rF2 | April Development Roadmap

Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Once again the end of the month brings with it new musing from various sim racing developers, with Studio 397 taking time out of their busy schedule to update us all on the progress of rFactor 2.

Yes, another month is over. Lockdown for many of us continues, and the world of racing remains in something of limbo. With little happening on the real tracks, much of the interesting action has been taking place on their virtual counterparts, with plenty of hard work being undertaken behind the scenes at various studios to maximise the current level of exposure our hobby is enjoying.

With the month having closed out, let's take a look at what Studio 397 have been doing these past few weeks:

This evening, after another extremely busy and exciting day at the virtual office, I had dinner, walked my dog, and finally sat down behind my desk. I put on some music to start writing the roadmap update for this month.
My mind started to wander. Four years ago this month I was in the middle of writing some code to extend the Steam integration of rFactor 2 when all of a sudden Gjon popped up on Skype to start a discussion that quickly transformed into an opportunity I simply had to take. Many interesting discussions followed as we worked towards founding a new company to continue the development of a racing simulation that I spent many hours driving, racing strangers that became close friends. One of the probably less important tasks on my checklist back then was to come up with a name for this new company. If you’ve ever gone through such a process, you probably know it’s not easy to find a name that is still available as a domain. We finally settled on the somewhat cryptic Studio 397, a hint at our desire to one day bring the iconic track of Le Mans to the simulation. For those of you not aware of the meaning of the number, it is the record number of laps driven during the 24 hour race.
Speeding along the virtual Mulsanne Straight, my mind wanders again as I think about the many stories that are attached to each of the tracks we’ve built over the years. Sunset bend, where we fielded a sister car with Robin Frijns and Dries van den Elzen, who wanted to experience first hand what it would be like to drive a 12 hour endurance race in a professional simulator. An old tool called Ring trainer for Grand Prix Legends introduced me to many unique spots of which Karussel is probably one of the best known. One weekend we drove a 24 hour race there only to learn at the finish that due to some technical issue we had to drive the whole race again the next weekend. Tarzan corner and its dunes where the place where I first met two people whom I now have the pleasure to work with. At the time they were both working on other projects, but our common love for simracing brought us together there. Over sixteen years ago, with some friends we founded Simracing for Holland, taking the iconic livery from Jan Lammers’ Racing for Holland. We are still racing today and the many people that raced with us over the years are on our blocked livery as a tribute.
As you’ve by now no doubt figured out, this roadmap is a bit different from the ones we regularly bring you at the end of the month. So are the current times obviously, where we should all stay in touch with our friends and loved ones, and support them wherever that is needed. With the whole motorsport world sitting at home, it is great to see all this attention on simracing. It pleasantly messes with our plans, and we are all grateful about that. You’ve seen us in the All-Star battles, where many current drivers and legends from the past enjoy themselves racing each other on equal terms. I personally thoroughly enjoyed watching for example Jan Magnussen and Jenson Button racing each other hard and fairly. I was also impressed by the Formula E drivers getting together and showing their skills on the narrow streets of Hong Kong. But apart from these global events, we also did a race on a regional dutch channel, racing a fictional track through the streets of Maastricht, broadcast by a local TV station that did an awesome job to draw in a large and diverse audience on TV and internet. And judging from the talks we are having now, we will create many more great stories in the weeks to come.
Earlier this month, the news that Stefano Casillo left Kunos to start a new adventure surprised a lot of people. It’s a bold move, but I believe he is following his passion and developing new software that soon might surprise a brand new audience. Or maybe we will all see him rock at Pinkpop next year?
So what’s cooking at our Studio? As I mentioned, a lot of our plans have been shuffled and re-arranged. Our track team finished Portland, but it won’t be released until we’ve finished our extensive lighting pass and released a new build. In the mean time they are working on two brand new tracks, as well as a few updates to our existing ones. Our car team completed a brand new car that we currently can’t release as its release was planned to coincide with the real car, and that has been delayed. Here too we moved on to the next car, which unfortunately we can’t announce just yet, but it’s a unique opportunity for our Studio. Our developers have been testing our new overlay system, making tweaks to ensure it can be properly customized. We also fixed a few long standing issues with our package management system, which delayed the pending update of the new UI. Development on the lighting system is now in a phase where artists and developers are iterating over many of the improvements to create the proper balance for each. We are also fixing some smaller bugs and discussing physics improvements. Our esports team is already looking ahead at future seasons for our GT series, planning the next race for BMW as well as streamlining our broadcast setups.
The hard thing right now is to predict what will happen next. Extrapolating based on the last weeks we can only say that we probably don’t know. As a good friend said to me, we need to be prepared for pleasant surprises, and on that note I wish everybody a healthy future, stay safe and look out for each other!
Marcel



Original Source: Studio 397.

rFactor 2 is available exclusively on PC.

Want to know how to get the best from the sim? Start a thread in the rFactor 2 sub forum and let our community offer you the benefit of their massive combined experience.

rFactor 2 Roadmap.jpg
 
RF2 is my most played sim by a long shot, 2800hrs on steam and probably another 1000hrs before it got on steam. But about 3 weeks ago I pulled the plug and uninstalled.

Subjectively to me, rf2 still feels like a beta. It doesn't feel one step closer to a finished product than it did when it was first releases 7(?) years ago. It feels more like something a group of collage students hacked together from different code snippets found online and somehow got it all to work together... well sometimes.
It does feel amazing to drive when it works, I'll give it that. But having that feeling that you have to win the lottery to even complete a race is frustrating. You never know when you'll get that screen freeze that will put you in a wall and end your race or maybe that guy in front of you gets a screen freeze and ends up inside your car or maybe the driver swap will end your race this time.
There are simply too many issues that's been around for years and years but still hasn't been addressed or made even worse.

Then there is the content. When you release new content and get feedback within hours about issues with said content then do something about it. Or you patch some old content and somehow mess something up and those things happens, we get that. But don't just leave it like that with no rollback nor update. There has been issues with your content that could probably have been fixed within 1 or 2 hours or even less but once it's released and sold it's like you don't care any more, just jumping to the next piece of DLC and repeat.

ACC didn't have a good start but they patched what actually needed to be patched and look where it is now. Same goes for AMS2, not a great start of the EA but a few patches later and it's already looking way better.

There are parts of rf2 that are unmatched in quality and will probably be so for a very long time but those things can't carry rf2 alone. Everything needs to come together nicely. Do the most work where it's truly needs it.
Ever since the beta I hoped and dreamed that one day rf2 would be the great one but I fear that it's too late now. With the new stuff coming around, rf2 is a thing of my past and will be remembered as 'the sim that could have been' in my book.
You said it all.
Given up? Never!
Happy to see this but unfortunately at a certain point it's not really the studio who decides but the community that is supporting you and any inadequate road map and updates will not solve that.The community somewhat decided that it's the end and cannot be ignored..There are some loyal players who will always say "best physic and FFB" but not enough to sustain such a sim..I can give you a precious advice, if you would like to get back to the top, BE GENEROUS like Kunos, Reiza or Simbin because people are comparing sims and studios vs money the pay for the sim. Be generous and people will be generous in return. This way of thinking boosted Kunos and Reiza. People buy content because they feel grateful to the studio.

Relying on physic and FFB is not enough as most of the sim are progressing in this side and things will be very different after few years even after few months. Increase the sim marketing/argument value, make at least 5 paid modern cars free and all the laser scanned tracks free also. The bad decision that have been made is making paid additional contents for a sim that is lacking of content. Unfortunately the majority of players need modern contents, only few are happy with legacy and classic not so famous class contents. Mods are cool but player need official contents to be sure their skill is accurate. RF2 is a physically accurate sim without enough accurate cars and tracks to play with. It's like having a Racecar in a country with no roads...imagine the frustration...

If you want to keep this actual business model you may need to get inspired by Raceroom. I'm pretty pessimistic in this side as it will need an advanced UI , we are struggling with a basic UI now.... They sell cars individually and generally cheaper. To fullfill the lack of base content, they organize regularly any kind of competition letting the players testing new cars and track.
 
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You said it all.

Happy to see this but unfortunately at a certain point it's not really the studio who decides but the community that is supporting you and any inadequate road map and updates will not solve that.The community somewhat decided that it's the end and cannot be ignored..
Good point, but I don't think that community decided that rF2 is dead yet. Far from it.
rF2 has at least 2 things that are, in combination, unique and not possible to get elsewhere:
1. Multiplayer with AI (AMS2 will close that gap here)
2. Mod-ability

Problem ( as I see it) is that I don't _see_ rF2 catering for these scenarios.
AI behaviour is erratic. This is getting fixed, probably. There was nothing regarding this in roadmap.
Regarding mod-ability... Key signature for projects that are mod-able is very high developer activity and very frequent releases. Extensive amounts of documentation.
This shows big contrast between developers - on one hand Reiza (clockwork techincal roadmaps, quick hot-fix releases), Kunos in the middle (no regular technical roadmaps, but quick hot-fixes) and Studio397 (diminishing technical updates, and no hot-fixes). The only time when there were quick hot fixes was when there was a problem with multiplayer servers. For content - I'd say, there were no hot-fixes at all.

@Marcel Offermans, look what you've done. :) With all due respect. You have written a "moody" road-map and you get "moody" posts in forums. :)
 
Happy to see this but unfortunately at a certain point it's not really the studio who decides but the community that is supporting you and any inadequate road map and updates will not solve that.The community somewhat decided that it's the end and cannot be ignored..There are some loyal players who will always say "best physic and FFB" but not enough to sustain such a sim..I can give you a precious advice, if you would like to get back to the top, BE GENEROUS like Kunos, Reiza or Simbin because people are comparing sims and studios vs money the pay for the sim. Be generous and people will be generous in return. This way of thinking boosted Kunos and Reiza. People buy content because they feel grateful to the studio.
So you are representing the community? Also your comments about being generous. I think S397 has been one of the most generous around together with Reiza. The upgrades they made for free to rF2 over the past years (e.g. upgrade to dx11, VR support, etc.). In fact they made it almost a new game after taking over from ISI and did not ask any money for it. They also released quite a few free DLC’s (e.g the latest Tatuus pack). Some people buy the Codemasters F1 each year, for what? New liveries, small graphics updates, a few more classic F1’s and sometimes a new track? Is that worth €60? I would rather spend such money at rF2, especially if it would help them speed up development in certain areas, since I still feel grateful to the studio.
 
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I only started playing rFactor 2 a couple months ago, and sim racing in general. The feel of it is so much better than anything else, in my opinion, because it feels like I can always trust and understand the FFB. The modding scene is pretty cool too, though it's not quite at the level of AC obviously, but there is a lot of interesting tracks. But finding the good content is definitely more geared towards the nerds that want to root around looking for them.

They really need to look at the 'new user' experience, and maybe make a bundle that includes more well finished tracks and cars so it's more clear where to start from. In general what they seem to be suffering from most is a good modern track selection, more so than cars. Sebring and Le Mans are great, they should really try to get a full WEC license going, but the Nurburgring GP circuit kinda just looks weak graphically. Portland is coming soon, as well as graphical updates to Silverstone and such, so maybe that's improving. I'm sure that a year from now the situation will be much better. But I agree that they don't seem to be able to keep up with development at the same pace as Kunoz, maybe they need to make a lateral move to focus very hard on a specific series.
 
Can I just get 1:1 in VR with my Accuforce v2 wheel???
Try as I might, nothing works...cannot get it to line up with what I'm seeing.
Might just be me, but every Google search I've done comes up empty handed.
Calling out "Mayday".
 
You said it all.

Happy to see this but unfortunately at a certain point it's not really the studio who decides but the community that is supporting you and any inadequate road map and updates will not solve that.The community somewhat decided that it's the end and cannot be ignored..There are some loyal players who will always say "best physic and FFB" but not enough to sustain such a sim..I can give you a precious advice, if you would like to get back to the top, BE GENEROUS like Kunos, Reiza or Simbin because people are comparing sims and studios vs money the pay for the sim. Be generous and people will be generous in return. This way of thinking boosted Kunos and Reiza. People buy content because they feel grateful to the studio.

Relying on physic and FFB is not enough as most of the sim are progressing in this side and things will be very different after few years even after few months. Increase the sim marketing/argument value, make at least 5 paid modern cars free and all the laser scanned tracks free also. The bad decision that have been made is making paid additional contents for a sim that is lacking of content. Unfortunately the majority of players need modern contents, only few are happy with legacy and classic not so famous class contents. Mods are cool but player need official contents to be sure their skill is accurate. RF2 is a physically accurate sim without enough accurate cars and tracks to play with. It's like having a Racecar in a country with no roads...imagine the frustration...

If you want to keep this actual business model you may need to get inspired by Raceroom. I'm pretty pessimistic in this side as it will need an advanced UI , we are struggling with a basic UI now.... They sell cars individually and generally cheaper. To fullfill the lack of base content, they organize regularly any kind of competition letting the players testing new cars and track.

Please do NOT speak for everyone, your opinion is your opinion only not that of the "community", thanks.
 
Please do NOT speak for everyone, your opinion is your opinion only not that of the "community", thanks.
Of course he should not speak for community in general, but I think you would agree that he has a point. At least partially. Their business relies on community. Especially modding side of things.

This is a time offering unique opportunity to build, to raise awareness. To expand the community, to have a plan, to have a roadmap. "To double down paddling, not let the river flow".
 
Of course he should not speak for community in general, but I think you would agree that he has a point. At least partially. Their business relies on community. Especially modding side of things.

This is a time offering unique opportunity to build, to raise awareness. To expand the community, to have a plan, to have a roadmap. "To double down paddling, not let the river flow".

No, I don't, he's missed the fact that S397 already release Free Content, he's missed the fact that there have been more than just "physics and FFB" to rely on what with major graphical changes made to the Sim in recent years (and more to come), he's missed the fact there's an abundant amount of very decent Mods & Tracks available (both Official and non-official) and at the end of the day he's just an armchair financial expert like many on any Forum across the Web.

S397 know their business, they know how to run their business, and what "we" see on the outside is barely a fraction of what is happening behind closed doors in that Business. If people have Financial ideas on how to grow the Sim they are better off writing to Marcel in Private with a Business Proposal, not sitting behind a Username on an Unofficial Forum where it may never get properly read at all :)
 
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Good point, but I don't think that community decided that rF2 is dead yet. Far from it.
rF2 has at least 2 things that are, in combination, unique and not possible to get elsewhere:
1. Multiplayer with AI (AMS2 will close that gap here)
2. Mod-ability

Problem ( as I see it) is that I don't _see_ rF2 catering for these scenarios.
AI behaviour is erratic. This is getting fixed, probably. There was nothing regarding this in roadmap.
Regarding mod-ability... Key signature for projects that are mod-able is very high developer activity and very frequent releases. Extensive amounts of documentation.
Longevity;
as i said it will not die completely, it will be used in league, as pro training platform etc, the kind of status where LFS is now, still a fair amount of loyal online racers and leagues but not enough to boost the game

Modability: IMHO The core part of simracing is racing , most studios seem to get away from modability in 2020 and fill the gap with dynamic racing ecosystem (regular official competitions, leaderboards, good online races, ranked servers etc) and fair amount of official content with the most various car class possible (AMS,RRE,LFS). If players are busy to race official cars , they need nothing else. raceroom and RRRE are the perfect examples, AMS2 may follow too... The Inconsistent quality of available mods is somewhat a weak point for RF2, only the paid mods are still maintained dynamically. Btw AC which has been left by its studio is an exception , this game will have a constant modding side because of the flexibility racing, drifting,cruising etc. Also it is easier to create mods for AC. And RF2 doesn't have the AC popularity and will never have. Personally i've spend much time testing mods witch AC but once i got more involved in racing i'm only using official contents with other sims. Anyway i'm still buying some AC DLC in 2020 for specific needs and i'm also still supporting many modders on Patreon. This is the kind of community support that i'm talking about.


This shows big contrast between developers - on one hand Reiza (clockwork techincal roadmaps, quick hot-fix releases), Kunos in the middle (no regular technical roadmaps, but quick hot-fixes) and Studio397 (diminishing technical updates, and no hot-fixes). The only time when there were quick hot fixes was when there was a problem with multiplayer servers. For content - I'd say, there were no hot-fixes at all.
Those studio are in a relative "comfortable" position because they've done and delivered the hardest parts via EA and betas means a fair amount of content. They've faced a storm of criticism but handled well and only took months to solve the issues not years.

So you are representing the community? Also your comments about being generous. I think S397 has been one of the most generous around together with Reiza. The upgrades they made for free to rF2 over the past years (e.g. upgrade to dx11, VR support, etc.). In fact they made it almost a new game after taking over from ISI and did not ask any money for it. They also released quite a few free DLC’s (e.g the latest Tatuus pack). Some people buy the Codemasters F1 each year, for what? New liveries, small graphics updates, a few more classic F1’s and sometimes a new teack? Is that worth €60? I would rather spend such money at rF2, especially if it would help them speed up development in certain areas, since I still feel grateful to the studio.
I'm a member of the community but during the last few years i"ve followed how the community is reacting to RF2 on as much as communication channel possible that i can reach ( youtube, youtube comments, forums, reddit, FB in multiple language FR,ENG etc). What you say about the free upgrades is not a surprise arguments for me i've seen it here and there over the past 3 years about RF2 contents but look where we are now...I don't think dx11,VR,UI etc are even worth mentioning as gifts or groundbreaking features, they have to do it as it's a standard in all sim games, they can stay with dx9 and no VR if they want and wait for the consequences... People need more free modern contents and tracks as i said Tatuus Pack and MClaren classic cars + old ISI tracks are cool but some ( or most?) people need free Nurb,Sebring, Porsche 911 Gtr 3 etc. I don't ever consider Rf2 giving those for free as an act of generosity they just completing a content missing base game. We cannot see complaining about the ISI rf2 lack of content and decide to add new content but in exchange of money. In reality no much people cares about the fact that they got a uncompleted sim from ISI once you ask 31$ for a base game in 2020 , people are expecting something in return ...if you cannot carry a business without making the cost too heavy for the users so there is a problem. So your business is not longer competitive. ACC is 40$ ( RF2 old contents + 2 gt3 cars ) , RRE pro pack is 40$ for 31cars + 13 tracks ( RF2 old contents + 2 gt3 cars ) , AC original which i consider as a modding capable competitor of Rf2 is 20 $ for the base game with a HUUUUGE community of modders, AMS 2 is now 24 $ a lot of content that may be mostly brazilian but people are havin fun with those contents also compared to rf2 there is 5$ remaining which can be used to buy GT3 cars etc in the future etc. May be bundling RF2 with all the new actual and a part of the future content and ask full 59$ price is a smarter move so people will have an excellent physic game with a fair amount of content to have fun ( leagues, personals etc)
 
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I'm afraid that I just feel let down. We waited patiently (well some of us!) for the new UI, hoping that it would pull things together and modernise the game we love and make a more cohesive experience. What we got was a broken and confusing mess of a beta where functionality was taken away and some highly questionable design choices. It's a beta, yes, but have there been any updates to it? Purpose of the beta was to get feedback and improve on it. When does that actually happen?

Question marks all over the place. Package installation just broken in VR and takes 10 times longer than the old way. Can't multiple select packages to install. I have to switch between beta and old UI to install stuff "easily". Having to search the screen for the relevant back button - in VR this is just hurts my neck! Classic Windows 95 fail of clicking "Start" to find the "Exit" - I mean please, didn't we make enough fun of Windows for that! Being forced to "refresh" multiplayer just to edit the single player session options. Really obscure view options with a massive horizontal scrollbar - I mean does anyone like that, the classic vertical list is the only usable option for me. In VR the screen just freezes constantly flipping between certain menus and it really hurts my eyes, this is my biggest gripe. Oh and why move the package installation components into the game taking ages to load, then have to restart the game afterwards?? Just mental decision there - if you can't improve the package management, then leave it as it was! Great that a multiplayer option to filter out the AI was added, but when you join a race and get stuck on "downloading" bits for an hour and can't quit without ending task, you just wonder if it was actually tested at all.

I heard that it was meant to allow HTML5 designs for 3rd parties to create their own UI - did that happen I'm not sure, I would sure as hell like a stab at it if I can fix it myself. Just give me the same 10 options that I use all the time on one page and I'm set - no hunting all over the place having to crane my neck to find options in VR.

I know there are a load of more fundamental issues than those with the UI, but I just thought that they could put a nice coat of paint on it and make it look like a modern game, then iterate over the other bugs while we enjoy a refreshed experience. Current track record tells me there is no way we will get the UI sorted anytime soon (like, years!), we will have to live in limbo with an old UI and a broken / bad one. And after forking out my hard earned for the premium price DLC I am now feeling quite a lot of resentment.
 
I don't understand all the criticism: the Roadmap announces that Portland and one new (manufacturer-backed) car are ready to be released, two more new tracks, new lighting system are under way and he is about to give up???

I play most of the sims but go to rF2 for bery high and in-depth fidelity like Sebring or the Tatuus pack (not to mention the NZ tracks which are perfect for those Tatuus cars) and hugely appreciate the work that S397 has been doing with this sim. I'm also happy to use the existing UI which still gives me a whole lot more ways to tweak than some others I can think of.
 
RF2 is my most played sim by a long shot, 2800hrs on steam and probably another 1000hrs before it got on steam. But about 3 weeks ago I pulled the plug and uninstalled.

Subjectively to me, rf2 still feels like a beta. It doesn't feel one step closer to a finished product than it did when it was first releases 7(?) years ago. It feels more like something a group of collage students hacked together from different code snippets found online and somehow got it all to work together... well sometimes.
It does feel amazing to drive when it works, I'll give it that. But having that feeling that you have to win the lottery to even complete a race is frustrating. You never know when you'll get that screen freeze that will put you in a wall and end your race or maybe that guy in front of you gets a screen freeze and ends up inside your car or maybe the driver swap will end your race this time.
There are simply too many issues that's been around for years and years but still hasn't been addressed or made even worse.

Then there is the content. When you release new content and get feedback within hours about issues with said content then do something about it. Or you patch some old content and somehow mess something up and those things happens, we get that. But don't just leave it like that with no rollback nor update. There has been issues with your content that could probably have been fixed within 1 or 2 hours or even less but once it's released and sold it's like you don't care any more, just jumping to the next piece of DLC and repeat.

ACC didn't have a good start but they patched what actually needed to be patched and look where it is now. Same goes for AMS2, not a great start of the EA but a few patches later and it's already looking way better.

There are parts of rf2 that are unmatched in quality and will probably be so for a very long time but those things can't carry rf2 alone. Everything needs to come together nicely. Do the most work where it's truly needs it.
Ever since the beta I hoped and dreamed that one day rf2 would be the great one but I fear that it's too late now. With the new stuff coming around, rf2 is a thing of my past and will be remembered as 'the sim that could have been' in my book.
Great post, This sums up RF2 for me aswell :thumbsup:
 
I think S397 must be finding it hard going when you can see that AMS2 is coming along in leaps and bounds over such a short period of time!
You mean the early access game that was called Reiza17 at one point?

Not to get too much into the discussion here, because it's funny how some people overreact, especialy people who cleary seem to have no interest in the sim and are the most vocal experts when it comes to rF2, yet user numbers and roadmaps tell a different story. Why don't people just move on, if a sim isn't interesting for them anymore. Should I really write a post everytime I install or uninstall a certain piece of software from my Steam library? The people who are interested in the sim, will get three new tracks and two new cars with more fixes and updates incomming. Enduracers just released a big skinpack for the amazing Cupcar. I can't ask for more support for a game that was released allmost ten years ago.
 

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