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9. Motion Driver for rFactor racing sim

A beta version is available for the racing sim rFactor to try. The download is on the Introduction page.

It should run with both rFactor v1 & v2, to do so the correct telemetry data export plugin should be installed in rFactor for the version you have.

IMPORTANT: this is BETA software and may contain bugs - please use with care!

Installation:

Installation of the motion driver is mainly the same as the other versions - see section 2.

In order to enable rFactor to export the sim data needed by the motion driver you will need to install one of the plugins contained in the motion driver zip package.

For rFactor 1, copy the plugin dll from the zip's rFactor1_Plugin folder to the Plugins folder in your rFactor installation folder.

For rFactor 2 (as of build 860) copy the plugin dll from the zip's rFactor2_Plugin folder to the Plugins folder in the Bin32 folder of your rFactor2 installation folder. You should also ensure that the "Use 32 bit executables on 64 bit capable operating systems" checkbox in the rFactor2 launcher Advanced tab is ticked. This is to allow the plugin to be found by rFactor if you have a 64 bit system.

You can check that the plugin is launched by rFactor by looking in the rFactor installation folder after the sim has started. The file BFF_Plugin_Log.txt should appear - if it doesn't the plugin is not running, probably because it has not been found - so check where you have put it.

Operation:

The software operation is mainly as described in Section 3 Operation.

Some of the flight sim related features such as heave movement recording due to turbulence etc are not active in the rFactor motion driver for obvious reasons.

The default .bff config files in the rFactor motion driver zip file contain cue settings better suited to the faster dynamics of the racing car sim. You may wish to experiment with them. Generally because the on-ground vehicle accelerations are held for shorter durations before changing again rapidly there is less need for washouts in the cue, so the sample configs don't use acceleration washouts (other than where they are needed for basic cue development - ie in the heave and yaw cues). The acceleration scaling to fit the cue limits may also need to be adjusted to suit different vehicles.

NOTE: In rFactor2 there appears to be a delay between the rFactor real time simulation starting (eg entering a race or practice session) and the telemetry data being released through the plugin. This is about 25 secs on my system, but may vary. This is a known issue with rFactor2 and there's not much I can do about it. A workaround mentioned in the forums is to delay the start of a race so that the telemetry data is available for your motion system before the race starts. Check out the rFactor2 guides on how to do this.

In operation the motion driver will indicate "WAITING FOR DATA" when the data flow from rFactor via the BFF_rF_Plugin is not active. This will happen when the racing sim is paused or not in a live simulation session. It will also happen off course if the plugin is not running.

The refresh rate of the motion driver output can be increased up to the data refresh rate of the rFactor telemetry data output using .bff configuration file parameter MD_Delay. 

If you find any bugs or strange behaviours in the beta version then please let me know.

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