If you ever played Papyrus’ seminal Grand Prix Legends then you’ve read his name. Rich began working as a tester on NASCAR Racing (1994) and was with Papyrus at the end. In this interview, published in 2022, we discuss his time at the legendary studio and the design of Grand Prix Legends, including initial feelings of hurt at not being asked to join iRacing.
Asobo, known today as the Microsoft Flight Simulator developer, created groundbreaking technology for large scale maps that was intended to be used in a high quality rally raid title. It was never released and ended up as FUEL, a post-apocalyptic open-world racing game. What happened?
After skipping a roadmap update last month (they still released a major update), Reiza are back to regularly scheduled programming and another monthly roadmap. This one confirms some superb content is coming to the title, and I will break down the roadmap below:
– Racing USA Expansion Pack Part 1 (of 3) DLC to be released late this month for $12.99 USD, including GTE class Porsche 911 RSR, BMW M8 and Corvette C8R, along with the Cadillac DPI-R prototype.
– Racing USA Expansion Park Part 1 DLC will also include WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Long Beach and Daytona International Speedway. (screenshots below)
– Racing USA Expansion Pack Parts 2 and 3 (content not yet announced) expected before the end of the year.
– Driver suits and helmets will be customized for each era (t-posed character render image below).
– AI personalities are coming. Some will be good in the wet, some will be able to manage tires better than others.
– Gamepad support to be improved as requested.
– Older track content is undergoing a performance pass which should improve framerates on tracks released first.
– Audio developments should improve richness while decreasing CPU usage.
– Car and track shaders being re-worked, including to work with weather (see directly below).
– Weather system will be able to give live weather along with weather from a database going back 40 years. Track art will then vary accordingly with orange trees in the autumn, etc. (screenshots below). Will require ~20GB of additional storage space.
– Custom championships is next major (May) update.
– Community events (races, specific timetrials) should be starting up in the next few weeks.
I do think it’s a good idea to read the roadmap if you are interested in the history of Reiza as a studio. They started out modding rFactor, and looking back at Grand Prix Classics is an interesting insight. They also cover quite nicely the topic of licensing and why they add cars and tracks to the software in the way they do – it’s not as random as it can sometimes appear.
USA DLC Screenshots:
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