The Feature Request Thread...

I don't know if it already has been suggested or not:

But I think that the skyboxes could be improved. This could be an huge visual upgrade, with not much performance loss since it are just a couple of textures.

The current clouds are REALLY low resolution and in VR: some of 2d sprite-clouds "above you" rotate together with the head movement. This looks really akward in VR.. removing these weird most near rendered clouds would already be an improvement because of this weird rotation effect and it's low resolution.

The skies cover a huge area of what you see during races, especially with the more open tracks, so it could be worth the time investment.

I understand that resources of the graphic-devs are limited and that there are many things still on the list (many old tracks still got 2D trees, 3D trees would have priority over the skyboxes first I would guess), but it's maybe something to think about.

 

I hope one day for Multiplayer we will get an option for multiclass race to set a class to be exclusively driven by AI. I wanted to do an LMDh for players only and GT3 AI only race and there was no way to make it happen, AI is assigned randomly. Offline this option exists to set exact numbers but not for online right now.

 

Although in-game mid-race saves have been requested repeatedly, I reckon something has been dreadfully overlooked in this area... and I have a genuine solution which I honestly believe could come in handy...

Firstly, a bit of background:

You see, people (being people) oftentimes overlook how long it takes to save a game file, and that's understandable. But for guys like me who have been playing this game for quite some hours now (personally approaching the 10hours < PLAYTIME HOURS < 50,000hours milestone as we speak!), the actual process of saving a game can be quite a daunting prospect, simply owing to how much time it takes to save a game nowadays (and not in the S.O.S/ Mayday-Mayday, kinda way, either).

Sometimes, you end up finding yourself just staring at a blank save screen or, if you're lucky, a swirly swirling logo-thingy of some design (which, quite oddly, does seem to take the sting out of things and tame the impatience) as the game takes its sweet time to save its little self, and all of that just so the player can resume from where they left off because, you know, to start over from scratch every time you play the game is just asking too much really (here's looking at you, 80's gaming! - thanks for nothing).
Thankfully, the days of being presented with 'level passcodes' which allow the player to load into a level by simply entering a string of characters are well behind us...

Hold up!!!

It's actually just occured to me: we haven't in fact moved beyond level passcodes, have we?

It's just that nowadays the 'passcodes' don't necessarily have to relate to individually discrete levels anymore... we can generate 'level passcodes' at any time to save our game progress at any point... but it's just that now they get presented to us in smartly presented, tidy looking save game windows instead of some seemingly nonsensical string of characters, a la 1993's The Lost Vikings (MSTR, for instance).

Because, technically, that's all a save file is, isn't it? Just some letters and numbers which record your game state at the time of the save so it can be loaded back up again at a later date to be able to allow the player to resume from where they left things earlier, if they even wish to actually do so or not, as the case may or may not actually be...

Anyway, with all this being said, I suggest that, in this modern age, things take a significant step forward: for too long we have wasted our time looking at odd icons spinning through 360 degrees or a moving line which provides the false hope that the save process is linear and that as it gets closer to filling the bar within which it resides, surely, just a few seconds remain until it achieves total completion... only to be left waiting for a further, not uncommonly disproportionate amount of time for that tiny fraction of the bar to fill up...

Enough! I say... and so, on to my proposition:


MID-SAVE SAVES

That is to say - a feature which allows for the option of saving your game-save experience 'mid-save' so that you can then return to continue saving your precious mid-race game-save at a time of your choosing (which should, needless to say, probably be at a time which occured after the initial game-save process was initially initiated), thus allowing the user to then choose when to return to continue saving their game-save instead of having to wait around before they're able to, say, close the application in which the game-save process is being undertaken in order to get on with other computer-based tasks which may have been difficult to get on with owing to the copious amounts of computer resource required to save the mid-race game-save and which would have, therefore, led to one's computer of choice performing at a comparitvely sluggish rate in the case of attempting to perform other computer-based tasks on said computer while the mid-race game-save action was being completed by one's computer of choice.

So there you have it: mid-save saves!

A devilishly simple concept guaranteed to save game-save save time AND your sanity... which, I'm sure, anyone of sound mind would no doubt, to an indubitably indubitable degree, agree is agreeably agreeable to a previously agreed upon agreeably agreed upon standard.

Simples!

 

Based on Game Build: 1.6.9.3 - using Quest 3, Virtual Desktop and Steam VR, 5060ti gpu.
Request Title: Feedback from new VR player - request for "VR induction" for new VR players on first VR launch.
Description: I got a Meta Quest 3 last night and started setting it up just a few things I found weird / could be improved. Some of them I had more idea about than other users from hanging about in this forum for months but i can imagine other people might get lost/ find it stressful.

Observation 1) The menus default to gaze control, which is not the way anything else in Quest 3 / Virtual Desktop works. It is possible to change it in a submenu, but we have to know about that and navigate there using gaze control.
Suggestion 1) On first launch, before anything else, it should come up with an initial choice asking us if we want to use gaze control or the mouse (or meta controllers?). If not then the mouse should be default.

Observation 2) The car doesn't react to controls! We need to go into the controls menu and click a button to copy our controls (wheel, pedals etc) from our non-VR profile.
Suggestion 2) On first launch, the controls should default to what the player had when they played outside VR (in other words that "copy" button should click itself automatically).

Observation 3) Centering the headset is tricky with the Meta finger-thumb thing as it requires taking one's hand off the wheel. Apparently I can bind a button on the wheel to do this more easily.
Suggestion 3) On first launch, perhaps as part of a walkthough, we should be invited/reminded to bind a control for this exact function as it's the main thing that really needs to change - if the person can no longer find the L key on their keyboard to turn on headlights then they know exactly what to change and where.

Observation 4) The world seems scaled down to about 80% of real size. My body seems like its less than 150 cm tall. I googled and apparently there is a scale setting so I will test that with the Volkswagen Group cars that are probably most similar to the kind of cars I've driven in real life - i might need to multiply everything by 1.25. At least online, the suggestion seems to be more common that the in-game world is too small, but others suggest multiplying by 1.1, 1.24, but some people feel the in-game world is too big. My IPD is 70mm (the max in Meta) but I don't see that would cause things to appear smaller, probably more the reverse.
Suggestion 4) On first launch, we should be invited to calibrate this exact thing (maybe sitting in a fake car that has "real life" standard-size objects like a credit card, A4 piece of paper in front of the user) and certainly be informed that calibration is possible because I didn't really guess it would be possible. Important because I imagine someone else would just conclude that its unrealistic and decide they prefer another sim that happened to scale better first time.

Observation 5) Graphics quality leads to reduced FPS. I reduced visible cars to 12 but I obviously need to follow one of the online guides to get a good framerate.
Suggestion 5) On first launch, the controls should suggest a step down in graphics compared to what the user had in non-VR (particularly if they have a significant amount of time already in non-VR), and generally give the user some tips if it sees that it is running at a lower frame rate. Maybe new VR runs should just default to something more similar to what those online guides suggest.

 

Based on Game Build: 1.6.9.3
Request Title: "Variable" as an option for detail level.
Description: I seem to remember in the 1990s it was common in sims to have "variable" as possible detail level. So you used to set the frame rate you wanted, and the sim itself would adjust the detail level of e.g. the trackside buildings to aim for the desired framerate.
Suggestion: Have an option for desired frame rate and allow "Variable priority" and "Variable not priority" as options for detail level. So for example you could say you want 72 fps put grass detail on low-priority and visible opponents on high priority and when you finish a session, if you were significantly under (say averaging less than 70 fps), then it could reduce the detail level of grass. If there were no more grass settings to reduce then it could start reducing the number of visible opponents. If the framerate was fine for several sessions then it could go in the opposite direction.

 

Based on Game Build: 1.6.9.5

Request Title: AI need to give more space to multiplayer opponents.

Description: While it has been improved in a few updates, AI racers are still crashing into non-host racers by rear ending them in braking zones and not leaving space in side by side situations.

Suggestion: AI need to leave extra space in multiplayer session to account for ping (at least I believe that's why they do this). Currently they constantly misjudge where the non-host players are and ram them off the road in breaking zones and side by side battles.
This title would be the best multiplayer with AI racing sim if this issue could be improved. I dream of doing "coop" championship seasons with friends one day.