rF2 | April Development Roadmap

Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Once again the end of the month brings with it new musing from various sim racing developers, with Studio 397 taking time out of their busy schedule to update us all on the progress of rFactor 2.

Yes, another month is over. Lockdown for many of us continues, and the world of racing remains in something of limbo. With little happening on the real tracks, much of the interesting action has been taking place on their virtual counterparts, with plenty of hard work being undertaken behind the scenes at various studios to maximise the current level of exposure our hobby is enjoying.

With the month having closed out, let's take a look at what Studio 397 have been doing these past few weeks:

This evening, after another extremely busy and exciting day at the virtual office, I had dinner, walked my dog, and finally sat down behind my desk. I put on some music to start writing the roadmap update for this month.
My mind started to wander. Four years ago this month I was in the middle of writing some code to extend the Steam integration of rFactor 2 when all of a sudden Gjon popped up on Skype to start a discussion that quickly transformed into an opportunity I simply had to take. Many interesting discussions followed as we worked towards founding a new company to continue the development of a racing simulation that I spent many hours driving, racing strangers that became close friends. One of the probably less important tasks on my checklist back then was to come up with a name for this new company. If you’ve ever gone through such a process, you probably know it’s not easy to find a name that is still available as a domain. We finally settled on the somewhat cryptic Studio 397, a hint at our desire to one day bring the iconic track of Le Mans to the simulation. For those of you not aware of the meaning of the number, it is the record number of laps driven during the 24 hour race.
Speeding along the virtual Mulsanne Straight, my mind wanders again as I think about the many stories that are attached to each of the tracks we’ve built over the years. Sunset bend, where we fielded a sister car with Robin Frijns and Dries van den Elzen, who wanted to experience first hand what it would be like to drive a 12 hour endurance race in a professional simulator. An old tool called Ring trainer for Grand Prix Legends introduced me to many unique spots of which Karussel is probably one of the best known. One weekend we drove a 24 hour race there only to learn at the finish that due to some technical issue we had to drive the whole race again the next weekend. Tarzan corner and its dunes where the place where I first met two people whom I now have the pleasure to work with. At the time they were both working on other projects, but our common love for simracing brought us together there. Over sixteen years ago, with some friends we founded Simracing for Holland, taking the iconic livery from Jan Lammers’ Racing for Holland. We are still racing today and the many people that raced with us over the years are on our blocked livery as a tribute.
As you’ve by now no doubt figured out, this roadmap is a bit different from the ones we regularly bring you at the end of the month. So are the current times obviously, where we should all stay in touch with our friends and loved ones, and support them wherever that is needed. With the whole motorsport world sitting at home, it is great to see all this attention on simracing. It pleasantly messes with our plans, and we are all grateful about that. You’ve seen us in the All-Star battles, where many current drivers and legends from the past enjoy themselves racing each other on equal terms. I personally thoroughly enjoyed watching for example Jan Magnussen and Jenson Button racing each other hard and fairly. I was also impressed by the Formula E drivers getting together and showing their skills on the narrow streets of Hong Kong. But apart from these global events, we also did a race on a regional dutch channel, racing a fictional track through the streets of Maastricht, broadcast by a local TV station that did an awesome job to draw in a large and diverse audience on TV and internet. And judging from the talks we are having now, we will create many more great stories in the weeks to come.
Earlier this month, the news that Stefano Casillo left Kunos to start a new adventure surprised a lot of people. It’s a bold move, but I believe he is following his passion and developing new software that soon might surprise a brand new audience. Or maybe we will all see him rock at Pinkpop next year?
So what’s cooking at our Studio? As I mentioned, a lot of our plans have been shuffled and re-arranged. Our track team finished Portland, but it won’t be released until we’ve finished our extensive lighting pass and released a new build. In the mean time they are working on two brand new tracks, as well as a few updates to our existing ones. Our car team completed a brand new car that we currently can’t release as its release was planned to coincide with the real car, and that has been delayed. Here too we moved on to the next car, which unfortunately we can’t announce just yet, but it’s a unique opportunity for our Studio. Our developers have been testing our new overlay system, making tweaks to ensure it can be properly customized. We also fixed a few long standing issues with our package management system, which delayed the pending update of the new UI. Development on the lighting system is now in a phase where artists and developers are iterating over many of the improvements to create the proper balance for each. We are also fixing some smaller bugs and discussing physics improvements. Our esports team is already looking ahead at future seasons for our GT series, planning the next race for BMW as well as streamlining our broadcast setups.
The hard thing right now is to predict what will happen next. Extrapolating based on the last weeks we can only say that we probably don’t know. As a good friend said to me, we need to be prepared for pleasant surprises, and on that note I wish everybody a healthy future, stay safe and look out for each other!
Marcel



Original Source: Studio 397.

rFactor 2 is available exclusively on PC.

Want to know how to get the best from the sim? Start a thread in the rFactor 2 sub forum and let our community offer you the benefit of their massive combined experience.

rFactor 2 Roadmap.jpg
 
The Inconsistent quality of available mods is somewhat a weak point for RF2, only the paid mods are still maintained dynamically..
Wrong. Many free mods get updated regularly.

Regarding the rest of your post I also disagree.
Software part of simracing is extremely cheap. It can't get any cheaper than that. Apart from iRacing everything is so underpriced.
If a mod costs 10EUR and it gets just 10 hrs of playtime it means each hr of play is 1 EUR. There aren't many cheaper hobbies.
And that is only 10 hrs per mod. One can easily spend hundreds of hours on a track like Nordschleife and Sebring and it will be nowhere near fully exploring all the enjoyable combinations of car and track combos. Electricity bill for sim rig will be more costly during that time.

And when you say with Tatuus Pack and MClaren classic cars they are just completing a content missing base game tell me which of the serious racing sims has more base content?
 
Keep nagging you all, but when it comes down to how a car should/could behave nothing comes close.
Sure other sims have more shiny objects and higher polygon counts.

I play them all and I like many of them, but rF2 just keeps coming back as the reference class simulator.

More and more real raceteams and drivers around the world use rF2 nowadays.
Many off them give feedback that goes back to the devs.
 
There is certainly a beauty in rF2 too, but it is hard to get nice screenshots, nice replay, it is best from onboards. Also not many tracks and cars presents rF2 at its best.

P.S. How do you like driving FVee in rF2, I love it, takes getting used to, skill, and some setup, I like it a lot.
 
@mantasisg I never do screenshots and replays... only driving.:)
I really like driving the FVee in rF2. I also had to get used to it (as also the others cars in the Reiza pack), but I prefer driving them in rF2 (and AMS1) compared to AMS2. The detail I feel in the wheel in rF2 is still better with my G27.
 
People are far optimistic with no reason sometimes.

rF2 AI drivers at least don't brake in the corner exit and the FFB is Earth-physics like.

rF2 development is like my turtle (yeah, I raise one) but if the AMS2 is the great competitor threat then S397 guys can sleep well. The competitor is a PC2 with worse content.



You mean the early access game that was called Reiza17 at one point?

Not to get too much into the discussion here, because it's funny how some people overreact, especialy people who cleary seem to have no interest in the sim and are the most vocal experts when it comes to rF2, yet user numbers and roadmaps tell a different story. Why don't people just move on, if a sim isn't interesting for them anymore. Should I really write a post everytime I install or uninstall a certain piece of software from my Steam library? The people who are interested in the sim, will get three new tracks and two new cars with more fixes and updates incomming. Enduracers just released a big skinpack for the amazing Cupcar. I can't ask for more support for a game that was released allmost ten years ago.
 
Happy day to all the mammas arround!,
ok after the celebration lets go to the topic!:

RF2 is the best sim out in what you feel on your Wheel , thats nothing new , its a real joy to race the majority of the cars in a way that no other sim can emulate. The same joy with the Ai, just best out there.

It was a very emotive story of the S397 origins at the begining of this transcript, and its cool to know about it but we need the REAL meat!

After this:

I really would like to see, if posible this 2020, how this great sim could have :

- 1) Some efficient modern ui, if not...(it seems very difficult to make it real) in this part of the story i could accept the old one, i am burnt out, lol
- 2) The competition system with organized action, not only for the 20 fast guys! I dont really mind about their pro guys competition, we the rest of the rf2 simracers want to do some online, not only watching their "epic action"!? Come on!

I really desire that they can acomplish their rf2 Projects before the simracers change to other titles...because there are some beasts that are coming quick, S397 and they seem a bit dangerous!: ...Automobilista 2, ACC..

Have i said that RF2 has the - 2020 Best "Like a Human"( yeah, similar to "Like a Virgin" massive hit from the Madonna diva!) AI - winning Award?, i enjoy more racing with them than with humans lately... :

 
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Hello everyone,
While I do not fully understand or agree with some of the criticism of this sim and Studio397, I will concede, however, criticism is a very useful tool for any creator, game developer, etc., provided it is done constructively. I feel as though Studio397 is doing what they can with the resources they have. It's important to remember they are not a huge developer and move at a different pace as a result.

Having said that, I will offer a (biased) snippet of mine: I absolutely love this sim. Sure, there are things I would like to see changed or implemented (some are planned, if I recall correctly), such as improved yellow flag procedures, AI behavior, sound improvements, and offline in-game championships. However, when considering everything this particular sim provides (solid AI, phenomenal driving feedback, day/night transitions, weather, cars and tracks from series that I enjoy in real life, and nearly wide-open modability, etc.), I love this sim and am grateful for everything Studio397 has done for it.

Now, can we begin to speculate what the new cars and tracks will be? GT4? Spa?
 
It isn’t true that there isn’t a high quality mod for rfactor2. For example you should try Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. It’s one of the best tracks of rfactor2... I just raced with the MP4 F1 and it’s one of the best experience I ever had in simracing and it isn’t true we didn’t have free DLC from Studio397, we had the Tatuus open wheelers which are the best open wheelers of all sims IMO.
 
Me... I work with F4, F3, F2, Indycar, DTM, Porsche Cup, Endurance (GT & LMP) teams, privateers and Studio 397.
Till not long ago rF1 was the most used simulator, and it's still used a lot.
At the moment rF2 is the only affordable simulator for consumers, who's physics rate ( and amount of different data calculated) come close to systems that are run in automotive industries and F1, but those are costing more than it would cost to run a small racing team.
But don't take my word for it.... ;)
 
Me... I work with F4, F3, F2, Indycar, DTM, Porsche Cup, Endurance (GT & LMP) teams, privateers and Studio 397.
Till not long ago rF1 was the most used simulator, and it's still used a lot.
At the moment rF2 is the only affordable simulator for consumers, who's physics rate ( and amount of different data calculated) come close to systems that are run in automotive industries and F1, but those are costing more than it would cost to run a small racing team.
But don't take my word for it.... ;)

So is rFpro anything to do with rFactor? the logo is pretty similar
 
Me... I work with F4, F3, F2, Indycar, DTM, Porsche Cup, Endurance (GT & LMP) teams, privateers and Studio 397.
Till not long ago rF1 was the most used simulator, and it's still used a lot.
At the moment rF2 is the only affordable simulator for consumers, who's physics rate ( and amount of different data calculated) come close to systems that are run in automotive industries and F1, but those are costing more than it would cost to run a small racing team.
But don't take my word for it.... ;)
That’s interesting. I thought racing teams mostly use rF pro, with some exceptions like Porsche made their private 911 GT3 Cup mod in rF2 , or Tatuus etc. I’ve read cars in rF2 also react realistically on setup changes( like it was in original rFactor).
But why then vast majority of pro drivers use iRacing? I don’t think it is only because of their online competition system, clean races, popularity and laser scanned tracks.
 
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