Graphics improvements suggestions

Excellent post, sir (or madam?)!

I'm struggling to see much difference between RF1 and RF2 in terms of graphics (RF2's look very 'cartoony' to me, and nowhere near as realistic as other sims I could mention, but won't).

Perhaps this has a lot to do with my settings, but I've spent more time trying to get the game to look good and run well than I have racing. That's something that shouldn't need to be done, but it's taken me three days of Googling and faffing about with all sorts of files and settings so far, and only now have I achieved a reasonable level of detail and an acceptable FPS rate.

Online is also a struggle. Sometimes I get straight into a race, other times it tries to download something but fails. The latter happens most of the time so I go back to offline mode. It's probably something I'm doing wrong, but that means even more Googling and 'forumming' for help, and should I/we really have to do that?

I am an old but experienced sim racer, but so far have to say that my experience with RF2 has been more than a little frustrating.

Having said that, now it's working I'm really enjoying offline racing, but hoping for better community support with things such as voice chat and an in-game friends lists etc. Whether or not they are forthcoming remains to be seen, but I would've thought they'd be essential elements in this new generation of sims.

 

You are not doing anything wrong, most mods just aren't hosted for rF2 autodownload (and rF2 doesn't exactly make it most intuitive how to link mods to autodownload). Having said that, such autodowload feature doesn't even exist in other sims. In AC and every other sim you have to download the mod first manually before joining a server running it.

 

I get the same, but I started wondering if that's not caused by accelerated real road rate. It would cause physical layer of road to get wet very quickly even with slight rain. This is what may be causing the confusion.

Other elements of engine are not accelerated or accelerated at different rate. We have time acceleration in session settings, which is not related to real road acceleration, but related to weather acceleration.

I think we should try a test with normal time scale, normal real road rate, short session (10-15 minutes?), and weather going from sunny to rainy.

 

My understanding as well is that water buildup rate is tied to realroad acceleration coefficient, so it should work much more realistic with lower than the default x5 value. Then if standing water would one day reflect properly as it did in 2010 beta, it would also be easier to spot.

 

Multiplayer...as it stands right now is unavailable to many, unless you have a fairly fast internet connection or can find servers running a simple two component rfmod.
I don't even bother with it anymore.
My experience goes like this...Launch the game and try to join a race.
Find out I do not have all the required rfmod content.
Try downloading them on my less than optimal connection.
Get some...followed by the infamous not everything installed message.
Try five or six more servers. All do the same.
Give up and go join a race in AC in less than a minute, run Copa or run Rf2 offline.
Sure!..sometimes you get the occasional 'kiddy' trying to win it all in the first corner there...but more often than not, you have some good races and it's relatively easy to join.
Should it be the same in RF2....absolutely.
I had some guy here (on this forum a few weeks back) actually get PO that I wouldn't download every track and car AHEAD of time.
It was the most ridiculous thing I'd heard in a long time.

 

If you join a server with mods in AC you need to go through the exact same process of manually downloading the necessary car/track, actuall it's even worse because in AC there is no autodownload at all. In rF2 autodownload works if server/mod is set up properly.

 

Come on man!
That's crap and you know it.
Do not be disingenuous.
Sure! you have to manually download the car and track....but you download only ONE car and ONE track per server.
I have no favorites. I own and try to run them all, but I have to take to task deficiencies...and this is a major one.
It is also much easier to get into races with AC because of it.

 

Thats not the point. The point is that in AC the content is already there and you can just join a server with the content you want to race. Easy as that. I had the EXACT same experience (except I have a fast connection) with RF2 online and havent renewed my online subscription for that very reason.

 

That is true of course regarding multiple cars/tracks needed to download. rF2 announced a new dedi prototype many months ago, which would "fix" this issue of needing to download many tracks. Sadly no server uses it at moment, I now made a thread about it here.

Regarding "AC content is already there", it's the same with rF2, all ISI content is set to always autodownload from any server. It's only the mods that are problem.

 

Why wasn't one car and track per rfmod implemented by ISI after the original Rfactor debacle?
Better yet, why not have a few ISI content-only servers along with those online?
I remember the multiple mismatch issue with the original rFactor game.
People would have so many different versions of tracks and cars, that it simply became a right royal PITA after a while to do multiplayer.

@Stonec... The difference is with AC you'll maybe download one car in the 55-60 MB range and one track in the 60-75 MB range prior to going online. That can be done relatively quickly and is NOT the norm.
That's plenty 'do-able'.
In more cases than not, the rfmod's build up dictates you download 2-5 tracks and multiple cars...sometimes hundreds of MB each.
In many sessions, you are using just one of each.
It's really not ideal and with a slow/medium connection, sometimes by the time you get done downloading everything required (on those few times it does work)...the guys have moved on and the race is long over.

Here's a representative action of what happens mostly when you try online play as it stands now.
It took 1 minute 12 secs to get into an AC multiplayer.
It took 7 minutes 46 secs to get into RF2...(due mainly to downloading just one track), since no RF2 only servers were there to run.

 

If RF2 had a well functioning MP system I would play and pay in a second. It doesnt. I couldnt care less whos to blame.

 

If rfmod contained just one car and track, server admin would need to create new rfmods all the time, which itself is painful process with current tools. ISI did implement "one track" concept in the so called experimental dedi interface announced in autumn, which unfortunately hasn't seemingly progressed in last few months.

 

Agree. Yesterday did some practicing for forthcoming endurance race at VEC (http://rf2vec.net) and we had rain. After restarting the weekend track was dry and then it started to rain. To me change in grip level felt quite normal/natural. At first it's not easy to detect very light rain - actually you can hear it before you can see it. I think VEC has developed their own tires for URD EGT mod which generate squeeling sound even on fully damp asphalt - very different to ISI's mods where tire sounds are completely different on damp compared to dry. We're also still using b798. Track is Interlagos (they've made some modifications to it too).

 

Said so many times before... this is exactly the reason why I haven't bought a MP licence for this game. Now I play it 1x every two or three months. GSCE with friends is the favorite, seconded by AC MP. Occasionaly I take a peek into rF2 to see if things have changed. Not.

 

While its agreed its not great, the fact of the matter is over the last few months many people have been having brilliant experiences online with rf2. Getmod is working great, the drivers are friendly and damned fast, the only thing that is needed is more drivers.

I drive the historic F3s, not because they are my favourite, but because the servers are populated, the racing is intense and it is rookie friendly. Serious fun here, everyday.

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As if matf1 is a rookie...

 

Rookies need aspiration

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Rookies F3 server, usually run by DurgeDriven. Fantastic server. Very friendly as well. Great for all experience and speeds. Durge is very helpful to help newcomers, even watches you from onboard and helps you with your driving. The amount of players usually gets pretty high as well. My most highly recommended server.

 

Graphics improvements suggestions?....more post processing filters...and a better rappresentation of the car suspension movement in the cockpit/tvcam view!

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I did some tests with rain again.
I've set all time scales to normal, used longer session (30 minutes) to give weather system more time and set weather to scripteg going from clear to overcast & rain in the middle of session.

Well, when ISI will decide to work on rain some day, I'll have a long list of suggestions. For now, I guess they're busy with other things and rain has to wait for better days.