Video game development is rarely about one man, but if it was, then Terence Groening should certainly get a mention for his contributions to the genre as the man responsible for the physics of Sportscar GT, EA’s PC F1 and NASCAR games of the early 2000’s, rFactor, rFactor 2 and every title and rFpro simulator that spawned from ISI’s engine.
This interview with RSC details his early life and career, through to him joining iRacing in 2021.
RSC contains a database of 153 developers, 467 software titles, 374 cars, 42 bikes, 242 tracks and more...Originally working in military simulator design, this Michigan-based studio developed Zone Raiders for Virgin Interactive before moving to Electronic Arts for publishing their second PC title, Sports Car GT, when Westwood Studios (their SCGT development partner) was acquired by the software giant.
Known primarily for their mod-friendly SCGT and rFactor racing platforms, ISI also developed Formula One and NASCAR titles on PC for Electronic Arts, but perhaps their lasting contribution to the genre was the licensing of the isiMotor engine that allowed studios such as 2Pez, Blimey! Games, KW Studios, Motorsport Games, Reiza Studios, SIMBIN Studios, Slightly Mad Studios, The Sim Factory, Tiburon and rFactor 2‘s ongoing developer Studio 397 to begin with or release on an evolution of their software.
Another fork of the isiMotor engine, rFpro, continues to be developed and is used by a wide array of automotive companies for both road and motorsport simulation.
RSC Podcast Episode 7 – Management Simulations, F1 Managers, Always Used To Be Better?Join Jon Denton, Tim Wheatley, Simon Croft and guest(s) as they discuss sim racing and racing games past, present and future.
RSC contains a database of news items. Our #OnThisDay page shows current day and current week of years past...
RSC contains a database of videos back to the 1980s catalogued as intros, laps, trailers, unboxings and more...
RSC contains a database of emulated software you can play in your browser...
Plutonization today released (a little earlier in the day than expected) the demo for their upcoming Rev to Vertex Touge Battle simulator on Steam. You can get to it by clicking ‘Download Demo’ over on the right on the Steam Store page.
The demo includes a “free practice” session using a very fast generic car with great power levels, stiff suspension and extremely responsive handling. I’m not sure if it is meant to be based on a real-life vehicle, but in my opinion it feels very nice! The track included is a part of Route Twisk, a sprawling tight and twisty two-lane highway in Hong Kong, specifically the Tsuen Wan Section so-named because it terminates in the Tsuen Wan bay.
The video below shows a full run of the route driven by one of the developers. Captured at 4K60, it shows both the in-cockpit and ‘TV’ views side-by-side:
View this video on YouTube. Please consider subscribing to RSC’s channel.
The gear/cog at the top left gives you access to settings within the software. You then use the options on the screen to navigate and change them.
Control settings
PlayStation controllers currently do not work, and you must unplug any game controller if you wish to use a wheel.
Choose your desired input device at the bottom of the screen, edit your settings then save the preset.
Graphics settings
You can select a graphics preset at the bottom of the screen again, but my 3090 was able to run everything maxed out. Though on first running I did have a couple of jitters, this did clear up after a few moments.
Preset names include: super low, low, medium, high, ultra, hyper, future. Hyper is set based on an RTX 3080, Future is set based on an RTX 3090.
Gameplay settings
You can adjust the FOV and a number of other things in here.
Sound
I could not find a way to turn off the music, so I edited the audio.settings file with notepad and changed the volume to 0. The file is in \Steam \steamapps \common \Rev to Vertex Demo \R2V_Demo_Oct2022 \R2V_Demo_Oct2022_Data \UserData.
Replays
Replays can be selected and played from the bottom of the screen on the main menu. A developer replay (used to make the video above) is included.
On-screen HUD Key Commands
Driving View: C
Reset Car: R
Remove HUD: 1
Traction Control: 2
Anti-lock Braking: 3
Auto/Manual Gears: 4
Note that these do change if you use a gamepad controller.
Known Issues:
If the game fails to start successfully, please make sure to install the latest “DirectX End-User Runtime”.
For direct drive steering wheels don’t set the FFB frequency higher than 125Hz.
Fanatec and Cammus drivers are causing some performance issues that will be fixed in future updates.
