My Wish List for Studio397

Discussion in 'Wish Lists' started by MarcG, Oct 9, 2016.

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  1. MarcG

    MarcG Registered

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    Categorised as 'Must Haves', 'Would Be Nice' and 'Might Never Happen But Doesn't Hurt To Ask' Wishes! I've left out some obvious ones that have been asked in recent interviews with Marcel and also I may add more overtime.


    Must Haves:


    - FFB Clipping Auto Button; Essentially the same as what iRacing have recently included, this would be more helpful for the newcomer so help them get maximum benefit from their Wheel without Clipping.

    - In Game Championship System; 3rd party apps are nice but with the new UI I'd like to see a proper integrated Championship for Offline racing. Experienced RF2 Racers and Newcomers shouldn't need to scour the internet to find a Championship tool when it should be in game from the start. Of course what goes into the Championship System is for another Wish List but the very basics should be available from the start, Tracks, Cars, Points System etc. Later on Class Points, Penalties etc

    - All Settings In Game, otherwise known as NO MORE NOTEPAD; As Marcel has hinted in a recent interview that JSON and other embedded control files will be available in the UI I'd just like to expand on this issue. In the player.JSON there are many additional settings that can affect the players experience (both good and bad!) which of course is great, was isn't great is the 1990s way of changing settings by using notepad! We need to move into the 21st Century and provide all "outside" commands to be changeable in game and most importantly "On The Fly", so that when settings are changed there is no need to Restart the Game like there currently is when turning DLLs On/Off. Along with everything being in game maybe put the more Hardcore/Power User Options into an "Advanced Screen" whereby you get a warning about editing the settings within as they "may affect your game experience", on the same page you have a "RESET TO DEFAULT" button at the top to revert any changes the user has messed up! Essentially though the issue is clear in that we need to move every setting option to the new UI, let users do everything they need too inside the game and no longer the need to use notepad.

    - Proper 5.1/7.1 Surround Sound Support; Again reverting to the "we're not in the 1990s any more" area this is something that needs to be addressed, standard Stereo is nice but nothing beats a proper full Surround Sound experience and again this is 2016 not 1996. Even the most basic of Indy Games on Steam come with this feature and it's long overdue in RF2.

    - Soft Body Damage; This is something that is also long overdue for me, sure there are Car Licenses whereby this would be an issue but where it isn't this needs to be an option. There's nothing worse than having a big smash and your car comes out with slight suspension damage and the bodywork is pristine and brand new! No longer can this be brushed under the carpet as a low priority, this is Car Racing - Accidents Happen - Damage Happens - This simply needs addingto the game.

    - Random Weather; Yes there is a 3rd party tool that can do this but why must we use that when it can be in game? A simple button that Randomises Weather so during a Race Weekend you have absolutely no idea what the Weather will be like from Session to Session. This is especially life like for Classic Racing where they didn't have all Radars and Gizmos that race teams have today, not only that but it would be a good addition to spice up offline racing.

    - Further AI Improvements; Whilst the Oval AI obviously needs some work the Road AI shouldn't be set aside and left because it's Good Enough as is. Progress would still be welcome, for example; Their Blue Flag awareness is Good but could be better, their slipstreaming needs improvement when it comes to doing it then knowing when to overtake, the BLOCK path (as good as that is!) becomes too predictable at times (more on this below) and the AI Pit Times needs looking at - on this I've found them to be much longer than my Pit Times when changing tires and adding fuel, this needs to be adjusted.

    - AI Adjustments In Race Weekends; Strength, Aggression sliders adjustable during the Race Weekend so there is no need to Exit back to the Main Menu in order to make a change, make them On The Fly instead. (This was originally added once but then failed to work after a Build, not sure if it's working again so posting just in case it's not)

    Would Be Nice:

    - AI Learning On The Fly; Whilst there are 3 decent ways of teaching the AI I feel a more simpler approach is needed to A) Speed up the process and B) Make it more life like. I would therefore like to see the AI use any means of the current (or future) ways of Learning but do it On The Fly during a race weekend so you do away with the need to change a setting. For example you start a Race Weekend and the AI go out for a few laps to learn the track just as the Human would, getting faster through Practice and then into Qualifying, but all the time the AI continue to learn the same way a Human would. Also the AI not only learn new lines through corners but they learn their own BLOCK Area (remove Path), a better way at understanding Corridors perhaps would enhance this, this way they remove that predictability and become more Human like in their defence of being over taken. Instead of following a BLOCK Path they realise they have the entire track to defend in, or a "Zone" towards a corner where they learn they can move into to prevent being overtaken.

    - AI Talent Settings that make a difference; Having spent a massive amount of time tinkering with the AI since rFactor1 I've come to know them like my own children! And one of their flaws is that there are some nice settings in the Talent Files but they do very little to the actual AI in game, these need to be expanded upon (and editable in game!) so they actually mean something. For example the 'Start Skill' works great with a low number meaning poor starts, but then there's Composure/Courtesy/Crash/Recovery/others that I've found barely do anything to the AI "brain". The Talent structure needs to become more varied so that different values actually mean a different AI. Having spent this much time with them I've found they're all relatively similar no matter what settings are changed (aside from the already mentioned Start Skill and Speed). Also an addition would be 'Night Skill' whereby AI can be better or worse at night.

    - Create AI; Along with the new UI and hopefully a better way to integrate new Skins, an addition for the Offline Racer would be a better way to add new AI to race against. For Example the user picks a Skin then is faced with an AI Talent screen whereby the user can edit values themselves or click a "Random" button to generate the AI. This way if a Mod is released with a handful of Cars the User can quickly add a few more without the need of editing VEH files and entering the Packaging scenario. It's sort of there with RF2 at the moment but needs more work for it to function better.

    - AI Driver Swaps; Have the AI swap drivers during an endurance event along with your own. Currently the AI Controlled "Human" is much slower compared to the other AI, so the ability to be able to edit a Talent section of your designated Co-AI Driver so that users can better simulate Endurance racing offline.

    - Multiple Race Weekends; It's currently there in the player.JSON but needs a proper integration into the new UI, along with additional Practice Sessions & Race Sessions a proper UI element for Qualifying Formats also would be cool to have. That way the user has complete control over how to manage their Race Weekend, this would be a huge step upwards from the currently semi-limited way.

    - VR, Directional Mirrors; I think is was Live For Speed that recently included this, but for VR you have the Mirrors move based on the drivers viewpoint.

    - Start Time; Something I wished for back in 2012, why is it that Start Times are 30 minute adjustments?! Make them 5 minute adjustments so that can better fit in with a proper Race Weekend scenario.

    - Class Times; Hoping this already may come in the new UI, currently you see Gaps from 1st to Last in the Timings Screen regardless of what Class Cars are racing, so it would be good to have Class Gaps/Times so you can better see how well you're doing against others in your Class.


    Might Never Happen But Doesn't Hurt To Ask:


    - Car Reflections; Environment Reflections are all well and good, but as GPUs get more powerful it would be cool to see proper Car Reflections in other Cars too. Of course this maybe immensely taxing on the GPU but we are moving forward with technology and gaming so why not?! DX11 may provide this (I have no idea) and it may already be in other Sims (again I have no idea!), just imagine driving right up to the car in front and seeing your front bumper reflected in their rear bumper!

    - In Game Streamable Viewport; Ability in the new UI to watch Live Streams of Races (YouTube, Twitch etc), could be especially handy when you're the co-driver in an Endurance race and you want to watch your mate with a proper Commentary and Camera output as opposed to the standard In Game controls.

    - Damage Repairs; To go a long with the Soft Body Damage above it would be cool to have Race Tape as an option when repairing damage, so instead of the Pit Crew ripping off the entire Right Front Wing they could add the traditional Race Tape to fix the issue (with aero penalty dependant on the damage severity).

    - Full Weather Controls; Simply just add Geralds brilliant Weather Tool (http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/11398-rFactor2-Weather-Tool) to the games new UI so users have amazingly detailed control over the Weather.
     
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  2. Gijs van Elderen

    Gijs van Elderen Registered

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    It's adjustable during a race weekend in the settings/difficulty tab. It requires a "restart weekend" to work with the new AI settings.
    You don't have to exit back to main menu anymore.

    But adjusting them on the fly would be nice. :)

    May I add to this: "adaptive AI strenght". :) Basically the game calculates AI strength based on your lap times VS AI lap times of your car class during practice.
     
  3. MarcG

    MarcG Registered

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    aahh yes I remember now thanks for clarifying :)
     
  4. Adrianstealth

    Adrianstealth Registered

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    Nice post Marc,

    To add VR directional sound would be great ( sounds move depending on users head view direction )
    It's only subtle but adds a lot DCS world ( free to download & try on steam ) is a good example


    The advanced option ( linking to every option in Json) is something I requested a few years ago


    I'm hoping the launch UI doesn't look gamey , maybe they'll be a minimalist style skin option
     
  5. ECAR_Tracks

    ECAR_Tracks Registered

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    +1 for all MarcG wishes. The absence of some of them like AI Championship and Soft damage is almost unbelievable nowadays, as the wet windshield effects (not mentioned).
     
  6. stonec

    stonec Registered

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    rF1 had vertex damage, where each vertex of the carbody could move up to one meter at default. Actually rF2 car damage.INI files also include a [VERTEX] section, which suggests it's still present on mod level. Perhaps the performance loss was too big to have this enabled for rF2 high-poly carmodels. Otherwise I have a hard time understanding why ISI disabled it when moving from rF1 to rF2.
     
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  7. Christopher Elliott

    Christopher Elliott Registered

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    Well written summary Marc :)
     
  8. Will Mazeo

    Will Mazeo Registered

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    " All Settings In Game, otherwise known as NO MORE NOTEPAD"
    This!
    One of the things ISI said that I really hated was when people asked them to not make the workshop auto subscribe to everything by itself. The excuse was "we want to make it easy for new users" and then the new user has to go to a damn json file to adjust the most basic settings and he'll only find that info if he goes to a forum and ask :rolleyes:
     
  9. DaVeX

    DaVeX Registered

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    Can you add to wishlist support for .lut files?I used a .lut file to setup my ffb on AC and it works great!!!

    ...ahem..I miss this one...how to do that?

    Btw, I think we need to wait some S397 dev update to better understand what is going on...after that we can speculate lol
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 10, 2016
  10. Depco

    Depco Registered

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    I have a friend that I got to buy rFactor 2. 2 nights ago he could not get onto my server due to some issues with the launcher or installed files... I wasn't able to run it down. Essentially, he became frustrated with how needlessly complex doing ANYTHING in rFactor 2 is. He loves the physics of the game and would love to simply just log in, get to a server with players on it and have a race. Any time there is a change that needs to be made above the most basic of graphical or game setting it requires him to dig into a .json file. He is a man of advanced age and has been racing for a while. This game he feels is frustrating and I am sure he is regretting buying it. (He hasn't told me as much, but to hear him talk about it when he is having issues tells me all I need to know)

    For the love of god make the UI and adjustment easy to find and change!
     
  11. Gijs van Elderen

    Gijs van Elderen Registered

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    Click on Options: :D

    View attachment 20948
    [​IMG]

    Whatever the problem your friend has, the solution won't be in any .json or .ini file. The only thing he could have done wrong is to click NO when rF2 automaticly asks to open the firewall.

    There is absolutly no reason to dig in .json or .ini files. Unless you want something special and you need to make sure you're not end up with conflicting settings.
    Making every option to adjust in the UI would make things "more" confusing...
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 11, 2016
  12. Dmitry Chugrov

    Dmitry Chugrov Registered

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    Wil be good to include some useful plugins into the core of rF2. Like delta best, real weather, pedal overlay, spotter/race engineer(like in iracing, automobilista).
     
  13. TheGame316

    TheGame316 Registered

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    From an end users point of view there are some excellent ideas there MarcG. Especially the soft body/vertex damage. I am assuming this was not implemented due to processing performance issues. With the move to DX11 this may provide the overhead to re-implement.

    From a community wide point of view, I believe the number 1 must have is communication and documentation. For rF2 to survive and thrive, decent amounts of high quality content that interests end-users is needed. S397 cannot do this on their own, they need the modding community to help them. The modding community in turn needs the information to achieve that quality. I commend Woodee and Gysbers videos on track modding. With the move to DX11 and the possibilities this brings, the information required to take advantage of this is needed as soon as possible from implementation.
     
  14. peterchen

    peterchen Registered

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    Nice but surely all but complete list.
    Some things I disagree though.... as example:
    "no more notepad - all in UI" That would lead to a unbelievable mess and confusion in Ui and for (new) users!
    That would be contraproductive and would lead to many (new) users saying something like "confusing - a mess"

    AI learning on the fly: Is already there with "Autocalibrate AI Mode":2, as I said a 1000 times now!:rolleyes:
    They learn while they drive and (hopefully) create a .wis file for future use.

    One little thing I want to add: please, please please with sugar on top, make a proper and good to see marking for the actual track in the list when you want to load/save your setup in garage!!!!
    There are thousands things more but I/we better wait for studio 397 to do theire most urgent work first.
     
  15. MarcG

    MarcG Registered

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    Why always look to babysit the new users? How long can we define a new user? 2 weeks? 2 months? How long before those new users complain about things hidden in JSON files and not in the games UI? You've missed my point about an Advanced Screen with a Warning and a Reset To Default button, this way new users are saved and the more experienced users get everything in one easy to use area. If the game becomes dumbed down for new users then that's a bad thing in my opinion, defining how long a new user is a new user is important.

    Secondly, if you've used that autocalibrate a thousand times then you'd know you need to spend awhile (200+ laps) at the start with every mod on every track with no human on track, that's not very efficient. What I'm asking for is a new learning method, completely on the fly, whereby they learn from the start alongside the human driver during the course of the "Race Weekend". Plus in my experience I've not found "method 2" all that great for the time spent doing it, others peoples miles may vary of course.
     
  16. Euskotracks

    Euskotracks Registered

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    I agree that defining things only thinking about new users is not the right way. As you say a new user will eventually become an experienced user.

    What a new user needs is good documentation. A startup guide would probably solve many issues.
    The biggest example is the subscription to all ISI items when the game is first installed via steam.

    In order to "help" newbies everybody has to suffer their lack of experience. Ridiculous.



    Enviado desde mi ONE A2001 mediante Tapatalk
     
  17. bhendrik

    bhendrik Registered

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    Ai driver swaps !!!!!!!!! Must have for the offline endurance racer. And please make your ai driver just as fast as the set speed setting for the all the ai. Better talent files, yesss!!!!!! Very good post Marc
     
  18. Gijs van Elderen

    Gijs van Elderen Registered

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    Press the "A" or "I" key, can't remember which one is default. It's an AI hotswap, you can do it every where on track.
    If you want to swap during a pitstop, i recomend pressing the swap key when the pitcrew is done.
     
  19. Eddy

    Eddy Registered

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    It's the "I" key by default (Intelligence ;) )

    @bhendrik like Gysbers said.
     
  20. bhendrik

    bhendrik Registered

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    Think i have to explain myself a bit better. Like Marc said: make the ai swap. I know i can switch between myself and an ai driver for my car, but what i ment was: make the ai swap drivers as well. This means that like in real life you have two drivers per car. So two ai drivers (or even 3) in endurance events. Now, you can only set one ai talent file per car. I want two ai drivers per car with two different talent files, like Tracey Krohn and Oliver Pla. So when Tracey swaps with Pla (when i created virtual drives and tweaked two talent files per car) the car has better pace (sorry Tracey). Futher more, i want to be able to set my 'co-driver' ai pace, so when i set the difficulty level at 110%, mij ai co-driver set himself also to 110%, or the level which i choose.
     
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