rFactor Pro

[Paul Jeffrey]

We don't often hear much about the professional version of rFactor, however in recent weeks several impressive details and images have surfaced regarding the software.

For those of you who are less familiar with the non public version of title, rFactor Pro is a professional grade simulation software that contains several strands of the public rFactor racing simulation available for home simulators.

Usually used by professional race teams, car manufacturers and driving companies, rFactor Pro does share much of the DNA of its little brother, but with considerably more detailed engineering behind the scenes.

Over the last few weeks several interesting bits of information have emerged about the software, with confirmation of a laser scanned city of Paris and the Hungarian Grand Prix venue at Hungaroring, also confirmed to be laserscanned (which interestingly isn't something that happens as standard in the consumer version of the software).

Sadly details of the simulation continue to be hard to come by, however on the official rFactor Pro website the developers claim to have "most of the F1 circuits, North American Indy & NASCAR circuits as well as La Sarthe, and the 20km Nordschleife. Public road routes, including specially commissioned OEM test routes can also be modelled, all with accuracies to within 1cm in x and y and less than 1mm in z". Impressive.

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About the software

rFpro in Motorsport
rFpro originally started as a project within a Formula 1 team to deliver a driving simulator capable of delivering Vehicle Dynamics testing. Since 2007 rFpro has grown to support all the major motorsport categories including F1, NASCAR, WEC, Indy, IMSA, Formula E and Super-GT.

Although predominantly a tool for engineering development, set-up calibration and testing, some of our motorsport customers also make use of rFpro for driver training, particularly for complex steering-wheel controlled on-car systems.

Digital Road Models
rFpro offers a large library of off-the-shelf digital road models of proving grounds, public roads, test tracks and race circuits for F1, NASCAR, WEC, IMSA, Indy, Formula E and Super-GT.

rFactor Pro is a professional simulation used by manufacturers and racing teams throughout the motorsport industry. The software is not available for public purchase.

Like the look of rFpro? Have you been lucky enough to try the software yourself, if so what are your impressions? Would you like to try the software for yourself? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Tom Blackett]

Release the tracks please!

 

[Ian Navarro]

I think it's quiet dumb to sell a product like this to competition sector when the enthusiats are a lot more than the real users of this professional software. Actually most of us are here to compete in simulators which in most of the cases gets reflected by the need of having the maximum accuracy possible...other thing would be that is too expensive product to be introduced in domestic sector, in which case i would just shut up

 

[Midnight⠀]

My first thought was just kindly shut up and take my money.

 

[Akra]

I think it's quiet dumb to sell a product like this to competition sector when the enthusiats are a lot more than the real users of this professional software. Actually most of us are here to compete in simulators which in most of the cases gets reflected by the need of having the maximum accuracy possible...other thing would be that is too expensive product to be introduced in domestic sector, in which case i would just shut up

I think the cost is so monumentally expensive that if we all got together and sold our houses, we might be able to buy some licenses

 

[jpalesi]

I think the cost is so monumentally expensive that if we all got together and sold our houses, we might be able to buy some licenses

Ding ding ding, we have a winner !

 

[alexSchmurtz]

Don't forget a (several?) machine able to run a much more detailed software... You need to get all those calculations done in real time!
Thanks for those infos Paul! It is true that rF Pro is not well known...

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

"Only available to race teams, not for public purchase."

What do they consider to be a race team "worthy" of rFactor Pro?

 

[CobraCat]

So I will go out on a limb and assume that ISI calculated the time it took multiple people working together to build the Nordschleife and estimated that if one person did the work, 8hrs a day 5 days a week it would have taken 4 years ?

Or, do they seriously expect me to believe the it took them the same amount of time to build a single track that it took Rockstar to create GTA 5 (4 to 5 years)

Nords in rF Pro doesn't look that much better than the mod version floating around the web. Although I will say the city environments look verrry nice! I'd love to rip that C6 Grandsport around some of those city streets!


This looks sweeeet

 

[James Nance]

Closest you can get with this is iRacing, which is one of the many reasons why it is costly, but I am sure we all can understand this a little more now. Sadly some drivers can't even get there hands on it, so they resort to iR. Wish all that content made it to rF2, but hey its already got plenty to go on about.

Speaking in terms of availability of laser scanned tracks...easy fanboys.

 

[Ian Navarro]

Closest you can get with this is iRacing, which is one of the many reasons why it is costly, but I am sure we all can understand this a little more now. Sadly some drivers can't even get there hands on it, so they resort to iR. Wish all that content made it to rF2, but hey its already got plenty to go on about.

The reason why iRacing is so costly is because they offer a 24/7 service, that needs a maintenance, that none of the other comercial simulators have, it is not because the simulation is so professional that they have to make people pay for it to make worth it to design it.

 

[jpalesi]

So I will go out on a limb and assume that ISI calculated the time it took multiple people working together to build the Nordschleife and estimated that if one person did the work, 8hrs a day 5 days a week it would have taken 4 years ?

The problem is that they base themselves on the speed of Tuttle and Luc. And they are super slow.
And when you tell Tuttle that 6+ months to do a simple track like NOLA is too long and that elsewhere it's more like 2 months or less, he comes with a condescending answer.

 

[Amedeo Fiorella]

Closest you can get with this is iRacing, which is one of the many reasons why it is costly, but I am sure we all can understand this a little more now. Sadly some drivers can't even get there hands on it, so they resort to iR. Wish all that content made it to rF2, but hey its already got plenty to go on about.

iRacing doesn't make you pay a premium simulation experience, it makes you pay a premium racing one. Which is kinda different.
Their simulation models are not as complex as the rFactor 2 ones, also because it would be much more expensive timewise to release all the car they release and have released if they had to work on a very complex base. And for other reasons, like the fact that they spent much more resurces in adverting, licences, laserscanning tracks, etc. The simulator is actually based on a 2004 (correct me if I'm wrong) Nascar game, with deep modification, but still..

I drove iRacing and i'm sorry to say it's not as accurate as people think it is from all the advertisment they do. The cars are not easy to drive, I'm not saying that. But they're are difficult in a wrong way, not cause they handle as they do in real life.
I would love it to be the best, because it would actually be the only way to have a full racing experience. But it's just not.

 

[jpalesi]

"Only available to race teams, not for public purchase."

What do they consider to be a race team "worthy" of rFactor Pro?

Money. Lots of it.

 

[Marc Collins]

What possible reason do we have to highlight this product other than to torture ourselves that we'll never see or use it?

Or is this recent spate of publicity not accidental and ISI have actually been doing something intriguing off in the dark for the past year?

 

[PaulH]

So that's where the online fee's went....

 

[James Nance]

The reason why iRacing is so costly is because they offer a 24/7 service, that needs a maintenance, that none of the other comercial simulators have, it is not because the simulation is so professional that they have to make people pay for it to make worth it to design it.

iRacing doesn't make you pay a premium simulation experience, it makes you pay a premium racing one. Which is kinda different.
Their simulation models are not as complex as the rFactor 2 ones, also because it would be much more expensive timewise to release all the car they release and have released if they had to work on a very complex base. And for other reasons, like the fact that they spent much more resurces in adverting, licences, laserscanning tracks, etc. The simulator is actually based on a 2004 (correct me if I'm wrong) Nascar game, with deep modification, but still..

I drove iRacing and i'm sorry to say it's not as accurate as people think it is from all the advertisment they do. The cars are not easy to drive, I'm not saying that. But they're are difficult in a wrong way, not cause they handle as they do in real life.
I would love it to be the best, because it would actually be the only way to have a full racing experience. But it's just not.

Nothing is ever perfect, I just like the service it provides, large amount of laser scanned tracks, respectable racing, great netcode, racing schedule that suits me, personal identity when it comes to user profile and car livery/helmet, "close" to accurate cars, I wouldn't really know(only driven skip barber irl) etc... truly there are some issues with handling, but all the newer content continue to get better and better. Anyway I keep rF2 and check it out time to time, sadly I can't get any of my friends to get into it.

 

[Ian Navarro]

That's for sure, everyone plays what likes and suits the most, my comment was focused on making the point about what you are paying for, that's all

I played iRacing during 3 months which is not much, i enjoyed the racing and the beahviour of people in general terms, of course there are dumbasses everywhere but it is still premier simulator offering this service, the only problem i had is that i cannot enjoy a sim without feeling the car (DFGT helps to not feel the car, but in other sims: assetto, AMS, rFactor2 i feel most of the important feedback needed to understand the car) maybe i'm too exigent.

 

[Will Mazeo]

I would love it to be the best, because it would actually be the only way to have a full racing experience. But it's just not.

I actually wish one of the serious sims would give an actual racing experience, none of them are really doing it if they keep 100% of the focus on the driving aspect alone.

 

[Andrew Harper]

A few issues back Racecar engineering did a great article on RFactor Pro and yes this was the first time I'd heard about it as well.

The article centred a little around formula E. The team laser scan each circuit then build it up for the sim. So each team can get a much better idea of each track before they've even seen it for real. The screen shots were beautiful.

As above, although I totally understand the market base for this title it breaks my heart slightly that us sim racing enthusiasts will never get to try the dozens of amazing tracks created for it. The detail on them is just superb.