Laguna Seca is the Latest Confirmed Content Coming to rFactor 2

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A busy period of announcements from the Studio 397 development team continued today with the confirmation the Laguna Seca will soon be available in rFactor 2.

The rapid-fire release news coming from the Studio 397 team continued today with the announcement that the Laguna Seca circuit will be coming to rFactor 2.

This announcement was somewhat surprising, as it breaks the trend of British content being confirmed for the sim. The second quarterly content release for rFactor 2, scheduled for this month, has previously been confirmed to include Donington Park, Brands Hatch and BTCC cars as new DLC.

The WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca is a long-standing racing circuit located in Monterey, California. Like the previous circuit announcement for rFactor 2, Brands Hatch, Laguna Seca has a presence across a large number of racing sims and racing games.

The track's most famous section is the complex containing turns 7, 8 and 8a, known as the corkscrew. The sequence drops several stories of elevation in a matter of seconds, and features a blind entry.

Laguna Seca is home to numerous race series currently including INDYCAR, which will be a perfect fit for rFactor 2 since it already offers the Dallara IR18 as DLC.

Laguna Seca and the rest of the previously announced DLC should be available to us this month.
Let us know your thoughts on Twitter at @RaceDepartment or in the comments below!
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About author
Mike Smith
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

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Comments

Durge Driven
SunBro said:
That laguna is ripped from AC. So is brands hatch. And the only scratch made donington we have for rf2 is a crusty old rf1 conversion. So all 3 of these tracks are very welcome.

Now if only they also announced long beach and saved us from another crusty old rf1 conversion :rolleyes:
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+1

Best just leave it alone, these people will argue black is blue but don't know the difference in terrain
They just need to drive Belgium '66 in rF2 and AC one is completely alive the other is
well dead as a door nail and if you can't tell the difference you should go back to consoles
 
L
SunBro said:
That laguna is ripped from AC. So is brands hatch. And the only scratch made donington we have for rf2 is a crusty old rf1 conversion. So all 3 of these tracks are very welcome.

Now if only they also announced long beach and saved us from another crusty old rf1 conversion :rolleyes:
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Rf2 has been around for a decade so it feels a bit late in the game for these to come out now. There are already amazing versions of Laguna, Oulton, Donington, Daytona, Spa, etc and I think most players own the other sims the tracks were ripped from and feel mostly ok about that. (Not saying that makes it right or legal but a lot of people will ask why they should buy a version when they already have a great version.) All this piecemeal content is now at a ridiculous level and really separates the community. There is more paid dlc than base content now. If you are iracing, no problem... If you are Rfactor 2 = problem
 
dreamer al
I am pretty happy with the upcoming DLC, as long as it's a reasonable price (I don't hold much hope for this I must admit).

One thing I would dearly love is to have the cockpit views upgraded. Compared to the "newer" sims, they are outdated.
 
D
tlsmikey said:
The track appears to be missing all of the yellow sausage curbs that are present in real life. Maybe they haven't been added yet?

Nice track to have, but hard for a game in this current state to charge top money for all of these tracks when there are so many things to fix.
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Those sausage curbs were clearly visible during the IMSA broadcast, but they appeared to me to be temporary curbs. All looked bright and shiney compared to other curbing near them. I think those were included to keep cars from dropping into incredibly rough potholes inside the old curbing. Since the sausage curbs look temporary, there is a good chance those sausages were not in place during the scanning. Just like there is no colored tape on the top center of the Porsche steering wheel, because teams apply the tape not the factory and the cars were imaged at the factory, we may not see the sausages and S397 would not be either wrong or right to include/exclude them. They are not releasing the track in MotoGP form or Imsa or Indycar, they are releasing Laguna as it existed on the day of the scans.
 
R.Man
davehenrie said:
Yet the sheer avalanche of updates and fixes in the Q2 RC indicate money from MSG has had a positive impact on rF2. Whatever happens, rF2 itself is in a better place than before, with prospects of similar massive leaps as the year progresses.
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That may be a placebo effect, I don't see big differences in update frequency compared to the old S397 RF2. They already have made almost monthly updates. Usually S397 like to talk about every single new content for months before they land into the sim. It's easy to understand that most of those sudden new content are the results of the cancelled games and was not planned at all. Yes with the money we've got new licences but the real price for the sim is an uncertain future. MSG money may have positive impact but the MSG name on the sim has much more negative impact. Many people will not buy the new content due to the ownership to MSG. We are more into moral conflicts than in technical conflicts here.
 
D
I'm not talking content. See what's already in the April RC pipeline, due out shortly for everyone. ISI had about two major updates & several smaller one, but they essentially had left rF2 to die before selling it to S397. The above 4 page list is probably the largest list of fixes since S397 has been in charge. It includes dozens of items that were well down their 'list' of things to do as well as several surprising surprises. If we get another one or two quarterly updates with this amount of fixes, we won't have very much left to whine about. They are not there yet, but this is truly progress, which I attribute to increased funding via MSG.
 
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T
R.Man said:
That may be a placebo effect, I don't see big differences in update frequency compared to the old S397 RF2. They already have made almost monthly updates. Usually S397 like to talk about every single new content for months before they land into the sim. It's easy to understand that most of those sudden new content are the results of the cancelled games and was not planned at all. Yes with the money we've got new licences but the real price for the sim is an uncertain future. MSG money may have positive impact but the MSG name on the sim has much more negative impact. Many people will not buy the new content due to the ownership to MSG. We are more into moral conflicts than in technical conflicts here.
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It's certainly not a placebo effect. I will say, until the start of 2022 I was very critical about the priorities and the development schedule of S397 but since the start of the year there is clearly visible progress. And alot of the stuff that they've added are things that were requested by the community, even in the early days under ISI. People asked for lisenced high profile cars; S397 delivered them. People asked for better graphics; they delivered it by a big margin. People asked for laser scanned circuits; here they are. People asked for a better UI; it's there. People asked for an update of the sound engine; now we can hear it. People asked for scheduled online racing; you guess it. Now we are seeing AI updates. The list of stuff that they've added to the sim is huge.

I have the wierd feeling the most people don't have an understanding of how much the sim changed from when ISI stopped developing it. If anyone would have told me in 2016 that we would see Ferraris in rF2 and that the sim would be being broadcasted on Eurosport one day I would have flipped them the bird. I think it's important to be critical when it's needed, but there also comes a point when you've got to give credit when it's due.
 
M
tr1v1um said:
I have no problem with pointing out issues but for people who can count one and one together it's pretty obvious that there is a certain strategy how he selects the content that he is talking about and especialy how he does it. From a real journalist I would expect to review the issue for example, but there is nothing like that. Bait bait bait. And I have no idea how people in this community are fine with a guy who got bought by a certain company to shut up his mouth. Where I live, bribery isn't any less corrupt than the CEO he is talking about. So much about "investigative journalism". Some people should clean up in their own backyard before they start pointing at other people.
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  1. He's not a journalist, he's a guy playing these games.
  2. He pointed out flaws in their product, so they hired him to help them fix these flaws. This is not bribery.
This whole thread can be summed up with that video:

 
Peter Kerényi
I feel like in pretty much all the sim racing news outlets (RD included) and high profile channels are way too forgiving and have a mentality of stuff being 10/10 at best and 5/10 at worst. Such a no nonsense take at things like from Austin is sometimes a breath of fresh air. There are things that simply should work, especially when official content is in the mix.

Meanwhile this aversion to blunt criticism reminds me when AMS2 fans went after Jimmy after he said it didn't feel realistic enough from his experience (at that state). "But you didn't test every car and track combo for 10 hours straight to have the right to say that". No, if something doesn't feel like it should you can feel it in the first lap if not the first corner.

Sorry for moving kind of off topic, but this came to my mind.
 
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mantasisg
@Majuh There is a saying "stick has two ends". While it is fair to ask questions, be critical about stuff, same applies to the other end. It is easiest just to pick a side and play "teams". But it leads where ?
 
Mekonrider
Just watched a few videos on Motorsport Games. Seems like a complete scam that's about to fall apart. I'll not be buying an further Rfactor content until I'm confident the sim will still be there by the end of the year.
 
B
Premium
R.Man said:
..... Usually S397 like to talk about every single new content for months before they land into the sim. It's easy to understand that most of those sudden new content are the results of the cancelled games and was not planned at all. Yes with the money we've got new licences but the real price for the sim is an uncertain future. .....
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you are reading to much into it. S397 stopped the monthly updates where the where all of the announcements where being made. Also I don't believe tracks Like LeMans had a long lead time either.

When MSG Licenses where announced it was clearly stated that rF2 would see some of that content till these games where release so seing some of this content is not surprising.

Also don't expect S397 not to release any more content just because MSG holds licenses for other titles.
 
D
Just2Laps said:
Brands Hatch, Donington Park and now Laguna Seca.

Wow!!! Three tracks coming to rFactor2 as a DLC, how many bucks?
Three tracks that are "Standard" in the base Version of nearly any racing sim/game?
Three tracks that are (to be expected) still behind graphics in any other Sim?
Three tracks already available as free (less or more well done) mods?

rf2 must really have a hardcore fanbase that accepts this!

Don't understand me wrong, I like rf2 too because of the great physics, the multi-player etc. But if they are going to continue with that strange policy selling "Standard" stuff as DLC i am not sure if there is a real future for it.

First they should fix their general problems regarding graphics, stability, performance etc., in the next step give people the possibility to buy a Season pass as long as the game is in let's say "beta state".
So they can fill it up with all the standard content next without charging for every single car and track.

When done please support us with some extraordinary exclusive stuff that no other Sim has to offer, get an exclusive license for whatever series that is not present on the market so far.

Then I am sure I am getting a fan instead of a very critical player.
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I disagree with almost everything you wrote!
I have no graphics, stability or performance issues. If you want nicer graphics go and play Codemaster stuff.
Mods are not DLC, so please stop whining.
 
V
Premium
Botmeister said:
I don't have a law degree and just talk along on a discussion board. That's what internet boards are for. Also I don't assume I know anything about law because I just suggested to stay away from these DLC's without bringing along legal do's and dont's. Simply wait it out.

I also don't like your attitude. You can explain something to people in order to educate them about a subject you know something about.
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Sorry, sometimes I get a bit belligerent in the face of so much random negativity.
rFactor 2 is a game which anyone is entitled to enjoy, a lot, somewhat or nothing and that has absolutely no correlation with corporate stuff which is beyond our direct knowledge and reach.
Austin makes many interesting and fun videos, so he has a place in the community.
Dogs bark at the darkness, sometimes towards a threat, helping/protecting us, but sometimes they bark towards nothing...
 
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V
Premium
MJQT said:
Thanks for the info! I have an additional couple questions, if I may, about the AI track learning 'autocalibration' feature.

Mark's tweaked player.json recommends "Autocalibrate AI Mode":2 which, as I understand it, runs the track learning algorithm for each car that goes out on track in a practice session then saves those tweaks when you click Next Session. I recall reading that you should run a practice session to get the AI 'dialed in' until each AI car has run roughly 200 laps: what would you recommend? What happens the next time you boot rF2 and run another practice session with the same cars and track: is the autocalibration from last time overwritten?

Also – when tweaking the player.json, another valid option is "Autocalibrate AI Mode":1 which does track learning like in rFactor 1, where a single AI in a session with no tyre wear or fuel usage says "Stay out of my way, human" :roflmao: then runs around the track and optimizes his line bit by bit. Have you found doing this (which you'd need to repeat for each car) yields better or worse results than Mark's suggested setting?
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I honestly don't know... :-D
I followed Mark's settings and from personal experience, I see the AI improving their lap times as Practice progresses.
I usually do 90min practice sessions, do my laps and then speed up time.
It could be placebo effect, but my feeling is that the AI becomes more stable and crafty driving with these settings and with good AIW files.
The same forum post has AIW add on files, but using them has the drawback of changing the track version and making it incompatible with lobbies or league servers using the original version.
ModManager is your friend there, since you can install/uninstall these AIW upgrades.
 
passenger
dreamer al said:
I am pretty happy with the upcoming DLC, as long as it's a reasonable price (I don't hold much hope for this I must admit).

One thing I would dearly love is to have the cockpit views upgraded. Compared to the "newer" sims, they are outdated.
Click to expand...

I've asked this many times. Imagine the two new touring cars with cockpits with the
detail quality of the Ferrari 488... The immersion at Laguna Seca with those new
realistic looking trees would be pretty nice.
 

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