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As a first-party Microsoft studio, Turn 10 is obsessed with performance in Forza games and, during the open beta for Apex, we will be working to improve the game’s performance across a diverse selection of hardware setups (see below for our recommended PC specs).

As development continues, players can expect to see updates and improvements to the game.

For example, wheel support is coming to Forza Motorsport 6: Apex and Turn 10 is busy working to ensure that Apex delivers the kind of wheel support, performance, and features that racing fans expect from a range of available hardware. In addition we plan to support additional features that we know are important to PC gamers, such as the ability to disable Vsync and an in-app framerate counter.

Forza Motorsport 6: Apex utilizes the cloud-based Drivatars of your Xbox Live Friends and the Xbox One community, as well as asynchronous leaderboards for comparing your Race Points, but the game will not feature online multiplayer or the livery design editor. However, in an early beta update, we will be adding a selection of curated livery designs from the Forza painting community to the car select flow.

Today we released the first content update (CU) for Forza Motorsport 6: Apex. This CU includes a number of improvements to the game, including the following:

• Players can now disable Vsync in Apex (NOTE: This feature requires upgrading to a specific version of Windows 10 [OS Build 10586.318]). To disable Vsync:

1. Ensure you are on the correct Windows Build 10586.318
   
2. Select your desired performance from the Performance Target screen:
   
   
3. Ensure you application matches your screen resolution settings. The easiest way to do this is set the “Force Resolution” video option to OFF, which will automatically match your game resolution to your native resolution.
   
   
4. Ensure your application is running in a full screen mode (no borders / task tray). You can toggle full screen mode by pressing the Alt + Enter keys.
   
   [NOTE: As of this update, Forza Motorsport 6: Apex is still capped at a maximum frame rate of 60fps. The team is investigating adding support for higher framerates in a future update.]
   

Other changes in this CU include:

• Stability and performance updates spanning a number of machine configurations, with specific focus on AMD devices
  
• Gameplay/objective modifications to a handful of events in both the Showcase Tour and Spotlight Series
  
• Improved integration between Apex and Forza Hub, as well as improved redemption flow for the free Nissan GT-R bonus car
  
• Additional UI fixes and general improvements, including: Expiration times for Spotlight Series events are now shown in local time; "New” UI designation now only applies to events that are actually new; Total medals available in Spotlight Series now only counts for active events
  

Later today, Windows 10 will be updated with two key new features:

• Support for AMD’s FreesyncTM and NVIDIA’s G-SYNC™ in Universal Windows Platform games and apps
  
• Unlocked frame rate for Universal Windows Platform (UWP) games and apps

Once applications take advantage of these new features, you will be able to play your UWP games with unlocked frame rates. We expect Gears of War: UE and Forza Motorsport 6: Apex to lead the way by adding this support in the very near future.

This OS update will be gradually rolled out to all machines, but you can download it directly here.

These updates to UWP join the already great support for unlocked frame rate and AMD and NVIDIA’s technologies in Windows 10 for classic Windows (Win32) apps.

How does “unlocked frame rate” relate to tearing and vsync support? How do these relate to G-SYNC and FreeSync?

Vsync refers to the ability of an application to synchronize game rendering frames with the refresh rate of the monitor. When you use a game menu to “Disable vsync”, you instruct applications to render frames out of sync with the monitor refresh. Being able to render out of sync with the monitor refresh allows the game to render as fast as the graphics card is capable (unlocked frame rate), but this also means that “tearing” will occur. Tearing occurs when part of two different frames are on the screen at the same time, and is now possible in UWP games with this update.

G-SYNC and FreeSync solve the game/monitor synchronization problem by determining when the game is ready to render a new frame. When the game is ready, the graphics driver tells the monitor to refresh the display. This allows your game to render as fast as the graphics card is capable without any tearing, but requires monitors which support adaptive refresh technology.

Does DirectX 12 and UWP support full screen exclusive mode?

Full screen exclusive mode was created back in the original release of DirectDraw to provide games with enhanced performance when using the entire screen. The downside of full screen exclusive mode is that it makes the experience for gamers who wish to do other things on their system, such as alt-tab to another application or run the Windows GameDVR, more clunky with excessive flicker and transition time.

We thought it would be cool if gamers could have the versatility of gaming in a window with the performance of full screen exclusive.

So, with Windows 10, DirectX 12 games which take up the entire screen perform just as well as the old full screen exclusive mode without any of the full screen exclusive mode disadvantages. This is true for both Win32 and UWP games which use DirectX 12. All of these games can seamlessly alt-tab, run GameDVR, and exhibit normal functionality of a window without any perf degradation vs full screen exclusive.

Want to know more about how this works? Check out our DirectX 12 Developer Education YouTube channel!

Version 1.1.9.0 Release Notes

Hi all,

Today we released the latest content update (CU) for Forza Motorsport 6: Apex. Today’s CU focuses on improved hardware detection and error code usage:

• For users who run into driver issues with Apex, we have included information on the latest hardware driver available.
• Fixed an issue with hardware detection whereby users with multiple GPUs were incorrectly being told they could not play Apex. This change will mostly affect laptop users with an embedded GPU.

I'm a newbie.

What are the developers thinking to release a racing game that cannot use what one expects to use in a racing game?

Version 1.2.10.0 Release Notes

Here are the release notes for today's update for Forza Motorsport 6: Apex:

• We have added a selection of curated community liveries to Apex. Players can select from these liveries from the Paint Car option in the game.
• Players now have the option to unlock framerate when Dynamic Optimization is set to Custom
• Players can now disable MSAA and Anisotropic Filtering when Dynamic Optimization is set to Custom
• Saved photos can now be shared through Driver Record > Forza Gallery
• We have addressed issue with cars not unlocking until you reload the car list
• Fixed issue where players would need to reload Career Tours to unlock Spotlight Events if they finished the career on an earlier play through
• Fixed issue where pins in the ‘Raptor Strike’ Career Tour event do not properly reset if a players uses rewind
• Fixed a case where some users are experiencing an ‘infinite’ loading screen when launching events
• Additional bug fixes

[EDIT: Corrected version number]

Version 1.3.11.0 Release Notes

Here are the release notes for the most recent version of Forza Motorsport 6: Apex:

• Enable in-race FPS counter through Video Options
• Difficulty balancing for Drivatar AI
• Optimized objectives in some Tour events
• Tuned time bonuses for some Tour events
• Resolved issue where changing certain Video Options did not have any effect
• Resolved some cases of stalls and hitches during race
• Additional bug fixes and improvements

This week we released the most recent update for Forza Motorsport 6: Apex. Among new additions to the game such as an in-race framerate counter (see below for the full list), we have made some adjustments to difficulty across a number of events, based on gameplay data and feedback from the Forza community.

During our research we noticed that some new players were having a more difficult time passing events than originally intended. With that in mind, in this update we adjusted the “pass” requirements for a number of events. At the same time, we wanted to keep things challenging for our most skilled players, so we have ensured that the requirements to earn platinum medals and post top leaderboard times remain appropriately challenging.

With this update we have also adjusted time bonuses across numerous events to smooth out inconsistencies in how Apex rewards players for posting top times. In addition, we’ve ensured that the max time bonuses are the same or slightly higher than previous to ensure that no times are unbeatable. We have also changed a few event bonus objectives which we determined were counter to the spirit of their respective events.

Finally, we have made some adjustments to Drivatar performance in Apex, to prevent certain Drivatar opponents in particularly fast cars from becoming essentially unbeatable. With this latest update, Drivatar opponents in fast cars will make for a challenging race, but victory will be more attainable than before.

As reported in today’s story, we’re lifting the “beta” tag off of Forza Motorsport 6: Apex today. Along with today’s content update (CU), we’re including wheel support for a number of wheels from Logitech and Thrustmaster.

The following is a list of wheel support known issues with today's CU (2.5.14)

General:
- Swapping wheel hardware without re-launching the app can result in missing or changed functionality.
- Having multiple wheel drivers installed on a single machine can result in missing or unintended functionality (Different manufactures and different wheel models).
- Unplugging a device, then plugging it back in while Apex is running can result in partial/full loss of device functionality.

Fanatec:
- Force Feedback doesn’t currently function. We will be adding support for this line of wheels in a future update.

Logitech G25:
- H-pattern shifter – Does not initialize if it is in gear when the app is launched.

Logitech G29:
- H-pattern shifter isn’t currently compatible. This will be supported in a future update.

Thrustmaster RGT:
- Clutch pedal isn’t recognized and can’t be mapped. This will be fixed in a future update.

Thrustmaster:
- H-pattern shifter isn’t currently compatible.
- Affected models include T300RS, G29, T500 RS, T150, TX, TMX.
- These will be supported in a future update.

[list of drivers links]

Hi folks,

We released another content update for Apex today, which is now rolling out to users. Here's a look at the items in today's update:

• Fixed an issue where raindrops did not appear correctly in certain situations
• When using a wheel during a race, mouse movements are now ignored
• Fixed an issue players using wheels set to manual clutch would occasionally start the race in neutral
• Fixed an issue where Apex would crash shortly after launch for some users
• Fixed an issue where the clutch was grinding when used, potentially damaging the transmission
• Fixed an issue where some currently supported H-Pattern shifters were not properly recognized on some wheels

Thanks,
Brian