DiRT Rally 2.0's Biggest Mistake - A Mod Designer's Perspective

This video explains what I perceive as DiRT Rally 2.0's biggest mistake from a mod designer's perspective. It's definitely worth watching until the end as there's a bit of a surprise starting halfway through the video.
Links to creators and mods:
RaceDepartment: www.racedepart...
RallyGamer: www.rallygamer....
TheFlyingTUga (DR2.0 templates): www.racedepart...
SRD - Sim's Racing Design: www.racedepart...
ArnoRallye84: arnorallyeskin...
MesasArtworks: www.mesasartwor...
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#dirtrally2 #simracing #rally

[@snoopycharlie8718]

7:10 looks so realistic! Great mods man👌🏻 Would love an officially licensed 1998-2008 WRC game, so many great cars in that decade!!!

[@joshwilliams2423]

One of my problems is driving on ice . Always losing control all the time. This video is a good example of staying in control, good work!!😄

[@SimsRacingDesign]

Thanks mate! There's a video on how to master Monte Carlo on the channel if you're interested. ;)

[@kf4ldp]

The "what could've been" 2nd half of this video is put together very well. Right music, pauses and the flash of new paint scheme, and I can't stop my head bobbing during the whole sequence. The video editor ( YOU??) did a fantastic job. Ahhh, its the love of Rally and that motivated feeling when you finally get a G920 wheel and the steel stand to mount it on, AAND the great titles to use those armchair skills. Just got DR2 a couple weeks ago, and some other older titles last year. VRally4, WRC8, and Forza H4. I can't pull myself away from it. I can afford it for awhile longer without a 9 to 5, but that is going to be like going cold turkey. Thanks for the vid. I'm so nuts about this rally racing now, I named my channel Drivers Seat. And here come the not-so-great (YET) uploads of 2 to 5 minute clips.

[@SimsRacingDesign]

Yes, I'm doing doing everything myself, from designing the liveries to creating the videos. Lots of hours are put into them but they are always worth it. I always want to deliver a quality product. Have lots of fun driving! Great to hear that you are really enjoying it! And good luck with your channel. I'll check it out.

[@kf4ldp]

@@SimsRacingDesign Thank you. Theres some beautiful scenery I filmed in Colorado and a couple storms I drove through when I was a truck driver. A few lousy No Man's Sky clips when I tried streaming on a slow wifi and a laptop. And one low quality, crazy log bridge in Oregon I had to cross to get back to the campsite. Enjoy.

[@andy18cruz_]

Production value on your videos are tremendous. You really deserve more views!

[@SimsRacingDesign]

Thanks mate! Appreciate that! I always try to deliver a quality production for you guys to enjoy. The algorithm, at some point, will spread my content to a wider audience. I just need to be patient, cross my fingers and keep delivering this type of quality.

[@EezeeEmporium]

What I'd have liked to see was the ability to create truly custom tracks. Imagine the physics of dr2 while racing in a fantasy house track. Starting on the table, going through the freezer, jumps through the sand pit. Limitless possibilities for content.

[@gavancorrigan8813]

Your channel is going to explode when the next gen of rally games arrive if you keep this level of effort going. Great video as usual.

[@SimsRacingDesign]

Thanks ever so much! Really appreciate the compliment!

[@gavancorrigan8813]

Rothmans, Clarion, Elf, Texaco, Winfield - these old liveries take me back. Great nostalgia.

[@Bawkr]

What I think is more annoying is they don't have any customization. It seems like for such a big project game they would at-least let you color swap cars & change the wheel colors. A bit more depth to it than just 7 to 10 liveries. Course you're hearing this from a classic NFS game fan; 05 Most Wanted, NFS2016, Underground 2. I also like FH3 but I've only recently discovered that one because it has my car in it, 70s Celica. My thoughts though are that you should be able to play every stock color of each car, blank no liveries at a minimum, but it could easily be more diverse than that with the proper color system.

[@razzor4708]

Well, we can always create rally game on Unreal Engine 4....its way more accessible

[@lohatrons1353]

I already know that this video will be great

[@SimsRacingDesign]

Haha thanks! Enjoy it!

[@lohatrons1353]

@@SimsRacingDesign Good job on all the videos mate

[@Demongornot]

I think the BEST way to make it would be to allow any cosmetic and sound modification for anything (Multiplayer, solo, "campaign", etc), but then for solo stuff, allow any type of mods, but scoreboard entry only available for multiplayer allowed mods, so in short, even installing an equivalent to RFPE from Dirt Rally 1 would be possible, but times would simply not appear on the online leaderboard. This would simply be done by having the car's physic and other settings as non-modifiable and verified when joining multiplayer or posting on leaderboard, but for non-online parts simply allow to load on modded content for all those things, allowing to add cars, modify cars physic and parameters (number of gears, engine power, etc), etc. But even on solo, showing something next to the time, like a star * when the car isn't online compatible, so even uploaded videos would not be misleading! I don't understand why companies still insist on not being modding friendly considering that modding greatly extant the game's lifespan and is something that without it many games wouldn't have had the success they currently have, like Kerbal Space Program, Skyrim, etc. It is obvious that being mod friendly, and just make sure nothing that can affect negatively multiplayer by giving an unfair/cheating advantage would be the best path to take! In fact, a game that would include a really huge deep modding support and even come with its own mod manager that allow to have different saves with different mods included, would probably be exponentially more popular than it would be without mods support.

[@NicholasBrakespear]

Deep Rock Galactic is a great example of how all games could be, when it comes to their attitude towards mods - they're pushing an update in the near future that will allow safe segregation of mods and vanilla - save files and progress will be kept distinct from one another. So the game will simultaneously be an online, progression-driven title... but that also supports modding. As a result, the game has probably already doubled its shelf life.

[@Demongornot]

@@NicholasBrakespear And the game also has an amazing ratting on Steam, usually those two come together, respect of the community (which often includes mod support) and great game where there isn't money grabbing features, the total opposite of something like, for example, Red Dead Online.

[@stburr91]

I never understood why more developers aren't like Bohemia Interactive who encourage, and fully support modding for their games.

[@SimsRacingDesign]

That usually has something to do with licensing deals between Codies and the manufacturers.

[@kijekuyo9494]

If you create a custom livery, is it visible to other players in online gaming?

[@SimsRacingDesign]

Yes, it should be.

[@wejustsawmanfly]

Omg man, how do you make thos static shots on replay ! This looks so amazing and i would love to know how to record that !

[@SimsRacingDesign]

It's a transition I found on Mixkit, a website that offers free transitions, text animations etc you can then use for your video projects in Premiere Pro. It did take a hell of a lot of time to get the camera in the correct position when transitioning from one livery to the other and get the cars to move in the same way as well. More or less a day and a half of driving and recording just for those transition shots.

[@wejustsawmanfly]

@@SimsRacingDesign but is a static camera even an option in dirt ? Maybe i am a dummy but all camera angles ive seen and used in replay mode were dynamic, there were no shots from like a standing point, but all of them move with the car, i wonder how you made that ? Anyway that video is super fire, im subscribing like crazy 😀

[@SimsRacingDesign]

@@wejustsawmanfly Haha fantastic to hear! I appreciate the compliment and support. Regarding the camera position... There's a mod that allows you to move the camera freely when activated. It's called IGCS Injector for DiRT Rally 2.0 if I remember correctly.

[@wejustsawmanfly]

@@SimsRacingDesign thank you man it will help to make some cool videos in a future. But i hope its not one of those mods that can get you banned ? 😅 I heard its fairly easy to earn a ban for mods in dirt, so im really carefull with them.

[@SimsRacingDesign]

@@wejustsawmanfly don't worry about that camera mod, I've been using it for over a year, the Community Manager PJ Tierney knows that I use it and he uses it himself (if I remember correctly). He also said they are cool with it. It doesn't impact gameplay or something along those lines. Same goes for liveries on the cars of the base game.

[@NicholasBrakespear]

In general, Dirt Rally 2 represents a fantastic core sim... with really terrible design choices everywhere else. I mean just look at the UI - a big list of cars... and you have to scroll through them lengthways. No grid. No showroom. Just a long, one-dimensional string of little icons. And no way to compare garage contents to available cars; no indicator telling you which cars you already own, when looking at cars to buy. And that's leaving aside the fact that the game, by default, gives you a heap of cars, so there's no sense of progression to acquiring the cars. Then we have the career mode that seems to encourage you not to play it, by escalating AI difficulty so aggressively that after two championships there's really no point in playing. And of course, the restrictions placed on vehicle and track type - the fact that you can't drive a mini cooper around a rally cross track, not even in a "free drive" mode, or drive karts on rally tracks. Hell, another big flaw - the engine clearly renders some big world environments, with tracks essentially picked out from that existing environment - some of the tracks are merely sections of other, larger tracks, played forward or reverse. Why not allow a rudimentary track creation tool for free play, allowing players to select stretches of road on a given environment, or free roam mode in which that entire environment, all the little roads, are opened up? And yes, the liveries. Dirt 4 allowed you to create your own custom team livery. The code was already there, the system was already in place. Why would they actively scrap something that functioned, and replace it with... nothing? Why would they not even include a non-livery colour selector? There are games from 20 years ago with more options than this.

[@SimsRacingDesign]

It all comes down to content prioritisation, time, manpower and available budget. Yes, the UI is extremely basic but that never bothered me personally. A fleshed out career mode is indeed something many players want to see and that will eventually come but the focus has always been more on online competitive racing (clubs) rather than single player career. It takes a lot of time, effort and budget to create such a career and would've impacted other elements of the game that are absolutely brilliant because of that extra bit of effort etc. Free roaming and all cars on all tracks is something which wasn't in the cards due to licensing. DR2.0 is the official World RX game and, as far as I know, that is the reason why you can't drive rally cars on RX tracks and vice versa. Creating a rudimentary track creation tool is easier said than done. It has a massive impact on available time and budget. We might see something like this in a future title but it wasn't possible for DR2.0. When it comes to a livery creator, I wasn't really happy with what they came up with in D4. It was very basic and restricted. From the liveries we have in DR2.0, I have a strong suspicion that a livery creator tool was being worked on but for reasons it was scrapped late during development. They either had to shift resources to another key feature of the game or they weren't happy with the result at all and decided to drop it.

[@christiantaylor1495]

Still better design than Assetto Corsa 😂

[@senfzwelchderzweite3534]

Awesome work as always... One question, I couldn't find a answer for. Is it ok to use these "normal" liveries that replaces one of the original ones, if I play online? Because the daily/weekly/monthly challenges are what keeps me in the game. 🤙 Would love to use some of yours!

[@SimsRacingDesign]

The liveries for the cars of the base game can be used for online events. That isn't a problem at all. It's just the liveries on the DLC cars that can't be used online.

[@senfzwelchderzweite3534]

@@SimsRacingDesign Thanks for the answer... Now I have a plan for tomorrow. 😂👍

[@SimsRacingDesign]

@@senfzwelchderzweite3534 Good luck and have fun with it! If you want to know how to install them, I have a video that explains everything. There's also a mod called DeLivery that can help with that. I don't use it because I need to switch files etc often when editing and it's easier to do it without the mod.

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

And this is one of the areas WRC 10 is better. Since liveries are the only thing you can add into the game, just give the player a tool so they can make their own liveries.

[@SimsRacingDesign]

Yes and no... Sure, the livery editor is a great tool for people to play with. However, for proper livery designers like myself, WRC10 is worse. The reason as to why has to do that you can't export the design files, create your livery in Photoshop/Illustrator and import them back into the game.

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

@@SimsRacingDesign If you could, then people could take DLC liveries and distribute them for free. Being able to add mods to the game cuts into Codemasters' profits. Not that this is even a problem to begin with but...That's their "argument." I was a bit disappointed when I got the first DiRT Rally recently and found out you can't even add your own stuff without removing base game things.

[@SimsRacingDesign]

@@BrunodeSouzaLino I completely understand that they want to protect their intellectual property by encrypting it. Otherwise people would just extract everything and release it for everyone to download for free. However, they should have made sure designers could add liveries to any of the cars, including the ones that came with the DLC pack. I have discussed this with the people working on the dev team and they will take it into account for future games. Hopefully they will find a way to make everyone happy whilst protecting their product.

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

@@SimsRacingDesign You'd either have to remove encryption altogether or make the encryption process transparent to the user, which opens doors for people using injection tools and figuring how the thing works. You can't have both. In the great scheme of things, they won't even consider mods on their next game as much as they tell you or anyone else they will. It doesn't make them any extra money.

[@RUINERS]

Wait a minute? Is there some cinematic tool to place custom cameras in replays?

[@SimsRacingDesign]

Yes, IGCSInjector it is called. Link: cutt.ly/GRwKuDc

[@RUINERS]

@@SimsRacingDesign thank you

[@WRCSeb]

If you could make custom stages then this game would be the best

[@bigguyjac.5152]

The francois duval 2006 livery for the fabia 05 wrc livery or the 08 abu dhabi livery for the ford focus that was driven by mikko hirvonen or duval.

[@SimsRacingDesign]

Sure, I'd love to design them but I need to find time for that first...

[@bigguyjac.5152]

The all red livery for the c4 rally driven by loeb in 07 or dani sordo.

[@renobtankit6019]

amazing work you do! and crap move by the dev team on the encryption oh and dam very high production value on your vid good job

[@SimsRacingDesign]

Thanks very much! Truly appreciate that!

[@carlitosskater89]

Subaru and porsche models 👌🏽👌🏽

[@DiegoBello]

Examples: Ford Focus 2001 and 2007. Locked cars with incredibly boring and awful liveries! Edit: Rushed to rant about this 10 seconds into the video :p

[@SimsRacingDesign]

That indeed is exactly what the video is all about. Great minds think alike, they say. Haha

[@thomasvleminckx]

These are decisions made on a corporate level. With EA in charge now, do not expect that to improve. It'll just get worse.

[@SimsRacingDesign]

I'm not so sure yet. Despite the fact that EA bought Codemasters, the dev teams do have quite a lot a freedom when it comes to their content. It's the monetisation elements where EA HQ might meddle in. I talk to people who are part of the DiRT Rally development team in private and they said that they don't experience a hostile/control everything tyoe take-over by EA.

[@christiantaylor1495]

EA is taken over by China

[@Jackthejudge]

How can you edit TV cameras?

[@AmirPomen]

why you were able to use pug206wrc custom livery? i tried installing one (the white+blue lion logo of the 1st year pug206 wrc livery) but no success... even using nef file from the livery developer still unsuccessfull

[@SimsRacingDesign]

I created several useable mods for multiple DLC cars. You can find them on RaceDepartment.

[@AmirPomen]

@@SimsRacingDesign noted.. sure will checking them out whenever i can.. 👍👍

[@sapiensiski]

their biggest mistake is the tarmac physics

[@SimsRacingDesign]

Sure they need to be reworked but that's not something a mod designer can work on as this is their biggest mistake from a mod designer's perspective.

[@Wrathh57884]

Great video. I don't care much about livery, but when I found out about it I didn't like it one bit either.

[@SimsRacingDesign]

I can understand they might not able to put as much time and effort into liveries but having the option to swap them out with custom designs would have solved everything. That's possible with the cars of the base game but not with the DLC cars due to the encryption, which is most unfortunate.

[@christiantaylor1495]

@@SimsRacingDesign I drive from inside the car so I don't see the outside anyway

[@wizardrhyme9597]

Still no Volvo...

[@SimsRacingDesign]

Would enjoy a classic Volvo as well to be honest.

[@iglooproductions]

I don’t care what the cars look like, I just care about the realistic gameplay (which I don’t find realistic, honestly). You can roll a car 10 times and pop right up and keep driving like nothing happened. The damage model is in fantasy land. THAT is their biggest mistake.

[@SimsRacingDesign]

Then you must not be doing it right... The rolling I mean. 😅 But indeed it's not as realistic as RBR for example but you need to keep in mind that it's a game for a wide audience. This is one of the elements to not scare them off.

[@christiantaylor1495]

Turn on hardcore damage. Problem solved

[@SimsRacingDesign]

@@christiantaylor1495 sure, but even that's not exactly realistic either. With hardcore damage on, I can still roll the car 10 times whilst going over 100mph and still come out on the other side relatively fine. A few dents and some minor mechanical damage, maybe a flat tyre. In reality, the car would be written off and ready for the scrap yard. Sometimes you do get a DNF because of the damage sustained but not nearly as often as you should though. 😅

[@christiantaylor1495]

@@SimsRacingDesign I've played nearly 300 hours and don't remember finishing a single hardcore damage stage without a DNF 🙉 Maximum Attack or No Attack!

[@SimsRacingDesign]

@@christiantaylor1495 haha that's not good. You are really unfortunate in that regard then. I've played over 1000 hours and I got away with a lot, 'hardcore damage' on. 😅

[@firstnamesecondname8280]

Do you have a tutorial on how to make liveries?

[@SimsRacingDesign]

No, I do not. However, if you visit RallyGamer his website you'll find all the information you need. The templates for the cars can be downloaded from the racedepartment website. Open the templates in Photoshop or GIMP, create your design, save the files with the correct extension as is written on RallyGamer his website and put them back into the game. 😉

[@firstnamesecondname8280]

@@SimsRacingDesign I've been trying to make my own liveries for probably upwards of a year now and all the tutorials I have been linked to, I just don't understand. Usually there are steps missing or something else. I'm a visual learner so any tutorials that are just text based are incredibly hard to follow so urge you to make a video please. Even just a video of how to turn a car purple and have a number on the side would be greatly appreciated.

[@portableportal]

It's an ok game but could have been so much more Dirt Rally 1 is still a better game

[@LRSNRCNG309]

Us console players ALWAYS being left out to dry on mods 😞

[@SimsRacingDesign]

That's due to how consoles work. Nothing to do with the developers of the games though.

[@bigguyjac.5152]

Hey if you get a change can you do a review on the most love detail they missed or didnt add is the red glowing exhaust on cars in dr2.0. The more you drive the more antilag and backfires coming from the exhaust it should slowly get red from all the pressure from the engine or the exhaust mandifold, its just one damn detail im very pissed about that they did'nt add it would be so cool to have it in the next francise hopefully.

[@SimsRacingDesign]

That shouldn't be too much of an effort to fix for the next game but it is a very minor thing. I know it bugs you the most but I don't think it bugs many others. It's way down the priority list but who knows...

[@bigguyjac.5152]

@@SimsRacingDesign you damn right it bugs me its a detail that every racing sim should have.

[@SimsRacingDesign]

@@bigguyjac.5152 I'm still thoroughly convinced there are far more important priorities for the devs to sort out though.

[@bigguyjac.5152]

@@SimsRacingDesignim telling you that that is one huge priority they should bring in in the next one its a huge part of the car characteristic.

[@SimsRacingDesign]

@@bigguyjac.5152 That's perfectly fine that you believe that. It is indeed part of its character. I respect that but I, personally, don't feel the same way.

[@RUINERS]

Yeah, codies never mind the modding community, witch everyone knows is a lifeblood of simracing

[@SimsRacingDesign]

Codies does know but they have their reasons. It has to do with protecting their assets and revenue. And I understand it but they should figure out a way to open up those DLC cars for designers like myself.

[@rykerhasyounow]

This video is a joke, right? Livery... Really?

[@SimsRacingDesign]

Why would it be? Did you watch it completely? If you look at it from my perspective as a mod designer, yes. Sure there are other things like tarmac physics but but I can't do anything about that.