Arriving much later than originally planned, we have a massive Q&A session this time, and we would like to start by thanking everybody for taking the time to submit all these questions! We decided to split the list in half, with the second half arriving next week.
Before we get started with those questions though, we would like to address a question that has been asked quite a few times in these past weeks. A lot of you are wondering what our involvement is in the just released NASCAR 21: Ignition game and how this affects our ongoing commitment to rFactor 2.
We were already involved in the development for over two years now, so way before the acquisition. Over time the team working on the NASCAR game, although sometimes varying in composition, has been roughly the same size. Still some of you observed that updates to rFactor 2 have slowed down over the last few months. This is due to the fact that we’ve had a few developers leaving Studio 397 and even though we are actively looking for new people, this is a process that will take some time.
That said, there are certainly a few longer-term developments that are still being worked on, but are not yet in a state that we feel comfortable revealing them, and we are also looking at backporting a few of the developments from the NASCAR game back to rFactor 2. On that note, let’s move on with the first half of our questions about cars.
Q&A
As this time is about automobiles, will the Lamborghini be included in the GT3 in future? Thank you!
juanchioooo
Good question, and I would be rich if I could predict the future. The main reason why we did not add this car to the pack yet is licensing cost. Of course, that might change over time. If we get a better deal, we’ll consider it.
When will the car descriptions for some cars get fixed so that all available liveries can be selected? For example, try selecting AUDI GT3 2018 #1 and AUDI GT3 Evo #1 and check loaded cars (there are a couple other issues with official car description as well). Thing is, this is absolutely easy fix but has not been done ever since cars have been released, and we are talking about paid content here.
Tomislav Leskovic
I’ve passed this on to our QA department for validation, and I’m sure they will address these.
Is there a plan to provide correct car displays (edit: with displays I mean the dashboards of course), with correct data?
Tomislav Leskovic
We are still rather limited in what we can show on dashboards and in the digital displays. I think you can see that more recent displays are better than the older ones, but we need to overhaul the code that renders these to really add data like wheelspin indications, multipage displays, etc. I’m sure you are aware that there are some great third-party tools out there such as SimHub that do a great job, and I would certainly recommend taking a look at those.
When will the opportunity finally be given to select the vehicle opponents in the UI that I want and then save them? In RRRE a matter of minutes, in rF2 currently, well ….
memoNo1
The best way to save those is to create a new series (rfmod) but I’ll admit that is a lot of work to just select a few opponents. The opponent selection is a part of the UI that we ported straight from the old UI, but we know we need to overhaul it completely to make it more useful and user-friendly. I don’t have a timeline for it yet though, so in the short term, making your own series is probably your best bet.
In the Tracks Q&A, you mentioned how the suspension can be bent and damaged. However, this damage can only occur as a result of impact from a wall or another car. I would really like to see the track itself have an effect on suspension damage – it would mean drivers actually have a reason to not hit certain curbs too hard, improving racing. It would be so cool to see in esports too.
doddynco
Noted, I think it’s an interesting improvement that we should consider.
Could we see the implementation of maximum stresses to suspension components in the chassis file? Some lines are still in the Chassis file ‘MinForceOrTorque0=’ ‘MaxForceOrTorque0=’ ‘Breakability0=.
doddynco
I don’t know to be honest.
What about legendary cars, like the 70´s and 80´s DRM Gr. 4 and Gr. 5 Cars? Any chance to drive a beautiful BMW CSL for example in top quality?
Ralph_Raccoon
A while ago we helped the DRM Modding Team to explore the possibility of porting over their cars to rFactor 2. Unfortunately, at the time, they concluded they did not want to go ahead with the project. Licensing wise, these cars are a bit special too, being custom-built mostly. I guess as a community, you could kindly let this team know that you would still appreciate a port. We would certainly try to help (again).
In-car dashboards and their limitations. What is the biggest obstacle in upgrading that?
Paweł Andrzejewski
The development time needed to update the code. As you might have read in the intro to this Q&A, we are a bit light on developers at the moment, but even before that, there have been more important things that we have prioritized over this. Obviously, another consideration is the work we would have to do to update all cars to take advantage of any improvements we make.
What’s left in the tank for the Formula Pro? As was said it’s not the final release, so I’m curious what will be updated.
Paweł Andrzejewski
We’re not ready to share all the details yet, but we are considering for Formula Challenge a slightly slower version of the car (less horsepower and less downforce) as well as some upgrades to the Pro car, possibly a “push to pass” system as well as visual upgrades.
How do you rate the cooperation with Goodyear? Are you going to update tires in your content based on that experience?
Paweł Andrzejewski
We are extremely happy with our collaboration with Goodyear, and we are working on updating several tires based on the data and feedback we get from them.
Will you update tyre database based on the effects of this cooperation?
Paweł Andrzejewski
I think that would be a good idea next year, to provide a new set of baseline tyres for different types of cars. It’s a bit too early right now, as several types of tyres are still being developed.
How about extensions to the car adjustments like differential, more TC options as well as a possibility to tweak them while on track?
Paweł Andrzejewski
We’re working on a few right now, but we know we also need an updated TC (and ABS) system to be better aligned to the modern systems found in various GT cars.
A mapping for flashing lights would be very appreciated as well!
Paweł Andrzejewski
Yeah, most people right now solve that by programming a macro for this using a third-party tool, but I agree we could add this as a mappable control going forward.
Considering the new Goodyear tyre model is already in the M4, Formula Pro and a few others that I have forgotten, which cars will be the next ones to get the new model? GT3s? Tatuus’? Or maybe will a new car/cars be released before any other content gets the new model?
VirusGR42
Next car to get it is a new one which we will release soon!
Last blog said that a track may take around 3 months to complete. On the other hand, how much time does a car take to be made from the green light to begin (assuming after licence has been acquired) until completion?
VirusGR42
Right, let’s take as a starting point that we have a licence, the appropriate CAD models and all the physics data that we need as well as some sound recordings then typically we can build the car physics in about 4-6 weeks – models take a bit longer. We do calculate 2-4 weeks extra after that as cars and liveries typically require sign off from the licensor and teams, which typically takes a few iterations.
Additionally, what is the sort of testing process do they go through, and how long is it (I guess they are also tested by manufacturers?)?
VirusGR42
The length of testing depends a bit on the type of car and in some cases also involves “balancing the performance” for the class it is in. Typically, we try to leverage the time it takes for final approval of the car and liveries to do the testing, so 2-4 weeks. Interestingly, most cars we licence do not require the licensor to test the car. Typically, such approvals focus mostly on getting the visuals right. That said, there are cases where this is definitely different. Radical for example provides a lot of feedback, often early in the process, and our collaboration with BMW on the M2 also involved several of their test drivers providing valuable input.
In terms of car series, everything seems to be either GTE or GT3. How about some other full series cars, maybe even older touring cars, or something to run with the civic from 2013?
Andy Bonar
Those are definitely the big ones, and to be fair also the ones the community were asking about a lot. We are considering a few possible other “tintop” series at the moment.
Do you see yourself coming down under to implement any of these cars as most sims do not cater for much from the Southern Hemisphere & this could be a good market base: S5000, TCR, Aussie Cars, V8 Supercars, HQ’s, Aussie Ute, Super 2, Super 3, Toyota 86 Race Series, Touring Car Masters?
Binny
We recently discussed the S5000 but decided against it. In other news, there is at least one series in your list we are seriously considering right now.
I find it really quite immersion breaking to see those standard helmets on each car – especially for full series content – that’s one of the reasons I enjoy the Formula E so much. Can you please consider adding more helmets, or even better, real life correct helmets, in future content please (where appropriate).
SiC58
Noted. We don’t always do this as chasing licences for all the helmet designs and (personal) sponsors can be quite time-consuming, but we will consider adding more helmets going forward.
Also, are you going to implement a minimum standard for modding as some cars and tracks are very bad when it comes to racing rain, night ect.. I see people commenting loss of FPS is bad.
Binny
Unlikely, as we don’t have time to review and provide feedback on all modded content. Anything that is in the workshop, we would encourage people to review and leave comments though so others in the community can judge this content based on feedback. We do try to provide more and more information for modders on how to properly develop content.
Is there any hope, that fans of historic racing will get stuff like a Group C DLC, a Historic GT/IMSA DLC or a 90s GT1 DLC? Given that there are already cooperation’s with manufacturers like BMW, Porsche, McLaren, Mercedes, Nissan, Chevrolet, Panoz or even Ferrari there would be a fantastic opportunity to showcase historic endurance racing within rF2 as a counterpart to the modern endurance racing, that is a trademark of rF2. And I guess I am not alone in thinking that the M1 Procar would have been the perfect fit for the legends trophy.
hitm4k3r
Let me tell you a little story. You may or may not know that some of us at Studio 397 in a past life were involved in the GTP mod for NR2003. In the year prior to starting Studio 397 a few of us had the plan to create a paid mod for rFactor 2 featuring these Group C cars, officially licensing and building them. We were actually about halfway through that project when we continued the development of rFactor 2 and had to put this on the back burner. Ever since, we’ve been discussing if such a series would make sense. I personally still think it would! And the M1 Procar, yeah, that could be a good “cup” series by itself.
Could we maybe get just a tiny visual update for the historic F1, F2 and F3 cars (please …) ? Or in other words: have you considered reaching out to the guys who developed the 1967 F2 mod? How about a real licenced Matra, Honda, McLaren, Brabham or Ferrari to update the late 60s car roster?
hitm4k3r
We’re certainly open to starting a dialogue if there is anybody from the community that wants to upgrade these cars.
Have you considered voting for the next DLC cars or DLC themes, as Kunos did it in the past?
hitm4k3r
We did consider this, but we’ve never done it, obviously. My concerns here are that we might not get enough people to vote to get a good representation of our user base and that if we do, we might end up without any clear winner (ask people about their favourite car or track now, I’m sure there won’t be any consensus). So whilst I’m not saying we should ignore what people want, I will argue that probably everybody wants something different, and that is fine.
When will we see a proper hybrid system developed in RF2? Is it already in development?
RNeves
We’ve always said that we will build such systems if we need them for any cars we license. So far we have not done that, so there is no such system in development right now. Given the licences that Motorsport Games has acquired though, it’s certainly possible we’ll do this next year. I am not allowed to speculate on that though.
When will we see tyre punctures in the game?
RNeves
I’m not sure yet. Code wise, due to tyre wear, there is a spot in the code that states when the puncture should occur, but it has not been implemented yet. This is one of many physics features we would still like to add. It’s had a fairly low priority, as typically way before you reach this point you will come in to pit for tyres anyway. That said, punctures could also happen from running over stuff or hitting sharp edges of curbs, so I’m definitely not saying we won’t implement them at all.
Are you planning on developing vintage car classes like Group C, DRM, GT1 or something along these lines?
RNeves
I’ve touched on Group C and DRM earlier in the list of questions. We did not have much discussions about GT1 cars. I guess they are still a bit too modern to be vintage!
Have you ever considered outsourcing car updates to external modding teams, such as ASR, Schumi’s or Tchachalowski?
Delzimar
We have sometimes outsourced car development to external modding teams, Enduracers being an example. We’re in contact with some of the ones you mention, and we actually tried to work with ASR a while ago, but back then we could not reach a business agreement with them.
Sadly, rFactor 2 has quite a disparity of quality between some content – think the awful Porsche GTE for example. This really spoils the sim in my opinion. Can we champion for a thorough refresh upgrade to this car, and paid DLC in particular, as a matter of urgency please?
SiC58
You’ve certainly brought it to my attention again. Noted.
This is kinda on the cars’ topic, so I’ll go with it… setups. Default setups in rF2 for the most part are not great. Sims like ACC have a really good feature where they come with a default Aggressive and stable setup, and rain. This would be a major improvement to rF2 if you could implement something like this – please, can I implore you to think about this and add it in soon?
RangoliniGustavo
Do you think this is true for our more recent cars as well? For the record, I like the idea of providing more than one setup.
Where is the GT3 BOP from GT Pro? We need a new BOP!
Rici Migali
Good question. My initial answer is that I do not know and obviously I’m not going to leave it at that and discuss this internally. I agree that we should release such improvements going forward.
I find it upsetting that historic content in rFactor 2 is sadly neglected. Please, please, please add more historic cars and tracks to the game!
Lennon Acton
Quite a few people have made the case for more historic content. We are reviewing some ideas in this area.
Would love native MOTEC / telemetry support in rF2.
Lennon Acton.
I personally agree, but other priorities so far have prevented us from completing this development. It’s not cancelled, but it was put on ice. For now at least.
Appreciate this is a super minor thing, but… can we please have a graphics update to add the old school ‘Sticker Tyres’ for new slicks (like in 90’s F1 where they came out of the pits with stickers on the tyres that eventually wore off)
Paul Jeffrey
It’s a great idea and I believe we have most code in place to do this. You might have seen that we can render tyre wear on those cars. We might or might not have to tweak that a bit for these stickers.
Sorta cars, sorta UI. The way rF2 represents car choices in the UI list is mega confusing to me – any plans to look at and improve this going forward?
SKaine
Assuming you mean the way we order the cars in a hierarchy is what is confusing you, do you have any suggestions on how we should improve this? From a personal point of view, I’ve seen it is very hard to come up with a single, consistent hierarchy that works for all types of cars. For example, sometimes you want to group them by class, sometimes by make, sometimes by series, but never have I found a single way that works best for all the different sorts of cars we have, so I’m very much open to suggestions here.
Still on the sorta cars, sorta not topic – ‘Self in Rearview’ rarely works, and I think it is super immersive to see bodywork in the mirrors (like in the F1202X series) – will this be improved in future, or even better, added into the default instal of rFactor 2?
SKaine
If you’re talking about cars we’ve produced, I’m happy to get bug reports for such cars as I believe it makes sense for us to support this.
I still love the golden oldie cars like the Skip Barber and especially the historic EVE formula cars. Are these going to be updated to PBR at some point? I really think these cars are far, far too good to let slide off into retirement.
Luke Stanton.
A few people in this Q&A have made a case for this, so we’ll explore our options.
Is S397 interested in boosting up manual transmission simulation?
mantasisg
This is a tricky one. The simple answer would be yes, but the more complicated one is that we would really like to improve both the software simulation and the hardware here. We feel the current way that particularly H-shifters interface with ours and other simulations is inadequate to provide a really good implementation. We would love to have ways to ensure that the layout of the H-shifter is correct, and also the feeling when shifting with and without clutch, the grinding of gears when you mis-shift and all things like that. The simple “on/off switches” that are now used per gear simply don’t allow any of this. That said, there are still a few things we could do, even for the current generation of hardware.
Is S397 interested in revising solid axle simulation?
mantasisg
See below.
In addition to this question, can S397 confirm that something is not right with how solid axle ultra chassis simulation works right now ? I have worked on many cars with it for rF2, and I think something is not right about things related to body pitch and probably roll too.
mantasisg
This is a question I will need to ask our physics team. It might be best to send us an e-mail directly with the problem you are seeing and what you would expect. Maybe with an example car that we can look at ourselves. If there is something wrong there, we would be happy to address it.
Is studio happy about recently made improvements in how studio builds tires, such as for BMW, FPro and new Tatuus car ? And does it seem that simracers welcomed the differences ? (I did btw!)
mantasisg
We are certainly happy with this direction as well, and mostly we had good feedback about them from the community. Obviously, we’ll keep looking for further improvements to the model and data.
What is the root problem of interior windshields responding to light in a reversed way, which makes for big troubles during night ? The dirt textures, and baked in interior reflection texture on inner windshield is a massive immersion boost, is this high on priority list of future graphical improvements?
mantasisg
I would say this is fairly high on the list, and our main problem is how headlights respond to these dirty windshields at night. In the past those could blind the drivers completely, and we did not want to negatively impact players that way, which is why we removed them until we’ve improved that situation.
When will the glass shader on cars be updated to reflect the sun?
Balazs Magyar
When we have fixed the issues at night is the simple answer. The reason why we’ve made the glass completely transparent is that otherwise at night, with lots of headlights from behind, it was becoming hard if not impossible to see. So once we address that, we can bring back dirt and other imperfections.
Also, better tire shaders would also be nice. Are they car specific?
Balazs Magyar
Yes and no. We have generic shaders, so people can in theory pick any shader and apply it to a tyre. In more recent cars, I believe we use the same shader (and it could even be named explicitly for this, I don’t remember). We’ve made a few improvements more recently already. I think internally, the USF-2000 was the first car to receive those (an update that was released fairly recently).
Do you see any benefit in going after Vintage licences? The heritage back catalogue of Williams F1 for example. Having rFactor 2 be a way to archive these pieces of machinery that may not be able to run in real life for too much longer.
Woodee
We never really approached it from that angle to be honest. It’s certainly an interesting idea to preserve such cars digitally in a simulation. It would be worth exploring to see if we could somehow work with manufacturers to make this happen.
Why the rain visual was not implemented on cockpit view for open wheel cars? Could we expect something to be done about that? I have the same question for the mirrors too (Exteriors / back cameras).
Spyro
I’m not totally sure I get the question, so my apologies if I answer it wrongly, but I am wondering what parts of open cockpits you are talking about? Mirrors typically don’t get wet while driving. Windshields to, and we should have that modeled. In fact, we will even add some new technology soon as you might have heard. Or are you maybe talking about the raindrops on a “visor” of a helmet?
Also, I know that some drivers disable on purpose rain drops to avoid having rain on their windshield. It gives an unfair advantage and no wipers movement on exteriors cameras (weird on live broadcast). Could we have a workaround, like static rain texture appearing on the windshield for this case?
Spyro
Yes, that is a good suggestion. I think that is what we should do for this case.
Also, as mentioned on other posts, I would love to see punctures implemented…
Spyro
Agreed, it’s missing completely right now. From wear, but also from driving over sharp objects and/or curbs.
Are there any plans to allow the option for cars to have an adjustable Weight-Jacker while on track? Something similar to how the anti roll bars and brake balance work with assignable buttons. This would add to the immersion of IndyCars new and old.
DiggerHawk
Yes. Probably in early 2022!
Hi and thanks for this kind of interaction with us. What’s your statement about onboard adjustable differential lock? Would it be so hard to implement that would be months-years away, in case it’s planned to be added?
Javibeza
It is currently not planned, but conceptually I don’t think it would be hard since we already have diffs that are adjustable in the garage and typically changing them while driving is mostly a matter of having controls mapped to allow that.
Is it planned to implement KERS and hybrid technologies?
lagg
We’ve always said we’ll do that when we build cars that need it. I can’t disclose anything about that yet. We would like to implement a generic system for hybrid technologies. It’s a big job (as there are quite a few different types of hybrid systems).
Forgive me for not being too good on the technical, so this might already be in the sim, but can rFactor 2 simulate turbo lag like we would see in 80’s F1 cars? If no, is this something that might be on the agenda for the future?
Frankie
We can already simulate a turbo, and our simulation includes turbo lag, so we could certainly simulate an 80’s F1 car or anything else with a turbo.
Also speaking of technical stuff, it’s long been known rF2 has difficulties with tire pressures and running minimum possible – again, is this a known issue within the Studio, and are plans afoot to rectify it as this has a huge impact on the realism aspect of the game.
Frankie
This is something we are trying to fix as part of our partnership with Goodyear. We are certainly aware about it and some other “techniques” for going fast that should not allow you to go that fast.
Final one from me – driver animations. It has bugged me since forever – will rFactor 2 ever have driver animations, so we can see gear shifting, for example?
Frankie
Let’s focus on gear shifting, as that is something that is missing for a reason. The reason being that we can’t really do such animations in real time. The first time we hear about a shift is when you press the (H-)shifter button. Obviously before that time, you already moved your real hand and fingers, but we don’t know that. So if we had to start an animation, we would be way too late, and we decided that playing such an animation “too late” does not make much sense.
Do you intend, in a general way, to improve the overall sounds and sound effects in RF2? In particular: When are you going to implement the “scrub” function in the “SKID SOUNDS” part as well as the temperature effect on the brake hiss?
philman
We are looking into this, and I will pass on the specific improvements you mention to the sound team.
Still on the subject of audio, do you intend to make the echo and reverberation of sounds appear according to the configuration and topology of the circuits?
philman
This is an interesting, and complex topic. Probably the best way to model sound is to have it rendered in a 3D world, where all the reflections you would get because of the surroundings would be accurately calculated. We have not seen a system yet that can do this without significant computational effort. That leaves us with some simpler tricks, such as the one we already use when you drive through a tunnel or close to a solid barrier. We are certainly following technology here as the full effect of, for example, standing at an F1 race at Spa and hearing those cars accelerate and shift gears in the distance is quite a unique experience. One we’re not close to replicating! That said, we are still in the R&D phase for any possible improvements, so I don’t have any details yet.
The last builds have made huge progress in RF2 in terms of headlight and headlamp reflection on wet roads, even if everything is not perfect yet. Do you think it’s possible to improve this subject and to extend it to dry tracks?
philman
The simple answer is yes. Especially at night we can still make big improvements, but some things we do will probably also positively influence how things look during the daytime.
Also, the power of the headlights of the cars at night seems to be really too low compared to the reality: is it also possible to improve things?
philman
We had to balance them a bit to get the best out of the technology we have for them right now. So partially see my answer above. Better technology is needed to give us more freedom here.
Is it possible to publish the TGM files of the tires of the GT3, GTE and LMP2 cars?
philman
We’re considering releasing a new set of “generic” tyres as a database for people to get started. We want to be a bit further ahead though in our improvements based on our collaboration with Goodyear.
What’s about PTP?
memoNo1
Expect an update about that in 2022!
Will the Porsche GTE receive an update as the interior is nowhere near the level of the Ferrari GTE.
r00b Driver
We are aware of this. We’re not yet sure if and when we will do this though. As you know, there is also a newer version of this car available in real life.
Do you intend to improve the sounds of the cars? You only have to play ACC or R3E to know how better sounds increase immersion.
r00b Driver
We are certainly aware that our sound engine and the way we use it has plenty of room for improvement. We’re exploring our options here currently.
Do you plan to implement a downshift protection that doesn’t allow to downshift if the revolutions are high?
AlexHeuskat
Yes, for cars that have such a mechanism, we intend to add it.
Is a night PBR update planified, about the car reflection by night, it’s not really beauty, and with the lights, it’s not at the ACC level at all, even AMS2 is far more beauty, the night immersion needs a really long work.
AlexHeuskat
For sure this is a weak spot currently and something on our list. The type of rendering engine we are using in rF2 is a forward rendering engine. ACC uses a deferred rendering engine. Both have strong and weak points, and the trick is to try and work around those as best as possible.
Smoke update ? I think yes, with dust particles…
AlexHeuskat
We’re researching some ideas in this area, but it’s too early to show or commit to anything here. And yes, we’re not forgetting sparks.
Are 3d grass + flowers planified? I like the AMS2 grass (and trees).
AlexHeuskat
Those really need better support in the graphics engine to be done well, so it’s a coding effort first, and then we need to find a good way to do this that does not put a big burden on artists upgrading existing content.
About the tracks, you release more cars than tracks, maybe can you put more resources on the tracks team maker?
AlexHeuskat
Our track team is more than twice the size of our car team already! Fact is, a track takes way more time than a car. I think we have a reasonable balance right now, but I’ll make a note of your feedback.
About the AI update? We arrive soon at 1 year after the UI update release….do you have plans for the AI update? Or maybe you can start with an AI selection feature, it’s still a nightmare to choose the AI liveries.
AlexHeuskat
We’ve spent some time on the AI recently for the NASCAR game, and we intend to bring that back to rF2. The “opponent selection” is something that keeps coming up. I agree, the current UI (which is a straight port from the old UI) does this all wrong, and it’s very awkward. That will need a full redesign. Your only workaround now is to create your own series (rfmod) and pick the cars there.
Really loving rF2 especially recently. One question I have had is that would you guys be able to create an option to be able to turn the virtual car dash display on or off, so for anyone with a real life display mounted to their rig, can drive using their dash only and without the one on the screen. Maybe saves a tiny bit of fps too with the virtual car display screen hidden???? Anyway, thanks for your time.
Connor Clifford
I did not test this, but I would argue the performance gains would be quite minimal. You can try this for yourself by using a “hood view” for example. I have a virtual dash myself, and it’s mostly in front of the car dash already.
If I count correctly, the cars made by S397 in the last 5 years are approximately 55 cars. When the improvement of the current tire model thanks to the Goodyear data is ripe enough, one of my greatest wishes for rFactor 2 is that all, yes all of these 55 S397 cars are updated to the tire model which is improve (Formula Pro, M4 class 1…). Is this something that can happen (that would be fabulous)?
pilAUTO
This is certainly something we are discussing. Without going into details, when we model a tyre we always use a combination of data we have and data we need to take an “educated guess” on. Recent experiences have shown that some of those guesses (not surprisingly) were not completely accurate, so it makes sense to go back and correct such inaccuracies.
I want S397 to make some very realistic FWD and 4WD/AWD cars (upgrade the transmission for 4WDs), not a lot.
pilAUTO
There are some FWD ones coming and this year we did an AWD one (eX ZERO). I’m sure we will do a few more going forward!
I dream of a very realistic “street car” (supercar) made by S397, just one, not 2 or 3 !! Can this happen?
pilAUTO
So far we’ve always said that our focus will be on race cars, not street cars. That does not mean we will never do a street car. I’ve seen quite a few community based street and track day cars being done.
In addition, can you list the improvements and new functionality in the physics of the cars say in the 18 months, that would be great and of course that would not be a commitment but more evoke your projects in the matter.
pilAUTO
There are a couple of new cars in development that require some smaller new features. I’ve hinted at a few of those in my answers. We really have not finalized our plans for next year, so I do not want to look ahead for 18 months right now. Obviously there are a few topics that keep coming up: hybrid support, tyre model improvements, weather effects and our drive train. I’m probably forgetting a few now.
What about a rf2 paint booth for cars like iracing has?
Binny
We are looking at a better way of supporting custom paint jobs. One that also works better with our competition system. That’s not the question you have though. We’re looking at options to make painting your own livery easier. I think a strong point of the new NASCAR game is actually its paint booth. Maybe over time we can adopt something similar alongside what we have now.
Cold tires… Now, I think almost rF2’s tires has great grip on cold temp. Have you planned cold tires? I want to spin on 1st corner after pit out.
yashiman
When our tyres are cold they are less grippy, so you should already experience this effect. Unless you’re driving a car that is using tyre warmers so they are at temperature from the moment you leave the garage.
Modding. I think it seems that AC is easier to make car mods, and only AC mods are being made in Japan. The behaviour of rF2 is great, so I don’t think there is any need to twist this, but the spreadsheet may be too high level for all but the most experienced. Are there any plans to provide easier-to-build tools or a base vehicle for beginners?
yashiman
We intend to keep improving our documentation, and we might release a few more examples. We have no plans currently for a “simpler spreadsheet” although I know some in our community (such as Niels Heusinkveld) have experimented with this, and I’ve seen some great results from those.
Bug report form. This is off the theme of “Car”, If my remember is true, you mentioned in your CS blog or roadmap that you were going to create a “bug report form”. Although the parent company has already changed and the structure is different, bug reports are still scattered around the forums and discord. Do you have plans to create a form yet?
yashiman
Still being worked on, but I don’t know the exact status.
The rFactor 2 blog is fantastic! Thank you.
yashiman
Thank you for your kind words, and for supporting rFactor 2. As you can read from the many questions and answers, I really try to explain everything we are doing and not doing. These sessions do provide valuable input when it comes to prioritizing what we do next!
I know the question has already been asked about how long it takes to build a new car, however, I’d like to know how long it usually takes to update an existing car to the latest PBR shaders please?
Louie
That first question has been answered above. Updating a car to PBR shaders depends a bit on the actual car, but it’s typically a job that will take a few days, depending on how many shaders were used before and how they were mapped to different elements of the car.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I do know a lot of us would strongly preference more pack releases than single cars in future – I find loose cars (fine if a cup series) aren’t that engaging as a customer – we want others to race against!
Louie
I can only agree with you, and we try to release series that involve multiple cars in a class as a pack. We make exceptions if a car runs in a “cup like series” because in those cases a pack makes no sense (unless you start to bundle cars and tracks maybe).
Often the default S397 liveries with new releases are… a bit unimpressive. Any chance for future if you could work on more detailed and realistic designs please? Maybe even consider letting the community submit ideas?
Louie
We have done livery competitions and in some cases we have included liveries later as upgrades (remember the Le Mans Virtual 24h last year for example). Sometimes it’s a chicken and egg problem though. If we do not release the car yet, the community can’t make liveries yet. Once it’s out, it’s too late to make the initial release, and we can only do so in a later update.
In real life, drivers very often have a track map on the wheel or dash – something that some S397 cars have – however, what I would like to know is if you could make that dynamic, so it shows the correct map for the track you are driving on please?
Louie
Some cars have it and the correct map is loaded from the track you are on, if available. So the feature does work if the car actually puts it somewhere on the dash or wheel and the track actually provides an image.
Please, please, please, please, please can you add Caterham to the car list in rF2? Thank you!
ShadowFlopper
I know at least one colleague at Studio 397 who will instantly back you up on this car!
Car question #1: How much of work is it to refresh or re-export the textures on older content, like GT2 and GT1, and Corvette street cars? There are some purple/greenish compression artefacts all over the interior and headlight halos, and tail light halo textures are flickering on some cars.
vmgn021
It depends on the car actually. For some we never got the full source files (in photoshop) so in those cases we would have to redo them from scratch. In other cases we could. We’re actually considering such a pass next year, as compression techniques have been improved, and we could see some nice gains by doing this.
Car question #2: Have you considered licensing historic cars? Although there is MAK Corp 1991 endurance car mod already, I would buy official Mazda 787B DLC in a heart beat.
vmgn021
We have, and we did license a few over the years, such as the different McLaren historic formula cars. And you’ve just mentioned a personal favourite of mine! 🙂
Have you planned to make easier the creation of the icons of the cars/skins? At this moment is not possible to create an icon with transparent background as before. This makes the task much more difficult if you want to get a good result.
lagg
Let me show you a little trick in “dev mode”. First make sure in your player file you have enabled “Screenshot Depth Alpha”: true and selected PNG as the format “Screenshot Format”: 3 and load up your favourite car in the showroom. Now press the ‘1’ key on your normal (not numeric) keyboard. The background will go black. Make a screenshot! You’ll find that it has a nice alpha layer with soft, blended shadows. An and you can press ‘2’ to enable the rendering of the environment in the showroom again.
Would it be possible to add a bunch of information about the cars into the UI? Stuff like what type of gearbox they use (sequential / h-pattern etc) and other useful things?
ShelbySr
Certainly that would be possible. We already added a bit, but there’s a lot more we could add.
I’m not proficient in modding my instal, so any options and filters you can add to improve the car selection process would be very much appreciated please.
devicemanagerKiNg
A personal favourite of mine in the new UI is the search box. Typing a class there or a brand typically gets me to the car I like to drive quite quickly.
Stay tuned for Part 2 on Wednesday 1st December!
