rFactor 2 - Beta Released

[Duke]

Endurance Bundle 2 DLC | Now Available for A$14.43 at the rFactor2 Steam Store: Click HERE.

It’s hard to argue against the fun of multi-class endurance racing. That feeling of slicing a Prototype through slower traffic in the fight at the head of the field, or powering your GT racer within a crowded pack of cars while keeping half an eye on the mirrors and blue flags ready to let faster cars to pass – it’s something that just cannot be replicated in any other form of motorsport, and with rFactor 2 now containing four of the best endurance tracks in the world (Le Mans, Sebring, Silverstone and Spa), these cars never had a better place to be put through their paces against your rivals. With this new Endurance Bundle DLC, we at Studio 397 have tried to keep an eye on our existing content to both bring something new to the simulation, and add further depth to the popular car classes already available within rFactor2.

Endurance Bundle 2 DLC Contents:
Cadillac DPi-V.R
Ligier JS P217 LMP2
Corvette C8.R GTE

These new cars represent the pinnacle of modern endurance racing as we head into 2021, and coupled with the already rich array of Prototype and sports car machinery within rFactor 2 (with more to come next year), we feel pretty confident that the Endurance Bundle 2 is a great way to say goodbye to what has been a fantastic year for rFactor 2, and set the tone nicely for what should be an even better 2021…

Enjoy the cars, enjoy the festivities and see you out on track soon.

[w00dsy]

The new UI is one of the worst I've ever used. It looks pretty but it's so bad to use.

[Duke]

Studio 397 released Build 1.1122 of their simulation and updated the Aston Martin Vantage GTE, BMW M8 GTE, Chevrolet Corvette C7.R GTE, Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTE, Ferrari 488 GTE and Porsche 991 RSR GTE cars.

Fixed an issue with software vsync not strictly adhering to the actual limit in the UI.
Several improvements to VR rendering in the UI that should eliminate the flickering people saw.
Added a missing error prompt in dev mode if some file was missing.
Changed a timeout value when interacting with Steam to not give up as easily.

GTE Updates:
Aston Martin Vantage GTE v1.65
Weight penalty reduced by 2kg for the standard package,
Engine power/torque output increased by 2%,
Tweaks to aero draft dropoff (reduces excessive oversteer in close drafting)
Added trackconfig.ini to upgrade.rfcmp. Aero upgrades should now be forced based on track.

BMW M8 GTE v2.19
Fuel tank capacity reduced by 1L (to 99L) for the standard package,
Tweaks to aero draft dropoff (reduces excessive oversteer in close drafting)
Added trackconfig.ini to upgrade.rfcmp. Aero upgrades should now be forced based on track.

Chevrolet Corvette C7.R GTE v2.59
fuel tank capacity reduced by 2L (to 93L) for the standard package,
Tweaks to aero draft dropoff (reduces excessive oversteer in close drafting)
Added trackconfig.ini to upgrade.rfcmp. Aero upgrades should now be forced based on track.

Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTE v1.07
Added trackconfig.ini to upgrade.rfcmp. Aero upgrades should now be forced based on track.
Adjusted LOD distances for tires
Added trackconfig.ini to upgrade.rfcmp. Aero upgrades should now be forced based on track.

Ferrari 488 GTE v1.91
Fuel tank capacity reduced by 3L (to 87L) for the standard package,
Tweaks to aero draft dropoff (reduces excessive oversteer in close drafting)
Added trackconfig.ini to upgrade.rfcmp. Aero upgrades should now be forced based on track.

Porsche 991 RSR GTE v2.55
Tweaks to aero draft dropoff (reduces excessive oversteer in close drafting)
Added trackconfig.ini to upgrade.rfcmp. Aero upgrades should now be forced based on track.

Studio 397 have also released a small update to the eX ZERO 2021 electric race car that fixes the window banners and supplies a template for them.
eX ZERO 2021 Update notes:
eX ZERO 2021 v1.11
– Fixed custom window banners not showing
– Added ‘windshieldin’ template: ads the ability to skin the inside of the window banner
Note: windshieldin.psd and windshieldout.psd replaces window.psd.

[/quote]

[Duke]

Formula E 2021 & Track Updates (Including ‘Attack Zone’)

Studio 397 and rFactor 2 are delighted to continue our fantastic collaboration with Formula E today, as we release the brand-new 2021 ABB Formula E FIA World Championship car pack DLC for rFactor 2.
Having firmly established itself as the very pinnacle of open wheel electric racing, Formula E is about to embark on a fresh new era this coming season with the certification of FIA World Championship status for the very first time – officially recognizing the series as a World Championship category within its own right alongside Formula One, the World Endurance Championship, World Rally and World Rallycross.
Although World Championship status is another remarkable milestone for a series that is about to embark on just its seventh season of competition, the real headline of this new pack for our sim racing community here at rFactor 2 has to be the addition of a brand-new feature used exclusively within the realms of Formula E these last two years – Attack Zone!

FORMULA E GEN2 2019/2020 CAR is available on the rF2 Steam Store for AUD$7.81: Click Here (Free content update to the Formula E 2020 DLC)
Formula E Bundle is available on the rF2 Steam Store for AUD$49.28: Click Here

What else is new?
Of course, Attack Zone has to be the most prominent change for this new content release, however the 2021/22 season also brings with it a number of interesting updates for our players looking to recreate the world of Formula E in virtual form. This season marks the final year of the current ‘Gen2’ specification of car in the championship – this hasn’t stopped us from reviewing and updating the way the car behaves within the simulation, and as such we are delighted to confirm the new 2021 car pack DLC will benefit from a substantial overhaul in the tyres and physics department – meaning our drivers will have to adapt to a different driving experience behind the wheel in order to get the most performances from these very enjoyable machines.
As we are representing the latest season for the ABB Formula E FIA World Championship with this DLC, of course we also feature all the cars, teams and drivers of the new season – and the sport has seen plenty of change since they last ventured out onto the Berlin E-Prix circuit at the end of last year.
Featuring 24 drivers across 12 teams with such power house brands as Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes, Nissan and Porsche fighting it out with the likes of electric racing pioneers Mahindra, Dragon / Penske Automotive and of course reigning champions DS Techeetah, both real and virtual seasons are set to be full of close and intense racing – and you can be part of the action right now! With this latest DLC not only do you gain access to the new cars and drivers, the latest new physics and the brand-new and exciting Attack Mode feature, but you can also reasonably expect to see some Formula E specific events added to our rFactor 2 Competition System in the very near future too!

Track Updates
With the new functionality of the Attack Zone comes the need for us to further update our Formula E specific tracks within rFactor 2. Although some of these circuits are quite new into the simulation, we’ve also taken the opportunity to give them the latest graphical update treatment, adding all the latest developments and PBR shader technology we’ve been working on back at the studio, as well as the latest advertising hoardings and the aforementioned Attack Zone feature within the track.
At the same time as we release our 2021 Formula E car, players can expect new updates to be deployed for the Hong Kong, New York, Berlin and Monaco Formula E tracks, for those of you that already own the content.

Berlin 2020 v1.7
Added Attack Zone
Removed Marshal Collisions

Hong Kong 2018 v1.67
Added Attack Zone

Monaco 2019 v1.61
Added Attack Zone
Fixed Issues with Flag System online
Fixed a pavement collision issue on left hand side approaching hairpin
Fixed collision issue near Swimming Pool barriers
Fixed a material issue with the Yacht Club Windows

New York 2020 v1.11
Added Attack Zone
Updated Advertisements
Removed Marshal Collisions
Added missing Terrain Definitions
Adjustments to Terrain Definitions
Fixed flipped Digital Flags

[Duke]

Roadmap Update – January 2021

Hello dear sim racers! That time of the month is here once again, where we put our collective heads together (socially distanced of course) and have a look at pulling together a neat summary of the month just gone, while casting our virtual gaze further afield to share some insight into the immediate future of our simulation, and the continued workings behind the scenes.
Unbelievably, we’ve pretty much finished the first month of 2021 already, boxed up and put away the festive decorations, started our varied regimes to lose those additional kgs we acquired during the holidays and generally started to get back into the swing of normal life (well, as normal as is possible in the current climate) following the merriment of December.
Here at Studio 397, we’ve had an incredibly busy month of activity with rFactor 2, some of which went well, some slightly less so…



Build Updates
Let’s get this one out of the way right at the very start of the Roadmap. Back in the early days of January we released a new build of rFactor 2 to the public branch of the simulation (6098993), containing a number of fixes and a few nice improvements that we hoped would drive the simulation forward, and act as a base for continued development during January. Despite our best intentions, it quickly became apparent that a some unforeseen issues had crept in with the update, and the following days would generate a number of reports from the community about areas of the build that required our attention.
Keen to rectify these issues and put the new release back on the right track, it quickly became apparent to us that despite deploying follow-up hotfixes, the fundamental issues discovered within the latest build would be significant enough to require a roll back to an earlier version of the sim, allowing us to take further time to investigate and understand what we need to do to improve and stabilise the build. The decision to roll back to an earlier version, with a few smaller updates included, was in the end an easy one to make in order to ensure each of our players enjoyed a stable base on which to play rFactor 2 – but of course this is certainly not a situation we like to see within our simulation, and something that we are working hard to address to ensure a similar situation does not happen again in the future.

Mitigation Plans – Future Builds
With the lessons learned from the build update that swiftly wasn’t, we’ve doubled down on our processes here at the Studio in an effort to avoid similar such situations occurring in the future. Of course, software development is a deep and complex activity that often throws up the unexpected, and we feel we have room to further strengthen our internal processes to reduce the risk of similar scenarios occurring in future updates – coupled with a simplified and streamlined method of issue reporting (more on that later in the roadmap), we expect that the measures put in place now will prove beneficial in the long term development of rFactor 2.
Of these changes, many of which are related to internal processes, one of the most visual changes to the public will be related to the way we release updates in future. When a new build has been created and tested by the internal beta-test team, we will release a “public-beta” branch of rFactor 2 that users can activate. The public beta contains all the proposed changes and improvements, and will run for a period of a week to a month before it is transferred to the stable public build – assuming no major issues are detected. With this new process, our players have the choice of remaining with the main build of rFactor 2, or opting in to try the new updates early – giving us the opportunity to monitor the state of the branch against a wider section of our player base, and ensure we don’t hit upon any unexpected issues that failed to crop up during internal testing. The new process will be applied for our next build update in February, and compliments the improved bug reporting mechanism we plan to launch next month, of which more will be explained a little later in the Roadmap…

Bug Fixing – Now And In The Future
Our plan for the immediate future is to spend considerable development time addressing the most urgent bugs/features based on the community feedback and our internal testing. We’ve spent a lot of time recently checking up on the status of our current coding backlog, and digging into the various communication platforms we host in order to ensure we’ve captured the vast majority of the issues that have been reported by our community here at rFactor 2. A lot of these issues we’ve managed to recreate internally and pass to the development team to investigate, and some of you will have already received direct communication from the team in order to provide further insight into issues where we need additional information in order to understand exactly what you’ve been experiencing, so we can look closer at the problems and put the relevant measures in place to work out the right solutions.
As you can imagine, identifying and working on certain issues often has some level of cross pollination with other aspects of the software, so it isn’t simply a case of “fix A” and move on, but more a process of looking at the individual issue in regard of the wider impact of the overall development of rFactor 2. That said, with a view to opening up a more transparent relationship with our community and giving you all some better insight into the inner workings of the activity here at Studio 397, we’ve noted down in this Roadmap a selection of some key issues / developments we are paying particular attention to in the immediate future:

Bring back the steering and pedal inputs overlay in the replay viewer.
Fixing and documenting our anti-aliasing options.
Bringing back and improving the driver labels showing above cars.
Fix broken mouse click assignment in UI controls.
Review and improve the performance of the way the showroom behaves.
Investigate and fix potential white screen crashes related to controller assignments.
Add code for informing users around disabled Steam overlay related to shopping cart appearance in Competition System.
Permanent fix for corrupted car bodies in multiplayer.
Review and rectify showroom upgrades not showing issue.
Review and improve day to night transition.
Look at UI behaviour and performance.




Bug Fixing – New Reporting Process & Overview
While the above list has been put together with the intention of showing our community some of the key areas we are looking into at present, we also felt it would be beneficial to offer a more permanent review tool for our users to review whenever they want a little insight into the status of our development. A simple-to-read front end dashboard, together with a more streamlined and practical reporting procedure is something we think will go a long way towards helping both the studio and the community understand where the most pressing concerns exist within the software at any given time.
Bug Reporting – At present it has become somewhat apparent that reports from the community about existing issues can arrive in many and varied places on the internet, and often without the necessary information required to help us understand and reproduce the problem back at the studio. Not only does this present the potential danger of important reports being missed by the team, but inevitably if we don’t have the information required to properly reproduce the issue back at base, delays in rectifying the issue will be encountered and valuable development time lost to trying out different scenarios without guarantee of a valuable outcome.
As such, we have resolved to release a dedicated bug reporting form within the Studio-397 forum software that walks users through the required steps needing to be completed to create a bug report, breaking down the report into various categories and channelling the user into providing the information we need to act upon the report – this should prove a very powerful tool to aid the development process.
Bug Reviewing – Additionally, we plan to develop a public facing dashboard view that allows our community to see what bugs have been added into the reporting system, and a broad view of the status of the report – developed with the intention of providing an easy-to-understand basic reference for interested people to see what is in our system for review and action, and broadly what status of development each particular issue is at. We are still looking at how this might look and work in reality, however we hope to put something together over the course of the coming weeks.

Competition System – Blog Next Week


January has also seen the launch of our new, weekly, Competition System Development Blog postings here at Studio 397, where we offer insights and updates into the ongoing development of our newest rFactor 2 feature, and where we give our community the opportunity to post their own questions about the system for answering by the Studio. Already we’ve posted three separate blogs on the new Competition System (Blog 1 / Blog 2 / Blog 3), however as we’ve been a little on the busy side over the last few days, we’ve elected to move the fourth post over one week, with a scheduled release date of Wednesday 4th January. We are still logging community questions, so if you’ve got something pressing you wish to ask, feel free to pop it down in the comments section of THIS THREAD and we will do our best to answer it in the next, or upcoming blog postings.

Competition System – Development
On the subject of our Competition System, we are delighted to see many of our players are engaging in the daily races and having fun racing in rFactor 2 against other drivers – exactly why we developed the system in the first place! Although we are very much in a Beta phase with the CS so far, I think it would be fair to say we are quite pleased with how things are progressing, and the improvements brought to the system since we launched at the end of 2020 have for the most part been well received, and have gradually enhanced the end user experience. Don’t worry, these are just the very tip of the iceberg for the Competition System, with plenty more tweaks, changes, features and depth set to be added as we progress through the development phase.
A side effect of running so many races using the Competition System, was the rather visually impressive but incredibly annoying ‘laserbeam’ cars – where a graphical glitch on some vehicles would explode car bodies and take up a lot of the visual real estate of the player – making participation in races a bit more challenging. This bug has been a tough one to track down and resolve, however after much investigation we finally managed to get to the bottom of the issue, and deployed a hotfix update to temporarily remove the problem. Since that hotfix, we have found a more permanent solution to the issue, and will include that fix in the next upcoming update to the sim. It turns out this bug has been in the codebase for more than two years now, so we’re glad it’s gone now!
In terms of the system itself, so far we have put together a nice mix of free and paid content for our drivers to enjoy, with players having the opportunity to race in such varied machines as LMP3, GTE, GT4, Cup and Tatuus formula cars. Speaking for myself personally, this has opened my eyes to a number of interesting combinations that I’ve not previously explored fully, and I think it fair to say the variety of content used so far has proven popular with our active racers – with more to follow in the next weeks and months!



Formula E 2021 And Attack Zones


January would see another piece of premium content added to rFactor 2 with the introduction of the 2021 ABB Formula E FIA World Championship DLC – bringing the very latest and greatest from the world of Formula E back to rFactor 2 once again. Rather than “just” a new season pack DLC, this new release would prove special for a couple of very good reasons. From a performance point of view, the 2021 car features brand-new and overhauled physics and tyre behaviours, producing a very different driving characteristic to the way the cars act out on circuit, improving what was already a very fine racing experience.
On the visuals side, another new element to this DLC that we are very proud to introduce to rFactor 2 for the first time is the inclusion of Attack Zone – a unique to Formula E strategical element of racing where a driver must navigate through a dedicated Attack Zone gate during the race, to activate an additional boost for 35kW of power – for a limited time period. The Attack Zone has been added to our four existing Formula E circuits, and is represented by an on track graphic that lights up during activation; and of course the LED Halo illumination that flashes blue when a driver has the additional power boost activated within their car.
This is an interesting and unique strategic element of racing within our Formula E content, and something that adds a very exciting new strand to what are already highly entertaining cars to drive and race.
As an further bonus, we have added the 2021 pack to the existing 2020 Formula E store item, which means anyone who already owns the 2020 cars will get this content for free, and any players who purchase the 2021 pack will also get the cars, teams and drivers of the 2020 season included in their download!
Formula E 2021 | More info: Click Here
Formula E 2021 | Steam Store: Click Here

Track Updates – Indianapolis PBR


February is set to be the month where we release something that has been on the wish list of our community for quite some time – the much anticipated PBR update to our fabulous Indianapolis Motor Speedway circuit! Yes, one of the older but still wonderful tracks within rFactor 2 is set to be given a new lease of life this coming February thanks to the excellent work of our track team here at Studio 397, with all the latest PBR graphical development goodness set to be applied to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the various configurations found within the simulation. Yes, gone is the original 2013 version to be updated to 2020 standards – including the modern track layout!
A fresh lick of PBR magic, a wholesale asset update, some AI tweaks and a new variant – it’s going to be wonderful, and it releases for free in early February!

Looking Back On January
Now normally we start these Roadmap posts with a look back on the month just gone, then move on to future matters – however seeing as we’ve had some pretty pressing things to discuss about the immediate future, we decided to switch it up a little and put the rearwards facing element of the roadmap towards the bottom of the post. Updates and rollbacks aside, which we spoke about at the very top of this article, what other rF2 related things have been happening in the opening days of 2021?

GTE Updates


Warming to the theme of updating content, January 2021 would see a nice fresh set of tweaks applied to our existing GTE class of cars within the simulation. Comprising of models from Ferrari, Aston Martin, BMW, Chevrolet and Porsche, the new build deployed on January 6th brought about a number of small but important improvements to our closed top GT machines. Tweaks to the balance of performance parameters around weight and power, plus an important fix for some aerodynamic drop off issues we had been experiencing in close proximity to other cars were just the headline items, plus of course the introduction of these vehicles within our Competition System – making for some very nice and close racing within our community!
rFactor 2 | Steam Store: Click Here

Formula E Accelerate Start


In terms of competitions, at the time of our Formula E 2021 release January would also see the launch of the brand-new Formula E Accelerate Esport series – the official Formula E esport championship that brings together an impressive collection of big name drivers from the virtual world across a six round championship with our new Formula E cars. Reigning F1 Esports World Champion Jarno Opmeer, 2017 Vega E-Race champion Bono Huis and rFactor 2 star and World’s Fastest Gamer finalist Erhan Jajovski are just some of the big names fighting to take home their share of the 100,000 euro prize pool (and a test in a real Formula E car!) this season, and if the opening round at New York is anything to go by – the series looks set to provide some fantastic action.
Formula E Accelerate | Catch all the action: Click Here

Sim Formula Europe 2021
As one Esport series starts, so another completes. January would see the conclusion of the 2021 Sim Formula Heusinkveld Peregrine competitions on rFactor 2, which brought together some of the top rFactor 2 drivers via a qualification process to race head-to-head on the Zandvoort Grand Prix Circuit in the now legendary McLaren Ford MP4/8.
While the main series did much to entertain the viewers at home, just a few days prior to the finals we also ran our Heusinveld Peregrine competition for drivers who qualified through a hotlap competition. Taking to the circuit in specially liveried Audi R8 LMS GT3 cars adorned with community created livery designs in the theme of the Peregrine Falcon, the Heusinkveld Peregrine race at the recently updated Maastricht Street Circuit produced a fantastic event from start to finish, showing off both the driving skill of the racers, and the wonderful artistic talents of our sim racing livery painting community.
Another great competition, and one to look forward to seeing more of next season.
Sim Formula Europe | Catch up on the racing: Click Here

So that’s it for another month ladies and gentlemen – plenty happening and plenty still to come. Thank you once again for taking the time out of your day to read this latest roadmap post, stay safe, stay healthy and see you all out on the virtual racetracks of the world!

[Duke]

February Build Update and Indianapolis PBR Release

Hello sim racing friends, today we at Studio 397 present you with not only a new build of rFactor 2 for your sim racing pleasure, but also the long awaited PBR update to our Indianapolis Motor Speedway circuit! Happy days of racing await you all…

Build Update
For this latest build release, we have focused particular attention on identifying, replicating and resolving a number of prominent issues and bugs that have been reported by the community through our various communication channels. For the most part, this update contains the first round of fixes that have been achieved as part of that process – although we certainly have more issues to look at for future builds. This is new build can be considered an initial pass at addressing some of these outstanding issues, and further development work is already well underway on our next release – so expect further updates in the coming weeks as we continue to develop rFactor 2 and bring it more into line with our own and the communities expectations.



As we discussed in the January Development Roadmap post at the end of last month, this release will be deployed to players in a slightly different way than you have become accustomed to in recent years. Although the new build has been thoroughly tested by our beta testing team and the developers, in order to mitigate any potential risks to the stability of the public version of the simulation we have elected to move future build updates to a temporary “release-candidate” branch of rFactor 2 – accessible by right-clicking rFactor 2 in your Steam library, and selecting ‘Properties – betas – release-candidate’.
The ‘release-candidate’ branch containing the new fixes will be active between a week to a month or so, and should no significant issues be reported we will import the update to the main public branch of the simulation after this review period has been completed.

RFACTOR 2 BUILD UPDATE NOTES
We’ve removed the Max 2012 plugins as they no longer work, and provided the last working Max 2017 plugins. We have no intention to upgrade them any longer as we can’t get these versions of Max any more to test. Furthermore, we urge the modding community to upgrade to current Max versions.
Fixed: Reflection mapper in Scene Viewer, so it renders from the same point as the user sees.
Fixed: Bind a mouse click to any input control.
Fixed: Issues with showroom performance.
Fixed: Missing error prompt when textures are missing from content.
Fixed: Issue with a white screen you get when you try to assign a control.
Fixed: Visible damage sometimes corrupting car bodies, to properly fix the hotfix that temporarily disabled the visible damage.
Fixed: Issue where clouds could show similar corruption as car bodies.
Fixed: Showroom Upgrades not displaying which require MAS Files.
Fixed: Glitch where “the lights would suddenly go off” when transitioning from light to dark at dusk.
Fixed: Exploit where you could still set the FE car to use 250kW in the setup in a race when that setting is reserved for “attack mode”.
Fixed: Overlays would not correctly follow the attack mode countdown timing.
AIW Editor: Added new line smoothing option, and added soft selection for manual adjustments.
Added an internal option to the player.json to turn off multi-threading in the UI. Defaults to “on”.
Added code support so we can detect a disabled Steam overlay, to warn you about why a shopping cart won’t show up.
Changed how a dedicated server shuts down when asked so it no longer crashes with a non-zero return code.
Pausing sessions in a dedicated server will now only pause the first one.
Increased an internal timeout when talking to Steam to give it more time before we give up or retry.
Scene Viewer Changes: Moved Web UI Port to 5396 by default and added support for up to 128 scenes in configuration file
We hope you enjoy this latest build of rFactor 2 as we continue to review and improve the current state of the simulation, with a view to addressing further outstanding issues and bringing new features and functionality to the title in the weeks, months and years ahead.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway
The famed Brickyard, home to countless memories of American motorsport triumphs and tragedies throughout the years, and scene of one of the most controversial and frankly downright bizarre Formula One Grand Prix in living memory.
Renowned the world over for the 500-mile IndyCar race on the legendary oval configuration of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, back in 1998 a deal was struck by then circuit Chairman, CEO and President Tony George to bring Formula One Grand Prix racing back to the American venue – prompting the commencement of a major redevelopment program that would include a brand-new infield road course section, one capable of hosting international grade car and bike racing events.
Over a two-year construction phase, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway would be transformed into an international class racing facility capable of hosting top level motorsport events, with the new road course variant utilizing the final banked corner of the daunting oval before passing over the iconic start/finish straight row of the original bricks.




The work would be completed on time by the Speedway, and the year 2000 would mark a pivotal moment in the 111-year history of the circuit – when the FIA Formula One World Championship visited the newly created infield course for the very first time – an event seen by some 200,000 spectators in what would go down in history as one of the largest crowd attendances ever recorded in Grand Prix racing.
Sadly the love affair between Formula One and Indianapolis would be a short-lived experience, with the tyre debacle of 2005 doing much to dampen enthusiasm for the sport in the USA. Despite changes having been put in place to ensure Formula One could safely resume racing at the facility, rapidly dwindling audience attendance would do much to see off the sport from American shores at the end of the 2007 racing season – leaving a USA sized gap in the Formula One calendar that would only be filled some five years later by the brand-new Circuit of the Americas venue in Austin, Texas.
Fortunately, for those who wish to see the famous track in action on a regular basis, we’ve got a particularly nice new update you might enjoy – bringing our Indianapolis Motor Speedway circuit up to the 2020 configuration with build version 1.06 in rFactor 2, and adding all the latest PBR development goodies to this iconic and impressive racing venue.



Indianapolis Motor Speedway 2020 v1.06 Update Notes
Update of 2013 Release to 2020.
Replaced 2013 layout with modern equivalent
Full PBR Conversion of all assets
Replaced Crowds with new assets
Replaced Marshals with new assets
Added Pitlane Props (Pit Stands, Fuelling Rigs, Pit Markers)
Added accurate background nightlighting
Added Advertisements
Added building at Road Course S1
Improved various assets such as armco barriers
AI Updates to 2007 GP and Modern GP layouts.
Various other improvements and tweaks
The new build of the circuit has been under development for quite a while here at rFactor 2 HQ, and should download automatically from the Steam Workshop the next time your restart your rFactor 2 Steam client.

Available as a free piece of content within the official Studio 397 Steam Workshop (click here), the track comes complete in four unique configurations – the original ‘Brickyard’ oval, the modern paved oval, the 2020 Indianapolis Grand Prix configuration and the final 2007 Grand Prix layout.
We are particularly pleased with the changes brought about in this update, both from a visual point of view (check out the night lighting!) and also the work we have undertaken on the track surface itself – giving the venue a little more grip and feel that should transform the driving experience for our players when out on circuit.
We hope you like the new build, and see you out on track!

[Duke]

Studio 397 today released an update for their all-electric RCCO eX ZERO car.
The update adds a number of improved features and visual updates, including energy regeneration capabilities – a new feature which gives players the opportunity to regenerate energy when braking – represented by the energy/fuel indicating turning blue under brake load. Additionally, the 1.33 update also adds brand-new wiper animations, several visual tweaks and re-gen audio enhancements amongst other minor changes and improvements.

RCCO eX ZERO 2021 v1.33 Update Notes:
Added regen on braking
All new wiper and animation
eX Logo now lit / front and rear
Front LED lights colour configurable in the vehicle file
Default skins now have LED colours to match livery
Added regen sound interior and exterior
Added more slipstream
Even less dirty air
Tire change 6 secs (should now be fixed)
Attempted fix for less vibration in the steering
Dash rev lights and graph now match 15,000 RPM
Added new default setup based on test session
Fix to reduce high revving in neutral and then shifting into 1st gear

[Duke]

Here at Studio 397 we go to great lengths to ensure our respective BOP adjustments offer a fair, rewarding and even playing field across the many cars currently available in the GT3 category of the simulation. Using a mix of physics data, performance telemetry and of course countless laps on the track by a number of drivers of different skill levels, we aim to apply performance BoP to each of the 13 GT3 cars that allows the player to have a fair and reasonable chance to mix it at the front of the field in any given car – just like in real life!

Aston Martin Vantage GT3 v1.87
BoP adjustments: +5kg weight penalty, -1% engine power.
New values for draft lifts (FW, RW and diffuser).
Modifications to yaw aero response (affects sliding sideways).
Tweaks to diffuser stalling parameters (the car is less snappy now, when bottoming out).
Reduced slipstreaming effects on drag (lower speed gain when drafting).
Default setup: -1 to rear wing.
Recalculated fuel consumption.

Audi R8 GT3 2018 v1.89
BoP adjustments: -20kg weight penalty.
New values for draft lifts (FW, RW and diffuser).
Modifications to yaw aero response (affects sliding sideways).
Tweaks to diffuser stalling parameters (the car is less snappy now, when bottoming out).
Reduced slipstreaming effects on drag (lower speed gain when drafting).
P4 is new default the rear wing,
Adjusted drivetrain losses (resulting in slightly more engine power on the wheels).
Adjusted aero drag.
Default setup: P4 rear wing, +1 to front and rear ARB, +0.352deg to rear toe in, +2 to TC, +14 to differential preload, -0.5deg to rear camber, +1 rear springs.
Recalculated fuel consumption.

Audi R8 GT3 2019 v1.61
BoP adjustments: -20kg weight penalty.
Adjusted total inertia, tweaks to default setup to make the car more stable.
New values for draft lifts (FW, RW and diffuser).
Modifications to yaw aero response (affects sliding sideways).
Tweaks to diffuser stalling parameters (the car is less snappy now, when bottoming out).
Reduced slipstreaming effects on drag (lower speed gain when drafting).
P4 is new default the rear wing.
Adjusted drivetrain losses (resulting in slightly more engine power on the wheels).
Adjusted aero drag.
Default setup: P4 rear wing, +1 to front and rear ARB, +0.352deg to rear toe in, +2 to TC, +14 to differential preload, -0.5deg to rear camber, +1 to rear springs.
Recalculated fuel consumption.

Bentley Continental GT3 2020 v1.23
BoP adjustments: -20kg weight penalty.
New values for draft lifts (FW, RW and diffuser).
Modifications to yaw aero response (affects sliding sideways).
Tweaks to diffuser stalling parameters (the car is less snappy now, when bottoming out).
Reduced slipstreaming effects on drag (lower speed gain when drafting).
Adjusted drivetrain losses (resulting in more engine power on the wheels).
Adjusted aero drag, about 0.5% forward aero balance shift.
Default setup: +1 to TC.
Recalculated fuel consumption.

Bentley Continental GT3 2017 v2.89
BoP adjustments: +2% engine power.
New values for draft lifts (FW, RW and diffuser).
Modifications to yaw aero response (affects sliding sideways).
Tweaks to diffuser stalling parameters (the car is less snappy now, when bottoming out).
Reduced slipstreaming effects on drag (lower speed gain when drafting).
Fixed damper travel to bump stops (15mm more on front and 11mm on rear).
Increased maximum packer stack to 40mm.
Tweaks to inertia and center of gravity.
Readjusted aero balance and drag.
Lower (slower) steering rack ratio.
Adjusted differential locking rates.
Default setup: brake bias F54.2%, differential preload 120Nm.
Recalculated fuel consumption.

BMW M6 GT3 v1.79
BoP adjustments: +10kg weight penalty.
New values for draft lifts (FW, RW and diffuser).
Modifications to yaw aero response (affects sliding sideways).
Tweaks to diffuser stalling parameters (the car is less snappy now, when bottoming out).
Reduced slipstreaming effects on drag (lower speed gain when drafting).
Adjusted drivetrain inertia (resulting in slightly less engine power on the wheels).
Adjusted aero drag.
Recalculated fuel consumption.

Callaway C7 GT3-R v3.01
BoP adjustments: +10kg weight penalty, -1% engine power.
New values for draft lifts (FW, RW and diffuser).
Modifications to yaw aero response (affects sliding sideways).
Tweaks to diffuser stalling parameters (the car is less snappy now, when bottoming out).
Reduced slipstreaming effects on drag (lower speed gain when drafting).
Default setup: +1 to default rear wing.
Recalculated fuel consumption.

Ferrari 488 GT3 v1.45
new values for draft lifts (FW, RW and diffuser).
modifications to yaw aero response (affects sliding sideways).
Tweaks to diffuser stalling parameters (the car is less snappy now, when bottoming out).
Reduced slipstreaming effects on drag (means, less speed gain when drafting).
Adjusted aero drag.
Recalculated fuel consumption.

McLaren 650S GT3 v2.85
New values for draft lifts (FW, RW and diffuser).
Modifications to yaw aero response (affects sliding sideways).
Tweaks to diffuser stalling parameters (the car is less snappy now, when bottoming out).
Reduced slipstreaming effects on drag (lower speed gain when drafting).
Adjusted drivetrain losses (resulting in more engine power on the wheels).
Rebalanced aero balance and drag.
Fixed incorrect damper travel to bump stops.
Default setup: P4 rear wing.
Recalculated fuel consumption.

McLaren 720S GT3 v1.75
New values for draft lifts (FW, RW and diffuser).
Modifications to yaw aero response (affects sliding sideways).
Tweaks to diffuser stalling parameters (the car is less snappy now, when bottoming out).
Reduced slipstreaming effects on drag (lower speed gain when drafting).
Adjusted drivetrain losses (resulting in more engine power on the wheels).
Adjusted aero drag.
Fixed incorrect damper travel to bump stops.
Recalculated fuel consumption.

Mercedes AMG GT3 v2.95
BoP adjustments: -10kg weight penalty,
New values for draft lifts (FW, RW and diffuser).
Modifications to yaw aero response (affects sliding sideways).
Tweaks to diffuser stalling parameters (the car is less snappy now, when bottoming out).
Reduced slipstreaming effects on drag (lower speed gain when drafting).
adjusted drivetrain losses (resulting in more engine power on the wheels).
Rebalanced aero balance and drag.
Default setup: +1 to TC, P10 rear wing.
Recalculated fuel consumption.

Porsche 991 GT3 v1.75
New values for draft lifts (FW, RW and diffuser).
Modifications to yaw aero response (affects sliding sideways).
Tweaks to diffuser stalling parameters (the car is less snappy now, when bottoming out).
Reduced slipstreaming effects on drag (lower speed gain when drafting).
Adjusted drivetrain losses (resulting in less engine power on the wheels).
Rebalanced aero balance, drag and rear downforce between rear wing and diffuser.
Adjusted center of gravity height and chassis inertia.
Fixed issue with damper travel to bump stops.
Default setup: P11 rear wing, +1 to TC, +2 to front and rear ARB, –0.117deg to front toein, +0.352deg to rear toe-in.
Recalculated fuel consumption.

Radical RXC GT3 2017 v2.85
New values for draft lifts (FW, RW and diffuser).
Modifications to yaw aero response (affects sliding sideways).
Tweaks to diffuser stalling parameters (the car is less snappy now, when bottoming out).
Reduced slipstreaming effects on drag (lower speed gain when drafting).
Rebalanced aero balance and drag.
Recalculated fuel consumption.

[Duke]

Roadmap Update – February 2021

Roadmap Day!
Hello fellow virtual racing fans and welcome to the latest of our monthly rFactor 2 Development Roadmap postings. It will come as no surprise that once again the last four weeks have been pretty full on here at Studio 397 as we continue to push hard on the development of rFactor 2, with plenty happening both on the public facing side of the business, and behind the scenes and in our quest to keep improving and expanding the title. So, without further ado – let’s have a look at the great and the good of the past, present and future in rFactor 2…



New Builds & Bug Fixes
As we detailed in the last Development Roadmap back at the end of January, a lot of the attention from our development team continues to be focused on addressing a number of the identified and existing bugs within the simulation, with extra attention having been spent in recent weeks verifying and analysing a wide variety of different aspects of the software that can be fixed in the short, medium and long term development of rFactor 2. In an effort to ensure we deploy our resources in a sensible and structured way, we have gone to great lengths to understand where we can make the most impact on the highest number of important fixes within the sim, whilst keeping a close eye on the potential effects this might bring into the codebase within the software. When working on a piece of software as complex as rFactor 2, it is often the case that one change within the development code has unintended consequences elsewhere, and what initially felt like it would be a relatively straight forward change ends up eating into considerable amounts of time that we have budgeted for the fixes, which in turn can have an impact on how many issues we can address in a given timeframe.
In order to facilitate our ongoing development process, we have taken the decision to have a closer look at the underlying code within rFactor 2, and how various pieces of the software depend on other aspects of the code, and what these functions aim to achieve in how rFactor 2 operates behind the scenes. This is proving to be a fruitful exercise, and many fixes and improvements have already been identified and resolved by the development team – which helps put us in a stronger position moving forward. The downside to this is a lot of our resource has been applied to fixing areas of the software that will perhaps not manifest themselves as noticeable changes to the public, but they have certainly been required in order to give us the stable base on which we need to keep pushing forward, and start bringing together those big ticket changes that really uplift the user experience for our players.
Earlier this month we deployed a new build update to the ‘Release Candidate’ branch of Steam (more on RC builds below) that contained the first round of tweaks and improvements we have been working on. So far, we have received a positive reaction to this build, and community feedback suggests we are very close to putting these fixes into the main public branch of the software. The benefit we’ve found in having a release candidate branch has been significant, as it allows us to gauge the reaction of our community and identify if any issues become apparent that did not show themselves during our internal testing, whilst still offering players the opportunity to stick with the main stable branch of the software if they so choose. We are pleased with how this is working initially, and will continue to adopt this development strategy for the foreseeable future.
Another positive benefit of having a Release Candidate branch for our new update is it allows us to split development focus between closing up any outstanding issues on the RC build that may appear, whilst simultaneously continuing to advance the process of creating our next build – something that is well underway at the Studio and should be very, very close to being deployed to the RC branch once we’ve moved the current changes into the public version of the software. Oh and yes, wheel and pedal inputs will return for the next update…!



‘Release Candidate’ Builds
As detailed above, rFactor 2 currently has two main builds which players can choose to activate. As described in the last Development Roadmap, and again detailed below, players can select ‘None’ in the beta tab of rFactor 2 on Steam, which will give them access to the main public build of the software, or they can choose the ‘Release Candidate’ option that allows players to drive with the latest updates developed by Studio 397. After a period of time the Release Candidate changes will be transferred into the main public build of the simulation, and will become the default installation setup.



In the last development roadmap we spoke about a streamlined way to report issues with the latest build of the software, and we are still finalizing and tweaking how this will work in reality. The goal of the process is to efficiently capture as wide a selection of community identified areas of rFactor 2 that you want us to review, but without making the process overly burdensome for the end user to provide valuable information for us to action. As an added aside, we also want to make it so we can clearly and easily see what has been reported, with hopefully all the information we need in order to translate that report into an actionable instruction to our development team. We anticipate these reporting feature are very close to being rolled out to the public, however once the final version has been developed and tested, we will speak more about how you can contribute to this important initiative closer to the time.

Currently In Development
As we continue to dig further and further into the codebase of rFactor 2, and continue to monitor and action community generated reports about the software, we are pleased to see considerable progress is being made around finding, replicating, reviewing and resolving a wide variety of different aspects of the simulation that we would like to see fixed and improved. Of course, this is very much a long term process and quite frankly no piece of software will ever be entirely free from the need to update and improve, especially one such as ours where we intend to build upon the core offering with more and more functionality and features over a number of years into the future.
Already we’ve released a new build and a new ‘Release Candidate’ build that we discussed earlier in the roadmap, and much of the next ‘RC’ build is already at an advanced stage of development and testing – so expect some nice changes to brought to the wider community in the not too distant future.
Of these changes, we have continued to focus on the core bug fixing aspect of the title for now, so those of you at home eagerly awaiting brand-new features and physics updates will, I’m afraid, have to remain patient for a little while longer as we continue to work hard to ensure our core base of the simulation is robust enough to allow us to develop the improvements we would like to see brought into the title in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.
That said, we have managed to sneak in a nice collection of tweaks that we think the community will be pleased to see added or returning to rFactor 2 as part of this developing new build, This list is not complete yet, so make sure to check out our changelog once that new build becomes our next release-candidate.
Related to content, we fixed a CTD when you tried to launch with a series selected that was uninstalled, we made sure there are no ways anymore to select upgrades that were different from the ones the server forced, and we addressed an issue where sometimes when you tried joining a server you would end up selecting cars from the wrong list. Finally, we have extended the logging to include more details about the content that’s being loaded.
Fixed issues with the UI sometimes running at an insane framerate. In the options screen, if you would change FFB settings, they would not register until you go on the track for the second time. The session settings screen saw a bunch of fixes, most of them related to making sure settings get reset at the proper time, such as when changing tracks or series. In the package management screen, we fixed a sometimes not working refresh button. Favorites are also refreshed if you add new ones from the full server list and finally the garage screen now also shows wheel loads.
In the graphics department, after discovering, in testing, some graphical glitches in the skies, included those in the permanent fixes we did that would also sometimes cause the car bodies to glitch and “blow up”. We removed the faint boundaries you would see in VR when looking at the edges of the UI. Last but not least we fixed an issue where secondary wet weather reflections would not show up on damp road surfaces.
Added driver and car info displays to the full screen replay. This includes inputs like steering, brake, clutch and throttle and a g-force circle graph. On top of that we also now always display the correct driver before and after driver swaps. In a race session we now show the time remaining in a session. The message centre now consistently shows the same naming and numbering for values as the garage when changing settings such as ABS and TC while driving.



New Content Next Week – Diriyah Formula E
Moving on to the world of content releases, as our ever insightful Discord community have already managed to work out, we are incredibly close to releasing a brand-new circuit to the simulation – yes, the Saudi Arabia round of the ABB Formula E World Championship is coming to rFactor 2 – the Diriyah E-Prix! The new track DLC should be released as early as next week, and having enjoyed the pleasure of driving it in rFactor 2 these last couple of weeks I can safely say I’m confident our sim racing community are really going to enjoy the challenge it offers to players. Unlike many street circuits typical of the Formula E calendar, Diriyah offers up a very high speed combination of corners, many of which are blind on corner entry and require the driver to fully commit to the racing line well in advance of a clear line of sight to the apex – something that is incredibly challenging with walls lining the circuit on either side, and I must say it’s a rather thrilling experience, especially in the new Gen2 2021 Formula E cars we recently added to the game.
Formula E 2021 | Steam Store: Click Here.
The new track will be our fifth E-Prix release, after the original Hong Kong, Monaco, New York and Berlin circuits that we brought to the sim over the last couple of years. The circuit has 21 corners, as mentioned before many of which are high speed, and benefits from the rather unique desert location, which coupled with the impressive architecture scattered around the perimeter of the circuit, certainly lends itself to a visually impressive and immersive piece of new content.
Of course, being a part of the 2021 Formula E season, the track will include or latest Formula E specific feature, Attack Zone, where players have the ability to activate an onboard ‘attack mode’ for two additional boosts in speed during the course of the race, following successfully navigating through the attack zone gate located within the circuit configuration.

Another Track Coming Soon
Not content to rest on our Formula E laurels with the Diriyah E-Prix release in the first few days of March, the coming month will also see another new circuit addition rFactor 2 – although just to keep suspense a little longer I’m going to hold off telling you exactly which track it is – but I can confirm this is a surprisingly fast, very technical and rather undulating layout that is an absolute blast to drive… stay tuned to the rFactor 2 Social Media channels in the days and weeks ahead for more news about the track, and when to expect it to become available for the sim later this month…

Additional Track Updates In Development
As well as working on the actual code itself, the studio have also been rather busy in the track development department, as our super talented artists continue to work on both new projects, and breathing life into older content within the simulation. We have a fairly substantial schedule of updates for a number of circuits in the near future, including a new build of Azure with greatly improved AI across the varied car types within the sim. Azure is pretty close to final testing now, so expect that one to drop during March, but we’ve also got a few other tracks that are currently receiving fixes and PBR graphics updates – some of which are edging ever closer to hitting our testing team for final approval.
It’s probably a bit too early to give estimates of when exactly these updates are likely to appear in the public, and we don’t want to set expectations by telling you exactly which tracks are at what point in development, but I think it would be fair to say that we can expect a couple of nice new builds of popular venues to be dropping into the sim in the reasonably near future…, more on those a little later in the month…



Competition System Blog Going Strong
In this section of the roadmap we want to take the opportunity to thank our awesome community for their outstanding engagement in our weekly Competition System blog posts. Frankly, we have been astounded with the level of interest and engagement in our new system, and the curiosity the community have to find out more about our direction of development travel, and what the short, medium and long term goals are for the studio in relation to getting the CS fully feature rich and into a main V1 public build status.
In all honesty, we took a bit of a dip into the unknown with these blog postings, with a very open mind as to the level of interest and how many questions we would actually receive with such a regular posting schedule. As I’m sure you have noticed, despite the Competition System being still very much in a beta phase and with little in the way of promotional activity behind it, our community have really taken the potential behind this system to heart, and are seemingly full of interest to hear more about how the mechanics of it work, and what is coming up next.
We love taking the opportunity to try and answer your questions and provide further clarity on the system itself, even if it has resulted in a few late night dashes to the finish line in order to get it out on our regular Wednesday slot! Please do keep the questions coming, and we will continue to try and be as open and honest in our responses as we possibly can be. Plenty more updates and improvements are on the way, so I’m sure we will have much to discuss in the weeks and months ahead!
If you want to catch up on everything Competition System related that you may have missed, be sure to check out these handy links to our blog postings released so far:
Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8

A Postcard From The Desert



I’m sure a fair proportion of you will know that this weekend the first round of the newly World Championship classified ABB Formula E championship kicked off in Saudi Arabia on Friday and Saturday, marking the return to action on a circuit outside of the many configured Berlin street course for the first time in nearly a year for the series – but what you perhaps don’t know is rFactor 2 has a very strong presence trackside this year, thanks to our special Formula E specific ‘Game Zone’ that will be following the championship throughout the season.
Sadly, the current travel restrictions prevent the staff here at Studio 397 from having a bit of friendly ‘who gets to go out to the track’ rivalry between ourselves, but our colleague Martijn has been fortunate enough to represent the studio on site, and ensure everything continues to run smoothly on the various rFactor 2 simulators that are available to both the real drivers and members of the public to try their hand on the simulation.
Unsurprisingly, it looks like it’s pretty warm in Diriyah, and a fair bit of sand keeps making its way onto the stage too….

Looking Back On February
Now that we’ve spoken at length about the future of rFactor 2, let’s take a few moments to review what happened during the first month of the new year, with a quick recap at some highlights for rFactor 2 players in the month of January.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway PBR Update
Indianapolis Motor Speedway | Steam Workshop: Click Here.

This is one that we’ve been looking forward to deploying for quite some time. OK, I think it’s fair to say that the modern incarnation of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course configuration is a bit of a ‘marmite moment’ for many sim racers – you either seem to really love the way the circuit flows and the corner variety, or on the other end of the spectrum you really, really don’t like the track at all! That’s perfectly understandable, and it would be fair to say that oval aside, no one is going to remember the layout as a legendary circuit in the same breath as somewhere like Spa-Francorchamps or Suzuka, but even so the track certainly has its own particular unique charms, and it often seems to generate really close and intense racing, no matter the category or style of car.

As one of the older circuits within rFactor 2 (having released all the way back in 2014), and despite further post-release updates, the circuit was certainly starting to show its age in comparison to more recent content releases for the simulation. As a staple venue in the world of endurance racing, and as part of our significant schedule of content updates that we have been methodically working through in recent months, it felt like the ideal time to give our American track a bit of the PBR magic treatment, bringing the track up to spec and taking the opportunity to add a few more handy fixes, optimizations, tweaks and improvements. We are really happy with how the update has turned out, and we are sure you will agree that the track looks and drives better than ever.

RCCO eX ZERO 2021 1.17 Update
RCCO eX ZERO 2021 | Steam Store: Click Here.


Also on the topic of updates, our most recent car release has seen some positive improvements brought to it earlier this month, as we spent time as a studio looking adding yet more new technology to the rather splendid RCCO eX ZERO 2021. As many of you will be well aware by now, the ex ZERO is a high technology electric race car that we developed for rFactor 2 in conjunction with Mike Rockenfeller and the RCCO team. Although the car exists only within the realms of rFactor 2, the physics calculations and parameters used within its creation marry up to those of real life – giving players a realistic and believable experience of how this car would behave should it ever make it into production in the real world.
As the car is powered by a 100kWH battery, one that produces an astounding 1000hp, we thought it would be a good opportunity to add some additional regeneration technology into the power unit, effectively adding the ability for drivers to charge their power supply when out on circuit, by way of regenerating electricity through heavy braking on the track. This has required a bit of back end coding in both the car and simulation, and we feel this added element to the driving experience really helps further differentiate how this car behaves in comparison to more traditional internal combustion engine machines within the sim.
Although the regen technology was a significant upgrade to the car, we also took the opportunity to further upgrade the visuals on the eX ZERO, adding new LED lighting and customisation options, as well as a revised animation for the windscreen wipers and updates to the audio effects produced by the car.
With these latest changes, and considering the fact this is a 1000hp, 4WD high downforce, high torque thoroughbred racer, we think this is firmly one of the most challenging, and satisfying cars currently available within rFactor 2.

GT3 BOP
GT3 Bundle DLC | Steam Store: Click Here.


Moving on to Internal Combustion engine machinery, and probably the most popular class of racing in the world today, the month of February would also see a significant update applied to our sizeable collection of GT3 cars within rFactor 2 (13 and counting). Earlier this month we deployed our February 2021 BOP update to the GT3 class, where we strived to ensure a level of performance parity across the category to ensure all our drivers have the opportunity to choose their favourite car to race, whilst maintaining a reasonable chance of keeping the car somewhere near the sharp end of the grid.
It’s always something of a challenge to come up with a reasonable and fair balance between such varied types of machinery as we currently enjoy in rFactor 2, and I’m sure plenty of people in the community would argue that their favourite brand has been disadvantaged in some way or another – but we are confident that our data and the many thousands of laps logged during this testing phase have resulted in a very solid approximation of parity across the class – helping to further strengthen our most popular form of racing within the sim.
As an additional note, although this release was firmly marketed as a BOP update, we also used the opportunity to review some physics behaviour with these cars, with a view to providing a slightly more realistic experience with tyre behaviour and driving characteristics. We feel that the update has certainly moved us a step in the right direction here, although we acknowledge we have more to do in order to get these cars, and by extension the whole collection of cars within the simulation, working within a range of parameters that we feel satisfied maximizes the full potential of the simulation. We certainly aren’t in a position to talk about the measures we have undertaken to review how tyres / sliding ./ temperatures behave within rFactor 2 just yet – however rest assured that significant work is being undertaken behind the scenes on this front, and we hope to see the early fruits of these labours in the near future.

As always, thank you for taking the time to keep up-to-date with the latest happenings here at the studio. Don’t forget you can join the conversation over on our ever expanding rFactor 2 Discord channel for instant chat with fellow fans of the simulation, and stay safe, stay healthy and see you out on the virtual circuit soon!

[Duke]

Wow another takeover by Motorsports Games... I'm not sure this is a good thing for rF2 but time will tell if they sweat the asset or spend more on its development, lets hope it is the later.
Also the whole simracing industry seems to be going through an ownership consolidation of late, Codemasters bought by EA & MG buying KartKraft & now Sector3

MOTORSPORT GAMES ENTERS INTO BINDING TERM SHEET TO ACQUIRE DEVELOPER STUDIO397 AND ITS RFACTOR 2 SIMULATION PLATFORM

Studio397 brand and name to remain under Motorsport Games banner
Updates and iteration of rFactor 2 to continue under Studio397

MIAMI, FL — March 3, 2021 — Motorsport Games Inc. (NASDAQ: MSGM) (“Motorsport Games”), a leading racing game developer, publisher and esports ecosystem provider of official motorsport racing series throughout the world, announced today that it has entered a binding term sheet to acquire Studio397 BV, the company behind the industry leading rFactor 2 racing simulation platform, from Luminis International BV. The acquisition will see Studio397 continue its work on rFactor 2 while also developing the physics and handling models for Motorsport Games’ forthcoming projects. Motorsport Games expects to utilize its resources and expertise to enhance the rFactor 2 offering, especially in areas highlighted by the racing community.

Studio397 and Motorsport Games have long worked in tandem, with rFactor 2 providing the simulation platform for the highly successful 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual race, as well as the Formula E Race at Home Challenge, both of which were operated by Motorsport Games. It is expected that Studio397 will retain its name and branding with the existing development team and management will remain with the studio.

“We have been working with the team at Studio397 for a long time on both game development and esports. This is an acquisition that, when completed, makes complete sense for all parties and we are delighted to have them agree to join the Motorsport Games family,” said Stephen Hood, President of Motorsport Games.

“Studio397 has a clear passion for virtual racing and together we recognised an opportunity to work as one team to advance the genre to the next level,” continued Hood. “We see this as great news for the sim racing community as we can now leverage the best elements of the rFactor 2 platform, combine it with our foundational use of Unreal Engine (developed by Epic Games) and layer in the additional components our talented teams have spent the last two years developing. Our aim was to start out with a product that had heart and soul. When the planned acquisition is completed, we can operate safe in the knowledge that another piece of an ambitious puzzle has been secured.”

“After growing rFactor 2 in the last five years, we are excited to take the next step with Motorsport Games, advancing rFactor 2 and integrating its advanced simulation technology into future projects. We share a common ambition to be the best at what we do,” said Marcel Offermans, Managing Director, Studio397.

“This planned acquisition is another clear signal of our intention to establish Motorsport Games as the leader in the virtual racing space. We continue to utilize the capital committed by our shareholders to aggressively pursue our goals,” added Dmitry Kozko, CEO of Motorsport Games. “Securing rFactor 2 and the expertise behind will be a huge advancement for us. We will bring our experience and knowledge to help maximize the potential of the rFactor 2 platform while also having exclusive access to its best-in-class technology for our future projects.”

“The level of simulation and the feeling of driving offered by rFactor 2 is second to none,” shared Fernando Alonso, Motorsport Games shareholder, Alpine Formula 1 driver and two-time Formula 1 World Drivers’ Champion. “I am delighted that Studio397 and rFactor 2 will be joining our Motorsport Games family and I am sure that we will enjoy a great deal of success together.”

This latest announcement from Motorsport Games follows a string of exciting developments, including the upcoming acquisition of KartKraft from Black Delta and announcements of forthcoming games based upon the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans and the British Touring Car Championship, in addition to the company’s existing NASCAR projects.

[Duke]

Catching up on the rF2 news, been a bit lax on it...

New build day!
Today we are very pleased to release another new build update to rFactor 2, as we deploy the latest ‘release-candidate’ update to the simulation and transition our former release-candidate branch to become the main public ‘opt-out’ version of rFactor 2.
The new build deployed today comes ahead of our next content release for rFactor 2 – the Diriyah E-Prix Formula E street circuit – which should be made available to purchase in the rFactor 2 Steam Store later this evening.



How build update branches work
We now have three separate branches of rFactor 2 for players to select, and depending on your individual requirements you may have a preference for the particular build you wish to use when launching rFactor 2. Below we will quick a quick overview of what each build is, ahead of looking into the detail of the latest changes.
‘Opt-Out’ – This is the main public build of rFactor 2, without any beta branches or additional early updates applied. This is the build that will be available as default.
Release-Candidate – This build will always feature the latest updates and improvements that have been introduced by our development team ahead of main public release. Although these changes will have been reviewed by our test team here at Studio 397 prior to deployment, we will use this build branch to give our users the opportunity to opt into these changes early, and report any unexpected issues that may or may not occur before we launch to the main public ‘opt-out’ branch of the software.
Previous-Build – Our new ‘previous-build’ branch will contain a copy of the last public ‘opt-out’ version of rFactor 2, prior to updates being deployed, should any communities need to revert to the last known stable branch of the software for any reason.
As we release new updates for rFactor 2, each branch will ‘move up’ to the next step of the branch ladder, from ‘release-candidate’ to ‘opt-out’ to ‘previous-build’, replaced by the respective new updated version.



With that all out of the way, let’s move on to what new updates and improvements we can look forward to in this latest release-candidate build that has been deployed to Steam today.

New release candidate build
In this latest update the development team here at rFactor 2 have been working hard to continue to address a selection of bugs and missing features from the current build of rFactor 2. Of course, this is very much an ongoing piece of work and will continue to be worked on by the team here at Studio 397, however we are pleased to report that plenty of progress has been made by the development team already in regard to our ongoing progress, as you will be able to see in the below update notes.

March 4th Release Candidate Notes – release-2021-2 (Client Steam Build ID 6276424)
Changelog
General
Fixed an issue enforcing physics upgrades
Fixed an issue where custom skins would be allowed even when the server does not allow them.
Fixed an issue where a custom skin would glow white after changing session if skin transfers are disabled. Also ensures other players see you with the default skin of your car.
Fixed an issue where a series does not initialize correctly on first time use. This would manifest in not being able to select upgrades when joining a competition.
Fixed an issue where FFB changes would not register until you go to the track for the second time.
Fixed a crash to desktop during game load when the current selected series was uninstalled, however the install file remains in packages folder.
Removed a setting that exited the game after leaving a server
Added extra logging during the loading of content for debugging purposes

HUD
Fixed an issue where the time remaining in a race session would not be shown.
Message centre now displays same name/value as show in the garage screen when changing vehicle settings

Graphics
Fixed an issue where secondary wet weather reflections would not show on roads. (The reflections from a damp road surface, rather than puddles)
Fixed some issues which could cause graphical glitches in the skies.
Fixed VR UI boundaries showing a faint black line when in game

UI
Added driver and car info displays to full screen replay; steering, throttle, brake, clutch, speed, rpm, gear and g-force traction circle. This information will also be shown live for a driver.
Fixed an issue where Wheel Loads were not shown in the UI
Fixed an issue where the UI would run at uncapped FPS
Fixed an issue where the refresh button in package management would not detect newly copied in files in the packages folder
Fixed an issue where real road settings weren’t reset in the session settings screen if the user changes track.
Fixed an issue where session settings would remain from a previously selected series
Now automatically update the favourite server list on race screen after adding or removing a favourite.
Fixed an issue where Tracks, Cars and other components would inherit the uninstall status of the last series.
Fixed wrong driver name displaying in replay when there was a driver swap
Fixed an issue where disqualified drivers could still go to track
Fixed an issue when joining a server the ui would display invalid cars
Fixed an issue where a server client mismatch was reported the wrong way around
Removed language toggle from player profile

Modding
Added reporting for driveable surfaces which are not defined in the TDF file in ModDev
Fixed issues with using Vertex Colour in the Standard Blend Shader



‘Opt-out’ public build
As we have developed a new release candidate, with all the latest changes and improvements we have brought to the simulation, the time is right to now migrate our current ‘release candidate’ to the main public build of rFactor 2. This means that the default public branch of the simulation will automatically be updated to incorporate the changes from our existing ‘Release Candidate’, in effect turning the build that we released under the RC banner back on February 10th into the main public build of the simulation.
For those of you wishing to review the changes that will form the main ‘opt-out’ build of rFactor 2 from today, please find below the update notes that originally formed our February 10th ‘release candidate’ build deployment:

March 4th Opt-Out Notes – release-2021-1
We’ve removed the Max 2012 plugins as they no longer work, and provided the last working Max 2017 plugins. We have no intention to upgrade them any longer as we can’t get these versions of Max any more to test. Furthermore, we urge the modding community to upgrade to current Max versions.
Fixed: Reflection mapper in Scene Viewer, so it renders from the same point as the user sees.
Fixed: Bind a mouse click to any input control.
Fixed: Issues with showroom performance.
Fixed: Missing error prompt when textures are missing from content.
Fixed: Issue with a white screen you get when you try to assign a control.
Fixed: Visible damage sometimes corrupting car bodies, to properly fix the hotfix that temporarily disabled the visible damage.
Fixed: Issue where clouds could show similar corruption as car bodies.
Fixed: Showroom Upgrades not displaying which require MAS Files.
Fixed: Glitch where “the lights would suddenly go off” when transitioning from light to dark at dusk.
Fixed: Exploit where you could still set the FE car to use 250kW in the setup in a race when that setting is reserved for “attack mode”.
Fixed: Overlays would not correctly follow the attack mode countdown timing.
AIW Editor: Added new line smoothing option, and added soft selection for manual adjustments.
Added an internal option to the player.json to turn off multi-threading in the UI. Defaults to “on”.
Added code support, so we can detect a disabled Steam overlay, to warn you about why a shopping cart won’t show up.
Changed how a dedicated server shuts down when asked so it no longer crashes with a non-zero return code.
Pausing sessions in a dedicated server will now only pause the first one.
Increased an internal timeout when talking to Steam to give it more time before we give up or retry.
Scene Viewer Changes: Moved Web UI Port to 5396 by default and added support for up to 128 scenes in configuration file

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, we have also taken the decision to retain what was until today the main opt-out public branch of rFactor 2 – this will now become the ‘previous-build’ branch, and will remain active for players to select until the next time we deploy a release candidate build, whereupon the current release candidate will be migrated to the public build, and that current public build will then become the ‘previous-build’ branch.
We hope you enjoy the new update(s) to rFactor 2, and we look forward to continuing to work hard behind the scenes as we look to further develop and improve the simulation in the weeks, months and years ahead.

[Duke]

We are pleased to release a substantial collection of updates and improvements to four of our Formula E circuits within rFactor 2 – as well as some further tweaks and refinements to the current Gen2 car that is the star attraction of the ABB Formula E FIA World Championship this season.
The new release today is mostly about adding further refinements and improvements to the New York E-Prix, Hong Kong E-Prix, Berlin E-Prix and Lester Electric Docks test circuit, plus our current generation ‘Gen2’ Formula E car complete with the innovative and Formula E exclusive ‘Attack Mode’ functionality.
By the time you read this post the new updates should already be live, and will download automatically to owners of the content next time you restart your Steam client. In further good news, all the updates released today are compatible with the current opt-out and Release Candidate builds of rFactor 2.
Formula E Bundle | Steam Store: Click Here

Gen2 Formula E Car
Introduced at the start of 2018, the second generation Spark SRT05e Formula E car offers a significant improvement in performance, energy efficiency and safety over the original SRT_01e used for the first four seasons of Formula E competition. Now capable of completing a full race distance on a single charge, whilst allowing drivers an increased power output of 250 kW for speeds of up to 280 km/h (174 mph), plus the introduction of the FIA mandated Halo driver head protection system, the latest generation Formula E car firmly positions Formula E as a modern, high performance, entertaining and relevant racing series for the years ahead.
Alongside the original Formula E ‘Gen1’ car, the latest ‘Gen2’ machine offers rFactor 2 players a challenging and interesting driving experience behind the wheel. As well as the relatively low grip all-weather tyres and the need to employ driving techniques such as lift-and-coast to maximize energy regeneration, the current iteration of electric open wheeler also makes use of the innovative ‘Attack Mode’ – an exclusive feature of the ABB Formula E World Championship. Designed to increase opportunities for drivers to overtake on the often tight and twisty street circuits used throughout the Formula E calendar, Attack Mode presents drivers with the opportunity to engage an additional 50 kW of power for limited periods of time during a race session, activated by driving through a specified ‘Attack Zone’ section of the circuit. When ‘Attack Mode’ is activated by the driver, the LED display on the Halo will flash blue until the mandated power boost period has been completed.
The Gen2 Formula E car is available as both a standalone DLC alongside the original Gen1 machine, and as part of the wider Formula E Bundle DLC pack within the rFactor 2 Steam Store.
Following a period of further review and fine-tuning by our car team here at Studio 397, we are pleased to bring the following updates and improvements to this incredibly exciting to drive machine.
Update Notes v1.37
Updated liveries based on manufacturer feedback



Hong Kong E-Prix | Steam Store: Click Here
The very first official Formula E circuit to be released for rFactor 2 as part of our original Energize Formula E DLC back in late 2017, Hong Kong is the quintessential Formula E track. Located amidst a stunning city skyline backdrop and offering drivers zero opportunity to make a mistake thanks to the ever present threat of race ending contact with the unforgiving walls that line the circuit perimeter, Hong Kong has been meticulously recreated using detailed data to offer rFactor 2 players a unique and exciting driving experience within the simulation.
To give it its full name, the Hong Kong Central Habourfront Circuit is a 1.860 miles (2.993 km) street circuit that comprises 10 corners and produces a lap time of slightly over 60 seconds. One of the shorter tracks on the ABB Formula E FIA World Championship calendar, Hong Kong can often be relied upon to produce a dramatic race, thanks in part to the mix of potential overtaking opportunities coupled with a long back straight and 90 degree hairpin turns.

Update Notes v1.83
Fixed: Pit official SCN error.
Fixed: Cut Detection Issues.
Fixed: Minor Material Updates to Road Surfaces.
Fixed: Various material errors.
Minor Advertisement Updates.



Berlin E-Prix | Steam Store: Click Here
Beautiful Berlin – one of the most prominent tracks in Formula E folklore thanks to the historic decision to run no-less than six back-to-back rounds at the Berlin Tempelhof venue last season, in what was a challenging year for global motorsport due to pandemic related restrictions in place throughout the world. Now we hope that such a situation doesn’t occur again any time soon of course, and maybe drivers have pretty much had their fill of Berlin for the foreseeable future thanks to the strange end to 2020, but that doesn’t distract from the fact that our Berlin E-Prix in rFactor 2 is a fantastic street racing venue that represents one of the most action friendly layouts on the Formula E racing schedule.
Debuting on the ABB Formula E schedule all the way back in the 2014-15 racing season, Berlin has been a mainstay in the series ever since, although not always using the same location and configuration during its 12 race history in the championship. The version found within rFactor 2, as currently raced in Formula E, weighs in at 2.250 km (1.398 mi) across 10 corners, with two particularly fast straights that lead to solid overtaking opportunities.

Update Notes v.1.25
Fixed :Closed terrain gaps, new rrbins, fixed lines mapping.
Fixed: Hat collision on two objects.
Fixed: Pitworker animation.
Fixed: irradSpecular and refmap texture flag issues.
Fixed: Cut Detection Issues.
Fixed: Minor Material Updates to Road Surfaces.
Moved Atmospherics to GDB file.
Minor Advertisement Updates.



New York E-Prix | Steam Store: Click Here
The Big Apple. New York is one of the destination cities in the world, with iconic buildings, masses of people and as Frank Sinatra once sang, is long regarded as ‘the city that never sleeps’. Having very much established itself as a premium event on the Formula E calendar since making its debut in a double header race during the 2017 season, New York is certainly one of the more popular venues visited by the championship. As is somewhat typical of a modern Formula E track, New York is another healthy mix of high speed straights and tight corners, with 14 turns and three significant straights making up an interesting 2.374 km (1.475 mi) layout.
On paper, the Brooklyn Street Circuit doesn’t appear to offer a challenge on the scale of something like our recently released Diriyah E-Prix venue, however once players drill down into the unique characteristics of the track, the need to really push for every last tenth on corner apex and exit really brings out the nuances and challenges of taking the most out of the 70-second plus lap time at New York – a beautiful venue, and a perfect showcase of how close and exciting racing on these types of circuit in Formula E can be.

Update Notes v.1.19
Fixed: Pit officials animation update
Fixed: irradSpecular and refmap texture flag issues
Fixed: Set atmospherics
Fixed: Cut Detection Issues
Fixed: Minor Material Updates to Road Surfaces
Reduced bumpiness in TDF
Rdt balancing
More safe cut settings
Minor Advertisement Updates



Formula E Test Circuit | Steam Workshop: Click Here
Electric Docks. Also known as Lester, and something of an outlier in our Formula E content offering here within rFactor 2. Originally developed as a traditional street circuit, back in 2019 we gave the venue the Formula E treatment and the Formula E Test Track was born. Keeping many of the characteristics that made the track so popular, but adding in some Formula E specific layout changes to better suit the style of racing so well-loved in this electric open wheel championship, the Formula E Test Track has benefitted from a gradual evolution since it first entered the Steam Workshop back in April 2019, now reaching the point where we believe this circuit not only offers a great selection of corners to really test the ability of a modern Formula E car, but also produces some exceptional racing in both Formula E and a variety of different racing machines – a wonderful, and free, addition to the ever expanding roster of high quality tracks within rFactor 2.

Update Notes: v2.19
Fixed: Much stricter track cut detection.
Fixed: Camera at SF not able to see down pitlane.
Fixed: various collision issues.
Fixed: Start light issue.
Fixed: Wall shadow issues.
Regenerated RRBIN.
FE Advertisement updates.
Adjusted default session times.
Updated Crowds.
Added Digital Flags.
Road Material updates.
Reworked barriers around chicanes.
Tightened up T1 Chicane.
Revised Cut Corridors.
Updated Advertisements.
Replaced Tyre Stacks with TecPro.



As always, we hope you enjoy these new updates, and we look forward to seeing you out on the virtual racetracks of rFactor 2!

[Duke]

We are pleased to present to you a brand-new laser scanned circuit to add to our ever expanding Formula E content within rFactor 2 – the Diriyah E-Prix Circuit.
Diriyah E-Prix | Steam Store: Click HERE




The Diriyah E-Prix layout is a challenging 2.459 km round the houses track held on the streets of Ad Diriyah, a short distance from the centre of the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia. Having achieved the honour of hosting the very first Formula E race in the Middle East when making its debut on the calendar for the 2018-19 season, the circuit has born witness to some exciting moments in the history of the pioneering electric racing series. With a 10-year contract to host Formula E only two years in, the Diriyah E-Prix looks set to form part of the calendar backbone of the championship for a long time to come.
Like all street circuits, Diriyah is a tight and twisty venue. Comprising 21 corners and an average lap time in a Gen2 Formula E car of around 1 minute and 15 seconds. What makes this track particularly interesting is the high volume of long radius corners followed by blind apex turns, together with two long and wide straights that generally opens up more than a fair share of overtaking opportunities for anyone brave enough to give it a try – something we think our rFactor 2 community will very much enjoy!




Diriyah is a little different to the usual Formula E venue, in that predominantly the circuit is located within a desert location that features some beautiful and typically Arabic architecture around the course, really bringing the culture of the region into the heart of the racing experience.
Thanks to the large working area available to the event organizers, the Diriyah E-Prix layout has been designed to maximize opportunities for drivers to dice wheel-to-wheel in their Formula E cars, presenting significant overtaking opportunities off the back of the two main straights – meaning racing is often fast and frantic and not for the faint of heart. Whilst overtaking opportunities have been well thought through by the event organizers, the circuit layout itself is also one packed full of exciting challenges for the drivers to overcome. Many high speed changes of direction will place an emphasis on a finely balanced car, however driver bravery and the ability to maximize corner entry speed around the often blind turns of the circuit are critical to putting together the perfect lap, as is a strategic use of the Formula E exclusive Attack Zone, located in a difficult part of the circuit and perilously close to the ever inviting walls…
The Diriyah E-Prix Circuit is available to purchase in rFactor 2 now.

Hot on the heels of our Diriyah E-Prix release and sizeable Formula E content updates that dropped for the sim earlier this month, we are delighted to today offer another brand-new
A beautiful city and firm favourite of the well-travelled tourist, Rome is without doubt one of the most spectacular places in the world in which to visit – and should you find yourself in that part of Italy during a Formula E race weekend, you will be presented with a suitably dramatic venue to enjoy the drama of top level electric single-seater racing up close and personal. If spectating isn’t your thing, and you would rather experience the thrills for yourself, but you haven’t quite acquired the CV for a drive in the real series, then worry not dear reader – Studio 397 have you covered with the release of laser-scanned virtual recreation of this outstanding street circuit venue.
Rome E-Prix | Steam Store: Click HERE




The Rome E-Prix Circuit clocks in at a little over 2.860 km in length, giving this particular layout the distinction of being the longest lap in the history of Formula E racing. The cars begin their journey from the start/finish line located on the Via Cristoforo Colombo, before winding their way through the beautiful streets around the Obelisco di Marconi, against the backdrop of the iconic Colosseo Quadrato. Consisting of 21 turns, the Rome E-Prix circuit is another fine example of how to mix many high speed sections with tight and complex sequences of corners, with a few 90 degree hairpins offering prime overtaking opportunities thrown into the mix for good measure.
Undulations are another variable that drivers will have to take into account on this new track, as several key corners are approached downhill and will require a delicate feel for braking input, not to mention the ability to adjust driving styles and techniques over the course of the race to account for changing track and tyre conditions, aligned with plenty of incredibly fast sections of circuit that require the driver to employ a laser-like focus as they thread the needle of pushing a Gen2 Formula E car between the unforgiving barriers that line this visually stunning venue.




A firm command of braking technique should make the difference between a fast lap or certain disaster here at the Circuito Cittadino dell’EUR, with many of the 21 turns approached at high speed and often as part of an undulating piece of tarmac. The downhill slalom into the opening Viale dell’Industria section of corners represent a key example of where technical braking and a feel for car balance will be crucial to ensure drivers can both navigate this opening foray onto the circuit quickly, whilst keeping the car firmly under control and stable into the heavy deceleration zone for the tight left of turn three, and the following run up the Via della Tre Fontane.




Of course, the Rome E-Prix is a traditional Formula E circuit at its core, in the fact that the track is located very much in the heart of the surrounding city, so expect to see several historic and beautiful landmarks as you push to secure a competitive lap around this 2.103 mile circuit. In order to really bring the city street racing experience to life for our rFactor 2 players, our track team here at Studio 397 have worked exceptionally hard to accurately recreate many landmarks and distinguishing features in and around the Rome E-Prix track, so if you tire of pushing for those final few tenths of a second, take a moment to have a gentle cruise through the track and admire the beautiful scenery of what must be one of the more visually stunning venues on the Formula E calendar in recent years.
As with the real world ABB Formula E FIA World Championship, our Rome E-Prix circuit includes the exclusive ‘Attack Zone’ feature that plays a crucial role in the real world racing season. Allowing drivers the opportunity to gain additional performance for a set duration of time during the race by activating ‘Attack Mode’ and passing through the designated Attack Zone area on the circuit, this feature will be even more critical on the Rome E-Prix track, thanks to the many fast, swooping downhill sections that really allow a Formula E car to stretch its legs and edge towards its ultimate potential.

[Duke]

Released | SC2018x Stock Car

Stock Car fans rejoice, today is a good day for people who enjoy driving big cars that make lots of noise, produce great racing and have little in the way of braking efficiency. Yes, update day and the arrival of the SC2018x – a brand-new experience in the form of the little brother to our existing Gen 6 CUP car, with slightly less power, new handling characteristics and plenty of changes under the hood to keep our virtual drivers entertained on the various road and oval courses within rFactor 2.

SC2018x | Steam Workshop: Click Here.

SC2018x Update Notes (compared to the SC2018):
New: 650 HP Engine
New: More left side weight
New: Templates created to give a different visual with the noses of the cars.
New: All new paint schemes.
New: Updated sounds (Inside and outside remixed).
New: Dirty Aero update, balanced the downforce to react more in a more realistic way.
Fixed: Smoothing issues on car bodies.
Fixed: Aero in dirty air, increasing stability and reducing ‘loose’ car behaviour.
Updated: Superspeedway draft package update.
Updated: Default road course setup.

[Duke]

Studio 397 released an update for their rFactor 2 Monte-Carlo street circuit
Revised Cut Corridors
Slightly safer AI lines between St Devote & Casino
Improved Armco Barrier Collision Meshes
Fixed lack of collisions on Media Centre in pit lane
Fixed collisions in T1 run-off
Regenerated real road profiles
Fixed Starter Worker Safety Car Animation
Fixed Some Illegal NoRainZones
Fixed Wet Road in Tunnel
Fixed some material errors
Fixed issues with marshals/yellow flags online
Updated Crowds
Removed Driveable tag from unnecessary objects
Slightly reduced rearview distance
Improved AI Fast Path

[Duke]

Will just link to the official articles from now on...

Roadmap Update – March 2021

[Duke]

Studio 397 have today released updates for three tracks as well as some liveries for their GTE cars.

Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit v2.12
Fixed: Starter Worker animation under Safety Car.
Minor Balance Updates.
Fixed: an issue where a camera was blocked by a digital flag.
Fixed: some digital flag uvw issues.
Fixed: Closed gaps around pit in detection.
Fixed: Start Flag Marshal animation under safety car.
Fixed: Pit Official animations.

Portland International Raceway v1.06
Fixed: Starter Worker Animation under Safety Car.
Fixed: Issue with default mapper at night on No Chicane Layout.
Fixed: Pit Official numbering.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway v1.09
Fixed: Starter Worker animation under Safety Car
Reduced size of curb GP layout T6
Fixed: Various Collision Issues
Reduced noise on road surface
Regenerated all real road rubber profiles

GTE liveries
BMW M8 GTE 2018 v2.25
Added new O-Rouge livery.
Corrected material alignment issue on some skins.

Aston Martin Vantage GTE 2019 v1.71
Added new O-Rouge livery.

Porsche 991RSR GTE 2017 v2.61
Added new O-Rouge livery.

Corvette C7R GTE 2017 v2.65
Added new O-Rouge livery.
Added missing windscreen banners.

[Duke]

Studio 397 have released updates for two of their Formula E street circuits.

Diriyah E-Prix v1.03
Fixed Camera Clipping at Final Turn

Rome E-Prix v1.07
Fixed flag mapping issues
Improved Tree Textures
Improved Real Road materials
Slight adjustments to some buildings
Fine tuned static and ambient mapper placement
Fixed terrain gaps
General scene optimization

[Duke]

Studio 397 have deployed an update for the electric RCCO eX Zero 2021.
It’s not a huge changelog, but it is expected to make quite a difference to those actually racing it…

RCCO eX Zero 2021 v1.39
Significant reduction in dirty air
Stronger slip stream and stronger draft

[Duke]

Roadmap Update – April 2021

[Duke]

Free content update - Lime Rock Park PBR Update!
Hello sim racing fans, and welcome to our latest full PBR content update and refresh in rFactor 2. The subject of our latest lavishing of love and attention is a little gem of a circuit, and one that we hope will go some way towards re-establishing this mighty venue back into the hearts of our rFactor 2 community – yes, Lime Rock Park just got updated, and if we do say so ourselves, it looks fabulous!

At just 2.462km in length, Lime Rock Park is a tantalisingly fast and challenging course that provides a perfect playground for the diverse range of racing machinery available within rFactor 2. Comprising just seven unique yet challenging corners in the main classic configuration, Lime Rock Park forces drivers to fully commit to each and every turn in order to record a competitive lap time. Based in the Lakeville Connecticut area of the United States, Lime Rock Park is often overshadowed by better known venues in North America, however, what the track misses out with in terms of international recognition it certainly makes up for in driving pleasure – offering old school thrills and spills that leave drivers with little room in which to make a mistake, and a thirst to find that extra tenth of a second per lap.

Lime Rock Park | Steam Workshop: Click Here.

Included Layouts:
All Chicanes
Uphill Chicane
West Bend Chicane
No Chicane

Lime Rock Park v3.00
RFull Update of track to latest PBR materials
Updated track side vehicles, marshals, crowds and more
Reworked Paddock Area
Added New Pit Lane objects
Clearer Directions out of Pit Lane
Improved night lighting
Reviewed TDF parameters for road and grass surfaces
Improved AI Fast Lines on all layouts
Reviewed Cut Detection
Fixed several collision issues and gaps
Fixed marshals clipping into camera
Added no rain zones under bridges
Fixed scoreboard not working on several layouts
Fixed various Lodding issues
Fixed a few floating objects
Adjusted file naming so that it does not clash with previous versions.

[Duke]

Studio 397 have released an update for the Ligier JS P217 prototype originally release this past December.
The new update improves the visuals and adds a new livery.

Ligier JS P217 v1.17
Corrected steering wheel glass rendering
Corrected bug where other cars under shadow is not visible in cockpit view
Corrected doors attaches visible cockpit view.
Updated rims shader to IBL
Adjusted VFX Wiper textures
Wiper sync position fix
Fixed missing droplet flow on body works and windscreen
Added O-Rouge team livery

[Duke]

New rFactor 2 Build Update Available

Studio 397 released a new build today, improving their rFactor 2 simulation with the following highlighted items:
– Automatic Wipers & Lights Option
– Sunflare Improvements
– Auto Exposure Rework (should fix overexposed cockpit lighting)
– Replay Monitor Stutter Fix

Steam Build IDs
Client 6660506
Dedicated 6660508

General
Added SteamID of each client to race results logs generated by a Dedicated Server
Fix issue with Attack Mode overlay information not correctly resetting.
Stopped AI playing wipers when in Garage
Added automatic headlight and wiper settings for player.
These show as an extra step in the key toggles (Headlights: Off / Auto / On) or (Wipers: Off / Auto / Slow / Fast)
Skip Auto option when the setting is disabled
Added a message about windscreen wiper state to the message centre. Don’t show a message if the vehicle does not have wipers.
Auto Headlights and Windscreen Wipers are forced on if no key is assigned”
Fixed issue where automatic gears would require a false top gear to correctly downshift for some vehicles
Report steam branch and build number on startup

HUD
Fixed spacing for weather info in HUD

Graphics
Renamed Anti-Aliasing options to show the amount of MSAA applied.
Adjust Sunflare strength so that they work with different field of views
Added a blend out at screen edge to smooth transition of Sunflare going off screen.
Fixed an issue where a texture sampler would not set correctly
Fixed an issue that DigitalFlags would behave as Marshals online
Reworked Auto Exposure to reduce the calculated exposure “bouncing” around in different conditions
Enabled Auto Exposure in Cockpit Cameras
Fixed Water not rendering on TV Screens
Removed GPU V-Sync option from Graphics Configuration settings
Updated Environment Reflection Settings
Low/Medium/High/Ultra settings which increase refresh rate and resolution.
Ambient light probes now allow for more advanced blending options
Fixed stuttering on Replay Monitor screen.

UI
Added sector and lap timing to full screen replay bar.
Updated the styling and alignment of the full screen replay bar.
Fixed UI stopping updating when clicking repeatedly on the track map in the event screen.
Corrected the display of FXAA to On/Off
Fixed the units to seconds for displaying Transparent Trainer Lead Timer
Fixed the display units for Low Speed Information to show a percentage
Fixed race countdown not always showing for a multiplayer race.
Fixed showing the maximum time for a single player race before the race start.
Improved formatting of time durations.
Fixed issue where RealRoad setting was carried over from previous track selection in session setup screen
Fixed an issue where some tracks would not show in game due to having packed SCN files which were not valid track layouts
Added Auto Blip, Auto Lift, Hold Brakes, Hold Clutch, Repeat Shifts, Start Engine, Auto Wipers and Auto Headlight settings to difficulty screen

Modding
Fixed some minor issues with sample ModDev content
Added pop up (mod dev & scene viewer only) / logging to paths where the RRBIN file fails to load
Force an update after loading RRBIN in scene viewer or moddev so that it shows correctly straight away.
Updated default RRBIN filename scene viewer / moddev tweakbar rollout
Setup a stable and beta version of Max Plugins 2021. Stable is the last fully tested internally. Beta is built to the absolute latest code.

The new Public build is available on the standard release branch of rFactor 2 within Steam (Betas – None). Players can chose to opt into this build version by right-clicking on rFactor 2 in the Steam Library list, selecting options – betas – none from the drop-down list.

[Duke]

Roadmap Update – May 2021

Headlines
Studio 397 Now Officially Part Of Motorsport Games Family
Development Focus For June
Shadow Cascading Improvements
Additional Hardware Support
New Overlay Features
Competition System – New Features
Monza! New Track Announcement
Major Sebring PBR Update Incoming
More PBR Track Updates and Remodelling In The Works

[Duke]