Jump to content


Photo
- - - - -

Lack of "closure" in rFactor


  • Please log in to reply
28 replies to this topic

#1 TJJohansen

TJJohansen
  • Member

  • 75 posts
  • Joined: November 10

Posted 05 February 2021 - 13:54

I was just reading through the "Your First Racing Game" thread when a comment by forumite BuddyHolly hit me.

 

 

Last F1 racing game I played was F1 2018, I finished a 100% race distance career months ago and was so cheesed off at the end (no ending, no tally of titles/wins/etc, no retirement screen, no congrats.. nothing, just went straight to the main menu once you finished the last race of the 10th season.  what an oversight!)

 

This is the same thing I have in rFactor. When you've raced the race of your life, sweated your way down one size in pants, and worn out your hands on the wheel all you get is a screen showing the result of the game. Kinda takes the fizz out of the bubbly. And if you race with more than 13 AI cars you have to scroll to see the full list. No chance for even a screen shot of the lot. That feels somewhat empty after a stunning drive. I remember from GP3 that you got the cup and place if you finished top three. In GPL it was taken even further. You'd get the "newspaper clipping" with text and your place and time, which was brilliant. As I call it, closure.

 

eolc_gp_glen.jpg

 

I have searched the net for any kind of mod that might deal with this for rFactor, but haven't found any. So I'll try asking here to see if anyone knows of such a gadget for the sim?

 

T J



Advertisement

#2 Izzyeviel

Izzyeviel
  • Member

  • 3,172 posts
  • Joined: March 16

Posted 05 February 2021 - 15:49

A lot of games do this. Its so infuriating, i mean how hard can it be?



#3 Myrvold

Myrvold
  • Member

  • 15,853 posts
  • Joined: December 10

Posted 05 February 2021 - 17:01

While I agree with that the F1-games (and similar games) should do this. rFactor was never made to be a single-player experience in that sense.



#4 PayasYouRace

PayasYouRace
  • Racing Sims Forum Host

  • 45,700 posts
  • Joined: January 10

Posted 05 February 2021 - 19:15

I'm always a fan of some sort of celebration, though a serious racing sim like rFactor isn't really a game, so I guess winning is its own reward?

 

Papyrus (such as with GPL there) were pretty good in that at least they gave you a cool splash screen. Most games in the 1990s used to do something.

 

The F1 games at least give you closure for each race, with the podium ceremony and such. Seems like a shame there's nothing for finishing the 10 seasons, as that's a lot of time to put into the game.



#5 KWSN - DSM

KWSN - DSM
  • Member

  • 35,982 posts
  • Joined: January 03

Posted 05 February 2021 - 19:20

I do not (yet) race those games,  but I am still annoyed on your behalf.



#6 noikeee

noikeee
  • Member

  • 23,156 posts
  • Joined: February 06

Posted 05 February 2021 - 20:22

Honestly on sims like rFactor it's already fortunate the AI doesn't all crash into each other in turn 1 or something. Single player "career"-like experience is something that's completely utterly overlooked.



#7 TJJohansen

TJJohansen
  • Member

  • 75 posts
  • Joined: November 10

Posted 08 February 2021 - 16:22

I guess what surprises me is that no one else have thought about making one. I mean, the list of add-on's and gadgets people have made for this game is never ending.Or, actually ending short of making a retirement screen that I have asked for. Unfortunately my knowledge of modding is zilch. I do try to tweek AIW files a bit, but that's about it.

 

T J



#8 LucaP

LucaP
  • Member

  • 1,478 posts
  • Joined: September 09

Posted 08 February 2021 - 18:07

It would be nice if you could receive a bank transfer after winning a race, that would be a great closure

Edited by LucaP, 08 February 2021 - 18:08.


#9 Nemo1965

Nemo1965
  • Member

  • 7,836 posts
  • Joined: October 12

Posted 11 February 2021 - 11:26

It is true but is there ANY game out there that allows you to rewatch the race as easy and comprehensively as rFactor? I remember two races I watched several times because they were SO exiting...

 

But yeah, it should not be so hard to mod THAT into rFactor. Would be cool...



#10 messy

messy
  • Member

  • 7,438 posts
  • Joined: October 15

Posted 12 February 2021 - 19:42

To be honest, I think this is one of those things where you can make your own fanfare if it bothers you. I dunno why on earth I’m admitting this, but when I was like twelve or whatever and won a race in F1’97 or TOCA 2 I sometimes went and stood in the bathroom in front of the mirror and lifted the toilet brush holder aloft before pretending to spray a bottle of bubble bath over the heads of Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve.

I like games that make you feel special after a great win, but increasingly skip the beautifully recreated podium sequences in F1 2020 these days. I’m happy that they’re there and everything though. I know the ‘sims’ take themselves far too seriously to dream of such a thing though.

#11 Myrvold

Myrvold
  • Member

  • 15,853 posts
  • Joined: December 10

Posted 13 February 2021 - 03:44

To be honest, I think this is one of those things where you can make your own fanfare if it bothers you. I dunno why on earth I’m admitting this, but when I was like twelve or whatever and won a race in F1’97 or TOCA 2 I sometimes went and stood in the bathroom in front of the mirror and lifted the toilet brush holder aloft before pretending to spray a bottle of bubble bath over the heads of Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve.

 

I never did that. However I commentated. I commentated everything. If it was me playing FIFA, racing games on a console, Grand Prix 3 with hotseat (by myself). Oh man how I commentated. It wasn't like "Myrvold makes a move on the inside because he is faster". It was going through the field on the graphics while driving, updating on retirements everything like that.



#12 Nemo1965

Nemo1965
  • Member

  • 7,836 posts
  • Joined: October 12

Posted 13 February 2021 - 10:25

This thread has become fascinating for me, because with games getting more and more immersive, it seems that images (in fact 60 images per second, thus: video) have gotten a new iteration I never thought of before. 

 

Susan Sontag wrote in a famous essay that photography (and video) has changed not only our perception of our world, but more precise the perception of ourselves. Somehow, we have become voyeurs - of ourselves. Look at selfies. We make a photograph of ourselves, to prove (perhaps) our existence and then we derive pleasure from the way we look (and if we don't like it, we delete it).

 

What I've never realised in all those years of playing games (from GP2 to GP4, from Call of Duty to Gears of War) that I and any other gamer have taken (digital photography) a step further. We do not only create a different reality, we create a different PAST. When I and other gamers (who are so frank and open here, thanks), imagine racing Michael Schumacher or Aerton Senna, we are recreating an alternate past... and thanks to advancing technology the difference between the real past and our invented past become thinner and thinner.

 

Sontag says in her famous essay that the individual who seeks to record cannot intervene, and that the person who intervenes cannot then faithfully record, for the two aims contradict each other. In this context, she discusses in some depth the relationship of photography to politics. But gaming - especially realistic gaming as FIFA and F1 20XX show the individual can now RECORD and INTERVENE and in a crazy way, faithfully record AND unfaithfully record.
 
Boggles the mind, really...


#13 Claudio Navonne

Claudio Navonne
  • Member

  • 178 posts
  • Joined: February 03

Posted 13 February 2021 - 10:38

I, at 64 years old, have been an active participant in online racing for over 20 years. 99% of the time in GPL, the rest in rFactor and rFactor2. Whenever I finish a race in any position, I always do the same "celebration": I do a full lap of the circuit with my arm in the air (something you can do in GPL) thanking the applause of the public, as you can see: A COMPLETE DELIRIUM. Imagine that when I am lucky enough to win or reach the podium, my wife from the ground floor of the house knows it because of the screams I give.

 



#14 Nemo1965

Nemo1965
  • Member

  • 7,836 posts
  • Joined: October 12

Posted 13 February 2021 - 11:09

A psychiatrist I once interviewed told me that comfort for old people can be not to think how little future they have left, but to think about the long past they had. I always thought: 'But if you are unhappy not because you are closer to death than ever, but because you have the feeling your past is not as great as you hoped it would have become?'

 

With gaming, we can recreate a new past for ourselves. I always thought I was the only one who did that, but in this thread (and also online, racing) for a lot of people gaming is not just gaming, but indeed a kind of virtual reality... in the past tense. Last week, I raced with two Dutch guys for an evening and we were ribbing each other through the mics of our headsets. Like: 'Oh, Nemo is again lucky at the start.' Or: 'Nemo, I am going to get you.' But these comments also included the AI which we had added. 'Button, why are you getting in my way?' Or when I asked one of my online buddies: 'Hey, what happened? You were right behind me.' Answer: 'Bloody Hamilton took a dive-bomb and knocked off my front wing.'

 

The funny thing was I kept saying: 'Computer-Alonso got in my way', or something. I indulged in the same phantasy as my online mates, but I was too ashamed to be as frank as them!



#15 Afterburner

Afterburner
  • RC Forum Host

  • 9,125 posts
  • Joined: January 11

Posted 19 February 2021 - 17:27

An interesting thread indeed!

Part of the charm of video games for me is the escapism they provide. I like the chance to travel to other worlds which operate under completely different rulesets and have always been partial to the immersion they provide–and I think part of the charm of this is the ability to look over statistics when possible as we frequently don't get the opportunity to do this in real life (how many times exactly have I had sliced carrots with dinner?). I definitely think the lack of ability to look over statistics is always an oversight in any game which demands over twenty hours (arbitrary) of your time. I'd especially be mad if I'd gone through the same F1 career mode for 10 seasons on full races and didn't get the opportunity to look back over what I'd completed. Perhaps the developers are trying to tell us to go outside and leave the immersion. :lol:

Oddly enough I've always been less intrigued by "realistic" simulations being immersive, like F1 career modes. I guess I feel that if it's lifelike enough I'd rather spend my time doing something in real life; I'd much rather go race at a local kart track or go out driving around than race on Forza or the F1 games, for example–the virtual equivalent is simply less interesting to me. So for me, there definitely has to be an element of escapism to any game for it to merit my time, and it's for this reason I think that's partly why I've always enjoyed racing Mario Kart competitively compared to racing sims–with enough time and money, I could always end up careening through Turn 12 at Road Atlanta bouncing off the limiter on the edge of adhesion, but I don't think I'll be sending it down the inside on a motorbike side-by-side with a world-class racer on a rainbow twisting through space any time soon!

(To this end, and also completely off-topic, Turn 4 on Mario Kart 8's Rainbow Road in a 200cc vehicle is simply one of the best corners in racing, ever–imagine Turn 8 from Istanbul in fast-forward.)

#16 messy

messy
  • Member

  • 7,438 posts
  • Joined: October 15

Posted 20 February 2021 - 21:11

As a kid I created an entire professional racing career for myself, recorded the results by writing them down, and used to think about it way more than I probably should have. I still remember a lot of it now, at 35 - and still approach racing sims with a similar mentality. I spent my entire virtual ‘career’ with Benetton/Renault and made my F1 debut in 1998 and got a few podiums, struggled through ‘99 and 2000, got my first win at Spa in 2001 and won the World Championship in 2005. Ended my career with a distant third behind Alonso and Schumacher in 2006. See, I still f**king remember. Since then I toyed with a return for the 2010 season (when Codemasters rebooted the F1 series obviously!) but maybe because I’d kinda grown out of it by then never settled on completing a season. I also had a parallel WRC career that saw me win a couple of titles in a Ford Focus then a Peugeot. Again, the trail goes cold after 2006 (by which point I was 21 and starting to discover there was more to life)

Still, I can’t play F1 2020 properly yet because my ‘career’ has only got as far as completing the 2018 season. I’m way behind.

I honestly think it’s a sign of undiagnosed autistic traits that I’ve always had, but find it really interesting to hear that others did similar. My brother’s autistic and I think I have the tendencies but get away with it because I’m quite good socially and have strategies to get round it. But if I’m out with my family, in the pub with mates or at work there’s probably always a good chance that I’m daydreaming about motorsport rather than actually engaging with what I’m meant to be doing. Or examining the Wikipedia page for the 2006 F1 season because I randomly can’t remember whether Fisichella or Raikkonen was third that year. Call it an obsession, I think it is. But I don’t really have any other traits. My wife works in ASD diagnosis and thinks I’m quite a bizarre case. “lots of ‘B’s but no A’s’.

I know full well it’s not real but have always loved to get totally immersed in it.

#17 PayasYouRace

PayasYouRace
  • Racing Sims Forum Host

  • 45,700 posts
  • Joined: January 10

Posted 20 February 2021 - 21:17

Been there man. I've used Forza Motorsport 7 to create and entire family dynasty of racing drivers. From my great grandfather racing before WW2, to my grandfather in the 50s and 60s, my uncle in the 70s and 80s, my dad in the 80s and 90s, myself since 2005ish and even my little sister. I've done it all with custom liveries and stuff.



#18 Myrvold

Myrvold
  • Member

  • 15,853 posts
  • Joined: December 10

Posted 22 February 2021 - 11:32

As a kid I created an entire professional racing career for myself, recorded the results by writing them down, and used to think about it way more than I probably should have.

 

I'm not there but I like to also "re-write" history. Manager games are awesome, but like I mentioned earlier in this thread with commentating my driving, and hotseat with myself. I've many times done 22 player hotseat alone in Grand Prix 3, so I drive a bit of each race with each driver.
And with the Race Manager tool, it can be quite detailed as well. My own 1993 season. And yes, I forgot to connect the flag to the race at Silverstone, it will forever be the ? flag race. Also, some track choices was made because I didn't get the actual real life season track to load, or some other issue with the track. I then chose kinda random.

S44HtIA.png

H3BE3xY.png

NI3ndLH.png

 

Full stats!
Race Starts - Race Finished - Races Won - Pole Positions - Fastest Laps - Front Rows - Podiums - Point Scoring - Retirements (total) - Mechanical Failures - Accidents - Best Finish - Worst Finish - Avg Finish - Best Qual - Worst Qual - Avg Qual - Best Lap - Worst Lap - Avg. Lap

pZiku4w.png

 

It even remembers which drivers have been driving for the team during the season (and yes, if I spot a huge accident, I might pretend that there has been an injury, or I randomly decide on putting Häkkinen in Jordan as a short time replacement for Capelli, before Boutsen, because I just wanted to see how he'd do in Jordan vs McLaren later).

 

ekxB3bH.png

 

The plan is to load up the 1994 carset, however. Also do some changed based on the 1993 season I've done, and Senna will survive. It will also depend a bit on which teams are in the carset. Only 11 teams in the game. And so it will continue for year after year.

If I ever get back to playing the game obviously :)

 

And yes, I really like stats in games.


Edited by Myrvold, 22 February 2021 - 11:38.


#19 cjm321190

cjm321190
  • Member

  • 1,177 posts
  • Joined: January 14

Posted 01 March 2021 - 23:35

OMG I thought I was the only wierdo who did that. The 22 driver hot seat was fine, I just found whoever I hit as the first hotseat had an advantage with my starts.

Advertisement

#20 thefinalapex

thefinalapex
  • Member

  • 3,897 posts
  • Joined: July 16

Posted 13 September 2021 - 21:10

The memory's this thread has brought back to me! guys thank you  :D


Edited by thefinalapex, 13 September 2021 - 21:13.


#21 Arska

Arska
  • Member

  • 944 posts
  • Joined: April 02

Posted 23 September 2021 - 00:44

A psychiatrist I once interviewed told me that comfort for old people can be not to think how little future they have left, but to think about the long past they had. I always thought: 'But if you are unhappy not because you are closer to death than ever, but because you have the feeling your past is not as great as you hoped it would have become?'

 

With gaming, we can recreate a new past for ourselves. I always thought I was the only one who did that, but in this thread (and also online, racing) for a lot of people gaming is not just gaming, but indeed a kind of virtual reality... in the past tense. Last week, I raced with two Dutch guys for an evening and we were ribbing each other through the mics of our headsets. Like: 'Oh, Nemo is again lucky at the start.' Or: 'Nemo, I am going to get you.' But these comments also included the AI which we had added. 'Button, why are you getting in my way?' Or when I asked one of my online buddies: 'Hey, what happened? You were right behind me.' Answer: 'Bloody Hamilton took a dive-bomb and knocked off my front wing.'

 

 

I found this interesting. I have been playing racing games since 1992 and racing 99% online since 1998. When racing, we're having a blast and sometimes getting pissed off when our race ends early, either because of some twit or due to us making a stupid mistake.

 

I feel it's like playing chess online, it helps your mind stay sharp. But unlike chess games, I sometimes review my racing replays from as far as 2012 with rFactor. I'd be happy to take a look at older replays, but GTR1 or GPL doesn't work for me with Windows 10. GTR2 replays still work, that's nice.



#22 Nemo1965

Nemo1965
  • Member

  • 7,836 posts
  • Joined: October 12

Posted 13 February 2022 - 08:20

I was todays years old when I finally saw what happens if you win the title in GP 4. Somehow I never finished a season, because I considered it cheating winning in anything beneath ace-level.

It took a while but finally I won the Gp4 title at Ace Level, emulating the 1997 season. I made it a little bit more exiting by crashing in the last five laps, getting a pitstop... and then getting my digital rival right behind me... the virtual Michael Schumacher. Ending of the championship: 85 to 84…

History repeats itself. First as a drama, then as a computer game... but I got a wonderful celebratory video (which perhaps is always shown when you finish a season?) but I took it as a festive closure all the same!

https://youtu.be/QPhypOGHc2c

#23 Nemo1965

Nemo1965
  • Member

  • 7,836 posts
  • Joined: October 12

Posted 16 February 2022 - 20:23

...And I was also todays year old when I discovered that in GP4 you can swap hot-seats with the AI-drivers of GP4...

 

That is right. You can not only swap seats with another person in your living-room (I think we all knew that) but during race with the AI… I really, really never knew that, after all this time playing GP4, and I have even read several internet-sources that vehemently deny it is possible.


So on the off-chance there are old racing-sim geezers that don’t know how, in GP4:

 

  1. Start a quick-race, a championship or whatever.
  2. Click more than one name in the choose your driver menu. 
  3. Start a race. And on intervals the computer will warn you the car will be taken over by the AI and that you will jump over to one of the other drivers you selected.
  4. You can speed up the process or stop it by clicking Y or N on your keyboard.

 

It takes a while to get used to, especially with a force-feedback wheel because your wheel starts turning with the other car (you are going to jump to) before you are actually there. Yesterday I had fun making myself a driver for a team and then choosing OTHER drivers. Then you can drive against yourself… in a special way!

 

https://youtu.be/fFZSOYEnjuI



#24 thefinalapex

thefinalapex
  • Member

  • 3,897 posts
  • Joined: July 16

Posted 16 February 2022 - 23:55

...And I was also todays year old when I discovered that in GP4 you can swap hot-seats with the AI-drivers of GP4...

That is right. You can not only swap seats with another person in your living-room (I think we all knew that) but during race with the AI… I really, really never knew that, after all this time playing GP4, and I have even read several internet-sources that vehemently deny it is possible.


So on the off-chance there are old racing-sim geezers that don’t know how, in GP4:

  • Start a quick-race, a championship or whatever.
  • Click more than one name in the choose your driver menu.
  • Start a race. And on intervals the computer will warn you the car will be taken over by the AI and that you will jump over to one of the other drivers you selected.
  • You can speed up the process or stop it by clicking Y or N on your keyboard.

It takes a while to get used to, especially with a force-feedback wheel because your wheel starts turning with the other car (you are going to jump to) before you are actually there. Yesterday I had fun making myself a driver for a team and then choosing OTHER drivers. Then you can drive against yourself… in a special way!


https://youtu.be/fFZSOYEnjuI

Mate i do that all the time. Choose 3 drivers all on different strategy’s and see where everyone ends up. Brilliant.

#25 Nemo1965

Nemo1965
  • Member

  • 7,836 posts
  • Joined: October 12

Posted 17 February 2022 - 11:07

Mate i do that all the time. Choose 3 drivers all on different strategy’s and see where everyone ends up. Brilliant.


I honestly did not know. Is there ANY contemporary racing-game with the same feature? Is it not incredible? More than twenty years old!

#26 thefinalapex

thefinalapex
  • Member

  • 3,897 posts
  • Joined: July 16

Posted 17 February 2022 - 18:16

I honestly did not know. Is there ANY contemporary racing-game with the same feature? Is it not incredible? More than twenty years old!

 

Not that i can think of atm. Gp4, Nemo, is indeed still such a great game. Oh i so i hope we will ever see a Grand Prix 5.



#27 Hati

Hati
  • Member

  • 6,868 posts
  • Joined: March 16

Posted 17 February 2022 - 19:56

I honestly did not know. Is there ANY contemporary racing-game with the same feature?

I don't know but wasn't it a carry over from previous releases.



#28 Myrvold

Myrvold
  • Member

  • 15,853 posts
  • Joined: December 10

Posted 19 February 2022 - 21:35

...And I was also todays year old when I discovered that in GP4 you can swap hot-seats with the AI-drivers of GP4...

 

When I posted a year ago (the post above with so many pictures), this is what I do when I race that way. In GP3.



#29 balage06

balage06
  • Member

  • 3,106 posts
  • Joined: December 11

Posted 21 February 2022 - 09:03

When I posted a year ago (the post above with so many pictures), this is what I do when I race that way. In GP3.

 

Amazingly, that feature was already available in GP1 in 1991. We played in that mode with my little brother, choosing different cars and trying to beat the other, but often the outcome was decided by the AI being stuck behind slower cars/backmarkers.