rFactor 2 | November Development Roadmap

Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Studio 397 have today published their latest development roadmap, giving the community an interesting insight into the world of development behind the scenes at rFactor 2.
  • New UI and competition system roadmap.
  • December will see the simulation move to 'new UI' as default.
  • Further Cadillac preview images.
Key points of interest from the latest roadmap post have to focus on the upcoming new Competition System within the title. Expected to release for an initial pass at the system in December, the Dutch development team have big plans for organising online racing within rFactor 2, and despite the system having been a long time in development, it looks like the new post outlines something of a development roadmap for the year ahead - including offline championship mode - which will no doubt be helpful to players looking for a little more insight into the future plans around the system.

Other points of interest from the latest roadmap include further previews of the upcoming Cadillac DPi-V.R and updates taking place on various tracks within the sim.

Cadillac_DPi_2020_03.jpg


The development roadmap for November in full:

November has been another busy month here at Studio 397, with plenty of activity taking place back at base as we prepare for the run in to the festive season.

The nature of game development means we are constantly balancing our long and short term goals for rFactor 2, strengthening the core software and bringing new features whilst ensuring our content offer remains interesting and fresh for new and existing players alike.

Recapping quickly on November (can you believe it's over already!?), we’ve certainly had a very enjoyable month checking out the reactions to our brand-new Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps DLC release – one of the tracks our team has been so keen to bring to rFactor 2 in all of its laserscanned glory, and it's now finally available in for players to enjoy!

To celebrate release of this new circuit, we’ve teamed up with the good people over at WTF1 to launch a very special selection of races on the new track. Headlining the action on December 4th will be our WTF1 3H Invitational endurance event for invited esports drivers, and a very nice selection of real world racing legends. Not content with keeping the action to the world of endurance racing, we've also lined up an exceptional collection of esport drivers from the community, who have taken the opportunity to qualify for not one, but two support races for the main action. Comprising two short and sharp 25-minute sprints in the Porsche Cup and Tatuus F3, we expect the action to be fast and frantic throughout – with plenty of overtaking and drama sure to unfold.

We are still firming up the full entry list for this special event, so stay tuned to the rFactor 2 social channels for some special guest announcements in the coming days.

rFactor 2 | WTF1 Spa 3 Hours and Support Races: More Details, Click HERE.

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Still on the subject of the month of November, we also released a brand-new build update for rFactor 2. As part of that build release we were pleased to introduce our new VR flat desktop mirror mode for Virtual Reality users, something that has been requested by our community quite a lot recently, and also our latest lighting and graphic improvements have made their way into the simulation ahead of further refinements and upgrades scheduled for the coming weeks and months ahead.

As we are closing in on the festive holidays, for gamers this time of year is a wonderful one to snatch up a bargain or two in the many sales that occur during the Christmas period. If you missed out on some goodies during the Halloween Sale last month then worry not, the Steam Autumn Sale is here, and with it comes great discounts on some awesome rFactor 2 content!

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In the Autumn Sale you can enjoy 50% off our Formula E, Endurance, Reiza and KartSim packs, and a 25% reduction in the rFactor 2 Track Expansion Pack – but act fast, the sale ends on December 1st!

Moving forward to the future, namely the festive month that is December, we continue to work hard behind the scenes to deliver some interesting improvements to the way competitions are handled within rFactor 2 - something we expect will really help players access the types of online racing and competitions we know you are keen to experience, but wrapped up in a much more sensible and user-friendly environment than is currently possible with the way the simulation is presently structured.

Last month we spoke briefly about our the competition system beta, and our hopes to get a first pass of the new system in the hands of players before the holiday season kicks into full swing, and then to build on this system in 2021. This very much remains our intention as we slide into December, and initial behind closed door testing seem to indicate the system is working much as anticipated. We've run a few races now internally with our Studio 397 staff and identified a few issues that have been quickly resolved, so before we put down our tools and exchange coding for mince pies and sherry we should be in a position to let you all finally get your hands on what will very much be a long and rewarding journey of expanding and improving the way players interact with rFactor 2 in an online environment.

COMPETITION SYSTEM BETA AND 2021 ROADMAP

FIRST BETA


The primary goal for the first beta is to get a system in place that is easy to use and allows everybody to jump into daily races that are part of competitions. We will support a format where each event in a competition has multiple slots, so you can choose the one(s) that suits your schedule. Standings will be based on a local rating system that compares drivers in all those time slots to figure out who was the best overall.

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ROADMAP FOR 2021
So what’s in store after the holidays? Let’s start by saying we will probably revise this roadmap as we go, also based on user feedback as we deploy each update.

Ratings -- are probably one of the most anticipated features, and one of the reasons for not having them active right from the start is that we want to test our algorithms on real-world data before publishing anything. Our current philosophy is to have a single rating system that encapsulates both your skill and safety record.

Protests and decisions -- are also high on our roadmap list as we will no doubt have situations where an incident will need to be reported and evaluated by our stewards. Our goal here is definitely to let the in-game systems do a lot of the (easy) work here, monitoring when you cut the track or commit other offenses and directly handing out penalties. At the same time we are aware that not everything can be decided by robots.

More competition formats -- are things we will probably gradually introduce but as a feature they certainly need to be mentioned on any roadmap. We intend to run our GT championship, various hotlap styles, some completely new formats as well as more “league style” competitions in the system.

Roles and team based driving -- will be added to allow multiple drivers to share an “entry”, or car, in a competition. Roles can be defined so teams can also have a manager or race engineer. Other roles are stewards, race control, and cameramen to facilitate broadcasts.

Broadcast integration -- is probably another feature that will be gradually introduced, but obviously when broadcasting sessions that belong to a competition, we want to make sure that overlays showing standings, points, participants and calendars accurately reflect the competition they’re a part of.

Offline Championships -- will be added once the online part is running smoothly. We will leverage the features we use online to also facilitate offline championships, where you can race against our AI.

These features will take us well into 2021 and we will revise and update them as the year progresses.



As per our November Development Roadmap post, it should be noted that the transition build to our Competition System will also mandate the use of our new UI within rFactor 2. Following the upcoming December update, continued support of the legacy UI within the simulation will come to a close, and any future builds and updates to rFactor 2 will only occur on the new default branch of the sim. We appreciate that for many players this will bring with it a number of changes to how you are used to experiencing rFactor 2, however we remain confident that the latest iterations of the 'new' UI will provide players with a much more streamlined and enjoyable experience, with many benefits to using rFactor 2 both now and more importantly in the future as we continue to make strides towards ongoing development of the title.

Closer to release we will be publishing a much more detailed guide on the benefits (and known issues) with the new UI and Competition System, and we strongly advise players to migrate to the UI sooner rather than later in order to become comfortable with the layout and features presented, and to help us with feedback as we drive towards maximising the potential of the system.

So, why should you be excited about the new UI, both now and in the future? Apart from the fact the whole UI system is based on technology that allows us to add, change and improve features over time - something that wasn't possible with the current integration, we've also worked hard to ensure that anything you've become used to with the current UI has at the very least been transported to the new design, as well as plenty of new features and improvements that will only be expanded upon in the weeks, months and years ahead.

To give you a brief idea about some of the advantages of the soon to be default 'new UI' (we are really going to have to find a new way of describing it soon...), we've put together a brief list of some of the benefits of the new system - however keep in mind we will be updating and improving this over time, so this list is far from final and any community feedback about useability and features are always welcomed...

  • Trackmap now included on monitor screen with live position data of drivers.
  • Camera control buttons added in replay screen and monitor.
  • Added full screen replay ticker on top.
  • Driver selection in replay screen and monitor.
  • Statistics and best lap times/sectors.
  • Track selection trackmap icons drawn from track data (no need to include icons).
  • Car selection list fully transparent icons.
  • Race Monitor screen.
  • Graph showing race progression.
  • Trackmap data on monitor page.
  • Integrated Competition System.
  • Tuning menu that contains material editor.
  • Flat VR mirror screen.
  • Triple screen widget in the UI.
  • Dedicated front page news section and forum feed.
  • Integrated matchmaker and favourites shortcut.
  • More intuitive summary overview pages in both general settings and setup screen.
  • All admin controls now available as UI controls, (avoids having to use command line if you don't want to).
Turning our attention to the world of playable content, we’ve been around quite a while in the sim racing genre now, and in that time we are pleased to have amassed an impressive collection of licenced cars and tracks for rFactor 2 (with plenty more on the way), and as we continue to bring new things to the title, alongside our ongoing development of the graphics engine, it often means we need to revisit our older releases and bring them up to the same standards as our more recently developed cars and tracks.

Of late we’ve given the refresh treatment to both Silverstone and more recently the Nürburgring track and its various configurations, and now we are delighted to confirm the next two venues on the list to be brought in line with the current standards are the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Portland International Raceway.

Both of these American circuits are under review at the moment by the track team here at Studio 397, with Indianapolis set to be updated to the latest PBR graphics and materials, whilst Portland is due to be given a patch to fix and tweak some key areas within the circuit - both updates of which we plan to deploy within the month of December as we look to breathe new life into these great circuits within rFactor 2. As well as these improvements, we are also onto the final stages of testing for a further Nurburgring patch, bringing back those missing curbstones and a few other small tweaks and changes that should improve things nicely.

Cadillac_DPi_2020_01 (1).jpg


Moving on to cars, last month we showed you some WIP preview shots of the Cadillac DPi-V.R prototype we've been working on at the studio. In order to bring the very best possible level of detail and simulation to this potent prototype racer, we have been working very closely with the JDC-Miller MotorSports team over in the United States. Having access and support from one of the top endurance racing outfits in the IMSA WeatherTec Sportscar Championship, a unit that ran a two-car programme in the top American endurance racing series no less, has been an incredibly exciting experience for us at the studio, and no doubt has helped our development team to recreate one of our most detailed and realistic cars yet for rFactor 2. Currently the Cadillac DPi-V.R is undergoing that all important track testing on the virtual tarmac within the simulation, and I'm sure you will agree with us when we say the digital recreation looks just as stunning as the car in real life - we can't wait to let you get your hands on this one in the not too distant future.


Also on the subject of cars, next month will also see a brand-new vehicle and style of racing arrive in rFactor 2. Over the last few months we've been working closely with DTM champion Mike Rockenfeller to bring to life in rFactor 2 a unique concept - a high performance, tin top electric racing car that produces incredible amounts of power through its four-wheel-drive system, yet offers up an exciting and often rather spectacular driving experience. The car has been dubbed the RCCO eX_ZERO_2020, and will be released as DLC within rFactor 2 during December.

What makes this car rather unique is the fact it will only exist within the sim, but despite having no real world counterpart this is by no means a fantasy piece of content. Several months ago we were presented with an initial spec to develop the car, and using real world parameters and physics the RCCO eX_ZERO_2020 was born - with behaviour and characteristics exactly like those that would be displayed should this crazy machine ever make it out into the real world.

Having been heavily guided in the design and realisation of this project by Mike Rockenfeller and his team, we've found the experience of building the RCCO eX_ZERO_2020 exceptionally enjoyable at the studio, and while the car is certainly something rather different that the normal selection of machinery we develop for the simulation, we feel confident that our drivers will very much enjoy trying to tame this 1000hp beast! Intended for use in some interesting upcoming esports competitions by the RCCO team, as well as providing a very different (and dare we say it, brave) experience for our rFactor 2 players, this is certainly a departure from our usual content style here at rFactor 2!

While we are talking about esports competitions, you may have seen a few messages on the rFactor 2 social channels in recent weeks about the upcoming Sim Formula Europe series taking place next January, well, the second running of this annual competition is starting to kick into gear, and aside from the fantastic racing the series is sure to produce, we've got quite the selection of sim racing hardware to giveaway to competitors too...

OFFICIAL POSTER - ICM 2021 SIM Formula Europe visual 1920x1080 1120 v1.jpg


Returning for the second year in a row, Sim Formula Europe is back once again for players to come together and race for the opportunity to win some incredible prizes. With 60 drivers set to move forward from the hotlap qualifications to semi-final race events, we should see plenty of action out on the circuit as esports stars new and established look to fight for the opportunity to win a percentage of our 10,000 EU prize pool, and some exceptional hardware from SimTag, SimLab, Heusinkveld Engineering and Cooler Master. The hotlap qualifications are set to run from December 3rd - 13th. Stay tuned to the rFactor 2 website and social media channels in the coming days for details on how to get involved yourself and be in with a chance of taking home some fantastic prizes.

That about covers everything we can talk about for this month, onwards to December and the festive season as living rooms around the world get turned into a sea of festive lights and strange stuffed toys of fat guys in red suits and scarily menacing reindeers in coats and hats - stay safe everyone, and see you all again next month!



Original Source; Studio 397.

rFactor 2 is available now exclusively on PC.

Got questions? Our community have answers! Check out the rFactor 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for a great way to engage with your fellow fans of the simulation.

Cadillac_DPi_2020_02.jpg
 
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The "simulate" part makes it incredibly easy.
easy, yes, but then why not simulte 1500hp engines with little to none fuel consumption and tires that grip solidly while never wearing out.
The point was not the technical challenge, but the art of simulation is trying to closely mimic the real world. I've seen track maps in cars, they are printed forms listing the important corners, not dynamic hud super-imposed outlines of the track and competitors.
Perhaps I should have asked WHY instead of How.
 
Trackmaps are needed on simracing, I often use it to see where opponents are or where the opponent car triggered the yellow car since you aren't in a real car so you don't have the same spacial awareness or team radio...so discussing about the lacking of it is kinda a philosophical exercise...it needs to be there, then if you don't like it you should be able to disable it.
Such topic reminds me when on "ISI" forum someone told me damage wasn't needed because you aren't supposed to crash or go out of track...

The fictional car is quite useless to be honest...all this interest on electric stuff is kinda boring...

After the trackmap...why simulated drivetrain/clutch? Improved AI anyone? Proper environment/temperature simulation? Or some more advanced tyre physics (punctures, sidewall damage, carcass etc) ? Improvement to sounds system? Improvement of the damage model?
Etc, etc, etc...

I knowthe rF2 tyre model was one of the best but it is far from being complete and it alone can't be your selling point anymore...it need to improve drastically and fast, no more useless or old content (first istall = gigs of old unsupported ISI content)...simulation isn't only tyre physics, is about fun too, being on the track (even if virtually lol)!
 
Trackmaps are needed on simracing, I often use it to see where opponents are or where the opponent car triggered the yellow car since you aren't in a real car so you don't have the same spacial awareness or team radio...so discussing about the lacking of it is kinda a philosophical exercise...it needs to be there, then if you don't like it you should be able to disable it.
Such topic reminds me when on "ISI" forum someone told me damage wasn't needed because you aren't supposed to crash or go out of track...

The fictional car is quite useless to be honest...all this interest on electric stuff is kinda boring...

After the trackmap...why simulated drivetrain/clutch? Improved AI anyone? Proper environment/temperature simulation? Or some more advanced tyre physics (punctures, sidewall damage, carcass etc) ? Improvement to sounds system? Improvement of the damage model?
Etc, etc, etc...

I knowthe rF2 tyre model was one of the best but it is far from being complete and it alone can't be your selling point anymore...it need to improve drastically and fast, no more useless or old content (first istall = gigs of old unsupported ISI content)...simulation isn't only tyre physics, is about fun too, being on the track (even if virtually lol)!

I actually disagree entirely about "needing" the trackmap for racing, i raced in an RF1 League for many years without one and did just fine, plus iRacing and never felt the need to use one. Even less so since i made the switch to VR, sure the Option to have one is the best for everyone but as it stands there isn't one for RF2 and probably won't be for some time.

(The trackmap in the Roadmap is referring to the one in the UI, just incase people think there's one coming for in car use it's not that)
 
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In simracing you are the driver, the strategy team, the pitcrew and and the team boss. The strategy team has access to track map so I don't see anything unrealistic about having it in some form available all the time. After all in real life you don't get to pick when the race starts or how long each session is. You are lucky if you even have a contract to drive the car you wanted. Not to mention strength of ffb and other things. All this simulation realism not-in-my-sim nonsense feels just really arbitrary and sort of weird elitism where lack of feature somehow proves how hardcore the sim is. Which is ridiculous.

Personally I don't care either way. I don't use track map unless I am driving a really long track and trying to learn it. In which case it is not unrealistic either. It is a game feature and rf2 is game that has and needs game features. Whether it needs a track map is a decision based on whether it needs it. Not if real life has one (they do).
 
In simracing you are the driver, the strategy team, the pitcrew and and the team boss. The strategy team has access to track map so I don't see anything unrealistic about having it in some form available all the time. After all in real life you don't get to pick when the race starts or how long each session is. You are lucky if you even have a contract to drive the car you wanted. Not to mention strength of ffb and other things. All this simulation realism not-in-my-sim nonsense feels just really arbitrary and sort of weird elitism where lack of feature somehow proves how hardcore the sim is. Which is ridiculous.

Personally I don't care either way. I don't use track map unless I am driving a really long track and trying to learn it. In which case it is not unrealistic either. It is a game feature and rf2 is game that has and needs game features. Whether it needs a track map is a decision based on whether it needs it. Not if real life has one (they do).
Pleas don't start S397 off on another project that'll take years to finish, if at all. I'd rather that they addressed all the other stuff that's broken, like the full-course yellow bug, the fact that you have to select your Video card every time you go into the game. the missing car ident. In VR, the new UI Desaster,I could go on and on.
But, as consolation, we get a shitty e-car that doesn't even exist, and nobody wants. It's no coincidence that S397 is based in the Netherlands, I bet they've been smoking something...
 
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In simracing you are the driver, the strategy team, the pitcrew and and the team boss. The strategy team has access to track map so I don't see anything unrealistic about having it in some form available all the time. After all in real life you don't get to pick when the race starts or how long each session is. You are lucky if you even have a contract to drive the car you wanted. Not to mention strength of ffb and other things. All this simulation realism not-in-my-sim nonsense feels just really arbitrary and sort of weird elitism where lack of feature somehow proves how hardcore the sim is. Which is ridiculous.

Personally I don't care either way. I don't use track map unless I am driving a really long track and trying to learn it. In which case it is not unrealistic either. It is a game feature and rf2 is game that has and needs game features. Whether it needs a track map is a decision based on whether it needs it. Not if real life has one (they do).
"rf2 is game that has and needs game features."
I think it's the other way around.
rF2 is a hard core simulator that wants to be a game due to marketing/financial purposes.
This is where all the frustration and confusion stems up.
I personally don't expect anything from it except a good driving feel.
 
NetkarPro with all the buttons you can click with your mouse to start your car is more hardcore than rF2 imo..

Same can be applied to DCS or similar games.

Hardcore means it simulates all the small details which are going to have an effect on racing...

So if your meaning of hardcore is just about "driving feel" you can just play Mario kart with rF2 tyres model...
 
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"rf2 is game that has and needs game features."
I think it's the other way around.
rF2 is a hard core simulator that wants to be a game due to marketing/financial purposes.
This is where all the frustration and confusion stems up.
I personally don't expect anything from it except a good driving feel.
A good driving feel, and that everything works as it should, like the mouse pointer in VR, and fixing all the other stuff that detracts from the realism, the bug with the full-course yellow for example..
 
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^^^ what the hell is up with this loading times meme recently ? Are all the people only loading rF2 tracks for first time, because thats only time they load a long time. Other times it takes ~1minute +-30seconds depending on track size.

I find rF2 loading tracks, such as Nordschleife enough to do 50 pushups (in one go) :D

If Mario Kart has a cockpit view and FFB support, I'll gladly give it a go! ;)

I was thinking yesterday how I would love Need For Speed Underground (the first one), with all arcade physics out, and replaced with legit physics like it is possible to have in rF2.

But thats for sure as you say the problem of two paradigms conflicting - pure realism truth vs pure fun independent fantasy. Personally I think it is possible, just to have physics and general rules real, and all game mechanics are independent and can go together with fully realistic physics. The problem is probably just the image of the game. Although I can see some car games being difficult to be truly realistic physically such as "Rollcage Stage 2" or "Twisted Metal 4" thats where full arcade is great.

However, I also had one another thought. I just had an idea that strong car racing arcade games genre is necessary. Why ? Because if arcade racing dies, it is very likely that simulation games will get perverted into becoming more and more arcade, and fill the niche blocking simulations to be tempted to go there. Arcade genre must exist, and it must not be shamed. Arcade gives contrast highlighting pros of true simulation. The problem is that bar of simulation has been dropped low, and arcades want to label as simulations to gain bonus market. And simulations look for ways to get bit more arcade for the same reason.
 
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^^^ what the hell is up with this loading times meme recently ? Are all the people only loading rF2 tracks for first time, because thats only time they load a long time.

Agreed the track loading comments are wore out.

It makes me wonder if they’re that impatient with everything else in life. Waiting at a red light or in some of the more repetitive cases, school bus?
 
Agreed the track loading comments are wore out.

It makes me wonder if they’re that impatient with everything else in life. Waiting at a red light or in some of the more repetitive cases, school bus?

I love driving RF2, it's just a labour of love with one thing and another when a lot of the problems don't exist in other sims.

RF3 would be the best road map.
 

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