rFactor 2 - Beta Released

[Duke]

Steam Summer Sale 2020
Summer is here! And with it, everything we love. Warm weather, BBQ instead of a standard dinner (unless that is your standard way of doing things!) , the summer sun is shining bright. But of course the number one reason to ignore all of these things is…..The Steam Summer Sale!
If summer is the “ice cream” you enjoy the most (bear with us while we wear out this metaphor) our discounted DLC packs will be your favorite topping, a perfect accompaniment to the BBQ-evening chillaxin’ in the sunset, part of the fond memories you’ll have to look back on once winter comes around again.
But we digress! Let us introduce you to all the available toppings to spice up your rFactor 2. On the menu we have…

GT3 Bundle
The classic topping, loved all around the world. While being diverse and versatile, these ingredients are in perfect harmony with each other, creating a smooth taste experience as it brings together some of rFactor 2’s most sought after toppings. Ingredients: Aston Martin Vantage GT3, Audi R8 GT3 2018, Audi R8 GT3 2019, Bentley Continental GT3, BMW M6 GT3, Callaway Corvette GT3-R, McLaren 650S GT3, McLaren 720S GT3, Mercedes AMG GT3, Porsche 911 GT3 R, Radical RXC Turbo GT3.


Endurance Bundle
Sometimes an ice cream should be more than just a quick, short explosion of taste, becoming the sweet treat that carries you through your work day, sugar-coating your entire day. For this, we brought together a classic with some punchy additional ingredients for even more flavor! Ingredients: Aston Martin Vantage GTE, BMW M8 GTE, Corvette C7.R, McLaren Senna GTR, Norma M30 LMP3, Oreca 07 LMP2, Porsche 911 RSR.


Formula E Bundle
Full of high-energy sugary goodness, this topping will put a spark in your day, recharging your batteries and getting you back out on top of your game. Combining the first ever version of this bundle with the newest evolution and just the right amount of colorful sprinkles, this could quickly become your favorite on our menu. Ingredients: Formula E 2018 Gen 1, Formula E 2019/2020 Gen2, Berlin E-Prix track, Hong Kong E-Prix track, Monaco E-Prix track, New York E-Prix track.


Track Expansion
Toppings are great to customize your ice cream, but the waffle cone is really where it’s at in the end, so this pack makes sure we’ve got you covered, super crispy, chocolate-dipped and rolled in extra nuts. Ingredients: Circuit d’Azur, Le Mans, Nürburgring, Sebring.


On top of our toppings (see what I did there?), we also gave a fresh lick of paint to our ice cream parlor for the summer season. Grab a seat, enjoy the view!

Silverstone
Although the UK might not be an obvious choice for a summer holiday, we give you a few good reasons to revisit Great Britain. The classic British racetrack will now reflect the summer sun even more beautifully, with new updated track-side objects as well as a complete shader update. We also added a new layout so there is more to explore on your visit.





24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual Liveries
Another house specialty in this update to stimulate your senses – specifically forms and shapes – is the official 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual livery update! This summer and we want to give as many reasons as possible to celebrate together. This is a free update to all owners of the cars, these liveries were part of the real official event! Now you can drive the car of your favorite team, become a Le Mans hero yourself, and relive the exciting event! No matter if you want to drive the unique Toyota Oreca LMP 2 livery, or dream of being behind the wheel of the #57 Wynns car, they are all waiting in the garage for you to start them up.


Now go ahead, choose your favorite combo and then sit down with us on the virtual terrace and let’s enjoy summer together!
Check out all the summer deals in our Steam Item Store!

[Duke]

Better late than never, I missed this somehow: Roadmap Update June 2020

Looking back at the month of June, you’re probably asking yourself, what could the crew at Studio 397 announce after a month with so many highlights? It’s exactly what we asked ourselves as well. We started the month building up towards what would become the biggest sim racing esports event ever, with millions of people watching the 24 hours of Le Mans Virtual on televisions and streams worldwide. You’ve likely also already heard about Portland, the new and free track for rFactor 2. You may have noticed, if you own our Endurance pack, the new shiny liveries from the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual event that are now integrated. And that wasn’t even all in the last update. We gave Silverstone a fresh new look and released the first step of the new GTE BoP, based on improved physics for all of those cars.

So what’s next? Even after last month’s events, there is so much happening at the Studio we want to tell you about. We may have downshifted a gear to make the next corner, but on the apex we are already full throttle again to bring you lots of new updates. The first will be another small BoP tweak to the GTE cars as well as a brand new set of default setups that are a better starting point for you to customize. Once that is done, the knowledge we gained from upgrading the GTE cars will be applied to our extensive set of GT3 cars, giving them a much needed update while we add two brand new ones. One we already announced, the Ferrari 488 GT3 in the latest 2020 evolution. The other we have not announced yet, but it’s already in beta so like the Ferrari it won’t be too long!

Three Seasons of The Race All-Star Series
Ironically, unlike most of real-world motorsports, we in the simracing world – and especially developers – have been on hyper drive since the start of the pandemic and for most of the confinement period – even thereafter. In a time when everything we know and love in motorsport was being canceled, simracing suddenly had a job to do – we saw our rF2 shaped bat-signal in the sky and our mission quickly became “make things happen” so that motorsports will have a place to go.

The first big opportunity came knocking when the Australian Grand Prix was suddenly canceled, leaving fans all over the world without the beloved F1 inaugural race in Melbourne. That very week, Ideas+Cars, led by Darren Cox, founder of GT Academy, contacted us with the wild idea to collaborate and essentially become the stand-in event for that inaugural weekend. Ideas+Cars would be inviting a colorful cast of real drivers, past and present, from all over the world, many former world champions, to mix it up with professional and aspiring simracers. A pop-up race series of sorts. Creating a new format that worked for everyone was not easy, and we dug deep to make sure our new overlay and our broadcasting capabilities were up to snuff to showcase these events as they should be.



To everyone’s surprise the first event was a run-away success. It went above and beyond what we thought it might achieve. Thousands upon thousands watched that weekend, as many big names tore it up on Nurburgring GP, fighting it out while being broadcast in their rigs on Zoom… surreal and somehow so real. And the result: the viewers wanted more! So for the next 15 weeks we put on a show every single Saturday evening, with a hotlap competition during the week to find the best and fastest aspiring simracers to take part and get their chance to be on the podium. There was a long list of drivers, some with almost mythical status, competing in the Legends part of the show. Together they battled it out on the virtual track, some of them for the very first time in a sim rig. The Legends spanned multiple generations of champions across many different series and disciplines, Rally, F1, BTCC, Le Mans, Indycar – Jenson Button, Juan Pablo Montoya, Fernando Alonso, David Brabham, Petter Solberg, Jason Plato, Dario Franchitti, Helio Castroneves, Rubens Barrichello, Emanuele Pirro, Max Papis, Emerson Fittipaldi, the list goes on and on! Even Mario Andretti himself took part in the event at Indianapolis, putting on a massive show for the whole world. Not to forget Sebastian Vettel showed up for a race!

For rFactor 2, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see these legends experience simracing all at once, and so wholeheartedly. Aside from being streamed on Youtube, these events ended up reaching far and wide, even into people’s living rooms on Dutch Ziggo TV, ESPN and Eurosport. We would like to thank Ideas+Cars and their team for such close teamwork and know-how, and all the drivers, simracers and pros who took part!



Modding Updates
With all the recent updates to the game visuals, we are now preparing to release documentation to help modders take full advantage of these updates. For now this will focus on track content, with car updates coming at a later date. We have been working hard to upgrade our tools and documentation to help make that possible. Tools will be made available including 3ds Max 2021 plugins and an independent Material Editor, and full documentation will be released for the shaders, as well as some guides and tips for getting setup. This will represent a significant step forward in the way content can be created and the options available to modders, with all the latest features, including improving night-time effects, tree shading and road and terrain blending options. To support this, we will release an updated Loch Drummond that will be included in ModDev by default. This track is a small fantasy circuit that has been updated to make full use of the various options from our work on recent tracks.

In recent updates, we made adjustments to old content to help it be compatible with lighting updates. We will add a few options here to help modders, including the ability to disable these changes on a per-material basis if required. Also with this update, we will allow modders to customize the atmospherics in tracks again. This will now be in the form of scalars to adjust the density of haze in different conditions and also to set the amount of air pollution. This should result in an easier to use system and help us keep effects consistent across the game.

This information will all be made available on our Developers Guide: https://docs.studio-397.com/developers-guide/

Tracking Down Endurance Issues
A few weeks ago, after the 24 hour race, we promised to give you regular updates of our efforts to track down and fix the issues that occurred during that race, and a few races before that. In fact, this effort is not something we started two weeks ago, it is an ongoing process. But before we look at the specific issues, let us first explain a bit more about software development and fixing bugs.

For starters, let’s give you a bit of background on how we develop code, the processes we have in place to ensure that our code is correct as well as a brief introduction on what kind of bugs there are in code and how to fix them.

Every change we make to the codebase, either to fix a bug or to implement a new feature, is developed in isolation. As soon as the developer working on it is confident the change is correct, he or she will do two things. The first is to ask at least two colleagues to review the changes. By getting others to look at the code, we typically catch mistakes that the original author would miss. I’m sure you have had cases where you are blind to your own spelling mistakes when writing some text. For code it’s typically no different. The second is to create a build on Steam that can be tested by others. If the change passes both checks, it gets integrated into the next update. That goes to our group of beta testers who again test the change to ensure it works as designed. If that passes, you will find the change in the next public update.

So that’s how we deal with changes. What about the extensive codebase we already have? Here the process starts by identifying a bug and being able to find a series of steps to reproduce it. If we can reproduce it, we typically have no problem fixing the underlying issue.

There are two types of bugs in code. Bugs that come from mistakes in the logic of the code. Once identified they are typically easy to reproduce and fix. The second type is timing and threading related, also known as concurrency bugs, and in recent years these tend to happen more often as processors get more and more cores and a lot of things happen simultaneously. Reproducing this type of bug is usually a lot more tricky as the slightest change in the execution timing might cause it to appear or disappear. Finding them requires a combination of luck, lots of testing and in some cases rigorous code reviews. Given that the rFactor 2 codebase consists of millions of lines of code (to compare, a typical novel will be around 15.000 lines) you can probably figure out that going over it front to back is going to be a very time consuming process. And you might still glance over the actual issue (do you still remember what the name of the street was that the main protagonist was crossing on page 34?).

Now that we’ve explained the process, let’s go back to the 24 hour event. Directly after the race we started analyzing and categorizing all the different reports we got and pretty soon we were convinced that we were looking at one or more concurrency issues. Reproducing these was going to be tricky. We have a framework that we can use to setup fully automated tests, so our first step was to try and reproduce the exact conditions of this 24 hour race. Specifically we started designing test scenarios that resembled the reports. Two weeks later, we are now seeing the first results of those tests, with a reproducible scenario that we are investigating further. I expect us to be able to explain more in the next roadmap, but the good news is that we found something.

As a result of finding something, we also have some preliminary advice for those running endurance races. Contrary to what most series have been doing, making sure that the replacement driver joins shortly before the intended driver swap and then having the original driver disconnect soon after, it for now is probably better for all drivers to join the server before the race starts and stay on the server throughout the whole event. Our code in theory can handle up to 104 drivers and another 104 spectators, so if your races have less than that, try out this advice while we continue to track down these issues.

Wrapping it up
That’s it for another month. There are a few topics we did not discuss this time round. The UI, improvements to our overlays, what’s happening with the competition system and a few other things we will not doubt revisit in the remaining summer months. While real racing slowly returns, sim racing is taking a short summer break, to come back even stronger after. We started democratizing racing, and that’s a path we will certainly continue to follow! Enjoy the rest of the summer sale and stay safe! In closing there is one topic we want to quickly address. In the sale we changed the bundles we have on sale. We thought it was time to do that. In that process we might have taken away the opportunity for some to “complete their collection”. We did listen to your feedback and will come with a one-time solution for that soon.

[Duke]

Studio 397 released several track updates and deployed the 2020 version of the Circuit de la Sarthe, as used in the 2020 Virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Furthermore, the update includes fixes and improvements for the Berlin Formula-E 2020, Silverstone, and New York Formula-E 2020 tracks.

Changelog:
Le Mans 2018/2020 v2.51:
Added 2020 advertisements
Adjusted LODs on brake markers
Improved grass color
Added some adjustments to run off-road colors

Berlin FE 2020 v1.07:
More accurate race surface
Added night-lighting
Fixed various collision issues

Silverstone v2.10:
Fixed floating pit-out lights on old pit exit
Fixed various object popping issues
Fixed minor road gaps
Some Curb Adjustments for accuracy at Club & Copse
Slight tweaks to color balance
Added Endurance layout with extra trackside lighting for nighttime racing

New York FE 2020 v1.05:
Fixed minor camera activation issue

[Duke]

For those that own this DLC

Studio 397 has deployed an update for the Nürburgring track for rFactor 2.
The took the track through another optimization process and added a brand new layout in order to support series races such as the Porsche Carrera Cup or ADAC Formula 4 championship.

Update:
Added new layout “Support 24H”
Large optimization pass

[Duke]

Roadmap Update July 2020

Sometimes our roadmap is focused on a specific topic; sometimes it’s a huge box of surprises. Today’s roadmap feels like the latter. Actually, the beauty of rFactor 2, and probably one of the reasons why you love it, is that there’s not just one type of racing or motorsport — it can be whatever you feel like today. So let’s try to bring this vibe of spontaneity and surprise to the July roadmap, which features many different aspects of what we are currently working on behind the scenes.

The first topic we want to talk about is connected to our last summer sale. We hope you were able to grab that piece of content you really wanted to add to your collection and are already enjoying it to the fullest. But we also listened to those of you who voiced disappointment about us restructuring DLC packs, especially since specific smaller packs were missing from the offer, packs that would “complete” your inventory. We value community feedback a lot, so we went back to our library, put on our spectacles, and dug out some of the “old” packs.
The great news is that some of those packs will now be discounted. Like waiting for the after party, the after sale is even better, so everyone who missed the packs can grab them now. Please keep in mind that nothing lasts forever: this discount offer and the packs themselves will go away after roughly 2 weeks, so grab them while you can (smile)
The following packs will be brought back for the “After-Sale”:
Two Strong Pack – featuring the tech-packed McLaren Senna GTR and the mighty Aston Martin Vantage GTE → Get it HERE
GT3 Pack – our first and basically original pack with the beloved GT3s, featuring cars like the McLaren 650S GT3, Radical GT3, Callaway Corvette GT3 and more (5 GT3 in total) → Get it HERE
GT3 Challenger Pack – our second GT3 pack featuring another 5 GT3 class contenders such as the Audi R8 GT3 (normal and evo), BMW M6 GT3, Aston Martin Vantage GT3 etc. → Get it HERE

Cars
Part one is done, now let’s head over to the section showcasing the main actors in simracing: the cars.
As previously mentioned, this roadmap aims at diversity and with it we bring back a section we haven’t talked about for ages — oval racing, or more precisely, the rFactor 2 Stock Car Mod.
We are proud to announce a major update to the Stock Car mod. We’ve been hard at work for nearly 16 months redesigning almost every aspect of these cars. The main component of this update is the tire model. A lot of development was spent making sure they reacted correctly, giving the car a much improved feel and a better sense of realism. This update consists of brand new tire compounds for every track the Gen 6 CUP cars run on that are available in rFactor 2. The update uses the 2018 rules package with reworked aerodynamics, proper center of gravity, shocks, default setups, engines from dyno data (750+ horsepower), and, most importantly, rebuilt tires (24 different compounds/sets). The decision to stay with the 2018 rules was due to horsepower. In 2018, Stock Cars had 750 horsepower. In 2020 they have 550 horsepower. We felt the higher horsepower would provide a better experience of how a real stock car drives and feels. A lot of testing went into this to make sure the cars reacted correctly, and the default setups make it fun to drive right out of the box. Just like in real life, when behind a pack of cars you get slightly aero tight, but up front in clean air the car turns into the corners a little better. The new tire model gives it the feel you need to tell when it’s at the limit. However, when you go over the limit, be ready to catch it. You can’t just stomp the gas pedal, you gotta drive it up out of the corner while trying to keep its 750hp engine under control. As the tracks rubber up, you have to search for grip in different grooves. But with an in-car adjustable track bar, you can adjust the handling while you drive. We have also updated the car shaders to the new PBR shader and updated the templates as well with region maps. The Stock Car Team would like community feedback on the new cars and will have more exciting updates in the near future for them as well. Their main goal was to get the Stock Cars driving as close to a real car as possible by collaborating with real stock car drivers. Feel free to give feedback to the stock car team on Discord in the oval section. As a way of saying thanks, we added new default Stock Car paint jobs to reflect drivers that helped test and give feedback while developing this new beast!

Stockcar 2018
Changelog v2.10
Developed New Tire compounds for 24 tracks.
Default setups for each track tweaked
BOP tweaked per track
Engine torque/HP tweaked per Dyno sheet information on a Stock Car Engine
3D bodies exported with new PBR shaders.
Templates updated with Regions and contingencies layer
Adjusted Aero Package to represent 2018 package
We hope you’re not going crazy in circles already because there is more to come in this section. In other news: Do you remember us saying that there are two new GT3s coming? With one being the obvious elephant in the room, it’s time to introduce the other fresh contender to this popular motorsport category.
Subscribe to the Stockcar 2018 Steam Workshop item → HERE






Bentley Continental GT3 2020
Rolling out of the factory with its fiercely striking design, this British masterpiece of the renowned luxurious car brand is going for the big wins again. We are very pleased to welcome the 2020 Bentley Continental GT3 to the lineup of cars available in rFactor 2. It is powered by a 4-litre-twin-turbo V8, 4.8 meters long and hungry to be at the front row of whichever track you choose to enjoy the roaring sound of your new race car. If you’re already on your way out of this roadmap and into the steam shop – stop! While we want to get the new Bentley into your hands as early as possible, it’s not ready to be launched off the grid just yet. Give our mechanics a bit more time to put on the slicks and do the last radio checks, then we’re ready to rock.






Tracks
After all this car-talk, let’s change focus to the locations we want to race at. While there won’t be a new track announcement just yet, we think we have some news to share in this category that people will like. Starting off with Loch Drummond you might be like Loch what?!” but hear us out. Loch Drummond is an amazing track that poses a real challenge to every serious simracer out there. And to make sure that you enjoy seeing your expensive toys on four wheels on this track, we gave it a complete overhaul, bringing it up to the latest tech. If there is still a question mark above your head as to why we would do this – we have good reasons: There will also be an upcoming Dev Mode release of this track, giving you guys a better look at our electronic flags and other cool assets for track building.

Loch Drummond
Located just outside Stirling in the small vilage of Drummond, Scotland, is perhaps the home of the earliest known location of racing. Whether you consider it to be simple folklore, or to have some basis in reality, the valley has certainly held racing events since the 1950′s, but possibly for thousands of years. Based around what is assumed to be a disused and abandoned military installation, and surrounded by the walls of the valley, Loch Drummond is a relatively slow speed and highly technical track of two layouts (1.2 and 1.97 miles), that can really punish with lost time over a whole lap, for a mistake in a single corner. The area was once thought to be a place of ancient religious ceremonies, centered around a small henge of rounded stones located at the foot of the valley. Many people considered the area to be haunted, and there are many stories of disappearances and sightings of unusual things going back thousands of years. By 1946 however, the area was largely deserted, with only a handful of local farmers working in the valley. June 1947 saw a flurry of activity, when the British military constructed a base to handle radio traffic for the region. Of course, due to the location, there was some controversy, especially as the area saw little need for such an installation. Less than two months later, after a period of strange activity, the installation was abandoned, and it was found that the stone circle had been used as the foundations for a brick tower within the base. As time went by, ‘Glen Station’ and many of the valley stories were forgotten by all but a few. It wasn’t until the mid-1950′s, when a young farmer’s son began to travel from Duns, Berwickshire, to race at both Loch Drummond and nearby Crimond, that the area saw life once more. Soon, a young gentleman’s racing club was formed and saw great success for the next decade, using a simple set of racing rules: “no contact, and show respect to your fellow competitors.” Fully resurfaced in 1972, 1993 and 2008, the track also saw the addition of a new section in 2009, but could not attract high profile racing categories until safety improvements were made, and the dangerous runoff areas were widened. Sadly, the recent financial crisis of 2012 proved to be a tough challenge to overcome in terms of organizing the races, and covering the costs of recent improvements to the track. This saw the gentleman’s racing club (then known as GRC) sell the track to local racing enthusiast, John Livet, who has promised to make sure the legacy of the Gentleman’s Club carries on.

Changelog v1.23
Full PBR update
Added score tower
Added Big TV screen objects
Fixed smoothing on pit trucks
Small tweaks to terrain materials
Small adjustment to AI at uphill chicane
Fixed collision gaps
Improved smoothing on outer terrain
Fixed issues with shadow casting on tunnel
Subscribe to the Loch Drummond Steam Workshop item → HERE







Nürburgring PBR Update
As we were already in the flow of updating tracks, we also revisited the famous Nürburgring. While you wait for the release of this new PBR version, enjoy some of the shots taken by our track team that is currently updating every single square meter of not just the Nürburgring GP but also the Green Hell. In addition to PBR, we continue to add more optimizations and other performance tweaks. More to come!





Code
No, we didn’t forget about our promise to give you an update after last month’s roadmap, in which we talked extensively about our search to find and fix some long standing issues that tend to pop up in some of our endurance events. This work has continued, and we are now at a point where we have a few scenarios that we can consistently reproduce. Based on these, we are now also investigating a few other areas of the code to ensure we leave no bug behind, using a mix of code reviews and static code analysis tools. Part of this process is also creating some new test tooling to automatically run a lot of complicated and long scenarios. So far this has resulted in quite a few improvements to the codebase already, and even though we are not completely there yet, we are very positive about where we are right now. It’s hard to predict exactly when this process will be done, but we are committed to making sure we completely fix the issues, and it’s likely the next build will already have some improvements.
It’s been a while since we’ve given you an update on our UI. Earlier this year we started doing regular development updates on it. Those have slowed down a bit as we were addressing some bigger modules of the code, but we are now getting to a point where we are ready to switch on the new UI by default. That does not mean the old one instantly disappears. We will keep it around as a “beta” on Steam. Another change we are looking to make is to go 64-bit only. We already announced that intention a while ago, and we can see from hardware surveys that our community has moved to this platform already.
We spent the last couple of weeks doing smaller tweaks and bugfixes, and as explained before, switching to this new UI should be seen as a new beginning that adds a lot more features and improvements.
One of those new features is our competition system. The current system, on which we have been running a lot of hotlap competitions, was just the first step, and our current intention is to come out with the next update in December. As development continues in the upcoming months, we’ll explain in more detail the features we are targeting for this release, but our end goal is definitely to have a tightly integrated system that you can use to easily find races and compete against people with similar skills. This will eventually also include features to do off-line races, as we know many of you enjoy competing against our AI as well.

Competition
Exciting racing action in every single round of the championship – that probably describes our GT Pro Series and Challenge Series in the most accurate way. As promised back then, this championship came here to stay, and so it does!
While we can´t give you a fully detailed schedule yet, we are happy to inform you that the Series will be back soon! We are planning to have the Relegation Race Day in August to finalize the GT Pro Series Season 2 Grid. You´re not familiar with what´s happening there? Let me give you a quick overview: it’s a 1-day event featuring three races where positions 25 – 21 of the GT Pro Season 1 and position 6 – 10 of the GT Challenge fight for the last five remaining Pro Series Spots for Season 2. This will be good, promise!
Right after Relegation, we will get going with the hotlap qualifier for GT Challenge Season 2, everyone’s chance to be on the grid of this major rFactor 2 GT series, competing for a spot in the Season 3 Pro Series. Some info on this already: The Hotlap Qualifier will feature the same car/setup for everyone, and drivers will be able to choose the GT3 car they want to compete with after they earned their spot in this championship. Sharpen your skill and racecraft until then, and we will see you on the broadcast!
But if GT-racing isn’t really where you see yourself on the top, then don´t worry. We are hard at work on another series with a similar format (Pro and Challenge) featuring a team championship and a different style of racing. More on this soon (smile)

Road to NBR24h
X-factor, a word we throw around a lot, but what do we actually mean? We mostly deal in R-factor. So maybe we should say someone has that ‘R-factor’ when it comes to being a racing talent!
We are happy to see one of our own is tapping into real world motorsport. Rene Buttler, our Business manager, decided to bring together simracers for a real racing team. On this real-life team made up of virtual racers even the mechanics are sim guys. Together with his team, the support of the studio, and drivers like Dave Gaming or Jimmy Broadbent, Rene wants to achieve participating in the Nurburgring 24 hours race in 2021. Rene went all out: he bought a race-ready Astra Cup car, got his racing license, and — most importantly — decked it out with rF2 logos. For him, it’s about the journey of combining simracing and real racing. His first NLS (formerly known as VLN) race is planned for August 29th, a 6-hour endurance race, broadcast live from the race. Rene is currently preparing the nuts and bolts of the project, and we celebrate this first big step towards the 24h race with the release of the Nürburgring Endurance Bundle.
This all new bundle will includes: Nürburgring, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, BMW M2 CS Racing and Radical SR3-XX. With this new pack we give you a sampler of options to get to know Endurance racing at the Ring! From the more approachable to the more advanced in terms of handling, work your way up and conquer the Green Hell.
Get the Nürburgring Endurance Bundle → HERE
We will also have open hotlap servers for each of the cars – allowing you to challenge the top times in the world!





That’s all for this month! Stay safe, keep cool, and have a great summer everyone!

[Duke]

Roadmap Update August 2020
Waiting for the monthly roadmap has become a bit of a tradition on the last day of the month. Whilst some just keep an eye on our Discord server, others are known to keep hitting F5 in their browser to catch the first glimpse of the much anticipated news. And that’s great, because coming back to the roadmap each month gives us the opportunity to reflect on what we worked on, get an overview about what happened and enjoy what we accomplished, as well as look ahead at what’s to come. So let’s get started!

Development
On the development front we have just completed a whole series of automated and real-life tests to ensure the fixes we have been making for endurance events are indeed working. All of them have been positive, so we are now at a point where we are looking at making these part of our upcoming release.
Our UI is nearing the point where we switch to it by default. We’re currently making sure that we can properly translate all aspects into multiple languages, including a mechanism to do that for content so we can translate things like track and car descriptions. We have also integrated the material editor for custom liveries, making it easier to tweak those materials to perfection.



Last month we released our new stock cars, and in our upcoming release we will release an important update to the plugins that go with this series. We will also include more documentation on how to properly setup races with these cars as we are aware that some of you have struggled a bit with this.
Also in our new update will be many tweaks to support the new modding documentation and PBR shaders. That documentation has been proof-read internally for the last couple of weeks now and we are curious to see what our community can achieve with it! As an example of how to use all of these new goodies, we will include a “dev mode” version of Loch Drummond for everybody to examine and toy around with.
Finally, you might wonder when this next release will be out. Definitely this month an sooner rather than later.

Content
We’re getting super close to releasing both the Bentley Continental GT3 and Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo – which will make a total of 13 official GT3 cars in rFactor 2 – each with their own unique strengths and weaknesses. In view of that, we are also updating the BOP for each of the cars, some of which have had some significant makeovers. We look forward to sharing more details over the next few weeks.
Also on the horizon is the release of a free update to the Nürburgring Nordschleife as we have migrated the track to PBR. The PBR update provides a much more natural look for this outstanding track, our team of Banksy wannabees are furiously re-adding he graffiti as we speak – we’re really looking forward to showing off more screens and releasing the update soon.







We’re also excited to bring more updates for our Formula E content, after the successful ‘Race At Home’ series by Formula E, we are working on a number of improvements to make the racing more realistic, including physics updates, and for online activity the “attack mode”. Although “attack mode” is quite specific for Formula E, in theory you could use the same feature for other cars as well. Triggered by you driving over a certain section of the track, attack mode gives you slightly more power for a limited amount of time. This promotes more exciting races as well as an extra tactical element and we applaud Formula E for pioneering such features in their series! Not just that, look out for another stunning Formula E laser scanned circuit soon.

Competition
As announced on last month’s roadmap, we’re preparing the launch of Season 2 of our GT Series in both Pro and Challenge. But there was one last crucial event before we all can concentrate on Season 2, and that was the Relegation. A one-day event with everything on the line. Positions 6-10 from GT Challenge went head to head with positions 25-20 from GT Pro, fighting for the last 5 tickets to the pinnacle of GT racing in rFactor 2, the Pro Series. Same evening as roadmap, it turned our monday into an action packed series of working hours. We had chosen shorter layouts to make sure our 10 contenders really fight every second, so we visited Silverstone International, Sebring School and the Nürburgring Sprint layout.

Drivers in the Relegation event:
Dennis Lind (who unfortunately wasn’t able to compete)
Jan von der Heyde
Ferris Stanley
Peyo Peev
Zbigniew Siara
Vojta Polesny
Alex Siebel
Sido Weijer
Matthew Beaving
Alejandro López

Race 1 showed us already what we had been in for in this event. After a great start for Buttler-Pal Motorsport driver Peyo Peev in his Porsche GT3 it was Alex Siebel with the BMW M6 GT3 who challenged him for the win every single lap. Alejando Lopez unfortunately connected with Jan von der Heyde and Zbigniew Siara in turn 1 and found himself at the last position where he stayed for the reminder of the race. With a few skirmished everywhere on the grid the 20 minutes flew by pretty quickly but it was Peyo Peev at the end who managed to fight of Alex Siebel and bringing home his first 35 points at the UK stop.
Over in the US it was a completely different picture compared to Silverstone, basically mixing the entire result. After a super fast qualification viewers saw Alejandro López defending his position like an angry mother-dinosaurs right from the famous movies, bring home a start-finish win with Peyo Peev spinning his Porsche and ending up on the opposite site of the leaderboard. Zanshos quick driver Jan von der Heyde was once again right within reach of the win but couldn´t find a way around López McLaren and had to settle for 2nd position. With the results opening up the competition for the top 5 spots again, it was all about the 3rd and last race – the decider.
Coming to Nürburgring we had 3 drivers sitting on top of the scoreboard, Lopez, von der Heyde and Peev, and another 4 drivers that could close out the top 5 and go Pro (Siara, Stanley, Polesny and Weijer) with Alex Siebel being right between these 2 fighting groups, just having to get a decent finis hto make it into Season 2 of the Pro Series. Pole Position once again went to Peyo Peev who was on fire on this monday night. RIght from the start tho it was López again who went for the highlight moves, squeezing through 2 cars right in the middle into turn 1 and getting into third, which left Peev and Siebel uncontested for the first laps and giving them time to spread their lead. It all seemed settled as we approached the half way point when things got out of hands fairly quickly. López was fighting with von der Heyde again, basically a replay from sebring, with the Zansho driver lusting for revenge, when it was Siara from Buttler-Pal Motorsport who saw his chance in passing both but instead tapped the rear of von der Heydes McLaren, unsettling his car and costing him a lot of time. Siara then decided to give back the position to the Zansho Ace but lost so much momentum on the straight that also Polesny and Stanley went by. With this change in the leaderboard, it was all of the sudden Siara who wouldn’t make it to stay in the Pro Series. Nail-biting minutes followed for Polesny and Siara, with both fighting for points. While Ferris Stanley in his Mercedes AMG GT3 had to let Siara by at one point, it was Polesny from Deuce Motorsport who claimed the last spot for Pro Series in the end, with Peyo Peev winning his second race of the night.

With the 3 races done and dusted we say welcome (back) to the Pro Series to following drivers:
Peyo Peev
Jan von der Heyde
Vojta Polesny
Alejandro López
Alex Siebel

Now all the teams and drivers have to get prepared for the new challenge that is arising with season 2 and we wish them all the best for preparation phase.
If you missed the exciting livestream of the relegation you can obviously re-watch it on our twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/727240439

In other news, we want to congratulate our very own René Buttler and his team for finishing their first NLS race, surviving the 6 hours while also claiming their first pole position! We will start following them, and a lot of other “simracers who turned real racers”, in a new series starting soon!



Welcome
Last but not least, tomorrow we formally welcome our newest member of Studio 397, Paul Jeffrey. Most of you will know Paul from his many great contributions to RaceDepartment, and he will keep doing those of course. We are very excited to have him on board and we are confident that you will be hearing a lot more from him soon! Have a great month, enjoy your sim racing and on behalf of all of us, stay safe!

[Duke]

Studio 397 has updated the B.O.P (Balance of Performance) setting for the rFactor 2 GTE cars.

Changelog:
Chevrolet Corvette C7.R GTE v2.47
Fix for wrong default differential preload
New default setup
Qualification fuel map as the new default.

Aston Martin Vantage GTE v1.57
Added +5kg weight penalty
New default setup
Approximately 1% more fuel consumption.
Qualification fuel map as the new default
Approximately 0.6% less engine torque and power output.
Corrections to damper travel in both directions (mainly on the rebound, but also very minor to bump stops).
Fix for camber adjustment step (now it’s 0.1 deg) Note: this change will require corrections for camber angles in existing setups.

BMW M8 GTE v2.07
New default setup
Qualification fuel map as the new default
Approximately 3.2% less downforce

Porsche 991 RSR GTE 2.47
New default setup
Approximately 1% more fuel consumption.
Qualification fuel map as the new default
Approximately 0.5% more engine torque and power and 2.3% less downforce

Ferrari 488 GTE v1.67
New default setup
Fixed fuel tank (was 93L, should be 90L)
Qualification fuel map as the new default
Approximately 2.3% less fuel consumption
Approximately 0.55% less engine torque and power output

[Duke]

Studio 397 has deployed Build 1121 of their rFactor 2 racing simulator. This new update contains a good number of fixes and improvements to the UI, Modding Support, Graphics, Multiplayer, Broadcast Overlays, and more.

Changelog Build 1121
Old UI (opt-out)
Client build ID: 5504070
Dedicated server build ID: 5504080
New UI (public_beta)
Client build ID: 5503999

User Interface
Added key binding for hide cursor. This is useful when running the in-game overlays and doing a broadcast to a capture card that insists on showing your cursor otherwise.
All replay controls can now be custom assigned in the controller tab. By default, all replay controls are mapped to the same defaults unless re-assigned.
Added a first-time startup wizard. For now, only has name and nickname fields. This will be extended.
Added player area in the main UI. For now, only has name and nickname fields.
In the showroom, we now check for upgrades on page load and do not show info if there aren’t any.
Disabled select button in the list layout for category items. When switching from the grid or thumbnail layout to the list layout, and having a “category” item selected, the select button would be available and would glitch things when clicked.
Clear car configuration info when viewing a “category” item.
Updated the pop-up layout and styling.
Renamed event screen “Drive” button to “Passenger” when in multiplayer spectator mode.
Made transitioning to packages area page smoother:
Get packages after the page has loaded to avoid blocking.
Show a pop-up message while getting packages.
Use a dark grey background during switching to the page.
Enabled a chat message for single-player admin commands.
Fixed a game crash when switching sessions.
Fix accessing garage data properties if data is not available.
All controller profiles are updated. This fixes various issues when using ‘Detect’ on a first-time hardware setup.
We have new controller profiles for:
Simucube 2 Sport;
Simucube 2 Pro;
Simucube 2 Ultimate;
Logitech G923 PlayStation 4 and PC;
Logitech G923 Xbox One and PC;
VRS OSW;
XBOX One Controller For Windows.
Added “PlayerFileOverrides” to various profiles to ensure proper driver aids are enabled/disabled on the first-time wheel detect.
Added use thread “true” for all profiles.
Ensured that the “920 workarounds” is set to “false” on all non-Logitech profiles.
Fixed profile naming and removed redundant profiles.
Fixed stuck ‘look left’ on the TS-XW profile.
Thrustmaster F1 wheel Integral profiles: Fixed all mapping conflicts: T-GT, TS-PC, T500 RS, TS-XW.
Thrustmaster Racing wheel profiles: Fixed all mapping conflicts: T-GT, TS-PC, T500 RS.
Thrustmaster F1 wheel Integral profiles: Fixed all mapping conflicts: T-GT, TS-PC, T500 RS, TS-XW.
Thrustmaster Racing wheel profiles: Fixed all mapping conflicts: T-GT, TS-PC, T500 RS.
Added correct max torque to Fanatec CSW v1, v2, V2.5, and Direct Drive profiles.

Modding Support
Published a ton of new information about modding for rFactor 2 on the documentation website.
Large update to modding documentation will full documentation on PBR material system, dedicated Development Tools section, and more.
First official release of 3ds Max 2021 Plugins.
First official release of Material Editor.
First official release of Maps Converter Tool.
Added Loch Drummond (PBR Track) to ModDev.
Added ability to disable auto albedo correction on pre-PBR shaders.
Added ability to choose cube Fresnel default settings on pre-PBR car body shader.
Corrected Deformable Tire shader naming in Max Plugins.
Exposed Atmospherics section in Wet file to configure Haze and other settings.
Updated ModDev to use the main game HUD.
Added ability to save preset positions in the Scene Viewer.

Graphics
Added new pit exit marshal textures, thanks to Alessandro Micali!
Small refactor of glare settings in PostFX
Many other minor tweaks to various shaders and settings.

Multiplayer
Significantly improved logging for multiplayer sessions.
Fixed race conditions in our low-level socket node list.
Increased the size of an internal array to accommodate all possible cars in a session.
Fixed an issue where not just the server would send out node reordering messages.
Changed some very “spammy” log messages.
Fixed several crashes where some code would reference invalid data.
Added descriptive names to all threads.
Improved the handling of an application crash to ensure logs get flushed.

Broadcast Overlays
Made qualifying box sector colors correspond to the best lap sectors instead of the absolute best sectors.
Added fallback for drivers with no last name set.
Added drop-down in the control panel to select overlay configuration.
Made replay transition follow the configured series color.
Added an option to show more data in tower field 4 (gap to next, number of pit stops).
Added an option to automatically enable the race update box when the timing box is enabled.
Fixed pit timer getting stuck after leaving the pit lane.
Fixed displaying of gaps to leader/fastest lap time in tower and banner.
Extended field 2 data with the manufacturer and team logo.
Added turning lap time green or purple in the qualifying box after the lap.
Added option to minimize boxes in the control panel.
Fixed starting order not working with multiple events.
Fixed replay jumping to the wrong time.
Cleaned up the CSS to make it easier to make changes in the custom.css.
Added a replay marker button to mark replay events.
Updated team name and car number to use the entries from the .VEH file.
Added mixed/overall standings option.
Added an option to toggle between driver name, team name, and description.
Made b-roll a standalone element.
Added option to condense tower by hiding fields 2 or 3.
Fixed schedule slide date comparing.
Added an option to start the overlay in multi-class or single-class mode.
Updated banner behavior based on the selected car class (or mixed/multi-class mode).
Rearranged control panel.
Known issue: tower animation flickers when swapping pages.

[Duke]

deleted

[Duke]

Studio 397 proudly announced that the 2020 Bentley Continental GT3 will be coming to the rFactor 2 racing simulation 2 this Wednesday.
rFactor 2 users which already own the rF2 2017 Bentley GT3 model, will get the new car for free.

[Duke]

Studio 397 have today released the 2020 Bentley Continental GT3 for rFactor 2 - and it's free to owners of the original 2017 GT3 car. As well as new content, the GT3 cars within rFactor 2 have also been in receipt of the update treatment - enjoying an extensive Balance of Performance across all the current cars within the title - including physics updates and new dashboards on some cars.

Aston Martin Vantage GT3 1.71
BOP
- Fuel consumption tweaked to match reference for BoP
Physics
- Reworked aerodynamics (more sensitive to changes in ride heights),
- Fix for radiator cooling options not showing properly in the pitmenu,
- Reduced engine inertia
- New default setup
- Added 10% steps for radiator cooling.
In-car dash
- Added Engine Mixture levels
- Added ABS levels
- Added new alarms for low fuel and oil temperature

Audi R8 LMS 2018 v1.75
BOP
- Reduced drag by about 2%,
- Added 5kg of weight penalty,
- Reduced engine torque/power output by about 1%.
Physics
- Reworked aerodynamics (more sensitive to changes in ride heights),
- Fix for radiator cooling options not showing properly in the pitmenu
- Reduced engine inertia
- Added 10% steps for radiator cooling
- New default setup

Audi R8 LMS 2019 v1.45
BOP
- Reduced drag by about 4%,
- Added 10kg of weight penalty
- Reduced engine torque/power output by about 1%
Physics
- Reworked aerodynamics (more sensitive to changes in ride heights)
- Fix for radiator cooling options not showing properly in the pitmenu
- Reduced engine inertia
- Added 10% steps for radiator cooling
- New default setup

Bentley Continental GT3 v2.73
BOP
- Fuel consumption tweaked to match reference for BoP
Physics
- Reworked aerodynamics (more sensitive to changes in ride heights),
- Fix for radiator cooling options not showing properly in the pitmenu,
- Reduced engine inertia,
- Adjusted steering rack ratio (it’s slightly tigher now),
- Added 10% steps for radiator cooling.
- New default setup
In-car dash
- Added Engine Mixture levels
- Added ABS levels
- Added TC levels

BMW M6 GT3 v1.67
BOP
- Fuel consumption tweaked to match reference for BoP.
Physics
- Reworked aerodynamics (more sensitive to changes in ride heights),
- Fix for radiator cooling options not showing properly in the pitmenu,
- Reduced engine inertia,
- Camber is adjustable in smaller steps (0.1deg, was 0.25deg before)
- Adjustments to differential locking and preload
- Added 10% steps for radiator cooling
- New default setup

Callaway C7 GT3-R v2.81
BOP
- Increased engine torque/power output by about 2%.
Physics
- Reworked aerodynamics (more sensitive to changes in ride heights)
- Fix for radiator cooling options not showing properly in the pitmenu
- Reduced engine inertia
- Higher engine braking, adjusted launch rpm, adjusted engine lifetime rpm (results in higher engine lifetime)
- Moved aero balance forward by about 4% percent points
- Added 10% steps for radiator cooling.
- New default setup

McLaren 720S GT3 v1.61
BOP
- Added 10kg of weight penalty,
- Fuel consumption tweaked to match reference for BoP
Physics
- Reworked aerodynamics (more sensitive to changes in ride heights),
- Reduced engine inertia,
- Fix for radiator cooling options not showing properly in the pitmenu,
- Fix for some spring options beeing too stiff,
- Added 10% steps for radiator cooling.
- New default setup

McLaren 650S GT3 v2.71
BOP
- Added 5kg of weight penalty,
- Fuel consumption tweaked to match reference for BoP
Physics
- Reworked aerodynamics (more sensitive to changes in ride heights)
- Reduced engine inertia
- Fix for radiator cooling options not showing properly in the pitmenu
- Realigned suspension geometry (to better match the data, which also results in slightly slower steering ratio)
- Adjusted vertical and lateral CG location
- Higher roll damping for anti-roll bars
- Slightly higher clutch inertia
- Fix for some spring options beeing too stiff
- New default setup,
- Added 10% steps for radiator cooling.
- New default setup

Porsche 911 GT3-R
BOP
- Fuel consumption tweaked to match reference for BoP
Physics
- Reworked aerodynamics (more sensitive to changes in ride heights)
- Reduced engine inertia
- Fix for radiator cooling options not showing properly in the pitmenu
- Increased balance shift coming from changes to the rear wing angle (which now has 18 positions vs 20)
- Fix to rear suspension’s inner joints beeing too low for a given ride height
- Higher differential preload (by about 19%)
- Added 10% steps for radiator cooling.
- New default setup
In-car dash
- Added Engine Mixture levels
- Added ABS levels

Radical GT3 v2.67
BOP
- Fuel consumption tweaked to match reference for BoP.
Physics
- Reworked aerodynamics (more sensitive to changes in ride heights)
- Reduced engine inertia
- Fix for radiator cooling options not showing properly in the pitmenu
- Realigned suspension geometry and fix to motion ratios, resulting in different min/max damper lengths and stiffer spring/damper rates
- Added 10% steps for radiator cooling
- New default setup
In-car dash
- Added Engine Mixture levels
-Added ABS levels

Mercedes AMG GT3 v2.75
BOP
- Fuel consumption tweaked to match reference for BoP.
Physics
- Reworked aerodynamics (more sensitive to changes in ride heights),
- Reduced engine inertia,
- Fix for radiator cooling options not showing properly in the pitmenu,
- Added 10% steps for radiator cooling.
- New default setup
In-car dash
- Added Engine Mixture levels
- Added ABS levels

[Duke]

[Duke]

Roadmap Update September 2020

Hello our friends within the sim racing community – welcome to the Studio 397 rFactor 2 Development Roadmap for September, brought to you slightly earlier than usual this month thanks to a pretty exciting new car release we have coming tomorrow… but more on that a little later.
So, what’s been happening behind the curtain of rFactor 2 that we can share with you all this month? As usual, things here at Studio 397 HQ have remained rather fraught these past four weeks as we continue working hard to make rFactor 2 everything we believe it can be, both now and in the future.
We’ve already alluded to a pretty exciting new release tomorrow, and of course that can only be the stunning Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO 2020 – the second car from Maranello to arrive as official content following the popular 488 GTE we brought to the title back in May.
The new for 2020 488 GT3 EVO is a slightly larger, more aerodynamically efficient and all round more aggressive car than its predecessor, having undergone much in the way of development since first releasing to customer teams all the way back in 2016.



We firmly believe GT3 racing offers an incredible experience for sim racing fans in rFactor 2, and as such adding this 13th car to our ever growing collection of GT3 vehicles is something that makes us very proud indeed – especially as we think it would be fair to say this new Ferrari is arguably the most visually impressive car we’ve produced, and the driving experience is simply sublime! While we are on the topic of new GT3 cars, we also took the opportunity to release the stunning 2020 version of the Bentley Continental GT3 as a free piece of content last week – keeping rFactor 2 bang up to date with the seemingly never ending update cycle of modern GT3 manufacturers! The Bentley retains much of the character of it’s older brother, but like all motorsport technology, the push for improvements and progression is near endless, leading to the British marque again substantially revising the new car in a bid to stay ahead of the competition. We felt it would be a great opportunity to bring this car to rFactor 2, and as a reward for our players who already have the original 2017 machine, the new car has been added to the same Steam Store item and will automatically download for free whenever you restart your rFactor 2 simulation!

Bentley Continental GT3 2020 | Steam Store: Click HERE.



GT Series Season 2
GT Pro and GT Challenge are back! A brand new season in GT Pro will see the the best from last season and those who managed to promote into GT Pro Season 2 fight it out. In the meantime the GT Challenge Season 2 qualifier is running strong, with over 200 entrants and room for plenty of drivers across multiple splits to fight for a chance to grow and promote trough the splits and on to the top! To read more about GT Series Season 2 and how to enter the Challenge qualifier go here: https://www.studio-397.com/rfactor2-gt-series-2020/



GT Pro Series schedule
12 October: Sebring
26 October: Portland
9 November: VIR
23 November: Nurburgring
7 December: Indianapolis
21 December: TBA



GT Challenge Series schedule
19 October: Sebring
2 November: Portland
16 November: VIR
30 November: Nurburgring
14 December: Indianapolis
28 December: TBA

Well that’s the stuff we’ve already done covered, now it’s time to move on to some goodies that are still getting cooked up with by talented development team behind the scenes.
Last weekend was the Total 24 Hours of Nürburgring in Germany, one of the toughest endurance GT racers anywhere in the world. Back in September 2019 we released that incredible circuit for rFactor 2, and as we’ve just hit the one-year anniversary we’ve decided to revisit our laserscanned Nürburgring Nordschleife to give it a rather significant overhaul. Thanks to the progress we’ve made in recent months with visual improvements to the simulation, our track team decided to employ these new techniques and technologies on the largest and probably most famous track in rFactor 2, and already the improvement from the current public build of the circuit have proven to be staggering.



Nürburgring Nordschleife | Steam Store: Click HERE.

Adding PBR shaders has in our humble opinion transformed the circuit, bringing a new level of depth and life to the visuals that really allows this one to stand up and be counted against any of the other venues within the title. We’ve worked hard on the road surface itself, but attention has also been applied to the way the light and shadows interact with the player and track, really helping immerse you in the whole Nordschleife experience as you power round this incredible racing venue.
Most of the work has already been completed on Nürburgring now, we are just applying a final coat of graffiti on the racing surface (with 170 corners that’s actually a pretty lengthy process!) and putting the track into final testing, so stay tuned to the rFactor 2 social media channels in the days and weeks ahead for some nice previews of the “new” track ahead of release day.



In our August Development Roadmap post we spoke about the continual improvements and additions we are looking to make to our ever expanding Formula E experience within rFactor 2– and that very much remains a key area of development for us here at Studio 397.
Last month we briefly mentioned our desire to bring the unique ‘Attack Mode’ feature to the sim – making us the first title to introduce this interesting tactical element to a racing simulation. While we are still some way off from having this as a playable feature within the public build of rFactor 2, we remain hard at work understanding how to best implement it into our existing, and future Formula E circuits… (more on future tracks next month….).
Elsewhere in the Studio 397 offices our CDO, Dom Duhan has been dipping his fishing rod into the big pool of brand licencing of late too, and we must say he’s had a marvellous day at the lakes, catching plenty of very interesting licences that we can’t wait to share with you in the months ahead.



Finally, we will wrap up the Roadmap for this month with a couple of quick honourable mentions for the recent new GT3 Balance of Performance release we deployed to rFactor 2 last week. Bringing this many cars to a level where they can complete evenly together has been a substantial piece of work by the team, and we are pleased with how this has come together for the BOP release, including the addition of both the new Bentley and Ferrari cars. That said, you can always find room for improvement, and as such we’ve got a small update across all cars scheduled for release this Wednesday (30.09), including a bug fix to rectify an issue with a couple of the cars. Another shout out has to go to the incredible performance Rudy van Buren pulled off at Le Mans – our rFactor 2 ambassador produced an outstanding display of driving talent in incredibly challenging conditions at the Circuit de la Sarthe during his Porsche Carrera Cup debut weekend – sadly Rudy would come away without the result he deserved courtesy of being knocked off the track right at the end of the race, but our Dutch superstar certainly showed the world that sim racers have absolutely all the tools needed to run right at the front in professional motorsport – well done Rudy! Rudy van Buren | Le Mans Weekend: Click HERE.

Last but not least, we would love to invite you to our Discord community if you haven’t already joined. Be the first in line for news and discussions about everything we are cooking up here at Studio 397. rFactor 2 | Discord Community: Click HERE.

Oh, before we go one final thing… you might remember we spoke a little while ago about an ‘iconic European track’ coming to rFactor 2? Well, development of said track is going very well indeed – so stay tuned to rFactor 2 on Social Media for the big reveal very soon. That pretty much wraps things up for another month. Have a great October wherever you are, stay safe and see you out on the track!

[Duke]

Studio 397 proudly released the Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO 2020 for the rFactor 2 racing simulator.
The new Ferrari DLC is available via the dedicated Steam page for AUD$8.19.

[Duke]

Studio 397 today updated their recently released Ferrari 488 GT3 EVO and slightly older Ferrari 488 GTE cars for rFactor 2.

Ferrari 488 GT3 v1.21
– Fix for wrong pit stop strategy, fuel tank capacity, and fuel consumption
– Adjusted ambient occlusion in cockpit
– Re-introduced brake bias read out to in-car dash
– Fixed wiper animation on triples side screen (multiview only)
– Showroom shadow fix
– AI pace slightly reduced
– Fixed rear window rain effect
– Fixed missing Upgrades.ini in .mas file

Ferrari 488 GTE v1.73
– Fixed wiper animation on triples side screen (multiview only)
– Adjusted ambient occlusion in cockpit

[Duke]

Nürburgring Nordschleife PBR Update

Studio 397 deployed a new update for their rFactor 2 racing simulator, bringing you a new version of the Nürburgring Nordschleife, including track optimizations and better visuals, as well as re-balanced AI for the single-player mode.

Changelog
Comprehensive & Extensive PBR Update to the entire Circuit
New Textures for Roads & Terrain
New Features on Roads such as dust and improved real road dynamics
Reworked outer terrain materials
Reviewed trees and treeline objects, materials and placement
All new crowds
Reviewed night-lighting
Further optimisation pass
Added “Grand Prix No Chicane” Layout
Added Support for up to 90 vehicles on Nords layouts using GP pits.
Added New Support Vehicles
Various General Fixes
Extended white line on layouts using the GP pit exit so cars can merge safely further down
Moved tire barriers in that slightly blocked pit entry transition on 24H layout

GT3 AI BoP Updates and Minor Fixes
While the track team was hard at work on the new version of the Nürburgring Nordschleife, part of our team responsible for cars and AI went back to our GT3 lineup to fix some minor issues as well as balance the AI for all those out there that love some single player action.
Quite a list, so all the details can be found below! And yes, the Ferrari GTE also sneaked into the list while we we’re at it.

Aston Martin Vantage GT3 2019 v1.77
AI: More forward downforce

Audi R8LMS GT3 2019 v1.51
AI: Added slightly more grip

Bentley Continental GT3 2020 v1.11
Adjustments to aerodynamics to reduce excessive front lift.
Fine tuned to ride height sensitivity.
Fixed cams
Updated brake disc materials
Adjusted cokcpit AO
Fixed shadow in showroom
AI: Added grip, especially front end

Callaway Corvette GT3 2017 v2.91
Fixed wet tires starting temp
Adjusted collision mesh
Adjusted lower LODs (removed endurance light covers)

Ferrari 488 GT3 2020 v1.29
Fixed onboard cam clipping the curbs
Adjusted bonnet cam
Fixed clipping TV cams
Adjusted rev lights on the rev limiter

Ferrari 488 GTE 2020 v1.83
Fixed onboard cam clipping the curbs
Adjusted bonnet cam
Fixed clipping TV cams
Adjusted rev lights on the rev limiter
AI: Slightly improved pace

McLaren 650S GT3 2017 v2.77
AI: Reduced understeer

Mercedes AMG GT3 2017 v2.87
AI: Reduced spinning in certain situations
AI: Reduced understeer
Adjusted collsion mesh

Porsche 911 GT3 R v1.69
Added speedo to dash

Radical RXC GT3 2017 v2.77
AI: Slightly slowed down

Latest rFactor 2 Build Update
Steam Build ID Client 5694072
Dedi 5694077
Fixed some cars showing all white in the showroom
Fixed cars showing in the list that shouldn’t be there at server join
Fixed chrome material not working in the showroom
Fixed an issue that could cause a client to load an old version of a track when joining at server join

New UI Only
Steam Build ID Client 5694164
Added real descriptions for cars and tracks in the content selection list

[Duke]

Studio 397 deployed a new build for their rFactor 2 racing simulator.
The update prepares the simulation for the upcoming Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps DLC, scheduled for release this Friday 20th November, and contains a number of important changes marking the cessation of 32-bit support for rFactor 2.
The developer encourages the players to migrate to the 64-bit build of the simulation going forward. Additionally, it is highly recommended players now transition to the ‘New UI’ within rFactor 2, in order to take the most advantage of the various new features and optimizations available within the software.
VR users will be pleased to hear that this update also includes a flat desktop screen mirror within VR mode. Important for players who use Virtual Reality Headsets but wish to navigate the game menus outside their device. Please note, this is only available in the new UI on the public_beta branch.

Changelog:
Removed the 32-bit builds, we are now officially 64 bit only. To ease the transition, we have left some 32-bit utilities in their usual locations for this build only. Please migrate and report any issues you might have.
Note: there is a known issue that the ModMgr.exe inside Bin64 folder on SteamCMD dedicated server distributions may crash when toggling certain settings. Please use ModMgr.exe inside Bin32 folder for now.
Changed the way the new UI gets rendered, making it smooth even when the back-end is busy.
Fixed several memory leaks and a possible crash on changing graphics settings in-game.
Ensured that when a user is entering text in a text field, keys he/she presses don’t accidentally trigger other controls.
Fixed the mouse cursor from going missing when pressing ESC in VR after driving the car.
Fixed an issue where sometimes when restarting or forwarding sessions, the UI would not (re)appear after that transition.
Fixed several aspect-ratio related rendering issues with the new UI.
Fixed the new UI is one pixel too wide and too high on triples.
Added new VR flat desktop mirror. Please note this is only available in the new UI on the public_beta branch.
Controller profiles
Simagic M10 new profile added.
VRS Direct Force Pro corrected a typo in controller profile.
Re-enabled & Improved Sun God Rays / Light Flare settings (requires PostFX enabled, mostly only visible when the sun is occluded slightly)
Tweaks to Air Pollution color blending and params
Corrected Moon Brightness
Reviewed various lighting parameters
Moved “Atmospherics” section for Track Weather file (.WET) to Track Game Database file (.GDB)
Added option for static mappers to disable Omni lights
Fixed auto-static mapper assignment, so Static01 mapper is auto-assigned only. (prevent mappers for specific situations being auto-assigned to assets)
Fixes for issues with No Rain Zones including when falling back to bounding box, and sorting issues with the currently rendered no rain zones.
Fixed an issue where reflections would stop updating after rejoining the track
Fix for trackside cameras not always showing the correct number of objects
Updated PBR track shaders to make use of new sampler methods to allow for more textures to be used.
Fixed an issue where DXT1 and DXT5 textures would not sample sRGB when they should when using the new sampler method (This was an issue on the Road Shader only previously)
Fixed a rare issue causing texture animations to stop working
IBL Road and IBL Curb:
Added ability to use a second normal map (overlay on road, switch on curbs)
Tweaked Groove Blending logic (This may result in more noticeable dust, you may wish to tone this down in your Road Details Map)
Updated default settings for Groove & Dust IBL Standard
Fixed some issues with the Detail Map
IBL Standard & Blend:
Added option to use detail map as an alpha masked decal IBL Standard Blend
Added the option to use a detailed map with the same logic as IBL Standard
Removed Multiply Square albedo blending mode, since this can be achieved by saving the texture in the correct format.
IBL Terrain:
Added the ability to set per Albedo strengths for Pattern map
Added an optional splatter overlay map, which applies alpha to specular mask
Added Albedo Tinting to Specular on Terrain Shaders
IBL Vegetation:
Added a new Vegetation Specific shader, which contains only appropriate logic from IBL Standard
Added Specular Tinting with a static color in the Vegetation Shader.

[Duke]

Studio 397 proudly released a highly accurate laser-scanned version of the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the rFactor 2 racing simulator.
The Spa-Francorchamps track for rF2 is available via the dedicated Steam page for A$14.50.

[Duke]

Roadmap Update November 2020

November has been another busy month here at Studio 397, with plenty of activity taking place back at base as we prepare for the run in to the festive season.
The nature of game development means we are constantly balancing our long and short term goals for rFactor 2, strengthening the core software and bringing new features whilst ensuring our content offer remains interesting and fresh for new and existing players alike.
Recapping quickly on November (can you believe it’s over already!?), we’ve certainly had a very enjoyable month checking out the reactions to our brand-new Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps DLC release – one of the tracks our team has been so keen to bring to rFactor 2 in all of its laserscanned glory, and it’s now finally available in for players to enjoy!
rFactor 2 | Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Steam Store: Click HERE

Still on the subject of the month of November, we also released a brand-new build update for rFactor 2. As part of that build release we were pleased to introduce our new VR flat desktop mirror mode for Virtual Reality users, something that has been requested by our community quite a lot recently, and also our latest lighting and graphic improvements have made their way into the simulation ahead of further refinements and upgrades scheduled for the coming weeks and months ahead.
Moving forward to the future, namely the festive month that is December, we continue to work hard behind the scenes to deliver some interesting improvements to the way competitions are handled within rFactor 2 – something we expect will really help players access the types of online racing and competitions we know you are keen to experience, but wrapped up in a much more sensible and user-friendly environment than is currently possible with the way the simulation is presently structured.

Last month we spoke briefly about our the competition system beta, and our hopes to get a first pass of the new system in the hands of players before the holiday season kicks into full swing, and then to build on this system in 2021. This very much remains our intention as we slide into December, and initial behind closed door testing seem to indicate the system is working much as anticipated. We’ve run a few races now internally with our Studio 397 staff and identified a few issues that have been quickly resolved, so before we put down our tools and exchange coding for mince pies and sherry we should be in a position to let you all finally get your hands on what will very much be a long and rewarding journey of expanding and improving the way players interact with rFactor 2 in an online environment.

COMPETITION SYSTEM BETA AND 2021 ROADMAP
FIRST BETA
The primary goal for the first beta is to get a system in place that is easy to use and allows everybody to jump into daily races that are part of competitions. We will support a format where each event in a competition has multiple slots, so you can choose the one(s) that suits your schedule. Standings will be based on a local rating system that compares drivers in all those time slots to figure out who was the best overall.



ROADMAP FOR 2021
So what’s in store after the holidays? Let’s start by saying we will probably revise this roadmap as we go, also based on user feedback as we deploy each update.
Ratings — are probably one of the most anticipated features, and one of the reasons for not having them active right from the start is that we want to test our algorithms on real-world data before publishing anything. Our current philosophy is to have a single rating system that encapsulates both your skill and safety record.
Protests and decisions — are also high on our roadmap list as we will no doubt have situations where an incident will need to be reported and evaluated by our stewards. Our goal here is definitely to let the in-game systems do a lot of the (easy) work here, monitoring when you cut the track or commit other offenses and directly handing out penalties. At the same time we are aware that not everything can be decided by robots.
More competition formats — are things we will probably gradually introduce but as a feature they certainly need to be mentioned on any roadmap. We intend to run our GT championship, various hotlap styles, some completely new formats as well as more “league style” competitions in the system.
Roles and team based driving — will be added to allow multiple drivers to share an “entry”, or car, in a competition. Roles can be defined so teams can also have a manager or race engineer. Other roles are stewards, race control, and cameramen to facilitate broadcasts.
Broadcast integration — is probably another feature that will be gradually introduced, but obviously when broadcasting sessions that belong to a competition, we want to make sure that overlays showing standings, points, participants and calendars accurately reflect the competition they’re a part of.
Offline Championships — will be added once the online part is running smoothly. We will leverage the features we use online to also facilitate offline championships, where you can race against our AI.
These features will take us well into 2021 and we will revise and update them as the year progresses.
As per our November Development Roadmap post, it should be noted that the transition build to our Competition System will also mandate the use of our new UI within rFactor 2. Following the upcoming December update, continued support of the legacy UI within the simulation will come to a close, and any future builds and updates to rFactor 2 will only occur on the new default branch of the sim. We appreciate that for many players this will bring with it a number of changes to how you are used to experiencing rFactor 2, however we remain confident that the latest iterations of the ‘new’ UI will provide players with a much more streamlined and enjoyable experience, with many benefits to using rFactor 2 both now and more importantly in the future as we continue to make strides towards ongoing development of the title.
Closer to release we will be publishing a much more detailed guide on the benefits (and known issues) with the new UI and Competition System, and we strongly advise players to migrate to the UI sooner rather than later in order to become comfortable with the layout and features presented, and to help us with feedback as we drive towards maximising the potential of the system.
So, why should you be excited about the new UI, both now and in the future? Apart from the fact the whole UI system is based on technology that allows us to add, change and improve features over time – something that wasn’t possible with the current integration, we’ve also worked hard to ensure that anything you’ve become used to with the current UI has at the very least been transported to the new design, as well as plenty of new features and improvements that will only be expanded upon in the weeks, months and years ahead.
To give you a brief idea about some of the advantages of the soon to be default ‘new UI’ (we are really going to have to find a new way of describing it soon…), we’ve put together a brief list of some of the benefits of the new system – however keep in mind we will be updating and improving this over time, so this list is far from final and any community feedback about useability and features are always welcomed…
Trackmap now included on monitor screen with live position data of drivers.
Camera control buttons added in replay screen and monitor.
Added full screen replay ticker on top.
Driver selection in replay screen and monitor.
Statistics and best lap times/sectors.
Track selection trackmap icons drawn from track data (no need to include icons).
Car selection list fully transparent icons.
Race Monitor screen.
Graph showing race progression.
Trackmap data on monitor page.
Integrated Competition System.
Tuning menu that contains material editor.
Flat VR mirror screen.
Triple screen widget in the UI.
Dedicated front page news section and forum feed.
Integrated matchmaker and favourites shortcut.
More intuitive summary overview pages in both general settings and setup screen.
All admin controls now available as UI controls, (avoids having to use command line if you don’t want to).
Turning our attention to the world of playable content, we’ve been around quite a while in the sim racing genre now, and in that time we are pleased to have amassed an impressive collection of licenced cars and tracks for rFactor 2 (with plenty more on the way), and as we continue to bring new things to the title, alongside our ongoing development of the graphics engine, it often means we need to revisit our older releases and bring them up to the same standards as our more recently developed cars and tracks.

Of late we’ve given the refresh treatment to both Silverstone and more recently the Nürburgring track and its various configurations, and now we are delighted to confirm the next two venues on the list to be brought in line with the current standards are the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Portland International Raceway.
Both of these American circuits are under review at the moment by the track team here at Studio 397, with Indianapolis set to be updated to the latest PBR graphics and materials, whilst Portland is due to be given a patch to fix and tweak some key areas within the circuit – both updates of which we plan to deploy within the month of December as we look to breathe new life into these great circuits within rFactor 2. As well as these improvements, we are also onto the final stages of testing for a further Nurburgring patch, bringing back those missing curbstones and a few other small tweaks and changes that should improve things nicely.



Moving on to cars, last month we showed you some WIP preview shots of the Cadillac DPi-V.R prototype we’ve been working on at the studio. In order to bring the very best possible level of detail and simulation to this potent prototype racer, we have been working very closely with the JDC-Miller MotorSports team over in the United States. Having access and support from one of the top endurance racing outfits in the IMSA WeatherTec Sportscar Championship, a unit that ran a two-car programme in the top American endurance racing series no less, has been an incredibly exciting experience for us at the studio, and no doubt has helped our development team to recreate one of our most detailed and realistic cars yet for rFactor 2. Currently the Cadillac DPi-V.R is undergoing that all important track testing on the virtual tarmac within the simulation, and I’m sure you will agree with us when we say the digital recreation looks just as stunning as the car in real life – we can’t wait to let you get your hands on this one in the not too distant future.
rFactor 2 | Endurance Bundle DLC Steam Store: Click HERE



Also on the subject of cars, next month will also see a brand-new vehicle and style of racing arrive in rFactor 2. Over the last few months we’ve been working closely with DTM champion Mike Rockenfeller to bring to life in rFactor 2 a unique concept – a high performance, tin top electric racing car that produces incredible amounts of power through its four-wheel-drive system, yet offers up an exciting and often rather spectacular driving experience. The car has been dubbed the RCCO eX_ZERO_2020, and will be released as DLC within rFactor 2 during December.
What makes this car rather unique is the fact it will only exist within the sim, but despite having no real world counterpart this is by no means a fantasy piece of content. Several months ago we were presented with an initial spec to develop the car, and using real world parameters and physics the RCCO eX_ZERO_2020 was born – with behaviour and characteristics exactly like those that would be displayed should this crazy machine ever make it out into the real world.
Having been heavily guided in the design and realisation of this project by Mike Rockenfeller and his team, we’ve found the experience of building the RCCO eX_ZERO_2020 exceptionally enjoyable at the studio, and while the car is certainly something rather different that the normal selection of machinery we develop for the simulation, we feel confident that our drivers will very much enjoy trying to tame this 1000hp beast! Intended for use in some interesting upcoming esports competitions by the RCCO team, as well as providing a very different (and dare we say it, brave) experience for our rFactor 2 players, this is certainly a departure from our usual content style here at rFactor 2!
While we are talking about esports competitions, you may have seen a few messages on the rFactor 2 social channels in recent weeks about the upcoming Sim Formula Europe series taking place next January, well, the second running of this annual competition is starting to kick into gear, and aside from the fantastic racing the series is sure to produce, we’ve got quite the selection of sim racing hardware to giveaway to competitors too…



Returning for the third year in a row, Sim Formula Europe is back once again for players to come together and race for the opportunity to win some incredible prizes. With 60 drivers set to move forward from the hotlap qualifications to semi-final race events, we should see plenty of action out on the circuit as esports stars new and established look to fight for the opportunity to win a percentage of our 10,000 EU prize pool, and some exceptional hardware from SimTag, SimLab, Heusinkveld Engineering and Cooler Master. The hotlap qualifications are set to run from December 3rd – 13th. Stay tuned to the rFactor 2 website and social media channels in the coming days for details on how to get involved yourself and be in with a chance of taking home some fantastic prizes.
That about covers everything we can talk about for this month, onwards to December and the festive season as living rooms around the world get turned into a sea of festive lights and strange stuffed toys of fat guys in red suits and scarily menacing reindeers in coats and hats – stay safe everyone, and see you all again next month!

[Duke]

Studio 397 has released a new version of their Portland International Raceway for rFactor 2 as the track has been equipped with some of the latest material tech.

Portland International Raceway v1.03
- Updated Roads to work with latest material developments
- Updated Vegetation to latest material developments
- Reviewed Grass bumpiness
- Fixed some objects tagged as Hat that shouldn't have been.
- Roughed up inside the curbs at the fast chicane
- Added a dedicated material which makes there more resistance on the grass to stop cutting (just on the polys next to the chicane)
- Fixed Fence/Tent lodding issues at Final Corners

[Duke]

RCCO eX ZERO | Extreme Electric Racing Comes To rFactor 2

The fictional RCCO eX ZERO 2021 is a 1,000 hp electric racing car specifically developed for esports racing and the RCCO World eX Championship. The “eX” stands for “electric experimental” prototypes and “ZERO” for zero emissions.
This four-wheel drive race car has a power-to-weight ratio of 1:1, and reaches a top speed of over 380 km/h in the lowest drag configuration and is challenging to drive even for professional racing drivers.
The RCCO eX ZERO 2021 DLC is available via the dedicated Steam page for AUD$8.10

[Duke]

The Spa-Francorchamps circuit, the Nürburgring Nordschleife, Portland International Raceway, the Hong Kong E-Prix street circuit, and the Botniaring track have all received a nice list of fixes, tweaks, and improvements.

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps v1.15
Minor Adjustment to Cut Detection to be more lenient if you don’t gain time
Fixed Marshal and Digital Flag Sequencing
Safety Workers visible on all level details to fix flags online
Fixed minor terrain gaps
Fixed Pit Entry to match on-screen assets
Reverted Endurance Standing start to GP Grid (Rolling start will begin on Endurance layout and go green over GP start line)
Adjustments to Grass Materials
Fixed a few minor Tree placement issues
Reviewed AIW behavior into Les Coombes
Made AI slightly more cautious when running side by side
Readjusted Endurance Pit Layout so that there are 50 pit spots for the 80 garages.
Fixed collision mesh on the temporary wall on Endurance layout pits



Nurburgring Nordschleife v2.17
Added missing curbs on Nordschliefe
Rebalanced & improvements to all road, terrains & trees materials
Added decals to gravel traps
Optimized trackside terrain meshes
Optimized tyre stack meshes behind tyre canvas
Fixed collision issues on some layouts
Fixed some issues with camping tent placements
Added atmospherics values to GDB files
Some general object lodding optimization
Reviewed some nightlight omni-colors
Added default RRBIN settings to WET files
Various minor fixes and tweaks




Portland International Raceway v1.04
Improved AI lines at final sector in both layouts
Reduced bumpiness of inside fast chicane anti-cut to help reduce AI issues



Hong Kong E-Prix v1.65
Fixed material errors which will prevent track loading in the latest build



Botniaring v1.05
Collision mesh update.
Last corner hay bale wall and corresponding collision was extended a little, as a countermeasure of cutting exploit.

[Duke]

This month, Studio 397 will release the Cadillac DPi-V.R Prototype for their rFactor 2 racing simulator.
To ensure a detailed and realistic simulation of the car, the rF2 development team worked closely together with the JDC-Miller MotorSports who run a two-car Cadillac Prototype DPi outfit in the North American IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship.
Studio 397 now published a preview video, showcasing the Cadillac DPi-V.R Prototype in-game. The video features an rFactor 2 lap around the Sebring International Raceway by Team JDC-Miller MotorSports French professional racing driver Tristan Vautier.

[Duke]

[Duke]

Studio 397 deployed the December Build for their rFactor 2 Racing Simulator.

Today is a good day. Today is a new build day. You may have heard on the sim racing grapevine something about a new competition system within rFactor 2 that is under development..? Yes, that’s right, our December build update is here and a very first pass at organizing rFactor 2 multiplayer action has come with it, marking a very important line in the sand for us here at Studio 397 as we continue working incredibly hard to ensure the simulation delivers an experience our users demand.

The Competition System is now live as part of this build update, with the first racing events due to be uploaded and set to begin on Thursday December 24th.
Before we talk about the changes that have come as part of this new build release, let us remind you a little about why we want to include a competition system within the software in the first place.
Online racing, from a local level all the way up to organized and professional esport activities are an important aspect of the rFactor 2 journey, and have for a long time been very well represented by the many numerous community created sim racing leagues throughout the world.
Whilst these leagues are doing an incredible job of offering sim racers outstanding opportunities to race their favourite cars within the simulation, we realize that for the largest part of our user base racing in scheduled league events isn’t always the most convenient or accessible way for them to get involved in online multiplayer action, and finding servers that host content they want to race, at a time in which they would like to race it, has proven to be more difficult than it ideally needs to be.
Driven by a desire to offer quality racing for everyone, in a structured and organized way that increases the opportunities for our fantastic community to get involved, we have devised a new competition system within the software, one that offers up regularly scheduled racing in a variety of different car and track combinations within the sim and brings with it an element of matching together drivers of similar skill and ratings, to help streamline and improve the racing experience for our users, and put the emphasis back on what is important – getting on track and having fun.
Of course, this new system has been developed with expansion in mind, so what you will see as part of the new build today is certainly going to grow and expand over time – with so much obvious potential to enhance our multiplayer experience, we have taken the decision to adopt a cautious and regimented approach to deployment. What this means in reality is that we intend to spend time at each phase of development taking onboard community feedback in regard to how the system is working, and what features and behaviours the community would like to see brought to the system in future builds. By adopting this approach, we aim to maximize the potential of the system based on how it is used, and how the vast majority of people would like to use it going forward, to collectively develop something that adds genuine value to your sim racing experience within rFactor 2.
Before we take a look at the system in its current initial release status, it may be useful for those of you who missed it within the November Development Roadmap to have another look at our planned ‘mini’ roadmap of development over the coming months:
Ratings — are probably one of the most anticipated features, and one of the reasons for not having them active right from the start is that we want to test our algorithms on real-world data before publishing anything. Our current philosophy is to have a single rating system that encapsulates both your skill and safety record.
Protests and decisions — are also high on our roadmap list as we will no doubt have situations where an incident will need to be reported and evaluated by our stewards. Our goal here is definitely to let the in-game systems do a lot of the (easy) work here, monitoring when you cut the track or commit other offences and directly handing out penalties. At the same time we are aware that not everything can be decided by robots.
More competition formats — are things we will probably gradually introduce but as a feature they certainly need to be mentioned on any roadmap. We intend to run our GT championship, various hotlap styles, some completely new formats as well as more “league style” competitions in the system.
Roles and team based driving — will be added to allow multiple drivers to share an “entry”, or car, in a competition. Roles can be defined so teams can also have a manager or race engineer. Other roles are stewards, race control, and cameramen to facilitate broadcasts.
Broadcast integration — is probably another feature that will be gradually introduced, but obviously when broadcasting sessions that belong to a competition, we want to make sure that overlays showing standings, points, participants and calendars accurately reflect the competition they’re a part of.
Offline Championships — will be added once the online part is running smoothly. We will leverage the features we use online to also facilitate offline championships, where you can race against our AI.
These features will take us well into 2021, and we will revise and update them as the year progresses.
These features and developments will largely be driven by how the system is adopted by the current and future rFactor 2 racing community of course, and should be taken as a broad guideline as to our development intentions rather than a set of absolutes. We are exceptionally keen to ensure this development phase is driven by the wants and desires of our community racers, as we look to build something together than improves and enhances the overall experience of racing within rFactor 2.

With that all said, let us take a look at what has changed as part of the new build today.
Fixed v-sync not working
Fixed an issue where certain car classes would not show in a session
Various minor graphical bug fixes
Fixed issues with aspect ratio
Added competition system

So that’s it for the new build update, but it certainly isn’t the end of the rFactor 2 story this month. Tomorrow afternoon we plan to release our new Endurance Pack 2 DLC, adding three pretty fantastic new cars in the form of the Cadillac DPi-V.R, the LMP2 specification Ligier JS P217 and the brand new GTE Chevrolet Corvette C8.R… three cars we are sure you will enjoy racing just as much as we have enjoyed developing over the last few months.



From all at the studio, enjoy the new build and have a great Christmas and New Year!