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!

 

[Will Mazeo]

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

"Several" may be a bit too much, depends on the price. I think they'll give a credit to life time owners to buy the DLC we want, after that we pay like everyone else.

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.

lol you don't really know what Tim job is, do you?

 

[mantasisg]

I like new logo. I hope I'm not the only one lol

Can somebody report how it looks with 3D glasses, does they make a difference for that logo ?

Will 2018 be a year of rF2 ? Maybe sooner ?

Can't wait for more info about future plans.

 

[Esco GT-R]

Didn't Luminis do a similar thing with Reiza Studios for AMS? Let the rumor mill start to turn

 

[aphidgod]

At least it doesn't look like something from 10 years ago.

No, it looks like something from 30 years ago. And not in a good way.

 

[RustyDriver00]

Mind freaken blown!!!

Off to upgrade to lifetime subscription now

 

[Yapci]

Anddddd back to reinstall rfactor2 whee this happens

 

[CCKaren]

Didn't Luminis do a similar thing with Reiza Studios for AMS? Let the rumor mill start to turn

They did, and they did a talk about what they did which I recommend watching to anyone interested in racing game development.

I'm really interested in how this deal plays out. rF2 is a game I look at in my Steam library, think "why did I uninstall this", reinstall, then remember why I uninstalled it. If they can optimise the graphics engine, get some more tracks I want to drive, update the tracks that are pretty much still just rF1 versions (Montreal, Malaysia to name 2) and remove the online price I can see it starting to gain traction in my group of racing buddies.

Good god almighty though that is one ugly logo.

 

[Radu Oros]

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

DLC and lifetime subscription to online racing are two different things.
Looking at the store page it says that you're only paying for online racing, not for extra content. Because this extra content is also received by someone who doesn't subscribe to multiplayer.
The compensation would only come (maybe in form of offered dlc like you said) if online multiplayer is freely integrated in the base game.

 

[Dennis]

Looks like the got VR working already in their dev build:

Source

I actually didn't expect that I would be playing rF2 again in the foreseeable future, but this announcement changes everything for me Really excited

 

[Paul Blythe]

Excellent news, and good luck to those involved...

 

[jlnprssnr]

Love the logo! I'm excited for the new graphics.

 

[Jim Liak]

Hmmm, so here comes the Dutch to save the day...
I am not sure, I would like ISI to have the funds to do it themselves.
They might already be in big trouble I mean financially.
But I prefer this than never seeing this marvelous sim evolving and not dying as I was afraid.
I hope that they will manage. I have no idea about this staff but how complicate is to have transition to DX11?
iRacing did it ( did it?) but would be pure DX11 , a scratch made graphic engine or DX9 with some DX11 elements?

I read "

"Now hold on to your seats. Studio397 rolled out an ambitious roadmap for rFactor 2. They are planning to equip rFactor 2 with a new DX11 based graphics engine including VR support. Furthermore, they will revamp the user interface and try to increase the frequency of new car and track releases. Last but not least, Studio397 will try to recruit new strategic partners to secure the long-term development of the platform. "

So we have a "planning" and 2X"try"...
Also "new" engine, which is a good thing.

No solid things to show yet. More info about engine needed. VR screen posted is a good start.

Honestly I wish them all the luck.
They might need it.
Reiza might publish a DX12 game (before them?) and having AC more polished , which at the moment is the sim king, will give pressure to them.
Having rf2 with DX11 ( but also new graphic engine) and also some other things missing (like dirt on tyres), will be epic.

 

[M D Gourley]

Great news...feeling cautious and excited all at the same time but I am sure Mr Offermans will do right by us Sim Racers. I re-purchased rF2 on the Steam platform for the Workshop content side of things, like the simplicity of just 'Subscribe' or if you do not want the mod anymore 'Un subscribe'...best of luck.
I do like the new logo as it makes you look at it for a while to figure out the design...very distinctive and fresh looking for that new start.

 

[takfar]

DX11 is good, DX11 and 12 would be better, but *UGH!* that logo is terrible.

 

[Kurupt CDN]

Great news and about time ISI opened up there wallet to enhance this great engine

 

[samcar304]

If you cross your eyes at the logo you can see the "RF2"

 

[Lorenzo Bonder]

If you cross your eyes at the logo you can see the "RF2"

All I see is a RUF like logo.

RUF LAWSUIT INCOMING!!!!!!!

j/k boys

Good luck in your endeavour @Marcel Offermans, sure you and the boys got your hands full now

 

[GTAce]

Some cleaning up does wonders (rush job):

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

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.

Indeed. And the "few" is this case is the win10 users. Less using that than the prev. Versions.

@Marcel Offermans does this mean the endurance simracingteam will switch to rF2 for Holland? ;P

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Just had a nice long interview with ISI Some very interesting answers and a couple of juicy things to share

Working on typing it up and should get it on the site reasonably soon...

Watch this space