rF2 McLaren 650s Released - GT3 Pack Confirmed...

[Paul Jeffrey]

Studio 397 have released the new McLaren 650s DLC and opened pre orders for the newly announced GT3 DLC pack coming September...

Already confirmed as part of the 'Worlds Fastest Gamer' competition and marking the first time rFactor 2 has been in receipt of paid DLC content, the McLaren 650s GT3 DLC has caused something of a stir within the sim racing community in recent weeks.

Developed by Studio 397 in conjunction with both McLaren themselves and several GT3 teams who run the beautiful cars, the new DLC promises to be one of the most accurate first party additions in the history of the simulation.

Developed completely in house by Studio 397, the McLaren will be their fourth car release since taking over development of the simulation from Image Space Incorporated, and the new vehicle will be the first release under the new paid DLC structure introduced by the developers.

Retailing for £4.46 via the rFactor 2 Steam Store page, the car will actually form part of a wider five car GT3 release scheduled to hit later in the year in September.

Although pre order sales for the new GT3 pack have opened up, Studio 397 and rFactor 2 have yet to reveal which cars will be joining the McLaren in the simulation come release day. Although announcements are sure to come in the following days and weeks, it is known that the four as yet unannounced machines have been developed with full support and backing of the relevant manufacturers, allowing Studio 397 to lavish the same level of attention to detail across the whole pack as has been given to the new McLaren.

The 650s and upcoming GT3 pack are the first of several newly rationalised DLC offerings expected to be coming to rFactor 2 over the next few months and years.

Studio 397 have gone on record several times to reiterate that content releases for rFactor 2 will be more focussed towards releasing packs of related cars and classes in future, rather than the sometimes disjointed single car releases that seem to be the plague of the sim racing marketplace in recent years.

Catching a brief chat with Studio 397 head @Marcel Offermans tonight, the Dutchman had plenty to say about the bright future of rFactor 2 and the interesting DLC packs coming to the sim over the next few months.

When asked what the short, medium and long term future looks like for rFactor 2 content, Offermans confirmed that although plenty of officially licenced DLC is in the works, issues around non disclosure agreements and manufacturer approvals prevent the studio from revealing too much at this stage of development, however he did go on to confirm the studio plan to further make use of the Steam item store for not only official content, but third party releases too..

"We plan to open up this item store to third party paid content too, obviously making sure that content meets certain quality standards, is not ripped, properly licensed, etc (and we can work with people to achieve that)" said Marcel.​

This could potentially be a game changer for modding teams, especially with the confirmation that Studio 397 are willing to work alongside modding teams to secure the proper licencing rights and quality standards required to bring paid content to the simulation.

Moving on to the subject of tracks, it has been stated again that the developers plan to bring laserscanning locations to the simulation in the near future, in an effort to best replicate tracks to a standard now becoming something of an expectation of the sim racing community:

"...that is something we’re working on behind the scenes at the moment, and similar to cars we want to also come with paid, licensed and laser scanned tracks there. ​

However despite the recent pay DLC McLaren and upcoming GT3 pack, Offermans has confirmed that the simulation will still be in receipt of free add-ons too, ensuring those not willing to go down the DLC route still get something new to enjoy in the near future:

"Our strategy won’t be to only create paid content, we will keep mixing it up with free content"​

"(as for) volume, well, that depends a bit on how things go. We see content as an accelerator to further grow the platform, and also as the basis for our upcoming competition infrastructure as that clearly needs some good, aligned content"
​

On a final note during our brief midnight hours chat, Marcel confirmed the developers are in the process of "releasing a few guides on how to properly use this paid content when hosting a dedicated server and when using it in leagues", which should help clubs and leagues like our own here at RaceDepartment make the best use of this exciting new content.

Stay tuned to RaceDepartment for a more detailed interview with Marcel Offermans and Studio 397 in the next couple of weeks.... (when time allows anyway!!!)...

The McLaren 650s is available to purchase now, with the GT3 pack to follow come September.

rFactor 2 is a PC exclusive racing simulation developed by Studio 397. You can purchase the McLaren 650s HERE and pre order the upcoming 5 car GT3 pack HERE.

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...

Have you tried the new McLaren yet? Will you be pre-ordering the GT3 pack? What do you think of the new DLC pricing structure? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[rw3]

The difference is not your own business, the difference is done countries are richer than others. Eg in the uk my rent is £1100, in Thailand for a bigger place it was £100, a meal out with my wife in the uk £60 vs £5 in Thailand. Different economies run different pricing that show the madness of exchange rates, nothing to do with peoples life choices.

 

[Fonsecker]

10 pages only for complaining about the price??? Are you guys serious? 5€ is less than a pocket of cigarettes, less than a good piece of beef, les than a good glass of wine in a restaurant, but makes month of pleasure and happyness in sim racing.

I love the car and i love the sounds

 

[Ville-Samuli Mutanen]

I love the car and i love the sounds

Does it have your sounds cause it sounds exactly the same as in AC..?

 

[ApexMaster31]

hi, where the do I go to buy the car and track? i do not see it under DLC, or workshop?

 

[Enagee]

hi, where the do I go to buy the car and track? i do not see it under DLC, or workshop?

look for the store page and scroll down and youll see gt3 pack

http://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/365960/browse/?filter=all

 

[Bez]

is anyone noticing a big hit in fps using this car? normally i can max all settings and have PP on high but im struggling to hit 50fps in the mclaren even with no PP and reduced shadows

Edit: Found it only seems to be when paired with (a) certain track(s), so far ive only found it to be atlanta (the track i was previously testing the car on) hitting a max of 45fps with this combo compared to other cars getting 60+

 

[ronniej]

Look at the Raceroom setups of all GT3 cars. All have the same setup, what means all have nearly the same physics, with the same suspension geometries, undependig of a front mid oder rear engine car. All what you get in Raceroom is a tweaked uniphysic with different 3d modells.

I was wondering why they all felt the same...........

 

[Ricky78]

View attachment 204774

I recon you will probably steal it, I would recommend buying the base game first?

View attachment 204773

GOTCHA!

 

[zand]

Thank you Studio 397! The 650s is the best GT3 car i´ve driven in a Sim. The reactions are so credible and the FFB superb... "It's worth every penny". I bought the pack and just wish there will be more GT3 packs with this quality level!

 

[Jim Liak]

Bought the pack and tried the 650.
FFB is as always great. I had to lower to 0.85 gain for the G27.
Sounds are excellent. Reminds me off @Fonsecker's mod for AC. I really liked the gearbox clicks on changes.
3D model is really nice. Is URD team involved on this?

But:

I don't really like the handling. Car is way too forgiving on the limit.
The car will slide and will not bite you, catching is super easy.
I like isi's corvette or nissan better. Actually AC's 650 has this behavior with way more snappy reactions. I prefer AC's version much more.
Of course i am not an Gt3 driver, i can't know how real cars behave and also i am far from being fast as i did a 2:02:500 with default set up and 50litrs.
I would like to hear your thoughts.
Cheers

 

[Andy_J]

Of course i am not an Gt3 driver, i can't know how real cars behave and also i am far from being fast as i did a 2:02:500 with default set up and 50litrs.
I would like to hear your thoughts.
Cheers

Well your lap time is a bit slow for Brands Hatch Indy circuit?

 

[Jim Liak]

Well your lap time is a bit slow for Brands Hatch Indy circuit?

?

 

[Andy_J]

?

Your lap of 2:02:500? What circuit?

 

[Jim Liak]

Your lap of 2:02:500? What circuit?

I joined the competition so i am referring to silverstone.Sry for not mentioned this.

 

[Andy_J]

I joined the competition so i am referring to silverstone.Sry for not mentioned this.

No prob's I see now.

 

[Jim Liak]

This is posted at A.C.forum.
This is how aliens achieve super fast.
Loose setup and unrealistic driving with drifting on a gt3 car...this is exactly what I mentioned above.

http://devbot.enterprises/share/2017-08-06_01-22-22.mp4

 

[Emery]

Loose setup and unrealistic driving with drifting on a gt3 car...this is exactly what I mentioned above.

That doesn't look like a loose setup to me because in the video you can see him crank in more steering mid-sweeper. If it were a loose setup, he'd be applying opposite lock. He does pitch it into the corner entry a bit and is very good at anticipating the imbalance; nowhere near drifting level, not even a finnish flick.

The aliens can get to 1:59s with the default setup.

 

[jego]

Looks like a super clean and tidy lap.
I am still trying to find a decent setup for me, I for example have to downshift to 4th gear in T1 every other try because of too much oversteer. When I try to reduce the oversteer my rear snaps out in those corners. I tried to balance with with bumps and rebound, but I am just not good with making setups for hotlaping.

 

[randMracer]

The aliens can get to 1:59s with the default setup.

Awesome...thanks for confirming how much I suck.
I bit the bullet and bought the pack so I could compete. Now I'm sorry that I did. I've got leader-board top ranks in RE3, but can't seem to break 2:03:00 in the rF2 McLaren. Now you say people are doing 1:59's with the default settings. I don't get it? How discouraging. I guess rF2 is harder than RE3?

I've just been doing practice hot laps, tweaking and trying to get faster. I entered the competition, but want to get better times before I go in. Are the track conditions set a certain way in the competition? Maybe I'm wasting my time doing hot laps outside the competition?

I've also been searching for days and can't find anything about good setups. Not even a baseline. But why bother with setups if those times can be achieved in default?

Edit: On a side note; has anyone found actual real lap times of this car on Silverstone?

 

[Emery]

Awesome...thanks for confirming how much I suck.

Don't worry, most of us suck compared to the aliens... it's the nature of high performance. Performance measures in the WFG competition are a bell curve with a long tail and you're just holding up your end. There was a surge of people popping into the 1:59s today:

Of the 1011 entries so far, median lap time (half the people are faster, half are slower) is 2:01.60.
To be in the top 10%, you need to get under a 1:58.55.
The top 20 are 1:57.12 to 1:57.48.

I guess rF2 is harder than RE3?

I wouldn't say rF2 is harder, rather I'd say this competition is more intense, more serious than anything you've done in RaceRoom. The top 20 can be counted as best in the world, whether we're talking about just rF2 or all sims, and they're being chased by another 50 who can catch them on the right day. Leaders are practicing 100-200 laps per day. If you don't do the time, you aren't serious (I'm not!).

Are the track conditions set a certain way in the competition? Maybe I'm wasting my time doing hot laps outside the competition?

The track conditions (Real Road) are static, weather is sunny 84F. There is rubber on the road, said to be 50% (looks like a normal racing line). Practice is private, so you aren't interrupted by slow cars or other track distractions. Like any server session, however, you can text chat & view laptime & ride along with other people. There are about 10 passworded servers and the login process signs you into one of them. At peak times there are maybe 10-12 people per server.

If you're going to enter the competition, you might as well join now rather than wait. At least then you can watch other people for ways to improve your lap time.