You can even buy a lifetime subscription straight off the Steam page, which I’m sure some people will appreciate.
The release of Project CARS earlier this year was long awaited, but it didn’t quite hit all the beats that the sim racing community wanted. A major criticism against the crowdfunded racer in particular was the force feedback model — criticisms that certainly can’t, or aren’t, being levelled against rFactor 2.
RF2 went into beta in 2012 and has been around for the last couple of years, but as of this morning it’s now on Steam as well. The developers have also been at pains to inform everyone that if you already owned the game, or a lifetime subscription, you’ll automatically get what you paid for through Steam.
“You can keep using rF2 as you are now, buy another copy on Steam, or you can MOVE to Steam,” developer Tim Wheatley posted. “When you move to Steam, your non-Steam access becomes DEAD. Also, your non-Steam subscription (whatever remains on it) is WIPED (you just get the offline version on Steam).”
Moving to Steam gives the team the ability to use the power of the Steam Workshop, and those who choose not to race on Steam will still be able to play with those who do. “Steam users DO have some additional features, such as workshop, Steam matchmaker and a few other things detailed in the Q&A,” Wheatley added.
The team responsible for porting the sim racer over to Steam also put up a little more information about the process on a separate blog. Apart from granting access to the cloud saves and broadcasting functions that the Steamworks API enables, players will also have automated tracking for stats and achievements, dedicated server distribution, the Steam friends system and a new matchmaker.
The Steam build comes a day after RF2’s latest build was released, which added borderless windowed mode, improved controller detection, alphabetical sorting for opponent filters, as well as a string of fixes for crashes and AI quirks.
Comments
6 responses to “rFactor 2 Gets A Steam Release, 2 Years After Launch”
I haven’t looked at rFactor 2 since I upgraded the PC. Will have to take another look and see how it compares with the current crop of racers.
Anyone know if it has VR support?
this has nothing on iRacing and its laser scanned tracks and CAD data and car data direct from the teams and boast 100s of Professional Racing drivers and 1000s of amateur racing drivers. NOTHING compares to the continued development of the physics and tired and surface models in iRacing and NO company can do what they do due the to massive backing from John Henry the owner of the Boston Redsocks and his multi million dollar injection into iRacing to get it where it is today.
So it is better then?
I have an iRacing account, and it looks pretty nice, haven’t dipped into rFactor for a while.
AC took a lot of its steam (hurr durr) but rF2 is arguably the better package. Certainly more feature rich for racing. Not sure about VR, last time I checked it still didn’t even do proper triple support and performance overall was average on my system. Not sure how many are using it in online pickup races (which to be fair are 95% rubbish in any sim) but there will be some good leagues around if you do some digging.
I mainly use iRacing which is a mixed bag overall but I stick with it. It certainly has its share of hardcore shills like Guestty.
Nothing, except the violation of your wallet, and a dirth of tracks & cars.
Don’t get me wrong, what iRacing has is meticulously crafted. But its subscription + dlc model stinks.
…only better car physics and tyre model that doesn’t need constant updating because it’s far better than anything else on the market.
How does the online playerbase of rF2 compare to iRacing/AC/pCars?