Croft, Thruxton, Bahrain, London E-Prix, BTCC BMW, Vanwall LMH + New Build Released For rFactor 2

Posting late due to a work trip.

Studio 397 have released another quarterly update for their rFactor 2 racing simulation that packs a big punch for BTCC fans with the BMW 330i M Sport and laser scanned versions of Croft and Thruxton as well as the Vanwall Vandervell LMH, Bahrain GP track and London E-Prix track.

Here is the full text from their release announcement post:

Hello sim racers,

The time for talking is over, finally we are here, ready to go and locked and loaded – the Q4 2022 rFactor 2 update and content drop is now live!

The final scheduled drop of the year, and one we’ve been looking forward to for quite a while here at the studio. Although a little smaller than usual in terms of new and improved features, one of the most important things on the community wish list we’ve heard in recent months is the desire for us to prioritize some improvements with our AI code – improvements that you tell us will help elevate the user experience for rFactor 2 in an offline environment. Well, we’ve heard you loud and clear, and now we are delighted to bring the first wave of these improvements to the simulation – on and off throttle behaviour be gone!

View this video on YouTube. Please consider subscribing to RSC’s channel.

As well as looking at the way the AI behaves, we’ve also taken the opportunity to review how our players can interact with the many varied content offerings within the title, and we quickly came to the decision that a new store experience would be required in order to simplify the content ownership experience – adding a more user-friendly and front facing store, and making it easier and quicker to see what you own, and how to most effectively make new purchases without spending more money than necessary.

Note for release: Due to the conclusion of the licencing arrangement with Formula E, the Monaco E-Prix Circuit will be removed from sale within the rFactor 2 Steam Store during this launch. The new London E-Prix will be added to the existing Formula E pack for new purchases going forward.

New Content – Cars

New content is always nice, and seeing as we are all very much fans of motorsport here at the Studio, we enjoy bringing new and exciting content to the simulation almost as much as you all enjoying driving them! For this Q4 release, we continue our quest to complete the 2021/22 British Touring Car Championship field, as well as introduce our first of the new Hypercar class – even before the car gets to race in the real world! Without further ado, let’s take a look at the shiny new machinery we’ve got on offer with this new release…

BMW 330i M Sport

Our latest British Touring Car Championship content is here, as we introduce the incredible BMW 330i M Performance to the rFactor 2 – a car that have enjoyed much success in the world of the premier tin top touring car series in the UK. A nice new rear-wheel drive car alongside the previously released Infiniti, the BMW should be another great addition to our expanding tin top collection in rFactor 2, and offers a very different, but equally rewarding experience for those who venture out onto the virtual track.

Vanwall Vandervell LMH

Developed by Vanwall Racing, this car marks a welcome return for the once dominant British marque. The Vanwall LMH has undergone significant amounts of real world testing as the team continue in their quest to gain entry into the leading World Endurance Championship for the years ahead. Developed fully by the Vanwall team in collaboration with Studio 397, this car is the definition of benefitting from real world data, and collaborated by Vanwall drivers, so the experience should be as close as is possible to get to putting yourself behind the wheel of one of these outstanding new breed of race machines.

New Content – Tracks

New cars are great, but without tracks, these little beauties can’t really do anything – so as we’ve tried to achieve in previous quarterly updates, we’ve worked hard for this Q4 release to ensure we’ve got a nice collection of new venues on which to race, and in all honesty, we couldn’t be more delighted with this great collection of very different circuits on which to try your hand.

Bahrain International Circuit

Starting out with the big hitter, Q4 sees a public release of the beautiful Bahrain International Circuit for rFactor 2. As well as being a great high profile track within its own right, what makes this release particularly special is the fact our Bahrain track will be the very first laserscanned version of this circuit in sim racing, really putting you, the driver, absolutely in the heart of what it is like to tear up the tarmac on one of the better modern race circuits that feature in such series as Formula One and WEC. What’s more, the track comes with four unique configurations – including the crazy outer loop layout!

Croft Circuit

Based in North Yorkshire, and probably little known to anyone outside the UK and BTCC fandom, Croft is an incredible national club racing circuit that promotes outstanding racing opportunities, whilst providing an exceptionally enjoyable experience for drivers behind the wheel. Short, sharp, technical and in parts very quick indeed, Croft isn’t just a touring car track, but a circuit that is an absolute delight for any kind of racing car, fast or slow. As always with new track content in rFactor 2, Croft benefits from a detailed laserscan and reference materials, meaning this digital version of the British circuit is the most accurate and up-to-date version anywhere in sim racing – a true delight to drive and race.

Thruxton Circuit

When you think of fast circuits in Europe, you probably imagine Monza, right? Well, maybe that should be revised a little, as Thruxton is an incredible layout that the bravest drivers can take on full throttle for much of the lap. Despite being so exceptionally fast, unlike Monza, the track surface is far from smooth and flat, meaning anyone who ventures out for a drive on this circuit will have to have every bit of their skills on display – go too fast, lose concentration, and you are heading for a monster shunt! Such an incredibly exciting layout to drive, and another one that promotes exceptional racing, this laserscanned version of Thruxton is of the highest detail, and also certain to provide a lot of fun in any type of car.

London E-Prix

Developed directly by Formula E themselves, the new ExCeL London circuit is one of the more technical, fast and challenging layouts on the modern Formula E calendar. Exceptionally unique thanks to the part indoor section at the start of the lap, and featuring some fearsome corners that need nothing less than total commitment in order to squeeze out a competitive lap time, the London E-Prix circuit is a Formula E track, but not quite as you’ve come to know it.

Take out the Gen1 or Gen2 Formula E car, or even something low powered, and you will be in for an incredible rollercoaster ride of thrills, one not to be missed!

Here are the build notes for the changes to the software:

Client: 9873443
Dedicated Server: 9873452

General

Enabled Alt+F4 and X closing the game
Fixed a rare crash when changing cameras
Fixed game crashing with “null” in controller.json
Fixed game crashing when pressing escape to monitor
Added Key Assignment to toggle Freelook Mouse Control
Improved package install speeds
Updated DRS regulations to be restricted in all zones by default and not allowed if there are no drs zones.
Added RFM parameter “RearFlapNoZonesAllowed” to allow DRS when no zones are available.
Fixed online temp car not lighting correctly at night.
Improved visibility of pitbox marker at night.
Fixed anonymous steam IDs being reported in the results.xml when players left the server before the file gets written.
Sped up Race Event creation in MAS Tool regardless of size/age of pkginfo.dat
Fixed premium content unavailable offline

Track Limits

Added Relaxed Track Limits Mode
Added Penalties Only display mode
Added Test Day support for GDB Settings (via Practice settings)
Increased penalties for passing illegally and increased time to return place.
Made it possible to change modes in Dev Mode
General improvements to pit lane, removing unnecessary reports inside the pitlane, and fixing pit exit line cut detection if content is setup correctly.
Reworked Track Limits dialogue to use HUD Font and add indicator strip
Updated track limits display, showing all warnings and penalties via messages.
Fixed AI editor adding connections from pit lane to main path where the game should not (in some cases due to waypoint locations)
Fixed an issue where going off track again before penalization would not continue the investigation.
Added ability to configure Track Limits display in HUDs, but fix to set display if not configured.
Added “HUD” option to Display position options for Track Limits Info, when set at this it will be placed where the HUD configures. You can manually adjust the position otherwise.
Added sample parameters to default HUD
Removed loose fonts from ModDev and fixed font loading from mas files
Added HUD editor support for Track Limits element

Headlights

Added Headlight Pulse. Defaults to J key. On activation headlights will pulse 4 times for a second. Previous headlight state is retained and this will not cause issues with headlight requirements.
Set Auto Headlights to turn on at night even if not required.
Fixed an issue with Headlight assignment not being kept after a driver swap.
Fixed Max Headlights PLR value not being respected
Updated Headlights to be culled based on the position of selected vehicle. Note in Freelook mode to make sure you have selected the vehicle you are focusing on if you are having issues with the headlights not being rendered.

Graphics

Improved in Game Exposure in VR
Fixed omni lights being falsely applied to objects with Omni not enabled
Added ability to set an emissive map on the Terrain shader. Intended for baking distant lighting into terrain.
Fixed delta not resetting correctly after a driver swap
Fix crash when trying to display the game in borderless on a third monitor with a different solution than the first.
Fix using the resolution of the first screen when displaying on any other using borderless.
Fixed a crash when changing monitor when in fullscreen.
Fixed changing resolutions in windowed mode.
Fixed reverting resolution picking the wrong resolution to revert to. Used to pick the first with the same width.

UI

Settings across the UI can now be adjusted more quickly:
Right mouse button: 10x multiplier
Middle mouse button: 50x multiplier
Holding down left mouse button:
5x multiplier after 2 seconds
10x multiplier after 4 seconds
Greyed out setup settings (including the name and value) that cannot be adjusted
Fixed camber setup setting description
Ambient and track temperatures in the event screen are now shown in Celsius of Fahrenheit based on the selected units
MultiView monitor side angle setting has been limited to 90 degrees in graphics settings
Updated refreshing of setup list
Fixed subscribing to “All” content collection in the First Launch Wizard
Fixed setup settings becoming greyed out when one of the step values is “N/A”
Fixed multiplayer admin session controls
Fixed setting next race length (note: new race length will be displayed after switching to another session, e.g. practice → qualifying)
Fixed restart race button being disabled during a race session
Fixed showing percentage for the singleplayer “Race time” setting when “Race criteria” was set to “% Track Time” or “% Track Default”
Fixed “Torque split” setup setting description typo (read wheels → rear wheels)
In multiplayer session controls, fixed selecting spectators when there are more than one
Fixed selecting driver/spectator in multiplayer session controls when there’s a driver and spectator with the same name on the server
Fixed not being able to delete the first replay in the list

AI

Fixed erratic throttle and brake inputs
Fixed waypoint lookahead to fix jerky steering motion
Fixed an issue with driveline noise that could cause AI to brake partially off track and spin, or cut too much
Fix for problematic behaviour introduced in RC where AI would lose track of the target waypoint or get stuck driving the wrong way.

Physics

Refactored engine code

Sound

Minor fixes
Fixed an issue with sounds disappearing (other, similar issues still exist!)
Fixed a rare crash when loading AI cars using the new sound system
Fixed issue with sounds disappearing

Live stream overlayModding

Added the ability to animate any maps UVW via Scroll and Step options on IBL Standard and IBL Standard Blend shaders.
Fixed buggy background on telemetry debug screens in ModDev.
Added OnScreen ModDev Tweakbar for debugging Car Cockpit readouts and debugging of LED values.
IBL Road Shader: Added the ability to blend out alt normal map via RDT.b
IBL Vegetation Shader: Added optional detail map with extended blend options.

Known issues

Skip updates button on package install is unresponsive
Going off track and returning on track with a return pass message visible will reset the counter to 5 seconds
There are some issues around track limits violations being converted into time penalties if you finish the race before the violation is evaluated.
Transmission sounds don’t play correctly
Setup list doesn’t work correctly in mod dev