Hello sim racers!

The very first rFactor 2 Competition System ‘Race of the Season’ is right around the corner! Our community have been hard at work qualifying for the March 20th showcase event at the wonderful Daytona road course, and now it is time to put a date in the diary, free up your schedules, get the popcorn in stock and prepare for what should be a festival of virtual motorsport entertainment !

Featuring the very fastest of our rFactor 2 community drivers, the mighty BMW M4 GT3 and the iconic twists and turns of the road course configuration at the Daytona International Speedway, the debut showing of our new Race of the Season initiative is about to start off with a bang!

Race of the Season | How to Watch

Date | March 20th 2022.

Broadcast | 21:00 CET, TraxionGG YouTube

Car | BMW M4 GT3

Track | Daytona International Speedway Road Course

Race of the Season | Event Format

The new Race of the Season schedule has been developed to produce an end of Competition System season celebration, open to all drivers within rFactor 2 and offering an engaging, entertaining and hopefully exciting broadcast for viewers to enjoy some of the best virtual racing stars in action within the simulation.

rFactor 2 Competition System | Season 1 details: CLICK HERE

For this first event, we have selected our very latest GT3 machine in the form of the mega BMW M4, and pitched our drivers into competitive action in a 45 minute, mandatory pitstop winner takes all race at the new Daytona Road Course DLC within the sim.

Open for multiple servers, with the top split drivers enjoying a live broadcast on the TraxionGG YouTube channel, this event will not only offer an opportunity for our community drivers to race in a high profile competitive event, but the top three drivers can also expect to take home some awesome trophies for their endeavours out on track – a perfect way to celebrate what should be an exceptional evening of racing action!

Race Length | 45 Minutes

Mandatory Pitstop | Yes

Number of Drivers | 30: Sunday March 20^th

Live Stream | TraxionGG YouTube

Hello sim racers!

The Competition System schedule is getting a refresh! That’s right, having spent the last few months since the Competition System released working to ensure we have a stable and robust platform, and testing many variations of content and event formats, we are today in a position to finally deploy a structured schedule of racing events – developed to coincide with the recently announced quarterly release cycle of content and updates to rFactor 2.

In short, from February 7^th we will move to a ‘season’ structure of races, one that will offer up a mix of free and paid content over a six-week cycle, concluding with a fun, community voted week taking place between season 1 and 2 of each quarter.  For the purposes of this new scheduling, a quarter is defined as 13 weeks.

Season 1

Dates | 7^th February to 20^th March

Series | Alpine A110 Cup, Open Wheel Sprint, INDYCAR Open Challenge

Alpine A110 Cup

Car: Alpine A110 Cup (Steam Workshop: CLICK HERE)

Times: Daily, at the beginning of every hour

Format: 10 minute practice, 10 minute qualifying, 20 minute race

Open Wheel Sprint

Car: USF 2000 (Steam Workshop: CLICK HERE)

Times: Daily, 30 minutes past every hour

Format: 10 minute practice, 10 minute qualifying, 25 minute race

INDYCAR Open Challenge

Car: Dallara IR-18 INDYCAR (STEAM STORE TBC)

Times: Daily at 9pm CET and 1am CET (3pm EST and 7pm EST)

Format: 10 minute practice, 10 minute qualifying, 40 minute race

Race of the Season

Date: Sunday 20^th March

Time: 21:00 CET

Qualification: Hotlap competition to run 5 weeks through the season

Number of Drivers: 30

Race Details: 45 minutes, 1 x pitstop – upgrade

Live Steam: Yes – TraxionGG YouTube

This is a new initiative for the Competition System. Featuring hotlap qualification prior to the main race, this event is intended to become one of the pinnacle community races held within the CS. Developed to feature interesting content combinations and offering players the chance to race in a live-streamed full broadcast with the opportunity to take home a trophy, the Race of the Season should be a great way to take your online sim racing up a level, whilst still keeping things fun, and open to anyone within the rFactor 2 Community.

For our inaugural Race of the Season event, we will be running the new BMW M4 GT3 at the wonderful Daytona International Raceway!

These scheduled events have been designed to give players a structured and engaging opportunity to take their racing experience online against other players in rFactor 2. Whilst this is very much a step in the right direction for the Competition System, we continue working hard behind the scenes to bring new and exciting features we have planned, and that we received your feedback on. In the meantime, we are hoping this increased structure and visibility of what is coming up will get more of you racing through the Competitions System and thus justifying our continued development.

We are now at the stage where we are comfortable with the robustness of the system in its present form, and we consider this new schedule to be the first step towards Competition System version 2.0. Over the course of the next weeks we will be mapping out what is possible to enhance within the short, medium and long term of future of the CS, with a view to getting these improvements up and live and into the players hands over the next few months.

Exciting times ahead!    

Hello sim racers!

Another day, another new and exciting content announcement! Adding to our highly popular and ever expanding GT3 class within the simulation, we are delighted to today confirm that the very latest generation BMW GT3 contender will be coming to rFactor 2 in the very near future – the BMW M4 GT3.

The Car

Initially beginning its development journey at the start of 2020, the brand-new BMW M4 GT3 has been created to represent the very latest flagship GT racer of the Bavarian marque. Built using the aid of CAD and CFD simulations, with testing input from several of the German brands works drivers, the car has undergone a rigorous development test plan ahead of completing its first tests under race conditions in the second half of 2021, proceeding its race debut season in 2022 that started with the 24H Dubai and the world-famous Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona in January.

Succeeding the highly successful M6 that has been in competition since 2016 (also available in rFactor 2 – CLICK HERE), the new M4 GT3 certainly has a large legacy to fill, taking up the mantle of representing the best of BMW as it replaces the mighty M6, one of the most prominent and competitive cars within the GT3 category.

Created with the goals of achieving greater driveability, cost efficiency and operational improvements, BMW have left no stone unturned with this new machine, offering up to customers what is expected to be a car capable of running at the very front of the grid in the many GT3 specification series around the world.

Technical Specifications

• Length: 5,020 mm.
• Width: 2,040 mm.
• Wheelbase: 2,917 mm.
• Engine: P58 3.0l straight six
• Capacity: 2,993 cm³.
• Output: up to 590 hp.
• Transmission: Xtrac 6-speed gearbox.

Release Details

The new BMW M4 GT3 is set to release to rFactor 2 as part of a large content drop on Monday, February 7^th 2022, available both as an individual item within the rFactor 2 Steam Store, and part of a wider content pack – details of which will be confirmed closer to release.

We are exceptionally grateful to BMW to have the opportunity to bring another exciting GT3 car into rFactor 2 with this release, and we firmly believe the new BMW M4 GT3 will offer players a very enjoyable driving experience, one that is sure to prove a popular choice in online GT3 events throughout the simulation.

We hope you enjoy taking this new machine out onto the circuit, and we look forward to hearing your feedback and most importantly of all, seeing you on track and enjoying the new car!

BMW M4 GT3 – Coming February 7^th to rFactor 2

Great news everyone – today we are absolutely delighted to announce the fantastic INDYCAR IR-18 will be heading to rFactor 2 next week – bringing arguably the toughest and most impressive open wheel racing category in the world to our simulation for what should be an incredible driving experience.

Ever keen to ensure our players have the opportunity to experience the thrills of racing a wide variety of interesting and exciting content within rFactor 2, we couldn’t help but notice the astounding resurgence of INDYCAR racing in recent years, quickly coming to the conclusion that this type of car would be a perfect fit to replicate within rFactor 2.

Featuring cars that look incredibly aggressive and powerful from the outside, and demand a very physical and robust manner of driving in order to squeeze the maximum performance and lap time from behind the wheel, together with the help of our new colleagues within the wider Motorsport Games group, we knew these were cars we just had to bring into rFactor 2 – superseding the older DW12 already within the simulation and adding another fantastic variable for our drivers to take out onto the virtual racetracks of the world.

The Car

IndyCar has progressed significantly since our release of the Dallara DW12 back in 2014, having undergone a rigorous programme of development, with numerous updates large and small having been issued to the spec series chassis over recent years.

Now in its third iteration following a race debut for the 2012 season, the new IR18 features subtle (and not so subtle) changes to the visual representation of the cars – from the removal of wheel coverings and extraneous aerodynamic devices, to the more dramatic and somewhat controversial introduction of a fighter jet style frontal driver protection canopy developed by Red Bull Technologies, commonly referred to as the Aeroscreen.

Packing upwards of 700hp depending on the course configuration style, as INDYCAR run specific chassis setups for road course, superspeedways and short ovals, and without such driving aids as power steering to help lighten the load behind the wheel, these cars represent a true driving challenge, one that requires a driver to produce maximum concentration in order to keep the car pointing in the right direction, especially when pitched against a field full of equally competitive opponents looking to steal away any advantage possible.

Technical Specifications

• length: 5123.18mm
• Width: 1943.1mm to 1917.7mm minimum (1917.7mm minimum and 1949.45mm maximum for ovals) measured outside rim to rim
• Wheelbase: 2984.5mm to 3086mm
• Engine: Honda HI21R Indy-V-6, Chevy IndyCar V6
• Capacity: 2.2 litre (134.25 cubic inches) V-6, twin-turbocharged
• Output: 550-700 horsepower, depending on turboboost pressure used at track
• Transmission: XTRAC #1011 gearbox. Six forward gears, one reverse gear, Mega-Line Assisted Gear Shift (paddle-shift)

The IR-18 set to arrive for rFactor 2 will feature the latest 2021 specification INDYCAR IR-18, complete with all the teams, drivers and liveries of the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series – allowing our players to recreate one of the most competitive open wheel championships in existence today.

The car will come with both Honda and Chevrolet engines as per the real INDYCAR season, and will of course offer up chassis options for racing on road, oval and superspeedway type tracks – developed with the full cooperation of INDYCAR and the teams that compete within the American series – meaning we are set to have a highly detailed and ultra-realistic new car for our racers to enjoy, and one that replicates what is probably the best open wheel racing series in the world – sounds fun doesn’t it?!

New Features

In order to ensure we can produce an experience as close to reality as possible, these new cars also come complete with two brand new physics features for rFactor 2 – Push to Pass, and Weight Jacker. Both of these features are enabled with the INDYCAR IR-18 car, and can be found within the new 2022 UI Update menu options.

INDYCAR Pro Challenge and Competition System Races

To celebrate the upcoming release of the new INDYCAR in rFactor 2, a special edition esports event featuring IndyCar stars the likes of reigning champion Alex Palou, Helio Castroneves and two-time series champion Josef Newgarden will be taking place on Wednesday, 9th February. Consisting of three heats of two 10 minute and one 20 minute race, with points awarded to each driver, this celebratory event should be a great way to kick off what is set to be a very exciting time for players of rFactor 2. 

Set to air on the TraxionGG Twitch, YouTube and Facebook channels from 00:00 CET, make sure you tune in and take the opportunity to catch the stars of the real series going head to head in rFactor 2!

In addition to the Pro Challenge, players will be able to participate in official INDYCAR events through the rFactor 2 Competition System. Dates for these events, and the new schedule of activations within the Competition System will be made available in the coming days.

Release Details

The new INDYCAR IR-18 is set to release to rFactor 2 as part of a large content drop on Monday, February 7^th 2022, alongside the previously announced Daytona International Raceway and Ligier JS P320 LMP3 – plus one more announcement to come!

INDYCAR IR-18- Coming February 7^th to rFactor 2!

Car announcement!

Prototype racing within rFactor 2 is about to get a lot more exciting, with the welcome addition of the beautiful Ligier JS P320 set to join the LMP3 roster of cars within the simulation next week – adding another high downforce, high speed endurance racing thoroughbred to rFactor 2.

The Car

Ligier Automotive are synonymous with endurance racing in recent years, having originally made their name under the leadership of Guy Ligier in Formula One, proving one of the foremost competitive teams of the 1970s before gradually fading from the sport at the end of the 1990s, but not before Olivier Panis secured a famous final win for the French outfit during a dramatic Monaco Grand Prix in 1996 –  in the final year of the marque before ownership transferred to four time World Champion Alain Prost ahead of the 1997 season.

With such a rich heritage in world motorsport behind the name, Ligier returned to top level motorsport amidst great fanfare both at home and abroad, and since the rebirth of the brand as a racing constructor, after being acquired by Jacques Nicolet in 2013, the French manufacturer would immediately become a hit with fans and drivers alike – with success very close to hand, not least of which would be a highlighted when Ligier became the first manufacturer since Ferrari in 1998 to take home victory spoils in the 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and the Petit Le Mans in 2016 with the JS P2.

Built for competition within Road to Le Mans, part of the Michelin Le Mans Cup championship and since 2021, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the JS P320 is a mighty competitor out on the track. .

The JS P320 comes to rFactor 2 off the back of an incredibly successful 2021, having won all the US endurance major events last season: 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans.

LMP3 can be considered more of an entry level class of prototype racing, which makes this car a perfect candidate to introduce our drivers to the world of closed top, high downforce machinery, without having to reply too much on experience in order to pilot the car successfully to strong lap times. All the fun of prototype racing, but with the capacity to allow drivers to really get under the skin of the car and produce some great, close racing on track.

Technical Specifications

• Length: 4605mm
• Width: 1900mm
• Wheelbase: 2860mm
• Engine: Nissan VK56, V8
• Capacity: 5.6 litres
• Output: 460 hp
• Transmission: 6-speed sequential gearbox Xtrac 1152 with aluminium casing

Release Details

The Ligier JS P320 LMP3 will be made available for rFactor 2 on Monday 7^th February 2022, joining the already available Norma M30 in our developing LMP3 class.

We at Studio 397 are really pleased to bring this car into rFactor 2, and we can’t wait to take the opportunity to hand over the virtual keys to our drivers next week!.

Ligier JS P320 LMP3 – coming February 7th to rFactor 2

DAYTONAAAAAH!!!

At long last, we at Studio 397 are absolutely delighted to announce the iconic Daytona International Raceway is heading to rFactor 2 next week – adding the premium US endurance racing circuit to our simulation in a move that we are sure will delight the many members of our community who have so vocally called for this historic venue to be brought to life in rFactor 2. We heard you, and here it is!

The voices calling for this track to be added to rFactor 2 have been loud for a long time on our Discord channel, and trust us when we say it has been incredibly difficult to keep ourselves from telling you all about our plans to bring the track into our simulation – the amount of times any one of us here at Studio has almost let the cat out of the bag are beyond counting!

Although this one has been cooking for a little while back at base, we’ve been unable to put virtual pen to paper and share the good news with you all until now, however that period of enforced silence is over, and we are sincerely overjoyed to finally be able to tell you all about this exciting new addition to the sim – licencing deals have been struck, and development is almost done and we are gearing up and ready to release what must be one of the most often requested new track additions in recent years!

The Track

Turn 1

Hard braking from the lightening fast run off the NASCAR oval and onto the “front stretch”, Turn 1 is a vital overtaking opportunity and the type of corner that was seemingly invented to lull drivers into a false sense of security.

Reasonably straight forward on paper, in reality it is incredibly difficult to spot your braking point and hustle the car into the apex for the opening turn, made especially difficult as drivers have to contend with the transition from 18 degrees of banking in the oval, to the uneven road surface that leads up to, and beyond this opening portion of the Road Course configuration here at Daytona.

Turn 2

Once drivers successfully navigate their way through the opening corner, the right / left of Turn 2 is a relatively straightforward affair. Flat to the boards in a GT3 car, here drivers are often seen taking a mix of lines between using judicious amounts of kerbs or keeping it on the grey stuff, depending on the stage of the race and of course the individual characteristics of the car in question.

Rodriguez International Horseshoe

Another exceptionally popular overtaking opportunity on the Daytona International Raceway Road Course is the Rodriguez International Horseshoe, otherwise known as Turn 3. Approached from speed following a flat blast all the way from the acceleration zone of the opening corner, braking here can be left deceptively late. Encouraging the driver to dive deep into the corner and maximise the use of trail braking techniques as they look to achieve a late apex and strong launch off the turn, this is both a great place to set up a pass, and a critical corner to get right in order to carry speed all the way down into the next significant braking event of the lap, to be found on the entry into Turn 5.

Turn 4

Turn 4, or ‘The Kink’ is one of those corners that can be as easy as they come 99.9% of the time, flat chat with margin to spare, but catch this turn slightly off line, or approach too confident with tyres that are anything other than in optimal condition, and very quickly you will find out why this corner has a much bigger bite than first appears.

Unlike a lot of the Daytona circuit, thanks to plenty of run off space a mistake here doesn’t have to be race ending, but run wide onto the grass at these speeds, and expect to lose a lot of time and make yourself vulnerable to attack on the run into Turn 5.

Turn 5

Bumpy on entry and requiring a downshift of three gears, Turn 5 is similar in nature to the earlier encounter we experience at the Rodriguez International Horseshoe, in that despite being a hairpin in nature, the corner benefits from a long radius and requires drivers to fully commit late into the braking zone, with trail braking and a late apex optimal in order to achieve the highest possible minimum corner speed, and maintain strong momentum and early acceleration onto the short straight that follows.

Turn 6

The final corner of the infield road course section, put simply Turn 6 is vital to a fast laptime here at Daytona. The reason for this is the considerable amount of time drivers will speed at full throttle in the following section of track – lose time in this corner and delay getting back on the gas, and you will pay a heavy price all the way down turns 7 and 8 and onto the backstretch.

Quicker than might appear at first glance, Turn 6 again requires a driver to dive into the heavy braking zone with full commitment in order to achieve the maximum performance, starting with pulling the car as far right as possible on corner entry, before committing to turning in and quickly transitioning to the brake pedal and back onto throttle for the run onto the oval. Be careful on corner exit, as cars certainly like to dance on the power as you jump back onto the banking and into the backstretch of this exceptional venue.

Turn 7 and 8

Be smooth. SMOOTH! Turns 7 and 8 are far more used to hosting stock car racing as part of the traditional Daytona oval configuration, and here you will find you finally have a moment to relax and take in your surroundings as you firmly plant your foot on the throttle and begin the run into the world-famous Bus Stop chicane.

Begin by running up near the top of the banking on the corner exit from turn 6, then slowly and smoothly start the process of rolling the car down onto the lower line of the oval banking, keeping a firm eye out in the mirror for any faster traffic trying to find a way past in multiclass events.

Hold on, hold out, and get ready for the most risky section on the track….

Turn 9 – Bus Stop – Turn 10

… the Bus Stop chicane! A famous section of track, and one that attracts its fair share of action over the course of a long distance race event. Loved and loathed in equal measure, the Bus Stop is certainly not for the faint of heart.

Approached at absolutely full speed in pretty much any type of car, here drivers need to be brave on the brakes as they approach the first right-hand corner of turn 9, using plenty of curb in order to get the car as straight as possible through the chicane before monstering the final inside curb at Turn 10. A risky section of corners where much of your event is at the mercy of the racing gods – get it wrong and at best you will lose a whole load of time, and at worse a trip to the pits for significant repairs will be your reward.

Turn 11 and 12

Should you survive the Bus Stop for another lap, it is once again back on to the oval banking you go for these final two corners of the lap. Again, here it is all about being smooth, calm and controlled as you look to pick out the line of least resistance in order to maximise your ultimate car speed, keeping an eye out for other traffic and charging onwards to that start / finish line and another lap of this exceptional racetrack.

We’ve gone on record many times in the past to share our love of endurance racing here at Studio 397, so it goes without saying that the team back at base are absolutely stoked to bring one of the best endurance tracks to life within rFactor 2 with this new deal, and furthermore, we aren’t just adding the road course configuration, we are also releasing the speedway layout of Daytona, so get ready for some awesome Stock Car action with our epic Stock Car 2018 and Stock Car 2018x free add-on vehicles too!

As one of the absolute premium endurance racing venues in world motorsport, we cannot wait to see how this track plays out amongst the various events and activities that our community are sure to host come release day – it has been a long time coming, but we are sure you will agree – the wait will be more than worth it!

Daytona International Speedway – coming soon to rFactor 2

Hello sim racers!

2022 is in full swing, and what a way the year has started for rFactor 2! Following on from the incredibly successful Le Mans 24 Hours Virtual, the team here at Studio 397 aren’t lifting our collective feet off the gas any time soon, as we begin to ramp up to what should be a very exciting few months of news and developments coming to the title.

The New UI Refresh

2022 UI Update | More Details | CLICK HERE

Late last week, we released our exceptionally well received big 2022 UI update to the public build of the simulation, and we are absolutely delighted to see the wealth of positive feedback these latest changes have generated. Whilst we are of course delighted with this first successful launch, and as we referenced in our release notes from Thursday, the new 2022 UI Update is just the very start of our journey into enhancing the player experience within rFactor 2 – so make sure you stay tuned to our social media channels and the rFactor 2 website for more news and insights over the coming weeks and months.

A New Release Schedule

Speaking of developments, to better streamline our improvement offerings to the community, we have taken the decision to reorganize the way we deploy content and updates to rFactor 2. For 2022, we are going to move development to a quarterly series of releases, committing our resources to producing scheduled updates and content drops on a three-month cycle, in order to maximize our own internal workflows, and to help the sim racing community have greater transparency and expectation as to when new and exciting changes are planned to come to the software.

While we will of course aim to adhere to these proposed schedules, software development is fraught with new and unexpected challenges, so please do consider these dates as a broad guideline – things may well move around a little over the year, and of course we will use the intermittent weeks between these releases as opportunities to bring any hotfix updates and small surprises as and when we can, too…

Our intention is to offer a healthy mix of new game update features, functionality, and quality of life improvements, alongside an exciting collection of premium content for the sim – some as free additions, and some as part of paid Steam Store content.

It would, quite frankly, be inviting risk to detail exactly what these items are this far in advance; however we can certainly share with you the dates of each expected update release – and of course we will very much look forward to announcing the content items themselves much closer to the actual date than previously was possible before.

Furthermore, although we deemed it unnecessary to adhere to our now standard Release Candidate strategy for the 2022 UI Update build of rFactor 2, we will be following that process with these quarterly updates. That means, on average, we will likely deploy the new Release Candidate around 4 weeks prior to updating the public branch of the build. This way, we can continue to monitor the feedback from our latest changes, and ensure any further tweaks and improvements have been tested with as wide a range of different hardware as possible, before moving to the main ‘opt-out’ branch of rFactor 2. 

Below, you will find the intended months for when these release cycles will take place:

• Quarter 1 Release – February
• Quarter 2 Release – May
• Quarter 3 Release – August 
• Quarter 4 Release – November  

Again, to reiterate from earlier in this post, we will likely still deploy further hotfix updates and the odd surprise into the simulation outside of these months, however from here on in these are very much expected to represent the core development periods of rFactor 2 over the next year. We have some very exciting things in the pipeline here at Studio 397, please do stay tuned to the rFactor 2 social media channels and website over the coming days, as we begin to reveal the details of the new content that will make up our Quarter 1 drop in early February!

Stay safe and see you on the track!

Update day!

The day you have all been waiting for is here… the anticipation has built, the preview videos have been poured over in the finest of detail, and now, dear community members – release time is upon us!

That’s right, this morning the team here at rFactor 2 are absolutely delighted to welcome you all to try our new 2022 UI Update for the simulation – an update that we have put together in order to breathe a new lease of life into rFactor 2, adding a modern, fit for purpose and easy to navigate user Interface that works hard to rationalise, condense and contain all the options and features you are used to with rFactor 2, but in a structured, sensible and easy to navigate and engage visual interface. 

This new build has been developed in house by the Studio 397 team, considering the wealth of community feedback we have received in recent years, alongside our own detailed analysis and knowledge from the world of virtual motorsports. Developed to be user friendly for players fresh into the simulation, whilst also making life easier and more convenient for experienced players, we are delighted with how this build has developed over time – and we most certainly intend to use this platform as a springboard for further enhancements over time. 

The rFactor 2; UI Now, and Future

The new build today marks the start of our new UI journey, as such we still have a few minor areas of the UI where further development is required to iron out remaining issues – and we’ve also identified a number of areas that we wish to expand upon and improve as we move forward with development. In order to give you a brief overview of where some of our development thoughts are heading, we’ve put together a quick headline summary, found below:

Under Consideration

• Esports & stream watch area.
• Improved singleplayer AI selection & handling.
• Improved multiplayer server list with more server information.
• Function to override car logo’s on cars that share manufacturer name with official content.
• More car telemetry in setup screen.
• More car telemetry in monitor.

Known Issues

• Occasional white screen before start screen and when saving display settings.
• Orange compare numbers do not reset when going back to default setup and still show when changing setup settings with no changeable values.
• Some special characters are not displayed correctly in the car select page and setup pages.
• Wheel load is showing N as unit, but value is kg in setup chassis page.
• Amount of players in server field is cropped when string is too long.
• Multiclass graphics in the event screens are not visually optimized.
• There is currently no way to overwrite a custom controller profile.
• There is currently no way to remove a custom controller profile.
• Driver label above mini monitor is empty after session change.
• Steering rate is yet to be implemented in the new UI.
• Default FOV shows as 9 in graphics settings menu.

Please do remember, the build release today is the start of our UI improvement journey, and although we have some exciting plans, not all of which are detailed in the above list, we also recognise that sometimes development priorities and possibilities change over time. With that said, we will work exceptionally hard to continue what we believe to be a very positive start with this new build, and we cannot wait to share with you our developments as the year unfolds. 

The 2022 UI Update Build

Client: 8092611

Dedicated Server: 8092617

rF2 Build:

• Added Push-to-Pass and Weight Jacker.
• Custom controller profiles no longer save with -80% exaggerate yaw.
• Yaw override in controller profiles defaults to being disabled unless added manually.
• Official controller profiles have been updated to override this to 0% for all steering wheels, among other override changes.
• Reviewed Glare Settings to reduce excessive brightness in day, and improve headlights at night.
• Some small adjustments to Lighting Parameters, to bring warmer hues to the scene.
• Improved windscreen rain effects and external car glass specular
• Fixed stutters in replay monitor.
• Driver labels re-enabled, updated with new behaviour and style.

Deep Dive Videos

Here at the studio we are all incredibly excited to see the response to our new UI update, and we cannot wait to see you out on track over the coming days and weeks. 

The 2022 UI Update for rFactor 2 – Available now

Hello sim racers!

You have spoken, and we have listened –  today is the day we can finally reveal some fruits of our recent labours – announcing a wholesale update and refresh of the rFactor 2 UI!

That’s right, next week rFactor 2 players will be given access to a brand new, fully ground up re-designed and modern UI interface for the rFactor 2 simulation, adding a wealth of usability improvements, visual enhancements and design decisions created in order to enhance and improve the gameplay experience, from launch of the simulation right through to once you are out on track.

Key Highlights

With such a substantial rebuild of the entire rFactor 2 UI experience, below you will find a brief bullet point list of some of the key areas that have been improved or expanded upon within this new build. Please note, these are just some areas of change, as this new build fundamentally affects the entirety of the rFactor 2 user journey – with some aspects of the new 2022 UI Update adding substantial changes and improvements over the existing UI release. 

• Brand-new audio and visual design across all pages.
• Main menu improvements for clearer navigation, more call to actions and an easier layout to understand for new users.
• All single player related functionality brought together into one area with cross navigation from, and to, any page in this area in order for optimized user flow.
• Enhanced layout of every page to improve user flow and simplify interaction.
• The settings menu has undergone a big update with clearer navigation, an easier layout and simplified user flow with fewer pages.
• The setup area has undergone a big update with clearer navigation, an easier layout and simplified user flow with fewer pages.
• Event screen optimizations and user flow improvements.
• 2 brand-new showrooms.

Overview and Rationale For Change

When creating this new 2022 UI update, we developed each change with four significant pillars in mind – taking into account how each aspect of the player journey would be experienced by both new and established users of the simulation. Developed to help streamline and rationalize how a player interacts with the software, the 2022 UI update has been build by sim racers, for sim racers, and hopefully reflects how the majority of our new and existing player base will wish to interact with the various aspects of a title to the scale of rFactor 2. 

The four pillars of development applied to the creation of the 2022 UI update are as follows: 

• Function over form.
• Simplification: fewer clicks, less mouse movement, consistent button placement.
• Better visibility: fewer pages and less scrolling and clearer categories. Clear lower centre area of screen.
• Better performance: better frame rate than before (not final step).

Utilizing our own experience combined with the wealth of feedback from our community, and adhering to our scope of creating a fit for purpose, modern UI interface, we believe the results of our endeavours will very firmly speak for themselves once you all get your hands on the new build next week. 

Release Date and Future Developments

The big question on everybody’s lips then… when will it be released? 

Having already undergone a robust internal testing process, we do not need to run this update through the traditional Release Candidate process; as such we are delighted to confirm the 2022 UI update build of rFactor 2 will be made available to the public Opt-Out branch of Steam this Thursday 27th January! 

Existing owners of the simulation will receive the update automatically on Thursday morning (time TBC), and any new player purchasing the sim from Thursday will automatically default to this new UI design featuring all the latest improvements and changes, more details of which will be released as part of the update notes associated with the build on January 27th. 

Although a considerable update in its own right, this new build is just the starting point for our planned ongoing development of the rFactor 2 UI. We are taking a phased approach to how we structure further UI updates, with January 27th marking the first of these development phases. Going forwards, alongside maintenance and patch updates where appropriate, we intend to bring a raft of new features and improvements to the UI in the fullness of time. Feedback from the community will be monitored and implemented where appropriate, alongside the exciting plans we already have in our development pipeline. More on those another day though, as for now, the new release next week should mark a very welcome improvement to the whole user experience when navigating through the simulation, one that we hope the community are as excited about getting their hands on as we have been developing it. 

We hope you will enjoy the 2022 UI update development when it releases next week, and we look forward to reading your feedback and further developing and expanding both the UI and the different features and game modes it will offer in the months ahead.

This is just the very start of an exciting period of development for the simulation in 2022, so make sure you stay tuned to the rFactor 2 social media channels and website over the coming days, for plenty more news and announcements about the simulation.