Rennsport Dev Confirms Engine Not Built From Scratch As They’d Previously Stated, Confirms ISI Code

Competition Company, Rennsport developer, today announced that they did not scratch build their physics and tire model as they had originally stated in interviews, press coverage, on their own Web site and most likely to investors and other players involved with the product and ESL R1 events. They did, according to the text I have fully quoted below, license technology from Image Space Incorporated.

Here is some text from their Web site – right now – at the time of me posting this news item:

Latest technology without limiting legacy
Starting from scratch, technological advancement and modern software architecture enables us to take the next step in virtual racing experiences.

The full quoted statement below includes a non sequitur statement that attempts to alter the timeline, suggesting that “When we started the development of RENNSPORT, our goals were to build something from the ground up” when they clearly still say (above) “starting from scratch” everywhere. This apparent – still on their Web site – lie, according to the information posted today, is one issue that should linger for sim racers who see “legacy” code every day in iRacing, rFactor 2, Unreal and many other major software engines with lines of code that can be decades old.

This is a difficult timeline to follow. My impression as the person who actually licensed for ISI before this happened (yes, I always knew what I was talking about), was that the agreement between ISI and Studio 397 (Luminis) in selling the rFactor 2 product and source to them included a clause where no product could be licensed by ISI, even the rFactor (1) engine, if that would compete with rFactor 2 going forwards. However, this isn’t the rFactor (1) engine, it appears to be much more advanced than that and uses multiple lines of code, parameters and files that are not commercially or privately available in any other product except those endorsed by Studio 397 (rFactor 2 developer), and rFactor 2 itself.

In conclusion, Rennsport are using rFactor 2 physics, parameters and more (which was the title of my original news post) on what I assume to be a very late pre-rF2 build that includes the physics, parameters and more that were designed to become rFactor 2. There’s even a Studio 397 tire file, a literal rFactor 2 tire file created after ISI ceased to function as a studio, being used within Rennsport.

While the developer says there is a “need for more transparency”, I’d say maybe it would have been easier to just not say the engine was scratch built in the first place?

This is going to be my last news post about this unless there is further reported action by any parties involved because, frankly, it gave an actual answer to what I said in my original news post and those involved can now sort this out for themselves.

Their text:

A Deeper Dive In Physics
Today we can finally talk more about it…

As we mentioned yesterday: all content and libraries used for the production, release and development of RENNSPORT are commissioned, licensed appropriately or created by us.

Today we can finally talk more about it.

When we started the development of RENNSPORT, our goals were to build something from the ground up. That originally meant custom-made physics, tyre models, graphics and sound. Initially, we experimented in many ways and came to the conclusion that for some aspects, we require a baseline to accelerate development. We turned to an industry leader: Image Space Inc. to fully acquire a licence to use their physics processing system (known as “ISI Technology”) to act as that baseline. ISI has provided proven technology in the automotive and gaming industry for over two decades, so we believe it to be the best option for a strong foundation to build upon.

Custom Made
When we say custom-made, we do mean something that is created by our internal teams, but we’ve also been careful in building a platform which is modular so we can use external software libraries and technologies to combine that competence with our own.

Since the implementation of ISI’s physics processing; parts of ISI have been or will be tweaked, refined and changed to make it what we believe, eventually, to be the best possible racing experience. There already exist 100% custom additions on top of our licenced engine: collisions, contact points and damage models are but a few.

Going Forward
Our ambition is still to create custom physics. Such an undertaking from scratch is a multi-year endeavour. A full rewrite will enable us to support more advanced racing experiences, such as implementing mixed weather systems, larger races and higher quality physics by increasing the physics thread frequency. We believe we can get there instead with incremental improvements on the strong foundations we have.

We have realised with these “revelations” that there is a significant need for more transparency. This works for us because the team is extremely proud to present their technical achievements; as such we will give more room on our “UNDER THE HOOD” blog to technical topics where we can show the community what we are working on.

If you want to keep up with the latest RENNSPORT updates check out our social media channels and our Discord.

The RENNSPORT Team