A good analysis of grip: rFactor 2 vs iRacing.

In that video I see that rF2 tires bounce much less than in real life or iRacing, like if the track in rF2 was more smooth than the other 2, other than that is difficult to get other objective conclusions.
Does real life telemetry with orientation sensors exist? That would help to see if the car slides at a similar angle and rate (angular speed) than in the sim for example... given roughly same weather and track conditions and same speed.

 

Replay fidelity of rF2 in that video is really bad, I think if you use MAX replay fidelity setting is more visible, despite of that, car movement in replays is not very good in rF2... but in rF2 telemetry logs you can see how the cars actually reacts to the bumps, curbs and all the track. Or using suspension cameras while you are driving in realtime.

In high downforce cars you can also see the suspension compression at high speeds due aerodynamics.

 

This is what people say. But the laser scanned track does actually have more surface irregularities ('micro-bumps'). It's the first thing you notice driving on a non-laser scanned version of a track - how the front wheels aren't bobbling up and down the whole time. I've also tried driving with non-cockpit views to watch the suspension and general movements of rF2 cars over bumps and curbs, and they still look unconvincing compared with iRacing. So I don't see how it can all be the replay. Getting a bit OT here, but although I think the actual driving behaviour of the rF2 Skip is a lot more believable than iRacing's car (which I've driven a lot), in terms of watching the overall 'movement' of that or any other rF2 car, it looks bad in comparison to iRacing. In the case of bigger 'movements' e.g. bouncing over curbs or collisions or rolling, it's actually 'comical' (pun intended) in rF2. Cars rolling seem to float around in the breeze for example. To me, there's obviously something wrong there as objects just don't do that in the real world.

 

The problem with that real onboard used in the comparison video is that while it's a respectable lap at around a 1:03, the driver isn't quite "on it." This would be immediately apparent to anyone who's raced the real cars. It almost looks like he's on a warmup lap as he makes few if any real steering corrections. Turn things up a notch and it's more like this:

That's a 1:00.5 lap, so about 2.5 seconds quicker.

In fairness to DigiProst, the sim laps are being driven the same way in his comparison video. Comparo vids are tricky things unless the creator is specific about what they're trying to illustrate. For the purposes of this discussion about grip and car balance and such, that video is of no use because all of the cars are being driven well below the limit.

As for the (lack of) visible suspension travel in rF2, it's something that I've mentioned before and it troubles me a lot. You can see from the cockpit in real-time that there's a lot of the right stuff going on but it isn't evident in replays or even, in my testing, from external camera views in real-time. I don't know if it's something to do with graphics settings or what but the motion of the cars doesn't look nearly convincing enough from exterior views and it's something that - IMO - hurts rF2 a lot in terms of competing with the other top sims on a media basis. Both Kunos and iRacing release videos of cars going round from exterior shots and they both can look remarkably convincing.

rF2 has it where it counts, which is in the car and driving it, but I think a lot of people respond to that exterior camera footage that gives them a better sense of how it relates to what they know, which is mostly TV coverage.

 

I agree with that as a very real benefit of laser scanning although modelers can do it with a non-laser scanned track but just not as accurately. However, Lime Rock, in real life, was completely re-paved after the iracing scan and is now significantly smoother. So the iracing version is an accurate version circa 2008, not 2013.

 

Ya I also hope ISI "connects" more of it's physics graphically,

 

Yeah, as said before, replays in rF2 may not recreate actual suspension movement as it was simulated while driving, especially on lower replay quality settings.

I think it's something ISI should look into sometime soon. You could say that replays are relatively unimportant comparing to tire model, real road, weather system, multiplayer, etc. But on the other hand people are recording their replays and showing them on youtube or other portals. Every little bit adds to general opinion of rF2 among people who haven't driven it. They will not judge tire model or FFB from a video, but suspension movement will be pretty obvious to them.

Video posted above is the living proof, that suspension movement is what people will compare the most. Not being aware of replay quality limitations, they can jump into conclusions about simulation quality.

So despite it's not a very important part of the sim and personally, I'm not looking forward for some major replay improvements, it has certain impact on how people see rF2. ISI may not be marketing their product yet, but this "marketing" already happens within simracing community - news are being posted, multimedia being exchanged, opinions are being shared... It is happening regardless of what ISI marketing plans are.

I wish people would judge simulators for quality of simulation in the first place. But the truth is - we're not qualified for that. Most of us will judge simulator by other, more obvious symptoms.