WRC 3: FIA World Rally Championship

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

	Support	Method	HUD
Widescreen:	Static Aspect	Native	Proper
Ultra/Super-Wide:	Hor+	Hack	Hindrance
Multi-Monitor:	Hor+	Hack	Optimized
4k UltraHD:

Rendered Cut-Scene:	Hor+
FMV Cut-Scene:	Static Aspect

Game information

Game status:

Released

Release Date:

Friday, 12 October, 2012

Tested Version:

1.0

Play styles:

Single player, Competitive

Setting:

Modern

Genre:

Racing (Sim-Style)

Developer:

Milestone S.r.l

Links:

Website ⋅ Wikipedia ⋅ PCGamingWiki

Store Links:

Comparison Screenshots

4:3 Screenshot
16:10 Screenshot
16:9 Screenshot
Ultra-Wide (21:9) Screenshot
Super-Wide (32:9) Screenshot
Eyefinity / Surround Screenshot

Solutions & Issues

Baseline (Widescreen) Solution & Issues

Native anamorphic support.
The Advanced Plugin can only remove black bars in aspects wider than 16:9.

Ultra/Super-Wide (21:9/32:9) Specific Solution & Issues

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.

Eyefinity / Surround Specific Solution & Issues

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.

4k UHD Specific Solution & Issues