GeneRally 2 News

Welcome to the September 2024 Community Update! Here you can read the latest news about development - primarily what we've been working on recently; and what you can expect to see in upcoming patches.

To join the discussion, as well as get more info direct from the development team, you can join us on Discord!


We're always hard at work on different features and fixes - and here are a few of the things we've been working on this month, but aren't yet finished. As always, you can check out the roadmap for more information.

• Online Multiplayer - Core functionality is complete. We are now focusing on fixes and UI. See below for a video of Online Multiplayer in action!
• UI Update - We'll have more information on this in a separate blog post, soon!
  
• AI Update - We're in the process of making the AI smarter and nicer to race against - early feedback from testers is good!
  
• Next Cars - The next two cars are in progress at the moment - we'll have more news about them in the coming months.
  

Due to the work on multiplayer, and the recently-released patch, there's currently nothing waiting for the next update - but we're still hard at work!



Last Friday (20.9.2024) we conducted our first Online Multiplayer Test with a few GeneRally 2 community members. We were aiming to validate the work and testing we've been doing internally for several months now, and make sure that there were no obvious, major issues with the core multiplayer functionality. We were able to conduct about 20 different races, with players from the USA, Australia, UK and Finland - and the results were really positive!

Below is a short video showing a few of our races. You may be able to notice a few small glitches (such as a flying road cone or two), but by-and-large it's running nicely. This video is recorded by the host, and performance on the clients can be a little different, depending upon latency!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We'll be conducting the next multiplayer test this week (27.9.2024), to test out fixes to those small problems. From there, we will aim to finish the multiplayer UI, and then move on to expanding the tests. Stay tuned on Discord for more information about that!

This update introduces some small new features, and fixes several smaller issues.

• Completely rewrote the AI pit-decision logic to improve race strategies and pitting behaviour.
  
• Adjusted several car colliders to improve car-to-car collisions.
  
• FIXED: Follow camera no longer zooms out excessively on tracks with a very low camera height.
  

• Automatically smooth height maps when importing from PNG.
  

• Added Japanese language localisation (thanks to Hiroshi Ashida).
  
• Small improvements to main menu performance.
  
• Fuel and tyre bars are now greyed out when they are set to 0% in the race settings.
  
• Fixed decimal values in times not being localised correctly.
  
• Moved the driver race blocks towards the top of the screen for increased visibility.
  

• The main menu sometimes experiences distortions or other rendering issues - changing resolution, or restarting the game may rectify the issue.
  
• Occasionally, when in Windowed mode, changing the language multiple times in quick succession can shrink the game window.
  

Welcome to the August 2024 Community Update! We'll be posting these regular, short-form posts with news and information about development - primarily what we've been working on recently; and what you can expect to see in upcoming patches.

To join the discussion, as well as get more info direct from the development team, you can join us on Discord!


We're always hard at work on different features and fixes - and here are a few of the things we've been working on this month, but aren't yet finished. As always, you can check out the roadmap for more information.

• Online Multiplayer - Core functionality is complete. We are now focusing on fixes and UI.
  
• UI Update - We'll have more information on this in a separate blog post, soon!
  
• AI Update - We're in the process of making the AI smarter and nicer to race against.
  
• Next Car - The next car is in the process of having its model finalised, and its textures tweaked.
  

These are things that we've been working on, and are either undergoing final testing or are "ready to release". We'll be including these in the next game update.

• AI - The AI pitting logic has been completely rewritten and is significantly improved.
  
• Physics - Changes have been made to open-wheel car colliders to make them more driveable.
  
• UI - We made tweaks to the menu UI performance, and small changes to the in-race UI.
  
• Height Map Import Smoothing - PNG height maps are now smoothed when imported.
  
• Follow Camera - The follow camera no longer zooms out excessively at some tracks.
  
• Japanese Localisation - Thanks to Hiroshi Ashida, the Japanese localisation is complete.
  

This update includes a variety of AI fixes, a few physics fixes, and some new objects and object variants!

• AI now calculate the fuel they need to finish in a more "human-like" fashion.
  
• Adjusted tyre wear calculation to reduce AI advantage.
  
• Improved the low-speed turning behaviour of the Drift and Lightning.
  
• FIXED: AI no longer drive through the pits on the last lap unnecessarily.
  
• FIXED: Edges of bridge models now cause significantly less "bouncing".
  
• FIXED: AI should no longer have a disadvantage in certain grid slots (hopefully).
  

• Added new coloured variants of the various armco barriers.
  
• Added a new Chain Link Fence object.
  

• The main menu sometimes experiences distortions or other rendering issues - changing resolution, or restarting the game may rectify the issue.
  
• Occasionally, when in Windowed mode, changing the language multiple times in quick succession can shrink the game window.
  

This update includes a new car, some new objects, and a variety of physics-related fixes. It's part one of the the two-part patch, which includes the new UI update.

• Added a new car: Drift.
  
• Added a new track: CherryDrifter.
  
• Smoothed fuel and tyre wear calculations to help reduce any disadvantage from using keyboard input.
  
• Separated throttle and brake inputs.
  
• Speed limiter areas are now more aggressively enforced.
  
• Adjusted the handling of the Lightning, to give it a more weighty feel.
  
• Small adjustments to the General and Formula's colliders.
  
• Small adjustments to the wheel behaviour when colliding with the terrain.
  
• FIXED: Particles no longer remain on the terrain when moving to the next track in a Championship.
  
• FIXED: Cones no longer slide down the terrain when restarting a race.
  
• FIXED: AI no longer start slowly when they start off the racing line.
  
• FIXED: Reverse grids now apply in the first race, too.
  

• Added new snowy variants of the Birch tree and Hedge.
  
• Added Cherry Blossom trees (in two colour variants).
  
• FIXED: Bridges no longer cause a bump at the edges.
  

• The main menu sometimes experiences distortions or other rendering issues - changing resolution, or restarting the game may rectify the issue.
  
• Occasionally, when in Windowed mode, changing the language multiple times in quick succession can shrink the game window.