After releasing build 1108 about a week ago, we got a lot of good feedback from the community and also some bug reports. As always, we very much appreciate your input, even though we cannot always respond to every report individually. We previously explained that we spent some time optimizing our development process, so it should come as no surprise that we’re releasing this update now. This is not the last bugfix we will do, but it is probably the last one we’ll do this year. So from Studio 397, we wish you all a happy new year!

Changes:

• Added an empty “Packages” folder to the dedicated server and to rFactor 2 itself. Both distributions were missing this folder, which caused some confusion.
  
• Fixed an issue with nonexistent workshop items. If you were subscribed to a workshop item that was subsequently removed or made invisible to you, Steam would continue to report you as “subscribed” to that item. Because the item no longer exists, it would, however, cause our Launcher to hang whilst waiting for it to download, which could never happen, of course. We’ve made the code more robust and tried to detect all such cases, so you should no longer experience this issue.

Full announcement:
https://www.studio-397.com/2016/12/build-1108-update-1/

After releasing build 1108 about a week ago, we got a lot of good feedback from the community and also some bug reports. As always, we very much appreciate your input, even though we cannot always respond to every report individually. We previously explained that we spent some time optimizing our development process, so it should come as no surprise that we’re releasing this update now. This is not the last bugfix we will do, but it is probably the last one we’ll do this year. So from Studio 397, we wish you all a happy new year!

Changes:

• Added an empty “Packages” folder to the dedicated server and to rFactor 2 itself. Both distributions were missing this folder, which caused some confusion.
  
• Fixed an issue with nonexistent workshop items. If you were subscribed to a workshop item that was subsequently removed or made invisible to you, Steam would continue to report you as “subscribed” to that item. Because the item no longer exists, it would, however, cause our Launcher to hang whilst waiting for it to download, which could never happen, of course. We’ve made the code more robust and tried to detect all such cases, so you should no longer experience this issue.

Full announcement:
https://www.studio-397.com/2016/12/build-1108-update-1/

Ho ho ho, everybody! You didn’t think the elves at Studio 397 forgot, did you?!?! We have a little surprise for our fellow simracers: The iconic Nissan GT500 in all its ferocity is here to bring you some holiday cheer. Let it roar around any track worthy of its insane muscle!

The car, built for the 2013 SuperGT GT500 class, follows in the footsteps of two championship titles for this Nissan GT-R in 2011 and 2012. It is one of the most powerful GT cars out there, with an engine that delivers over 530 bhp at a weight of only 1,100 kg. Optimizations in engine response, even more torque, and better fuel economy make it superior to the previous year’s model. The rear wing and fender with their shark-tooth-shaped design provide downforce while reducing drag as much as possible.

The Nissan GT500 comes to rFactor 2 with four official liveries for you to enjoy. Not much more to say, we’ll let the car speak for itself! It is available from the Steam Workshop here.

Happy holidays from all of us at Studio 397!

Original announcement:
https://www.studio-397.com/2016/12/christmas-comes-early-at-studio-397/

Workshop link for the Nissan GT500:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=823946118

Ho ho ho, everybody! You didn’t think the elves at Studio 397 forgot, did you?!?! We have a little surprise for our fellow simracers: The iconic Nissan GT500 in all its ferocity is here to bring you some holiday cheer. Let it roar around any track worthy of its insane muscle!

The car, built for the 2013 SuperGT GT500 class, follows in the footsteps of two championship titles for this Nissan GT-R in 2011 and 2012. It is one of the most powerful GT cars out there, with an engine that delivers over 530 bhp at a weight of only 1,100 kg. Optimizations in engine response, even more torque, and better fuel economy make it superior to the previous year’s model. The rear wing and fender with their shark-tooth-shaped design provide downforce while reducing drag as much as possible.

The Nissan GT500 comes to rFactor 2 with four official liveries for you to enjoy. Not much more to say, we’ll let the car speak for itself! It is available from the Steam Workshop here.

Happy holidays from all of us at Studio 397!

Original announcement:
https://www.studio-397.com/2016/12/christmas-comes-early-at-studio-397/

Workshop link for the Nissan GT500:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=823946118

Finally, it’s time for the first Studio 397 release of rFactor 2!

It’s been a few months since the last build was released, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to give you an update on what the team has been busy working on. After taking over development, our first order of business was optimizing and automating the entire build process and setting up a new internal bug tracking system – two improvements that will help speed up public releases of fixes and features. We brought new members into our team to move the project forward in terms of graphics, user interface, infrastructure, content and overall optimizations, which you will start to see in the first quarter of 2017 and beyond. For this first release our focus was on fixing bigger issues such as video driver crashes, optimizing and fixing elements of the workshop and starting work on improving the stock car and oval experience.

We have invested a considerable amount of time in developing and testing stock car, specifically stock car rules, since the last public release. With the help of a dedicated group of stock car league admins and stock car specialists on our test team, we identified some of the crucial issues that need to be addressed. We continually seek to improve our stock car and oval experience. For this first release of several upcoming changes we focused on sorting issues under caution and adding more flexible options for server admins. We’ve also taken a close look at oval behaviour optimizations of the AI in single player, especially (but not exclusively) for short ovals.

For a more detailed changelog, please go to:
https://www.studio-397.com/2016/12/release-of-build-1108/

Finally, it’s time for the first Studio 397 release of rFactor 2!

It’s been a few months since the last build was released, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to give you an update on what the team has been busy working on. After taking over development, our first order of business was optimizing and automating the entire build process and setting up a new internal bug tracking system – two improvements that will help speed up public releases of fixes and features. We brought new members into our team to move the project forward in terms of graphics, user interface, infrastructure, content and overall optimizations, which you will start to see in the first quarter of 2017 and beyond. For this first release our focus was on fixing bigger issues such as video driver crashes, optimizing and fixing elements of the workshop and starting work on improving the stock car and oval experience.

We have invested a considerable amount of time in developing and testing stock car, specifically stock car rules, since the last public release. With the help of a dedicated group of stock car league admins and stock car specialists on our test team, we identified some of the crucial issues that need to be addressed. We continually seek to improve our stock car and oval experience. For this first release of several upcoming changes we focused on sorting issues under caution and adding more flexible options for server admins. We’ve also taken a close look at oval behaviour optimizations of the AI in single player, especially (but not exclusively) for short ovals.

For a more detailed changelog, please go to:
https://www.studio-397.com/2016/12/release-of-build-1108/

We've just posted our monthly roadmap update for December 2016. It talks about new features such as DX11 support and a new UI and cars and tracks that are currently in development, such as the Radical and NOLA Motorsports Park. Please read it here:

https://www.studio-397.com/2016/12/roadmap-update-december-2016/

We've just posted our monthly roadmap update for December 2016. It talks about new features such as DX11 support and a new UI and cars and tracks that are currently in development, such as the Radical and NOLA Motorsports Park. Please read it here:

https://www.studio-397.com/2016/12/roadmap-update-december-2016/

Introducing new and improved Autodromo di Mores: the atmospheric Mediterranean track of Sardegna! This new version offers a bunch of improvements including, 4K textures, balanced colors, an all new “AIW”, and many more changes listed below.

Divertiti!

Changelog:
– TDF updated to actual standards
– New HD Track Loader
– Fixed a terrain mesh triangle causing a black patch.
– Fixed Tire Canvas not tagged as light receiver
– Fixed main Starting Light Overhang Z fight
– Fixed missing caps on main Overhang
– Fixed some mesh shadows groups assignation
– Fixed floating shadows in pitlane when using low shadows settings
– Fixed unwanted cut warnings
– Fixed Sewers mapping
– Fixed Asphalt bicolor patch edges to match crackle decals
– Fixed Verges mapping
– A tad more saturation for all Grass Textures
– Terrain maps now in 4K version
– Green Defender Barrier; Fresnel Specular smoothed out to avoid edgy/glitchy speculars
– Vegetation; a tad more luma for all tree/bush textures
– Cones; a tad less sat/luma for albedo map
– Tweaked specular for different asphalts
– Stripes specular tune to match reference
– Added Test Team RRBINs
– AIW various improvements
– Added more side cams.
– All roads updated to latest RealRoad shader
– All roads remapped
– gMotor Normals export for all mesh
– Material optimization and matballs cleaning
– Overall texture tweaking to balance the HDR output
– Applied random VC in the vegetation color palette, for all trees.
– Glass optimization to work a tad better with actual Static
– Fixed outer terrain overlapped vertices causing black patches

Introducing new and improved Autodromo di Mores: the atmospheric Mediterranean track of Sardegna! This new version offers a bunch of improvements including, 4K textures, balanced colors, an all new “AIW”, and many more changes listed below.

Divertiti!

Changelog:
– TDF updated to actual standards
– New HD Track Loader
– Fixed a terrain mesh triangle causing a black patch.
– Fixed Tire Canvas not tagged as light receiver
– Fixed main Starting Light Overhang Z fight
– Fixed missing caps on main Overhang
– Fixed some mesh shadows groups assignation
– Fixed floating shadows in pitlane when using low shadows settings
– Fixed unwanted cut warnings
– Fixed Sewers mapping
– Fixed Asphalt bicolor patch edges to match crackle decals
– Fixed Verges mapping
– A tad more saturation for all Grass Textures
– Terrain maps now in 4K version
– Green Defender Barrier; Fresnel Specular smoothed out to avoid edgy/glitchy speculars
– Vegetation; a tad more luma for all tree/bush textures
– Cones; a tad less sat/luma for albedo map
– Tweaked specular for different asphalts
– Stripes specular tune to match reference
– Added Test Team RRBINs
– AIW various improvements
– Added more side cams.
– All roads updated to latest RealRoad shader
– All roads remapped
– gMotor Normals export for all mesh
– Material optimization and matballs cleaning
– Overall texture tweaking to balance the HDR output
– Applied random VC in the vegetation color palette, for all trees.
– Glass optimization to work a tad better with actual Static
– Fixed outer terrain overlapped vertices causing black patches