Forza 7 Big update: Stylish new UI, improved Wheel FFB and more!

Game's start screen and menus have received a cool new look. HUD details are more visible in-race as well and the Force Feedback System for wheels has been apparently improved. The game has been getting large, regular updates in the past few months and this is the latest one!

We’re sprucing things up with the December update for Forza Motorsport 7, which arrives on December 4 on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC. Over the past few months, while Turn 10 has been adding new features and functionality to the game based on community feedback, we’ve also been working on giving the Forza 7 menus a fresh coat of paint. The first result of all that hard work arrives this month for all players to enjoy. We’ve also introduced some upgrades and improvements throughout other areas of the game as well, including a much-improved force feedback system for wheel users, a new dynamic opponent labels system, a new Spotlight car coming free for all Forza 7 players, alongside lots of improvements and fixes across the game.

Here’s a deeper look at what’s included in the December update, starting with a look at this month’s Spotlight car:

2018 #1 BMW M Motorsport M8 GTE

After a seven-year hiatus, BMW has returned to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Adding fanfare is the fact that the M8 GTE raced in both the FIA WEC endurance series and the IMSA series before the production model became available for sale. Call it reverse engineering of the best kind since this M8 GTE is the first BMW manufactured from the ground up as an LM GTE homologated car, instead of being built from an existing platform. Significant weight savings, obvious safety equipment, and extensive aero make this a custom-built racecar. What a production M8 will look like we don’t yet know. We do know is that the M8 GTE was able to keep pace at the Circuit de la Sarthe and in IMSA, BMW teams garnered two wins and finished fourth in the highly competitive GTLM class, proving it as a viable racing platform. Best of all, now you can find out for yourself how it performs.

Updated Force Feedback

The December update introduces some important changes to force feedback in Forza 7. The new force feedback is a full physically based system utilizing Forza Motorsport 7’s suspension kinematics and tire modeling to send tire loads to the steering wheel. It produces a more intuitive feel with more accurate align torque and a solid feeling of connection to the road.

Importantly for wheel users, this new wheel update completely replaces the old system, which means players’ tuning values from before December will be reset. Wheel users will need to tune from scratch to take advantage of this new and improved system. For a full rundown of the new force feedback system, check out the updated FM7 Wheel Guide on the Forza Support site.

A Fresh Coat of Paint

When you start up Forza Motorsport 7 after Tuesday’s update, straight away you’re going to notice some visual changes. In addition to a new splash screen, we’ve made some significant improvements to the main menu. The old slightly angled menu is replaced with a new flat layout. The car and driver have moved to the right-hand side of the screen. In addition, we’ve replaced the black and white image backgrounds for the menu tiles with beautiful new color images. Sharp-eyed players will also notice that we’ve changed the tile highlight color from red to blue, and we’ve changed the opacity of tiles that do not have artwork, to make those tiles feel more active. The team has also improved transition times for certain menu items; for example, it now takes less time to get to the Forza Driver’s Cup menu when selecting that tile from the main menu.

New Opponent Labels

The menus aren’t the only items getting a visual overhaul in December. This update also introduces a new opponent label system into the game. These labels are the information panels that you see in multiplayer lobbies, showing a player’s Gamertag, Forza driver level, and badge above the car. The new opponent label system brings a uniform, flattened look to these labels. Labels will also be dynamic, shifting between three “states” depending on an opponent’s proximity to the player.

The closest “full” state presents a player’s Gamertag, their position in the race, and some event-relevant information such as distance ahead (or behind, when looking backwards), total drift score, or “It” status when playing Tag games. At medium distance, opponent labels will be shown in condensed state, with just a player’s GT and position shown. A furthest distance, labels will appear in “far” state, showing just the player’s position in the race.

We’ve also made some design adjustments to in-race HUD information items with the December update. For example, the lap time HUD elements have been made more uniform and the lap counter has moved to the upper right corner of the screen.

The new menus and new opponent labels are part of an ongoing effort to offer players a great looking and informative Forza Motorsport 7 experience. Look for more updates to these aspects of the game in the coming months.

Other Updates

The December update is bringing more good stuff with it as well. Rivals players will now automatically get a new ghost car to challenge after they’ve beaten a Rival. In addition, Specialty Dealer will now display the original collector score alongside the updated collector score, as well as both original price and “sale” price, along with the discount percentage.

Sound good... just need some more content that we usually get in DLC by now.

Until they get a penalty system for online races I won't play it anytime soon. I love Forza but can be bothered with the online.

@hrt_rulz01:hopefully once they are done with all these "quality of life improvements" we'll see more content, that would be great and expected since no Forza 8 is planned for next year. I actually still have a good deal to do in the campaign lol, not just because I play online but also because of Forza Horizon, I usually play that series more. I played a ton of the Forza 7 campaign, it's great, lots to do for all the achievements. Big expansion would be very cool though definitely.

@phbz: that's coming sometime next year apparently. I love how they improved the collision system recently, I find it much easier to regain control of the car when in an accident but online I still play about half my time with Ghosted players because sometimes I just don't want to deal with the occasional Griefers. I saw the penalty system in its beta state during a stream with the dev and it looks cool, should encourage cleaner racing when it releases and add new challenges to the game.