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rFactor 2 Is Going About Its Business In A Positive Way

Is rFactor 2 quietly going about its business under the radar and rebuilding the face of its sim racing title?

Usually, rFactor 2 is that sim racing title you love and hate (or just one). But of recent, and this could be down to Motorsport Games having a say in a few things we have seen rFactor 2 quietly going about its business.

Sure we see updates, new cars, tweaks etc going on, but we never really hear many talking about it. They just do the work, put it out there, and carry on. How many people out there play rFactor 2 and bang on about new things, changes etc?. But there is one thing I find that is not really being mentioned a lot.

Piece by Piece rFactor 2 is changing, sure it has been an evolving project, but tracking its builds updates and more, I have seen at times subtle changes in the builds and updates. Almost like they sneak a cool feature etc in their no one really notices……But there has been an upshift of recent to what is being done in rFactor 2.

It’s a bit like decorating a room, if you do it all in one go, you notice the big change. But if you decorate a room over time the effect seems less noticable. It’s the only way I can describe it, bizarre but effective.

That brings me to the point on this new rfactor 2 build, people need to keep an eye on what they are doing and take notes. It’s impressive!

rFactor 2 Is Going About Its Business In A Positive Way

General

  • rFactor 2 Build Bumped to 1125
  • Added MetallicNoise.DDS to Vehicle Common Maps so that it does not need to be packed with each car
  • Updated Flag Stations so they will not assign to the Pit Path.
  • Updated parsing of Flag Station Instances (corner workers, safety workers, digital flags) so all instances are parsed and do not require any specific naming order.
  • Added auto grouping of flag stations to the same point on track. Note: It is now recommended to only place Safetyworkers next to Cornerworkers or Digital flags to ensure a flag is waved or shown correctly.
  • Made the distance to group flag stations together configurable (GDB: FlagStationGroupDist=30)
  • Updated Yellow Flag and Blue flag logic to work correctly with flag station grouping
  • Made the distance before and after an incident at which a yellow flag is waved configurable (GDB: FlagStationIncidentMinDist=20, FlagStationIncidentMaxDist=250)
  • Fixed digital flags all flashing checkered the second a car finishes the race. Instead, they now follow the logic of other flags and only flash progressively around the track as cars finish.
  • Enabled chat command “/callvote nextsession” on a dedicated server to advance to the next session.
  • Removed Hide Cursor default assignment to “delete” key from controller settings. Note this does not affect existing profiles.
  • Fixed cars showing up with the team name missing when using a custom team in multiplayer via the new UI
  • Synced min/max ranges for options in the backend (playerbasefile) with the new UI’s default (JNIOptions)
  • Added ability to specify slot using the steam id for some chat commands
  • Save steam id when a driver disconnects from a session
  • SteamId is saved when somebody disconnects, so it appears in the result xml

Graphics

  • Reviewed & updated all Cloud Textures
  • Improved Lighting Calculations on Clouds and Atmospherics
  • Fine-tuned and optimized rain particles (50% less particles now)
  • Improved ModDev options with the ability to force a specific cloud texture as well as set cloud cover at any point.
  • Ensured that cloud textures are never loaded ad hoc, which would previously cause some stuttering online or in replays.
  • Fixes for various issues that were present when the cloud update was previously released.
  • Fixed an issue when saving PNG screenshots via the built-in game function where alpha information seems to get saved around the glows and glares, for example around the sun.
  • Fixed an issue where Sunglare at dawn or dusk on ultra-wide or triple screens would be undrivable.
  • SSR – screen space reflection implementation for wet road reflection
  • Reduced Sky Exposure and rebalanced auto exposure for these changes
  • Fixed issues with Night Time under-exposing.
  • Enabled Auto Exposure adjustments whilst game is paused
  • Slightly reduced TV Camera low-sun exposure levels
  • Faster Exposure Adjustment on TV Cameras to reduce the noticeable fade when changing camera
  • Fixed Differences in ToneMapper and Exposure in Showrooms vs In-Game
  • Added Missing Ambient and Static Mappers to Default Showroom
  • Fixed an issue where Static Mappers would not update after a game session time change
  • Fixed some road objects not having wet weather reflections
  • Improved Puddle Normal Maps
  • Fixed some issues with how reflections work at the side of the screen.
  • Improved blur and general tweaks to level of road reflections
  • Fixed some car parts not reflecting (including enabling reflections on car headlights)

UI

  • Load server lists (Internet, LAN, Favorites, Friends) asynchronously
  • Added extra UI options for setting up steering wheel rotation settings (Rotation limit mode, max wheel angle mode, default max wheel angle).
  • Ensured that appropriate settings are enabled/disabled with the right options.
  • Readjusted Controller Calibrate layout so that all items fit without scroll bar
  • Fixed Point to Point tracks wrongly closing loop
  • Fixed unnecessary scroll bar on Display Options Screen
  • Made it possible to sort the packages list by the installed column. Also made it possible to sort the multiplayer list by version while refactoring the table component config a bit.
  • Fixed standings table alignment where long class names would cause problems.
  • Replaced underscores in car class name with spaces and allow it to wrap to second if needed.
  • Fixed bottom shadow sometimes being positioned wrongly in the lap history pop-up.
  • Fixed an issue when losing a connection to the dedicated server that the network connection error dialogue would only show up when leaving a subsequent single player session.
  • Added spectators to player list when in race monitor, and allow kicking/banning of them via the same process as kicking/banning an active player
  • Updated event full-screen so only data that is needed for the elements being visible is fetched and updated.
  • Fetch live standings in event screen with WebSocket instead of polling.
  • Show total race time for race winner and the final gaps to winner for other drivers as they finish the race.
  • Added start-up Wizard to assign basics controls at startup
  • Fixed server join button not working if you clicked it on the outside of the “join” text.
  • Fixed upgrade description not being visible with a long list of upgrades on the tuning screen.
  • Fixed shadow positioning in packages table with only a few packages showing
  • Fixed series list being empty if there were two series with the same name
  • Added checkbox option to remember the password for a server.
  • Your last selected server list type (Internet, LAN, Favorites, Friends) is now remembered on the multiplayer matchmaker screen.
  • Removed useless scrollbar on options calibrate page when in an event.
  • Added UI setting for toggling FFB strength direction between negative and positive.
  • Added track type and length to track loading screen.
  • Added disabling of “next session” button in single player admin controls when there is no next session.
  • Made list layout the default layout on all pages that use it.
  • Made changes to reduce time the light grey screen is shown, for example when leaving an event and returning to the main menu.
  • Fixed the current selection (series, car, track) sometimes not loading in the main menu start and race screens.
  • Made sky setting also affect the rain chance setting.
  • Added showing raw range (min, max) for control axes on the options calibrate page.

Live stream overlay

  • Class colors on text no longer working: No code changes; text color needs to specified with a “color” field in the custom overlay config.json along with the previous “backgroundColor” field.
  • Added RPM, speed, gear and pedal inputs to the driver info overlay.
  • Added error checking for endpoints failing when overlays folder does not exist.
  • Added driver name options drop down to overlay control panel and updated overlay elements to use it.
  • Added DRS active classes to battle box, extended battle box and tower overlay elements.
  • Added DRS active text to battle box element.
  • Fixed color swipe animation being positioned slightly wrong on some overlay elements.
  • Fixed in-game panel toggling not always working.
  • Fixed overlay not working at all if the configured overlay folder does not exist.
  • Added prev/next buttons for season standings and in-race season standings elements.
  • Added background color to control panel table rows when showing multiple car classes. The color is faded from the one defined in config.json for that class.

Modding

  • Added a content error if a Cube Map is wrongly assigned.
  • Added New AI Editor Methods for updating Cut Corridors including Finding, Normalizing, Setting to Corridor values, Setting to Collision Corridor values as well as setting if adjusting Corridors effects Cut Corridors.
  • Added specific functions for Normalizing Corridors and Normalizing Collision Corridors.
  • Fixed RealRoad errors loading Loch Drummond in ModDev
  • IBL Road Shader: Made configurable the effects of the blue channel of a Road Detail Map. Now can enable/disable masking of the overlay function and the decal map.
  • Added the ability to constrain a Camera to the Pitlane or the Main Track.
  • Enable Trace logging by default in ModDev

To purchase rFactor 2 visit: Studio-397 – Racing Simulation

About rFACTOR 2

rFactor 2 is a realistic, easily extendable racing simulation from Studio 397. It offers the latest in vehicle and race customization, great graphics, outstanding multiplayer and the height of racing realism. rFactor 2 features mixed class road racing with ultra realistic dynamics, an immersive sound environment and stunning graphics, perfect for top-level esports and a rich single-player experience.

Race against a field of AI cars, or in multi-player mode against others. rFactor 2 supports a full day-night cycle as well as dynamically varying weather conditions such as rain which dynamically builds into puddles. Tracks feature “real-road” technology that changes the grip as more cars drive on it. You can run full 24 hour endurance events and in multi-player mode, driver swaps are also supported. Everything can be customized by the community, including adding new tracks and cars, and a wealth of add-ons are available on-line.Working with several partners, rFactor 2 has been used in hundreds of esport championships all over the world – in particular McLaren’s World’s Fastest Gamer and Formula E.

rFactor 2 is also an evolving product, which will be updated and added to for many years, so the list of features will expand!

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Darren Buckner

Darren Buckner

Darren became a member of Simrace247 in January 2021 and has been a valuable addition to the platform ever since. He began his journey as an Editor and has progressed to the position of Editor in Chief, owing to his unwavering commitment and hard work. With his profound interest in motorsport and gaming, Darren is passionate about sharing news and exceptional content with like-minded people worldwide.View Author posts