rFactor 2 May Development Roadmap

Paul Jeffrey

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rFactor 2 Zandvoort 3.jpg

Studio 397 have released the latest 'Development Roadmap' for rFactor 2 - previews of Zandvoort included too!

Following the massive DX11 update and VR implementation brought to the public beta branch of rFactor 2 on Steam, one would be forgiven for thinking Studio 397 would be taking their foot off the gas with new content and features and just focusing on further hotfix updates to the simulation. Not so according to the last development roadmap posting on the official Studio 397 website.

Since taking over further development of the simulation from Image Space Incorporated, Studio 397 have been keen to foster better relationships and communication channels with the simulations diehard fan base. As a result of this new found communication strategy the developers have taken to posting regular monthly 'roadmap' updates on progress with the latest improvements, or just to general put the public in the picture as to what's happening with the simulation back at the development HQ.

So for May we find out that 397 have secured an official licence for the impressive Zandvoort circuit in Holland, with work infact having already been undertaken to bring the circuit into a playable version within the sim. As can be seen from the screenshots attached to this article, progress does indeed look to be at a healthy stage already, although a release date remains a fair while away yet.

Other highlights from the roadmap post include news that the DX11 and VR update is closing on a stable public release "in a few more weeks". Initially launching via the Steam beta branch to mixed reactions, Studio 397 have diligently and quickly been working behind the scenes to deploy a number of updates that have moved the new build forwards at quite the impressive rate. With more work undeniably still to do to get the build in a stable public release ready state, it will be interesting to see how things progress with the simulation.

Other notable details from the post include the intention by the developers to bring further updates to the physics of a number of older content, with the latest CPM coming to both the Marussia and Formula Two cars in the near future. The F2 in particular has come in for criticism in the past in relation to its handling characteristics, so it will be interesting to see how these have been changed post update release.

You can check out the full roadmap post from May below:

A lot has happened since our last roadmap update, with the release of the DX11 engine where we entered an “open beta” phase that saw frequent updates and a lot of feedback from our community. First of all, we would like to thank you all for that! We feel we are moving towards a stable release in a few more weeks, after which our focus will shift towards the completion of our new UI. We will also provide you with some updates soon on how to interact with the screen from plugin code in DX11.

On top of the significant code changes, we also decided to give our existing content an update. A lot of cars and tracks have already been released, with a few more still to come. Tiger Moth and the classic Belgium track are being finished as we speak for example. Some tracks are taking a bit longer as we need to fix a few of our older shaders.

Physics Updates
For our cars, we not only want to do updates to the graphics to make them look better under DX11 and DX9, but also update their physics. The biggest updates are related to our Contact Patch Model (CPM) which will give the F2 and Marussia F1 car new rubber. We are also looking at doing the same for the Civic and will probably do a few others.


Cars
In previous updates you’ve already seen some shots of the Radical in-game and we are currently working hard on completing the sound, physics and tyres for the car and get the package in the hands of our testers. Realistically we are looking at a release in June for this car.


In other news, we now go left with the USF2000 oval package upgrade. Recently we got our hands on some good hard data on the oval package run by the USF2000 series – the resulting upgrade package we’ve developed makes for a more challenging open wheel oval experience. The added adjustments, being in line with the real world data add the proper baseline asymmetry needed, making the car better suited to the sustained wheel-to-wheel and ‘in the draft’ oval action. Additionally, the provided asymmetrical setup is a great starting point for those daunted by having to make an oval setup, it should be well balanced out of the box for a wide range of ovals – so don’t be afraid to just jump in start racing. You should see this update early next week.

Keep an eye out on our social media for a few other announcements on the car front!

Meet us in Zandvoort
Over the weekend, we will be at the Jumbo Racing Days, driven by Max Verstappen, which is a spectacular event at Circuit Park Zandvoort. In a partnership with Red Bull, Fanatec, PlaySeat and Team Redline we have setup a large tent in the paddock area with a couple of rigs where you can test your skills against some of the Team Redline drivers on-site. We’ve heard that Max Verstappen will drop by himself to set a benchmark lap! He will of course also give a lot of demonstrations with his racing car on the real track throughout the whole weekend.


For us this is a great opportunity to share the first preview of our new Zandvoort track, which will be coming to rFactor 2. We’ve included a few early screenshots which show our progress with the track and we are very pleased that we can also announce that we’ve obtained an official license for it.

rFactor 2 is a racing simulation exclusive to PC. You can purchase the game directly from Steam with immediate effect.

rFactor 2 Zandvoort 4.jpg
rFactor 2 Zandvoort 5.jpg
rFactor 2 Zandvoort.jpg
rFactor 2 Zandvoort 2.jpg


Check out the rFactor 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for all the latest news and discussion with regards to the simulation. You can take part in lively debates with fellow rFactor 2 fans and take part in some great Club and League racing events..! Head over to the forum now and share the love this simulation so very much deserves...

Did you enjoy the latest roadmap offering from Studio 397? Happy to hear of the official Zandvoort licence? What other official tracks would you like to see added to the sim going forward? Let us know in the comments section below!
 
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Looks like a bright future is ahead for RF2. The game has come on leaps and bounds since the Studio 397 took it on and the new content that is on it's way is appealing.

A strange thing happened to me earlier today too - for the first time I played Assetto Corsa and actually found myself missing some of the graphic look and feel of RF2. The DX11 update has really got the game up to speed!
 
Here is a minority vote for better sound. Sound...the highly underestimated feature in the gaming world. Peeps spend hundreds, thousands (tripple sli titans) euros onto graphic cards and meanwhile they use the MB onboard sound card...
rF2 is by far the most realistic racesim i own. It has the best AI, very good tiremodel, full race features but the sound is terrible outdated...ugly. But...as said...im in minority...
 
They need to phase out their mod system....Tried to join an online race had to wait an 1hr for mod components to download...is that how it goes?

I don't think that it is needed to phase out their mod system. The problem right now is that it just needs some refinement and polish and from what I gathered, they are trying to implement it better in the upcoming UI. So that you see wich mods are used on a server and are linked directly to the workshop items for example. The getmod function is pretty good on it's own, but the problem are the download speeds of the servers most of the time. From all the moddable games I played, it has the best support for downloading and managing mods. It doesn't get easier than clicking on an item in workshop and having it auto installed to your game. The mod system isn't really the issue, but how it is used by the people managing their servers and how it is presented in the UI.
 
Here is a minority vote for better sound. Sound...the highly underestimated feature in the gaming world. Peeps spend hundreds, thousands (tripple sli titans) euros onto graphic cards and meanwhile they use the MB onboard sound card...
rF2 is by far the most realistic racesim i own. It has the best AI, very good tiremodel, full race features but the sound is terrible outdated...ugly. But...as said...im in minority...

Totally Agree there are many great titles out there the graphics are unbelievable but fail miserably with sound case in point PCARS Ford Falcon sound:notworthy::poop:, i would rather a slightly dull looking car but have the sound of a beast blasting my ear drums:whistling:.
 
Here is a minority vote for better sound. Sound...the highly underestimated feature in the gaming world. Peeps spend hundreds, thousands (tripple sli titans) euros onto graphic cards and meanwhile they use the MB onboard sound card...
rF2 is by far the most realistic racesim i own. It has the best AI, very good tiremodel, full race features but the sound is terrible outdated...ugly. But...as said...im in minority...

The sound in rF2 is, in my humble opinion, much better than in AC.

I liked RaceRoom sound the best though. Whoah. Atmosphere.
 
Has anyone tested Civics and FR3.5? On official forums people complained quite a lot; supposedly the ffb was really weird in last build.

That said, FR3.5 had shitty ffb from the get go, so how much damage could really be done? :rolleyes:



Edit: any chance we can get more club races? Right now we only have Clios. They're fun no doubt, but surely rf2 has more to offer? How about vintage content on Fridays? Or multiclass racing (the few races we did with URD content were easily the most popular club events we did in rf2).
 
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They need to phase out their mod system....Tried to join an online race had to wait an 1hr for mod components to download...is that how it goes?

I love the open communication from Marcel and Studio397.
They've done good things for this sim since taking it over.
The statement above represents my biggest gripe to date ....and while S397 were not responsible for the fiasco that is multi-player, I do hope a solution will come for it...soon.
Casual RF2 multi-player has been almost non-existent from the very 'get-go'...unless you subscribe to a league or have an organized group you race with on a consistent basis.
In a lot of ways, it's been more frustrating than the original Rfactor.
In the case of the original title, it took at least three to four years for the modded content mismatches to heavily influence the on-line racing.
When it did, you knew immediately that you couldn't join and you simply moved on to the next server.
With the new edition of the game, sometimes you'll wait for components to download....sometimes taking as long as ten minutes if you have a slower connection... only to find that you still can't connect.
That's been the source of my frustration and the reason why I did not touch the software for almost a year until S397 did these updates.
I still can't join most MP sessions, but at least it looks better when I practice with the AI.
 
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rF2 is by far the most realistic racesim i own. It has the best AI, very good tiremodel, full race features but the sound is terrible outdated...ugly. But...as said...im in minority...
I would have to agree...the sound is not that good, although I do like the Camero GT3 sound at the moment...BUT Studio 397 have just started the re-development of rF2 so I think eventually the sound will be phenomenal when they get to overhauling it....I have complete faith in them....and as they say, 'Rome was not Built in a Day'
 
Here is a minority vote for better sound. Sound...the highly underestimated feature in the gaming world. Peeps spend hundreds, thousands (tripple sli titans) euros onto graphic cards and meanwhile they use the MB onboard sound card...
rF2 is by far the most realistic racesim i own. It has the best AI, very good tiremodel, full race features but the sound is terrible outdated...ugly. But...as said...im in minority...

@Marcel Offermans Said on discord that they are considering sound engine improvements.

I guess they will talk about it if they are done with dx11, vr and hud.
 
Top marks to Studio 397 for all their hard work, it was a massive change for the game and required lots of work and optimisation to get everything working properly. Obviously still a little way to go with fine tuning but the amount of improvements on my system over the last few weeks have worked really well :thumbsup:

I guess the only slight issue for me at the moment is the TV "mini window" on the timing screen. It does work but it's still very jittery (like it's running at half the framerate) but it doesn't happened when you go full screen so I'm not worried about it.

EnduRacers have released their update which is great work by them as well, just waiting for some of my other favourite mods to follow suit.

Oddly I was thinking the same as @Jamie Blewitt, ok it's not quite as "polished" as AC but with the depth of field and various effects it looks really nice now. Shame there's no camera mode just yet, but I can switch off Post Effects if I need to free move around a bit to take screen shots :)

With all the post effects set to Ultra and using the properly updated Studio 397 content the game now looks seriously good. It still puts a little too much strain on my system to run high everything (which I could on the DX9 build) but with some fine tuning of various settings it still looks miles better than the DX9 version :thumbsup:
 
With all the post effects set to Ultra and using the properly updated Studio 397 content the game now looks seriously good. It still puts a little too much strain on my system to run high everything (which I could on the DX9 build) but with some fine tuning of various settings it still looks miles better than the DX9 version :thumbsup:

DX11 with Post Process at None performs as good as DX9 on my system. :thumbsup: Everything else at Maximum.
Post Process medium and up use DOF: that seems to be very heavy on FPS in replay, but looks really nice.

For driving i use 6056x1080 resolution and PP at None. (bezzel corrected resolution - no multiview)
For replay: I set it to 1920x1080 with PP at Medium.

PP at High and Ultra uses to much glare/bloom for replay to my taste. But it produces really nice screen shots.

If someone is really looking for a (very small) preformance boost with DX11: They can set PP completely OFF in the configDX11.ini
NONE is not completely OFF. ;) Difference is 1-2 fps, so at None will look better with a very minimal lose.
 
That said, FR3.5 had shitty ffb from the get go, so how much damage could really be done? :rolleyes:
Its very weird where people get these, shitty ffb 3.5's... One of the best there is anywhere. These cars needs to be driven with driving skills, they have challenge, thats the beauty of them, blaming ffb on these cars makes me feel that someone is lacking these skills and are blaming on smth else. And like many place else i gotta say, in this Sim. You gotta set your car, this isnt hop in Si... Game. There isnt many Sim's/games where even setting your suspension changes the feel of your wheel...

And same time, thx to Studio 397 for their work again. Nice to see new content.
 

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