Announcement

On the day of the release of the real car, we are proud that for our newest release we were able to team up with the race fanatics that are BMW Motorsport to bring the newest and hottest automobile from the Bavarian manufacturer to the virtual tracks everywhere in the world. Tested to perfection on the iconic Nürburgring Nordschleife, the BMW M2 CS Racing is the up and coming Cup class that will have drivers right in the action of multiclass endurance racing. Front engine – rear wheel driven, the formula for a thrilling challenge no matter where you race it!

The close collaboration with BMW Motorsport, which started already during the development and testing of the real car, meant we had full access to every aspect of the car and the performance data BMW has gathered over the last couple of months. This means not only does the car look beautiful, being created based on the actual CAD data for the exterior, interior and suspension, but it drives just like the real one. We faithfully recreated every setting that you can use to setup the car and by comparing telemetry with that on our laser scanned tracks, we validated all aspects of suspension, engine and gearbox behavior. During these development iterations, we also had the BMW Motorsport drivers helping us with testing and validating the physics, so all the ingredients are there for an enjoyable time behind the steering wheel!

Some technical details about the car. It is based on the F87 M2, with 3.0L turbo engine producing 550 Nm of torque and 350 horsepower. Those figures might seem low on paper compared to many modern street legal sports cars, but this car is built specifically for track usage, and BMW made sure acceleration from corner exit is more than good, with a flat engine power curve from 5000 rpm, up to almost 7000 rpm. Mid-corner, the M2’s well known agility is kept in check by a set of four 285 mm wide slicks on 18″ rims. Dry weight is 1535 kg, supported by track oriented adjustable dampers and a few sets of stiff springs. Both front and rear anti-roll bars are adjustable (2 options for each). Stopping power is provided by beefed up, lightweight 6 piston (front) and 4 piston (rear) calipers combined with 380 mm discs all around and ABS system tuned specifically for track usage. Traction control is also available, with a dedicated preset for dry and wet conditions, or can be turned completely off. To improve torque transfer to the rear tyres, the car has a proper racing plate-type Limited Slip Differential. Aerodynamics have also been optimized, with front splitter and adjustable rear wing at the back.

The car is for sale in rFactor 2 now and you can find it here. Enjoy the drive!

It’s Friday everyone! Not yet ‘Black’ Friday, and not yet Roadmap time… But hey, never a wrong Friday to get some spontaneous rFactor 2 content updates!

Nürburgring

First we’ve added the three new layouts we promised for the Nürburgring:

Sprint

‘Sprint’ is a short version of the GP layout, it detours the Ford, Dunlop and Audi curves, and instead swoops back quickly transitions into the Michelin curve. A great layout for quick races with high down force! 

Sprint No Chicane

Same as the ‘Sprint Short’ version but with a more flowing last sector. The chicane is replaced with a more flowing S style turn that making it a bit less technical. Also great for slower classes and quick sprint races, as the name implies.

Endurance

This is the monster layout you all have been waiting for. Used religiously in endurance series, this is one of the main events of the modern Nürburgring / Nordschleife calendar.

Porsche Endurance

The Porsche 991 GT3 Cup gets an exciting update! The Endurance Package, kitted out and ready for full attack on the Nordschleife.

The Endurance package consists of different dampers and 2 sets of softer springs, compared to the Supercup specification. The Endurance package also comes with ABS system and aerodynamic package: front fender flares + rear wing 10 mm gurney flap and restricts the engine power output to a nominal 413 PS. Additionally the Endurance package also comes with a possibility to refuel the car, with fuel tank capacity lowered to 95 L, compared to 100 L with the Supercup specification. The car also weighs 30 kg more.

We’ve also added a couple of new shiny liveries, notably one that our very own René Buttler drives!

Nissan GT500

v2.01

• Updated to new materials
• Adjusted the windows in and out GMT so it can be skinned
• Rim LODs fixed smoothing groups
• Adjusted smoothing groups for all tire LODs
• Added proper icons
• Updated Templates

Nissan GT500 Screenshot Contest

By now a legend in it’s own right, the beastly Nissan GT500 2013 gets a full update to the new material system. And with that, we know for sure that some insane looking community liveries will surface out there in the wild.  So we thought, how about a contest to reward the best looking examples!

Contest Details:

• Contest goes for one week from Friday November 22nd to Friday November 29th.
• Winner gets a free DLC pack of their choice.
• All submissions will go on Discord/Facebook/Twitter. For Facebook and Twitter simply @rFactor2 hashtag #GT500SkinContest and on Discord we will open a special channel to post submissions (nissan-gt500-content).
• Join Discord here if you haven’t already.
• Winner will be announced on the 29th and featured in the November Roadmap.

Aston Martin Vantage GTE

v1.05

• Minor fix to show proper GTE badge on steering wheel

Reiza Studios Pack

The ever so very popular Reiza Studios Pack is still going strong, with a good amount of updates to share based on user feedback.

• Imola:
  Fixed various reported wall collision issues and holes in 1988 & 2001 versions.
• Metalmoro AJR:
  Adjusted aero pitch & yaw sensitivity;
  Slightly downgraded Judd V10 performance to better match that of other engine variants;
  Added turbo model to AJR Honda Turbo variant.
• Metalmoro MR18:
  Added turbo model;
  Adjusted aero pitch & yaw sensitivity.
• MCR 2000:
  Adjusted aero pitch & yaw sensitivity;
  Slight graphical height correction.

That’s all, enjoy your weekend and happy painting!

When it comes to the ultimate customer race car, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup is probably high on the list, if not the leader, as it features in so many races. Used not only in the Porsche Cups around the entire globe, but also in several other racing series, including the all-famous 24 Hours at the Nürburgring, this Weissach masterpiece is one-of-a-kind. A 3.8-litre with six cylinders, using of course the boxer configuration, pushes this racer in a blink of an eye through every tough corner. Bringing it to rFactor 2 once again shows our determination to provide our community with the most popular race classes. We are thankful for the great relationship we were able to establish with a first-class manufacturer such as Porsche. Enjoy door-to-door racing, either in a Cup setting or as part of a multi-class grid, and show the world that you can dominate this well-known machine.

Porsche builds the new 911 GT3 Cup on the same production line at the Porsche factory in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen as the road-going 911.

In its latest iteration, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup is equipped with a 4.0-litre, six-cylinder boxer engine. The vehicle generates 485 hp (357 kW) at 7,500 revs per minute, 35 horsepower more than the previous generation. Power is delivered to the rear axle via a race clutch and a Porsche-Motorsport-designed six-speed dog-type gearbox with a mechanical limited-slip differential. For the first time in a Porsche-made cup race car, gear shifting is performed with paddle shifters on the steering wheel.

The newly developed racing brake system improves the endurance qualities of the 911 GT3 Cup 991: With 38cm diameter brake discs on all four corners, operated by aluminium six-piston monobloc racing calipers in the front and four-piston units at the rear.

In the race department at Weissach, the suspension underwent modifications to ensure higher precision and more stability at high speeds. Compared to its predecessor, the type 997, the wheelbase grew by 100 mm, improving handling at the limit. Porsche Motorsport redesigned the single-piece 18 inch race rims with central locking. The width of the Michelin racing slicks at the front axle grew by 2 cm to now measure 27 cm, and at the rear axle by 1 cm to 31 cm.

Click here to buy it!

Located in the Eifel region of Germany, the Nürburgring can easily be described as one of the most – if not the most – iconic race locations on the entire globe. Built right into the trees and the ups and downs of this lovely countryside, the Nürburgring offers a challenge even to the absolute best of the racing world. The two circuits, Nordschleife and Nürburgring GP, have seen the greatest of motorsport over the years, but they are also places for amateur drivers from all over the world to get their dose of track driving and to follow the same roads their heroes did or do.

Bringing such an icon to rFactor 2 is a real honor for us. Just like our playerbase, we always dreamed about taking the virtual cars onto the Nordschleife or Nürburgring and just enjoy pure driving. Experiencing this track during development was absolutely special. Every motorsport fan knows this track and has seen plenty of footage, especially from the remarkable 24 Hour event. Working on bringing it to life in our very own simulation and then being able to even drive on it was a breathtaking moment for the studio. Bit by bit the wireframe turned into the best playground we could think of. The laserscan we used is from 2018, making it the most accurate and modern representation of this holy grail of motorsport history and also modern times. Like so many other simracers, we visited the track during Simracing Expo or even just in our free time, being captured by the mythos and the feeling you get just by being close to it. And now it’s finally in rFactor 2, for you all to race on and enjoy.

Click here to buy it!

History

The Nürburgring’s story goes way back, all the way to the 1920s! Its home is in the town of Nürburg, Germany, and although it has weathered the decades of the past, it has come out intact and today has transformed into a vast motorsports complex with a capacity of over 150.000, with a fan-base that’s arguably one of the most dedicated and die-hard in the world of motorsports.

Layouts

This initial release features no less than four unique layouts, with more to come later as free upgrades.

Nordschleife “North loop”

The now almost ancient Nordschleife “North loop” dates back to the roaring 1920s ! Meandering its way through the countryside and circling the medieval castle of Nürburg and its small village, the Ring’s roads and sharp curbs snake around the idyllic and bucolic Eifel landscape. The full Nordscheife loop is 20.8 km with a jaw-dropping 300 meters of elevation changes.

Nürburgring Grand Prix

Among modern, well-known tracks, this Grand Prix track, which was built in 1984 and used for Formula One up to 2013, remains a great venue for modern racing. The Grand Prix is a very technical track that requires acute timing and precision. Its iconic sharp first section of turns is a real test of braking mastery.

Nürburgring 24 Hours

The 24 Hours Nürburgring layout is 25km of grueling endurance. The layout starts on the Grand Prix circuit and then transtions to the North loop. Skipping only the Mercedes Arena section of the Grand Prix, it uses most of the two layouts. The modern and old clash, but co-exist in a way that gives this immense layout its unique character. Part technical, part old school, the 24 hours layout is the ultimate test of flexibility and skillful racing for anyone calling themselves an endurance driver !

Nürburgring Combined

The ‘Combined’ layout is a close cousin of the 24 Hours layout. The only difference is it includes the Mercedes Arena section, making it a slightly longer layout with an extra challenge!

Sections of the Nordschleife

With too many corners to cover them all individually, we decided to summarize a lap around the Nordschleife on a section by section basis, giving you a little history and advice on each!

Antoniusbuche

This first section of the Nordschleife was named after an altar that was dedicated to St. Antony. The altar was situated below a huge beech tree that was taken down before the Second World War to make room for another road.

Tiergarten

Currently known for the “Hotel am Tiergarten” run by the family Schmitz, whose daughter Sabine won the 24h more than once and is well known for driving the BMW ring taxi for over 10 years, this part was named after a burial ground for animals that died in combat.

Hohenrain

A braking zone surrounded by grass and nowadays parking areas for the track.

Hatzenbach

Just to the left of the track, a small creek gave its name to this section of the track. This twisty section is all about rhythm and momentum.

Hocheichen

Ironically, the great oaks this section is named after actually had to be largely cut down to make space for the track.

Quiddelbacher-Höhe

Here the track actually passes along a ridge on the highest part of the village of Quiddelbach. This and the following sections are all about nerve and keeping your foot down if you dare!

Flugplatz

Although many driving the track will remember this section as a place where you actually get all four wheels off the ground, giving you the feeling of flying, the area left of the track was a former airfield for gliders.

Schwedenkreuz

A stone cross, erected there in 1638 as a memorial to the mayor of Kelberg and tax-collector for Adenau after he was believed to be killed by deserters from the Swedish army. Iron clamps nowadays hold together the remains of the cross, which broke roughly a century ago.

Aremberg

A volcanic hill and nearby village share the name with this section of the track. As soon as you exit this section you plunge downhill at high speed, only to emerge again at the top, which is one of the slowest parts of the track.

Fuchsröhre

Spontaneously named by construction workers after a frightened fox that dived into a drain pipe during the construction of this section of the track. The incident actually temporarily halted work.

Adenauer Forst

This part of the forest, near the town of Adenau, gave name to the track passing through.

Metzgesfeld

An ancient map from 1860 marks this area as a field that was owned by someone called Metzges. It’s actually a quite complicated section of the track to drive. Be aware of where the jumps are and don’t let the curbs fool you.

Kallenhard

The old German term “hard” means mountain forest, so essentially this is just another part of the track that is named after a forest.

Wehrseifen

From an old German we go to a Celtic word, “seifen” meaning valley. This valley marked the border between the towns of Breidscheid and Adenau, which have since formed one single town. It is also the slowest corner on the track.

Ex-Mühle

After the original owner of the water mill refused to sell the necessary land to build a paddock here, this section was promptly named after the mill. Obviously that refusal also meant the start/finish line could not be situated here. Driving wise it’s downhill and back up again, where the start of the climb is the biggest challenge, taking as much speed up the hill as you can.

Bergwerk

Until roughly 1900, this was the location of a mine, where lead and silver were mined. The mine closed after those natural resources were exhausted. Leading onto the back straight, this is an important corner to get right. It’s probably also one of the most dangerous ones.

Kesselchen

Named during construction after the little valley this section is in.

Klostertal

In the 14th century, this part of the valley housed a convent (or “Kloster” as this is called in German) where an Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem lived. Later, in the 18th century, a monk lived there who helped people in need.

Steilstrecke

Not in use today, but a former testing section, and still open for the public. Keeping your momentum here is crucial, with no room for error!

Karussell

Probably the most iconic turn of the whole track is the carousel. The original bend went around the top of the turn, with the banked section being there for drainage only, but one day a driver called Caracciola had the idea to actually drive this section and the rest is history. Entry and exit of the hairpin are probably the most important to get right.

Hohe Acht

Named after a hill that is the highest point in the region which can be found close to the race track.

Hedwigshöhe

This section was named after the wife of the spiritual godfather of the Ring. While her husband was overseeing the construction of the track, Hedwig enjoyed the panoramas from this point on the track.

Wippermann

In the early days of the track, cars used to go up and down in this section of the track, that has since been made less dangerous, like the earlier Flugplatz. That does not mean it’s an easy section today. Try not to upset the car too much here!

Eschbach

This is another twisty section of the track that got its name from both a creek and a small village of the same name. The name itself also refers to a lot of ash trees that used to stand here.

Brünnchen

The literal translation being “little well”, this was the location of several irrigation lines to Herschbroich and also the location of a bridge over a creek that is part of the track. This is a popular location for spectators too, because there are always a lot of things happening. Don’t be the next person to grab their attention there!

Pflanzgarten

Often also referred to as Pflanzgarten 1 and 2, this area used to be the site of gardens and fields for growing plants of the counts of Nürburg.

Stefan-Bellof-S

An S turn that was named after the race driver who set a new lap record in 1983 during a 1000 kilometer race.

Schwalbenschwanz

With a bit of imagination, if you look at this section of the track, it looks like the tail of a swallow, so it was named like that. At the end of this section lies the small “Karussell”, a baby version of the most iconic turn on the track. Keep your speed up and have a good flow to finally exit onto the long straight with maximum momentum!

Galgenkopf

It’s been a while since public executions were in fashion, but when they were, this is where the people of Nürburg held them.

Döttinger Höhe

This long straight was named after the high point near the village of Döttingen.

If you’ve made it all the way to the end, enjoy the drive!

Releasing a new rFactor 2 build is typically something we do with a classic bulleted changelog, but this time we felt it deserved a bit more than that.

During our recent rF24 event, technical issues cropped up that left us no alternative but to red flag the race. We decided to immediately regroup and redirect our priorities towards dissecting and fixing what turned out to be long standing issues. It was not a simple task, but we rolled up our collective sleeves and dug in. With a lot of help of the participating teams, we analyzed all the problems and for the first time were able to reproduce most of them. Their cause turned out to be very specific edge cases in ‘rejoins’ and ‘driver swaps’ so we proceeded by focusing on trying to break these features in as many different ways as possible.

So of course, much of the findings relied on intense and focused testing over the past weeks. Having to go back and test multiple scenarios repeatedly and working to find fixes and workarounds required a well-thought-out approach with a solid understanding of the issues from all involved, both on the testing side and the development side. This intense focus has given us an insight into the many ways things can go wrong in the heat of racing.  Thankfully, we also had the massive support of the rFactor 2 community through post-race feedback and stories, as well as logging – this was invaluable and an enormous push to help find the root cause of many of these issues people have in online events. As a team, we meticulously went over each of these reports and looked for any specific details that could point us in the right direction.

Car Selection and Upgrades

One of the main areas we focused on was issues related to rejoining after getting disconnected during a session, for example when the network connection goes down for a moment. rFactor 2 has always allowed for a driver to rejoin a race after a computer crash or network issue, but in some cases on rejoining the server, the driver would end up with a DNF (Did not finish), a DQ (disqualification) or their name would show at the bottom of the list as simply ‘pending an open session’. Of course, these outcomes are incorrect and the question for us was: what triggers these scenarios? Our research and testing quickly showed that, in most cases, these issues were related to rejoining and either a) picking a totally different car from the car selection, b) picking the right car with the wrong livery from the car selection, or c) picking the right car and livery but with a different upgrade package.

You might ask, “Why is this a problem, I always pick the correct options”? Whilst that might be true in 99% of the cases, it’s the 1% that hurts us here in the end. It’s hard to be sure a team of multiple drivers always chooses the correct options. Making a mistake, it turns out, causes problems for more people than the driver rejoining, so we needed to make sure this could no longer happen.

To tackle this problem, we first looked at the core code of the rejoin process to make sure all options regarding car and upgrades are inherited and stay with each driver, regardless of disconnections or previous driver swaps. This means when you join with car A and upgrade X, it will be logged in a more robust way that prevents the driver history getting lost. Next, we worked on making this process more user friendly, so that it’s actually impossible to make a mistake on rejoin. We enhanced the network protocol to communicate to your client what car, livery and upgrades were used before, so we can choose the right car for you. For example, if you join with a ‘BMW M8 GTE’ with the ‘Le Mans package’ and ‘my-team-livery’, and you have a network issue during the race and are booted, instead of seeing the whole list of cars, team liveries, and upgrades on rejoin, you only see your BMW M8 GTE, and the option to change upgrade package is no longer available. You simply get your car back!

This brings us to another important point and side effect of rejoin errors. Rejoining with the wrong car or upgrade would often cause lags and freezes for all other drivers already on the server as everyone was forced to load a different car in real-time while on track (instead of the car that got parked in the garage when you disconnected).

“AI Take Over” and Driver Names Stuck in the Pit Menu

A recurring issue we’ve seen is when a driver swap takes place, the AI would suddenly take over the car without warning.

This was caused by trying to hand over the car to a team mate that was no longer a passenger or even on the server at the moment of the pit stop. By default rFactor 2 was then configured to let the AI take over. This turned out to be a bad idea and we altered the code to no longer do this. This means that from now on, if the driver taking over is no longer present, you will retain the car at the end of the pit stop. This will allow you to keep racing and retry a driver swap with your team mate without AI taking over and ruining your race.

When selecting a driver in the pit menu, names of any passengers would stay stuck in the list and would be select-able regardless of whether they had left the server or stopped riding with you. This meant you select your team mate in the pit menu, they leave the server or stop riding with you, but their name stays in the pit menu and can be selected.  This caused multiple issues: On disconnection/rejoin you would often end up with a DNF, and if a name of a driver was selected that was no longer riding or had left the server, the AI would take over. We’ve fixed this issue by simply removing any drivers from the pit menu list that are no longer riding with you (as should have been the case all along).

Disconnection/Rejoin with Passenger(s)

Disconnections while another driver is riding along, either waiting on a driver swap or having just completed one, would end in a DNF on rejoin.  For example, you’re driving on track, your team mate is riding with you and you get a disconnection. On rejoin, you’re not able to race again and your team mate’s name is now showing in the list as a driver with a DNF. We fixed this by making sure that on disconnect/rejoin only the current driver retains the car, all other teammates simply stay registered as ‘passengers’ and are not considered a driver until an actual driver swap takes place.

Pit Menu Parameters Locked After Rejoin

Yet another issue we looked at and were able to fix was the sudden inability to toggle pit menu options after rejoining. This was particularly a problem if you experienced a disconnect with very little fuel and could not request more fuel in the subsequent pit stop, ultimately you would run out of fuel and end the race with a DNF. All allowed in-car pit menu options should now be open to selection on rejoin.

Steam Integration Improvements

As part of our ongoing profiling process based on logs sent to us by users, we have also discovered that the “real-time” API functions that Steam provides could cause small hiccups. We technically solved that by internalizing the original plugin and making sure we execute such functions on a background thread so they can never interfere with our physics loop. This change is done both client and server-side and it means you will no longer see a SteamPlugin.DLL in your plugins folder (and we’ve made sure that if it is still there by accident, it gets ignored from this build onwards).

Faster Loading Times

Last but not least, we also spent some time profiling and optimizing the track and car loading process. Internal tests have shown improvements in the range of 30-50%, which should help people in general. Faster loading obviously also means you can rejoin quicker, losing less time overall.

What’s next?

Build 1114 is the first of two scheduled releases to address the issues we found. We decided to split the process in two, concentrating on the major bugs first and then addressing the smaller ones. We thought it was important to get an update into everybody’s hands as quickly as possible, but only after making sure we could not break this build anymore. As always we encourage people to update both their dedicated servers and clients and report any issues. We are heavily committed to getting this right and continue to improve the online experience in rFactor 2. We expect to have an update on those issues next month, but again, we’ll take as much time as we need to ensure these minor issues are also completely gone.