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