The online racing simulator
God, I'm starting to really hate rFactor
(15 posts, started )
God, I'm starting to really hate rFactor
I never should have never come back to LFS. It just rendered rfactor useless. I'm almost at the point of regretting that purchase. It's pretty horrible in comparison. Maybe it's still early and modders may turn things around, but i'm not holding my breath. At best, what will it ever turn out to be? GTL or GTR? I have those damn sims already. Oh, I forget, its going to be GTR with lighting effects. Well, that's what GTR2 is for. Jeeze, unless someone makes a convincing F1 1967 mod for it, i really dont see the future of it. Not to mention that LFS is still developing, and NKpro is right around the corner. Maybe I'm wrong, but i feel rFactor is the biggest waste of time. Good for ISI for making a few extra bucks on top of the license they rented out to the Simbin crew. I have a feeling that by the time anything decent comes around, S3 will be out. Even the latest track - Hockenheim suffers from the same crap quality colors and over saturation. You never really appreciate the awesome tracks the LFS devs have built until you go across the street and try the other sims. Sorry for the rant, just had to get it off my chest.
If you're ex-'nuggetz' why couldn't you post this to your own thread?

I don't have rFactor, played the demo and afaik the full version isn't very much different. So I'm waiting for mods. Looks like Porsche Cup mod is first decent one (or that F3 mod but I couldn't care less about formulas) but I'm still not convinced enough. NAGT (North American GT Series) mod looks promising though.
I'm kinda curious about something.... How can you even have time to play
other games, much less racing sims? I mean just for me to get where I'm at,
and that's not very fast, it takes lots of practice. I don't know about how good or bad this Rfactor is, but I imagine it has a pretty steep learning curve as well. Anyways, LFS made me a lot more picky about what racing game
I would play.... Nobody has said, but do the cars in Rfactor have clocks in them? For me, that became a MUST HAVE in any racing sim

I dunno, it takes a lot of dedication for me to be even halfway competetive
in LFS. No real way I could try another sim even iif I wanted to.
I find it wierd why people feel the need to either de-nounce or "big up" different sims?.

I have used LFS for years and love it, but it is NOT the be all and end all, in my opinion I think GTL just has the edge on LFS, but I see no reason why both shouldnt co-exist on my system.

Dan,
I really like GTR and GTL, never liked rF though (just doesn't look right).

But it was the same with GTR and GTL, when it was new, i really liked it, the sound, the cockpits, the nice real tracks, the possibility to drive over the curbs , etc.
GTR came before S2, so S1 wasn't really a competitor, GTR had all the nice features, tire wear, pitstops, fuel consumption..

But at some point i always came back to LFS. I guess because it's just so "simple".
You click on the lfs icon and 1 minute later you are on the server. And it's so easy to organize a race, change the track, restart, set the grid.

all that is not possible with those simbin games. the checking of the copy protection alone lasts almost 1 minute.
you need a hi-end machine to run the dedicated server (if there is one), you can't just restart the race, move someone in the grids, and then all those bugs.

So at some point i was always happy to come back to my lfs, because it just works
If there would be one word I had to use to describe LFS it would be "Streamlined", it is designed from the ground up to be an online racing sim and pretty much nothing else, that is why it is so streamlined for online use.
There is maybe a little bit of LFS "snobbery", where many people can't see any further than LFS, thats up to the individual, but by being like that people are missing out on what other sims have to offer.

Dan,
I'm playing rFactor at the moment - not becuase I think it's better, but because I want to give it a fair mental review, and that means getting used to the physics and being competative.

I plan to stick with JUST rFactor for a couple of weeks until I am reasonable confident I've forgotten just how LFS feels. Then I can be fair to rFactor. It also means that when I return to LFS I'll see how much different and where it is to rFactor.

@Rayer Y: When you reasonable good at realistic racing sims, you start quite high up the learning curve for other realistic racing sims. rFactor isn't unrealistic, it's just got differences. You don't start from stratch each time.
Quote from tristancliffe :

@Rayer Y: When you reasonable good at realistic racing sims, you start quite high up the learning curve for other realistic racing sims. rFactor isn't unrealistic, it's just got differences. You don't start from stratch each time.

I guess you're right. It don't happen often, but when I play an RTS game, it usually doesn't take too long for me to figure out a good strat. for it.

But still, do the cars on rFactor have clocks in them?
Quote from Racer Y :But still, do the cars on rFactor have clocks in them?

No

I have to look at my real life clock. How demented is that!
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Quote from thisnameistaken :

I don't know about you, but I'd never tried a racing sim before LFS, nor have I any experience of real-life racing, so I've got a lot to learn.

Yeah, same here In fact I never gave racing games a second look. To
me they were pathetically boring. WHen I did play one, I usually beat it in
a couple of days.... yawn......
Then when I stumbled upon LFS... I dunno... oh well at least i now know the difference between a "game" and a "sim" now
Quote from Racer Y :To
me they were pathetically boring. WHen I did play one, I usually beat it in
a couple of days.... yawn......
Then when I stumbled upon LFS... I dunno... oh well at least i now know the difference between a "game" and a "sim" now

Ah ha, yes, thats the difference between a sim and a game. But there has been "sims" out for 10+ years now. Indycar Racing 2 and Nascar 2 came out in 1995, when I started with my first PC that I said either up there ^^ or in another thread, I forget. Papyrus was the first, then the leader for years and years up through GPL and NR2003 until recently when we started getting GTR, rFactor, and LFS. And I still can't say which is better, LFS or NR2003 because they simulate 2 different types of racing. NR2003 is definitely the way to go if you want oval racing, but it does lack in one very small point. It is just hard to put my finger on what it is lacking to LFS in the feeling of actually driving. I'll tell you what though. I started playing around again with NR after almost a year with LFS and you definitely feel like you are driving a much bigger, heavier, and more powerful "stockcar" compared to what I've been driving in LFS.
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(thisnameistaken) DELETED by thisnameistaken
I'd like to hear your analysus tristan when you return from your rf excursion. I noticed it right away becuase like I said in a different thread, I had been away from LFS for a long time. rFactor in comparison felt too bouncy as if the car was floating above the track with a set of canned FF effects under yer ass. Now LFS feels more like it does when I get into my real car everyday so in the end, that's what counts the most.
I guess I'm in a similar boat. I got rF because I wanted to try something different as I pretty much play GPL and LFS (and nK here and there - waiting for Pro) to the exclusion of everything else, even my beloved fps and GTA games. rF really didn't pull me in and keep me there the way LFS and GPL did, so it's just sitting there taking up HD space. I gave it a pretty decent go but it didn't keep me interested. Also, sounds like the rash of mods available could fragment the community a little, but I can't say I actually know how it's going.
Bottom line: it's not that I find rF particularly bad, but it's nowhere near the sims LFS and GPL are (plus it doesn't run all that well on my 3-year old box like the other two do). I guess the bar is pretty high there. Besides, I just joined an LFS team as well as already being in a GPL league and it would take a pretty awesome game to get me to switch...
Quote from tristancliffe :
Quote from Racer Y :But still, do the cars on rFactor have clocks in them?

No

I have to look at my real life clock. How demented is that!

Yes they do, you just need to switch displays on the LCD screen

For me, rF and LFS are two seperate games, and I treat them as such. I like LFS, and I like rF, plain and simple. No use complaining that one isn't any good really.. just go back to the trusty game you know and love.

I gave GTR and GTL a try... hated them both. Although, I AM slightly biased, but that's a different duscussion which does not belong here. My point is that everyone is different, every game is different. You will like what you like, others will like what they like.

MAGGOT
Quote from joeynuggetz :I'd like to hear your analysus tristan when you return from your rf excursion. I noticed it right away becuase like I said in a different thread, I had been away from LFS for a long time. rFactor in comparison felt too bouncy as if the car was floating above the track with a set of canned FF effects under yer ass. Now LFS feels more like it does when I get into my real car everyday so in the end, that's what counts the most.

Off course! That's what matters, don't care if i drive WTCC car with graphics like on that 3Dmax renders, if i feel like floating above track..
I maybe wrong, but no Mod can change that ISI feel?? I think that there is more deep investigation and editing, then just changing the .INI parameters..
I don't think that any mod would be "OMG" different, just differennt cars, and more "real" physics.. I may be wrong, but i don't think so..

God, I'm starting to really hate rFactor
(15 posts, started )
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