rFactor 2 took a major step forward in October with the beta release of rFactor 2 Online. The beta build brought rFactor 2 in line with other multiplayer-focused sim racing games like iRacing, with driver safety ratings and scheduled online race events.
Following a beta, rFactor 2 Online is ready for everyone, with the final release now live. It’s an early Christmas present for rFactor 2 players.
Ranked multiplayer racing comes to rFactor 2
Since launching in 2012, rFactor 2’s online experience has been lacking, limited to private server matches and no matchmaking. The launch of rFactor 2 Online changes this with a proper matchmaking system for competitive online racing.
Every driver is assigned a Safety and Driver rating. Safety rank represents your track etiquette starting at Bronze, with Platinum representing the safest drivers less likely to cause an accident. Higher Safety Ranks also help unlock new events. Driver Rank, on the other hand, represents your racing skill, rising to platinum as you beat other players. Driver Ranks can’t exceed Safety Ranks, encouraging clean driving.
Every race is tracked on a driver profile, where you can view your race positions, online rankings, and other statistics.
Daily and weekly races
To keep the online experience fresh, a series of Daily Races will be refreshed every week with various categories depending on your safety rank from touring cars to open wheel.
Featuring free content only, beginner Daily Races are open to everyone and rotate every hour. Intermediate events run every two hours and are restricted to Silver Safety Rank-drivers, while Advanced events are open to Gold Safety Rank and run every three hours.
Alongside the Daily Races are weekly Special Events. These events are longer with greater Driver Rank rewards and are sometimes based on real-life events. Practice sessions are held throughout the week, with practice times shown on a leaderboard.
In addition, rFactor 2 players can host their own online races for a fee, ranging from €1 for one hour to €13 for 24 hours. With rFactor 2 Online receiving a positive reception from players, rFactor 2 is entering an exciting new chapter.
rFactor 2 Online update patch notes
You can find out more details about the rFactor 2 Online update in the patch notes below:
General Fixes
- Improved how we handle times in the UI so we are more specific about the format the results are read in as UTC and all outputs are in local times
- Note: Brazil timezone may continue to experience issues
The Event Page
- Added a dropdown of available practice servers, allowing you to pick which server you want to join
- Selecting auto will following the existing methodology of the system picking a server for you
- If there are no practice servers the Join Practice button will be disabled
- If the event your viewing has started and you have not registered for the Event you will be send back to the Daily or Special Event List pages
Schedule
- Added the track layout to the schedule
- Improved the timeslots shown to for non UTC timezone
Event Results Updates
- Fixed a bug where the up/down arrows would sometimes be incorrect when cycling through your race history
- Added each drivers expected finishing position after their name
- i.e. Bob Jones (#1) shows that Bob Jones was expected to finish first in his split
- Added a Split 1 of X to the top of the page so you can see how many splits where running
- Added a success message when submitting a report against another player, to confirm that is has been logged
- Added a % increase to the end of the SR & DR progress bar on the post race screen to give you an indication of the progress you made (or lost)
- this will only apply to new races
- Added tipple up/down arrows for the drivers who gained or lost the most DR and SR (if anyone lost any SR)
- this will only apply to new races
Online Menu
- Updated the code which looks up the next special event to filter the events to the ones you have access too
- If you do not have access to any upcoming special events this tile will be greyed out and clicking it will give you an error message
Hosted Severs
- Hosted session passwords now work
- You can enable and disable each session type, so you can just run a Practice session, or you can turn off the warmup 🙂
- Added some flyout messages for configuration errors when setting up a server
- Added a note (which no one will read) to the bottom of the screen to notify players that servers can take 6minutes or more to boot up
- Added a success flyout notification when your server has been requested
- Added some protection around double clicking the Request Server button so you can’t accidently kick off two servers
Non-online changelog
- Fixed track limits not scoring when returning illegal passes and improved robustness around monitoring illegal passes
- Added half a second grace when a penalty just becomes valid as we are about to score a violation
- Fix for track limits issues when a starting grid spot is inside the pit entry line
- Tweaked default parameters, to be harsher on distance and time spent off track.
- Retry attempts and better logging when failed to connect to a server
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