"This extended license with SRO allows us to continue developing games based on the prestigious championship. It is strategically wise to build further on GTR which is established as one of the cornerstones of our company. This also means that we continue a well established, mutual trust and cooperation with SRO, where we also work side by side on marketing. Now we can keep on making the best racing games for many years to come and bring GTR to the next generation platforms," says Henrik Roos, CEO and original founder of SimBin.

The new agreement covers all FIA GT seasons until 2012 and the future championships opens up great opportunities for developing games with new technology, on new platforms, aiming to get even closer to the ultimate racing experience in a game.

"We are very pleased to continue this long-term collaboration, which has seen the FIA GT Championship become the subject of one of the very best racing simulation games available. SimBin, with their racing background, know exactly what the FIA GT Championship is about, which is what gives the GTR game its incredibly realistic nature," Stephane Ratel, Chairman of SRO, comments.

The new DirectX9 graphics engine ensures that the race cars and circuits are portrayed in a more detailed and photorealistic way than ever before, and the sensation of speed experienced with the HP-beasts is even more immersive, thanks to the improved driving model. The dynamic day-night light cycle, weather changes, and impressive damage system once again provides an impressive experience of the exciting FIA GT racing series on your PC at home.

As part of an exclusive agreement with the FIA, GTR2 is a racing simulation that plays off in the GT Championship, and features more than 140 officially licensed super cars. More than 28 accurately rebuild tracks plays home to racing events.

GTR2 also features the Proximus 24 Hours race, one of auto racing’s most prestigious events. Taking place at the world-renowned Spa Francorchamps track, this event has been running since 1924. Each year sees the best of the best meeting here to compete in a race that runs for a gruelling 24 hours. The race has over 100.000 spectators and is to be compared with Le Mans 24H and Daytona 24H. GTR2 provides a highly-accurate recreation of this prominent race.

Core features

• More than 140 accurately modeled cars, including all the cars from the GT, NGT.
• 28 officially licensed and accurately modelled tracks
• Highly realistic and competitive AI opponents
• 3 Game Modes
  • Novice mode
  • Semi-Pro mode
  • Simulation mode
• 6 Game Events
  • Open Practice
  • Race Weekend
  • Championships
  • Ghost Time Trials
  • Proximus 24H
  • Driving School
• Fully integrated Multiplayer

Graphics Engine

GTR2 is built on an entirely new rendering core, featuring full DirectX 9 support, in addition to full legacy support for DirectX 7 and 8 shaders and features. Utilizing the new special effect features brought about by the latest DirectX implementation, GTR2 sports real-world-like effects, such as specular-reflective wet-road surfaces, real-time ambient lighting, dynamic headlights, extended particle system, and much more.

Physics Engine

• Extending the ground-breaking physics engine found in GTR1, GTR2 brings exciting new features, as well as improvements on current features.
• Damage Physics – Crashing now has a more realistic effect on the car, both visually with carbon shards flying off the cars during collisions, body panels denting and breaking off, etc. and in handling characteristic.
• Tire Physics – More detailed tire characteristic modeling, translating into even more realism in handling and feedback. The tire physics model is fully reworked to provide more convincing low
  speed control.

Three new Events are introduced in GTR2.

• Ghost Time Trials
  • In this mode, the player competes in a Time Trial against himself or against pre-recorded ghost racers. The player can share his best recording with friends through an integrated online file swap feature, and download recordings posted by other players.
• Proximus 24H
  • This mode recreates an event that takes place at the world-renowned Circuit de Spa Francorchamps. The event spans a full four days, and culminates in a race that runs for a grueling 24 hours! Making full use of the new technology available to us, we are creating a highly detailed and accurate recreation of this event, where the player will experience several new features to the series, such as realistic day-night cycle, dynamic weather changes, with clouds rolling in, rain falling and stopping, and track wetness changing.
• Driving School
  • The purpose of the driving school is to teach the player the nuances of driving well. The player will complete a course in driving theory, and earn licenses by competing against an instructor driver. In addition to teaching driving technique, the Driving School contains a number of fun and challenging events that will award the player with medals earned, and unlocked custom championship events.

Cars

GTR2 contains over 140 highly detailed cars, each an accurate reproduction of the actual vehicle. The cars represent some of the most prized additions to the super car stable. The detail on the cars has moved up another notch, and includes special effects such as animated cockpits and more detailed damage effects.

Tracks

New tracks, updated versions of the tracks as raced on in the current FIA-GT season, as well historic versions of all the tracks from the previous FIA-GT season. Each of these modeled with unprecedented attention to detail and accuracy.

Sounds

GTR2 features vehicle sounds recorded directly from the actual race cars, resulting in the most realistic engine sounds to be found in a game. Additionally, the game features a rich Ambient sound set such as wind noise, crowds, and pit lane noise and Pit-to-Car communication, with the player being able to obtain information from the pits regarding race position, car condition, and race conditions

LiveTrack

GTR2 features LiveTrack technology, whereby the player experience dirt (marble/rubble) build-up on the track surface during the progression of a race. The game features an accurate visual presentation of the build-up, as well as physical realism expressed through the way that the marbles affect the handling of the car and how it is felt through the force-feedback effects.

Track-IR

Track-IR technology, previously confined to flight simulators, is fully supported in GTR2. technology tracks the player’s head movement, allowing him/her to look around the cockpit, glance at the rear-view mirror, etc, by simply moving their heads, just like in real life. GTR2 featuring full 6 degrees of freedom support. This allows the player to lean forward, back, left, and right in addition to looking around the cockpit.

Online features

GTR2 features an extensive multiplayer component, fully integrated into the GTR2 experience, and often operates transparently to the player.

Players can engage in an online game via one of three different options:

• LAN
• Direct IP
• Internet Lobby

Dedicated server

GTR2 ships with a dedicated server module, allowing anyone to host their own game server.

Players can vote to initialize certain events. These are:

• Next session
• Next race
• Kick player

Game Lobby

Players can find online game servers via the game’s built-in lobby system. The lobby features:

• Player list
• Server list (sort-able)
• Public chat windows
• Private chat windows

… more features will follow