rFactor 2 Moving to DX11 - New Company Partnership Announced

[Paul Jeffrey]

With the build up to this weekend’s Sim Racing Expo, Image Space Incorporated have announced a strategic partnership with the Dutch software group Luminis. The new alliance has been created to help increase development in rFactor 2, including a number of exceptionally exciting announcements in relation to the sim.

The partnership will be brought together into a new company: Studio 397. Studio 397 will have its headquarters in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands and will operate under the leadership of Marcel Offermans, a fellow sim racer and the man responsible for bringing both rFactor and rFactor 2 to the Steam platform.

Gjon Camaj, Vice President of Image Space Incorporated:

“We at ISI are very pleased to have found a partner that shares our enthusiasm and vision for the continued growth of rFactor 2. We look forward to working with Luminis to expand the reach of rFactor 2 both in Europe and beyond. After having worked with Luminis for some time and seeing their passion for motorsport simulation, this partnership was a natural next step. By leveraging each of our company’s individual strengths, we will be better able to serve our current customers and further expand our reach into the world of motorsports”.​

Marcel Offermans, Luminis Fellow and Managing Director of Studio 397:

“I’m really excited by the opportunities that our partnership with ISI offers; rFactor 2 represents the best of breed, stable simulator platform in the industry. Online simracing has been my longtime personal passion, so the opportunity to combine my passion with my business feels like a great privilege. By infusing the platform with some of our own technology we see great opportunities to accelerate development in general and specifically in the areas of competitions and training”.​

The new partnership have released an ambitious roadmap for rFactor 2’s further development including the stated plans to move over to a DX11 compatible graphics engine, including VR support for both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. With the move to DX11, Studio 397 have committed to bringing performance improvements for high end video card users as well as maintaining compatibility with current content.

Other highlights from the announcement include a proposed new HTML based front end interface and Matchmaker support, in game UI updates and a promise to make more frequent car and track releases, working on racing cars and series as well as "popular and challenging" tracks. The new partnership also promises to work more closely with the community to support development of free and paid mod releases...

Oh, and the game has a new logo too....


All in all, this is fantastic news for rF2 and the sim racing community. I can hardly wait.

Check our rFactor 2 sub forum for news, discussions, mods, club and league races and everything in between!

What do you think of the announcement? Excited about DX11, VR support, new content? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Amir Vodokotlic]

Great news.

Good luck on venture.

Looking forward to it.

 

[Frank]

Great news @Marcel Offermans , getting really excited here!

 

[Markus Kroll]

Seems like they wanna do dlc. So what will happen to the lifetime users?

 

[Andy_J]

Well that's just stupid, than nobody will ever go forward if they are afraid of the few that don't budge... sorry but as a company you need to move forward and not get ankerd by the few.

I too is glad that they are not going to DX12. I run Win 7 because I would not go to the crap piece of spyware that is win 10.
Win 7 runs all my stuff without problems and I'm happy with it. DX11 will be good enough no doubt.

 

[Alex72]

I too is glad that they are not going to DX12. I run Win 7 because I would not go to the crap piece of spyware that is win 10.
Win 7 runs all my stuff without problems and I'm happy with it. DX11 will be good enough no doubt.

Just turn all services off that you dont like (like you do with all windows versions).

rF2 DX11 sounds juicy. Excited.

 

[Fat Rich]

Fantastic news!

On paper rF2 is the best sim, but I've never managed to get playable frame rates even on single screen, let alone on the triples that my other DX11 titles run super smoothly on.

The new logo gives me a headache, as does the new(ish) colour scheme on the ISI forums, but I'll happily live with all that if we get DX11

Bravo ISI and good luck!

 

[Nick Hill]

I've said it before, but I'll say it again - given the right car/track combination, rF2 is freakin' magic.

My gripe is that the "right car/track combinations" seem to be few and far between.

If rF2 could get more uniform quality, desirable content going AND clean up the visuals (I've seen rF2 look very, very pretty, but my impression is that it takes someone with the time/patience/know-how to get it there - I mean "make it pretty out of the box"), this sim could be a monster.

My hope is that this is a sincere effort to make rF2 the sim it should be and not a clever attempt to squeeze some extra cash out of the community.

 

[samcar304]

I just hope the C7.R Datona Prototype sees the light of day... That around Sebring is gonna be a riot!

 

[GTAce]

Thanks everybody for your kind words, opinions and feedback! Lots of questions here, I'll try to catch up with all of them in the upcoming days.

I'm only interested if "DX11 graphics engine" means an entirely new engine and if it does, are we talking about something like UE4, CryEngine etc. or something built in-house?

 

[Patrik Marek]

very cool, can't wait to see some screenthos

 

[Ivan Richard Navarro]

Wow they have already new logo...

 

[Matt Lenart]

i don't know why there's so much hype surrounding oculus rift. who wants to wear that contraption on their head for hours on end? i think it'll be about as popular as 3D tvs. what i'd like instead is 'projection mapping' so i can project on a windshield and 2 windows w/ the right compensation for skew. its really not difficult to implement, and still way cheaper than oculus rift or triple screen.

 

[SimJim70]

Seems like they wanna do dlc. So what will happen to the lifetime users?

A good compromise would be to give all current lifetime subscribers several free DLC packs while making the online free for everyone again. This would ease the transition for the 'lifers' while moving the product forward to create a DLC based (still generating income), free online future for all involved. IMO

 

[Niranjan]

The best sim the world has seen, just got better !

 

[wim81]

Very exciting news! Best racing game about to get better. One wish, I hope the new rF2 improves the sound, and dethrones R3E!

 

[aka2k]

Well, did not saw that one coming. It's great news indeed. Maybe they'll bring rF franchise back to its former glory days. Otherwise, solely under the dentist Tim Whatley hands, the game would sure be dead.

 

[Marc Collins]

Great news all around. Hopefully this will do for rF2 what Marcel and company have achieved for AMS/Reiza.

 

[Marc Collins]

Well, did not saw that one coming. It's great news indeed. Maybe they'll bring rF franchise back to its former glory days. Otherwise, solely under the dentist Tim Whatley hands, the game would sure be dead.

Don't shoot the messenger. ISI made all the decisions about rF2, not Tim personally. And I would bet he was/is heavily involved in the development of this new partnership.

 

[Ricoow]

Because DX12 is Win10 only and if they choose DX12 people who are still using WinXP, Vista, and Win7 will complain.

There is an option where you choose render mode?

 

[bluey]

i don't know why there's so much hype surrounding oculus rift. who wants to wear that contraption on their head for hours on end? i think it'll be about as popular as 3D tvs. what i'd like instead is 'projection mapping' so i can project on a windshield and 2 windows w/ the right compensation for skew. its really not difficult to implement, and still way cheaper than oculus rift or triple screen.

have you ever driven in VR