Better pictures from last night. You can get some up close looks at the dirt…
This has a definite Richard Burns Rally feel with the extensive “rally school”. It’s nice!
(I remember I had to try like 15 times to beat that damn RBR final lesson training course in the allotted time. Then I got good enough to go for high scores on it… I do wish Dirt 4 made it clear what the target times are for each lesson, though the ghosts are a nice touch.)
I finished the weekly event, and even sneaked a stage win in over @ledshok—which I take to mean he’s not used to the driving model yet.
One thing the stage generation buys, for all its flaws, is lots of long rallying for the events. All six stages were five to eight miles long. At both repair points, I queued up repairs in excess of 30 minutes, and only got in under penalty time because my mechanics were efficient. My dampers in particular were falling apart after every second stage.
A few comments and questions:
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Is anybody else seeing really cruddy frame rates on high end (1080 GTX) rigs? Any fixes? I am getting under 30fps on ultra. Had to turn it down to medium to get what feels like around 60, but even then there are stutters. Is the PS4 version any better (I doubt it, but maybe solid 30 is better than variable 60?)
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How the crap are you guys finding the AI easy? I know I’m out of practice, but I had to turn the other drivers down to competitive (leaving driving model details much higher) to avoid constantly placing 15 - 20th. Kinda not as fun if not reasonably possible to win occasionally.
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How’s the wheel support for this one? I’m currently playing with gamepad, but I have a thrust master / wheel stand combo i can lug downstairs. In some of these games the wheel IS better. In others it FEELS better but doesn’t help you actually drive any faster.
Thanks!
Diego
My overly aggressive driving style is not paying dividends on procedurally generated stages. I wish I could claim my poor showing was a result of those late hairpin calls from the co-driver, but the truth is I’m guilty of pushing beyond my level of skill!
Tried to make amends in today’s daily, but lost about 20s in the second(!) corner after skipping the shakedown (don’t do that). Made good time through 90% of the stage before a couple of spins towards the end when I got a little too comfortable.
I must say the tarmac driving in D4 is much improved on DR’s offering. There’s a touch more grip and you can feel the car just start to go as the you exceed the threshold, yet you can still powerslide it if that’s your thing (and, clearly, it is).
Finished one of the weekly events off. The game suggested my Impreza wasn’t good enough to last the distance and recommended I improve some of the parts before entering. Since I hadn’t bought the R&D facility I just waved the recommendation off and took my ‘D’ grade bucket o’ bolts onto the trails of Michigan. By the time I got to the first service area the engine light was on and the list of repairs far exceeded the time available to fix them all.
Is it just me or is general wear and tear now a ‘thing’ compared to DR? I swear I rarely had to make decisions about what repairs to make in DR. It may be that I haven’t really upgraded anything for my team (engineers, facilities, etc) but I’m hoping it continues as actually having to choose where to focus the team’s time (and the push your luck aspect) is far more interesting than just hitting ‘Recommended Repairs’ each time.
I’m on a 970 so run it at medium, but I don’t think it ever drops below 60fps.
Are you doing one-off events, or career? In career I generally place on the podium but I think MrBismarck suggested earlier that the AI might be easier in the early parts of the career compared to running a one-off event.
Can’t speak to the wheel support in general, but my G27 works pretty well. I just took the settings I was happy with in DR and transferred them over number-for-number to D4 and it feels pretty similar in terms of FFB.
Oh, and I think in these games driving with a wheel (vs gamepad) is way easier. Some of the quicker drivers on this forum are using a gamepad (rock8man I think?) but I’d say they’re the exception to the rule. Suggest you drag the wheel out and give it a go.
I decided to try to find the daily you’re talking about in the menus @ledshok. It’s under “Competitive”. And surprisingly, unlike the campaign, it didn’t crash my game.
It did crash my car, and I got the achievement for limping across the finish line.
Edit: Which one of you is Sir Mister again? Is that you @Mr_Bismarck?
Not bad for my first real DiRT 4 experience. I suppose if I can’t play the campaign, but can play the daily challenges, that’s better than nothing.
No, I think Sir Mister is his QT3 username as well. He joined our DR league and proceeded to thrash us all. :)
If we can get anywhere near to his times we’ll be doing well.
This may be a game I need to get soon so I don’t miss you all playing it. I’m probably the only one here with a Microsoft XBox 360 Speedwheel, but any idea if it works in this? I think it worked in Rally.
Not sure. It isn’t listed specifically under their supported wheels, but I’m not sure I’ve seen it listed for DR either (which, as you’ve pointed out, worked fine).
Chances are it’ll work, but don’t quote me on that. :)
It’s a pity there isn’t a demo you could download.
If anyone’s reached the Swedish events in career mode, I’m interested to know how you found the AI. I was routinely beating the second placed finisher by 15-20 seconds on a 3 minute long stage. Suspect the devs may have gone too far in trying to balance out the AI times for the icy conditions.
That is not me. I’m MrBismarck pretty much everywhere.
I haven’t tried the online events yet.
So, with all this procedural stuff, does this make Dirt 4 a roguelike?
I did the Weekly challenge in Michigan in the NR4/R4 cars. That Subaru is so much fun.
I thought I had no chance after the first leg, but Fishbreath and LedShok were both close, so they must have messed up on the first leg too. And then in the 2nd or third leg, I saw this:
Surely I had a chance to win the whole thing after LedShok had that bad a leg in the middle? Sure enough, there were other legs in which either one or both of them beat me, but overall I came ahead on this challenge this week! Yay!
Nice work! ☺️
Can’t wait till we get a QT3 league going.
So what are people using for driving settings? I’m on the PS4 with a wheel but I decided to start with the “gamer” driving model to ease my way back in. I’ve since turned on manual shifting and turned off auto-launch but haven’t messed with any other settings. I plan on going to the “racer” setting or whatever it’s called eventually.
Sim mode, all assists off.
If you’re using a wheel I think you’re best to just dive in at the deep end. Easier to develop a feel for the physics/driving model from the get go, rather than having to un-learn stuff later.
If that’s a bit much I suspect starting with sim mode with assists on would be better than gamer mode if you plan to go sim at some point.
Great now I’m regretting buying the ps4 version because I couldn’t wait a few days. ;)
Is it cross platform play, so the PC leaderboards would include the PS4 people?