The Future of rFactor 2: October Development Roadmap Released

Paul Jeffrey

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rF2 October Development Roadmap.jpg

In something of a roadmap rush day, Studio 397 just manage to squeeze into the month their October Development Roadmap, with less than one hour to spare..!

Unbelievably it has been a year since Studio 397 took control of development for rFactor 2, and even though the simulation remains one of the most impressive racing title's available in sim racing today, Studio 397 have completed an incredible amount of work over such a short period of time since taking over from Image Space Incorporated.

In the past 12 months we have seen DX11, VR, Officially licenced DLC content and plenty of incremental improvements to the base game. With the development roadmap for October shedding a little more light on where the future stands, it remains a very exciting period to be involved with the title over the next 12 - 18 months..

Studio 397 rFactor 2 Development Roadmap - October
We’re nearing the end of the year, which is a good time to start looking ahead at what the new year will bring, but also to look back and reflect on the current year. At the start of 2017 we were still building our team and roadmap, and I think it is fair to say that we did not anticipate all the interesting conversations, partnerships and opportunities that presented themselves in the months that followed. Even though, we knew when we started that there were a few key areas in rFactor 2 we had to address.

The graphics engine needed to be upgraded to DX11 for two reasons. First of all, it enabled us to implement VR. On top of that, from an artistic and technical point of view, it allowed us to start evolving our graphics engine. Of course, we started with a “make or buy” decision as there are obviously existing graphics (or rather game) engines around we could have chosen. Nevertheless, remaining backward compatible was an important goal with our existing content, and we felt that this would have been difficult with a completely new engine. So instead, we chose to build a new DX11 engine, taking the current engine as a starting point. We are now confident that the new engine is more capable and ready for the future. By addressing some of the weak points of the DX9 engine we are building something that is starting to look really beautiful.

We also wanted to replace the existing UI with something that was more maintainable, flexible and future-proof. Throughout the year, we’ve already previewed quite a few screenshots and artist’s impressions, and by now I’m sure everybody is wondering when we will release the first version. The client part of the UI is in private beta testing now, and we are receiving lots of feedback about all aspects of it. During the World’s Fastest Gamer we’ve also previewed parts of the competition infrastructure, at that point still as a separate user interface in a browser, but eventually these parts will also end up in game. We are still working on some other parts, such as the Launcher, the dedicated server and a new HUD and overlay system that is scheduled to replace plugins that were drawing directly to the screen in DX9. It is fair to say that all of these tasks are taking more time than we expected, so bear with us for a little while longer!

The third thing we wanted to do is build high-quality and high-profile content that was properly licensed. A lot of people were also telling us they preferred series over individual cars. So we set out to license five GT3 cars. Finishing them this month was very satisfying and kept us incredibly busy at Studio 397. The GT3 Power Pack includes the previously released McLaren 650S GT3, previously announced Bentley Continental GT3, along with the teased Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R and surprise Mercedes AMG GT3 and Radical RXC Turbo GT3 cars. As our first pack and DLC this has been a great learning experience, and we’re very grateful to our team, our testers, and you, our customers, for dealing with the pressures and effects that came along with it. We’re very pleased with the results, and hope you’ll enjoy these fantastic vehicles. And one more thing, we are in the final phase of testing an update that addresses the low framerates that some of you have been experiencing with higher quality shadow settings, and we hope to have that released before the end of this week.

rF2 October Development Roadmap.jpg


We are already hard at work to come up with the next pieces of content, including a brand new track that is scheduled to be released before Christmas. On top of that, we are also opening up our content store to third parties, further increasing the amount of high quality content and offering our modding community the opportunity to take the next step to convert their passion into something they can make a living out of. If you’re a modder and you’re interested, feel free to get in touch!

DX11
As we said in a previous update, we feel our DX11 version is stable by now, so it is our intention to make it the default at our next major code update. That update will include some of the rain and lighting improvements we have previewed at SimExpo, which you can also definitely expect before the end of this year. There are three reasons for the delay here. First of all, we were getting some feedback at the SimExpo that we wanted to improve on. Secondly, some of these changes will also require us to do content updates, and finally, we are working on an improved HUD that contains some of the information that drivers were missing and were installing third party plugins for. As explained above, a completely new HUD system is something we are still working on, and you can expect that sometime next year.

Physics
As you already know, our core physics and, more specifically, tyre development is always ongoing. We are continually looking for ways to improve and push things further to get you to that next level of realism! Our own physics developer and tyre guru Michael Borda took some time out to fill you in on the latest in tyre tech, notably, developments that translate into improving tyre feel and overall handling.

“Since the inception of rFactor 2, we’ve calculated centrifugal forces in a ‘quasi-static model’, thinking this simplification was correct or close enough to reality to not require deeper adjustment. It was considered fact, when in reality, accelerations should be calculated localized as the distribution in the contact patch can vary significantly to the original behavior. Some correlation issues crept up over time, and as we’ve collected more data, it became apparent that it wasn’t on the data side. You may think that this might be sloppy, however, the reality is the way data is measured, interpreted (smoothed / adjusted / fitted), scaled, or worst of all, even copied between tyres, makes trusting data a very difficult thing to do. In this case we had strong suspicions that the data was measured under a single condition, simply offset and then applied to different data points. This doubt left plenty of room for us to believe that our model was probably correct, when considering the obvious short-cuts the manufacturer had taken in measuring the data. So everything was rosy, we thought, and then we finally obtained the same type of data from another tyre manufacturer. This time, they went to the extra step of measuring at multiple loads. Once we had this corroborating information, it became obvious there was a glaring issue with our tyre model. Of course, this was an original part of the tyre model that hadn’t been touched for years, taken for granted. This was also a essentially a non-issue before the introduction of the contact patch model. After a little thinking and investigating, it became obvious that our ‘harmless’ simplification, wasn’t so harmless after-all.

To describe the effect in practical terms, after some early testing, it is quite obvious that the ‘speed sensitivity’ of tyres is decreased. A reduction of speed sensitivity, meaning that the tyres lose less grip as a direct consequence of rotational speed. The resulting contact patch is a little bigger (longer), especially when compared to the previous tyres under a combination of both high speed and load. As you apply slip angle, the longer contact patch increases the sliding speed towards the trailing edge of the contact patch, making tyres more prone to overheat at high speed. A larger patch also increases cooling (as contact conductance is the primary driver of heat dissipation in a tyre). In general, tyre temperatures will probably be slightly higher, so you may need to increase conduction slightly to achieve realistic temperatures. In terms of overall feeling, this is the biggest change in rF2 since the introduction of the contact patch model. This also marks the first major change to the QSA model itself.

So now, with the latest newly-released build, we now calculate localized accelerations, and our QSA model, becomes a little bit less “quasi-static” than before.”

More details on this will be published soon as part of an upcoming physics blog, where Micheal will go more in depth on how to leverage these improvements.

Miscellaneous
Some other things we talked about in earlier roadmaps that deserve an update:

  • The Corvette C7.R GTE car is mostly done from a model point of view. We’re working on sound and physics and are looking at other options in GTE and related classes.
  • Our Motec implementation still has not started, mostly because we’ve prioritized other things at the moment.
  • Progress on Zandvoort and our first Radical have been slow, and we expect both to be completed in 2018.
  • We are already working on some of the Tatuus cars we’ve licensed, but those are still in early phases.
  • A final thing we reported on is improved spotter code. To be honest, there the community has come up with a great alternative, Crew Chief, so we’re reconsidering what we should be focusing on here.
Wrapping up this month’s roadmap I would like to thank everybody for their continuous feedback. A year ago we wrote our first roadmap with our main goal to give everybody more insight into our development. It is fair to say that some things went to plan, others maybe did not, but we still hope this openness is appreciated in the end. Happy simracing!

If you missed it first time around, don't forget to check out our interview with Marcel Offermans of Studio 397 as he discusses the future, rain and the upcoming build:

rFactor 2 is a PC exclusive racing simulation available worldwide via the Steam network.

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Excited for the future of rF2? Looking forward to the new update? What sort of content would you like to see added as DLC in future? Happy with progress in the first year of Studio 397 developing the sim? Let us know in the comments section below!
 
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#excited ??? lol this roadmap is a shame for studios 397 in my opinion. U delay everything to next year and things like "multiplayer system " which they mention in summer are not even in talks. And rf2 is still buggy like hell it crashes in vr every 5-10 min. And i have a high and pc.... But good to know that we maybe have a stable dx11 and a modern hud in 2018 which others sims have since 2014. Remeber the original road map for dx11 was march 2017 it comes 2 month later as beta which would mean over 7 month beta....
 
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I may have to actually pick this SIM up now. The only cars they are missing in the GT3 Power Pack are the Aston Acura and the Lambo. Now all we need are those and the P2 prototypes in the IMSA series. Then we can run a proper Weathertech Championship.
(I bolded text above)
Yes and no. You would have the GT3 cars, but IMSA allows two alternate differentials for them, which is not "pure" GT3. The differentials needed would be for street courses and Daytona, neither of which are in the GT3 PowerPack which strictly follows the GT3 regs. I'm hoping Studio 397 will add the alternate differentials as a tuning option...
 
Great roadmap! And even if some things may take longer than expected (what's new in the gaming community!), I really like how they communicate with their customers and also listen to them. They don't have the arrogance of some other big companies.
 
Studio 397 are doing a superb job on rF2, enjoying it a lot...though it is going to take some time to re-build rF2 into the great Sim I know it is going to be.....I can wait, but always in anticipation for the next update.
 
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The third thing we wanted to do is build high-quality and high-profile content that was properly licensed. A lot of people were also telling us they preferred series over individual cars. So we set out to license five GT3 cars. !

@Marcel Offermans I like the gt3 power pack and welcome more cars from this series. I will always pay for good content.

However, I may be wrong, but I think when people say they want officially licensed series content they mean official championships. A bit like the USF2000 was a complete grid of a series. Does that make sense?
 
However, I may be wrong, but I think when people say they want officially licensed series content they mean official championships. A bit like the USF2000 was a complete grid of a series. Does that make sense?

That makes sense, but I'm not sure if it is true or not. As an example, would the GT3 cars be more valuable if we picked only those of a specific GT3 series (and in that case, which of the many available ones should we pick). Remember, such series would probably ask money for that (meaning the same cars in a series could be more expensive) and we are more limited to which GT3's we actually license. Our assumption was that having multiple cars in the same class is what is important and people will then make their own racing series out of those, such as the RD GT3 series (just made that up obviously). But then again, we might be wrong, so let us know!
 
So what have they achieved in 1 year? Do Sector 397 also get seconded into other Luminis projects, given prior materials on their website from Marcel

You forgot the Nissan GT500, and we also did a lot of work on the UI (unreleased) and the competition infrastructure (only released WFG so far), but other than that your list is pretty accurate. We actually have some people that we add to the team at Studio 397 when we need them for specific tasks. We also have other projects going on within Studio 397 (I'm saying that to answer your question but there is not much more I can say about those at the moment) and those get staffed partially by our own people, partially by either people from Luminis or contractors.
 
That makes sense, but I'm not sure if it is true or not. As an example, would the GT3 cars be more valuable if we picked only those of a specific GT3 series (and in that case, which of the many available ones should we pick). Remember, such series would probably ask money for that (meaning the same cars in a series could be more expensive) and we are more limited to which GT3's we actually license. Our assumption was that having multiple cars in the same class is what is important and people will then make their own racing series out of those, such as the RD GT3 series (just made that up obviously). But then again, we might be wrong, so let us know!
Yeah good point. I am happy with that actually. If you manage to add a few more to the class at some point that would be amazing.
 
[QUOTE = "VernWozza, post: 2615449, lid: 253709"] Ja goed punt. Dat ben ik echt gelukkig. Als je erin slaagt om nog een paar toe te voegen aan de klas op een gegeven moment dat geweldig zou zijn. [/ QUOTE]

VLN and Nordschleife :thumbsup:
 
"it is quite obvious that the ‘speed sensitivity’ of tyres is decreased. A reduction of speed sensitivity, meaning that the tyres lose less grip as a direct consequence of rotational speed"

Finally:thumbsup: Just by watching Motorsport i got the idea some time ago that something is wrong with the current tyre-model :whistling:
Completely agree that the heats go up to 400 degrees that is not real I speak in mod of f1 the creators and worked a lot to lower the temperature degrees in the fast curve and in the side smoke of the front wheels also very unreal thing would have to look at the gum of the base game for f1 2017 gt3 and other categories because my eyes bleed when I see 400 degrees of temperature ...
 
I'm glad to see that things are continuing forward and progressing. But in a way I did feel a little bit let down. When you read the Automobilista October Road Map and then read the rF2 October Road Map back to back, you can kind of see what I mean.

The rF2 article talks about some more of an updated tire model. Something that can make a little bit of a difference, but something that 75% of users probably won't notice.

But with Automobilista, it is about turbo changes, limiting tire sets and cumulative wear, which in my eyes are pretty awesome developments for rFactor 1.5. I could be wrong with this statement, but I believe rF2 is still "faking" the turbo. There are a few other features that I think would be more beneficial for rF2 to have that other sims current offer. Things like down shift protection, adjustable traction control and ABS.

I just believe that instead of continuing to hammer away on tires, to invest some time to the physics and ECU upgrades that race cars currently have. Hopefully I'm wrong. After all there is a plan in place and we are getting monthly updates instead of being left in the dark. Hopefully the improvements will be beneficial
 
A year ago I was so excited with the dept and professionalism of their updates, today I am kind of yawning... ok, ok, they are working hard, some things to show but, ultimately a fraction of what they said they were doing back when they started these updates; if you show "previews" of a new UI, who thinks a year later they would not be ready yet?

Love the physics, but a whole year of graphics improvement still has them far from AC, to name one, and at the expense of losing most onscreen aids, or going back to the 1990's look of the HUD; tracks are still by far the most cartoonish looking in the market...

I am also a little annoyed by the bombastic focus on their new and exciting content which is....? yeah, five gt3 cars that pretty much everyone else already has had for years, or close, ???

DX11 and VR are nice, but have been here for over 6 months I believe, if not longer

Pick up the pace, guys, you are now going from thoughtful development updates to marketing gibberish...

Sorry, my 2 cents.
 

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