Yeah, you read correctly. Blimey are releasing a free online multiplayer sim with the new BMW M3. As a Blimey sim it's probably not going to be all that great, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Source:
http://www.digitaldisplacement ... ng-free-bmw-m3-challenge/

oooo, cool!

This seems like it will be fun, for a full five minutes. Then it'll be just another game that its on my desktop forever.

Well, if it doesn't cost a penny, no-one has the right to complain if it's crap . I think i'll give it a go

Sadly the chances of some real BMW experts being involved is .. zero.. That means the chances of it being 'good out of the box' physics wise are pretty much zero as well. Unless a miracle happens

From the article:

"Road performance, sound and optics, as well as the detailed distance conversion of the Nürburgring, one of Europe’s most challenging race tracks, provide the player with a realistic test drive of the newest sports car under race conditions."

Do they mean the GP?

I hope the physics are reasonalbe. I don't like GTR2 becuase of the slippery feeling of physics

Quote from Eldanor :

Do they mean the GP?

Seeing as it's already been modelled then yes, Blimey are very good at regurgitating old crap and selling it as something new only difference is they won't be charging for it this time.

Quote from ajp71 :

Seeing as it's already been modelled then yes, Blimey are very good at regurgitating old crap and selling it as something new only difference is they won't be charging for it this time.

I think it will be some kind of RACE 07 standalone mod.

Quote from Eldanor :

I think it will be some kind of RACE 07 standalone mod.

Well yes, it will just be a modding limited version of RACE, only difference from the demo being a different car and track and the opportunity to race it online.

woo i hope they put mine in it
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Quote from Christofire :

Your "regurgitating old crap" is a software developers "reusable code".

Yes but if the thing your starting with has big flaws in it and is therefore crap is reused without you bothering to fix the flaws then you are by definition regurgitating crap

There's nothing majorly wrong with the ISI engine, but being spread sheet based it needs the right entries to make a realistic end result, and unfortunatley there is no documentation so it's trial and error largely and Blimey really don't seem to put physics or framerates high on the agenda, just make everything look pretty and it'll be fine.

I remember playing the 'M3 Challenge' mod for F12002. It was the best mod for the sim by far. Better than the GT2002 mod imo. Done by some chap called Neil Walker, who at one time I think was part of SBDT.

No idea if he's anything to do with it, the name is probably just coincidence, but it had a cool little community of racers who would meet up and play online, the physics felt really natural and it was all round pretty good.

Dunno ,im BMW fan. I could say that judge by the pic, atleast car bodies are very good modelled.

Quote from ajp71 :

Well yes, it will just be a modding limited version of RACE, only difference from the demo being a different car and track and the opportunity to race it online.

It can't be based excactly on RACE because it was done by "new SimBin". Blimey did GTL and GTR2 as a subcontractor for SimBin. But sure it's ISI based anyway.

Blimey is basicly the "original" SimBin dev team, half of the guys are same I guess after the team split up.

Can't whine though, free lunch is a free lunch even if it tastes mediocre.

But what the hell does this mean: "as well as the detailed distance conversion of the Nürburgring, one of Europe’s most challenging race tracks", I know what distance means but I'm not native speaker, what does that mean in this case? Hints to track length?

Seeing as the new M3 is the only BMW that appeals to me apart from the E30 and the 8 series, I say bring it on! Especially if I can get it for nought...

Quote from deggis :

It can't be based excactly on RACE because it was done by "new SimBin". Blimey did GTL and GTR2 as a subcontractor for SimBin. But sure it's ISI based anyway.

Oh I got them the wrong way round, basically SimBin and Blimey both have (from my experience of the demos) horrendously badly optimized slightly modified graphics and menus using the rF physics engine completely unchanged, apart from the implementation of rain which I think was probably done by ISI and bought off ISI by them under the condition they'd release it first (we all know there's rain in rF and the physics files have always had comments and variable to suggest it was their waiting since day 1).

Neither side of the SimBin/Blimey split has shown any real improvements over GTR1, and as a straight conversion to rF, which has identical physics, they really don't cut the mustard even with the standard, rubbish, rF mods. One thing that is noticable however is I get far better frame rates using the same cars and tracks converted to rF on high details in rF than I do when set on minimum details in GTR2/GTL/RACE demos (GTR1 just crashed on the loading screen). The fact that they've yet to produce a demo that hasn't crashed for me in certain parts of the menus is saying something, and the same people who reported the same problems with GTR1 are still reporting the same problems in GTR2 and RACE (I'm one of them) it surely can't be that taxing to make a menu system that doesn't just randomly crash can it?

Don't know, RACE demo caused my computer to boot and I had to write email from start again so I don't think that I will test this, I can see what I need from youtube when it is released

Has nobody registered the "free multiplayer" part yet?

Anybody remember what the LFS demo servers are like?

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Has nobody registered the "free multiplayer" part yet?

"Free game, but multiplayer costs" wouldn't make much sense

Quote :

Anybody remember what the LFS demo servers are like?

The horror, the horror...

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Has nobody registered the "free multiplayer" part yet?

Anybody remember what the LFS demo servers are like?

Forget about free multiplayer being bad the GTR games don't have an effective registering/banning system, which by the looks of things makes wrecking common place. I also remember watching a GTR2 online video where no one could keep it on the track and the race was basically about falling off slightly less than the others.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lna-uFBdxog
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DN8 ... ;mode=related&search=

i cant wait to see if they can pull the m3 off correctly... should be fun none the less

Quote from deggis :

But what the hell does this mean: "as well as the detailed distance conversion of the Nürburgring, one of Europe’s most challenging race tracks", I know what distance means but I'm not native speaker, what does that mean in this case? Hints to track length?

I've no idea what this means either, and english is my first language! I can only assume it's an intelligent sounding way of saying that the track will be accurately modelled.

Quote from Michael Denham :

I've no idea what this means either, and english is my first language! I can only assume it's an intelligent sounding way of saying that the track will be accurately modelled.

the only way they could do that is do what the kiado racer 2 makers done.. uber lazer retini techknollege to scan each turn in higly deatailed fashion but i cant see them closing the nuirburg ring for 4-6 months to do this

i suppose they just guess and pray it turns out alright

I'll give it a go, it surely isn't as good as LFS, but, hey, it's freeware.
And i like the car very very much.