Race 07

What is Race 07?

From the Wikipedia article,

Race 07 is a racing simulator computer game from SimBin Studios (later Sector3 Studios). The game is the sequel to the 2006 title Race – The Official WTCC Game. Like the original Race, the title is officially licensed by the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC). It has since spawned nine expansion packs: GTR Evolution, STCC – The Game, Race On, Formula Raceroom (which was provided free of charge), STCC – The Game 2, GT Power, WTCC 2010, The retro expansion and the final expansion to the series, Race Injection.

Race 07 features more than 300 cars in nine different racing classes. Race 07 includes the full 2006 and 2007 seasons of the FIA World Touring Car Championships (FIA WTCC) as well as 8 more classes on 14 tracks from all over the world.

Here’s a taste of the game from the trailer...

Getting Started

In Secrets, I try to focus on the non-obvious or unintuitive so I won’t be covering basics like getting the game, installing it, tweaking graphics or force feedback. You’re probably beyond that yourself so I’ll focus on the hidden and obscure things.

Getting the Game

Steam is probably your best bet. Head over to the Race 07 store page and pick up the game. It’s dirt cheap and offers really good band for the buck.

Initial Game Setup

Go ahead, setup your graphics, controls, and force feedback as you like. I don’t have any particular recommendations for the obvious in-game settings just yet. I will assume you’re like me and will play with all this stuff. This post will concern itself with stuff that isn’t immediately obvious.

Skip Intro Videos

These are always annoying, here’s how to stop them:

• Open Windows Explorer and find your Steam Library folder for the game and then find: steamapps\common\race 07\UiData\Movies
• Rename SimBin.bik to SimBin_bik
• Rename “.bik” to “_bik” for any file name with “Intro” in it.

Modernizing

NVIDIA Inspector Settings

Download NVIDIA Inspector (always virus scan downloads at virustotal.com), run nvidiaInspector.exe, click the Start Profile Inspector button (right-middle), find Race – The WTCC Game (Steam Version) (not Race 07/Race On) in the Profiles drop-down, and then set and apply these settings:

• Profile: Race – The WTCC Game (Steam Version)

** If in doubt make sure it says race_steam.exe below the profile name otherwise it won’t be able to apply your settings when the game runs.

• Antialiasing – Mode: Enhance
  • (Spatial) Anti-aliasing improves visuals by reducing “jagged” edges on objects in-game, smoothing them out
• Antialiasing – Setting: 8xS [Combined: 1×2 SS +4x MS]
• Antialiasing – Transparency Multisampling: Enabled
• Antialiasing – Transparency Supersampling: 8x Sparse Grid Supersampling
• Toggle FXAA on or off: On
• Anisotropic Filtering mode: User-defined / Off
  • Anisotropic filtering improves visuals by making images look sharper
• Anisotropic Filtering setting: 16x

Caution: Antialiasing can decrease performance. Reduce the setting if it slows down the game too much for you.

Field of View

The default FOV (field of view) shows you a large amount of your cockpit but it’s not realistic and can be a disadvantage in terms of judging speed, distance, and general timing. You will almost certainly be faster with correct FOV because you’ll be better able to judge speed, distance and timing.

The Project Immersion.com FOV calculator is a handy site to calculate your correct FOV from the size of your monitors and how far away you sit. The “vFOV” value it calculates a factor which should applied against the default vFOV value in the Documents\SimBin\RACE 07\UserData\ControlSet\Controls.rcs (your Controls.rcs filename will be different than mine):

FOV Multiplier="1.00000" // Change 1.00000 to your vFOV in decimal form

For example, ProjectImmersion.com says my vFOV is 0.42x so that means I should change 1.00000 to 0.42000. I’ll probably adjust a little more as I get used to it. You’ll probably want to adjust your value, too.

Wheel Rotation and Wheel Lock

You’re probably on 900degree+ wheel, like a G27, T300, ClubSport, or modern Direct Drive wheel, so when you get into the GT-style cars it will feel like you’re driving a bus: You’ll feel like you need to turn the wheel more than should be needed to get the car to turn the right amount – This is a wheel rotation and wheel lock setting issue.

It’s probably best to set a 540degree wheel rotation in your steering wheel software’s profile for the game. Then, in-game, the default 15degree wheel lock will feel better, but if it doesn’t try 18-22 degree wheel lock, give or take a few degrees. Somewhere in that range will be a 540degree sweet spot.

Community

Get involved and meet the community! There’s some great people to meet and opportunities to join leagues and to find special mods which are not always available to the general public.

• Race Department.com
• NoGripRacing.com
• European Endurance Center
• eSport-Racing.de

Force Feedback

My custom FFB settings at Secrets of GTR2 already feel very good in Race 07. Give the the Fia GT 2005 settings a try.

I’m working on new Race 07 FFB settings and will publish them at some point but the game already feels good with GTR2 FFB settings.

Here is my Race 07 ControlSet RCS file. Take this file, open it in an editor, and take the “FFB …” lines and put them into your own RCS file which will be located in C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\SimBin\RACE 07\UserData\ControlSet\Controls.RCS (your filename will be different than mine). Start Race 07 and enjoy!

The important parameters from the file above are: Effects Level, Gain, Steer Force Average Weight, Steer Force Exponent, Steer Force Output Max, Steer Force Grip Weight, Steer Force Grip Factor, Steer Friction Coefficient, Steer Damper coefficient, and maybe the Rumble Strip parameters.

Peripherals

SimXperience AccuForce Direct Drive Wheel

As of 2018-09-01, there’s a bug with Dynamic Oscillation Control – Stationary. It makes the FFB feel extremely dampened. Disable this setting to dramatically improve the FFB feel.

TrackIR Head Tracking

TrackIR is a great step if you’re not yet willing to go to VR, like myself, and the good news is the game supports it out of the box!

Right now, I have my single-screen profile (think older sims like Race 07 and GTR2) set with a flat line at 11degs/deg.

Trivia

Race 07 Has Unreasonably Good Helmet Rain Effects

Watch from 1m16s here: