rFactor 2 - Pro Mod Development, A Professional Guide

Working with Real Race Teams - Our Unique Value

What sets professional rFactor 2 development apart from hobby modding is collaboration with real racing teams. When you develop mods alongside teams competing in real motorsport, your simulation environment gains credibility, accuracy, and practical value that theoretical approaches cannot achieve.

Our experience working with professional racing teams informs every aspect of our development philosophy. This same commitment to accuracy is evident in our 3mm laser-scanned Circuit Zolder track and Super Formula Pro rFactor 2 mod, both created with real-world data and team collaboration. Our design expertise extends to concept cars like the Valac V12 GT2, showcasing innovative racing car design.

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• Real-World Data Integration: Telemetry, onboard footage, and driver feedback from actual race cars inform our physics modeling
• Accuracy Validation: Teams can validate simulation against real track performance, ensuring each setup change translates to real performance
• Performance Focus: Development prioritizes performance-relevant accuracy over cosmetic perfection
• Iterative Refinement: Continuous collaboration ensures models evolve based on professional feedback

Our Biggest Golden Success: W&S Motorsport

Our collaboration with W&S Motorsport represents our biggest golden success in professional rFactor 2 development. Together with this premier EU ADAC GT4 team, we have recreated a digital twin of the Porsche GT4 RS that achieves unprecedented accuracy.

Here we have one of many reports between Motec data of real vs simulation on the Porsche GT4 RS.

The car behaves identically on Motec data, matching grip levels, tire temperatures, and tire pressures. The engine curve and gear shifting overlap perfectly with the real car on the same tracks we compared real vs simulation with their actual drivers. This was a huge step forward in our knowledge of tire and car physics. Lap times on laser-scanned recreated tracks have been correct to within 0.300 seconds on average when comparing real to simulation with their drivers.

After several months of collaborative development, we delivered V1 and have since seen multiple podiums and championship podium finishes for this major EU ADAC GT4 team, which owns 15 Porsches! Beyond the racing success, the team can now prepare for red flag situations with cooled-down tires, compare grip levels between Pirelli and Michelin compounds, adjust setups for track temperature and tire pressures, and so much more. The practical applications extend far beyond what we initially imagined.

Follow their success: @w_s_motorsport on Instagram

Physics for 1:1 Accuracy

Creating physics that replicate real-world behavior requires systematic data collection and iterative validation. Our comprehensive guides on car physics development and tire development provide detailed technical documentation for achieving professional-grade accuracy:

• Mass & CoG: Derived from actual vehicle specifications and weight distribution data
• Aerodynamics: Drag coefficients and downforce curves from CFD or wind tunnel testing
• Tire Physics: Grip curves modeled against tire manufacturer data (Pirelli, Michelin, etc.) but not available, good team engineers know how to extract this for us. We have seen it with W&S motorsport. Learn more in our tire development guide.
• Suspension Geometry: Correct rotation angle, camber curves, and anti-squat modeled from technical drawings
• Engine Torque Curve: Real dyno data for accurate power delivery simulation. See our car physics guide for engine development details.

Professional development involves multiple validation cycles: real telemetry comparison, driver feedback analysis, and track comparison testing to ensure the simulation environment faithfully reproduces real-world driving characteristics. Usually we use MOTEC data as rFactor2 does support to record all these data channels.

Here we tested the center point of the front wheel grabbing exactly 20 degrees vs steering wheel input compared with real life.

Quality Assurance Methodology

Professional development includes rigorous QA at multiple stages:

• Visual QA: Model accuracy, material consistency, animation smoothness
• Physics QA: Behavior validation against real vehicle characteristics
• Performance QA: Frame rate testing, memory profiling, draw-call optimization
• Compatibility QA: Testing across hardware configurations and driver versions
• Driver Validation: Professional driver feedback on handling and accuracy

Here we made a fresh Pirelli Tire development in rFactor 2 from scratch for both sizes on front and rear, afterward we made a Michelin Endurance tire that is used in other series by the team.

3D Making if needed: Pointcloud becomes a 1 to 1 model in 3ds Max, exported to rFactor 2 simulation.

The modern professional 3D workflow for rFactor 2 development leverages industry-standard tools with complementary strengths:

Phase 1: 3ds Max - Initial Modeling

3ds Max remains the preferred tool for high-fidelity automotive modeling due to its polygon editing capabilities and industry adoption in automotive design visualization:

• High-resolution base mesh creation from CAD, point-cloud data or reference images
• Complex surface modeling for aerodynamic components on tracks or shaped all around for car work
• Unwrapping and UV layout optimization
• Material definition and preview
• Our tools can run maximum 500gb of pointcloud data, if more, we split the data to make it workable.

Phase 2: Optimization & Rigging

Performance should be the main priority, but animations like wipers need extra work to make them move in simulations:

• Mesh optimization and reduction for real-time performance
• LOD (Level of Detail) generation for draw-call optimization
• Skeletal rigging and weight painting for animations
• Shader node setup for rFactor 2 compatibility and PBR texture making

Phase 3: rFactor 2 Engine - Implementation

Final integration into rFactor 2's proprietary engine:

• ISImotor 2 mesh format exporting to .gmt format
• Damage modeling and sound interaction
• LOD assignment and optimization verification
• Integration with physics data and collision meshes

Materials & Texture Pipeline

Professional materials and textures directly impact both visual fidelity and physics accuracy. rFactor 2 uses physically-based rendering (PBR), requiring careful attention to material properties:

• Base Color: Diffuse color information without lighting influence
• Normal Maps: High-resolution geometric detail without geometry overhead, helping to give depth to materials and specular interaction.
• Roughness: Controls light scattering and specular highlights
• Metallic: Defines reflectivity for metal surfaces
• AO (Ambient Occlusion): Precomputed shadowing in crevices and joints, usually gives more depth on assets

For professional development, high-resolution source textures (4K or 8K) are created, then downsampled to optimal in-game resolutions (typically 2K for hero elements, 1K for secondary components) to balance visual quality and performance.

Licensing & Distribution Considerations

Professional mod development requires attention to licensing, intellectual property, and distribution rights:

• Manufacturer Approvals: Work with car manufacturers for branding and design accuracy
• Steam Workshop: Most accessible distribution channel with built-in monetization options if needed
• Private use: We can serve the ongoing development and exclusive content use in a private under NDA environment
• Commercial Licensing: Agreements with Motorsport Games and S397 we can arrange for our clients
• IP Protection: Watermarking, licensing agreements, encryption and usage restrictions can all be arranged if requested