rF2: Sebring 'Talk n Drive' + Developer Interview

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Paul Jeffrey

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Check out our latest 'Talk 'n' Drive' video of the new rFactor 2 laserscanned Sebring, and developer interview with Marcel Offermans…

The release of Sebring as a new official DLC for rFactor 2 has got plenty of gamers excited in the sim racing world, with the track representing a very first laserscanned location for rFactor 2 and a significant step up in quality over previous content releases for the simulation.

With the circuit having now been in the public domain for a few days, we thought it a good time to have a go ourselves, share our experiences and have a chat with one of the men behind the magic, Studio 397's very own, Marcel Offermans…


RD: Congratulations on the release of Sebring! What does it mean to you and the team bringing the first laserscanned circuit to the sim?

MO: Thank you very much. This release obviously means a lot for us for a couple of reasons. First of all, because we wanted to bring popular and iconic tracks to rFactor 2. Secondly, because we knew we wanted to step up to bring a highly accurately built track based on a very precise laser scan. The unique challenge we had was how to combine that with the dynamics of our realroad system. We ended up building a very detailed road mesh that is used both for all physics calculations and for the visualisation: What you see is what you get!

RD: Does the Sebring release mark the first of more laserscanned content coming to the sim in future?

MO: Certainly! We have already licensed the next track, and this upcoming week we will start production. We're going to keep the name a secret for now, but it's safe to say we will be building more tracks of this quality.

RD: On to the track itself, what decision making process did you go through when choosing Sebring as a circuit to bring to rF2?

MO: There were many different factors that led us to choose Sebring as the first track.
We were looking for an iconic track, and obviously one that suited the cars we were developing. Another factor was the licensing discussions, and it turned out that Sebring was a great partner to work with, which helped us a lot, allowing us track time a few weeks before the 2018 12 hour event. Finally, we were looking for a track that would really showcase the details that a laser scan bring, and there is probably no better place than Sebring to do that, with all its cracks and bumps.

RD: Some people have questioned the price of this DLC, stating it is perhaps a touch high compared to some other simulations. What do you have to say in response to those comments?

MO: We set out and succeeded in creating a track that is of the highest standard, matching or beating tracks in the other simulations out there in terms of detail both on and around the track. We priced the track to match that quality and ended up being neither the cheapest nor the most expensive. Obviously everybody is entitled to their own opinion. We listen to those opinions and respect them and I'm not going to argue with people about that. I sometimes do wonder how people manage to spend thousands of euros on their rigs and computer hardware and expect the software to be so much cheaper.

RD: New GT cars, new tyre model improvements, Sebring, LMP2, LMP3, VR improvements, performance improvements… the list of upgrades to rF2 have been significant of late. Can you share some ideas of what is next in line for rF2, short and longer term?

MO: We are obviously still working hard on bringing our new UI and competition system, and those are two items that are really at the top of our list right now. Obviously the team will also keep bringing improvements wherever we can, both in terms of physics and graphics. Our car team is working on several new and free McLaren cars that will be used for the McLaren Shadow Project competition, as well as a couple of cars that will be part of our next pack. Our track team as I said is just starting on a new track, and we are in the final phases of production and testing for both Botniaring and Zandvoort. The latter will include no less than five layouts. Both will be free.

RD: S397 are heading for your 2nd year anniversary since taking over rF2, are you where you expected to be in the development cycle, and what would you say has been the biggest challenge encountered so far?

MO: Our second anniversary is coming up indeed at the SimRacing Expo in September. In terms of the development cycle I think we've addressed some of the core issues we saw. We have a much nicer and faster, DX11 based graphics engine with VR support. Big licenses for cars, such as being the first to have the BMW M8 GTE, and tracks, providing what we believe to be the best laserscanned version of Sebring in any sim, as well as a host of free content is pretty much on track and we're still ramping up there. Where we are a bit behind on our schedule is on the new UI and competition infrastructure. We're building on a lot of existing components, but still it is a lot of work and we probably underestimated that a bit. Our biggest challenge definitely has been to balance all the amazing opportunities we've had in the past two years!


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 and share the love this simulation so very much deserves...


rF2 Sebring talk n drive.jpg


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Enjoying Sebring? Happy with the progress of rF2 so far? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
 
It's a shame this beautiful track won't be included in Project Bugs.
Can this troll be stopped please, pointless trolling post in the thread, In fact almost every post I see of this chump has the words "project bugs"......if someone posted about the problems in the middle east I fully expect this 'un to blame SMS and Ian Bell. Jesus....<rolls eyes>
 
I really want to get this but will wait till the new ui is done first.

obviously Sebring and by far the most successful of all current sim, S397 took back rf2 and like a phoenix it returns on the front of the scene of the simracing!
now the most expected remains the online competition and the UI question contained we know what the team is capable of! :thumbsup:
for people who are offended by the price we expect them to cry less when S397 bous gives free quality content! what other sim makes so many gifts? ;)

Well PC1+2 and AC have given quite a lot of free content, arguably more than RF2.
 
This is their main misconception. I do not have a rig and I did not buy my PC for simracing. I only have a g27 for virtual racing. What are the thousands of euros he tells us? They make the product only for hardcore simracers.

Fair enough, not everybody spends thousands of euros. But even you have spend hundreds of euros on a general purpose PC and a wheel. But if you think this track is not worth the money, by all means please do not buy it and spend your money on something else. This is a free world, we're trying to make something great, but it's perfectly fine if it is not everyone's cup of tea.
 
Loving the Sebring track as well. Even with a cheap Logitech G27, the FFB details you get from the track are great and better than I have experienced in any other game/track combination. Imagine how it feels on a DD wheel!?

One small issue I have with the track is that the AI is crashing very regularly in the first lap. A lot of races have a safety car in lap 1 and when you race short races (e.g. 5 laps) that means you only have until lap 4-5 before the safety car goes into the pit. So most of the time I just restart the race and hope no big lap 1 AI crashes happen the next time.

Btw, being a Dutch company, the next laser scanned track should be either Zandvoort or Assen! ;)
Yeah the ai are always crashing with me too.. I've not seen this mentioned elsewhere... I hope they are looking at it. Also as good as the ai is they need to take a leaf out of reiza's book.. the ai still tend to not overtake in the draft and only make the pass into the corners. Kinda putting me off racing against the ai
 
  • Deleted member 99238

But if you think this track is not worth the money, by all means please do not buy it and spend your money on something else. This is a free world, we're trying to make something great, but it's perfectly fine if it is not everyone's cup of tea.
I'm ready to pay for RF2 150 euros, if he will offer me the content of the level of AC, R3E and PC2. 10$ is not a problem for me.
 
I love everything about rF2 except the load time. Using nvme still 3 to 4 minutes to get on. Just if devs are reading this, apologies and Im not critical BTW. But if theres a possibilty to faster load times like newer titles, thats a big bonus.

Initial loading time depends on number of mods installed and this is a by-product of the rF1 like UI.

Track loading time depends on shaders compilation for the most part so it does happen only the first time. If it's still slow after the first time and you have a fast hard drive, then I'm not sure you can do much...
 
Yeah the ai are always crashing with me too.. I've not seen this mentioned elsewhere... I hope they are looking at it. Also as good as the ai is they need to take a leaf out of reiza's book.. the ai still tend to not overtake in the draft and only make the pass into the corners. Kinda putting me off racing against the ai

Make sure you Qualify the AI before the Race, if you skip this part then it can lead to various AI incidents on Lap 1 (faster cars trying to get past slower cars especially with mixed class races for example). If you're still getting Lap1 pile ups try backing up your player.JSON and try again with a fresh one, this has been known to "fix" issues with AI somehow....not quite sure how but it works!

If after all that you're still getting Lap1 Pile Ups and by that I do mean consistent, race after race pile ups not 1 every 10 races (with Qualifying don't forget) then please state which Mod you're using and upload a video if you can as this is the best way t help track down potential AI issues, thanks.
 
You do not quite understand what I'm talking about. It's not about me or my financial capabilities. I'm interested in the game industry in general and its prospects for development. Any racing game should be a commercially successful project. Commercial success is the number of copies sold and regular players. Otherwise, you lose.

You claiming that rF2 will be abandoned soon, doesn't sound like a person who is interested in sim racing, nor the development. And said development needs to be covered. I am pretty sure that the guys from S397 and Luminis know a bit better what they are doing in terms of business model than us arm chair economics.
 
What will the new UI bring when you are playing? Same options in another skin.
Not worthwhile to wait for.
Not true, new UI can be used to expose current settings you can only edit with text editor right now or improve the pre-race experience with usefull info or other stuff, competition system will be part of it with scores, livetiming and so on...same for the SIM HUD which will be new too and fully customisable. So yeah, the UI+competition mode+new HUD can change a lot...this is why S397 is spending a lot of time refinishing it...
 
My biggest beef with rf2 is the low res road textures, I'm sure i can mod them somehow but I wish they would make official hi res ones. Feels like I'm driving on a watercolor painting.
 
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  • Deleted member 99238

I am pretty sure that the guys from S397 and Luminis know a bit better what they are doing in terms of business model than us arm chair economics.
No matter how cool the guys from S397 and how old is my chair, this does not cancel the competition in this genre.
 
Fair enough, not everybody spends thousands of euros. But even you have spend hundreds of euros on a general purpose PC and a wheel. But if you think this track is not worth the money, by all means please do not buy it and spend your money on something else. This is a free world, we're trying to make something great, but it's perfectly fine if it is not everyone's cup of tea.
New avatar image. Is red going to be the new rf2 ui color? :p
 
No matter how cool the guys from S397 and how old is my chair, this does not cancel the competition in this genre.
No matter how cool the guys from S397 and how old is my chair, this does not cancel the competition in this genre.
Why are you even on this forum ,as all you do is complain and :poop: on rf2..and quite frankly am sick of all your negative comments ....just go back to your simcade PC2 which you seem to like so much..
 
No matter how cool the guys from S397 and how old is my chair, this does not cancel the competition in this genre.

And yet there is no sim that is like rF2 and not even ACC or GTR3 will change that. So there is currently no alternative even if some people allways try to hide that fact and that is something that you oversee aswell. If rF2 didn't have something unique speaking for itself it would have died long time ago.
 
For me Sebring is not about the visual apeal or how close it comes to the real as i have no idea...i never raced the real track. I did not bought out of a hype. I have watched all imsa 6 hours of Sebring and what i really like about the races are the severe bumps: drivers fighting to find grip as the car just slams over the bumps. And that is what this new track gives me: i have to fight every lap. But...that's me...so many people, so many wishes. I would say: Next circuit The Glenn????:D
 
  • Deleted member 99238

Why are you even on this forum ,as all you do is complain and :poop: on rf2..and quite frankly am sick of all your negative comments ....just go back to your simcade PC2 which you seem to like so much..
You can offer to introduce a fee for participation in the discussion of topics devoted to the RF2. 5 euros for each negative post in the topic. You will get rid of my presence and help develop virtual racing.
 
lol I only have 56minutes in game and stopped because of the UI, but this thread has me wanting to fire it up again and get the endurance pack along with this track you are all raving about:D
The menu/UI should not stop you. Seriously, once you hit the track you will forget about any menues or UI. I was the same first time, and when i (told this so many times, but here we go) loaded up Historic EVE cars with Belgium '66 (old Spa) as my first combo i was BLOWN AWAY. menues and UI was not in my memory anymore. I didnt care if it had DOS menues with simulation and feeling of that caliber. :)
 
The menu/UI should not stop you. Seriously, once you hit the track you will forget about any menues or UI. I was the same first time, and when i (told this so many times, but here we go) loaded up Historic EVE cars with Belgium '66 (old Spa) as my first combo i was BLOWN AWAY. menues and UI was not in my memory anymore. I didnt care if it had DOS menues with simulation and feeling of that caliber. :)
cool I'll give it another go thx
 
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