Lots of Goodies in the July rF2 Development Roadmap

[Paul Jeffrey]

The latest rFactor 2 'Development Roadmap' is here - and it's packed full of exciting information...

Well it looks like July and August are going to be something of a bumper month for rFactor 2 fans if the latest development roadmap is anything to go by... Studio 397 have broken from tradition slightly today, releasing the latest monthly development roadmap blog post a few days earlier than usual, packing the new post full of some very exciting updates and information about where rFactor 2 is heading in the very near future.

Highlights from the new posting today include news on when we can expect the very intriguing 'Reiza Bundle' DLC, confirmation the Sebring is coming very soon indeed and of course an insight into some great updates for the premium GT3 and GTE pack of cars.. oh and more VR fine tuning and performance boosts too...

Check out the full rF2 'Development Roadmap' below:

Upcoming Events
First of all, we have a few events planned that we want to announce.

ChinaJoy
August 3rd to 6th, Studio 397 will be present in Shanghai for the yearly ChinaJoy event. If you’re in the area, please drop by and take advantage of the opportunity to say hello and take rFactor 2 for a spin.

SimRacing Expo
September 14th to 16th we’re happy to announce that we will be present at this year’s SimRacing Expo at the Nürburgring. We invite everybody to come and visit us for a glimpse into the future of rFactor 2. As always we will bring a few surprises!

McLaren Shadow
Earlier this month, McLaren introduced their all new hunt for the brightest and best esports talent, dubbed “McLaren Shadow Project“. This is the follow up to last year’s “World’s Fastest Gamer” that saw Rudy van Buren take the win. We are delighted to announce that we will be part of this competition again, building several new McLaren cars for the upcoming events. And the best news is that they will all be available for free!

Upcoming Releases
Then, there are a lot of new releases coming up now and in the near future.

Today: New Build, GT3 and Endurance Pack Updates
We are about to release a new build with a few improvements and new features. Especially, but not exclusively, for our Virtual Reality users, we have included a new feature called “Stabilize Horizon” that allows you to enable a low, medium or high amount of stabilization, which helps keep the horizon stable on bumpy tracks and still works properly on strongly banked tracks. We’ve also made a few changes in our DX11 graphics engine. First of all, we caught and fixed some issues with the brake disc glow on some cars. An issue that only showed up on 6-core CPUs with no hyperthreading and caused rendering problems in our shadow maps was also found and fixed. For tracks, we added support for a new dirt map, a feature you will see on Sebring and that will be explained shortly in our developer documentation. We slightly adjusted the logic for our “pit director” that will tell you how and when to leave your garage as he was a bit oddly placed in some cases. Last but not least, we also spent some time optimizing our post effects, which has resulted in a healthy increase in performance with those enabled.

In our previous roadmap, we already announced that we were close to releasing an update to our very popular GT3 cars. Over the last couple of months, we’ve received a lot of feedback on these cars, and we sat down and incorporated all of that in this update. On top of that, we’ve included the new in-car traction control and anti-lock brake settings, position lights colored green for the GT3 class and our very latest set of tyres to align the cars with our endurance pack. We also tweaked the Balance of Performance to ensure continued close racing.

As part of our continued development of the Endurance pack, our visit to Duqueine Engineering, which we will report on in a separate blog, also got us some crucial feedback on the handling characteristics of the Oreca and Norma cars and a unique chance to compare telemetry. These and other tweaks based on feedback have been incorporated in an update of the Endurance pack.

Both packs will be released later today. Leagues that don’t want to immediately make the switch are encouraged to keep a copy of the previous version. That said, we’ve tried our best to ensure a good balance of performance and also made sure you can run classes from both packs together nicely.

Tomorrow: Sebring
Since taking over the development of rFactor 2, our goals have been clear: take an already incredible sim as a base and move the bar higher, push new and exciting features that you want, and give you the chance to experience a professional grade simulator – at home! The release of Sebring tomorrow is another step in that direction. We will follow up with more details later.

Next Month: Reiza rF2 Bundle
Some of you might have seen the teasers that were posted by Reiza Studios. We can now officially announce that they have been working hard on bringing some great content into rFactor 2. No less than four cars and two tracks will be part of this pack, all of which will be released in August. We expect Reiza to soon release more details of their planned content!

Community Night
Earlier this month, we scheduled the first community event, and we would like to thank everybody who watched and participated in it. Because of its success, we decided to do another one on Friday, July 27th at 20:00 CEST. We will obviously take this opportunity to look at the updated GT3 and Endurance packs. We will also take an in-depth look at Sebring International Raceway and provide some background on the process of creating it, so make sure you tune in and follow our Twitch channel at https://www.twitch.tv/rfactorlive. We certainly hope to see you there. In any case, happy simracing, that’s all for this month!

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 and share the love this simulation so very much deserves...

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Excited by the content in the new roadmap postings? Looking forward to the coming months for this sim? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!​

 

[jonelsorel]

Reiza DLC: no less(!) than 4(in writing: four) cars and 2(in letters: two)tracks from the famous Automobilista!!!
Hurray!

Seems that solid physics and the best physics rate in the business of consumer sims isn't worth much to some. If you're looking for better graphics, try the Need For Speed, Dirt, and Project Cars series. To each their own.

 

[Ryann]

The biggest problem rF2 currently has is its empty store.

 

[dreamer al]

Always great to see updates. Also looking forward to Sebring track. rF2 is going forward in leaps and bounds. Thank you Studio 397.

One small gripe. On behalf of the minority of gamers who use gamepads (in my case Xbox One Controller), I would dearly love to have vibration (rumble). rF2 is the only race sim (which includes Assetto Corsa, Project Cars2, Race Room Experience and Automobilista) that does not have vibration (rumble). Please do not bother saying, get a Wheel.

 

[vee10]

I cannot wait for Sebring, still running the VLM version regularly. Am I right in thinking this is the first laser scanned RF2 track?

If so can't wait to see how it feels with the updated GTE & GT3 cars.

Exciting times

 

[Elaphe]

I may re-download the game then and see if it finally works with Simvibe.

 

[Marcel Offermans]

Am I right in thinking this is the first laser scanned RF2 track?

Yes. When we release the track later today we will also go into more detail about that.

 

[vee10]

Yes. When we release the track later today we will also go into more detail about that.

I may have missed it but I take it this DLC that needs to be purchased in the store?

 

[makan]

I may have missed it but I take it this DLC that needs to be purchased in the store?

Yes , it's a piad DLC.

 

[dreamer al]

I am sorry to say I am underwhelmed (at this stage) by the Reiza RF Bundle. I might add I do have Automobilista Racing Sim. Apart from MetalMoro vehicle, which is OK, the remaining vehicles that appear to be included hardly rate a mention (in my view). Two tracks will be interesting, but from what I can tell are not major titles. I hope I am wrong. Time will tell.

 

[Keith Dixon]

The GT3'S don't seem to have a front wing reading in Motec since the patch, anyone else getting the same?

 

[Andrew Harper]

I am sorry to say I am underwhelmed (at this stage) by the Reiza RF Bundle. I might add I do have Automobilista Racing Sim. Apart from MetalMoro vehicle, which is OK, the remaining vehicles that appear to be included hardly rate a mention (in my view). Two tracks will be interesting, but from what I can tell are not major titles. I hope I am wrong. Time will tell.

I think Reiza are using this almost as a test run for the next version of their game. We are kind of assuming on here that it will use the RF2 engine (or parts of it). What we are seeing is maybe the parts of the older AMS that they've converted over so far. Tracks and Cars would need a huge amount of work to convert over. Mainly cars though. Knowing Reiza's attention to detail, they wouldn't want to release anything until they were 100% happy with it.

Yes I was thinking that maybe the StockCar V8's might be in there but not a problem, maybe those will appear at a later date (fingers crossed). They would be ideal though, simply because it would be a complete grid (and ready to go) rather than having to combine mods, skin packs, etc.

 

[Zuffenhausen Weiss]

If there is any request I would love Reiza to add in for their DLC, please add in the Copersucar Fittipaldi (from F-Retro) to compliment the S397's March and Brabham and also all the 1974-77 FD variations.

 

[Andrew Harper]

Just loving that Sebring trailer. So looking foward to that one being released. Thanks S397, looks superb.

Nice to know about all the other little details. I usually run RF2 on minimum effects (DOF, etc) so will be interesting to see if I can run it a little higher now.

Great work by the team, I hope some of these updates will bring people back to RF2 if they stepped away.

 

[osyres]

competitive online rank multiplayer ? and its still not good in vr. image quality and hud,mirrors are not usefull compared to iracing.

 

[Jason Mullin]

Whoever created that trailer my hat is off to you, very professional piece being clean and to the point while using calm music.
Thanks S397, I'll be seeing you at the steam store later today!

 

[Case_]

That trailer is very nice indeed. I had some reservations towards some of the previous rf2 content trailers, but this one looks really good.

 

[gianlucaP]

ì

 

[F_B]

I am sorry to say I am underwhelmed (at this stage) by the Reiza RF Bundle. I might add I do have Automobilista Racing Sim. Apart from MetalMoro vehicle, which is OK, the remaining vehicles that appear to be included hardly rate a mention (in my view). Two tracks will be interesting, but from what I can tell are not major titles. I hope I am wrong. Time will tell.

That’s how opinions can differ. Imo the three known cars are fantastic, especially the Formula Vee is a blast to drive on smaller circuits and it’s perfect for close racing. I’m very much looking forward to this package.

 

[dreamer al]

I have the solution for this.
Follow this link and download this program. This will install a driver that will give you controller vibration with many games that by default don't support it, except Richard Burns Rally.
It works with rFactor 2. The vibration is like the one we had in the first AC, so with steering vibration. I love it. Follow the instructions that I put inside the folder. It's clean from viruses, don't worry.

https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/how-to-enable-the-controller-vibration-in-rfactor-2.22341/

Many thanks for assistance. Unfortunately it doesn't appear to work with XBox One Controller (as opposed to XBox 360 Controller).

 

[gianlucaP]

ì