Series 21: Explore the Horizon
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Blog: Explore the Horizon with Enhanced Photo Mode and Pathfinder Challenges (Forza.net)
Video: Forza Twitch | Forza YouTube
- 00:00 Countdown
04:10 Intro Forza Horizon 5
06:50 “Explore the Horizon” series update (FH5)
13:58 CUPRA Tavascan & Formentor (FH5)
18:46 2022 GMC Hummer EV & Pathfinder Accolades
23:33 EventLab of the Month
27:35 Snappable oval track props
30:43 1972 Chevrolet K-10 Custom & overlanding upgrades
34:55 Photo mode improvements
38:42 2019 DeBerti Ford Super Duty F-250 Lariat ‘Transformer’
41:36 1986 Ford F-150 XLT Lariat & photo studio props
45:36 ‘Coming Soon’ - Upgrade Heroes Community
47:36 Official Photo Competition winners
49:23 Community Spotlight - FormFirm
1:06:28 Rally Adventure Livery Contest winners
1:11:46 Where to get photos featured on Forza Social Channel?
1:20:40 Forza Creators Guild ‘Snapshot Scenes’ competition
1:23:14 Community Calendar
1:25:34 Official Livery Competition winners
SEASONS
Seasons change each Thursday at 7:30am Pacific
| Season | Dates |
|---|---|
| Summer | May 25 - June 1 |
| Autumn | June 1 - 8 |
| Winter | June 8 - 15 |
| Spring | June 15 - 22 |
NEW CARS
Six cars, all #NewToForza
- 2022 GMC HUMMER EV Pickup
- 2019 DeBerti Ford Super Duty F-250 Lariat ‘Transformer’
- 1986 Ford F-150 XLT Lariat
- 1972 Chevrolet K-10 Custom
- 2021 CUPRA Formentor VZ5
- 2022 CUPRA Tavascan Concept
The two CUPRA cars will be gifted to everyone who plays Forza Horizon 5 during the Explore the Horizon series. It can be redeemed by navigating to Pause > My Horizon > Message Center > Gifts from May 24 through June 22, 2023. In the following series, Upgrade Heroes (Series 22), the two cars will be added to the Autoshow. The other four cars are seasonal exclusive rewards, first available from the Series 21 Festival Playlists.
FEATURES
- Photo Mode improvements
- Overlanding Modifications
- Pathfinder Accolades
- other TBA
PHOTO MODE
These improvements have been inspired by your feedback, and we would love to hear ideas for other features, changes and additions you would like to see in Photo Mode in the future. Let us know over on the Suggestions Hub where the team will review your submissions.
- Time of Day Changes: Default, Dawn, Sunrise, Morning, Early Afternoon, Late Afternoon, Sunset, Evening, Night.
- Weather Changes: Default, Clear, Clear Post Rain, Cloudy, Cloudy Post Rain, Overcast, Light Precipitation, Heavy Precipitation, Gale, Fog.
- Wheel Tilt: Default, Straight, Left, Right.
- Guidelines: Disabled, Different Aspect Ratios, 9x9 Grids, Golden Ratios.
- Character Positions: Driver Seat, Centre Front, Left Front, Right Front, Centre Back, Left Back, Right Back, Left Side and Right Side. The vehicle must be stationary to access character positions outside of the car.
- Character Emotes: Various emotes unlocked by the player are supported.
- Photo Presets: Added to the “Effects” menu, players can save, rename and delete Photo Mode presets to quickly load their favorite Photo Mode settings.
- Portrait Mode Toggle: Accessed through the Guidelines, this allows players to view how the photo will appear in portrait view.
CAR UPGRADES: OVERLANDING MODIFICATIONS
Players who have completed Forza Horizon 5 Rally Adventure may have noticed that the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum features a unique overlanding modification that can be fitted. It’s the perfect way to ensure your vehicle is setup for “car camping” and in Explore the Horizon, we’re rolling out this customization option to 16 additional trucks in Forza Horizon 5:
- 2017 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2
- 1972 Chevrolet K-10 Custom
- 2019 DeBerti Ford Super Duty F-250 Lariat ‘Transformer’
- 2020 Ford Super Duty F-450 DRW Platinum
- 2019 Ford Ranger Raptor
- 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor
- 2011 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor
- 1986 Ford F-150 XLT Lariat
- 2022 GMC HUMMER EV Pickup
- 2019 Hennessey VelociRaptor 6x6
- 2020 Jeep Gladiator Rubicon
- 1997 Land Rover Defender 90
- 2014 Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG 6x6
- 2018 Mercedes-Benz X-Class
- 2016 Nissan TITAN Warrior Concept
- 2017 RAM 2500 Power Wagon
Future series updates introducing new car customization pieces like body kits, parts and rims will feature a “New” label to help players locate the latest additions.
NEW EVENTLAB PROPS
In this series, we’re introducing a set of snappable asphalt pieces used to build the Horizon Oval Circuit. These can be found in a new category called “Racing.” In addition, five new props featuring lights and a backdrop, ideal to build a photo studio, can be found in the “Decorations” tab.
PATHFINDER CHALLENGES & ACCOLADES
Prove your mastery of Forza Horizon 5’s map in all-new Pathfinder Challenges. A total of 12 unique routes highlighted by markers have been added to Free Roam, with 3 available to complete in each week of the series. An associated accolade is also unlocked upon reaching the Pathfinder destination.
Each season, the first accolade is automatically unlocked and pinning it will set a GPS marker to the start of the first route. They will be marked by a series of trail marker balloons, which will be green at the start and finish line, and red along the route.
Once the first route has been completed, a second accolade will be unlocked, however it will not be marked on your GPS – you’ll need to refer to the accolade description to find out where the next one starts. This also applies to the third accolade that is unlocked upon completion of the second route.
Once all 3 routes in a week have been finished, a Treasure Chest is unearthed near the end of the third route. By achieving all the Pathfinder accolades, a new Player Badge and the 1953 Morris Minor Series II Traveler is unlocked.
FESTIVAL PLAYLIST EVENTS
Explore the Horizon features the return of eight Seasonal PR Stunts with four Danger Signs; Ranas Saltarinas, San Juan Jump, Salto De Rio, and Metal Bird, as well as four Trailblazers; River Rapids, Cruse De Granja, Festival Descend, and Jungle Traversal. These are visible on the map with a unique purple and blue hue icon. You’ll have to drive fast to get 3 stars in all of them as they’ll only be available until the end of the series.
There’s a new Showcase Remix available in the Summer “Wet” season – the “Splash of the Titans” event features the all-new 2019 DeBerti Ford Super Duty F-250 Lariat ‘Transformer’ racing a competitive team of jet skis. This Showcase Remix is only unlocked once the “Flood, Sweat and Gears” event (which is the standard version of this Showcase) is complete.
NEW CAR HORNS
- Raptor Rawr
- Reaper Cackle
- Predator Howl
NEW CHARACTER OUTFIT
Players can unlock the CUPRA Race Suit in celebration of the new CUPRA vehicles that will be gifted to all players during the series.
RELEASE NOTES - Version *.588.95.0
The content update is available to install after 10am Pacfic on Tuesday, May 23rd (Tuesday, May 23, 2023 5:00 PM) with the list of bug fixes noted in the Forums Troubleshooting Hub (Closed Issues) and full Release Notes at Forza Support. As the update rolls out, some users may see it later than others. Overlanding upgrades, Photo Mode, and Accolades will be visible today; Pathfinder challenges and timed PR Stunts will be visible starting Thursday.
A feature change among the fixes:
- Taller tires option added to the 2014 Mercedes-Benz Unimog U5023.
Any Bugs?
If you experience any stability or other bug issues after installing this update, please post in the FH5 Report New Issues section so that others can upvote it. Make sure topics are limited to one issue each; include all relevant details such as your platform, drivers, and game mode affected along with any steps you can show that reproduces the bug; and make sure topic titles have clear keywords to help others see what the topic is about. Above all, don’t just reply - Vote on the topic so that the team can see number of players affected.
Bug fixes are pinned in the Troubleshooting Hub / FH5 Closed Issues section of the forums and at Forza Support. An extended note included in the Release Notes:
Multiplayer
- Fixed an issue with weather management in Multiplayer races where weather conditions in certain conditions were not consistent between players
- Developer’s Note:
"One of the most important things for any competitive experience is fairness. Forza Horizon has an exceptionally high skill ceiling, which means that player skill and interaction with the game is what ultimately determines success or failure, not an RNG attribute system. For this to work, competitive conditions must be as equal as possible while still allowing for tactical decisions (like your car and tune) and leaving space for player skill (like how well you handle a given corner).
Working together with members of the Competitive Community, we recently identified several issues with online multiplayer that were creating uneven competitive conditions.
These proved to be related to how the game handled the weather simulation in certain online contexts. This led to situations where certain players would have warmer conditions at the start of the race (which impacted tire temperature at the all-important moment of race start). We’ve resolved this by changing the point at which the physics simulation resets tire temperature, and harmonizing what temperature it resets to.
We were also able to identify situations where players engaging in long race events could experience weather desynchronization. The Competitive Community was “working around” this by only racing at specific times and in specific weather conditions where this was unlikely to occur. With support from the competitive community, we identified an issue where every player’s game would start to run its own version of the weather simulation. Since our weather model has a deterministic phase and a non-deterministic phase this could result in longer races seeing situations where one player had clear weather while another player in the same race was driving in pouring rain. This was because once the deterministic phase was complete, local games would start to randomize their weather in some conditions. We resolved this issue by clamping the weather simulation when the deterministic phase completes, ensuring that everyone will have consistent weather across the entire race.
All of these issues resulted in situations where cool experiences (like racing at night, or endurance races in heavy weather) were not fair experiences from a competitive standpoint. We’ve addressed these issues with the fixes I explained above, giving competitive players the consistent conditions they need to take advantage of everything Forza Horizon 5 has to offer.
Thank you to everyone in the various communities who spoke with me about this, and provided all the excellent data we used to track down what was actually going on. See you in Mexico!
- Torben Ellert, Design Director, Forza Horizon."
