Motorsport Games’ spending spree continues with the acquisition of Studio397.

[Bram Hengeveld]

A few weeks ago Motorsport Games was something of an enigma in the simracing world having produced a handful of Nascar titles but recently things have changed. Having burst onto the scene recently announcing the acquisition of Australian developers Black Delta they have quickly followed up with yet another studio acquisition, this time in the shape of Studio397.

Love it or hate it rFactor 2 does a lot of things right, like the physics and overall driving experience but there are certainly areas which could be improved, I don’t need to name them all here but graphics is an example of something which fans of the title have been hoping for a drastic improvement on for quite some time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad, but it’s not the best in the industry.

The hope is that with the seemingly endless resources that Motorsport Games have at their disposal, they will iron out all the quirks and accelerate the development of the title. They already have some impressive licenses which could be leveraged such as BTCC and the aforementioned Nascar, so the potential for some exciting content to emerge is promising.

However, the hardcore sim racers will be waiting with bated breath to see what direction this new sim racing giant will take the studio. In previous communications MSG President Stephen Hood has said: "The BTCC title will not be a hardcore high-end racing simulation, but will also not be an arcade game". Read into that what you will.

rFactor2 is a beloved sim and we can only hope that this acquisition will propel the title to new heights.

What do you guys think about the news? Are you looking forward to seeing how Motorsport Games integrate with Studio397? Let us know in the comments.

 

[instinkt8]

End of the development of rfactor 2 to be expected within 1 year or 2 years...

where u seen that "statement"...
this is only ur imagined bollocks

 

[GuitarTech]

rF2, like all games originally based on the ISI engine (R3E, PC2, AMS2), have all possible assists for any player level. I've played rF1, GTL and Race07 myself, on a keyboard with some assists enabled, and enjoyed it. Another thing is that, for example, rF2 is not very friendly to newbies (rF1 was more loyal to them). In my opinion, PC3's attempt to please everyone would be successful if all the components of a real simulator were preserved (pit stops etc.).
As for the topic - the S397 has an excellent groundwork for NASCAR and Touring (both formulas and GT and let's hope that this is "not just a business".

AMS was based on the ISI engine, AMS2 uses the Madness Engine, AFAIA.

 

[BernL]

RF3 would be nice.

 

[Ghoults]

I think rf2 is the worst option if you want to build a simcade title out of an existing sim. It just doesn't add up in any way as a business decision. Rf2 simply won't sell as remade simcade title and the technical path to anything like a casual racing title is too long to make any financial sense. S397 are already having hard time making rf2 into what it is, imagine trying to refactor it into something else, anything else really. So I really doubt this could be bad for rf2

That being said making rf2 more accessible should be a high priority regardless. It seems with both isi and s397 they were and are very blind to some of the issues in the game. Having an outsider come in and review or look at what they do and hopefully giving them finally a perspective from someone who does not play, live and breathe rf2 and only rf2 every day all day long should already help a lot. A lot of the time these things are obvious to most people who drive other sims (long loading times, messy dlc system, loads of ui annoyances etc. etc.) but don't seem to be for rf2 devs. Most of the time the justification being that it is what it is, that why it doesn't need changing.

Even doing the basic q&a things like making the devs watch a new player try to install rf2 and use it for the first time should already give them a few notebooks worth of pointers what works and what doesn't. Like watching a person for 15 minutes trying to find how dlc is bought and installed and how to use it inside the game. And failing at every step.

 

[GuitarTech]

RF3 would be nice.

I'd be happy to have a bug- free rF2 to tide me over

 

[Shovas]

For more doom scrolling try the S397 forums thread(s) on the same topic

 

[Alexandre]

Good news, I think..., hope they get their physics code and work on an RF3, bringing totally new user interface, graphics, and content, and... supporting modders.

 

[Piero Favretti]

Anyone find out more about the press release comment on the implementation of the Unreal Engine in rFactor 2?

 

[DaVeX↯]

...too much noise for nothing...

After panicking on rF2 discord I understood there is no reason for that (apparently).

Basically we will have something like this:

- S397 changed owner and now is under control of a more Simracing oriented company
- S397 will work on rF2 and benefit of help from new owners in order to achieve:
-> more licenses to come
-> current rf2 graphic engine will be developed even further
-> current physics engine will be developed even further
- no rF2 on console
- probably rF2 will be more involved with Wec or Endurance e-sport events

In exchange:

- the rf2 physics engine will be used as base for the new games developed on UE4 (like NASCAR game, BTCC, etc)
- the Devs team coming from Kartkraft/NASCAR Heat games are already working on implementing rF2 physics on such games and added support for gamepads/keyboard/etc to it since they aim to release those new games on console too


So, looks like rF2 will not switch to unreal any soon, they will have extra help from new owners in order to improve rF2 physics/graphics, they will give them access to more licenses...

...on the other hand the new owner did the best choice for it's business, why licensing a physics engine when you have the money to buy the studio behind it?

At the end of the day doesn't sounds too bad imo.

 

[Cheesenium]

The MG employee explicitly mentioned improving ai is on their priority list...

Considering how long they took for the UI, it will be out in beta when I have my great grandkids.

 

[GuitarTech]

Considering how long they took for the UI, it will be out in beta when I have my great grandkids.

That should be "how long the UI is taking", it still isn't finished

 

[Shincha20]

Considering how long they took for the UI, it will be out in beta when I have my great grandkids.

Around next year you mean?

 

[Shovas]

To be honest, I hope they never use Unreal Engine. It is "good looking" but not as a good looking as a hand-crafted engine like the Madness Engine. Maybe future Unreal Engines will look good in which case I wouldn't have too much of a problem.

 

[Shincha20]

To be honest, I hope they never use Unreal Engine. It is "good looking" but not as a good looking as a hand-crafted engine like the Madness Engine. Maybe future Unreal Engines will look good in which case I wouldn't have too much of a problem.

UE looks terrific. I just hope they look into UE5 already, maybe it caters to us simracers more, performance wise. And I don’t only mean VR.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

- S397 changed owner and now is under control of a more Simracing oriented company

That I won't believe until it's proven. The only games they have released and developed (yes, 704games is owned by Motorsport Games) is the NASCAR Heat 5 game, which was bascially NASCAR Heat 4 with updated liveries and adding DNF in races (yes, added DNF, that wasn't in Heat 4!).

That doesn't feel like a simracing oriented company.

 

[Will Mazeo]

where u seen that "statement"...
this is only ur imagined bollocks

To be fair, original rF2 dev plan was 5 years, this is the last one. If MSG did it so they can have access to this codebase to work on it's no surprise to see the release of a new product. Competition system can be used to host all the sims/games of this publisher in the end. Licensing everything again would be a pain tho, so maybe they stick to rF2 for more time. But then there is that news about the official WEC game/sim, can't see them doing that in rF2. ACO is probably taking ACC as an example so I personally think a new title will come and rF2 final version will come this year.
I'm betting they'll do now what I said they should have done when they took over back in 2016 heh: New title, probably a simplified version of the tire model, focus on building content correctly one at a time (like ACC), etc. Hopefully they won't use stupid ideas like ghosting at least

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

To be honest, I hope they never use Unreal Engine. It is "good looking" but not as a good looking as a hand-crafted engine like the Madness Engine. Maybe future Unreal Engines will look good in which case I wouldn't have too much of a problem.

I don't really care what engine they use, as long as they are able to keep the tracks alive and less "polished" and "bland". That's one thing I really enjoy with rF2, the well made tracks looks more alive than tracks in so many other games. It's the small details like tubemen, working scoring pylons (the ones who raced the rF2 club event at Indianapolis some weeks ago remember me noticing that one in the middle of the race ), the lights at farmhouses far away from the circuits etc. These are things I really enjoy with properly made rF2 tracks.
I've done races in every other sim, but the majority feels kinda bland, and unrealisticly polished in a way. I've been to quite a few races in real life both as a driver and spectator, and no track are every perfect, and there are things around that will distract you. I like that rF2 has that.

So no matter what graphic engine, I just hope they don't lose what makes rF2, rF2.

 

[DaVeX↯]

That I won't believe until it's proven. The only games they have released and developed (yes, 704games is owned by Motorsport Games) is the NASCAR Heat 5 game, which was bascially NASCAR Heat 4 with updated liveries and adding DNF in races (yes, added DNF, that wasn't in Heat 4!).

That doesn't feel like a simracing oriented company.

You shouldn't look at what they did until now but to their future plans and acquired licenses...those prove they are very oriented towards simracing, S397 is their latest acquisition, they are gathering all the resources...
NASCAR Heat/Kartkraft teams are the ones which will take care of UE4 engine, S397 will provide the physics engine...
If this isn't being interested on simracing I have no idea which are your judgement parameters...

 

[BorisK]

To be honest, I hope they never use Unreal Engine. It is "good looking"...

Yes, UE is not "good looking", is "best looking" Better only Unigine...
I think this is absolutely the right decision - to take an innovative graphics engine and reliable physics. It's faster and more economical than reinventing the wheel.

 

[Piero Favretti]

Anyone find out more about the press release comment on the implementation of the Unreal Engine in rFactor2