Released NEW! Endurance Pack - Now Available!

If by "moving the camera" you are moving using the seat fore/aft control, you have gone through the back of the seat.
I just tried it and yes, the led's disappear but you should also notice you are just behind the seat.
So in reality the seat movement controls, as we know, should be called camera up/down fore/aft because the actual seat doesn't move.

 

The S397 cars are under manufacturer name.

 

Yes, I meant moving the seat back, in RF2 parlance. Well spotted - I didn't think I'd moved into the seat mesh, but clearly I must have.

 

Thank you thank you thank you! These cars are thoroughly engaging, and I love running the GT's, and the cars are light enough on my GPU/CPU that I can run 35 with no stutter. Can you optimize the GT3's the same way? I can barely run half as many with the same performance level.

 

Well done to S397 on a good release of the Endurance Pack.

As regards the cars, they seem to be well modeled graphically. Several issues have been pointed out already: M8 has poor internal rearview LCD panel resolution (may be intentional), misplaced wipers etc. But in general these look like minor fixes. I'd say the 'damage textures/shaders' are a little overdone especially on the M8. The sounds are good too, especially the 911, but I'll also say they cut off too early and you can't hear them from far enough away. That 911 in real life is ear-splitting as it goes past and you get the full blast of the exhaust in your direction, but its bloody loud from just about any distance - at COTA, pretty much the entire track distance.

On the physics front, the GTE cars are fairly benign and good fun to drive. However, we do need to discuss the 'new' tires. In the main, I'd say they communicate the road surface well, but they are still far too forgiving and willing to slide too much/too extreme slip angle. It's been this way for a while on most cars. Its particular noticeable on the Oreca though, and in particular the ploughing at the front. This latter may just be a poor 'out of the box' setup, but I think not. The front just doesn't have the grip it should. And when you watch the AI, they also have that terrible plough at the front, steering turned like 60-90 degrees, come completely off the power then the wheels straighten, and power is reapplied. We've had several of the past cars like this - the Radical most notably. I will say that when compared with the Endurance mod by Enduracers, the GT cars feel pretty good but the mod LMP2 cars are better although they are far too 'rubbery' in the suspension/tires. The S397 Oreca does not communicate the road surface and has lesser FFB when compared to the GT cars.

I think tweaks and fixes should be fairly easy to do, and overall I am impressed with the quality of this release.

However... its time, I think, to talk about general AI car behavior. This is far too 'digital' with the application of both throttle and brake, and nowhere near as smooth as a real driver would do. You can tell this by the sounds on throttle during a corner. Is there any hope for an improvement on these algorithms? I will however say the tires now don't often emit smoke from lockups every single corner like the older cars used to do/still do, not sure whether that is just a feature of the tire or the braking algorithm but suspect the former. There also needs to be a bit of adjustment to how the AI decides on a line to take when in multiclass traffic. Too often, the slower GT cars pull to the inside to try to block the much faster car; in fact, a GT car about to be passed would more normally keep to the regular line and let the faster car go past it offline, and would tend to give it more consideration on corner entry/braking rather than try to fight it off. Are there plans to address these issues?

 

Ctrl+ seat does left mirror
Alt + seat does right mirror
Ctrl+Alt+seat does rear / camera
Shift+seat moves all at once?
Is that right?

 

Attention to AI is definitely overdue by at least 2 years.

The concept of multiple AIW is good, but it fell apart when too many AIWs came into use because they were initially implemented with specific car names when really only types of cars were needed, so it became a maintenance nightmare. AI Learning was going somewhere nice with the Wisdom files, but also fell apart from inattention, with the most recent version just plain not working and generating results slower than the old methods. As you mentioned, AI using full throttle/brake is still annoying. Recent track AIW seem to be made with a narrow car (Skippy?) and don't have alternate lines for wider cars, so AI often slip off the track if you don't train them in Type 2 AI Learning (Wisdom Files). And finally there is the bugged implementation of the rulesets, where AI can't stay in touch with the safety car/pace car even on the opening lap, not to mention during a race when the safety car comes out.

This is why I currently feel that AMS currently exhibits the best AI behavior even though it still exhibits the old rF1 attribute of parking in corners. rF2 AI has potential to regain the lead, but not when it is seemingly left to rot.

 

I'm surprised no one has mentioned it, but rF2 features for hybrids are still nonexistent. This could well be the most significant reason you see no LMP1s in the pack?​

 

Thank you everyone for your reviews of the Endurance pack! I will be buying it shortly as a result of the overall positive response.

 

If they will merge the two we will have the best AI on market for at least another decade...
Latest AMS tease pic let's us hope we will see Reiza work on rF2 engine (graphic one at least) would be a blast for simracing have S397 and Reiza working togheter...more manpower, more talents, etc

 

If Reiza licenced rfactor2 code (tire/physics model, DX11 and even more VR support) that would indeed be awesome. I tried all sims and simcades but rF2 always was my number one sim because of its detailed physics and tire model. With last years VR support I could finally drive my beloved sim rF2 again (no AC or iRacing needed anymore). Never bought AMS because of missing VR support.
Reiza with rfactor2 technology would simply be awesome! New quality content -> lots of potential!

To be on topic: I am happy to read that many positive feedback. Can't wait to try the new GTE pack by myself soon this week.

 

One of rF2's strongest selling points used to be AI, but as you say it's not seen much love since 2015 and the new vehicles seem to have outgrown the old tech. Hopefully there are some tweaks in the development pipeline.

 

Probably yes

 

I agree about the AI needing attention part, there has been very little from S397 with regards to this area and I can understand why - Plenty of other areas need priority (UI, Comp System, getting DX11 up and running etc etc). So whilst it's a pain to see the AI left stagnant at least they are still a lot of fun, I've had some Epic battles in each car with the GTE Pack just the same as I've had with other Cars in the past.

What I don't want is for the AI to be forgotten forever, they do need (a lot of) work in certain areas and my List that I'm saving for S397 when the time is right is growing. S397 have, at some point in the future, the chance of really pushing RF2s AI to the very top of Sim Racing, I just hope they don't lose sight of how important Offline racing is to the community - eSports may well be the Future but AI will always be widely used by a vast number of people.

 

They are looking into the safety car/rolling start behaviour. Marcel responded to a bug report on it.

I would like to see lapped traffic get some attention too. Did a 24min race yesterday and they either won't move or put a tyre on the grass and wipe out half the field.

 

Exactly. I love rf2 for it's great AI. Most of the time I'm just hotlapping or starting a short race about 15-30 minutes against AI.
If rf2 would has a really bad AI, most of the fun would be gone.

 

Sorry but I am very disappointed. If you watch the AI how they drive now, mainly the curves, you can't but think that they have purposedly left the ai to rot, can't understand why.

 

I think it's a matter of priorities. AI is not perfect, but good enough. UI is not good enough at all. Content: not good enough. Competition infrastructure is not good enough, to say the least. If they are done with the important things which sell the game at the first place, they will put efforts to AI and the rest as well to keep the customers.
I'm sure S397 has a veeery long list of thing to do.

 

I would be interested to know wich track you have been using? I made a practice session with the pack yesterday on the Road Atlanta version from Heikki and the AI was pretty good in traffic with multiclass racing. Not fast enough at 100% for me, but still good enough for some relaxed Endurance racing and AI was pretty believable while overtaking slower classes. When the behaviour under FCY and with changing weather conditions gets fixed, it should be a very nice base allready. What I would like to see though, is that AI only races cars of the same or slower classes.

 

They have said in the Endurance pack announcement...