rFactor 2 | Dev-Talk: User Experience

Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Studio 397 and more specifically Christopher Elliot and Rene Butler, have released a very interesting new video where they discuss the user experience and new UI functionality within rFactor 2.

Making the most of the current stay at home orders in place pretty much throughout the world, Studio 397 colleagues Christopher Elliot and Rene Butler have used the opportunity to put together a short Q&A style video around the user experience within rFactor 2 - including some interesting insight into the future development direction of current big project underway within the studio.


The HTML based new UI for rFactor 2 has taken on something of a mythical status in sim racing circles. At first, a delayed launch and much hyping led the community into something of a lather about how this seemingly boring aspect of the sim might change the player experience. Since launch, the first pass at the new UI has been met with a mixed reception from the community - but it seems like Studio 397 remain as committed as ever to developing, enhancing and improving the feature to better support ongoing developments within rFactor 2 in the years ahead.

The video is an interesting idea from the team at 397, and well worth 20 minutes of your time to sit down and watch when you get a spare minute...



rFactor 2 is available now exclusively for PC.

Want to learn some of the tricks and tips for getting rF2 to perform how you want it to? No worries, start up a thread in the rF2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment and ask our community!


rF2 UI Talk.jpg
 
I agree that it is a bit long winded for little information, however it did get me to got to the Workshop and do a bit of window shopping. I was pleased to see a number of new additions by ASR which I went into a clicking frenzy subscribing to. I then fired up the sim and raced the Minardi around CTMP and enjoyed it thoroughly up to the point I couldn't quite grasp why I was being given penalties for pit lane violations and then trying to execute the drive thru and then a stop and go which eventually was solved by a black flag.
Nonetheless I have to say it peaked my interest enough to try out the weather and time changes at the Hockenheim track which was very impressive.
So the video worked, on me at least.:roflmao:
 
Does the video include anything about the vision that 397 has for RF2 besides the UI and eSports ambitions.

Ultimately with RF2 I don’t know where to place it. It doesn’t have a single fully fleshed out series. The closest are the newer GT and endurance cars, they tried some Formula E, but there are relatively few official tracks to go with them.

IMO 397 needs to make a clear choice here and put meat on the bones in full context until they have a complete game: cars + tracks = real series

It is not enough to have good physics and bits and pieces of good cars and tracks.

At least in part this might also be said for AC, but somehow what they put into the base game fits better together.

RF2 is still a clunky hodgepodge of a game, with legacy ISI stuff of mixed quality together with 397 additions and improvements.
 
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Does the video include anything about the vision that 397 has for RF2 besides the UI and eSports ambitions.

Ultimately with RF2 I don’t know where to place it. It doesn’t have a single fully fleshed out series. The closest are the newer GT and endurable cars, they tried some Formula E, but there are relatively few official tracks to go with them.

IMO 397 needs to make a clear choice here and put meat on the bones in full context until they have a complete gamecars + tracks = real series

It is not enough to have good physics and bits and pieces of a good cars and tracks.

At least in part this might also be said for AC, but somehow what they put into the base game fits better together.

RF2 is still a clunky hodgepodge of a game, with legacy ISI stuff of mixed quality together with 397 additions and improvements.
The ability to buy stuff needed for a session from within the UI.
And at 19min Rene asks if he can hint about something else.
 
@David DeGreef Pretty sure S397 doesn't want to be bothered with things that are ACTUALLY BROKEN in the sim. If the new UI doesn't fix it, then it was never broken. ;) I have organized/administered my final rF2 server until further notice. They are focused on eSports, not sim integrity/quality. rF2's physics/FFB combination COULD have made it an all-time sim. But I'm afraid it's not to be. However, an absolute KUDOS to ASR for continuing with new mod content.
 
Save yourself 20 minutes of your life, there's nothing said in this video that hasn't been said many times before. Though at one point, it made me literally laugh out loud, when Rene said that "the beta UI has already been out for (pause) some (pause) weeks". Yeah, I'll say. It was released in mid December, it's almost May. 18 weeks by my count. At least tell it how it is, seriously, and don't hide behind vague statements.

Not their fault, but rF2 original code is clearly a disaster!

One has to ask when does it actually become their fault, though? They've been working on the game (and a new UI, incidentally) for four years now. That's enough time to make a greatly polished game from scratch, possibly more than one. Meanwile they just keep slapping various fancy stickers on a rotting carcass of a game that still has the same bugs that have been plaguing the game for years now. And as a result, pretty much every online race is a disaster (including their own prestigious eSport events they seem to be focusing on so much) and I see once very dedicated fans leaving rF2 left and right because they just had enough.
 
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They both looks and sounds like nice guys.
But too many redundant and unessential words to make it worth the time.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: It is suddenly easy to understand why things takes so long conserning rF2:roflmao:

Have to agree, I think it's in part due to being uncomfortable on camera and also being politically correct and what to say and how to say it.

Could've probably been a 5min video otherwise
 
Save yourself 20 minutes of your life, there's nothing said in this video that hasn't been said many times before. Though at one point, it made me literally laugh out loud, when Rene said that "the beta UI has already been out for (pause) some (pause) weeks". Yeah, I'll say. It was released in mid December, it's almost May. 18 weeks by my count. At least tell it how it is, seriously, and don't hide behind vague statements.



One has to ask when does it actually become their fault? They've been working on the game (and a new UI, incidentally) for four years now. That's enough time to make a greatly polished game from scratch, possibly more than one. Meanwile they just keep slapping various fancy stickers on a rotting carcass of a game that still has the same bugs that have been plaguing the game for years now. And as a result, pretty much every online race is a disaster (including their own precious eSport events they seem to be focusing on so much) and I see once very dedicated fans leaving rF2 left and right because they just had enough.
They did say at one point they had to focus time on building out content they could sell to actually make it profitable in order to improve the sim.

I buy that. If it was profitable for ISI they wouldn't have sold it.

rF2 needs tlc, but it needs to survive first.
 
FYI:

"We received a lot of feedback regarding our Roadmap and that people would like to hear more from our dev-side. This video between Rene and Chris was planned as a test, but we thought, why not just release it to our community as first episode?"

These sort of things get better with time, Rene is actively asking for and reading feedback already so I fully expect this series of Video Blogs to improve as time goes on.
 
Yeah, it was a really nice interview!
I know that there are different teams dealing with different parts and aspects of the game and this video was about the new UI, but...

Probably I'm not just the only one who feels that fixing the following issues would be more benefical for everyone:
- fix the extreme long loading times
- implement screen mirroring for VR (like in PC2 and AMS2 and not this theater canvas like solution)
- proper saving of seat position for vehicles (NOT saving separately for everly livery of a vehicle, like now!)
- dashboard implementation in dx11 with overlays (minimap, etc.)

...and this is just a quick list from my perspective.
 
The ability to buy stuff needed for a session from within the UI.
And at 19min Rene asks if he can hint about something else.

Good point that also woud be appriciated is that a serverlist shows witch cars are in the a server, so one knows if the race is what one wants instead of one needs to join first and then to find out you dont like the combo.
 

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