Latest rFactor 2 Update Introduces Endurance Lights

Paul Jeffrey

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rF2 Norma M30 LMP3.jpg rF2 Oreca 07 LMP2 1.jpg rF2 Porsche 911 RSR 3.jpg rF2 Corvette C7.R 4.jpg rF2 BMW M8 GTE 5.jpg rF2 Endurance Pack.jpg
With the recent Endurance Pack DLC, Studio 397 have also introduced some interesting new features to the sim, not least of which is the welcome inclusion of Position Lights...


Of course the release of five new cars rightly took much of the limelight from the new rFactor 2 update, however it might have been easy to overlook some very interesting and welcomed feature additions to the title, not least of which is the very important introduction of position lights, a relatively recent introduction into real world racing and a feature that will be a big help to players who enjoy long distance multiclass racing in the simulation.

So what are Position Lights?

Simply put Position Lights are illuminated lights on each car within class during an endurance race, and the aim of them is to help easily identify both where the car is in the race, and what position they hold in their respective class. Ideal for multiclass events, the new position lights that come with this new pack in rFactor 2 will "not only show your individual position, they will also show your position in class with colour coding. On top of that, the lights turn into a pit stop timer ‘counting up’ when you pit".

Still keeping endurance racing in mind, Studio 397 have also upgraded the simulation to include a new "in car traction control" feature. Essential for helping adjust settings with the game AI when different types of car configurations and rules apply, Studio 397 had the following to say of this other upgrade to the core software:

rFactor 2 already featured “driving aids” that provided both traction control and anti-lock brakes, but like all driving aids they are global for all cars in a session. Especially in multi-class racing, and this pack is a good example, it is common to have different classes that might or might not have traction control available. Therefore we decided to add the option for specific cars to feature traction control (and anti-lock brakes) as part of the car, completely separate from any “aids” settings. On top of that, we can configure the exact number of “levels” the real cars have and decide if you can adjust those levels in-car or just in the garage as part of your setup, and even if you can turn it off or not, as some cars have such aids built-in and you can’t even disable them.

For this pack, traction control is available only on the LMP2 and GTE cars, and there are a couple of things you need to know to set it up. First of all, as this is a system that is separate from the driving aids, to make in-car adjustments you need to go to your controller settings and map the following four new keys:

rF2 Controller Settings 1.jpg


On top of that, you can also configure these settings in the garage setup:

rF2 Controller Settings 2.jpg


As a final note, if you also have driving aids enabled for one of these cars, the effects of both will correctly be combined. For example, if you set traction control to 2 (which is fairly low) in the in-car setting and then turn on the driving aid to “Medium”, the end result will be that you have medium traction control. We expect most servers and people to simply disable those aids for official races though.

During the new car pack announcement Studio 397 also revealed some interesting information with regards to their current understanding of the tyre model in rF2, something that is already at a very high standards in the genre. The Dutch developers have confirmed they have learnt quite a bit about the way the tyres behave in both the real world and the simulation, something they intend to apply to the recent 'GT3 Power Pack' DLC that was released recently. The same rule applies to the position lights and traction control settings introduced with this new content, both we be retrospective applied at a future date:

New cars and features always trigger the question “what about the existing cars”? Our close collaboration with teams and manufacturers have given us even more detailed insight into the tyres that they are running on these cars. On top of that, our laser scanned version of Sebring gave us an excellent opportunity to compare data to a 100% accurate track. The data prompted us to make some updates to our model, and since the GT3 cars are using the same tyres, our next step will be to go back to and implement and test the tyres on those cars too, which in general will make them a bit slower.

The same applies to the position lights as well as the in-car traction control and anti-lock brakes, which will be added as features to each individual GT3 car. We don’t have an exact ETA for these changes yet, as we also need to make sure these changes don’t affect the BOP within the class, but we will certainly keep you up to date in our monthly roadmap. We will also add documentation to our website for third parties that wish to implement these new features on their cars, as well as publish example tyres.

The Endurance Pack DLC can be purchased from the rF2 Steam Store page for £13.11 HERE.

rFactor 2 is available exclusively for PC from Steam now.

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!

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Do you like the new rF2 update? Enjoying the Endurance Pack DLC? Let us know in the comments section below!
 
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Our eyes do not have straight edged aperture blades - our eyes have an almost perfectly rounded iris that can contract or expand, never causing the unwanted effect of diffraction stars in our own vision in the way it is displayed in the footage.

It goes to a broader discussion of whether games should simulate the eye, or simulate a camera lens. Almost every game lately seems to have gone for the latter approach. Hence we have things like motion blur, chromatic aberration, lens flare, overused depth of field, unnatural post-processing color filters, etc. It's almost as if games these days aim for a cinematic experience instead of actually trying to portray reality.

These days graphics which rF2 used to have are considered "dull", "washed out" and "meh", even though they might more accurately reflect reality. I'm afraid this is a much broader issue and some of the effects in rF2 are probably simply there because people got used to seeing them in all other games, so rF2 looked outdated without them. But as was said, DoF etc. is not applied in cockpit view anyhow.
 
Can someone explain how the numbers work, does is show position in class as I note the number never correlates to position in the UI bar along the bottom

I was in position 19 but car I past was showing number 9 or something, same class as me with a mix of LMPT2 / 3 and GTE
 
Can someone explain how the numbers work, does is show position in class as I note the number never correlates to position in the UI bar along the bottom

I was in position 19 but car I past was showing number 9 or something, same class as me with a mix of LMPT2 / 3 and GTE

They indeed indicate your position in class, with different classes having different colors.

When you pit, they count your pit stop time (in yellow digits) and show the total time you were stationary for a couple of seconds after you drive away.
 
Does anyone know if this is using just the standard traction control modelling that's always been in the rFactor engine, but now simply has different values for different cars (instead of the standard low, medium, high) and just done through the setup screen and possibly onboard (instead of the "F" keys), or has the traction control modelling/coding actually finally been improved?
 
sadly all that does is highlight the utter inability for some RF2 fanboys to understand quite what "simulation" means. It's either complete ignorance or snobbery. And I like ALL the top level sims currently available, all have strong areas, ALL have weak areas NONE are perfectly real....yes even your "hallowed" RF2.

Oh and to call PC1+2 "arcade" just shows colossal ignorance and stupidity. I'm talking amoeba levels of brain size here.

Well, it's unconstructive and unrespectful for rF2 "fanboys" ... This topic is untalkable in a normal way !
Honestly, who ****in' care about what is a sim for YOU ?? .... Nobody !!!
Call GTA a sim if you like and let us (rF2 fanboys) die in our ignorance... thx !
 
Asus ROG 370E Gaming
Intel i7 8700K
32GB Kingston HyperX 3600
Asus ROG Strix 1080 Ti
Win 10 64-bit
5760 x 1080 @ 60 Hz | Triple Screen

I did not do any proper performance tests with the latest builds only booted rF2 up from time to time, jumped into a quick race starting from the end of the field (I usually had 20-30 cars set to race).

With the release of the GTE pack I will most likely run rF2 much more often now as this is the content I am really interested in and it is unique in some features and the availability of the BMW M8 and Ford GT (just now released by URD, already bought and about to install in a bit).

From what I saw doing an open practice session with the new Porsche RSR and BMW M8 and a total of 30 cars on track performance looked stable (didn't experience any slowdowns or issues).
I did not tune the graphics settings yet to extract the best graphics at solid performance.

That's about to come in the following weeks.

I hope we will very soon see an overhauled UI which in it's current old condition is clearly the weakest link in rF2 (a real PITA to set up any custom grids or simply just switch your car while testing without having to set up the entire field AGAIN, …).
Asus ROG 370E Gaming
Intel i7 8700K
32GB Kingston HyperX 3600
Asus ROG Strix 1080 Ti
Win 10 64-bit
5760 x 1080 @ 60 Hz | Triple Screen

I did not do any proper performance tests with the latest builds only booted rF2 up from time to time, jumped into a quick race starting from the end of the field (I usually had 20-30 cars set to race).

With the release of the GTE pack I will most likely run rF2 much more often now as this is the content I am really interested in and it is unique in some features and the availability of the BMW M8 and Ford GT (just now released by URD, already bought and about to install in a bit).

From what I saw doing an open practice session with the new Porsche RSR and BMW M8 and a total of 30 cars on track performance looked stable (didn't experience any slowdowns or issues).
I did not tune the graphics settings yet to extract the best graphics at solid performance.

That's about to come in the following weeks.

I hope we will very soon see an overhauled UI which in it's current old condition is clearly the weakest link in rF2 (a real PITA to set up any custom grids or simply just switch your car while testing without having to set up the entire field AGAIN, …).
hi i have a question i use 5760 x 1080 @ 60 Hz | Triple Screen like you and i use vsync is it good or it consume too much power if i disable it i have tearing like a line who apear in middle of screen??
 
I am really disapointed...After the GT3's , anoter DLC with car without possibility to adjust the gearboxes...
I'm sure it's not realist especialy on cars like the Oreca....
All cars from the endurance dlc have to short gearbox for Le Mans !
Or have i a problem with my game that the gearbox and final are not adjustable ?
 
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