rFactor 2 | February Development Roadmap

Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Studio 397 have released their latest development roadmap update post - keeping the community informed about the latest happenings in the world of rFactor 2.

From the February 'Development Roadmap' post:

Broadcast Overlays
Over the last couple of months we have been building, prototyping and testing various iterations of our broadcast overlays. We’ve involved various leagues in this process, collaborating with them, and now we’re getting to a point where we feel we have a solid base that we can publicly release as part of rFactor 2. There are still a few things to finish and test, so an actual release date will probably be announced next month, but we wanted to show you what we were up to anyway.

There will be a couple of different ways to use these overlays. The most straightforward way is directly in-game, where these overlays are available when you are spectating a race. This makes it easy for anybody to start broadcasting races, with no need for extra software except something to stream to your service of choice. The other way is to use them as a layer in your favorite broadcasting software like OBS or XSplit or any other tool that can integrate HTML based elements. In both cases we also provide a control panel that can be used to blend in and out the various elements of the overlay like the scoring tower or the battle box. This itself is also an HTML page, and you can use it in-game or in an external browser.

We’ve gone through a lot of effort to provide a solution that is easy to customize. Leagues can add their own logo, styling, sponsors and colors, all without having to program, and such customizations are easy to share and install, so everybody should be able to use these new broadcast overlays!

rF2 Roadmap 1.jpg
rF2 Roadmap 2.jpg


Development Update
Since our previous roadmap, we have done three more releases containing fixes and improvements to the code, as well as existing content. We’ve increased the release frequency because first of all you, the community, asked for more updates and fixes, but also because we want to keep the momentum going on the new user interface, addressing issues and providing you with quick updates so we can move towards our goal of making this new UI the default. We’re not done yet, we’re still working on some fixes for problems that were reported and features that went missing so you can expect us to keep up this pace in the weeks to come.

There are also still quite a few bigger things we are working on in the background. There’s not always much news to report on regarding these, but as a small recap we’ll go over some of them anyway. First of all our graphics team are still doing an extensive review of our rendering pipeline, evaluating the different stages of that pipeline against reference images generated by ray tracing algorithms as well as real photos. Then there are a lot of improvements that are building on that, as well as things that make the lives of content developers easier. A lot of these developments are getting closer to completion. Our core development team is obviously focusing a lot on the new UI at the moment, but as soon as that has reached maturity the focus will go back to finishing the competition system. We’ve used the last couple of months to look at a few long standing feature requests, such as “offline championships” so we are now looking at modelling those into this system as well.

Content
In the content department, this month we have a couple of minor bug fixes to some classic rFactor 2 cars, some fine tuning of Le Mans and even another track to announce! Additionally our partner KartSim has a whole set of updates and some new content ready.

Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans 2018 v2.05
  • Adjusted grass saturation.
  • Adjusted specular profile on roads to make rubber build up less blue.
  • Configured sky haze settings.
Historic Challenge Spark 1968 v2.05
  • Fixed LOD in showroom.
  • Added new icons for the new UI.
Historic Challenge EVE 1968 v2.04
  • Fixed missing cockpit in the F2.
  • Added new icons for the new UI.
McLaren MP4/8 v1.30
  • Flipped wet texture treads so it ‘mirrors’.
  • Tyre damage texture fix.
McLaren MP4/13 V1.30
  • Tyre smoothing.
  • Tyre damage texture fix.

Portland International Raceway
Announced a little while back, and now back by popular demand! We give you our latest development shots of Portland International Raceway. This original collaboration started with community member Alex Coutie’s scratch built track creation. We then built on it, with the intention to use it as a platform to showcase our new materials, and what can be achieved. In the future this track will serve as a basis for modders to learn all about our new materials system for tracks. We’ll release more details on that after the track becomes available. Portland will be a free track for all owners of rFactor 2 and available in the Studio 397 Steam workshop.

rF2 Roadmap 3.png
rF2 Roadmap 4.png
rF2 Roadmap 5.png


KartSim
By now, KartSim is a well known name in the karting industry, known for high quality professional karts and tracks. They will be releasing a big update to all of their content. For consumers the next release will include updates to most of the existing karts and tracks with improvements to shaders, models, AI and more. Professional customers can look forward to even more updates as well as some brand new tracks like “Le Mans” and a few others. More details will be revealed when this update is released next week.

rF2 Roadmap 6.jpg
rF2 Roadmap 7.jpg


Original Source: Studio 397

rFactor 2 is available now exclusively for PC.

Got questions you about the sim and need help? No worries, post a thread in the rFactor 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment and let the community help you out!
 
Wow. I feel honored they're adding my neighborhood track PIR. I know it doesn't get used as much these days in real life but its a track that has had some of the best drivers and race cars in the world race there. Hopefully other titles will add it someday.
 
I understand this to be a roadmap.
When is it to be implemented?
I've driven this sim more in the last month, than in the last three years combined.
It runs better now than at any other time previously.
I actually took the Aston out to Buddh in VR a few days ago.
It ran great with a full compliment of cars...no stutter and very clear.
If there was one wish I'd have for RF2, it'd be better access to multiplayer.
It is one of those occasions where modding absolutely destroyed mulltiplayer...except for league racers.
Too many modded car and track versions... coupled with badly setup servers created mismatch 'hell'.
 
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Still nothing about AI improvements...
From the Development Update in the first post.
"We’ve used the last couple of months to look at a few long standing feature requests, such as “offline championships” so we are now looking at modelling those into this system as well."

Plus numerous other things in the Work in Progress lists in the latest update postings.
 
I wish they would fix this soon! I can't get in ANY GT3 server, ANY!!!
It really is an annoyance and at this point...unless S397 is willing to setup their own server, cannot be fixed.
The Genie is out of the bottle.
For the most part I've stopped trying to join online races, which is unfortunate.
Every now and then, I'll make an attempt but it is usually the same outcome...I either don't have the model ...or if I do, it is different.
I remember going online in earlier times with Durge Driven and a few of his pals with the vintage racers.
Multiplayer was so much fun for those races at old Spa in the Spark.
 
I agree with you aka2K... the new UI looks good but things where made over complicated for no reason. I wouldn't get my hopes up on the old UI still working after the new UI comes out of beta.
 
A nice bunch of updates.

As someone who likes to design liveries, one thing I’d love s397 to do is make a new helmet model that uses the new materials system.

So many helmets use chrome, metallic, matt effects. Something like that would be great. however I admit I’m not sure if the car folder would work with two region files. Something would need to be created to make sure they don’t get mixed up.

just recently did a pearl metallic red formula car and it looked brilliant.

i do three leagues on RF2 and I enjoy racing on all of them :)
 

S397 work very hard, that now it's the customers who fix the game.
Excited with Kartsim cause I have the pro version, finally they update to the new shaders !
rF2 is the best, when it's not made by s397.
 
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