homepage Forums SimHQ Motorsports Sim Racing - General rFactor: to buy, or not to buy..

For all kind of racing I like I already have my selection of their virtual versions: NR2003 for stock car racing; GTR2 for GT racing; Race07 and expansion packs for touring car; GP Legend, F1C 99-02 and F1 2010 for open wheel racing. Once I thought I fell in love with rally and bought Dirt3 (regret it now..).
However, reading your stories about rFactor here, lately I've been interested in that sim. So far I understand that rFactor is a lot like MS Flight Simulator, where it is only as good as the add-ons you're installing.
My question is simple: I already have the aforementioned sims; do you guys think buying rFactor is a waste of money? I mean, why installing NASCAR mod for rFactor when I already have NR2003, for example.
Of course, everybody here seem to be racing rFactor online, and I am interested to go online racing too. Other than that, do you have any other reasons to buy rFactor? For some odd reason that I can't explain myself, I reaaaally want to have this sim right now..
Your advice is highly appreciated. Thanks.

Don't get rFactor for single-player.
If you plan on racing online, then rF is nice.

yes especialy considering how cheap you can buy it these days, I use to have it installed but deleted it shortley after as i got lost with all the addons etc, it was not untill I started looking in the motorsport section of Simhq it raised my intrest again mostly because these guys pick the good mods. I only install the mods that simhq run.

If you like the F1 99-02 series, it's built on the same engine as rFactor is....and there's mods for many of the F1 seasons, recent and historic. Not to mention all kinds of different racing series that you can try out. You've got the main types covered it looks like with your other choices...rFactor just gives you flexibility, one of it's good points.

As for F1 2010 and it's "replication" of Formula 1, I'll reserve comment on it...

To echo Grim_Death if its for single player DONT get rF, the AI are at thick as two short planks and will just run you over if you get in there way.

If its for online then go for it, its the best most stable online racer out there ATM.
(I don't include iRacing in that statement due to the financial commitment that goes along with it).

Thanks, guys. Yes, I'm interested in going online. Been practicing hard to drive smoothly now with the help of Simbin's awesome, human-like AIs. So far I understand that the key to racing online is to drive around your opponents, rather than into them ^_^. OOT, anyone has links for tutorial for racing online with rFactor for newbies? Can't seem to find any.
BTW, I heard that rFactor AI aren't good, but I wouldn't mind using the sim for Time Trials, as long as it physic modelling is good. I agree about the flexibility thingy, just shudder to think about how many HD space rFactor would take if I love this sim too much.. my MSFS installation is now around 16GB with all add-ons I gather over the years, and the initially 600MB NR2003 is now more than 4GB already.. hehehe

My rFactor folder was 60gb once.

Two mods of note have good, maybe even great AI: DRM mod and the Skodas mod. The rest are marginal. rFactor is first and foremost a platform for online racing, and is weak overall in offline as others have commented. rFactor 2 is supposed to be a just ahead for single player, but we'll see when it arrives.

My plug for an rFactor tutorial is join us for at least the practice races on Wednesdays and/or Saturdays. You'll pick-up a ton in a short time, we don't mind questions and bringing new drivers in. If you're comfortable, join the main event races. If not, even spectating is a good teacher.

Thanks for the info, guod. BTW, do you think it's better for me to get rFactor right now or wait until rFactor2 is released?
And about online tutorial, what I meant is how to actually connect in the first place. Do I need a software to do that (some kind of IvAp for MSFS)?

rFactor is so dirt cheap right now ($20) it wouldn't be much of an expense.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000VOSQ0Q/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

Or get the rFactor Lite version. If you're going to focus on online, the mods, tracks, and add-ons are provided for our races.
http://www.rfactorcentral.com/rfactor_lite.cfm

I'd say enjoy the mods for the current version then get rFactor 2 after a maintenance patch or two arrives. That will still give you several months for a minimal investment (except time) then you'll be up on the file structure when v2 arrives.

rFactor comes with everything you need except for the ISP broadband connection. Since you already have racing sims, I presume you have a wheel and pedals.

You're 100% correct in the analogy of FSX. There are good mods and real stinkers. We try to run the good ones.

My 2 cents...

LOVE rFactor, Loathe F1 2010...

The AI in Rfactor leaves a bit to be desired but there's a hell of a lot of fun still to be had, even if it's just driving around in the wonderful cars that some of the best mods can deliver, and there's the countless tracks as well...

The real secret to enjoying multiplayer with rFactor is to find a group of people to race with on a regular basis, and stick with them.

There are so many mods and tracks available for rFactor...some of them available to the public, some not...that it can be extremely difficult to just hop into a race whenever you feel like it. The variety is both a blessing and a curse - it's great that you have so many options, but it means at any given time online you'll see a very large list of empty servers.

Not to mention that many of the populated servers are locked by passwords, so it goes back to the first point - you need to be part of those groups to get in.

I'm starting to take a look at Race2Play - they host a number of 'open' events, usually all you have to do is register for them. Haven't fit one into my schedule yet but at least the possibility is there.

To echo about mulitplayer, find a good group to hang with. We're a pretty good group of racers and mostly all get along. You'll have to watch out just picking servers with folks you don't know. There's a Megane server that I've hopped into a few times since I like the Meganes, and it was always full. Great! Not so much fun when some people jump in just to wreck...about like any server for any sim or game out there, there are always those who like to cause havock and spoil the fun.

I've been racing at SimHQ since 2005 and have made some good friends, had a lot of side splitting laughs, and some excellent racing.

You could sign up the SimRaceway beta, it seems to be based on rFactor. Plus it's free.
http://www.simraceway.com

Haven't tried online, but it's based around that. Also has SP for practice with or w/o AI. Limited tracks and cars.
If you get rFactor, sign up at rfactorcentral and join. The 1 click mod install is very convenient. Go to town with it. Drop it later if you don't want to continue the monthly sub.

Guess what; one of my pals actually owned rFactor! So, I drove for an hour to his house and tried it. I just finished an online session, went through practice and qualifying, but got kicked out before I even race. Something about "vehicle collision missmatch", don't know what that means. However, that was funny experience. I could hold myself with the top tiers of Simbin's AIs quite well, but racing online I suddenly acted like a complete newbie virtual racer, hahaha.
I found rFactor's interface has a lot in common with F1C, while graphically it looks a lot like GTR2 or Race07. The AIs are indeed weird. Not suicidal like TOCA3's; but sometimes they're over aggressive, sometimes they're plain stupid. Time Trials are just as fun as doing it in Race07 (believe it or not my pal only has this Kodi something car installed..), and the online thingy is interesting at least.
One more question guys; I heard about this VHR Stockcar. Reading its feature seems like too good to be true if it is a freeware. Anyone has experience with this add-on?
If it is really as good as they say, then I think there's no reason for me not to buy rFactor.
Thanks.

The reason it looks a lot like GTR2 and Race is they are built on the ISI gMotor engine, graphics and physics, that rFactor uses, so the graphics will be very familar. Simbin did some amazing work on their AI...I hope ISI follows their lead with rF2.

Our next practice races for VHR at Indy are tomorrow night and Wednesday night, with a race on Saturday.
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3349144/1/ANNOUNCING_VHR_Indy_on_Saturda.html

Load-up and connect to Teamspeak.
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3137414.html

We'll get you running and racing.

i see. seems interesting. but saturday is too close, unfortunately. i haven't even bought the sim and the mods needed (which will take a long time at the speed of the internet in this country..). and i still have to train to be mentally prepared for online races, too. you'd laugh if you saw me racing online at toban last night.. well, at least i'm sure to get rfactor now. thanks a lot for the inputs, guys.

OMG, that VHR add-on is a full 1GB download! In this country, you can see the university graduation day of my friend's 8 year-old daughter before VHR can be downloaded completely..
Hm, I bet it's the heaps of liveries of so much Cup cars that make VHR so big. Is there a way I can get just one car? to ease up on the download. Kurt Busch's car if I may ^_^
Thanks.

With rFactor, any car you race with online and any other types of cars need to be installed on your machine for you to connect and race succesfully. So you cannot download "just one car" and have things work properly. That's not the way mods are structured.

The VHR download is so big because it includes Sprint Cars, Nationwide Cars, and Trucks, with loads of liveries, extra graphical features, sounds, and tracks.

Perhaps you could work out something where someone with a faster conenction downloads the file, burns it to a DVD, and sends it to you.