December 2017 Release Notes! Dom Duhan Roadmap Here are the release notes for a significant update to rFactor 2! 21.12.17 20.15 GMT – Please note we are updating content currently, however it is taking time with Steam servers getting hammered, you will automatically start to download the content from the workshop. Graphics Improvements Improved Lighting We developed an Image-Based Lighting for Ambient (IBLA) solution that substantially improves lighting in our graphics engine. IBLA acts on the colors of the scene, taking into account information from the surrounding environment when drawing each object. The resulting lighting system gives the final image a more realistic look and it improves the perception of depth for the driver. This new system uses new ambient probes that have been added to most of the tracks. It is recomputed dynamically as weather or time conditions change. IBLA does not introduce any noticeable performance penalties and its features have been exposed to Mod Dev. Furthermore, tracks that do not have set IBLA yet will automatically have a default set of probes assigned to them. Rain Effects Cars Added dynamic drops on the windshield and the body of the car. These drops respect gravity, so they will run down the sides, and each single drop will have its own lifespan. The drops also respect airflow around the car when driving, making them move in appropriate directions. The effect is not scripted but generated in real time, and it varies depending on factors like the amount of rain drops falling from the sky, the speed of the vehicle, or the particles generated from another car in front of you. Wipers on cars are now functional and will clear the windscreen in two different user configurable speeds. Tracks Vastly improved reflections of the surroundings that become visible as the track gets wet. Added blurred reflections for the “Ultra” Road Reflection setting. Improved shaders for the real-road surfaces and added new shaders to match closely the properties of elements like curbs in dry/wet conditions. Added highly detailed puddle maps that allow puddles to form in the appropriate places on tracks. New HUD Options Added options to show tire wear and ride height as text parameters. Added tire wear percentage to the vehicle status MFD. Increased the accuracy of fuel consumption with an extra digit. Fixed a bug with TireAverageTemp text parameters, which would not show up in the HUD because of a space in their names. Added a “delta best” parameter that you can add to a HUD, showing time lost or gained compared to your fastest lap in milliseconds. Works for all cars (not just player). Included optional text coloring of the text output so positive and negative values can result in different colors. Added a more accurate fuel indication as well as one that shows the fuel you used in your last (full) lap, or zero otherwise. Added a gauge for showing the “delta best” with a range of -1.0 to +1.0 seconds. Added predicted number of laps remaining based on fuel used for last lap. Added current rain percentage. Added minimum and maximum track water depth. Added an option to disable font scaling for the chat and message box (apart from using comic sans, non-linear font scaling is about the biggest sin a designer can commit). Added weather info (rain intensity and min/max water depth) into the MFD for HUD and in-car use. Designed a new default HUD that takes advantage of the new features. (Coming soon) Other/Fixes etc. The plugin API will no longer invoke callbacks that provide ScreenInfoV01 data that used to allow plugins to render to the screen. Doing this directly has been deprecated with the release of DX11, and alternatives are to either use information that is available in the updated HUD or wait for a new plugable HUD system to be released in 2018. We have removed the “cache” folder from our install, so all content will now be downloaded from the workshop. This means the base install is much smaller. Upon first launch you will be automatically subscribed to all Studio 397 content and while that is downloading the Launcher will show a progress dialog window with screenshots of all content items it is downloading for you. Generating Mip Maps from reflections, this gives smoother reflections as a result. Formula E liveries for TeCheetah, Mahindra and Venturi updated to 2018. Formula E driver helmets updated. Formula E driver suits updated. Known Issues/troubleshooting Rain effects are visual currently. However, we are working on physics impacts. Some content is still to be updated to include the rain effects such as cars and tracks. Performance is constantly being reviewed Rain drops on external cameras under review If you are experiencing strange graphical issues, delete the contents of your cbash and shader folders located in \Steam\steamapps\common\rFactor 2\UserData\Log Important: Make sure to update any SteamCMD servers to get the latest!
Updated content with full rain effects: Cars Bentley GT3 - v1.97 Radical GT3 - v1.993 Mercedes GT3 - v1.99 McLaren GT3 - v1.993 Callaway GT3 - v1.97 Formula E - v1.993 Dallara - v1.96 USF 2000 - v1.94 Camaro GT3 - v1.94 Corvette C6R - v1.93 Nissan 370Z GT4 - v1.93 Brabham BT44B - v1.95 >>>You need to manually subscribe HERE Brabham BT20 - v1.95 Stock Car - v1.96 EVE -v1.98 Spark - v1.98 Formula Two - v1.95 Honda Civic BTCC - v1.99 (Physics Update: New tires) Kart Cup - v1.92 Nissan GTR GT1 - v1.93 Howston G4 - v1.96 Howston G6 - v1.96 Megane 2013 - v1.95 Clio 2010 - v1.93 Howston Dissenter - v1.94 Tracks LimeRock - 2.02 Mores - v1.82 Nola - v1.30 Indianapolis - v2.04 Silverstone - v1.84 Brianza - v2.04 Malaysia - v1.82
Well, it seems like this build has dx11 by default. So, pay atention to that guys. Certain plugins won't work. But you can still use the new build, 1109, in dx9 (for the last time). Next time we can kiss GID goodbye
I have been on DX11 for some time now, and use a tablet to have Simdashboard displaying all the plugin type info. The rf2 default plugin stuff seems to be coming soon, but plenty to play with as of now in this. Once I stop playing wreckfest haha
Think this update has broken my rF2 as it doesn't start single player from the Launcher and MP doesn't join the server even after it DL the vmod. Been trying stuff for 2 hrs now and still not working EDIT It seems lots of people have lost tracks & car mods with this update and STEAM servers have been getting hammered with the update downloads. Maybe I'm missing some files which haven't come down yet. Fingers crossed that's all it is. EDIT 2 It's now working! at least in online mode, not tried SP yet. I've been going backwards/forwards between DX9/DX11, uninstalling/deleting/reinstalling the vmod/track, deleting the /cbash & /shader folder contents, removing all previous plugins and nothing was making it start. I restarted STEAM and it DL something else for rF2 and started working, so I can only guess I hadn't received all the updates in previous downloads, of which there have been a few. I highly recommend anybody running the rF2 races at SRO this weekend, make sure you have a working rF2 in plenty of time before the race start. EDIT 3 It's now working in both SP & MP BUT only in DX9 mode. I've switched to DX11, its downloaded the files, but doesn't start in either SP/MP, so I've gone back to DX9 and it works in both!?! Beats me
Ok DX11 mode now seems to be fixed for me, fingers crossed. I had disabled all the plugins in the rF2 Options Menu but that didn't fix it. I thought I'd also moved all the plugin dll's and config files out of the the rF2 folders, but I found I still had a TrackmapPlugin_64.dll file in my ..\rFactor 2\Bin64\Plugins folder. I moved this out and DX11 mode started working!! So disabling the Plugins in the rF2/options menu wasn't enough it seems and the .dll files needed to be moved out of the standard rF folder structure.
