rFactor 2 | Competition System Development Blog Post #2 Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

Studio 397 have released the second blog post update on the contined development of their new Competition System within the simulation.

• Identified two substantial bugs under investigation.
• New series coming soon.
• Various system updates.

In this latest posting from the Dutch development team, Studio 397 offer some further insight into the development of the Competition System within rFactor 2, highlighting some ongoing bug quashing that is underway at the studio and answering some community questions about the new system.

You can check out the full post update below:


This weekend, the first two series will end, and whilst we are already preparing for a new and fresh set of competitions (possibly with a surprise we don’t want to spoil just yet), in terms of development we have been chasing two bugs:

• The first one is a problem where, seemingly randomly, significant groups of people disconnect from the server after a couple of minutes. So far we’re mainly seeing this in our GTE series and it seems to have gotten worse after we introduced some changes last week. Our efforts are very much focused on reproducing this and fixing it and we expect this to continue into next week.
• The second one is a graphics glitch, where the bodywork of a car starts deforming into a bunch of huge polygons that reach into the sky. This one too is still under investigation, and I hope to have a better update on this next week.

Feature wise we’ve deployed a few updates to the rendering in the UI, and a few more are expected to be deployed right after the publication of this blog, or possibly tomorrow. Updates include a richer briefing, better layout for the standings (with jumping to “your” position still to come) and some networking improvements that make the UI more robust.

In general we would like to thank our community for their active involvement in reporting issues during this beta phase. As promised last week, we wanted to answer some frequently asked questions. If we’ve missed yours, don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’ll answer a few more next week.

Q&A

Q: What will be the major feature of the system which will make people say “hey let’s play (or switch) to rFactor 2”?
Stevy

I’m not sure if we can name a single major feature, but a significant part of the community has been telling us “if only you had an organized online system like one of your major competitors”. So that was a major reason to build this system. Picking one feature that might make it unique, but will still be some time away, the system is quite flexible in how you can setup different competitions, so we can keep innovating and organizing new formats. One feature that, as far as I know, will be unique, is that we can include multiple different simulations into the system and even run competitions where different events run in different sims.

Q: What will make it special compared to all the other systems?
Stevy

Our main goal is to have an experience that keeps people trying new things, so in the next couple of years you will see league style races, knockout tournaments, short sprint races, endurance races, and lots of other types of challenges we probably did not even think of right now.

Q: Will it even have something like this or will it be “just” a comp system like all the others?
Stevy

In the end there are only so many ways you can do a competition system, but I think the rFactor 2 simulation itself lays the groundwork for some unique things. One aspect we already mentioned before is that we expect to also include “offline” racing against the AI, so maybe next year the Tatuus Winter Series is something you can also run against AI, or maybe even allowing a mix of AI and humans.

Q: Will there be an iRacing like results screen where you can see the ratings from all the drivers at the end, and will they be saved to look back at it yourself?
Unknown

The whole “result viewing” part has not been deployed yet, but for sure we will add extensive statistics about all the sessions and splits in each competition, as well as driver, team and friend statistics. And that will certainly include some form of rating, driver reputation and possibly others.

Q: My question about that would be how you can maybe change your car? Even if all points are gone.
Vanisch

Yes, we will most likely have a feature to leave a competition and then (if that is still allowed for that competition) join it with a new entry, which will also allow you a new choice of car.

Q: Please add more Q session for GTE during the day, in American continent there’s one at 3am and 4.45am so the next 4 races of the day.
Nico Barclay

Right now we settled on a schedule where there is a race every 5 hours in both competitions and we had to shuffle the qualifications around a bit to accomodate for the big demand we saw. We are aware that that still might not be enough for all timezones to find a nice slot to race in the 3 days each event lasts. In this beta we will probably not “scale up” yet, but in the future our goal is to host as many races as there is demand for.

Q: Please add a “practice” button from the competition page so we can either join an open practice session or a single player race. I was trying to practice the loch last night, but I couldn’t find any details on which track config it was supposed to be. So a practice button that takes us right there would be great.
MarcG

For now, your best bet is to go into single player, and then go to the series selection and look for the GTE or Tatuus Winter Series and select that. This way when you go into car or track selection, you will just see the content that is used in the competition. For now all tracks are run using “default” weather. Going forward we will introduce practice sessions for people to get together and train online.

Q: Will we have to keep buying cars we’re not interested in driving or will this change in the future? A while back I took a break from rFactor 2 so there are some cars I don’t have and I can’t join the GTE series even if I already have the car I want to drive. A couple of cars is already enough to stop me from returning to rFactor 2. I can’t imagine how many new players this will stop from getting into the game.
Martin Vindis

So this would require a huge technical change, basically a rewrite of how the package system works. We decided against that and instead offer much better pricing on car packs compared to some of our competitors. We will always keep running competitions with free content, and will even consider properly built and licensed community created content. You can also expect future bundles that are tailored to our competitions and can be bought at a discount.

Q: Will the competition system become subscription-based when it hits proper RC-state?
Flaux

No. The competition system will be free to enter and as long as you behave well in the sessions, you can access it. There might be some competitions in the future that require an entry fee, and we might work with specific partners to build special events that have other requirements, but fundamentally we want everybody to participate.

Q: Hello good morning, when are you going to put the game in Spanish? since in the community there are many Spanish speakers, more than you think to put us aside. It would be more correct to also translate into Spanish from Spain. Translated with google translator.
Tetemr

Somos conscientes de que hay una gran comunidad de habla hispana y en nuestra pantalla de perfil puede ver que tenemos la intención de proporcionar traducciones completas a muchos idiomas. No estamos listos para comenzar ese proceso, pero está planeado y ciertamente aceptaremos la ayuda de la comunidad para lograrlo. Traducido con Google Translator.



Original Source: Studio 397

rFactor 2 is available now exclusively on PC.

Got questions? Our community have answers! Check out the rFactor 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for a great way to engage with your fellow fans of the simulation.

 

[Peter Kerényi]

That's ridiculous, so I already own Sebring and if I buy track expansion budle I will have 2 copies of Sebring on my HDD?

Without offering discounts on individual items S397 is gonna bury itself. With the amount of conecnt atm it's still bearable but few years down the line when people realize they have to spend 150€ to play online it would be a huge deal breaker.

If you buy e.g. a pack, but you don't want to have a track or car installed from that pack, it cannot be done, it's "forced" to be installed by design. That piece of content reserves 2x the disk space it represents because an .rfcmp file is stored in your workshop folder, and the content itself is unpacked in the installation folder. It's been like that since rF2 moved to Steam. On a side note, uninstalling the .rfcmp file without unsubscribing from free workshop content forces the download of that .rfcmp file, despite you having it unpacked already in your installation. Just saying so nobody tries it

Regarding what you asked, I did not know how it works, but John-Eric explained it nicely

 

[Jens Roos]

On a side note, uninstalling the .rfcmp file without unsubscribing from free workshop content forces the download of that .rfcmp file, despite you having it unpacked already in your installation. Just saying so nobody tries it

Regarding what you asked, I did not know how it works, but John-Eric explained it nicely

There is a way around that if you handle the updates from Steam workshop manually according to description elsewhere but then you most likely back to get your content not up to date. If you short in space a better solution is to use an symbolic link (mklink) to another drive for the rF2 workshop folder to save space.

The workshop approach is great and keeps your content updated, especially for MP where to often server or other users to often uses older versions, I think that benefit wins over the extra space taken.

Would however like to see an DLC approach where only the missing items from an pack could be added, not buying items twice should be possible, this already possible for other Steam packages offerings (non-workshop but still). Changes how rF2 handles paid content internally will probably not happen.

 

[Enoneado]

Sure dude, I see the RF2 cult is still going strong.

steamcharts RF2

the number of players are decreasing... they don't overpass 1.500 players of peak and only during two months since 2015... really, near of 6 years and the game is still on semibeta version...

 

[sbabb]

Would however like to see an DLC approach where only the missing items from an pack could be added, not buying items twice should be possible, this already possible for other Steam packages offerings (non-workshop but still). Changes how rF2 handles paid content internally will probably not happen.

That is down to the Steam Item Store, it doesn´t have the same feature set as the normal game store, until Valve does something to it there can´t be anything done to change this and that will only happen if its bringing them cash

 

[M D Gourley]

Not sure where to post this
How can the Content Car Covers be unvailled...and show the car image, as I have a number of content that has these covers over the cars

 

[davehenrie]

Not sure where to post this
How can the Content Car Covers be unvailled...and show the car image, as I have a number of content that has these covers over the cars

View attachment 437273

The cars under wraps are cars that do not belong to S397 AND have not yet created their own icons for rF2 to use. Those particular cars are from Rieza Studios and it is up to them to supply updated files that include the cars. Rieza released AMS 2 last fall and that has occupied all their time. They have twice stated they will address their cars and tracks once the workload from AMS 2 dies down and the rFactor2 graphics reach a finalized state.
This scenario applies to all cars not belonging to S397, however, many mod makers have already supplied updated cars and skins to account for the images necessary to display the cars on the menus.

 

[RichardHessels]

Not sure where to post this
How can the Content Car Covers be unvailled...and show the car image, as I have a number of content that has these covers over the cars

View attachment 437273

Never understood why the original thumbnails provided would not be show instead.
Many mods probably will never get updated anytime soon.
Sure it looks a bit better, but untill every piece of content is updates it's a quite anoying.

 

[tr1v1um]

steamcharts RF2

the number of players are decreasing... they don't overpass 1.500 players of peak and only during two months since 2015... really, near of 6 years and the game is still on semibeta version...

Bliblablub ...

If you want to give your usual expertise on how bad this sim is that you have obviously zero interest for, then atleast learn to do some proper math and interprete what is shown in those stats properly. The average players, and that's the much more important number, has increased from under 100 people to over 600 who play the game on a regular base during the time that S397 developed this game further. They infact had the biggest increase with 600% growth. There was a very unusual steep increase during early 2020 with all the streaming stuff but this hype in sim racing has dropped off across the whole genre. rF2 is a very niche product anyway that requires a bit more than the brain of a ten year old teenager, so you won't see the influx that you see in other mainstream games. Now get back to your cave and have fun with your superior sims.

 

[Enoneado]

Bliblablub ...

If you want to give your usual expertise on how bad this sim is that you have obviously zero interest for, then atleast learn to do some proper math and interprete what is shown in those stats properly. The average players, and that's the much more important number, has increased from under 100 people to over 600 who play the game on a regular base during the time that S397 developed this game further. They infact had the biggest increase with 600% growth. There was a very unusual steep increase during early 2020 with all the streaming stuff but this hype in sim racing has dropped off across the whole genre. rF2 is a very niche product anyway that requires a bit more than the brain of a ten year old teenager, so you won't see the influx that you see in other mainstream games. Now get back to your cave and have fun with your superior sims.

wow, guy, are you employed by studio397 at marketing department? because all of that you said only has a name: "fanatism", proper of a rat boy, i watch other factors, in first place the time, for 1/3 of the time that they are "developing" the game, other studios released two games, with more tracks, cars, online system and with an UI of the XXI century... and this is not the only thing that i observe, the second is that the total price of all DLC's and the complete game exceed so much the price of ACC, AM2, AC, etc... one car = 5 €, one track per year... changing the skins for making the feeling that they made more tracks than one = 11,99 € or more... really... what kind of swindle is this? my last purchase was the BMW M2 and... during 2 years i payed religiously those DLC's... but i opened my eyes, a simracing game must be more than a good FFB... maybe are not superior sims... but are COMPLETED and FINISHED sims, is a fu*** final product that i pay with my money...

 

[Kenny Paton]

tr1v1um Enoneado
Right you two, keep it civil, and avoid the personal insults.

 

[roadyroad]

You have a search function for content, how about just using it? Content get's updated automaticely if it is distributed via the steam workshop, so it is alot easier than in AC to know if your content is up to date or not, even with mods. Why is something like that considered a mess? How about simply trying the content and making up your mind? There are two different FE cars - that I don't own btw - so what really keeps you from simply using them? I don't get it.

View attachment 436913

You missunderstood my point.

The issues are :

- I want to select only the cars of a specific mod. I need these cars to sorted by category (the mods), not by brand. This has been the way sims have always been presented, just because... it is the right way.

- As rfactor2 is regularly updated, I want to know for each mod/car/track whether it is up to date or whether it may be not compatible with the last rFactor2 build. Maybe by just showing the date of the last update for each mod, which is recorded in Steamworkshop ; that is quiet simple to implement.

Quiet simple, but not possible atm.

 

[tr1v1um]

wow, guy, are you employed by studio397 at marketing department? because all of that you said only has a name: "fanatism", proper of a rat boy, i watch other factors, in first place the time, for 1/3 of the time that they are "developing" the game, other studios released two games, with more tracks, cars, online system and with an UI of the XXI century... and this is not the only thing that i observe, the second is that the total price of all DLC's and the complete game exceed so much the price of ACC, AM2, AC, etc... one car = 5 €, one track per year... changing the skins for making the feeling that they made more tracks than one = 11,99 € or more... really... what kind of swindle is this? my last purchase was the BMW M2 and... during 2 years i payed religiously those DLC's... but i opened my eyes, a simracing game must be more than a good FFB... maybe are not superior sims... but are COMPLETED and FINISHED sims, is a fu*** final product that i pay with my money...

If you have opened your eyes allready and moved on, why spent so much time on something that you lost interest for? And why call me a fanatic? I think I gave enough criticism throughout the last couple of years and played enough sims to not be a fanboy of sim XYZ. For a fact I like most of them, yet most of them aren't finished and obviously still developed. The last finished product that I played was RBR or GTR2/GTL. That rF2 isn't for you might have valid reasons, but I see no point in dragging on with all the trolling and hating. What's your gain? That S397 suddenly tailors the game for you needs, the most important potential rF2 user?

 

[RichardHessels]

You missunderstood my point.

The issues are :

- I want to select only the cars of a specific mod. I need these cars to sorted by category (the mods), not by brand. This has been the way sims have always been presented, just because... it is the right way.

- As rfactor2 is regularly updated, I want to know for each mod/car/track whether it is up to date or whether it may be not compatible with the last rFactor2 build. Maybe by just showing the date of the last update for each mod, which is recorded in Steamworkshop ; that is quiet simple to implement.

Quiet simple, but not possible atm.

Some different sorting options at the car list for the different classes provided in the VEH files should not be to difficult in a near future.

 

[roadyroad]

Some different sorting options at the car list for the different classes provided in the VEH files should not be to difficult in a near future.

As it hasn't been done since the launch of the game, I'm not sure that it is that easy. Rfactor1 did it right, gtr2 did it right, ams1 did it right, because it is the best way to do make a selection. If ISI could not do it and S397 is still not able to do it, there must be something... i really hope they'll find a way though, rfactor2 can't stay in that state.

 

[whip]

do you still need to own every single car that's in the race? if so then this multiplayer i will give a big miss

 

[John-Eric Saxén]

do you still need to own every single car that's in the race? if so then this multiplayer i will give a big miss

Yes, in fact it was answered in this blog post:

Q: Will we have to keep buying cars we’re not interested in driving or will this change in the future? A while back I took a break from rFactor 2 so there are some cars I don’t have and I can’t join the GTE series even if I already have the car I want to drive. A couple of cars is already enough to stop me from returning to rFactor 2. I can’t imagine how many new players this will stop from getting into the game.

So this would require a huge technical change, basically a rewrite of how the package system works. We decided against that and instead offer much better pricing on car packs compared to some of our competitors. We will always keep running competitions with free content, and will even consider properly built and licensed community created content. You can also expect future bundles that are tailored to our competitions and can be bought at a discount.

 

[whip]

We decided against that and instead offer much better pricing on car packs compared to some of our competitors.

every game apart from iracing is cheaper for content, and when you factor in you only need one car in other games it becomes even cheaper

 

[PickABetterUsername01]

every game apart from iracing is cheaper for content, and when you factor in you only need one car in other games it becomes even cheaper

You could even argue that if they keep this up, it will end up very expensive but without a good MP system. Basically, 0 reasons to invest in rf2 for multiplayer.