July Development Roadmap Released for rFactor 2!

Paul Jeffrey

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rFactor 2 July Dev Update 2.jpg

Studio 397 have revealed their latest 'development roadmap' detailing the future of the rFactor 2 simulation, as planned during the month of July.


With development pushing ahead at full steam, Studio397 have revealed what the future looks like for rFactor2 in the coming weeks and months..


Competition
As we previously announced, McLaren’s World’s Fastest Gamer starts soon, and we are really excited that rFactor 2 was chosen as the flagship qualifying platform. This competition aligns with the overall competition structure that we are currently building, allowing tournament style events that extend all the way to a license progression system. Our competition platform will be unique in many ways: we will have our own structured competition and, in addition, support the community. We actively believe in the strength of our community to run outstanding events, both online and onsite. Specifically, APIs will be made available to allow sanctioned leagues/competitions to integrate with our overall structure, providing visibility and consistency. We are also developing our license structure based on an overall percentage rating and a system that penalizes drivers for off-track or bad driving by giving time penalties instead of relying on an independent safety rating.

Content
We have some even more exciting news: it’s no secret that we are releasing a McLaren GT car. And now, we are pleased to announce that it will be….drum roll please… the awesome McLaren 650s GT3!

This McLaren will be used in the World’s Fastest Gamer competition and will be available for you all as a paid item in our upcoming item store at the start of August. We’re really excited to launch with this car, which was developed in close cooperation with McLaren. But that’s not all! This car will also be part of a soon-to-be-released wider pack, reaffirming our ambition to align our content! What a tease!

Many of you saw our rendition of Zandvoort at the Max Verstappen days. Since then, we have optimised and further enhanced the track. Like the McLaren above, Zandvoort will be used in the World’s Fastest Gamer competition and will be released as a free addition. Check out some screens below!

rFactor 2 July Dev Update.jpg

rFactor 2 July Dev Update 2.jpg
rFactor 2 July Dev Update 3.jpg
rFactor 2 July Dev Update 4.jpg


Additionally, we are working on some new significant track projects and will share more in the next couple of months.
DX11

Ever since the beginning of the year, we’ve showed you the evolution of our DX11 graphics engine. Right now, we’re close to the point where we are happy enough with the visuals and performance of this engine to soon switch it to become the default. We will keep the DX9 engine around as an option for a little while longer, at least until we’ve rolled out the new overlays (see below). This also does not mean we are done developing the engine. We still have many bigger and smaller improvements to make it look better, and we will keep pushing those out in the upcoming months. At this point, we would also like to thank everybody who actively participated in our open beta. Your input was very helpful and allowed us to improve the whole engine, and VR mode, a lot quicker and better.

UI
Not only are we putting the final touches on our in-game user interface, as you have read above, we are also about to roll out the first parts of the new competition infrastructure, which will fit right in with the new UI. To show you some of the last details we are currently working on, we’ve captured two details of the UI, starting with the calibration screen for your wheel and pedals. As you know, you could always calibrate axes visually, but when specifying the ranges of motion and the deadzones, you had to physically move your wheel or pedal in the right position to set such a limit. Now we’ve included not only the exact numbers, but you can also directly edit them to fine tune them exactly the way you want without having to mess around with text files.

rF2 UI Clutch.png

A second detail we’d like to show is what we’ve done with the garage setup screens. There was already a way to compare, and we made that a bit smarter, but we also added a quick way for you to see what changes you made to the current setup compared with the one you saved last. In the shot, you see two gear ratios that have an orange font. Those are ratios you’ve changed. That way you can quickly get an overview. It’s little things like this we are still tweaking. We know it’s taking a bit longer than you, and we, anticipated, but the wait is almost over!


rf2 Gears UI.png


Physics
One of the things we have been working on over the last few months is our tyre model. You may have noticed some changes in the latest version of the Radical, and you will also see them in the upcoming McLaren. These updates reflect our work on improving accurate tyre fidelity. We have a number of tyre updates underway, making one of the best tyre models in consumer racing simulation even better.

Overlays
We have been working hard to create a solution for overlays. As you know, we aren’t great fans of rendering over rFactor 2 screens as this can cause issues that become hard for us to resolve. We have built a solution using HTML. Shortly, we will be allowing 3rd parties to develop their own overlays, not just for broadcast, but for in-game HUDS through an API.

Misc
For those of you who don’t know, this year’s Sim Expo will be held on the 16/17th September at Nurburgring – another great chance for all of sim racing to come together. We will be there, of course, showcasing some cool future features and content, so make sure you pop by!


rFactor 2 can be purchased from the Steam platform right now and is available exclusively for PC.

Check out the rFactor 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for all the latest news and discussion with regards to the simulation. You can take part in lively debates with fellow rFactor 2 fans and take part in some great Club and League racing events..! Head over to the forum now and share the love this simulation so very much deserves...

Happy with the new roadmap update? Looking forward to seeing the changes filter through to the sim? Let us know in the comments section below!
 
  • ronniej

How did you pay that much? I spent $60 for all the content.
I'm one of the early supporters who purchased all the content and liveries between Nov 2014 -June 2016 before they implemented the new package system.

Do you think that's acceptable?
No. However, I can live with their decision much more than I can live with Sector3 and the way they slapped the early supporters with a major price slash by implementing a new "package" system while the game actually started to go backwards. I agree with you, I just understand why they did what they did.
 
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Same situation here, I paid the lifetime access and didn't like what happened. But what S397 is doing with the sim is awsome.

The next ISI title I will only purchase after reading a lot of good reviews from. I'll never buy an early access or unfinished product from them.
I have no problem with Studio 397 at the moment, don't get me wrong. And yes, now I'll be super cautious of ISI as well. It's not that I wouldn't buy a product like rF2, but now I would only pay what it's really worth, being an abandoned beta and all...

With the resumption (resurection!) of the studio397:

dx11>Free
Online> Free
USF2000> Free
Nola MotorSport Park> Free
Nissan GT500 >Free
Radical SR3 RSX> Free
Zandvoort> Free

what else!!
Was that directed at me? As I said, it's ISI that I expect some action from, not Studio 397.

No they are fundamentally not different and I find no evidence to support that. Let's look at ISI's recent history. F1 2001, F1 2002 and F1 Challenge. Each sim was released one year after the other. Then two years and rF1 came. rF1 got patched for two years, and didn't receive any significant update after 2007.

Let's look at other sims. pCars team have moved on to pCars 2 development, so pCars had 2-3 years of patches. Dirt Rally just received it's sequel Dirt 4, so less than two years of updates. Automobilista has received one year of updates so far and Reiza have already shared plans about their Reiza 2017 sim, so sooner or later Automobilista will become obsolete. Assetto Corsa is still getting updated, but more and more focus is on console and DLC. iRacing has received updates for 10 years soon, but it's a subscription service model, very different from these other sims. So from the non-subscription sims, really only Assetto Corsa has had a similar longevity and support as rF2.
Yes, they fundamentally all run on a computer. In that regard there's no difference between Need For Speed and CATIA.

Before getting patched the product needs to be brought into finished state first. rFactor 2 was never finished by ISI. Simple as that. It did cost like a finished product, though.

As for AMS, did you forget on purpose that it started its life as Game Stock Cars? I received Automobilista for free, because Reiza were playing fair. I supported them with the Season Pass. They are still working on the sim and are going to add more content to it. Of all this bunch, Reiza have my deepest respect. I wish Niels would update his rF2 cars, though, but I doubt that will ever happen. Well, he has his hands full with his own sim (or two).

Edit: On the other hand, I wasn't a part of the crowdfunding campaign for "Reiza 2017". So far, not a word has surfaced regarding the fate of that project. The "deepest respect" is being pulled...

No. However, I can live with their decision much more than I can live with Sector3 and the way they slapped the early supporters with a major price slash by implementing a new "package" system while the game actually started to go backwards. I agree with you, I just understand why they did what they did.
And you don't agree we should be more vocal when developers go shady with our money?
 
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Was that directed at me? As I said, it's ISI that I expect some action from, not Studio 397.
not you, just all people who cry for a paying dlc...

Does not say rf2 either never finished ... no game is finished ams not finish, assetto not finished, iracing not finished, r3e not finished, etc ... all sim are evolving and adding content
 
  • ronniej

And you don't agree we should be more vocal when developers go shady with our money?
ABSOLUTELY! Which is why I'm so vocal about R3E. Yet, you should see (read) how I get attacked for doing so around here. It's beyond understanding......

However, I try to keep it to a couple of posts per thread, giggle or smh at the responses and go.
 
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I do run triples with multiview on the DX11 build and 80-100 fps with a GTX 780, so it's not that bad really.

Some people (and you probably among them) seem to genuinely have unplayable fps with the DX11 build whereas DX9 was completely fine. It's not either black or white.

A few things to check:
- did you enable PostProcessing? If so, disable it (Video settings in the launcher)
- do you have everything on max details? If so, turn it down a notch or two

Am I the only person here that thinks RF2 is a huge pain in the ass?

No I agree with you, because of the quote I quoted above yours, it's not just here I read this "turn details down", it's on other forums and blogs, I don't get it, why does users have to turn details down in rfactor 2, when it was dx9 only, I read the same thing, turn details down, and now they've "supposedly" updated to dx 11, even though it's hard to see the difference visually, between dx 9 and dx 11 in rfactor 2, just a few bloom and over bright bits, I'm still reading turn details down, you want to run it at max settings to get the full immersion.
How will it run when or if they finally get the rain looking modern, and no rain drops in cockpit.

I remember watching a video a few years ago, someone showing rfactor 2 running One Hundred Cars on the green hell, now that rFactor has dx 11, is it capable of running 100 cars on any tracks now?

I can run Assetto Corsa and Project Cars with visuals maxed out, whilst still maintaining high frame rates, why am I reading every time that users have to turn down visuals in rFactor 2.
 
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you hate ISI, we get it, move on!
Would you please grow up? And move on, yes.
If I "hate" ISI, I wonder what's my outlook on Kunos&Co and iRacing then :)
I'm grateful to ISI for bringing us the best or one of the best software pieces that could be called a "car simulator" with not much of a stretch. However, I don't take the financial tricks slightly. You can't just take my money and go, expecting me to be all "wow, what a developer!"

ABSOLUTELY! Which is why I'm so vocal about R3E. Yet, you should see (read) how I get attacked for doing so around here. It's beyond understanding......
Beyond mine either. What's funny, those people mostly likely aren't even hired by the devs in question, yet they insist on heavily relegating consumer rights.

However, I try to keep it to a couple of posts per thread, giggle or smh at the responses and go.
Well, I just don't believe that tactics ever works.
 
Whoever thinks that rF2 is unfinished product then he should say which sim in the same price class offers the same amount of working features like rF2.
Despite some bugs it is still best value for money in a sim world.
Personally I welcome this and all future dlcs. Give me more and take my money!
 
Whoever thinks that rF2 is unfinished product then he should say which sim in the same price class offers the same amount of working features like rF2.
Despite some bugs it is still best value for money in a sim world.
Personally I welcome this and all future dlcs. Give me more and take my money!
Furthermore, it may be the only thing worthy of being called a sim (apart from AMS, that is). Still, that doesn't justify the stunt ISI pulled with the "lifetime license". Also, it got abandoned by its creators shortly after actually becoming a sim and being published on Steam.

I welcome all the DLC ideas. Except, I still think ISI have to do something about those lifetime licenses.
 
Whoever thinks that rF2 is unfinished product then he should say which sim in the same price class offers the same amount of working features like rF2.
Despite some bugs it is still best value for money in a sim world.
Personally I welcome this and all future dlcs. Give me more and take my money!

Unfinished doesn't mean lacking features. It means unfinished--as in the features that are included don't work properly, are difficult to configure because the UI doesn't properly acknowledge them, or they work, but appear to lack polish. rF2 is and always has been full of these.

Despite that, we still love it because it does some fundamental sim things so well and some better than others. But it doesn't change the fact that it would be much more pleasant to use and possibly much more popular,, if it had a consistent, polished presentation and content. The new UI might be brilliantly designed and solve some of the presentation issues--we'll see. The irregular quality of the cars, especially, and some aspects of the tracks, combined with weather, 24 hour lighting, transmission modelling, some aspects of FFB, multiplayer connections and server configuration, etc., that have all been for 5 years and remain today half-baked, detract from the good aspects of rF2 for all but a few of us sim-freaks. Anyone who is less than hard core usually just gives up out of frustration. I am sorry to say, despite the progress with DX11 and S397's new and improved communications, the list above is still the same list. Even with the latest content to be released and using the latest version, there are still head-scratching issues with FFB, lighting, multiplayer. Weather hasn't been addressed. Lighting is being worked on as part of DX11, but it sure isn't "finished." AMS, based on the old rFactor, has superior transmission modelling.

Progress is being made, but it is slow (in the time frame of between when S397 took over and now) and may or may not be enough to turn around the title. Lots of people, including me, hope it will, but I am not delusional enough to think that it is a given considering the competition out there for customers and, possibly more importantly, the attention of modders.
 
Unfinished doesn't mean lacking features. It means unfinished--as in the features that are included don't work properly, are difficult to configure because the UI doesn't properly acknowledge them, or they work, but appear to lack polish. rF2 is and always has been full of these.

Despite that, we still love it because it does some fundamental sim things so well and some better than others. But it doesn't change the fact that it would be much more pleasant to use and possibly much more popular,, if it had a consistent, polished presentation and content. The new UI might be brilliantly designed and solve some of the presentation issues--we'll see. The irregular quality of the cars, especially, and some aspects of the tracks, combined with weather, 24 hour lighting, transmission modelling, some aspects of FFB, multiplayer connections and server configuration, etc., that have all been for 5 years and remain today half-baked, detract from the good aspects of rF2 for all but a few of us sim-freaks. Anyone who is less than hard core usually just gives up out of frustration. I am sorry to say, despite the progress with DX11 and S397's new and improved communications, the list above is still the same list. Even with the latest content to be released and using the latest version, there are still head-scratching issues with FFB, lighting, multiplayer. Weather hasn't been addressed. Lighting is being worked on as part of DX11, but it sure isn't "finished." AMS, based on the old rFactor, has superior transmission modelling.

Progress is being made, but it is slow (in the time frame of between when S397 took over and now) and may or may not be enough to turn around the title. Lots of people, including me, hope it will, but I am not delusional enough to think that it is a given considering the competition out there for customers and, possibly more importantly, the attention of modders.
This could be the first time I agree so much with someone on this forum.
 
Less and less willing to comment here in the RD, all topics turns to discussion without cause. All games have flaws in some aspect, all producers could improve them. Now the discussion is about the paid DLC of RF2 and involving the Lifetime Access that the "ISI" maintained. Look very well as I have several here paid Lifetime for "ISI" not for "Studio397" because the same as soon as it took for itself the production of RF2 removed this item thus opening the online for all, nothing more just. Now they put paid items (DLC) and I dont see any problem in this since they are good (which I'm sure they will be) and have a fair price. For those who just like I bought Lifetime, we dont have to have any benefit on this because as I mentioned the back, the same was paid to the "ISI", not Studio397. If you dont agree, just dont buy no support. I understand the fact "I paid for X and now X no longer exists and I will not have any benefits", but please grow up there are no children here I believe
 
Unfinished doesn't mean lacking features. It means unfinished--as in the features that are included don't work properly, are difficult to configure because the UI doesn't properly acknowledge them, or they work, but appear to lack polish. rF2 is and always has been full of these.

Despite that, we still love it because it does some fundamental sim things so well and some better than others. But it doesn't change the fact that it would be much more pleasant to use and possibly much more popular,, if it had a consistent, polished presentation and content. The new UI might be brilliantly designed and solve some of the presentation issues--we'll see. The irregular quality of the cars, especially, and some aspects of the tracks, combined with weather, 24 hour lighting, transmission modelling, some aspects of FFB, multiplayer connections and server configuration, etc., that have all been for 5 years and remain today half-baked, detract from the good aspects of rF2 for all but a few of us sim-freaks. Anyone who is less than hard core usually just gives up out of frustration. I am sorry to say, despite the progress with DX11 and S397's new and improved communications, the list above is still the same list. Even with the latest content to be released and using the latest version, there are still head-scratching issues with FFB, lighting, multiplayer. Weather hasn't been addressed. Lighting is being worked on as part of DX11, but it sure isn't "finished." AMS, based on the old rFactor, has superior transmission modelling.

Progress is being made, but it is slow (in the time frame of between when S397 took over and now) and may or may not be enough to turn around the title. Lots of people, including me, hope it will, but I am not delusional enough to think that it is a given considering the competition out there for customers and, possibly more importantly, the attention of modders.

You've always been one to constantly expect everything yesterday, it's always slow or glacial from your point of view, yet you seem to know exactly how to convert a game engine from DX9 to DX11 in a certain time frame.

So pray tell...in your obvious wealth of experience, how long should it take Studio397 with their coders to convert the engine, fix up all the missing features you're talking about above & continue updating older content whilst creating new content and a new UI? Not forgetting the exact number of employees they have which you must surely know as you call them "slow".
 
Less and less willing to comment here in the RD, all topics turns to discussion without cause. All games have flaws in some aspect, all producers could improve them. Now the discussion is about the paid DLC of RF2 and involving the Lifetime Access that the "ISI" maintained. Look very well as I have several here paid Lifetime for "ISI" not for "Studio397" because the same as soon as it took for itself the production of RF2 removed this item thus opening the online for all, nothing more just. Now they put paid items (DLC) and I dont see any problem in this since they are good (which I'm sure they will be) and have a fair price. For those who just like I bought Lifetime, we dont have to have any benefit on this because as I mentioned the back, the same was paid to the "ISI", not Studio397. If you dont agree, just dont buy no support. I understand the fact "I paid for X and now X no longer exists and I will not have any benefits", but please grow up there are no children here I believe

There's also a massive amount of Armchair Chief Executives who know EXACTLY how the Sim Racing World works (they don't!) from both a Financial and Production viewpoint, i.e. If it's not good enough for them personally then it's wrong! Not to mention the appalling state of self-entitlement from sections of the community who thinks it's their god given right to have the Devs work for free...it's face-palm central at times and truly baffling how people can be so ridiculous in their thinking and beliefs.

The thing is I would expect all this from kids who don't understand how the world works, yet 99% of the time it's coming from grown up adults, it seems "common sense" & "patience" are works of long lost art these days.
 
As for AMS, did you forget on purpose that it started its life as Game Stock Cars? I received Automobilista for free, because Reiza were playing fair. I supported them with the Season Pass. They are still working on the sim and are going to add more content to it. Of all this bunch, Reiza have my deepest respect. I wish Niels would update his rF2 cars, though, but I doubt that will ever happen. Well, he has his hands full with his own sim (or two).

Edit: On the other hand, I wasn't a part of the crowdfunding campaign for "Reiza 2017". So far, not a word has surfaced regarding the fate of that project. The "deepest respect" is being pulled...


And you don't agree we should be more vocal when developers go shady with our money?

I just want to point out that the crowdfunding campaign was to further develop GSC, not to fund the development of the next game. One of the perks above a certain level of the campaign was receiving a copy of their next all-new game, commonly referred to as Reiza 17.
 
You've always been one to constantly expect everything yesterday, it's always slow or glacial from your point of view, yet you seem to know exactly how to convert a game engine from DX9 to DX11 in a certain time frame.

So pray tell...in your obvious wealth of experience, how long should it take Studio397 with their coders to convert the engine, fix up all the missing features you're talking about above & continue updating older content whilst creating new content and a new UI? Not forgetting the exact number of employees they have which you must surely know as you call them "slow".

As usual, you are missing the point. ISI or S397 or any other dev can take as long as they want to do anything they want. When it is released in some form, there is an expectation that it will be completed, for better or worse. Many times, we have racing games that get rushed out and then maybe patched once and forgotten until it's time to buy the update a year later, when it is released as a full new title. These devs are derided in here as they should be.

Some devs promise something and then deliver it, or deliver very close to it and keep tweaking and working on it until it is as good as it can get. They fix things within hours or days of release if there are small issues. They don't release things even in the beta stream until they are 95% ready and user input can be gathered to tweak that last, important, 5%. They are generally lauded.

Then there are devs that promise little, but release a lot of half-finished features that entice the imagination about how truly awesome the sim could be if only all the stuff in it actually worked or was finished properly. After some elements in the sim go unfinished for 5 years, even things that require only a minor update, and lots of major features remain unfinished and have no schedule or timeline for updating, even today a year after a new dev has taken over, people get a bit grumpy. Combine that with an unfortunate change to the payment scheme, and even more people are grumpy. This reaction should be surprising only to someone who is completely ignorant of normal consumer expectations and enthusiast obsessive behaviour.

It's not about the speed. In the case of rF2 DX11, we were told that it was ready for beta after an extra month delay to the release date. It was not. The DX11 that came out initially was barely in alpha state. You were there, so you know that. If you want to release very rough product, have a proper beta testing or vetting process to go along with it and describe it honestly. Set credible expectations for how many weeks or months or years it will take to be stable and "finished." You don't have to be an armchair CEO to figure that out; but you do have to operate in the realm of normalcy and avoid fanatical support for or against products and judge them only by the reality of what is delivered and how it compares to similar products from firms with similar missions.
 
I thought Betas, no matter how they're initially described, are exactly that. Unfinished test software providing users with an option to help test it out in real world situations. I say 'option' as it was in no way forced upon anyone that they had to download and use that version only. DX9 is still running for those that want or need it, and DX11 stable versions are also available if you're having issues with the quick update test version.

I was an early adopter to jump in on the Beta action and it was absolutely fine for me. I don't remember there being half the issues that some people have been talking about.
A lot of the potential problems could actually have been avoided by the user if they had checked Discord or the S397 website for issues and solutions.
And with regards to how long it's taking? What was happening with rF2 under ISI? SFA IIRC...
I guess some people just want so much more and within a much shorter timescale than I want or need in that case.
 
As usual, you are missing the point. ISI or S397 or any other dev can take as long as they want to do anything they want. When it is released in some form, there is an expectation that it will be completed, for better or worse. Many times, we have racing games that get rushed out and then maybe patched once and forgotten until it's time to buy the update a year later, when it is released as a full new title. These devs are derided in here as they should be.

Some devs promise something and then deliver it, or deliver very close to it and keep tweaking and working on it until it is as good as it can get. They fix things within hours or days of release if there are small issues. They don't release things even in the beta stream until they are 95% ready and user input can be gathered to tweak that last, important, 5%. They are generally lauded.

Then there are devs that promise little, but release a lot of half-finished features that entice the imagination about how truly awesome the sim could be if only all the stuff in it actually worked or was finished properly. After some elements in the sim go unfinished for 5 years, even things that require only a minor update, and lots of major features remain unfinished and have no schedule or timeline for updating, even today a year after a new dev has taken over, people get a bit grumpy. Combine that with an unfortunate change to the payment scheme, and even more people are grumpy. This reaction should be surprising only to someone who is completely ignorant of normal consumer expectations and enthusiast obsessive behaviour.

It's not about the speed. In the case of rF2 DX11, we were told that it was ready for beta after an extra month delay to the release date. It was not. The DX11 that came out initially was barely in alpha state. You were there, so you know that. If you want to release very rough product, have a proper beta testing or vetting process to go along with it and describe it honestly. Set credible expectations for how many weeks or months or years it will take to be stable and "finished." You don't have to be an armchair CEO to figure that out; but you do have to operate in the realm of normalcy and avoid fanatical support for or against products and judge them only by the reality of what is delivered and how it compares to similar products from firms with similar missions.

So you're saying that every dev does it differently and in their own way? Well done, it's only taken you X amount of years to state the bloody obvious!
But it's exactly as I said above, Studio397 aren't doing it correctly for YOU so therefore it's wrong and "slow"...so again, answer the question, if you think it's "slow" then how long should it take exactly?
 

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