Spontaneously, I thought, why not show some gratitude towards the community. I've been sim racing for, I don't know, 10 years probably. Started with GT3 or 4 on PS2. Then, I wanted more of a challenge, more...realism. So, I went out into the depths of the internet. What I found was GTR. Then GTR². I bought a G25 for this. (Which I'm still using, although the pedals were replaced by Fanatec V2) I had a very hard time with the championships. Struggling to keep it on track. Therefore, most of my time with GTR² was spent in the driving school they had in there. It also reminded me of my recent experience with Gran Turismo. Where you had to obtain a license before you could enter certain races. Then, by accident, I read of rFactor. I got interested and bought a used copy of it on EBay. By that time, I started making videos for YouTube. (These videos are still on my channel if you want to spare a few minutes.) After my first try of rFactor, I never went back to anything else or tried another, except for GT5, because of the hype. I may not know much about racing, but I know a lot more than the majority of people, thanks to ISI, URD and you guys. All of you rock! \m/ It's been an awesome experience so far. Regards, Racefreak
hexagramme, how did you end up with rFactor2? How did everyone get involved with rFactor2 C'mon guys, share your story.
Haha thanks for asking. Here goes: Way back in the day I raced a bit with my best friend, on his father's old Win95 computer. Don't remember the name of the sim, maybe it was "Formula One Grand Prix"? Anyways, I remember lots of pixels and a cool old Williams racer. Then my friend and I moved on the mighty N64 and F1 World Grand Prix I and II. Amazing!!! This is actually the game that brought me into watching F1 in 1999, hadn't ever watched a race before playing those games. The games were amazing, with all the drivers from the 1997 and 1998 seasons (except Villeneuve) and all the tracks. The cars were very hard to control, and there were driving aids ad libitum, setups, fuel consumption and tyre deg as far as I remember. Oh and the scenarios were cool too. I remember driving as poor Damon Hill on Hungaroring, in the lead, in the last few laps with a dying car. Exciting! In the races I remember the cars actually retired on the same laps as in real life. Very authentic. When we didn't race we just started a spectator race and played commentators lol! So much fun. Later on my friend lost interest in the more difficult racing games and sims. I went on to play loads of racing games on the PS2. Gran Turismo, TOCA, Studio Liverpool's F1 games, Lotus Challenge, Richard Burns rally and so on. On the PC, around 2006, I raced F1 Challenge 99-02 and rFactor with a keyboard. I was fascinated with the modability of those titles. It was everything I ever dreamed of. Just watched an exciting GP2 race? Go on rFactorCentral and download a fantastic mod to race that exact series! I was in heaven. My old PC couldn't run those sims at decent quality though so I became very frustrated and quit sim racing for a long time. I got a PS3 in 2011 because I wanted to play Codemasters' F1 titles. I had a real good time for a year or so. Then I became very frustrated and bored with racing with a controller, plus the arcade physics began to irritate me. On YouTube I stumbled upon a rFactor 2 video, showing a guy having a crazy race with the Clios. WOW! Then I discovered that rF2 would feature wet weather, flat spots and crazy advanced tyre modelling, Real Road and so on. I. Was. Sold. I started saving money to buy a proper PC. I needed a rig that was both able to handle music recording software (I write, play and record my own music) and racing sims. Last summer I finally had enough money and I jumped head first straight into the wonderful world of full-on sim racing after getting a G27 wheel and pedals. Now the deal for me is rFactor 2 first of all, iRacing, Assetto Corsa, Game Stock Car and so on.
I started in 2007. Bought my first wheel which was G25 which serves me well to this day (Not even once broken). I've been racing in the same polish league using rF1 (had some experience with other sims but 90 % of my time I spent with rF1) racing in F1 series. In times of it's glory (league's glory) we had around 200-300 ACTIVE drivers. Even raced with my whole arm in plaster, broke few bones there. When rF2 came out I focused my attention solely on this particular sim. Had a try with RBR, AC, pCARS, Race07 and few others but it is rF2 where my heart is placed. I'm technical oriented person and I absolutely love fiddeling with settings, telemetry. I even do series of marathons. 14-16 h of telemetry analysing, setup work and some driving. I love it. I was really surprised when I had my first try on a track in different cars that everything I learned in rF1, all the mussle memory I had from it could be used in RL and with big success. rF2 made me even better in that aspect, helping me get rid of some bad habbits. I try to keep myself open minded when it comes to other sims but I can't fool anyone and most definitely I can't fool myself... rF2 is my home and I don't intend to leave it anytime in the future.
I feel the same way. My RL driving got a whole lot safer because of rFactor. You learn the limits in perfect safety. This should be the purpose of every sim. NfS and sorts are doing the exact opposite imho. Since you're a setup expert, maybe you could help me out a little. I have no clue about this sort of stuff. Only thing I think I know, is adjusting the gearbox to whatever track I'm on. That's about all.
A weird and obcure mix of lo-fi, rock and electronic stuff. Some of it is pretty dark. Sometimes it's more cheery. But always with loads of energy and some catchy melody lines and crazy stuff going on. I have an old album uploaded to soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/i-divorced-life/tracks All my music is on BandCamp: http://idivorcedlife.bandcamp.com/ It spans from 2007 to 2011-ish. Oh and I have a new album in the works, coming out soon.
Is this you singing? Great voice, bro. You should make this your profession. "Earth in Fear and Terror" my favourite so far "Choke and Cry Now" is pretty good too. I like it. I'm following you on soundcloud. Don't know the bandcamp site very well.
You asked for it, but my story is long, yet young I am from 89... I was blessed, privileged enough to have resourceful parents who wanted a PC rather early... BOOM! PC woot ! In 92 we got our first mighty machine... I was three... For starters we had Wolfenstein 3D... I've been told later than when I had to go home from the kindergarden, I told the teachers/workers there I had to go home and shoot the germans now... I guess that was memorable somewhat for my parents, possibly also the teachers in the kindergarden... When I was four in 93 we already had a flight simulator and a joystick... I already watched F1 by myself when I catched it on TV random sundays so when I was out getting groceries with my father one day I stumbled upon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One_Grand_Prix_(The first Geoff Crammond GP-series game) I begged like every kid would do and I got it - in that nice, old school square cardboard box Massive amounts of floppies went in the machine and we got it working... with the joystick, push forward to accelerate, pull back to brake and left, right turned... Worked brilliantly, gear up/down on the arm/fire buttons... This was before win95 so I had to learn doing the run C:\f1gp.exe command and all that Got GP2 as well... Almost as nice as I remember it... Your 'first time' I guess will always be special N64 ! In 1996 I turned to get an N64 and got the 96 F1 game, then the F1 World Grand Prix I & II which covered 97 and 98... Then I got a PS1 alongside with Gran Turismo and GT2 and F1 97 and 98... NEW PC ! In 1999 we (finally) got a sparklin' new PC in 99... Raced Carmageddon 1 and 2 yum! But it didn't take long before I got my hands on what ultimately got me hooked on ISI... I got F1 2000, I think I got it from the UK... The sparklin' new PC even struggled with it! That game was ahead of its time... Yet I've learned afterwards that no matter how much of a NASA computer you had, it would stutter a tiny bit... What can you say? It was a new graphical engine, it pushed the limits of what was possible like nothing I'd ever experienced. Alongside I had gotten GPL a bit late, but it didn't really float my boat as the modern stuff did, hate me lol PS2 ! As a side note I 'of course' got me a PS2... F1 Championship 2000 was the first... F1 2001, F1 2002 and F1 Challange 99 - 02 followed... Skipped all the Sony F1 games... They looked like qwap compared to EA's I found. Of course I got TOCA, Le Mans for PS2, GT3 and GT4. SECOND NEW PC ! in 2002 got GP4, covering 2001 season... Skipped F1 2001... Instead I got F1 2002... ISI and EA had sorted the engine and it was the best ever... Kept the same sort of track, got F1 Challenge 99 - 02. BRILLIANT so many cars and tracks... Didn't have the career mode which the PS2 had... but it had something much much more important a huge modding community - Quickly the 2003 season was available... 2004 came, 05 came... All from both CTDP (my fave mod group throughout time) and R Hummerich... Later VirtuaLM also released mods to F1 C, their legendary Prototype C... Alongside the old sports cars there were also the newer R8's and such in the SCC mod, which also was ported to rF1 later on... I was a little bit late to leave F1 Challenge for rFactor... it took me a year to make the full switch from F1 C to rF1, which I fully did in late 06... I had a hard time to say goodbye to a few F1 C features, specially the dynamic weather! rFactor 1 (and GTR, GTR2, GTL and GTR-E) ! In 07 rF1 started to really shine with it's first pair of stunning mods... rFactor 1 redeemed itself with it's nice graphics for the time (YES! actually) tiremodel and FFB and of course it's focus on modding. It is for me, still the biggest ever race simulation title. I hope rFactor 2 can surpass it with time I haven't really looked back since F1 2002/F1 Challenge... Geoff Crammond quit doing GP games... LFS didn't have the content, it felt good but there was always a new mod/car I'd rather race in rF1... iRacing came with their subscription based model which I didn't and still don't find the need of participate in... I've tried it, but not more than 30 bucks worth of playtime + an HPD... rFACTOR2... Here we are... Oh I had a steering wheel already for the N64... And for the PS2 for GT3, Logitech Driving Force (black plastic and blue rubber with FFB!!!)... Then I got me a black MOMO... Then a G25, then a Fanatec GT3 RS including Clubsport pedals... Today I mix the G25 with the Clubsport pedals... My G25 did die on me, the encoder wheel cracked and it wouldn't calibrate but I revived it with a new wheel in metal shipped from Thailand But I think it's time for a new one when it acts up the next time! Finally... I guess I am quite 'enlightened' as I've been simracing since I was four... It wasn't any of my parents hobbies... They have no idea where this F1 and racing come from... Oh well... All by myself at the age of four till now... A young experienced bastard It all started with a joystick and GP1!
Quite some history you got there. Even though your 13 years younger than me! So, you're an openwheeler guy then? What about GT cars? You drive them too sometimes?
Sure I do Raced GTR and GTR2... and plenty of tin tops and sportscar mods in F1 Challenge and rF1 And my most raced rF2 mod is the URD EGT5 cars... So yeah... GT cars I race too
My history is much too long to put it in words. Here the short version, I come from the time of the first ATARI consoles until now, several consoles / computers and of course almost everything to drive on. I probably belong to the old iron here with my 40 years but I'm sure there are still some older than me. However rf2 is the biggest innovation to date as a simulation for me so far and I am happy to live to be able to see all this and what is to come in the future. What I would have given for something like rf2 or today's technology in general, ages ago.
Twenty Years... It was May of 1994 when I walked into the Software City in Melbourne, Florida and saw NASCAR Racing by Papyrus on the shelf. I few feet to the right of that was IndyCar Racing by Papyrus, along with IndyCar Racing Track Pack and IndyCar Racing Track Pack 2: Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Paint Kit. In addition to being racing games, they allowed me to paint my own car. So, for around one hundred dollars, I picked up all four titles. That was how it started. I barely had enough computer at the time to run the titles. I got around 5 FPS by myself, 1-5 SPF with additional cars, and 10+ SPF with the inevitable crash that would happen with trying to guess where everyone would be in 1 to 5 seconds. So, my ever increasing race to have decent hardware to run the games began. I've gotten to the point now when I build to "future proof" my computer for about 4 years. I'm one-and-a-half years into my current build and might not make it to the balance of the time period. Carmageddon: Reincarnation maxed out on my current machine is a little low in the FPS department, though playable. Anyway, painting cars was what hooked me initially. I used a no-frills paint program I wrote for myself. Its initial incarnation was for use on my Apple //e in the 1984 time frame, though I ported it to my IBM PC XT class machine as time went by. One change I had to make was to change the bitmap on import to have every part of the car rightside up and left-to-right orientation since I had a hard time editing upside down images. The various parts of the bitmap were turned the right way for in-game display upon export. The red and gold #13 D&D stock car scheme I use was born in this time period. The black with blue-white lightning #13 NWN road course car came later. I then had the crazy notion that I wanted to run the IndyCars at Talladega. My foray into track editing had begun. I was able to get what I wanted by editing the old Track.TXT files and writing a program to change the color palette used in the games. It worked for the most part. I couldn't quite change the entire palette. Then sometime in 1998 I got hooked onto the internet, in addition to Grand Prix Legends. I found a whole world of track editing stuff far and away better than what I had come up with by myself. In addition to the Sierra forums, I gravitated towards two sites: The Pits and Legends Central. The Pits did not have a forum at the time, while Legends Central did. I debated for some time, then decided to join the Legends Central forum. About two months later Something Happened (tm) and Legends Central was taken down, only to be reborn some months later as Race Sim Central. It was now in the early 2000's and it was the peak of my interest in sim racing. I was writing little programs here and there in the editing vein. Some were not well received-- my chrome illusion program for GPL cars didn't go too far, for example. I had a good set of programs I was developing for GPL and N2003 editing and developing. MadCowie put out about a handful of tracks using my programs before he found better tools. I only put out one: N2003 Milano. It wasn't too well received, though folks need to realize: I wrote the programs to get it into the game as well as trying to edit the track itself-- using text files. Anyway, I was planning better things for my programs when a hard drive crash took out 95% of what I had-- including almost all of the source code. That pretty much took me out of the N2003 editing business. Then December of 2004 happened, and the sim-racing world fragmented. I eventually migrated to rFactor in 2005, and used Dave Noonan's 3DSimEd and TrackMaker to get Milano into rFactor. I could have released it as a straight conversion late in 2005, but wanted to fix it up first. I still haven't released it for general use eight-and-a-half years later. I put out a few betas in the late 2000's along with a couple of playful offshoots, SpaceTrack and SpaceMilano, but that's it. Unfortunately, I don't think the SpaceTrack concept will work with rFactor2. Oh, well. I started to seriously look at Blender in 2010 and wondered about using it for sim editing. The work flow involved with using 3DSimEd was somewhat awkward, for me at least, and I then started to look at writing scripts to work directly with GMT's in Blender. That work is chronicled here in these forums. So, it's now May of 2014. I've been involved with sim-racing for twenty years-- the various Papyrus titles during the first decade, and the rFactor titles during the second decade. The Sierra boards and Race Sim Central are long gone, and The Pits is a mere shadow of its formal self, if that. My interest in sim-racing is currently at a flat-line. I think the Indy package and StockCar package due out for rFactor 2 may lift it up again, but I don't think I'll hit the level of interest of a dozen years ago.
THANK you for reminding me! Instant early access, yoink! If a guy like you with such experience can enjoy, then I can too I really miss the old Carmageddon 1 and 2 days
First: Formula 1 on ZX Spectrum 48k. 30 years later i still play it (now on mobile phone). Basicaly you manage an F1 team, choose your tires, spend Money upgrading your car. You only "drive" the pit workers. All other time you see a static camera on finish line. Was and its great. Then i spent some more time on Wec Le Mans, now on Spectrum 128K. After Spectrum i had a 386sx....man.....it was something unbelivable During that time i was more an adventure guy. Kyrandia, Monkey Island, and all other on same genre. UNTIL..... UNTIL.... The father of all sims.....MICROPROSE F1. It was years racing it. Then i go to Army, spent some years there (more or less the time at when Gran Turismo 2 was released which i played there). Blablablala..............Rfactor 1............Blablablabal............Rfactor 2..............blablalbabla.............Rfactor 3.................. Thats my story PS: Games like Nigel Mansell, Pole Position, Stunt Car Racer, 3D stock car championship, test drive, lotus esprit, made my childhood happier.
Oh qwap, how could I forget this one..: Oh and Test Drive II, the one with the Porsche 959 and the Ferrari F40 - that was before the joypad I won't really consider them sims though... GP1 was the first 'sim' for me... Like Valter said "Father of all sims"
