SimRacing Modding Roundup - April 2016 - rFactor 2 Edition

[Paul Jeffrey]

rFactor was the original modding platform of choice back in the mid 2000's and rFactor 2 aims to take up the mantle into 2016 with an enhanced feature set and advanced physics engine aiming to bring sim racers as close to the real thing as possible on a home PC.

Although the modding scene for rFactor 2 has been a little slow compared to its older brother in rFactor 1's heyday, the most recent offering from Image Space Incorporated is another excellent platform for modding teams and individuals to show off their flair for creating top quality tracks and cars for the community to enjoy.

Todays' edition of the Modding Corner brings a few highlights from the recent efforts of community members looking to bring some exciting new content to rFactor 2.

Now that little disclaimer (again):

First and foremost I can't guarantee I'll pick up everything nor does this article act as a recommendation on quality. I'll try my best to pick the best and give a thorough roundup of what's out and about but please do feel free to drop me a PM if you see anything you think should be included in the next round up...

So, lets have a look see what's new and what's hot:

Flat6 Series by Enduracers and Gentlemen Racers V1.0
Title: rFactor 2
Category: Cars / Race
Download Link - HERE
Latest Release: 23/02/2015
Credits: See download link
Perhaps one of the most hotly anticipated releases for rF2 to date, Enduracers in partnership with Gentlemen Racers brought rFactor 1 classic Flat6 Series to rfactor 2 after a substantial rework with many scratch built elements to bring the mod to modern rFactor 2 standards.
Based on the very popular Porsche Carrera Cup series and featuring a high number of original skins Flat6 Series is one of the true rF2 "must have" addons for the title.

Renault Megane World Trophy MOD
Title: rFactor 2
Category: Cars / Race
Download Link - HERE
Latest Release: 23/02/2016
Credits: See download link
With permission to use ISI's own Renault Megane as a base for this substantial enhancement this mod is an updated standalone version with improved lights, shaders and tyre behaviour alongside a 37 new skins for the cars.
Featuring AI files and many enhancements to the original car this is a great offline and online addition to the sim.

HJK OWC 2015 V3.0
Title: rFactor 2
Category: Cars / Open Wheel
Download Link - HERE
Latest Release: 27/02/2016
Credits: See download link
Based on the 2015 Formula One World Championship HJK OWC 2015 contains CPM tyres and a strong engaging physics setup giving players an authentic feeling experience when driving these high powered open wheel formula cars.
Although currently minus talent files for authentic offline racing the mod creators have indicated if they receive enough requests this could be added in future updates.

Lola T70 Spyder v1.0.4
Title: rFactor 2
Category: Cars / Classic
Download Link - HERE
Latest Release: 08/01/2016
Credits: See download link
Basing physics on ISI original Howston G6 with a wealth of new textures and physics brings a highly addictive and engaging version of the classic Lola T70 to rFactor 2. With bodywork changes to visually reflect the car ISI originally intended and adding a whole host of updates to the car the Lola T70 Spyder is a classic (in every sense of the word) addition to rF2's modding collection. Outstanding.

Mantorp Park V1.01
Title: rFactor 2
Category: Tracks / Permanent
Download Link - HERE
Latest Release: 01/04/2016
Credits: See download link
Mantorp Park in Sweden is a permanent racing facility ideally suited to slower specification cars and Touring Car style racing.
Based on an update to the original rFactor 1 version of the circuit, Mantorp Park already looks to be an impressive conversion that includes real road and animated corner marshals. Although still with further development to go this mod track addon is well worth checking out.

Daytona Road Course v1.21
Title: rFactor 2
Category: Tracks / Permanent
Download Link - HERE
Latest Release: 14/03/2016
Credits: See download link
Location for the American classic round the clock Rolex Daytona 24 hour event the legendary Daytona is a mecca of motorsports over in the United States.
Another conversion to rF2 this track addition has received plenty of attention and although not fully polished this mod does potentially represent the best version currently available for rF2.

Istanbul GP v1.1
Title: rFactor 2
Category: Tracks / Permanent
Download Link - HERE
Latest Release: 17/03/2016
Credits: See download link
Originally released in 2014 the latest v1.1 version of the former Grand Prix venue brings a raft of improvements to this often overlooked technical circuit. Nice visuals and an interestingly bumpy circuit make a satisfying experience and add to the growing list of current and former Formula One tracks for rFactor 2.

Rouen Les Essarts 0.96
Title: rFactor 2
Category: Tracks / Permanent
Download Link - HERE
Latest Release: 02/02/2016
Credits: See download link
Including 1955-1970 and the 1974-1994 layouts of French classic venue Rouen Les Essarts this is a partially authorised VLM conversion from the original rFactor 1 edition of the mod. Currently in WIP status and having updates to improve the racing experience this track makes a nice addition to the range of classic content available in the sim.


One to watch...

Enduracers Endurance Series
Title: rFactor 2
Category: Cars / Endurance
Download Link - N/A
Latest Release: TBC
From the highly regarded makers of the rFactor and rFactor 2 Flat6 Series and rFactor 1 classic Endurance Series comes one of the most eagerly awaited new additions to rFactor 2 in the form of the Endurance Series by Enduracers. Recently announcing a partnership with United Racing Design to share resources within each team, Endurance Series will without doubt be one of the most impressive additions when it becomes available.


If you are working on a mod for any of the main sim racing titles on PC please drop me a PM if you wish to discuss and have a feature written here on RD. I can't guarantee we will feature your mod but I would be very interested to hear (and share) what projects are being worked on at present.

In the coming weeks and months I intend to run a series of interviews with race sim modders and would also love to hear from any of you who would be interested in participating in an interview with RD. Again drop me a PM with some details and we can discuss...


Have a look through our rFactor 2 mods section right here on RaceDepartment for a wide variety of skins / cars / tracks and miscellaneous files to enhance your enjoyment of Image Space Incorporated's flagship title.

Have you enjoyed our rF2 mods roundup? Do you know of any mods for rF2 or any other sim you think we should feature? What mod do you enjoy playing? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Hash_V8]

Sadly, so underwhelming. rF2 have a lot of potential - despite the graphical flaws. Too bad the mod scene never really started for it.

Erm I suggest you dont look at this thread.
http://www.racedepartment.com/threa...ndup-april-2016-assetto-corsa-edition.120497/

We must be playing different games then. My install of rF2 takes 50 GB, even without every mod installed that is available. Maybe there are not as many mods as for rF1. But still plenty of nice stuff to keep you busy for years.

I know right, do these guys that spout "rf2 has no decent mods" just make it up or what, unless you are counting extremely poor forza rips for AC, I dare say AC has even less "quality" mods, certainly isnt much more if any more than rf2, AND i can actually do proper races with rf2 mods instead of just hotlapping, but lets not let facts get in the way of a good sim bashing exercise.

 

[aka2k]

We must be playing different games then. My install of rF2 takes 50 GB, even without every mod installed that is available. Maybe there are not as many mods as for rF1. But still plenty of nice stuff to keep you busy for years.

Are you saying the rF2 is as good as rF1 in mod quantity and quality? If so, I would like to smoke the same you are, please. It's strong stuff.

 

[aka2k]

Erm I suggest you dont look at this thread.
http://www.racedepartment.com/threa...ndup-april-2016-assetto-corsa-edition.120497/



I know right, do these guys that spout "rf2 has no decent mods" just make it up or what, unless you are counting extremely poor forza rips for AC, I dare say AC has even less "quality" mods, certainly isnt much more if any more than rf2, AND i can actually do proper races with rf2 mods instead of just hotlapping, but lets not let facts get in the way of a good sim bashing exercise.

Never said AC was great mod wise. It's okay. Sometimes it's pretty good. rF1 was the great one. Heck even I was on the mod scene back in 2008. The 904 GTS on HistorX was mine. And I think the first version of the Aston Zagatto was as well. Don't know if Jaime updated it or released the way it was, he probably updated it I think. You know, you guys say 50GBs of stuff. That's just space, dude. Doesn't mean anything when the mods in question looks worse than rF1 stuff and drive strange.

Unless I'm missing something, there's very few good mods for rF2. Only good stuff for me was some of the ISI stuff. And not all them suited me. My favorite was the URD EGT mod - the payware stuff. If there is great rF2 mods around, please share the links. I don't even have the game installed anymore because I hated most mods I got for it.

 

[gamer19]

+ 1 on "can't judge mods by they size" philosophy.
I have a ton of rF1 stuff. Have a lots of stuff for rF2, AC, GSCE, etc,... but there's one difference between rF and these new ones - the difference in size. Take a look at any skin "mods" out there - it's almost a common that it comes in 4K or even 8K size. 8K is a perversion if you asking me, I almost always use 2K, sometimes 4K.
Most of the time I spent on "resizing" these mods for my use, I know to cut them to 1/4 or even less of the original size. I love to save my disk size you know.
So if you have, say 50G size of mods in some modern simulator - that's about 3 or 4G in good old rF1.
Am I the only who redize and save textures in compressed format so they go from, say 20Mb to 1,3 ?
And in the game you pften can't see a difference between the one of 40MB or the one of 2,7.
Even if Karina from Moskva keep saying "great HD skin! please 16K skin!" (for that matter she also says "great HD skin! please... download link car!!!" a lot) you still know that the actual difference is tiny. And only noticable when taking a screenshots. So, if you call yourself a real racer ...you actually won't notice it. No, really, you won't.
Anyway... some skin folders can go down on 1/10 or more of their original size.
Do anyone resize them anymore ? Or I'm really the last one. Last Mohican.

 

[hitm4k3r]

Are you saying the rF2 is as good as rF1 in mod quantity and quality? If so, I would like to smoke the same you are, please. It's strong stuff.

I am not saying that rF2 is as good as rF1 quality wise. It is quite the opposite. From my POV the quality of mods has been raised alot, not only from a visual standpoint but also in the physics departement. I know that this is hard to accept for many people, who actually only read the news and stare at screenshots and like to complain about something once in a while instead of educating themself. People who claim that there are no quality mods and that they don't find enough content to race with in rF2 don't even try it, even when you push them with the nose on the content they are looking for. If you want to tell me, how my mods folder for rF2 looks like and whether I should like it or not, then I will have to disapoint you.

People allways complain and complain without even using a search function like google. I allways hear people complaining about the lack of GT3 cars in rF2, yet there is a great mod available with really good quality that can easily be downloaded via steamworkshop or from the official forum. Ofcourse there is the posibility that you won't find your desired car or track, but that's not the fault of the game or something you can blame somebody for. You will not find any game that has everything with the same quality. That's impossible. Or can you show me a rF1 Spa66 version that looks as good and drives as nice as the rF2 version with all bells and whistles like real road and changing wether conditions?

I like rF1 for what it offers and I like rF2 for what it offers. I like AC for it' laser scanned Spa. I like Stock Car Extreme for it's Formula Retro coupled with historic tracks like Interlagos, Montreal, Spielberg or Kyalami. But there is no reason why I should not like them all in some way as they offer different things that I like about them. I don't know why people only like to pick one product instead of enjoying all of them nor why they allways have to bash one product for no apparent reason.

Anyway, back to topic: good rF2 mods.

 

[aka2k]

I am not saying that rF2 is as good as rF1 quality wise. It is quite the opposite. From my POV the quality of mods has been raised alot, not only from a visual standpoint but also in the physics departement. I know that this is hard to accept for many people, who actually only read the news and stare at screenshots and like to complain about something once in a while instead of educating themself. People who claim that there are no quality mods and that they don't find enough content to race with in rF2 don't even try it, even when you push them with the nose on the content they are looking for. If you want to tell me, how my mods folder for rF2 looks like and whether I should like it or not, then I will have to disapoint you.

People allways complain and complain without even using a search function like google. I allways hear people complaining about the lack of GT3 cars in rF2, yet there is a great mod available with really good quality that can easily be downloaded via steamworkshop or from the official forum. Ofcourse there is the posibility that you won't find your desired car or track, but that's not the fault of the game or something you can blame somebody for. You will not find any game that has everything with the same quality. That's impossible. Or can you show me a rF1 Spa66 version that looks as good and drives as nice as the rF2 version with all bells and whistles like real road and changing wether conditions?

I like rF1 for what it offers and I like rF2 for what it offers. I like AC for it' laser scanned Spa. I like Stock Car Extreme for it's Formula Retro coupled with historic tracks like Interlagos, Montreal, Spielberg or Kyalami. But there is no reason why I should not like them all in some way as they offer different things that I like about them. I don't know why people only like to pick one product instead of enjoying all of them nor why they allways have to bash one product for no apparent reason.

Anyway, back to topic: good rF2 mods.

Could you share some good mod links? I would like to make my rF2 investment worth. I like the base game, but the mods... except for the payware Endurance mod, I've found nothing really good.

 

[hitm4k3r]

Could you share some good mod links? I would like to make my rF2 investment worth. I like the base game, but the mods... except for the payware Endurance mod, I've found nothing really good.

Some of the mods have allready been recommended in this thread:

For Cars:
Apex GT3 mod 0.930 -> http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/18073-Apex-Modding-GT3-mod-(0-930)
All ASR OWC cars, I think most can be downloaded from their website and some of them are here on RD -> http://www.**************/#download
There is still the complete 1992 mod from ASR wich is basicly a complete conversion from rF1 but with some updates. Makes alot of fun around Adelaide by Digga
The Celica GTO mod is extremely nice aswell, can be downloaded here on RD aswell
Group C 1991 mod -> http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/27585-1991-Group-C-v0-81-Released
Flat6 mod by Enduracers alone makes up for tons of fun.
Lola T70 Spyder by Crossply
Complete F1 2013 mod can be downloaded here from RD aswell
EVE Matra -> http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/20425-EVE-Matra-F1
V8Supercars ->http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/27641-FVR-V8-Supercars-2014-2015-v5-5-March-16
Lola T280 by Pixsim
SpecMiata by BlickPadger
URD stuff
Audi TT Sport Cup -> http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/26176-Audi-TT-Sport-Cup-2015
BMW E90 WTCC -> http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/24108-BMW-E90-WTCC-06-08-version-1-1
IInternational Formula 3 -> http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/16146-Open-Beta-v0-9-International-Formula-Series-3
Hakosuka and 240Z ->http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/20615-Hakosuka-240z

As for the tracks: everything from Virtua LM, RaceFactor (All well known F1 Circuits), conversions by Senormen and SRT/Digga (you got to search for them on Google, YT and other sources like FB), and Feels3 (Poznan, Putnam Park and Croft). There are a few other nice tracks like Nagaro, Lester and some other I can't all link to as this would just be too many (over 100 tracks installed).

All in all this stuff should keep you busy for years, given the fact that you can't drive it all at once. On another not: keep an eye on SRFL on FB. Not all their stuff is legal nor is it all top quality. But as with rF1, you have to pick the stuff that is usual top quality (like mentioned above).

 

[aka2k]

Some of the mods have allready been recommended in this thread:

For Cars:
Apex GT3 mod 0.930 -> http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/18073-Apex-Modding-GT3-mod-(0-930)
All ASR OWC cars, I think most can be downloaded from their website and some of them are here on RD -> http://www.**************/#download
There is still the complete 1992 mod from ASR wich is basicly a complete conversion from rF1 but with some updates. Makes alot of fun around Adelaide by Digga
The Celica GTO mod is extremely nice aswell, can be downloaded here on RD aswell
Group C 1991 mod -> http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/27585-1991-Group-C-v0-81-Released
Flat6 mod by Enduracers alone makes up for tons of fun.
Lola T70 Spyder by Crossply
Complete F1 2013 mod can be downloaded here from RD aswell
EVE Matra -> http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/20425-EVE-Matra-F1
V8Supercars ->http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/27641-FVR-V8-Supercars-2014-2015-v5-5-March-16
Lola T280 by Pixsim
SpecMiata by BlickPadger
URD stuff
Audi TT Sport Cup -> http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/26176-Audi-TT-Sport-Cup-2015
BMW E90 WTCC -> http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/24108-BMW-E90-WTCC-06-08-version-1-1
IInternational Formula 3 -> http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/16146-Open-Beta-v0-9-International-Formula-Series-3
Hakosuka and 240Z ->http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/20615-Hakosuka-240z

As for the tracks: everything from Virtua LM, RaceFactor (All well known F1 Circuits), conversions by Senormen and SRT/Digga (you got to search for them on Google, YT and other sources like FB), and Feels3 (Poznan, Putnam Park and Croft). There are a few other nice tracks like Nagaro, Lester and some other I can't all link to as this would just be too many (over 100 tracks installed).

All in all this stuff should keep you busy for years, given the fact that you can't drive it all at once. On another not: keep an eye on SRFL on FB. Not all their stuff is legal nor is it all top quality. But as with rF1, you have to pick the stuff that is usual top quality (like mentioned above).

Thanks, I'll check them out.

 

[Emery]

Look for BTCC cars, if that interests you. Strawman Andy and friends have done a reasonably good job of cobbling it together, though all the fwd use ISI Honda Civic physics.