rFactor 2 – Build 60 Update Now Available

The rFactor 2 Beta has received a major update that includes a slew of graphical, functional, and gameplay fixes as well as many improvements that address key issues originally brought up by the testing community over at the ISI forums.  While the “Build 60″ update is a significant step in the development of rFactor 2, it does not take it out of beta stage and testers are encouraged to continue  reporting  all bugs at the ISI Forums.  ISI staff member Tim Wheatley reported that there will be future rFmod content, but as of press date it is uncertain as to when this will be made available. 

Tim also cautioned that automatic updating will not be available for a few days and that the update will have to be manually installed. He provided the following instructions in obtaining and installing the update:

Automatic updating will NOT be available for a few days. You’ll need to download the exe to your rF2 data directory, and put it in the updates dir, for me this is located at: C:\Users\Tim\Documents\rFactor2\Updates – After placing it there, run the launcher, go to the update tab and click the one grey button available to you. It should detect the update. Click it again to run the installer.

Here is the update TORRENT: rF2Up_B49-B60_Not_50.exe.torrent
We haven’t done much seeding yet, so would appreciate your help there.
Temporary HTTP: http://www.mediafire.com/?od3mavt20k3ua1y

UPDATE 1 Changelog (Febuary 15, 2012):

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MULTIPLAYER:
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Configurable multiplayer race countdown timer (“Race Client Wait” in multiplayer.ini).
Reducing collision work in multiplayer (including completely turning off remote car vs. scene collision for now) in order to prevent slowdowns.
Modifed Dedicated server and mpfile to allow/disallow nicknames. 
Fixed in-car chat for extended ASCII characters.

GRAPHICS:
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Fixed showroom sun occlusion problem.
Fixed sun occlusion toggle.
Improved HDR debug output.
Moved all HDR processing to GPU.
Now enforcing deformable meshes.
Fixed and improved “visible vehicles” algorithm.
Updates to static meshes now disabled.
Fixed AI brake lights.
Fixed some issues doing HDR/Post on monitor.
Fixed up some postFX problems.
Updated sun occlusion.
Improved post FX integration with HDR.
Dixed bug that could result in cam file having more shadow parameters than the array that holds them.
Fixed problem with using post with HDR.
Fixed up hdr debug output, also improved post-processing.
Tidy up line drawing, also deactivated pre-caching for now as a test.
Fixed up hdr debug output.
Fixed a crash when loading a new profile to an existing track.
Shaders are recompiled if vid driver or HDR changes.
Reverted virtual mirrors back to using options settings rather than video settings.

UI:
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Fixed car skin spinner not selecting current selected skin when entering screen.
Fixed path error for loading truetype fonts.
Fixed car spinner gizmo bug where it selection didn’t take into account pace cars in the veh list ordering. (so picking a car near the end of spinner would select the wrong car.)
Fixed crash from skin selector gizmo that would happen 1st time you join a online game for a new mod and go to tuning from car selector screen.
Fixed bug where one couldn’t select a new UI.
Fixed gear graph text in wide-screen mode with non-wide-screen UI.
Tidy up some loading bar problem.
Fix HUD pit menu selector box.
Added tire volume slider.
Added new options for VSync and FXAA.

**** 

• Software sync uses a timer to draw frames based on your refresh rate. In other words, you could compare it with a software VSync.
• GPU sync is a UI element for the PLR’s “Flush Previous Frame” setting. This setting is not recommended for SLI.
• Video sync is actually the good old VSync option (notice that the usual VSync checkbox is now missing).
• None means it will behave like the previous build, without VSync enabled.

AI:
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Extra code to prevent ramming from behind when attempting to pass.
Generally made AI initiated player crashes less likely.
Made line transitions safer (for example moving from fastest to blocking line).
Fixed exaggerated pitspot slowdown.
Implemented 1st round of VERY basic wet weather tire logic. 
Now always simulating a lap once for every car to get fuel, time, and minimum speed for track (to improve AI pit strategy).
Made AI slower at 70% by not only reducing their grip (was already being done) but also cutting a bit of speed off corners on top of that when figuring. 
Made AI cars more likely to pass another car in the straight if given the opportunity.

GAMEPLAY:
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Fix for timescaled mechanical failures.

CONTROLLER:
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Added controller.ini variable “Off-road multiplier” at least until we have proper soft terrain physics modeling.
Changed default for “Keyboard Layout Override” in controller.ini to 1 which seems to work better most of the time.
Added new controller.ini option “Use Keyboard Rates For Analog” which allows gamepad users to intentionally delay the response time of their twitchy inputs.
Added controller.ini variable “Use Hardware Additional Features” to control whether we play G27 LEDs, for example. Actually that’s the only example right now.
Added ability to read/write Thrustmaster wheel range (only available on new T500RS series, by the way).
Set default control for ‘Display Vehicle Labels’ to TAB key.

OTHER OPTIMIZATIONS
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Various collision optimizations, including better automatic LODs for trackside collidable objects.
Fixed crash that occurred when no sound devices was enabled on Windows 7 Machine. 
Improved and/or fixed OnTop variable in TDF – this is a precise way to physically apply paint stripes on top of the road with a realistic thickness.
Minor SSE optimizations added.
Vertical position of individual mirrors wasn’t being transferred from CCH file to PLR file (note that these values are not editable in realtime with the Shift/Ctrl/Alt + Seat position controls).
Fixed dedicated server not updating scoring for plugins.
Fix for “Unknown” name in player file.
Fixed wide characters aborting the results file write.
Mirror toggle control lets you go through all 5 permutations in cockpit now.
Fixed a potential problem alt-tabbing with SL.

FUNCTIONAL ADDITIONS:
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Allow nickname and attempt to allow wide char names.
Added a “Steering Wheel” option for “No Arms”.
Added user car skin support.

MOD/PACKAGING
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Fixed a bug with packaged files which could have allowed tire data to be overridden by external components.
Fixed a minor issue with encrypted mas.
Fixed ttool crash.

Let us know what you think of the update in the comment box below and make sure to join the discussion on the rFactor 2 beta at the RaceDepartment forum!

Source: [ISI Forums]