Daytona International Speedway comes to rFactor 2 Next Week

Lesson learned - if you meme enough, it can become reality (rF2 Discord members will understand)

cant wait to download this track in rf2 i already tested it in rfactor 1

This makes me happy and sad. One of my favourite places to race. rF2 has pretty good content for it (+ great Acura DPi mod, though not BoPed with the Caddy). We'll see how the AI performs here in multiclass, that will be the key whether I get it. Studio 397, please give more resources to AI development!

Now throw in a 73/74 Petty Charger

Great news and will be an instant buy for me, but also agree to the post from Peter above… for single player we need the AI to work properly in multi-class fields. When you simulate a 24 hours race in 24 minutes, one stupid action by the AI can ruin your whole race, since time is too short to catch up again. So please S397/MSG, invest my money in AI development… and a few LMDh’s in the future.

Instant buy

Wow, a must buy! Ok, at least i am triggered...
BUT... about Ai: the throttle and brake inputs are still the worst by far in any video racing game/simcade/simulator...
I rarely race offline in Rf2 because of this... it is super annoying and just a big immersion killer.
It just sounds awfull in a tight field... all that engine noise going up and down... i rly can't stand it...

Pls S397 have mercy!

Instabuy (if it ever goes on a Steam sale)

I think I haven't played RF2 for such a long time that I feel surprised to see so many negative comments about RF2 AI recently - in my memory people were treating RF2 as the best AI in the industry.

I was reading Paul's write-up for the official news piece on Studio 397 website - apparently Paul missed the news that the Bus Stop is now renamed although we definitely will still call it the Bus Stop anyway.

Really excited to see a proper Daytona for rF2. This makes a TON of sense to be the next content released for the sim... was a big missing hole.

Studio 397, as others have said - please, more developer resources towards AI bug fixes! It's essential for using Daytona in single player in three different cases.

Case 1: multiclass racing on the road course. rF2 has the bare bones for great IMSA-style multiclass racing, as AI higher class cars can navigate around slower classes (even in a straight line) and there is support for full-course cautions. But there are problems: faster cars get stuck behind slower cars for their entire in-lap, multiclass passing in 'traffic' in general could be improved, and behaviour behind the pace car under FCY can be bugged out.

Case 2: stock car oval racing. Again, a few bugs kill the possibility of doing this in single player beyond a short sprint race. By default with stock car rules, FCYs are never thrown (only local yellows) and there are unrealistic, overly aggressive blue flag penalties for not pre-emptively moving over (as if you were in F1) before going a lap down. As of yesterday evening, this was still an issue at 397's Indianapolis Oval. I believe this is fixable with a modified RFM file - my online research says this maybe was done using 'RaceEvents' in 2015 when stock cars were first released - and hopefully 397 has fixed this (or teaches us how to make the needed modifications) before releasing another oval track famous for stock cars. On some tracks, the oval AI can also have a ridiculously high level of field spread and driver inconsistency... this may be down to the old ISI-3PA tracks, though, I'm not sure.

Case 3: stock cars on the road course. This is doable as of now, but looks strange. Try racing on any road course (e.g. Lime Rock) with the Stock Car 2018X and you'll see the weird stabby throttle/brake inputs jerking the car's body around. The AI basically have only 100% throttle or brake input possible (with a short ramp-up, as you might set if trying to drive on a keyboard). So to go a constant speed (e.g. through a corner) they have to hyper-rapidly alternate between throttle and brake, which causes hilarious body roll jerking back and forth and momentary wheelspin/tire smoke in the stock cars. And see here and here - the AI didn't behave like this only a couple years ago!

If 397 fixes this stuff, I will throw money at the sim and its DLC! Because it'd be approaching a viable single player stock car racing sim (with those outstanding 2018 cars, especially the 2018X) and a legit IMSA/WEC endurance racing sim in single player. Never mind everything else you can do with rFactor 2. There'd truly be nothing else like it on the market!

But as long as those game-breaking bugs are there, as a single player racer, I've decided to not further support Studio 397 monetarily and purchase any expensive DLC. They've said for years that they were aware of the AI-related issues, but nothing has been done (although they have made great, if sometimes uneven, progress elsewhere). So I'm waiting to see if they step up! Hopefully this content announcement and the (fantastic, IMO) recent UI update are signs of further progress on other long-standing issues.

EDIT: I also forgot the rF2 AI slipstreaming bug, meaning that AI (in the same class) don't know how to draft and then pull out for an overtake without then lifting off and falling back into line. Definitely an issue with GT cars or prototypes racing on the banking with 'normal' (road course) AI. Not sure if the bug also applies to stock car AI, but it probably does.

Great track but useless with the terrible rF2 AI

Great News

I love Daytona, especially the Road Course. While I'm excited to have an official rF2 version available, I'm inclined to hold off and see what other improvements come to rF2 over the next quarter or two.

Improvements to the AI, Drive-train, audio, Live FFB-strength adj., etc., are so badly needed in order to restore rF2's appeal, imo. All the content in the world will not keep me interested if those issues are not addressed. It's just easier and less frustrating to go elsewhere.

Nice work on the new-new UI, S397; much improved and faster, too.

Great and logical addition to the sim with their main focus on endurance racing!

However I agree with all the complaints about AI, since S397 took over the development I don't remember reading anything about AI improvements in their roadmaps.

I bought rF2 in 2017 because I was super impressed with AI and since then it seems like they made AI by far worse on most tracks instead of improving it.

Until this week I had abandoned RF2 for AMS2, but the wonderful new UI gives me hope that RF2 is still worth my time - because it shows that Studio397 still care (& gives me hope that the AI will be next on their to-do list).

The past few days I’ve spent hours in RF2 for the first time in months and I’ve fallen back in love with it. Bring on more updates - I’ll be buying the lot every steam sale!

We’re very lucky to have Studio 397, Reiza & Kunos listening to us. Whilst sim racing is gaining more and more recognition, we also need to remember quite how niche our little hobby is.

Nice, now I’ve reinstalled rFactor2 I might have to pick this up. It’s a great track, but I’m not sure I share the opinion that it’s America’s best. Thoughts anyone?

St3fan said:

I think I haven't played RF2 for such a long time that I feel surprised to see so many negative comments about RF2 AI recently - in my memory people were treating RF2 as the best AI in the industry.

Click to expand...

To cut a long story short, it was, but then a regression in the AI driving model was introduced that wrecked it. From my post above:

Try racing on any road course (e.g. Lime Rock) with the Stock Car 2018X and you'll see this weird [and really obvious] stabby throttle/brake inputs jerking the car's body around. The AI basically have only 100% throttle or brake input possible (with a short ramp-up, as you might set if trying to drive on a keyboard). So to go a constant speed (e.g. through a corner) they have to hyper-rapidly alternate between throttle and brake, which causes hilarious body roll jerking back and forth and momentary wheelspin/tire smoke in the stock cars. And see here and here - the AI didn't behave like this only a couple years ago!

NOTE: they drive like this in all cars, not just stock cars.

I totally agree with the points made about the A.I. I wanna buy these tracks, and will do if certain things happen. The A.I. need a complete overhaul, they still can't get round certain tracks without muching on the walls. The work done on wet weather graphics is great, but totally useless if racing A.I. as asoon as it rains, they start repeatedly pitting every lap. Then there are the track and tire temps, pressures and such that dont work. Also would love to see a better damage system both visually and physically, that goes for things like damage to the drivetrain, loosing gears and stuff (something AMS2 has really nailed atm). But I gotta say, im excited for RF2 again, just the fact that they are releasing a new oval gives me hope they will finally sort out the A.I., yellow flags and stuff. Also, the new UI is much better, not only that its actually brought back a couple of features that have been missing from the previous UI, one of which is not even mentioned in the new build notes, but its there! Thats the ability to change A.I. skill level without having to leave the track, change skill and reload. Its brilliant! Theres a bit about how to do that in this video, which covers several points about the new UI, from my prospective as a long suffering RF2 user. Am I wrong to be excited? I hope not!

Tarmac Terrorist said:

its actually brought back a couple of features that have been missing from the previous UI, one of which is not even mentioned in the new build notes, but its there! Thats the ability to change A.I. skill level without having to leave the track, change skill and reload. Its brilliant!

Click to expand...

I just learned something today! Thanks so much for pointing this out. I'd missed this!