rF2: Circuit de la Sarthe (Le Mans) Released & rF2 Updated

[Paul Jeffrey]

Studio 397 have released their beautiful laser scanned Circuit de la Sarthe for rFactor 2.

One of the most iconic tracks in world motorsport, this weekend has seen the 87th running of the Le Mans 24 Hour race in France - the centrepiece event of the sportscar racing calendar and the season finale of the 2018/19 FIA World Endurance Championship season.

To mark the big event in style, Studio 397 have released their latest DLC for rFactor 2 - the laser scanned 2018 version of the famous Le Mans circuit!

Available to purchase now from the rFactor 2 Steam Store page for 10.99 eu, the new track is once again an impressive creation from Studio 397 - continuing the recent very high quality track standards achieved by the Dutch development studio.

rF2 Le Mans: Check out our test drive and Marcel Offermans interview HERE.

Alongside the new track comes a brand new update for rFactor 2, one that brings a number of fixes and improvements to the simulation as Studio 397 continue work towards refining and updating this highly regarded simulation. To catch up on the latest changes, check out the new build update notes below...

rF2 Update Notes:

With the track release comes a new build too. As always we advise people to update their dedicated servers and game clients. In fact, Le Mans requires this new build.

rFactor 2 version: 1.1112
Steam Build IDs: 3921932 (client), 3921933 (dedicated server)

Changes:

• Improved performance logging to be faster and give more information.
  
• Fixed skewed driver labels on triple screen multi-view (cockpit and track-side full-screen cams).
  
• Removed aggressive threading as it’s not that helpful.
  
• Improved timing to help avoid stutters and real-time freezes.
  
• Improvements on materials and lighting.
  
• Implemented all new ‘digital flags’ – for ‘Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans’.

Here's what Studio 397 have to say about the new release:

Just a few weeks ago, in our latest roadmap, we announced that Le Mans was coming to rFactor 2. Now, on the weekend that the 2019 edition of this famous 24h race is held, as the real cars pass the checkered flag after yet another memorable race, the racing won’t stop! We are proud to announce the release of the Le Mans 24h track, available immediately!

For those of you who can’t wait, here’s the link to the store, where you can buy your copy of the track right now and start driving!

Background
The story of the creation of this iconic track goes all the way back to the days when Studio 397 was founded, almost three years ago now. I guess, when we chose the name of our company we already showed our intention.

Being new to the game obviously meant that we had to first introduce ourselves to the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) and build a relationship with them. Such things always take time. Over the first two years, we met regularly, explained our ideas and plans, and listened to their feedback. In that same time period, we also entered into discussions with various other tracks and car manufacturers and showed that we were serious about making rFactor 2 the most realistic racing simulation for everybody who enjoys the experience of driving race cars. All these things led to a licensing agreement, roughly a year ago, that all parties were happy with.

Just in time too for doing a laser scan of the 2018 track, as obviously Le Mans only exists in this configuration for a couple of weeks a year. With the license in place and the scan in our possession, production work started a little over half a year ago, with us balancing our track team resources at the time between three big tracks, the Nürburgring, already in production at that time after we announced it at SimRacing Expo last year, Monaco and Le Mans.

As with Sebring, our goal was to create the most realistic model of Le Mans possible for any consumer-oriented racing simulation available. By pairing our highly accurate physics with a very detailed road mesh, we have recreated the track in a way that makes you feel every bump and curb out there.

Graphically, we have used our latest shaders on this track. Improvements to our lighting model and materials are still in full swing. So whilst you will find this track already looks gorgeous, it is safe to say we will do an update once everything is finalized later in the year, and we will provide a more in-depth update on this process in one of our upcoming roadmaps.

For more from the world of rFactor 2, head over to the RaceDepartment rFactor 2 sub forum and connect with your fellow rF2 fans today!

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[Slowdive]

So whilst I have no problem if people disagree with us or me, or don't like what we do, and share such views on various forums, I would like to encourage everybody to stay informed and base your opinions on facts.

My issues with RF are based on facts, the fact that the game constantly crashes for me when others don't, the fact that LMP cars don't pass GTE cars on in laps and the fact that setting up championships is impossible in the UI.

Sim racing isn't my full time job so I don't track every update with every title, but thank you for the information. I finally got frustrated with RF2 freezing, so I uninstalled it a couple of months ago. I guess I'll give it another go. Fingers crossed.

 

[Slowdive]

rF2 released Zandvoort for "Free" and a few car mods for "Free". Lets face it that rF2 is on another level in the physics and ffb dept. Even with the few ai problems they are still one of the best in a sim.

Marcel recently stated they are aware of the slip-streaming and the faster ai cars not passing slower ai cars when returning for a pitstop and will look into the code for tweaking/fixing these issues in the future after UI and other commitments are finished so i believe we should give S397 the benefit of doubt and support them instead of this constant bashing and bitching in this forum.

Wait, so this is still an issue? This bug has been out there for over a year and makes multi-class racing essentially pointless unless perhaps you are in the slower class. Disappointing.

 

[Slowdive]

I was lapped by several LMPs driving a GTE, and not only on the Mulsanne Straight.

The problem occurs between the AI on their in lap only.

 

[tr1v1um]

The problem occurs between the AI on their in lap only.

I am not saying that there is no room for improvement, but first of all is this a very specific issue with the product itself and has nothing to do with the DLC. According to the stream AI fixes are planned, so maybe stay relaxed and wait. There is no reason to beat a dead horse even more.

And secondly, you make it sound like as if rF2 is a total desaster when it comes to offline racing and that every other product on the market works perfectly. Wich I highly doubt, atleast based on my experience with different products. I have seen AI not even getting away from the starting grid and sitting there for the whole race, wich is a lot more dramatic than what you have described. The nice thing with rF2 is, that the devs have a long term plan, while some of those other "perfect" working products will basicly stay as they are in some aspects. If people want to pay for a new game to get AI updates or for additional content for existing products, is something that everyone needs to decide on her/his own.

 

[carzogliot]

I really want this sim to succeed but honestly is not going anywhere. People keep praising this company and justifying them for having to sell DLCs in order to get profit, so they can then fix the many problem this sim has had since the times of ISI. Therefore, we keep on getting content that is useless without a proper core game mechanics! This sim is a gem! The engine is one, if not, the best in the market (thanks to the geniuses at ISI) and studio 397 has done nothing to build on that! Dx11 still doesn't work properly, AI has many flaws, the flag system is broken, the rain is incomplete ( It's been over a year), the UI we know nothing about, original content is outdated, and honestly, most of the new gt cars interior textures look ridiculous by modern standards. By the way, i bought all the DLCs except for the E-content and the latest Le Mans track, which I don't doubt is awesome, just like Sebring is. The Reiza pack is awesome as well ( but hey, it's Reiza), they deliver always!!
I don't mean to be disrespectful nor to create any sort of comparative or dispute between sims. I enjoy them all and think they all have pros and cons, but unless we compliment less and demand more from this developers we will keep getting the same unfinished product over and over.

 

[Emery]

Name one mod track that was created using a laser scan performed by the modder him/herself and given out for free or sold for 3 euros max...very curious.

I can name two: Eastern Creek and Oran Park, both for rF1, made using BTB about a decade ago.

 

[Emery]

(does Oran Park still even exists?)

Nope, turned into housing quite a few years ago.

 

[Emery]

i won't pay, but that is not the question, the question is if AC and other studios can offer more with less prize... RF2 will have less buyers, simple and logical, is the market, i didn't invent the capitalist system.

AC never offered LeMans or Sebring at ANY price!

 

[bgil66]

Love the driving model and this track just feels right. Had a blast in the M6 during day/night transitions. I probably wont be firing up other sims for a bit
- new UI where are you????

 

[Emery]

I know. I have a camera
But in daylight rf2 looks like overexposed photo with milk covered cars.

Put some clouds in the weather rather than unrealistic perfectly clear skies.

 

[mr Sw1tchblade]

Put some clouds in the weather rather than unrealistic perfectly clear skies.

I will try. Thank you!

 

[Roman1987]

First of all congrats to S397 for releasing this great track it makes so much fun to drive it, I already love it

Second it is sad how this Simracing community is turning into. All those complaints about pricing and stuff ignoring facts like the devs also have to pay their bills and need to make a living or how you always need to allocate limited resources to the right things in a dev project. Some comments here are just purely unrealistic and unfair.

Without Marcel and his Team our niche hobby would not bee the fun as it is today, so we as a community should appreciate their work a little bit more, because it is driving the whole Simracing business to new levels!

Cheers

 

[AngryWolfCorey]

I work in the LiDAR industry, or what people are referring to as "laser scanned." Data made from photogrammetric data isn't true laser scanned data. If the data comes from photogrammetric data it would be more properly labeled as "laser extracted" data b/c the laser points made in creating the final product come from a pre-existing photo image not data from a LiDAR sensor. There is no actual scanning involved with LiDAR sensors in photogrammetric derived data. The laser scanning done by these companies to create tracks are using actual LiDAR/laser scanning from LiDAR sensors. Meaning they probably have a base/ground unit(s) or a sensor mounted atop a vehicle (usually referred to as "mobile LiDAR," in the industry) that does actual scanning of the area & surrounding features & then the final product is created from the actual scanned data. It isn't extrapolated from a pre-existing image like photogrammetric derived LiDAR is.

Also, photogrammetric data is usually shot from a plane which means less points which means lower resolution data (which isn't the same as bad data). I'm assuming companies scanning tracks are using ground or vehicle sensor units (or possibly drones), so, they're probably getting at least 30-40 points per square meter if not more; we get ~5-15 points per square meter in aerial LiDAR depending on project specifications) thus providing a much better quality of data than photogrammetric LiDAR which only gives 3-5 points per square meter if that. It's usually less.

Which is all just a long way to say, yeah, creating tracks with true laser scanned data would be/is a far more expensive & time consuming endeavor than creating tracks from photogrammetric derived laser data.

LiDAR just means Light Detection And Ranging, btw, sometimes now written as lidar like a regular word, but I'm old school from the industry's early days so I still refer to it in it's more acronym beginnings.

 

[Gaëtan Legastelois]

AC can give at our niche hobby somme quality contents for less pricing (see nordschleife DLC, 2 years of work), for 15€ 5 or 6 cars (do not remember) and a fantastic laser scanned track.
I've no doubt about quality of this content and love S397 work, no problem with that. But marketing strategy...
Currently there have been 2000 sales, at 11€ it's 22000€. But I think a lot of guys like me will do not buy this beatiful track, too expensive, so less sales.
If this circuit was sold 5 €, 4400 consumers to reach 22000€. Impossible, to risky for S397 ?
Same results but more consumers satisfied... yeah marketing strategy....

 

[Chris Partridge]

Reading the posts here, is there a timeframe or list of “code issues” being addressed like AI, weather etc...?

 

[Travis]

I'm loving the track; Studio 397 have created another sublime track.

The price may be excessive for some people, which is a shame, as the quality is brilliant and scanning a full circuit the size of Le Mans would not be cheap, plus dealing with the licence holders for nearly 3 years, making the track and receiving 70% of the sale proceeds.

I'm waiting on the UI and various fixes to be completed however knowing S397 have worked on Le Mans, Nurburgring, Zanvoort, LMP and GT class cars as well as The Grand Tour game for Amazon means they've likely been stretched resources to their limits.

 

[pevides]

Well, I don`t care about the price.
I would like a good product, but I`m VERY disappointed.
This was the first year I went to 24 Hours of Le Mans and I was counting the days for this DLC.
When a track made by developers has way less details than a track made a long time ago made by someone in the community, something is wrong.
After a fantastic 2017 version made the community, this version overall is super bland. The trees, the asphalt and almost every single detail lacks detail and feels dead.
If you went to Le Mans, you know that there always 6 or 7 helicopters in the air to film everything (they are a huge thing in the ambient...they all always landing near the public in the side of the track for fuel). Even the helis are missing from this version.
You also can`t ear the public. The real race it´s really loud. The public are always screaming, clapping etc
Another thing I notice this year, is that the track is a complete light show at night. Everything is way more brilliant than what it seems on tv, because there are really strong leds everywhere. I was expecting the lighting to be amazing, but once again, it`s really really poor.
The feeling is good, because of the laser scan, but the soul of Le Mans it`s not there. Not even close.
I would say this track is 40% done.

 

[Leynad777]

Currently there have been 2000 sales, at 11€ it's 22000€. But I think a lot of guys like me will do not buy this beatiful track, too expensive, so less sales.
If this circuit was sold 5 €, 4400 consumers to reach 22000€. Impossible, to risky for S397 ?
Same results but more consumers satisfied... yeah marketing strategy....

Tell this iRacing and kind of missing this price-discussion in their news-threads. Most tracks (even some tiny ones) are 14,95 $ plus taxes and you need almost 30 essential tracks just for road-racing. And Nürburgring needs two tracks to buy, so 30 bucks. The prices would be fine for me, if i could use the content with AI and without their ridiculous additional entry fee.

 

[Paul010101]

Funny to see many people with thousands of euros in hardware (pedals, wheel, cpu, screen, Vr, gpu, pc...) complaining about few euros dlc software price...

It's about support software developers...

 

[mr Sw1tchblade]

Reading the posts here, is there a timeframe or list of “code issues” being addressed like AI, weather etc...?

Yes, thread about this problems buried somewhere at s397 forum.