rFactor 2 August Roadmap reveals updated Zandvoort and more

Justin Melillo
rFactor 2 August Roadmap reveals updated Zandvoort and more

Every month, rFactor 2 racers are treated to an inside glimpse of what’s in store for the sim. As August came to a close on Tuesday, Studio 397 released their monthly Roadmap Update detailing what’s coming soon.

The roadmap revealed considerable updates made to Circuit Zandvoort including PBR shading, layout reconfiguration and surface tweaking. The Physically-Based Rendering updates will make the circuit look incredibly detailed and realistic. The reconfiguration is to match the real adjustments made in real life to accommodate Formula 1’s return.

The goal was to release the free upgrade to track owners before the Dutch Grand Prix this weekend. On Wednesday, they succeeded. Earlier in the day, a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup update was also released, bringing the car version to 1.41. The Twitter post showed off the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars racing on the updated Zandvoort.

Later in the day on Wednesday, the updated track was released in full. Pretty quick turnaround, only a day after it was announced!

NEW ZANDVOORT DETAILS

Originally slated as just a PBR shading refresh, Circuit Zandvoort on rFactor 2 is the latest and greatest from Studio 397 as far as racetracks are concerned.

The team completely rebuilt the track, having been given the extra year due to the cancellation of the 2020 Dutch Grand Prix. Night lighting has been reworked beautifully in the update. New trackside objects and pit buildings are included in the new release. The circuit, of course, received some cosmetic changes to accommodate the F1 race weekend, but a new “National” layout has also been added to the fold.

The full list of changes is below. As already stated, it is a free upgrade for those that own the track in the Steam Workshop.

Zandvoort 2021 V2.50

  • Complete update and rebuild of Zandvoort to track state in July 2021, including curb colors and reported DRS zones at the time.
  • Any adjustments since July 2021 will be addressed in a post release update.
  • Major rework of terrain to conform to point cloud data.
  • All major assets rebuilt from scratch including Pit Building, Grandstands and more.
  • Barriers remodeled and updated to the latest state.
  • Added various grandstands and props to simulate a reasonably large event.
  • All new foliage objects and materials.
  • All latest new PBR materials.
  • Added new spectators, marshals, rescue vehicles, generic vehicles, tents and more.
  • New Night lighting Configurations including lit up Grandstand, Pit Building and Town Centre.
  • Added 2021 National Layout.
  • New Camera Files.
  • New AI Files.
  • Packed extra files for upcoming loading optimizations.

FUTURE BUILDS COULD LOAD FASTER

With future release candidate builds being decided upon, some of the updated features could be integral to the future successes of the franchise. The User Interface and loading times have always been a point of contention among active players. We’ve seen some work already in past builds towards the UI, but a future build could bring faster loading speeds.

Graphics and exposure levels are also being looked at for these future release candidates. If the testing yields positive results, the updates will then be launched service-wide.

TATUUS UPDATE DELAYS

In the last roadmap, Studio 397 hinted at some Tatuus audio, visual and physical updates coming soon. The updates were hoped to be released in August, but now in September, they’ve been delayed further.

Those updates are still coming, however. The company says that they won’t put a date on it this time, but expect them to drop sooner than later.

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The Circuit Zandvoort update looks to be incredible, and I’m very much looking forward to the possible infrastructure updates such as loading times. What are you looking forward to? Let us know down below in the comments.

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