GT3 Challenges Pack Released for rFactor 2

[Paul Jeffrey]

Four of the five new GT3 cars for rFactor 2 have been released today!

Released just 24 hours after the final car reveal yesterday, the five vehicle 'GT3 Challengers' DLC for rFactor 2 is here! Although containing five cars, players will have to wait for a little while yet until we get access to the brand new 2019 Aston Martin Vantage GT3, that one is undergoing final manufacturer approval and hasn't quite managed to sneak into the pack ahead of the release deadline today.

Even without the Aston, the new car pack from Studio 397 is an incredibly impressive achievement and in my opinion at least, really showcases the exceptional potential of what is one of the finest racing simulations currently available. The new cars, the BMW M6, McLaren 720s, Audi R8 LMS and Porsche 911 GT3 R are quite literally the highest quality Studio 397 have released to date, and represent the first pieces of content to be developed with the much anticipated new materials shaders for the title.

Although joining the sim as a standalone DLC, the new cars have received suitable BOP settings to allow them to race competitively with the current crop of GT3 machines, meaning rFactor will have a very impressive collection of no less than 10 recent GT3 cars within the sim (plus the older Camaro GT3 from the ISI era).. not bad going in the space of just over one year..

For me, these new cars that form part of the 'GT3 Challengers' DLC are testament to the quality Studio 397 are capable of delivering, and could, quite possibly, be some of the finest content in sim racing....

The Studio 397 announcement notes:

With a great heritage in GT class racing, we are proud to announce the next pack released for rFactor 2 – The GT3 Challengers Pack. Featuring not just one, but two world firsts! GT represents much of what rFactor 2 stands for, and fits into our feature set of day/night transitions, weather and driver swaps. We hope you enjoy this pack that also features our latest graphic engine technology.

With our existing GT3 Pack and the Endurance Pack we now have 13 GT class cars that can race on track – add a couple of LMP’s and we have one of the most diverse grids in sim racing.

Once again we are proud to have great support from partners to help us make this happen.

Download on Steam right here!

Now let’s take a look at what’s in awesome pack!

McLaren 720s

To bring one of their new incredible cars onto race tracks, McLaren developed the stunning 720S GT3.

Modern design, impressive aerodynamics and years of experience in Motorsport should help this car to claim wins among several premier GT3 events in 2019.

Porsche 911 GT3 R

It probably wouldn’t be called motorsport if the iconic brand Porsche aren’t part of a class.

The 911 GT3 R is once again a very balanced, race-proven car by the German manufacturer, reinforcing their image as being amongst the highest rated contenders in a series.

Audi R8 LMS GT3

Considered as one of the all-time favourites, this midship RWD car by Audi has been competing in GT3 since the beginning, winning significant races around the globe for a variety of teams. A demanding but rewarding choice.

BMW M6 GT3

From the very start, the BMW M6 GT3 hit the grids all over the motorsport world and proved the V8 concept to the German manufacturer. Leading several Endurance events in different series and also claiming the 2018 FIA GT World Cup title, this car is a winner.


Aston Martin Vantage 2019

The second generation of the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 is ready for some serious racing action. It will enter GT events in 2019 and beefs up the already stunning road version of the Vantage. With the prestige and expertise Aston Martin brings into racing, it’s a challenger you always have to keep an eye on.

*Please note this car will be released as part of the pack once approved


Final Notes
These cars are built with our new graphic technology, based on PBR lighting. We are converting more of our older content and yes, we are bringing more liveries to you shortly!

For painters, we are finalising the templates and the technology behind it, trust us, it will be a game changer for you! In the meantime, please read more on our December Roadmap here https://www.studio-397.com/2018/12/roadmap-update-december-2018/

rFactor 2 is available exclusively for PC from Steam now.

Check out the rFactor 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for all the latest news and discussion with regards to the simulation. You can take part in lively debates with fellow rFactor 2 fans and take part in some great Club and League racing events..! Head over to the forum now!

Like what you see here at RaceDepartment? Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow us on social media!


 ​

 

[After_Midnight]

i'll take your opinion from now with a grain of salt...

More than that mate I would describe @Fanapryde as a fanboy and I can't take him seriously

 

[whip]

then they should take their physics engine and move it to a not crap rendering engine

 

[Peter Kerényi]

Martin, what are you trying to say? That neither is expensive or both are overpriced?

I think his point was that the pack is priced fairly, and R3E was used as comparison. I don't get why people complain S397 charges high prices for DLC, while SimBin does the same and gets away with it - yet they don't release free tracks nor cars like Studio 397 does. What gives?

R3E is not cheaper, but it feels kind of cheaper. Maybe because you only need to own one single car and one single livery and you can race that car against any car in the sim, meanwhile in rF2 you need to buy them all unless you are satisfied with a single-car grid. R3E has a huge roster of tracks you can race on (not laser-scanned of course) which gives you much larger use of the cars you purchase. You can try every car before you purchase. And you can save a lot of money if you buy packs, and/or buy VRPs on the RaceRoom Store.

I am not trying to say R3E is cheap, or overall better, higher quality (cockpits can look a bit bland) but it's more... transparent, I guess?

 

[Fanapryde]

More than that mate I would describe @Fanapryde as a fanboy and I can't take him seriously

Calling someone a fanboy because his thoughts differ from yours ? Very mature, I must say. it's a first too...

FYI, I actually enjoy several sims. Every one of them has strong and weak points. I happen to like and enjoy the latest rF2 DLC ( like many others), that's all.

 

[tlsmikey]

I really don't have an issue with them charging $4 or $5/car (depending on how you consider the TBD release of the Aston Martin), but I do expect top notch quality for that pricing. I've spend tons of money in iRacing and RRE and both provide high quality content.

The dashes are really low quality (even at full graphic settings), the traction control lights are not modeled at all, several parts of the screens in multiple cars are not filled out and there are no alternative pages for the cars like you would see in every other sim (R3E, AC, ACC and iRacing). These are core components and a level of quality that is expected of a sim now and rF2 has to deliver if they want to continue getting people to purchase their content.

 

[Fanapryde]

If you don't care about authenticy (in such details) it would not be a "lose" for you if it was done right, but a "win" for us, who care about it. So I don't understand why are you trying to justify it looking not like IRL.

Could you point out where exactly I said I did not care about authenticity ? Or where I am trying to justify it looking not like IRL ? The better and more authentic it gets, the better for all of us, or at least that is what I believe.

 

[Peter Kerényi]

Could you point out where exactly I said I did not care about authenticity ? Or where I am trying to justify it looking not like IRL ? The better and more authentic it gets, the better for all of us, or at least that is what I believe.

Actually you didn't, explicitly. Sorry. You are only saying that the cockpits look much more real than ACC and that the dash is there and you can look at it if you want. In the end it seems you are protecting rF2 by calling out other sims' issues and never responding directly to the criticism at hand.

 

[After_Midnight]

^^ the reason for calling @Fanapryde a fanboy

 

[Durge Driven]

100 replies to a rF2 thread !@! Incredible !


oh ............... its argument


Merry Christmas all !

 

[FeltHat]

If that is not the case, the cockpits still look much more 'real' than ACC's, which seem to come out of a comic book, flat, lifeless.

Whats your sharpness setting? Sharpening often produce this "comic like" look, with few cases to look almost like cell shading

 

[NBH]

Is it just me or is it silly that this argument is taking place?

 

[FeltHat]

Is it just me or is it silly that this argument is taking place?

yes, the best cockpit and display is in AMS Super Trucks, everything else is just bad and there's no point in comparing them

 

[Case_]

Martin, what are you trying to say? That neither is expensive or both are overpriced?

I think his point was that the pack is priced fairly, and R3E was used as comparison. I don't get why people complain S397 charges high prices for DLC, while SimBin does the same and gets away with it - yet they don't release free tracks nor cars like Studio 397 does. What gives?

I think my point mostly was that I don't really see the need to describe either as "expensive" (and I also tend to perhaps overreact a bit whenever someone puts "expensive" and "Raceroom" in the same sentence, as with every piece of Raceroom related news, you get people complaining about how expensive its content is). I think 15 euro is a fair price for 5 quality cars, just like 4 euro is IMO a fair price for 1 quality car.

(On the other hand, I thought that while still mostly OK, 9 euro for Sebring was a bit on the high side. Just like I would think 5 euro per car might be a bit on the high side if you had to buy them separately, because that would be 25 euro for the whole pack and you'd have to have the whole pack to be able to race them online, unlike in Raceroom.)

 

[Peter Kerényi]

Is it just me or is it silly that this argument is taking place?

I think not. I mean, it is a valid criticism that developers should see and that there are people not buying it because of it. If we want more quality, but buy it regardless, we will not get more quality.

The argument itself can be considered silly though, because some people cannot acknowledge any criticism and deny it or start bringing up unrelated stuff for defense.

 

[Ghoults]

Current engine doesn't allow for more complex dashes. Currently they're based on bitmaps and they're rendered in pretty much same way like the games from, for example Super Nintendo. That's how you do the font (it's not taken from rF, I just googled it):

Notice how every symbol has exact same width and height.

Rf2 does support ttf fonts (or was it) directly from cockpitinfo.ini but does not allow you to change colors if you use those. It defaults to white I think. The main issue with rf2 fonts and digital displays is the horrible formatting. You can only make your bmp font file smaller or bigger and then scale the text in x and y directions. That's all your adjustments. Iirc there is no way to center any numbers with alignment. There is a way to align left and right and that's it but I never got it that to work either as it requires some kind of very specific settings, probably some outdated version of tga file export.... There is no way to set how the different texts appear on the dash either. You get a very limited selection of single instances of available digital gauges and each comes with its own preset formatting that is nothing like any real dash would have. Like that position display which is by default xx / xx and is always like that. Considering how poor job s397 has done with the digital displays in this version of the release one could imagine that they are maybe introducing a better system in future. After all the current system is more or less 20 years old. Looks familiar, doesn't it?

Other games have much better systems that support prefixes and suffixes, allow you to set how many numbers are shown, at what hertz do the blinky things blink, have tools to make bmp fonts from font files that allow you to set the width and padding in all directions of each letter individually and then the tool outputs what you want. There are lots of things rf2 could improve. They did add some digital gauges like a year ago but never told anybody what they added so modders don't know. Maybe they have added some new digital gauges with the formula e release but none of that is shared either. So it is possible the current system is going to stay with small tweaks

 

[mr Sw1tchblade]

yes, the best cockpit and display is in AMS Super Trucks, everything else is just bad and there's no point in comparing them

Noone can beat up Driveclub :b Oh its not a sim, sorry xD

 

[Ami_M3]

R3E is not cheaper, but it feels kind of cheaper. Maybe because you only need to own one single car and one single livery and you can race that car against any car in the sim, meanwhile in rF2 you need to buy them all unless you are satisfied with a single-car grid. R3E has a huge roster of tracks you can race on (not laser-scanned of course) which gives you much larger use of the cars you purchase. You can try every car before you purchase. And you can save a lot of money if you buy packs, and/or buy VRPs on the RaceRoom Store.

I am not trying to say R3E is cheap, or overall better, higher quality (cockpits can look a bit bland) but it's more... transparent, I guess?

This is subjective. I find both fairly priced.
Consider this for a second.

S397 allows mods, releases free cars and tracks. Their DLCs need to compete with free stuff, and for many users free always wins over paid content. R3E doesn't allow mods, doesn't release free cars (apart from the free to play stuff to get you in the door), and you need to pay for liveries. They have different business model, yet both need to make money to survive.

I think it's a little unfair to criticize rF2 for making you buy all the cars from the series to be able to race against them, while not recognizing the stuff they give away for free. It's true you only need a single car from R3E to race in the series, but then you have to pay for every microtransaction - different ways to make money.

R3E - need to buy only one car to race against others, but you need to buy tracks.
rF2 - need to buy all the cars from the pack to race against them, but you have tons of free tracks, and tons of mods.

All have strengths and weaknesses

 

[Ami_M3]

I think my point mostly was that I don't really see the need to describe either as "expensive" (and I also tend to perhaps overreact a bit whenever someone puts "expensive" and "Raceroom" in the same sentence, as with every piece of Raceroom related news, you get people complaining about how expensive its content is). I think 15 euro is a fair price for 5 quality cars, just like 4 euro is IMO a fair price for 1 quality car.

(On the other hand, I thought that while still mostly OK, 9 euro for Sebring was a bit on the high side. Just like I would think 5 euro per car might be a bit on the high side if you had to buy them separately, because that would be 25 euro for the whole pack and you'd have to have the whole pack to be able to race them online, unlike in Raceroom.)

Yeah, same could be said how every time S397 releases new stuff people complain it's expensive.
See my above post why I think SimBin let's you race against other cars from the pack, while S397 "forces" you to buy all.
If S397 charged for every car they released, and every track, perhaps they would let us buy one favorite car and race against the others from the pack - but with the way their business model works - they would't make any money. IMO

 

[mantasisg]

Is R3E actually that good to be compared to rF2 ? I constantly see R3E mentioned everywhere, I haven't tried it, but personally I don't acknowledge it as a simulator. Though due to increasing bias towards content, graphics and all that other background stuff every title soon will be considered as simulator

 

[Kenny Paton]

Since this is the season of goodwill to all, let's at least make the effort and not insult or call another names.
Also maybe get back on topic.