rFactor 2: Big Zandvoort Update Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

Studio 397 have released a significantly updated version of Zandvoort for the rFactor 2 simulation.

With somewhat perfect timing considering Formula One have just confirmed their return to the Dutch venue from the 2020 Grand Prix season, Studio 397 have today deployed a new update to their Zandvoort circuit for rFactor 2.

Featuring plenty of changes, updates and improvements to the content, the Zandvoort circuit is a free addition to rFactor 2 and can be downloaded now from the Steam Workshop page of the sim.

Download HERE

Zandvoort V1.02 Update Notes:

• Track is updated to 2019 configuration, changes:
  
• Tweaked asphalt texture & shaders, structure more visible, less blurry in the distance.
  
• Pitlane Coloured striping on less blurry when far away.
  
• Tweaked offroad dust and tiresmoke coming from the car, should look more natural, bit less pixelated.
  
• Collision outerwall altered slightly, so you can drive around the full support sandroad, but only can enter the track from the pitlane.
  
• Smoothed braking zone (washboard effect) before Tarzanconer.
  
• Reworked grass/dirt/curbstone masking, for better of connection of different textures.
  
• Added 2nd skidmark layer for a more lively road appearance.
  
• Tweaked skidmark spec and normals, rubber shines more than the track at low light angles.
  
• Many (too) white objects lowered tone a bit, so less overexposure at low sun positions.
  
• Many objects tone changed slightly for better appereance.
  
• Tirewall texturing redone.
  
• Start-finish bridge, better bump/spec maps, added cube shader.
  
• RedBull-arch at pitlane entry, 3d model redone, better texture and normal/spec maps.
  
• Racecontrol-tower texturing added better bump/spec maps.
  
• Pitlane building texture and shader upgrades, fixed to bright reflections of cubemaps in windows.
  
• Crowds, added a lot more and different amounts for all track states and layouts.
  
• Added pit entrance/exit/keep out signs.
  
• Changed max pit speed to 60km.
  
• Paddock and infield have more diverse objects and better positioned.
  
• Added rF2 flags last part of main straight.
  
• Added new Paddock Club building at inside Tarzan corner.
  
• Tarzan exit ribbed-curb now real 3D, texturing upgraded.
  
• Trackside banners better bump/spec maps, added cube shader.
  
• Added buildings, a whole town of Zandvoort and the Centerparks bungolowpark for more accurate horizon view (low poly don't worry).
  
• Reworked trees and treelines at horizon.
  
• Bigblue crane now only shows up in qualy-race, less bright reflections in window.
  
• Bricks next to curbsstones have better mappings and normalmap shaders.
  
• Clubhouse at Scheivlak fixed too bright cubemap, added normalmap shaders.
  
• Paddock buildings, added cubemap and normalmap shaders.
  
• Restaurant fixed too bright cubemap, added normalmap shaders.
  
• Tunnel under mainstraight added banner above.
  
• Concrete plates above tunnel on straight new texture and shaders.
  
• Toilets, added normalmap shaders fixed to bright cubemap on windows.
  
• New disabled people stand next to main grandstand.
  
• Removable guardrail (splits the layouts) better textured.
  
• Radar tower now at correct position.
  
• Optimized objects and lod's for better performance.

rFactor 2 is available exclusively for PC.

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[KiriKaeshi]

If anyone is interested, Zandvoort east is awesome in formula Vee!

I'm looking forward to trying the updated version.

 

[davehenrie]

I agree the failure to fix the AI lap time issue is hugely disappointing. I am starting to think that Zandvoort is the test bed for many of the 'new' items discussed above.(from the January Roadmap). And it shows S397's almost total focus at ONLINE racing, hence probably only online testing, thus, missing the problem and failing to correct.

 

[Oldzeb]

really good job S397!!
and free!!
so...

 

[pcraenme]

They have the 2019 RSS car for rFactor 2?

RSS Formula 2019 for rFactor2? Did i miss something?

Wishfull thinking on my part! Still waiting on the first RSS mods being released for rF2. I drove the MP4/8 in rF2 and the RSS Formula Hybrid 2019 in AC of course.

 

[MPortnoy]

really good job S397!!
and free!!
so...

So because it's free you're saying they shouldn't fix AI issues? smh

 

[Marcel Offermans]

How does this update relate to the January Roadmap?

"We are polishing the workflows for defining materials, providing a wide selection of materials that can be consistently used on cars and tracks. Our next steps will be to continue development of a few very specific materials for things like realroad, curbs, grass and possibly a few other things, such as an improved system for rendering clouds. Our goal is to have materials on all major pieces of content by the end of the first quarter and to do smaller tweaks in the second quarter, making the whole system more robust and possibly further optimizing certain aspects of it."

Understand this might be late and still work in progress, but is this a first iteration of new track shaders/material system? What we might expect to see re circuit overhaul ie complete set of new shaders going forward, still work in progress?

So we're really still in the middle of all of this, and have bumped into a few issues that have taken a bit more time than we anticipated back in January. That said, we also have discovered some areas where we could do more than we originally planned with some (in my eyes) really good results. Zandvoort is pretty much benefitting from some updates in lighting and the usage of IBL probes for better ambient lighting but these are not yet the new shaders we were referring to in the January roadmap. We will probably update you in more detail in the June roadmap and I expect we can also show some aspects of the new system in action.

 

[MPortnoy]

@Marcel Offermans
Any comments on why the AI issue wasn't fixed and if we can expect it to be fixed? Or is your focus from now on ONLINE ONLY?

 

[Ace King]

Big update with the same issue since the very beginning of AI not recording lap times.
FAIL

I tested using S397 Endurance with 23 AI in a 30 minute qualify and about 10 AI didn't record a lap time and the reason is because they are running out of fuel thus preventing them from finishing their lap!

I fixed a few tracks with this very same issue and was a easy fix. When i do any extensive AIW work i will always perform a "Simulate Fuel Usage" as one of my finalizing steps and with this step i never had a problem with AI runing out of fuel. Go to "unsupported / test options" then "Simulate Fuel Usage". I use the ModDev's default Skip Barber to Simulate. When i get some free time i can provide a AIW fix if this is the problem while we wait for S397's official update fix.

UPDATE: Check my later post #32 for additional testing info.

 

[Oldzeb]

So because it's free you're saying they shouldn't fix AI issues? smh

Where did I write this? Quoted me if I wrote this...

 

[MPortnoy]

I tested using S397 Endurance with 23 AI in a 30 minute qualify and about 10 AI didn't record a lap time and the reason is because they are running out of fuel. I fixed a few tracks with this very same issue and was a easy fix. When i do any extensive AIW work i will always perform a "Simulate Fuel Usage" as one of my finalizing steps and with this step i never had a problem with AI runing out of fuel. Go to "unsupported / test options" then "Simulate Fuel Usage". I use the ModDev's default Skip Barber to Simulate.

I think your assessment in this case isn't right. They're not running out of fuel. The cars that aren't recording laptimes are the ones that are behind the pitbuilding because there's no delimitation of the pit exit or something like that. This was documented since the first release of the track and was confirmed again by someone at the official forum.
For what I gather it's also an easy fix (if devs actually cared), but only thing I'm good at fixing myself is fast lanes, this I have no idea, otherwise I would do it myself.

 

[Marcel Offermans]

@Marcel Offermans
Any comments on why the AI issue wasn't fixed and if we can expect it to be fixed? Or is your focus from now on ONLINE ONLY?

Because we missed it in testing, so don't worry, we will fix it in an upcoming update these next few weeks. Our focus is not online only (and even if it were, online does not even have to mean no AI). So thanks for raising the issue.

 

[Ace King]

I think your assessment in this case isn't right. They're not running out of fuel. The cars that aren't recording laptimes are the ones that are behind the pitbuilding because there's no delimitation of the pit exit or something like that. This was documented since the first release of the track and was confirmed again by someone at the official forum.
For what I gather it's also an easy fix (if devs actually cared), but only thing I'm good at fixing myself is fast lanes, this I have no idea, otherwise I would do it myself.

I watched the AI run out of fuel and sit on the track before morphing back to the garages. So, i try my magic when i get some spare time to actually see if this problem can be fixed by fuel simulation.

EDIT: Update
The 12 AI that don't run out of fuel are those that reside in garage spots (only 12) and all the other AI that run out of fuel are located behind the Pit building as you stated. I watched those AI attempting to leave that area and appear to be confused like they have no pitlane to follow. So, for the time being it appears if you only use 11 AI then there will be enough garage spots for the AI and your car = 12 spots though this may not work and the AI will still use the over flow area. Theory needs more testing!

Since there are 24 garage spots i was wondering why they only used 12 garage spots and used the overflow for the other 12 spots. Perhaps, the garage spots are too close to each other thus why they are only using every other garage spot or maybe they are attempting to simulate IRL.

I will further investigate when i'am able to acquire some spare time as i love a challenge.

UPDATE: Refer to my final testing results on post #42

 

[mariomario55]

gorgeous sim. More like this please.

 

[MPortnoy]

EDIT: Update
The 12 AI that don't run out of fuel are those that reside in garage spots (only 12) and all the other AI that run out of fuel are located behind the Pit building as you stated. I watched those AI attempting to leave that area and appear to be confused like they have no pitlane to follow. So, for the time being it appears if you only use 11 AI then there will be enough garage spots for the AI and your car = 12 spots.

Yes, so as someone suggested at the forum the solution sounds like only thing needed is a xpitout poly (whatever that means) so those 12 cars get recognized as leaving the pits and their laptimes get counted. For now the fuel thing is more of an effect rather than the cause.

By all means see if you can figure it out for your own benefit. For now I'm happy that Marcel already acknowledged the issue and it will get fixed hopefully soon.

 

[Ace King]

Yes, so as someone suggested at the forum the solution sounds like only thing needed is a xpitout poly (whatever that means) so those 12 cars get recognized as leaving the pits and their laptimes get counted. For now the fuel thing is more of an effect rather than the cause..

Ah, amazing they overlooked implimenting a "xpitout"/ xPlanes as this is needed so no need for any further actions by me and since Marcel stated a fix will be released soon no need to bother.

UPDATE: Refer to my final testing results on post #42

 

[davehenrie]

Track seems targeted for F1. 22 cars in 11 pit stalls.
Real F1 passing will be quite simple using the Paul Tracey Chrome Horn technique. (this has often been mis-dentified as the Kevin Magnuson Nudge)

 

[dreamer al]

Credit where credit is due; looks very good to me. Thank you Studio 397.

 

[davehenrie]

I see the slightly purplish color of the tarmac, but really only when I am specifically looking for it. The track itself gets better and better. Started a 2hr race thinking it was only gonna be 10 laps...ran REAL good for the first 8 laps. Then when I was adjusting the fuel, I downshifted when I should have been upshifting and blew the Aston's glorious GT3 motor.

 

[Case_]

I see the slightly purplish color of the tarmac, but really only when I am specifically looking for it.

First thing I noticed when I went on track - purple-ish tarmac and green-ish rubbering.

But it's a nice track and a nice update, and both for free, so I'm not really complaining.

 

[davehenrie]

I will say, the blown engine finally motivated me to add some pit commands to my Voice Attack file for rF2. Just tested a simple 'add 50 litres' and that works, provided I have the pit window already open and the fuel line highlighted. I could get really creative and see if I can just say 'add 50 fuel' and then Voice Attack opens the pit command, and scrolls to the proper line before adding 50 litres. Maybe another day. lol