rFactor 2 non Steam Development to Cease in "Coming Months"

[Paul Jeffrey]

ISI have released a useful FAQ document aimed at providing some key answers for rFactor 2 owners in the transition from standalone installs to full migration onto the Steam platform.

Following the release on Steam of ISI's flagship title rFactor 2 back in November 2015 it was perhaps inevitable development would shift away from standalone installations over time.
ISI have now confirmed non-Steam rFactor 2 installs will not be supported with new builds and updates in the next few months.

Although the official announcement states that development focus will be geared towards Steam going forward, and only "recommend users convert their copy of rFactor 2 to Steam to fully take advantage of the new features as they become available" the community is in no doubt this means support for non-Steam copies of the game will be coming to an end sooner rather than later for the title.

No doubt this move by ISI makes sense bringing all owners of the game under one platform but the news has already started up quite a few challenging comments from community members invested in the title.

Take a look at the Q&A from ISI below and let us have your opinions in the comments section at the bottom of this article.

ISI FAQ Q&A:

How do I convert to rFactor 2 Steam version?
Here you will find the full instructions on converting rFactor 2 to Steam.

https://commerce.rfactor.net/steam-transfer-form

Can I convert my lifetime online to Steam?
Yes, lifetime will be carried over to your rFactor 2 Steam version.

What happens to my non-Steam yearly online subscription when I convert?
For those who still have a decent amount of time remaining on their account, we can work with them to transfer that time over to Steam. Please use the following email to make the request: steam-up@rfactor.net

Will I still be able to get a Lite version of rFactor 2 on Steam?
To make a “strip down” version of rFactor 2, which looks and behaves exactly like a “Lite” version, you'll simply need to unsubscribe from all content on Steam Workshop.

Can I still install content manually or will I have to use workshop?
No need to choose, both are possible. You will still be able to place .rfcmps and .rfmods in your package folder located in your Steam rFactor 2 directory to install any piece of content manually, exactly the same as before.

Is hosting a dedicated server via Steam very different or more involved?
Actually, Steam offers multiple ways of hosting, and they are all fully compatible.
We now have a dedicated server distribution available via SteamCMD, which functions as a very lightweight version of the Dedicated Server, available to anyone -- no need to log in to the Steam client. Updating the dedicated server distribution is as simple as re-running the command line script once a new Build becomes available.
For Steam client users, via the “Tools” menu in Steam, a separate dedicated server can be installed and will show up as another entry in your gaming library. The server will be auto-updated when new Builds are released, completely maintenance-free for you.
So you can choose between user friendliness and manual flexibility, whichever works best for you.

Will all of my plugins, custom UIs/HUDs, car skins, still be compatible with the Steam version of rFactor 2?
Yes, all external plugins, car skins, and customs UIs/HUDs that are currently compatible with your non-Steam version of rFactor 2 should be fully compatible with the Steam version.

How much longer will the non-Steam version of rFactor 2 be updated?
The update following Build 1084 will be the last update of the non-Steam version.

Will I still be able to run rFactor 2 non-Steam and put up a non-Steam dedicated server in the future?
Yes, there are no plans to remove this feature.

What will happen to the non-Steam matchmaker?
It will continue into the future as well.

I run a league and we might need to stay on a previous Build, is that possible in Steam?
Yes, you can select a previous version.


What do you think of moving over to Steam? Use rF2 on Steam already? What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Hsmmer]

Streamlining the update process could potentially make the development faster.

Less content with more attention to detail would have been a good start.

As pointed out they are a small team, rFactor was barely 1/4 of the content.
From very first build tyres, physics, FFB were virtually nailed down.
Go back and try build 60 with the old content and see.

------------------


If I have to recommend Historic to someone 5 years on I must say they have unimplemented
features and I do not know when or if they will be updated.

My advice for rF3 make as example Indycar and Nascar Championship sim.

Spend time on refining Oval RULES, ai tyres physics rather then 30 models.
Finish it 100%

Then release a new sim built around another series/s.

 

[natedogg1867]

Who is "we?" If you are officially involved in the Steam transfer or with ISI, should that not be announced or clarified?

You are responding to the guy that basically made the Steam version of rF2...

Thought this was pretty well known. Not only that, but he has worked with Reiza in getting GSCE on Steam last year as I recall. He knows the ISI engine well.

 

[Hsmmer]

Seems to me the very first thing they should have done is shut this down so no one
would be sucked in. That is simple bad practice.

https://commerce.rfactor.net/purchase/select

No where on the steam accept does it say you can write to ISI if you have a online balance
they may work something out with you........

https://commerce.rfactor.net/steam-transfer-form

But again they suck people, they well know the majority do not read the ISI News
Page and that is where it tells you that you can write to ISI. lmao

 

[Marcel Offermans]

Who is "we?" If you are officially involved in the Steam transfer or with ISI, should that not be announced or clarified?

I have done the Steam migration for both rFactor 1 and 2 for ISI, and I am also working with Reiza Studios on AMS. So yes, I am involved. I've blogged about all of that in the past, so if you're interested you can read up on it here:

• http://www.planetmarrs.net/rfactor-full-steam-ahead/
  
• http://www.planetmarrs.net/reiza-simracing-bonanza/
  
• http://www.planetmarrs.net/rfactor-2-on-steam/

If you have any further questions, let me know.

 

[John-Eric Saxén]

Isi was the only dev. that was doing both and it was telling when they had major problems with the last update. They probably didn't want to go through that again and they can't make everybody happy (anybody) so this was inevitable.

Yep, build 1080 problems were mostly related to Steam matchmaker integration and since nobody (pre 1080) really used Steam matchmaker for anything, it seems there wasn't enough feedback to get all bugs fixed before release. Having one version only makes these kind of bugs less likely and shortens testing time.

 

[Alex Townsend]

Steam has been good to me with no real issues. Great for discounts of titles and everything in one place. (Except for the other games in Origin...)

Maybe I just don't get the problems some people face with this as I've had none myself. If anything it sounds like updates and content will be easier to obtain and even download automatically now.

 

[Marc Collins]

I have done the Steam migration for both rFactor 1 and 2 for ISI, and I am also working with Reiza Studios on AMS. So yes, I am involved. I've blogged about all of that in the past, so if you're interested you can read up on it here:

• http://www.planetmarrs.net/rfactor-full-steam-ahead/
  
• http://www.planetmarrs.net/reiza-simracing-bonanza/
  
• http://www.planetmarrs.net/rfactor-2-on-steam/

If you have any further questions, let me know.

Not at all. Just that ISI should have made clear that you would be part of the team answering questions about this recent announcement. But as others here have pointed out, professional communications are not their forte. Reiza on the other hand excels at them.

 

[SLuisHamilton]

I never thought steam could be a problem...until now
I´m not a heavy gamer (only automobilista,rfactor, raceroom experience wip and dirt3 on steam) and steam works well for me but i can see why people get angry due to "misleading" communication.
As small company with few users, Isi should be much more in contact with their customers and listen to then.
But i still believe in rf2. Its like a jewel not polished yet (i hope)

 

[Wedge]

I support this decision by ISI.

Steam is more than just DRM like a lot of people here are saying. It's a service, and the best available.

Steam Workshop is well integrated in rFactor 2; you won't have any issues when reinstalling the game or losing key or whatever; it'll always be updated; fast download speeds, no file corruption, easy to verify if files are corrupted or missing anyway, you won't have to download everything again, and so on.

 

[tax]

And finally they moved ! Hopefully the new centralized platform will bring some order in the mess that RF2 actually IS. Best move they ever made: waited along time for this.

 

[LTC_Mike]

I have not so much a problem with this complete move over to Steam but how it's done. I just started implementing rF2 as a possible online racing series within my german simracing community and now after build 1084 I have problems over problems in getting that dedi to work any longer with the clientside. Not only I needed to re-install everything and work through the steamcmd system now on the dedicated side (or buy another full qualified licence if I wish to use the modern interface for mod and dedi management), but it seems that the steamcmd-dedicated stuff will also not work with non-Steam clients. It's a real mess with a waste of many hours of life time on my side and I wish ISI would have done more internal beta testing before they did this jump.

I was promoting rF2 to my community fellows as one of the most advanced and solid racing sim packages and now I am not able to deliver a dedicated server anymore - which was working very well until the last build. But with that newly build something seems to have changed fundamentally and I am no longer willing to fix things a smart developer should do by himself before he delivers his products - no matter how small the teams are. "If you can't stand the heat, avoid the fire" is a common phrase in Germany. And I don't want to hear any more this kind of excuses ... they are not doing any free mod business but running a company that sells their products for a good amount of money. As a customer that's not pirating stuff he uses I payed that amount and now it seems I could write it off.

Besides: As I followed some of the debates over at the ISI forum I get more and more the feeling that this complete shift to Steam is more like out-cashing the product and opening it to others to make money from mod sells via the workshop system and shutting down the business on their own side. Maybe because ISI has lost interest in further rF2 development and they want to concentrate on new stuff they are involved now mentioned some days back in their forums.

 

[Alex72]

Assetto Corsa works in steam offline mode. I think even MP works during offline mode. rF2 might be different. If it works the same as AC then you only need to be online for updates (like you have to either way when updating a game).

I didnt know rF2 had subscription...

 

[LTC_Mike]

Assetto Corsa works in steam offline mode. I think even MP works during offline mode. rF2 might be different. If it works the same as AC then you only need to be online for updates (like you have to either way when updating a game).

I didnt know rF2 had subscription...

Yes, but it becomes more and more a bad habit of developers to force admins of dedicated servers within steam to use their full qualified steam account to just maintain the software - or buy another full qualified licence like we did for Assetto Corsa to just get the server admin tools work properly.

What will come next? Maybe some day we would have to pay licence fees, too, to use the dedicated server software and tools? That's nothing I like to support because it's expensive enough to run a dedicated server business for a private and non commercial community and the developers still got their money from the players that race their games in those communities ...

 

[Marcel Offermans]

but it seems that the steamcmd-dedicated stuff will also not work with non-Steam clients.

That is incorrect: the non-Steam and the Steam dedicated servers are 100% compatible with all clients. If you have problems setting up the Steam dedicated server, please ask, and I will try to help.

 

[Marcel Offermans]

Assetto Corsa works in steam offline mode. I think even MP works during offline mode. rF2 might be different. If it works the same as AC then you only need to be online for updates (like you have to either way when updating a game).

rFactor 2, like Assetto Corsa, works absolutely fine in Steam offline mode. In offline mode it even detects if you have a subscription or lifetime in case you want to use it to race on a LAN.

 

[Marcel Offermans]

Yes, but it becomes more and more a bad habit of developers to force admins of dedicated servers within steam to use their full qualified steam account to just maintain the software

I agree with you that it would be great to have more tools to better maintain dedicated servers on Steam. The SteamCMD tools that Valve provides for this work, but they assume knowledge of working on a command line and/or batch files. If you look at other games on Steam you will find that their communities created various tools to help out. Some of which can even be used for rFactor 2.

I do not disagree with you at all that this is an area that can be improved. With more focus on Steam now, I would say it is more likely we will see specific improvements in this area now. At the same time I would like to encourage the community to help out here as well. Even just coming up with ideas on how this should work would be nice!

 

[Will Mazeo]

I agree with you that it would be great to have more tools to better maintain dedicated servers on Steam. The SteamCMD tools that Valve provides for this work, but they assume knowledge of working on a command line and/or batch files. If you look at other games on Steam you will find that their communities created various tools to help out. Some of which can even be used for rFactor 2.

I do not disagree with you at all that this is an area that can be improved. With more focus on Steam now, I would say it is more likely we will see specific improvements in this area now. At the same time I would like to encourage the community to help out here as well. Even just coming up with ideas on how this should work would be nice!

And that's the problem man... this is something that should be there from the begining. It's not ok to release this while still working to make the dedi server availble for accounts that do not own rF2 or the tool to better administrate this.
This all does not look much planned. Right now it looks like someone woke up in a day and said "let's go all Steam before the breakfast"

 

[tpw]

rFactor 2, like Assetto Corsa, works absolutely fine in Steam offline mode. In offline mode it even detects if you have a subscription or lifetime in case you want to use it to race on a LAN.

Are you sure about this Marcel? I tried starting rF2 in Steam Offline mode and it's stuck at the window "Auto-subscribing to workshop items", as if the rF2 launcher can't detect that Steam is offline.

 

[LTC_Mike]

That is incorrect: the non-Steam and the Steam dedicated servers are 100% compatible with all clients. If you have problems setting up the Steam dedicated server, please ask, and I will try to help.

Thanks for this! - I will check back to you for sure as there seem to be some real weird issues with that (I was still looking for a solution in the ISIs forum and have to check some things after some feedback over there). I had a dedicated server running fine until the last build (1084) came. Since then I couldn't get the non-Steam server to communicate right with the client side (rF2 client refuses to load the mod-file with the server config) and after changing everything to the Steam dedicated server I even could not activate "Racing" in the client when I try to join this server as its grayed out. I have checked it with a seperate PC at home (no LAN session hosting but normal dedicated server configuration!) as well as with the server of my community hosted by Rackservice.org (Windows Server 2012), but I get the same problem on both sides that i didn't had until build 1084. So my conclusion was as I didn't do change my lifetime account to the Steam version that there is something wrong now with the non-Steam version …

 

[Ari Antero]

Thanks for this! - I will check back to you for sure as there seem to be some real weird issues with that (I was still looking for a solution in the ISIs forum and have to check some things after some feedback over there). I had a dedicated server running fine until the last build (1084) came. Since then I couldn't get the non-Steam server to communicate right with the client side (rF2 client refuses to load the mod-file with the server config) and after changing everything to the Steam dedicated server I even could not activate "Racing" in the client when I try to join this server as its grayed out. I have checked it with a seperate PC at home (no LAN session hosting but normal dedicated server configuration!) as well as with the server of my community hosted by Rackservice.org (Windows Server 2012), but I get the same problem on both sides that i didn't had until build 1084. So my conclusion was as I didn't do change my lifetime account to the Steam version that there is something wrong now with the non-Steam version …

When server(racing) is grayed out it is port issue. There is also problems with Microsoft Frame Network if you have non steam and SteamCMD installed when using Noel Hibbarts get missing component tool and it happens that components are installed to wrong locations.
You can try this fix: http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.p...ror-Password-Invalid-or-Package-not-Available to avoid problems with get missing component.