rFactor 2: November Development Roadmap

Paul Jeffrey · Nov 18, 2016

Studio 397, the new developers of rFactor 2, have revealed their second monthly 'Development Roadmap' instalment for the simulation and have shed further light on the future plans of the sim, details on a move towards more paid 3rd Party content and a release date for the USF2000 series pictured above.

With Studio 397 having taken over the development rights of rFactor 2 from Image Space Incorporated, it is again refreshing to see the new commitment to a more transparent approach to community communication with regards to the future of rFactor 2. New for the month of November, the second instalment of the promised monthly development diary mainly confirms the team are still hard at work developing the upgrade to DX11, planned to launch in the first quarter of 2017 and with it bring VR support to the title for the first time. Other news of a more immediate interest include the confirmation that players will soon receive the 2016 USF2000 series as a free piece of additional content, due to hit the game in just five days time. As well as bringing all the teams and drivers from the 2016 season, Studio 397 have also secured the rights to produce the 2017 season, including the new car, which should be released during the new year.

Perhaps of a more controversial nature, Studio 397 have again gone on record to state their desire to utilise the Steam Workshop functionality within the game to launch paid 1st and 3rd party content for the sim. The intention behind allowing the ability to use this functionality and be curated by the studio "can also extend the whole simulation in some interesting ways and allow people to develop more content and even maybe make a few dollars out of it in the process". It will be interesting to see exactly what shape this takes and how the community will react to the idea in the coming weeks and months.

The full development roadmap can be read below:

"Last month I mentioned that the USF2000 was almost ready and some of you have been asking when it will be released. I am happy to announce that it will be released on Wednesday, November 23rd. This release features the 2016 car and teams, and we are happy to announce that we have also licensed the 2017 car. The 2017 chassis, which is very similar to the F4 car, will be released somewhere next year.

We also wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate our fellow simracer Pablo López on being selected by our colleagues at iRacing to take part in the Mazda Road to 24 Shootout. Since that event took place at NOLA Motorsports Park we sent him an early build of the layout he would be driving to practice.

Community wise we updated our forums and, behind the scenes, also moved our beta forums to this new location. Over the next couple of weeks we will be moving more of the website, including the development blogs, some of which have already been moved.

Development has been focussing on the DX11 engine and laying down the groundwork for our new UI. There’s not much we can show here yet until we’re a bit further along, but we are very happy with the current progress. In the mean time we are getting closer to our next Steam-only build. Remember to take advantage of the free option to migrate to Steam if you have not done so yet. Apart from a lot of smaller fixes this build will also feature the work we’ve done with the Stock Car community and we hope this will make rFactor 2 an even more enjoyable simulation for oval racing. As soon as the new build is out, we will also update you on Fallston.

Another new feature we would like to announce is support for paid content. It will integrate nicely with our workshop, and modders will also be able to leverage it to sell their creations. Obviously we would like to use this feature to offer you a wide selection of high quality and high profile content. This does not mean that all future content we create will be paid though.

That’s all for the second monthly update. Happy Simracing!"

For more information on the USF2000 and the future of rFactor2, check out our exclusive interviews with both Tim Wheatley and Marcel Offermans of Studio 397.

rFactor 2 is available for Windows PC on the Steam Network right now.

Check out the rFactor 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment for the latest news and discussion regarding the simulation. Have a browse through our extensive mod database, share a setup or even better come along and join in the fun in one of our awesome club racing events!

Did you enjoy the November Development Roadmap from Studio 397? Do you feel positive about the future of rFactor 2? Looking forward to the USF2000 content? Let us know in the comments section below!

Emery · Nov 20, 2016

Rodent said:
And fair point too about using RD has a sample bias, though seeing where we're having this discussion I do think it's a bias we can all agree on is relevant for us as participants here in this thread.

Living on the west coast of North America, I'm more sensitive to RD's bias because there ain't much action during my local evening times in any racesim (except maybe iRacing which I don't subscribe to). If it weren't for having retired last year, my online simracing would be fighting for the available weekend middays against other interests.

Rodent · Nov 20, 2016

Emery said:
Living on the west coast of North America, I'm more sensitive to RD's bias because there ain't much action during my local evening times in any racesim (except maybe iRacing which I don't subscribe to). If it weren't for having retired last year, my online simracing would be fighting for the available weekend middays against other interests.

Ah well, at least you're close to Laguna Seca, the lord giveth, the lord taketh away.

Will Mazeo · Nov 20, 2016

ITT 5 years old kids who care about damn ratings on posts.

Rodent · Nov 20, 2016

Have a thumbs up Will!

Emery · Nov 20, 2016

Rodent said:
Ah well, at least you're close to Laguna Seca, the lord giveth, the lord taketh away.

Close is relative... Takes me 12+ hrs to drive to Laguna Seca. Pacific Raceways is 3.5 hrs and Portland is 1.5 hrs.

What's close to me are small rivers with salmon & steelhead runs (one river in my backyard and 2 more within 20 minute drives and another 6 rivers within an hour), many miles of beach teeming with pacific razor clams, and herds of elk roaming through.

Rodent · Nov 20, 2016

That video made me think of something that's bugging me about rFactor 2 (and AMS), the steering wheels tend to look of alot worse quality then the rest of the car. Some, even most cars have amazing liveries and look really good as I drive past them, but if I play with the wheel turned on in the sim I have this often horrible plasticy looking thing with low res textures. Is AC, Project Cars and R3E using more shaders etc. in cockpit view or are ISI, Reiza and modders often not as bothered about the wheel/interiors?

Marcel Offermans · Nov 20, 2016

Different people will use different graphics settings, but I don't think the cockpit looks that different in terms of sharpness and textures compared to the rest of the car.

Rodent · Nov 20, 2016

I'm running it with the graphics cranked to max, also, noticing that the screenshot is not quite the drivers view I was talking about, from that angle it looks slightly better. Ah well it's not the end of the world or anything, I just think the wheel(s) look worse then they do in comparable sims, while the rest of the cars look up to snuff.

Graham Laing · Nov 20, 2016

@Associat0r @Gui Cramer

Your posts have been removed, we are not interested in your personal bickering, and the awful Assetto/rFactor 'what's best' argument.

This goes for everyone else if this thread too, please stick to the topic. That topic being the rFactor 2 roadmap.

This is not a game comparison thread, thanks

Marcel Offermans · Nov 20, 2016

Rodent said:
I'm running it with the graphics cranked to max, also, noticing that the screenshot is not quite the drivers view I was talking about, from that angle it looks slightly better. Ah well it's not the end of the world or anything, I just think the wheel(s) look worse then they do in comparable sims, while the rest of the cars look up to snuff.

I only rotated the view a bit to better show the steering wheel, arms and some of the other details for comparison. The small change in view does not magically change the quality of the graphics.

Marc Collins · Nov 20, 2016

Marcel Offermans said:
I only rotated the view a bit to better show the steering wheel, arms and some of the other details for comparison. The small change in view does not magically change the quality of the graphics.

No, it doesn't and the wheel and cockpit in that example are nice. Original comment may be referring to some mods where the steering wheel and often the entire cockpit is not up to the same standard as the exterior. Some mods have poor exteriors, too, but more often it's the interior that sees less attention to quality. Probably because it's harder to do?

Rodent · Nov 20, 2016

Yeah fair enough, zooming the picture in I still see that iffyness in the wheel. Perhaps it's the rim texture, I notice the detailing on the LCD is remarkably good. Do find it odd I only really notice it in rF2 and AMS, which is why I was wondering if it was a shader or lack thereof.

Ah well I'll not derail the thread further with this line of thought, it's not a big issue for me anyways as I tend to disable the wheels in game anyway.

Edit: Or as Marc says above that interiors are not often as much of a priority, I dunno, was just airing the question as it were. A bit on topic perhaps as I imagine new shaders etc. will come into play/have a shot of being added with the DX11.

RichardHessels · Nov 21, 2016

Rodent said:
Yeah fair enough, zooming the picture in I still see that iffyness in the wheel. Perhaps it's the rim texture, I notice the detailing on the LCD is remarkably good. Do find it odd I only really notice it in rF2 and AMS, which is why I was wondering if it was a shader or lack thereof.

Ah well I'll not derail the thread further with this line of thought, it's not a big issue for me anyways as I tend to disable the wheels in game anyway.

Edit: Or as Marc says above that interiors are not often as much of a priority, I dunno, was just airing the question as it were. A bit on topic perhaps as I imagine new shaders etc. will come into play/have a shot of being added with the DX11.

I hardly ever seen a steeringwheel in racinggames, one of the first things i put off.

Rodent · Nov 21, 2016

Hah yeah it's clearly not a big problem as I think most of us disable it, I just started thinking about it due to the video posted above. That said I suppose with VR support coming it's not entirely without merit to discuss it at least since more and more people will be driving with their in game wheel enabled.

Looking a third time at the picture Marcel posted above the texture work really isn't out of place, I really think it must be the way light etc. is handled on the rim. At the end of the day it's not that bad, but it's still something that sticks out to me.

Saw Empty Box new vid on the USF2000, good call by 397/ISI to reach out to him, I like the way he does his videos and the fact that he has footage of all the sims it's quite easy to compare them as well where as I've seen far too many low settings, low fps videos that do the sims no favors being out there. Looking forward to giving it a spin on ~Wednesday.