rFactor 2 Build 1109 Released - Includes New Rain Features

[Paul Jeffrey]

A new update for rFactor 2 has been deployed today, now featuring enhanced rain visuals amongst a sizeable number of improvements and fixes.

As detailed in the final development roadmap post of 2017 (HERE), Studio 397 have today deployed a fairly sizeable new build release for rFactor 2 that amongst other things offers players the opportunity to sample the first pass of the enhanced rain effects introduced to this venerable racing simulation. Benefitting from significantly improved visual representation over the previous rain simulation, the new build is a major step forward in one of the few remaining areas where rFactor 2 fails to live up to expectations in comparison to other similar simulators available on the marketplace today.

As well as the very visually obvious changes to weather effects, Studio 397 have committed to continue developing the wet stuff in rF2 as they look to improve the overall experience and introduce physics interaction with dynamic puddle formations and other interesting and exciting elements found in wet weather racing.

Due to the nature of the new build and visual improvements brought to the simulation, vanilla and mod content will need to be updated to make best use of the new technology employed by Studio 397. As such the Dutch developers are actively working to update all the base content of the simulation, with the following items already having been given the update treatment, with more to follow in the coming weeks and months;

Cars

• Bentley GT3 - v1.97
• Radical GT3 - v1.993
• Mercedes GT3 - v1.99
• McLaren GT3 - v1.993
• Callaway GT3 - v1.97
• Formula E - v1.993
• Dallara - v1.96
• USF 2000 - v1.94
• Camaro GT3 - v1.94
• Corvette C6R - v1.93
• Nissan 370Z GT4 - v1.93
• Brabham BT44B - v1.95 >>>You need to manually subscribe HERE
• Brabham BT20 - v1.95
• Stock Car - v1.96
• EVE -v1.98
• Spark - v1.98
• Formula Two - v1.95
• Honda Civic BTCC - v1.99 (Physics Update: New tires)
• Kart Cup - v1.92
• Nissan GTR GT1 - v1.93
• Howston G4 - v1.96
• Howston G6 - v1.96
• Megane 2013 - v1.95
• Clio 2010 - v1.93
• Howston Dissenter - v1.94

Tracks

• LimeRock - 2.02
• Mores - v1.82
• Nola - v1.30
• Indianapolis - v2.04
• Silverstone - v1.84
• Brianza - v2.04
• Malaysia - v1.82

Before playing the new update it is also worth noting the following information;

• Important: Make sure to update any SteamCMD servers to get the latest!
• Delete contents of the folders CBash and shaders located in \Steam\steamapps\common\rFactor 2\UserData\Log

Full build 1109 change log (December 21st 2017)

Improved Lighting

• We developed an Image-Based Lighting for Ambient (IBLA) solution that substantially improves lighting in our graphics engine.
• IBLA acts on the colors of the scene, taking into account information from the surrounding environment when drawing each object.
• The resulting lighting system gives the final image a more realistic look and it improves the perception of depth for the driver.
• This new system uses new ambient probes that have been added to most of the tracks. It is recomputed dynamically as weather or time conditions change.
• IBLA does not introduce any noticeable performance penalties and its features have been exposed to Mod Dev. Furthermore, tracks that do not have set IBLA yet will automatically have a default set of probes assigned to them.

Rain Effects

Cars

• Added dynamic drops on the windshield and the body of the car.
• These drops respect gravity, so they will run down the sides, and each single drop will have its own lifespan.
• The drops also respect airflow around the car when driving, making them move in appropriate directions.
• The effect is not scripted but generated in real time, and it varies depending on factors like the amount of rain drops falling from the sky, the speed of the vehicle, or the particles generated from another car in front of you.
• Wipers on cars are now functional and will clear the windscreen in two different user configurable speeds.

Tracks

• Vastly improved reflections of the surroundings that become visible as the track gets wet.
• Added blurred reflections for the “Ultra” Road Reflection setting.
• Improved shaders for the real-road surfaces and added new shaders to match closely the properties of elements like curbs in dry/wet conditions.
• Added highly detailed puddle maps that allow puddles to form in the appropriate places on tracks.

New HUD Options

• Added options to show tire wear and ride height as text parameters.
• Added tire wear percentage to the vehicle status MFD.
• Increased the accuracy of fuel consumption with an extra digit.
• Fixed a bug with TireAverageTemp text parameters, which would not show up in the HUD because of a space in their names.
• Added a “delta best” parameter that you can add to a HUD, showing time lost or gained compared to your fastest lap in milliseconds. Works for all cars (not just player). Included optional text coloring of the text output so positive and negative values can result in different colors.
• Added a more accurate fuel indication as well as one that shows the fuel you used in your last (full) lap, or zero otherwise.
• Added a gauge for showing the “delta best” with a range of -1.0 to +1.0 seconds.
• Added predicted number of laps remaining based on fuel used for last lap.
• Added current rain percentage.
• Added minimum and maximum track water depth.
• Added an option to disable font scaling for the chat and message box (apart from using comic sans, non-linear font scaling is about the biggest sin a designer can commit).
• Added weather info (rain intensity and min/max water depth) into the MFD for HUD and in-car use.
• Designed a new default HUD that takes advantage of the new features. (Coming soon)

Other/Fixes etc.

• The plugin API will no longer invoke callbacks that provide ScreenInfoV01 data that used to allow plugins to render to the screen. Doing this directly has been deprecated with the release of DX11, and alternatives are to either use information that is available in the updated HUD or wait for a new plugable HUD system to be released in 2018.
• We have removed the “cache” folder from our install, so all content will now be downloaded from the workshop. This means the base install is much smaller. Upon first launch you will be automatically subscribed to all Studio 397 content and while that is downloading the Launcher will show a progress dialog window with screenshots of all content items it is downloading for you.
• Generating Mip Maps from reflections, this gives smoother reflections as a result.
• Formula E liveries for TeCheetah, Mahindra and Venturi updated to 2018.
• Formula E driver helmets updated.
• Formula E driver suits updated.

Known Issues/troubleshooting

• Rain effects are visual currently. However, we are working on physics impacts.
• Some content is still to be updated to include the rain effects such as cars and tracks.
• Performance is constantly being reviewed
• Rain drops on external cameras under review
• If you are experiencing strange graphical issues, delete the contents of your cbash and shader folders located in \Steam\steamapps\common\rFactor 2\UserData\Log
• Important: Make sure to update any SteamCMD servers to get the latest!

To help you get the most performance out of the new update Studio 397 have released basic graphics setting guidance that can be found HERE.

rFactor 2 is available from Steam as a PC exclusive title 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...

Like what you see here at RaceDepartment? Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow us on social media!

RaceDepartment YouTube
RaceDepartment Twitter
RaceDepartment Facebook
RaceDepartment Twitch
RaceDepartment Instagram

Tried the new build yet? What are your impressions of the new rain effects? Like the new direction of the sim? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Ghoults]

Just to set the record straight:

• Studio 397 is part of Luminis. Luminis consists of several "cores" that are all independent businesses that are fully owned by the parent company. In total there are approximately 150 people working at the company.
• Luminis did contract work for Reiza Studios to help the initial development of Automobilista in 2016 and the video presentation we did contains some of the things we worked on in that period of time. Since then, Automobilista has evolved further until it's final version that is about to be released according to the latest development report from Reiza.

Thanks for the clarification!

 

[dreamer al]

OT but I wonder if you could help me? My Xbox One controller is unuseable in RF2. The steering is either full right or full left - it won't return to centre... Any ideas?

Make sure you have "detected" your Controller and select "XBox One for Windows". I did tinker with settings, speed sensitivity etc. but didn't see any difference, so I returned all settings to normal (default). Other than that. I am afraid I can't suggest anything more. Best of luck.

 

[Amanda]

This gotta be the ugliest rain I've seen in a game in a very long time. There's potential, but that seems to be the motto of rF2: "There's potential in here...".

Sadly, that's the way I'm starting to see rFactor 2. I was immediately in love with how it drives, but the "best physics on any sim" fell short when I realized there's little content (cars and tracks), performance-to-looks is bad, multiplayer is horrendous, G29 full support lacking, and S397 are releasing unfinished and unoptimized content.
Don't get me wrong, I don't know how much of a pickle S397 have on their hands and I do praise them for reviving rFactor 2, but I would rather wait a little more for updates than to have cars that perform bad (650S), rain effects that aren't that good and reduce performance by 50/60+%, cars that have only 1 livery, etc.

In many ways I feel like rF2 is a waste of good physics.

It breaks my heart to write this, but right now I see no reason to keep supporting rFactor 2 while there are other sims that already deliver everything, there's no need to "wait for the next time or the next update, or 5 years or so".

 

[aka2k]

"It breaks my heart to write this, but right now I see no reason to keep supporting rFactor 2 while there are other sims that already deliver everything, there's no need to "wait for the next time or the next update, or 5 years or so".

That summarizes everything for me. rFactor 2 feels less than a tech demo right now, and it feels like it's getting worse every update instead of improving. Assetto Corsa had quantum leaps in the mean time. PCars 2 improved so much over the first game. Raceroom is a fully fledged sim now. And even Forza 7 has its charm.

And even more aggravating: the first rFactor is so much better in so many ways. Even graphically, since it's a lot more consistent.

 

[apex11]

Reading the constant bashing on this site, Race Department in a nutshell, the Anti Project CARS and rFactor website enough said.

Have a miserable Christmas All.

If someone says they don't like something why can't people cope with that?
And i say that as a fervent RF2 supporter.
Doesn't really bother me in the slightest that people don't like it. I do, can i be arsed spending my life trying to convince people otherwise?

Anyway, finally the "racing cars don't have any aero or rubber grip" has been put to bed with the admission that RF2 had been getting git wrong ALL this time.
The latest blog is a bit blinding with science (well big words) but basically its been too unforgiving and too much ice skating and not enough tyre heat.
All these years of the sim community being obsessed with the idea that racing cars are made to be utter crap at cornering (utter drivel and the reverse is true)......
To have a good handling race car or car is not ARCADE.........

Thank God, I've spoke to racing drivers and many who don't use sims have had ago and said its harder than real life as a lack pf grip anywhere.
Looks like we are finally there.....It'll stay in sim racing for a while yet, but a stupidly slippy and skating race car is actually a broken race car....there's a few is all the sims...

 

[Will Mazeo]

That summarizes everything for me. rFactor 2 feels less than a tech demo right now

It's funny because rFactor 1 and 2 are tech demos! Tech demo of isimotor 2.0 and 2.5 so ISI can license them to other studios. What looks like is that S397 is trying to change that in rF2 but this is no magic.... people are way too impatient. Ever tried to write a piece of code? Imagine a full sized program that is already done and you need to change things. It's not easy.

 

[Ghoults]

It's funny because rFactor 1 and 2 are tech demos! Tech demo of isimotor 2.0 and 2.5 so ISI can license them to other studios. What looks like is that S397 is trying to change that in rF2 but this is no magic.... people are way too impatient. Ever tried to write a piece of code? Imagine a full sized program that is already done and you need to change things. It's not easy.

Rf1 and 2 are not tech demos. The word you are looking for is engines. RFx is a graphics and physics engine for driving games. Anybody who has made an engine (live for speed, netkarpro, codemasters f1 2017) can choose to license their engine for others (or not). That being said I don't think rf2 engine is even available for 3rd party devs. At least it wasn't a year ago.

It is very true that changing things on live product is very difficult. When s397 acquired rf2 I was kinda hoping they'd just kill rf2 right there and then and work a year or two on that code to create... "S397: one sim to rule them all" or SIM397 or something. A new title taking the best of rf2 and fixing lots of the worsts. No need to worry about backwards compatibility, no need to worry about every change breaking something. Go balls deep into dx11 or vulcan or whatever, rebuild and fix lots of the rf2 issues that are hard to fix now when full library of content would need to be rebuilt along with loss of mods every time a change is made. But S397 chose differently. It is not easy but it is what they chose to do. We'll see whether it works out.

 

[aka2k]

It's funny because rFactor 1 and 2 are tech demos! Tech demo of isimotor 2.0 and 2.5 so ISI can license them to other studios. What looks like is that S397 is trying to change that in rF2 but this is no magic.... people are way too impatient. Ever tried to write a piece of code? Imagine a full sized program that is already done and you need to change things. It's not easy.

It's been almost 6 years the game's on the wild, man! Even elephants are gestated much faster! Despite Studio 397 being there for a year (more or less, forgive me I don't remember), the game doesn't feel like it's moving ahead. Somehow, it feels like it's moving backwards with the flurry of messy patches.

But you know what? Whatever. If gets better, great! If it doesn't, screw it. I'm tired of waiting for rF2 to recapture the magic of rF1. That won't happen unless by a miracle. In the meantime, better sims are coming and going. Wake me up if rF2 ever catches up.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Rf1 and 2 are not tech demos. The word you are looking for is engines. RFx is a graphics and physics engine for driving games. Anybody who has made an engine (live for speed, netkarpro, codemasters f1 2017) can choose to license their engine for others (or not). That being said I don't think rf2 engine is even available for 3rd party devs. At least it wasn't a year ago.

It is very true that changing things on live product is very difficult. When s397 acquired rf2 I was kinda hoping they'd just kill rf2 right there and then and work a year or two on that code to create... "S397: one sim to rule them all" or SIM397 or something. A new title taking the best of rf2 and fixing lots of the worsts. No need to worry about backwards compatibility, no need to worry about every change breaking something. Go balls deep into dx11 or vulcan or whatever, rebuild and fix lots of the rf2 issues that are hard to fix now when full library of content would need to be rebuilt along with loss of mods every time a change is made. But S397 chose differently. It is not easy but it is what they chose to do. We'll see whether it works out.

You just said the same thing, they are the base/tech demo/whateveryouprefertocall for isimotor 2.0 and 2.5 respectively and then you license the source code. A very smart demo considering everything the community built during the years.
rF2 was not available for customers for a long time. I think it became available some months after Reiza licensed the isi2.0. But I could be mistaken there, I remember reading in ISI forums something like the 2.5 was not considered ready at that time.
But now that it is on S397 hands I dont think they can license that engine to others, their plans are very clear to turn it into a full game rather than a demo of a tech.

It's been almost 6 years the game's on the wild, man! Even elephants are gestated much faster! Despite Studio 397 being there for a year (more or less, forgive me I don't remember), the game doesn't feel like it's moving ahead. Somehow, it feels like it's moving backwards with the flurry of messy patches.

But you know what? Whatever. If gets better, great! If it doesn't, screw it. I'm tired of waiting for rF2 to recapture the magic of rF1. That won't happen unless by a miracle. In the meantime, better sims are coming and going. Wake me up if rF2 ever catches up.

A full remake of a graphic engine for a studio with 20 or so guys in less than a year seems pretty big to me, not to mention the other things. I mean... first months were probably making the company, transfering IP, getting new people familiar with the code.
Not that I dont agree with you in part. I do, I too wish they'd do things faster. But no, I wont wake up anyone when that happens. Move on to other sims, in the end we gotta do what is better for us and it's not like simracing is important, it's important to have fun, nothing else

 

[hitm4k3r]

...

It breaks my heart to write this, but right now I see no reason to keep supporting rFactor 2 while there are other sims that already deliver everything, there's no need to "wait for the next time or the next update, or 5 years or so".

Other sims that deliver everything? I don't know in wich world you are living but it might be a good practice for you to go back to your sims that offer everything and take a closer look, because on my end they all have their goods and faults and none of them offer everything. Whenever I go back to my beloved rFactor 1, GTR2 or GTL I pretty much allways find something annoying where I find myself thinking - "Hey this works tons better in rF2", AMS, AC or whatever you desire. The AI in rF2 is reason enough reason to keep playing it besides some other neat little things for me because there is no other sim that offers offline racing with that quality, atleast for me. Some people have some really rose tinted glasses. Mark my words, next time you get rearended in AMS, rF1 or when the AI takes a shortcut on your inside line over the grass

 

[Amanda]

Other sims that deliver everything? I don't know in wich world you are living but it might be a good practice for you to go back to your sims that offer everything and take a closer look, because on my end they all have their goods and faults and none of them offer everything.

'Offering everything' doesn't mean it's all perfect, to be honest. In this regard (that no simulator is perfect) I think we can agree on.

Whenever I go back to my beloved rFactor 1, GTR2 or GTL I pretty much allways find something annoying where I find myself thinking - "Hey this works tons better in rF2", AMS, AC or whatever you desire.

Not a fair comparison. You shouldn't compare a 2017 sim with a 2006 sim as it's obvious that newer sim will function better in some regards. The same for comparing a 2006 sim with a 1996 or 1986 sim (if there was one at the time).

Curiously enough, I find older sims to work way better than newer ones in quite a few aspects.

The AI in rF2 is reason enough reason to keep playing it besides some other neat little things for me because there is no other sim that offers offline racing with that quality, atleast for me. Some people have some really rose tinted glasses. Mark my words, next time you get rearended in AMS, rF1 or when the AI takes a shortcut on your inside line over the grass

I find rFactor 2's AI to be quite faulty. Not only they're not consistent (as are the mods), they make some very stupid decisions like ramming me at the pit exit of Interlagos, it's like I'm not there even though I'm coming in way faster on the right side of the track. They just exit the lines and ram me from the side, forcing me to slow down.
And if I already started my turn they just dive-bomb anyways and most of the times they pass through the grass, almost always causing me to spin, it seems because they're coded to "so I dove-bomb and now I'm in the grass and with 2 wheels on track near this guy, guess I'll just have to tighten my line regardless if ther's a car by my side who would never guess I'm this stupid" ; while in real life or in Project Cars 2 opponents chose the safer route and let me finish my turn even if they're faster in that particular turn.

I am yet to be rammed by AI in Project Cars 2. I find their behavior very consistent and way more realistic than in rFactor 2 or Assetto Corsa. Using 100% 'opponent skill' (forgot the naming of that) and 75% aggression.

 

[MarcG]

Lol pCars2 AI better than RF2....please!

 

[MPortnoy]

I am yet to be rammed by AI in Project Cars 2. I find their behavior very consistent and way more realistic than in rFactor 2 or Assetto Corsa.

Good joke bruh, but April Fools' is still a few months away

 

[whip]

yeah pcars ai is pretty crap, almost as bad as the general player base

then again the whole game is just a mess of bugs and garbage design choices

 

[Angelo dos Santos]

rF2 was working just fine for me until the move to DX11. That killed the Sim to me, simply because my system is not taking it at all.
No, my system is not too old or week, it handles AC just fine, for instance. Rf2 itself was running fine.
But when I tried the DX11 Beta version, stutters and freezes all over the place. Even following all recommendations, delete shadows, cbcash...etc etc...as soon I was on the track with another cars, the whole thing fells apart.
While was beta, fine. I reverted back to DX9 and the Sim was running just great again. Btw, one of the best moves I did in years, revert back to DX9. It solved 98% of the problems I was having.
But now with the last update, and DX11 being the new default set and stuff....I cant race against 10 cars on track...just plain horrible.
I tried the graphics sugestions from Studio397, high end, mid range, low end...to no avail.

So, to me of course, this whole DX9 DX11 saga is a huge debacle that is driving me away from what I consider a good Sim.

 

[Marcel Offermans]

Can you please post your settings and system specs so we can take a look to see if there is anything we can advise to make it run faster?

 

[Angelo dos Santos]

Thanks Marcel, will PM to you.

 

[Fernando Deutsch]

Angelo, include a pic from GPU-Z too.

 

[MPortnoy]

So, to me of course, this whole DX9 DX11 saga is a huge debacle that is driving me away from what I consider a good Sim.

Regardless if Marcel is able to help you or not, DX11 shouldn't drive you away from rF2. I don't like DX11 for a number of reasons so I've never made the change and probably never will but rF2 in DX9 is still the game I'm putting more hours on.

 

[Angelo dos Santos]

I dont even use GPU Z...lol.
Will have to install.
@MPortnoy . To me also, I would stick with DX9.
But it looks like DX9 will not receive further updates? this will make my participation in the leagues I race, impossible.