Enduracers Interview

[Paul Jeffrey]

EnduRacers Modding Team and Gentlemen Racers have released the highly anticipated Version 1.00 of their Endurance Series modification for rFactor 2, adding an epic selection of LMP2 and GT2 specification cars to the rFactor 2 simulation.

The new release brings ten new cars and over 400 paint schemes added to the simulation, across three categories of racing and including such legendary endurance brands as Aston Martin, Porsche, Ferrari, Ligier and Lola represented by some of the most iconic endurance racing machines from the last dozen years of racing. With the initial release featuring some vehicles now replaced by newer generation technology, the development team have promised work is underway behind the scenes to add newer vehicles into the mod at a later date. "We want the mod core to be playable since the first release with homogenic classes to allow online races and championships. This is why for example we are including in the first release "old" models like the Ferrari F430 and the Porsche 997, with a choice to develop physics based on GTE regulations instead of GT2" say the team, so it looks like bigger and better things are still to come to this genuinely outstanding modification.

The much anticipated first release of Endurance Series V1.00 contains the following vehicles:

• GTC - Flat6 GT3
• GTE - Aston Martin V8 Vantage
• GTE - BMW M3 E92
• GTE - Corvette C6.R ZR1
• GTE - Ferrari F430 GT
• GTE - Flat6 RSR
• P2 - Ligier JSP2
• P2 - Lola Coupe
• P2 - Oreca 03
• P2 - Zytek

To mark the first build release of the Endurance Series mod, RaceDepartment have sat down with EnduRacers @klo-che to discuss what goes on behind the scenes in one of the most prominent modding teams currently working on content for rFactor 2.

RD: Congratulations on the much anticipated release of Enduracers V1.00. You must be very relieved to have reached this stage?

ER: Yes ! First of all we would like to thank all simracers of the huge amount of positive feedbacks we received, it's very rewarding and gives us motivation to "end the job as good as possible". It has been a long work of development, to adapt all cars to rFactor2 new features, to build the fresh new models, to adjust the mod to the new build features as long as we were working on it.

Building a MOD 100% from scratch requires thousand of work hours, on our free time, a lot of communication between the team members, and a rigourous organisation. We have happy with current build 1.00 result in all domains, even if we would like some better results, on the graphic domain in particular, and we count on the build 2.00 and the rFactor2 recent change of hands to help us to improve that.

One word more, people often do a mistake, talking about our MODs. EnduRacers is the name of our team, and Endurance Series rF2 is the name of the mod, not the contrary.

RD: How many people have been working behind the scenes on this release?

ER: The current EnduRacers team is made with 2 people in charge of 3D modeling, 1 people in charge of cars textures, 1 member working on the rFactor2 export and fine tuning, 1 for the car skins, 1 person focused on the sounds, 1 person for R&D, and 2 members in charge of media management. Together with us, the Gentlemen Racers league is in charge of the car physics, with a complete team in charge of physics development and beta testing. In addition, we receive external help on some domains. We in addition are cooperating with URD Modding Team, with some exchange agreements based on graphic models. Building a mod like that is a huge amount of work and needs to lot of people working together with the same target, almost like a company.

RD: What technology is included in the mod, CPM tyres / chassis flex etc?

ER: The mod includes almost all rFactor2 new features in terms of graphics (dynamic reflects & shadows, deformable tires,...), in terms of sounds (in particular reverbs) and physics (like chassis flex). We are planning to test and maybe add in the mod other features such as dynamic dirt for graphics, or CPM tyres for physics. It's all in works, but it doesn't mean it will be added in the end.

RD: How long to do you plan to support Enduracers v1? Will the mod receive addon content and updates to the latest tech release by Studio397?

ER: We are planning a the Endurance Series build 2.00 as add-on content. The build will add to the mod the Oreca 05 and the Corvette C7.R (courtesy and property of URD Modding Team). Other cars announcement may be done during the build development. About Studio397, we are in particular keeping on eye on their progress on the upcoming DX11 engine, to improve the game graphics which is its current weakness.

RD: What is next on Enduracers plans? Will you be working on another series for rF2?

ER: We have no plans after the Endurance Series rF2 build 2.00 release. First of all, our team members have less and less free time. The simracing community has changed, in particular when new platforms came, and the ambient has changed. It's less friendly than some years ago, and some people have forgotten that in the end all this is done for free as a hobby. It's less motivating than before. To finish with, we have a small professional activity in parallel for some manufacturers & teams simulators.

RD: Briefly, can you describe how much work goes into creating something like this, and what motivates your team to build something from scratch for rF2?

ER: The amount of work to build a mod like that is huge. For your example, as we work on our free time, if you want to build a car from scratch (3D job, UV mapping, all textures with high level of detail, ingame exportation, sounds, physics, tests,...) is at least 6 month of work, if you want to do things in details. So when you build a multicars mod, it's very huge. In addition, you have to spend several weeks in testing, reworking, validation and so on. As you can see, we never release beta version or unfinished products. We have dozens of people available for test & feedback, in particular within the Gentlemen Racers dev team. It's years of job that we have achieved.

All Enduracers & GR members are pure fans of endurance racing and the famous LM24. Even some of us are working for, or part of the ACO team. It's what motivate us, creating the virtual reproductions of the cars we see at Le Mans. It is what has always motivated us since the creation of our team.

We would like to thank RaceDepartment for the focus on our MOD and team. We hope you will enjoy the Endurance Series build 1.00, and are already meeting you for the build 2.00!

MOD - FEATURES
Graphics

• High fidelity 3D models, with high definition cockpits.
• Hundred's of real paints reproduced for each cars.
• Highly improved car materials, reflections, lightnings and shadings.
• Animated car driver, with high definition 3D Helmet.
• Cars details with backfire, headlights with lens flares, deformable tyres.
• Specific mod UI, to be downloaded and installed separately.

Physics

• Accurate car physics, created in collaboration with Gentlemen Racers physics team, with help from real teams and drivers.
• Up to date rF2 physics features for all cars.

Sounds

• Accurate and detailed sounds for all cars and engines.
• Up to date rF2 sounds features for all cars

WORK IN PROGRESS (not included in build 1.00)

• Dynamic dirt on cars.
• Tire new CPM model.
• Damage fine tuning (Not correctly yet implemented in rF2).
• Animated wipers in cockpit (Not correctly yet implemented in rF2).
• Heat effects.
• FuelMixture.

EnduRacers Version 1.00 is available to download now. Check out the rFactor 2 downloads section here and keep an eye out on the EnduRacers website for more information about projects from the team.

The rFactor 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment is the place to go for all the latest news and discussions regarding the rFactor 2 simulation. We are placing a bit of a focus on the EnduRacers V1.00 mod in the coming weeks, so check out our League and Club Racing forum for some top quality events with this excellent new mod. As well as racing and news, we also host some of the best mods for rFactor 2 in our downloads section, head over and take a look at some of the content, skins, apps and mods available for the game today.



Have you tried the EnduRacers V1.00 mod for rFactor 2 yet? What do you think of the work done by EnduRacers Modding Team and Gentlemen Racers? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Sam Smith]

I guess we don't all know you that's correct. The best way of saying what you meant is probably as follows.
'First of all thanks for creating such a comprehensive mod. I personally prefer the original rf1 version but all the best progressing the rf2 version '
Here is a list of the things I think could be improved......
Here is a list of whats good....
Thank you for helping out the community with a fine mod. All the best.

Constructive and helpful for all don't you think?

 

[MarcG]

Thank you Enduracers Team for your continued hard work.

It's moments like these that we must remember some of the best current Sim Developers started out just as Enduracers are now, Kunos & Reiza are two prime examples. With this line in the interview :
"To finish with, we have a small professional activity in parallel for some manufacturers & teams simulators." It all points to this team doing the same themselves in the future, which would be great.

And remember kids, Kunos, Reiza and Enduracers started out doing everything for Free in their own time whilst changing nappies and working 9-5, show them the respect they deserve

 

[Will Mazeo]

WOW! Never thought i could start such a "fire" with one simple post... everyone who knows me should know that i'm not like this...
Well..now about the truth... I'm really thanking the guys from Enduracers. It's a great mod.. eventhough i'm still a bit disappointed... even though after such a big announcement would be a bit more than this. Tested it with he whole crew and cars seem to hover over the ground and are feeling like hovering. Settings don't matter for this. about 13 people confirmed this problem. It also feels a bit floaty, FFB wise... i hope this get's fixed as well as the rather bad graphics of the mod including the skins and it will be a Great mod! and to the guys who said show something of rf1... i even have screens from RDLMS S3 with the enduracers mod on rF1 Here's an example:

For me this looks just better than rF2

Edit:
Just made a screen in rF2... Sebring with Enduracers...:

(rF2 Maxed out settings) I mean yeah, it's a ported track so don't whatch that BUT where is the difference between the cars appart of the livery? and what looks better?

To be honest rF2 looks so damn bad it could be contributing to your feeling. At least on my PC Automobilista looks way better even when the tracks don't have its shaders Then the "hardcore" sim racers complain when we talk about improving graphics, I mean.. if S397 start selling DLC before improving graphics it's going to be suicide IMO

 

[DaVeX↯]

rF2 was already victim of suicide planning and marketing so we should talk about the best ways to resurrect it...we need to move from a negative point of wiev to a positive one...

 

[Will Mazeo]

No matter what we talk, S397 is the one doing things IMO while they keep with the "not want to break mods" things will take way longer and may keep their hands tied (hope I'm wrong) . They should just drop this, make a major rework and release at once with a "rF2... dot 0" release party
Of course during a beta stage the most important mods could be updated. Just my 2 cents

 

[Alex Townsend]

With the news of 397 taking on the task of building on rF2 with the assistance from ISI I must admit to being excited to get back on to some serious rF2 racing again. Thanks to Enduracers for their hard work and dedication to our hobby I couldn't resist and downloaded this pack and Sebring. Man I can't see what all the fuss is about. Cars look and sound great. Feel pretty good too.
Looking forward to the updates to this mod as well as the incoming upgrades from 397. This may well be my go to sim again as I'm having a blast with it now.

 

[roby13]

rf2 engine is capable of R3E (-ish) equivalent graphics. they probably never had the intention/money/time/people to work on them

 

[Andy_J]

i even have screens from RDLMS S3 with the enduracers mod on rF1 Here's an example:

For me this looks just better than rF2

I have RF1 and I have never been able to get it looking as good as that. Is there a secret?

 

[roby13]

no secret. virtua lm tracks, hd skins and a bit photoshop blur

 

[Ricardo Edelmann]

I have RF1 and I have never been able to get it looking as good as that. Is there a secret?

Yes there is. Filters NVidia settings good angle and a good PC

No Photoshop tho

 

[Rastas]

rFactor 1 can look good when moders put all efort on tracks,cars etc,btw,conversion from AC to rFactor1 whit full permissions,wet version of the track

 

[Jeff Huber]

Made my donation this morning of about $30.00 , and it was worth every penny! Thank you team ER!

 

[William Wester]

rFactor 1 can look good when moders put all efort on tracks,cars etc,btw,conversion from AC to rFactor1 whit full permissions,wet version of the track View attachment 159953

But that's the thing... many say rF2 looks like crap but when using quality content and a decent computer it looks fine (I could also post very good pictures of rF2). rF2, all things being equal, looks and plays much better than rF1. Many don't understand or take the time to uncover the good points of rF2.
I have to agree with the latest YouTube video by GamerMuscle "Which is the best Racing Simulator", there really isn't an "overall" best - the best is which one hits the racers preferences (online, offline, racing cars, street cars, sound preferences, graphics preferences, etc.).

Sorry everyone, this is an Enduracers interview thread, not a sim comparison thread. The vast majority of posts I'm seeing enjoy and appreciate this mod - I agree, and looks just fine in rF2.

 

[kmanitou81]

Made my donation this morning of about $30.00 , and it was worth every penny! Thank you team ER!

That won't make the mod better, but I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

 

[Sam Smith]

That won't make the mod better, but I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

Oooo I hope that got you hard.

 

[Torcano]

Haven't had much time for sim racing the past week but guess I should make some time now.

@Will Mazeo No joke, couple nights ago I kinda dreamt that rF2 moved to unreal engine and was so damn happy but then I woke up mid dream and the realization that "it's just a dream" was real saddening. #firstworldsimracingproblems xD

 

[Associat0r]

I appreciate the big effort done, certainly it requires a lot of hours to release a mod with so many cars, even though personally I don't find the visuals to be up to current standards

It's because of improper material settings, especially Fresnel in this case. This is sadly the case for most rF2 mods, and needlessly makes rF2 look worse than it should.

and the physics are a level below ISI or Apex/URD GTs, imo. Got the same impression with the Flat 6 mod, it's like the cars are floating around.

I donated around $10 early last year, and I really wanted this mod to be good, and I wish I could say something positive as in "thank you for the effort", but sadly, as with their flawed Flat6 mod, most of the effort went into 3D models with a vast collection of liveries and no real effort was put into the physics, or at least into understanding physics.
The saddest thing is that this flawed Endurance Series mod, as with their flawed Flat 6 mod is also unfairly heavily praised by a certain popular figure (be wary of those) with a lot of fanfare, and even called an rF2 game changer, while dismissing other good mods, and perfectly fine default content with dubious reasons.

EnduRacers advertise their mods with this.

We will bring you the most realistic and accurate mod in sim racing.

• Physics : Accurate car physics, created in collaboration with Gentlemen Racers physics team, with help from real teams and drivers.
• Physics : Up to date rF2 physics features for all cars.

So, initially I assumed the issues were caused by the tires and didn't look any further into the physics files, since I assumed that a famous modding team like EnduRacers, especially with connections to real racing teams would get the basic fundamentals right. How wrong I was.

For example, all the GT cars in these EnduRacers mods have yaw inertias of around 3140-3200 kg-m^2 and pitch inertias of 2750-2800 kg-m^2. This is obviously way too high, since even a naïve uniformly mass distributed bounding box based on the dimension of those cars, has way less inertia than this, around 2430 kg-m^2 yaw, and 2270 kg-m^2 pitch and this would already be a very lenient upper bound, since real cars aim to have most of their masses as centralized as possible.
Most cars from the 12xx kg range have around 1900-2300 kg-m^2 yaw inertia. Even the inertia of old road cars is less than the cars in these mods.

Also, the Corvette C6R and Ferrari F430 in this mod have exactly that same moments of inertia, despite those cars having vastly different mass distributions in reality.
All the LMP2s in this mod have a mass of 980 kg with inertia of around 2130 kg-m^2 yaw and 1880 kg-m^2 pitch. This inertia is obviously way too high for such dedicated race cars, which should have their masses even more centralized than GT cars.
These issues alone, basically make both EnduRacers mods (Endurance Series and Flat 6), fantasy mods without any simulation value, and can't be taken seriously. It's impossible to have proper car behavior when basic fundamentals like this are so wrong. These cars are physically implausible, they are that wrong, and due to these issues behave nothing like a car in their weight class.

These EnduRacers cars would have most of their masses densely lumped towards the far front and rear end of the chassis, with an almost empty chassis interior. How would the engine, drivetrain and all the other components fit in such dense spaces and still function? How would you structurally keep the front and rear of the car together when there isn't much material left for the mid section? It wouldn't resemble a car anymore.

Then there is the tires not loosing enough grip at temperature issue which still plagues the cars of these mods.

There are many other issues, such as wing center of pressures being located too high, a lacks of many diffuser entries from rF1, let alone rF2, and lack of engine entries like throttle mapping.

All of those issues result in cars with too low responsive initial turn-in and float and cars being able to drive sideways with ease. It's even easier to notice with the LMP2s. The behavior of the cars in both EnduRacers mods (Endurance Series and Flat 6) is nothing like real cars.

I know I should be grateful that they're doing this for free, but lets be honest here, those physics would be inexcusable more than a decade ago, let alone in this day and age, especially when you claim to be associated with real race teams, and I do question whether those real race teams actually scrutinized what they're doing.

Please next time, leave the physics up to people who know what they're doing.

 

[Gijs van Elderen]

It's the lack of proper Fresnel reflections

Do you mean the rF2 fresnell spec and reflect aren't good? Or not correctly applied by the modder?

 

[William Levesque]

It's mainly because of features, only GTR2 and rF2 can give you a real endurance feeling with weather and day/night cycle, specially those 24 hour races so you can save and resume at some point, it's a shame sims aren't advancing as they should

Unfortunately iRacing had to wait for the scrubs still using 32bit and DX9 to gtfo or switch. Hopefully Soon(tm) !

 

[St3fan]

It's mainly because of features, only GTR2 and rF2 can give you a real endurance feeling with weather and day/night cycle, specially those 24 hour races so you can save and resume at some point, it's a shame sims aren't advancing as they should

How do I set up random weather in rF2? It seems that I have to set a certain pattern for the weather to change in advance.