rFactor 2 | January 2023 Release Candidate Notes

rFactor2_January2023ReleaseCandidate.jpg
The new release candidate for rFactor 2 is out. What to expect from the new update? Find out here!

As always, this release client can be accessed via Steam's Beta feature. If you want to try out the upcoming updates first-hand, you can right-click rFactor 2 in your Steam library, select "Properties", and then choose the release-candidate under the "BETAS" tab.

I am most interested in the addition of the "Photo Mode", something that allowed other sims to garner much praise from digital photographers. rFactor 2 can be such a beautiful game, a better photo mode is definitely a good excuse to spend more time on the sim, albeit not in the hot seat.

The Update Changelog​


Client: 10369103

Dedi: 10369112

General
  • Track Limits: reduced sensitivity to switching paths, such as near the pit lane entrance, and reduced strict penalty points for an invalid pit lane to main path change from Drive Through to 1 point.
Cinematics
  • Added soft blend when changing selected vehicle
  • Added ability to hold current camera
  • Added ability to pause car tracking. Pressing the SHIFT key whilst this is enabled will reset tracking to the closest point the tracking is paused at.
  • Added camera group tracking for cars traveling close together, by default in race sessions only.
  • Allow the previous laps S/F line camera to remain valid when using cycle method. This allows for different cameras over the start finish line.
  • Reduced strength of shake effect on cameras with this enabled.
  • Allowed zooming in / out / reset on TV Cameras with out any extra modes being enabled. Optionally allowed this to persist after changing cameras.
  • Added acceleration and deceleration to Freelook for smoother movement.
  • Added the ability to load custom cameras from Userdata\Cameras
Photo Mode
  • Split out from Freelook camera adjustments (aperture, exposure, focus) options to a separate Photo Mode.
  • Photo Mode allows configuration of visual settings, in addition to the usual Freelook options. However is not available when driving.
  • UI to be added
Graphics
  • Improved visual progression of wet road with a more linear progression.
  • Added new IBL Water Shader which uses SSR for more accurate reflections.
  • Added motion blur.
  • Live TV Screens: Added option to disable, Fixed aspect ratio when running non 16:9 resolutions, Improved shader visually.
  • Forced use of high power GPU on devices with multiple GPUs (i.e. Laptops).
UI
  • Fixed being able to set race laps to below 2 in single player session settings.
  • Fixed the singleplayer quick event page layout being broken sometimes on page load.
  • Added new “Cinematic cameras” tab in Settings → Assign controls
  • This tab holds new cinematic settings along with previously existing assignable controls
  • Renamed “Cameras & seat” tab to “Driving cameras & seat” and re-organized the assignable controls
Package Management
  • New system to allow store items to be unsubscribed / resub scribed through the UI
  • Packages can be download in the background without blocking the UI
  • Packages in the content management are grouped by workshop or store item
  • The install UI can be minimized when downloading content
Modding
  • Added PBR Debug Tool for Mod Dev and Scene Viewer. This allows artists to debug the component outputs of the PBR pipeline.
  • Added IBL Water Shader which uses SSR for reflections
  • Fixed occasional glitchy car tracking in camera editor
  • Updated ModDev to load RCD files from Vehicle folders
  • AI Editor Improvements:
  • Allow the removal of multiple paths in one go
  • More consistent AIW path adjustments
  • Fixed editing of pit paths wp positions
  • Fixed updating of path positions when editing waypoint positions
Known issues
  • Workshop / store item headers are named incorrectly
  • Installing items from the content page requires a second request to install via the “updates” page
  • Cancel updates button is unresponsive
  • Motion blur does not work without SSR set to medium or higher
  • If your game is stuck on checking for updates, please delete try deleting userdata/player/localstorage folder

What do you think about this release candidate and its details? Let us know in the comments down below!
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About author
Julian Strasser
Julian Strasser
Motorsports and Maker-stuff enthusiast. Part time jack-of-all-trades. Owner of tracc.eu, a sim racing-related service provider and its racing community.

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Comments

M D Gourley
Premium
tr1v1um said:
So back on topic, the photomode works on my end. Hopefully the UI and HUD integration doesn't take too long:
Click to expand...
Great shots tr1v1um....did you activate the 'Blur' function in the settings?...or is this how it looks when pausing a replay?.

I see the Blur happening in the replays, but when I pause the replay the Blur disappears....quite possibly something to do with trying to take screenshots in a Triple Screen set up maybe.
 
D
I like rFactor 2 and I must say with all the improvements last year they somehow showed where the sim will go and I think they are on the right course. There are people that like to take photos and recording replays which is ok, for me personally that does not matter and I always turn them off.
My wish is to make something about organising the content in game and taking up to standards of today. For example I can't find faults in the the feel of the tracks no matter if official content or mod but what is iritating me is I pay for a track and not getting the quality I should get. Race at Nurburgring and while closing to a first corner you see whole mountain appear in the distance which is annoying for official content. This is present in all tracks, new and older.
Cars have ancient dashes and they didn't even plan to update it.
I can take as an example Raceroom, you have unified series, rules, tracks without these issues and even older engine. If I have to choose I will take rFactor 2 without thinking but while playing it I easily get annoyed with too many little issues which force me to enjoy other titles more.
 
RichardHessels
Darko Jovanoski said:
I like rFactor 2 and I must say with all the improvements last year they somehow showed where the sim will go and I think they are on the right course. There are people that like to take photos and recording replays which is ok, for me personally that does not matter and I always turn them off.
My wish is to make something about organising the content in game and taking up to standards of today. For example I can't find faults in the the feel of the tracks no matter if official content or mod but what is iritating me is I pay for a track and not getting the quality I should get. Race at Nurburgring and while closing to a first corner you see whole mountain appear in the distance which is annoying for official content. This is present in all tracks, new and older.
Cars have ancient dashes and they didn't even plan to update it.
I can take as an example Raceroom, you have unified series, rules, tracks without these issues and even older engine. If I have to choose I will take rFactor 2 without thinking but while playing it I easily get annoyed with too many little issues which force me to enjoy other titles more.
Click to expand...
Did you mention the background popping in to the devs on their forum?
They just need to make the LOD value higher in the .SCN file.
But if nobody told them, it will stay in there forever.
Every person focusses on different things.
If you have ton of bugs to fix, you don't have/take the time to start gazing at the background.
And some cars alter the LOD settings per camera, so what looks good from the outside, can look different from the inside of the car, or any other camera.
 
D
RichardHessels said:
Did you mention the background popping in to the devs on their forum?
They just need to make the LOD value higher in the .SCN file.
But if nobody told them, it will stay in there forever.
Every person focusses on different things.
If you have ton of bugs to fix, you don't have/take the time to start gazing at the background.
And some cars alter the LOD settings per camera, so what looks good from the outside, can look different from the inside of the car, or any other camera.
Click to expand...
Darko Jovanoski said:
I like rFactor 2 and I must say with all the improvements last year they somehow showed where the sim will go and I think they are on the right course. There are people that like to take photos and recording replays which is ok, for me personally that does not matter and I always turn them off.
My wish is to make something about organising the content in game and taking up to standards of today. For example I can't find faults in the the feel of the tracks no matter if official content or mod but what is iritating me is I pay for a track and not getting the quality I should get. Race at Nurburgring and while closing to a first corner you see whole mountain appear in the distance which is annoying for official content. This is present in all tracks, new and older.
Cars have ancient dashes and they didn't even plan to update it.
I can take as an example Raceroom, you have unified series, rules, tracks without these issues and even older engine. If I have to choose I will take rFactor 2 without thinking but while playing it I easily get annoyed with too many little issues which force me to enjoy other titles more.
Click to expand...
My response: There are Mountains? Too busy desperately looking at the track I guess.
 
D
RichardHessels said:
Did you mention the background popping in to the devs on their forum?
They just need to make the LOD value higher in the .SCN file.
But if nobody told them, it will stay in there forever.
Every person focusses on different things.
If you have ton of bugs to fix, you don't have/take the time to start gazing at the background.
And some cars alter the LOD settings per camera, so what looks good from the outside, can look different from the inside of the car, or any other camera.
Click to expand...
Not only in long distance, sometimes even near the track. You actually said what the problem is, they should test the quality of the content extensively before they release it. I guess that has some connection with trying to optimise some tracks becouse engine they use even today's high end pc's can struggle with 20+ cars at high settings.
 
T
M D Gourley said:
Great shots tr1v1um....did you activate the 'Blur' function in the settings?...or is this how it looks when pausing a replay?.

I see the Blur happening in the replays, but when I pause the replay the Blur disappears....quite possibly something to do with trying to take screenshots in a Triple Screen set up maybe.
Click to expand...
You can't use motion blur in a static image (yet hopefully). In theory the whole photomode works like a real camera. So you have to anticipate how the cars move in the replay. Best is to press the key 'm' while you are spectating and try experimenting with the usual stuff like zoom, tilting the cam, exposure settings etc. After that you can rewind the replay, play forward and take a screenshot. As in reality you get the most blur when the car is moving fast between the cam and the background in real time, so once you pause, the motion and with it the motion blur disappears obviously.

Would be nice if they had an option like in AC where you can set the motion blur in a static image aswell iirc, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy to get nice shots. Very important is to use the cinematic mode from my perspective as you can play with the camera settings on the fly and the transitions look very soft and the camera movement is very smooth. Another things is that you have to find the right balance of fast movement and a clear focus, otherwise you get the forward shifting effect. So not using the mouse while tracking a car is working better than following it with the mouse. The tracking function works pretty good by default in the cinematic mode, so give it a go. It also depends a bit on the camera settings of the track. I've watched a replay at Knockhill with the Caterhams and the replay looked fantastic in cinematic mode. But yeah, not bad for a sim that was once labeled as ugly. I hope that helps ;)
20230122233605_1.jpg
 
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T
Darko Jovanoski said:
I like rFactor 2 and I must say with all the improvements last year they somehow showed where the sim will go and I think they are on the right course. There are people that like to take photos and recording replays which is ok, for me personally that does not matter and I always turn them off.
My wish is to make something about organising the content in game and taking up to standards of today. For example I can't find faults in the the feel of the tracks no matter if official content or mod but what is iritating me is I pay for a track and not getting the quality I should get. Race at Nurburgring and while closing to a first corner you see whole mountain appear in the distance which is annoying for official content. This is present in all tracks, new and older.
Cars have ancient dashes and they didn't even plan to update it.
I can take as an example Raceroom, you have unified series, rules, tracks without these issues and even older engine. If I have to choose I will take rFactor 2 without thinking but while playing it I easily get annoyed with too many little issues which force me to enjoy other titles more.
Click to expand...
I don't think that they are trying to create a screen shot generator. There are other sims wich offer much better solutions in that area. I think this update is more aimed towards the broadcasting side of things to make them appear more lifelike. That's an area where iRacing excells for example and it's pretty obvious that the cinematic mode is going in a very similar direction to promote the esports stuff more and make it look more appealing. It's one of many pieces of the whole puzzle. Last year has shown that they are working on different areas at the same time, so with the next update the focus could be on the hybrid stuff or server side things. Who knows?
 
M
Premium
Rfactor 2 is a nice sim, but for various reasons i could never been really hooked.
Difficult to explain.
I have decided to stop purchasing contents. ( and probably the same with raceroom)
I have switched to purchasing AMS 2 content instead
My main sims are ACC and AC, and probably more AMS and AMS 2 i the future
 
S
pz666 said:
This seems like a release that could of been pushed back to include some important upgrades... Especially after the Le Mans disaster...

Sure photo mode and motion blur might matter to some small section of the community, but this really isn't a good response when the lights are on them to do some good work to fix their reputation...
Click to expand...
This would have been in the works long before Le Mans I guess? Teams are split on skills so it's probably not best for there graphics team to work on Netcode and vice versa.
 
D
TeddyBearx said:
free content ? q4 paid ?
what ?
Click to expand...
In GAME features. HYBRID Battery power for BTCC, Passing fix for cars that used to get stuck behind slower classes etc....THAT IS WHY I POSTED THE LINK. Read and learn my young Padawan.
We won't see any Content announcements, i.e. cars or tracks, til about the 1st week of February. These are in game improvements.
 
T
davehenrie said:
In GAME features. HYBRID Battery power for BTCC, Passing fix for cars that used to get stuck behind slower classes etc....THAT IS WHY I POSTED THE LINK. Read and learn my young Padawan.
We won't see any Content announcements, i.e. cars or tracks, til about the 1st week of February. These are in game improvements.
Click to expand...
stealsomefish said:
They have released free content for you last month along with a Q4 paid pack, is that not enough?
Click to expand...

free? paid?what ?
 
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D
TeddyBearx said:
free? paid?what ?
Click to expand...
;) I guess I don't quite understand your simple question, my appologies. All Quality of Life improvements, such as I mentioned above, are always free. They become part of the core sim. Content items such as DLC tracks & cars are the things that will cost users money. Announcements about DLC will be forthcoming in the week prior to the official '23 Q1 release date.(usually the 2nd week of every 3rd month..(Feb..May...Aug...Nov)
 
R
davehenrie said:
Yup, the laundry list of bugs or incomplete items is long, but when compared to iRacing you have to look at budgets. iR has been fully funded by John W. Henry from the very start. rF2 hasn't had a real source of income until this past two years when MSG purchased S397. In the past year there have been many improvements but they still have a long way to go.
Click to expand...
Truth is that iracing's business model is better for the company and also for the users. I'm absolutely not an iracing's subscriber, it is just that after many years, proof is that rfactor2 struggles to improve and seems really in danger right now (because of MSG's situation), and, at the same time, there is no question about the end of iracing. Would all rfactor2's owners be willing to pay something to support the game and accelerate its development? Like 30€ in 2023? For sure, the 1st users, who have paid a subscription fee, won't agree. I personally would think about that if S397 would decide to rise money (not a kickstarter a kickmoveyoura** :D ) presenting a serious faster roadmap.

Without a substantial amount of cash, I don't think we can complain about the development. During the last 2 years, many things have been done and I've been the first one positively surprised, the game had been staying uninstalled during serveral years.

I don't know whether it is because of this update, as I've been away from rfactor 2's racing a long time, but at 95% the Enduracers mod's AI has lot more braking power than me (the same in other mods, like F1 1975, but I used to race with Enduracer's cars, so I use them as reference). Their brake distance, at any corner, is much shorter and these GTE and prototype cars should not brake so late (on modded Sebring) . If I remember well, I use to race these cars with 95% AI (maybe more) and they had regular brakes distances.
 
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D
Two of the longest, most vocal complaints have been the AI not passing a slower car on a lap when they are pitting for fuel(the faster car that is) and the blip, blip, blip of the throttle during cornering. The blips are still there sometimes but the sound is more constant and it isn't such an annoyance. Also drafting seems to work better now, In my first test I saw more dive bombs at the end of straight(successful dive bombs!) So the AI issues ARE being worked on.
With this release candidate we also got the beginnings of hybrid systems, tires keep improving, the money from MSG has got to be a very large reason for the improvements this past year.
 
S
Johnr777 said:
Curious to hear what “huge issue” made you stop subscribing
Click to expand...
Not really the place to go into detail, but in short theyre unwillingness to fix their rather huge physics exploits fully instead of just threatening bans would be nice and if the Netcode wouldnt be escape from tarkov level are the 2 big ones
 
Johnr777
sbabb said:
Not really the place to go into detail, but in short theyre unwillingness to fix their rather huge physics exploits fully instead of just threatening bans would be nice and if the Netcode wouldnt be escape from tarkov level are the 2 big ones
Click to expand...
I haven’t experienced or seen anyone exploiting anything throughout my membership… and no netcode mishaps.

Maybe fixed?
 
Tycor
Johnr777 said:
I haven’t experienced or seen anyone exploiting anything throughout my membership… and no netcode mishaps.

Maybe fixed?
Click to expand...
You must've forgotten about the max camber period. I have noticed a few of your posts about guys having critique on iRacing. Is is not allowed for people to have an opinion on this game?
Or you you must've never heard of the guy being caught cheating in the NASCAR Pro Series (it being an invitational event) and he was allowed to participate in it the following years as well, think Luza was his name or might be someone else, doesn't really matter. Allowing cheaters in your promotional eSports championship just is shady.
Or how people are exploited to pay for setups that are just remotely competitive at rates that even exceed subscription costs, while iRacing states in its trade agreement you can't profit off of their gamefiles. (hmmmmmmm, I wonder how the moneystream flows with the "setup providers there ;))

I've forgotten more about iRacing than you seem to remember haha. But no worries. I'll just keep reporting you for your rudeness around the forum.

have a good one!
 
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