rF2: Nürburgring Nordschleife Now Available

[Paul Jeffrey]

Teasing time now over and done - the epic Nurburgring Nordschleife for rFactor 2 is finally here.

Available now via the rFactor 2 Steam Store, the new laserscanned circuit comes complete in four different racing layouts, with Studio 397 planning to add further versions as free updates in the coming months.

Retailing for a very reasonable £10.66, the track is available to purchase now.

Happy lapping folks!

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[BrainsBush]

I couldn’t resist and I did 5 laps with the radical sr3.
4 DOF motion+VR+DD steering wheel system + bass shakers plus this version of the Nürburgring-= Sim racing heaven
Said this.... sadly it’s very heavy track with my CV1. Even with my 2080ti/I7-8700 it’s only 45fps every where in the track .
Any one tried it with VR?

Yesterday I did about 15 laps around Nordschleife with my CV1 goggles on. It performs very well. I guess its also around 45fps (never check this). For my -old grumpy- eyes it is running smooth.
I have not tried with a full grid yet. Only some practice/hotlapping with a 15 car grid.

==

As a Dutchie we also have to complain about something. Well here it comes:

S397 released Nürburgring yesterday and I'm the "lucky" one who has to go a week on vacation with my lovely wife....realizing my simrig will be used by my son and daddy is walking through the German forest with his dog (near Nürburg)....

With regards to the track I only noticed one major nerve breaking error:
The starting screen shows two points/dots between the distance of the track.
Yep I could not find anything else to complain about

Enjoy Nords and think about me when throwing sticks to my wife...uuuh dog

 

[gianlucaP]

---

 

[Peter Koslowski]

Very well done. The track feels very lively and realistic. The colours of the surroundings are exact. 12€ is a good price for the work that goes into it!
BUT: Some green ramparts look terrible, especially in Kallenhard, Wehrseifen, Ex-Mühle and in the Kesselchen. Looks like green concrete! Here 397 should again place a few polygons and bushes. Well, no 3D grass!
But still the driving pleasure is super good! The comparison track (Mod AC) also has its quality!
But you can buy with confidence, you won't regret it!

 

[Patrik Marek]

Damn, now I'm curious, I never played GT4.
Can someone post here the RF2 time and weather settings that can match the ones used in Gran Turismo? Let's see if we can come close.

enough said

don't take me wrong, RF2 doesn't look bad by any means, and its a huge step up from the other RF2 tracks, but masterpiece / best ever? .. I don't think so

GTS

RF2

or even better, compare it in motion

vs ( probably the best I found)

yes RF2 has higher res texutres, but overall the details, the color palette , anyhow, have fun

 

[Patrik Marek]

Yes laserscan Nordschleife have been here for a long time, but perhaps only the Automobilista has a similar good physics as rFactor 2 and on the ratio S397 it is a masterpiece and a very good track

But everyone has their own opinion

I never once said anything about physics

 

[Alex72]

Anyone on triple 1080p and i7+RTX running this? Performance?

First time im out of money and cant get the DLC... Feels bad man. I have to live the track through your words, screens and vids for now.

 

[gianlucaP]

---

 

[MoodyB]

Anyone on triple 1080p and i7+RTX running this? Performance?

It runs just fine when hotlapping on triple 1440p with a Ryzen 2600x / 2070 Super with almost everything on full (level 1 aa & low pp), so triple 1080p should be no problem.

Edit - I limit my fps to 73 due to using Freesync monitors, and gpu usage usually sits around 60-75%.

 

[tr1v1um]

Very happy for those who love RF2 so much that this the only SIM they can drive, they finally get a S397 laser scanned version of the Nordschliefe.
Since a laser scanned conversion has been available for ages, it is not a total discovery, but you could be convince otherwise by some comments, as if this would be a first in the SIM world and all other version are just arcade. When in fact we have had great laser scanned version of the Nords in all the other SIM for years. I enjoy RF2, among other SIM, it has its moments, but the superlative of the fans are, to me, more a deterrent than an attraction and at the end it probably cripples S397 more than it helps.
Gentleman, please get a grip and stop acting like you have just entered a new religion.

I guess noone is is arguing that other versions of the track are arcade. For a track that is featured in so many games and sims I am pretty surprised to read all the positive reactions. Seems that even a well known track can offer a different or new experience so why not acknowledge that S397 have done a pretty damn good job?

I am personaly just glad that I have a very high quality version of the whole facility in one of my prefered sims (PC2, AC and rF2 atm), where I can use the curbs without having to fear to spin my car into nirvana and the whole driving experience is just something else.

 

[KittX]

looking good , yes , but masterpiece ?

I'm sure i will get many dislikes for this, but the best version imo is the Gran turismo sport, that's a proper version of the track, with lighting that's un-matched by anything else
yes it's baked ( non dynamic), so they could take some shortcuts and make it look prettier when it's fully dynamic, but still

will get this though, to support S397

I actually was having similar thoughts recently, but was comparing even not to GT sport but GT5 version. To me, GT5 Nords has all the colours and nature just nailed. Of course it's rf1-level technology there, simple 2d trees and simplistic grass shaders, but the colors and lighting.... No other title matched it by the visual resembling of a real place, imo. And i'm not talking about the complicated meshes, higher res textures and more details, obviously newer titles and newly released tracks have got it much better.
GT Sport rendering engine has better dynamic range, though.

 

[RobertR1]

What’s the VR performance like and what settings did you have to turn down for VR?

 

[Gaëtan Legastelois]

To return on the price because each time we see the same answers as soon as we approach the subject.
There is no question about the legitimacy of paid content. Of course, all works deserves salary. And of course if you want a simulation of quality with quality content, you have to have paid content (but not only, free, sometime, is good for the community ).
But the subject is, "Is it the right price? What is a good price?"
I think it's a bit pricey, and I'll be more interested by a win-win marketing strategy.
example:
For LeMans. The Steam gave 2000 buyers after one or two weeks (I do not know anymore), it does not do much, and at 11 € it is 22000 € in the pockets of S397 (and yes it is not much to pay for all work on this track )
But selling it at 5 €, with only 4400 buyers we also reach 22000 €. Is it impossible to imagine with this price to reach 4400 buyers, in the same amount of time ? Maybe more ? Are there so few players ?

Better. The same strategy that Kunos with AC seemed to me to work well. The DLC with the Norschleife (2 years of work announced) and full of great cars with 10 € in pre-order and 15 € after.
A smaller price in exchange for a pre-order is also a good marketing strategy. We take advantage of the hype on the taisers to have more customers. And in addition, starting directly on a discount also encourages more buying.

Why never want to talk about it (If we talk about it, It's because there are a problem, no?) , and blame those who talk about it by "whining" when we all want the same thing, more quality content and a long life for S397 and RF2. For me, this kind of commercial technique with a win-win strategy could sustain our favorite simulation

I just want that @Marcel Offermans (well, his marketing staff ) are fully aware of it. why not take this risk on the next paid content to see the result. If it's more profitable everyone wins

I want to play for a long time with RF2 again (I bought it day one in 2012 with paypal bugs etc...)

 

[sbabb]

the colors and lighting.... No other title matched it by the visual resembling of a real place, imo

On lighting I can agree, but the colors are not good in terms of realism, they are not natural rather a bit "buffed" by saturation etc, it does not need to ne because of the game, just that its not possible to have calibration on consoles, meaning rF2 for example (anything except Forza/Grid, all who run without "picture enhancing stuff"), have mich more realistic colors when the display is properly calibrated and has the capabilities to display them acuratly, so unless GT will have a PC Version it cant really be compared color wise, no console hate or anything, just a issue of audience target, like TV viewers for which the TV offers those color boost natively because not knowlegeable people think more saturation looks better, its wrong tho if measured
Just look at the curbs for example, way too bright red

 

[M D Gourley]

'Sim-o-licious'...Finally got to jump into rF2 and drive around Nords and for me personally money well spent, feels fantastic on my TSXW and getting around 46-81 FPS with 15 GTE cars on the combined track, running 5760 x 1080, RTX2070 with full graphics settings...more than happy with that and a worthy addition to the rFactor 2 Laser scanned Track pack

 

[M D Gourley]

Anyone on triple 1080p and i7+RTX running this? Performance?

Hello Alex72...Yes...RTX2070 / 5760 x 1080 / 46 - 81 FPS with Full graphics settings on 'Combined' track...more than happy

 

[Vandiemen90]

I couldn’t resist and I did 5 laps with the radical sr3.
4 DOF motion+VR+DD steering wheel system + bass shakers plus this version of the Nürburgring-= Sim racing heaven
Said this.... sadly it’s very heavy track with my CV1. Even with my 2080ti/I7-8700 it’s only 45fps every where in the track .
Any one tried it with VR?

Sorry to hear you're having this problem. I’m running a similar rig to yours (i7 8700K OCd to 4.9) and I'm getting phenomenal VR performance. Almost all the graphic settings are set to the max including post processing, I’m using a Valve Index set to 80 so I can super sample to 1.2. Very stable. Let me know if I can help. Happy to share my settings.

 

[KittX]

On lighting I can agree, but the colors are not good in terms of realism, they are not natural rather a bit "buffed" by saturation etc, it does not need to ne because of the game, just that its not possible to have calibration on consoles, meaning rF2 for example (anything except Forza/Grid, all who run without "picture enhancing stuff"), have mich more realistic colors when the display is properly calibrated and has the capabilities to display them acuratly, so unless GT will have a PC Version it cant really be compared color wise, no console hate or anything, just a issue of audience target, like TV viewers for which the TV offers those color boost natively because not knowlegeable people think more saturation looks better, its wrong tho if measured
Just look at the curbs for example, way too bright red

Well, this can definitely lead into whole separate discussion. It highly depends on color space and technology of monitor, yes. Also, the curbs and terrain/tree textures can be easily done by different team members, with different personal preferences. I'm personally still not a fan of dynamic range and color rendering of rf2, but they're working on it and improving it, so let's hope it'll continue. But I feel like apart from the technology it's also the stylistic decision of rF2 rendering/track team, and well personally it doesn't 100% match with mine.

 

[darkie]

RF2 has a problem that is really annoying me and it is present in almost all if not all of the rf2 tracks. I don't know how to call it...it is a shadow that is running with you about 50 meters in front of you and it is visible on this track as well from the videos I have seen, on the armco... I have no idea what/why it is there(shadow issues?), but for me is really distracting and annoying. On this track looks to be mild...but on some other tracks it is a lot more visible and across the whole width of the track and I cannot get rid of it no matter what graphic settings I use.

 

[AyrtonForever]

surprise, Porsche Cup later today

 

[tr1v1um]

To return on the price because each time we see the same answers as soon as we approach the subject.
There is no question about the legitimacy of paid content. Of course, all works deserves salary. And of course if you want a simulation of quality with quality content, you have to have paid content (but not only, free, sometime, is good for the community ).
But the subject is, "Is it the right price? What is a good price?"
I think it's a bit pricey, and I'll be more interested by a win-win marketing strategy.
example:
For LeMans. The Steam gave 2000 buyers after one or two weeks (I do not know anymore), it does not do much, and at 11 € it is 22000 € in the pockets of S397 (and yes it is not much to pay for all work on this track )
But selling it at 5 €, with only 4400 buyers we also reach 22000 €. Is it impossible to imagine with this price to reach 4400 buyers, in the same amount of time ? Maybe more ? Are there so few players ?

Better. The same strategy that Kunos with AC seemed to me to work well. The DLC with the Norschleife (2 years of work announced) and full of great cars with 10 € in pre-order and 15 € after.
A smaller price in exchange for a pre-order is also a good marketing strategy. We take advantage of the hype on the taisers to have more customers. And in addition, starting directly on a discount also encourages more buying.

Why never want to talk about it (If we talk about it, It's because there are a problem, no?) , and blame those who talk about it by "whining" when we all want the same thing, more quality content and a long life for S397 and RF2. For me, this kind of commercial technique with a win-win strategy could sustain our favorite simulation

I just want that @Marcel Offermans (well, his marketing staff ) are fully aware of it. why not take this risk on the next paid content to see the result. If it's more profitable everyone wins

I want to play for a long time with RF2 again (I bought it day one in 2012 with paypal bugs etc...)

I don't think that S397 is in a position to take risks at this point. I suspect that the return from the sales will barely cover the investments made at this point and they don't have the steady income as iRacing, so they have to set the entry price point a tad higher to make sure that the existent user base has an incentive to buy the content. From my perspective the price for this track is rather moderate when I look at the other products and given the fact that we get the whole facility with more layouts to come. That said, once and if the new UI works well together with the comp infrastructure they might be able to drop the prices to reach a wider audience. But they aren't getting rich at this point.

@KittX I remember a time, when the curbs at Silverstone looked exactly like the curbs in the GTS footage posted by Patrick and everyone complained that it looked too saturated and comical. For my taste, the colour palette is a tad too much on the desaturated side for the rF2 tracks, but I wouldn't like to see them go back to 2013 colour settings.