Arriving much later than originally planned, we have a massive Q&A session this time, and we would like to start by thanking everybody for taking the time to submit all these questions! We decided to split the list in half, with the second half arriving next week.

Before we get started with those questions though, we would like to address a question that has been asked quite a few times in these past weeks. A lot of you are wondering what our involvement is in the just released NASCAR 21: Ignition game and how this affects our ongoing commitment to rFactor 2.

We were already involved in the development for over two years now, so way before the acquisition. Over time the team working on the NASCAR game, although sometimes varying in composition, has been roughly the same size. Still some of you observed that updates to rFactor 2 have slowed down over the last few months. This is due to the fact that we’ve had a few developers leaving Studio 397 and even though we are actively looking for new people, this is a process that will take some time.

That said, there are certainly a few longer-term developments that are still being worked on, but are not yet in a state that we feel comfortable revealing them, and we are also looking at backporting a few of the developments from the NASCAR game back to rFactor 2. On that note, let’s move on with the first half of our questions about cars.

Q&A

As this time is about automobiles, will the Lamborghini be included in the GT3 in future? Thank you! 

juanchioooo

Good question, and I would be rich if I could predict the future. The main reason why we did not add this car to the pack yet is licensing cost. Of course, that might change over time. If we get a better deal, we’ll consider it.

When will the car descriptions for some cars get fixed so that all available liveries can be selected? For example, try selecting AUDI GT3 2018 #1 and AUDI GT3 Evo #1 and check loaded cars (there are a couple other issues with official car description as well). Thing is, this is absolutely easy fix but has not been done ever since cars have been released, and we are talking about paid content here. 

Tomislav Leskovic

I’ve passed this on to our QA department for validation, and I’m sure they will address these.

Is there a plan to provide correct car displays (edit: with displays I mean the dashboards of course), with correct data? 

Tomislav Leskovic

We are still rather limited in what we can show on dashboards and in the digital displays. I think you can see that more recent displays are better than the older ones, but we need to overhaul the code that renders these to really add data like wheelspin indications, multipage displays, etc. I’m sure you are aware that there are some great third-party tools out there such as SimHub that do a great job, and I would certainly recommend taking a look at those.

When will the opportunity finally be given to select the vehicle opponents in the UI that I want and then save them? In RRRE a matter of minutes, in rF2 currently, well ….

memoNo1

The best way to save those is to create a new series (rfmod) but I’ll admit that is a lot of work to just select a few opponents. The opponent selection is a part of the UI that we ported straight from the old UI, but we know we need to overhaul it completely to make it more useful and user-friendly. I don’t have a timeline for it yet though, so in the short term, making your own series is probably your best bet.

In the Tracks Q&A, you mentioned how the suspension can be bent and damaged. However, this damage can only occur as a result of impact from a wall or another car. I would really like to see the track itself have an effect on suspension damage – it would mean drivers actually have a reason to not hit certain curbs too hard, improving racing. It would be so cool to see in esports too. 

doddynco

Noted, I think it’s an interesting improvement that we should consider.

Could we see the implementation of maximum stresses to suspension components in the chassis file? Some lines are still in the Chassis file ‘MinForceOrTorque0=’ ‘MaxForceOrTorque0=’ ‘Breakability0=. 

doddynco

I don’t know to be honest.

What about legendary cars, like the 70´s and 80´s DRM Gr. 4 and Gr. 5 Cars? Any chance to drive a beautiful BMW CSL for example in top quality? 

Ralph_Raccoon

A while ago we helped the DRM Modding Team to explore the possibility of porting over their cars to rFactor 2. Unfortunately, at the time, they concluded they did not want to go ahead with the project. Licensing wise, these cars are a bit special too, being custom-built mostly. I guess as a community, you could kindly let this team know that you would still appreciate a port. We would certainly try to help (again).

In-car dashboards and their limitations. What is the biggest obstacle in upgrading that? 

Paweł Andrzejewski

The development time needed to update the code. As you might have read in the intro to this Q&A, we are a bit light on developers at the moment, but even before that, there have been more important things that we have prioritized over this. Obviously, another consideration is the work we would have to do to update all cars to take advantage of any improvements we make.

What’s left in the tank for the Formula Pro? As was said it’s not the final release, so I’m curious what will be updated. 

Paweł Andrzejewski

We’re not ready to share all the details yet, but we are considering for Formula Challenge a slightly slower version of the car (less horsepower and less downforce) as well as some upgrades to the Pro car, possibly a “push to pass” system as well as visual upgrades.

How do you rate the cooperation with Goodyear? Are you going to update tires in your content based on that experience? 

Paweł Andrzejewski

We are extremely happy with our collaboration with Goodyear, and we are working on updating several tires based on the data and feedback we get from them.

Will you update tyre database based on the effects of this cooperation? 

Paweł Andrzejewski

I think that would be a good idea next year, to provide a new set of baseline tyres for different types of cars. It’s a bit too early right now, as several types of tyres are still being developed.

How about extensions to the car adjustments like differential, more TC options as well as a possibility to tweak them while on track?

Paweł Andrzejewski

We’re working on a few right now, but we know we also need an updated TC (and ABS) system to be better aligned to the modern systems found in various GT cars.

A mapping for flashing lights would be very appreciated as well!

Paweł Andrzejewski

Yeah, most people right now solve that by programming a macro for this using a third-party tool, but I agree we could add this as a mappable control going forward.

Considering the new Goodyear tyre model is already in the M4, Formula Pro and a few others that I have forgotten, which cars will be the next ones to get the new model? GT3s? Tatuus’? Or maybe will a new car/cars be released before any other content gets the new model? 

VirusGR42

Next car to get it is a new one which we will release soon!

Last blog said that a track may take around 3 months to complete. On the other hand, how much time does a car take to be made from the green light to begin (assuming after licence has been acquired) until completion? 

VirusGR42

Right, let’s take as a starting point that we have a licence, the appropriate CAD models and all the physics data that we need as well as some sound recordings then typically we can build the car physics in about 4-6 weeks – models take a bit longer. We do calculate 2-4 weeks extra after that as cars and liveries typically require sign off from the licensor and teams, which typically takes a few iterations.

Additionally, what is the sort of testing process do they go through, and how long is it (I guess they are also tested by manufacturers?)? 

 VirusGR42

The length of testing depends a bit on the type of car and in some cases also involves “balancing the performance” for the class it is in. Typically, we try to leverage the time it takes for final approval of the car and liveries to do the testing, so 2-4 weeks. Interestingly, most cars we licence do not require the licensor to test the car. Typically, such approvals focus mostly on getting the visuals right. That said, there are cases where this is definitely different. Radical for example provides a lot of feedback, often early in the process, and our collaboration with BMW on the M2 also involved several of their test drivers providing valuable input.

In terms of car series, everything seems to be either GTE or GT3. How about some other full series cars, maybe even older touring cars, or something to run with the civic from 2013? 

Andy Bonar

Those are definitely the big ones, and to be fair also the ones the community were asking about a lot. We are considering a few possible other “tintop” series at the moment.

Do you see yourself coming down under to implement any of these cars as most sims do not cater for much from the Southern Hemisphere & this could be a good market base: S5000, TCR, Aussie Cars, V8 Supercars, HQ’s, Aussie Ute, Super 2, Super 3, Toyota 86 Race Series, Touring Car Masters? 

Binny

We recently discussed the S5000 but decided against it. In other news, there is at least one series in your list we are seriously considering right now.

I find it really quite immersion breaking to see those standard helmets on each car – especially for full series content – that’s one of the reasons I enjoy the Formula E so much. Can you please consider adding more helmets, or even better, real life correct helmets, in future content please (where appropriate).

SiC58

Noted. We don’t always do this as chasing licences for all the helmet designs and (personal) sponsors can be quite time-consuming, but we will consider adding more helmets going forward.

Also, are you going to implement a minimum standard for modding as some cars and tracks are very bad when it comes to racing rain, night ect.. I see people commenting loss of FPS is bad.

Binny

Unlikely, as we don’t have time to review and provide feedback on all modded content. Anything that is in the workshop, we would encourage people to review and leave comments though so others in the community can judge this content based on feedback. We do try to provide more and more information for modders on how to properly develop content.

Is there any hope, that fans of historic racing will get stuff like a Group C DLC, a Historic GT/IMSA DLC or a 90s GT1 DLC? Given that there are already cooperation’s with manufacturers like BMW, Porsche, McLaren, Mercedes, Nissan, Chevrolet, Panoz or even Ferrari there would be a fantastic opportunity to showcase historic endurance racing within rF2 as a counterpart to the modern endurance racing, that is a trademark of rF2. And I guess I am not alone in thinking that the M1 Procar would have been the perfect fit for the legends trophy. 

hitm4k3r

Let me tell you a little story. You may or may not know that some of us at Studio 397 in a past life were involved in the GTP mod for NR2003. In the year prior to starting Studio 397 a few of us had the plan to create a paid mod for rFactor 2 featuring these Group C cars, officially licensing and building them. We were actually about halfway through that project when we continued the development of rFactor 2 and had to put this on the back burner. Ever since, we’ve been discussing if such a series would make sense. I personally still think it would! And the M1 Procar, yeah, that could be a good “cup” series by itself.

Could we maybe get just a tiny visual update for the historic F1, F2 and F3 cars (please …) ? Or in other words: have you considered reaching out to the guys who developed the 1967 F2 mod? How about a real licenced Matra, Honda, McLaren, Brabham or Ferrari to update the late 60s car roster? 

hitm4k3r

We’re certainly open to starting a dialogue if there is anybody from the community that wants to upgrade these cars.

Have you considered voting for the next DLC cars or DLC themes, as Kunos did it in the past? 

hitm4k3r

We did consider this, but we’ve never done it, obviously. My concerns here are that we might not get enough people to vote to get a good representation of our user base and that if we do, we might end up without any clear winner (ask people about their favourite car or track now, I’m sure there won’t be any consensus). So whilst I’m not saying we should ignore what people want, I will argue that probably everybody wants something different, and that is fine.

When will we see a proper hybrid system developed in RF2? Is it already in development? 

RNeves

We’ve always said that we will build such systems if we need them for any cars we license. So far we have not done that, so there is no such system in development right now. Given the licences that Motorsport Games has acquired though, it’s certainly possible we’ll do this next year. I am not allowed to speculate on that though.

When will we see tyre punctures in the game? 

RNeves

I’m not sure yet. Code wise, due to tyre wear, there is a spot in the code that states when the puncture should occur, but it has not been implemented yet. This is one of many physics features we would still like to add. It’s had a fairly low priority, as typically way before you reach this point you will come in to pit for tyres anyway. That said, punctures could also happen from running over stuff or hitting sharp edges of curbs, so I’m definitely not saying we won’t implement them at all.

Are you planning on developing vintage car classes like Group C, DRM, GT1 or something along these lines? 

RNeves

I’ve touched on Group C and DRM earlier in the list of questions. We did not have much discussions about GT1 cars. I guess they are still a bit too modern to be vintage!

Have you ever considered outsourcing car updates to external modding teams, such as ASR, Schumi’s or Tchachalowski? 

Delzimar

We have sometimes outsourced car development to external modding teams, Enduracers being an example. We’re in contact with some of the ones you mention, and we actually tried to work with ASR a while ago, but back then we could not reach a business agreement with them.

Sadly, rFactor 2 has quite a disparity of quality between some content – think the awful Porsche GTE for example. This really spoils the sim in my opinion. Can we champion for a thorough refresh upgrade to this car, and paid DLC in particular, as a matter of urgency please?

SiC58

You’ve certainly brought it to my attention again. Noted.

This is kinda on the cars’ topic, so I’ll go with it… setups. Default setups in rF2 for the most part are not great. Sims like ACC have a really good feature where they come with a default Aggressive and stable setup, and rain. This would be a major improvement to rF2 if you could implement something like this – please, can I implore you to think about this and add it in soon?

RangoliniGustavo

Do you think this is true for our more recent cars as well? For the record, I like the idea of providing more than one setup.

Where is the GT3 BOP from GT Pro? We need a new BOP!

Rici Migali

Good question. My initial answer is that I do not know and obviously I’m not going to leave it at that and discuss this internally. I agree that we should release such improvements going forward.

I find it upsetting that historic content in rFactor 2 is sadly neglected. Please, please, please add more historic cars and tracks to the game!

Lennon Acton

Quite a few people have made the case for more historic content. We are reviewing some ideas in this area.

Would love native MOTEC / telemetry support in rF2.

Lennon Acton.

I personally agree, but other priorities so far have prevented us from completing this development. It’s not cancelled, but it was put on ice. For now at least.

Appreciate this is a super minor thing, but… can we please have a graphics update to add the old school ‘Sticker Tyres’ for new slicks (like in 90’s F1 where they came out of the pits with stickers on the tyres that eventually wore off)

Paul Jeffrey

It’s a great idea and I believe we have most code in place to do this. You might have seen that we can render tyre wear on those cars. We might or might not have to tweak that a bit for these stickers.

Sorta cars, sorta UI. The way rF2 represents car choices in the UI list is mega confusing to me – any plans to look at and improve this going forward?

SKaine

Assuming you mean the way we order the cars in a hierarchy is what is confusing you, do you have any suggestions on how we should improve this? From a personal point of view, I’ve seen it is very hard to come up with a single, consistent hierarchy that works for all types of cars. For example, sometimes you want to group them by class, sometimes by make, sometimes by series, but never have I found a single way that works best for all the different sorts of cars we have, so I’m very much open to suggestions here.

Still on the sorta cars, sorta not topic – ‘Self in Rearview’ rarely works, and I think it is super immersive to see bodywork in the mirrors (like in the F1202X series) – will this be improved in future, or even better, added into the default instal of rFactor 2?

SKaine

If you’re talking about cars we’ve produced, I’m happy to get bug reports for such cars as I believe it makes sense for us to support this.

I still love the golden oldie cars like the Skip Barber and especially the historic EVE formula cars. Are these going to be updated to PBR at some point? I really think these cars are far, far too good to let slide off into retirement.

Luke Stanton.

A few people in this Q&A have made a case for this, so we’ll explore our options.

Is S397 interested in boosting up manual transmission simulation? 

mantasisg

This is a tricky one. The simple answer would be yes, but the more complicated one is that we would really like to improve both the software simulation and the hardware here. We feel the current way that particularly H-shifters interface with ours and other simulations is inadequate to provide a really good implementation. We would love to have ways to ensure that the layout of the H-shifter is correct, and also the feeling when shifting with and without clutch, the grinding of gears when you mis-shift and all things like that. The simple “on/off switches” that are now used per gear simply don’t allow any of this. That said, there are still a few things we could do, even for the current generation of hardware.

Is S397 interested in revising solid axle simulation? 

mantasisg

See below.

In addition to this question, can S397 confirm that something is not right with how solid axle ultra chassis simulation works right now ? I have worked on many cars with it for rF2, and I think something is not right about things related to body pitch and probably roll too. 

mantasisg

This is a question I will need to ask our physics team. It might be best to send us an e-mail directly with the problem you are seeing and what you would expect. Maybe with an example car that we can look at ourselves. If there is something wrong there, we would be happy to address it.

Is studio happy about recently made improvements in how studio builds tires, such as for BMW, FPro and new Tatuus car ? And does it seem that simracers welcomed the differences ? (I did btw!) 

mantasisg

We are certainly happy with this direction as well, and mostly we had good feedback about them from the community. Obviously, we’ll keep looking for further improvements to the model and data.

What is the root problem of interior windshields responding to light in a reversed way, which makes for big troubles during night ? The dirt textures, and baked in interior reflection texture on inner windshield is a massive immersion boost, is this high on priority list of future graphical improvements? 

mantasisg

I would say this is fairly high on the list, and our main problem is how headlights respond to these dirty windshields at night. In the past those could blind the drivers completely, and we did not want to negatively impact players that way, which is why we removed them until we’ve improved that situation.

When will the glass shader on cars be updated to reflect the sun? 

Balazs Magyar

When we have fixed the issues at night is the simple answer. The reason why we’ve made the glass completely transparent is that otherwise at night, with lots of headlights from behind, it was becoming hard if not impossible to see. So once we address that, we can bring back dirt and other imperfections.

Also, better tire shaders would also be nice. Are they car specific? 

Balazs Magyar

Yes and no. We have generic shaders, so people can in theory pick any shader and apply it to a tyre. In more recent cars, I believe we use the same shader (and it could even be named explicitly for this, I don’t remember). We’ve made a few improvements more recently already. I think internally, the USF-2000 was the first car to receive those (an update that was released fairly recently).

Do you see any benefit in going after Vintage licences? The heritage back catalogue of Williams F1 for example. Having rFactor 2 be a way to archive these pieces of machinery that may not be able to run in real life for too much longer. 

Woodee

We never really approached it from that angle to be honest. It’s certainly an interesting idea to preserve such cars digitally in a simulation. It would be worth exploring to see if we could somehow work with manufacturers to make this happen.

Why the rain visual was not implemented on cockpit view for open wheel cars? Could we expect something to be done about that? I have the same question for the mirrors too (Exteriors / back cameras). 

Spyro

I’m not totally sure I get the question, so my apologies if I answer it wrongly, but I am wondering what parts of open cockpits you are talking about? Mirrors typically don’t get wet while driving. Windshields to, and we should have that modeled. In fact, we will even add some new technology soon as you might have heard. Or are you maybe talking about the raindrops on a “visor” of a helmet?

Also, I know that some drivers disable on purpose rain drops to avoid having rain on their windshield. It gives an unfair advantage and no wipers movement on exteriors cameras (weird on live broadcast). Could we have a workaround, like static rain texture appearing on the windshield for this case? 

Spyro

Yes, that is a good suggestion. I think that is what we should do for this case.

Also, as mentioned on other posts, I would love to see punctures implemented… 

Spyro

Agreed, it’s missing completely right now. From wear, but also from driving over sharp objects and/or curbs.

Are there any plans to allow the option for cars to have an adjustable Weight-Jacker while on track? Something similar to how the anti roll bars and brake balance work with assignable buttons. This would add to the immersion of IndyCars new and old. 

DiggerHawk

Yes. Probably in early 2022!

Hi and thanks for this kind of interaction with us. What’s your statement about onboard adjustable differential lock? Would it be so hard to implement that would be months-years away, in case it’s planned to be added? 

Javibeza

It is currently not planned, but conceptually I don’t think it would be hard since we already have diffs that are adjustable in the garage and typically changing them while driving is mostly a matter of having controls mapped to allow that.

Is it planned to implement KERS and hybrid technologies? 

lagg

We’ve always said we’ll do that when we build cars that need it. I can’t disclose anything about that yet. We would like to implement a generic system for hybrid technologies. It’s a big job (as there are quite a few different types of hybrid systems).

Forgive me for not being too good on the technical, so this might already be in the sim, but can rFactor 2 simulate turbo lag like we would see in 80’s F1 cars? If no, is this something that might be on the agenda for the future?

Frankie

We can already simulate a turbo, and our simulation includes turbo lag, so we could certainly simulate an 80’s F1 car or anything else with a turbo.

Also speaking of technical stuff, it’s long been known rF2 has difficulties with tire pressures and running minimum possible – again, is this a known issue within the Studio, and are plans afoot to rectify it as this has a huge impact on the realism aspect of the game.

Frankie

This is something we are trying to fix as part of our partnership with Goodyear. We are certainly aware about it and some other “techniques” for going fast that should not allow you to go that fast.

Final one from me – driver animations. It has bugged me since forever – will rFactor 2 ever have driver animations, so we can see gear shifting, for example?

Frankie

Let’s focus on gear shifting, as that is something that is missing for a reason. The reason being that we can’t really do such animations in real time. The first time we hear about a shift is when you press the (H-)shifter button. Obviously before that time, you already moved your real hand and fingers, but we don’t know that. So if we had to start an animation, we would be way too late, and we decided that playing such an animation “too late” does not make much sense.

Do you intend, in a general way, to improve the overall sounds and sound effects in RF2? In particular: When are you going to implement the “scrub” function in the “SKID SOUNDS” part as well as the temperature effect on the brake hiss? 

philman

We are looking into this, and I will pass on the specific improvements you mention to the sound team.

Still on the subject of audio, do you intend to make the echo and reverberation of sounds appear according to the configuration and topology of the circuits? 

philman

This is an interesting, and complex topic. Probably the best way to model sound is to have it rendered in a 3D world, where all the reflections you would get because of the surroundings would be accurately calculated. We have not seen a system yet that can do this without significant computational effort. That leaves us with some simpler tricks, such as the one we already use when you drive through a tunnel or close to a solid barrier. We are certainly following technology here as the full effect of, for example, standing at an F1 race at Spa and hearing those cars accelerate and shift gears in the distance is quite a unique experience. One we’re not close to replicating! That said, we are still in the R&D phase for any possible improvements, so I don’t have any details yet.

The last builds have made huge progress in RF2 in terms of headlight and headlamp reflection on wet roads, even if everything is not perfect yet. Do you think it’s possible to improve this subject and to extend it to dry tracks? 

philman

The simple answer is yes. Especially at night we can still make big improvements, but some things we do will probably also positively influence how things look during the daytime.

Also, the power of the headlights of the cars at night seems to be really too low compared to the reality: is it also possible to improve things? 

philman

We had to balance them a bit to get the best out of the technology we have for them right now. So partially see my answer above. Better technology is needed to give us more freedom here.

Is it possible to publish the TGM files of the tires of the GT3, GTE and LMP2 cars? 

philman

We’re considering releasing a new set of “generic” tyres as a database for people to get started. We want to be a bit further ahead though in our improvements based on our collaboration with Goodyear.

What’s about PTP? 

memoNo1

Expect an update about that in 2022!

Will the Porsche GTE receive an update as the interior is nowhere near the level of the Ferrari GTE. 

r00b Driver

We are aware of this. We’re not yet sure if and when we will do this though. As you know, there is also a newer version of this car available in real life.

Do you intend to improve the sounds of the cars? You only have to play ACC or R3E to know how better sounds increase immersion. 

r00b Driver

We are certainly aware that our sound engine and the way we use it has plenty of room for improvement. We’re exploring our options here currently.

Do you plan to implement a downshift protection that doesn’t allow to downshift if the revolutions are high? 

AlexHeuskat

Yes, for cars that have such a mechanism, we intend to add it.

Is a night PBR update planified, about the car reflection by night, it’s not really beauty, and with the lights, it’s not at the ACC level at all, even AMS2 is far more beauty, the night immersion needs a really long work. 

AlexHeuskat

For sure this is a weak spot currently and something on our list. The type of rendering engine we are using in rF2 is a forward rendering engine. ACC uses a deferred rendering engine. Both have strong and weak points, and the trick is to try and work around those as best as possible.

Smoke update ? I think yes, with dust particles… 

AlexHeuskat

We’re researching some ideas in this area, but it’s too early to show or commit to anything here. And yes, we’re not forgetting sparks.

Are 3d grass + flowers planified? I like the AMS2 grass (and trees). 

AlexHeuskat

Those really need better support in the graphics engine to be done well, so it’s a coding effort first, and then we need to find a good way to do this that does not put a big burden on artists upgrading existing content.

About the tracks, you release more cars than tracks, maybe can you put more resources on the tracks team maker? 

AlexHeuskat

Our track team is more than twice the size of our car team already! Fact is, a track takes way more time than a car. I think we have a reasonable balance right now, but I’ll make a note of your feedback.

About the AI update? We arrive soon at 1 year after the UI update release….do you have plans for the AI update? Or maybe you can start with an AI selection feature, it’s still a nightmare to choose the AI liveries. 

AlexHeuskat

We’ve spent some time on the AI recently for the NASCAR game, and we intend to bring that back to rF2. The “opponent selection” is something that keeps coming up. I agree, the current UI (which is a straight port from the old UI) does this all wrong, and it’s very awkward. That will need a full redesign. Your only workaround now is to create your own series (rfmod) and pick the cars there.

Really loving rF2 especially recently. One question I have had is that would you guys be able to create an option to be able to turn the virtual car dash display on or off, so for anyone with a real life display mounted to their rig, can drive using their dash only and without the one on the screen. Maybe saves a tiny bit of fps too with the virtual car display screen hidden???? Anyway, thanks for your time. 

Connor Clifford

I did not test this, but I would argue the performance gains would be quite minimal. You can try this for yourself by using a “hood view” for example. I have a virtual dash myself, and it’s mostly in front of the car dash already.

If I count correctly, the cars made by S397 in the last 5 years are approximately 55 cars. When the improvement of the current tire model thanks to the Goodyear data is ripe enough, one of my greatest wishes for rFactor 2 is that all, yes all of these 55 S397 cars are updated to the tire model which is improve (Formula Pro, M4 class 1…). Is this something that can happen (that would be fabulous)? 

pilAUTO

This is certainly something we are discussing. Without going into details, when we model a tyre we always use a combination of data we have and data we need to take an “educated guess” on. Recent experiences have shown that some of those guesses (not surprisingly) were not completely accurate, so it makes sense to go back and correct such inaccuracies.

I want S397 to make some very realistic FWD and 4WD/AWD cars (upgrade the transmission for 4WDs), not a lot. 

pilAUTO

There are some FWD ones coming and this year we did an AWD one (eX ZERO). I’m sure we will do a few more going forward!

I dream of a very realistic “street car” (supercar) made by S397, just one, not 2 or 3 !! Can this happen? 

pilAUTO

So far we’ve always said that our focus will be on race cars, not street cars. That does not mean we will never do a street car. I’ve seen quite a few community based street and track day cars being done.

In addition, can you list the improvements and new functionality in the physics of the cars say in the 18 months, that would be great and of course that would not be a commitment but more evoke your projects in the matter. 

pilAUTO

There are a couple of new cars in development that require some smaller new features. I’ve hinted at a few of those in my answers. We really have not finalized our plans for next year, so I do not want to look ahead for 18 months right now. Obviously there are a few topics that keep coming up: hybrid support, tyre model improvements, weather effects and our drive train. I’m probably forgetting a few now.

What about a rf2 paint booth for cars like iracing has? 

Binny

We are looking at a better way of supporting custom paint jobs. One that also works better with our competition system. That’s not the question you have though. We’re looking at options to make painting your own livery easier. I think a strong point of the new NASCAR game is actually its paint booth. Maybe over time we can adopt something similar alongside what we have now.

Cold tires… Now, I think almost rF2’s tires has great grip on cold temp. Have you planned cold tires? I want to spin on 1st corner after pit out. 

yashiman

When our tyres are cold they are less grippy, so you should already experience this effect. Unless you’re driving a car that is using tyre warmers so they are at temperature from the moment you leave the garage.

Modding. I think it seems that AC is easier to make car mods, and only AC mods are being made in Japan. The behaviour of rF2 is great, so I don’t think there is any need to twist this, but the spreadsheet may be too high level for all but the most experienced. Are there any plans to provide easier-to-build tools or a base vehicle for beginners? 

yashiman

We intend to keep improving our documentation, and we might release a few more examples. We have no plans currently for a “simpler spreadsheet” although I know some in our community (such as Niels Heusinkveld) have experimented with this, and I’ve seen some great results from those.

Bug report form. This is off the theme of “Car”, If my remember is true, you mentioned in your CS blog or roadmap that you were going to create a “bug report form”. Although the parent company has already changed and the structure is different, bug reports are still scattered around the forums and discord. Do you have plans to create a form yet? 

yashiman

Still being worked on, but I don’t know the exact status.

The rFactor 2 blog is fantastic! Thank you. 

yashiman

Thank you for your kind words, and for supporting rFactor 2. As you can read from the many questions and answers, I really try to explain everything we are doing and not doing. These sessions do provide valuable input when it comes to prioritizing what we do next!

I know the question has already been asked about how long it takes to build a new car, however, I’d like to know how long it usually takes to update an existing car to the latest PBR shaders please?

Louie

That first question has been answered above. Updating a car to PBR shaders depends a bit on the actual car, but it’s typically a job that will take a few days, depending on how many shaders were used before and how they were mapped to different elements of the car.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I do know a lot of us would strongly preference more pack releases than single cars in future – I find loose cars (fine if a cup series) aren’t that engaging as a customer – we want others to race against!

Louie

I can only agree with you, and we try to release series that involve multiple cars in a class as a pack. We make exceptions if a car runs in a “cup like series” because in those cases a pack makes no sense (unless you start to bundle cars and tracks maybe).

Often the default S397 liveries with new releases are… a bit unimpressive. Any chance for future if you could work on more detailed and realistic designs please? Maybe even consider letting the community submit ideas?

Louie

We have done livery competitions and in some cases we have included liveries later as upgrades (remember the Le Mans Virtual 24h last year for example). Sometimes it’s a chicken and egg problem though. If we do not release the car yet, the community can’t make liveries yet. Once it’s out, it’s too late to make the initial release, and we can only do so in a later update.

In real life, drivers very often have a track map on the wheel or dash – something that some S397 cars have – however, what I would like to know is if you could make that dynamic, so it shows the correct map for the track you are driving on please?

Louie 

Some cars have it and the correct map is loaded from the track you are on, if available. So the feature does work if the car actually puts it somewhere on the dash or wheel and the track actually provides an image.

Please, please, please, please, please can you add Caterham to the car list in rF2? Thank you!

ShadowFlopper

I know at least one colleague at Studio 397 who will instantly back you up on this car!

Car question #1: How much of work is it to refresh or re-export the textures on older content, like GT2 and GT1, and Corvette street cars? There are some purple/greenish compression artefacts all over the interior and headlight halos, and tail light halo textures are flickering on some cars.

vmgn021

It depends on the car actually. For some we never got the full source files (in photoshop) so in those cases we would have to redo them from scratch. In other cases we could. We’re actually considering such a pass next year, as compression techniques have been improved, and we could see some nice gains by doing this.

Car question #2: Have you considered licensing historic cars? Although there is MAK Corp 1991 endurance car mod already, I would buy official Mazda 787B DLC in a heart beat. 

vmgn021

We have, and we did license a few over the years, such as the different McLaren historic formula cars. And you’ve just mentioned a personal favourite of mine! 🙂

Have you planned to make easier the creation of the icons of the cars/skins? At this moment is not possible to create an icon with transparent background as before. This makes the task much more difficult if you want to get a good result. 

lagg

Let me show you a little trick in “dev mode”. First make sure in your player file you have enabled “Screenshot Depth Alpha”: true and selected PNG as the format “Screenshot Format”: 3 and load up your favourite car in the showroom. Now press the ‘1’ key on your normal (not numeric) keyboard. The background will go black. Make a screenshot! You’ll find that it has a nice alpha layer with soft, blended shadows. An and you can press ‘2’ to enable the rendering of the environment in the showroom again.

Would it be possible to add a bunch of information about the cars into the UI? Stuff like what type of gearbox they use (sequential / h-pattern etc) and other useful things?

ShelbySr

Certainly that would be possible. We already added a bit, but there’s a lot more we could add.

I’m not proficient in modding my instal, so any options and filters you can add to improve the car selection process would be very much appreciated please.

devicemanagerKiNg

A personal favourite of mine in the new UI is the search box. Typing a class there or a brand typically gets me to the car I like to drive quite quickly.

Stay tuned for Part 2 on Wednesday 1st December!

Fasten your seatbelts and get ready to enter the high-speed competition utilizing either your design skills or hitting the pedals out on track – either way, you can win a spot in the final race. Peregrine is where two competitions come together in a hunt for the title ‘Best Livery Design’ and ‘Heusinkveld Peregrine 2022’ race title.

The name of the game, the Peregrine falcon, is known for its extreme high speeds when going for the kill at 389 km/h, claiming the title for being the fastest animal in the world due to its streamlined aerodynamic shape, dive-bombing manoeuvrability and superior strategic insight.  All ingredients for a great new series of SFE esports, where the best designer and the race winner will grab fantastic prizes: Heusinkveld’s Sim Pedals Sprint.

The Heusinkveld Peregrine Competition

Open to contestants worldwide, the Heusinkveld Peregrine competition is all  about speed and design. Opening with a livery competition in which the ten best submissions will be selected by a jury and will make their appearance in the final race, part two of the competition is about speed and racing… More about that in Peregrine “The Race”.

Missed out last year’s final race? Click HERE

Part 1 | Heusinkveld Peregrine Livery Design Competition

We are delighted to announce that 10 community created livery designs will be selected for use in the Heusinkveld Peregrine Livery Competition aspect of Sim Formula Europe 2022. The selected liveries will adorn the cars used by our Peregrine “The Race” finalists. Community votes after the final race will decide who is the winner of the Heusinkveld Peregrine Livery competition.

The winning livery designer take’s home the fantastic Heusinkveld Sim Pedals Sprint.

The livery competition begins Tuesday 9th November and closes at 23:59 CET on the evening of Monday 29th November. Livery submissions should be sent to peregrine-livery@simformula.eu no later than this date, and all submissions should be packaged in a suitable mod format to work within rFactor 2.

The Car

Oreca 07 LMP2 | Steam Store: CLICK HERE

rFactor 2 | How to create a livery mod: CLICK HERE

Livery designs are for the Oreca 07 LMP2, available as DLC content within rFactor 2.

The Submission

Liveries should be submitted in line with the guidance issued below, and using the logos provided within the ‘Logos and Resources’ section of this post. Each mod submission should be sent to peregrine-livery@simformula.eu before the end of November 29th and include at least 4 images of the design (front, back, top and side view).

The livery should be packaged as a mod that can be installed in rFactor 2, and should be applied to the ORECA 07 LMP2 car model. 

The Livery

Each livery submission must include sponsor logos from our partners Heusinkveld, Sim-Lab, MasitaEsports and the design should be based around our competition theme of the Peregrine Falcon.

Why a Peregrine Falcon? As the fastest animal on Earth, this majestic bird is capable of achieving speeds up to 389 km/h and is the embodiment of strategy, aerodynamics and speed – something we think is entirely fitting with the ethos of our esport racing activity.

As Heusinkveld is the primary backer of this series, the Heusinkveld logo should appear as the most prominent ‘title sponsor’ of all submitted livery designs and the Sim-Lab logo has to be used above the front window on the ORECA LMP 07 as a banner.

Logos and Resources

All the logos required for your livery design can be found on the following link: CLICK HERE

Participation Restrictions and Time Limits

This livery design competition is open worldwide to anyone over the age of 14 years old, and will run from 09:00am CET Tuesday 9 ^th November to 23:59pm CET Monday 29th November inclusive. The 10 nominated mod designs will be communicated on December 19^th via the official Sim Formula Europe 2022 media activities.

The overall livery design winner will be announced on Sunday, January 23rd 2022.

Peregrine 2022 needs to be symbolized in drawing and/or in words within the livery – submissions may not use licensed photo’s illegally. Sim Formula Europe will select the winning 10 livery designs to be used within the Heusinkveld Peregrine Livery Competition presented by Sim Formula Europe, with the overall winning design and Heusinkveld winner to be announced following the conclusion of the Sim Formula Europe 2022 competition.

The Prize

Heusinkveld Sim Pedals Sprint are a perfect choice for both casual simracers as well as professional esports drivers. A strong, compact and highly adjustable design with custom electronics and powerful SmartControl software. Fully adjustable pedal geometry and force (120kg load cell with up to 65kg of actual force at the brake pedal plate), limitless configuration options in the software.

“The winner ain’t the one with the fastest car, it’s the one who refuses to lose.”

Every tenth of a second counts! If you’re looking for pedals that help you to be both quick and consistent, look no further. Years of experience and all new testing methods have been used during the development of this innovative top-of-the line simulator product: the Heusinkveld Sim Pedals Sprint.

Road to Sim Pedals Sprint: CLICK HERE

The Heusinkveld Peregrine Mod Competition is just one aspect of the upcoming Sim Formula Europe 2022 series of events and activities, and we can’t wait to announce further news about exciting additions to our hugely successful Sim Formula program. Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we reveal more from the 2022 event… and get designing – we can’t wait to see your submissions!

By submitting a livery, you grant the organizers (Sim Formula Europe and Heusinkveld) the perpetual right to use your livery for promotional and marketing purposes.

To find out more about Sim Formula Europe 2022 and the competition, visit simformula.eu for more information.

New updates! 

Today, we are delighted to introduce a raft of new updates for our vast collection of Tatuus open wheel cars in rFactor 2. For this new release, each car has been reviewed and where appropriate received visual updates in order to fully represent the latest safety feature designs implemented across the brand, as well as plenty of other tweaks, fixes, improvements and changes. 

These new Tatuus group updates have been deployed to their respective cars within the Studio 397 Steam Workshop today, and should download automatically the next time players restart their Steam client.

Full details of the changes introduced as part of this latest release can be found below. Of the main improvements brought to the cars today, players can look forward to a wide-ranging selection of visual updates, audio improvements and physics changes, as the development team have been working hard behind the scenes to review any outstanding issues that may have been reported by the community in the months since the cars first released, as well taking the opportunity to bring forward a few quality of life improvements that should make a nice difference to the driving experience behind the wheel. 

Of particular note, the new build also introduces a rather exciting Oval configuration for the USF 17 and PM 18 cars, opening up another new and unique way to experience these exciting little formula style cars. 

Update Notes

Tatuus F4-T014 v1.14

• RPM limiter update
• Added turbo whistle and pop-off sound
• Reduced oversteer on coming of the brakes
• Default brake force 90kg

Tatuus USF-17 v1.14

• Added Frontal Impact device
• Added oval setup option
• Adjusted Rear ride height default 40mm
• Adjusted Rear wing default from D1 to B1
• Brake Bias default 56-44
• Default brake force 70 Kg
• 56% front pressure bias.
• Template fix for the nose cone
• Fixed typo in Halo upgrade.

Tatuus PM-18 v1.32

• Add Frontal Impact device
• Removed rear geometry description from tuning page
• Add oval setup option
• Brake Bias default 56-44
• Default brake force 70 Kg

Tatuus FT-50 v1.14

• Gears added preload setting in LSD
• Brake Bias default 56-44
• Default brake force 80 Kg

Tatuus_F.3_T318 v1.20

• Added turbo whistle, pop-off sound, ALS (anti-lag-system Upshift bang)
• Gears added the LDS linear
• Reduced oversteer on coming of the brakes
• Removed brake blanking option
• Default brake force 70 Kg
• Added front caster setup option, range 2,5-4,5 0.5 steps default 3,5.
• Added UMP front setup option, range -5 +10 default STD (=0)
• Change rear default tire pressure from 109 to 115 kPa
• Asia F3 only: Gitti tire drop off, wear. Increased wear by 25%.

Tatuus Cars – Available now in rFactor 2

Another two weeks and a day gone, and we were pleasantly surprised by the number of interesting questions we got about tracks and their development in rFactor 2! We’ll proceed with this, rotating topics every two weeks from now so we can cover all aspects of the simulation. In two weeks from now our next topic will be (you guessed it) “cars” so get your questions in.

Q&A

I’ll go first with the track specific questions: What is with those clouds?

davehenrie

Are they not fluffy enough for you? 😉 We did a few upgrades to them over the years, but mostly fairly minor stuff. We know there’s better (but also, in terms of rendering, more expensive) technology out there. Horizon Zero Dawn comes to mind, and Guerilla Games have presented on the technology in the past at SigGraph2015 for example. What is important for us is that we stay true to our dynamic weather, so we can’t just pick something that looks good, we also need something we can control and change based on (real or scripted) weather. That’s a big job and one we have not committed too yet.

Do you have plans to implement the graphic improvements of PBR in all the circuits listed on the web https://www.studio-397.com/cars-tracks/#tracks or just some of them?

Diego Barjollo

Upgrading some of our older tracks is something we typically do in between bigger track projects when the team has time to do so. Therefore it is unlikely that we will get to all of them soon. Obviously there are also a bunch of tracks on there by partners (Reiza Studios and KartSim) so for those the answer depends on their priorities and timeline. I know that KartSim is continuously improving their content, so I’m hopeful we will see more of those improved over time too.

On the same topic, how about the Reiza tracks, will they get updated, and do you know for when is that scheduled?

Diego Barjollo

That really is a question only Renato can answer. I know he’s shown some interest to do so in the past, but I cannot see nor influence his timeline.

Why don’t those originally listed by ISI, such as Montreal and Bathurst, appear on the web?

Diego Barjollo

Montreal is so old that we did not ever “port” it over and left it in the ISI workshop. It would need too much work. The same, to a lesser extent, goes for Bathurst. If we had to redo these, we would probably do them from scratch.

Is it possible for rF2 to simulate the fact that it’s raining on one side and not on the other, as it often happens at Nürburgring or Le Mans?

Julien Lemoine

It is possible in theory. The weather system allows for “local” weather in a few different areas of a large track. Beyond that this currently has not been implemented though. For Le Mans and the Nordschleife this would certainly make sense though.

One of my friends wanted to modify the track limits in dev mode, which works perfectly, but at the time of the switch to “prod” if I may say so, the track limits were 100x more severe than in dev mode. From 1, do you have the answer why? And finally, wouldn’t it be a good idea to provide a guide for this?

Julien Lemoine

It’s hard for me to comment on this beyond saying that obviously the track should behave the same in both. So you might have found a bug or something else might have been going on.

As Alex had confirmed, there is a real problem with the rain, 20% of rain rate corresponds to a borderline storm, are there any plans to adjust this? To allow our dear Jimmi to offer us more races in the rain.

Julien Lemoine

The short answer is yes, probably as part of a more generic “wet weather overhaul”. It needs better balancing (physics and graphics).

It was a bug with the overlay with the Nürburgring, it displays the whole map and if it’s the GP, the track map is very small, has this been fixed?

Julien Lemoine

I am not sure, but this too sounds like a bug that needs to be reported. We might need to tweak the way we scale the track in this case.

Finally, speaking of the Nürburgring, is there an update planned for the 24-hour version that allows you to cut the last corner and start the timer in qualifying? As in reality.

Julien Lemoine

I don’t think that will happen soon as it would need some code changes just for this track, so other more important stuff tends to get prioritized. I’m not arguing it would not be useful.

Is there any way, with how the licensing and track creation is done, to have those tracks that appear in other MSG titles such as NASCAR Ignition, IndyCar, WEC and BTCC added in to rF2?

burgesjl

These are two separate questions, really. Licensing content is something that in general, we would like to do for all games in the MSG portfolio. In reality though, that typically is also more expensive and in some cases, like BTCC, specific layouts of certain tracks are included in the BTCC licence. So in the end, every licence negotiation is different, and any track might end up in only a few games. In terms of content, it’s too early to say how this will turn out. Obviously a lot of different technologies are coming together here, with rFactor 2, KartKraft and the first NASCAR game, the latter two using Unreal Engine but in a different way. So we are looking at what can be reused. For some games we also need to keep into account that they must run on consoles, that typically have memory that is a lot more restricted, so some things we can do in rFactor 2 will not work there.

As regards the Competition System – you state it’s not intended to be iRacing. What is it intended to be? Have to tell you, the competitions you have so far are severely, badly lacking. You’ve been asked in every CS Blog for daily, highly frequent series using Taatus F3/F4 and other more basic cars, and you refuse to create them. You need to tell us why.

burgesjl

I think you will find us listening to this request and trying something like this for the next week (which we will extend if successful).

Are flags for offline racing part of the track? If so, when can we expect it to function where full course yellows don’t dominate a race?

DucMan888

I’m not quite sure I understand this question. Could you please follow up and elaborate?

Have you considered adding more geotopographic information for tracks, like the altitude of tracks which would add some nice options for ambient effects like air pressure to influence the power and reliability of cars (like at Mexico for example) and which could also be linked to other ambient effects that haven’t been unlocked yet like wind, humidity and the ambient and track temperatures?

hitm4k3r

The altitude is already a parameter that we set for each track and, from memory, it does influence air density and feeds into physics for aerodynamics and the engine.

How far away are features like fog that are available in devmode but not in the real game. Any chance of getting the proper alignments of stars and the moon based on the TOD and TOY?

hitm4k3r

Stars and the moon should already align if the track is setup correctly. Note that each track has a “race date” and that is used (not whatever day today is).

There seems to be a big influx of free roam tracks that are very popular in games like AC have you considered to use procedural terrains to create such free roam tracks like desert highways, alpine passes or tropical islands with coastal routes?

hitm4k3r

No, we’re sticking to racetracks and cars mostly. We’ll leave those to the community.

Speaking of community created tracks: have you considered porting some historic tracks from Fat Alfie that are very popular and that would most likely be pretty cheap to licence? Other tracks were ported from other products already, so why not expand in that area?

 hitm4k3r

We did not. We’ll give that some thought, but in general we have quite a wish list of tracks already and even porting tracks can be a considerable effort.

Any chance we see updates to the historic tracks within rF2 in the foreseeable future with the same treatment as Silverstone, Lime Rock Park and the likes?

hitm4k3r

We don’t know yet.

Have you thought of offering track packs like Reiza with each track and their layouts throughout the years, like we have the Imola track pack from Reiza? Tracks like Spa, Monza, Monaco, Nürburgring, Silverstone or Le Mans, that have a rich history would offer great opportunities for something like that.

hitm4k3r

We did consider it, but decided against it for now.

Have you thought about something like a forgotten track DLC with tracks like old Brno, Sachsenring or Rouen?

hitm4k3r

Not really since most of our focus has been on current tracks that we can laser scan and licence so far. I guess we have been playing catch up in that department and are now getting to a point where we could consider doing some other types of content. It’s being debated internally for sure.

What do you think about something like a track editor similar to Garry’s mod for Half Life or Zeus in ArmA 3, where people would have a few selected objects that they can place in an open world (tyre stacks on a car park for example) to build stuff like Kart tracks on the fly, where people could interact in real time? You could start with “small” worlds and expand the concept if it is popular.

hitm4k3r

I think those are great ideas, but probably best implemented (and possibly monetized) by the community. Honestly I don’t see us having the time to build such tools.

I saw that the new Nascar game is bringing wind and dynamic track temperature to the mix, so are those also coming to RF2 official content at the very least in the near future?

Nieubermesch

Formally, we are not allowed to comment on new features of games that are not yet released. That said, any new features developed for other games, we will always try to bring back to rF2 too. Ask me again after release!

How high in the priority list is the implementation of a proper damage model to the engine and transmission? Can you give us a rough timeframe?

RNeves

The basic damage model for the engine is good. There are a few tweaks we could make such as making engines lose a bit of power over their lifetime, but we have them taking damage on impact and because of abuse (overheating, over revving, etc.). The transmission could use a better damage model, damaging your gearbox if you mis-shift. I remember an implementation in NR2003 where you’d lose gears during a race, sometimes ending a race with only 2 of them left. Whilst that might be a bit over the top, we are considering improvements. I’m not able to give you a timeframe, though.

Are you planning on implementing a more refined damage model? Not only body panels, but suspension components too.

RNeves

We have no immediate plans for this. Our physics model can have several parts breaking off already and those affect the car’s handling. We also have suspensions that get bent, and wheels breaking off. Most of those also have a visual component. We might look at visually improving some of those effects.

Are you going to implement in UI a way to override the parameters of the GDB of the track, in order to set up the races? Such as: Add practice sessions and configure the duration and start of every session / The tags related with the unticut code / The pit lane speed limit.

lagg

Probably not. There is a system in the RFM files to override certain parameters in the context of a racing series, so we would like to continue to use that going forward. Obviously that raises the question about tooling to create RFM files more easily. That is something we are considering, as well as the option to provide a bunch of reusable series in general (for competition, multiplayer and off-line use).

It was probably answered at the time the track came out, but what was the reason for not scanning the Bugatti track alongside the 24H one?

Yoann Kerjean

Licensing and the extra cost for adding that layout.

Personally think that Loch Drummond is a really believable track (even if it’s one of the hardest to master). Do you plan on making some other fictional tracks? If yes, can we send some designs?

Yoann Kerjean

Loch Drummond started life as a personal project by Alex if I remember correctly. We’ve had a few similar ones, and I know our artists sometimes release tracks under a pseudonym. Right now, I know at least one other fictional track that is being worked on as a side project, but that’s all I want to say about it now. We have not considered letting the community design a track.

Urban tracks are nice because you can scan them without a licence (I think???). My city has a track called “Circuit des Remparts”, on which Fangio and Trintignant drove in 1950. The track is still in use, every year in September. Are you interested in tracks like this? (which would go well with the older cars we have in game).

Yoann Kerjean

Mostly yes, you can scan public roads without a licence. In most countries. There are exceptions though, for example certain landmarks might be restricted (Eiffel Tower in Paris is an example). You still have to be careful with naming and certain temporary changes that are made to public roads. I had to look up this event online. Looks like we would have to contact the owners of this event about the name. To me this sounds more like something the community, or that event themselves, could model themselves. Much like we ended up with the Maastricht track. That was funded locally as well and ended up being the core of a yearly event, Sim Formula Europe (probably a whole different story)!

Regarding the general track quality, I am absolutely thrilled with all official tracks. The only thing that doesn’t match the general quality here is the AI (not always but often) as well as the general “rain quality” (especially regarding rain spray etc.). The AI is still one of the best out there in general from my point of view, but a few minor bugs make the AI feel worse than it actually is, this mainly includes from my point of view: AI always runs hard tires in qualifying / AI drives on some tracks (also original ones) wrong or strange lines / AI behaves strange at different flags (blue and yellow for example) /I think here would be the chance to achieve great effect by relatively small adjustments, this is from my point of view the foundation for the offline championships. So my question on the track topic would be what is the plan regarding the necessary adjustments to the AI?

Christian Wolter

We are very much aware of the problems with our AI. We have in fact fixed some issues with them, mostly on ovals, as part of the NASCAR game. Obviously we would like to extend those fixes to road courses and bring that code back to rFactor 2. A timeline for that is hard to give as we have quite a few projects competing for attention at the moment.

With many of the tracks already in sim, I think it would be really nice to develop historic variants such as the old ‘Bus Stop’ chicane version of Spa, older Silverstone layouts and of course the various Monza goodies and bankings, amongst others. We don’t really see much of this from rF2 – why is that, and I suppose the second part of my question is, do we have any potential to bring alternative versions in the future?

SiC58

One part of the answer is those versions we can’t laser scan, so they would be of a slightly lesser accuracy. That’s not the end of the world though. The other part is that historic versions, done right, are much more work than just changing a few turns and chicanes. You have to insert period-correct track side objects too, and since those are most of the work of building tracks, these projects end up much bigger than you might initially think.

I appreciate you have rightly been going after big track licences lately (Spa, Monza, Nords, Sebring etc), however a wealth of really amazing lesser known tracks are in existence and would be great to see in the sim – can we expect smaller profile venues in future?

SiC58

We’re getting quite a few of those questions. We did a few lesser known ones (starting with NOLA motorsport part, including Zandvoort that then became an F1 venue) so we will definitely consider some. As long as a track can be used by many classes, it is interesting. That said, there are so many tracks we could do that we will probably never get to making all your favourite ones. We hope the modding community will help fill in the gaps!

Also on tracks, North America and Australia are really underrepresented in rF2, and generally in sim racing – any prospect of these regions getting any love from Studio 397 at all in the near future please?

SiC58

We have about 15 tracks out of 40 that are not in Europe, and four of the remaining 25 are fantasy locations, so roughly half of our tracks are indeed European. That’s not even that bad, considering well over 60% of our sales are in Europe. So our “bias” towards that is less than what you would do based on sales. That said, there are certainly quite a few nice tracks in different parts of the world that we would love to add. We are working on one right now!

 If you are going to build new tracks, will it be Macau, Jerez or Long Beach?

juanchioooo

We have a couple of new tracks in production right now, but they are not these three.

In terms of track development, roughly speaking, how long does it take the studio to build a new track from receipt of the laserscan data (for example, an average sized F1 venue).

Marco

As an average we’re talking about roughly three months. That said we typically work in parallel on more than one track.

Looking at the old ISI 3PA tracks, why has this initiative been abandoned in recent years, and additionally, can you foresee these old tracks ever being updated, or probably more likely being licenced and built from scratch by Studio 397?

Marco

We abandoned 3PA as we wanted to do properly licensed tracks and from a technical point of view we wanted more control over the whole content creation pipeline. For a lot of these tracks, we either don’t have all the proper sources or our track team has stated that they would have to redo them from scratch anyway. So your last question is probably where we would end up with those.

I would really like to see more diversity in the trackside signage, as seeing a lot of S397 / rF2 / Traxion logos really breaks immersion for me. Do you think we could get to a place where either modders could add their own signage (without breaking online compatibility), or if the tracks could ship with some more realistic looking but fake sponsorship signs?

Marco

A lot of tracks limit what we can and cannot do in terms of signage, so allowing everybody to add their own sponsors is not very high on our list.

Loving these recent PBR updates – go on, tell us which track is next on the list to be updated…

Yuri Shelkon

I don’t know yet. As explained earlier these are things we do in between bigger projects. At the same time we have seen a few other smaller projects come in to create updates with special advertising for series like Le Mans Virtual. So currently there is no update in progress. I am sure that will come though.

Not really on topic, but thank you for doing these blog posts, it is great to see S397 communicating so openly with the community, and I’m sure I speak for a lot of people when I say we really appreciate it!

Yuri Shelkon

You are welcome. We always try to be as open as we can, given the limitations we have because of NDAs and other contracts.

Is it possible to have separated graphics options saved for each track to maximize graphics quality for each one in the future? Like the car specific FFB settings for example.

Balazs Magyar

That’s an interesting idea. We’ll give that some more thought.

When you give the race with the sign “+” or “-” you can go up to the cars of other drivers live, but in VR only if there is an odd number of drivers on the server, you can go up to all the cars, this It is so easy to change when the code is modified, could you please enable it so that in Virtual Reality we can get into any car? Thank you so much.

juanchioooo

This bug is unfortunately still in our bug database and has not been solved yet.

Alongside the Windscreen Rain effects announced on the last roadmap, any chance to see updates to the “track particles” like grass or gravel in the future?

L0P3X

Possibly. That’s all I can reveal right now (and that’s a hint).

Are you planning to upgrade grass and gravel, in terms of not being forgiving like it is right now? Right now you can cut on grass or gravel and run wide on so many tracks, which is faster, but you don’t get any real punishment for doing that. eg. getting a bigger slow down on gravel or losing traction on grass.

Mario Tump

I interpret this question mostly as a question about “cutting the track and gaining an advantage”. So we try to punish people by giving them penalties if they repeatedly do this. Can our system be even better? I’m sure it can! I don’t think our grip levels and bumpiness are that far off on these materials.

In the current “Real Road Shader”, marble and rubber are reproduced, but sand and grass rolled up from the side of the course are not piled up on the road surface. Does S397 have any plans to update the Real Road Shader so that the sand and grass that are rolled up on the road are piled up?

I_Bellett

That might not be as easy as we would need to keep track of more different types of buildup, which puts more strain on our networking. Given that our worst case here is Nordschleife we would have to make sure we design something that works there as well.

Is it possible to apply the system of showing yellow flags when there is a crash or a stopped car in the section between Marshal A and Marshal B, to show oil flags when certain sections become slippery?

I_Bellett

I’m wondering under what conditions we would show the oil flags? Maybe you want to follow up on that.

Are altitude, humidity and wind working?

I_Bellett

Wind is not. The other two, see above (yes).

Even on wet roads, I think there is a problem that the line on which the rubber is on is faster. Does S397 considering improving this?

I_Bellett

That’s still on our list, yes, we know the grip levels on rubbered-in lines is not correct in wet conditions.

As weather providers are pretty accurate and real time nowadays what about adding a “Real Weather” functionality depending on the tracks location?

Kevin Karas

There are plugins that do this already. We have considered adding such a feature natively.

Automobilista 2 has an awesome feature of allowing players to select a custom event date, and the track presenting the appropriate time of year changes like leaves on trees etc, is incredibly cool and immersive – plus adds a significant visual differentiation to the various tracks. Do you foresee something like this for rFactor 2?

Ben Lotts

I admit it’s a very nice feature. I’m not sure if we’ll get to this soon for rFactor 2.

On the same sort of topic as above, AMS 2 also allows players to choose weather scenarios based on historic weather data – so essentially you can replicate weather conditions from any time / date in history. Would love to see that in rFactor 2 – do you have a desire or plan to bring something similar into the software?

Ben Lotts 

You have to set those conditions yourself in rFactor 2. We don’t have plans to add a historic weather database. Maybe if some external provider can give us that we’ll consider it though.

Tracks = content. What are you planning in order to better represent your DLCs in the steam store? Bought items are not marked, newer tracks cost the same as ancient ones, quality differs hugely, no mentioned “last major update date” etc. The community is asking for a better store experience for many years now. It would certainly help a lot with sales also.

Kevin Karas

So what are we doing? First, since the item store mechanism we use was actually recommended to us by Valve as the best system given our requirements, we have since been asking them to help us improve this system. The most important thing we need them to change is to flag certain items as “things you can only have one of”. If they have such a concept, then they can figure out what you already own, and they could allow bundles (packs) that let you buy only what is missing. What we could do on our side is implement our own storefront. We might even be able to do that and provide you with some missing information (such as what you already own). Remember that in the competition system, we do have a feature that will figure out what content is missing and what the cheapest way is to buy that (combining bundles and/or single items) and putting it in your basket. We can build on that, but we would also really need Valve to help us with the above.

Are you guys going to implement any “clutch engaged” option? As it is now there is no clutch option for the h pattern shifter cars, which means that can change gear without pressing the clutch (I know there is a tweak bout that but i was talking about a native solution)

Haris1977

This is certainly an interesting topic, and I would argue that to get to a significantly better implementation we would need to have a combination of hardware and software support. Current H shifters cannot block gear shifts based on signals they get from the software, so even if we would block a shift in software (because you did not use the clutch or whatever) the hardware would still allow you to make the shift. That could get weird really quickly. So for now we did not make any improvements yet.

Do you plan something like “initial track dampness (percentage)” in session settings in the future? It’d be great to have a (somewhat) wet track without rain at the start of a session.

Balazs Magyar

Your best bet right now is to create and load a custom real road (rubber) file that has some water on the track already.

Internals Plugin documentation says, the rain intensity can be diversified by inserting different values in the 3×3 matrix. However, it is also written, the middle node is working. Any chances of updating that?

Paweł Andrzejewski

A similar question was asked above. We might, we have not decided yet.

Is track temperature being simulated right now? And is it affecting how tires perform?

Paweł Andrzejewski

Not all aspects, no.

Turkish GP had shown how humidity can affect track evolution. There was little to no rain (drizzles reported) and due to 95% humidity, drivers didn’t get a chance of utilizing slicks. Any chance of seeing that in rF2 in some time?

Paweł Andrzejewski

Partially we have that. How quickly the track dries depends on the temperature, so on a warm and sunny day it will dry quicker than a cold and overcast day. We could add more detail for sure here based on other weather conditions, such as humidity and wind.

Which tracks from the legacy group like Malaysia, Sao Paulo, Brianza, Monte Carlo etc. are likely to be updated to current standards?

Paweł Andrzejewski

I think you roughly ordered them by likeliness already (probably by coincidence).

Is 3PA programme shut down?

Paweł Andrzejewski

We never really had one at Studio 397. This was only with ISI. So yes.

We had seen Alpine seasons, now there has been a ByKolles released with team supported physics, so it can be considered as an official content. Have you considered creating some public pack of standards and rules that a content needs to meet so it will be considered as worthy of use in the competition system?

Paweł Andrzejewski

We might, we are still looking at the possibilities.

After roughly nine months of regular blogs and Q&A sessions about the competition system we feel it is time to open up the floor to questions about other areas of the rFactor 2 simulation. We are going to try focussing on a different area every other week and in two weeks from now the first area will be tracks. We can keep this fairly broad, so anything that is related to tracks, graphics, sound, physics or weather is allowed.

That said, this week we are still looking at the competition system, so before we move on let’s go over its current state and look ahead at the roadmap again. The last big review we did was mid-May, so let’s provide an update based on that one.

We are pretty happy with where we are with the competition formats right now. We’ll always keep adding new formats as we go forward, but we feel we can currently cover most competition formats that we want, so it’s time to put a big green checkmark next to it! Recent blogs already indicated that we were prioritizing the implementation of ratings based on user feedback. The algorithms are in place, we’ve worked on code that includes all past competitions into the system, and we started on the UI to show all of this information. I don’t expect this feature to be released until early next year though, as other things outside the competition system are currently being prioritized. Protests and decisions as well as the first iteration of stewarding support are likely to follow after that. We might then prioritize roles and team based driving before we continue our broadcast integration and support for offline championships.

So still plenty to do this and next year, and we’re still looking for people to join us to help out. That said, I feel we currently have a system that allows us to already run a lot of interesting competitions so these upcoming months we’ll definitely be experimenting more with new ideas as well as things the community requested.

That said, let’s move on to the incoming questions!

Q&A

When can I see how many and which other people have registered, and when can I register for an individual session, say, a day in advance preferably through the web. Now you lose 30mins on waiting, practice session another warm up etc, to find out there are 3 people in the race? 

Maarten Nauta

If you sign up for a competition, you should make an effort to race in all the events (picking sessions that suit you if there are multiple moments in time when you can race). We don’t open up registration for a session until right before the session because otherwise we would end up with a lot of people that register but don’t show up. We don’t show you how many there are in the session because we don’t want people having a peek, and then leaving again because they don’t want to race for whatever reason.

Considering everything you have planned in the “to-do list” and the difficulty of developing a competition system and integrating everything into the simulator that was born years ago, have you thought about the option of abandoning the development of rF2 and set a release date for rF3 (or whatever you want to call it) in 2 or 3 years, with an online competition system integrated from the start, a current graphics engine and all the other features that you would like to carry out? 

Diego Barjollo

Obviously, we have discussions about potentially creating rFactor 3 and if we do, how we would go about that. To me, this is mostly a marketing discussion though, and I’ll explain that a bit. When creating a new product, we in theory have the option to start from scratch, taking all the lessons learned to build a completely new product. Let’s estimate that our current product is the result of roughly 150 man-years of work (it’s probably a lot more to be honest) and that if you rebuild that you only spend half that time, it’s still a lot of work. And you will make new mistakes along the way. So if the new product is basically similar to the old, the other and in my opinion better option is to keep the existing code and extend or replace certain parts. Doing this can be done incrementally. You can then still decide to at some point call this updated product rFactor 3, and you see other studios do something similar. The new product will probably sell more copies, but there are also extra costs, such as relicensing certain content. To be fair, the competition system integration with the existing product was not that hard, and I am confident that what has been built can be used for future titles too.

Are tracks that are used in the CS tested for track cuts etc before they are used?

Remco Majoor

Not specifically, no. Tracks are tested before we release them to the public, and we typically provide updates when bugs are reported, but no special test cycle exists before we pick a track for the CS.

Not really CS related, but I think that is still a place to ask for: Are there any plans to improve the verbosity of the trace logs? Even on highest verbosity, e.g. a mod install error is printed as “mod install error”, so basically without any additional information. Even better would be to get a really verbose message on the client when connecting to a (CS) server with a failure. 

guenther

To be honest, I would like to make the log a bit less verbose, but more informational. Specifically, the issue you are describing is something I don’t want to just end up in the log at all. The best solution would be to do a “root cause” analysis on why certain content failed to install, and then provide the results of that in human-readable form with some advice on how to fix it.

My buddies and I love Mills Metro, Toban and Loch Drummond, so I wanted to ask if there are any plans for a new fictional track? 

Manta

Not at the moment, but there are some interesting fictional tracks out there that were done for rFactor in the past that I would love to see in rFactor 2 as well. Essington and the Lienz Festival of Speed come to mind.

How do you go about selecting the different CS combos? Do you have a rota of content, use some kind of analytic data in the background, or something else? TIG

TIG

Mostly by listening to the community, we select those combinations.

Have you been surprised how popular / not popular certain pieces of content within the CS have been, and if so, which ones surprised you the most?

TIG

I was pleasantly surprised at the popularity of our fantasy tracks, of some of the fixed setup competitions and the Alpine a little while ago.

I suppose this isn’t strictly CS related but…. the popular officially licenced Alpine Mod from Enduracers… any chances of seeing this adopted into rF2 as official content seeing as it has been licenced?

SiC58fan

I think this car is a great example of how a modding team can step up and take it to the next level. They did a great job creating this car and getting it licensed. We encouraged that by making this car part of the initial content pack that new users can install. We would not want to “steal their thunder” which is why we did not even discuss buying the car from them. I would like to see this as an example of how our community can create great content. What we have done though is ask Enduracers to help out with some official rFactor 2 cars.

On a similar topic, the officially supported ByKolles LMP1 is coming out soon from RSS – any chances of either seeing this in the CS, or even better, having this brought into the official content offering of the sim?

SiC58fan

It’s certainly a good candidate to include, and we’ll make that decision after it has been released.

How can the community go about making official requests for content to be put into the Competition System schedule?

BoxBoxBox

Mostly here, in our forums and on Discord. We are keeping our eyes and ears open.

Sorry if this has been asked before, but do you plan on adding some kind of in game link to the CS system. What I mean is, if I’m elsewhere in rF2 and a session I’m registered is about to start, it would be great if somehow the sim could inform me, and give me a button to press to directly move into that session.

AxelSpin

That is planned, yes. We have the notification bar that you can currently use for the in-game chat, and the original design for that included this sidebar showing exactly these types of notifications. We’d probably put a message in the message centre in case you were in-car.

Maybe you could add an extra channel for these types of question in your Discord server?

Tobias Haag

I’ll leave that to my colleague Paul, who gathers all these questions.

Any possibility to test with Pro teams and drivers participating in Virtual Le Mans? (Open multiplayer servers) 

Jeroen Goudeseune

As far as I’m aware, the content that is being used in LMVS is not released to the public, which means only drivers participating could ever join such sessions. From experience, most teams prefer to practice on their own private servers anyway, so I doubt there would be much of a demand. I would direct this question to the LMVS organizers to see if they would consider putting up more servers outside the current test sessions that are already being hosted.

How is development going on multiclass / driver swap features in the Competition System at the moment?

TJG04

We have a design for it, so we pretty much know how it will work, but we have not started implementing it yet as I explained in the introduction above.

What do you think you will improve in your Physics Engine in the short (6 months), medium (12 months) and long term (24 months and more)? 

pilAUTO

Short term, I don’t expect any development work on the physics engine code. We are still evolving our tyre model based on our collaboration with Goodyear. Looking at the medium and long terms, we have a few bigger topics we’d like to address, but we have not decided the order yet. Some of those are an improvement of wet weather grip levels, long overdue AI improvements which might also bring back some of the things we’ve done for NASCAR 21: Ignition, and hybrid engine support.

Can you indicate if you plan to update the approximately 55 S397 cars in terms of physics, not just the most popular ones? 

 pilAUTO

We will probably leave some older ones as is, depending on the licensing situation for these cars and in general the state of the 3D model. We don’t have a definitive list though as some of these project are also done in between other car builds, so depending on the time we have we might do a few more.

IRL, LMP2 have TC1 TC2, and no fuel mixture map and TC override (from real driver), and the electric system in rF2 is a little outdated, any plan to update it? 

zxd1997

Longer term, yes, but given that we have a pretty big backlog of physics improvements we would like to make, realistically most of those things will move into 2022.

LMV seems to have updated physic and tyre model, when can we get them too with shiny LMV liveries?

zxd1997

Most likely after the season we will consolidate some of those updates. As for the liveries, I am honestly not sure. We’d have to license them from the teams before we can publicly release them.

Are you planning to give Virtual Reality a boost? If so, in what sense or details do you foresee? 

juanchioooo

Nothing is planned there right now. VR just gets any generic graphics improvements.

Any plans for optimization of the overall performance of the graphics engine, in particular the low sun/sunrise/sunset and night, rain and wet roads, multi-application of AI or competitors, optimization of multiclass, new computer technologies, many more parameters to adjust in the graphics options so that the user can best optimize according to these priorities and his system….. Etcetera. 

pilAUTO

We are typically looking at things we can further optimize. We’re doing work on our shadow system right now, and we are looking at some raindrop effects, also to better support curved windscreens. I do think though that we already have a ton of options that users can tweak to improve on graphics performance. As soon as you know the “worst case conditions” for your system, I think you can pretty much optimize it based on that.

Can we see a competition that focuses on gear… like a manufacturing series with spec cars where we can represent our gear, wheels pedals… a win on Sunday, buy on Monday for sim fans kinda setup?? Jonathan Fraser

Jonathan Fraser

I’m not entirely sure how this would work? So we would all be racing the same cars, but when we enter the competition we would all list what gear we are using and that would show up in the results and standings along with your name? So something like Jonathan with his Logitech gear beat Marcel with his Fanatec gear?

I would like to know if you are in the process of making new displays for the game. Like, the black box (in game) Standing, relative and race information (in menu) circuit information, outside temperature, track temperature.

Gaetan Valero

We are not. There are a lot of third party ones out there. Both custom HUDs in-game and solutions that work on external displays (like Simhub).

Could we please have an ‘open track day’ type server on the CS? For example, a bunch of cars on Nords, with a leaderboard time and a winner picked based on fastest lap per class of car?

LotsofNoise

Noted.

A daily CS race every thirty minutes would be great. For example: Tatuus F3/F4, USF 2000, Alpine Cup. Q 10 min and R 15 min. Just race. That’s what people want. We enjoy rFactor2, but we need races and have fun, not only competing, but racing just for fun with people as well. 

Rubén Colmenar Sánchez

I think this was suggested in a previous blog too. I like the idea, so I’m sure we’ll do some of this going forward.

Will the AMG GT3 be reworked at some point? The last two seasons of GT challenge have been shared between most mid/rear-engined cars and the Bentleys, but the C7r and M6 disappeared from the top, the radical is where we expect it to be and the AMG drives like a lawnmower. I also learned that there is a GT3 Aston-Martin in rF2???? Alsabti and Jajovski preferred the Radical over it, which means a lot. 

Yoann Kerjean

I think this is more of a BOP question in the end. We will continue to evaluate and tweak that.

Also, is it planned to make the front-engined GT3s relevant in wet conditions? 

Yoann Kerjean

See above.

Are you going to do a multiplayer as complete as it is iRacing? Explications: With daily lessons in several competitions, with a way forward like the Safety Rating and iRating of your competitor?

Gaetan Valero

Our aim is not to copy iRacing. We will add features like ratings, and we can pretty much already do daily sessions in a style very similar to iRacing. I hope that answers your question?

Update day! 

Zandvoort has been a very busy place in recent weeks, having not so long ago hosted a certain rather popular victory for home hero Max Verstappen in Formula One, in what was universally heralded as a triumphant return of Grand Prix racing at the Dutch venue. 

Ahead of the big race, we were keen to get our substantial new 2021 update out into the public domain for you all to have the opportunity to experience this track for yourselves, and we must admit we have been very happy to note the exceptionally positive reaction the track update has generated. However, with Formula One heading into town since we closed initial development, Zandvoort have introduced a few important changes to the overall look and feel of the circuit – something that we have addressed in this new build to ensure we have the latest version of the track available within rFactor 2. 

Zandvoort 2021 | Steam Workshop: CLICK HERE

In this new build, our track development team have taken the opportunity to mirror the Formula One specific changes introduced for the 2021 Dutch Grand Prix. From a driving perspective, the new V2.58 release adopts the DRS placements introduced just ahead of the race, with the start of the DRS Activation Zone having now moved from before the mighty banked final turn, to several meters into the short start and finish straight on the run down into the Tarzan hairpin. 

Other changes brought about for the long awaited return of Formula One include the placement of the pit exit speed limit, with drivers now able to disengage the limiter at the first set of lights immediately after the last garage, rather than the more traditional point at the very end of pit road. This means drivers can now get back on the power earlier, but have to navigate the tricky right-hand turn at the end of the pit lane, before joining the track before the kink left on the approach to Gerlachbocht. 

Of course, one of the most requested updates to be introduced in this new build has to be the addition of curb colour changes the circuit brought to the track in the days leading up to the Grand Prix. Cementing the corporate identify of the Zandvoort Circuit, many of the trackside curbs received a fresh lick of red, white and grey non-slip paint – a small change, but one that has really helped to make the circuit stand out against some of the more bland looking venues on the Formula One schedule. For this new build, our track team have gone round the virtual track and updated all the areas where the new colour scheme applies, so make sure to check out the various curbs and the strip of colour on the outside of T3 for some new Zandvoort themed branding! 

Speaking of Turn 3, thanks to Fernando Alonso, a much higher line into and out of the corner became favoured by Grand Prix drivers over the course of the weekend, and alongside various other AI tweaks and block path improvements, this new optimal line has also been introduced into our latest build update – so expect to be really, really sure you can pass the AI on the inside, only to have them drive right around you on corner exit! 

You can check out the full list of what is new and improved in the update notes below – 

Zandvoort V2.58 Update Notes

• Updated Curb and Run off colours
• Corrected Pit Exit location
• Updated DRS Zones
• AI Fixes:
• Adjusted T3 Lines
• Reduced chance of touching curbs at T5
• Improved Block Paths
• Fixed AI error on start finish straight
• Added missing brake markers
• Added missing road lines on GP circuit cut through
• Fixed some assets which were sinking into the terrain or floating over the terrain
• Fixed an issue where roads would not reflect over the start finish line
• Fixed Pit Object groupings so fixtures only rendered when a car is present
• Fixed missing wheels on Food Trucks
• Some minor optimization fixes

These changes have been developed in order to maintain our desire to host the most realistic and up-to-date version of the circuit as possible in rFactor 2, and as a free premium track we very much hope you enjoy this new build, and we look forward to seeing you all out on the virtual tarmac in the coming weeks and months! 

Zandvoort 2021 – Now available in rFactor 2

A bit of a short intro this time, as apart from development that is slowly continuing on the features we’ve mentioned before, there is not that much to report yet. We are considering making some changes to this blog though, focussing more on the competitions that are upcoming and currently running.

That said, we do have a healthy list of questions this week, so let’s go over those!

Q&A

If open practice sessions for a series is currently a littler harder for you to do, what about a button within the series page that sets up an offline session with correct settings (AI/no-AI, weather, track etc.)? Within that practice session, the system sends a chat message with a countdown to the next CS session, e.g. “Next Q session in 10min”. I find it a little hard to set up an offline practice session every single time to get track time for the current run track. 

St54KeV

I’m not sure if you’re aware, but what you can do is, from the main menu, select the “series” that the competition you participate in is using and then set up a single player experience yourself. The series should already give you the exact cars and tracks that are in the competition. Notifications are something we still need to implement, it’s a very good idea and saves you from setting an alarm on your phone (which is what I typically end up doing).

It would be nice to actually have a thumbnail of the car selection list, when signing up for a series. I always have to subscribe to the content, go back to offline series selection, and go through the cars to see their liveries, remember the car number and then go back and select it in the CS. Kinda long way. 

St54KeV

Agreed it can be faster. If you select the car in single player already, you will find it’s preselected in the CS too. But adding these thumbnails is a good suggestion.

Will the Virtual Le Mans Series have several splits to accommodate everyone? 

leseb64

No, the Le Mans Virtual Series will not, this is a fixed invite with a mix of real life teams and simracing teams. However the Le Mans Cup Virtual will, all the races have been set up with multiple splits, so anybody who wants to race, can. A nice bonus to this is that the 2 best drivers in this, will be invited to the big 24 hours of Le Mans

Why hasn’t GTP/GTC Season 3 BoP been applied to the base cars before the start of the current season? It might not be perfect, but it’s arguably better than what we have now, and since It’s the first time we didn’t receive a GT3 update related to physics and applying BoP doesn’t look a very time-consuming operation I wonder why that didn’t happen?

Roman Yakubovich

I don’t know, but I will ask, as I tend to agree.

Do you make any announcements in social media or Discord server about new series in the Competition roster? i.e. I follow Discord server, but I wouldn’t know you launched a GT3 series on the Nordschleife on Sundays without accidentally looking at it while registering for Monza GTC round. Since some do mostly league racing and some generally don’t launch the game too often during the summer (hence not visiting Competition tab in the UI), I believe it would be good if you could announce series changes once a “season” so that more people had an idea of what is currently running in the system.

Roman Yakubovich

I like this idea, I think announcements ahead of new competitions starting would be useful.

I know you stated that you are focusing on development of visuals more than other areas at the moment, but I’ve wondered for a long time what’s the state of general physics-related features like wind and dynamic surface temperature – are they implemented and “turned off”? If yes, what is blocking turning them back on: lack of your resources, modern PCs not having enough performance to run it or something else? 

Roman Yakubovich

Let’s look at them individually. Wind is something that exists as part of the weather. In the past, it has been linked to a few graphical effects, but a link to physics has not been made. Wind would obviously affect the aero of a car, but we have yet to implement that. Dynamic surface temperature, like wind, exists, but it’s not hooked up to physics (in this case the tyre model). So in both cases there unfortunately is not something we can just “turn on”. I’m confident that modern PCs could handle both of these effects, so it’s down to having resources available to do work on this.

How far (resources/priorities-wise) are you from adjusting the wet surface grip levels? 

Roman Yakubovich

Right now, my honest answer is “I don’t know”. It’s probably fair to say that a lot of things are being developed right now as part of Motorsport Games, which sometimes makes it more difficult to plan and prioritize these. Looking at the list of physics improvements we have internally, wet surface grip levels is pretty high on the list.

How correct in your opinion is the current tyre behaviour on a wet surface? I am mainly interested in what you think of different compounds (soft vs inter vs wet) performance in the most used endurance cars like Oreca and GTE. 

Roman Yakubovich

This is a topic where we’re collaborating more with tyre manufacturers recently to validate the data and parameters we’re using. Granted, the grip levels you mentioned in your previous question are not that accurate yet when you look at how they change with rubber and marbles build up, but I think on the side of tyre compounds we are making some good improvements recently. It’s still early stages though, and we definitely are looking for more community feedback.

What did you, or what are you, planning to change in the cars following the last year quarantine series with real-life pro drivers based on their feedback? For example, I might be wrong, but from what I heard you ran some test version of tyres for FR3.5 in one of those events, and you ran some test version of tyres for Oreca in WTF1 Spa event, but I can’t remember any official changes to those cars. 

Roman Yakubovich

For several reasons we updated the FR3.5 ahead of those events and apart from graphical improvements to the materials we also did a few physics tweaks indeed that have since been integrated and improved upon in other open wheelers such as the Formula Pro that was released recently. The Oreca test tyres you mention were accidentally released for the Spa event and later reverted as they were at that time a work in progress. That said, we are still working on those and other tyres and expect to update quite a few cars. As far as feedback, yes, we got a lot of it. Too much to summarize here, but one thing I wanted to highlight is the Dallara IndyCar we raced at Indianapolis was broadly praised by several of the drivers that had driven there in real life, so that was a great compliment!

Are there any plans in the pipeline to update and improve the dedicated server tool? I don’t think its changed much since back in 2012. With all the good stuff that’s come to rF2, and stuff that’s no doubt coming, will the DS be updated? Still having to edit JSON files, wet files and whatever else, it would be really great if more could be incorporated into the interface. 

Andy Bonar

It has not changed much, I agree. Whereas we transformed the UI of the rFactor 2 game itself, we still need to address “dev mode” and the dedicated server and do a similar overhaul. This is on our list, but I would not expect it in this calendar year any more. By introducing the competition system, we are also trying to give people an alternative where they don’t need to set up servers themselves any more.

Would be great if you gave the historic cars the once over with PBR textures and a good physics ovehaul.

Alan Watson

They are still on the to-do list, but they are a bit more tricky to upgrade as some models by today’s standards are very outdated, so we’re not convinced in all cases that just adding PBR textures is going to be enough (on the graphics side).

What’s the possibility of RF2 multiplayer-CS running similar to GT Sport? I believe their competition system / multiplayer comes second to none in structure. This structure should be appreciated and adopted by a true simulation.

Mr. Schumacher

Looking at some of their race structures, I think there are quite a few things we can already do. Recent competitions like the Le Mans Virtual Cup and the Tillotson T4 esports series have shown some of these variations. We’ll definitely let ourselves be inspired by others, though!

Will we enjoy the Bentley Speed 8 in the CS at some point?  

MiguelVallejo

Never say never, but at this point I consider it unlikely. Some time ago, we decided to trade the licence for this car for the Bentley Continental GT3. There were several reasons to do that, but one important one was access to and data of the car. There are only two left, one privately owned and one in the Bentley museum. It turned out to be very tricky for us to do a good job modelling the whole car, so in the end we decided to go for the Continental.

Could there be the possibility of rewarding the podiums of each championship concluded with certificates of participation with name, surname and position reached? A bit like it happens on other sims…, I think it could be an incentive for the participants to put in their palamares. 

kartname

I like that idea, it’s a variation of the “achievements” that you also see in other sims. We’ll give this some more thought.

There could be the possibility of inserting a world ranking with the various records achieved in CS? 

kartname

We’re not sure yet. Certainly we could, but I also feel like rFactor 2 has so many dynamic aspects that you need to “fix” a lot of things to end up with an even playing field. I mean you need to fix the weather, real road, possibly car setups and tyre wear and I would argue that a lot of these dynamics are what makes rFactor 2 so interesting. But not everybody will agree with this view, I know, so maybe we will!

It would be nice if in the CS the drivers would be accompanied by the belonging tag of their team, what do you think? 

 kartname

We have already been working on a design for how to implement teams in the CS, so something like this is definitely coming!

Over the last few weeks I’ve been really enjoying the “quick fire” nature of the fun races that the USF2000 server brings up (7mins Practice, 7mins Quali, 7mins Race). Are you planning to have any more of these? Considering it’s quite tricky for some people to set up a dedicated server, I think it would be great to have more “pre-ready, quick-fire” races like the USF2000 with other cars / tracks (all S397 content of course) for people to join? 

Calum Wilson

We’ve always said that if there’s a demand, we’ll do it. Looking at the statistics for the past competition, it makes sense to repeat such a series, or definitely the “quick fire” format.

Can we have a small permanent championship of sprint races of 20 min, with just before a qualification of 10 mins with popular series like Alpine cup/GT4, Tatuus MSV F3-020C? 

leseb64

This is a similar question to the one directly above. We’ll consider it!

Is a small oval championship with StockCars coming soon? 

leseb64

Could you suggest a few ovals based on official content? I think we’re lacking a bit there right now.

Are S397 planning to look at onboard sound effects, and camTV which is a very important part of a simulation? 

leseb64

We are, but I can’t say much about this yet.

Do you have any plans to have tools for the race director? I think that it will be more convenient than using server commands for FCY and penalties. 

I_Bellett

Race director is a role we have planned for the CS, and if you join a session in that role we intend to make available the commands you need to perform that role.

When build 1109 was released, the graphics settings for the GPU grade were unveiled. Are you planning to publish a modified version of them to fit your current build? 

I_Bellett

We are still working on an in-game manual that should explain these better.

Please update the 2009 Corvette C6-R GT2, and add Le Mans and IMSA skins from those years. 

David Molero de Avila

I would say that’s unlikely. We might update the car, but chasing permissions on individual old skins is typically tricky. I would leave those to our community!

Is there now a practice session with timing list that doesn’t exclude participants that have logged off during the session? eg: Practice 2hr, quali 15mins, race?

Unknown

Not at the moment, no.

What do you think about adding the Leaderboards feature as it exists in Raceroom? Although they are also improving their Ranked System, Leaderboards is still the most popular feature of the Sector 3 simulator. 

João Neto

We’re looking at that, as we are at all other forms of competition in different simulations. We’ll definitely experiment a bit more with them going forward to see what works best for our community.

Being able to store best lap history, apply filters (car/class, countries, licence), compare with friends, compete with the ghost car (friend or anyone else) seems like a great idea that can EVEN exist independently of CS as a purpose. It is to assign the hot lap a social role within the simulator. And also to offer a gift for players who have internet but don’t want or can’t play with other people on a server. And this is a huge fraction of players.

João Neto

Some interesting suggestions you make here for sure. I’m not sure if we would make those independently of the CS, but as you know we are looking at also implementing some form of offline competitions, so some of these ideas might come in handy there.

Announcing the Tillotson T4 Esports Series- your opportunity to find a seat on the grid of a real life World Finals in Dublin later this month!  

Yes, you heard that right – thanks to our friends at KartSim and Tillotson, we have an incredible opportunity to present to the rFactor 2 community. Starting on Saturday 11th September, rFactor 2 drivers will have the opportunity to take part in a new, short, sharp esport racing competition using the very latest Tillotson T4 Series kart – with a chance to win some exceptional prizes, and potentially a seat on a World finals racing grid – in real life karting! 

Tillotson T4 Series | Now Available: CLICK HERE

The Series

Held over three days of racing, the Tillotson T4 Esports Series will place drivers right at the very heart of what it means to race competitive karts. Utilizing the newly released Tillotson T4 Series kart in rFactor 2, drivers will have an opportunity to participate in up to four qualification sessions on the day of each race event, with the top 24 drivers progressing to ‘Split 1’ of the Semi-Final races. Points will be awarded for each race (Saturday and Monday), with the highest scoring 30 drivers progressing to Finals Day on Tuesday evening. Points scored across the two semi-final events will be used to set the grid positions on Finals Day.

• Saturday 11th September – 20:00 CEST – Semi Final, Kirstianstad, 12 laps, 24 drivers per split, multiple splits.
• Monday 13th September  – 20:00 CEST – Semi Final, Alaharma, 12 laps, 24 drivers per split, multiple splits.
• Tuesday 14th September – 20:00 CEST – Finals Day, Adria, 15 laps, 30 drivers (Live Stream)

Tillotson T4 Esports Series | More Details: FORUM

The Prizes

The Tillotson T4 Esport Series is not only an exceptional opportunity to sample this mighty content in rFactor 2, but thanks to the generosity of KartSim and Tillotson Racing, we also have an exceptional prize pool of goodies to give away to one lucky winner. 

Not only does the championship victor take home the KartSim Pro UK and EU packs, worth £899, but they will also win an exclusive trip to watch the real world Tillotson T4 Series World finals in Dublin! If the series winner is European based, they will get both flights, accommodation and entry into the event as reward for winning the series. Unfortunately, this offer is open only to European based competitors, should a driver outside of Europe take victory spoils, they will still earn the full KartSim Pro UK and EU packs. 

As an additional and somewhat incredible opportunity, alongside this excellent prize pool, the highest ranking driver at the end of the series with a current and active kart racing licence will be given a place on the grid in the real life World finals! Flights, accommodation, kart and starting ticket will be provided – all you have to do is turn up, and test your skills on the world stage! 

How to Enter

KartSim | rFactor 2 Steam Store: CLICK HERE

Entry is simple and open to anyone with an active copy of rFactor 2, and the KartSim content used throughout the series. Run exclusively in the rFactor 2 Competition System, all players have to do is simply sign up for the series within the Competition System, then set a time in any of the four qualification sessions that precede each race. The top 24 lap times will form the top split for each Semi-Final event, with further splits populated from the 25th driver onwards.

Drivers will score points in each semi-final race, so although participation in both events is not mandatory, if you want to score a top 30 championship finish and a place in the Finals Day broadcast, running both races is highly recommended! 

Broadcast Details

Tuesday 14th September | 20:00 CEST 

• rFactor2 Live Twitch
• KartSim Facebook

The new Tillotson T4 Series kart is another exciting addition to the growing rFactor 2 KartSim collection in rFactor 2, and with this new Esport competition, we cannot wait to see our community out on the virtual racetrack, with great chances to join in on the real world action too!

Tillotson T4 Series – Available now in rFactor 2.