rFactor 2 Toban Raceway Park and Howston Dissenter Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

Image Space Incorporated have released two new pieces of content for rFactor 2 in the form of the 1974 Howston Dissenter and popular rFactor 1 track Toban Raceway Park.

While ISI have been busy showing off plenty of sneak peak images relating to the return of rF1 classic Toban for the last few weeks, perhaps the biggest surprise relating to today's new content release is the 1974 spec Howston Dissenter classic stockcar. The Howston was one of the very first image renders shown by ISI way back in 2012 and makes its much delayed debut in the sim today.

Coming in both road course and speedway configurations, the '74 Dissenter is a reasonably powerful low grip addition to the title that should give drivers an interesting challenge when driven at it's limit.

Featuring a straight-cut 4-speed manual transmission with a wide power band offering ample torque to keep you on your toes, the new addition to ISI's stable of home grown content should provide a satisfying driving experience, while at the same time the reasonably forgiving characteristics of the car could well encourage some nice close online racing.

On the circuit front fan favourite Toban Raceway Park has been totally reworked and updated for it;s debut in rFactor 2. Featuring all the usual goodies such as realroad and graphical improvements like upgraded marshals and enhancements to almost every aspect of the circuits details, perhaps the most interesting aspect of the new release can be found in the fine details produced by the team over at ISI. Toban rF2 has been aged significantly since it's rFactor 1 days and the signs of a lack of upkeep are evident in the new release.

The track comes with seven configurations (six layouts): Long, Long 24 Hours, Long Reverse, Medium, Medium Reverse, Short and Short Reverse.



Don't forget to check out exclusive interview with ISI and have a look at our rFactor 2 Racing Club right here on RaceDepartment.

Glad to see the classic Toban Raceway brought "up to date" in rFactor 2? How does the Howston feel? What do you think of the new content? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[DangerrD]

I also have an FX-8150 cpu with a GTX970 GPU and have to turn shadow blur off, no AA and shadows on low @ 2560 x 1440 to be able to maintain 60 FPS. My old I7 2600k (motherboard just died) with the same gpu ran the game with AA and shadows on max much better.
My new I7 6700k with a GTX980Ti runs everything maxed out @ 2560 x 1440.
Maybe the next gen AMD cpu's will do better.

Toban looks good with HDR.

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

Dissenter vs Opala at Interlagos

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

Anyone able to successfully drive Dissenter against AI at Nords without large pile-ups? If so, what's your secret?

 

[Emery]

Have you tried Type 2 AI training? Doesn't always work (e.g. Sears Point hairpin which needs corridors in the AIW to fix), but it goes a long ways towards fixing things like "one wheel off then spin" and "overcorrected".

 

[Trimaz]

I run the same card with the same results but they are talking about using triple monitors, not a single like you and I use.

Well, there you go. Sorry about the misunderstanding.

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

Thanks for response, Emery. Haven't tried training yet but would be willing to if someone could confirm that it works. I already have more things to drive than I have time for so am swearing off fiddling so I can spend more time driving like with Fanatics today at Searspoint

So if anyone gets it to work I'd love to hear about it as this car is way up there in terms of interest for me but I have plenty of other beasts to drive at Nords in the meantime

 

[Bwana]

Another 'real' Sim car from ISI. surprise surprise a 1974 stockcar on old school tires is a handful to drive well especially after driving GT3 cars with all mod cons activated. lol . Must be hard for some people to come to terms with the fact they are not the worlds best driver and have to 'learn' to drive certain cars. Great car ,great track..

 

[Paul Blythe]

Not tried the new car yet, but had a blast around the new [old] circuit in an AC 427 ...

 

[Emery]

So if anyone gets it to work I'd love to hear about it as this car is way up there in terms of interest for me but I have plenty of other beasts to drive at Nords in the meantime

Really doesn't take much fiddle time. Set up the training session(*) and allow it to run while you're off doing something else, like grocery shopping, reading a book, or watching the tube. You don't have to sit there and watch it.

Once someone does the training, the resulting file can be shared. Reminds me that I have some files to share from other tracks & cars...

(*) Here are the steps for type 2 AI training:

1. Edit player.JSON so "Autocalibrate AI Mode":0, ---> "Autocalibrate AI Mode":2,
2. Launch rFactor 2 single player
3. Practice Session=Yes
4. In Session Settings for Practice, select dry weather, start time=7:30am, practice time=600 minutes (10 daylight hours), turn off tire wear, turn off fuel consumption, turn off mechanical damage, AI opponents=0, and set damage multiplier=0%
5. Select car and track
6. Click on Race
7. Add AI opponents to train (**)
8. Press Ctrl-X to accelerate time (here is where you can go do something else)
9. Let practice session finish and click "Next Session" to save training data
10. Restart weekend as needed until AI opponents have achieved 150-300 laps
11. Exit race weekend and reset Session Settings to your normal values
12. Exit rFactor 2
13. Edit player.JSON so "Autocalibrate AI Mode":2, ---> "Autocalibrate AI Mode":1,

(**) How many to train depends on your goals. Type 2 AI training builds a database of throttle & brake conditions, for each AI opponent being trained, using different conditions rather than improving the AIW line for all AI opponents that Type 1 training does. If you're trying to make it so the AI don't pile up or excessively hop curbs, then you'd want to train all the AI; in that case it might be simpler to just train a single AI for 150-200 laps & copy the file to the other AI. If you're wanting to have a few opponents tougher than the others, then just train a few AI and maybe train them to different levels (100 laps, 150 laps, 200 laps, etc).

 

[Emery]

Kevin, in case someone gets around to it before you do, which version of Nords are you talking about?

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

Thanks, Emery. I'm training them now

Going to be some huge files I suppose because I'm going to be AFK for several hours

I'll report back with my findings and also share my files if not too big.

 

[aka2k]

I keep reading over and over Houston Disaster. Damn strange name.

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

OK did ~175 laps of training and cars still having problems. Decided to inspect .rcd file which looks incomplete because only two drivers? Also I don't remember seeing track-specific and corner cutting settings in RCD so maybe new since oval implementation. Anyway, getting way too far into the fiddly so I have to make myself stop and actually do a race. Too bad to have run into this because I was hoping to report an absence of bugs in my review of these vehicles. Ah well

Thanks, Emery. I'm training them now

Going to be some huge files I suppose because I'm going to be AFK for several hours

I'll report back with my findings and also share my files if not too big.

 

[Emery]

Good try. Oh, well.

 

[Keith Dixon]

Anyway to dial in these front tyres at Toban in relation to the outside temps being hotter?

 

[Spinelli]

My thoughts I'll repost here:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

THANK YOU! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!...For not only releasing 3 different layouts but all 3 of those layouts also in reverse. You essentially have released 2 different circuits with 3 layouts each (rather than 1 circuit and 6 layouts) because driving a track in the opposite direction is literally like driving on a different track. Thank you!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Regrding the car...It's OK. The car itself is great but, like every car in any iteration of pMotor, it falls victim to some long-time (15+ years) oddities of pMotor such as the following:

- literally having to barely turn the wheel/tyres for the car to go around corners since things behave in an ultra-darty-front-end-and-direction-change as if there is no weight and/or momentum or something - Taking the Nascar cars around Indianapolis and using literally 1/5th or 1/6th the steering/tyre lock/angle as real-life, while still achieving very respectable laptimes (49s if I recall), is a great example of this. You just press some brake during entry, the front-end darts into the corner and the vehicle's direction of travel follows it almost immediately like there's no momentum to bleed off first.

- Yes you're "technically" oversteering, however, the car barely has any slip-angle in relation to the vehicle's direction of travel; or, in other words, the vehicle's direction of travel is way, way too keen on following and travelling along the path where the front-end points to while the rear-end steps out which is completely opposite to real-life as-well as Live For Speed, Netkar Pro, KartKraft (you can easily see this within a few seconds of it's video - that's all that's needed), and to a certain extent Assetto Corsa.

- When the car slides (especially the front) it's almost as if the tyres are hovering above the ground and have lost 90% of the weight pushing them to the ground, or, as if the friction between the tyres and surface has been reduced by 90%. It's a super-low-friction sllliiiddee rather than rubber, tarmac, and weight pressing on the ground during the slide (Assetto Corsa is a great example of this - try a low-grip road-car during front-end slip)

Even when you're gripped and planted, the car/tyres want to always go over the limit so easily in pMotor unless you do a massively, massively slow lap. There is an over-super-sensitivity to the way cars go into slip situations even in a car that may generally be "lazy and soft". Even low grip cars can feel planted in real-life (despite having low total grip). This car (video above) is darting around and changing direction-of-travel like a 300 pound go-kart.

 

[Msportdan]

so wht sim would you say does physics better spin?

 

[Ville-Samuli Mutanen]

My thoughts I'll repost here:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

THANK YOU! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!...For not only releasing 3 different layouts but all 3 of those layouts also in reverse. You essentially have released 2 different circuits with 3 layouts each (rather than 1 circuit and 6 layouts) because driving a track in the opposite direction is literally like driving on a different track. Thank you!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Regrding the car...It's OK. The car itself is great but, like every car in any iteration of pMotor, it falls victim to some long-time (15+ years) oddities of pMotor such as the following:

- literally having to barely turn the wheel/tyres for the car to go around corners since things behave in an ultra-darty-front-end-and-direction-change as if there is no weight and/or momentum or something - Taking the Nascar cars around Indianapolis and using literally 1/5th or 1/6th the steering/tyre lock/angle as real-life, while still achieving very respectable laptimes (49s if I recall), is a great example of this. You just press some brake during entry, the front-end darts into the corner and the vehicle's direction of travel follows it almost immediately like there's no momentum to bleed off first.

- Yes you're "technically" oversteering, however, the car barely has any slip-angle in relation to the vehicle's direction of travel; or, in other words, the vehicle's direction of travel is way, way too keen on following and travelling along the path where the front-end points to while the rear-end steps out which is completely opposite to real-life as-well as Live For Speed, Netkar Pro, KartKraft (you can easily see this within a few seconds of it's video - that's all that's needed), and to a certain extent Assetto Corsa.

- When the car slides (especially the front) it's almost as if the tyres are hovering above the ground and have lost 90% of the weight pushing them to the ground, or, as if the friction between the tyres and surface has been reduced by 90%. It's a super-low-friction sllliiiddee rather than rubber, tarmac, and weight pressing on the ground during the slide (Assetto Corsa is a great example of this - try a low-grip road-car during front-end slip)

Even when you're gripped and planted, the car/tyres want to always go over the limit so easily in pMotor unless you do a massively, massively slow lap. There is an over-super-sensitivity to the way cars go into slip situations even in a car that may generally be "lazy and soft". Even low grip cars can feel planted in real-life (despite having low total grip). This car (video above) is darting around and changing direction-of-travel like a 300 pound go-kart.

I agree with you! Just wait for "Haha", "Angry" and "WOW" votes since you shall not say any bad things about rF2 physics..

 

[DaVeX↯]

so wht sim would you say does physics better spin?

Burnout Paradise...

Lol

 

[Spinelli]

so wht sim would you say does physics better spin?

I love aspects of ISI engine (pMotor and tyre model) physics (as-well as aspects of other sim engines). I'm not saying any sim, overall, has better or worse physics because every sim engine has it's strong points and not-so-strong points with regards to vehicle dynamics and kinematics (overall physics behavior). I feel the real question is "why has ISI let these physics oddities stay in their engine for 15+ years now when it is in complete contrast to real-life as-well as quite a few other sims?"

Mod Edit: Off topic.