One of sim racing’s major cornerstone titles is undergoing a massive change these days as Image Space Incorporated has joined forces with Dutch software group Luminis to create a new development studio that will continue to develop rFactor 2.
The result of this co-operation is Studio 397 (named after the most-run laps in the Le Mans 24 Hours race – 397) which will now continue to develop rFactor 2 while ISI will be freed up to continue their work on a new title internally-nicknamed “not rF3”.
rFactor 2’s development will continue in Studio 397’s headquarters in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, as the new outfit has some ambitious plans, hoping to address some of the issues that have kept rFactor 2 down in recent years. While rFactor 2 has some strong features such as solid netcode, dynamic time of day & weather as well as a sophisticated tire model, the title has been held by by infrequent content releases and and a somewhat aging graphics engine among other much-discussed issues.
Studio 397 will be addressing many of these pressing issues as a Direct 11-equipped graphics engine and virtual reality support for both Oculus Rift & HTC Vive are among the first things on the agenda. Furthermore, the studio is also planning on introducing a new HTML-based user interface and more frequent official content releases.
Last but not least, the new company is also overhauling the title’s branding as a new logo which you can see above has been unveiled.
Gjon Camaj, Vice President of Image Space Incorporated:
