Significant update launches for art of rally

This one caught us on the hop late last week, as on Friday the Polacolour Update for art of rally was released to PC users on Steam, Epic and GOG.

This version 1.2.0 update is gargantuan, delivering a redesigned UI with a clear look, plus the option of a moody dark mode that showcases the cars with their lights on.

Elsewhere, cross-platform leaderboards have been added, and you can download ghosts too to compare racing lines. Our John Munro has been recently trying to net a world record in the game, and this update will make it simultaneously harder and easier. He can now view the ghost of the world’s best, but the leaderboard is open to more people.

The game is headed towards PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch this summer, alongside a Kenyan content update, and game creator dune confirmed on Twitter that these new changes will be making it to the console versions too.

There has been a suite of other changes too, such as lower maximum torque rpm for all cars, a higher rev limit for group 2 cars and van plus improved lighting and colour representation.

We’ve placed the full changelog below and we can’t wait to get our hands on the console versions sometime this summer.

art of rally Polacolour 1.2.0 update changelog

Features

• huge re-design of the UI and also dark mode and UI scaling
• cross-platform leaderboards with downloadable ghosts of anyone you see on the leaderboard
• car physics body collider is less bouncy
• lowered the maximum torque rpm for all cars.
• raised the rev limit for group 2 cars and vans.
• updated baseline ai times
• rain ai times use faster times from the wet leaderboards
• dynamic resolution scaling when running the game in DX12 (need to use this launch option: -force-d3d12) Setting Game Launch Options Disclaimer: DX12 may not be fully stable, which is why the default is DX11

Improvements

• optimized grass shader
• optimized vegetation cutout shader
• lighting for all times-of-day have only one light instead of multiple lights for better performance.
• stages now use ambient light from the skybox instead of a gradient, which gives equal or better lighting to the previous multiple directional lights and also doesn’t tint the dust/smoke blue.
• updated localization for new terms and also fixed some existing terms
• road bumps have been toned down as they were throwing the car at high speeds
• last used cars and liveries are now saved between runs so you no longer need to cycle through and pick your favourite every time

fixes

• the pebble v1 now has 5 gears
• dirtiness should now be correctly carried over from each stage.
• fix hammer v3 light position
• fix hammer v3 red livery
• fog lighting doesn’t cast shadows and they weren’t noticeable before anyways, which gives a performance boost
• fixed class video compatibility issues
• fixed missing transmission sfx on some cars
• time attack last played settings now load correctly
• possible fix for changing song during a race causing a skip in gameplay
• fix bug where using photo mode after changing language mid race could lead to a crash
• fix for controller vibration issues with multiple controllers plugged in
• fix screen fades not working correctly on super wide monitors
• fix bug where one weather type would be applied to all stages of the same name in custom rally