rFactor 2 to Release World Wide Technology Raceway in Q3

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Studio 397 have announced their first content for the 2022 Q3 pack. This Illinois-based oval racetrack may be a sign of what's to come for rFactor in the upcoming months. And the track has even been laser-scanned.

As part of this release, both the oval course and the in-field road course have been scanned and will be released as layouts of one circuit.

About the Circuit​

Formerly known as Gateway Motorsports Park, the 1.25 mile (2 km) oval with a 2 mile (3.2 km) infield course, the circuit was built instead of another circuit that existed before then. St. Louis International Raceway was demolished in 1996 to make space for Gateway.

The track has featured both NASCAR Cup Series and IndyCar Series races.

Despite the size of the track, it still features 3 different layouts. Apart from the 2 aforementioned layouts, there is also a shorter infield layout of 1.6 miles (2.6 km).

What This May Mean For rFactor 2​

A new oval circuit on the calendar for rFactor 2 is an interesting decision. This could mean the almost decade-old sim is planned to receive a new focus on ovals. For many race fans around the world, having an alternative to iRacing for oval stuff is quite the promise.

This, however, will need a bit of work on the AI too. As this is one of the few points people still have issues with, a DLC requiring AI improvements seems either off or promising.

Off, because if no AI update comes, this circuit would just show and facilitate the "adventurous" AI.

Promising, because one could hope the free update for Q3 would be the long-awaited AI-overhaul.

And on this hopeful bombshell, what do you think about this reveal? Please, 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

D
MJQT said:
Gotta say I don't understand this one from S397. Oval racing is IMO in alpha state (if you're being generous) in rF2 right now. And it's an odd road course. Maybe a release in the same category as oddities like Atlanta Motorsports Park and NOLA Motorsports Park?


Unusable is a very strong word. In fairness, it's not quite that. But as Julian put it entertainingly in the article, rF2 oval AI is pretty "adventurous" :p

I don't own the DLC IR18, so I can't speak to the single player experience with that – but with Indycar mods and the S397 Stock Cars, even with tweaking, I've never had anything close to what would be needed to drive me away from NR2003. Little overtaking, weird slowdowns, train tracks, throttle stabbing, no slipstreaming... to me, it's just felt janky and inconsistent. Not "unusable"... but would you want to use it?


Very good? I'm unsure. Especially given your own words about overtaking. Besides, you CAN get working oval racing rules functionality thanks to this guide – but only after downloading a community-updated StockCarRules plugin to implement functionality that is supposed to ship with the game, but the vanilla plugin from S397 is broken.

An important thing. Will Gateway be free on the Steam Workshop? Or paid DLC? Because if it's on the workshop, the community (like Bela, who I replied to above :) ) can work on fixing the track's AI, whereas if it's DLC, it'll be encrypted and unfixable. And S397 hasn't had a good record of delivering well-optimized AIW files functioning with many different cars, even with paid DLC (see this video about the Daytona release).
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To date, zero Laser Scanned tracks have been free. Further, as part of an official Q3 drop, it will be part of a track and/or car combo that will cost money. So keep that in mind in the future. Official Quarterly releases have never been free. (especially any Laser track)
 
S
davehenrie said:
To date, zero Laser Scanned tracks have been free. Further, as part of an official Q3 drop, it will be part of a track and/or car combo that will cost money. So keep that in mind in the future. Official Quarterly releases have never been free. (especially any Laser track)
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Is indianapolis not laser scanned and free with new shaders?
 
AC_SASMU22
We all know they're doing it so they can do the same sh.t they did with NASCAR 21 ignition right? Like like literally copy the assets and paste in ue4/5?
 
azaralamouri
First serious sim to compete against iRacing in the USA. Not an easy task given that people are used to its ease of use and not ready to learn something new. Yet to see how Rennsport is going to be.
 
T
rf2 suffers from poor optimization too. Try daytona road course at night with 27 AI. Game comes to a complete crawl. Don't know why it happens. Didn't happen in earlier builds
 
FriendOfJah
MaxStokes1 said:
Coincidentally, AMS2 also has a Gateway version planned for release at some point (see the road signs in the Next Month And Beyond section)
Again, clearly a coincidence but it'll be interesting to have 2 versions of the same track releasing not far from eachother
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At least in AMS2 this track will be free. We can only guess how much greedy Motorsports Games will want for it based on the ridiculous price of the last Q2 Content Drop.
 
M
FriendOfJah said:
At least in AMS2 this track will be free. We can only guess how much greedy Motorsports Games will want for it based on the ridiculous price of the last Q2 Content Drop.
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I don't think it's free, I'm fairly certain it's planned for an upcoming DLC (Part 3 of the Racin' USA series, the oval-focused one)
Eitherway the price is almost certainly going to be far more reasonable than rF2 but that's just how it is, rF2 is the most expensive non-iRacing option after all
 
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AC_SASMU22
sbabb said:
And the problem here is?
Reusing models is not a bad thing, its just logical and efficient, since why model something again, when you already did so?
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It's not a problem at all but if the new indygame it's just a copy paste rf2 with less optimization, option and controls I'm disappointed...look what came out from NASCAR 21...
 
D
AC_SASMU22 said:
It's not a problem at all but if the new indygame it's just a copy paste rf2 with less optimization, option and controls I'm disappointed...look what came out from NASCAR 21...
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Nascar 21 was rushed, really really rushed. Indycar, & BTCC have both been pushed back. It should be more than just a copy & paste by then.
 
S
AC_SASMU22 said:
It's not a problem at all but if the new indygame it's just a copy paste rf2 with less optimization, option and controls I'm disappointed...look what came out from NASCAR 21...
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N21 wasnt a copy, that was one of the issues.
The models might carry over, the games physics and feautures might aswell (atleast the core of it), everything else has to be done from scratch.
Anyway its still way too early to tell what will this Indycar game be, N21 was a bad launch, this doesnt have to apply to future titles, it might but it doesnt have to. So its a waiting game for now, till there are more info and most importantly people playing it
 
V
Premium
CDwyer said:
There have been a number of releases from both Reiza and Studio 397 of the same track close to each others release. I have assumed that the partnership that they had for the Reiza pack in rFactor has continued unacknowledged. Most rFactor tracks seem to be Reiza releases, or fan workshop tracks slightly improved for official release.
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lol... why do people come out of their way to post stuff like this? There is little to nothing accurate on what you say...
 
V
Premium
Bela Valko said:
This track is in the 2022 Indycar schedule (MSG has license for a game) so I guess that's why it's coming to rF2. I hope they come out with more US tracks for rF2, if they do then we can expect them from this list. https://digbza2f4g9qo.cloudfront.net/-/media/Files/Current-Schedule.pdf?vs=1&d=20220412T215555Z

Btw now that we have a modded stock car rules DLL plugin the oval racing is very good in rF2, the problem with the AI is that they don't overtake with slipstreaming and in general they're very timid in overtaking.
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Not sure if Remco used the revised plugin, but he reported that somewhat decent racing is possible:
The AI behaviour looks a bit processional, but there is an overtake at 4.55 out of the slip stream (blue car ahead).
I think that the "tools are there" but it requires a lot of "per track" tuning* of the several AI parameters which are under the hood and that is a monumental task which the lack of man power @ S397 makes it a very very very difficult objective to achieve.

* iRacing's AI, perceived to be the best, is always released on a per track+car combo.
 
B
v4v474 said:
Not sure if Remco used the revised plugin, but he reported that somewhat decent racing is possible:
The AI behaviour looks a bit processional, but there is an overtake at 4.55 out of the slip stream (blue car ahead).
I think that the "tools are there" but it requires a lot of "per track" tuning* of the several AI parameters which are under the hood and that is a monumental task which the lack of man power @ S397 makes it a very very very difficult objective to achieve.

* iRacing's AI, perceived to be the best, is always released on a per track+car combo.
Click to expand...
At 4:55? That was an overtake in a corner, I didn't see any slipstreaming there, it's a short track (Joesville). The car on the outside went wide giving space for the other blue car from behind.
I watched probably close to a thousand of laps or more of AI racing by now during my experimenting with the AIW values (and making improved AIWs) so I've seen what they're capable of AI vs AI. They play with each other, overtake here and there so yes, they're not completely stupid. In general they treat each other like they treat humans.
They overtake you with
a. divebombs
b. on straights after coming out of a turn faster than you IF you are not in their way
c. in turns if you make a mistake and IF you're not in their way

Btw try these two scenarios:
1. run a speedway or superspeedway race with 30+ GT cars. GT cars because you can see the braking lights on them (stock cars don't have braking lights). And watch the braking lights on a straight.
2. again, Indycars @ speedway or superspeedway track. The racing in this case without slipstreaming is a joke. 5-10 car/2wide packs form for long periods of time because they don't overtake each other. It's nothing like in real life.

Overall what you can modify in the track AIW are: their spread, their speed, their racing line.
I don't know the car talent files. I've read that from JuergenBY that with the right parameter combinations even slipstreaming can work yet I've never seen a full race with AIs as proof. And everybody else is complaining so I'm doubtful.
 
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