Image Space Incorporated’s Scott Juliano has posted an interesting status update on rFactor 2’s track progress in the ISI forums, explaining some of the work left to do on the simulation’s circuits.
Hi all. Just thought I’d take a couple of minutes to get you all up to date as to the current state of the tracks that will/should/may be included with rF2.
All but two of the tracks have gone through their second (Beta) art pass. This is mainly to get all the tracks to a common visual level. Normally what happens during development is that you learn and refine your procedures and techniques as you go, and so the later art ends up looking much better than the earlier. Obviously we don’t want to ship things in that state, so we take some time to even everything out.
Once all the tracks have received this second pass they will all get one last pass before entering Beta testing. This will make sure they all have all the new features and elements that came online during the second pass, and any final glitz we can manage to squeeze in. We’re talking days per track here, not weeks…
Finally, once that is done, and depending on how much time we have left before Gjon decides it’s time to ship, we may be able to even add another track to the final list.
And then of course, in typical ISI style, we have a number of tracks that we’ll be adding post release to keep you all busy….
So, that’s where we are and generally where we’re going. Luc Van Camp (SLN) and I still have a lot of work to do, but we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Check back from time to time and we’ll try to drop a note and let you all know what we’re up to when we can.
So far, no list of circuits available in the upcoming title is available. The released preview material has revealed several real life circuits though, including a 1967 version of Spa Francorchamps, Estoril, the Palm Beach Raceway kart track among several fictional tracks.
rFactor 2 will introduce various improvements to the modding-friendly simulation including weather, driver animations and a refined graphics engine. ISI has not announced a definite release date yet, the company is still aiming to release their newest title by the end of 2010 though.
