rFactor 2 | February Development Roadmap

Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Studio 397 have released their Development Roadmap for February, looking closer at the latest tweaks and improvements that have are being carried out by the studio in recent days.

Keeping up the tradition of monthly community updates about the latest developments in the world of rFactor 2, Studio 397 recently published their latest roadmap posting and gave some interesting insights into the future development direction of the simulation - as well as confirmation that the Diriyah E-Prix circuit will be added to the software as paid DLC later this week.

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In the roadmap post, the Studio shared with the community the latest development bugs they have been reviewed back at base, with some nice insights into the next round of updates that will be deployed to the simulation in the near furure:

"As we detailed in the last Development Roadmap back at the end of January, a lot of the attention from our development team continues to be focused on addressing a number of the identified and existing bugs within the simulation, with extra attention having been spent in recent weeks verifying and analysing a wide variety of different aspects of the software that can be fixed in the short, medium and long term development of rFactor 2. In an effort to ensure we deploy our resources in a sensible and structured way, we have gone to great lengths to understand where we can make the most impact on the highest number of important fixes within the sim, whilst keeping a close eye on the potential effects this might bring into the codebase within the software. When working on a piece of software as complex as rFactor 2, it is often the case that one change within the development code has unintended consequences elsewhere, and what initially felt like it would be a relatively straight forward change ends up eating into considerable amounts of time that we have budgeted for the fixes, which in turn can have an impact on how many issues we can address in a given timeframe.

In order to facilitate our ongoing development process, we have taken the decision to have a closer look at the underlying code within rFactor 2, and how various pieces of the software depend on other aspects of the code, and what these functions aim to achieve in how rFactor 2 operates behind the scenes. This is proving to be a fruitful exercise, and many fixes and improvements have already been identified and resolved by the development team – which helps put us in a stronger position moving forward. The downside to this is a lot of our resource has been applied to fixing areas of the software that will perhaps not manifest themselves as noticeable changes to the public, but they have certainly been required in order to give us the stable base on which we need to keep pushing forward, and start bringing together those big ticket changes that really uplift the user experience for our players.

Earlier this month we deployed a new build update to the ‘Release Candidate’ branch of Steam (more on RC builds below) that contained the first round of tweaks and improvements we have been working on. So far, we have received a positive reaction to this build, and community feedback suggests we are very close to putting these fixes into the main public branch of the software. The benefit we’ve found in having a release candidate branch has been significant, as it allows us to gauge the reaction of our community and identify if any issues become apparent that did not show themselves during our internal testing, whilst still offering players the opportunity to stick with the main stable branch of the software if they so choose. We are pleased with how this is working initially, and will continue to adopt this development strategy for the foreseeable future"

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Another positive benefit of having a Release Candidate branch for our new update is it allows us to split development focus between closing up any outstanding issues on the RC build that may appear, whilst simultaneously continuing to advance the process of creating our next build – something that is well underway at the Studio and should be very, very close to being deployed to the RC branch once we’ve moved the current changes into the public version of the software. Oh and yes, wheel and pedal inputs will return for the next update…!".

In other good news for fans of the title that have been keen to see the studio address some of the long standing issues with the simulation, studio 397 have also confirmed they have addressed several areas of user interest for an upcoming build release, that should be deployed as 'release candidate' in the near future.

Of that new build, the studio had the following to say about the upcoming new build:

"Related to content, we fixed a CTD when you tried to launch with a series selected that was uninstalled, we made sure there are no ways anymore to select upgrades that were different from the ones the server forced, and we addressed an issue where sometimes when you tried joining a server you would end up selecting cars from the wrong list. Finally, we have extended the logging to include more details about the content that’s being loaded.

Fixed issues with the UI sometimes running at an insane framerate. In the options screen, if you would change FFB settings, they would not register until you go on the track for the second time. The session settings screen saw a bunch of fixes, most of them related to making sure settings get reset at the proper time, such as when changing tracks or series. In the package management screen, we fixed a sometimes not working refresh button. Favorites are also refreshed if you add new ones from the full server list and finally the garage screen now also shows wheel loads.

In the graphics department, after discovering, in testing, some graphical glitches in the skies, included those in the permanent fixes we did that would also sometimes cause the car bodies to glitch and “blow up”. We removed the faint boundaries you would see in VR when looking at the edges of the UI. Last but not least we fixed an issue where secondary wet weather reflections would not show up on damp road surfaces.

Added driver and car info displays to the full screen replay. This includes inputs like steering, brake, clutch and throttle and a g-force circle graph. On top of that we also now always display the correct driver before and after driver swaps. In a race session we now show the time remaining in a session. The message centre now consistently shows the same naming and numbering for values as the garage when changing settings such as ABS and TC while driving."

Other notable mentions in the roadmap is confirmation that the Diriyah E-Prix will be arriving this week, plus another circuit that later this month that has yet to be revealed.


Original Source: Studio 397


rFactor 2 is available now, exclusively on PC.

Check out the rFactor 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for the latest and greatest news, chat and speculation about the rFactor 2 racing simulation.


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Never ever managed this sim to work with my ts-pc and rift s to judge. It was always a struggle. Because I’m not a prejudiced man and keep hearing how this is a good sim.
Really tried to get into it without success. Afterall maybe I can judge it’s compatibility and user friendliness. As a result I removed it from my hard drive.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I recently made my first steps into the VR with Oculus CV1.
Setting up my wheel and headset to work with rF2 took about half an hour.
Couldn't be easier and the result is fantastic, both in terms of performance and driving.

I could never understand people complaining about rF2 not being user friendly.
Maybe if you come from a console background, then it may seem like a bit of a hassle.
But if you had any contact with PC software in the last three decades, it'll be a breeze.
It's easy as it gets.
 

Denis Betty

The older I get, the better I was.
Staff
Premium
Never ever managed this sim to work with my ts-pc and rift s to judge. It was always a struggle. Because I’m not a prejudiced man and keep hearing how this is a good sim.
Really tried to get into it without success. Afterall maybe I can judge it’s compatibility and user friendliness. As a result I removed it from my hard drive.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That didn't take long - 2nd post and somebody can't wait to tell everybody that they don't have rF2 on their HD. What does this have to do with the roadmap?

Sounds like you've been unlucky, in that you weren't able to get rF2 working to your satisfaction. That's a shame, but this is not the place to air you grievance. Please find a relevant thread or start a shiny new one, but please don't post off topic on RD threads. Others will read the title and come to this thread to read about the roadmap. If they wanted to hear about your difficulties (and perhaps even offer to help) they would visit the new thread that you haven't yet started.

I'm gonna stick my neck out and make a prediction. You won't make that thread, because you'd prefer to come here and post off topic in the 2nd post of a front page article. Prove me wrong, please start a thread about the things people would like to see fixed in rF2.

EDIT: :ninja:'d sorry Kenny

Great to hear that S397 are planning to fix lots of bugs. Many people, including myself, have been disappointed at the apparent complete lack of interest in this from them over the years. I think the few bug fixes in recent months are a welcome start. Let's hope they've turned over a new leaf. I haven't tried the Release Candidate, but I look forward to the proposed fixes making it to the main branch. Long may this continue.

Credit where it's due - WD S397. :)
 
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Okay guys I don't think we need another rF2 roadmap/update thread filled with don't/won't/can't play the game posts since most other roadmap/update threads have already covered it.

Thank you Kenny. I was becoming tired of reading through negativity trying to find pertinent information and positive user feedback for this sim that many of us enjoy.

Pretty much use only VR now and however small of a detail it’s nice to see they’ve removed the small boundary in the UI. It runs very well with my setup and any VR improvements in the future are highly appreciated!
 
So, still no improvement regarding load times on the Roadmap - that's the biggest thing that keeps me away from rF2.

I do have the feeling that if I started a rF2 session right now, Studio 397 will have published another roadmap before I even make to the track.

Edit: Missed @Kenny Paton 's post re rF2 "can't play, won't play" - please feel free to remove/delete if this is too far off topic.
 
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When I googled 'race track with undulating layout' (as was mentioned in the roadmap) the first hit was Portimao. My preferred next addition is still Daytona Road Course and would also make sense with the Endurance blood of S397.

I also always like ' sizeable collection of GT3 cars within rFactor 2 (13 and counting)' insinuation. Keeps the hope alive for getting Honda/Lexus/Lambo.

When new content is launched, most people (here) complain about issues and the need for fixes - not content. rFactor 2, for me, runs very well and stable and sometimes it doesn't and then mostly it turns out my computer is at fault. I appreciate the continuous improvements made by S397, but don't stop launching new tracks - more please.
 
I must be clueless. I don't understand when people say, " I deleted it from my HD". Uh............... are people running 40mb hard drives? I have every F1 20xx version, RF2, ACC, AC, PC2 and AMS2 on one drive. I have never deleted anything. I have a 1tb SSD that is for nothing but games. Maybe I have been fortunate enough that I have had to delete stuff to make room on a drive.
 
So, still no improvement regarding load times on the Roadmap - that's the biggest thing that keeps me away from rF2.

I do have the feeling that if I started a rF2 session right now, Studio 397 will have published another roadmap before I even make to the track.

Edit: Missed @Kenny Paton 's post re rF2 "can't play, won't play" - please feel free to remove/delete if this is too far off topic.

The initial load times I’ve noticed are long, but after I’ve loaded a specific combo it’s not too bad. It never bothered me, now waiting on my wife man she has long load times.
 
always the same mourners who post to say nothing, it's tiring...

personally I'm not a fan of Formula-E but I'm glad that fans of this discipline will find in rf2 the official simulation of this discipline with soon all the laserscanned tracks!
for me I hope to see a laser from Portimao or road atlanta to see Sachsenring!! and as a future series of recent & oldies TCR or DTM :thumbsup:
and above all like everyone else I would like development to go much faster!! ;)
 

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