rFactor 2 | New Build Update Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

Studio 397 have deployed a new build update for rFactor 2, adding a number of fixes and improvements to the simulation.

• New build adds VR flat desktop mode.
• Various art fixes and tweaks.
• 32-bit installers ceased.

The new build has been deployed in anticipation of the upcoming Spa-Francorchamps release this Friday 20th November, and comes complete with a number of fixes and tweaks to the simulation. It is worth noting as part of this build, as detailed in the October Development Roadmap, going forward Studio 397 will no longer be supporting 32-bits version of the simulation, and the Dutch team also recommend migrating to the 'new UI' to maximise current and future developments within the title.

Of interest in the new build are various performance improvements for the UI and the addition of VR flat desktop mirror, plus new controller profiles and some further tweaks to the graphic aspects of the title.


Update Notes:

• Removed the 32 bits builds, we are now officially 64 bit only. To ease the transition, we have left some 32 bit utilities in their usual locations for this build only. Please migrate and report any issues you might have.
  • Note: there is a known issue that the ModMgr.exe inside Bin64 folder on SteamCMD dedicated server distributions may crash when toggling certain settings. Please use ModMgr.exe inside Bin32 folder for now.
• Changed the way the new UI gets rendered, making it smooth even when the back-end is busy.
• Fixed several memory leaks and a possible crash on changing graphics settings in-game.
• Ensured that when a user is entering text in a text field, keys he/she presses don’t accidentally trigger other controls.
• Fixed the mouse cursor from going missing when pressing ESC in VR after driving the car.
• Fixed an issue where sometimes when restarting or forwarding sessions, the UI would not (re)appear after that transition.
• Fixed several aspect-ratio related rendering issues with the new UI.
• Fixed the new UI being one pixel too wide and too high on triples.
• Added new VR flat desktop mirror. Please note this is only available in the new UI on the public_beta branch.
• Controller profiles
  • Simagic M10 new profile added.
  • VRS Direct Force Pro corrected typo in controller profile.
• Re-enabled & Improved Sun God Rays / Light Flare settings (requires PostFX enabled, mostly only visible when the sun is occluded slightly)
• Tweaks to Air Pollution colour blending and params
• Corrected Moon Brightness
• Reviewed various lighting parameters
• Moved “Atmospherics” section for Track Weather file (.WET) to Track Game Database file (.GDB)
• Added option for static mappers to disable omni lights
• Fixed auto static mapper assignment, so Static01 mapper is auto assigned only. (prevent mappers for specific situations being auto assigned to assets)
• Fixes for issues with No Rain Zones including when falling back to bounding box, and sorting issues with the currently rendered no rain zones.
• Fixed an issue where reflections would stop updating after rejoining track
• Fix for track side cameras not always showing the correct number of objects
• Updated PBR track shaders to make use of new sampler methods to allow for more textures to be used.
• Fixed an issue where DXT1 and DXT5 textures would not sample sRGB when they should when using new sampler method (This was an issue on the Road Shader only previously)
• Fixed a rare issue causing texture animations to stop working
• IBL Road and IBL Curb:
  • Added ability to use a second normal map (overlay on road, switch on curbs)
  • Tweaked Groove Blending logic (This may result in more noticeable dust, you may wish to tone this down in your Road Details Map)
  • Updated default settings for Groove & Dust IBL Standard
  • Fixed some issues with the Detail Map
• IBL Standard & Blend
  • Added option to use detail map as an alpha masked decal IBL Standard Blend
  • Added the option to use a detail map with the same logic as IBL Standard
  • Removed Multiply Square albedo blending mode, since this can be achieved by saving the texture in the correct format.
• IBL Terrain:
  • Added the ability to set per Albedo strengths for Pattern map
  • Added an optional splatter overlay map, which applies alpha to specular mask
  • Added Albedo Tinting to Specular on Terrain Shaders
• IBL Vegetation
  • Added a new Vegetation Specific shader, which contains only appropriate logic from IBL Standard
  • Added Specular Tinting with a static colour in the Vegetation Shader.

Steam Build IDs
Old UI (opt-out)

• Client build ID: 5842885
• Dedicated server build ID: 5842895

New UI (public_beta)

• Client build ID: 5842938

The new build is available now, and should download automatically the next time you restart your Steam client.



Original Source: Studio 397

rFactor 2 is available now, exclusively on PC.

Check out the rF2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for a great place to hang out with your fellow fans of the title, discuss the latest news and get advice on how to make the most from your simulation. Join in and start a new thread today!

 

[GuitarTech]

They are surely competent but probably waaaay understaffed in term of developers (though not so much for the track/car artist department). The number of actual developers working on the code largely determines how fast things can be done. If you have 2 coders, they are not going to do the work of 10 coders. In comparison, behemoths like Turn 10, Polyphony digital and other AAA game shops have an army of coders.
Add to that that the code of rF2 is old, huge and complicated, making it difficult to improve things fast.
And also, they must not break old stuff introducing new stuff... And there's compat with mods to preserve as best as possible.
Development is really complicated: what can be seen from outside as a 'simple' fix can prove to take weeks to fix. Nothing is ever really simple. How do I know that ? I'm a developer.

Maybe they should ask R3E how they manage? they use the same gmoto engine. If rF2 could run like R3E that would be a quantum leap. I'm not holding my breath though, their track record for ironing out bugs within a normal time frame is less than stellar. And their customer communication is abysmal. The flack that they catch is fully deserved.
I'll be interested to see how many more years they need before the new UI is finished. Reminds me of the film "the never-ending story" and as for all the other bugs they've been steadfastly ignoring since they took over the game, I've given up hope of those ever being fixed. And the memory leak at der Nordschleife , etc., etc., etc.....

 

[Peter Koslowski]

When everything is running, riding with rFactor 2 is great! But I had to reinstall it to get it running. Now the replays stutter (3090). But the loading has improved! All in all I still judge this simulation as a success! Unfortunately the guys are not so well positioned and here and there they lack the knowledge and time to create a really in all aspects completely good game. But as I said, the driving experience is very, very good. Also the telemetry data provide a perfect feeling on the DDW and the SFX-100! You just need patience! The next update will make it even better!

 

[Ruy Horta]

And while 2:30 is something you can kinda tolerate, even though it's certainly slow as snail for 2020, it can quickly become really annoying, like when you need to restart your game several times in a row because an update suddenly caused your VRAM usage to double (and the performance to plummet accordingly), even though you didn't change anything in your config, and you need to find new settings that will work for you...

True I can live with the one off shader building part, but unfortunately it can be a pain when you are finetuning your graphics settings and this process runs a couple of a times in a row.

Now, you don’t have to use Nurburg combined to tune your graphics, so that’s one step to improve this.

it also looks like clock speed does affect your timing - it seemed to take an unscientific 30secs off my hot restarts.

To be fair shader (re)building also affects AMS2 and R2E (and many other games), but RF2 somehow makes it more noticeable, at least to me - subjective.

I will not kick a dead horse, it does not negate the good side of RF2 and I will certainly get Spa, but I am not going to pretend that I enjoy waiting for the tracks to load.

As for excuses. Well I sort of work in IT (like so many) and we have a ton of excuses why we do not always deliver the best product to our customer, often it is because we have to make do with what we have and many other factors, but it there is also a matter of priority. Unfortunately for gaming as in a lot of software development, beyond the delivery of a working package, there is not a lot of time and money for bug fixing, certainly not in the long term. New stuff gets money and attention, old stuff not so much unless it is critical or regulatory.

 

[Case_]

Now, you don’t have to use Nurburg combined to tune your graphics, so that’s one step to improve this.

You kinda do, because you really should base your config on the worst case scenarios, not on the best case ones. Unless you want to load a particular combo and realize you can't play because the combo is more demanding than what your config was optimized for.

A generally good practice in my opinion - plan for the worst, not for the best.

Nürburgring and Le Mans have the highest texture memory usage (and memory usage, and GPU usage) of the tracks I have in rF2, especially when combined with the official cars, so it only makes sense to use those whenever you test something in regards to the game's performance.

 

[John-Eric Saxén]

Maybe they should ask R3E how they manage? they use the same gmoto engine. If rF2 could run like R3E that would be a quantum leap.

Yes and no. I guess they are both rooted in gMotor, but R3E uses a DX9 engine with no night races or rain. It's more or less an rF1 engine on steroids.

 

[chequers]

Is there anyway to disable the "Loading Favorite Server"? It's so annoying having to wait for it to load my nonexistent favorite servers because I only race offline.

Save one track as a favorite and then it will only load that one when you press "RACE", much faster.

But why is Multiplayer even on the same page as Single player ?
The UI logic should be:
You choose between Single player or Multiplayer.
Only then should you see to the "RACE" button.

Four years ?

 

[Emery]

Maybe they should ask R3E how they manage? they use the same gmoto engine.

Actually, they don't use the same gMotor engine. Remember S397 rewrote it for DX11 & VR 3 years ago (and continues rewriting parts of it which is why we continue seeing IBL graphic updates) while R3E is still on DX9 but added VR?

 

[Tiffarnio]

Maybe they should ask R3E how they manage? they use the same gmoto engine. If rF2 could run like R3E that would be a quantum leap. I'm not holding my breath though, their track record for ironing out bugs within a normal time frame is less than stellar. And their customer communication is abysmal. The flack that they catch is fully deserved.
I'll be interested to see how many more years they need before the new UI is finished. Reminds me of the film "the never-ending story" and as for all the other bugs they've been steadfastly ignoring since they took over the game, I've given up hope of those ever being fixed. And the memory leak at der Nordschleife , etc., etc., etc.....

You complain about their lack of customer communication, but I guess you didn't see Ermin Hamidovic's recent 65 minute interview with Marcel Offermans (available on YouTube), in which he couldn't have been more open, and he even touched on your query on R3E and how by limiting what is possible in R3E, i.e. no day/night cycle, no dynamic road surface etc, it is so much easier for them to increase graphical fidelity etc.

I guess the bottom line is, if you are content with the limitations, and consequential stability of R3E, stick with that. For myself, I much prefer the diverse and yes, sometimes erratic, RF2.

 

[Jens Roos]

But the Madness engine, or indeed other implementations of the gmoto engine like R3E for instance, differ from rF2 in that they're not a buggy mess....

That might not be complete accurate, compared to rF2 the Madness Engine engine have lot's of issues. Simple things like turn of the steering wheel in all cars, strobe effect in cockpit when going over curbs, Z-fighting, netcode behavior, sessions not advancing, out-of-the-box FFB (fixed by Reiza), erratic AI behavior (getting better by Reiza), dedicated server without admin tools/commands, "first-man-on-the server" is owner/admin (what is that?), no chat in lobby (again, fixed by Reiza), strange setup behavior, sometime missing car parts when going back to pit and so on.

It will take Rezia a while to fix all the basics, and then fine tune it.

Overall the rF2 platform is stable and consistent, yes the AI have issues, track take sometimes +90 seconds to load, the new UI not perfect (still on old) but overall the experience is good. Once setup, there is no fiddling with files or dive into folders. Most times just load rF2,select SP or MP and enter the track, done!

And yes, Spa is going into my library as well

 

[billyblaze13]

A lot of people giving S397 the business (fair enough - that's there prerogative), but where would RF2 be if ISI was still at the helm? S397 may have bitten off more than they can comfortably chew, but ISI was clearly choking to death on the meal before S397 came along and gave them a virtual Heimlich Maneuver. There wouldn't even be an RF2 to complain about, let alone DX11, VR implementation, new UI, and loads of new content. I am not here to apologize for 397 or RF2, but at least someone is attempting to bring this 7 year old sim up to modern standards. To say this is a daunting task would clearly be a massive understatement. I don't always agree with every move they make, and wish things could go faster, but it is what it is, and I support their efforts to improve the sim.

@GuitarTech - you've been ranting pretty hard here about the state of the sim (again fair enough), but you say you're still going to buy the Spa DLC? That's like saying, "Studio 397, I completely disagree with the way you do (or don't do) things, but here's some more money to keep doing it"

 

[pitkin]

10 mn to load Nords with Porsche cup.
I will not invest anymore in RF2

Count yourself lucky, I thought I'd have a quick half hour at the 'ring last sunday. Started loading at 5:01pm, was on track at 5:23pm.

 

[RichardHessels]

NVME and an i9 n9900kf @5000, comparitive. 1 Car each track.

RF2 168s
AMS2 24s
AC 12s

So some work to be done I guess

They are surely competent but probably waaaay understaffed in term of developers (though not so much for the track/car artist department). The number of actual developers working on the code largely determines how fast things can be done. If you have 2 coders, they are not going to do the work of 10 coders. In comparison, behemoths like Turn 10, Polyphony digital and other AAA game shops have an army of coders.
Add to that that the code of rF2 is old, huge and complicated, making it difficult to improve things fast.
And also, they must not break old stuff introducing new stuff... And there's compat with mods to preserve as best as possible.
Development is really complicated: what can be seen from outside as a 'simple' fix can prove to take weeks to fix. Nothing is ever really simple. How do I know that ? I'm a developer.

As developers say, the estimated amount of time, multiplied by Pi.

 

[GuitarTech]

A lot of people giving S397 the business (fair enough - that's there prerogative), but where would RF2 be if ISI was still at the helm? S397 may have bitten off more than they can comfortably chew, but ISI was clearly choking to death on the meal before S397 came along and gave them a virtual Heimlich Maneuver. There wouldn't even be an RF2 to complain about, let alone DX11, VR implementation, new UI, and loads of new content. I am not here to apologize for 397 or RF2, but at least someone is attempting to bring this 7 year old sim up to modern standards. To say this is a daunting task would clearly be a massive understatement. I don't always agree with every move they make, and wish things could go faster, but it is what it is, and I support their efforts to improve the sim.

@GuitarTech - you've been ranting pretty hard here about the state of the sim (again fair enough), but you say you're still going to buy the Spa DLC? That's like saying, "Studio 397, I completely disagree with the way you do (or don't do) things, but here's some more money to keep doing it"

I feel I should explain where I'm coming from: I have been using rF2 since it came out. I know its strengths and weaknesses, but it is still my go-to sim. I've tried them all, and I have the VR capable sims still installed ( PC2, AMS2, R3E, ACC etc ), but rF2 still can't be beat in areas where it really counts: Physics, FF, atmosphere and the feeling of being there. Immersion, in other words.
And then this week I finally manage to complete my new computer build from September 2019: back thenI bought a new case, and replaced MB, CPU, RAM, PSU, everything but the GPU, a 1080 that I carried over from my old box, due to running out of money for a better card.
But this week I could finally rectify that: I splurged €986 on an RTX 3080, thinking all my problems with rF2 would be over. I could finally drive it like it looks in the promo trailers, due to now having a very powerful card. Wrong. My favorite track (Nürburgring), still runs badly despite having a state-of-the-art GPU, an i7 9700 and 32Gb RAM, due to it being so badly optimized for VR, and having a huge memory löeak.
Most of my hopes for rF2, despite having a modern computer now, have been dashed. It is pure and simple, disappointment, after waiting all this time for the rF2 I'd always dreamed about.
I always thought that it was because I needed a quicker computer, and a better GPU.
And this week has shown me that that is not the case, I could have saved the money as far as rF2 is concerned.
And then, to add insult to injury, last night they broke the new UI: I've been using it since it became available as a beta, until last night that is, where the update broke it, for me. Now my mouse doesn't work anymore, I've had to roll back to the old UI. It's not the first time where Studio397 releases stuff that hasn't been adequately tested.
And all these things this week have magnified what is wrong with rF2: the bugs that have been there forever, and will probably never be fixed, Studio397s habit of releasing half-finished stuff, the never-ending story with the new UI, etc. ,etc.,etc.
It all boiled over this week, and I've been having a rant, I'll admit. I'm still going to buy Spa though, in the hopes that it will run as well as Le Mans does, and doesn't have a bad memory leak like Nords (which will probably never, or not for a very long time, be fixed )
Their working speed is glacial, it took them a year just to fix some AI problems, for example.
But I still support them, despite everything. I have every DLC, except for Formula milk float: Formula E might me the future, but without me. Racing cars should be loud and dangerous. End of.
I'm off to try the new UI again: maybe overnight they have loaded up a hotfix for the hotfix for the hotfix, good old rF2, you never let me down. Hopefully the Spa launch tomorrow will be smoother.....

 

[dajdosta]

I have a fair amount of mods installed. I would uninstall quite a few of them, but that would mean unsubscribing from them on Workshop, so I won't. Wish there was a way to be subscribed to a mod, but not have it installed at the moment.

You can favorite mods for easier future installation.

 

[pitkin]

For mine rF2 AI are the best AI, they keep you on your toes and make you sure you are 1/2 alongside a car and not driving into a closing gap
Some of the moves they do I see the same in real races actually some worse moves in real racing

To have perfect field of drivers ? how boring

Hint for some, use much higher aggression then make the AI limiter bigger
also how many ever try using a locked setup which also makes difference

learn to drive defensively and don't drive into ever shrinking gaps

P.S. Higher aggression makes them more decisive when passing

Do you not find the AI predictable though? I think once you've driven against them enough at a given track, they seem very robotic. With Silverstone for example, I noticed during my very first play they left the door wide open in a couple of corners. I end up making all my passes at those 2 corners every race, knowing they'll never see it coming and they don't seem to fight back once I'm through. The block path also seems pointless as they seem to take it when they don't need to and I end up just sticking on the racing line and driving by. Not saying I win every race or anything, I just have more fun chasing them down rather than overtaking, as I know how easy it will be if I manage to catch them.

Hopefully S397 will revisit some of the AI paths at some point and get rid of the easy to pass places.

 

[tr1v1um]

I feel I should explain where I'm coming from: I have been using rF2 since it came out. I know its strengths and weaknesses, but it is still my go-to sim. I've tried them all, and I have the VR capable sims still installed ( PC2, AMS2, R3E, ACC etc ), but rF2 still can't be beat in areas where it really counts: Physics, FF, atmosphere and the feeling of being there. Immersion, in other words.
And then this week I finally manage to complete my new computer build from September 2019: back thenI bought a new case, and replaced MB, CPU, RAM, PSU, everything but the GPU, a 1080 that I carried over from my old box, due to running out of money for a better card.
But this week I could finally rectify that: I splurged €986 on an RTX 3080, thinking all my problems with rF2 would be over. I could finally drive it like it looks in the promo trailers, due to now having a very powerful card. Wrong. My favorite track (Nürburgring), still runs badly despite having a state-of-the-art GPU, an i7 9700 and 32Gb RAM, due to it being so badly optimized for VR, and having a huge memory löeak.
Most of my hopes for rF2, despite having a modern computer now, have been dashed. It is pure and simple, disappointment, after waiting all this time for the rF2 I'd always dreamed about.
I always thought that it was because I needed a quicker computer, and a better GPU.
And this week has shown me that that is not the case, I could have saved the money as far as rF2 is concerned.
And then, to add insult to injury, last night they broke the new UI: I've been using it since it became available as a beta, until last night that is, where the update broke it, for me. Now my mouse doesn't work anymore, I've had to roll back to the old UI. It's not the first time where Studio397 releases stuff that hasn't been adequately tested.
And all these things this week have magnified what is wrong with rF2: the bugs that have been there forever, and will probably never be fixed, Studio397s habit of releasing half-finished stuff, the never-ending story with the new UI, etc. ,etc.,etc.
It all boiled over this week, and I've been having a rant, I'll admit. I'm still going to buy Spa though, in the hopes that it will run as well as Le Mans does, and doesn't have a bad memory leak like Nords (which will probably never, or not for a very long time, be fixed )
Their working speed is glacial, it took them a year just to fix some AI problems, for example.
But I still support them, despite everything. I have every DLC, except for Formula milk float: Formula E might me the future, but without me. Racing cars should be loud and dangerous. End of.
I'm off to try the new UI again: maybe overnight they have loaded up a hotfix for the hotfix for the hotfix, good old rF2, you never let me down. Hopefully the Spa launch tomorrow will be smoother.....

I can understand your frustration to some extent, but I think you should also be aware that you are using a beta product while subscribing to the new UI. You would have every right to be frustrated if this was the only option available, but currently nobody is forced to use it. If I was in your position I would make a bug report section for the new UI if you haven't allready. Response to feedback is quite good and I have certainly seen some of my reports being fixed rather fast.

Next to that, rF2 is a quite complex product compared to let's say PC2 or R3E so there is a good chance that something can break with an update considering the huge diversity in hardware and software. And regarding the stability and usability of other engines I have to tell you that you are quite far off the mark if you think that PC2 is a more stable platform. First of all the Madness engine was developed with a huge amount of cash compared to the ISImotor engine as it was developed in first place for the NFS Shift series. And yet it has some fundamental issues that are still a problem after more than ten years. Latency, FFB, flickering, AA issues, netcode problems, erratic AI etc etc etc. My favorite bug is the usual stutter at race start that you get with every freakin' online race. There are just as many annoyances with PC2 as there are with rF2. The difference to rF2 is that I still have the chance to see a fix from S397 while PC2 is abandonware, with Reiza picking up the pieces currently and starting to sort issues that are there since a very long time. I can't comment alot on R3E, but it's just a very simple product compared to rF2. Apples and oranges basicly and I am sure S3 would struggle as much with rF2 as S397.

 

[pcraenme]

I have a fair amount of mods installed. I would uninstall quite a few of them, but that would mean unsubscribing from them on Workshop, so I won't. Wish there was a way to be subscribed to a mod, but not have it installed at the moment.

What I did as a workaround is create a collection for rF2 tracks and a collection for rF2 cars in Steam. These collections contain the tracks and cars I find interesting and I can easily subscribe and unsubscribe from them (you even have the option to subscribe and unsubscribe the complete collection with just one click).

An option I would like in the new UI is to display only official content with a filter that can be switched on and off. Or even further, official content that has been upgraded to the latest shaders, since rF2 still contains quite some old ISI content that has not been updated to the latest graphical standards.

 

[Ruy Horta]

You kinda do, because you really should base your config on the worst case scenarios, not on the best case ones. Unless you want to load a particular combo and realize you can't play because the combo is more demanding than what your config was optimized for.

A generally good practice in my opinion - plan for the worst, not for the best.

Nürburgring and Le Mans have the highest texture memory usage (and memory usage, and GPU usage) of the tracks I have in rF2, especially when combined with the official cars, so it only makes sense to use those whenever you test something in regards to the game's performance.

you may tune for the worst, does not mean you tweak with the worst.
so you play with your settings on a track that doesn’t take a century to rebuilt shaders, once you think the performance is good, test that setup on the worst track.

Of course you can do it your way too, it just takes more time waiting on the shaders.

 

[dajdosta]

They are surely competent but probably waaaay understaffed in term of developers (though not so much for the track/car artist department). The number of actual developers working on the code largely determines how fast things can be done. If you have 2 coders, they are not going to do the work of 10 coders. In comparison, behemoths like Turn 10, Polyphony digital and other AAA game shops have an army of coders.
Add to that that the code of rF2 is old, huge and complicated, making it difficult to improve things fast.
And also, they must not break old stuff introducing new stuff... And there's compat with mods to preserve as best as possible.
Development is really complicated: what can be seen from outside as a 'simple' fix can prove to take weeks to fix. Nothing is ever really simple. How do I know that ? I'm a developer.

Creating new UI was a big project.
But first beta release was in December last year if I am not mistaken.
Since then there are no more excuses of having to clean the backend and from what I 've seen there were only some minor improvements.
One year is enough time for a single developer to create fantastic UI.
I am sad to say this new UI is far from it with its many flaws.
How come so many users reverted to old UI after trying the new one? It can't be only out of habit because it's easy adapt to something that's better.

Someone mentioned AMS2 as an example of great UI and I agree.
I have almost 1000hrs in rf2 but was immediately much quicker navigating through AMS2 menus first time seeing them then through new rf2 UI.
Good UI should be intuitive, non-confusing, responsive, without too many clicking, pleasant to the eyes, no blindingly bright colors, without unnecessary animations...

 

[bgil66]

Hey guys just checking to see if this bug is still here------>So when in the pitbox getting service are you guys still getting hit by other cars coming out to the track? It's always happened to me in past builds at Sebring, Portland and I've shelved it until it's fixed, very frustrating. Or maybe I'm not setting up the race event properly?