Release

And now for the big one, Sebring! Since taking over the development of rFactor 2, our goals have been clear: take an already incredible simulation as a base and move the bar higher, push new and exciting features that you want, and give you the chance to experience a professional grade simulator – at home!

So this track release is more than just “a track release”. It’s a milestone for our team in what we’ve set out to do. The level of fidelity and road feel is above and beyond anything that’s out there, and we’re boldly confident you will agree. Of course we’re excited to say the track was created using an extremely detailed laserscan – but it’s not just about the laserscan itself, it’s about the way we utilized the data and converted it into usable detailed information that gets back to the force feedback in your wheel, something that has not yet been done in rFactor 2 at this level. We feel we’ve achieved our goals in the high level of road fidelity thanks to some innovations and, of course, rigorous testing. The end result is… the ‘FFB’ doesn’t lie – you’ll feel every crack in the pavement and every undulation in minute detail. On the straights and as you dive into each turn, those subtle nuances in the track surface will give you the precise control and muscle memory that a real-life driver would have on track. Our development and test teams have all become addicted, driving endless stints and trying to get that elusive extra tenth or even hundredth of a second!

Buy it over here right now!

https://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/365960/detail/18/

On the visual and graphics side, we’re just as excited and pushing ahead. We’ve paid close attention to those essential details that add to the overall immersion. The road surface itself is very precisely modeled on the real thing, with every crack and repaired and re-repaired crack. All the nuances and color variations as well as the overall worn-down, characteristic look from years of racing help to really convey the atmosphere. And with an ultra high level of trackside objects in the environment, from spectators to campers and vehicles, there’s a real ‘track vibe’ from any camera you’re viewing from, which makes watching an online event that much more exciting. Of course, as always, we’ve kept in mind scalability for performance.

So today we release to you Sebring. The main layout is available in two versions. One featuring the 12-hour race layout, with a packed infield and a lot of spectators, and another that gives you more of a “track day” feel. On top of that we also included two shorter layouts: School and Johnson Club. These layouts are very well suited for smaller fields of cars and somewhat slower cars.

Sebring is completely laser scanned in location, through professional high density, high accuracy, laser scan equipment. We scanned the track just a few weeks before the 2018 “12 Hours Of Sebring”. We then processed, filtered and optimized all the data to produce a clean stream of points for the simulation. We used that data to describe and model everything from centerline to first barriers, so even if you put your tires off the grass, you’ll still get a complete simulation of the grounds, through both physics/FFB and graphics.

History

The Sebring race track is built on the site of Hendricks Army Airfield, a United States Army Air Forces training base for Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress pilots in operation from 1941 to 1946. Sebring as a well known racetrack has a long and colorful history, dating as far back as 1950.

The brain child of Alec Ulmann, a Russian entrepreneur, who had a unique vision of the old airfield. As a motor racing aficionado, he saw an airfield and its access roads combined as one whole ‘racetrack’, full of potential. This is part of the main reason even today that Sebring remains a very engaging track to drive on.  Although lacking in any real elevations, the combination of surfaces that alternate during a lap – part road, part airstrip –  become a uniquely challenging and varied set of turns with a rhythmic and enigmatic flow. In short, it’s hard to explain why it’s so fun to drive, but it just is.  Sebring is a track with ample room to race, and yet it still doesn’t feel spoiled with miles of runoff.

And today, decades later, the tradition of racing passion continues unbroken, with most notably the “12 hours of Sebring”. “America’s oldest sports car endurance race” – currently in its 66th year – is where some of the best world class multi-class racing can be found!

Turn by turn

Sebring 12 Hour Layout

The 12 Hour layout of Sebring is 5.95km with a total of 17 turns:

Turn 1: The Initiation

Sebring’s first turn gets you right into the mind set with its undulating concrete surface: it is extremely bumpy, fast, and blind ! On entry, stay as far as you can on the outside right without clipping the pit-wall, and dive into the apex while staying heavy on brakes. It is key to keep the brake pressure steady as you ease into the inside wall apex. If you manage that, you’ll be able to floor it out and sail onto the tarmac section. Take it wrong and you’ll watch helplessly as your car slowly drifts to the outside. Sawing and the stabbing brakes like a maniac won’t always help you to avoid ending up on the dirt and grass. It’s a fine line!

Turn 2, 3, 4, 5: Smooth in Smooth Out

Just off T1, if you made it safe and sound, you’ll need to quickly gauge your speed into the incoming chicane-like series of bends. Key here is ease it in, stay one gear higher to keep the car settled to avoid snappy rear oversteer. Hold a steady amount of throttle, utilize the suspension roll to glide through and accelerate out onto the big bend in one swooping motion. Carry too much speed and you’ll most likely end up visiting the grass outside of T5, too little and you’ll bog down and lose momentum.

Turn 6, 7: The Big Bend, and the Hairpin Awaits!

Once you’re safely through T5 you’ll have space to make an easy pass if you’ve carried slightly more momentum than the cars in front of you. Here on the Big Bend full throttle is essential – but keep your wits, and prepare for the hairpin that comes up quicker than you think. The hairpin at Sebring, as you can see by the enormously generous runoff, has seen many cars obliviously fly off as if brakes were not even a thing. This short concrete section will easily catch you off guard. Overestimate the braking zone and a lock up is a certainty. It’s a deceptive entry and oh-so-easy to get wrong, even after you’ve taken it hundreds of times.

Turn 7, 8, 9: Fangio! Watch those tenths of a second fall.

Just out of the hairpin you’re quickly back on tarmac. This transition needs to be taken into account, a slight bit of over throttle and you risk losing the back-end completely. If you’ve hit it just right, you’ll see a big boost by getting on throttle early. The short abrupt bend of T8 can be taken full on, but keep your trajectory as straight as possible just until you need to start merging right onto the iconicly named Fangio bend…

Turn 10, 11: Cunningham and Collier

This next pair of tight snappy off-camber turns is easy to get wrong, but exhilarating when you hit it just right. The trick here is to brake a touch earlier and keep enough rolling momentum while retaining the minimal amount of lateral grip to stay on track. Avoid clipping the inside right curb of T10, and progressively ease on the throttle just as you reach the apex of T11, at this point you want to squeeze hard with max throttle with quick up-shifts going into T12.

Turn 12 and 13: The Right Angle

Turn 12 is somewhat easygoing, but watch the front end lift during up-shifts. For that short moment you can accelerate and hammer up through the gears. The right angle turn ahead will make you pay dearly if the car isn’t settled by the time you’re starting to brake into T13. Keep an eye on the outside left curb on entry. If you hit it fast enough, chances are you’ll snap over-steer even before turning in. In T13 you want as much coasting speed as possible with minimal braking. Again, avoid the inside right curb, but get as snug to it as you can to maintain a smooth arc and consistent exit speed.

Turn 14, 15, 16: What runoff?

Flying Fortress Straight just off T13 is a good place to look for a clean pass. Here, you’ll edge up into top gears, and just as you have to slow into T14, a very harmonious and gradual series of esses leads into T16. For this last turn onto the Ullman straight, you’ll need to dip just outside on the left side before taking the last mid-speed right hander. Let the inside right curb help rotate in, then be aggressive on the throttle and ride the left-hand exit curb. Keep in mind the outside part of the curb slopes away and will send you into the grass if you hit it while slamming the throttle.

Turn 17:  The Sunset Bend, Hail Mary or Mind the Bump

And now for the grand finale, The Ullman straight and Sunset Bend. The Ullman straight’s 870 meters of straight line speed, the best place to get a tow and slipstream past another car, will send you hurling into the last turn in top gear.

Known as the sunset bend, this is one of the most iconic turns in motor sports. With its teeth-rattling concrete slabs and its vast open space, it lends itself to some very spontaneous and creative racing lines, on entry and on exit, not to mention the mind blowing passing situations. The key here is understanding the terrain and knowing how to manage the big bump at the apex: braking hard and late into the turn, hugging that first right-hand wall and modulating the brakes for what seems like forever.  You need to ease into the invisible apex, letting your intuition and gut feel guide you more than your choreographed memory.  Each time you take Sunset, it’s a new experience to some degree, and it leaves you always feeling you can do it better, motivating you to keep pushing !

Sebring School Layout

The School layout is 3.22km with a of a total of 6 turns and shares the lower half of the track layout with the full 12 hour, as well as the same garage and pitlane.

Turn 2, 3

The first turn at Sebring School layout is the same as the full 12 hour, however you need to be much slower into T2 and T3 that now become a short snappy pair of right hand turns onto the T4,T5, and T6 (which are the same as the 12 hour T15,T16,T17)

Sebring Johnson Club

The Johnson club layout is 2.47km with a total of 11 turns and shares the upper half of the track layout with the full 12 hour. It has it’s own alternate garage and pitlane.

Turn 5, 6

With Cunningham and Collier becoming the first turns, the flow of the Johnson layout makes you feel like it’s in another track altogether.  Flying fortress Straight is shortened and leads into the new turns 5 and 6 then back onto T7 and into the Big Bend.

Ethanol Powered ‘Little Monsters’

We at Studio 397 love all kind of raw racing and motorsport. The good ol’ times of Formula racing are without a doubt, a time where racing was at its purest. The cars were beasts, the tracks always a tough challenge, and the drivers brilliant and fearless maniacs. We’re proud to be able to take you guys back to those days, where every race was the challenge of your life. Two free new cars for rFactor 2 bringing you all the fun and excitement of a classic era. Relive those golden moments with the March 761 and the Brabham BT44b and bring back Formula racing of the 70’s to classic or even modern racetracks.

March 761

A fragile but rocket-like fast F1 car, designed and manufactured by UK based March Engineering. With a background of designing F2 cars and the experience of many different racing series, March Engineering brought this car into F1 in 1976. An interesting fact is that these cars used a sponsorship that changed from race to race, resulting in many wildly different liveries being used throughout the season.

Brabham BT44b

The car used by Brabham in 1975 wasn´t anything extraordinary from just looking at the individual parts. Marrying a Cosworth DFV engine to a Hewland FG gearbox was considered standard practice that time, so the BT44b didn´t stand out. But the team worked hard not only on improving the reliability of this combination, but also on the performance in certain areas, as well as making sure the BT44b features a very low centre of gravity. With all these coming together, Brabham managed to have their most successful season since 1969, finishing 2nd in the constructors championship.

It’s safe to say we are ecstatic about this release! Our very first mixed class pack of GTEs and LMPs! It’s been a wild journey, and all the teams involved have been going non-stop to bring these cars to life – we think the results will show on track as you cruise around in a field of color and lights! We proudly announce some of the most relevant and iconic brands and cars, combing them into a unique pack. Welcome to the ‘Endurance Pack’ for rFactor 2! Featuring the Porsche 911 RSR, BMW M8 GTE, Corvette C7.R, Oreca 07 LMP2 and the Norma M30 LMP3. With stunning physics and new features, the pack taps into the heart of rFactor 2’s endurance capabilities. We are also happy to have liveries from various different teams racing these cars, and we would like to thank them all for that!

The cars are available for purchase and download here: https://store.steampowered.com/itemstore/365960/detail/1004/

Introducing the cars

Our goal with this pack was certainly to offer a wide variety of cars in different classes used in various modern endurance racing series. We ended up picking five widely used cars in three different classes, complementing our earlier GT3 pack. We deliberately did not include an LMP1 car as that class is currently undergoing a transformation, and we feel strongly about providing you with cars that are up to date and future proof. Once the dust settles on the current “super season” we will certainly look at the new cars that emerge! With that said, back to our amazing cars…

Oreca 07 LMP2

The fastest class in this pack is the LMP2 class, and the Oreca 07 is certainly a popular weapon of choice for teams. It combines daring engineering and skillful know-how. The car debuted late 2006 and competed for the first time in the opening round of the 2017 IMSA season. In its first season it was the winner of the WEC 2017 P2 class and of Le Mans 2017; it is used by several of the leading endurance teams in the world. During various stages we have had feedback from Duqueine Engineering, Dragonspeed and Jacky Chan Racing, and their input was invaluable to making this car.

Norma M30 LMP3

The Norma M30 LMP3 had a development cycle of 18 months with innovation at its heart. It was homologated to LMP3. The M30 boasts maximum efficiency, optimised performance, which lead it to instantly becoming a strong contender, winning various races in the series it entered in. Cars in this class offer a pure driving experience. Neither anti-lock brakes nor traction control are allowed, and the downforce on these cars combined with the available engine power makes them challenging and rewarding to drive. During the development of this car we collaborated closely with the team at Duqueine Engineering, who raced this car in ELMS and kindly helped us with many aspects of the car’s simulation.

Porsche 911 RSR

Another iconic car from Porsche, the 911 RSR combines technology and history to create another classic sports car. The car is used in endurance in the GTE class all over the world. Porsche successfully adapted the classic 911 design to make this a mid-engine design, optimizing balance and performance. We are very grateful for the support we got from Porsche in developing this car. It is the very latest spec of this car.

Corvette C7.R

The Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, built by Pratt & Miller and Chevrolet for competition in endurance racing, has had numerous successes throughout the years, including a famous photo-finish at the 2016 Rolex 24h of Daytona. Corvette won its class at Le Mans eight times and won 107 out of the 202 events they competed in. Our version is the latest spec car, with updated diffuser and rear wing, and it is of course the successor to the highly successful C6.R we already have in our simulation.

BMW M8 GTE

The BMW M8 GTE competes in multiple endurance series, combining cutting-edge technology with sheer beauty to create a car that will set new benchmarks in endurance racing. We are extremely proud to be the first racing simulation to feature this car after seeing the car in action at Spa earlier this year and being able to talk to the team and drivers there.

New features

In-car traction control

rFactor 2 already featured “driving aids” that provided both traction control and anti-lock brakes, but like all driving aids they are global for all cars in a session. Especially in multi-class racing, and this pack is a good example, it is common to have different classes that might or might not have traction control available. Therefore we decided to add the option for specific cars to feature traction control (and anti-lock brakes) as part of the car, completely separate from any “aids” settings. On top of that, we can configure the exact number of “levels” the real cars have and decide if you can adjust those levels in-car or just in the garage as part of your setup, and even if you can turn it off or not, as some cars have such aids built-in and you can’t even disable them.

For this pack, traction control is available only on the LMP2 and GTE cars, and there are a couple of things you need to know to set it up. First of all, as this is a system that is separate from the driving aids, to make in-car adjustments you need to go to your controller settings and map the following four new keys:

On top of that, you can also configure these settings in the garage setup:

As a final note, if you also have driving aids enabled for one of these cars, the effects of both will correctly be combined. For example, if you set traction control to 2 (which is fairly low) in the in-car setting and then turn on the driving aid to “Medium”, the end result will be that you have medium traction control. We expect most servers and people to simply disable those aids for official races though.

Position lights

This pack is not just about content, we also took the opportunity to add some new tech to add to the immersion of multi-class racing. The all new ‘position lights’ on all cars in the this pack will not only show your individual position, they will also show your position in class with color coding.  On top of that, the lights turn into a pit stop timer ‘counting up’ when you pit!

The road ahead

New cars and features always trigger the question “what about the existing cars”? Our close collaboration with teams and manufacturers have given us even more detailed insight into the tyres that they are running on these cars. On top of that, our laser scanned version of Sebring gave us an excellent opportunity to compare data to a 100% accurate track. The data prompted us to make some updates to our model, and since the GT3 cars are using the same tyres, our next step will be to go back to and implement and test the tyres on those cars too, which in general will make them a bit slower.

The same applies to the position lights as well as the in-car traction control and anti-lock brakes, which will be added as features to each individual GT3 car. We don’t have an exact ETA for these changes yet, as we also need to make sure these changes don’t affect the BOP within the class, but we will certainly keep you up to date in our monthly roadmap. We will also add documentation to our website for third parties that wish to implement these new features on their cars, as well as publish example tyres.

That’s all for now, we wish you all a great weekend from everybody within Studio 397! Enjoy the race!

It’s live! In the last couple of roadmap updates, we’ve made it no secret that we have been working hard on a set of performance upgrades. We’ve taken our time to get it right and took advantage of the DirectX 11 API as much as possible. Our focus was on performance, while keeping the actual look of the game the same. All of this centers around a concept called “frame time”, which is the time it takes to completely render a single frame to your screen(s). Obviously we want that time to be as low as possible, but we also want it to be as constant as possible as only the combination of both leads to a smooth display. In general there are three things that influence this: your video card (GPU), the processor you have (CPU) and the bus between them and their memory. Optimizing performance means looking at all three, and we’ll go into more detail on how we did that below.

To update your install to this latest version you only need to make sure that you’re opted-out of any beta versions you might have been using before. This build also has a new multiplayer version (1.1110) which means we updated the dedicated server. Depending on how you installed that one, you might have to explicitly update it.

Graphics Performance Improvements

Thanks to DX11, we are now able to take advantage of multiple graphics threads and leverage the modern CPUs to render the scene faster. Internally we had to make quite a lot of changes to the code to make this possible and really take advantage. One area where we got a significant improvement is in our shadow rendering. Using multiple threads speeds that up, and another thing we did was to no longer render the shadows separately for each screen, which means in multiview (three screens) and VR (two screens) we are doing less work. There are also a couple of high-level optimizations we have done to very specific systems. This includes our handling of spotlights and brake disk glow, but also the way real road updates. All these systems were re-written to be more efficient from a CPU and GPU point of view. On top of that, we addressed the traffic on the bus between the CPU and GPU, minimizing and optimizing it to have a more consistent frame time, which leads to significantly less stuttering, especially on systems where this was the bottleneck in the whole pipeline. Our final optimization was of our most used and time critical shaders. We’ve optimized those to be less expensive to the GPU.

As you can probably see by now, there are quite a lot of things that changed, and one question we have not answered is how much all of these changes combined influence performance? The answer is, it depends, which is why we’re not making any claims in terms of numbers, but invite you to give it a try on your own system. We are confident that you will see an improvement, both in terms of consistency in the framerate, meaning less stutters and in terms of an overall improvement.

Change Log

On top of these, we took the opportunity to add a few other improvements and bugfixes in several areas of the simulation. We are listing those here.

New HUD

• Released the newly designed HUD, optimized for Full HD screens and anything else with that aspect ratio, and made it the default. We have removed our old HUD designs from the install.
• The “deltabest” indication gets reset at the start of a session only, instead of every time you get in the car. We also make sure to only show it when you’re on a valid lap.
• Ensured that the Low Speed Indicator (LSI) is still transparent.

AI

• Fixed an issue with the AI throttle and brake application, which would cause poor accelleration at very low AI strengths.

Sound

• Changed the way opponent volume works. If you set them to 100% in the past, they were way too loud. If you turned them down, they would not be as loud as the player car in external cameras. We introduced a damping factor now for the cockpit that can be configured per car and defaults to 0.3 that solves this issue.
• The number of engine samples was increased to 12 and the number of transmission samples to 6 to allow much richer sounds for both.

Inputs

• Changed the way in which we combine primary and alternate inputs for the throttle, brake and steering to end up with more consistent behaviour for both.
• When using keyboard rates for analog, typically used with game controllers, we apply a lot of smoothing which initially results in a fast response, but eventually responds very slowly, making a car hard to control. We’ve designed a new algorithm that works a lot better and is more linear.

Development Corner

• We have added some new 64 bit compatible 3D Studio Max 2012 plugins. They are still in “beta” but have been used at Studio 397 for some time now. These should help anyone working on larger scenes. Please note that, in order to improve stability, we strongly recommend updating Max to Service Pack 2.
• As we no longer support Max 2010 and 2011, those plugins have now been removed.
• We have removed gJED, as we feel the tool in its current state did not meet our quality standards.
• The plugin API has been enhanced and bumped to version 8, with improved application life cycle support. This brings back some of the data we had to remove because it was mixed with DirectX 9 information that we could no longer support. We also added the deltabest time for all cars. The new package and documentation for it will be released on our site soon after this release.

Bugfixes

• Fixed the join/leave/join messages and unnecessary reloading of a car when you joined a server with car upgrades selected.
• Fixed a bug in our SteamPlugin which accidentally returned the wrong API version, causing the game to try to invoke it wrongly and crash.
• Fixed viewer crash on startup.
• Fixed the very dark areas on the car in the showroom, which was caused by us not correctly setting up ambient light.
• Fixed black screen that some people got when starting the physics (ptool) and tyre (ttool) tools.
• Removed a redundant log file from the Steam distribution as it would cause a verify ever on every check.
• Fixed two issues with the 32 bits version that crashed in specific circumstances.
• Displaying the performance info now works on VR as well.

Wrapping it up

We obviously hope you will enjoy this new build, and before we wrap up this article, there are a few closing words we would like to add. In the introduction we already stated that our focus now was on performance and with that out of the way we still have a few other areas to look at. In the graphics department we are looking at some improvements on how our rain effects look on external cameras, as well as fixing an issue that specifically affects VR in rainy conditions. We’ll elaborate a bit more on this in our monthly roadmaps. In the mean time, have a great weekend!

Here it is, all new content from KartSim! KartSim is one of our close partners, and we are proud to introduce you to an all new driving experience in rFactor 2, created entirely by KartSim’s own dedicated team of developers. KartSim is a project created by Tony Irfan, a true insider in the world of karting. KartSim specialises in providing high-end leading-edge hardware, rigs and simulation software to the international karting industry.

It’s been a while in the making, but real Karting in rFactor 2 has arrived! As you’ll see below, many great names current and past started in Karting. This is only the first in a series of Karts and tracks yet to be released by the KartSim team. There’s more to come!

But you don’t need to wait, you can follow this link to buy the KartSim pack, featuring three tracks and two different types of karts now.

Tracks

Buckmore Park International Circuit

Buckmore Park Kart Circuit is an MSA approved outdoor kart racing circuit located just off the M2 in Chatham, Kent, England.

Originally owned by John Surtees, who notably won world Grand Prix championships in both Formula One car racing and Grand Prix motorcycle racing. Situated in a woodland between the two motorways, its proximity to London makes it Britain’s busiest circuit.

Buckmore Park is a circuit where many current and past Formula One drivers learned their trade, including Johnny Herbert and F1 champions Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, who was originally discovered by Ron Dennis in the 1996 Champions of the Future event held at Buckmore Park.

Glan Y Gors

With a length of 1.6 km, this karting circuit is one of the largest in the UK. Situated on the A5 between Corwen and Betws-Y-Coed, is one of the UK premier karting venues that started life comparatively late to other S1 race venues. With fast, sweeping uphill and downhill sections combine to make this an extremely fun yet technical challenge. It is no wonder all the young Racing Professionals start their career at GYG Karting.

A lap around the track takes you through corners as carousel, compression corner, the druid’s complex and the devils elbow and contains a straight named after the Snowdon Mountain. The track has various good overtaking opportunities, guaranteeing exciting races!

Paul Fletcher International

PFI is the UK’s largest outdoor karting circuit based in Grantham, Lincolnshire and caters for various corporate events and race meetings throughout Lincolnshire, Newark, Nottingham and the UK. British, European and World Championships are held at PFI, as well as a club race held once a month by Trent Valley Kart Club who are based at the track. The circuit was built by Paul Fletcher, who still owns it today. Recently in 2011 an extension was added on to the track including a bridge, making it one of a kind.

Karts

There are two karts within the KartSim package, the Iame Senior X30 UK and a Rental Kart, the karts have been meticulously designed working with partners on physics and drivers for performance and accuracy. These karts are fixed setup, which means they will be great to race online.

Iame Senior X30 UK

The “X30 World” concept is based on the engine X30 125cc and it can be summarized in few words as “real Karting at hand”. Thanks to the characteristics of the engine of simplicity, immediate feeling, reliability, performance and ease of use, with the concept of X30 World, IAME offers a full program for Karting drivers from the year of their 13th birthday (with the correct MSA licence) with an engine that can virtually accompany them along the whole career.

Since the very first introduction on the markets, the X30 has quickly and constantly grown, in the beginning as an engine dedicated to regional series, up to commercial classes promoted under the name of “X30 Challenge”, then introduced as Federative class by federations willing to replace the unsuccessful international classes and recently landed at international level with a European Challenge and an International Final usually held in central Europe.

The success of the X30 categories, basically distinguished in X30 Junior, X30 Senior and X30 Master, comes from the stability and solidity of the engine and from IAME’s constant aim to provide detailed regulations and low management costs of both the vehicle and the race meetings. In 2013 the X30 is present in more than 15 countries and beside the commercial classes.

Rental Kart

The Rental Kart is a fixed gearing corporate kart using a 4 stroke engine for karters who enjoy karting as hobby. They’re equipped with night lights too so you can keep racing them 24/7!

Here are the release notes for a significant update to rFactor 2!

21.12.17 20.15 GMT – Please note we are updating content currently, however it is taking time with Steam servers getting hammered, you will automatically start to download the content from the workshop.

Graphics Improvements

Improved Lighting

• We developed an Image-Based Lighting for Ambient (IBLA) solution that substantially improves lighting in our graphics engine.
• IBLA acts on the colors of the scene, taking into account information from the surrounding environment when drawing each object.
• The resulting lighting system gives the final image a more realistic look and it improves the perception of depth for the driver.
• This new system uses new ambient probes that have been added to most of the tracks. It is recomputed dynamically as weather or time conditions change.
• IBLA does not introduce any noticeable performance penalties and its features have been exposed to Mod Dev. Furthermore, tracks that do not have set IBLA yet will automatically have a default set of probes assigned to them.

Rain Effects

Cars

• Added dynamic drops on the windshield and the body of the car.
• These drops respect gravity, so they will run down the sides, and each single drop will have its own lifespan.
• The drops also respect airflow around the car when driving, making them move in appropriate directions.
• The effect is not scripted but generated in real time, and it varies depending on factors like the amount of rain drops falling from the sky, the speed of the vehicle, or the particles generated from another car in front of you.
• Wipers on cars are now functional and will clear the windscreen in two different user configurable speeds.

Tracks

• Vastly improved reflections of the surroundings that become visible as the track gets wet.
• Added blurred reflections for the “Ultra” Road Reflection setting.
• Improved shaders for the real-road surfaces and added new shaders to match closely the properties of elements like curbs in dry/wet conditions.
• Added highly detailed puddle maps that allow puddles to form in the appropriate places on tracks.

New HUD Options

• Added options to show tire wear and ride height as text parameters.
• Added tire wear percentage to the vehicle status MFD.
• Increased the accuracy of fuel consumption with an extra digit.
• Fixed a bug with TireAverageTemp text parameters, which would not show up in the HUD because of a space in their names.
• Added a “delta best” parameter that you can add to a HUD, showing time lost or gained compared to your fastest lap in milliseconds. Works for all cars (not just player). Included optional text coloring of the text output so positive and negative values can result in different colors.
• Added a more accurate fuel indication as well as one that shows the fuel you used in your last (full) lap, or zero otherwise.
• Added a gauge for showing the “delta best” with a range of -1.0 to +1.0 seconds.
• Added predicted number of laps remaining based on fuel used for last lap.
• Added current rain percentage.
• Added minimum and maximum track water depth.
• Added an option to disable font scaling for the chat and message box (apart from using comic sans, non-linear font scaling is about the biggest sin a designer can commit).
• Added weather info (rain intensity and min/max water depth) into the MFD for HUD and in-car use.
• Designed a new default HUD that takes advantage of the new features. (Coming soon)

Other/Fixes etc.

• The plugin API will no longer invoke callbacks that provide ScreenInfoV01 data that used to allow plugins to render to the screen. Doing this directly has been deprecated with the release of DX11, and alternatives are to either use information that is available in the updated HUD or wait for a new plugable HUD system to be released in 2018.
• We have removed the “cache” folder from our install, so all content will now be downloaded from the workshop. This means the base install is much smaller. Upon first launch you will be automatically subscribed to all Studio 397 content and while that is downloading the Launcher will show a progress dialog window with screenshots of all content items it is downloading for you.
• Generating Mip Maps from reflections, this gives smoother reflections as a result.
• Formula E liveries for TeCheetah, Mahindra and Venturi updated to 2018.
• Formula E driver helmets updated.
• Formula E driver suits updated.

Known Issues/troubleshooting

• Rain effects are visual currently. However, we are working on physics impacts.
• Some content is still to be updated to include the rain effects such as cars and tracks.
• Performance is constantly being reviewed
• Rain drops on external cameras under review
• If you are experiencing strange graphical issues, delete the contents of your cbash and shader folders  located in \Steam\steamapps\common\rFactor 2\UserData\Log
• Important: Make sure to update any SteamCMD servers to get the latest!

Welcome to the Official Formula E Energize Pack

Featuring the Formula E Car 2018 and the teams, as well as a stunning rendition of the HKT Hong Kong E-Prix track!

All of us at Studio 397 are ecstatic about this release. It’s not just because we have achieved truly immersive physics and graphics, but we are equally proud of the close partnership we’ve developed with Formula E itself.

This newest release is part of our ongoing efforts to continually offer you, true fans of simracing, exciting and cutting edge motorsport content!

The series itself is thrilling and challenging in ways that will surprise you. You’ll have to rethink your strategy – no more easy flat footing to get on the podium! Although the racing still retains its close side-by-side action, tactics and strategy now play an equal role – a true test of your abilities to stay focused on the big picture!

We also wanted to use this opportunity to get in some exciting new features such as REGEN and power modes, as well as new cockpit and HUD elements to further increase the overall immersion and functionality.

Purchase the pack now here

Check out our guide here!

Known issues:

• Track accuracy may be different due to late changes in layouts
• AI currently does not adhere to the 1 pit stop rule and does not try to save fuel by lifting and coasting
• Regen mode is based off braking and is automatic on braking
• Fuel indicator currently does not show granular detail on battery life, therefore we suggest using 3rd party plugins in the meantime
• Cars have one set of physics based on homologated data
• Liveries and helmets will be updated when embargoes are lifted
• AI will sporadically slow just after Start/Finish under full course yellow – this should not affect the race restarts.

Today we proudly present the release of the GT3 Power Pack, featuring five iconic GT3 class cars. You already knew about the McLaren 650S GT3, and at the SimExpo we revealed the second car–the Bentley Continental GT3. Recently, we shared some teaser shots of the third car. As some of you already guessed, that was the Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R. The last two are the Radical RXC Turbo GT3 and the Mercedes AMG GT3. We’ve worked closely with the manufacturers to create the most accurate model, physics and sound we could; and we’ve listened to the community asking us to come up with a more consistent series of cars to race with. We certainly hope you’ll enjoy them as much as we do. Let’s go over them one by one.

Bentley Continental GT3

The Bentley Continental GT3 was first unveiled at the Goodwood Festival Of Speed in 2013; and since has been competing in many different GT3 championships across the globe. Even though the car looks big, it is actually very light; and its 600 horsepower 4.0 liter twin turbo engine makes it a force to be reckoned with.

Radical RXC Turbo GT3

The Radical RXC Turbo GT3 is a bit of a rare appearance in the GT3 field, but it certainly is a very strong contender. Its light and stiff body holds a 3.5 liter Ford Ecoboost V6 engine with twin turbos and intercoolers, delivering over 500 horsepower. This car competes in the GT Open and debuted in 2016 at the season opener at Estoril. Of all the cars in the pack, this one probably feels the most like an open wheeler.

Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R

The Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R, designed and built by Callaway Competition in Leingarten, Germany, started life on the drawing boards in 2014 and hit the tracks in 2016 when it started competing in the ADAC GT Masters. That campaign proved to be very successful; and recently it was announced that this car is now also ready to debut in the US, with GM giving permission to run in its home country. This 600 horsepower, 6.2 liter V8 packs a serious punch and sounds great. Nick-named “Darth Vader”, as it was first shown with an all-black carbon fiber body, this car will definitely remind you to hit your braking points and apexes if it shows up in your rear mirror!

Mercedes AMG GT3

The Mercedes AMG GT3 was presented to the world in March of 2015 at the Geneva Motor Show. The 6.2 liter naturally aspirated V8 engine and carbon-fiber body ensure this car can always be found at the front of the pack. Apart from racing in GT3, this car has also been entered in both the Super GT GT300 and IMSA GTD classes.

McLaren 650S GT3

The McLaren 650S GT3 is a car we already released earlier this year for the World’s Fastest Gamer competition. The car made its debut in 2015 and was designed and optimised to contest GT3 championships. Building on the MP4-12C GT3, it offered optimisations in many areas, including aerodynamics. Powered by a 3.8 liter twin turbo V8 engine that is known to spit fire like there’s no tomorrow, this car is definitely an awesome appearance on any track. We have updated this car based on community feedback and additional data we received.

All cars come with the setup options as found on the real cars and three dry weather compounds ranging from the soft “S7” to the hard “S9” and a wet weather compound. One of these details in the setup options is the fact that both the Bentley and the McLaren use Ohlins dampers for which 0 is the stiffest setting and higher values mean the dampers get softer. Another example is the exact position and size of the anti-roll bar on the McLaren, whose setup options we’ve named accordingly, like “P3 25x2mm”, where for other cars we use the more familiar “clicks”. Worth mentioning is the steering lock on the Mercedes–quite limited compared to the other cars (about 400 degrees). It should be just enough to negotiate very tight turns on some tracks, but still doable! Finally, the Radical has only four wing positions; however, they are quite widely spaced compared to the other cars, giving you the option to create both high and low downforce setups.

As per regulations, all of these cars are allowed to run with anti-lock brake systems (ABS) and traction control (TC). We did several “Balance of Performance” sessions with all five cars, taking them to a few different tracks and comparing lap times. Since these cars are quite new, we think it is safe to say that we have not found the absolute limit of their setups yet. Leagues running with these cars are encouraged to do additional tests and use weight penalties to further balance the cars. We will aim to do BoP updates as we learn more about these cars.

All cars come with a template to create your own liveries, which gets installed automatically to the “Templates” folder in your rFactor 2 install.

You can buy the GT3 Pack in the Steam Store, which gives you a nice discount over the individual cars, which can also be found there.

New Build

To support the GT3 pack we have also released updates for both the DX11 and DX9 builds. Note that the build number for multiplayer changed too, so you will have to update your dedicated servers!

Build Changelog:

• Added: An extended visual damage model featuring a combination of dents, scratches and cracks on the bodywork of cars, which has been implemented on the GT3 pack.
• Added: New window and headlight glass shader that produces more realistic reflections. All five GT3 cars use it.
• Added: Controller Profiles for Thrustmaster T-GT, T-GT Ferrari F1 Addon, TS-XW, TS-XW with Ferrari F1 Addon.
• Added: Updates to the CPM model.
• Fixed: Various small fixes to the no rain zone code that prevents rain from entering closed cockpits.
• Fixed: All controller profiles default inputs are now assigned to JOY1.
• Fixed: Bumped the rFactor 2 version for multiplayer compatibility to 1109 because of the new visual dents that required changes to the multiplayer protocol.

Introducing the Radical SR3 RSX now available on Steam Workshop! We have worked closely with Radical to present the perfect race car, immaculately balanced and fantastic for fighting nose to tail on the track.

The SR3 is the next step up from the SR1 offering thrilling, cost-effective, high-performance track driving and racing. First launched in 2001, it is the most widely produced and most successful prototype style sportscar racer in the world, with over 1,000 sold. This bears testament to its proven track record and stunning value verses performance and is surely the reason why the SR3 has been selected by the Race of Champions for the champions of F1 and other major race series to race, achieving the fastest racing lap at the last 2 Race of Champion Events. New for 2017 the Generation 4 engine offers improved reliability, better drivability and more power.

Not just that, we have also built in left and right hand drive for those who drive on the wrong side of the road, you know who you are!

Also included are our 20 chosen liveries from our Radical Paint Competition. On that note, we were really overwhelmed by the number of entries and the high-standard and look forward to holding more competitions like this in future – Thank you to all that submitted, now go try out the car now!

This first release comes with dry weather tyres only. We will soon provide an update with rain tyres, for those wanting to race these cars in wet or mixed weather conditions.