rF2 | November Development Roadmap - Formula E 2019/20!

[Paul Jeffrey]

Studio 397 have released the latest of their monthly 'development roadmap' posts about the future of rFactor 2.

Maintaining a welcome tradition of updating the sim racing community about the goings on in the world of rFactor 2, the November roadmap post is here - and contains interesting insights and hints about where rFactor 2 is heading in the immediate future.

On the content side of things, the key highlight is of course the introduction of the 2019/20 Formula E content update - adding the new teams, drivers and liveries from the premier electric open wheel racing series in the world. Other key topics from the new post is news that the long awaited UI update for the sim is indeed on target for a mid-December release, and plenty of talk about E-Sports and competitions within the simulation.

You can check out the full roadmap update post below:

As the weather gets cold all around Europe and the northern hemisphere, everyone at Studio 397 is currently in motion and working on exciting projects cranking up the heat! It’s already November, but we’re not finished yet bringing you updates and new content for rFactor 2 this year. Next month we’ll look back at the year, but for now we are dedicated to working on the future of simracing and bringing everybody together for exciting and thrilling digital motorsport action. So get off the track, slow down and park your cars in the pits for a while and let’s talk about what awaits you in the rFactor world this coming month. Spoiler alert: before the clock strikes twelve, you will have heard back from us at least three more times! That’s how much we have planned to end the year on a high. And as you will see, we are already announcing a big event in 2020!

Screenshot Contest Winners
Last week we announced a screenshot contest, featuring our Nissan GT500. Thank you everybody for making an effort and submitting screenshots of your own liveries! We could not decide on a winner, so we picked two! And the winners are…..BrianB and ek0z from Discord – Congratulations! We will be in touch next week.

Formula E 2020 Season Release

Just last weekend we saw the ABB FIA Formula E Championship start into its 6th season, with a grid so packed and full of big names that exciting racing was inevitable! Not hyped enough by what happened at the Diriyah ePrix, or missed it? Check out all the action here! Let’s start off with an interesting fact before diving into our actual announcement. Season six of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship is the first ever championship that sees all four German premium automotive brands battle it out on the same tracks, namely Porsche, Audi, Mercedes and BMW. Of course there are even more manufacturers in this season, with Nissan and Jaguar both coming back to strike hard against the German brands.

But enough about the new season. How does that relate to rFactor 2? As you probably guessed by now, we’re proud to continue our relationship with Formula E, and we’re releasing the 2020 season teams and liveries! Intense street racing with quick and agile open wheelers is waiting for you, featuring the new debutantes, Porsche and Mercedes, as a free upgrade to the current Formula E Gen 2 car. Go get it here!

And check it out, we also added the top wing cam!

Sim Formula 2020 at InterClassics in Maastricht

On January 16-19th, 2020, the MECC in Maastricht will host the biggest simracing event in the Benelux. In collaboration with InterClassics, Sim Formula will host a 4 day long event, focused on simracing. The event is freely accessible every day. Known brands in simracing will be showing off their latest developments and products. There is also a simracing arena featuring various activities. For example, on Saturday there will be a hotlap competition on Circuit Maastricht (which is freely available in the rFactor 2 workshop if you want to come prepared). On Sunday afternoon you can witness the finals. René Hoogterp, a professional Dutch commentator, will participate in the live broadcast of this race.

Qualifiers and Prize Pool

December 2019 will feature an online qualifier competition using rFactor 2, consisting of both hotlaps and races. In the first week of December we will open up a hotlap competition where the top 25 (with 5 reserves) will qualify for a series of races in the week of December 10-15th. In each of those races, a qualification session will be followed by two short sprint races, one with a reverse grid, to determine the fastest driver of that day who will then qualify for the final. More information on how to join will be published here on Monday.

The 5 fastest from these qualifiers will be invited to compete against each other on January 19th at the MECC in Maastricht in full-motion simulators provided by Upracer to determine who wins the first edition of Sim Formula. The total prize pool for this event is €10.000. Note that we are not covering travel expenses, so make sure you are able to travel to Maastricht to compete in the final if you join the qualifiers!

Masterclass and Congress

In collaboration with Adrenaline-Xperience by Atze Kerkhof all visitors of the event will be able to win one of three masterclasses. To participate, you can fill in a card during your visit to the event and drop it in a spot on the podium of the racing arena. The winner of the hotlap competition on Saturday will win the fourth masterclass. On Thursday evening, there will be an esports congress (for which you do need to buy a ticket). If you want to learn more about the world of esports, this is an excellent opportunity to listen to and discuss with an impressive line-up of well known, international speakers. For more information and tickets, visit this page.

Co-Hosted with InterClassics

The Sim Formula 2020 is full of action, but there is a lot more to see at InterClassics, the biggest car show of the Benelux, featuring many classic and fast cars. Just what the doctor ordered!

Finally

In case you’re wondering how the public beta of the new UI is coming along, we are on schedule to release that mid-December. It will be released as an “opt-in” public beta on Steam, so you will need to enable it yourself and you can quickly switch between the two. Both versions will be fully multiplayer compatible.

Enjoy the last month of the year!


rFactor 2 is available exclusively on PC.

Questions? Ask the community and post a thread in the rFactor 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment! If you love racing online, why not check out our rFactor 2 Racing Club - a fantastic place to experience this sim with in a clean, safe and competitive environment.

 

[dave kirk]

I just learned four new words

I hope they do work on physics as well, as there are various key stuff to wish for improvements that gets mentioned a lot, and some mentioned a bit less. Some people in community are getting slightly frustrated, there are also some who gets frustrated over frustration of others, which is perhaps sometimes justified. But I don't think that there is work on physics, or maybe that there will be anything major - hopefully I am wrong. I would suppose it is all UI and bugs solving that is happening, so the experience is getting increasingly more normal, I suppose it is fair to say that rF2 is getting improved for real, but it just doesn't get upgraded a lot, as simple as that.

There happens some changes to physics that also are up for debate IMO, such as decreased severity of flat spot effect, it used to be very brutal (I think too brutal for home user), you really didn't want to drive fast and a lot with mega flatspot, right now you can have mega flatspot, you'll know it is there, but you will be able to completely ignore it, so it went from too hot, to too cold IMO. So it is a great debate when it is better to go cooler, and when it is better to go hotter with simulation. I would suppose thats a difficult decision to make for a simulation. It has to be as real as possible, and if it is chosen not to be so, then it must have a very good and the right reason. But I hear increasing amount of voices from simracers that realism is not that important to them, basically I think every simracer has a threshold where he doesn't care or even has a clue anymore, so thats where the things settle down these days. Just hopefully the devs themselves has a high threshold and great understanding with intentions to pursue that.

I agree, i was wondering why I'd not felt that the crazy flat spot juddering for a while

 

[mantasisg]

[/QUOTE]......then I can tell the others that I am doing real grownups stuff not doing same children gaming....[/QUOTE]

Same here. I need this excuse FFS, for myself as well,not just others.

I mean I am ok for a sim to be fun as a game too, and it will never explode money as real cars, or break bones as real cars and that is an advantage over reality. But I need that feeling of value that comes with a sim when you trust that it is as good as it possibly can be. I don't think that the advantage of simulation to "reshape" reality should be used, such as easily possible perfection of any car or tire and possibility to neutralise anything that causes at least slight feel of frustration.

This is perhaps one of the biggest hooks of simracing where it can hook itself and get stuck - the meaning of better/worse is so mixed up when talking about simulation. In reality it is obvious that there is linear progression from worst to best as cars handle better and go faster, more efficiently and easier. [worst>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>best] In simulation best is somewhere in between worst and worst. Probably easier to make a badly handling car xD, but if you get around the physics well, I suppose you could perfect any car to its theoretical best and above, it is especially easy to do it with tires. I think in simulation it is absolutely easier to make a magic tires than to make a realistically challenging ones. [worst<<<<<<<<best>>>>>>>>worst].

Some will call us "elitists", and I think lets be "elitists" then haha... As long as it is because of standing up for the true stuff.

 

[Davy Jones]

cant wait for the new UI
btw sry to ask , about the formula E DLC , if i buy the formula e race bundle pack ,will it include the 2020 season skins?

https://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/365960/detail/1002/ this is a first-gen car with Hong Kong track.
https://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/365960/detail/1009/ this is a secon-gen car with Monaco.
https://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/365960/detail/1010/ this the second-gen car with Monaco and Hong Kong.
You can also purchase the first-gen or second-gen cars separately. And if you own the second-gen car either from a single purchase or as part of either of the two packs above that include it you will get the 2020 skins.

 

[Davy Jones]

surprised how many users DO use controllers. Not critical of them, just kinda got used to everyone having some sort of wheel.

Yes, same here

 

[Nevini]

Who in the right mind would use a controller with a sim, like using a wheel with Street fighter.

 

[davehenrie]

I think I remember last year for the original Worlds Fastest Gamer, one of the finalists was well known as using either a joystick or controller. It can be done I guess.

 

[PaulAM]

ok.. so please don't update your R factor 2 in 2 weeks as you might be disappointed..

What a weird comment.
Why would I be disappointed in a probable improvement.
Why does everything have to be black and white.
I never said that the current UI is fantastic - it's OK. Get it?
Alot of people go on about the UI like it's the main thing - it's not.
I spend a few minutes in the UI and then I go to the main thing, you know - driving.

 

[Cheesenium]

Before I got my wheel, i was playing pretty much every game with a gamepad controller. The gamepad controller in RFactor 2 frankly saying, it really sucks. You do need some time to dial it up nicely before you can enjoy the game since the default setup does not exists.

It is how people get on these racing games, I do think they need to polish up the gamepad controller support as every other game has a fairly decent one out of the box.

The physics great, no doubt on that. Even with a configured controllers, it is great fun to drive.

 

[Ace King]

I think I remember last year for the original Worlds Fastest Gamer, one of the finalists was well known as using either a joystick or controller. It can be done I guess.

In a rF1 league i been in they banned controller use as they were proven faster when setup correctly and driven by a good driver as there is faster reaction times using your thumb vrs turning a wheel. At Wakins Glen Nascar version a driver was 2 seconds faster compared to our fastest driver using a wheel. So, when this same controller driver was forced to use his wheel (G25) in order to continue in our league his qualify laptimes dropped by 3+ seconds.

 

[stickdeath1980]

>>Have you ever driven a RL car on "flat grass"?
Try it at 60 kmh and then read your post.

That would be funny, except I wasn't going anywhere near 60Kmh.

>>RF2 has one of the best control with gamepad, direct and precise. The player needs to spend about a minute to configure it properly and that's it (the usual stuff, sensitivity, deadzone, etc.).
There is also a steering angle setting, that allows the player to use an identical steering angle for all the cars (say for example 180*), or to let the system change the steering angle according to the car. Absolutely fantastic.
As for the vibration, the game, just like RF1, GTR1 and 2 doesn't offer rumble support. You need to install a plugin to enable it. After that it has the same kind of vibration offered by NetKar Pro and the first iteration of AC (steering rumble: the best).

I'm sorry, but this is totally wrong. I debug software for a living and I can recognize when something is flaky, especially when the behavior is happening in real time and I can benchmark test the controller immediately in another sim to check if it's the controller or the simulator. The fact they also declare it as "partial controller support" on the Steam store also speaks that they know it's flaky. I'm also not talking at all about the steering parameters, I'm talking about the lower level detection and handling of controller input before you even get to that.

Also, if you're trying to tell me I need to install a Win 7 plugin from 2010 (http://lavendy.net/special/driver/xi/index.html) to get the rumble working (and potentially screwing with my other games on Win 10) then I'm also not buying whatever it is you're selling. That means they haven't even implemented xinput api properly (if at all), and they're probably just as unlikely to implement the new UWP API that supports impulse triggers (like some of the sims I mentioned already do) https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...ation#vibration-and-impulse-triggers-overview

Did I also mention the other 10+ racing sims (not to mention flying/space sims/games) I have don't require me to do that, and my controller works just fine OOTB and is also easily configurable?

But fine, if they don't want to support controllers they should just say so and do away with the "partial controller support" bs and just support wheels.

Look, I get it. You're RF2 fans. Great. I tested it (three hours, ty Steam for the refund over time!) and it's got issues, I refunded and I'll try it again *maybe* in the future.
Is RF2 "the best"? No, there is no one best racing simulator and that's the only definitive answer to that question.

If your a Software dev guess you could afford a wheel?! Best thing i did was buy a wheel do it!!

 

[sonicviz]

No space. I can't imagine using a wheel to fly Elite Dangerous Ships or a bike in MotoGP2019, but they're great with a controller and I can also drive a car with a controller.
It's just pick up and play, I don't have to dick around setting it up on my desk.

Sure, I'd love to have a proper wheel setup but it's not happening for now.

 

[John-Eric Saxén]

In a rF1 league i been in they banned controller use as they were proven faster when setup correctly and driven by a good driver as there is faster reaction times using your thumb vrs turning a wheel. At Wakins Glen Nascar version a driver was 2 seconds faster compared to our fastest driver using a wheel. So, when this same controller driver was forced to use his wheel (G25) in order to continue in our league his qualify laptimes dropped by 3+ seconds.

I have raced with people using controllers in top rF1 leagues. If you practice enough, there is not much difference with controller and wheel. This video is one example. Anyway, I don't see how you can be 3 seconds faster due to better reaction times from controller, that sounds like complete nonsense. Most of racing is not about reacting, it's about predicting how the car will behave next and applying smooth inputs. If controller was the faster way to drive, they would fit controllers into real racing cars. In a purely reaction based arcade game like TrackMania, I can see how a controller would make more sense.

 

[sonicviz]

Not a wheel obviously, but controller design is fascinating

 

[AyrtonForever]

rfactor 2 is not an aircraft simulator, how can someone think to simulate driving a car with a controller??? you can surely play with it, but simulate the driving it's another story

 

[Keith Joyce]

I don't simulate driving. I simulate racing. Being faster around the track. I would need full motion control and a 'G-force simulator' to simulate driving. Also the peril. Can't ignore the peril...

 

[Marlonracer]

Controllers must be banned in racing sims!!!

 

[sonicviz]

rfactor 2 is not an aircraft simulator, how can someone think to simulate driving a car with a controller??? you can surely play with it, but simulate the driving it's another story

I don't think you understand the mental aspects of racing at all

 

[sonicviz]

Controllers must be banned in racing sims!!!

I don't think you understand the mental aspects of racing at all, but nice troll anyway!

 

[davehenrie]

Would a 1960's F1 driver with a wheel of about 2ft radius, consider the modern F1 contraption a wheel or controller?

 

[j_troc_71]

new UI is cool, 2020 Formula E cars are cool, but FIX THE G**D*** GTE CARS PLEASE S397