What is New / Different in the May 2017 Update

[Sammy]

I heard about all the game crashes from the May 2017 Update, but there is no information about what's new in this update.

I do not want to update my game if the new update is not worth it and my cause my game to crash. I will take the chance on the new update if it is worth it.

Does anyone know or can describe what is new in the update?

The developers say "it really is like a whole different game. "

There is no other information on the web about the May 2017 update.

Thanks

[Natty La Ridge]

The latest major update has been out since March. It went through a beta phase where a number of bugs got squashed, and has been the main branch release (what you get if you install RR from the library) since early April, IIRC.

The changes are numerous and include fully voiced NPCs, a story-based campaign, a revamped skill tree, a new weapon slot system, reworked bike and playable character unlocks, and vastly improved bike physics. I'm sure Max or one of the devs can provide a more complete list.

It's been very stable for me, not a single crash since the update. Some players have reported crashes in the bike selection page that seem to be related to older AMD graphics cards; this can be avoided using a command-line parameter that forces the game to use DirectX 9.

I think the latest build is easily the best version of ROAD REDEMPTION yet. YMMV

[Max Is Back]

I agree entirely with Soggy Bog Moggy. It's not unstable, it went through a significant beta period before going into the main release and the it's very stable. It has a some very welcome updates and IMO it's certainly the "latest and greatest" release. My recommendation is to update without delay!

If you do find any issues, just post a new thread describing any troubles you're having and we'll be glad to assist. The few rare issues that have been encountered so far (such as locking up on the bike selection screen with certain older ATI/AMD cards, as Moggy mentions above) have known workarounds. And if you discover any new bugs (which is unlikely considering it's been live for some time) we'll investigate them ASAP.

Honestly, I'd go for it! But there are some release notes knocking around that better detail the actual changes, so I'll try to dig them out and post them here as soon as I have the chance.

Cheers, good gaming!

[Sammy]

Thank you for the information.

I am currently running a 2048MB ASUS ATI/AMD HD Radeon 6950 graphics card on a Windows 7 system. The card is from 2011.

(1) Would this card be one of the older ATI/AMD cards having problems with the May 2017 Update?

I am currently running the game from a shortcut directly to the installed RoadRedemptionEarlyAccess.exe file.

Also running the "dxdiag" command from Start > Run tells me I have DirectX 11.

(2) I don't know if I still have DirectX 9 anymore. Didn't Windows Update overwrite it with DirectX 11?

(3) Would you happen to know the command-line parameter that forces the game to use DirectX 9 if it is still on my system somewhere?

Thanks again

[Natty La Ridge]

The -force-d3d9 fix is discussed in this thread.

I recommend recreating your shortcut to allow Steam to launch the game. You shouldn't use the -force-d3d9 parameter unless the game crashes when run normally. If it does crash, post details so the devs can track down the root cause.

If you've got a Windows 7 system from 2011 (or earlier), chances are you've already got DirectX 9 installed. Multiple versions of DirectX can coexist on the same system; they don't overwrite each other.

Enjoy!

[Max Is Back]

@Sammy - We haven't had any reports of it crashing on the bike selection screen with the HD 6000 series - it seems to be the 5000 series that has problems. So try starting it normally (which runs it in DirectX 11 mode) and see if it crashes on the bike/rider selection screen. If not then great, you don't have to take any further action. If it does crash then you have one of the affected cards and you need to run the game in DirectX 9 mode.

If you're using a shortcut to launch the game that's fine, it can still be used to launch the game in DirectX 9 mode. In fact there are two ways you can do it via a shortcut, so I'll document them both for you:

1. The easiest way is to find the shortcut you're currently using to launch Road Redemption then right-click on it and select "Properties" to open its property sheet. In the "Target" textbox, leave all the existing text in place (it should be the full path to your Road Redemption executable) but navigate to the end of it and add " -force-d3d9" (include the space at the start but don't include the quotes). Click "OK" at the bottom of the dialog and that's it, it should now work exactly as it did before but it will launch the game in DirectX 9 mode.

2. The slightly more robust way is to request Steam to launch the game on your behalf (this allows all Steam functionality to work as expected, which it usually does anyway but this guarantees it). To do this, find your main "Steam.exe" executable in the directory you installed Steam to and create a shortcut to it. You can rename this shortcut "Road Redemption". Then right-click on it and select "Properties" to open its property sheet just like before. This time, in the "Target" textbox you'll have the full path to your Steam executable. Leave the existing text in place but navigate to the end of it and add " -applaunch 300380 -force-d3d9". Once again you want to include the space at the start but don't include the quotes. Another thing you can do while you're in the property sheet is click on the "Change Icon..." button then navigate to your Road Redemption executable, select it, then in the following dialog select the normal Road Redemption icon. Now your shortcut will display the proper RR icon instead of the generic Steam icon.

When you run this new shortcut, it will launch Steam if it isn't already running (or just reuse any running instance if you already have Steam open) and will ask Steam to launch Road Redemption for you. If the RR executable ever changes name or location this will still work regardless, because the shortcut asks Steam to launch the app based on its appid (which never changes). This is the more robust way to launch the game as it's basically identical to launching the game through Steam itself. The only drawback is before the game launches, it may warn you that there's an additional command line parameter in the shortcut (-force-d3d9); if so, just click "OK" on that warning dialog and it will continue to launch the game as normal. Much like the previous method, this way of doing it ensures that the game launches in DirectX 9 mode but additionally ensures that Steam is running and all Steam features will definitely work properly.

By the way, don't worry about DirectX 9 - you'll already have it installed on your machine. DirectX 11 doesn't replace version 9, they run side-by-side, and I'm pretty sure that installing Road Redemption additionally installs DirectX 9 anyway. So if you have RR installed then you should have DirectX 9!

Hope this helps, just let me know if you have any trouble.

Cheers, good gaming!

P.S. - One last thing I just thought of! If you don't mind too much, this would be really useful for us. When you first start the game after updating (which you should do normally to test if it works in the default DirectX 11 mode - you only need to force DirectX 9 if it crashes on the bike/rider selection screen), would you mind reporting back and letting us know if it worked with your HD 6950 or if it crashed and you have to use one of the workarounds above? That would be great since I'm trying to compile a list of all ATI/AMD cards that are affected by this issue and I currently have no data on the HD 6950. Thanks very much in advance for this, it will be a big help!

[Sammy]

First I would like to thank both Soggy Bog Moggy for the DirectX Information and Max Is Back for the extensive write-up.

I currently love the game as is installed the first time on April 22, 2017. I will first make a back up copy of the 6.3GB installed game and then perform the update via steam. If I encounter any crashes, I will let you know. If the game FPS slows down like I read in a few posts, I will also let you know.

Basically, If I encounter any problems that affect the game. I will temporally revert back to the April 22, 2017 install until the all the issues are worked out. I will report back any issues I encounter.

Thanks again

[Max Is Back]

@Sammy - Thanks very much, any feedback you can give us about your experience (especially whether you suffer that crash on the bike/rider selection screen) is very greatly appreciated!

Good luck and good gaming!