rFactor 2 Online: Public Release Is Here

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After seven weeks of testing on the release candidate servers, rFactor 2 Online has officially left open beta. As the rFactor 2 Online public release is here, we take a look at what this means for a sim that is all the rage at the end of 2023.

rFactor 2 online has taken the sim racing world by storm over the past seven weeks. Dedicated releases of fresh weekly content have seen the platform grow again after many had left the sim. Not only does the service offer sim racers a new view into rFactor 2, but it gives hope that, despite the Motorsport Games drama, Studio 397 are still working hard to deliver on its ambitious rFactor 2 content plan.

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rFactor 2 Online Public Release: What It Means For The Future

The main impact of the online build going public should be a significant spike in user numbers, especially in the free-to-play beginner events. Whilst the user base will increase, can the current system retain the impressive numbers? New content and special events will dictate that, as well as consistency regarding regular content updates.

With rF2 Online releasing well before 2024, rFactor 2 may well have a lot of ambitious plans for the new year. With the record-setting player numbers for 2023 achieved back in October, at the start of the release candidate, rFactor 2 continues to go from strength to strength.

Special Events

Heading into next year, the special events included in the new online mode will most likely include non-licenced and, potentially, licensed events. Whilst other sims have the rights to events such as IMSA’s Daytona 24 Hours, nothing is stopping Studio 397 from recreating the event with the content they have available.

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What’s Next For rFactor 2?​

We mentioned that rFactor 2 online lacks free up-to-date content. What would you like to see added or improved regarding free content? In our opinion, with ageing content being pushed weekly, rFactor 2’s next logical step would be to revamp and overhaul cars such as the Radical SR3 XX.

The BMW M2 CS, the car given out to players for signing up to the online mode, received a revamp at the start of the release candidate. The Radical and the multiple iterations of the Tatuus junior formula cars are more than likely in the pipeline for a similar treatment.

The week 7 schedule is out with a striking American theme. Tracks that feature include Laguna Seca, Lime Rock Park and the newest addition to the online roster, World Wide Technology Raceway.

Have you had a chance to check out rFactor 2’s new main build online implementation? Let us know how you get on over on X @OverTake_gg or down in the comments below!
About author
Connor Minniss
Website Content Editor & Motorsport Photographer aiming to bring you the best of the best within the world of sim racing.

Comments

I've done 3 or 4 races so far. Nothing but positive for me.
Hoping the participant counts start growing so we can have more variety of events
 
Haters gonna hate !
I dont hate rf2, you can look it differently but take a look how many players are online with assetto corsa as a example and then take a look at how many players are online in rf2.. houston we got a problem here.. it dont add up releasing something while most content within the game it self are far from what is possible with rf2 it dont bring more players to the servers average 600 people online.. thats nothing in gaming world. Thats the same amount of people watching Formula W in real life
 
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I dont hate rf2, you can look it differently but take a look how many players are online with assetto corsa as a example and then take a look at how many players are online in rf2.. houston we got a problem here.. it dont add up releasing something while most content within the game it self are far from what is possible with rf2 it dont bring more players to the servers average 600 people online.. thats nothing in gaming world. Thats the same amount of people watching Formula W in real life
Apples to oranges, most of AC crowd is not even racing. The only thing that matters is that if the current amount of drivers makes the whole thing sustainable so rF2 Online can keep going and be a permanent option for those who want it. It does not have to be hugely popular to be succesful.
 
Apples to oranges, most of AC crowd is not even racing. The only thing that matters is that if the current amount of drivers makes the whole thing sustainable so rF2 Online can keep going and be a permanent option for those who want it. It does not have to be hugely popular to be succesful.
Dont matter what players are doing online the fact that there are more people online tells the story...

More people that buy content.
 
I just don't get why I can't race with mods!?!? What's the point of it?
What do you mean on official servers? Well that answers your question right a way... its not official.

For mod 9 times out of 10 you need a private server.
 
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Dont matter what players are doing online the fact that there are more people online tells the story...

More people that buy content.
Another apples to oranges comparison. Those extra people in AC are not buying anything from Kunos atm. The game is sustained by the modding community. rF2 has one, but is not nearly as wide and deep, so they hinge on official content, and its cost is way higher. Which ends up working backwards of what you stated: the fewer people in rF2 are buying stuff and producing revenue. The people using AC are not giving a cent to Kunos once the product was bought (and nowadays it is dirt cheap).
 
I just don't get why I can't race with mods!?!? What's the point of it?
The answer is very simple. For the Race Control servers, they cannot allow mods due to licensing. For example, there are some great IMSA mod cars, but S397 does not have any agreements with IMSA so they cannot allow company servers they operate to run mods like IMSA. Or F1, or Supercars, or Nascar, or any other number of series. Further, car brands often have individual agreements with certain companies, S397 cannot infringe upon those products. And don't forget individual countries have bans on certain products being displayed.
However, as noted above, you can still race mods via the private servers, of which there are many.
Just curious....how many mods are allowed on iRacing?
 
I dont hate rf2, you can look it differently but take a look how many players are online with assetto corsa as a example and then take a look at how many players are online in rf2.. houston we got a problem here.. it dont add up releasing something while most content within the game it self are far from what is possible with rf2 it dont bring more players to the servers average 600 people online.. thats nothing in gaming world. Thats the same amount of people watching Formula W in real life
I'm not talking about you in particular!
I'd rather play with 500 respectful players than with the 15,000 players on ac or acc who do anything online, I'd rather do one good race a week than 50 crappy races a day! I'd rather have a small bakery that bakes good bread than a trendy bakery where all the gogo jostle each other...
 
rF2 is dead! Became a niche-product and modding scene has nearly completely abandoned it.
Funny thing: There were more mods for rF1 lately released than
If rF2 is dead, raceroom and ams2 too...
I play rf2 and raceroom a lot, with a simucube 2, acc ,f2 and raceroom give me the highest driving feeling level.
 
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However, as noted above, you can still race mods via the private servers, of which there are many.
Just curious....how many mods are allowed on iRacing?
Oh yeah, got it. Btw, can you add mods to iRacing? Haven't tried it for years... Maybe I should buy it for a month this winter.
 
Dont matter what players are doing online the fact that there are more people online tells the story...

More people that buy content.
Noone is buying content for AC though. The reason why more people play it is because Kunos sells the Ultimate Edition for a tenner. That's the whole secret behind it. And the reason why people fire it up alot is because it offers a sandbox experience where people can use tons and tons of mods to roam around and try what ever they like to do. I think there is still a rather big drifting community and the whole free roam stuff really keeps people playing. It's like TDU or Forza but with more realistic physics and a better driving experience, wich is insanely popular.

That said, I personaly prefer racing sims over driving sims and in that regard rF2 is the much better choice for me personaly right now, no matter if online or offline. I haven't fired up AC in ages. You are right that AC is more polished when it comes to the content that comes shipped with the game, but everything else is bare bones in my eyes. I totaly agree on that S397 would help themself alot if their default content had the same quality standard. But rF2 is alot more complex and convoluted wich just reflects in it's development history and how content updates got treated along the way. Not perfect, but it is what it is.

At the end S397 could do the following with rF2: bring all the default content up to scratch in terms of sound engine support and visual quality and sell an ultimate edition will all DLCs once that is finished and see what happens. Modding for AC really kicked off, after Kunos didn't touch the product. Would be interesting to see if the same applies for rF2.
 
Noone is buying content for AC though. The reason why more people play it is because Kunos sells the Ultimate Edition for a tenner. That's the whole secret behind it. And the reason why people fire it up alot is because it offers a sandbox experience where people can use tons and tons of mods to roam around and try what ever they like to do. I think there is still a rather big drifting community and the whole free roam stuff really keeps people playing. It's like TDU or Forza but with more realistic physics and a better driving experience, wich is insanely popular.

That said, I personaly prefer racing sims over driving sims and in that regard rF2 is the much better choice for me personaly right now, no matter if online or offline. I haven't fired up AC in ages. You are right that AC is more polished when it comes to the content that comes shipped with the game, but everything else is bare bones in my eyes. I totaly agree on that S397 would help themself alot if their default content had the same quality standard. But rF2 is alot more complex and convoluted wich just reflects in it's development history and how content updates got treated along the way. Not perfect, but it is what it is.

At the end S397 could do the following with rF2: bring all the default content up to scratch in terms of sound engine support and visual quality and sell an ultimate edition will all DLCs once that is finished and see what happens. Modding for AC really kicked off, after Kunos didn't touch the product. Would be interesting to see if the same applies for rF2.
That might take a while as rF2 seems to be one of the testbeds for new features on LMU. So as long as they are developing items for LMU, they won't reach that plateau where nothing else is added.
 
Oh yeah, got it. Btw, can you add mods to iRacing? Haven't tried it for years... Maybe I should buy it for a month this winter.
That was my point, I don't use iR, but I don't recall ANY mods being publicized. (doesn't mean there aren't any though)
 
Noone is buying content for AC though. The reason why more people play it is because Kunos sells the Ultimate Edition for a tenner. That's the whole secret behind it. And the reason why people fire it up alot is because it offers a sandbox experience where people can use tons and tons of mods to roam around and try what ever they like to do. I think there is still a rather big drifting community and the whole free roam stuff really keeps people playing. It's like TDU or Forza but with more realistic physics and a better driving experience, wich is insanely popular.

That said, I personaly prefer racing sims over driving sims and in that regard rF2 is the much better choice for me personaly right now, no matter if online or offline. I haven't fired up AC in ages. You are right that AC is more polished when it comes to the content that comes shipped with the game, but everything else is bare bones in my eyes. I totaly agree on that S397 would help themself alot if their default content had the same quality standard. But rF2 is alot more complex and convoluted wich just reflects in it's development history and how content updates got treated along the way. Not perfect, but it is what it is.

At the end S397 could do the following with rF2: bring all the default content up to scratch in terms of sound engine support and visual quality and sell an ultimate edition will all DLCs once that is finished and see what happens. Modding for AC really kicked off, after Kunos didn't touch the product. Would be interesting to see if the same applies for rF2.
I am not a assetto corsa fan boy... but a company that makes a game with 500 people online or a company that makes a game with 10.000 people online.. it helps to have more online players even if they dont all buy all the content.
Even for investors a game with 10.000 people is more interesting then a game with 500 it does not matter if those 10.000 people drive or not. It does not even matter if those 500 people in rf2 drive or not.
A company dont care what you do they only care about your money one way or the other. A company dont give free cookies without having a oppertunitie to earn it back plus more so more people = more possible money cows, less people = less possible money cows.
Fact of life.

No one buys content for ac, really?
There are lot of people that bought lots of the paid content even for ac.
If people pay a million dollars for just skins only in csgo. I dont believe nobody buys no content for ac at all.

Back to reputation damage rf2:
As my fellow country men (not totally true but dont open that can of worms) max verstappen's outrage on rf2 didnt do any good. (Aka bad rep over the years like i stated in a other post here)

In this day and age if somebody like him would go on a not so possitive rage. Lots of people believe him and follow his direction just look at his rage about las vegas gp even before he drove a real life centimeter.

Even if he turned around the damage is allready done.

That also applies for rf2 even if they come around the damage is allready being done for lot of people that would otherwise would be happy to spend money on rf2.

Take rennsport with the issue if they stole codes from rf2 or not the damage is allready being done.

I agree on that dev's of rf2 needs to step up there game, making official content at one level of greatness.

I am not bashing rf2 it may feels like it but i am just sticking by what i see what i notice and compairing it with previous experiance.

I love lot a lot of things about rf2 the list is too long for here.if it could but it cant i would have like to see in other titles but also things from other games would fit rf2 nicely.

No racing game is perfect nor it will be. Lot of people are hyped up about iracing as a example but iracing is maybe less complete then rf2 in many things but also other way around.
 
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Every sim needs this...

rF2 might have a terrible dev situation but that physics code is above anything else so they get a pass from the physics nerds...

This should reinvigorate rF2 and have modders moving back to it... There's been some real gems on the Workshop lately...
 
Premium
Every sim needs this...

rF2 might have a terrible dev situation but that physics code is above anything else so they get a pass from the physics nerds...

This should reinvigorate rF2 and have modders moving back to it... There's been some real gems on the Workshop lately...
well if people move to it just for the online aspect where we can't use mods? If AC2 is everything we all hope I don't see modders going anywhere other than there.
 

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