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.

 

[Enoneado]

I already have PC2 & F1 2019 + AC/ACC/DR1/DR2/WRC8. Most were on sale for very good deals, and I enjoy them all. They all play very nicely with a controller, no hassle to set up at all and very customizable. Disappointed in rFactor2 lack of solid controller support given how long it's been out, but I guess it's only for "Wheely Pros" I did like the visual feedback for the rF2 controller setup, but the problem was further down in the driver somewhere, just a bad implementation - which they themselves admit to via "partial controller support". I should have looked closer before buying, my bad!

If they ever fix it I'll look at it again sometime.

Edit: oh, yeah, wreckfest for $10 was a good score. Great fun with the kid.

how much money did you pay for your controller?

 

[AyrtonForever]

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

excuse me, but that said from who want to drive a race car with a controller.....

 

[Enagee]

Controllers must be banned in racing sims!!!

That's a bit extreme and elitist. There are people who can't afford a wheel or even disabled and then there are people who are faster than you with a controller or even some use the keyboard. Are you using a direct drive wheel and a motion rig? anything less ain't good.

 

[ziogzzz]

Ok i do not understand the guys playing RF2 on controller, it is all about ffb which is great, you can feel tires through wheel, who the hell came here and started to speak about controllers and so on, just buy g29 if you dont have money, as it is maybe half price of some stupid expensive controller. Nothing personal but guys make bullshit that he bought bunch of games and still crying that can not play with controller, nobody cares here about it!

 

[gianlucaP]

---

 

[sonicviz]

how much money did you pay for your controller?

What's that got to do with it?

I don't use a wheel because I don't have the space to have one set up on my workstation.
Using a controller it's easy pick up and play instantly whether in flatscreen or VR.

I'd love a wheel, but in my current situation having to spend 10 minutes each time at the start to set it up (clearing things away on desk, getting the contoller out, plugging it all in blah blah blah) and doing the same at the end would just kill any urge to play or practice. Even setting it up would be cramped in my current workstation setup. A controller is my best play option at the moment, out of necessity.

Other people don't have wheels because of cost or disability (which should not preclude them from playing and enjoying a game/simulator) or other reasons. And having a wheel is no guarantee you'll be a good racer anyway, there's a lot more to racing than that.

 

[RobertR1]

What's that got to do with it?

You missed out on a great file editing simulator also. You never even got to edit the ini files to make things work.

 

[sonicviz]

You "debug software for a living" and you don't know how to quote posts?
People miss your answers in this way.
Anyway, it's not about being a fan...
Studio 397 started working on RF2 few years ago and obviously their priority isn't the controller support. Some parts of the game are still as they were back in 2013, when it was released by ISI.
The controller support will be maybe the last thing on which they will work and for a simple reason: the game is only on pc, not on console. The majority of the players in this case use the wheel, not the gamepad. So the players with the gamepad have to adapt and spend some time configuring the device to get the best results. I don't see the big deal.
There are players with the wheel that spent hours testing different settings to get the best from games like pCars and AC. And these games offer a very good support out of the box. How's that? Maybe what's good for your device and your driving style isn't good for other players.
RF2 right now offers the same kind of support provided by RF1, GTR and GTR2, AMS and RRE. The settings are identical, only the last two provide the rumble support. RRE offers also some more options. The control on the car is the same: direct, precise.
RBR and NKP (I hope you know what I'm talking about) have a very poor controller support. The first one also has no rumble support. Well, I spent hundreds hours with both of them using the gamepad, with perfect control on the car. This to say that if you want the best you have to persist, you can't stop on the first problems.

This is more about you being a RF2 fan and defending sloppy development and controller support because you love the game. Good for you.

Just as many PC players use gamepads btw, it's not a "console only" thing.

I've also spent many hours tweaking controller settings on AC, PC2 etc, that's not what I'm talking about (and that's the second time I've had to say that). I'm talking about full controller support, detection UX, and rumble support. It's silly to make excuses for them when it's nearly 2020, and they can't offer the full controller support that is a standard in any decent product. You don't need to use a wheel to play a racing game, it's a "nice to have" not a "need to have".

 

[sonicviz]

Ok i do not understand the guys playing RF2 on controller, it is all about ffb which is great, you can feel tires through wheel, who the hell came here and started to speak about controllers and so on, just buy g29 if you dont have money, as it is maybe half price of some stupid expensive controller. Nothing personal but guys make bullshit that he bought bunch of games and still crying that can not play with controller, nobody cares here about it!

A G29 is actually about double the price of some of the best controllers, such as Razer Wolverine (which is what I use).

Using a wheel is a great level up, but it's not a requirement to play a racing game well and it doesn't make you an instant Michael Schumacher just because you play a game with one. The "game" of racing is arguably more mental than physical, and unless you're in a full motion setup you can get a "good enough" experience from a sim/game that offers full and solid controller support.

 

[sonicviz]

That's a bit extreme and elitist. There are people who can't afford a wheel or even disabled and then there are people who are faster than you with a controller or even some use the keyboard. Are you using a direct drive wheel and a motion rig? anything less ain't good.

+100 to this. Exactly my point. Some people also have space issues (like me) and for others it's cost.

Why are Wheelies so elitist when all evidence points to the fact you can play and enjoy a racing sim/game "good enough" using a controller?

 

[sonicviz]

excuse me, but that said from who want to drive a race car with a controller.....

Using a wheel is nice, but it's not a requirement to play a racing game well and it doesn't make you an instant Michael Schumacher (or Senna or whoever your god is) just because you play a game with one. The "game" of racing is arguably more mental than physical, and unless you're in a full motion setup you can get a "good enough" experience from a sim/game that offers full and solid controller support.

 

[AyrtonForever]

we can do all the philosophy we want about "the mental aspects of racing", but cars have been driven with a steering wheel since they exist, not with a lever. so, if you're satisfied with a "good enough" experience, that's fine, but you certainly don't talk about simulating, just playing

 

[sonicviz]

we can do all the philosophy we want about "the mental aspects of racing", but cars have been driven with a steering wheel since they exist, not with a lever. so, if you're satisfied with a "good enough" experience, that's fine, but you certainly don't talk about simulating, just playing

Why all the hate for people using controllers?

Even with a controller you can work on a lot of the mental aspects of racing to a very high degree.

While a steering wheel may be the standard car "interface" (and that is changing too btw) you can also argue that as a simulator pilot you are still missing many channels of real life data that are critical to accurately simulating a real life racing experience: g-forces, smell, taste, heat, cold, sweat, full body kinaesthetics, proprioception, and the big one DANGER. There are others no doubt.

You're fooling yourself thinking you're superior in some way as a wheel user to a "mere" controller user, that you're "simulating because I haz wheel" vs a poor sap with a controller who's just "playing".

Where's the line drawn with wheels anyway, to distinguish one from "playing" vs "authentic"?
Does a $50 wheel with no FFB qualify someone as authentic because it's a wheel?
How about a $150 wheel tied to a rickety plastic lawn table and and using a sofa chair, with plastic pedals? Is that "authentic"?
Or is "authentic" only hifi FFB DD wheels (haha loser belties!) and a pair of sweet gloves while wearing a racing suit and helmet in your living room?
Even a full motion rig costing $20K is missing DANGER and other elements.
Who gets to say when someone is "simulating" vs "playing"? You? Why?

But by all means, feel superior because you play computer racing games with a wheel but the reality is you're still playing a computer game too. The simulation is in your head.

 

[AyrtonForever]

mate, i don't hate anyone, nor do i feel superior. i simply don't like philosophy

 

[sonicviz]

mate, i don't hate anyone, nor do i feel superior. i simply don't like philosophy

You (and others here) certainly seem to think you're superior by branding controller users as "playing" vs people like you who are "simulating" purely because you have some form of wheel controller. You didn't answer any of the questions either.

Furthermore, it's got nothing to do with philosophy. It's about sports science.

 

[Emery]

Doesn't own the game, rattles on forever about an off topic thing... I finally found the ignore button!

 

[sonicviz]

Doesn't own the game, rattles on forever about an off topic thing... I finally found the ignore button!

I owned the game, and tested it for 3 hours straight and found it wanting. Just because you're in love with it doesn't negate any of the issues which caused me to refund it. I have plenty of other simulator experience to benchmark it against. Good for you if you like to dick around for hours/days tweaking things just to get it to work, but some of us have other things to do and time is short and valuable.

If they fix the issues I'm more than happy to buy it again.

 

[Ghoults]

Controllers must be banned in racing sims!!!

Yes! Instead of making different kinds of controls to function inside the game and selling more products to more users s397 could instead spend money and have fewer users. Amazing. And it works too.

All in a sad derailment of a thread but pretty typical rf2 one at that. The game doesn't have a feature or does something poorly and instead of admitting the game might have a flaw the users jump in to defend rf2 and blindly argue how not having something is better than having it.

In the end that fact is there is a big group of users out there who don't have a wheel. By not even offering controller profile because of ideological reasons just makes sure these people will never spend a dime on rf2. Does it help rf2 to have less money? Duhh?

 

[stickdeath1980]

I was a Keyboard racer back in early 90's was pretty good at it to.then went to controller after GT1 to GT3 then found other game's you could play with a wheel But as long as you have fun.thats the main reason we all play game's,Going to be honest whislt i was moving i tryed a controller on many of the sim's i own RRE,RF2,AC,ACC and got to say there controller's are not very well supported,and i'm a wheel plep thought i would try, i shut it down after that ahaha.

 

[Ace King]

I owned the game, and tested it for 3 hours straight and found it wanting. Just because you're in love with it doesn't negate any of the issues which caused me to refund it. I have plenty of other simulator experience to benchmark it against. Good for you if you like to dick around for hours/days tweaking things just to get it to work, but some of us have other things to do and time is short and valuable.

If they fix the issues I'm more than happy to buy it again.

How you were able to play & test it for 3 hours straight since Steam's refund policy is less than 2 hours as stated below:

"The Steam refund offer, within two weeks of purchase and with less than two hours of playtime!!