I worked on rF2 for 4ish years... I tried my best but a lot of time and effort was spent working on things that didn't fix the core issues and now we are where we are with the sim.

2:44 rFactor2 - the IndyCar of sim racing.

Before you tick over to 70k, i would like to congratulate you on 69k subs.

and still it's the best sim racing game on the market. I keep return back to rf2 because how it feels and drives

New people don't realize that rF1 _was_ sim racing and the hype for rF2 was insane. Then ISI fell off the top of the tree and hit every single branch on the way down. From the UI (terrible) to the graphics (outdated at launch) to the subscription system (laughable) to the overcomplicated modding system (there's a reason 90% of mods are straight conversions) to the dumb pre-Steam launcher to the fundamentally broken and buggy netcode, they bungled pretty much everything aside from the car physics (just don't look at the setups). They and successive developers have lacked the desire, competence, and/or funding to address more than the surface-level issues.

I remember having that little glimmer of hope back when Studio 397 took over from ISI, and... nothing.

I said back in roughly 2018 or 2019 when their "new" stock cars were released that I couldn't understand releasing a solid and fun car to drive and not taking care of the rest of the experience. To put in so much work and yet no one can enjoy it because when you load a race up, everything unravels, is insane to me. And it never recovers. None of them have really. They all just keep missing some major point, just in different ways.

doing rF2 now for a couple of years, mostly for online / endurance racing. For me and for this case, it's by far the best and well rounded simulation out there. At times it has it's quirks when the hardware is not right (being it server or client side), but once you do, it's simply an amazing simulation. Gotta say, never had a discconect in the last few years if it was not for provider issues or server instability. So it seems you CAN get things right. But yes, I have to admit, getting rF2 to a point where it runs pretty much flawlessly required a lot of time. When we started doing rF2 races back in 2017, for about a year we probably catched every bug possible in rF2 (driver swap issues, setup isses, performance issues, and so on). Every bug or issue got fixed or was mitigated by something one could set in a config file. think this is indeed still a big thing and should be improved. So I can understand if one is not willing to spend the time. at least it should be a bit easier nowadays and there a quite a few guides out there how to improve XY. Still I've tried pretty much every other sim out there, but nothing came even close to the seasation I've felt in rF2. iR has a good online system, but everything else in my oppinion is rubbish (FFB, Netcode, No Rain yet, Tyre Model, etc.) AMS2 looks promising, but only as a time trial sim right now (AI sucks, p2p netcode for me a no go in a simracing title, no driver swap, missing some brands like ferrari) AC ran like a charm, also did quite a bit online racing there in the past, but no inbuild day/night and rain and has been abandoned by kunos. ACC looks and runs rubbish in VR, so for me this sadly got ruled out pretty quick R3E only tried once, did weird things with my wheel where it took 2 days for me to sort this out (also looked pretty outdated content wise when I tried it) after all, there is no perfect sim out there, everyone has issues. rF2 is the only one where all the core things are there and about right and "only" required some time to optimize. Guess I'm not gonna change the sim anytime soon, LFM now is also a big addition. Gotta say, I'm very happy here 🙂

Your statement at the end...I really feel it, Box. It feels like every sim is a science project that's released 70% finished and then just tinkered with endlessly without ever actually getting better. There's no new sims to be excited for--well no promising ones. You can tell that iRacing is like the only major sim with any kind of decent budget (because of its business model), but it'll never be a singleplayer sim. I miss the days of Papyrus. I miss sims laser-focused on ONE category of racing with care and passion behind them. I miss the days of feeling like I was playing a proper game and not a half-finished science project.

I have been having a blast on RF2 on lowfuelmotorsport atm.. such a great game, apart from the dated ui I don’t see anything wrong with the game. But that’s just my opinion

This video is roughly where I'm at with every sim these days. I recently put iRacing down for a break as I was just bored of them deferring updates and really like you say we need a generational leap rather than just a minor patch. rF2 on it's good days is unbeatable like you say. I've recently been racing rF2 in LFM and honestly it has been reminding me why I used to love sim racing. I think years in iRacing ground the fun out of it. From the still pretty dated physics to the race ending network glitches and just lack of industry standard realism features, years of iRacing had turned me into a codgery old sunday racer. Don't push the car because it won't like it. Don't race close to people because you never know when the netcode might confuse that 4m gap for an actual overlap.. But still, rF2 feels to be on shaky ground. Player numbers increase daily on LFM, but you can't help but wonder how much of the foundation needs rebuilding for long term longevity. ACC is pretty polished, but I see that more as a thought experiment than an out and out driving sim. Mainly because it is exclusively simulating a single type of race series. So I'm looking to the future. What could AC2 be like? Rennsport looks interesting.. Wonder if a new player will enter the arena. You know, just thinking maybe 2023 might be a quiet year with some good releases in 2024.

100% Agree, its like you put my exact opinion in a video. I remember back when they first shared some Screenshots. Man was I hyped. Then after so much delay we got this weird release. Even though I was pretty dissapointed, my hopes where still high, since it felt like actual a big leap forward as a Sim. I also paid the lifetime thingy without much thought, even with this kinda bad release. Little did I know that much wouldnt change. I still think ISI abandoned it because of the complexity and that they needed all the ressources for rFPro (If I remember correctly rF2 was like a light iteration of the new rFPro version). Then in 2016 Studio 397 took over. It started good, they did a lot of fixing, but never brought it to the state, where it needed to be. Remember the "new UI"? They announced it in like 2017 and it took them 4 YEARS to bring us still a questionable UI expierence (I know that they did like a complete rewirte of the system but still). Besides some nice content lately, the really slow development on the core simulation and the bad user expierence is in the end the reason why its failing and will probably never reach the potential it had.

RF2 can be so frustrating because it has so much potential and is so close to being there. All the foundation are solid: drives amazing, look fantastic, lots of exciting content, decent prices, ... but the user experience is a bit a pain in the back. Still the best choice to organize a race/league with your friends IMO.

Holy cow I didn’t realize you put new content back out! About a month or so ago I had checked to see if you had made anything current. I’m glad to see you are back. ISI also screwed themselves by not ever really doing anything about the multiplayer (version checks or updates) and rf lite ran rampant and therefore they never made any money off the game. As a dirt racer on rf1 with BOZ, SPR, DLM and the likes, I can safely say that not many even knew ISI had a website selling the game, it was usually thought of as a “sandbox” title since the game was basically held together by modders. And nobody from that community went over to rf2 and instead to iracing so I know that killed a large community. Anyway, glad to see you back to making content again

The physics of rF2 and pCARS (1+2+AMS2) seem to be so complex and interconnected (tires, dampers, chassis flex, you name it) that I feel like those games have constantly been trying to repair their not-quite-right core physics and car physics (as well as their tracks+ai experience) and we're all waiting for them to mature to a state that the ISI sims of the first decade if this millennium had reached quite quickly. Assetto Corsa (not competizione) feels like the only sim with mature physics that is still modern and accurate enough and just works... without cars bouncing from too stiff dampers, without early overheating tires, without having unrealistic snap oversteer or behaving like grip is either on or off and not a gradient. I'm tired of checking into sims (that look more dated every month) whenever new content drops only to be analyzing what's wrong with the content or the game (still after many patches since my last check-in) and not use it again until the next content drops. The genre is neither progressing nor maturing any more and that's why I lost interest like so many of the sim-racing players I know from forums or races. And yet... I look at the hardware market and there are new things all the time that aren't as cheap for what they are as they used to be, but many of them are selling out(!). You can order only 2 kinds of wheelbases from fanatec right now, everything else is sold out. People are still putting money into this hobby and there are many newcomers, but where is the software? Honestly, after AMS1 times, the only thing that felt rounded with mature physics (as in not-bugged or broken and good enough to feel somewhat like a car), good challenges, good car selection, and modern graphics is Gran Turismo 7, for which I have a really hard time of calling it a sim at all considering how few things that game actually simulates and how slow the AI is. Honestly, put AMS1 physics on a modern graphics engine that supports triples and VR and doesn't look blurry af, get some good car licenses, make the cars and tracks easily moddable, make a good version of iRacings/GT Sports online racing, do some machine learning for AI (should be easier these days than when Forza came up with drivatars), put out regular official content that got the shit playtested out if it and add regular challenges with friends-list leaderboards, do some crazy events from time to time, maybe have a CaRPG and a story mode, maybe have a user livery market. None of those things sound like you're reaching for the stars; it's all been done, all been solved (except for the AI maybe), just get some money and put it together.

great title. and i hope you post more, still get the same enjoyment out of your videos that i did when i first started watching. which makes you the only one.

I played it a few times but always found the whole experience "clunky". From the ridiculously long loading time to endless tweaks trying to get it working properly. Strangely I now spend a lot of time driving Richard Burns Rally, a twenty year old game that somehow just works.

I was all over rFactor 2 in 2020, but fell out with the game after issues with the AI, oval racing, full course yellows, renaming AI drivers, and a lack of polish seemed to evade the care of the developers for forever. I eventually left when they rolled out the new UI in late 2020/early 2021 which had no option to change the HUD and moved on to other things. I 100% concur that there's a gap for a rock solid, good handling offline game. As a mostly offline player, I would play the living daylights out of it. AMS2 seems to be getting it done for now, but there are occasional issues and a lack of a solid oval racing experience that leave something wanting.

Get the rF2 car physics, tire model, FFB, real track changes, rain and put it inside iRacing. There, just created the best sim out there!

Like so many things in life, when things are headed for greatness, they attract so much attention that the direction changes and they don't reach greatness due to other interests.

The reason why I subscribed to your channel a few years ago was your Tokyo Xtreme racer 3 videos. I do enjoy some racing but I also enjoy arcade racers.

Excellent video, you got to the point of the issues...

Back in the early '10s I've bought 1-2 racing games per year. Got into it, played online. Got battered, because every race had 1-2 wreckers for sure. After 3 months the servers were empty. Then you Sir showed me the iRacing IndyCar C fixed here on YT. I was hyped and still am. Paying €100,- per year on subscription or buying 1-2 games a year is the same in the end. And I only had 1 connection issue in all these 8 years!

Totally agree with everything. I feel the single player is close, but the problems that are there ruin the whole thing, pretty much as you said. Even if the car is a class higher they wont pass if they have to pit the same lap, Ai not knowing how to drive the car if it understeers, certain poor AIW's that are official content... I turn off flags and such so I don't have to deal with anything odd happening in that regard. It feels SO CLOSE, but just isn't. Such a bummer. Despite the ai obviously not being great I still race on rf1 because at least its consistent and feels much more refined.

You missed the best offline sim. iRacing AI.

The last sentence of your description truly gets at the heart of the matter IMO - rF2 feels like a game crystalized in amber, a time that was very, *very* different compared to today where you can make the very solid argument that sim racing games are the only viable racing games on the market aside from a few remaining arcade titles and a smattering of indie titles that run the gamut from 'typical pixel based indie tripe' to 'double and single A games that cannot come close to the same games being made in the 2000's' Unfortunately, it's now being tasked into something it absolutely isn't by a bunch of people who are basically approaching all of this in a stolen valor way, and now that Motorsport Games has full control, they consider it to be the crown jewel in a rapidly crumbling empire that wasn't really an empire to begin with. It just begs the question, how long until the entire thing crumbles? Because it's clear with the Virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans controversies that whatever shine from that partnership is gone. As much as he went about it in his own way, and people can debate it until the cows come home, but when you have the two time, reigning F1 champion saying that your product is garbage, and it shows no real sign of improvement considering how long it's been on the market, and how it's been retrofitted (as you point out in the video, quite poorly) then what can you really offer to the buying public, especially to a small and tightly knit community like sim racing? Like...I just don't know what can be done with rF2 anymore. It'll always have the potential, but the way it's being molded and treated now, it just seems like something that has a short shelf life. And by this point, all racing sims need at least some sort of tangible hook to allow it to have long legs. You can't sell a game on potential and hope.

100% agree. Always a slow rolling boil, waiting for the final product. It could had been my go to single player game... but obvious lack of in-game championship management (don't want to use Log Manager) and requirement to build series using the awful MAS Utility editor (and hit and miss AI anyway). So far AMS2 has become my go to single player experience, though I will consider resubscribing to iRacing once dirt oval (sprint cars) gets AI (then I'll get enough use, in combined single and occasional multiplayer when I have free time, to justify the subscription).

the number of sim platforms once ascended to godliness since cast down with the lepers due to malfeasance and hubris is too damn high

They chose to try and get back rf2's image as a relevant sim by going hard on e-sports and banked on that angle and it's competition system to drive sales of what is a tornado of an ever expanding litany of DLC. My feelings are similar to EB's - once a sim that felt like it just needed two/three years of competent dev time has had way, way more than this and yet is still just as convoluted and messy as it ever was, just in new ways. They've proven time and time again to me that they don't--at the very least--know what I'm looking for in a sim. Good luck to them and their 65 eports viewers on most of their content (aside from the major events, but let's not even touch on that shitshow).

I cut my teeth with PC sims with Gp Legends and their Nascar series both were hard to mod though. But with ISI that was less challenging. But I had my fair share of having to completed wipe the install because of adding to many mods at once and then the resulting conflicts and blue screens. EA had a big issue with ISI's support for the modding groups many who went on to make games like the GTR series and Raceroom so many Sim games used a version of Gmotors some still do. I spent lord knows how many hrs both Beta testing for various mods or doing research finding data on racing cars the old way in books and Magazines in the days before Wiki or Google. For me F1 challenge from ISI was a breakthrough for many GT and Touring car mods and pre digital F1 because it shared the same file structure as the ISI Nascar game this allowed analogue dials to be used for the first time which was a god send for the F1 Turbo Mod that was been worked on as well as the Virtual Le Mans mods . Then ISI split from EA and Rfactor 1 hit the market. Becoming the bench mark for sim modding until Assetto Corsa took over. I came very late to Rfactor 2 .because of a long distance relationship and having to drop out of the modding all together and a move of country. I think I had an early access version of Assetto Corsa before I picked up Rfactor 2. By that point there were already rumbling that it was not the platform Moddershall liked and of course the pay for online was a deal breaker for most and the lack of development from ISI who at that point were already moving over to their Rfactor Pro platform for only professional usage. I have not really bothered with the sim much since ISI sold the writes to studio 360 who themselves have since been taken over. It could have been the holy grails of sims maybe ISI tried to raise the bar so high that they could not hit any of their goals properly. Making it so hard-core both hardware wise back in the day and full blown sim wise limited their revenue string. Something Assetto Corsa did not do as we can see from the end result AC is still the biggest modding platform even though its now showing its age. I doubt ISI will venture back into making a mass market Simracers again which is sad considering they basically created many of those development teams now work on some of the current big name Simracers out there. Its sad but we owe them a big thanks for their creations.

Its obvious the dev's that build this game are brilliant and I thank them for what they tried to create. its a shame its has never fill out its potential. I still play RF2 as much as I get time for on LFM. hope those dev's get a chance to build a sim they deserve.

I love R Factor 2 but i use old UI so i can make custom championships. For some reason it dose not score points in championships. I have to screenshot results and put points scheme into spreadsheet with points for top finishers. And a bar chart to show championship chase like i do for F1 Championship that i follow live on TV.

Welcome back :)

If you want online racing, go to iRacing. If you want mods, go to Assetto Corsa. If you want offline road racing, go to AMS2. If you want offline endurance/GT racing, go to ACC. If you want offline oval racing (like me), you're still stuck with NR2003, which is TWO DECADES OLD. If you want offroad racing, surprisingly, go to BeamNG Drive Somehow, rF2 remains my favorite racing sim despite all that, but god, it could be so much more, and it never will be.

I remember when Dirt Factor came out for rFactor 2 and that was all I played. Haven't been back in it for a while. Do you have any experience with RaceRoom Racing Experience? Recently started in on that.

Hi Empty Box. What would you feel would be groundbreaking changes you are referring to at the end of your video. I am quite curious for your opinion on that topic.

you passing the entire field at Indianapolis at the start tells me a *lot*.

Ahh RF2. The game that brought me some really good singleplayer races but has the least playtime of all of my sims (and i have them all). It can be the perfect offline sim but it almost never is. And the way you had to setup races did feel like a bad implemented mod (old ui never tried the new one). Raceroom and AMS2 are not perfect either but they give me a smooth singleplayer experience and AMS2 is just golden in VR.

rf2 really does just make me sad there's so much there yet every time i want to give it another chance it's another weird grating experience

rF1 was and is so awesome game ! Also Simbin's GTR2 is great!

RF2 really showcases that you can't just sell yourself on the raw on track experience. Everything that isn't driving by yourself in practice is so slapdash and janky that the entire sim feels worthless. If you're a single player simmer the sim offers almost nothing. Even the once amazing ai has been completely busted.

This game will never break out.

& yet despite all of this, it's still way better than all other sims - all things considered.

11:10 all the time I thought, You were talking about Rennsport. Do You think Rennsport could change simracing's status quo?

Releasing the Competition System in a massively unfinished state was a grave mistake especially without resources to solve issues very quickly as that would obviously be required. A couple of years down the track, still lacking the actual rating system promised and LFM is surprisingly popular with RF2 users that are left who want to race online with a rating system? Updating graphics and adding VR ( fortunately not degrading the physics side ) to remove half the sim racing player base due to average PC specs not being even able to even use them? Decisions like this are what have hurt rF2 the most. Iracing took a couple of years to complete their released new UI, but at least it was usable. I don't like iRacing, but they know their market and have the market share to prove that, without good physics or graphics. They are strong on details that matter, or at least giving the perception of it. At the end of the day its about users and not alienating the ones you have.

I wonder whats more likely rF getting decent UI or AC getting decent physics.

rFactor 1 was my most used game, directly competing with GTR 2 for playtime, and they both provided great amounts of fun. However, rFactor 2 never made it past the purchase stage and even to this day, I haven't bought the game. Why? Well they shot themselves in the foot with a redicolous price for a "lifetime" license and instead wanted to go the iRacing route with subscription, and I hate that, another reason why iRacing is off the table for me. Regardless, from that moment I tuned out rFactor 2, but also didn't offer any of the content I wanted, and by the time they had ditched that model and focused on selling the cars and tracks instead... Assetto Corsa had taken them out of the game for me. AC offered not just a moddable sim like rFactor 1, but they also offered ROAD CARS, official road cars, and that was what I wanted all along, and why I fell in love with their Japanese DLC. Yes, I grew up on Gran Turismo, and driving the Japanese sports cars is what is fun to me, still I wish for a GT / Forza style tuning and purchase system. In Gran Turismo 2 the fun was buying the shoddy econobox and spend a few credits on it, and then take it to race muscle cars around Seattle, those are fond memories of fun for me, being the oddball, trying and building something.

rFactor2 is owned by Motor Sport Games. They spent 2.6 million dollars past quarter on development. That number is a probably a bit down as they have difficulties paying their Russian developers at this moment. In that development budget; the focus is almost entirely on the new Indycar/BTCC and Nascar games. This is needed, because MSG desperately needs to generate income/cash flow. They are losing about 7M USD a quarter at the moment; and the amount of cash they generated after their IPO is almost fully gone. In fact; they will run out this quarter. This is why development efforts on rFactor2 are slow / on hold and resulted in the Le Mans Virtual having all the issues they had. The future isn't really bright; hopefully a long term investor is found soon.

Some great points in there. what i took from that is, well, if you don't have solid quality control an a solid base platform, then thats what you get. As a developer myself, i see it. I recall getting RF1 and felt like, what is this, now i need to go and find content, from where? a version control toilet, this and that forums, nothing centralised and managed. It might have been the style at the time, but then came along something that had its shoelaces tied, centralised, managed, organized, and there hasn't been something that took that step up since. And imagining how another title could do better, unlikely.

It's strange as it all depends on what you want from a sim. The only thing i'm interested in is creating an immersive career mode. So the game has to be moddable, has to have competent AI, and has to have built in changeable weather. rFactor 2 is the absolute pinnacle for what I use sims for, but for others it is the worst of the bunch!

I don't race in rF2 but a good car on one of the laser scanned tracks, nothing else feels like it. I drive rF2 for the pure joy no other sim has that appeal.... But for racing, either AI or real people, there are other sims that drive well enough to offer good racing and a much less frustrating experience. Horses for courses.

rF2 was early access before Steam started their early access program.

I dunno... at CMSracing, we run WSC98 and WSC23 with the LMdh cars, we're doing Daytona 2.4hrs now and 35 cars on Thursday evening and there'll be 40 for Saturday... totally ossum! Race start 59:25 = kzfaq.info/get/bejne/grh8h92Z0r-toKM.html

All rFactor 2 really needed was a HD remaster of the original with updated graphics and AI. Keep the modding and online stuff simple and working and make it so that the AI was more realistic and especially on-par with Papyrus' oval AI and you would've basically shipped a never-ending world of recreating racing history in a beautiful setting. Imagine rFactor 2 with ways to make your own in-sim F1, BTCC, IndyCar, NASCAR, etc... history all in the one place? Or be able to race online against people in so many disciplines? Instead, they got too complex and in their own thoughts and released something that hasn't beaten out the rFactor 1 experience in my opinion. Hell, Assetto Corsa is basically the modern rFactor like you said, and that game is so much more nicer to race in, look at and get online with. And don't get me started on the Motorsports Games aspect they have now, I will forever hate that company with a loathing passion. Just a shame at what could've been...

Having played a lot of sims, starting from F12000 and GTR1, GTR2, NS2003, I would say, even with all the cons of rF2, it's still the most accurate and realistic sim racing game. BUT the feeling and immersion of racing is better in Kunos AC and ACC.

mans just casually passing 32 IR-18's on the indy backstretch in one fucking go.

Rf2 is like a red headed step child. It’s a little brat, doesn’t do what you want, pisses you off all the time but at the end of the day you still kinda love it.

To me rf2 just feels like everything is done half way and then never fixed or finished. They make tons of mistakes all the time with everything. And the mistakes just keep piling up. They even managed to use the steam in the wrong way to sell dlc. Not the same way as every other game but using the item store. The competition system was similar failure. It is like the earliest alpha of an idea that then never got improved. They make these mistakes and then double down on them. They could have switched to normal steam store with some time effort. They could do a better competition system, better this or that. They never do. It sucks because rf2, the core physics program, deserves better. But it is just constant mistake one after other. On all possible fronts. It never ends and the le mans and motorsports mother company are just couple more items in that long line of mistakes. It is almost impossible for me to even understand how they can get it wrong almost every single time? With literally everything. Lfm really shows the incompetence of the rf2 devs in comparison. A freely made alternative is billions of times better. You could give rf2 devs infinite time and money and they couldn't make anything as good. They'd mess it up like they always do. It is a very negative thing to say. No buts on that one.

Had so big hopes for rF2 and NLC 2009 😪

Rf2...R.I.P.

sad thing is. 397 didn't add anything to the game xd except dlcs. "oh we gonna change the racing sim blablabla" xd. but still rocks I can't argue with that. rfpro is all we need

I loved rf2 , moved to AMS2 now which is a title I kind of imagined what rf3 would be Rf2 needs now to be wrapped up, they should put rf3 on a completely new software engine

yeah, kind of feel like its time for racing sims to follow the Kunos formula, bring out a new game at least every 5 years. or at least make such a good basis that indeed you can stay up to date with just updates to it for the next 10yrs.

I still play the original on a win 7 machine, absolutely no reason to update game or os since both are infinitely better than anything out on the market.

Honestly, I lay most of the blame at the interim between ISI & MSG, the devs just did as little as possible in that time.

I'm at 0:29 and I'm already laughing :D

I think Automobilista 2 is in a position to tackle the big guys, but they need to get heavily behind multiplayer racing, but dont' seem to be very interested in that.

Dont worry EB.. Forza Motorsport will save the day this year. With all their new features, they will definitely set themselves apart from the pack. 🤣🤣🤣 all jokes aside, I think you hit the nail on the head ..

commenting to feed the algorithm

the title is a title

On the subject of multiplayer, it struck me as particularly odd that LFM coming to RF2 (and the hype around it being rumored for AMS2) was seen as such a great thing. It seems absolutely unacceptable that the sim racing community at large has been conditioned to accept that a third-party company/system is the only solution to racing online, if you don't want to spend outrageous amounts of money to use iRacing. I can't think of a single other genre where its greater community has just outright given up on ever getting real, usable online systems, to the point where almost no accountability is placed on the developers anymore.

Don't forget that AI is becoming bigger and bigger and will reshape industries. In the next 5 years its guaranteed that there will be a "super-sim" providing we don't run into bigger issues worldwide

I find this video a bit vague on specific issues and to some extent its too history focussed and based on outdated opinions. Im having a great time on LFM doing ranked racing in rf2. Lets see a 30 mins video with details.

i always wished rF2 implemented a offline championship mode with a point system that could be shard to others like content manager on assetto corsa or AMS2(which apparently is going to receive even more mod support this year)

I mean the playerbase numbers clearly tell that theres something wrong with rF2. Simracing arguably has never been more popular and yet you have rF2 with an average of 500 players on Steam whereas AC, what feels like the successor to rF1, has an average of 9000 players on Steam not even counting console numbers. And the numbers of iRacing are hardly a secret and even higher than AC, despite the huge cost. I recently tried out the LFM mod of rF2 due to Davecams recommendation and was met with bugs and glitches that immediately put me off to a point where it just wasnt any fun. Turns out, people care about many other things than the driving physics and ffb.

I really cannot agree with the statement that the original rFactor was the best sim ever and ISI knew what they were doing at the time. The sim wasn't even modelling superchargers correctly and turbos at all! Just to state the most obvious thing. How can you make a sim that doesn't model turbo engines. Then again, base content was shoddy and rushed, no weather, AI was riddled with bugs as well as the game itself, etc. Rfactor2 was their shortsighted try at making another hit by just having another easily moddable platform (which is what, at this point, we can tell is the only factor that makes a sim widely successful; even though the majority of devs still have to grasp this notion) with better graphics. But it didn't have, like you say, everything physics wise packed in it. Rfactor2 doesn't model active aero, hybrid systems and electric motors, to name a few. Only recently they added a shoddy implementation for some of this stuff, given that they had the official license for Formula E and were running their official esports series. They kinda had to. ISI titles were, and always have been, half-baked sims, thrown into the market with the general idea that, if people can do whatever they want with it, it will sell. And it works, unfortunately they came too short with Rfactor2 and made modding too complex, shooting themselves in the foot. Studio397 just tried to sell as much stuff they could to make up for the money they spent on buying the game from ISI, without fixing everything that was wrong at the core of the sim (if that was even possible without rewriting the entire code itself). Motorsport Games just wants to milk the market. Rfactor2 is the literal interpretation of the saying "flogging a dead horse" at this point.

too bad like 90% of rFactor 1 mods are lost to time, and the shutdown of NGR, for me, sim racing is a long lost endeavor. i only play gran turismo and forza with a controller now. No more Simbin or Reiza games, i just cant do it anymore.

What i mostly don't like about rfactor 2 Is that basically you have to buy some DLC because the base game has nothing interesting apart two tracks and cars

the new content has so much potential and I have been impressed with the work that has gone into this sim in past year or so but the bugs man, the bugs are still there. The old content like in car ui and old cars and tracks. Just get rid of this stuff and call the game something else and leave only new things in. I think rf2 name has brought such bad reputation over the years that people simply gave up on it. Best would be to stop with updates go away for 6 months to a year take current new content and release a new sim with new title with better polish. These constant updates that still leave bugs and things and promises is just frustrating to say the least. You see so much potential from few new things you try and then you get hit by a massive bug or something else thats super dated in the sim.

The whole someone needs to try and come out with THE offline ai oriented sim could be solved on one meeting at iracing. Package it like R3E and that sort of pricing big for only offline racing. That’d be it, that’s the sim but rn its hard because the price is crazy unless you line everything up perfectly with sales and a big bonus check you weren’t expecting.

lol ok

I made a mod and downloaded mods for refactor 1. I even pointed modders how to adjust headlight brightness and distance on refactor 1. I didn't enjoy refactor 2 though.

rF2 still has the best feel of any sim IMHO, but the rest of it is clearly dreadful. Lots of bad mods, and the good ones are hard to find. Online racing is hard to find and when you do find it, it has super weird bugs and issues going on. It seems like they need to go back to basics and release an rF3 with super simple mod support and a solid multiplayer system, not this garbage which everyone but iRacing puts out.

I will never understand the constant bashing around rF2. With the new tire model, we have a tire that feels like rubber. Which clearly conveys its limitations to me. By far the most detailed FFB and fantastic comprehensible physics. There is a new sound engine, an easy to use UI. Hybrid now comes to rF2. The best quality LS tracks. Graphics that don't look like a cartoon, but realistic. Now comes the possibility to race against cars I don't own. The AI is reworked. With LFM there are finally real online events. If you study this simulation software in detail, you will be rewarded with one of the best simulations on the market.

I think its still the best driving simulator out there, which is what keeps me going back. Multiplayer has improved with LFM. Ai racing is a bit hit or miss but can be good with a bit of tweaking. Overal the user experience is still terrible even after 300h into I still struggle with the settings. Despite that it will take a great sim to lure me away from rf2, I hope the guys at Kunos step away from their ACC ffb model and go back in the original AC direction for AC2. Until then Ill just keep having great driving experiences with some frustration on the side.

I said back when S397 took over, they should abandon rF2 and release a new platform so they could do all changes they want without needing to worry about previous content. I also said back then the bad fame rF2 got won't go away no matter how many updates you add to it. Oh well... simracing being simracing. None of those titles are where they should be when you look back at titles like GTR2, GP4. Some are worse than others but they are all bad in the end. That last race was cool tho, the AI worked well.

The driving is great, but everything else is dogshit. The average racing fan installs the game and realizes how awful it is to even get going. Then you realize that basic things you could do easily in other games is not there in this game or very cumbersome to deal with.

So in my opinion there is currently no SIM that does everything better and right than RF2, because every SIM has its pros and cons. Example ACC: Of course, the SIM works well and this SIM is a must for MP fans in particular. But why isn't there a safety car like there is in RF2? Why isn't there a mode where I can race with friends against the AI ​​like I can in RF2? This list could be continued with other SIMs, which just shows that unfortunately we don't get the racing simulation that we actually want in any racing SIM that is as realistic as possible. Many SIM manufacturers have great approaches and implementations, but in my opinion they don't really manage to be the first to bring the game across the finish line. Therefore, in my opinion, no SIM is really good or bad, you should just see for yourself which SIM suits you best and that's it. And if that's not RF2, that's perfectly fine.

I've nearly no issues since a year now. I cannot understand, why people have so many problems. The only thing I can understand is the server stability. With 30 to 40 cars: No problem. 50+: problems.

Go play chess. No issues there.

Competition system is poop, try LOW FUEL MOTORSPORTS

I said it before and I'll say it again: nothing wrong with iRacing

seaking attention video?

Any motorsport where cars have electronics like ABS is a no go to me so I stopped watching all motorsports 15 years ago.

I race with rFactor2, without AI, without shadows, without rain, and it's very good....10 minutes, then I go with another more fun game

I think how iRacing is setup as a "service" should be illegal. If you buy something, you should be able to play it forever, solo atleast. This "sub" model all these companies are moving to needs to be legislated ASAP or we will never own anything. Also, it was clear someone attacked the Le Mans event. Question: Who stands to gain from DDOS attacking a RF2 exclusive licensed event? dirty dirty dirty

Still many issues in rF2, but who would've thought the tracks now load like 5 times quicker than in iRacing once it's in the cache, while iRacing is the turtle of hole Sim-Racing and you might miss even the qualifying if you save it on HDD. Still no rain and real dynamic tracks in iRacing while the new Real Road in rF2 is kind of a game-changer in physics, but probably caused some problems with bigger grids. Not pointing out any improvements is basically proving you don't know shit about this game and are an iRacing-chill.