RFE Plugin Series for rFactor

RFE Plugin Series is a set of plugins created with the purpose of improving rFactor(1). The project is owned by SYMRacing.net and the author is Spanish Iñaki Lopez, assisted by Jose Maria and Cristian Blanquer, both actively involved in the project testing and validation, and Marco Rotondi as responsible for almost every single detail of realism/performance in the Plugin series and project image infrastructure. Currently only the development of some basic plugins can be considered finished and in the near future the first public version for online use will be made available for free. On the other hand, is already available for some time RFE Modelers AID Tool, a tool to help the modders and the track’s makers who can use the plugin on the client side (currently still in beta) in “test day” without having to connect online.

The project RFE Plugin Series was born in October 2011, almost by accident: some friends, who were using rFactor had long talked about the innovations that were introduced with rFactor2, as it pertained to what was happening in movies and images. There was also concern with regards to the continuing delays in the release of the game and that’s when Iñaki decided to create a plugin that would allow the hidden parts of the code of rFactor to bring the light.

The main component is RFE Weather Plugin which allows you to simulate variables and dynamic weather conditions such as different states of the sky, different intensities of rain at variables ambient and asphalt temperatures. Despite the plugin is heavily inspired on rFactor2 features, additional variables have been introduced for rFactor, like dynamic fog or wind. All this not only affects visual appearance but also in terms of physical performance. Other components such as RFE Track and RFE Tire Model influence in real time the track conditions and tire performances.

And this is just the first step towards the finalization of the project, that involves the implementation and release of additional components that will lead to a more realistic management of the rules of the race … just think the controlled use of tires in limited numbers and with different compounds, the reuse of those used in progressive rounds of qualifying and race, according to wind intensity and variable directions that affect the performance of the car … in race accidents that may soak part of the track with oil, random external elements (like crew, plastic bags, or a lost tire during a pitstop) crossing the racing line, human free drivable safety car aligning the cars in the grid during a red flag …

But RFE Plugin Series, improving rFactor, at this level involves the virtual driver like never before, not being able to do without! From now on never will be a lap like the other … enough just a bit of moisture in the air that this, by influencing the asphalt, leads to a different grip … and the variable temperature of the asphalt does the rest … track may change at any moment, every braking must be evaluated and, if the track goes wiping, you have to pay attention where you brake!

All this is ready to be tested and we are actively working to release as soon as possible the basic and free version of the entire package, including the initial information for the management of dedicated servers. To update mods and track to RFE Weather Plugin you already find tutorials and technical info into the official forum.

Anyone interested in trying the great environment RFE Weather, can actually do it online for free on one of our servers after you have downloaded and installed all the necessary (plugin + mod + track). You may join us to our official forum to the following address: http://symracing.net or directly http://symracing.net/rfeseries/forum

In addition I’m pleased to inform that SYMRacing.net provides commercial support for the RFE Plugin Series and derivative work (Tracks/mods/cars/plugins).