What is the current progress of the sim?

[David Garcia]

Hello,

just wanted to know what the tiitle says. Is this already an Alpha?

Cheers!

 

[Stefan Woudenberg]

Alpha? Alpha comes before Beta, so we are beyond the Alpha stage.

It's a great sim which isn't finished for 100% yet. No one knows when it becomes gold.

 

[Jax Humanhater]

Alpha? Alpha comes before Beta, so we are beyond the Alpha stage.

It's a great sim which isn't finished for 100% yet. No one knows when it becomes gold.

What he said, plus, ISI is taking their precious time because a fellow user who spoke about this said in my paraphrase - they will remain in development.

I partially believe that is the case, but, I agree, it is turning out very well.

I am also happy they addressed the constant no grip issue from the previous game.

 

[David Garcia]

Ah, ok. Thanks for the answers guys.

 

[tjc]

Hello,

just wanted to know what the tiitle says. Is this already an Alpha?

Cheers!

You`ll find all the answers you need here:

http://isiforums.net/f/forumdisplay.php/41-rFactor-2-Mod-Beta-Forum

 

[Roberto Costa]

To say the truth in my opinion its in Alpha stage! I bought it 3 months ago and still now theres a lot of things to do. They sold as beta, but its not like beta, its a WIP.
Anyway, its looking good these days and probably will be much improved.

 

[Marco Bijl]

Well, thats not completely accurate Roberto

In an Alpha, or WIP as you call it, all the basics are being done. They are done already for rf2 in terms of the driving itself.
In BETA you go and test those functionalities, and adjust where needed/wanted. So until it is going gold, it will be a Work In Progress.

But it's not an Alpha. It's way beyond that. At this moment, it's THE game with the most realistic physics and car handling. On graphics there is a long way to go, but in relation to the driving itself, it's way beyond Alpha.

 

[Marco80]

Marco I wouldn't consider itch beta, there is too much testing of new functions for it to be beta, it is more like an alpha.

Physics wise it is amazing

They are not done with the physics engine yet though, or the tyre model, or the graphics engine, or sound, nothing, it shouldn't be called a beta, but I guess beta can be anything wip, depends on the developers interpretation of the word.

 

[Ryan Vickery]

It definitely still feels early stages comparing it to other games, for me some of the car models are great and others not so great. It feels like they are working at a really slow pace and working more on what is underneath, rather than trying to finish off the game or producing content.

I'm starting to feel more interested in them finishing and releasing it so that other companies can do what they have done with the original Rfactor, producing games like Game Stock Car and Simraceway, both of which have gone far far beyond what the original game brought in terms of quality, graphics and physics by squeezing and tweaking the most out of the engine. I would love to see both those titles on the Rfactor 2 engine, based on what they were able to achieve with the original.

Graphically Rfactor 2 now feels very outdated. Simbin have just released their Raceroom experience demo which looks beautiful, but sadly is not in the same league with the physics, it saddens me that the graphics and physics can't be seperate, as I would love to see those 2 married together.

 

[Marco80]

Raceroom isn't that great visually, it's good don't get me wrong, but the only one I would call great in terms of visuals is PCars, raceroom to me just looks like something from ISI that's been worked on, polished, improved upon, updated etc.

Raceroom definitely has to be ISI based (at least partly), the way the car moves in replays looks exactly like any ISI based game, and many of the graphics look ISI based aswell, and the physics have lots of ISI characteristics and feel to them as well.

Simbin have had ties with ISI for a very long time and have had many years to improve the ISI engine in their own way, therefore calling it their own engine, but I bet it's still ISI based (just like their console lizard engine which looked exactly like an ISI based engine just with some added graphical features and other features thrown in.)

Or maybe they got some kind of version of the rFactor 2 engine? All I know is that it feels and looks and seems very ISI-ish

Oh and if you think simraceway is an example of pushing what the rFactor engine can do then you must have missed lots and lots of rFactor stuff because there are many mods much better than simraceway. Not saying that simraceway is bad, just saying it definitely isn't pushing what the rf1 engine can do to the max. I agree with you on GSC 2012 though, amazing for an rf1 engine based sim, and just amazing in general.

 

[Ryan Vickery]

Raceroom isn't that great visually, it's good don't get me wrong, but the only one I would call great in terms of visuals is PCars, raceroom to me just looks like something from ISI that's been worked on, polished, improved upon, updated etc.

Raceroom definitely has to be ISI based (at least partly), the way the car moves in replays looks exactly like any ISI based game, and many of the graphics look ISI based aswell, and the physics have lots of ISI characteristics and feel to them as well.

Simbin have had ties with ISI for a very long time and have had many years to improve the ISI engine in their own way, therefore calling it their own engine, but I bet it's still ISI based (just like their console lizard engine which looked exactly like an ISI based engine just with some added graphical features and other features thrown in.)

Or maybe they got some kind of version of the rFactor 2 engine? All I know is that it feels and looks and seems very ISI-ish

Oh and if you think simraceway is an example of pushing what the rFactor engine can do then you must have missed lots and lots of rFactor stuff because there are many mods much better than simraceway. Not saying that simraceway is bad, just saying it definitely isn't pushing what the rf1 engine can do to the max. I agree with you on GSC 2012 though, amazing for an rf1 engine based sim, and just amazing in general.

I disagree about Simraceway, you've probably tried the Evo X and then left yourself with the wrong impression, if anything Simraceway for me is equal to or better than Game Stock Car.

 

[Lee Ross]

SimRaceway is really poor and in no way anything close to GSC

 

[Adrian Britton]

The only reason why Pcars is visualy better is because they are paying more attention to the DirectX 11 tessellation, displacement mapping and refinement algorithms and not enough time on making the game/cars run like they are supposed to.

This in turn is making it look nice but is taking far too much time to do and as a result is leaving everything else on the shelf (like handling and physics)

ISI pay more attention to handling and physics then making it look pretty, so I guess the two are as far apart from each other as chalk and cheese.

One is a pretty game and the other is a pro handling SIM.

I guess raceroom is trying to bridge the gap between the two, making it look ok and trying to make it run ok.


Additional....
I dont mind if ISI take another year to work on rfactor2, as I know when its done, it will be used for many years to come and there will be an abundance of mods for it, (that will run and feel amazing)

 

[Lee Ross]

The only reason why Pcars is visualy better is because they are paying more attention to the DirectX 11 tessellation, displacement mapping and refinement algorithms and not enough time on making the game/cars run like they are supposed to.

This in turn is making it look nice but is taking far too much time to do and as a result is leaving everything else on the shelf (like handling and physics)

ISI pay more attention to handling and physics then making it look pretty, so I guess the two are as far apart from each other as chalk and cheese.

One is a pretty game and the other is a pro handling SIM.

I guess raceroom is trying to bridge the gap between the two, making it look ok and trying to make it run ok.

Honestly i don't get the hype for pCARS graphics, it's gone too far. They started good but now it's more stylistic than realistic. It looks like it's from another planet IMO and not simulating earth. rF2 with the right setting looks more realistic, not car models as clearly this is where SMS excel but general lighting IMO is better and more like what i see when i look around me. The problem with rF2 is it's broken right now and so is inconsistent.

RaceRoom looks good not brilliant. I think so far AC is looking the most promising in terms of graphics. They have the models to match SMS and the lighting looks more convincing.

At the same time rF2 is becoming slightly irritating for me, build updates and content take far too long. I have been fine all along up until this latest update. But it's frustrating as rF2 for me right now is my prefered sim but it lacks any content i really love apart from the BT20. Luckily i still get to try other stuff from Mak but still i would like more updates on a consistent basis for rF2.

 

[Adrian Britton]

I think Pcars will end up looking just like Metro 2033 and run like it too.
Yeah Lee I agree, it does look like SMS have gone like "a dog with a bone" on the looks of pcars.

I agree with you about rfactor looking more realistic as I guess they work more on distance viewing and haze/ horizon lines then the extream make up of DirectX 11.

 

[Lee Ross]

I think Pcars will end up looking just like Metro 2033 and run like it too.
Yeah Lee I agree, it does look like SMS have gone like "a dog with a bone" on the looks of pcars.

I agree with you about rfactor looking more realistic as I guess they work more on distance viewing and haze/ horizon lines then the extream make up of DirectX 11.

I think once they get the lighting working as it should and get some better shaders and car models, rF2 will look really good.

 

[Ryan Vickery]

SimRaceway is really poor and in no way anything close to GSC

Again I disagree, 99% of the comments I've seen about this game are from people who did what I did. Went in with low expectations, tried the EVO X and then never touched it again. But I did touch It again when they offered test drive tuesday, and their paid content cars are amazing, they are a step above anything that has come before on Rfactor and in leagues with NetKar.


Then came Game Stock Car, with almost holy grail levels of hype from a few (mostly this website) I went in with very high expectations. My thoughts were that it was really good but I was disapointed, it is definitely overhyped and I fail to see how anyone who has actually tried the premium Simraceway content can say that it falls short of Game Stock Car. The two games feel, react and look very similar (for obvious reasons) though there is a softer smoother feel to the default FFB in GSC vs a slightly harder and faster/raw feeling in SRW, either of the sims though being Rfactor based can be tweaked to how you like it

The people behind SimRaceway are people who know what they are doing, they have their own test track, they have their own cars and professional drivers onboard, it is a sim made by real racers and people with a lot of passion.

On this website you have a group of people who bow to the GSC alter of sim racing, yet those same people are the people who won't give SRW even the chance, those same people who if are genuinely so impressed with GSC should be equally impressed with SRW, because down at the core they are the same game and further up at the end product the driving experience is very similar.

Rfactor mods don't even come anywhere close to this one, and I have an Rfactor Central account, I have a nogripracing account, I have a Racedepartment account and an ISR account, I've tried every Rfactor mod under the sun and there were some really great and enjoyable mods, but they all fall very short of what both SRW and GSC have done with honing the driving models in their cars.



For the sake of being on topic : I think Rfactor 2 is a decent looking game but I think the lighting is horrible, its so bright and bloomy and there are no brightness/gamma options in game that I can find to try to fix it. Physics wise the cars are hit and miss, I think the Nissan 370z is amazing and I think the tracks are quality, my favourite track though is the Virtua_Lm mid ohio (a mod). User content hasnt all been that impressive though, the Nordschleife I downloaded looked butt ugly and was nowhere near the Rfactor 1 version that I have in pretty much every aspect.

If you compare Rfactor 2 to Project Cars is silly, to me Rfactor graphically isnt even in the same league, talking about Raceroom experience, it looks incredible on my system, aesthetically and graphically it is also in a different league to Rfactor 2, runs a lot smoother too but feels like crap to drive (Raceroom), worse than Project Cars without any shadow of a doubt.


Back on Rfactor, the issue is that ISI don't produce a lot of content, and if there aren't enough people like Virtua LM around putting out quality content then it is going to be the same hitnmiss gamble lottery as Rfactor 1, it was cool but with so much quality stuff out there nowadays it is a bit of a put off that you have to rely on non-proffit organisations putting massive time and effort in to release content for ISI who typically don't release a lot of content themselves.

 

[Adrian Britton]

Ryan Vickery
I think most of use praise the likes of rfator1/2 NKP and GSC as its a sim that you can loose a day on, a sim that you can feel comfortable with for hours on end.
I like to change everything in the car setups, tire pressure, camber the lot. So I can end up spending hours just on one track trying different things.

I have tried all the other games too and they can only keep me interested for an hour at the most (some not even 5 minutes).

 

[Lee Ross]

If you compare Rfactor 2 to Project Cars is silly, to me Rfactor graphically isnt even in the same league, talking about Raceroom experience, it looks incredible on my system, aesthetically and graphically it is also in a different league to Rfactor 2, runs a lot smoother too but feels like crap to drive (Raceroom), worse than Project Cars without any shadow of a doubt.

.

Not in the same league? Maybe not in flashy terms and being overly processed but when i look out of my window, 80% of the time it looks closer to rF2 than what i see from pCARS. Look at the two videos below, ok, different times of the day but the rF2 lighting looks far more convincing. The pCARS video looks like it was filmed on Mars through photoshop. It doesn't look like earth.

So while that overdone processed look may appeal to you and others. For me that looks nothing like reality, and so yes if big and brash is what impresses you then ok they can not be compared. But we are talking simulation here and simulation means realistic and not pretend and so i find rF2 more realistic with the correct settings.

You say rF2 looks too bloomy but rF2 is not using bloom yet and then you say Raceroom looks great on your system. But Raceroom is overdone with bloom and has a weird greenish hue to the lighting. I think you and i just prefer different styles, you like a processed look and i like a more natural look. My rF2 video is running with settings which i consider to look like what i see around me in real life.

I do agree however that Simbin have done an awesome job with optimizing RaceRoom, it runs really really nicely

 

[Ryan Vickery]

Project cars for me doesnt look like in the video, maybe one of the fancy HD filters is on, and looks like motion blur and the lighting looks different, but it certaintly looks fantastic if a little "movie" like rather than out of your eyes. The Rfactor 2 video does look like how it looks on my computer, but the video doesn't emphasise the bright bloom enough as it would at high resolution fullscreen. The 2 videos aren't well matched in that they are taken under vastly different lighting situations, weather, time of day and in a very different environment.

If we're going for realism then I think GT5 tops them all in lighting and in how the cars look in replays. While the GT5 graphics, texture res and clarity certaintly are not anywhere close to what you see in the videos above, it does look the most realistic in screenshots due to the great job they did with realistic lighting.

Back to Project Cars, how you set the graphics determines how it looks, I feel you chose wisely in using a video that would sway an opinion in the way of RF2. But for those who like the "movie theatre" style look of a game your PCars video looks considerbly better.



Playing Rfactor 2, it looks rough around the edges and really dated to me, again you have posted a user content track which again looks better than the ISI made content, I also have that track in Rfactor 2 (though perhaps an older version).