GPLPS is still an education. https://www.gplps.org/ https://www.gplps.org/wb/pages/projects/gpl-installer
Let's be honest, S397 is not going to retrofit in 2025 2 years of enhancements that have gone into LMU... rf2 is fossilized and abandoned at this point. Which illustrates my favorite statement that "a sim is 'finished' when its developer abandon it".
Developers can´t spend decades on the same game. Well they could In theory, but would that be profitable? I don´t know of any Industry that spends decades on the same product IRL, they all move on to other or better models of whatever their building/manufacturing. Specifically In this age were things are not like before, things are built to last a certain time before they fail. Then you either buy another, or move on to a different/newer model. Levis are not what they use to be! That mindset of building things to last a lifetime Is obsolete now days. So one should think developers work the same way, and of course don´t work for free, as In low sales equal to no wages and/or reduction.
Sims are a particular kind of software that does not fit well the traditional game model of releasing it and work on the next one. They are best developed and improved for a long period of time, possibly a decade or more, until eventually hitting a technical roadblock (could be new graphics tech) that cannot be done in the current engine. This model works best with subscriptions (and/or DLCs) and iRacing understood that early and are successful with their more than decade old engine that they updated all these years. And when all is said is done, Reiza will have probably spent more than 10 years on AMS2, with new content and improvements (hopefully) bringing new players and a steady flow of income. Kunos recently mentioned that ACE would be a 'forever' sim, updated for years, again likely more than a decade. Then you have the F1 games that are sold each year at full price but building on the previous version with some improvements, making it kind of an optional yearly subscription. Modern sims are incredibly complex to make, with simracers expectations being through the roof. No wonder they take years to fully develop...
I'd say you don't know much about the industry. BeamNG ETS2 ATS Live for Speed X-Plane rFactor 2 iRacing And this is just a sample from the simulation genre. In general software, there's an even greater amount of software which lives for decades. In fact, companies using this model tend to last for longer, while companies using the one release per year model tend to be short-lived.
Sure, If you´re evolving you´re product and/or adding DLC´s and that generates Income. Which for the most part Is not the case for rFactor 2 since It´s release. It stalled somewhere In It´s life span. The 2.0 version concept or whatever you want to call It may work for some situations but not always. Some people are starting to get tired of milking the cow and rather have something new and better, If that means advancement. Or simply don´t have the money anymore. And by this I don´t mean one year projects, which never end well do to short term development window. In X-plane we are talking about a version update that occurs aprox. every 4 years. The downside Is that 80% of the addons that you bought will not work In the newer version, so all the money spent on those very expensive addons (+70€ each plane) Is lost In most cases. I know because I have gone through this, and also with FSX and It´s transition to a 64bit engine to Prepar3D and It´s versions. So you lose users along the way that just don´t want to spend more money again just to have a few upgrades on the core engine. Will people still be playing ACC, or AC when ACE comes out? I doubt It, same goes for rF2 with LMU when their finished.
Reluctant to wade into these discussions, but LMU will never be open like rF2, so rF2 won't die because of it. But a future rF3 built on advancements from LMU and any other projects, not tied down by all that existing content and with a potential boost of cashflow as a new product to be sold, I can see that happening.
I agree and I don´t think rF2 will die either, I sincerely hope not. No It´s not open as rF2, but If LMU gets GT3´s and historical content that just might consume a large part of the rF2 player base, or not as this dependes on how the community Interacts and supports rF2 In the long run. More so with a rF3 In the pipeline If that ever happens.
AC has better numbers today than when it was in development, the same could happen with rF2 if the mod community puts its efforts into this simulator. Marco: "ACEVO was designed to last indefinitely" it is obvious that Kunos will no longer be able to launch an AC3, if EVO has cars of all types, weather, mods, graphics and sounds to match, integrated LFM system or similar, VR... An AC3 doesn't make much sense, the room for improvement could be very small.
Exactly what it is with rF3, it's a simulator that doesn't even make sense, and 2 can still be greatly improved.
AC has become the go-to sim for cheap racing. Buy the complete package for 5€ or less and race anything under the sun. That's probably the reason its popularity has grown so much in the later years. Its price has gone down while its content has increased, even though not all content is good, that's less important than the price.
I think the opposite, I think it is very difficult to attract people to this sim. It feels outdated and updating it requires a lot of work and no benefits, iRacing can afford it due to its business model but not the others. Kunos released a game called nkpro, very ambitious for its time, exquisite driving but everything else very irregular. Afterwards we know what happened.
And they have 3 outside companies that make quite a few mods for It, RRS, VRC and URD which just adds more following and a reason to play more. Some people think that free mods are not good enough so they like to buy there mods Instead. It creates a certain hype.
rFactor3 would be the 2 with some modifications that could be made to the current game and nothing more, they say that updating the game would break the legacy content, but Marussia itself doesn't even turn on the LEDs anymore, the Camaro GT3 has panels with xenon lighting, It's already broken, a lot of time has passed and all the other simulators had modern cars, while RF2 always had normal cars and no F1 or LMP1H, in that they gained a lot of players, and what I said about iracing is that it's a simulator that has been around since 2008 updating and remains current.
That's kind of the point though. How many hundreds/thousands of hours to integrate any subsequent improvements (LMU, anything else that may be done, minus some series specific features so rF2 doesn't make LMU redundant) and update all existing S397 content to not only work correctly but actually be at current tech level (which I believe wouldn't be possible due to licensing in some cases, could be wrong), while still having new users exposed to old ISI content and a plethora of third party mods covering the range of quality and tech from 2016 to 2026/7/? for zero income? Versus fresh title, no existing broken content, new cars and licenses, all paid for, and the "only" work required is to remove the series specific stuff so it remains a sandbox that does lots of things fairly well while leaving room for individual titles to cater to fans of particular series - for more income.
