rFactor 2: Roadmap Update May 2019

[Chris]

Another month rolls on and suddenly we're already (nearly) half way through the year! With that in mind, the team over at Studio397 have released their Roadmap for the month of May, and with it comes incredible news that, has gone somewhat under the radar. But, here we are to shed some light on this GREAT news for simracing fans!

Summer seems to be in full force already, looking at temperatures here in Europe. Besides it being a good time for ice-cream lovers, it also caters to endurance-enthusiasts, with the iconic races at Le Mans and the Nürburgring coming closer and closer. As if this wouldn’t be enough already to get our racing hearts beat faster, how about some naturally aspirated high revving machinery.

So here-it-is! You probably didn’t see it coming, but yes it’s here. No need for a long dramatic intro. We’re ecstatic to announce Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans otherwise known as “24h Le Mans” is coming to rFactor 2. And the cherry on top, it’s coming much sooner than you think. So you are right to get excited now!

As with all of our latest track content, we are pulling out all the stops. The 2018 terrain is modelled with millimetre precision using the latest in laser scan technology. Nothing but the best for this epic track. What other sim to bring out its real potential than rFactor 2 with it’s heritage with endurance multi-class racing.

Bringing this iconic track to life has been a passion of ours since we started, our studio name even includes the record 397 laps achieved in 2010. Officially licensed by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) the 24h Le Mans circuit is over 13.6 km and unique in nature with long sweeping corners and high-speed straights. With the nature of the track also comes a unique race. Le Mans challenges drivers like no other, with 24 hours of hard racing throughout the night and often with difficult weather conditions! rFactor 2 will offer you that challenge – look out for our Road to Le Mans competition coming soon!

We will be releasing more details over the next couple of weeks.

In Other News!
When it comes to things, features and content we currently work on, we could even fill an entire roadmap just with listing it. This means we are pretty busy with working on our favourite sim to ensure that we see even more great racing this year. We have our teams working on the UI, Competition system, updated shaders as well as new cars and of course the Nürburgring/Nordschleife. Progress can be seen everywhere right now which makes us proud every day, but there is still a lot of work up ahead to bring everything your way. But we are on it! Let's get into details for some of the topics.

Competition
With Le Mans on the way, we’re looking forward to bringing an updated competition format for you all to take part in. Details will be posted shortly!! Additionally, you may have seen that McLaren Shadow will be back for another season, so brush off your wheel and get ready to enter into this fantastic competition which we are proud to support!

New UI
The UI itself we are still very busy under the hood, working on optimisations and fixing bugs that arise as part of the new features being integrated. One big feature we can now announce is the Launcher as you now know it, a separate application sitting on your desktop will now have all of it’s features fused into the in-game UI. This means no extra interface to deal with, it’s an all in one unified UI experience, as it should be! And of course we by now also implemented more details in the in-game matchmaker, and one request we often get is the ability to filter AI vs real life humans in the server list. It’s important to know who’s a bot and who’s not! This is working now, and will be released as part of the new UI.

Enjoy the summer, we’ll be back with more news soon!

Join us on the Forum!
For more from the world of rFactor 2, head over to the rF2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment and get yourself involved in the conversation today! If racing against others in a clean environment floats your boat, then we can help you with that too... get yourself over to the rF2 Racing Club page, have a look what's on offer and sign up to race with us!

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[thepharcyde]

10 days left to Le Mans 2019. Will it be really available for the great race?

Perhaps the message, "much sooner than you think" leads to misunderstanding and S397 means until the end of the year

Well if the road map in March 2017 advised the UI was 'slightly' delayed, I think they use a martian calendar so could be anytime this century

"We decided to take the time to really bring together all of the newly developed elements – UI, VR, and DX11. Although this puts us slightly behind our targeted “end of Q1” release date, we promise you it will be worth the wait"

 

[fireballr18]

 

[thepharcyde]

August 2017

"but it should tell you that we’re pretty close to a first public beta release"

 

[wajdi]

Marcel Offermans about the new UI

. The UI is in testing at the moment, all the basic features are done. We have integrated the competition system and the launcher. What's now left is a few phases of testing, starting with our internal testing team and then some additions to our content (stuff like extra descriptions to show in various places, and new artwork) and finally translations into different languages. It's our intention to do a public beta as soon as our private beta team can't find any bugs or other showstoppers anymore. How long until that point? Hard to say exactly, but weeks rather than months. That's my most honest view on the current state.

 

[Bwana]

I am all exicted that rf2 is finally getting an official le man (and a track that is actually iconic/legendary and not a e-rip-off of a track), but honestly they seem not to care for the rest of the free content. Right now the only content with shaders and in general the latest and "greatest" features, are the gt3 cars, the endurance pack, the reiza pack and the gen 2 fe. The usf 2k, the fe gen 1, the DW12, the nissan gt500, the f1 manor (what i have heard, is the best f1 representation according to max verstappen) and most of the rest free content is not up to date which imo is stupid. Why do i have to pay at least 15 euros just to experience the "best" of rf2 for cars that may not interest me?

Answer to your last , you dont

 

[avenger82]

what i have heard, is the best f1 representation according to max verstappen

Source?

The usf 2k, the fe gen 1, the DW12, the nissan gt500

I also wish old cars be updated. But the USF 2000 and nissan gt500 are blast to drive. I like the progressive grip loss and overall FFB. To add the free historic McLarens and Brabham and March are also great.

 

[avenger82]

Nothing wrong with PC2 engine. It's my #2 sim, after RF2. The feeling of driving is fantastic, but you need to use the modified FFB config available in the download section.

I suspect most folks just regurgitate what had been said about PC2, without ever spending the time to set it up properly.

It might be true to some extend, but (independent) pro racing drivers also don't speak highly about handling in PC2. With 180+ cars you'd expect not all are ultra realistic.