Hey racers, hey devs, I'm one of those users just sporadically starting rF2 to just have some fun in the Sim, eg blasting around in the LMP2 to see where the Sim is currently at, while mainly doing my long time sessions and competitive races in other simulators. I'm a rF2 user since day 1 of the beta and beyond and the Sim sadly never really got me to stay. But as I love the immersion you get while driving the cars I'm still very closely following dev blogs, Roadmap updates and competition blogs to see what's new. With the new UI and broadcast overlay I'm missing ONE thing, that is VERY important to me as a user: The incar UI (or HUD, overlay however you'll call it)! I've never actually seen a word on wether this is being worked on. It's maybe the most aparant thing which puts the user back into year 2012 as soon as he steps into his car. It's so far away from being modern, lacking information, lacking customizability (like repositioning, which is important for me because I use a phone dash just behind my wheel), lacking a good relative display (it Really needs a modernization imo). Mods are there but they mostly just are reskins, some of them not fully working (like the delta time bug where it just doesn't work if your first timed lap is your fastest). While looking over to something like ACC or 3rd party overlays for iracing rF2's HUD is maybe the worst in industry. And as the HUD is the bridge between the driver and the sim while in the car I don't know why we are seeing it being worked on (maybe it is). So, me personally, I would love to hear wether this is in development (broadcast UI looks pretty awesome imo, design wise) as I think it's an important part especially for new users coming in. And we all want rF2 to be a Sim that is capable of KEEPING users as It's already good at attracting those. Thanks for reading through my words. Looking forward to reading a statement ( just want an heads up ). Cheers and happy racing
I don't think we've seen anything on this recently (I say recently... year or two?). I see no reason to think it's not still on the to-do list, but it's obviously not high on it. The HUDs available that change the look and position of the elements all rely on the same game information. So the delta bug you mention is the game, not any particular HUD, for example. Since the switch to dx11 support for on-screen drawing by plugins has never been reinstated. I think trackmap was mentioned at the time as part of the reasoning on that because it was associated with screen freezes. My personal experience was that plugins using the actual interface to draw were fine (trackmap used dx injection instead). Simhub is a popular option to display things on screen, you might want to check that out because it really doesn't look like this area will move anytime soon - that delta bug is now years old itself.
Yeah I know about SimHub, but that's a very advanced tool plus it kills my game performance when running ontop rF2. Must be because of the engine. Other games work fine. I was just wondering because ingame HUD is such an obvious thing to everybody. There is so much effort being put into the broadcast overlay for the 100 viewers the championchips have, that I have the feeling the HUD is being forgotten. But MAYBE a dev will comment on this.
From the CS blog week 13 https://www.studio-397.com/2021/04/competition-system-blog-week-13/ : "Will a new HUD be created with more information?" EmanueleMarra15 We have not decided yet, to be honest, and there are some different opinions within Studio 397 on where we should go with this. Our focus is on simulation, and arguably in a real car (with some exceptions) you don’t see any HUD. Also, arguably, in a simulation you now have access to way more and more accurate information than you would ever have in a real race car. So we have been toying around with some more “hardcore” setting that would align better with that. On the other hand, most other “simulations” have very extensive HUDs that display a wealth of information, so we also see there is a demand for this.
Oh wow I really overlooked that thanks for linking! Well, it's an answer, although I'm a little shocked about the approach. They "see the demand" actually means there is nothing in development. Otherwise this would have been the place to say it. Also I'm really wowed by the "in the real car you don't have this information". I cannot believe they said that We also don't have a crew chief and engineer and the car's dashboards are usually very low quality in rF2. So there rather will be a "hardcore, no HUD mode" than an actually usable one. That's really really sad and disappointing. I might asked this question again for the next blog so they see there IS demand for it.
So you think the current HUD is good? It doesnt even tell me wether the car behind is from my class or not, the realtive times are wrong, its not even a real relative in terms of track position, the HUD dash is always in the middle, there isnt even a button assignment for going BACK in the page of the blackbox. I think there are a lot of problems, not speaking of the 2010 design of it. All that mods cant solve because rF2 is limiting it. So not as open as we wish in terms of HUDs
"I don't like A, and I don't like B" "B isn't so bad. What about this aspect of B?" "Oh, so you like A? HOW COULD YOU LIKE A???" Seriously...
The HUD? I haven't said anything about the HUD. You said "We also don't have a crew chief and engineer" And i answered you with the link to the Crew Chief thread. But if you ask me about the HUD, for me is enough. I never used Trackmap or similar HUDs. I prefer to be focused in driving, but it's what i like. I understand that others want the screen with a lot of info.
I think there is nothing "unbelievable" about considering to get rid off as much as possible that is drawn on the HUD in a racing sim. If I had to make a sim I would try to implement systems that mimic real systems. Some games show stuff like start lights and yellow flag indicators telemetry and tons of other stuff. The cool thing about rF2 is that you have working start lights, flags, mashalls etc, so you can in theory get rid of it completely. I would like to see that part of the sim extended with stuff like real pit boards, telemetry that you can only access in the pits and the different dash systems aswell as something like crew chieff but right out of the box. Other simulations have a very similar approach btw. Idk if you have ever played DCS but they have a zero-HUD approach aswell. I have no idea why we still have the tacho and rev counters btw. For me - and that's just my personal take on this - they are first of all obsolete as you have them in basicly every dash and they are very gamey assets.
Yeah absolutely agree. There will always be an option to disable it and people who want can do so. But what we have should be up to par with 2021 standards to stay competitive. Especially for streaming a good looking, functioning UI is a very nice thing.
Yeah sorry you are right. but even CC does not give information we need and want. And I always prefer a good thought out default HUD rather than searching mods and stuff
Thank you for your constructive addition to this discussion. I simply misunderstood his comment so...
I'm perfectly happy to presume (with some justification, if I may say so) that my post helped illuminate your understanding. So, you're welcome.
I'm a relatively new user to rF2 and think the native steering wheel screen (SWS) in the 397 rF2 vehicles needs some work. I assume the SWS is different to the HUDs - which seem to me to be just various overlays separate from the rF2 software on the PC screen and often from SimHub either as a "HUD" or "Overlay"?? For example the Formula E SWS needs to have better power/energy discharge/charge display info. I suspect the real cars have a better display than just a battery symbol and percentage in the 397eHUD?? Plus the lap delta diff should be in the SWS. Eg in this pic in purple box: And Codemasters F1 2020 has Lap Diff/Delta displayed in the SWS, Red +0.851,: From the statement in January 21 "Studio 397 and rFactor 2 are delighted to continue our fantastic collaboration with Formula E", I assume that rF2 is almost the official game??
So in the latest CS blog they kind of mentioned that a new HUD system is in development. Well at least it's in the works
Agree. But I wonder exactly what is meant?? I might even be confused by the terminology. To my mind a "HUD" and "Overlay" seem to be almost the same thing - they are both on top of the game graphics. I would like to see some small additions to the actual steering wheel screen display, part of the game graphics I think, to match the actual FE cars.
I took it to mean a new HUD system, replacing the existing hud elements ('map', tacho, car status, tyre temps, etc). The in-car system (in terms of functionality, and graphical representation) has gone nearly nowhere since the very start, so some progress there would also be good. No doubt there would be some fairly complex physics work to go with that as well, assuming the usual rF2 standard is kept.