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!

 

[Steve Bird]

Sorry Andy, didn't see that

 

[Marcel Offermans]

The upcoming wet weather looks interesting, can't say the same about the new content announced so far though Thankfully there are already a couple of great cars in rF2

So what content would you like to see us adding to rFactor 2?

 

[Will Mazeo]

Dangerous question

 

[Andy-R]

So what content would you like to see us adding to rFactor 2?

As I mentioned there are some cars in rF2 already that I really like. I accept that my taste in cars isn't in line with the majority but making a lot of noise about cars I dislike makes me feel better

(I don't enjoy driving modern GT cars... but it seems a LOT of other people must do.)

 

[MarcG]

So what content would you like to see us adding to rFactor 2?

Well as you're asking...<takes a deep breath>:

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA (V8) SUPERCARS PLEASE

 

[Emery]

Datsun 510, BMW 2002, & Alfa Romeo for 1971-72 2.5 Trans Am.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Since licensing everything is not possible I'd like to see a strong 3PA project to bring to rF2 (and the upcoming competition system) the stuff that won't be licensed, especially tracks. Having all major tracks used by the biggest (international and national) racing series would be awesome instead of games only licensing Bathurst in Australia for example when that country as so much amazing tracks
Get URD to make the DPi, current gen GTE and P1/2
Apex to complete the GT3
Track modding groups (I dont know any xD) to make the tracks with as much quality as S397 projects.
Others for touring cars, historic, etc.
Make it happen with speed and quality. If we didn't have to wait 2~4 years for some tracks that are still WIP by the community would be amazing
Let them sell these (if paid content) in the item store. If not safe and put rF2 at risk of being taken down like happened to AMS make an outside store like RaceRoom but here would be for these 3PA items.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[boxer]

So what content would you like to see us adding to rFactor 2?

Suggestions from me
Cars:
GT3 = ****Porsche**** and Ford GTE , Lambo.
****LeMans Prototypes
***Sports car Prototype.
***ChampCar (Best OW ever).
McLaren Pack... F1/CanAM/GT!!!

Tracks:
Canada = Mosport (Canadian Tire motorsports park)
France = Magny Cours, LeMans, Monaco
US = Longbeach, Laguna Seca, Sebring, Watkins Glen, Road America, So many ... anything in the Sportscar or old champcar calendar.
Italy = Imola - Sao Marino GP
Australia = Surfers Paradize
Belgium - SPA

 

[JeffL]

Historic GT

 

[CC]

So what content would you like to see us adding to rFactor 2?

A proper SDK standalone

 

[John-Eric Saxén]

As I mentioned there are some cars in rF2 already that I really like. I accept that my taste in cars isn't in line with the majority but making a lot of noise about cars I dislike makes me feel better

(I don't enjoy driving modern GT cars... but it seems a LOT of other people must do.)

Marcel asked what cars you'd like to see in the game, and you replied by telling what cars you don't like. So I assume everything is in the game then .

 

[Dirk Steffen]

So what content would you like to see us adding to rFactor 2?

Please consider filling the currently open market gap:

rF2 has all the goods to be among the three or 4 best serious sim racing solutions.
Currently it only lacks in licensed content (tracks and cars) and polishing its bugs.

rF2 has the potential to be among the best in FFB, physics even graphics.

It's very biggest asset is that it is the very only software among the serious simulators to offer time progression AND weather effects.

Please build licensed content on THAT asset.

- endurance sportscar racing (current racing series as WEC, Blancpain, national GT racing series)

For this ALL currently used cars in these racing series should be available to race.
Support modders substantially (dev kits, ask what tools, features modders need) to help create top rate quality mods (cars and tracks) - just look for example the handful of highest quality track mods that have been created for Assetto Corsa.

Make sure rF2 is first and foremost aimed to provide all tools for competition racing (eSports is the big buzzword these days) - make streaming, camera angles, timing sheets, plugins for racing series accessible and first rate - this is new for the completion as well, get a head start here ;-)

Your choice of a GT3 pack first is fantastic - it is were competition is, build up on that (next: licensed GT4 class cars please, these will be VERY popular and fill the missing gaps in the GT3 field, once that is done look at Le Mans spec cars (GTE, LMP1 / 2 / 3).

 

[Robin]

Your choice of a GT3 pack first is fantastic - it is were competition is, build up on that (next: licensed GT4 class cars please, these will be VERY popular and fill the missing gaps in the GT3 field, once that is done look at Le Mans spec cars (GTE, LMP1 / 2 / 3).

I think Sector3's GTR game can be scrapped if this will happen before it releases.

 

[Fat Rich]

Did Tim Wheatley say in an interview on RD that ISI have had the license for Dan Gurney's 1967 AAR Eagle F1 car for ages but never got round to building it?

Or did I dream it?

Edit: Found this:

RD: Does the team have any inclination to include further historic content, possibly a playmate to the sublime BT20 Grand Prix car in future?

TW: We have some licensed, but they’ve simply never made it to the top of the stack yet. As a historics fan, this pains me greatly! We’d welcome inquiries from mod groups interested in working on licensed content.

in here: http://www.racedepartment.com/threa...ated-exclusive-interview.118789/#post-2207450


Edit Edit: Forgot to say, good job on the raindrops!

 

[Alexandre Costa]

Historic cars and tracks...

 

[MPortnoy]

So what content would you like to see us adding to rFactor 2?

Dangerous thing to ask

I'd love to see some competitors for the Nissan GT500 (NSX and Lexus maybe?)
I understand it might be easier said than done considering licenses and stuff, but 3-4 cars within same series are much more exciting than stand alone cars so you can actually race them together. Just like you're doing with the GT3's.

I appreciate all the work and improvements being made to the best sim out there to make it even better.
Cheers

 

[jagermyster]

Touringcars like BTCC WTCC TCR

 

[Marcel Gerber]

http://www.siliconstudio.co.jp/en/news/pressreleases/2017/en1710yebis/en1710yebis.html

+ A quote from Marcel Offermans https://forum.studio-397.com/index....ator-rfactor2-as-part-of-major-graphic.57991/

"We did not have a DX11 engine before, so yes. Granted, we started out making the DX11 engine compatible with DX9 because we wanted to make sure existing content still works. Our intention from that moment on has been to keep improving the engine. Some of those things you've already seen (effects like DoF, fixing undercar shadows at night, and lots of little tweaks) and others we are still working on (improved damage, new lighting model, better rain effects)."

 

[Alex Townsend]

So what content would you like to see us adding to rFactor 2?

I think it would be great to simulate 1 or 2 specific series of motorsport. Perhaps open wheel and tin top.
Seeing as the original creators of the title are American I'm wondering if it would be easier to obtain the license for entire series and tracks from say Indy car or IMSA Weather tech Sports car?

Or Super GT, Supercars or maybe even the entire Blancpain GT series including endurance and sprints.
Focus on a single series or two and make it a solid offline and online championship with all the rules and regs of these series.
That would be a winner imo
But also leave it open for people to race what is there now in whatever official or 3rd party mods there are.

 

[Rui Santos]

Since licensing everything is not possible I'd like to see a strong 3PA project to bring to rF2 (and the upcoming competition system) the stuff that won't be licensed, especially tracks. Having all major tracks used by the biggest (international and national) racing series would be awesome instead of games only licensing Bathurst in Australia for example when that country as so much amazing tracks
Get URD to make the DPi, current gen GTE and P1/2
Apex to complete the GT3
Track modding groups (I dont know any xD) to make the tracks with as much quality as S397 projects.
Others for touring cars, historic, etc.
Make it happen with speed and quality. If we didn't have to wait 2~4 years for some tracks that are still WIP by the community would be amazing
Let them sell these (if paid content) in the item store. If not safe and put rF2 at risk of being taken down like happened to AMS make an outside store like RaceRoom but here would be for these 3PA items.
Just my 2 cents.

This would be the beggining of the end of rFactor2...