New UI (User Interface)

Thanks, Eric.

Wow, it's like our best girl (rF2) and her worthless brother (whomever is responsible for the UI).

I WILL NOT be updating the server. Hopefully, I can turn off auto updates before I fire up my rF2.

From what I have read, I recommend that everyone else also avoid the update.

forum.studio-397.com/index.php?threads/december-2020-build-update.68152/

rF2 needs a fully functional Competition System to survive and it is promising that rF2 is trying to copy iRacing's skill and safety rating system but unfortunately at the moment this seems to sum it up:

I briefly tried the new UI.

I was mentally prepared for a complete disaster which was reinforced by Road Atlanta taking about 5 minutes to load in single player.

Maybe because it was with the new UI for the first time because joining the efnet server took 30 seconds.

We lost telemetry in replay as mentioned above.

The running order in replay is wrong.

You apparently have to leave the server to change cars. A step backwards to what we had with rF1 and a major disappointment.

I saw skin related stuff including Create Directory so hopefully it works.

I was initially annoyed by having visibility on only 5 servers at a time in the list "thumbnail filmstrip" vs "details" style but it works, just different. It seems like it would take an overhaul of the vehicle files to be able to concisely list cars in addition to the usual server name, track, ping and number of drivers. I never paid attention before but maybe how many AI is new.

***edit 2020-12-22 21:31*** ^^^^ The server list can be displayed as a list. I didn't check any of the other screens except for Packages which also has four formats.

Given a choice, I'd take the old UI because it takes less time to navigate but the new one certainly looks nicer and the reality is that we're stuck with it or will be soon. Hopefully, they'll fix the problems quickly and we'll get back the missing stuff and the Competition System will make it all worthwhile.

I and many others are running (have run) out of patience. I have spent hundreds of hours promoting and improving our club hoping to attract more racers to us and rFactor 2 but a few hours with iRacing and it's obvious why many of the drivers who are no longer with us are racing there.

No more backwards steps, PLEASE, Studio 397.

THIS!!

I bought RF2 when it was first released as a beta in 2012, even though it was released out of beta in 2013 and would be updated. I don't feel it has ever changed from beta status even under Studio 397, nothing feels polished and completed about the basic core and function of the sim. This new UI has been talked about for 2 years and this is what is released, did they not listen to people testing it? Seems once again just the basic functioning of it is not completed. Instead of updates to cars and tracks along with new content, just finish the core user experience and interface to be as good as Assetto Corsa or IRacing.

Yes I have been a frustrated user since the beginning, hence my reluctance to buy any DLC for it.

I spent some more time with the new UI this time on our server with another driver.

All positives realized tonight.

When there are multiple tracks enabled, we can now select which track to go to next from a pulldown list. Before it was possible for an admin to do that by typing the obscure shorthand for the specific track.

The gears graph (speed vs rpm) is huge and very legible. It's terrible in the previous UI, most of the time I couldn't even see the plot.

In fact all of the screens and info are big and very legible, the tradeoff is more screens to navigate.

Any change that you make from a saved setup remains in orange font until you save the set again. Makes it easier to navigate back to whatever you were tweaking.

Feeling better about the Studio 397 effort now.

ALT+TAB works for me, need to hold ALT and jab at TAB to cycle through the windows. I type that with 80% confidence, it definitely works but not 100% certain of the key combination as I don't think about it when I do it and I'm away from my sim PC.

Works for me also

If pagers still existed, the S397 UI Team would be paging people without including an area code.

The Competition System schedule shows time of day but not which time zone or whether its UTC at which point I shut down rF2 and sought something else to do.

So I enable the work in progress UI so that I can see what's available with the Competition System where I find a WIP Competition System. Shit squared?

Fail after fail after fail...

I agree Mike. The driving experience and tire feel is fantastic but the usability and basic functions are just crap. Like someone said on the Studio397 forum, why do we still have pit issues with multiple cars in the same pit spot but they put out this flawed "Modern" UI.

I tried the new UI and while it does have some features that are great they're just too many missing or clunky issues for me to use it. Biggest one, no drivers name above car, how did they even think of releasing this after two years without that function!

They updated the competition system to include free & paid content racing. That & the updated UI make rF2 more interesting. What do you guys think of getting together for a race on the competition servers? I raced on them a couple times & the racing was rather clean.

I need to get at least one clean iRacing IMSA Hagerty (45 minute) race in, prepping for the Sat 20:45 PST race now.

Sorry, I just found this. PM sent

I had another go last night with RF2. I also put all the graphics settings to max except a couple but were still high. My PC even though built to handle RF2, I've had to turn things down to run somewhat smoothly in the past including when I tried VR. Last night it ran very smooth, no issues and the reflections off the hood were amazing. Did some single player, loading up a BTCC race we did and the feel of the car and front tires getting loose was amazing. Went onto a GT3 car and again outstanding driving experience compared to anything else so far.

Now for the not so good part. I tried to jump into a Competition System room but would have to wait for 45 minutes, so tired a couple of different multiplayer servers. The first was an official RF2 practice server with 1 other guy. Was a new car and a track I had never heard of (Mores) and in the dark, so not fun at all. Exited out of that and tried couple of others and the huge RF2 issue that is still not addressed since the start is server listings do not show the car/mod and version being used. And it just starts auto downloading content if you don't have it, you can not cancel or go back to the server listing. It locks up the PC, you can't even Control/Alt/Delete to crash RF to stop the download, you literally have to crash your PC to be able to do anything. This is a huge and obvious fail as far as any game is concerned.

So again some nice steps forward but some basic core functionality still not fixed.