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.

 

[Ciccina2016]

in my opinion... they are going to take the physics engine of RF2 and apply it to other games .. probably they are going to leave the UI interface though

 

[Hitman65]

Just need to fix the damn crashing to desktop with the last update to the new UI....

 

[blgk]

Suddenly, AMS2 started to look much better.

 

[Case_]

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

I think you might be misinterpreting things. I don't see any comments on implementation of UR in rF2 in the press release. I only see one vague mention of combining rF2 technology with UE and other things the MG devs have been working on, strongly suggesting (if not downright stating) this is talking about future releases, not about rF2.

 

[GuitarTech]

I think you might be misinterpreting things. I don't see any comments on implementation of UR in rF2 in the press release. I only see one vague mention of combining rF2 technology with UE and other things the MG devs have been working on, strongly suggesting (if not downright stating) this is talking about future releases, not about rF2.

I had the impression that the takeover of rF2 is primarily so that they have access to the physics and tyre model from rF2. It's uncertain as to whether rF2 will benefit in any way

 

[instinkt8]

It is "good looking" but not as a good looking as a hand-crafted engine like the Madness Engine.

I think u base that opinion on ACC, but look how KartKraft looks - it's almost photorealistic
guys from Kunos just did bad job with many things in process of modding the engine - like crappy trees, light and optimisation (which is the biggest pain in that game)

 

[davehenrie]

Let's hope they don't decided to abandon RF2 and focus on another game.
That would be an utter kick the ball sack and would lose me as a customer forever

Do you think the S397 devs would be providing 3 different update versions at this time if they didn't think progress would be continuing?

 

[davehenrie]

More or less the same in my case. I fire up rF2, I wait 1 minute before favourite online servers load despite I am exclusive single player…
I click race, I go to the toilet, have a drink, make love with my beloved wife untill the track loads. And I race.

Dear lord golly gosh. JUST PICK ONE FAVORITE SERVER!!! This has been pointed out over and over. Even if you are offline only, pick a freakin' server. Then next time the UI will look for JUST THAT ONE server, takes mere moments. Pick the server with the lowest ping to your location, even if it is passworded. Just choose one and the long waits are over. I don't care if you think you shouldn't have to, I don't care if you don't want to just because. Just do this and the problem is over. Track loads are only long for first time loads or if you have a new feature in the release candidate enabled. If you are using the default current UI, load times don't even equal the time it takes to squeeze out a......

 

[Shovas]

I think u base that opinion on ACC, but look how KartKraft looks - it's almost photorealistic
guys from Kunos just did bad job with many things in process of modding the engine - like crappy trees, light and optimisation (which is the biggest pain in that game)

Oh, you might be right, I am basing it on ACC and the blurriness and mirrors just kill me.

I have KK I'll try that again and see how I like it.

 

[Novotny]

I remember Stephen Hood when he did the F1 games, I'm a fan. Good luck.

I noticed the name too, used to follow him on twitter. So now he's got the r-Factor 2 engine to play with - Interesting. I have repeatedly said that you could make an amazing F1 game with a complex physics engine and then tone it down easily for the consoles - it doesn't work the other way around.

God i hope they're doing that. One sim to bind them all etc

 

[Adrianovix]

I just hope they don't transform rF 2 in something "more arcade". If they implement the AI, great. If they make possible to users create a offline champ, great, but please, don't mess the physics. Use other products if they want something more arcade. If you make a comparison, I bet that hardcore simulators have more public than arcade race games.

The most important thing to me is fix the multiplayer bugs. That's all. I can survive with any other issue.

I just forgot to say that I love rf2.

 

[BBRacing]

I kinda like the idea of mod tastic sim studio helping with the new BTCC offering, just GTR3 to come out of hiding too and that’ll do me for the next few years

 

[Cheesenium]

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

It never will be, going by the rate that they are working.

The engine must be a nightmare to work on. Based on my experience with 2 WMD, I am not surprised.

 

[thepharcyde]

...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.

Extra latency on stuff getting fixed to be honest, is how I read it.

Unless they use fungible resources across both studios.

 

[Metla]

Rf2 has had just about every cent squeezed out of its corpse, whatever they are looking to get from their investment it wont be from sales of that title.

 

[Germain Entete]

This news most likely means the end of development for RF2 and for the niche simulation genre from them, as based on their statement.
I am quite amazed that people try to stay positive about it, although I admire the hope.

 

[s1wyn2001]

I'm going to stay optimistic and say that rF2 will be their flagship sim, or will be replaced by a flagship sim. (By flagship i mean serious), and other racing games will become of better quality from a driving pov so that they have full coverage of the genre and appeal to all niches with at least 1 product each. I suppose time will tell...

 

[GuitarTech]

I'm going to stay optimistic and say that rF2 will be their flagship sim, or will be replaced by a flagship sim. (By flagship i mean serious), and other racing games will become of better quality from a driving pov so that they have full coverage of the genre and appeal to all niches with at least 1 product each. I suppose time will tell...

I agree. I'm not giving up hope that rF2 still has time to become the sim it deserves to be. Maybe now with more resources and more money, things will start to happen at last.

 

[Roberbond]

Just need to fix the damn crashing to desktop with the last update to the new UI....

Seriously, I have see your complaint here and in some other post and must be frustrating but maybe it is not a 397 bug and it is your computer problem, desktop, windows or wathever.

 

[mantasisg]

I agree. I'm not giving up hope that rF2 still has time to become the sim it deserves to be. Maybe now with more resources and more money, things will start to happen at last.

One thing I like to think about is that while being parented to Luminis S397 may not have had as much synergy it needed. It might be a ton lot better while being parented to studio that focuses on racing sims, and even more so is aiming to use the physics engine of rF2 to their various other sims. It could exponentially boost up rate of rF2 development if they do it right with luck.