With today’s new update, Le Mans Ultimate’s (LMU) devs have shown they are serious when talking about making up launch promises. Co-op is in the game, singleplayer can now be paused, saved and continued later on and content keeps on coming. There are only two things the game needs to really take over.
The Next Big Content: Le Mans Ultimate’s GT3s
The 2024 hypercar grid is now complete. With the release of the Isotta Fraschini and the Alpine, the only thing missing are the GT3s. The currently available season pass does feature access to 7 GT3s, which does sound like a complete grid, taking 2 free-for-all GT3s into account.
However, the big question mark now is not whether the content is coming, but how good it will be. With the competition being Assetto Corsa Competizione, iRacing, RaceRoom, Rennsport and more, Le Mans Ultimate will have ample of comparisons.
Every single aspect will be scrutinised in-depth. The physics, the electronics, the force-feedback, and so much more is crucial to get right. Aforementioned competitors in the GT3 sim racing space are generally fairly well received. If not for realism, then at least for enjoyment.
Even though we all know that Le Mans Ultimate shares a lot of its platform with rFactor 2 and those game’s GT3s are mostly liked, there is ample opportunity to somehow screw it up. Of course, nobody wants that to be the case, least of all the developers. That’s most likely why there haven’t been any GT3 cars released yet. They want to get them right. Not just copy and paste them over from ol’ reliable rFactor 2. Besides, they couldn’t just “copy paste” it, because since the release of those DLC cars, most of the cars on the grid have technically advanced quite significantly. Advances mostly happened in electronics, but they do alter the handling a fair bit.
The Next Big Feature: Custom Hosted Sessions
Apart from content, what’s really needed before Le Mans Ultimate can challenge the likes of Assetto Corsa Competizione for sim racing leagues are custom hosted sessions. You may also know this as private servers. The important part is that leagues can host their league races somehow. LMU definitely needs implementation of that before it can really kick off.
A big part of how well Le Mans Ultimate will be received is how the hosted sessions will be handled. In the September 2024 update video, custom hosted sessions have been confirmed to be in development. The projected release date for that is no sooner than early 2025. The big question, however, is whether people will be able to use their private or personally rented servers. Alternatively, LMU could go the iRacing route and host all server infrastructure exclusively on their own servers.
In the past, rFactor 2 has already started implementing this iRacing-like structure, however didn’t do so exclusively.
Server credits for rFactor 2 can be bought in Europe for the following amounts:
Ideally, Le Mans Ultimate would offer something similar. Give hosts the option to either host via the official RaceControl servers or let them host on their own machines. However, there is a possibility for the iRacing route to really come into play here.
That move would definitely hurt LMU’s chances for becoming the main league platform, though. Many leagues currently running Assetto Corsa Competizione leagues would be hesitant to move over if they are locked into the LMU ecosystem.
Leagues hosts can therefore hope that corporate greed will not be the main driver behind the decision for how the LMU hosted sessions will work.
Other Stuff they Need to Get Right
Of course, those are not all the things Studio 397, the developers, will need to get right. A whole heap of features and their implementation will, collectively, decide the fate of LMU.
A main feature, for endurance racing, is driver swapping. Co-op mode has laid the basics for that, somewhat. It’s singleplayer and in your own time, so netcode and the likes are less of an issue. However, proper endurance, especially if Le Mans Virtual is planned to come to LMU, needs to not only be included but work well. rFactor 2 has a nice implementation already, only very seldom having a plaguing issue. It’s mostly stable, and that is most of that people need. Extra kudos if spectators, be it team mates or other people, can select pit strategies so the driver doesn’t have to. There is enough for drivers to worry about without fiddling with tyre pressures and fuel loads.
Another important part is VR support. Even though VR players are not the majority, they are still a significant amount of people. Currently, however, they don’t even want to touch the game. Understandable, seeing that VR was supported in rFactor 2 but isn’t in LMU at the moment. The aforementioned update video posted recently mentions VR support to be in development, however without a release date.
Other well requested features include extended telemetry data, an animated pit crew, improved wet weather, custom liveries (including suits), safety car, full course yellow, customisable HUD, starting gaps between classes and many more. Suggestions can be taken via LMU’s community forum, as well as upvoted for urgency. So if you want any feature included, check whether someone suggested it already and upvote that or suggest new things yourself.
In the meantime, we can only enjoy the content we have and race it in ranked, co-op and singleplayer (now with save & load functionality).
For that matter, Le Mans Ultimate features Coach Dave setups if you are subscribed to Coach Dave Delta. Additionally, the software grants you the ability to take an in-depth look at your telemetry and driving data. You can subscribe to Coach Dave Delta here (affiliate link).