It took a couple dispensable titles and one lightweight-yet-essential mod, but Milestone's WRC series may finally be on the verge of redemption.
The highlight of the 2012 iteration are the better graphics and physics of the updated in-house engine. Game modes include no-nonsense, hotseat-friendly championships through the official calendar and a more casual, unlock-driven Road To Glory that mixes rally stages with more arcadey driving challenges.
WRC 3 is not without its shortcomings, though. Enter TOCAEdit's Racer_S, high-end racing gear designers EC Sim Hardware and their combined effort: the Advanced Plugin for WRC 3. This 4 MB tool lets the game truly shine by fixing/improving a number of features, from multiple controllers support to H-shifting to TrackIR to free camera position & FOV control... not to mention Hor+ multi-mon.
And how brilliant is this: the Advanced Plugin works with the WRC 3 demo, too !
Support Summary
Game Information
Screenshots Comparison
Solutions & Issues
Native anamorphic support.
The Advanced Plugin can only remove black bars in aspects wider than 16:9.
You'll have to choose between two partial solutions here:
- Either use EC Sim' Advanced Plugin, see Multi-Mon section below. Screen change is Hor+ but UI is squished and pushed toward the center of the screen, which is annoying.
- Or force resolution support through a manual ini edit. Screen change is anamorphic 16:9 (pillarboxing), which is depressing. Details follow.
%APPDATA%\Milestone\WRC3\Config.iniWidth=2560Height=1080
Save the file, then set it to Read-only or the config launcher will cancel your changes.
Launch the game and click OK a few times to get through the "Cannot save Config.ini" notification boxes.
See Additional screenshots for the result. To my knowledge, there is no way to get 16:9 anamorphic gameplay while using the Advanced Plugin.
Out of the box, multi-mon resolutions are unsupported.
Visit the Advanced Plugin page on Google Docs and select File/Download to retrieve it.
Install the Advanced Plugin then launch the game. The Advanced Plugin window will open on top of the WRC 3 config launcher.
- In the Advanced Plugin window, enter your desired display Width and Height and check Stretch to fit. Then Save & Close.
- In the WRC3 config launcher, make sure FSAA is disabled under Video settings or the game will refuse to run. Then hit Play.
Gameplay Screenshots
In-Game (Rendered) Cutscenes
FMV Cutscenes
Menu Screenshots
Additional Screenshots
