rF2 | UI Updates & Other Improvements

Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Studio 397 recently deployed their first major update to the new rFactor 2 UI - releasing build 1117 into the wild on Friday afternoon.

Long awaited, the brand new rFactor 2 UI enjoyed a public release to the simulation userbase back in December last year, and since then the Dutch development team have been hard at work collecting data and feedback prior to this first major update. Deploying a new build of this simulation back on Friday 7th February, the latest updates adds a few significant improvements to the sim, as well as addressing some of the initial issues with the new UI design.

Fear not fellow sim racer, if the update isn't to your liking just yet, Studio 397 have confirmed plenty more tweaks and improvements will be heading your way in the coming weeks and months - full details of which can be found below:

.....

The first update of the new UI public beta is here! Although it’s taken a bit longer than anticipated, we’ve addressed a lot of issues as you can see from the changelog below. We held off on this release for a bit longer than we anticipated, as we felt we had to get a number of problems fixed in this next update. Going forward we anticipate we can get roughly two updates per month done for the new UI, with smaller fixes and added features, and also addressing a few other issues in every new build. Below the changelog we’ve added some known issues and work in progress, This is not an exhaustive list but should cover what we’re currently looking to release in the next updates or are working on for a later update. As always we would like to give a big thanks to you, the rFactor 2 community, for the detailed reports and feedback.

rF2 Update 1.jpg
rF2 Update 2.jpg
rF2 Update 3.jpg


New UI: public_beta: Steam Build ID 4648512

  • ‘Favorite servers’ will only update when manually refreshed.
  • Added tyre wear, temperatures and hot pressures to the garage page, so you can see those after you get out of your car.
  • Added practice, qualification and race progress in the event screen.
  • Added brake wear to garage page, so after you get out of your car, you can see how much your brakes have worn.
  • Added plugin management tab to options, allowing you to enable and disable installed plugins. This still requires a restart after making changes.
  • Added class color coded icons and class names to event standings if such an event has more than a single class.
  • Added a replay ‘seeker’ that is now drag-able so you can immediately see where you are in the replay.
  • Added confirmation dialog when deleting a setup
  • When you select a car, track or series, you will now return to where you came from, instead of going back to start page or in some cases the race page.
  • Fixed the missing package download and install process when joining a server.
  • Fixed the missing blinking cursor in text fields.
  • Fixed that you could always start driving again in sessions, even after for example being classified as DNF in a race. Now correctly disables the button when needed.
  • Removed certain display settings that shouldn’t be available when in a session.
  • Key assignments now show the key modifiers, such as ALT and CTRL.
  • When clicking a folder in save setup, the setup name is no longer lost and goes blank.
  • Server text commands do now work when pressing ‘return’.
  • Fixed the intermittent pace car loading error on track load
    • Removed additional pace cars “Clio Cup” and “Pace Car With Lights” from base install.
  • In VR, fixed a glitchy loading screen in the headset in both the old and new UI.
  • In VR, fixed a flashing desktop mirror while track loads in both the old and new UI.
  • Updated openvr libraries.
  • Fixed the lag when other clients joined a server.
  • Fixed AI limit of 19 when adding them in single player using ‘session controls’.
  • Removed old UI images that would appear sporadically.
Known Issues
  • Showroom does not go full screen when pressing ‘return’.
  • After content install in VR rFactor 2 does not restart. A workaround for now is to restart manually.
  • There is still a black band on the bottom half of the track loading screen.
  • Some are seeing some micro stutters in the new UI, more prominent in VR, we are aware and working on a fix.
  • Unrelated to UI, but we are also aware of the erratic throttle behavior of the AI cars, and we are looking into that.
Work in Progress
  • Add skin download progress bar while on a server that allows custom skin transfers.
  • Config tool sporadically fails to launch up after clicking PLAY for setting graphics resolution, VR or post effect levels.
  • Team creation in the showroom is missing.
  • Material editing in the showroom is missing.
  • Forced setup and/or upgrades.
  • Car (re)selection when on a server.
  • Resume from replay.
  • Sporadic ‘white screen’ on server exit.


rFactor 2 is available exclusively for PC.

Having issues with the sim? Let the community be your guide! Post a thread in the rF2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment!

rF2 Update 4.jpg
 
Most of Rf2 official DLCs are GT3 based...comparison is relevant. They try to find the money where it is that's all, now the strategy is failing because of ACC...also the most popular mods from the workshop are GT3 cars , there are only few other categories of cars that are worth the try BTCC, WTCR (paid mod) etc. So it's mainly a GT3 game + few good non GT3 mods + outdated or oldish official contents for me
There are only 2 DLCs with GT3 and only 2 GT3 mods. The rest: Endurance pack, Reiza, karts, Porsche 911 Cup car, BMW M2 cars, Formula E, tracks etc.

also the most popular mods from the workshop are GT3 cars , there are only few other categories of cars that are worth the try BTCC, WTCR (paid mod) "

Well, I'm not that interested in BTCC or WTCR so it means there are no other mods worth to try? No. Even if you limit content to Steam workshop, there are wide variety of mods worth trying. Including Endurance Series, GP3, Super V8, a lot of F1 cars(current and historic) , some road sport cars, historic cars, and a lot of tracks. Yes some are outdated, with old physics, not upgraded to DX11, but still can be fun. Also I like the historic F1 cars made by S397 and latest Tatuus pack. Still, there are many decent mods outside of the Workshop. IMO rF2 has still many issues, but there's no lack of content.
 
Geez, looking at some of the comments here, I must be doing something wrong.:) The game runs fine for me and I basically don't have any problems. Does the UI need to be improved? Of course,e it does, but let's not lose sight of the fact that it is a "Beta". Are there other improvements such as AI behavior under full course yellows, and car cockpits that need to be done? Yes, there are. Considering that the FFB and physics are much better, at least for me, I'm going to continue playing and enjoying the game.
 
First time i installed rF2 and saw the old menu i was thinking "oh boy this is gonna take a while to get it up and running perfectly". Loaded up Spa '66 and EVE formula. The rest is history because at that moment i realized what level rF2 was on regarding physics and FFB. It was just the best i had felt and the most fun i've had in a car that was alive and had tons of Power around a track that wanted to kill me over and over because its so damn fast and bumpy. :D rF2 and AMS amazed me after coming to them from AC. Loved AC since its earliest EA release but AMS and rF2 was just a big step above with its driving experience. I did however have some issues when trying to go online back then but that is being taken cared of now so thats cool. And sure it has long loading times even on fast SSDs and especially the first time. It has something though that others dont have and that is the driving experience which is why people keep coming back to it. Hopefully S397 will fix some long standing bugs, give us AI that use slipstream.

I have to say also that they managed to improve performance a lot. Triple screen maxed out and my GPU and CPU is farting along calmly, and it looks pretty damn good too on the new tracks. In ACC on low/med my GPU is blowing up even though it looks bad because of the low settings. :D(Im going to test the config tweak here on RD), but im amazed over how much performance S397 managed to give us. Remember how it was before? On triples i had to run on low with almost no visible cars and now i have 30-40 cars in front of me on max graphics and my GPU and CPU is relaxing at around 45C heat. :) Pretty sweet.

Yeah i have a guilty pleasure with rF2. A lot of people bash it and even I myself get angry once in a while but when im on track i understand why i never uninstall it - even though i need the space (ACC = 12GB. My rF2 120GB)! :D
 
If you get crashes with the new UI, I would suggest first trying a completely new player profile. Then, if that works, you might be able to figure out what's causing the crash. Chances are it will be either your graphics config or something in your .plr file.

But figuring it out is obviously kinda time consuming, as you have to go systematically and do as little adjustments as possible in one go.
 
Oh, @Denis Betty had this issue when the new UI was more or less forced in, there was a resource he had to unsubscribe to on the workshop. I cannot remember which one. I hope Denis remembers :)
My problem did not seem to be linked to the (un)/subscribed item. IIRC the hotfix update which came soon after I first encountered the problem was the fix. I've since reverted to old UI, so I'm not sure I can help, but there is a thread on S397 forum about it.
 
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OK, so now the new S397 UI settings 'white screen of death' seems luckily to be gone.

Only thing I tried (except from PC restart since late monday evening) was switching off Logitech Profiler. When I started up rF2 I could easily enter the other setting-menues after finishing the 'Assign' part. But then I activated Logitech Profiler again and restarted rF2 and everything was still fine. So don't know if a mini-bugfix has been released in the meantime. Monday late evening the "white screen" issue was of permanent character.

A thing which ticks me a bit about the new UI, as a 99% offline simmer:
Main menu -> Single Player -> Race -> Costumize : "Loading your favourite servers, please wait"
Why do I have to wait for favourite online servers when trying to setup an offline race??

Well, speaking AI - something has really happened here, since I last payed rF2 (think it was mid November, so don't know if it came with latest S397 package), mostly to the good side. Haven't felt the AIs to be THAT kind of 'live' before!

Though my last race just minutes ago was like entering a casual open online lobby

:D

Moreover to me it seems that the base rF2 sim engine has even improved and brought my G27 + Shifter even more to live. That's good. Fanatec DD2 and Heusinkveld pedals can wait a bit longer now :D

That said I still prefer playing with the H-shifter + heel&toe even for cars with paddleshifters IRL, e.g.
The GT3 Callaway Corvette C7 @ Nordschleife
The Camaro GT3 2012 @ Portland
- the H-shifter and heel&toe delivers me such more 'sim joy' whereas paddleshift settings seems in some occations too 'dull' and 'easy'.

But maybe that's not exactly rF2 stuff, since same goes with my aged G27 for e.g. the unofficial Legion Corvette C5-R @ Codegua for AC or Mclaren F1 LM @ 1977 Interlagos for AMS2, etc., and a DD1/2 paddleshift setup will deliver a more 'live' feeling here.

All in all - splendid job, Studio 397 - so if you can fix the race costumization for offline simmers as me, I'm even happier :thumbsup:

Edit: A bit of a display error in applied text for track package Nordschleife, standard layout lenght is not 25.378 meters - this is the VLN (Nordschleife + GP Strecke), the Nordschleife itself ofcourse is 20.832 meter.

(Edit 2: thanks RD admin, I was just about to move my post to the right place)
 
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