rFactor 2 Moving to DX11 - New Company Partnership Announced

[Paul Jeffrey]

With the build up to this weekend’s Sim Racing Expo, Image Space Incorporated have announced a strategic partnership with the Dutch software group Luminis. The new alliance has been created to help increase development in rFactor 2, including a number of exceptionally exciting announcements in relation to the sim.

The partnership will be brought together into a new company: Studio 397. Studio 397 will have its headquarters in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands and will operate under the leadership of Marcel Offermans, a fellow sim racer and the man responsible for bringing both rFactor and rFactor 2 to the Steam platform.

Gjon Camaj, Vice President of Image Space Incorporated:

“We at ISI are very pleased to have found a partner that shares our enthusiasm and vision for the continued growth of rFactor 2. We look forward to working with Luminis to expand the reach of rFactor 2 both in Europe and beyond. After having worked with Luminis for some time and seeing their passion for motorsport simulation, this partnership was a natural next step. By leveraging each of our company’s individual strengths, we will be better able to serve our current customers and further expand our reach into the world of motorsports”.​

Marcel Offermans, Luminis Fellow and Managing Director of Studio 397:

“I’m really excited by the opportunities that our partnership with ISI offers; rFactor 2 represents the best of breed, stable simulator platform in the industry. Online simracing has been my longtime personal passion, so the opportunity to combine my passion with my business feels like a great privilege. By infusing the platform with some of our own technology we see great opportunities to accelerate development in general and specifically in the areas of competitions and training”.​

The new partnership have released an ambitious roadmap for rFactor 2’s further development including the stated plans to move over to a DX11 compatible graphics engine, including VR support for both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. With the move to DX11, Studio 397 have committed to bringing performance improvements for high end video card users as well as maintaining compatibility with current content.

Other highlights from the announcement include a proposed new HTML based front end interface and Matchmaker support, in game UI updates and a promise to make more frequent car and track releases, working on racing cars and series as well as "popular and challenging" tracks. The new partnership also promises to work more closely with the community to support development of free and paid mod releases...

Oh, and the game has a new logo too....


All in all, this is fantastic news for rF2 and the sim racing community. I can hardly wait.

Check our rFactor 2 sub forum for news, discussions, mods, club and league races and everything in between!

What do you think of the announcement? Excited about DX11, VR support, new content? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Jim Liak]

New site https://www.studio-397.com/

I see "The Open Racing Simulation" .

So a game that will be again a platform for modders? Same story...

 

[Yapci]

I get over 100fps with almost all maxed with a 660gtx and 8gb ram so in my opinion it doesn't run too bad, but obviously doesn't look THAT good.

Hope they fix the rain looks because it really breaks inmersion...

 

[Marcel Offermans]

Just to clarify some details on the partnership: Studio 397 owns the full IP (sourcecode) and brand for rFactor 2. Studio 397 is fully owned by by Luminis. The content team from ISI moved to Studio 397. ISI still owns (and sublicenses) rFactor 1. The ISI developers in Ann Arbor are working on their next project, dubbed as "not rF3". Rogue System is also still part of ISI.

 

[ears]

i don't know why there's so much hype surrounding oculus rift. who wants to wear that contraption on their head for hours on end? i think it'll be about as popular as 3D tvs. what i'd like instead is 'projection mapping' so i can project on a windshield and 2 windows w/ the right compensation for skew. its really not difficult to implement, and still way cheaper than oculus rift or triple screen.

Oh yeah! I mean, imagine if real racing drivers had to wear heavy uncomfortable stuff on their head when they were racing. None of them would do it. Would they?

 

[Naliport Halulam]

@Marcel Offermans

Just out of curiosity, do you intend to update shaders to make them more realistic when you switch the game to DX11 or it will be like Iracing, which didn't changed at all.

 

[TheGrunt]

New site https://www.studio-397.com/

I see "The Open Racing Simulation" .

So a game that will be again a platform for modders? Same story...

Yet you obviously didn't see:

Car and track release frequency will increase, focusing on race cars and series and popular as well as challenginf tracks. We will also extend our involvement in the modding community, working with them on free and paid content.

Granted we don't yet have anything concrete from the new company and rF2 at hand and future will show how it fares out, but sometimes I have to wonder how big changes some people require not find something to moan about it. And I must be out of the loop or something, because I haven't heard anyone complaining about moddable platform before.

 

[ears]

As someone who bought rF2 in the hope of Oculus support that never materialsed I'm excited by this announcement. I'm an AC devotee but only really because it's currently, in my opinion, the best compromise of all racing sims in the Rift.

But with this and the recent AMS announcement that might not be my opinion for much longer.

Re the logo, it looks much more modern than the old RF2 brand.

 

[Niki Đaković]

This is awesome news. I can only see this as a lot of new and coming talented drivers will start to choose rf2 (obv once few updates are in place, over the easier to handle new age sim-sim-cades). Which can only be great for all of us. Long live this project.

 

[Torcano]

A bit late to the party but this is some great news indeed. I wish these guys all the best along this path. A modernized and polished rF2? What's not to like.

 

[Tr3voRR]

I too is glad that they are not going to DX12. I run Win 7 because I would not go to the crap piece of spyware that is win 10.
Win 7 runs all my stuff without problems and I'm happy with it. DX11 will be good enough no doubt.

Spyware... you guys are very parano... you should be only scared if you do illegal stuff or watch weird porn.

Windows 10 was free to upgrade for a full year, going forward in time, win7 will just become useless and win10 will be a obligation if you want certain stuff and all the new stuff. People like you that put a brake to progress.

This would have been the opportunity for them to go to the latest installement and I even wish they would have gone UE4. It's free, only a small royalty needs to be payed, but it looks amazing.

 

[Stefan Mizzi]

This is awesome news and congratulations @Marcel Offermans ! Is there the possibility that at some point we get some APIs where for example we can configure and create servers on the fly?

Thanks!

Cheers
Stefan

 

[Juergen]

Just to clarify some details on the partnership: Studio 397 owns the full IP (sourcecode) and brand for rFactor 2. Studio 397 is fully owned by by Luminis. The content team from ISI moved to Studio 397. ISI still owns (and sublicenses) rFactor 1. The ISI developers in Ann Arbor are working on their next project, dubbed as "not rF3". Rogue System is also still part of ISI.

Just to get it to myself..ISI isn`t longer involved into further development of rF2 and licensing?

 

[Marcel Offermans]

Just to get it to myself..ISI isn`t longer involved into further development of rF2 and licensing?

Involved they still are, both because we have a very good and close relationship with them and because Studio 397 will still use their development skills for specific projects. But roadmap, future development and content licensing is all done at Studio 397. Does that answer your question?

 

[Paul Thompson]

But roadmap, future development and content licensing is all done at Studio 397. Does that answer your question?

I think it's very clear, and also very exciting news, but if you don't mind can I ask a couple of silly questions ?

1. How far along the "RoadMap" are you, i.e content, DX-11 development, U.I etc ?
2. Content licensing clearly means real cars, real tracks, will this mean content experiences i.e. series packs ?
3. I've read on other forums that "397" refers to a lap time ? is this the case, if not, what does it stand for

As for the project, I'm really excited and would like to wish you all the best for the future, and I will be there on the track driving and "crashing" what every you release thank you.

 

[Colin Knowles]

Involved they still are, both because we have a very good and close relationship with them and because Studio 397 will still use their development skills for specific projects. But roadmap, future development and content licensing is all done at Studio 397. Does that answer your question?

Good luck with the project..
When is it coming to consoles ??

 

[Zboubi]

tchao ams, r3e, the king is back, i am so exited, great news

 

[Miroslav Davidovic]

Involved they still are, both because we have a very good and close relationship with them and because Studio 397 will still use their development skills for specific projects. But roadmap, future development and content licensing is all done at Studio 397. Does that answer your question?

Well that is awsome news Marcel, wish you all the best with the project. As long time rF2 freak this gives me really hope for the future especially knowing the sim being under your eyes I am confident the base phylosophy will not change all to much regarding the pure driving experience. All the other things like conntent development and gfx updates are just a plus IMO as I am pretty happy as it is now aswell.

The little part about the involvment of the modding community is what makes me very curious tho. How does this look exactly as there is mentioned to be paid and non paid conntent. Is threre any more info that can be officially gathered about this at the current state or is it still somehting without a precise shape?

Cheers

 

[Alex Townsend]

Think this is amazing news. rFactor is the reason I went from console to PC in the first place and loving the experiences I've had so far.
An updated version of possibly the best handling sim to date can only be good news for us all. Update in graphics, physics, ui etc. It's all very exciting

 

[Juergen]

Involved they still are, both because we have a very good and close relationship with them and because Studio 397 will still use their development skills for specific projects. But roadmap, future development and content licensing is all done at Studio 397. Does that answer your question?

Yes, many thanks for your fast reply.

 

[Dennis Jordan]

3. I've read on other forums that "397" refers to a lap time ? is this the case, if not, what does it stand for

397 are the most laps done during a 24h LeMans race.