This is it. It’s all led to this point. It’s time for version 1.0!

Yes, as of today, DiRT Rally is officially leaving Early Access and launching on Steam. It’s been a hell of a ride and we’re so glad you’ve been able to join us along the road to launch. Between you, you’ve clocked up over 98 million kilometres so far!

Today’s Steam launch brings with it the Winter Wonderland update, which delivers a new rally set in the snow and ice of the Varmland region of Sweden to the game. These snow-filled stages are known for their snow banks and we’ve been hard at work on new soft edge tech that simulates the density of snow. As a result, you can now lean on the snow banks when pushing for those stage records.

The update also brings two new cars to the game, the Hyundai Rally and the Volkswagen Polo Rally. These cars are the most recent additions to the pinnacle of the sport and they are the perfect way to round off our Early Access programme.

The Winter Wonderland update also sees the introduction of Steam Workshop support that allows players to share Car Setup & Force Feedback settings. You can find a guide for this here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=570805193 You can get started with settings from our simulation team here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=570797271

We’ve also made improvements and refinements made to Global Leaderboards and League support.

Here’s the rundown of other stuff that’s new this month:

• The Group B RWD, Hillclimb and Kit Cars have been upgraded to v2 handling.
  
• Now that all cars are up to v2 spec, the Self Aligning Torque has been re-balanced to support the new handling
  
• We found the spanners and wrenches that adjust the seats in all of your cars. Mind your head!
  
• The Logitech G920 is now fully supported.
  
• We also changed the mapping for Gears, Look Back, Clutch and Replay on the Logitech G29.
  
• The Clutch, Look Up and Seat Adjustment keys have been remapped on QWERTY / AZERTY keyboards to save your fingers and thumbs
  
• The SimXperience AccuForce Pro Steering System is now fully supported.
  
• You can now tune your immersion levels by customising your OSD options, choosing between On, Countdowns Only and Off.
  
• The Logitech G29 wheel is now correctly listed in the controller preset menu.
  
• Custom Championships now reward you with the correct number of credits.
  
• There’s a new EULA to sign when you boot the game, which asks you to kindly behave yourself when you’re playing with others.
  
• Your favourite pet mouse has learnt a new trick, and can now change the livery on your car.
  
• If you own an Owner’s Club event, you will now correctly own the Owned achievement.
  
• If you pledge a wedge to an online Wager Event and the event ends while you’re on stage, we’ll give you your CR back.
  
• Your Oculus Rift can now be toggled to lock the horizontal orientation. Look for a flag in the hardware configuration file.
  
• Sliders on the Advanced Racing Wheel Options screen now increment at the same rate as the Steering and Pedal calibration screen.
  
• Your Service Crews are back from their training course and will now correctly setup your car for multi-location events.
  
• Stopped one set of Rallycross results from appearing on a Rally leaderboard.
  
• You no longer need to hold the headlight control to activate your lights. You can now just tap that.
  
• Windows accounts with accented and non-latin characters will now correctly save game settings.
  
• Fixed a weird bug where the camera would briefly flick back to the default position at the start of a stage after customising the seat position.
  
• @Kick_Up will now politely and calmly inform you if your wheels fall off, and if you’re going the wrong way.

As ever, please stop by the forums and let us know what you think of version 1.0 and how you think we did in early access. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Love,

The DiRT Team x