Rennsport Leaves Open Beta, Early Access Now Active

Rennsport Early Access.jpg
Image: Competition Company
The full release of Rennsport is inching ever closer, with 16 December now seeing the game leave the open beta stage for early access. Competition Company will bring some extra changes going forward.

Rennsport's birth has been a lengthy and difficult one, with it initially only being accessible to a few select people who competed in the ESL R1 sim racing championship. It then entered closed beta in June 2023, then open beta in July 2024, and only became available to download on Steam two months after that.

In that time, the sim has been under intense scrutiny by the community for its gradual rollout process among other factors, including but not limited to releasing paid DLC packs before leaving open beta in the form of the Founders Packs.


Well we are now at the last stage before its intended full release in 2025. Here is everything you need to know about Rennsport now it is in early access.

Rennsport Early Access​

There will be a new user interface in the early access build of the platform, with the majority of the cars and tracks available in the beta already usable. You can also claim an additional car in the form of the BMW M2 CS Racing, a car that is now quite prevalent across many sim racing titles (Assetto Corsa Competizione, rFactor 2, iRacing) for entry level drivers.

Within the early access version, everyone's slates will be wiped clean. The in-game store will provide players the new opportunity to acquire cars if they have not already gotten them, and they can be picked up through an in-game currency that can be earned through competing in races but also purchased.

Additionally, the first edition of the Rennsport battle pass that provides a variety of in-game items. The first of which will be the Aston Martin GT3 car that was recently added to the open beta.


Speaking of GT3 cars, they have apparently been revising the tyre and handling models of all the GT3s in-game. You can download Rennsport early access via Steam or the Epic Games Store now, plus the entire changelog can be read below.

New Content
  • Added BMW M2 CS Racing
  • Implemented new UI menu system for the whole game
  • Added new 3D scene for garage and made it visible across all main menu screens
  • Added content for Pre-Season Battle Pass
  • Replaced BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh’s steering wheel with the version currently used in real-world racing in this car
New Features
  • Implemented stickers system with images applied on top of car’s livery and on car dashboards
  • Implemented battle pass system
  • Implemented rewards claiming system
  • Implemented driver titles system
  • Implemented player profile background images system
  • Implemented In-game Store 1.0 with more content to buy on both Steam and Epic Games Launcher
  • Implemented rotating car roster system
  • Added pit crew animations when performing pit stops
  • Added pit stop radar to in-game HUD
  • Implemented feature for compiling all shaders inside the game in main menu to avoid hiccups during their first loads in gameplay maps
  • Added system for displaying currently active yellow flag zones on in-game minimap
  • Implemented logic for distinguishing between minor and major false starts
  • Added sector comparison feature for time trials
  • Added possibility to automatically advance to next time trial opponent after beating currently selected one
Gameplay
  • Changed how collision cooldowns are handled to a severity-shared timer with some additional caching
  • Reworked minimap system for better accuracy of player icons
Physics

All GT3 Cars

  • Implemented new tire model
  • Adjusted tire grip behaviour
  • Adjusted tire heat retention behaviour
  • Adjusted tire cooling behaviour
  • Adjusted tire lifespan
  • Adjusted tire sizes and spring rates for each car
  • Reworked base setups
  • Adjusted engine braking
  • Adjusted brake distribution
  • Adjusted braking power
  • Adjusted ABS behaviour
  • Adjusted Fuel Consumption
Praga R1
  • Implemented new tire model
  • Further adjustment will be required for grip/heat/cooling/lifespan behaviours
Performance
  • Further improvements in reducing CPU frame time to improve experience with multiple cars on a track (especially on older CPUs)
  • Reworked assets loading logic to improve loading times and occasional hiccups when interacting the game
  • Removed DirectX 11 support due to its incompatibility with some of the new game features
Audio
  • Adjusted opponent sound per-distance volume to improve audio quality and performance
  • Fixed some problems with missing tire sounds and added more detail to the sound itself
  • Equalized volume levels in BMW M4 GT4
Bugfixes
  • Fixed issue with corner cuts not being registered correctly when hitting limit-detection cones on lap 1
  • Fixed some cases where yellow flag zones were sometimes not replicated correctly between players in multiplayer scenarios
  • Changed yellow flag zone updating logic so players moving out of track bounds can’t extend it infinitely while driving outside of track bounds
  • Fixed issue with tire temperatures not being affected by unit selected in interface settings
  • Reduced loading time of car meshes to fix some problems with hiccups when players join servers
  • Fixed issues with corner cuts not being cleared correctly when resetting time trial attempts
  • Fixed issues with penalties being given to players when resetting time trial attempts
  • Fixed issue with game not applying correct MGU-K deployment modes when starting time trial attempts
  • Fixed some issues with engine starter sounds sometimes not being triggered properly when starting from garage
  • Added stage names to stage start events in event table of the replay UI
  • Improved driver’s hand positioning on Hyundai Elantra N steering wheel
  • Fixed some issues with in-game leaderboards table flickering when the game is paused
  • Extended the time trials leaderboard page size to cover the lists length
  • Fixed some problems with loading screen scaling
Known Issues
  • First time entering Battle Pass screen, it can jump to the last Tiers. Re-enterinng the Battle Pass screen it will center on your current Tier
  • Mini-map in Pit Screen can be hard to see the individual sectors
  • Pit Crew can be clipping on some tracks
  • Dashboard stickers can be hard to view inside the sticker manager on Hypercars
  • BMW M2 CS Racing – Engine audio not audible while in hood cam
  • Re-fueling in a pitstop can break the displayed fuel in the in-car dashboard

Are you still waiting for the full release of Rennsport before giving it a go, or will you be giving early access a try? Let us know in the comments below and join the discussion in our Rennsport forum!
About author
RedLMR56
Biggest sim racing esports fan in the world.

Comments

I installed the game and what I see is that the car I got for free in the "beta" is still listed as owned ad I understand it will remain so. I also see the 992 free to play, this is reported as the weekly car free to play in a link from the UI .
I assume that the content that people paid for with founder pack will reamin there, cars owned and Nordschleife drivable.
To be honest 12 tracks totally free is not bad.
Tomorrow I'll have a drive to test the physics.

I also had a look at the rewards on the battle pass: there are some skins, some stickers, a car (the Vantage) and the Nordschleife.
Some items can be obtained with XP that are points you gain driving in online contests or in time trials, the others with Rennsport's currency (don't know the actual name) that can be purchased in game.
The ratio is 1R:1$ or less with dollars dropping with size of the pack.
Some explanations are required IMHO.
 
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It says the car you chose to own when you joined the playtest is the one you have free but it isnt
I went in EA this morning and the car that they gave me in the play test is there for me. I am the proud owner of a AMG GT3. :D
Since I was there, I claimed the BMW, so now I am the proud owner of 2 cars.:D:D
There is an other car available "for free" for this week, a Porsche. It will be a car rotation every week, with a free car always available, to play for free, even if you do not owned any.
So, for me, looks like I can drive 3 cars for free in Rennsport.
 
I guess I got to be grateful for Rennsport, just today I got to learn what a "battle pass" is and also the acronym DOA, it might not help with the simracing hobby, but it's already helping my English and I didn't even have to install it.
 
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The Beemer is available in the store for zero credit, in other word, free. :D
Ok I did a few laps: the Audi GT3 did not improove much, the 992 GT3 (free to drive this week) is ok, while the M2 is actually fun to spin around.
Graphics is ok, FPS could be better.
 
A fair comment, with constructive criticism.
I think you dropped a bollock bringing free to play. This is not a sim-racing standard and will never will be.
Well there are tons of indy games on steam and out of it, and in simracing there are already LFS and R3E that are free to play. May be LFS is really indy, but R3E is a fully respectable sim IMHO.
But i agree that the statement (in the video) "As we work towards delivering a genre-changing free to play sim racing title for 2025" sounds rather bold.
Sim's have clear metrics for cost of ownership. Yet your promo mentions nothing.
I agree a web page with details would be better than having to go in the store inside the game and try to understand what you see.
To me it is not clear how thee battle pass and xp work.
If you want to salvage this, I'd suggest read through the forums and look at the racer's views here. What classic race cars do we love? What old tracks and times gone by do we yearn to see come back to our hobby? What old games do we remember fondly, and why? What standards do we love/loathe? Good luck, but it's an easy pass.
Totally agree here: any game we play is time we invest in it, so free as you don't pay for it does not mean you don't put energy and time in it. It can be rewarding or a waste of time and energy.
 
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Also worth noting that all cars that were previously drivable for free you now have to pay for. It says the car you chose to own when you joined the playtest is the one you have free but it isnt. Just seems like a massive con to be honest. As said above it seems like a complete scam. No proven online platform and the stupid battle pass which works in games like fortnite but in the case of a racing sim with next to no content its a huge red flag.

Also don't recommend joining their discord channel. If you do and you happen to mention concerns you get threatened.
I was in the group that received the first beta keys on the Epic Gamestore. The car I chose to own at that time, I still own for free in this EA release on Steam. Maybe this is different for people that joined at the moment the playtest was released?

Other cars are now not available anymore for free and have to be purchased. And they seem very expensive, with prices of €10 and above…. for one car! And then you have no AI to race against. I have driven a few laps in the car I own and the driving feel is ok, but graphics are not good, even with everything maxed out and FPS are much lower than in ACC, AMS2, LMU en rF2.

With AC EVO being released in EA within a month, I see no reason to keep this game installed for now.
 
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