A Message to the Motorsport Community – August 2024

To the Motorsport Community,

Over the past months, we have continued to update Forza Motorsport with additional cars, tracks and features. Endurance Month saw the return of fan-favorite Sebring International Raceway with the popular Endurance Series in Featured Multiplayer, an updated pitlane exit at Laguna Seca and adjusted curbing at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Nemesis Month introduced the highly requested Car Proximity Radar with Replay improvements and the ability for PC players to disable TAA. Road to Race brought back Road Atlanta, added Multi-Class Racing and Logitech TRUEFORCE support.

These have all been important additions to the game, and while it’s been great to see you enjoying these updates, we recognize that there’s still more to do. As we mentioned in our previous letter to you, we want to continue to update the game each month with the themed content that we’ve been working on while balancing it out with the priorities from the community. That means some updates will have more top requested features than others.

In today’s blog, we will provide an overview of what we’re currently working on, so that way you have a roadmap of what’s to come throughout the rest of the year.

Cars and Tracks

Let’s start with cars. We recognize that many players in the community prefer to race in Featured Multiplayer and would like to unlock the cars by racing online. Therefore, starting with the next update and going forward, the reward cars for each update can be earned either by completing the Featured Tour in Career or by playing a specified number of races in Featured Multiplayer, giving you a choice in how you wish to unlock these cars.

To accommodate this change, Update 12, which we expect to be available in mid-September, introduces a Challenge Hub where you can earn credits, cars, race suits and other rewards for completing various objectives. Whether you prefer to race in Career, compete in Featured Multiplayer, or outpace your Rivals, we wanted to ensure Challenge Hub includes goals and rewards for every type of player.

We also recognize that many of you would like the opportunity to revisit previous Featured Tours and unlock their associated reward cars. Later this year, we will add select series and rewards from previous updates as permanent additions to the Builders Cup. Next year we'll be introducing a number of permanent race car-focused Tours to the Career. These changes will give you the chance to check out series you might not have played before, while providing new players with an expanded selection of Career themes and events.

Two additional tracks are coming to Forza Motorsport this year. Available for the first time since Forza Motorsport 4, the classic Sunset Peninsula returns in Update 13, expected in mid-October. Five layouts will be available to race, including the club circuit, the 2.44-mile tri-oval and the 2.78-mile full circuit, which combines the oval with technical, yet flat infield sections.

Looking ahead, Bathurst is coming back with Update 15 in December and will be accompanied by a Featured Tour that celebrates the very best of Aussie cars and racing.

In 2025, we will continue to update Forza Motorsport, and as in 2024, this will include new features, bug fixes, and additional cars and tracks.

Spectate Mode

We’re currently in the final stages of adding a reworked Spectate to Forza Motorsport and we plan to include this functionality for Private Multiplayer with the next content update releasing in mid-September.

This initial version builds upon our previous efforts and includes many new features and improvements that have been requested by the community. We appreciate that this one has been a long time coming, especially for our tournament organizers and league admins, however we hope some of the notable upgrades over the prior Spectate mode in Forza Motorsport 7 will make it more enjoyable, easier and engaging to use.

Here’s a look at some of the highlights you can expect when using Spectate to watch or broadcast community races in Private Multiplayer. As Spectate is essentially like a live replay, many of the features and options outlined below are already available as part of our recent update for saved race replays.

• Full-Field Dynamic Driver List and Lap Counter – Greatly increases race comprehension, making it easy to select a car to focus on from the driver list. Positions are updated based on scoring type.

• Ticker – A dynamic data loop in the Driver List. This can also be locked to show the leader's time, race intervals, position changes, penalty time, or pit stops.

• Track Map – Shows all the locations of all the cars on the track map with the ability to zoom and view exact positioning more closely.

• Driver Data – Choose to see a race summary of the driver on focus, including car telemetry, comparison to the leader, and damage.

• True Race Start / Race End from 3-2-1 to Podium. In Forza Motorsport 7, the live feed in Spectate didn’t begin until several seconds after the race had started, which meant viewers missed much of the Turn 1 excitement. It also ended abruptly when the leader crossed the finish line. In Forza Motorsport, a spectator can watch the entire race from the moment it starts right up until either the final driver crosses the finish line, or the race timer concludes.

• Default Spectate Camera – The first time you use Spectate mode, you can decide which camera to use by default at race start. This can be changed at any time in the settings menu under Gameplay & HUD.

• New Camera Options – In addition to all the prior cameras available in game, two new camera modes have been added to both Spectate Mode and Race Replays

  • Rail Cam – This gives race spectators controls that our cinematics team uses, like FPS camera controls that move with the focus car. The left stick moves the camera forward or backward, left or right around the focus car. Use the right stick to change the camera target left and right or move the camera up and down.

  • Point of Interest – Stationary cameras focusing on important track segments. Each track has at least 3 points of interest with more available on longer tracks.

• Improved Control Panel for much easier access to Spectate and Replay tools.

• Customizable HUD – The Spectate and Replay HUD elements are customizable to show as much or as little as you want. This gives you the freedom to prioritize between either a clean camera feed or a detailed, more informative interface.

• Minimized Switch Lag – Changing the camera view or car to focus on is much faster than it was in Forza Motorsport 7.

• Saving Replay after Spectate – You can save a replay from the Spectate post-race menu to view later. Please note that previous limitations for replay save length still apply and will vary based on factors such as the number of cars on track and the race duration.

Drift Mode

Another feature that we know you have been eager for in Forza Motorsport is Drift Mode. Our team is actively working on it, and we expect Drift to be available in the coming months. This will be accompanied by a selection of Formula Drift cars added to the Showroom.

In Drift mode, players earn Drift Score based on speed, angle, and duration of each drift. Your score must be successfully "banked" to count towards your overall points. The driver who has the highest Drift Score when the timer expires is considered the winner.

Drift mode will be available in Free Play and Private Multiplayer. In addition, players will have the ability to host drop in and out Drift Meetups in Private Multiplayer and can set their highest scores on the leaderboard in a selection of Drift Rivals.

With this update, we will also add Drift-specific HUD elements that can be enabled in Gameplay & HUD settings. Looking ahead, we are also planning to add a Drift Meetup public lobby to Featured Multiplayer in the future.

Creative Hub and Share Codes

Later in the year, we will overhaul the Media tab in Forza Motorsport into a Creative Hub, similar to the one available in Forza Horizon 5.

Creative Hub will be the home of your designs, vinyl groups, tunes, photos and replays. Every Forza Motorsport player will have their own Creative Hub – enabling players to more easily browse and discover content from their favorite creators.

In addition to the Creative Hub, we’re also planning to introduce Share Codes in a future update. These will be generated for each UGC item in the game – including content published before the release of this feature. We will also add new search and sorting options, making it easier to find the specific content you are looking for.

Finally, we’re working on an updated Edit Layer Tool for the Livery Editor. This will change the layer user interface to be more like Forza Horizon 5’s Livery Editor, resulting in a more consistent experience for creators who design cars in both games.

Free Play Weather Options

In the next update, additional weather customization options will be added to Free Play and Private Multiplayer. These will allow you to vary the race conditions from a range of weather scenarios. You will be able to set the Start, Mid-Race, and End Race weather types, and choose any of the following scenarios:

• Partly Cloudy
• Overcast
• Cloudy
• Looming Clouds
• Thunderclouds
• Lightning Clouds
• Patchy Fog
• Thin Fog
• Dense Fog
• Summer Drizzle
• Drizzle
• Light Rain
• Moderate Rain
• Heavy Rain
• Rain Thunder
• Rain Lightning

The probability for weather sequences occurring will also be adjustable, so you can make the weather conditions of your race as predictable or surprising as you desire.

Community Choice in Featured Multiplayer

We recently revealed that in Update 13, Featured Multiplayer will include a Community Choice slot with the Series decided by community vote on the Forza forums. The community’s overall top 3 choices will return to Featured Multiplayer in Update 13, and we plan to continue a Community Choice series in Featured Multiplayer for future updates.

Audio Cues for Car Proximity Radar

It’s been exciting to see the positive response to the Car Proximity Radar and how it's being used to improve the overall quality of racing. While this radar is currently only visual, we’re planning to add audio cues to accompany it in a future update – helping to ensure you stay focused in the race.

We’re also looking to address some of the feedback you’ve shared with us since we released Car Proximity Radar, such as more toggleable backgrounds and gameplay tuning for Proximity Radar distances. In the long term, we are also planning to explore UDP support and additional Proximity Radar HUD placements.

Ongoing Improvements to Forza Race Regulations

Recently we increased the internal resources we have available for Forza Race Regulations and its machine learning systems. In simple terms, these changes mean we’re able to update Forza Race Regulations with new changes more frequently than we could in the past. We’re also now able to include more data in those updates, and more detailed information in each data packet.

In the months ahead, our goal is to refine and continuously iterate on the data model for Forza Race Regulations to improve the overall accuracy and consistency of its race adjudication and the penalties it distributes to drivers.

Advanced Ghosting in Featured Multiplayer

In addition to our work on Forza Race Regulations, we’re also developing new features to help improve the overall quality of racing – Car Proximity Radar is a recent example of these efforts.

In a future update, we’ll introduce a new advanced ghosting system that predicts some of the most popular griefing incidents in Featured Multiplayer races, including high velocity collisions. The goal of this change will be to improve the quality of racing while ensuring clean drivers don’t feel like they need to rely on the auto-ghosting that is enabled when pausing the game. Once ready, this feature will be enabled in all Featured Multiplayer events, however it can be disabled in Private Multiplayer, ensuring event organizers have the flexibility and choice on whether they use these features in the races they host for their community.

Discord Community AMA

We wanted to wrap up this blog by letting you know there is more to come. Today we briefly touched on the improvements we’re working towards for Forza Race Regulations and car ghosting – all in an effort to improve the overall quality of racing. In a few weeks, our Simulation team will be sharing more details on these updates and more in our first ever AMA on the Forza Discord server. Join today at Discord.gg/Forza to participate. We hope to see you there.

Until then, we’re grateful for all the feedback and suggestions you continue to send our way through the Suggestion Hub on our forums. Keep it coming and we will do our best to prioritize and get them into the game – your input inspired many of the improvements Forza Motorsport received over the past year, and it will continue to do so.

Thanks again, as always, for playing and sticking with us. We appreciate seeing you all on the racetrack, and we hope you enjoy each of the upcoming content updates that we’re actively working on.

Andy Beaudoin, Forza Motorsport Game Director 
Chris Esaki, Forza Motorsport Creative Director 
Trevor Laupmanis, Forza Motorsport Executive Producer