ICYMI: Laserscanned Nordschleife Coming to rF2...

Paul Jeffrey · Sep 22, 2018

At the 2018 Sim Racing Expo Studio 397 had plenty of big news to share, not least of which was the announcement of a laserscanned Nordschleife coming to rFactor 2...

Now I know this is pretty late in being written up, I blame too much beer and too good company for that, but I think it is probably big enough and exciting enough to deserve an article all of its own - even if it is several days after the actual event.

Clearly very pleased with their latest licence agreement, Marcel Offermans and Christopher Elliot of Studio 397 used the recent Sim Racing Expo in Germany as an opportunity to announce to the world the recent acquisition of a licence to recreate the spectacular Nordschleife in rFactor 2.

Nordschleife is often one of the most favoured and requested race tracks in sim racing circles, with many of the current breed of sim games already featuring the epic circuit, however what makes the move to bring the circuit to rF2 a little bit more special is that Offermans and co have secured brand new laser scanned data, giving the studio the opportunity to recreate the circuit as it is in 2018, including several updates to the track that are not present in other recreations of the venue elsewhere in sim racing.

This is good, and marks a significant step for Studio 397 as they continue to look to bring yet more interesting official content to the simulation.

As well as the big hitting news of Nordschleife coming to rF2, the Dutch developers have also announced and subsequently released three new historic McLaren Formula One cars, of which you can read about HERE, plus they have previewed some rather impressive shader improvements that are coming to the title very soon - Studio 397 making yet more progress with an increasingly improving graphical power of the simulation.

You can check out some of the shader preview images below:

Sim Racing Expo 2018 was a big weekend for Studio 397, and it looks like things can only keep on improving from here...

rFactor 2 is available exclusively for PC from Steam now.

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Happy with the rF2 announcements last weekend? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

Will Mazeo · Sep 22, 2018

Jim Liak said:
One of the best and sophisticated sims of the market, announces the greatest license of it's history, still , a vaporware (GTR 3) takes X10^99 more love and attention in comparison.
What a great world indeed....

attention yeah... the love part for sure nope lol read that thread

Jim Liak · Sep 22, 2018

Will Mazeo said:
attention yeah... the love part for sure nope lol read that thread

Sorry, I meant by RD as a site.

thepharcyde · Sep 22, 2018

Still would have preferred Le Mans; Nords is so yesterday and done to death

Durge Driven · Sep 22, 2018

Brownninja97 said:
I always wonder how they are getting the funds for all of these licenses, i dont think their sales are enough to afford all the licenses and then wages and other misc things.

Maybe if people stop printing rubbish they will have the sales

muzikant · Sep 22, 2018

For myself.. I hope they can make a old version to of the 50;s 1967 or 1970 version. After grandprix legends there is no layout from that area of the Nord in simracing. For me rather the old one....

Phil Hill... Jack Brabham...Jochem Rindt..Clark.. Stewart.. the green fences.. the bumps by planzgarten the old pit with the wooden stand. And maybe the sudschleife. For this I think people buy Rfactor 2 blind

muzikant · Sep 22, 2018

Durge Driven · Sep 22, 2018

Theodore Kascinsky said:
They should buy the point cloud from one of the 542655 companies that performed the laser surveying before. The same work being made over and over again..

Rubbish

muzikant · Sep 22, 2018

And some old F1 cars. Please

muzikant · Sep 22, 2018

Last one... (Picture) Hope they can make the old layout like they do with Spa... is good to dream sometimes :verliefd:

4148C53600000578-4589070-This_picture_isn_t_from_an_F1_race_but_it_provides_a_great_look_-a-1_1497514655618.jpg

Brownninja97 · Sep 22, 2018

Durge Driven said:
Maybe if people stop printing rubbish they will have the sales

Or people will come to their senses and see that a large amount of sales are made from randoms on steam, do you really think the just under 1 million people that got AC for example are sim racers, not a chance. Im worried 397 are spending money they dont have, I dont want to see them go away. You can write off my words as rubbish if you wish im just curious.

Case_ · Sep 22, 2018

Jim Liak said:
a vaporware (GTR 3) takes X10^99 more love and attention in comparison

Yeah, you only have to read a few discussions on GTR3 to see all that overwhelming love and attention.

muzikant · Sep 22, 2018

Brownninja97 said:
Or people will come to their senses and see that a large amount of sales are made from randoms on steam, do you really think the just under 1 million people that got AC for example are sim racers, not a chance. Im worried 397 are spending money they dont have, I dont want to see them go away. You can write off my words as rubbish if you wish im just curious.

what does it matter. maybe someone who is very rich has sponsored S397

gianlucaP · Sep 22, 2018

randMracer · Sep 22, 2018

With Sebring they set the bar up a notch, so hopefully they can deliver with Nords. I'm a little worried about the pricing though. Hope they don't price per mile.

Sebring 3.74 miles $10.55
Nords 12.9 miles ???

$36.38

rabbitapple · Sep 22, 2018

Will it be sold during this year?

Case_ · Sep 22, 2018

rabbitapple said:
Will it be sold during this year?

Q1 2019 was mentioned as a tentative release target. They only just acquired the data.

rabbitapple · Sep 22, 2018

Thank you

makan · Sep 22, 2018

Martin Fiala said:
Q1 2019 was mentioned as a tentative release target. They only just acquired the data.

So sim racing history in general will be devided by two. before Q1 2019 and after that.
Q1 2019 they will release new UI, New rendering technology,online competition system and much more.
Cant wait for that date.

sjb266 · Sep 22, 2018

thepharcyde said:
Still would have preferred Le Mans; Nords is so yesterday and done to death

Agreed. But Bathurst as well.. there is only one accurate version of Bathurst in sim racing and that is obviously iRacing. The rest are actually quite bad.. and undrivable for me.

M D Gourley · Sep 23, 2018

For me personally a laser scanned version of Nords is a welcome addition to rF2, especially when I purchased 'Sebring', this track was just pure driving pleasure to race on...so personally I have high hopes that Nords will be just as good if not better as I like to just drive / cruise around Nords most of the time, listening to the engine revs, feeling the FFB / Physics of the car, changing gears via clutch and H-pattern, just pure heaven which rF2 does this well.

...only my 2 cents.