How many of you bought rF2 for mods and have now changed your mind (about mods)?

For you to know, i have the same frustration at start, drop at build 80 and back just in build 198, the 339 work very well, light years than their predecesors, also, i never use dev mode, always straight to normal mode, is the same as rf1 just you need to pack the files.
Again, dont feel presured, but you can count on me.

 

This is new information for me, you can use open file structure to work with mods in Single Player mode? Do you mean with packing that I need to make just the .MAS files but mod components as well?

 

You need to package the MAS files
Make 3 folders, for ex. ZONDA, ZONDA_MAIN and ZONDA_TEAMS, put the models and textures in ZONDA, tires, sfx, hdv, gears, suspension, etc files in MAIN, and liverys among veh files in TEAMS, make 3 .mas files with the respective files inside, go to MAS2, "Create package file"->"Create single cmp package"->in "Select component"-->"Add new component"->put your mod name-> go to file, click in the icon of the right-> put the name of the file, then put your version, in type select "Vehicle"-> where say "MAS Files" click on the icon in the right and add your 3 .mas files-> click on "Package". Ready to install your vehicle component.
Do the same for sounds, is just one MAS file with all .wav inside, make a sound coponent and be sure the component has the same name as the path in your sfx file.

Edit: I send you a PM.

 

Who has ever said you will get a 'gold' (whatever that means these days) at all? Need another comparison? When will iRacing be gold?

rF1 took 3-4 years to be released on DVD. I'd start there.

 

Yes I thought so, it was not so simple after all... Imagine if you tweak one number in physics file and have to go through all that to test your changes...

 

So it's business as usual then. Okay that makes me feel so much better, I'll try fire it back up in a couple years. Thanks for the clarification.

Just replace "Gold" with General Availability then if that helps you get your head around it.

 

But you don't have to do everything every time. Right, Pay? I mean don't you just have to replace changed file in .mas and then package? What, 20 seconds of work?

 

Today then. Whenever someone decides to purchase, they can. That's why your question about when is so very confusing and ultimately can't be answered. The definition for 'gold' has no place.

 

Yahoooo! Lets Race!

 

Well it is quite fine with graphics files, but physics editing needs so many little tweaks all the time that it becomes tiresome. See, you cant preview your changes anywhere except in game. Sometimes you have to change one value in one INI file dozens of times to get desired result. Workflow must be super-smooth, similar to DevMode.

 

Yes because it's a guessing game without to know what and it becomes sensless. Some physic editing tool with a GUI was nice to have.

 

Right, just replace the file inside MAS file, go to MAS2 select your mod and press package again, that process is for the first time.

 

I haven't changed my mind, and I like modders.
3 cheers for modders!

 

I always preferred the stock ISI content to modded content in rF1 and I didn't expect rF2 to be any different.

So far I'm really pleased.

 

My view on this is purely as a modder since I run a mod group and having released two mods so far and plenty of work being placed in game, I think I have a good idea on the game as a whole.

Firstly I'll just say, people complaining that they have to go back to check their mods with each new build should really grow some brains. This is modding folks, its part of what we do to go back and fix things when updates to the titles we make them on are released. This has been the same with any game since GP3. I think the reason so many are making a fuss about it now is because ISI didn't really bother updating rFactor after v1255 but those of us who were there before the v1255 update know that we had to go back and update our released mods to work with v1255 due to some conflicts. We did that, and we were all better for it, but look at the history of rFactor, years of people complaining that ISI did nothing more to the game, didn't update it, didn't add features, didn't release new content. It was the modders that made it.

Now you have ISI with rF2. People really need to stop this "When is it going gold" talk. rFactor 2 is released, there is no bronze, silver, platinum, gold crap. Its released, its out, it is what it is. Just like rF1, at its release it has a base set of content and features and with time it will grow to be a more solid game where bugs and content is fixed and updated. This time round ISI is making the clear and visible effort to develop more content, more features, more updates, to provide a game that in the long term gives the players the most any title on the PC has. Of course it will still rely on mod content to a high degree, but ISI is doing far more for rFactor 2 than what it did for the original rFactor.

So why is it then that there is still complaints here? People complained rF1 didn't get enough attention and now they complain rF2 is getting too much attention and updates? Seriously? I mean, are some of you listening to yourselves before you post on here?

In the modding side people who say modding rF2 is hard are pretty much the lazy asses who don't want to get off their ass and actually learn something that requires certain skills to be done. They want it easy, like click and drag, one click import. Well if you want it that easy, modding is not for you. We have had to consistently work around new builds during the development of our mods. We've seen how some builds have made certain things better, some made certain things worse, but instead of wasting time complaining, we sat there, learned what was needed and we updated our work accordingly.

This is the aspect of a development team, be it a professional development studio or a simple mod team, this is what it takes to develop mods, software etc. I for one am really happy with the way ISI is going with rFactor 2. Of course I won't say its perfect, but what is? Of course there are things I wish were different, I wish they would pay attention to certain areas before others, but that's personal choice. At the end of the day, ISI is working there every day to provide us the content to build upon and that is something that no one else is currently doing. They deserve respect and support for that alone.

rFactor 2 is still young in the grand scheme of things. As more mods get released and as ISI do more updates, it will only get better and better. That is what I'm waiting for.

 

You have to understand that modding itself can be hard for complex simulations like rF2, but the challenge should not come from dysfunctional tools. Photoshop, 3DS Max, Blender, Maya, 3DSimEd, Notepad++, Excel, are all functional tools for modders to use, thus making it easy to concentrate on whats important. At current state rF2 modding workflow is very dysfunctional, and it has nothing to do with how hard it is to do car physics, car graphics or tracks. It just makes testing and troubleshooting very difficult. If you enjoy the challenges of packing and repacking, file structures, random software inconsistencies, feel free. That was never a issue with rF1, so why should it be with rF2?

 

I will give another point of view on this topic.

I bought RF2 both for the high quality mods that of course will be released and the great ISI content, but for some reason I wanted to have some content in RF2 I knew I was not going to find, so I started playing with rtrainer in dev mode. I am amazed with the detail the new physics engine has. Engine simulation is just amazing and tyres are astonishing so I decided to go for my own mod.

Now I'm working on a Ferrari F40 and excluding the 3D model, I am trying to do everything from scratch (it's a pity I needed to borrow the 3D model from Forza, so I will not be able to release the mod at any time).

I am having really fun while working on it, so, what I wanted to say is that the high quality and detail of RF2 physics engine provides a step forward on moding and enjoyng it. Now I prefer modding my F40 than racing.

Sorry for my English.

 

I agree with Petros Mak word by word!
And it's the reason i changed my mind on the question: ISI content's quality in rF2 are higher than rF1, and currently are on constant growth.
But this is the best desiderable for all of us, isn't true?
Now the question is that not all the modding teams will have an easy life in repeating their success, and IMHO actually we have only 2 of them really able to add content that does "not dilute the good wine"... plus other 2 in trust (but i'll never give names at the moment and then it's only IMHO when i speak ^^').
So, if i bought rF2 with in mind future releases from modding community, now in mind i have a lot of great ISI contents and few mods deserving.
And at the moment i'm pretty happy so.

 

I don't understand what challenges there are to packing and re-packing. Once you know it its quite simple and only takes a moment to re-package everything. Testers uninstall and delete the old rfcmp and install the new one and voila. Its not an issue unless you are really that hard up about re-packing. When you did mods in rF1 didn't you have to re-package beta builds for testers and re-package release builds with the newly updated files etc? You do the same here, sure the process is a bit more now because you have to package it into the rfcmp but its not like it takes half an hour. Doesn't even take 5 minutes to do it. Its really not worth complaining about.

I will agree that testing is made difficult currently on rF2 and this is purely because moddev seems to be miles apart from single player in every area. Things that appear one way in moddev don't appear the same in single player, so its hard to know if you got a setting right without re-packaging and checking in single player. That is indeed frustrating and time consuming as you have to do the process for that, but ultimately that's the deal.

The reason I feel the way I do is because our guy Stephen Young was our official RACE07 in-game guy. He's never played rFactor let alone owned it, he bought rF2 which was his first ISI specific title to help the group and within 2 weeks he was putting cars in game and working entirely. Within 2 months he released two mods and is now able to put a car in game almost daily. When he can do it by learning from scratch with no prior knowledge of rFactor modding, than anyone else can too.

I'm not saying you are like this, but I've seen far too many people complain and make excuses about how hard it is and the reality is its not hard, its more so that they are too lazy to do it and make it out to seem like its hard so they can get away with not doing anything. We've had people like that in our group for various games and areas of work including on rF2 and I'm sick and tired of hearing it. Again, I'm not saying you are like that, don't take it as a personal attack to you because it clearly isn't. Of course some people will pick things up easier than others, but there are far too many people who BS a lot saying its too hard when it isn't.

 

This is exactly the current major issue with rF2. I personally don't have issue with mod packaging system, it is quite straightforward to learn and keeps things nice and tidy. However, that process should be done only when you want to release something for public. This is what I mean when say that the tools are dysfunctional, and it has nothing do with being lazy or not willing to learn. How can I make a mod using DevMode when I can't trust at all that it comes out right with single player as well? And I want to hear about physics guy who is willing to edit physics files with single player mode. My current project is pretty much completely wasted as it turned out everything is messed in single player. While nothing is wrong in DevMode.

Is your solution really to do the whole repacking hassle everytime I change one value in engine.ini file?

I simply have no other option than wait for rF2 to get finalized, and hope that it will fix the issue between DevMode and Single player. If not, that's it then. I paid 80e of this game to be able to continue modding and move on from rF1, but the whole deal was just a wet slap in the face.