Most people, or at least half, don't have auto downloads set up in their server, this wouldn't be a problem if we had a simple, quick, structured and organized website to get our mods from, however, unlike rFactor 1, we don't. Until mod makers start waking up and sending in their mods to rFactorcentral, or the mod download section of the ISI website, then we're stuck digging through threads piled on top of threads looking for the right thread, and then sometimes in those threads the updated versions aren't even announced on the OP, but in page 4 or 12 of the thread. It's unorganized, like being in a room with 65,000 pieces of paper all over the place, while looking for a particular one, rather than all being listed neatly in a binder. If people don't want to setup auto-download, then we at least need a nice, main mod-website where we can find 90% of all cars and tracks (and obviously in their most up to date versions). That is why rFactor 1 worked so well even without auto downloads, because you knew the 2 or 3 main mod-websites that had most cars and tracks (and crucially in their most up do date versions too), and they were listed in "website form" (search by mod name, mod creater/team, etc., pictures, reviews/comments from users, description of the mod, even ratings, etc.), rather than buried in a mess of countless "random" threads. I find it puzzling that the standard of many years - which works brilliantly - seems to have suddenly been ignored - I mean, people are still constantly sending in their rFactor 1 work to RFC (rfactorcentral), I just saw 3 or so mods uploaded in the past few days alone. http://www.rfactorcentral.com/(by far the #1 site for rFactor 1 mods) OR, how about we make the official ISI Third Party Mods (TPM) section the new "place to be"? Since the official ISI forums have really taken off since rF2 (they were hardly used for rF1), why don't we do the same with the downloads section? I mean, check it out! The layout is great! You can do searches, there are descriptions, pictures, its structured, it's just about perfect! It seems to be setup beautifully and just a waste of really getting a good thing going --> http://isiforums.net/f/downloads.php Payware mods - even they can be listed here! Obviously there won't be a download link, but instead a link to your website, or the website to pay from, or whatever! WE HAVE A GREAT THING HERE, RFACTORCENTRAL AND/OR ISI "THIRD PARTY MODS" SECTION! PLEASE USE IT FOR ALL OUR SAKE, AS WELL AS FOR THE SAKE OF RFACTOR 2 ITSELF . I BELIEVE RFACTORCENTRAL HAD A LARGE POSITIVE IMPACT IN RFACTOR 1'S SUCCESS. WE CAN DO THE SAME WITH RF2 BY BUILDING UP THE RF2 SECTION ON RFC, AND/OR BUILDING UP THE TPM SECTION ON HERE.
The only thing I would change in the ISI downloads section is to have two categories only, "tracks" and "cars", then from there the uploaders can specify things like the era and other stuff (GT, open-wheel, European track, south American, historic, etc) so that we can further search/filter with that stuff - as well as the mod creator's name/team name, so we can search all cars or tracks from a specific mod maker/mod team if we really like their work and want to search specifically for all their stuff. Oh, and maybe a third category for car packs - mods with more than 1 car, eg., the GP79 mod, Blancpain mod, etc. or say, for eg. if the ISI corvettes were packaged in one file rather than 4 separate ones, something like that, you get the point. And maybe a 4th for track packs, for eg. an F1 2014 season pack, or something. P.S. I just checked the ISI mod-download section, and the most recent mod is some Caterham Super 7 mod from August? WTF? I never even seen a discussion, or even heard of an rF2 Super 7 mod, let alone seen a video or even screenshots of it! Same with the Las Vegas track uploaded in August? Talk about "ghost-mods", eh?
Yep, I'd go with the ISI mods section, seeing as this community is already well established here and seems to be "the" place for discussions and mods. Access to it is already easy, if you look at the top of the forum buttons part, there is the "Third Party Downloads" button, takes you straight there. View attachment 15104
Hope Tim doesn't mind me saying (if it's not please feel free to delete this): Simautosport is being updated currently with this very much in mind, designed from the core up to support mod downloads on a large scale. Including a history page for each user so people can check back to see if their downloads/mods have been updated or just to grab the latest version. Also i'm looking at the option of automatically emailing users when a mod they have has been updated meaning hopefully everyone updates to the latest versions and we get rid of the multiple versions of mods being run because people was unaware of the updates. From a mod authors point of view, they can update, edit their mod's any time (And it will also support paid mods in a secure environment - again allowing paid mod authors to update to one place). I'm more than happy to discuss or talk to anyone if you want further information or have ideas. This was purely created as a user of the mods and very soon to be our own released mods we wanted a single well built environment to host it.
thanks guys -- i recently took a sim sabbatical & have gotten out of my daily routine of scouring the individual forums for new mods/mod news. AC & especially GSC seem to have a pretty big representation on racedepartment, which is convenient, but rf2 not so much. so yeah id like to second spinelli's suggestion of convenient central location for rf2 mods, & appreciate RJs effort to create a site which does just that. i know rfactor vets like or hate or at least know rfactorcentral very well but to newer ppl like myself its ancient & not worth checking up on, as it still seems to be 99% rfactor 1 stuff.
The rFactor community had decided to boycott rFactorcentral for a good reason, you're not gonna make friends with that suggestion.
lol, its just a suggestion. The rf2 downloads sections seems to be a chicken/egg case, not enough entries to make it interesting for users, not enough users leeching to make it worthy of adding/updating. Cars/tracks/plugins/other would make it more easy to use indeed. simple and quick. And it is the most logical place to get this off the ground imo.
Also took a sabbatical for a few years. Seems like rFactor has taken a major nosedive in popularity. Plenty of rF1 mods, but rF2 mods are either hidden from view or just don't exist. Maybe that was the OP's point. One of the issues that seem to impact nearly all multi-player games is the level of cheating that seems to go on. Yes, I'm familiar with Tyka but even then there were work-arounds that some hackers would use. As far as RFC, the activity in the forum is pretty weak. Might be due to social website growth like Fleecebook. Really don't know. I've done a few car mods in the past but only ever released them to my own league members when I was active. In part because there were a few 3D files that were "borrowed and altered" although all physics files were designed using my own layouts on Solidworks, etc., with other support files borrowed as well. Then again, I'm not sure any of the so-called "legitimate mods" (asides from those created by ISI) weren't built much the same way. Having published books on suspension design along with writing suspension geometry analysis software I have a bit of knowledge & experience in real vehicle design. Just hoping to see a bit of rejuvenation to rF2 along with a uniform community. That would seem to be something ISI would be best to sponsor as it impacts their bottom line. Maybe they don't really care as mods are somewhat of a slippery slope when it comes to potential copyright issues. Whatever, so long as it's not something that takes a Fleecebook account.
? The rFactor community decided to boycott rFactorcentral? Since when? What happened? I still see rF1 mods uploaded there every few days...
i know about it from an emptybox video...something to do w/ simraceway buying them out, idk the details.
Thinking full life cycle and broadly in order to make the most efficient use of community resources you'd begin with community demand ==> conversion permission (if applicable) ==> modder announcement that WIP ==> feature / quality control checklists ==> community assistance requests with AI, alpha/beta testing for quality control ==> release / library meta data tags / feature list ==> support Anyway you get the idea...
http://www.virtualr.net/modders-to-boycott-simraceway http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/6918-How-come-nobody-is-using-rFactorCentral-for-new-content
http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/categories/rfactor-2.3/ Here you have what are you looking for.
That's the best we have so far, very nice, thank you. It would be nice to be able to filter searches for only tracks or cars, specific mod creater names, open-wheel, GT, etc. Basically the sort of stuff rfactorcentral allowed, but that is still very nice, thanks. if not using rFactorcentral anymore then I really think it would be awesome if everyone started using the TPM section here on the official website. Since the forums here have really taken off relative to rf1, why not the mod-downloads section as well? Plus, the whole setup, look and functionality of the current TPM section already seems to be at a good starting point for it to really start taking off. Every single person with a modded car, track, or plugin should upload their current mod to the ISI RF2 TPM section, and link their threads with the link to their mod in the TPM section. That would be a good way to start building and expanding the TPM section.
Spinelli,thanks for turning the light on! I will certainly be using ThirdPartyMods as a first place to look in the future. Well done.
The best place would be where the mod creators/uploaders themselves manage it so we can be sure of the most up to date versions...I would assume that more rF2 mod creators are familiar with the official rF2 site. Plus, I assume the RD is busy with Many things regarding their website, rather than focusing on rF2 downloads. Of course, I could be wrong
