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.

New content!

Great news for those in the community who look forward to racing in its purest of forms – today we are pleased to be able to bring to you the latest new machine from our expanding KartSim offering – the Tillotson T4 Series. 

The Kart

Tillotson T4 Series | Steam Store: CLICK HERE

Introduced in 2019 as a cost-effective entry level motorsport series for drivers new on the kart racing development ladder, the Tillotson T4 Series boasts an impressive 225cc Tillotson 225RS four-stroke racing engine, HW diaphragm carburettor, series specific tyres and a maximum rev limit of 6,500 rpm from the TPP-225RS engine. 

The kart runs on the European designed and built T4-C1 chassis, using many parts common with the much more expensive CIK karts, but with key design decisions introduced in order to ensure costs are kept to a minimum, and the karts themselves remain accessible to new and inexperienced drivers. 

Capacity: 225cc 4 Stroke
Power: 15HP
Engine Weight: 17 kg

• Overall weight 69 kg to reduce fuel consumption and provide a more nimble driving experience
• PVL Digital Ignition limited to 6,500rpm
• Tillotson HW Series carburettor calibrated for the TPP-225RS engine
• Engine is sealed, so no tuning is permitted—only adjustment to the valve clearance is allowed
• Up to 30 hours engine life without maintenance
• Billet CNC machined connecting rod/flywheel for improved strength and reliability
• New design Tillotson crankcase with extra support for the higher power output

Despite having been built with a view to offering drivers a cost-effective and easy maintenance point of entry into the world of racing, the Tillotson T4 Series still produces incredibly lively performance that shares many driving characteristics with more established categories. Drivers will have to work hard to keep up the minimum speed in these karts, and nothing but full concentration will do in order to run at the very sharp end of the grid – which we believe makes for a great combination to go racing with! 

Competition System Esport 

Want to earn a chance to race one of these karts in real life, during a World Championship final? If yes, this esport series is for you!

To celebrate the release of this exciting new vehicle into our ever expanding range of KartSim content, we are delighted to launch a limited time esport series run within the rFactor 2 Competition System. Featuring the Tillotson T4 Series kart racing on a selection of the highly detailed and meticulously recreated kart tracks within rFactor 2, from Saturday, September 11th drivers will have the opportunity to begin qualification for the very first official kart racing esport series within rFactor 2!

Hotlap qualification sessions ahead of two semi-final races on Saturday and Monday will be used to form the grid for Finals Day on Tuesday 14th September – a winner takes all sprint to the flag at Adria in Italy, where the biggest prize of a real world drive in the T4 Series World Championship is up for grabs! 

More details coming tomorrow on https://www.studio-397.com/ about how to take part in this amazing opportunity. 

KartSim Content

The Tillotson T4 Series is available now as both a standalone store item, and part of the wider KartSim offering in rFactor 2. Featuring 10 real world kart racing circuits and now 5 very diverse styles of racing karts, KartSim is the best way to experience the pure and unfiltered thrills of this highly exciting style of entry level motorsport in rFactor 2. 

To help players gather the content they want to play, KartSim content is offered in the following Steam Store packs:

KartSim Esports Pack

A great discounted package featuring all 10 of our consumer UK and European Kart Tracks and all of our 5 consumer kart models. Ideal for Esports competitions

Steam Store: CLICK HERE

KartSim Upgrade Pack

Already own everything, but want to add the four new tracks and three new karts released today? Grab the KartSim Upgrade Pack – a specially designed collection aimed to offer the cheapest and easiest way to add the new content to your growing collection!

Steam Store: CLICK HERE

KartSim Kart Pack 

This pack adds the IAME X30 EU Mini Cadet 2021, the X30 Senior 2021, the Rental, the IAME KZ shifter kart and the new Tillotson T4 Series to your rFactor 2 install.

Steam Store: CLICK HERE

KartSim UK Track Pack

A great discounted package featuring all 5 of our consumer UK Kart Tracks and all 5 of our consumer kart models. Ideal for Esports competitions. Pack includes Whilton Mill 2021, Larkhall WSKC 2021, Paul Fletcher International 2021, Buckmore Park 2021 and the Glan Y Gors venue, plus the IAME X30 EU Mini Cadet 2021, the X30 Senior 2021, KZ Shifter, Tillotson T4 Series and Rental karts.

Steam Store: CLICK HERE

KartSim European Track Pack

A great discounted package featuring all 5 of our consumer European Kart Tracks and all of our 5 consumer kart models. Ideal for Esports competitions. Pack includes Zuera 2021, Wackersdorf 2021, Kristianstad 2021, Alaharma 2021 and Adria 2021, plus the IAME X30 EU Mini Cadet 2021, the X30 Senior 2021, the KZ Shifter, Tillotson T4 Series and Rental karts.

Steam Store: CLICK HERE

We hope you enjoy the new Tillotson T4 Series kart, and we look forward to racing with you out on the track! 

Tillotson T4 Series – Available now in rFactor 2.

Would you like the opportunity to join an exciting and aspirational team of sim racing developers, working to expand and enhance the rFactor 2 experience?

As part of Motorsport Games, we develop both the rFactor 2 racing simulation and the core simulation technology that underpins all MSG games on PC and consoles. We are looking for people with a deep passion for racing simulation as well as motorsport.

Working remotely from home, potential new colleagues can expect to join a high performing and welcoming team here at the Studio, a collective of people who firmly believe in our vision to build upon and expand the rFactor 2 experience for sim racers and esports competitions around the world.

If you think you might like to join us in this exciting adventure, check out the current job openings below.

Job Openings

Welcome to the road to Le Mans. The Le Mans Virtual Cup is a new community driven esports competition in rFactor 2, designed in partnership with the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, the 2021 Le Mans Virtual Cup has been created to promote great racing for everyone, and open the opportunity for drivers to earn a place on the 2021 Le Mans 24 Hour Virtual grid this 15th – 16th January.

Le Mans Virtual Cup Forum | Full details | CLICK HERE

Set to run directly alongside the Le Mans Virtual Series, the Le Mans Virtual Cup starts on September 3^rd with open qualification for the first round of the season at the Monza Grand Prix Circuit. Joining via the rFactor 2 Competition System, drivers will have until September 12^th in order to secure a place on the starting grid, with points awarded on a per-race basis, across the full three round series and into the grand final at Le Mans in December.

Points will be awarded for finishing positions from the opening three races, with the championship order then determining who takes to the grid in our Super Final round at Le Mans on December 18th. The grid for this race will be formed based on championship order, and for the first 2 drivers across the line, a place on the grid at the main Le Mans 24 Hours Virtual event will be your reward!

Schedule

03 September: Monza qualifying starts

12 September: Monza qualifying ends

24 September: Monza race

—

26 September: Spa qualifying starts

05 October: Spa qualifying ends

15 October: Spa race

—

17 October: Nordschleife qualifying starts

26 October: Nordschleife qualifying ends

12 November: Nordschleife race

—

No qualifying – top 30 from championship advances to split 1. Please note several splits will be available and if x drivers from split 1 does not show drivers in split 2 will be moved up.

17 December: Finale – Le Mans

How to enter

“Qualification and races for each of the opening three rounds of the season will be held in the rFactor 2 Competition System, with qualification taking place in advance of the race at the end of the month. Drivers will be required to set a hotlap time on the chosen track for that round, with the drivers then invited to participate in the race for championship points, across multiple splits.

Further details and discussions can be found on the official Le Mans Virtual Cup page on the Studio 397 forum – LINK HERE.

Good luck and happy racing!

Hot off the heels of another monthly roadmap and our Zandvoort 2021 release, here’s the bi-weekly CS blog again! The last two weeks have been mostly spent continuing the development of ratings and the UI for it. We’re making steady progress and also taking the time to fix some bugs that were reported by the community in the different competitions that are running. Looks like we’ll need at least another month before we finish this, but we’re happy with the progress so far, and some performance improvements in the upcoming release candidate will also be helpful for the CS.

Again, the main part of this blog will be answering questions. We’ve got some interesting ones again this time, so let’s get started…

Q&A

Will the Fanatec CSL DD be fully supported out of the box? 

neuvao

We are working with Fanatec, but it’s too early to make public statements at this point in time.

Would it be possible to develop an accessibility feature like the Racing Auditory Display (RAD) for blind racing enthusiasts? 

Wardrone

I had to look up this system as I was not aware of its existence. You are talking about this one, right? We will have to look into this to see if it’s feasible to implement, so I can’t give you an answer right now.

I’m missing practice servers in CS, free for all, with timed rankings. Just before GT challenge there was a practice server but only for some hours. 

Jeroen Goudeseune

Noted. We’ll start adding those over time. We currently lack the ability to run practice sessions (open ones too).

Have you thought about using the safety car in the CS? This is one of a few sims that feature the SC, so it would be cool to have it in use. 

Fabian Balle

We have thought about it, but for now decided not to do it yet. That does not rule it out in the future though. Especially for oval racing, that would be a great feature to have.

When to go for a simple and effective race model? Hourly race for rookie series, for example USF2000 or -17: training 15mn > qualifying 10mn > race 20mn/ Alpine cup: training 15mn > qualifying 10mn > race 20mn. it’s simple and efficient Tried it! Is there anything stopping you from doing this format? 

leseb64

Nothing is, we just need to start doing some.

Can we have a permit system in addition to the rating? (the famous carrot that makes the player want to and can have a goal!) Am driver > bronze/silver/gold and Pro driver Bronze/silver/gold. 

leseb64

That’s one thing we’re considering, yes, a system that classifies drivers in different levels. We have not worked out the details yet, we first want to get the ratings in at this point.

Will there be a file or a section to see the replay of the online races? 

leseb64

Eventually yes, we are holding on to all of those, we just lack the UI to download them into your replay folder right now.

Is there any update planned to vehicles like the StockCar 2018x or others cars that currently use Goodyear tyres in real life after the collaboration with this brand? 

L0P3X

Yes, we are looking at upgrading more cars based on the data we have.

Recently we had the PBR update to the USF2000 car, after that release an official server was opened, any chance to see this kind of “Test servers” on CS as small competitions? (3 days or 1 week long, for example) 

L0P3X

In the future, yes, those will move to the CS as well instead of us setting up a stand-alone server.

I tried to join a session Qualification (20 min) + race with the BMW M4, but I missed the start of the qualification by 2 minutes (Contents had to install itself). Could it be possible in the future to join an ongoing qualification session? 

Spyro

That’s on our list to add. Open qualification sessions.

 I wanted to chip in on the need of a voice chat feature, because seeing it for instance in iRacing is so much fun, and you do need to speak with other drivers during casual races (especially after incidents), and doing it via text chat is too convoluted. Considering that features that increase the fun/experience are likely to increase participation, I think this feature should be higher on the priority list. If you implement voice chat through established services (discord, TeamSpeak, etc.), it would be ideal if the rF2 user doesn’t have to install anything manually. 

coasting&cruising

Noted. You make a good case for this, but we probably will keep prioritizing a few other features first. For the record, I think the chances are bigger that we’ll integrate with an established system than that we’ll “build our own” at this point.

I’ve really been enjoying the Competition System in recent months, and just wanted to say a really quick ‘thank you’ for the excellent work everyone continues to do with my favourite sim!

Vincent

You are very welcome, it’s nice to get positive feedback and as you know we are continuously working on further updates.

Do you have any plans you can share for future events similar to the recent ‘Summer Showdown’?

AxleSpin

One upcoming event or rather competition we have just announced, in partnership with Motorsport Games and ACO, the Le Mans Virtual Cup. That should be a major community event for us. Stay tuned as we’re announcing more information in the upcoming days!

Imagine you had a friend who doesn’t know rF2 and they asked why they should use the CS? What would be your answer?

TIG

I know that many people who start racing at first are hesitant to race online, scared that they might not be fast or good enough and that they could ruin someone else’s race. We should encourage people to take that step regardless. We all started this way. I think the CS offers a lot of opportunities to try out online racing and get better at it by racing a lot. You will also make new friends in the process!

I really like the idea of multi-class casual racing – how far away from having this in the Competition System would you estimate to be?

TIG

Probably not that far. We are first focusing on ratings, but racing with multiple classes only requires a few “upgrades”. We need to build the standings for such races, and things like split and starting position algorithms. So a few things to figure out. The next part of that would be to go to endurance races with driver swaps. That’s a bit more work.

Can we please have some oval racing in the Competition System schedule? If so, do you intend to add any more ovals to the base content?

 Hebbletone

It’s still on our agenda to add more of that, and yes, we are entertaining the idea of adding another oval. Watch this space!

I love, love, love, looooove the 2013 Skip Barber. It’s about time it got a PBR update and added to the CS don’t you think?

ApexRacer

We’ve noted your suggestion! To be honest, there’s quite a few cars still on our list to do a PBR update for. We typically spend time on these in between projects, so it’s a bit hard to predict exactly when we will do each one.

Do you plan to add an in game penalty system for the Competition System?

Vince

Yes. For some competitions, our race control already hands out penalties, mostly after protests that arrive after each race. Obviously, we already also have commands to hand out in game penalties, and we are exploring the option to create an “automated steward” that will hand these out directly.

Hello sim racers, 

Today is a day of Zandvoort celebrations, a day to bask in the glory of all things Dutch Grand Prix as we release our massive new build update for the 2021 Zandvoort Grand Prix Circuit within rFactor 2 – completely rebuilding the existing track to better conform with the latest changes and layout design ahead of the return of the Dutch Grand Prix to the Formula One schedule following an absence of 36 years.

Zandvoort 2021 | Steam Workshop: CLICK HERE

For a long time, Zandvoort has been the premier car racing circuit in the Netherlands, having played host to a wealth of National and International grade events since last hosting Formula One racing in 1985. Thanks to the unique beachside setting and a range of technical corners and interesting sectors, the circuit has remained a firm favourite amongst drivers and fans alike, despite often producing processional racing in part due to the narrow racing surface, and lack of significant overtaking opportunities. 

With interest in Formula One racing in the Netherlands having exploded in recent years thanks to the rise of Dutch star Max Verstappen, and with the FIA keen to find a way to accommodate the incredible levels of support for the 23-year-old Red Bull driver, it was always something of an inevitability that the Dutch Grand Prix would return to the schedule sooner rather than later. However, without any real serious options to host a race on the existing track infrastructure at Zandvoort, and with Assen firmly considered a bike racing circuit, the Dutch authorities found themselves forced to introduce considerable changes to the venue in order to be able to successfully host the long awaited return of Grand Prix into the future.

What’s new in this build?

Unfortunately, due to the ongoing global pandemic, the return of the Dutch Grand Prix has had to be delayed for a further year into 2021, which has given us here at Studio 397 the perfect opportunity to revisit our free Steam Workshop track ahead of the big event, with a view to bringing the track up to par with the quality of our more recent releases. Initially planned as a full PBR graphics refresh, once we got started we quickly realized the potential existed to look again at the core fundamentals of the way we originally build the first version of the circuit, and the closer we looked at the existing build, the more opportunities for improvement we found – leading us to practically rebuilding the entire track to include more details, more accuracy and an overall better wholesale performance and driving experience than would have been possible if we simply applied PBR treatment to the existing model. 

Night Lighting and configuration improvements

The track team here at Studio 397 have worked wonders with this new build, adding significant amounts of new and improved detail around the whole of the 4.259 km venue – from the smallest touches to more signifiant and obvious improvements that best reflect how the circuit looks now the layout changes have had time to establish themselves in the real world. Night lighting has been reviewed thoroughly, and offers a great endurance racing experience for drivers looking to get out on track once the sun has set. Additionally, we’ve spent plenty of time sifting through tons of data and reference materials to ensure the actual layout and corners are as accurate as possible to the real world venue, something we have been able to review and adjust now thanks to the ‘new’ Zandvoort having been open to the public for an extended period of time – a luxury we certainly didn’t have at the point of our original release!

New layout – Zandvoort National

One of the immediately noticeable changes for this new update is the introduction of a brand-new layout, as we bring to the simulation the shorter National configuration for the first time. Used primarily for local level small scale events, the National track offers a compelling experience for cars with lower overall performance, adding additional overtaking opportunities with the introduction of a difficult hairpin right connecting the first and third sectors, whilst missing out the fast backstretch of the Grand Prix Circuit that incorporates the Shelvalk – Mastersbocht – Bocht 9 – Bocht 10 complex of corners. 

New trackside Assets 

For both the Grand Prix and National layouts, the track team here at Studio 397 have worked hard to introduce a full race weekend vibe to the track, from adding an array of new trackside furniture, spectator setups and support worker assets, to generally bringing about the race weekend feel that was lacking from the original release, the changes introduced today as part of the 2.50 build update should add together to vastly improve the overall ambience and experience of running on the circuit in a simulated race environment. 

New PBR shader update

Anyone who has been around the world of rFactor 2 for a while will surely be fully aware of our PBR (physically based rendering) shader technology by now. Having committed to using this technology for all new content releases over the last couple of years, we have also remained hard at work reviewing and updating our expansive collection of existing content, with what we believe to be very impressive results as we uplift the visual aspect of rFactor 2 to modern standards. 

As can be evidenced by the recent update of our USF2000 or the Sebring International Raceway track, adding PBR shaders marks a significant improvement to the visual experience within the simulation – and with this latest Zandvoort release, that improvement is immediately noticeable to the end user. Simply put, we have reworked every aspect of the circuit and surrounding scenery with the latest PBR materials, which has produced a greatly increased level of graphical appeal across the full weather and time of day spectrum within the simulation. We believe that Zandvoort has turned out to be one of our very best looking tracks following this update, and we can’t wait to see what you think about the visual changes! 

New pit buildings and grandstands

Alongside adding PBR materials to the track, we also took the opportunity as part of this build update to completely rework some of the more substantial trackside buildings that make up the unique image of Zandvoort. Developed from scratch, our track artists have created a completely new set of pit buildings to match the current Zandvoort venue in real life, replacing the original structures with an all new build. Additionally, new grandstand structures have been created and inserted into the surrounding areas of the venue, with new spectators and trackside vehicles added into the scene for an immersive race day experience. 

Zandvoort 2021 V2.50 Update Notes:

• Complete update and rebuild of Zandvoort to track state in July 2021, including curb colours and reported DRS zones at the time.
• Any adjustments since July 2021 will be addressed in a post release update.
• Major rework of terrain to conform to point cloud data.
• All major assets rebuilt from scratch including Pit Building, Grandstands and more.
• Barriers remodelled and updated to the latest state.
• Added various grandstands and props to simulate a reasonably large event.
• All new foliage objects and materials.
• All latest new PBR materials.
• Added new spectators, marshals, rescue vehicles, generic vehicles, tents and more.
• New Night lighting Configurations including lit up Grandstand, Pit Building and Town Centre.
• Added 2021 National Layout.
• New Camera Files.
• New AI Files.
• Packed extra files for upcoming loading optimizations.

As we are sure you will be able to tell from this release post and the videos embedded within the article, we are justifiably proud of the work we have undertaken to uplift this circuit to 2021 standards, and we feel that as a predominantly Dutch company ourselves, we now have a version of our home circuit that we can be rightly exceptionally proud to call our own, and one that we truly believe will be loved in equal measure by our many members of the sim racing community. 

We cannot wait to see your reactions once you get out onto the circuit for yourselves, and we hope you have as much fun racing the track as we did building it! If you aren’t one of the lucky ones able to secure a much sought after ticket to the 2021 Dutch Grand Prix, fear not, as racing around this track in rFactor 2 is the next best thing!

Zandvoort 2021 – Now available for rFactor 2 on the rFactor 2 Steam Workshop.