rFactor 2 – Marcel Offermans Interview – Managing Director At Studio 397

rFactor 2 – Marcel Offermans Interview – Managing Director At Studio 397

Australian Youtuber Ermin Hamidovic aka ‘Ermz’ interviewed Marcel Offermans, who is the Managing Director At Studio 397, the developer of the rFactor 2 racing simulation platform.

I have known Marcel since the early days of rFactor1 and the Simracing For Holland events. In my personal experience, Marcel is without a doubt one of the friendliest and most open-minded individuals within the sim racing industry with a real passion for both the hobby and its community.

Back in 2016, Marcel Offermans migrated both rF 1 and rF2 to Steam. Following, Gjon Camaj, Vice President of Image Space Incorporated, had a serious conversation with Marcel, resulting in Studio 397 taking over the development of rFactor 2.

When Studio 397 was founded, Marcel communicated a very ambitious roadmap outlining the future of rFactor 2. While it has been a massive task to bring rF2 back to the higher echelons of Sim Racing, it is safe to say that Marcel and his team have done an excellent job so far, and I am sure the best is yet to come.

 

Interview Timeline:

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:18 What’s in store for rFactor 2
• 4:08 Multiplayer
• 6:10 How Studio 397 functions
• 10:13 What rFactor 2 is aiming to be
• 14:12 Recent eSports events
• 17:37 What they would’ve done differently
• 19:59 ISI & Studio 397 – The story behind the transition
• 23:35 Studio 397’s developer credentials
• 25:04 rFactor 2 vs rFactor Pro
• 27:45 When sims will become fully realistic
• 30:16 Sim racers transitioning to real racing
• 32:28 Will they modernize all the old content
• 35:22 Listening to the community
• 37:48 rFactor 2’s entry barrier
• 42:31 How difficult working on rFactor 2 is
• 47:09 rFactor 2’s tyre model
• 53:30 rFactor 2 & Michellin partnership
• 56:23 Will the AI get fixed?
• 57:52 Community complaints
• 59:26 Is rFactor 3 coming? 1:00:
• 47 Ray-tracing for rFactor 2 1:02:37 Final words

 

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rFactor 2 is a realistic, easily extendable racing simulation from Studio 397. It offers the latest in vehicle and race customization, great graphics, outstanding multiplayer, and the height of racing realism. It features mixed class road racing with ultra-realistic dynamics, an immersive sound environment, and stunning graphics, perfect for top-level esports and rich single-player experience.

Studio 397 is based in the town of Apeldoorn in the Netherlands, and fully owned by Luminis and founded as a strategic partnership with Image Space Incorporated (ISI) to continue and accelerate the development of the rFactor 2 racing simulation.

Marcel Offermans is the Managing Director at Studio 397 and is a Software architect with broad experience in different operating systems, languages, and applications and a strong focus on component-based service-oriented architectures. Marcel is a member of the Apache Software Foundation and a regular speaker at conferences, including ApacheCon, EclipseCon, JavaOne, OSGi DevCon, Devoxx, and NLJUG.

 

Official Webpage – www.studio-397.com