soon.

Kim

Game Update – 2023-08–08 (Patch Notes)

Game

  • Physics
    • Implemented Praga R1 physics
    • Implemented V1 damage system for all available cars
    • Changed upshift time for Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)
    • Equalised fuel consumption for all GT3 cars
    • Updated default setup files for all Beta-included GT3 cars
    • Adjusted default BoP for BMW M4 GT3 2022, Mercedes-AMG_GT3 2020 and Porsche 911 (992) GT3 R
  • Multiplayer
    • Reworked remote cars movement algorithm for better online multiplayer experience
    • Fixed problem with cars sometimes being spawned in the air and moved down to spawn point at gameplay stage start

  • Gameplay
    • Improved checkpoint times accuracy
    • Reworked corner cut detection systems for better flexibilities when giving penalties
    • Fixed bugs related to corner cutting

  • Input
    • Added predefined input profiles for some devices
    • Added possibility to turn car with mouse input

  • Spectator / replays
    • Improved replay and spectator functionalities for better visual experience

  • Animations
    • Improved driver animations

  • Audio
    • Fixed some issues with some sounds disappearing in certain conditions
    • Updated BMW M4 GT3 car sounds
    • Updated Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) sounds
    • Updated curb sounds
    • Added UI button sounds
    • Fixed some problems with Porsche 911 (992) GT3 R sounds
    • Fixed some problems with curb sounds
    • Fixed some problems with UI sounds
  • UI
    • Added timer showing how much time player has left to be ready before being disqualified from the race
    • Changed tire temperature display UI to show more accurate tire temps
    • Fixed some problems with player history menu
    • Fixed problem with clipping lists in lobbies
    • Loading screen should no longer stop animating in final stage of loading
    • Fixed displaying information about damage in contest preview
    • Fixed problem with damage multiplier in singleplayer being cleared for milestone builds

Art / Tracks / Car Visuals

  • Updated wheel rotation blur effect

RENNSPORT UNDER THE HOOD – 2023-06-21

Hey racers, 

Before we begin, let me introduce myself, my name is Kim and I work within the communications department at RENNSPORT. As an avid gamer and sim racer since a very young age, I am very excited about what we’re building here; expect to hear more from me in the future.

Now that we have the Closed Beta running and the game is in more than 8 people’s hands, we thought it would be time to start doing regular updates on the game’s development here on the website.

Welcome to UNDER THE HOOD!

We’re looking at this as a monthly deep dive into what is happening in the RENNSPORT world.  Now, let’s dive into the juicy parts.

First and foremost, to read the latest patch notes, click here.

Second, did you watch our Closed Beta Trailer yet? Here it is. Enjoy.


Today we will talk about the following:

  • RENNSPORT Rating
  • Safety Rating
  • Split System
  • Race Calendar
  • The RENNSPORT Summit 2023
  • 8ETA

The first update to the RENNSPORT Closed Beta is here, and it introduces multiplayer and our ranking system. During the Closed Beta period, we can test our systems in the wild and welcome all your feedback. The multiplayer sessions available now are a chance for us to monitor and for you to try out our systems. Let’s all have some fun together

As a part of this fun, any mileage you put into the car you picked when you first registered will be saved in your account, in the beta and beyond. You can also access any liveries you collected via stream drops or other activities to differentiate yourself from others.


RENNSPORT Rating (RR)

Let’s start with the RENNSPORT Rating. This is our ranking system for players. Everyone in the Closed Beta starts at RR 1500 and will increase or decrease based on your race results. Higher rating = a better racer. At least this is the ambition, but remember that this is still a Closed Beta, and several systems are still subject to change.

The rating is based on the Elo system from chess and is designed to bring players of similar skill together in a race. It is purely based on the race results. Winning against higher-rated players will award more points than winning against lower-rated players. As a rule of thumb, you can expect to gain a rating if you finish in the top half of the leaderboard, although there are some edge cases where this is not the case. Generally, the higher you finish, the more rating points you will gain.

If the race cannot be completed because of a technical issue on the server side, ratings are not updated. However, if a client disconnects during a race, the rating will still be updated based on the final leaderboard.

There will be unranked races during the beta at a later stage, which do not affect the RR.


Safety Rating (SR)

The second rating we have in the game is the Safety Rating. It indicates a player’s race craft and will increase or decrease based on how safe a driver’s racing style is. Everyone starts at SR 1.00. Getting penalties and being involved in incidents will lower the rating, while driving a clean race will increase it. 

We are testing these systems during the beta to ensure they work the way we intend, and we might reset the values at any given time. The ratings will also be reset when the beta ends and RENNSPORT moves into full release.

SR and RR will only be updated if at least three cars participate in a race.


Race Calendar

When multiplayer gets added, you will have direct access to the race calendar, where you can find the multiplayer contests set up by our team. There will be various races every day at a fixed time interval. Every week there will be a set of new combinations of tracks and cars to choose from. Let’s dig into what everything on this screen means:

On the top left, you have the calendar; click on any day to see what races are available. On the bottom left, you can filter out the race you want based on cars and rules. In the middle box, you see the races coming up in chronological order, how many people have already registered,  what the format is (P=Practice, Q=Qualifying, R=Race), and what track it is. You have a summary of the selected race in the box to the right. 

If you want to be notified when a race is about to start if you’re practising that last sector at Spa (like I need to do every single day), you can enable the notification by pressing the “Notify Me” button in the lower right corner but, don’t forget to register as well which you can do 30 minutes before the race starts.

You can also see races on the RENNSPORT app and choose to get notified before the race start directly in the app.

There are more things that the app is usable for, like checking in your car collection, liveries, and upcoming ESL R1 streams. To download, use the links:

For the first week, there will be races on four tracks, Monza, Spa, Hockenheim and Nürburgring, with the following GT3 cars: Audi, Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW. There will be a new race every 30 minutes. To be eligible to join a race, you must register within the race calendar. There will be some differences in these races, like qualifying rules and race length, and we would appreciate your feedback on which combinations you liked the most and what you would like to see in the coming weeks.


Split System

After the contest registration period has ended, the grid is separated into splits based on each driver’s RR. For each split, the driver with the highest rating is assigned car number 1; the second highest is given number 2. Soon we will also enable you to create your contests in the game with the parameters and cars you want, but more on that in the coming weeks. 

All in all, this is a beta; we are still testing, and we want you to try with us. Join the multiplayer sessions with an open mind and have fun with other eager races, and don’t forget to give us your feedback on the official RENNSPORT Discord. 


Summit Report

Oh boy. The RENNSPORT Summit 2023 was mad! We officially showed off the Closed Beta Trailer, we had CEO Morris on stage talking about RENNSPORT (did you see the parts about modding yet?), and we had a spectacular ending to the Spring Season of ESL R1 with Marcell Csincsik of R8G crowned as the first-ever champion of ESL R1. It was great to see so many community members coming to Munich to participate in it and all the conversations happening online. We also let some of the sim racing content creators out there have a go at the latest build of the game which resulted in great content and reactions; here are a few for you to enjoy:


More than 8 Closed Beta Keys

As the week progress, we’re sending out more and more keys to the closed beta, and while we won’t share just yet how many keys are floating about in the wild, we are coming up to 60,000 (!) registrations to go through, so bear with us while we increase our capacity. If you’re not already on the waiting list, register here . We know the memes. We know we’re now forever tied to the number 8 (which accidentally also is our company logo). We have sent more than 8 closed beta keys out, we promise. The official RENNSPORT Discord had a blast, and so did we. Here are some of our favorite memes…

As a result of this, we have something special coming up… Let me be the first to show you. 8ETA.


A track. That is an 8. Like the 8 Beta keys? 8ETA? Pretty wild, huh? When and if you can play this, we will share more news in the future.

This wraps up the first UNDER THE HOOD, and I hope you enjoyed it and that some of your questions have been answered in what to expect with the next beta update. Next time we will talk about the upcoming steps of the beta and dive into the topic of modding a bit more. If you still need more, jump in on our Discord channel, be greeted by our superb moderators, and share some conversations with the best memers in the world; looking at you, Wolf of no Key…

As a final note, please note that if you’re on the lower spectrum of our recommended hardware, perfomance might be different driving in multiplayer compared to single player. If this is the case for you, adjust your settings in the in-game menu to have a smoother experience.

So there it is, multiplayer is now live and we hope you will have fun with it. And, let me repeat myself, this is a beta, expect some parts to not work as intended and be vocal with your feedback on our Discord!

Until next time drivers, see you online.

Kim

Game Update – 2023-06-21 – (Patch Notes)

General
– Added possibility to join scheduled multiplayer races from the game
– Added race history screen to player profile
– Fixed problems with driver’s animations
– Fixed problems with loading screen disapperaring too quickly
– Added animation when new penalty is given to player
– Fixed some problems with displaying car mileage in game

Racetracks
– Optimisation and visual improvements

Huge growth of RENNSPORT Discord channel continues

More than 10k international members joined the server already.

We are super glad about what has happened on our Discord server so far. Thank you all for the great support and valuable exchange!

Community management has undergone a real transformation in recent years due to the growing interest in games and Esports. Discord as the most used platform offers us as a publisher many opportunities to interact with you. This is a very powerful and helpful option that allows us to get first-hand impressions of what sim racing fans really care about. Since we made our Discord server public, we’ve seen a steady increase in members. By signing up for the Closed Beta waiting list, you became part of our Closed Beta waiting room on Discord, where we constantly interacted with you ever since. Our development team can incorporate your input into the development process. It’s great to see how active you all are when it comes to various polls or discussions about features of the sim.

Going along with our claim of creating the future of virtual racing together with you we hosted our first ever Discord Talking Session on Friday, October 28. During that our CEO Morris sat down with our Lead of Game Development, Krzysztof, and Lucas from the Marketing Team to give you some insights about the current development phase, previews to the Closed Beta and further content releases. They also answered some frequently asked questions of the Discord community. But as there were already a lot of questions handed in before via our Discord #questions channel we couldn’t answer all the live questions of the session. But don’t worry, there will be another session coming up soon. You can watch the whole and uncut video of our Discord Talking Session here.

If you haven’t already, sign up for our Closed Beta Waitlist and become part of the RENNSPORT Community now here

Make sure to also follow our Social Media channels in order not to miss potential Closed Beta Key drops. See you around!