rF2 Interview, Roadmap and Raindrops

[Paul Jeffrey]

Following an interesting first reveal at the Sim Racing Expo, check out the new rFactor 2 roadmap including our interview with Marcel Offermans and first footage of the new rain effects...

Now confirming the beautiful 2017 Bentley Continental GT3 will join the recently released McLaren 650s in the new officially licenced paid GT3 DLC pack, Studio 397 have been hard at work these last few months bringing together a wealth of updates and improvements for their premium racing simulation.

Whilst of course the new Bentley will be a fairly major talking point for fans of rFactor 2, one of the most impressive improvements featured over at the Expo would undoubtedly be the impressive looking new rain effects coming in a future build, finally adding a much improved visual representation of the wet stuff in rFactor 2.. including windscreen wipers!!

Now able to match visually what is an impressive physical representation of rain in rF2, fans will no doubt be very keen to try out these new visuals and features (including dynamic puddles, dynamic raindrops etc), and accompanying shader improvements to the main game, once the proposed new build update is released in the coming days.

Of course with RaceDepartment on hand at the Expo we just had to have a quick chat with the ever jovial Marcel Offermans, spending a bit of time with the S397 CEO to talk rain, Bentley, DLC, updates, the future and plenty more in between. You can check the interview out below:

With plenty of food for thought coming from the Expo show and tell by Studio 397, the developers have now released the next scheduled monthly roadmap update, detailing what is happening behind the scenes, and shedding some more light (or not) on the next big GT3 DLC car coming in the near future and plenty more in-between...

Check out the full roadmap posting below:

We’re back! After a busy weekend at SimracingExpo held at the famed Nurburgring, most of us have both finished vacations and returned to the office, ready to make progress on our next update.

The Expo was a lot of fun, and we got to meet and greet plenty of hardware manufacturers, software studios, and of course a lot of simracers. Thank you to everyone who came to see us. Studio 397 attended with two cockpits: one triple screen and one virtual reality. Both were running an internal build with the newly announced Bentley Continental GT3 2017 racing in the rain at NOLA Motorsports Park.

McLaren's World's Fastest Gamer
Thank you to everyone who participated in the WFG using rFactor 2! It was a stunning success and something we’re really proud of. Not only did we take on a fairly short-notice build of the McLaren 650s GT3 for use in the competition, but we built, tested, and implemented a whole user registration and online session monitoring system that performed wonderfully. This makes us really excited about the future and how a working online competition structure such as that will really get people racing online in rFactor 2.

Bentley Continental GT3 2017
We are very excited to announce the Bentley Continental GT3 2017 as the second car in our upcoming GT3 pack. Used in many of the premier GT3 categories around the world, the car has a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 and up to unrestricted 600hp. The GT3 pack is due for release in October.

Also mentioned in the FaceBook livestream was updated damage and a licensing agreement with Tatuus Racing s.r.l. for a number of open-wheel Formula cars. This allows us to fill out the ladder of progression from Karts to Grand Prix racing and will work well within our competition structure due out next year.

And to whet your appetite, here’s a sneak peek of the next car in our upcoming pack!

Very exciting times for rFactor 2 fans, with plenty of development and new content in the pipeline, one year on from the announcement of Studio 397 taking over the licence to develop rFactor 2 and the future has never been brighter for this outstanding simulation.

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...

Excited to see Bentley coming to rF2? Looking forward to the GT3 car pack? What do you think of the rain features? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

This looks really good, surprisingly so.

Why can't they make shaders this good for dry tarmac/curbs?

 

[Andrew Harper]

Let's get the graphical plugins to work with DX11 too

Yes I'd forgotten about that, not down to 397 of course but I'm surprised no one has ported over their existing overlays/HUD yet. Maybe it's just a completely different type of project compared to DX9.

 

[Fanapryde]

Love to race in rF2 and really like what they are doing.
The move to DX11 gained me some FPS (on most tracks) and it looks more and more realistic now.
Most cars are good looking from the outside but the interiors (cockpit view) look a bit meh...
I hope they will improve on this.

 

[Damage Inc]

<George Takei voice> Oh my!!

Looking damn good!!! Truly an awesome time to be a sim racer!!!!

 

[Andy_J]

<Deforest Kelley voice> Are you out of your Vulcan mind?

It is looking damn good. I really enjoy using RF2 lately.

 

[ricerracer]

I hope the new exciting-looking rain comes with a performance boost for the graphics generally, or not many people will be able to run it at settings that will look impressive.

My worry is how will it look / run in VR

 

[Emery]

Yes I'd forgotten about that, not down to 397 of course but I'm surprised no one has ported over their existing overlays/HUD yet. Maybe it's just a completely different type of project compared to DX9.

Nobody has ported overlays/HUD for DX11 because S397 hasn't yet released the code interface for DX11. Funny how people keep thinking DX11 Beta is production code...

 

[Alex Townsend]

Maybe cause it doesn't feel like a beta anymore?
I for one forgot it was a month or so ago... lol

 

[JPL083]

Phenomtastic! King is getting better and better =)

 

[Andrew Harper]

Nobody has ported overlays/HUD for DX11 because S397 hasn't yet released the code interface for DX11. Funny how people keep thinking DX11 Beta is production code...

That's fair enough I did wonder if it was something along those lines but I hadn't read anything in the blogs or elsewhere.

I don't use HUD's myself so it doesn't worry me but there are many others who need that sort of information in front of them (and of course from the point of view of leagues and on-screen race graphics).

 

[melanieuk]

and includes fixing the rain penetrating through the bulk head!

It is Acid Rain.

 

[SAGY31]

Slightly off topic but I hope you guys won't mind. So far S397 only updated / optimized small portion of cars and tracks so I'm interested how official DX9 content works in the game in terms of FPS?

 

[Andrew Harper]

Slightly off topic but I hope you guys won't mind. So far S397 only updated / optimized small portion of cars and tracks so I'm interested how official DX9 content works in the game in terms of FPS?

As far as FPS is concerned I don't think it makes too much difference.

The main issue going from DX9 to DX11 I think was more related to textures and shaders. Any item that was white or nearly white glowed very badly on screen. Also various shaders needed to be put into place to make the car/track more DX11 "friendly". So some tracks with white and red kerbs for example had this glowing effect around the paint. The same issue with shading on the cars, tracks. You can reduce it by running the game with no post-processing (which is what I sometimes run with older content like you mention).

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong but from my experience that seems to be the issue more than anything else.

Yes the DX11 version of the game does put extra stress on your hardware but that's to be expected with the extra work it's having to do.

At the beginning I was getting very bad FPS but Studio 397 have done a pretty good job in optimising it and I can get 60-100FPS depending on what I'm running at the time.

 

[Alex72]

I wonder what hardware is in those triple screen setups in the interview video. Would be awesome to know what to aim for. Might be latest and best all around in them but might not be.

 

[Jan Mikuž]

Is this ''only'' cosmetic or does it affect the driving as well ?
The art work is impressive. It almost looks real.

 

[Alex Townsend]

It's always worked as part of the physics. This update will bring the graphical effects up to par with the physics for wet weather racing that many rF2 fans have been asking ISI for since it was released...

 

[Andy_J]

I have been waiting for this rain effect since they first announced it 8 years ago nearly.

 

[Alex Townsend]

I have been waiting for this rain effect since they first announced it in 2010.

That looks fricking awesome!!!

 

[Fanapryde]

It's always worked as part of the physics. This update will bring the graphical effects up to par with the physics for wet weather racing...

Don't get me wrong here, I do like rF2, but the wet weather physics are not their best feature...
I do hope they will change in time, but as for now I completely avoid racing in the wet in rF2.
AI seems completely unaffected, while you are driving with slicks on ice... (It has been a long while though...has it changed since last year ?)

 

[thepharcyde]

I have been waiting for this rain effect since they first announced it in 2010.