rFactor 2 | Competition System Development Blog Post #2 Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

Studio 397 have released the second blog post update on the contined development of their new Competition System within the simulation.

• Identified two substantial bugs under investigation.
• New series coming soon.
• Various system updates.

In this latest posting from the Dutch development team, Studio 397 offer some further insight into the development of the Competition System within rFactor 2, highlighting some ongoing bug quashing that is underway at the studio and answering some community questions about the new system.

You can check out the full post update below:


This weekend, the first two series will end, and whilst we are already preparing for a new and fresh set of competitions (possibly with a surprise we don’t want to spoil just yet), in terms of development we have been chasing two bugs:

• The first one is a problem where, seemingly randomly, significant groups of people disconnect from the server after a couple of minutes. So far we’re mainly seeing this in our GTE series and it seems to have gotten worse after we introduced some changes last week. Our efforts are very much focused on reproducing this and fixing it and we expect this to continue into next week.
• The second one is a graphics glitch, where the bodywork of a car starts deforming into a bunch of huge polygons that reach into the sky. This one too is still under investigation, and I hope to have a better update on this next week.

Feature wise we’ve deployed a few updates to the rendering in the UI, and a few more are expected to be deployed right after the publication of this blog, or possibly tomorrow. Updates include a richer briefing, better layout for the standings (with jumping to “your” position still to come) and some networking improvements that make the UI more robust.

In general we would like to thank our community for their active involvement in reporting issues during this beta phase. As promised last week, we wanted to answer some frequently asked questions. If we’ve missed yours, don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’ll answer a few more next week.

Q&A

Q: What will be the major feature of the system which will make people say “hey let’s play (or switch) to rFactor 2”?
Stevy

I’m not sure if we can name a single major feature, but a significant part of the community has been telling us “if only you had an organized online system like one of your major competitors”. So that was a major reason to build this system. Picking one feature that might make it unique, but will still be some time away, the system is quite flexible in how you can setup different competitions, so we can keep innovating and organizing new formats. One feature that, as far as I know, will be unique, is that we can include multiple different simulations into the system and even run competitions where different events run in different sims.

Q: What will make it special compared to all the other systems?
Stevy

Our main goal is to have an experience that keeps people trying new things, so in the next couple of years you will see league style races, knockout tournaments, short sprint races, endurance races, and lots of other types of challenges we probably did not even think of right now.

Q: Will it even have something like this or will it be “just” a comp system like all the others?
Stevy

In the end there are only so many ways you can do a competition system, but I think the rFactor 2 simulation itself lays the groundwork for some unique things. One aspect we already mentioned before is that we expect to also include “offline” racing against the AI, so maybe next year the Tatuus Winter Series is something you can also run against AI, or maybe even allowing a mix of AI and humans.

Q: Will there be an iRacing like results screen where you can see the ratings from all the drivers at the end, and will they be saved to look back at it yourself?
Unknown

The whole “result viewing” part has not been deployed yet, but for sure we will add extensive statistics about all the sessions and splits in each competition, as well as driver, team and friend statistics. And that will certainly include some form of rating, driver reputation and possibly others.

Q: My question about that would be how you can maybe change your car? Even if all points are gone.
Vanisch

Yes, we will most likely have a feature to leave a competition and then (if that is still allowed for that competition) join it with a new entry, which will also allow you a new choice of car.

Q: Please add more Q session for GTE during the day, in American continent there’s one at 3am and 4.45am so the next 4 races of the day.
Nico Barclay

Right now we settled on a schedule where there is a race every 5 hours in both competitions and we had to shuffle the qualifications around a bit to accomodate for the big demand we saw. We are aware that that still might not be enough for all timezones to find a nice slot to race in the 3 days each event lasts. In this beta we will probably not “scale up” yet, but in the future our goal is to host as many races as there is demand for.

Q: Please add a “practice” button from the competition page so we can either join an open practice session or a single player race. I was trying to practice the loch last night, but I couldn’t find any details on which track config it was supposed to be. So a practice button that takes us right there would be great.
MarcG

For now, your best bet is to go into single player, and then go to the series selection and look for the GTE or Tatuus Winter Series and select that. This way when you go into car or track selection, you will just see the content that is used in the competition. For now all tracks are run using “default” weather. Going forward we will introduce practice sessions for people to get together and train online.

Q: Will we have to keep buying cars we’re not interested in driving or will this change in the future? A while back I took a break from rFactor 2 so there are some cars I don’t have and I can’t join the GTE series even if I already have the car I want to drive. A couple of cars is already enough to stop me from returning to rFactor 2. I can’t imagine how many new players this will stop from getting into the game.
Martin Vindis

So this would require a huge technical change, basically a rewrite of how the package system works. We decided against that and instead offer much better pricing on car packs compared to some of our competitors. We will always keep running competitions with free content, and will even consider properly built and licensed community created content. You can also expect future bundles that are tailored to our competitions and can be bought at a discount.

Q: Will the competition system become subscription-based when it hits proper RC-state?
Flaux

No. The competition system will be free to enter and as long as you behave well in the sessions, you can access it. There might be some competitions in the future that require an entry fee, and we might work with specific partners to build special events that have other requirements, but fundamentally we want everybody to participate.

Q: Hello good morning, when are you going to put the game in Spanish? since in the community there are many Spanish speakers, more than you think to put us aside. It would be more correct to also translate into Spanish from Spain. Translated with google translator.
Tetemr

Somos conscientes de que hay una gran comunidad de habla hispana y en nuestra pantalla de perfil puede ver que tenemos la intención de proporcionar traducciones completas a muchos idiomas. No estamos listos para comenzar ese proceso, pero está planeado y ciertamente aceptaremos la ayuda de la comunidad para lograrlo. Traducido con Google Translator.



Original Source: Studio 397

rFactor 2 is available now exclusively on PC.

Got questions? Our community have answers! Check out the rFactor 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for a great way to engage with your fellow fans of the simulation.

 

[fireballr18]

Oh gee they have proper Lemans you can run 60 cars 24 hours with driver swaps ....were most others don't .....I wonder why could be something to do with passion

Most others do not focus on WEC/Le Mans. Others like iR provides 24h races/driver swaps too.

 

[fireballr18]

...or 'Subscribe' now and test them out ...great sounds / liveries and the rF2 FFB / Physics, what's not to like
Alpine GT4 and Cup car from 'Enduracers' at Mills Metropark.

View attachment 436618View attachment 436619View attachment 436620View attachment 436621View attachment 436622View attachment 436623

How do you like it? Pretty decent at first glance, I think.

 

[M D Gourley]

How do you like it? Pretty decent at first glance, I think.

Yes, it's great quality...'Enduracers' have been around since the rFactor 1 days and creating great cars and tracks then as well , although not sure whether it's still the same team now though.

 

[hotak]

I don't really like the answer about buying content: for example i already got both GT3 packs, the first endurance and the pack with aston GTE and senna.
Making new bundles including all that content is useless for me: you're practically "punishing" people who already got that content for an higher price, i'd still have to buy the second endurance pack and the 488 GT3/GTE at full price to join competitions (about 25€, not much but no little either, considering i already have well more than 100€ invested in this game).

I'd like either a more raceroomm-like system where you get discounts for contents you already own or just new bundles including all and only recent content.

I'd also happily just pay like a 15€ annual subscription including all content for that year, if it would be a possible "middle ground" solution.

 

[MarcG]

I don't really like the answer about buying content: for example i already got both GT3 packs, the first endurance and the pack with aston GTE and senna.
Making new bundles including all that content is useless for me: you're practically "punishing" people who already got that content for an higher price, i'd still have to buy the second endurance pack and the 488 GT3/GTE at full price to join competitions (about 25€, not much but no little either, considering i already have well more than 100€ invested in this game).

"I'd like either a more raceroomm-like system where you get discounts for contents you already own or just new bundles including all and only recent content.

I'd also happily just pay like a 15€ annual subscription including all content for that year, if it would be a possible "middle ground" solution.

If you own Packs but only require an individual item then it looks like you'll still only need to buy that individual item not the entire bundle (I think), again bearing in mind this is Beta and they may well tweak things as it progresses. Note, individual Cars & Tracks could also get special discounts in the store, exactly what RaceRoom are doing this week with reference to their Multi Class Ranking Races for the coming week.

This quote From Marcel was in reference to one of the first Series in the Comp System a week or so ago:

"It's important to know that you need to subscribe and therefore own all content to sign up. If you do not own all content, we will try to make you the cheapest possible offer based on our current bundles in the store. We put that proposal in your shopping cart and leave it up to you to buy these items, make changes or simply decide to back out. Note that this also means that sometimes you get an individual item that is also part of a pack, so we encourage you to look if this is indeed what you want to buy or if you want to go for the full pack in such cases.

Note that we did not aim to optimize this series in any way for people who are completely new to rFactor 2 so we realize that it's not the cheapest competition to sign up for if you do not own any of the content yet. We'll always keep hosting competitions based on free content so there will be something for everybody."

 

[atomed]

in my humble opinion which rarely anyone uses these days because they so far up themselves they are right .... like me

Brilliant

 

[Durge Driven]

Sure dude, I see the RF2 cult is still going strong.

My point being all the laser scanned tracks in the world are no use if the car is less feeling

 

[Yetch]

Stands for the most laps at Lemans, 397 in 2010

Oh gee they have proper Lemans you can run 60 cars 24 hours with driver swaps ....were most others don't .....I wonder why could be something to do with passion


As for laser scan I drove ACC AMS2 rF2 each 5 hours this week and rF2 terrain fake or not is still the best
and a few of the tracks never been updated

in my humble opinion which rarely anyone uses these days because they so far up themselves they are right .... like me

Should have tried Raceroom!

 

[roadyroad]

Sorry to whoever wrote that, but for most of the Q&A, I've never read so many words with so little meaning. So much corporate talk where you say vague things without making any real statements.

How negative you are. It is really crucial : this will be the best competition syst ever but be patient, currently it is not as advanced than other titles and you'll have to buy the whole package to join a competition because of... the code, U know (s397 should call the Masters of the Code!). Anyway in 2 years this is going to be a true racing sim changer! Like the current UI which was announced 2 years ago (or more, I can't remember), a real game changer, other sims are just so ridiculous in comparison! Shame on you for being so pessimistic!

 

[RaceNut]

Yes, it's great quality...'Enduracers' have been around since the rFactor 1 days and creating great cars and tracks then as well , although not sure whether it's still the same team now though.

Thanks for sharing this info.
I have the GT / Multi-class mod already but, was unaware of the cup series / Alpine series mods. I hope they continue to expand the GT4 class offerings.

 

[avenger82]

Come on, please tell us how you won´t use or buy any rFactor 2 content until they solve your bug.

It’s no wonder such comments are common when many people get frustrated when so many long standing issues keep persisting and list of bugs doesn’t get shorter.

 

[MarcG]

It’s no wonder such comments are common when many people get frustrated when so many long standing issues keep persisting and list of bugs doesn’t get shorter.

On the flip side many people are enjoying RF2, the old adage "you can't please them all" rings true with this Sim! Sure it would be great to have some of the long standing issues resolved, but it's not like S397 have sat on their fingers since 2016, a quick glance at the Build Change Logs shows you that Bugs are getting fixed & issues dealt with.
After all this Comp System is a direct response to what the Community wanted all these years, so they certainly listen and get there....eventually

 

[Ho3n3r]

So this would require a huge technical change, basically a rewrite of how the package system works.

Very good to know.

 

[avenger82]

On the flip side many people are enjoying RF2, the old adage "you can't please them all" rings true with this Sim! Sure it would be great to have some of the long standing issues resolved, but it's not like S397 have sat on their fingers since 2016, a quick glance at the Build Change Logs shows you that Bugs are getting fixed & issues dealt with.
After all this Comp System is a direct response to what the Community wanted all these years, so they certainly listen and get there....eventually

“You can’t please them all”, because it’s still a mess at many fronts.
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
- Bill Gates

They improved graphics significantly and released a lot of mixed quality DLCs and new UI which all in all is even worse then old one (but looks modern). Except some tire model fixes there have been no physics engine improvements or development since S397 took over (2016).
I hope competition system would be good enough to bring some iRacers , but I’m not holding my breath.

 

[Peter Kerényi]

"So this would require a huge technical change, basically a rewrite of how the package system works. We decided against that and instead offer much better pricing on car packs compared to some of our competitors."

Huh... some of... a single one of them I guess. Guys don't get me wrong, for example the C8R looks awesome, has a proper dashboard display like it should be. But if I purchase official content I would like it to be updated to the latest improvements the Studio has made. Just look at the Porsche Cup, Oreca, bland cockpits, terrible dashboard displays with wrong and stretched fonts. Wouldn't install them if they were free...

But obviously your magnificent package system works in a way that I cannot uninstall payware content if I e.g. bought it in a pack for a better value. So we are stuck with content we do not want on our hard drive twice because of course a copy has to be installed and another .rfcmp package file just sits there minding its own business.

And of course, who would expect that your curated awesome priced payware content would support your new UI after working on it for 4 years, of course we do not need skin preview images and manufacturer badges for the Reiza pack, it would give the impression that the sim has a level of polish (pssst... such images are there in your content store)...

Sorry for the passive aggressive tone...

 

[MarcG]

“You can’t please them all”, because it’s still a mess at many fronts.
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
- Bill Gates

They improved graphics significantly and released a lot of mixed quality DLCs and new UI which all in all is even worse then old one (but looks modern). Except some tire model fixes there have been no physics engine improvements or development since S397 took over (2016).
I hope competition system would be good enough to bring some iRacers , but I’m not holding my breath.

Who has created a competition system to rival iRacing? They're still the king's and again this RF2 one is in beta, give it time but if you're ready to write it off now then so be it.

 

[gianlucaP]

ì

 

[Ghoults]

"So this would require a huge technical change, basically a rewrite of how the package system works. We decided against that and instead offer much better pricing on car packs compared to some of our competitors."

Sounds like the isi mentality.

 

[MarcG]

Sounds like the isi mentality.

Hardly, S397 have and had clearly prioritised in other areas which we might not if got had they decided to change the system.
They can't do EVERYTHING and the Package System is clearly complex and a huge undertaking to change, if they had the manpower maybe things would be different, but they don't, so here we are.

 

[sbabb]

"So this would require a huge technical change, basically a rewrite of how the package system works. We decided against that and instead offer much better pricing on car packs compared to some of our competitors."

Huh... some of... a single one of them I guess. Guys don't get me wrong, for example the C8R looks awesome, has a proper dashboard display like it should be. But if I purchase official content I would like it to be updated to the latest improvements the Studio has made. Just look at the Porsche Cup, Oreca, bland cockpits, terrible dashboard displays with wrong and stretched fonts. Wouldn't install them if they were free...

But obviously your magnificent package system works in a way that I cannot uninstall payware content if I e.g. bought it in a pack for a better value. So we are stuck with content we do not want on our hard drive twice because of course a copy has to be installed and another .rfcmp package file just sits there minding its own business.

And of course, who would expect that your curated awesome priced payware content would support your new UI after working on it for 4 years, of course we do not need skin preview images and manufacturer badges for the Reiza pack, it would give the impression that the sim has a level of polish (pssst... such images are there in your content store)...

Sorry for the passive aggressive tone...

even if not all cars would have to be purchased to race against them, they still would need to be installed either way, also if the situation comes where only one car is needed no packs will be there

and the Reiza Pack thing you mentioned is only down to Reiza, not S397, only Reiza has the legal rights to change anything, which they said they plan on doing sometime this year if all works out