Latest rFactor 2 Q1 2023 Release Candidate Adds Long-Awaited Un-owned Content Racing

As announced last month, Studio 397 have released a new release candidate that includes the ability for users to race against cars they do not own.

This is quite a breakthrough for rFactor 2. As I said in my previous news post, currently if you wanted to join a BTCC race or league and only wanted to drive one car you will still need to own every other car being driven by anyone in the event. This is no longer going to be an issue.

You can opt-in to test the release candidate today on Steam or wait until February 21, 2023 for the official Q1 2023 release.

Here is their description on how it’s going to work:

This is likely to prove to be an important addition to the rFactor 2 experience, and one that we at Studio 397 are delighted to deploy into this new Release Candidate update, ahead of the full V1 public build on February 21st. Below you will find some key highlights from this feature set, with a fully detailed announcement article set to be published ahead of Q1 2023 update day. One thing of importance to note – this feature applies to both the online, and offline experience.

Key Features

– Content you don’t own can now be installed from the content management page
– On the cars and tracks lists, greyed out cars and tracks that you do not own and added a button to access the store page for that item
– You can spectate on any race even if you don’t own anything, assuming the content is installed
– You can only race in cars that you own on tracks that you own
– When joining a server, cars you do not own will be greyed out
– When passenger swapping you can only ride as a passenger in vehicles you own, you should only be able to select those vehicles you own
– Added information about required content to join the server on the join error page
– Greyed out entries with cars you do not own in the spectate popup
– Disabled “Resume” replay button for entries with car you do not own

Build notes:

Build: 10517321
Dedi: 10524732

Release Candidate fixes:

– Fixed lack of wrap around viewing with mouse control in Photo Mode
– Fixed settings resetting when changing camera in Photo Mode
– Fixed graphics disappearing when switching between many cars with FreeMove enabled
– Fixed keys not working in photo mode after assigning controls
– Fixed alternative tracking cameras switching over the start finish line on cycle mode

General

– Reworked steering configuration page to replace wheel-only settings with non-wheel relevant settings when a non-wheel device is in use
– Reintroduced adjustable steering rates
– Added selection for gamepad steering filters
– Made both steering filters adjustable independently
– Added snappiness slider to steering rates configuration – 0% is original behaviour, higher % is more snappy without having to increase steering rates
– Made new steering sensitivity filter more direct

Physics

– Fixed bug with reading brake maps from hdv/engine files. It now reads definitions with less than 11 entries again.
– Fixed visual steering lock mismatch at low speeds when using non-standard steering lock in the vehicle setup

AI

– Fix for AI running into the back of other vehicles

UI

– Made the hitbox for checkboxes in the content screen table slightly bigger

Known Issues

– Motion blur sometimes activates when it should not
– Cancel updates button is unresponsive
– Content does not uninstall correctly when items are upgraded at present. Some mas files may be left behind.
– Photo Mode UI mouse control / visible UI is inverted if you have no cameras move keys assigned