Don't know about that track but the mod and other venues were, if you were willing to have third-party software installed to your rFactor2 folder, and use that separate launcher to run the content. Far too much trouble given the quality.
I enjoyed it. After the crash-fest that was the first video posted about this event ages ago, and the wall bashing in the qualifying race, the actual race was controlled and competitive. Even the track didn't look so garish compared to the earlier video. Presentation quality was high but you'd have thought they would have tested the software plugin and process first.
Lessons learned and all that. Think for next year six months spent properly creating the track and thoroughly testing plugins. Only issue is whether another sim jumps in to the FE slot. It was fun to watch but visually - challenging. As for the FanBoost, nothing more needs to be said.
I think some of the write-ups are unnecessarily negative, but there's certainly one thing that can't be denied: it's hard to see people attracted to professional sim racing series when a lot of what attracts them to real racing is the experience and the fact the drivers are doing unbelievably dangerous things at very high levels. Formula E loses a bit of atmosphere anyway with the whining cars but going to see them in person I guess you get the location, and even to some extent watching it on TV. Seeing a virtual location isn't quite the same, and a bunch of people sitting at PCs in their socks isn't terribly interesting either. Ok, and the other thing that can't be denied: it's rather important to test systems you're going to use in a million dollar televised race. F1 was bad enough not thinking to try a new qualifying format using simulators to see how it actually played out (and nip it in the bud before it saw the light of day), but for a company organising a simulated race to not use some race simulations to test their systems beforehand is just crazy.
This isn't about rF2 though, it is about Formula E and reaching out to fans of technology by hosting it at the CES. The marketing material that can be used to help establish a link between the first fully-electric racing series and video games fans will be huge. The fact the real world Formula E racers mixed it with the sim racers at the event is probably far more important than how the broadcast looked to us.
Even if the other tracks had a very limited time in which they could be made it doesn't excuse the showpiece final from looking so poor, they knew that Vegas was last track so why not have a team working on that to make it look as good as they could? Most people probably never saw any of the previous rounds so any damage done there was minimal, I know a few people who could have taken that track and made it far more presentable in less than a week, it looked terrible with messed up normals, bland track surface and not a sign of ambient occlusion being used. Maybe they were using under powered hardware and had to scale back graphically for that reason, though for an officially sanctioned event I'd have thought the organisers would have made sure it all looked as good as it possibly could. The screenshots thread on this forum has many examples of just how good rF2 can look when the proper time and effort is put into it so there really is no excuse for making sim racing and rF2 look just so awful.
After last night what are the chances this event ever happens again? It was a farce, plain and simple
I believe the tracks are IDT tracks. They are rF1 conversions and have been around for a while. They are available on steam.
Very true, there was a lot of talk about the event for all the wrong reasons. Long delays, the pods breaking down, low quality track, and overturning the winner. For an event with $200,000 to the winner they could have spent a few thousands sorting ALL those issue beforehand very easily. If S397 themselves had been involved it would have been very smooth.
Some people here are just seeing the negative. Besides the amarteurish presentation it was an interesting event with 5000 viewers (on twitch) where most of them doesn´t seemed to be simracers themselves! (some people wrote in chat: "where is CSGo?" lol)
I have personally to find that sad rf2 costs 1000x better... One final with pro-racer and $1M has the key for a poor race of 20 laps streamer with feet...Without speaking bug... The same thing with a good organization and a mod of quality as USF2000 I says YES good image for rf2! sry trad--;
http://www.grandprixtimes.com/news/id/13516 Amongst those in attendance were FIA president Jean Todt and series CEO Alejando Agag, "This first eRace in Las Vegas was a great success," commented Agag. "It’s exciting to have brought Formula E into the inner sanctum of CES - the biggest and most influential technology show in the world. "I think this can be the first in a big future for Formula E in eSports racing. We will continue to pursue new and innovative ways to improve our presence in this fast growing landscape, while maintaining fan engagement at the forefront of all our initiatives."