New car release!

Today is a very good day indeed for people looking to get their motorsport thrills in rFactor 2, as we are exceptionally proud to release a wonderful new free car to the simulation – the BMW M4 Class 1 2021 is here!

Built in very close collaboration with the development team at BMW HQ, the Class 1 marks the introduction of a new type of tin top racing machine in rFactor 2, one that is rather unique and special as it sees the realization in our software of the considerable development work undertaken by BMW to create this brand-new car, a machine that would never see the light of day in the real world thanks to changing regulations introduced before a wheel could be turned in anger.

While the world of real life motorsport loses out, our simulation community gains with this new car, as the hard work and heavy development undertaken by BMW have all gone into helping our car team here at Studio 397 produce an incredibly detailed and accurate representation of a timeline that never quite managed to break out into the real world – simulation wins again!

BMW M4 Class 1 2021 | Steam Workshop: CLICK HERE.

This new car isn’t simply a case of BMW issuing us with a few dimensions and artistic direction for our car team to incorporate into the simulation – far from it. Because the Class 1 rule set ceased to exist before BMW could bring the new M4 to the racetrack in real life, and thanks to the long-standing and close relationship between our two companies, Studio 397 are delighted to have been furnished with quite literally every piece of technical information and documentation that exists for this new model, from the smallest CAD drawings to the most detailed and robust tech sheets and background developments that would have been used to allow the engineers to build the car in real life – an absolutely incredible experience for our car team, and something that has led to many, many, many long hours into the evening pouring over data as we look at ways to best implement this wealth of information into our software.

The end result is, I’m sure you will all agree, a truly sensational car to drive and to race, and a very fitting tribute to a category of racing that has produced some of the most spectacular and enjoyable machines in recent memory. 

The Reveal Show

Ahead of the release of this new and free piece of content, we wanted to celebrate our relationship with BMW as we revealed the new car to the world for the very first time, and we thought what better way to do that than to organize a quick race with a number of YouTube personalities and rFactor 2 sim racers! Seeing as we are incredibly close to deploying our brand-new Monza circuit to rFactor 2 later today as well, the opportunity to pair these two exceptional pieces of content together was just too good of an opportunity to miss! An wildly fast tin top racer and the temple of speed certainly made for a juicy combination, one that I’m sure you will enjoy watching on the link below if you missed the action live on Wednesday evening.

BMW Reveal Show | Catch up on all the action: CLICK HERE

With the new car and track releasing today, Thursday 24th June, get ready for some exciting rFactor 2 Competition System races with these new content additions over the coming weeks. Beginning on Friday 25th,  both the BMW M4 Class 1 2021 and the Monza Grand Prix Circuit will be introduced to the Competition System within the simulation for the very first time, adding another interesting new form of racing for our rFactor 2 community, and offering up the opportunity for what we expect to be exciting and intense racing on the platform.

To access the rFactor 2 Competition System, load the simulation and click the ‘Competition’ tab on the new UI, navigate to the race event you are interested in, click register, download the content and make sure to sign up for the sessions you wish to participate in – quick, simple and your passport to some great online racing in rFactor 2.

The Car

The BMW M4 Class 1 2021 is a high downforce, high-power tin-top touring car that delivers 610 hp to the rear wheels, features the latest safety developments and represents the end result of several years of racing development for BMW under the Class 1 set of regulations. At just 986 kg minus the driver, a Class 1 touring car is closer in performance to a top level open wheel racer than the traditional touring car style, as such, to drive a car of this calibre will require a healthy dose of bravery and technical finesse as you try and cope with insanely short braking distances and incredible downforce on offer, while trying to retain traction to the large real wheels putting out ridiculous amounts of horsepower – a combination that is sure to leave plenty of thick black lines of rubber out on the tarmac!

Technical Specs

• Engine |  Type: 2.0L Turbo R4
• Power | Max power: 610HP Max rpm: 9500
• Weight | 986kg
• DRS | Practice/Quali any time – Race within 1 second of car ahead in DRS zones
• Fuel tank | 120L
• Brakes | Carbon discs and pads (Front 380x35mm, Rear 340x35mm)
• Gearbox | 6 speed Hewland gearbox with limited-slip differential
  

The BMW M4 Class 1 2021car is the latest new car content offering to players of rFactor 2, and can be downloaded for free from the rFactor 2 Steam Workshop. While you are there, don’t forget that Studio 397 have a range of exciting and interesting content available for the simulation, from classic Formula One cars right the way through to the very latest racing machinery on offer. Make sure to check out the Cars and Tracks content list for the title, and try your hand at something new today!

BMW M4 Class 1 2021 Available Now

Being part of a bigger group has some major advantages. For one, we’re surrounded by other like-minded development studios that are also innovating and expanding in the realm of simulation / motorsport / esports. And hey, it literally says it on the tin now -> “Motorsport Games”. 

Now that we’re part of the Motorsport Games family, it means things like ‘Publisher Sales’ are another great opportunity for you to get into the Motorsport universe at a great price.

The Steam Publisher Sale includes all Motorsport Games titles (up-to 80% off the NASCAR Heat Franchise, 60% Off rFactor 2, and 66% Off KartKraft).

The Motorsport Games Publisher sale is HERE

60% off rFactor 2

We at Studio 397 are throwing our hat into the mix with a whopping 60% off rFactor2. It’s a perfect time to get into the rFactor 2 ecosystem, or if you already have it – grab it for a friend! 😉

Buy rFactor 2 on Steam HERE

GT3 Starter Pack

A sim like rFactor 2 thrives with high quality content. Cars and tracks made to the latest standard take full advantage of the advanced physics and graphic engine that’s under the hood. The content quality can be seen in every nuance and it’s what adds that extra layer of pure immersion. Cars like the GT3s and highly detailed laser scanned tracks help get the most out of the driving experience. So we’ve added a very enticing “GT3 Starter Pack” comprised of every-single-GT3 – 13 of them, to be precise. On top of that, two absolutely legendary and iconic tracks – Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and Sebring International Raceway – are included in the pack. All for just 31,39€! (In total 57% off)

Buy the GT3 Starter Pack HERE

GT3 Starter Pack Content

Cars

• Aston Martin Vantage GT3
• Audi R8LMS GT3 2018
• Audi R8LMS GT3 2019
• Bentley Continental GT3 2017
• Bentley Continental GT3 2020
• BMW M6 GT3
• Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R
• Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo
• McLaren 650S GT3
• McLaren 720S GT3
• Mercedes AMG GT3
• Porsche 911 GT3 R
• Radical RXC Turbo GT3

Tracks

• Sebring International Raceway
• Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

As always, happy racing and see you on track 😉

Generally, we try to keep ‘release candidate’ updates a low-key affair, since as a user you need to take some extra steps to be able to run the build. But this time we made an exception, this ‘RC’ is bursting with new and exciting things to test drive.

So yes, it’s that time again to be part of the rFactor 2 elite and try out a bunch of new features, a slew of bug fixes, or just enjoy previewing and taking in what’s ahead – before the masses get to!

During this last phase of development we’ve focused on a few key areas. On the graphics side, one hugely noteworthy addition is the brand new tech in the form of Screen Space Reflection (SSR). This means wet tracks will accurately reflect the environment in a way they never have before. Try out SSR by running any track in wet conditions. Additionally, we’ve done some extensive work on cloud rendering and balancing lighting in different conditions. You can read all about that below in more detail.

Devil’s in the details – some minor but long awaited requests like ‘remember password’ (we know, we know, we love it too) , ability to see and boot spectators, and various optimizations to make the UI more fluid and just-run-better overall, especially when transitioning from one area of the UI to another. We also added “asynchronous” server list loading. This means when you go to the race page where your favorites are, or the full matchmaker server list, the UI won’t annoyingly lock up anymore while it loads more entries.

Another very key area we have focused on heavily is making sure new users get some help with setting up their hardware and picking some base content from a simple list at start up. On a clean or first time install of rFactor 2 new users will be greeted with a wheel calibration wizard and simple set of Steam collections to choose from to quickly get some base content and start driving.

On the broadcasting front if you use our built-in overlay system, there are some very nice additions: DRS display for one, and RPM, speed, gear and pedal inputs are now visible – this should really spice up your league race battles!

As for the competition system, if you decide to try out the new RC, this version is a build bump to the latest opt-out default build. This means you won’t be able to join the public competition system.  However, we are going to have some test competitions up and running for you to try out on the new RC. These test competitions will show up in the same place, you just need to join normally, no special steps needed. There will be two competitions running parallel: one with the Ferrari 488 GTE, the other with McLaren MP4-8. The McLaren MP4-8 can be downloaded for free by subscribing in the Studio 397 workshop, and the Ferrari 488 GTE can be purchased in our item store.  On a side note, both competitions will be running the first ever ‘fixed setup’ races. This should even out the casual racing field a bit – less time fiddling setup parameters, more time racing!

If you haven’t already, opting in to the release candidate is easy: Follow these four steps and you’re good to go.

rFactor 2 Release Candidate Update Notes:

Steam Build IDs

• Client 6847975
• Dedicated 6847983

General

• rFactor 2 Build Bumped to 1125
• Added MetallicNoise.dds to Vehicle Common Maps so that it does not need to be packed with each car
• Updated Flag Stations so they will not assign to the Pit Path.
• Updated parsing of Flag Station Instances (cornerworkers, safetyworkers, digitalflags) so all instances are parsed and do not require any specific naming order.
• Added auto grouping of flag stations to the same point on track. Note: It is now recommended to only place Safetyworkers next to Cornerworkers or Digital flags to ensure a flag is waved or shown correctly.
• Made the distance to group flag stations together configurable (GDB: FlagStationGroupDist=30)
• Updated Yellow Flag and Blue flag logic to work correctly with flag station grouping
• Made the distance before and after an incident at which a yellow flag is waved configurable (GDB: FlagStationIncidentMinDist=20, FlagStationIncidentMaxDist=250)
• Fixed digital flags all flashing checkered the second a car finishes the race. Instead they now follow the logic of other flags and only flash progressively around the track as cars finish.
• Enabled chat command “/callvote nextsession” on a dedicated server to advance to next session.
• Removed Hide Cursor default assignment to “delete” key from controller settings. Note this does not affect existing profiles.
• Fixed cars showing up with the team name missing when using a custom team in multiplayer via the new UI
• Synced min/max ranges for options in the backend (playerbasefile) with the new UI’s default (JNIOptions)
• Added ability to specify slot using steam id for some chat commands
• Save steam id when a driver disconnects from a session
• SteamId is saved when somebody disconnects, so it appears in the result xml

Graphics

• Reviewed & updated all Cloud Textures
• Improved Lighting Calculations on Clouds and Atmospherics
• Fine-tuned and optimized rain particles (50% less particles now)
• Improved ModDev options with ability to force a specific cloud texture as well as set cloud cover at any point.
• Ensured that cloud textures are never loaded ad hoc, which would previously cause some stuttering online or in replays.
• Fixes for various issues that were present when the cloud update was previously released.
• Fixed an issue when saving PNG screenshots via the built-in game function where alpha information seems to get saved around the glows and glares, for example around the sun.
• Fixed an issue where Sunglare at dawn or dusk on ultra-wide or triple screens would be undriveable.
• SSR – screen space reflection implementation for wet road reflection
• Reduced Sky Exposure and rebalanced auto exposure for these changes
• Fixed issues with Night Time under-exposing.
• Enabled Auto Exposure adjustments whilst game is paused
• Slightly reduced TV Camera low-sun exposure levels
• Faster Exposure Adjustment on TV Cameras to reduce the noticeable fade when changing camera
• Fixed Differences in ToneMapper and Exposure in Showrooms vs In-Game
• Added Missing Ambient and Static Mappers to Default Showroom
• Fixed an issue where Static Mappers would not update after a game session time change

UI

• Load server lists (Internet, LAN, Favorites, Friends) asynchronously
• Added extra UI options for setting up steering wheel rotation settings (Rotation limit mode, max wheel angle mode, default max wheel angle).
• Ensured that appropriate settings are enabled/disabled with the right options.
• Readjusted Controller Calibrate layout so that all items fit without scroll bar
• Fixed Point to Point tracks wrongly closing loop
• Fixed unnecessary scroll bar on Display Options Screen
• Made it possible to sort the packages list by the installed column. Also made it possible to sort the multiplayer list by version while refactoring the table component config a bit.
• Fixed standings table alignment where long class names would cause problems.
• Replaced underscores in car class name with spaces and allow it to wrap to second if needed.
• Fixed bottom shadow sometimes being positioned wrongly in the lap history pop-up.
• Fixed an issue when losing a connection to the dedicated server that the network connection error dialogue would only show up when leaving a subsequent single player session.
• Added spectators to player list when in race monitor, and allow kicking/banning of them via the same process as kicking/banning an active player
• Updated event full-screen so only data that is needed for the elements being visible is fetched and updated.
• Fetch live standings in event screen with WebSocket instead of polling.
• Show total race time for race winner and the final gaps to winner for other drivers as they finish the race.
• Added start-up Wizard to assign basics controls at startup
• Fixed server join button not working if you clicked it on the outside of the “join” text.
• Fixed upgrade description not being visible with a long list of upgrades on the tuning screen.
• Fixed shadow positioning in packages table with only a few packages showing
• Fixed series list being empty if there were two series with the same name
• Added checkbox option to remember the password for a server.
• Your last selected server list type (Internet, LAN, Favorites, Friends) is now remembered on the multiplayer matchmaker screen.
• Removed useless scrollbar on options calibrate page when in an event.
• Added UI setting for toggling FFB strength direction between negative and positive.
• Added track type and length to track loading screen.
• Added disabling of “next session” button in single player admin controls when there is no next session.
• Made list layout the default layout on all pages that use it.
• Made changes to reduce time the light grey screen is shown, for example when leaving an event and returning to the main menu.
• Fixed the current selection (series, car, track) sometimes not loading in the main menu start and race screens.
• Made sky setting also affect the rain chance setting.
• Added showing raw range (min, max) for control axes on the options calibrate page.

Live stream overlay

• Class colors on text no longer working: No code changes; text color needs to specified with a “color” field in the custom overlay config.json along with the previous “backgroundColor” field.
• Added RPM, speed, gear and pedal inputs to the driver info overlay.
• Added error checking for endpoints failing when overlays folder does not exist.
• Added driver name options drop down to overlay control panel and updated overlay elements to use it.
• Added DRS active classes to battle box, extended battle box and tower overlay elements.
• Added DRS active text to battle box element.
• Fixed color swipe animation being positioned slightly wrong on some overlay elements.
• Fixed in-game panel toggling not always working.
• Fixed overlay not working at all if the configured overlay folder does not exist.
• Added prev/next buttons for season standings and in-race season standings elements.
• Added background color to control panel table rows when showing multiple car classes. The color is faded from the one defined in config.json for that class.

Modding

• Added a content error if a Cube Map is wrongly assigned.
• Added New AI Editor Methods for updating Cut Corridors including Finding, Normalizing, Setting to Corridor values, Setting to Collision Corridor values as well as setting if adjusting Corridors effects Cut Corridors.
• Added specific functions for Normalizing Corridors and Normalizing Collision Corridors.
• Fixed RealRoad errors loading Loch Drummond in ModDev
• IBL Road Shader: Made configurable the effects of the blue channel of a Road Detail Map. Now can enable/disable masking of the overlay function and the decal map.
• Added the ability to constrain a Camera to the Pitlane or the Main Track.
• Enable Trace logging by default in ModDev

As always feel free to report any issues or give your feedback via the forum or Discord release-candidate channel.

Happy racing ! (and testing) 😉

Two weeks ago in this blog we presented an updated roadmap, and since then we have been working on extending our concept of “linked sessions”. Those who have driven in GT Pro or Challenge will be familiar with the concept: linked sessions are a group of sessions that are run one after the other with the same entries in all sessions. So at the start, a split algorithm will divide people and from that moment on, all of those sessions will be executed with the same people. This allows us to for example run a qualification session and then have two races, allowing for things like reversing grids based on results from earlier sessions. It goes beyond what rFactor 2 would support out of the box on a dedicated server as we can also vary session settings for each session beyond the normal things. It’s a fairly big task, but it gives us a lot of flexibility going forward and we know we will need this for new and upcoming series!

In other news, with our new “release candidate” imminent, we will also be launching a “staging server” for the competition system. Since we are bumping the build, it’s no longer multiplayer compatible. At the same time we wanted to make sure that people on this release candidate would have something interesting to race online, so we have set up a separate environment for that and your rFactor 2 client will automatically switch.

And with the summer holiday and sale approaching fast, we still have a few tricks up our sleeve. More about that in a future blog though, it’s time to go over some more community questions. If yours is not answered yet, we will probably fix that in the next blog. In the meantime, keep it on the black stuff!

Q&A

Q: Is there a way you can implement race results history? For example, for GTC I right now have no idea where I finished last race, since the standings in the comp system in game have not been updated yet. And since I can’t find the race results back, I can’t calculate myself where I ended up after the penalties?

Remco Majoor

We will add historic results to the system. That is planned. About your specific question about the last race in the GTC standings, that ended up being your worst result so it was dropped (which is why you did not see any points for that event).

Q: What were the technical constraints you encountered during the creation and still now in relation to the CS and the integration in the game?

Julien Lemoine

Obviously we are adding a system to an existing game, so we needed to take into account the possibilities and impossibilities of the multiplayer system. The biggest constraint we had initially was the old UI which simply was not fit for purpose for adding such a system at all. So that needed to be replaced first. Another puzzle we are looking at solving is how to best share custom liveries. We have a few systems to do that, but none of those map particularly well to how we would like this to work in the competition system. Mostly though I think we found that the many configuration options in rFactor 2 have helped us a lot in getting the whole infrastructure up and running.

Q: Is an entry list system that fixes car, name & surname to a file for solo and crew races under consideration? Both for CS and for multiplayer?

Julien Lemoine

I think this question is a bit related to the issue I mentioned above regarding car skins. When you sign up with an entry, we would like to get as much information from that entry into the client and it would be great if that information could be persisted in single player too. It’s a puzzle we’re still working on!

Q: In the most far-fetched parameters that can be created, is it possible to make a series that changes car and track every time?

Julien Lemoine

Right now, when you sign up for a competition, you do so with an entry and that involves choosing a car and a specific livery. So no, we did not design the system to put you in a different car every time right now. It would not be impossible to change that though, I could envision the sign up process being extended to pick a car for each event. If the changes are small, like in F1, where teams bring new upgrades to the track at every event, we can support that with upgrades that are forced by specific tracks. For a “race of champions” style competition, we would need to make some changes to the sign up process. Food for thought!

Q: With the rF250 we will have the first oval race ever in the CS. Normally every driver has a spotter on this type of track. So could we have a spotter in CS races some day?

Fabian Balle

Yes. We have already designed the system so users can have different roles in each competition. So you can be a driver, but you can also be a spotter, and if you are a spotter you would get access to the server as a spectator. Similarly we have a way for a broadcaster to join and we’re using that internally but it has not been exposed yet. It is planned though.

Q: With oval races in the CS proving to be very popular, it begs the question of a more thorough set of oval racing rules in future. I know this has been problematic in the past, however is it something under consideration for the future?

AlessioGoPro

We continue to work with our stock car community who have been improving the stock car rules plugin. We’re not yet at the point where we feel confident that a new stable release of that can be included, but that will certainly happen going forward and will bring more of those rules. Another thing we are considering is to bring some of the extensions we have been developing for the upcoming NASCAR game back to rFactor 2. That could include concepts like the different “stages” they have.

Q: Now we’ve had different types of racing, and no doubt street tracks and Formula E will come in future, do you plan on offering ratings per type of racing? For example an oval licence, street track and road course type of thing?

RacecarDriver17

Still an open question. We can apply ratings to different scopes. So we can make an overall rating, one per competition, or type of racing, or series. We have not decided yet what we will end up doing.

Q: Loving these Summer Showdown type races – keep them up! On that topic, are we likely to see more of these kind of community events / broadcasted races in future within the CS?

Jack

Yes, we did those races as a test and I agree they were a success so we intend to do more of them, as well as bring more competitions into the system and broadcast those.

Back in July 2018 we released the very first rFactor2 laser-scanned track, Sebring International Raceway. Looking back now, the thought occurs, “What a track to start our laser scan journey, with its knobbly undulating concrete slabs and constantly changing road surface.” To say it was a challenge to reproduce would be an understatement. But we took on this new challenge, and after months of painstaking work released one of the most iconic endurance tracks to the anxiously waiting rFactor 2 public. The reception was incredibly positive. The road feel was like nothing ever experienced in rFactor 2, or any sim for that matter. The professional drivers that tested the track for us in its initial stages commented on the sublime realistic feel that mirrored the real track down to the most subtle details. This feedback together with the post-release public reception motivated the Studio 397 team to forge ahead with new and exciting laser-scanned tracks.

Fast forward to 2019, when we introduced PBR. What is PBR? you might ask. In simple terms Physically Based Rendering is a graphics approach that seeks to render images in a way that models the flow of light in the real world.

So as you can imagine PBR is a game changer in terms of how it allows the track environment to come alive with all its real-life subtleties. Sebring, which was created before the use of PBR, has been on the waiting list to get the full PBR treatment. We are therefore excited you can finally see it in all it’s glory.

In the words of the the track team:

“Updating a track to PBR is no minor task. Whilst some assets can just have a few textures replaced from a stock library, quite often it means reworking many entire materials which compromise of many textures which are all linked together which let the game engine know different information about how to light this material. When it came to updating the track we wanted to make sure that we retained all it’s unique character both in terms of racing surfaces and all the spectators and vehicles that surround the track too but also improve those details too. Additionally we’ve upgraded some assets that needed extra attention and worked hard to ensure the overall atmosphere of the track all fits and works well. We hope you enjoy racing at the updated track!“

If you already own Sebring the update will download and install automatically once you open Steam, and if you don’t yet have it in you inventory then sprint on over to our Steam Item Store and pick it up!

Sebring International Raceway | Steam Store: Click Here.

Changelog

Sebring International Raceway

v1.29

• Full update to PBR on all assets and materials
• Remodelled and updated Hotel
• Updated Spectator and Foliage materials
• Added various updated support and rescue vehicles
• Reviewed Visgroup settings for more optimal performance on Medium/Low details
• Minor adjustment to AI line at T10
• Fixed Inconsistent Pit Exit placement
• Fixed issues with shadows on tyre barriers

Sebring International Raceway is available to purchase in rFactor 2 now.

Hello sim racers! 

The wait is finally over! We can now announce the next upcoming track for rFactor 2 will be… Monza!

Yes, I’m sure many of you have enjoyed guessing which AAA location will be next on the list of our ever expanding collection of tracks within the rFactor 2, and despite many wild and varied suggestions thrown into the ring over the course of the last few weeks, those of you who picked the home of the Italian Grand Prix can now proudly say “I was right”, as we can now finally confirm that the legendary Autodromo Nazionale di Monza is set to arrive in rFactor 2 in the near future. 

Located towards the North of Milan, The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza is one of the finest examples of an historic racing venue anywhere in the world. Built almost 100 years ago in 1922, the original build of the venue would represent only the third ever purpose-built racetrack in the existence, coming hot off the heels of Brooklands in the United Kingdom and of course the tremendous Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the United States.

Despite many laps and much drama having passed over the hallowed tarmac of Monza in the following 99 years of active competition, the core spirit of the circuit remains intact today – namely incredible speeds thanks to the three significant straights and plenty of slipstreaming and overtaking action – something we are absolutely certain will prove to be a popular experience for our players once the circuit hits the rFactor 2 Steam Store in the next few weeks.

Creating a new virtual racing circuit in a modern sim is never an easy task, made doubly so this time thanks to the many complications around travel restrictions that remain in place due to the world health pandemic, so with all these challenges taken into consideration, we consider ourselves rather fortunate that the Studio 397 team consists of staff members located all around the world – with some of our track team based in Italy – giving us the perfect opportunity to head over to Monza and grab the very latest scan data from this track, an opportunity that puts us in a great position to develop the most up-to-date and detailed version of the circuit currently available in sim racing. 

Why Monza?

Simply put, no racing title can be considered complete without this iconic cathedral of speed amongst its roster of circuits. Having been a staple venue of many high profile national and international racing events over the years, we firmly believe that the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza presents an ideal fit for many of the vehicles we offer within rFactor 2, and of course, as firm fans of endurance and GT racing ourselves, the correlation between this track and long distance endurance racing is simply too good of a combination to pass up!

How Did We Scan It?

We teased the community a little while ago that we have some of our team out in Europe taking a laserscan of a “popular European circuit”, in fact, we even placed an rFactor 2 sticker in a sneaky spot at the side of the track for someone to find. Alas, no one ended up tracking that sticker down, and despite quite a few of you correctly guessing the new venue would be Monza, we’ve managed to keep it under wraps (at least officially) until now! So with the big reveal out of the way, we thought it might be fun to have a look at some of the antics our team got up to as they went about the business of grabbing an accurate representation of not just the circuit itself, but the many surrounding spaces that make up this very visually strong and recognizable racing venue. 

Laserscanning a circuit is a tricky business, as more often that not you only really get one shot at ensuring you’ve got all the many varied details captured ahead of starting the build process. Over the course of two days at the venue, our team managed to amass an incredible amount of footage from both the modern and historic variants of the track, capturing video, photo, drone and 360 degree shots of the track and surrounding areas – well over 300 GB worth of images for the track team to pour over and turn into virtual racing tarmac in rFactor 2!

Of course, in order to thoroughly capture the whole spectrum of details on a modern racing venue, especially one so rich in history and detail as Monza, our team deployed a range of different equipment to help record those all important images. The core of the circuit layout and details are of course captured via the laserscanning team on site, however to help build up a more rounded picture of the circuit itself, we also took the opportunity to deploy a drone overhead, which would be allowed to follow the lead car around a full lap and capture 360-degree video of all the various aspects of the circuit that aren’t immediately apparent when down at tarmac level. Useful as drones undoubtedly are, that footage alone would not be enough to accurately capture all trackside terrain and landscapes, so the team would also be tasked with additional reconnaissance data gathering to ensure we have fine detail like trackside transitions, curbs, degrees of grass banking and appropriate colour matching and fine detail recording to help us replicate the full Monza experience back at Studio 397 HQ.

In order to best bring the full racing experience to life within our simulation, it isn’t just the circuit itself that receives attention from the team. Arguably, the pit lane and various pit buildings of Monza are just as important as the racing tarmac, and as we at Studio 397 pride ourselves on fully recreating the whole trackside experience in our circuits, the team in Monza paid particular attention to the various different styles (and conditions!) of buildings in and around the pit lane and paddock area, focussing in on the key details that help make up much of the history and glamour of this famous venue. 

From the impressive main building structures on pit road, right down to the interior of the pit box garages, and the various large and small outer buildings dotted around the main paddock area at Monza, all of these details have been painstakingly captured both ground level and with the aid of the drone camera, and are in the process of being recreated within the simulation to really present a clear and accurate picture of the layout, configuration and style of the Monza pit and paddock area in 2021. Although we appreciate that the vast majority of our players will mostly be concentrating on getting out of the pit box and onto the circuit as quickly as possible, here at the studio we have always enjoyed bringing to life those extra little details for people to discover when they go and explore around the circuit 

I think it would be fair to say we here at Studio 397 are pretty excited about this new track coming to rFactor 2, and we hope all of you out in the community share our excitement about another top level international grade venue for the simulation. To find our more about how development is going with the current build of the track, tune in to the May Development Roadmap over on the Studio 397 website this May 31st, and stay tuned to our social media channels for more progress reports as development continues!

The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza – coming soon to rFactor 2!

As we’re getting closer to the middle of the year, we thought it would be a good time to revisit the initial roadmap we published at launch, to see where we are, what’s changed based on user feedback, and our own detailed analysis of how the sim racing community have been engaging within the system during the early stages of this beta development process. 

Let’s start with some of the priorities that have shifted since our initial roadmap post at the end of last year

More competition formats — we decided to pull some of the different competition formats forward, and we just finished running the first season of GT Challenge in the Competition System. That taught us some valuable things about where we need to add more flexibility to the system, and how we can better accommodate the different styles and formats of racing that we know are so important to our existing and potential new players of rFactor 2. With these findings in our growing databank of knowledge, we’ve elected to spend some more time focussing on this area in the immediate future, however that said, this is probably going to be a continual task, so expect more formats to emerge in the upcoming months.

Protests and decisions — This is a topic that we have decided is best managed by splitting it into two distinct parts. The first part of it, making sure we can handle protests and having race control take decisions, is in place in terms of the basic mechanics, which we will continue to monitor, test and expand upon as the system matures and clear trends and requirements make themselves apparent. We have some firm ideas of what we expect this system to look like and the things we plan to achieve with it, however we are also finding it valuable to absorb the excellent feedback from within the community, feedback which will no doubt have an impact upon the finished product going forward. 

Ratings — based on the data we have gathered, we have completed the internal testing of our algorithms, so our next steps are to look at how to integrate them into the UI and decide what competitions we want to use them for. 

In parallel, we’ve also been looking at some forms of safety ratings, but as I’m sure you can imagine, this is an aspect of the system we want to be fully confident is producing fair and balanced results for all of our users, as such this is very much under evaluation back at the studio as we look to ensure we can offer a robust and well-thought-out solution come public release.

Stewarding — This is another thorny topic of discussion, and arguably one of the most labour-intensive aspects of running racing events on any sim racing platform. When we introduced the idea of the Competition System in rFactor 2, one of the key goals of the platform had to be around how to make life easier for event organizers to put on top quality racing activations, rather than being bogged down with unnecessary levels of administration that doesn’t add to the quality of life experience of our drivers and participants. With this in mind, we have always aspired to offer a significant amount of automation within the system, with aspects such as protests and decisions being one of the key areas we are working to streamline. Of course, this is a rather large area of discussion, and as the system continues to evolve and develop in this regard, we will expand further on this top separately. Our goal is definitely to let the in-game systems do a lot of the (easy) work here, monitoring when you cut the track or commit other offences and directly handing out penalties. At the same time we are aware that not everything can be decided by robots.

Broadcast integration — no big changes here, as we are gradually introducing these features, first internally and then also as part of our overlay package. Some things you will have seen in GT Pro and Challenge over the last couple of months. The goal is still to make sure that overlays showing standings, points, participants and calendars accurately reflect the competition they’re a part of.

Roles and team based driving — This is something that many of you within the community have been requesting from the rFactor 2 Competition System in recent months, and as keen endurance racing fans ourselves, we are certainly incredibly enthusiastic to bring this level of functionality to the system for you to enjoy.  As things stand currently, we are working on adding the ability to allow multiple drivers to share an “entry”, or car, in a competition. Additionally, we plan on allowing roles to be defined within the system, which means that teams can elect to allocate specific roles for a manager or race engineer for example. Other roles are stewards, race control, and cameramen to facilitate broadcasts.

Offline Championships — I’m sure you will appreciate that a lot of our development attention has been focused on improving the online experience of rFactor 2 lately, however with these changes we are also looking at introducing new features to benefit the offline portion of our player base. Already we have identified ways to implement the much request offline championship mode within the core simulation – this will be added once the online part is running smoothly. We will leverage the features introduced as part of the Competition System to allow players to develop their own custom championship tool to race against the AI, something that has been a long time coming to rFactor 2, but hopefully should be worth the wait! 

Integration — This is a topic that is currently under active discussion within Motorsport Games, the new owners of Studio 397 and rFactor 2 With the rFactor 2 engine becoming the base of many new games, the Competition System is being reviewed and considered for those, as well as integration of it in the Traxion.gg website. No decisions have been made here. We’ll update you as time goes on.

That’s about it in terms of updating our current thinking behind the latest and future developments of the Competition System for now, so as is the tradition, let’s move on to some of the questions submitted by our community over the last couple of weeks…

Q&A

In the cars we were able to modify the skins, in the future will we be able to change the circuit boards/banners/billboards of the tracks?

Lethal

We are looking into the option to customize billboards, but this is typically complicated by the licensing agreements we have with tracks which, more often than not, define what we can and cannot do in terms of the actual billboards and sponsors we put on them. So in general this will not be possible.

It would be nice if you put another showroom to see the car to take good photos without background and varied. The hangar we have now is pretty, but one side of the car is still black. Will we see more rooms in the future?

Adrian Blasco

Likely, yes. Internally we use another showroom to create the icons for the cars. Third parties have provided various showrooms too. The tricky part at the moment is the lighting. That is just not as good in the current showrooms as it is on track. So that’s another thing on our shortlist (which actually, is not a short list at all 😉 ).

Great to see the new round of CS races having more regular timed, short events. Is this something that was always on the cards for the system or something that you’ve introduced following community feedback?

Jack

I think from the start we said that, a) we want to experiment with different ideas, and that will continue for the rest of the year, and b) we will listen to the community and schedule events accordingly. There is definitely more to come as one internal refactoring we still need to do is to make our scheduler a bit more flexible so we can stack even more events, but that’s where we’re headed.

As you get closer to moving out of Beta, when the Competition System content changes are you planning on publicizing these changes more in future; maybe on the website or something?

Victor39

Yes. We have been discussing making a collection of series that last longer than just a single competition. Another reason for moving in this direction is that those series can then also be used a) for hosting on your own servers, and b) for off-line competitions.

An idea for the Discord CS Bot: top 3 from each result after each race, and after each race, message from this race is deleted.

Julien Lemoine

We have a few ideas on how to feed information from the CS back to several other channels, Discord being one of them. For now we’re focusing on the CS core functions first, but this will not be forgotten.

Not sure if this would work, but as the endurance character of rFactor 2 is perhaps the most visible, wouldn’t it make sense to: – select the most significant endurance races which can be featured – ensure that when the day arrived, the system could hold if you had hundreds of racers – during the weeks leading to such races, you would have lobbies with 30/45 min races every hour, which would serve as training and to generate the splits based on the specific stats generated.

vava74

Team based racing is on our roadmap, so I think we will definitely move in the direction you are outlining here. We are already confident our system will hold with hundreds of racers and we spent a lot of time last year to fix the outstanding endurance racing issues.

In special events, could you add a Q session at 17:00 CET (or CEST)? In Spain at 21:00 we are having dinner and at 03:00 we are sleeping. Thanks!

Guillem Rego

We want to do more events and sessions going forward, but for the current events I don’t think we’ll move those times around anymore. It would confuse too many, as would adding sessions right now. We are aware that different countries, even in Europe, have dinner at different times. For example, instead of 21h we typically have dinner at 18h in The Netherlands. With 21h we were aiming to provide a time after dinner for most people. Obviously we can’t please everybody (also thinking about people in different time zones). But point taken, we’ll see what we can do in the future.

It could be great too, to have the option, on selection screen of your car to sign up for a Series, that you can see the skin at least, not only a droppable menu with all the numbers and names. You have to go back to the main menu, pretend a single player session, to see the actual liveries and decide which one you will use on the competition system. Get back again to competition registry and select the livery number on the menu.

Alejandro Diaz Reina

Excellent suggestion. We will add that.

Love the new StockCar special event and the next two upcoming Summer Showdown events. As an idea, is it worth maybe advertising these in game, maybe on loading screens or something?

AlexR

We did a news article that shows up in the game. We are looking at other ways to remind people, both in game and on other channels. Glad you like our events! Good luck competing.

I think the new three race special events are a great, especially to broadcast the top split – do you think in future it will be possible to integrate broadcasts within the actual CS system itself?

Ben_Gretarex

Yes, that is planned. Part of the “Watch” screens we’ve designed in the new UI are to view live streamed broadcasts of events.

As someone based in the US West Coast time zone, I’d like to know if you have plans for hosting more high profile special events in a US friendly time zone in future?

Dale

We will. This was our starting point. Organize a few to test the waters. We know we should also cater for the other major timezones (US, Australia/Asia).

StockCars in CS! Fantastic stuff, now the inevitable next question is…. are we ever likely to see more oval content in rFactor 2, to support regular oval style series in the CS?

ChristopherR

I think we will add a few more, yes. I know we’re in licensing talks for one right now.

A question about broadcasting. I’m a keen broadcaster but not so much of a driver. Would it be possible in future to facilitate something that allows the community to create proper commentated broadcasts over CS races? Basically, I’d like to make real broadcasts of the events for my own channel, and wondered if this is possible or even desirable by the Studio?

Jackson

Definitely. We are defining roles in the system so, for specific competitions, you can participate as a broadcaster. For those situations we are also adjusting our overlays so they hook into the CS data. Feel free to get in touch if you want to help us develop these features more and want to do some test broadcasts!

I know this isn’t really a “simulation” thing, but would it be cool to have some kind of end screen or graphic that comes up at the end of CS races, with the podium winners names displayed or something to celebrate the results of the top three / top 5?

RaceDriver78

We intend to make the results screens a bit more dramatic than they currently are, to celebrate such results. I think that’s a good suggestion.

New build update day!

Hello sim racers – today is a good day for fans of rFactor 2 as we are pleased to release a new build update to the title, moving the existing ‘Release Candidate’ build of rFactor 2 into the main public branch of the software – and with it plenty of new and improved features, fixes, developments and changes to enhance your experience within the simulation.

Before we look deeper into what changed as part of this latest update, we want to take the opportunity to thank those of you who elected to opt in to the Release Candidate early – your feedback has been exceptionally valuable to us here at the Studio as we look to refine and iron out any early issues with the latest changes, as we hope you agree that this build marks another good step forward in our continued work to develop and improve rFactor 2 for the years ahead.

For those of you who are perhaps less familiar with the latest developments that have been in the works, let’s take a look at what has changed as part of this new public build update of rFactor 2;

Key Highlights

Automatic Wipers & Lights

The latest build now features new options for the player to enable or disable as they so choose in the settings screen of the UI. Two of those new options that may prove particularly interesting to players focus on the addition of automatic headlights and windscreen wipers for cars that enable these features. 

The new options allow players to set the turning on of both lights and/or wipers automatically by the software, dependent on the specific conditions out on the circuit. For example, should you have windscreen wipers set to Auto, the simulation will detect when rain begins to fall and turn the wipers on for you. Of course, these functions can still be manually instigated by the player, should you continue to map the appropriate key to this function within the controller assignment screen. Additionally, should a player not have either lights or wipers mapped to their controller, rFactor 2 will recognize that fact and apply the automation routine itself – so no longer will you find to your dismay that you’ve forgotten to map headlights to your wheel when it starts getting dark on track, and then find yourself being disqualified from the race because of it! 

Auto Exposure Rework

Another visual aspect of the simulation that has received attention for this new build is our recent auto exposure feature. Our development team have been working hard to bring this feature to cockpit cameras within rFactor 2, while also reworked how auto exposure is calculated within the simulation. With this new build update, we have produced some changes to the auto exposure that should help to reduce the calculated exposure “bouncing” around in different conditions

Replay Monitor Stutter Fix

We’ve experienced several reports from the community since our last major build update release around both major and minor stutter issues when players watch the in race replay monitor in the garage UI. After plenty of detailed analysis, we have uncovered the issues behind these stutters and this new build release represents our latest fixes to the problem. In this new build, replays should now remain smooth from both the basic replay screen within the in race replay monitor, and also when the user hovers over the additional replay information areas at the top and bottom of the screen.

Sunflare Improvements

Sunflare effects recently returned to rFactor 2, and in this build we took the opportunity to further refine and fine tune how these are displayed within the simulation, evening out the effects across the many varied time of day and weather conditions within the software to produce a measured and realistic result to the end user. As part of these new updates, we have paid attention to how sunflares are represented in multiple different field of view configurations used by our community, with extra work also being undertaken to ensure transitions in and out of the glare properly reflects how this would look from real life – improving the immersion and visual experience of the effect, and overall improving how rFactor 2 behaves in heavy glare situations out on the circuit. 

rFactor 2 Update Notes:

Steam Build IDs

• Client 6660506 
• Dedicated 6660508

General

• Added SteamID of each client to race results logs generated by a Dedicated Server
• Fix issue with Attack Mode overlay information not correctly resetting.
• Stopped AI playing wipers when in Garage
• Added automatic headlight and wiper settings for player.
• These show as an extra step in the key toggles (Headlights: Off / Auto / On) or (Wipers: Off / Auto / Slow / Fast)
• Skip Auto option when the setting is disabled
• Added a message about windscreen wiper state to the message centre. Don’t show a message if the vehicle does not have wipers.
• Auto Headlights and Windscreen Wipers are forced on if no key is assigned”
• Fixed issue where automatic gears would require a false top gear to correctly downshift for some vehicles
• Report steam branch and build number on startup

HUD

• Fixed spacing for weather info in HUD

Graphics

• Renamed Anti-Aliasing options to show the amount of MSAA applied.
• Adjust Sunflare strength so that they work with different field of views
• Added a blend out at screen edge to smooth transition of Sunflare going off screen.
• Fixed an issue where a texture sampler would not set correctly
• Fixed an issue that DigitalFlags would behave as Marshals online
• Reworked Auto Exposure to reduce the calculated exposure “bouncing” around in different conditions
• Enabled Auto Exposure in Cockpit Cameras
• Fixed Water not rendering on TV Screens
• Removed GPU V-Sync option from Graphics Configuration settings
• Updated Environment Reflection Settings
• Low/Medium/High/Ultra settings which increase refresh rate and resolution.
• Ambient light probes now allow for more advanced blending options
• Fixed stuttering on Replay Monitor screen.

UI

• Added sector and lap timing to full screen replay bar.
• Updated the styling and alignment of the full screen replay bar.
• Fixed UI stopping updating when clicking repeatedly on the track map in the event screen.
• Corrected the display of FXAA to On/Off
• Fixed the units to seconds for displaying Transparent Trainer Lead Timer
• Fixed the display units for Low Speed Information to show a percentage
• Fixed race countdown not always showing for a multiplayer race.
• Fixed showing the maximum time for a single player race before the race start.
• Improved formatting of time durations.
• Fixed issue where RealRoad setting was carried over from previous track selection in session setup screen
• Fixed an issue where some tracks would not show in game due to having packed SCN files which were not valid track layouts
• Added Auto Blip, Auto Lift, Hold Brakes, Hold Clutch, Repeat Shifts, Start Engine, Auto Wipers and Auto Headlight settings to difficulty screen

Modding

• Fixed some minor issues with sample ModDev content
• Added pop up (mod dev & scene viewer only) / logging to paths where the RRBIN file fails to load
• Force an update after loading RRBIN in scene viewer or moddev so that it shows correctly straight away.
• Updated default RRBIN filename scene viewer / moddev tweakbar rollout
• Setup a stable and beta version of Max Plugins 2021. Stable is the last fully tested internally. Beta is built to the absolute latest code.

The new Public build is available on the standard release branch of rFactor 2 within Steam (Betas – None). Players can chose to opt into this build version by right-clicking on rFactor 2 in the Steam Library list, selecting options – betas – none from the drop-down list.

Next Release Candidate Build

As is tradition with our build deployment schedule,  the release of a new public update to the simulation usually means we can then move some of our latest beta changes to the new ‘Release Candidate’ version of the software – again available to select on the Beta tab within the Steam Library entry for rFactor 2. Unlike in previous releases, on this occasion we have elected to delay our new ‘Release Candidate’ update for a short while as we look to further refine the build before putting it into the hands of our community player base. Although we are sure some of you will be disappointed to have to wait before getting your hands on the latest changes to rFactor 2, we thought it wouldn’t be fair to continue holding back the current updates for the main player base as we further tune the next Release Candidate build – however those looking forward to getting their hands on the next RC shouldn’t have long to wait, we anticipate we should be in a position to push our next Release Candidate build to Steam in the very near future.

On a final note; thank you all for continuing on this development journey of rFactor 2, we hope you enjoy the new changes, and we look forward to sharing more about the next steps of development for the simulation in the very near future. 

Happy racing !