A probably very important part of the functionalities specific to LMU can be brought to rFactor 2. I am looking forward to that. And I hope that they continue to invest in 2024, as in 2022 or almost. As for the DLC content, it should resume in 2024. And perhaps they could help modders more so that they produce quality content (in particular so that the realism or credibility of driving modded cars is increased = TIRES models for example). And I throw a stone into the pissed off by saying : That they stop claiming to improve rFactor 2 by updating in a more ultra partial way content that is more than... 10 years old...... S E R I O U S L Y
I wouldn't say that. It would make sense to serve both camps. Those who want more than just Endurance with rF2 and the users of LMU who are only interested in Endurance. LMU will probably become the flagship for the big Esport events while rF2 will continue to be the ultimate modding and development platform. Hopefully they will get their plans implemented. (Pure conjecture on my part...)
Except that the official S397 cars are almost always of high quality, especially in terms of driving (I call it realism, others will call it credibility). Cars that are truly equivalent in terms of quality, but particularly in terms of realism/credibility, are largely in the minority in modding (if we take all of what is produced). There are some real gems, but I wouldn't count on modding at all to bring a "realistic and credible rFactor 2" to life. For the moment, what I see and what seems most probable to me even though obviously I can and I hope to be wrong, is a brain-dead rFactor 2 (will we consider it worth it? to be resuscitated? Maybe, maybe not...). And then let's not pretend that the context (very serious difficulty of MSG, layoffs, etc.) is not going to play a considerable and negative role on rFactor 2. Obviously this is an impression based on many remarks that I have made. Make factual points, but I and none of us know the future. That's my general impression. [And the little and the bad communication does not help. I think people self-censor on discord because the responses they get (or not) are pretty cold, to say the least.]
I expect that rF2 official development is far from over. It makes sense that they put 99% of effort into LMU now. After LMU gets on the track rF2 will probably get some of the improvements/features from LMU that won't cause chain of reaction breaking everything and requiring mad work rejoining hundreds of broken nodes. I think it also is a good idea in general to have rF2 as main racing games tree trunk keep on going straight up, rather than spreading into a crown of branches already. So whole thing can go taller, reach more, rather than wider.
I suppose one option is release a new build of rF2 and state that some content/mods simply will not work on it and to use previous versions for older content. That way you could 'LMU-ify' rF2. Carry over the latest stuff like BTCC, GT3/E, Formula E.
I want something something like this. I wish I was as optimistic as you. Maybe I will be later. But I find without even talking about rFactor 2 specifically, that the various problems of MSG (financial, reputation, layoffs, very strong dependence on the future of rFactor 2 by the success from the launch of LMU,...) as well as the way of communicating not only with their potential customers/recent customers, but also with their customers who have had rFactor 2 for around 10 years does not give us a calm feeling. That said, I understand the principle which is that the vast majority of their invest come to LMU in 2023... But for me the serious error would be that they do not rebalance their investment gradually in 2024, so that rFactor 2 is not left out. I am aware of being on the pessimistic side , and believe me when there will be a certain number of positive signals there, I would be delighted. Honestly, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
You can put the game on your Steam wishlist and get notices when it releases. https://lemansultimate.com
From a purely commercial view, if i was MSG then I'd make LMU a closed enviroment like ACC How many mods for Assetto Corsa can you use in ACC?
AC and ACC are two completely different gaming engines. AC is its own thing while ACC uses Unreal. There is no cross compatibility It's my hope that LMU sticks close to the rF2 dna. I'm really hoping that LMU to rF2 is like GTR2 to rF1. I'm hoping some assets can be transferred over, but I would also like the quality control of just endurance sports cars focus of what LMU should be. I prefer to have my sims be as open source as possible, but it make since having items locked down in this particular case. Being able to add tracks would be helpful. If it just ships with the 7 from the 2023 season, that isn't much. Cars wise, I just hope we can have custom grids and custom liveries. I would like to be able to convert the game into my IMSA simulator, but there is enough there to get me by. Hopefully there will be a 2024 DLC with the GT3 and other LMDh. If that is the case, the only car that would get missed is the Acura LMDH, with BMW and Lambo being part of the 2024 WEC grid.
@Chris Lesperance - perhaps not explained very well be me. My real point was that ACC wasn't designed to support mods, it could have worked the same way as AC. That surely would have been as much a commercial decision as a technical one. With rF2 now supporting people not having ALL the used car mods to race online, if the base "game" has "all" the tracks then you could then take part if you have just the car you want to race. Tracks? I'd expect the current seven tracks used in 2023 WEC, but is it possible that it might be released with the tracks used in 2024 calendar? Losail, Imola, COTA and Sao Paulo to be added in that case. But if we are thinking about historic WEC then how about a package for ummm... 1990. That would have Suzuka, Monza, Silverstone, Spa, Dijon, Nurburgring, Donington, Montreal and Mexico... and cars... Mercedes C11, XJR-11, Porsche 962, Nissan, Spice, Toyota and Peugeot
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https://www.facebook.com/LeMansUltimate/posts/pfbid05TcVDw95zRbxdWWu5YSF4T18bGTK6dfnqpeLwCHySBQZVvApXP2opSJZ6eEDeStrl&show_text=true&width=500 Some interesting new features announced, that I would like to see for rF2 once again. *Sigh* To honest, if this product really works as good as rF2 with nice quality content and some nice new touchups like this that I allways kind of missed in rF2 I see no reason why this product can't succeed if the basics work nicely out of the box and if development is responsive. Let's hope they don't close off modding. There is also an interview with Alex and some WIP shots of Portimao. Can't wait to try the track in it's laserscanned glory. https://lemansultimate.com/track-chat-circuits-and-environments/
This is the proof that if rF2 had 100% focus on the development, it might had this and some other things long ago "in place"... There are several things not yet implemented in rF2 that exist in the main code, another one that i remember and for sure will be present in LMU is the puddle map on a wet track... Let's have hope and see if rF2 can have all those things in place in the future, we (rF2 fans) are used to suffer and patiently wait for everything...
LMU is benefiting from extra resources, largely because it'll be a standalone game with (hopefully) extra interest in its focused content, and a standalone game price tag. rF2 by itself was always going to take longer to have similar progress. Your comment on puddle maps confuses me - haven't rF2 tracks had that for years now? Or are you talking about something else?
I think you didn't understand, what i mean is that LMU under the hood is rFactor2, what is being implemented in LMU could perfectly be implemented in rF2 if there was interest to... In relation to puddle maps, yes, they're there, but you won't feel them, you see them but you pass them like a flat dry track... PS - Sorry if i'm not being clear, what i mean for "puddle map" are those water spots in the track.
The puddles exist in rF2, but are only visual. The puddle map is an image that determines where are going to be placed the puddles and how deep they will be. Just to clarify. The puddles have the same real road as the rest of the road. If it's raining the puddle part of the road is wet too.
Hell of a lot of nice features rf2 users have been asking for for a long time, we can only hope they come to rf2
Looks nice "wear and tear " but i hope this wear and tear extends to physics than just graphics, that is way more important to get done for endurance sim.(if its aiming to be a sim like RF2). getting tyre damage due to bad pressure , alignment , driving etc would be huge. Add underbody aero damage to that , so setting up car all the way down comes at much bigger price than what it does on rf2. I know this one can get complicated but a simple enough implementation like, X% of total downforce lost due to Y % of damage would be already better than not having it at all imho Maybe suspension stuff can get broken too if you are not running good setup and abusing kerbs. honestly i would be happy even this was done like ON/OFF damage , so a suspension can only tolerate ~X newtons of force after that it explodes into flames (i'm jk about flames and explosion here if someone doesn't get it) in short endurance physics feature are must if these is a serious title and proper evolution of Rf2 physics engine.
Dom Duhan said in the interview (official site) that they have more freedom with LMU to do stuff than with RF2, that may go someway to explaining why this Sim will have new stuff not in RF2 and that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be back ported.
