Racing fans will be glad for this bit of news. Codemasters has announced that a patch for Race Driver: GRID (PC, Xbox 360, PS3) is now up and ready for download through various mirrors.

This specific patch is meant to be used only by those who have the PC-DVD version of the game. If you picked up the game through digital download via Steam, Metaboli, or Direct2Drive, you'll have to wait a little longer to get the patch that's meant for your version of the game.

In any event, below are the changes brought about by the patch. We suggest you download the patch so you can better experience the racing action the game has to offer.

 All Platforms

Network bug fixes

• When viewing in spectator mode – wheels should now turn correctly.
• Session searching now functions correctly when there are lots of full sessions (PC and PS3).
• Track and route options no longer change when host gets back to lobby in private/LAN.
• Race results are now correct if a host migration occurs at the end of the race.
• Other player’s progress/positions are now correctly updated when you enter the race results screen.
• Several NaN (brown screen) related fixes.
• Fixed a problem whereby it was only possible to upload one world record ghost to each track (PC and PS3)

Network - general

• Race to race lobby timer is now 15 seconds
• A timer has been added showing how long the session has been up and running is shown on the tickertape after joining a session.
• Changes to what is displayed in lobby when a player has kick votes.
• The player who has been voted for can see this fact and the number of votes they have received.
• Players who have voted to kick someone can see who they voted for but cannot see the number of votes.
• Players who have not voted do not see anything.
  

• Added ability to get the next page of sessions in private session results (PC and PS3)
• Banned sessions no longer appear in private session list.
• Reverse gear is now disabled for the first two seconds of a network race to stop players reversing off the start line.
• Added ability to change collision types in all sessions (not enabled in Demolition Derby).
• Forward Only (this is the normal behaviour for Ranked/Unranked)
• On (Collisions are always on)
• Off (Always off).
  

• Numerous anti griefing checks to turn off collisions when players are griefing.
• Fix for distance shown in distance online stat.
• A warning message is now shown the first time you enter system link.
• In non-drift races, the race results screen shows the fastest lap that each player achieved in that race.
• When a player retires or terminally damages in race, a message telling all players of this fact is sent to the chat system so displayed in the overlay in game.
• Cars become semi-transparent when collisions are turned off due to griefing.
• Improvements to prediction system to reduce effects of lag when players are close by
• Fix for occasional excessive smoke coming from other players in network mode
• Fix for exploit where a player could upload an incorrect lap time
• PS3 & PC – fix for a problem where private sessions would not show up in search unless you searched for public sessions first

Game - general
Xbox 360 achievement fix.

• Several optimisations and performance improvements.
• It is now possible to look left and right while in bonnet camera.
• Fix for a hang when selecting a gear outside the gears available on the vehicle (this was possible with H-Shifter)
• Fix for cars very occasionally flying into the air when hitting kerbs.
• Fixes for custom action maps
• Track rendering optimisations.
• Brown screen problem no longer awards achievements or causes glowing white cars.
• Fix for airborne achievement – now awarded even if car flips upside down during jump
• Fixed frame rate stalls and stuttering on Xbox 360.

PC Specific Changes

General

• Added support for Xinput wheel and Logitech Rumblepad 2, including default action map configurations.
• Adding ability to use H-pattern shifter in custom configuration by allowing configuration of gears 1 to 6 and reverse. Same for boost.
• Fix for missing Force feedback on Vista.
• Added the ability to override the controller type, so that if the game fails to auto-detect it, users can specify it themselves.

• Symptoms of the game failing to detect the appropriate controller type are:
• On a pad, handling is too twitchy, appears to steer “lock-to-lock”.
• On a wheel, the input lags and the linearity slider doesn’t appear to have an effect.
• To override controller type, find the hardware_settings_config.xml that is generated when the game is run (should be in My DocumentsCodemastersGRIDhardwaresettings) and change the line that reads to either as appropriate for your controller.

• Changing microcode optimisation level for NVIDIA 7xxx series graphics cards to reduce a pause when using each shader for the first time.
• Adding support for triple head displays.
• Graphical corruption fix when using multiple GPU’s.
• Network chat text made less obtrusive.
• Numerous on-going compatibility fixes.
• Improvements to shadows for certain resolutions/aspect ratios.
• Profiles are now flushed to disk when they are written to reduce the chance of them being corrupted if the PC dies.