rF2 worth for Singleplayer only ?

[Kevin Troschinski]

Hi,

i run almost all serious Sims out there except - rF2. Why ? Because i tried it few years ago and it was very "unready" by the time and had nothing to offer for me as i become singleplayer only.

The most are say`n rf2 has the best physics/ffb combination, so i don`t wanna miss it ^^. The question is - is the game worth a buy for me?
Can i set singleplayer championships ? choosing the class and tracks? (Like AC or RRE?) And is the AI good to race?

Thank you in advice for sharing your experiences

 

[Emery]

If you want to race on the best Sebring and LeMans, yes it is worthwhile for singleplayer.

Can i set singleplayer championships ?

Not a feature at this time. It is possible to create such things using the built-in features plus third party tools. Or skip the third party tools and keep a separate spreadsheet. See the S397 forum for help in this regard. S397 has said they'll eventually address singleplayer championships with the new UI, but that's still in Beta and they've not gotten around to adding any championship features yet.

choosing the class and tracks? (Like AC or RRE?)

Yes, you can choose class and tracks and even individual cars. It's different from AC or RRE though, so prepare to learn something new or become frustrated.

And is the AI good to race?

Depends on car/track combination. When the car & track developers have done their job, then it's awesome and far better than other sims because of wet racing lines, different lines for different car types, AI blocking, and AI learning. When the job is mediocre, well, hopefully someone who cares will fix it. And there are people who care. This is not to ignore the existing AI quirks (binary throttle) and bugs (rolling starts, safety car, and stuck behind slow car) that S397 will look into some day after the new UI is out of Beta.

 

[patchedupdemon]

Nope not at all, more is it for multilayer, if you just want to blast around a track on your own, then the driving experience is unmatched.
But that lasts all of 5mins

 

[MarcG]

As Emery says, the AI in RF2 are very good but they're not without their quirks like other Sims. In certain situations they're great to race against, you'll come away with a smile on your face

 

[McKiernan]

There is a demo available on steam. It's not quite the same as the full game but it will give you an idea of what to expect along with the opinions of the previous posters above.

 

[John Kerry]

All I do is race offline and the AI is bad, erratic and unrealistic which takes away from any positive driving experience. Any track and any car the AI is not good.

Also the UI is still a work in progress and has been since 2016!!!!

 

[dsftw]

Does rFactor2 have some premade championship series so you'll can just pick the series and start racing? I found youtube video from 2015 and there you could just pick series from "Inlclude race events" with ease but then I watched newer vid from 2018 and in there was said that this wouldn't be anymore an option.

 

[dan020288]

If you are focused on single player you will be disappointed. Ive played RF2 since its early beta back in 2012. the AI is frustratingly bad. Yes there was a time when they were decent to race, they defended changed line etc but that's as far as it ever went.

Now, you can barely complete a race without AI spinning each other out causing safety cars. brake testing you due to illogical brake/throttle applications. they offer no strategy, broken wet weather logic, unable to pass each other in slip streams most times.

The only reason anyone puts up with the above is the physics and force feedback. its good for private testing or league racing and you might luck and get 1 average race out of the 100 you attempt with AI. but that's where it stop unfortunately.

As some mentioned above, it has its moments but they are just not frequent enough.

Ironically, the best AI you will find is in the latter Codemaster f1 series. for a simcade they have nailed AI and singleplayer.

 

[Tatestar1984]

i personally love RF2 and nothing comes close to the feeling and connection you get from being 1 with the car. Nurmburg, sebring and le manns are the best experience you will ever get on these tracks with a sim racing game. it seems they are putting alot of work into the game name. ita one of the games, that you just wanna do 1 more lap, and and hour later, still wanting to play more . think ita half price still and they have bundles alot of the DLC togther too which is onsale. the GT3 and GTE cars are the best out there

 

[sentry87]

I only play rf2 for singleplayer. But as others said it does have its issues. Some car/ track combos the a.i. spin too frequently. However fcy can be fixed by editing the json file. Also the fact you can create a.i. names/ talents to specific cars makes it easy to run your own custom championships. You just need to tally your own points.

 

[MarcG]

Just a few notes from what's posted above;

• Most AI "issues" are related to community made content, either the track makers AIW (AI file) is poor or the Cars have not been set up correctly for use with AI. That's what you get with a modding platform, conversely people have created better AIW files for many tracks to vastly improve the racing.
• On the above some mod cars and tracks are very good, you'll just have to find ones that suit.
• Not every track will be suitable to every car, bare that in mind when you're trying out combinations, some cars will work better than others.
• Generally speaking Official Content (Cars & Tracks) are much better and can have brilliant racing with the odd rare exception.
• Safety Cars are essentially broken with AI so run with BLACK FLAGS ONLY in the in game settings, you'll still get yellow flags for spins/accidents but no SC.
• RF2 and RaceRoom IMO are the two stand out AI Sims especially for short sprint races, I've tried most of the top Sims over many many years and these two are clearly ahead in this area for me.
• One day (I live in hope!) S397 will fix the issues most dominant in the AI and it will become the King again, there's 4 Major areas I consider that need to be fixed and it will be brilliant with anything else after that a bonus....believe me they are aware of those issues, it's just a matter of priority as to when they get fixed....unfortunately that priority has never been "high" so no idea when they'll get sorted.
• Finally; I've had some fantastic racing with the RF2 AI since 2012 right through to last night when i had an absolute blast, find the right combo and I'm sure you will too

 

[J0E]

Just the other day I set up a single player championship with Formula E. The drivers are all U.S. presidents. Single-player championships are explained on Steam in the RF2 Community section. Using the Log Analyzer tool in combination with the single player championship gives you everything you need. There are also places to turn down the AI aggressiveness and mistake level, so it can be tailored to your choosing. In addition, I wrote a python script the other day that generates a weather file for a track of your choosing using actual weather data from OpenWeatherMap.org. OpenWeatherMap's free historical info is limited to the last five days

 

[PhilT]

Just the other day I set up a single player championship with Formula E. The drivers are all U.S. presidents. Single-player championships are explained on Steam in the RF2 Community section. Using the Log Analyzer tool in combination with the single player championship gives you everything you need. There are also places to turn down the AI aggressiveness and mistake level, so it can be tailored to your choosing. In addition, I wrote a python script the other day that generates a weather file for a track of your choosing using actual weather data from OpenWeatherMap.org. OpenWeatherMap's free historical info is limited to the last five days

Thats pretty cool! Do you have a link to that script?

 

[Durge Driven]

As Emery says, the AI in RF2 are very good but they're not without their quirks like other Sims. In certain situations they're great to race against, you'll come away with a smile on your face

That is what makes rF2 ai good ! no two races are the same

Like real life racing not everything is perfect

Other studio AI drive like replays , predictable and boring

 

[Durge Driven]

There are never discussed areas that for me is why rFactor2 is alive although quirky yes

Dirty Air

Yes, you right the effect in rF2 it's tad overdone and quirky but better then nothing
You can make a car following you understeer off the track by changing lines on entry, apex or exit
Equally the safe play with AI is to drive inside the line of cars ahead relax for a second you can be in a wall .................In ACC AMSS2 doesn't have effects

Off Road

Run wide in rF2 you have to coax car back to track and there are bumps and you can hit a brake marker, in the others is mostly a cake walk more then not full throttle and steer

Gravity

For me rF and rF2 always felt " more alive " and gravity is the only dumb explanation I thought of
To me a 1000kg car in rF2 feels lighter then other engines
It is pretty easy to test your self, run up same curb (kerb) same track same car in each sim
Equally see how much air you get over humps and jumps, I willing to bet rF2 will fly highest, why ?
The outcome from this for me is more feeling over small bumps

Interaction with objects

rf2 haybales, metal gates, signs, road posts, etc. they have physics
pCars series had haybales reacted like concrete and all those parts off cars reacting physically with nothing all canned and AMS2 has some animated catch fencing is void

rF2 a tyre even a suspension arm from crashed car can cause yourself to crash


These are a few of the overlooked things I see in gmotor
Am I supposed to believe these things are unimportant but the gradient of light or colour is

 

[John Kerry]

Just a few notes from what's posted above;

• Most AI "issues" are related to community made content, either the track makers AIW (AI file) is poor or the Cars have not been set up correctly for use with AI. That's what you get with a modding platform, conversely people have created better AIW files for many tracks to vastly improve the racing.
• On the above some mod cars and tracks are very good, you'll just have to find ones that suit.
• Not every track will be suitable to every car, bare that in mind when you're trying out combinations, some cars will work better than others.
• Generally speaking Official Content (Cars & Tracks) are much better and can have brilliant racing with the odd rare exception.
• Safety Cars are essentially broken with AI so run with BLACK FLAGS ONLY in the in game settings, you'll still get yellow flags for spins/accidents but no SC.
• RF2 and RaceRoom IMO are the two stand out AI Sims especially for short sprint races, I've tried most of the top Sims over many many years and these two are clearly ahead in this area for me.
• One day (I live in hope!) S397 will fix the issues most dominant in the AI and it will become the King again, there's 4 Major areas I consider that need to be fixed and it will be brilliant with anything else after that a bonus....believe me they are aware of those issues, it's just a matter of priority as to when they get fixed....unfortunately that priority has never been "high" so no idea when they'll get sorted.
• Finally; I've had some fantastic racing with the RF2 AI since 2012 right through to last night when i had an absolute blast, find the right combo and I'm sure you will too

Well I am sorry MarcG but this is not my experience and all my racing is offline.

Recently I went back to Rfactor2 to give it another go as I always come away from it very very disappionted. From my experince of several years of sim racing I knew I had to be patient and keep working at getting it to work for me and this I did.

So I learnt that most (if not all) mods do not have good or even reasonable AI to race so I only used S397 content of both tracks and cars. I did get some cars to drive great but as soon as I raced I had the same horrible AI experience. Very stupid, erratic driving and punting me in any situation.

One example that confuses me the most is the AI could be 1.5 sec behind and before the lap is over they are very aggressively trying to overtake me if not end up punting me.

These reasons have stopped me from buying any of the DLC's because to me I have already wasted my money buying the base game. I bought the Nurburing pack (because I wanted the Nordschliefe) which included 2 cars (BMW M2? Porsche Cup car) and they were not enjoyable to drive at all and I have hardly driven them at all.

Add to this the mix bag of graphics you get from track to track, the annoying UI and a very outdated and fairly unattractive base game content and you are better off buying one of the other top SIM games. Very unpolished and unfinished game for me.

Also the FFB is not better than AMS or Assetto Corsa for me, which are the 2 games I play the most.

I am sorry if this is a negative rant but that is the way rFactor2 makes me feel. I have had it nearly 2 years now and there are no improvements for me in the driving experience.

 

[PhilT]

To those reporting erratic AI, it's a well known fact that you need to run Practice or Quali sessions first. Let the AI run a few laps, even with accelerated time (CTRL+X) and then click Finish Session. If you do this it solves a lot of problems with the AI being erratic. It won't necessarily fix the badly modded tracks but I've found it fixes most issues. I'm currently getting some issues with Zandvoort but this has recently been overhauled and they are still working through a few issues. As others have said, Sebring, Le Man, Spa and Zandvoort all superb. I'm currently working way through a Steam Workshop recommended collection as well of 88 odd tracks and cars and I'll say most are pretty decent.

The races in rFactor 2 are hands down the best I've had in a racing simulation game. I've tried all the major ones but the feeling of the track you get and the fun you can have out doing the AI only to be retaken seconds later is second to none.

It takes plenty of time to tune everything to your liking but it's totally worth the investment.

I'll add that if you want a game with all the tracks and cars and championships and fancy graphics and polished UI and prioritize these things over the best driving and racing experience then rFactor2 is not for you. Sometimes it's hard to know what you value before trying it. Check out the demo, focus on how it feels, if that does nothing for you then stick with ACC or AMS2. Also, wait for the steam sales to get the best deals.

Lastly, FYI, I only race single player against 20-23 AI and 9 times out of 10 I have an exciting race. I returned both ACC and AMS2 after trying them for a couple of hours with the Steam refund policy.

 

[MarcG]

Well I am sorry MarcG but this is not my experience and all my racing is offline.

I'm sorry you had to quote me from well over a year ago (!), in the period since that post I have left the RF2 Private Beta Test Team & Community as the devlopers had (have) zero interest in improving or even fixing the AI, I therefore uninstalled the Sim earlier this year - even my patience as a former diehard hardcore RF2 fan had run out, I'm now enjoying my time elsewhere