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.

rF2-Indy-Update-4.jpg


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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Please, in your humble opinion because I drive and enjoy it every day

Am on totally new kick of resuming 6 to 24 hour races

Have to try it on ACC and AMS2 !

Oh wait they can't

Do you seriously take the time to reply to all the people who have a "humble opinion" different than yours? Of course it's THEIR opinion, since it's THEIR experience. You don't have to specify that you voice your own opinion when you do, even if every other robot that wants to fit in today feels the need to use that expression. People usually understand that you speak from your own experience. Most people. And our experiences may differ, as well as our opinions, but they can coexist. I'm happy that this game works for you. Wish I could share your enjoyment.
 
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Kenny Paton

Staff
Premium
@Kenny Paton I really want to quote and reply to Guitartech's posts as there's some factual flaws in it and a few things I would like a further explanation to, but if you want me to keep a lit on it, I understand. Its as off topic as his posts.
He's maybe suffered enough with his broken pedals and would no doubt feel compelled to reply so
better to save it for the next rF2 thread.
Or you could start a new thread in the rF2 section where you can discuss your points.
 
@Kenny Paton I really want to quote and reply to Guitartech's posts as there's some factual flaws in it and a few things I would like a further explanation to, but if you want me to keep a lit on it, I understand. Its as off topic as his posts.
Feel free to PM me. I don't bite :)
Edit: I'll start a new thread instead , which, as someone else has pointed out, I should've done in the first place. I have lots of time at the moment anyway, the replacement control PCB for my pedals will be coming Monday next week, and not Friday like I'd hoped :-(
No driving for the whole weekend, how will I survive? :)
Maybe I'll have to resort to actually talking a lot with my wife, it's her birthday on Saturday as it happens...
 
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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.

Always fun when you've waited ages for it to load, looking like an idiot just sat there with the VR headset on, only to be treated to a fit inducing screen flicker and dumped to the desktop as soon as you click race.
 
Now this is an interesting twist:

My post from another thread with the same news:

Jesus! It was true... I'm speechless...

After coming around... I must say that this is shocking news. As I said earlier, we could have one day rFactor 3
with ACC visuals and still the great physics and FFB we have now in rFactor 2.

Also some other Sims based on the rFactor 2 physics like the already announced BTCC 'game'.

Let's hope for the best...
 
D

Deleted member 379375

  • Deleted member 379375

Always fun when you've waited ages for it to load, looking like an idiot just sat there with the VR headset on, only to be treated to a fit inducing screen flicker and dumped to the desktop as soon as you click race.

The whole VR UI environment is horrible especially the replay interface ,video quality and camera positions.
 
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Not sure what to think.

They talk about Unreal Engine in press release. So rf3 is probably coming.

Which means modding support is gone.

Will require the best of best graphics cards to run VR.

Kunos lifted the complete physics engine to unreal engine 4 for ACC.

So rf2 can do the same.
 

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