Come ormai ben saprete, l'edizione 2023 della 24h of Le Mans Virtual tenutasi su rFactor 2 non è stata esente da problemi, con ben due bandiere rosse per problemi al server e numerose disconnessioni durante la gara, tra le quali anche quella del leader della gara Max Verstappen, che non ha lesinato critiche nei confronti della piattaforma e dell'organizzazione.

Dopo quasi due settimane Studio 397 ha rilasciato una nuova dichiarazione riguardo l'evento, fornendoci alcuni aggiornamenti sulle investigazioni che il team tecnico sta portando avanti. Gli indirizzi IP dei due server utilizzati sono in qualche modo stati resi pubblici e il team ha notato un inusuale livello di traffico con alcune registrazioni, nei log, di eventi preoccupanti avvenuti durante quel lasso di tempo. Nonostante il team non possa parlare con sicurezza di un attacco malevolo, quello che è certo è che verranno prese nuove misure di sicurezza per garantire il funzionamento dei server. Chiaramente l'utilizzo di server con IP pubblici per accedere alle sessioni non è ideale e il team è al lavoro per creare un sistema che permetta solo a determinati utenti di accedere al server.

Con riguardo alle numerose disconnessioni, il team dichiara che si è trattato di qualcosa di davvero inusuale e che era accaduto soltanto una volta durante la Le Mans Virtual Series. Nonostante i notevoli miglioramenti apportati al codice di gioco che gestisce la parte multiplayer, è chiaro che la strada da fare è ancora tanta e che i problemi non sono affatto risolti. Dichiarando la situazione attuale "inaccettabile", il team si impegna a riscrivere questa parte di codice nei prossimi mesi affinchè non tutti i giocatori possano godere di un'esperienza adeguata

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2023 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual Statement

Following the conclusion of the 2023 running of the 24 Hours of Lemans Virtual, and the unfortunate issues that resulted in a double red flag stoppage and player disconnects, the technical team of Studio 397 are undertaking preliminary investigations to determine causes and direction of development to be applied to future product updates.

Once again, we apologise to fans and participants of this event for the obvious frustrations these incidents have caused. Issues like these are massively frustrating to all involved in such a considerable production, and we remain determined to use the 2023 event as a platform to expand our knowledge and experience, to help build in a stronger, more robust set of solutions for every online player of rFactor 2.

We are aware that the IP addresses of the servers were inadvertently made public, and we observed unusual levels of traffic during the event, combined with logging of some concerning events taking place during this period. We are not aware of a malicious attack, but will be implementing new procedures to ensure that in future our servers are robustly defended. The use of direct IP addresses for access to multiplayer sessions is clearly not an ideal solution, and we take full responsibility for any inadvertent distribution to non-participants – we are actively working on new processes to allow only permitted users and prevent similar issues in the future.

Additionally, the four instances of spontaneous multiple disconnects that occurred during the race were highly unusual and have only been seen once before in competition. Whilst we have made significant improvements and bug fixes to the multiplayer code of the game in recent years, we are clearly still experiencing problems with legacy low-level networking code. Naturally, this is an unacceptable situation for any multiplayer environment, and we are committed to rewriting this code over the coming months to ensure a better experience for all players.

The spotlight on the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual over the years has been both rewarding and challenging for rFactor 2 and Studio 397. As the most widely visible sim racing event, any issues are thrust into the spotlight by the incredible competitors from around the globe. We aspire to be the most realistic racing simulation experience and will continue tirelessly to ensure that we take learnings, along with the Le Mans organisers to produce spectacular virtual racing events as we move towards the future.

Inoltre Studio397 ha rilasciato una nuova build release candidate di rFactor 2, della quale trovate tutti i dettagli a questo link.

E' disponibile tramite Steam un nuovo update per TrackDayR. Le novità e migliorie apportate da questo aggiornamento sono numerose, come ad esempio le gare in multiplayer, un nuovo sistema di penalità, la modalità supercross, ulteriori miglioramenti alla fisica e persino le... grid girls!

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MULTIPLAYER RACE
We listened a lot the community about the possibility to create race in multiplayer so we dedicated all the effort on it! You now have the possibility to create a lobby with up to 22 players!

NEW PENALTY SYSTEM
Another thing that the community wanted us to put our attention to is a solid anti-cut with penalty system for every game modes to make our simulator much more competitive and challenging.

GRID GIRLS
Girls on the starting grid with the time sign (for the moment only 5 seconds) before the gates will go down

SUPERCROSS IS HERE
As requested by the community supercross is here! We created 3 super challenging tracks called Alameda, Millcreek and Orange County. All this tracks are placed in a totally new stadium full of lights and big screens.

CHAT
We know that with races one of the main missing things can be the textual chat so we made it! Is only an early version but is super easy and usable. It has notifications and you can open it by pressing T on your beautiful RGB keyboard

PHYSICS
You really think that we will release a major without improve our physic engine? Pfff
We worked hard on suspensions physics and also on the surface contact point of the wheel on the jump faces. Also the Mx tyre model is improved, now you can have more traction under high loads.

FULL CHANGELOG ON STEAM

Nel corso del suo showcase, Microsoft ha presentato il lavoro fatto da Turn10 sull'attesissimo Forza Motorsport in un lungo video, definendolo "il gioco di corse più avanzato di sempre", oltre che solo next-gen.

Il gioco conterà 500 auto all'uscita, prevista entro il mese di Giugno 2023 (anche se non ancora confermata ufficialmente). L'esperienza di guida sarà più soddisfacente, grazie a una grafica avanzatissima che vanta raytracing e riflessi di ultima generazione. Simulate crepe nella vernice e graffi, oltre che lo sporco che si raccoglie in modo realistico sulla carrozzeria. Anche il sonoro è stato particolarmente curato, con i suoi dei motori e delle parti meccaniche delle automobili che cambiano in modo realistico seguendo le modifiche apportate.

In totale sono state create 20 ambientazioni, per un numero imprecisato di circuiti, appositamente per questa generazione, tra cui una completamente inedita in Sudafrica. Ogni ambientazione viene creata elaborando migliaia di GB di dati, per ottenere un aspetto il più realistico e vivo possibile. Tra le altre novità tecnologiche, spiccano l'introduzione del ciclo giorno / notte, con corse in ogni condizione di illuminazione, e condizioni atmosferiche dinamiche, anche nelle temperature, che modificano la risposta dei pneumatici alle sollecitazioni della pista. Tutte le ambientazioni saranno renderizzate a 4K e 60fps. Sarà giocabile sia in single player, sia online su PC e Xbox Series X e S (niente Xbox One).

iRacing ha reso disponibili le release notes della Patch 3 il cui rilascio è attualmente in corso. Con questa patch il team ha apportato alcune migliorie al nuovo sistema di danni in modo da rendere meno resistenti le vetture che lo utilizzano, che prima di questo aggiornamento risultavano troppo resistenti e poco realistiche.

Ecco di seguito il changelog completo:

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iRACING UI:

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Go Racing

• Fixed an issue that caused non-repeating events to disappear from the Race Guide if the selected time was after the events began.

Series

• After clicking a race in the Go Racing menu, the Results tab now reads Series Results instead of Season Results.
• The order of Race Results has been inverted, so that the newest events are first, for the Results displayed in the Season Modal window.
• Season Session Results now includes a tooltip for Field Size that showcases the car class entries distribution.

AI Racing

• A Time of Day warning will now appear when creating AI Racing sessions if one is needed.
• Using Car Classes with cars that are not AI-enabled now correctly omits the non-AI-enabled cars from the session.

Leagues

• Resolved an issue where attempting to Create several League Race events in a row could result in an error.
• Resolved an issue when creating a Hosted Event and clicking "Enable League Racing", the dropdown list of a user's leagues was not populating.

Results

• Resolved an issue on the Results & Stats page where Rookie Licenses were displaying iRating in the Series Stats table.

Stats

• The number of rows displayed per page in the Series Stats Modal has been increased from 10 to 25.

Replays

• Resolved an issue that could occur when deleting multiple replays in a row.
• Fixed an issue with the Display Mode modal window not closing correctly.

Protests

• Submit A Protest data calls have been optimized.

Account

• Fixed an issue where using the “Back” button from the View Order window was not taking you back to the correct location.

Errors

• A specific Help Page URL has been added to the “Could Not Find SIM Error” to better assist users who encounter this error.

SIMULATION:

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Clubs

• Mid-South Club logo has been updated.

AI Racing

• AI Drivers have improved their racing skills with the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992).

New Damage Model

• With the 2023 Season 1 Release, some long-standing issues with the overall New Damage Model were fixed. Because of these issues, cars developed using the New Damage Model prior to 2023 Season 1 were generally stronger and more durable than was realistic in order to counter these systemic issues. This Patch includes a variety of New Damage Model adjustments to reset these cars to realistic and ideal settings now that these long-standing issues have been solved. Generally, this will serve to weaken many cars utilizing the New Damage Model. Drive carefully!

Camera

• A new control has been added to the camera tool to increase or decrease the amount of motion blur on that camera. This value is set on a per-camera basis.

Telemetry

• A new telemetry value, "ClutchRaw" has been added.

- - This value shows your raw clutch pedal position without the anti-stall clutch aid being applied. This matches the other values like BrakeRaw.

CARS:

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<Car Class> GT4 Cars

• A New Damage Model tuning pass has been completed:
• - - Lowered yield and break limits for most panels.
• - - Lowered friction strength on surfaces impacting the ground.

<Car Class> NASCAR Trucks Class Trucks

• Vehicle artwork for textures and decals have been updated for the 2023 Season.

- - This includes the NASCAR Trucks Series new brand sponsor: Craftsman.

• These vehicles have had their names adjusted for easier reading.
• Fixed an issue where the fenders would appear scraped and damaged whenever shader quality was set to high.

<Car Class> NASCAR Classic 1987 Class Cars

• A New Damage Model tuning pass has been completed which lowers yield and break limits for detachable vehicle pieces.

<Car Class> NASCAR Cup Series Next Gen Cars

• The 2023 Season updates for car models and textures have been completed.
• A new NASCAR 75th Anniversary contingency decal has been added.
• An iRacing setup for Bristol Motor Speedway - Dirt has been added.

<Car Class> NASCAR Xfinity Class Cars

• Vehicle artwork for textures and decals have been updated for the 2023 Season.

<Car Class> Touring Cars

• A New Damage Model tuning pass has been completed:

- - Lowered yield and break limits for most panels and detachable mounts.

- - Lowered friction strength on surfaces impacting the ground.

- - Reduced the elastic rates for suspension pieces and nose mounts to lessen rebound velocity when these pieces break.

ARCA Menards Chevrolet Impala

• A New Damage Model tuning pass has been completed:

- - Lowered yield and break limits for most panels and detachable pieces.

- - Increased yield and break limits for some front components. 

- - Lowered hyperextension distance for rear wheels.

BMW M Hybrid V8

• Car details text has been updated.

Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTE

• Backfire audio has been improved.

Dallara F3

• iRacing setup for Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours has been updated.

Dallara IR18

• A New Damage Model tuning pass has been completed which substantially decreases yield and break limits for all body mounts.

Dirt Modified

• Fixed an issue where this car was specifically named “Big Block” in some situations while referring to both the Big Block and 358 versions.

Dirt Sprint Car

• A New Damage Model tuning pass has been completed which lowers the break limits for wings and wheels.

Dirt Sprint Car Non-Winged

• A New Damage Model tuning pass has been completed which lowers the break limits for wheels.

Global Mazda MX-5 Cup

• Fixed an issue where the interface model of this car was not rendering correctly.

NASCAR Trucks Chevrolet Silverado

• Fixed a visual issue where rubber accumulation was not occurring correctly on the truck body.

Pontiac Solstice

• Fixed an issue where the cockpit was not rendering correctly in the iRacing UI.

Radical SR10

• A New Damage Model tuning pass has been completed which lowers yield and break limits for most panels.

Skip Barber Formula 2000

• A New Damage Model tuning pass has been completed:

- - Lowered yield and break limits for most panels and detachable mounts.

- - Lowered friction strength on surfaces impacting the ground.

[Legacy] Dallara DW12

• Tire branding for the iRacing UI model has been updated.

TRACKS:

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Chili Bowl

• Starting grid size has been adjusted.

Daytona International Speedway

• Fixed an issue where pieces of terrain could appear to be peeking through some SAFER barriers.

Kansas Speedway

• (Road Course) - Starting grid has been expanded to 60 cars.

Sonoma Raceway

• Short Parade Laps may now be selected for use at this track.

Suzuka International Racing Course

• (West & West w/chicane) Starting grid size has been expanded to 60 cars.

Virginia International Raceway

• (South Course & Patriot Course) - Barney, Legendary Flagman, has arrived at these configs to ply his craft!
• A variety of holes and seams in the terrain have been patched.

Per celebrare il nuovo anno lunare (ogni scusa è buona in pratica ), ecco arrivare una nuova vagonata di sconti sulla piattaforma Steam, che riguardano ovviamente anche titoli simracing o divertenti driving games!

A questo indirizzo Steam potete già trovare numerose offerte, come ad esempio Assetto Corsa a -80%, Assetto Corsa Competizione a -66%, Forza Horizon 5 a -35%, F1 22 a -70%, WRC Generations a -30% ed altri ancora.

Gli sviluppatori della piattaforma software professionale di rFPro lanciano oggi la nuova tecnologia RayTracing che trasforma il realismo della simulazione, accelerando lo sviluppo dei vari progetti di Autonomous Vehicles e ADAS. I sensori dei veicoli possono ora essere sviluppati in simulazione, prima ancora che esista un prototipo fisico.Inoltre, per la prima volta, vengono simulati accuratamente gli effetti di blurring e rolling shutters per rappresentare davvero ciò che le telecamere "vedono".

Il video qui sotto, preso direttamente dal software, ci mostra un viaggio completamente ray-tracing attraverso il modello digitale di Coventry in UK. Commenti nel topic dedicato sul forum in italiano.

Nel video che potete ammirare qui sotto, l'ormai famosissimo pilota e campione reale, nonchè velocissimo e vittorioso simdriver James Baldwin, ci racconta quali sono le somiglianze e le differenze tra Assetto Corsa Competizione e la realtà della pista.

James spiega per esempio come ha applicato il suo stesso stile di guida sia ad Assetto Corsa Competizione che alla vettura reale, ottenendo i medesimi risultati, comparati tramite telemetria.

E' finalmente disponibile la nuova release candidate di rFactor 2 che porta con sè diverse novità, come un sistema di broadcasting migliorato, una nuova modalità foto, miglioramenti grafici e una revisione del packaging system della simulazione.

Per accedere alla release candidate basta recarsi nella propria libreria Steam, cliccare col tasto destro del mouse su rFactor 2, andare su proprietà, scegliere la tab beta e dal menu a tendina selezionare la release candidate

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Client: 10369103 

Dedi: 10369112

General

• Track Limits: reduced sensitivity to switching paths, such as near the pit lane entrance, and reduced strict penalty points for an invalid pit lane to main path change from Drive Through to 1 point.

Cinematics

• Added soft blend when changing selected vehicle
• Added ability to hold current camera
• Added ability to pause car tracking. Pressing the SHIFT key whilst this is enabled will reset tracking to the closest point the tracking is paused at.
• Added camera group tracking for cars traveling close together, by default in race sessions only.
• Allow the previous laps S/F line camera to remain valid when using cycle method. This allows for different cameras over the start finish line.
• Reduced strength of shake effect on cameras with this enabled.
• Allowed zooming in / out / reset on TV Cameras with out any extra modes being enabled. Optionally allowed this to persist after changing cameras.
• Added acceleration and deceleration to Freelook for smoother movement.
• Added the ability to load custom cameras from Userdata\Cameras

Photo Mode

• Split out from Freelook camera adjustments (aperture, exposure, focus) options to a separate Photo Mode.
• Photo Mode allows configuration of visual settings, in addition to the usual Freelook options. However is not available when driving.
• UI to be added

Graphics

• Improved visual progression of wet road with a more linear progression.
• Added new IBL Water Shader which uses SSR for more accurate reflections.
• Added motion blur.
• Live TV Screens: Added option to disable, Fixed aspect ratio when running non 16:9 resolutions, Improved shader visually.
• Forced use of high power GPU on devices with multiple GPUs (i.e. Laptops).

UI

• Fixed being able to set race laps to below 2 in single player session settings.
• Fixed the singleplayer quick event page layout being broken sometimes on page load.
• Added new “Cinematic cameras” tab in Settings → Assign controls
• This tab holds new cinematic settings along with previously existing assignable controls
• Renamed “Cameras & seat” tab to “Driving cameras & seat” and re-organized the assignable controls

Package Management

• New system to allow store items to be unsubscribed / resub scribed through the UI
• Packages can be download in the background without blocking the UI
• Packages in the content management are grouped by workshop or store item
• The install UI can be minimized when downloading content

Modding

• Added PBR Debug Tool for Mod Dev and Scene Viewer. This allows artists to debug the component outputs of the PBR pipeline.
• Added IBL Water Shader which uses SSR for reflections
• Fixed occasional glitchy car tracking in camera editor
• Updated ModDev to load RCD files from Vehicle folders

AI Editor Improvements:

• Allow the removal of multiple paths in one go
• More consistent AIW path adjustments
• Fixed editing of pit paths wp positions
• Fixed updating of path positions when editing waypoint positions

Known issues

• Workshop / store item headers are named incorrectly
• Installing items from the content page requires a second request to install via the “updates” page
• Cancel updates button is unresponsive
• Motion blur does not work without SSR set to medium or higher
• If your game is stuck on checking for updates, please delete try deleting userdata/player/localstorage folder

Il team di Dakar Desert Rally ha appena rilasciato una corposa patch su tutte le piattaforme. Come potete leggere dai dettagli qui di seguito, non solo vengono apportate numerose correzioni (anche per quanto riguarda i volanti), ma anche qualche importante miglioria e la interessante novità del free roam, ovvero la possibilità di girare in assoluta libertà per l'Arabia Saudita!

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We appreciate your patience while our team has been hard at work hard on patches and updates to Dakar Desert Rally. We know this has taken longer than expected, so we wanted to say thank you for all of your feedback and support since the launch.
Today we’re granting all pilots 100,000 Experience Points and 10,000 Dakar Points with our 1.6 patch release.
This patch is just the first of many great content updates we have planned. Stay tuned for more info soon!
Please keep your feedback coming! This patch is just the first of many great content updates we have planned. Stay tuned for more info soon!

New Features

• Free Roam allows players to experience the full off-road experience across Saudi Arabia.
• Treasure Hunting is now available in Free Roam Mode. You can find hidden treasures throughout the desert as you explore Saudi Arabia.
• Reposition has been added to Simulation Mode.

General

• Fixed Save Game Management issues.
• Removed waypoint auto-saves.
• Fixed when some events on the Saudi Arabia Extended Map are not appearing in Professional and Simulation Modes for Epic Games Store.
• Fixed Warehouse Management issues.

Steering Wheels

• Fixed Logitech steering wheel crash on Xbox consoles.
• Fixed Thrustmaster wheels having no Force Feedback on the PC.
• Fixed title crashing when connecting Steering Wheels.
• Fixed G29 key bindings (reverse) Bug fixing Crashes.

Segnaliamo a tutti gli appassionati di Formula 1 che il recente F1 Manager 2022, titolo manageriale con licenza F1 realizzato d Frontier, è ora disponibile su Steam con lo sconto del 60% (ad 21,99€) fino al 23 Gennaio.

Per F1 22 di EA Sports invece, è disponibile la nuova patch ufficiale che porta il gioco alla versione 1.17, con le migliorie elencate di seguito:

• Risolto un problema che poteva causare stagioni con meno di 20 piloti nelle modalità Carriera
• Risolto un problema in Mia Scuderia per cui, in Prova veloce, non c'era alcuna simulazione di usura della power unit
• Aggiornato il colore dei passaruota anteriori e del numero del pilota di George Russell
• Aggiunto il supporto a AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.2
• Risolto un problema per cui, in alcuni casi, la lista amici crossplay appariva vuota nonostante la presenza di amici
• Risolto un problema che causava un arresto anomalo quando si selezionava "Concludi Stagione" in Inizio stagione reale
• Miglioramenti generali della stabilità.
• Varie correzioni minori