Introducing the New Online Experience for rFactor 2: Powered by RaceControl

Rapala said:
My feedback so far:
  • Rating system looks a bit odd. If my expected position is 1 because I'm the highest rated driver, I certainly shouldn't get a negative rating if I were to finish second. In races with many splits, the difference between highest and lowest rated is arbitrarily small anyway. Similarly if I'm expected to finish 20th and come 19th, I shouldn't get a positive rating. If I'm wrong about how this works, then it should be made more clear what's happening
Click to expand...

I think they should remove or reword that message because it's misleading. It doesn't matter which place you were expected to finish, the rating is calculated in relation to others' positions and their ratings.

Rapala said:
  • It's not clear the weights of various ratings. There's quali and race mentioned in both ratings so at first glance it looks like you're being judged on quali and race equally. Not sure what the actual weightings are but of course race should receive the greater weight. This could be fixed by assigning the actual number of rating won/lost.
Click to expand...

Since I think it's based on laps, the race will have more weight. I'm not sure knowing all the details would improve anything.

Rapala said:
  • It's not clear how much rating you've gained or lost by looking at your race result. You have to look at previous race, remember the position of the bar and then look at current race result to see how much you gained/lost.
Click to expand...

Yes, some way to see the progress in the last race. Some colored bar or something.

Rapala said:
  • Having a lot of fun, but concerned the track roster is going to start feeling stale pretty soon, especially for the beginner races restricted to free tracks. It would be great if the races were opened up to modded tracks. There are some amazing mods out there, who wouldn't love to race the Radical or open wheeler at Mosport or Bridgehampton?
Click to expand...

I'd like to see DLC tracks in the beginner's series. It should always contain races with free content, I agree with that, but I think it could include some races on DLC tracks too.

I hope they evaluate using some mod tracks which don't require licensing or maybe could be easily licensed.

I guess there are many more things waiting to happen but it will depend on how successful is the new online.
 
Bernat said:
I'd like to see DLC tracks in the beginner's series. It should always contain races with free content, I agree with that, but I think it could include some races on DLC tracks too.

I hope they evaluate using some mod tracks which don't require licensing or maybe could be easily licensed.

I guess there are many more things waiting to happen but it will depend on how successful is the new online.
Click to expand...
I can't think of any real world modded tracks that would pass the legal sniff test. There is always a chance any circuit would allow the use, but even such groups as Historical Societies that have control over the naming rights to an out of use track could demand royalties(or more likely a Cease & Desist letter)
Fantasy tracks that are NOT from other titles would the only avenue that would be safe and even then ONLY with some sort of legal agreement between the mod author & S397.(which requires lawyers who strangely can't work unless first fed Money.)
I'd love to see Bullrun from Nascar 3 and I'm sure there are plenty of users who grew up with Forza or GT that also would suggest tracks from those titles...just can't when the Race Control is a commercial enterprise.
 
Rapala said:
My feedback so far:
  1. Rating system looks a bit odd.
  2. It's not clear the weights of various ratings.
  3. It's not clear how much rating you've gained or lost by looking at your race result.
Click to expand...
Personally I disagree with you on those three points. Well okay, number 1 I understand. They are clearly still working some of those details out. It would certainly be nice to have be reassured that you haven't lost DR when you are just a place or two off the prediction. I assume that isn't what happens, but it would be nice to always see at least that single green arrow when you know you've driven well.

On 2 & 3, I don't really want to know. I think that is what they are going for. Qualify as best you can. Race as best you can. Let the system worry about your Elo in the background. You can tell how you are progressing by seeing the splits you end up in and how well you do in those. For me, that is enough.

I play quite a lot of online chess. It can stop me playing if I see my rating tank because of a few bad games. I start to see playing as a risk, even though it obviously doesn't actually matter. If that sort of feeling can be kept out of my racing, then I'm all for it.
 
One thought I've had when looking at my progress in online races is that we can't see results from other splits. It would be nice to be able to review my results in split 2, say, then see what the other split results looked like to compare best lap times and so on.

It would be even better if we could replay those other races to see how the faster drivers do things, but that's probably a bit of a stretch. Mind you, the replay files are pretty small, so perhaps S397 could host them somewhere and make them available via the Watch menu.
 
justposted said:
One thought I've had when looking at my progress in online races is that we can't see results from other splits. It would be nice to be able to review my results in split 2, say, then see what the other split results looked like to compare best lap times and so on.

It would be even better if we could replay those other races to see how the faster drivers do things, but that's probably a bit of a stretch. Mind you, the replay files are pretty small, so perhaps S397 could host them somewhere and make them available via the Watch menu.
Click to expand...
I think that store all the replays of all races of the online system will be difficult, due to the amount of space required, but if they could keep the replays from the last 7 days, for example, it would be very useful.
 
justposted said:
One thought I've had when looking at my progress in online races is that we can't see results from other splits. It would be nice to be able to review my results in split 2, say, then see what the other split results looked like to compare best lap times and so on.

It would be even better if we could replay those other races to see how the faster drivers do things, but that's probably a bit of a stretch. Mind you, the replay files are pretty small, so perhaps S397 could host them somewhere and make them available via the Watch menu.
Click to expand...

I think that would be too much. Also, in real life it would be considered cheating. It's like stealing information from the other drivers. I think it's already possible to do for the split you're in though and it's useful to know what happened in an incident.

There's already streamers sharing their races and other information, I think that should be enough.
 
It's because they ARE there, just that you can't see or collide them. Every third party spotter see them.
They should be instructed to see if a session is "private".
 
Firstly I am very impressed with the new race control system and it breathes some much needed life into RF2. It was a crime before having such an amazing Simracing game with so little online gameplay presence. Good Job Studio 397 you now have a real iracing competitor!!!

My suggestion for Racecontrol would be to add more variety to the tracks. The one thing that always bothers me about iracing is the week long slog of the same car / track combo. I have limited time to play over the week and would find myself on weekends actually loading up .. gulp..ams2 just for some variety and quick gameplay.

Also it might be just me but it seems that the same track / car combo is scheduled for the same time slot everyday? The last 2 nights I could only play at 10pm PST and it was the same combo. At very least it would be nice if the rookie 3 car/track combos switched up the start times for those with limited time windows to race.


Anyway I am excited to see the future of RF2 with this new online system implemented.
 
Bernat said:
It's finally here!

https://www.studio-397.com/2023/10/...erience-for-rfactor-2-powered-by-racecontrol/

"And as part of this new program, we’re gifting the (recently updated) BMW M2 CS to all registered users of the new system "

"Not only that but we’re bringing some quality of life fixes to the simulation, including the much awaited fix for those of you on the latest AMD drivers."
Click to expand...

How does one get this 'Online' menu?

I've set the steam properties to 'release candidate'. Didn't work. Set it back. Logged out of steam. Logged into steam, set it back. It updated accordingly. Ran a file validation. Run rf2, no 'Online' menu/button.

???

What next?
 
JRS said:
How does one get this 'Online' menu?

I've set the steam properties to 'release candidate'. Didn't work. Set it back. Logged out of steam. Logged into steam, set it back. It updated accordingly. Ran a file validation. Run rf2, no 'Online' menu/button.

???

What next?
Click to expand...

It sometimes takes people a few (I mean, up to 5 or even more) cycles of doing exactly what you're doing (release candidate, then back to None, and back...) to get it to 'hold' properly.

It may or may not help to delete the UserData\player\LocalSettings folder.
 
davehenrie said:
After you change to the Release Candidate, is this what is shown in Steam/Preferences/Updates?
Build Id : 12701137. Keep in mind, the update can hang sometimes. Mine said 100% complete and then another 15 seconds of download occurred. Give it time to complete the process.
View attachment 54555
Click to expand...

Yes, it shows that Build Id: 12701137. The version is v1134. It lists it in my Library as the 'release-candidate'.

For a second time now, I've reverted back to the current release. I've run another integrity check. Exited Steam completely. Rebooted. Opened Steam. Run rF2. All ok. Exit rF2. Switch again, to the 'release-candidate'. Run integrity check. Exit Steam completely. Rebooted. Power cycled my internet connection, and my router. Made sure time sync is correct. Opened Steam. Backed up, then, removed my player.json so it builds a new one. As well, tried deleting the locationstorage folder in the player folder mentioned elsewhere.
Last, tried removing the player folder all together and let it rebuild.

Run rF2. No joy.

The menu shows; Single Player, Multiplayer, Competitions.

No Online to be found. Idk.
 
Last edited:
JRS said:
Yes, it shows that Build Id: 12701137. It lists it in my Library as the 'release-candidate'.

For a second time now, I've reverted back to the current release. I've run another integrity check. Exited Steam completely. Rebooted. Opened Steam. Run rF2. All ok. Exit rF2. Switch again, to the 'release-candidate'. Run integrity check. Exit Steam completely. Rebooted. Power cycled my internet connection, and my router. Made sure time sync is correct. Opened Steam. Backed up, then, removed my player.json so it builds a new one. Run rF2. No joy.

The menu shows; Single Player, Multiplayer, Competitions.

No Online to be found. Idk.
Click to expand...

As I said above (but, unfortunately, no guarantees) people have had to switch 5+ times to get it to work. Forget all the other steps, especially player.json because that's not involved. Just switch back and forth a few times (of course, letting the download happen each time).

Did you try deleting that LocalSettings folder too?
 
Thanks, that is INDEED the old menu. (what folks who still have NONE selected would see). something is getting in the way of your update process....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top