BMW M4 GT3 Coming to rFactor 2

BMW M4 GT3 for rFactor 2 01.jpg
Studio 397 has confirmed yet another new piece of content coming to rFactor 2, the BMW M4 GT3.

The announcements just keep coming for rFactor 2. We’ve already told you about three pieces of content scheduled to be released into the sim next week as DLC: Daytona International Speedway, the Ligier JS P320 LMP3 car, and the new INDYCAR IR-18. And now we know there will be one more piece of content, the BMW M4 GT3.

BMW’s latest entry into the GT3 class, the M4 GT3, is powered by BMW’s M TwinPower Turbo inline 6-cylinder engine, capable of 590 horsepower. It offers slightly more power, improved aerodynamics, and better drivability than its predecessor, the M6 GT3.

The M4 GT3 joins a growing roster of GT3’s on offer in rFactor 2, including cars from Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, Callaway, McLaren, Mercedes, Porsche, Radical and Ferrari. Sim racing’s most popular racing class is well represented in rF2, and the growing selection of official tracks complement these cars well.

RFactor 2 isn’t the first sim to have the M4 GT3 as official content, as iRacing and Assetto Corsa Competizione already welcomed the car to their respective content offerings. Despite mixed opinions on the looks of the M4 GT3, the car remains well used in both of those sims.

With so much high-profile content coming to rFactor 2, which do you want to drive first? Let us know in the comments below.
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Mike Smith
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

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RichardHessels
Gevatter said:
So three cars and one track in one push? That's like 20-25EUR worth of content, all of it endurance focused, which is more or less useless for sinlge player in rF2's current state?

Where I'm coming from is, I haven't had much to say about rF2 in recent times becaue I didn't use it at all. I've recently reinstalled rF2 because I was interested in the new UI, which I like very much. But as soon as I was in a race session, it was of course more of the same and not much fun at all after the third race restart in the first lap.

The core issues are well known by now, so I'm not bringing them up again, but I'm not investing anymore money until we're back to a usable state for single player racing that is more complex than 10 laps single make in dry conditions.

"Don't like it, don't play it" :)
Click to expand...
Just put it on "black flags only" and have some great racing done.
It's about racing we like, not simulating penalties.
;)

BTW, hardly anybody is mentioning their new BWM here.
 
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B
mantasisg said:
It is unclear about what they can do about physics in terms of game engine stuff. The AI have had lots to be desired for several years now. People would really love at least some improvements about tires, they are great already, but there are just a couple details that takes few dynamics away from most dynamic simulator. There are some hopes for rain physics simulation development. Perhaps some drivetrain stuff. And perhaps the very least thing that could be done would be proper clutch simulation, so that it really would be needed, and mis-shifting wouldn't be allowed, it is probably most simple ,and yet most depressing lack of rF2 physics to me, thankfully there is little plugin to help, but it is external stuff you have to activate every time.

The certain cars physics isn't really an issue of core physics. And with latest Fpro, BMW M4 PRO car and latest Tattus S397 proved they can actually configure a tire.
Click to expand...

I wonder if any of those things are adressed if they will just not be half assed attempts at best. Rain physics I've seen aquaplaning teased for the future in blogs from around 2016... At most you'll have probably some of the most simple features you can add to that abour drying line and something like that.

Clutch simulation? Well, Marcel in the physics blog asked "whats wrong with our clutch specifically", so I doubt you'll ever see a major effort like that, with actual drivetrain physics developed.

The tire model in rF2 - the one created by ISI, not the generation of tires for cars - is still the best around the market. It doesn't matter anything when you had S397 not caring about the excellence of their physics. Those tires are vague and arcade. Forgiving would be too kind on them. They are horrible honestly, lets talk seriously. I've beaten around the bush too much about that and I unnistalled the 70 euros or so I spent on them cars and drive mods.

Now it's up to them to at least have the cars they make behave propperly. Other then that I've lost hope they can develop rF2 simulation side to anything other then half assed attempts. Maybe if they hire some real professionals on the field... maybe..
 
Durge Driven
You got the audacity to sit there belittle a entire studio half assed, uncaring, unprofessional, arcade

Is there anything they did right ?

You have beaten around the bush too long ? You types are so far up yourselves

On the other hand rF2 lovers know it has bugs and other problems they don't deny it they never have !

Personally people like you make me ashamed to be a simmer
 
B
Durge Driven said:
You got the audacity to sit there belittle a entire studio half assed, uncaring, unprofessional, arcade

Is there anything they did right ?

You have beaten around the bush too long ? You types are so far up yourselves

On the other hand rF2 lovers know it has bugs and other problems they don't deny it they never have !

Personally people like you make me ashamed to be a simmer
Click to expand...

Yes there is, I've already mentioned it before in my comments, where the whole vibe is negative because the vibe in the whole of their work is negative.

Tracks are freaking awesome. Beautiful PBR shaders. Some nice reflections. There recent car models are pretty stunning. The latest tire models while I think something isn't quite quite there, is much much improved over something like the cars I mentioned. Some other free cars from them, previous to this new tire model actually run on pretty good tires as I'm testing some cars.

On the whole I'm positive about graphics stuff. The problem? How lond did we had to wait for the graphics to finally be on par with moderm standards? Years! How many cars on DLC have been updated graphically and fixing arcade physics tires - yes, arcade, you can bet on that those tires belong on Burnout Paradise or something, or NFS.

I'll see how this year goes and then decide if they've consistently changed and show they can actually develop RF2 simulation aspects!

If not, I'll finally know they are here only for content. If they keep honest about that I don't mind, but I've seen teasing of physics and we want to develop bla bla bla... I'm tired of broken promises and them trying to lure you into something they can't really do, seemingly.

I'm harsh sure. Compared to other companies they aren't up to par and I've been frustrated.

Cheers and maybe I've sort of spammed a bit too much lately. My ban on their discord by certain tatics didn't help my mood about them.
 
B
Gevatter said:
No you're right. Sorry for having an opinion.
Click to expand...

Good thing that they can't keep the fake façade that everything is alright in RF2, because it's not, and if they want the numbers to rise they better show it first, and while a start, it's still a bit far from that.
 
R.Man
v4v474 said:
"Those workshop mods cars or track that are often almost more than 1 gigas size for a poorly rendered and low resolution mesh and textures"
You obviously did not look well into what is available on the workshop :-D
Road Atlanta, Daytona 2022, Road America, Watkins Glen, ... just to name 4 american tracks done to extremely high level, to which you can add, literally dozens of other quality tracks (for instance, a new Bahrain is coming in the coming days).
And on cars, surely you have not tried the ByKolles LMP1, nor the Acura Dpi, nor Apex's IndyCar2020... nor the 1975 F1 Mod, etc...
I don't question that you may not like the user experience, but on the contents of the workshop, you are not getting it right.
Click to expand...
Recently following the new UI i've wiped all my previous content for a fresh start. I mainly decided to play nascar on RF2 because it has good physic and rules. RF2 seems to be geared toward US motorsport since the begining. So to give it a last chance i've decided to use it in that way. I've subscribed to all the 2022 season tracks from the workshop. The total number of tracks was about 35 and it was a mixed bag in term of quality. Some tracks are more than 1 gigas in size but when you look at them in game there is almost nothing. The few examples that you gave above are may be the few decents ones. BUT all of this are useless now after few crashes with the new UI coupled with few old FFB bugs , my RF2 won't start at all even after verifying game files on steam. This is very old bug that is very hard to fix. Even if I wanted to try the new coming content, i will not be able to do so. That's the core problem with RF2 , making it work at a very basic level is a titan achievement for many people. People don't hate it just like that, there is a reason...
 
Durge Driven
I thought the fella did the main coding is ISI ?

Or you mean rF3 like update of rF2 not sure if they be allowed to do that
 
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T
v4v474 said:
S397 did not develop rF2. They tried to make a business out of saving it, by buying it from ISI.
From all that has been discussed in the rF2 circles, the code left by ISI is a spaghetti mess very difficult to fiddle with.
Is/was there also ineptitude by S397 ??
I don't know, but I don't think, at all, that what was done by S397 was out of disregard for the players and that their only focus was making money.
Click to expand...
Mess? I suspect too complex a task and individual nuances in the base code.

Touching anyone's code in my personal experience with so many different ways to accomplish the same things can sometimes be a right pain.

But until any AI fix comes, or online servers with actual humans I refuse to buy anything new.
 
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Bob Gnarley
Wow, fun thread.

Fact: For many of you Rf2 wouldn't have been a blind purchase. If you had read any Rf2 forum thread anywhere before purchase then you would have known what you were buying in to.

Yet you still went ahead and bought in.

The great thing about being an adult is that we get to make all kinds of choices. But sometimes we get it wrong.
If you feel that Rf2 was a bad purchase, simply move on with your life. Seeing grown men lying on the forum floor kicking and screaming because they didn't get what they want is really quite pathetic.
 
Gevatter
Premium
Bob Gnarley said:
Wow, fun thread.

Fact: For many of you Rf2 wouldn't have been a blind purchase. If you had read any Rf2 forum thread anywhere before purchase then you would have known what you were buying in to.

Yet you still went ahead and bought in.

The great thing about being an adult is that we get to make all kinds of choices. But sometimes we get it wrong.
If you feel that Rf2 was a bad purchase, simply move on with your life. Seeing grown men lying on the forum floor kicking and screaming because they didn't get what they want is really quite pathetic.
Click to expand...
It's not like most of us just recently bought the game blindly and are now unhappy. I think most of us actually have some history with it.

Myself, I've been playing the demo since 2013 until the game released on Steam, which was when I bought the full version, including the lifetime online. That was 2015 or 2016 if I remember correctly. With the lifetime online it was 80 EUR on Steam, and it was worth every Cent. It was THAT good back then. Gold standard of physics and FFB, AI that actually defended a corner, great diverse content, day/night transitions, dynamic weather, pace car, FCY, Oval Racing rules, all at a time where basically no other sim had this.

But even before S397 took over, ISI rested on their Laurels instead of improving. Or they just made more money on rF Pro, I don't know. What I do know is that rF2 stagnated, and when S397 bought it, there was hope that they would improve it. Mind you, back then there still wasn't really anything that had all the features rF2 had. S397 added a lot of things like DX11 and VR, they improved the graphics massively. But they also broke the AI for longform offline racing, which was the form of racing rF2 is clearly going for and still is now. Longstanding bugs were never fixed, there still is no drivetrain modelling and not even an acknoledgement by the devs that it would be a worthwhile feature. They took 4 years for a UI that didn't work and was badly designed, and then two more years for the current UI - so basically six years for a working modern UI.

All this time, the other sims and devs caught up and sometimes even surpassed rF2. Apart from R3E, all sims now have dynamic weather and day/night transitions. Tire models have become more sophisicated on other sims, and other devs somehow manage to work out the quirks of game engines foreign to them much faster than S397 ever did.

It was great, but it's no longer. It's fallen from the peak that it could have held onto easily with ongoing improvements and that, combined with a seeming apathy and disregard towards bugfixing on part of the developers while they're releasing one overpriced DLC after the next is what makes people complain.
 
V
Premium
R.Man said:
Recently following the new UI i've wiped all my previous content for a fresh start. I mainly decided to play nascar on RF2 because it has good physic and rules. RF2 seems to be geared toward US motorsport since the begining. So to give it a last chance i've decided to use it in that way. I've subscribed to all the 2022 season tracks from the workshop. The total number of tracks was about 35 and it was a mixed bag in term of quality. Some tracks are more than 1 gigas in size but when you look at them in game there is almost nothing. The few examples that you gave above are may be the few decents ones. BUT all of this are useless now after few crashes with the new UI coupled with few old FFB bugs , my RF2 won't start at all even after verifying game files on steam. This is very old bug that is very hard to fix. Even if I wanted to try the new coming content, i will not be able to do so. That's the core problem with RF2 , making it work at a very basic level is a titan achievement for many people. People don't hate it just like that, there is a reason...
Click to expand...
Well, physics yes, rules... I am surprised that you say that rF2 gets them right, as I believe it's the opposite and that only with plugins made by the community there are still people racing NASCAR on rF2 and even then, they face challenges with the pace-car, recording of penalties, ...

And yes, sometimes what you describe happens to some users, specially after W10 updates, but if you join a Discord group with experienced users (preferably the S397 Discord) you will get rF2 back running in no time and, quite possibly, running well, going forward (frequently the issues are linked to plugins).

As I said, rF2 combines elements of brilliance with a fickle / brittle code and the new UI is just a new front.
But there have been improvements, like for instance on the load times (significantly faster), so finally there is work being done to the bones.

And then there are odd things which are completely independent of rF2 such as GHub's most recent drivers not letting rF2 shut down, which is happening to a lot of people and that can be solved with a rollback.

But yes, rF2 is not a streamlined experience for many who can't be bothered to survive its inconveniences, but for crying out loud, it's also enjoyed by many and, no one is forced to like it, nor there is any justification for people that don't like it to populate every thread with their "crying".

I repeat myself, but Mike asked which of the three cars we would be trying first... :-D
 
V
Premium
Gevatter said:
It's not like most of us just recently bought the game blindly and are now unhappy. I think most of us actually have some history with it.

Myself, I've been playing the demo since 2013 until the game released on Steam, which was when I bought the full version, including the lifetime online. That was 2015 or 2016 if I remember correctly. With the lifetime online it was 80 EUR on Steam, and it was worth every Cent. It was THAT good back then. Gold standard of physics and FFB, AI that actually defended a corner, great diverse content, day/night transitions, dynamic weather, pace car, FCY, Oval Racing rules, all at a time where basically no other sim had this.

But even before S397 took over, ISI rested on their Laurels instead of improving. Or they just made more money on rF Pro, I don't know. What I do know is that rF2 stagnated, and when S397 bought it, there was hope that they would improve it. Mind you, back then there still wasn't really anything that had all the features rF2 had. S397 added a lot of things like DX11 and VR, they improved the graphics massively. But they also broke the AI for longform offline racing, which was the form of racing rF2 is clearly going for and still is now. Longstanding bugs were never fixed, there still is no drivetrain modelling and not even an acknoledgement by the devs that it would be a worthwhile feature. They took 4 years for a UI that didn't work and was badly designed, and then two more years for the current UI - so basically six years for a working modern UI.

All this time, the other sims and devs caught up and sometimes even surpassed rF2. Apart from R3E, all sims now have dynamic weather and day/night transitions. Tire models have become more sophisicated on other sims, and other devs somehow manage to work out the quirks of game engines foreign to them much faster than S397 ever did.

It was great, but it's no longer. It's fallen from the peak that it could have held onto easily with ongoing improvements and that, combined with a seeming apathy and disregard towards bugfixing on part of the developers while they're releasing one overpriced DLC after the next is what makes people complain.
Click to expand...
Well, nothing that you say is a novelty and most of it is correct and accurate, but not all of it.
Tire models have many facets. ACC gets the tyre pressure/temperatures/track relationship really well and accurately establishes the relationship between mechanical and aero grip for the GT3 cars, but the tyre and aero model can be substantially less complex as it was tuned for a specific type of car, which is far easier than to build or adapt a model devised to cover an extremely wide range of racing series/types of cars.
Another factor on ACC's simplified tyre and physics model is that that the FFB relies on canned/artificial effects whilst rF2's comes straight from the steering rack and conveys an enormous amount on information from the tyre contact patch and from the tyre's distortion.
So, ACC is better on one front, worse on others. Personally I prefer the simulation of driving feel to the simulation of being a racing engineer (which I know appeals to many and that is fine!).
Also, S397 now has a newly revised tyre model which on grip/degradation catches up and potentially surpasses the competition.
Tyre pressure/temp/track, not yet, but I speculate that this could even be a contratual limitation on on their agreement with ISI.
Finally, overpriced DLC? Tracks are of a super level of quality and, at least until now, most at €8,99 and cars €4,99, with packs frequently greatly reducing the individual prices (plus Steam sales).
As I explained above, it's a numbers' game: cars and tracks cost licensing fees, which are huge and that, in some cases, I doubt that are 100% recovered by sale within the first 6 months of being put on sale.
Now, Indycar is under a wider licence negotiated by MSG for a Indycar game (probably a simcade in the model of the Codemaster F1 series with role playing, cinematic sequences, etc), but still, there is a cost.
 
Gevatter
Premium
v4v474 said:
Finally, overpriced DLC?
Click to expand...
Yes overpriced compared to anything but iRacing. 9 EUR for one track or 5EUR for one car is a bad joke. Since you like talking about ACC so much, the ICGTC DLC for ACC is 15EUR for four tracks, all laser scanned, all licenced. The GT4 pack is 20EUR for 11 cars. That's basically half the price of rF2 tracks and cars. AC Dream Pack 1 cost 15EUR for 10 cars and one Nordschleife. In rF2 land that would be 40-45 EUR probably? Since the cars go for 3 EUR in a pack of five? Oh and the BMW M4 GT3 was added as free content in ACC.

And yes, sales also happen for DLC of other games, nothing special here.

It shows that you cannot answer any of my concerns I have with rF2 when you're only capable of ranting about other games in your reply instead of addressing anything. I never mentioned ACC in my post, so no idea why you're jumping on that.
 
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Kyuubeey
v4v474 said:
but the tyre and aero model can be substantially less complex as it was tuned for a specific type of car, which is far easier than to build or adapt a model devised to cover an extremely wide range of racing series/types of cars.
Another factor on ACC's simplified tyre and physics model is that that the FFB relies on canned/artificial effects whilst rF2's comes straight from the steering rack and conveys an enormous amount on information from the tyre contact patch and from the tyre's distortion.
Click to expand...
Stop talking about things you have no clue about whatsoever. ACC tire model isn't "tuned" for anything specific, it's effectively AC's tire model which is already versatile enough, hence most professional applications use it. ACC just added some minor things. Nobody is using rF2 tire model for a reason; it's not made with correlation in mind and due to the nature of the parameter generation with the "physical" method, it struggles with basic things.

Aero just doesn't work that way, what can I say. It's just force at a location. There is no "tuning of the model" for different series or cars or whatever.

FFB in AC/ACC is rack-end forces. It doesn't rely on anything canned. It is true due to the tire model being semi-empiric that the tire flexes are "baked in", but all this means is that in some situations the SAT will be slightly off. In most there is no discrepancy. It has been tried with AC, by coding a tire model that has individual flexes.
 
B
Gevatter said:
It's not like most of us just recently bought the game blindly and are now unhappy. I think most of us actually have some history with it.

Myself, I've been playing the demo since 2013 until the game released on Steam, which was when I bought the full version, including the lifetime online. That was 2015 or 2016 if I remember correctly. With the lifetime online it was 80 EUR on Steam, and it was worth every Cent. It was THAT good back then. Gold standard of physics and FFB, AI that actually defended a corner, great diverse content, day/night transitions, dynamic weather, pace car, FCY, Oval Racing rules, all at a time where basically no other sim had this.

But even before S397 took over, ISI rested on their Laurels instead of improving. Or they just made more money on rF Pro, I don't know. What I do know is that rF2 stagnated, and when S397 bought it, there was hope that they would improve it. Mind you, back then there still wasn't really anything that had all the features rF2 had. S397 added a lot of things like DX11 and VR, they improved the graphics massively. But they also broke the AI for longform offline racing, which was the form of racing rF2 is clearly going for and still is now. Longstanding bugs were never fixed, there still is no drivetrain modelling and not even an acknoledgement by the devs that it would be a worthwhile feature. They took 4 years for a UI that didn't work and was badly designed, and then two more years for the current UI - so basically six years for a working modern UI.

All this time, the other sims and devs caught up and sometimes even surpassed rF2. Apart from R3E, all sims now have dynamic weather and day/night transitions. Tire models have become more sophisicated on other sims, and other devs somehow manage to work out the quirks of game engines foreign to them much faster than S397 ever did.

It was great, but it's no longer. It's fallen from the peak that it could have held onto easily with ongoing improvements and that, combined with a seeming apathy and disregard towards bugfixing on part of the developers while they're releasing one overpriced DLC after the next is what makes people complain.
Click to expand...

Someone compleletly nails it man! But the same fanboys will beat around the bushes never addressing the real points at all and be content with their moot points.
 
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