Hello sim racers!

So, this is it… the final announcement of the 2023 Q1 update and content drop for rFactor 2 is here.

We’ve had cars, tracks, physics, features and more this quarter, so now it’s time to shine a light on the visual aspect of the simulation, from how the replay and broadcast functionality works, to giving more power to the players when it comes to creating those awesome screenshots of the action on track. We’ve got lots of new things to consider here, so before we get started, let’s take a look at a few of the key features from this update:

Photo Mode

Photo Mode brings together previous improvements to FreeLook modes into a complete package with a full UI, here are a few key areas of this new feature to consider.

Firstly, the new photo Mode is best used with a gamepad controller to help you move smoothly and accurately around the environment. The main aim of this new feature is to create a cohesive environment for virtual racing photographers, minimising overlapping key bindings, and bringing all the useful functions under one comprehensive tool.

Photo mode can be accessed in both saved replay, or during a live track session. It can be opened by clicking the CAMERA icon on either the top menu bar (when session full screen) or from the camera control bar from the garage UI.

Once you’ve assigned the keys (under the controls column in the Photo Mode pop up screen), you can then click on the car you wish to follow, and the camera will follow that specific car. Note, these photo mode controls are currently available on both trackside and onboard cameras, with swingman camera to be added post release.

The camera control settings offer multiple options for you to adjust your image to suite your personal preference. It is worth playing with each of these to understand what they do and how they impact the image you are trying to create.

It is worth taking into consideration the settings available under Focus Mode. There are two options here, Exact and Vehicle.

Cinematics

These new tools should provide an important improvement to the quality of broadcast productions created by our sim racing community, as well as opening up a number of visually pleasing features for content creators and virtual photographers in rFactor 2. Of course, these changes represent quite a shift from how things behaved in rFactor 2 up to this point, so it is certainly worth taking a little time to play with the new controls and options as you familiarise yourself with how things work, and how to achieve the best results from this suite of enhancements.

Soft Tracking When Changing Viewed Car

This helps maintain a smooth transition between car viewing cameras. Here, you can play with a number of variables to adjust settings how you personally prefer.

This is enabled by default and can be configured in the UI as follows:

• Broadcast Tracking Change Blend : Default: True. This allows you to enable or disable the feature.
• GAMEOPT_Broadcast_TrackingChange_MaxTimeDiff : Default 10.0. This allows a maximum time between the current car and the one being switched to allow a soft tracking change. Set to 0 to disable this check.

Hold Current Camera

This holds the current camera when pressing the corresponding mapped key. This is useful for extended shots of action on track, such as when vehicles pass by the camera.

• Activate by holding the “Cam hold TV camera” key assignment.
• When pressed while using Tracking Cameras, the current camera will remain in use regardless of how far away the vehicles goes.

Pause Camera Tracking

This will pause the tracking point, coming to a soft stop at the point of focus. When you let go, the camera will track back to the car you were watching at the time of pausing. By pressing SHIFT key, you can also let the camera track onto the car closest to the target point when you paused the tracking. This could be useful if you want the full field to pass the camera, and then catch up to the final car in the shot.

• Activate by holding the “Cam pause TV tracking” key assignment.
• Upon button release, the camera will track back over 2s to the currently selected vehicle if it is still possible to see it with the current camera.
• Whilst this mode is active, you can press the SHIFT key to reset the targeted car to the car closest to the point the camera is looking at. If your previously viewed car is in the pits, it will switch to another car in the pits. Additionally, if your current car is on the main track, the camera will switch to another car on the main track.

Group Tracking

This will allow the camera to focus on a group of cars in one shot, useful for opening lap action for example, allowing you to see a wider battle.

• Activated in race sessions only by default.
• Tracking Cameras will automatically adjust to the group centre tracking point of multiple vehicles and zoom the camera out as required.

This can be configured in the UI or Player.JSON as follows:

• Broadcast Group Tracking Mode : Off, Race Only, Always. Choose to enable the feature all the time, only in race, or not at all.
• Broadcast Group Tracking Range : Default 0.8. This is the range in time that we consider cars from the currently viewed car.
• Broadcast Group Tracking Range Lap 1 : Default 1.2. This is the range in time that we consider cars from the currently viewed car on the first lap of a race only.
• Broadcast Group Tracking Zoom Strength : Default 1.0. This allows the adjustment of how strong we zoom out to fit more cars on screen.
• Broadcast Group Tracking Zoom Maximum : Default 2.5. This is a hard limit on the maximum amount the camera can zoom out.

Persistent Custom Zoom

This feature allows any custom zooming in or out on the TV cameras to persist into the next camera. This can be useful for manual control on TV cameras, and acts as a scaler on top of what the TV camera already does. Additionally, as the camera zooms in, any camera offsets are faded out to reduce the chance of the car being out of shot. Note however that it does not affect any offsets for group tracking.

This can be configured in the UI or Player.JSON as follows:

• Broadcast Persistent Zoom : Default: False. Enable or disable the feature, it is disabled by default.

Custom Cameras

For advanced users. The game can load custom cameras from Userdata\Cameras. For this to happen, this feature must be enabled. It is not enabled by default. In order to know what name a track or car should have to load a custom camera, please check the Trace log files, as these are logged out here when you load a car or track.

• Broadcast Custom Cameras : Default: False. Enable or disable the feature, it is disabled by default.

The possibilities with these new features are near endless, it’s just down to how creative you want to be to bring your pictures and broadcasts to life in rFactor 2! Remember, take some time to work with the new features and understand how they best work for you, and the results they produce should hopefully make for a much more interesting visual experience.

To help further shortcut the learning experience, below you can review some of the key controls from this new feature:

Key Controls

The following controls are key for controlling cameras.

• Tracking Cameras – Tracking (TV) Cameras have 4 groups. By default, if you switch to Tracking Cameras they will go into “Cycle” mode and go through 1 – 4 and looping around. If you press this key again, you will get each group one by one.
• Onboard Cameras – Pressing this will activate the onboard TV cameras of the selected vehicle. Each press will cycle through different ones.
• View Next Vehicle – This will adjust the vehicle viewed to the next one, a position higher up.
• View Previous Vehicle – This will adjust the vehicle viewed to the previous one a position down.
• Cam Hold TV Camera – Whilst pressed, this will keep the current TV Tracking camera activated. It will continue to track the current vehicle into the distance.
• Cam Pause TV Tracking – Whilst pressed, this will pause the current tracking point on screen. Once released, if the currently viewed car is still visible using this camera, the camera will track back to it over 2 seconds.
• Cam Zoom In / Out / Reset – Holding these keys will adjust the zoom of tracking cameras. Reset will bring it back to the default value.

We can’t wait to see what our community is able to produce with these changes – we will certainly be keeping a keen eye out on social media to see what the community have come up with in their broadcasts and picture taking experiences – make sure to drop us a tag, so we don’t miss any of your awesome creations!

Q1 2023 Announcements

• GT3 Update
• Package Management
• Long Beach Grand Prix Street Circuit
• Racing Against Unowned Content
• Honda Civic Type R BTCC
• BTCC Hybrid Boost

That’s it, previews are all over and done, and now it’s time to sit back, get comfortable and wait out those final few hours until we press the big green launch button on Steam (FYI, it isn’t a button, nor is it green) – hope you’ve enjoyed the build-up period, and more importantly, enjoy yourselves when the update goes live on Tuesday afternoon – see you on track.

Photo Mode and Cinematics – Coming February 21st to rFactor 2

Hello again, sim racers!

Well, we’ve got off to a pretty good start with the 2023 Q1 hype train now, haven’t we? What with the introduction of the new GT3 update, Package Management improvements, adding the ability to race against content that you don’t own, Long Beach and the BTCC specification Honda Civic Type R… so how about we turn our attention to the new physics aspects of the British Touring Car Championship – namely, the introduction of Hybrid Boost to these potent little tin top cars.

Introduced to the BTCC for the start of the 2022 season, Hybrid is an entirely new technology to the top class of touring cars in the UK, and has been designed by series organisers, TOCA, as a tool to aid both the on track spectacle, and as a replacement for the unpopular success ballast system employed in the championship up to this point.

After what has been a successful introductory year for Hybrid in 2022, we’ve taken the opportunity to develop the same system for rFactor 2, as a first step into hybridization of power units for the software.

On launch, you will need to map your ‘Push to Pass’ button found in the Settings screen in the UI, under the Powertrain heading. On the dashboard of the BTCC cars, you will see the various information fields related to the hybrid status. For reference, this boost feature comes with a number of variables you will need to consider when racing on track:

• Time limit for activations is 15s per lap
• Boost only enables from 3rd gear onwards
• Boost remains active so long as the player keeps the boost button depressed – up to a maximum of 15s
• A minimum delay of 2s exists between activations (including once passing the start/finish line)
• Boost will disengage once player passes the start/finish line

As mentioned earlier in this post, we have developed a new LCD dashboard display for this new feature, that presents all the relevant information to the player, such as number of seconds deployment on the current lap, number of deployments on that lap, battery and motor temperature, hybrid deployment bars and activation status – all for you to study whilst three wide with hungry touring car drivers trying to relieve you of track position!

Q1 2023 Announcements so far:

• GT3 Update
• Package Management
• Long Beach Grand Prix Street Circuit
• Racing Against Unowned Content
• Honda Civic Type R BTCC

The addition of hybrid technology for our BTCC cars is an exciting one for us here at Studio 397, we can’t wait for you all to get your hands on this new feature in a few days time – this really does make the art of driving a BTCC car even more enjoyable than it already is !

BTCC Hybrid Boost – Coming February 21st to rFactor 2!

Next up in our Q1 2023 content drop is the another piece of the British Touring Car Championship puzzle, as we are delighted to announce a car that should need absolutely no introduction – the incredible Honda Civic Type R is here! 

The latest in what has been an enviable collection of exceptionally potent Honda cars in the BTCC, the current gen Type R Civic has already proven to be one of the very best of the current crop of British Touring Car Championship machines. 

Developed and built by the hugely successful Team Dynamics outfit of Steve and Matt Neal, and run under the official Honda banner, the Civic is an iconic of a car for the BTCC as it is possible to get – and now it is heading to rFactor 2 players in the next few days! 

One of the absolute standout models within the British Touring Car Championship in recent years, the Honda Civic is a sensational performing vehicle that has taken drivers championships in the hands of both Matt Neal and Gordon Sheddon in recent years, and now, in FK8 Type R form, continues that long legacy of success for Honda machinery in the BTCC.

Brought into the championship by crack touring car outfit Team Dynamics, with support from the UK Honda dealer network ahead of the 2021 season, the FK8 Type R has taken a little while to find its feet at the front of the grid, having undergone significant change behind the scenes with first the retirement of team talisman Matt Neal, then the withdrawal of works Honda support, and finally the new driving line-up of returning champion Sheddon, and new teammate Dan Rowbottom. 

With that settling in period now well and truly behind them, and joined by the incredibly potent driving strength of the BTC racing outfit firmly challenging the established might of Team Dynamics, the Honda is once again proving itself to be an absolute standout car in the highly competitive world of British Touring Car Championship racing. 

Despite being one of the few new models on the grid in 2021, the Honda managed to rack up no less than nine victories across drivers Josh Cook, Sheddon, Dan Cammish and Senna Proctor in 2021, with a further seven race wins coming the way of the car the following year, solidifying the belief that to be in with a chance of taking a title in the British Touring Car Championship, you don’t have to look much further than this outstanding machine.

The Honda Civic Type R will be introduced to rFactor 2 complete with all the teams, drivers and liveries of both the 2021 and 2022 British Touring Car Championship season, and just like its real life counterpart, should prove to be an exceptionally popular addition to the tin top field. 

For the 2021 British Touring Car Championship season, the Honda Civic Type R was campaigned by both the works Team Dynamics with Cataclean of Daniel Rowbottom (#32) and Gordon Shedden (#52), plus BTC Racing in the hands of Senna Proctor (#18), Dan Cammish (#21) and Josh Cook (#66), with female racer Jade Edwards (#99) running the season under the banner of PHSC with BTC Racing.

2021 would be a very successful year for the car, as Cook and Shedden eventually ended the season in third and sixth position in the drivers’ championship respectively, taking the championship fight in the hands of Cook right down to the wire in what was an exceptionally entertaining season of racing – in the way that only BTCC can regularly produce. 

For 2022, British Touring Car Championship legend Jason Plato (#11) would join the Rich Energy BTC Racing team alongside Cook and Edwards. The former double champion, celebrating his final season of BTCC racing, would sadly fail to add to his tally of 97 career victories in the series, however teammate Cook proved to once again be a commanding figure in the field, adding another five victories to his account en route to sixth in the final classification, just ahead of stalemate Shedden in the Halfords Racing with Cataclean car, himself with a further 2 outright wins from the season. 

Q1 2023 Announcements so far:

• GT3 Update
• Package Management
• Long Beach Grand Prix Street Circuit
• Racing Against Unowned Content

Another exciting addition in the books, with more update announcements set to come! Stay tuned to the rFactor 2 social media channels and website to find out what comes next – exciting times ahead! 

The BTCC Honda Civic – Coming February 21st to rFactor 2!

Hello sim racers,

Welcome back to the freshly restarted hype train for our 2023 Q1 update and content drop! In this new post, ahead of the revised date of February 21st for our release, we decided it’s probably time to give an official announcement to what is arguably one of the biggest changes to rFactor 2 in our recent history – the ability to race against vehicles you do not own!

Now, before we get started, let’s get one thing perfectly clear – this functionality will work in both online and offline environments. This means you only need to own a single car (the one you drive) and the track, then race against any other cars available within rFactor 2, either in multiplayer on a server against other people, or in a race / qualifying / practice session you have set up offline on your own machine…

This is a massive change to the way the core fundamental code of rFactor 2 has previously worked, and should significantly enhance the user experience for our players. With these changes, you now have the opportunity to race in a field of unique cars without the need to own those cars, just the one you are set to drive yourself. Of course, hopefully this means you find yourself curious to try out the other cars over time, as each vehicle in rFactor 2 offers up a very different and rewarding driving experience, and what better way to settle in slowly than to have all the different cars out on track with you and fighting for position!

In order to allow this new feature to work, players will need to download the content to their PC in advance of driving, although please remember, you will not be able to drive the cars unless you own them through the rFactor 2 store (accessible either through the rF2 UI, or in Steam). The easiest way to see what you own is to review the cars and tracks list in game, those items that you don’t own will be greyed out, with a button available to click that takes you directly to the store page for that item. Downloadable items can be seen and actioned via the Content Management portion of the UI.

In terms of how you interact with this feature, the options are entirely dependent on what you want to do. Here are a few key areas you may wish to explore in order to take advantage of this change:

• Spectating. As long as you have the content installed, you can spectate a race even if you don’t own any of the content in use.
• Driving. You may only drive cars you own, and cannot driver swap into an unowned car. Cars you race against (AI or multiplayer) must be installed, but you don’t need to own them. You must own the circuit on which you race.
• The simulation will show you which cars you do not own upon joining a server, these will be greyed out.
• Server Managers. Generate server keys as normal to allow you to load unowned content on the server.

Here at Studio 397 we are very excited about this new feature, and we hope that by introducing this change we have removed another barrier to entry for rFactor 2 users, as we look to grow our player base and develop a more friendly and accessible user experience for us all to enjoy.

Hopefully, this change helps our online footprint continue to grow, and presents greater opportunities for all of us to enjoy larger fields, and closer racing online.

Exciting times ahead!

Q1 2023 Announcements So Far

• GT3 Update and BOP
• New Package Management System
• Long Beach Grand Prix Street Circuit

The Q1 2023 rFactor 2 Update – Arriving February 21st!

Hello sim racers!

Welcome to the very first new content preview of 2023! Can you believe we are here already, getting ready to kick off the year in style with a massive track announcement… that’s right, how better to start a new season of content releases than with a track probably no one thought we’d ever do… the beautiful, the technical, the challenging and the down right outstanding Long Beach Grand Prix Street Circuit is coming to rFactor 2 this February!

Loved by pretty much everyone, from fans, teams and drivers alike, Long Beach is one of those tracks that just feels right in pretty much any kind of car – from tin top to open wheel to long distance endurance – if it has wheels, then it’s a sure thing to be more fun than you can shake a stick at around this sensational little street circuit.

Built by the Studio 397 track team using the latest laserscan data, our virtual recreation of the Long Beach Grand Prix is just packed full of details and quality, pushing this one right up towards the top of the pile in terms of the circuits we have produced recently for rFactor 2. From the famous dive around the majestic water fountain, to the ever present threat of those concrete barriers that line the circuit, this is a track that will thrill you from beginning to end.

The Track

Bridgestone

The first corner here at Long Beach isn’t really a corner at all, more a high speed kink that most cars are able to take at full throttle without too much difficulty. Although exceptionally fast, what makes this particular corner a little more daunting than appears on paper is the rough road surface at this circuit – rest too easy through this section, or find yourself too far wide of the ideal line, then potentially you could be heading straight for those unforgiving concrete walls and into an early retirement.

Toyota

Exceptionally fast with some fierce braking zones and a bumpy surface, the second turn here at Long Beach is a perfect example of what drivers can come to expect as they navigate around this challenging course. Approached at top speed and braking under heavy load on an uneven surface, here you must be careful not to stray over the pit exit lines and attract a penalty, all while trying to minimise potential front locking as you hustle the front of the car reluctantly into the apex and out through the corner on the approach into the fountain section.

T3 / T4

A famed section of corners as we navigate around the centrepiece of this iconic street circuit – the famous Long Beach fountain. Not the typical roadside furniture one expects of a modern racetrack, the fountain is an undeniable visual highlight of this venue, and for the driver, presents yet another opportunity to earn an advantage, or lose precious tenths (or maybe some bodywork), on this unforgiving piece of road. Having accelerated up from Toyota, the circuit here narrows rapidly as you thread the needle between the flowerbeds and raised curbing – inviting aggressive use of curbs and skimming of walls, the best drivers here exercise patience and precision for the greatest rewards.

T5

Turn 5 is another unusual corner for a street circuit, as here the circuit begins to widen noticeably, inviting drivers to approach this right hand corner with a lot more speed than you would initially expect – with that extra speed comes added responsibility, as the potential for disaster remains incredibly high thanks to the even looming threat of the outer retaining walls.

Potentially, drivers can be aggressive on the temporary apex curbing here for additional laptime and to buy more space to run out into on corner exit, however you will need a compliant car and plenty of bravery to extract the absolute ultimate amount of time from this corner on any given lap.

T6

Very similar in nature to the previous corner – wide, surprisingly slow and slightly risky, turn 6 is perhaps a shade more important to lap time than most, thanks to the moderate straight that immediately follows. Off camber for additional jepody, the best drivers here will concentrate on using the full width of the road to extend the corner and get on the power earlier, with that additional speed carrying you all the way down the next section of track before getting hard on the brakes and down the gears into T7. Fancy being extra brave? Use those inside curbs agressively, and the reward can be felt when transferring earlier to the throttle. Get it wrong, say hello to the retaining wall faster than you can say ‘understeer’!

T7 – Tecate Turn

This corner is absolutely critical to get right for a strong lap here at Long Beach. With this circuit offering a healthy mix of slow and fast sections, T7 presents a fantastic opportunity for drivers to grab as much speed onto the long back stretch up into the kink of 8 and tight right of 9. Get the exit right here, and sit back as you bask in the glory of free laptime all the way down the long following straight.

T8 – Pine Avenue

Not much to report corner wise here, as we are pretty much flat through the light kink, giving us a short breather to enjoy so of the epic scenery throughout this stunning circuit.

T9

Get this right at all costs! If you don’t have time to really get under the skin of what makes a good lap at Long Beach, then the least you can do is focus your efforts on this vitally important corner. Here at 9, a good entry and, more importantly, exit, are key to taking home a fast laptime when you cross the start finish straight further down the lap. Why is this one so important? Simply put, any speed you win through this turn will be carried all the way down the long, long backstretch, offering you both laptime in time attack mode, and also a great opportunity to close in and eventually pass a rival during a race session.

T10 – Firestone Turn

Things that go fast eventually have to stop, right? Well, as we approach Firestone Turn this is where you will once again be tested on not only your braking ability, but also your throttle accuracy as getting through and out this corner can be a real test of skill and car balance. As is par for the course on this track, the road surface is exceptionally bumpy here, and drivers are able to carry significant speed through the corner, but be aware, cars are highly prone to understeer on exit here, and at best that will lead to corrective action, at worse, kiss the barriers and head straight to the pit lane to tell your crew chief all about why the wheels don’t point the right direction…

T10 – Indy Left

Beautiful. Frustrating. Easy. Hard. All of the above and more. Indy Left should be a very easy double apex left hand turn, however, this part of the lap requires the driver to ask multiple things of the car underneath them. Firstly, you need to get turned in not once, but twice, all while scrubbing off speed and lock, before positioning the car ready to swing through the very difficult, tight and critical final corner. A turn of multiple lines of attack, it’s just a matter of both picking the right one, and making sure you have more than half an eye on what is still to come.

T11

The last corner is about as fun as eating ice cream on the face of the sun wearing a crisp white shirt. Tight, slow, awkward and frustratingly difficult to judge just right, expect to get this one wrong more often than not… and pay the price all the way down Shoreline Drive to end the current lap, and start the next one.

Shoreline Drive

The final blast of acceleration to the line and beyond, keep it tight here, start too wide and you’ll find that wall gets real big, real quick!

Q1 2023 Announcements so Far

• GT3 Update
• Package Management

The first of our next wave of content and feature announcements is here – and what a great start to the new rFactor 2 year! Long Beach is a work of art from our development team, and we can’t wait to let you get your hands on this track in early February – before we get to that point though, we’ve got a fair few things to get through between now and then, so make sure you stay tuned to the rFactor 2 social media channels, website, forum and Discord to stay on top of the all the latest news and announcements – plenty of goodies still to come!

Long Beach Grand Prix Street Circuit – Coming to rFactor 2 February 21st!

Hello sim racers,

The third major update to our Release Candidate build of rFactor 2 is here, with the introduction of probably one of the most requested features in the history of rFactor 2 – the ability to race against content that you do not own.

Having long been a desire of the Studio 397 team, development of this feature has taken us quite a while, as much of the core codebase of rFactor 2 has been designed in such a way as to limit the possibilities to introduce changes such as these. However, after much investigating, tweaking, changing, testing and general pulling out of hair, we’ve finally managed to put together a very robust and exciting set of enhancements that very much changes the way players participate in race events with rFactor 2 content.

IMPORTANT NOTE
Please note that if you switch to an older build with unowned content installed, you will not be able to use this content. Additionally, any unowned content which is downloaded whilst on an older build will be attempted to install on each game start. This is not something we can resolve on older builds, and it is recommended not to use old builds with unowned content installed.

So, let’s take a look at the new build update:

Build: 10517321
Dedi: 10524732

Release Candidate fixes:

• Fixed lack of wrap around viewing with mouse control in Photo Mode
• Fixed settings resetting when changing camera in Photo Mode
• Fixed graphics disappearing when switching between many cars with FreeMove enabled
• Fixed keys not working in photo mode after assigning controls
• Fixed alternative tracking cameras switching over the start finish line on cycle mode

General

• Reworked steering configuration page to replace wheel-only settings with non-wheel relevant settings when a non-wheel device is in use
• Reintroduced adjustable steering rates
• Added selection for gamepad steering filters
• Made both steering filters adjustable independently
• Added snappiness slider to steering rates configuration – 0% is original behaviour, higher % is more snappy without having to increase steering rates
• Made new steering sensitivity filter more direct

Physics

• Fixed bug with reading brake maps from hdv/engine files. It now reads definitions with less than 11 entries again.
• Fixed visual steering lock mismatch at low speeds when using non-standard steering lock in the vehicle setup

AI

• Fix for AI running into the back of other vehicles

UI

• Made the hitbox for checkboxes in the content screen table slightly bigger

Known Issues

• Motion blur sometimes activates when it should not
• Cancel updates button is unresponsive
• Content does not uninstall correctly when items are upgraded at present. Some mas files may be left behind.
• Photo Mode UI mouse control / visible UI is inverted if you have no cameras move keys assigned

Race Against Content You Don’t Own

This is likely to prove to be an important addition to the rFactor 2 experience, and one that we at Studio 397 are delighted to deploy into this new Release Candidate update, ahead of the full V1 public build on February 21st. Below you will find some key highlights from this feature set, with a fully detailed announcement article set to be published ahead of Q1 2023 update day. One thing of importance to note – this feature applies to both the online, and offline experience.

Key Features

• Content you don’t own can now be installed from the content management page
• On the cars and tracks lists, greyed out cars and tracks that you do not own and added a button to access the store page for that item
• You can spectate on any race even if you don’t own anything, assuming the content is installed
• You can only race in cars that you own on tracks that you own
• When joining a server, cars you do not own will be greyed out
• When passenger swapping you can only ride as a passenger in vehicles you own, you should only be able to select those vehicles you own
• Added information about required content to join the server on the join error page
• Greyed out entries with cars you do not own in the spectate popup
• Disabled “Resume” replay button for entries with car you do not own

This new feature has been deployed into the latest ‘Release Candidate’ build of rFactor 2 today, with a view to Studio 397 migrating the full RC update into the main, public version of rFactor 2 on Tuesday, 21st February.

Race against content you don’t own – available now in the Release Candidate build of rFactor 2!

Hello sim racers.

The new GT3 Update and BOP (phase 1) has been released!

That’s right, our most popular collection of cars in rFactor 2 has been reviewed, reworked and retested in order to bring us a step closer to developing the ultimate GT3 experience within rFactor 2. This new build has been quite a while in the works, and adds a number of very important changes to the 14 cars of the GT3 class within the simulation.

Of course, the main headline from this update is the brand-new Balance of Performance we have applied across the cars. This has been developed with the aid of several experienced drivers and a wealth of data harvested across multiple group and individual sessions, with the aim to bring a closer level of parity across the various cars within our GT3 category. That said, balancing such varied cars is a long and often challenging process, so please do consider this update more of a phased approach, with this initial release to be considered ‘phase 1’ – further tweaks and improvements could well be brought online in the coming weeks as we acquire a wider data set from more players having access to the cars.

Alongside the BOP for this build, we’ve also taken the opportunity to develop a number of physics improvements to these cars, such as adding the new tyre technology we are currently using on our latest content, as well as adding Tender Springs, Shift Protection, our new ABS and Traction Control logic and of course compatibility with the new rFactor 2 sound engine.

In short, this is a pretty substantial update to our GT3 cars, and one that we are very much looking forward to you all getting the opportunity to try out the next time you are on track.

Important Notes

• Radical is still a work in progress and slower than other cars due to work on new tyres. Further work will be done in the next two weeks to improve its performance.
• Mercedes has been heavily reworked, and we will review it over the next two weeks to ensure it is competitive.
• Some GT3 cars presently vibrate when in the garage, we are reviewing a fix for this in time for the release in two weeks.
• We intend to improve the default setups for the next release.

Aston Martin Vantage GT3 v3.51

• Added new TC and ABS systems
• Added new GT tyres
• Added separate adjustment for rear brake cooling ducts
• Added gear shift protection
• Added new sound engine
• Added tender springs
• Higher car inertia
• Lower CG
• More aggressive downforce drop off from yaw for rear wing and diffuser
• Recalculated differential locks
• Recalculated anti-roll bars
• Softer rear springs
• Added TC and ABS lights to cockpit
• Updated tire materials to latest technology
• +10kg to driver weight,
• BoP adjustment: +25kg weight

Audi R8 GT3 2018 v3.51

• Added new TC and ABS systems
• Unlinked TC maps
• Added new GT tyres
• Added separate adjustment for rear brake cooling ducts
• Added gear shift protection
• Added new sound engine
• Added tender springs
• Adjusted car inertia
• Higher maximum packer stack
• Added TC and ABS lights to cockpit
• Updated tire materials to latest technology
• +10kg to driver weight
• BoP adjustment: +25kg weight

Audi R8 GT3 2020 v3.51

• Added new TC and ABS systems
• Unlinked TC maps
• Added new GT tyres
• Added separate adjustment for rear brake cooling ducts
• Added gear shift protection
• Added new sound engine
• Added tender springs
• Adjusted car inertia
• Higher maximum packer stack
• Added TC and ABS lights to cockpit
• Updated tire materials to latest technology
• +10kg to driver weight
• BoP adjustment: +45kg weight, +2% engine performance

Bentley Continental GT3 2017 v3.51

• Added brake pressure smoothing
• Added new GT tyres
• Added separate adjustment for rear brake cooling ducts
• Added gear shift protection
• Added new sound engine
• Added tender springs
• Added TC and ABS lights to cockpit
• Updated tire materials to latest technology
• +10kg to driver weight
• BoP adjustment: -10kg weight, -4% engine performance

Bentley Continental GT3 2020 v3.51

• Added new GT tyres
• Added separate adjustment for rear brake cooling ducts
• Added gear shift protection
• Added new sound engine
• Added tender springs
• Increased engine inertia
• Added TC and ABS lights to cockpit
• Updated tire materials to latest technology
• +10kg to driver weight
• BoP adjustment: +10kg weight, -2% engine performance

BMW M4 GT3 v3.51

• Added new TC and ABS systems
• Added new GT tyres
• Added separate adjustment for rear brake cooling ducts
• Added gear shift protection
• Added new sound engine
• Added tender springs
• Higher car inertia
• Added TC and ABS lights to cockpit
• Updated tire materials to latest technology
• +10kg to driver weight
• BoP adjustment: +25kg weight, -5% engine performance

BMW M6 GT3 v3.51

• Added new TC and ABS systems
• Added new GT tyres
• Added separate adjustment for rear brake cooling ducts
• Added gear shift protection
• Added new sound engine
• Added tender springs
• Added TC and ABS lights to cockpit
• Updated tire materials to latest technology
• +10kg to driver weight
• BoP adjustment: -10kg weight, +2% engine performance

Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R v3.51

• Added new TC and ABS systems
• Added new GT tyres
• Added separate adjustment for rear brake cooling ducts
• Added gear shift protection
• Added new sound engine
• Added tender springs
• Higher car inertia
• More aggressive downforce dropoff from yaw for rear wing and diffuser
• Higher maximum packer stack
• Added TC and ABS lights to cockpit
• Updated tire materials to latest technology
• +10kg to driver weight
• BoP adjustment: +10kg weight, -3% engine performance

Ferrari 488 GT3 v3.51

• Added new TC and ABS systems
• Added new GT tyres
• Added separate adjustment for rear brake cooling ducts
• Added gear shift protection
• Added new sound engine
• Added tender springs
• Higher car inertia
• More aggressive downforce drop off from yaw for rear wing and diffuser
• Added TC and ABS lights to cockpit
• Updated tire materials to latest technology
• +10kg to driver weight
• BoP adjustment: -2% engine performance

McLaren 650s GT3 v3.51

• Added new TC and ABS systems
• Added new GT tyres
• Added separate adjustment for rear brake cooling ducts
• Added gear shift protection
• Added new sound engine
• Added tender springs
• Slightly higher CG
• Higher roll inertia
• Higher maximum packer stack
• More aggressive downforce dropoff from yaw for rear wing and diffuser
• Added TC and ABS lights to cockpit
• Updated tire materials to latest technology
• +10kg to driver weight
• BoP adjustment: +30kg weight

McLaren 720s GT3 v3.51

• Added new TC and ABS systems
• Added new GT tyres
• Added separate adjustment for rear brake cooling ducts
• Added gear shift protection
• Added new sound engine
• Added tender springs
• Higher maximum packer stack
• Slightly higher CG
• Higher roll inertia
• More aggressive downforce drop off from yaw for rear wing and diffuser
• Added TC and ABS lights to cockpit
• Updated tire materials to latest technology
• +10kg to driver weight
• BoP adjustment: +20kg weight, -3% engine performance

Mercedes AMG GT3 v3.51

• Added new TC and ABS systems
• Added new GT tyres
• Added separate adjustment for rear brake cooling ducts
• Added gear shift protection
• Added new sound engine
• Added tender springs
• Reworked suspension
• Added mandatory stack of bump stops (means, less damper travel on compression)
• Correction to car inertia
• More aggressive downforce dropoff from yaw for rear wing and diffuser
• Updated steering animation
• Small tweaks to front wing ride height and rake sensitivity
• Added TC and ABS lights to cockpit
• Updated tire materials to latest technology
• +10kg to driver weight
• BoP adjustment: -3.5% to engine performance, -5% to aero drag

Porsche 911 GT3R v3.51

• Added new TC and ABS systems
• Added separate adjustment for rear brake cooling ducts
• Added gear shift protection
• Added new sound engine
• Added tender springs
• Added new GT tyres
• Added TC and ABS lights to cockpit
• Higher car inertia
• More aggressive downforce dropoff from yaw for rear wing and diffuser
• Updated tire materials to latest technology
• +10kg to driver weight
• BoP adjustment: +15kg weight, +2% aero drag

Radical RXC Turbo GT3 v3.51

• Added new TC and ABS systems
• Added separate adjustment for rear brake cooling ducts
• Added gear shift protection
• Added new sound engine
• Added tender springs
• Added new GT tyres
• Added TC and ABS lights to cockpit
• More aggressive downforce dropoff from yaw for rear wing and diffuser
• Higher maximum packer stack
• Updated tire materials to latest technology
• +10kg to driver weight
• BoP adjustment: -10kg weight, +5% engine performance

Electric Docks v2.34

In addition to the GT3 update, we have also released a small update to the Electric Docks circuit, details of which can be seen below:

• Updated Advertisement Branding
• Minor colour balance updates
• Minor LOD Optimization

We hope you enjoy the new build update of the rFactor 2 GT3 cars released today, and we look forward to seeing you all out on track, hopefully rediscovering these beautiful cars (or trying them for the first time) – see you on the tarmac!

GT3 Update – Available now!

Hello sim racers!

Two announcements in one day, to start the week off right! Following on from our GT3 Update reveal earlier today, in this news update, we talk about something that many people in our community have been asking for within rFactor 2 – refined package management solutions!

In reality, this has been a valuable exercise for Studio 397 as we continue to dig into the code of rFactor 2 to bring about changes that help us develop in new directions and add additional features and functionality over time. With the current system, we found ourselves restrained somewhat in how we move the core rFactor 2 experience forward, so we’ve spent quite a bit of time unpicking and refining much of the existing code, in order to allow us opportunities to improve how we handle current content ownership, installation and management within rFactor 2.

For these new code change, we’ve been able to break up the content types in rFactor 2 to three distinct categories – Local Content, Steam Content and Store Content. By breaking out these three categories, we now have the ability to open up a number of user actions previously impossible with our existing code structure. Just like you could before with locally installed items, now we can present the opportunity for our players to see, install, uninstall and monitor update status of items purchased as DLC, or downloaded for free from the Steam Workshop.

As an additional benefit, this new set of features gives us the opportunity to present more information on the status of content already installed within the title – so you can see what is pending updates, if things haven’t updated correctly, if items are in your library but uninstalled and a few other things we’ve yet to implement – but more on that another day…

Fundamentally, these changes will also offer us quite a boost in terms of the overall speed of the rFactor 2 experience within the main UI. With this update, we have been able to prevent situations where the user is stuck behind a modal dialogue state within the rf2 UI, so for example, in the old system if for example a user purchases a large track like the Nordschleife, you’d be stuck in game with a locked UI waiting on a download bar for significant periods of time – this behaviour has been removed with these changes, as you can now elect to directly engage with the software while downloading, and on a similar topic, you can now launch rF2 without any game pause if you just want to jump in and do a quick race, as you no longer have to update your content when coming into the game by default.

Granted, this isn’t the most sexy of improvements we’ve brought to the sim over the last couple of years, but we think this is a very important piece of groundwork we’ve undertaken for our continued growth and expansion – adding benefits to the end user right away, and putting us on a much stronger footing to allow development to take the direction we’ve planned out for the immediate future.

Q1 2023 Announcements so Far

• GT3 Update

This new functionality is already active within the current ‘Release Candidate’ build of rFactor 2, and will be brought into the public release of the simulation upon deployment of the 2023 Q1 update. scheduled for February 7th this year.

New Package Management System – Coming February 21st to rFactor 2!

Hello sim racers, 

Welcome to the start of the 2023 Q1 hype train!

For this first announcement, we’ve got something that we are pretty certain will prove to be popular amongst our own audience both new and existing – the GT3 set of cars is being updated!!

Featuring no less than 14 models as of February 2023, the GT3 category is a popular specification of race car throughout the world of virtual motorsport, and the cars available within rFactor 2 are absolutely no exception to this trend. 

With varied models from the likes of Aston Martin, BMW, Porsche, McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari, Bentley, Radical and Audi already available within the simulation, all of which having been released at varying times during the life of rFactor 2, this February, the studio has taken the opportunity to refresh these popular vehicles with the latest physics, technology and tyre development progress deployed with our more recent releases. 

What does this mean in reality, we hear you ask? Well, it means a wholly new and much improved driving experience, from the way the cars interact with the racing surface, to how you need to drive them to extract the maximum lap time over both time attack and long stint running. 

For this new refresh, all 14 currently available GT3 cars have been updated to the latest tyre technology, in order to deliver the closest to reality driving experience possible within the software. Alongside the new tyres and physics improvements, the GT3 class has also received support for the newly developed tender spring, the latest technology around our traction control and ABS behaviour, and of course the introduction of shift protection. 

Furthermore, the new sound engine released during 2022 has required a full overhaul of the audio aspect of these sensational cars, so as well as feeling much more detailed, the audio experience within this new build has been vastly improved.

As always with a category update as substantial as this, the GT3 cars have undergone a rigorous balance of performance exercise to ensure parity between each manufacturer, just like in real life, so now drivers should find themselves with just as good of a chance to score big results regardless of car, it’s all down to personal preference, and driving ability. 

The new GT3 changes will be available as a free update to anyone owning the GT3 cars within rFactor 2, and is set to release as part of the Q1 2023 content drop and build release in early February. 

Key Improvements

New Tyres

Introducing the latest spec and technical understanding that has come to rFactor 2 in recent months, these new tyres provide a significant improvement of the behaviour of the car and the experience it will relay to the driver out on the circuit. Much like the GTE tyre update we launched last year, these changes have come about thanks to our latest gains in tyre technology, so expect to have to change both your driving style, and existing setups to accommodate the new experience. 

New BoP (Balance of Performance)

Critically important for cars of this nature, the Balance of Performance has perhaps been one of the most difficult things to get right for this update – lots of cars, many different styles and a multitude of variables mean finding a good balance across the full grid takes up a significant amount of testing time and fine-tuning – something we feel we’ve got in a good place for this initial launch, although we aren’t afraid to dig back into the cars again in future should it become necessary to provide further tweaks down the line. One of the best parts of this BOP has to be the fact the new BMW M4 is now very firmly aligned with the car set, so no matter which vehicle you choose, you should be in with a solid chance of scoring good results. 

Traction Control and ABS Improvements

Bringing the latest technologies introduced to rFactor 2 into this update was a key desire of the Studio 397, and thanks to the great strides made with the software throughout 2022, we’ve got quite a few of those to introduce! As many of you will remember, back in late 2022 we introduced a fully revised and refreshed batch of code updates for our of code for Traction Control and ABS features. These changes, developed to vastly expand both the complexity and execution of these two important aspects of modern race cars, have quickly proven to be valuable improvements to rFactor 2 – improvements we are delighted to finally integrate within the GT3 set of cars. 

Coupled with the tyre updates, the way you drive these GT3 machines has changed quite significantly from the original launch spec, bringing you a richer, more immersive driving experience that edges yet closer to how these cars should behave in the real world. 

Shift Protection

Not sexy, often frustrating but absolutely critical in modern racing series – shift protection is here, and with it the removal of potential laptime gains from gunfire downshifts into a corner in order to find a ways to slow the car down quicker than is realistically feasible. Again, introduced during the Q3 2022 update, Shift Protection has been a great addition to rFactor 2, and one of the major physics features missing from our current GT3 offering of cars. Added to all 14 current GT3 models within the game, this is another small, but very noticeable change to the way our drivers can manipulate the car out on circuit. 

Sound Engine Compatibility

This is a big one, and will probably be one of the first things you notice when firing up the update for the very first time. Since the massively popular introduction of the new sound engine last year, we’ve been absolutely desperate to get these wild and varied GT3 cars integrated fully into the new sound engine. As I’m sure we all know, GT3 cars sound outstanding in real life, and with the powerful opportunities our new engine offers, the audio experience of these cars in rFactor 2 has been something we’ve all been very excited to experience. As of this update, the new sound engine is now fully compatible with all cars, so why not take the opportunity to reacquaint yourself with each model, and bask in the glory of that beautiful noise bouncing around your virtual racetrack of choice in rFactor 2! 

The new GT3 update is one we are very excited to share with you all – we can’t wait to see you out on track!

GT3 Update – Available February 7th for rFactor 2!