rFactor 2 October Roadmap Update

[Paul Jeffrey]

Studio 397 have revealed their very first official Development Roadmap for rFactor 2, bringing news of a couple of new pieces of content, a brand new licence and insight into the ongoing development surrounding rFactor 2.

Following the recent Sim Racing Expo announcement that a new company, Studio 397, will be taking over development of rFactor 2 going forwards, Marcel Offermans of Studio 397 promised the community a greater level of interaction regarding plans for the simulation. Offermans has today made good on that promise, with the release of Studio 397's first public roadmap for the month of October.

The full October Development Roadmap post can be seen below:

"A car we’ve teased before is the USF2000 and we are happy to report that it is almost ready for release. We are particularly proud of this car as we were able to build it with a lot of support from the series and teams so we’ve ended up with a car that is extremely accurate in terms of both physics and car model. On top of that it is also a lot of fun to drive and has become a favourite of many people on the test team.

Our next track release is going to be NOLA Motorsports Park. Both the race and kart track will be available in different configurations. We’ve been working on it for the past couple of months. Most of the 3D objects are done and we’re currently assembling everything in preparation for further testing.

On the development side a lot has happened. In the background we have moved everything over to new infrastructure that allows us to work on new features in parallel, ensuring that they are only added to the next release when done and tested. We have also spent time automating our processes and intend to use those improvements to deliver updates more quickly.

Over the last year we have been working hard in close cooperation with the Stock Car community to improve the rules for oval racing. That work is still ongoing, and we feel we’re on the final stretch now!

Announced a month ago, the development of the DX11 engine with VR support is still ongoing. This is obviously a big project and apart from building and integrating the new engine we also need to make sure that we stay compatible with our existing content. Our current timeline for getting this integrated is by the end of Q1 2017.

We are also moving closer to the first public release that will be Steam only. It will definitely be released this year and is scheduled to contain a whole list of bugfixes and improvements to the codebase. I would like to take this opportunity to invite everybody that is still using the non-Steam version to take advantage of the free option to migrate to Steam. Future updates will start leveraging more Steam features so the only way to take advantage of those is to move to Steam.

Finally, we have an announcement to make. We have secured a license with Radical sportscars and will be bringing those into rFactor 2. With full access to CAD drawings and performance data we can deliver these cars with a very high amount of accuracy. Work on this has just started, but we are very excited as these are great cars to drive and race!"

The October Development Roadmap contains some pretty interesting content, not least of which is the announcement that Studio 397 have secured a licence to bring the rather tasty Radical brand to the simulation. As many of you will already know, Radical are a sportscar manufacturer based in the United Kingdom and are renowned for developing a wide variety of low weight, high power prototype race cars that are a favourite on the national club racing scene. As well as such classics as the SR1, in recent years the manufacturer has designed and developed ten different models that take part in a variety of one-make and multi-class championships throughout the world.

Further news indicates that the recently revealed USF2000 car is close to release, hopefully coming before the Christmas holiday period. As mentioned in our recent exclusive interview with Tim Wheatley, the USF2000 has been built with unprecedented access to the teams and drivers of the championship and could very well prove to be one of the most concentrated and realistic first party cars seen in rFactor 2 to date.

All in all, it looks like the future of rFactor 2 is very bright indeed. I for one can't wait to see how it all develops.


The rFactor 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment is the place to go for all the latest news and discussions regarding the simulation. We have a great modding archive, some excellent user created setups (more of these would be nice please folks and of course of great racing club events! Head over today and join in the fun.

Are you happy with the news in the October Development Roadmap? What are you looking forward to the most? Happy to see the community engagement from Studio 397? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[CCKaren]

Pretty much exactly the sort of update I wanted from the new rF2 team, I hope the Radical licence will produce an SR8 at some point because it'd be cool to have an official LMP2 car in the game.

 

[Stan]

Sounds delicious!

 

[Emery]

Wouldn't make more sense to show the artistry and attention to detail in stuff that matters in a track? Like its geometry accuracy, texture detail in asphalt/curbs/grass/sand etc and so on... just my 2 cents.

ISI did exactly that for the Atlantic Motorsports Park (AMP) release. Remember the curbing shots with Tim Wheatley's feet edited out? Honestly, though, one can only look at so many pictures of curbs & grass before they become repetitive... the final track will come in time and that's the REAL mark of quality (or lack).

 

[David Dominguez]

ISI did exactly that for the Atlantic Motorsports Park (AMP) release. Remember the curbing shots with Tim Wheatley's feet edited out? Honestly, though, one can only look at so many pictures of curbs & grass before they become repetitive... the final track will come in time and that's the REAL mark of quality (or lack).

That track had proper WIP screens, that is the way to go. Curbs and asphalt and grass etc doesn't need to be repetitive if there is attention to detail. Those elements certainly bring me more interest than how some random track building that I will never look at looks when I'm driving.

 

[William Levesque]

What this game need is some sense of goal, and not be so scattered around. Oh, and it needs to not look AND run like crap.

 

[Matt Orr]

Pretty much exactly the sort of update I wanted from the new rF2 team, I hope the Radical licence will produce an SR8 at some point because it'd be cool to have an official LMP2 car in the game.

The SR8 is "just a car", the SR9 was their P2 car a few years back.

 

[Marc Collins]

The SR8 is "just a car", the SR9 was their P2 car a few years back.

I think you're right. SR8 is just the SR3 with double the engine

 

[DaVeX↯]

Finally something new on rF2!!!Welcome Studio-397, welcome Radical!!!

 

[melanieuk]

Let's see what a no name company with no track record in games production, creation or development can do to resurrect this long dead game called rfactor2, their only claim to fame is tweaking a dated ISI motor engine game, yet all hopes are high, not sure why.

 

[Marcel Gerber]

Let's see what a no name company with no track record in games production, creation or development can do to resurrect this long dead game called rfactor2, their only claim to fame is tweaking a dated ISI motor engine game, yet all hopes are high, not sure why.

 

[melanieuk]

Has I said their only claim to fame is tweaking a dated ISI motor engine game, as proven in that uninterested video you posted thinking it's anything to go gaga over, again what games have they ever created, and I'm not talking about tweaking a dated game engine that was created way before rfactor even existed, they might fool you, but they sure aren't going to fool me and many others

 

[hitm4k3r]

Has I said their only claim to fame is tweaking a dated ISI motor engine game, as proven in that uninterested video you posted thinking it's anything to go gaga over, again what games have they ever created, and I'm not talking about tweaking a dated game engine that was created way before rfactor even existed, they might fool you, but they sure aren't going to fool me and many others

How you are still allowed to post on some sites is beyond my imagination. You're posts are not more than a complete disservice to the niche community, that sim racing is. Are you even interested in racing or are you just looking for a fight? Those "dated" sims still have alot more under the hood than some of your modern and fancy looking Itstwothousendandsixteennowubergraphixlaserscanningsims and last but not least - they provide fun and show how exciting motorsport can be, something that you don't seem to care about. Why not just let it rest? I still fire up HistoriX once in a while because it is ... FUN.

 

[DaVeX↯]

Has I said their only claim to fame is tweaking a dated ISI motor engine game, as proven in that uninterested video you posted thinking it's anything to go gaga over, again what games have they ever created, and I'm not talking about tweaking a dated game engine that was created way before rfactor even existed, they might fool you, but they sure aren't going to fool me and many others

I like the way you are trolling and talking about...well...nothing?
Reiza sims are the best ones in the market thanks to their passionate work and thanks to Luminis help, I don't know if Reiza products have been the main reason at Luminis to try to revive rF2 but I hope yes,,,if they follow the path of tweaking an old engine again they will have another great product again, because math formulas, the ones used fot physics can't never be old...

 

[Naish]

I like rFactor 2 very much. Looking forward for the Radical!

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

Has anyone asked or has Marcel addressed what will be done about outdated content?

 

[Emery]

Has anyone asked or has Marcel addressed what will be done about outdated content?

It's been asked, but not directly answered. We know all the first-party tracks received their updates, but, as you're aware, about 40-50% of the cars have not been updated.

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

Thanks, Emery. Long time no race Hope all is well with you

 

[Marc Collins]

It's been asked, but not directly answered. We know all the first-party tracks received their updates, but, as you're aware, about 40-50% of the cars have not been updated.

Well, to achieve that, you need some serious engineering talent (some of which has remained with ISI from what we are told), or, a "wizard" like Niels at Reiza who can intuit a lot of missing data with tremendous skill and turn it into authentic feeling vehicles in the sim. I also gather this is about 50 times more difficult to do with the more sophisticated platform of rF2 than before.

The existing vehicle updates will be the real test of Studio 397's talent and depth of resources. I hope they exceed all of our expectations!

 

[aka2k]

Do you realize we just got more information in a few paragraphs, than all of last year.
I haven't touch RF2 in weeks.
This updated info is much appreciated.

Heck, more than in the last 4 years and something. rF2 was in a development hell. It's good to see it finally moving forward.

 

[Marcel Offermans]

Has anyone asked or has Marcel addressed what will be done about outdated content?

Obviously I am following the ongoing discussions. We are looking into this. As @Emery stated, we've already updated a lot of first party tracks. For cars we need to look at data we have available for them, which will influence our decision to try and update them. It is something I will get back to you all about.