rF2 | Ferrari GT3 Released and September Development Roadmap

[Paul Jeffrey]

Studio 397 have posted their latest 'Development Roadmap' for the month of September followed closely by the release of the Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO 2020.

• Previews on Nordschleife PBR update.
• Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO 2020 Released.

The end of the month is almost here, and in a pleasant change the first of the regular sim racing developer roadmap postings has come out at some time other than the middle of the night! Yes, Studio 397 have been a little quicker off the marks that usual this month in their regular rFactor 2 update blog - dropping the rF2 'Development Roadmap' for the month of September earlier than usual - with some interesting insights in what is happening over at the Dutch sim racing studio.

The Ferrari DLC

Before we take a look at the roadmap update, the team at Studio 397 also released their latest GT3 car for rFactor 2 - the stunning Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO 2020 - available now from the rFactor 2 Steam Store.

Here's what they had to say about the new car:

Italian design is renowned for the fusion of form and function in such a way that often produces the most spectacular of results, and it would be fair to say the incredible Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO 2020 is absolutely no exception to that long and impressive tradition – resulting in arguably one of the most visually stunning cars ever created to the GT3 regulation ruleset.

Revealed in the winter of 2019, the new for this year 488 GT3 EVO 2020 represents a wholesale improvement over the successful, but ageing current generation GT3 challenger from Ferrari. Benefiting from over 18,000 hours of calculations and CFD simulations before the new package even hit the wind tunnel, Ferrari have left no stone unturned in their attempts to firmly cement the 488 GT3 bloodline as one of the most successful cars in the marque’s long and illustrious history.

Visually, the EVO benefits from an improved frontal section that incorporates enhanced aerodynamics delivering to the driver greater downforce and stability, aided by tweaks at both the front and rear of the new package without modifying the overall balance of the car.

Larger vents above the front wings, re-profiled door profiles to facilitate better overall airflow and a tweaked rear section are just some of the more notable changes that one immediately finds when looking at this striking machine.

The 488 GT3 EVO 2020 is also noticeably longer than its predecessor, bringing the car in line with its GTE counterpart, allowing Ferrari to improve the way the new machine manages its tyres on track – allowing drivers to run faster for longer, in that all important pursuit of glory!

Engine wise, the EVO retains the tried and trusted twin-turbo 90-degree V8 of the previous generation vehicle, however Ferrari have coupled this to an all new engine management system that improves reliability and produces a smoother, more precise torque delivery.

Sleek lines, aggressive styling and an iconic exhaust note that oozes passion and performance, the Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO 2020 can be yours to drive in rFactor 2 today – head over to the rFactor 2 Steam Store and strap yourself into poetry in motion.

The Roadmap

In something of a flurry of news, S397 also released their latest Development Roadmap for the month of September. In this posting the studio took the opportunity to view their recent Bentley Continental GT3 2020 car release and the upcoming Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO machine, whilst also informing the sim racing community of an upcoming additional hotfix set to be released for the GT3 cars later in the week.

Of the more notable things within the posting are some nice preview images from the major refresh coming to their laserscanned Nürburgring Nordschleife - the team over at Studio 397 have been working hard in recent months to substantially refresh the legendary German circuit within the simulation - including bringing the circuit up to the current PBR shader standards and many other tweaks and improvements.

No release date for the Nordschleife update has been put forth by the studio yet, however preview image progress suggests it won't be too far away into the future now I'm sure.

As a final line right at the very end of the post, the studio have teased they plan to make a new track announcement during the month ahead, so stay tuned for further news on that one when the timing is right.



Original Source: Studio 397

rFactor 2 is available now exclusively on PC.

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[Tarmac Terrorist]

Rfactor2:Competizione


Sorry GTr 2 i still king of GT simulators though ACC is pretty decent it lacks the atmosphere and personality GTR 2 has! Not to mention they did some how manage to do pit crew animations on the G motor 2 engine and make them look good ontop of that your crew cheif is interactive and feels like an actual person hw iqll give you updates on damage and race standings and such.

just look at the sound track for crying out loud cant you imagine cars lineing up on the grid to this beautiful music? The AI in the game is fantastic with some tweeks

Damn fecking straight! GTR2 is the stuff of legends!

 

[jhimlahey]

Yeah, nah, yeah, same boring ass GT3 car like the rest. Took it for a 3 laps on Nordschleife, died of boredom, had to stop. Took out Merc 190e DTM (it is a mod) made 20 laps just to shake of gt3 boredom.
I don´t really get what is up with forcing those boring automatics to the sim, especially when there is ACC around.

I really am not asking for much and I am asking for it for a long time, give me at least 1 official DTM car from the ´90, lets say it is a E30. Is that so hard? I bought all those boring ass GT3 cars just to support developers in hopes I will get a real car in return sometime.

All I want is murder real cars on the limit in rF2, don´t even need full grid or whatever

 

[Cheesenium]

Really not know how you get such good visuals. Mine looked like 2010 with mostly high and ultra settings.

 

[Kaygeeoh]

Are you trying to run custom room mod
Many GT were updated today so I had to remake my 2 GT-Pro offline mods
I think there might have been Oreca update as well but don't quote me

View attachment 409700

edit: I use this mod to run a "online offline room"
I select one skin for each of the 24 cars I use ( all GT3 + GTE + Prototypes + DPi + URD Ford GT )
I make server with 23AI + the car I first pick = 24
Boot into online and join your room
You will have one of every car and only the skins you selected making room mod
Now at anytime you can then hit "Select Car" tab ( which you don't have Offline) and pick any of the other 23 models
Then you don't have to restart rF2 every time you want to drive a different model
Make a long practice session disable qual and race
Every time you swap cars you will have your best laptime still there
So you can run all 24 cars and every time you run each car a 2nd time you see your best laptimes / sectors still there were offline you lose then every time you swap vehicles

Try doing that in any other sim

Oh another good thing about online offline it never pauses so you can keep room going and multi-task
You should be running FSW ( full screen windowed mode ) = better looking rF2
Hit window key NOT alt-tab

Yeah... imma need you to provide more details on how to do this,
Please

 

[Durge Driven]

Yeah... imma need you to provide more details on how to do this,
Please

GUIDE TO CREATING SERVER FOR OFFLINE

Tried to make this by the numbers with screenshots and with a running room so proof of concept With this method you will be able to use content you want down to individual skins and layouts and never leave the session to swap cars :confused: :speechless: :alien::cool: Okay to setup server...

www.racedepartment.com

 

[Crivitz Chris]

...And they still haven't fixed the issue where some cars become bright white instead of having a paint scheme. The early September Update seems to have broken certain liveries with no hot fix in sight.

I saw that there was a couple other mentions on the "white liveries". Some background, just incase you don't know how rF2 does add on skins. ISI/S397 has what is called "Virtual rides" where a .rcd and skin files are placed in the userdata/player/settings/[car] folder. This isn't a fully stand alone skin. The .rcd has a line that ties to an existing .veh.

What happens when S397 does an update, they rename the .veh of the original car. When that happens, you need to put an existing .veh in that .rcd line, and everything should work again. S397 keeps doing this.

That is why you are seeing some painters start to use the .mas installation or .rfcmp installation. .rfcmp installation has a similar issue as the virtual rides, where when S397 updates, an update needs to be applied. The .mas installation shouldn't need anything when updates happen. It is just that the .mas installation is not the "official" stance on how S397 wants add on skins in the game.

 

[johnnymat]

UNTIL there is concrete steps to fix AI and flag situations, why does ANYone still insist on driving with flags enabled. I can see raising the point in forums or Discord, but you are only injuring yourself by tolerating multiple yellow flags every time you race.

You're right. I turned off yellow flags a long time ago. I don't have problems with the AI on any track that I race on. I do like the fact that you have to be careful around them, especially in the early laps. I usually have the aggression set at 50% and it works fine for me.

 

[NR The-Boss]

I saw that there was a couple other mentions on the "white liveries". Some background, just incase you don't know how rF2 does add on skins. ISI/S397 has what is called "Virtual rides" where a .rcd and skin files are placed in the userdata/player/settings/[car] folder. This isn't a fully stand alone skin. The .rcd has a line that ties to an existing .veh.

What happens when S397 does an update, they rename the .veh of the original car. When that happens, you need to put an existing .veh in that .rcd line, and everything should work again. S397 keeps doing this.

That is why you are seeing some painters start to use the .mas installation or .rfcmp installation. .rfcmp installation has a similar issue as the virtual rides, where when S397 updates, an update needs to be applied. The .mas installation shouldn't need anything when updates happen. It is just that the .mas installation is not the "official" stance on how S397 wants add on skins in the game.

Is that something a non-programmer can do? If so, is it possible to provide some instructions on how to fix it? I've had some experience making virtual rides, but beyond that my experience is lacking with that kind of thing.

 

[avenger82]

View attachment 409673

Its already been here on forums, but it’s true.
S397 have their priorities and most users can disagree , but in the end they will do what they think will provide long term income.

 

[Crivitz Chris]

Is that something a non-programmer can do? If so, is it possible to provide some instructions on how to fix it? I've had some experience making virtual rides, but beyond that my experience is lacking with that kind of thing.

WHat I do is open up an S397 skin and load it in the show room. On the right side, it shows the file path. The last part is the .veh. Write that down.

Then exit it out, and open up the car skin .rcd you are having issues with. There is a VEH Reference, i can't remember that exact line. Replace that .veh with the one you wrote down. Save, reopen the game and the skin should work.

 

[Enoneado]

all the game orbit around one car and NORDS... during 2 or 3 years.... after this they will end another circuit and they will retouch it during 2 o 3 more years...

 

[LilBrick]

YOU have an out of date skin pak or mod. GEC is often the usual culprit. They are pretty good about updating their mod, so ... IF you have that mod, either remove it, or search for a new update.
WHENEVER anyone sees that UNKNOWN BASE MOD it means that S397 has updated a car or track and the old version is no longer available. This breaks the skinpak or mod that is relying upon the old version number.

I don't have that mod and I haven't downloaded any skin mod for the GTEs.

 

[davehenrie]

Been online? Joining a session with custom skins or even a custom track will download those skins that are associated with the server.
if you can't find anything like that, follow these steps to try and reset your cars. And verify you are using either the public beta or v1121(by opting out of the public beta in steam)

Missing DLC Tutorial

Here is a quick tour of where to go when one or more of your newly purchased DLC cars do not show up. First just load Steam. Look for your name,...

forum.studio-397.com

 

[davehenrie]

but such is life

indeed!

 

[M D Gourley]

Really not know how you get such good visuals. Mine looked like 2010 with mostly high and ultra settings.

All I can suggest is try copying the attached settings and visuals I have in rFactor 2...you will of course need 'Toban' and see whether your screen shots look the same as mine.

I think Monitor settings, color / contrast / brightness and type of Graphics Card will also influence the outcome of the final screen shots.

I drove down to the first corner then went back to the 'Replay'...first screen shot of where to camera is.

Pause the car when it gets to here, so it should look like this with the sun position going from right to left creating the shadow out the rear end of the EVO.

Zoomed out version

From here I press the 'END' key (it's the Default key I think) to activate the 'Spectator Camera' and then move the camera around to the back of the EVO for the screen shot

Final unedited screen shot.

The trick is I try not to include any people in my screen shots as they generally look low res and fake anyway, plus use the DOF blur to good use

I do use Photoshop to crop and re-save my images and on the odd occassion lighten then slightly.

 

[Adrian Herrera]

All I can suggest is try copying the attached settings and visuals I have in rFactor 2...you will of course need 'Toban' and see whether your screen shots look the same as mine.

Hey man, quick question.. have you done any in-depth comparisons for the Anti Alias settings? I was playing around today with the nVidia control panel and noticed a bit of a difference if i use the AA settings in game vs control panel.. i settled for 4x with 4x super sampling, but that left me wondering what would be the best compromise between performance and quality

 

[Cheesenium]

All I can suggest is try copying the attached settings and visuals I have in rFactor 2...you will of course need 'Toban' and see whether your screen shots look the same as mine.

I think Monitor settings, color / contrast / brightness and type of Graphics Card will also influence the outcome of the final screen shots.

View attachment 409825View attachment 409826View attachment 409827View attachment 409828

I drove down to the first corner then went back to the 'Replay'...first screen shot of where to camera is.
View attachment 409832

Pause the car when it gets to here, so it should look like this with the sun position going from right to left creating the shadow out the rear end of the EVO.
View attachment 409837
Zoomed out version
View attachment 409843

From here I press the 'END' key (it's the Default key I think) to activate the 'Spectator Camera' and then move the camera around to the back of the EVO for the screen shot
View attachment 409839

Final unedited screen shot.
View attachment 409840

The trick is I try not to include any people in my screen shots as they generally look low res and fake anyway, plus use the DOF blur to good use

I do use Photoshop to crop and re-save my images and on the odd occassion lighten then slightly.

Thank you for the guide. I appreciate it.

 

[M D Gourley]

Hey man, quick question.. have you done any in-depth comparisons for the Anti Alias settings? I was playing around today with the nVidia control panel and noticed a bit of a difference if i use the AA settings in game vs control panel.. i settled for 4x with 4x super sampling, but that left me wondering what would be the best compromise between performance and quality

The nVidia Control panel is something I do not usually touch and have it at 'Default / Restore' most of the time, including now. I have in the past seen some settings other people have recommended and tried them out, but usually they are not to my tastes or I personally do not see any difference.

The RTX 2070 allows me to have all the Sims I have maxed out with High / Ultra settings with reasonible to excellent FPS and for me personally my needs probably differ from others as I want maximum Graphics Quality over performance for the odd screen shots I create

 

[RichardHessels]

Yeah, nah, yeah, same boring ass GT3 car like the rest. Took it for a 3 laps on Nordschleife, died of boredom, had to stop. Took out Merc 190e DTM (it is a mod) made 20 laps just to shake of gt3 boredom.
I don´t really get what is up with forcing those boring automatics to the sim, especially when there is ACC around.

I really am not asking for much and I am asking for it for a long time, give me at least 1 official DTM car from the ´90, lets say it is a E30. Is that so hard? I bought all those boring ass GT3 cars just to support developers in hopes I will get a real car in return sometime.

All I want is murder real cars on the limit in rF2, don´t even need full grid or whatever

There is ton's of great 3rd party cars and tracks, for those that like a drive out of the box.

Try the offical F3's onLoch Drummond. That's a great combination.

 

[jhimlahey]

There is ton's of great 3rd party cars and tracks, for those that like a drive out of the box.

Try the offical F3's onLoch Drummond. That's a great combination.

Yes I know, and I do have a ton of mods. But wouldn't it be nice to get something crafted with same care and attention to detail (like GT3 cars) from the studio itself?

Never tried this track/car combo. Friday is perfect opportunity to try this, thanks!