Support for rFactor 2? Exporting data to Motec?

[Exigeous]

I saw that almost 4 *years* ago a developer said they were going to add support for iRacing, rFactor 2 and AC/ACC - looks like that never happened, is that right?

Regardless is there a way to export the data for use in other software, like say Motec? I use Motec I2 for my real car and for rFactor 2 so it would be great to be able to export from say F1 2021 as well so I can analyze everything in one piece of software.

~X

[UNAmedia]

Hi!

We are finalising the initial support to AC, it will be the first supported game using Shared Memory to capture data (the same system used by the other games you listed - so this is a required step to support them as well). The actual program is to release support for AC only for PC when it will be solid enough, then add a system to use the recording functionality also with the mobile platforms (using the PC version as a bridge) and then add support for ACC. RF2 and IR will be added later.

SRT supports exporting data in CSV format: open a telemetry session and press the "Share" icon, select the "Export to CSV" option and send/save the file. Saving CSV files could require few minutes and could result in big files, so be patient when exporting them. You can read more about the exported CSV format here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2316356106

[Exigeous]

First thanks for the extremely quick reply, very impressive and appreciated.

Thanks for the update - but, and I don't mean to be rude, but in 2018 you said that all those games were "coming soon" and that was over 3 years ago, so can you give a more accurate timeline or are we still talking years?

As for the export I saw you can export to CSV but sadly the format is VERY different than what say Motec i2 needs and while I don't expect you to write converters for other software unfortunately without that it's not very useful to me. Don't get me wrong, you've got some good tools here but they are pretty far from what Motec offers. I totally understand they are different target markets and you likely don't have many actual racers trying to use the same tools they use in their actual real cars compared to sims.

So I guess at this point the big question is when will you really have support for rFactor 2 as that's really all I care about given it's so far and above all other sims on the market at this point (in terms of realism of feel - there's a reason all F1 teams use rFactor Pro as the basis for their sims which is the same base engine and physics from rFactor 2).

Again thanks for the quick reply, I almost asked if this project was dead, I would have looked pretty stupid, huh?

~X

[UNAmedia]

No problem! As long as the tones are friendly (and this is the case :) ) we're happy to talk of many things!

You're right on several points, all I can say is that we're developing the tool at the best rate that it's possible for us (considering the effort required and the development costs).

We think that supporting new games is not important if the product is not good enough for everyone: we risk to have a bad product supporting many games, instead of having a nice (I hope :) ) product for fewer games. This is the main reason we preferred working on new important features (like sharing telemetries, exporting data, customisable statistics, etc. - all things we added in the past releases), rather than quickly add support for new games.

Of course adding more games is crucial, and this is the reason we're working on AC since several months: adding support for AC means SRT will be able to get data from the Shared Memory system (in addition to the already supported networking system). And Shared Memory is the system also used by ACC, rFactor 2, iRacing and some other titles, so it's a "required" technical step to support other important games.
But the Shared Memory is available only for Windows games, and SRT is a cross-platform system (used by iOS, Android and macOS users - also if they're playing on PC). So this implies further effort and technical activities to provide the same features to all of our users.

We're trying to make SRT growing in a consistent way, so that when we'll add support for games with more demanding users, they'll find useful features in it.

And of course we're also working on other new features we would like to add to improve the product, and on features originating from the feedback we receive from users.

About exporting in the proprietary Motec format, I can confirm that it's definitely not a priority for us and it's not in our backlog at the moment. Things could change in the future, but we added the option to export data to CSV file right to allow people to manage the data as they prefer, as it's a standard and open format that can be read by any tool (programming languages, Matlab, Excel, LibreOffice, etc).

[ I'll leave 1 week for holidays tomorrow, so be patient if I'll not reply soon :) ]

[Exigeous]

Again I appreciate and applaud the very quick and very detailed replies - it seems we are very much on the same page all around. I can't argue with a single thing you've posted and in fact would likely make the exact same decisions if I were in your shoes. Very logically thought out.

One thing I don't think I understand - what is there to support on mobile/OSX? Do you mean the client application? Surely you don't mean for racing games on those platforms, right? If it's the client I can certainly see people using that on mobile - not me personally - but OSX baffles me a bit, do you actually have customers using that?

As for Motec export again I can't blame you a bit - my strong assumption is I'm the only person that's ever brought that up let alone requested it. I may look into the data format it uses and see how hard it would be to write a converter since you're using the very common CSV format and it, stupidly, doesn't. I did download the trial and played with it this morning. Next time I race with my group in F1 2021 (which is sorta rare) I'll do some comparisons and see what I think as you do seem to have all the import elements I'd want to see.

Enjoy your holiday, I'll keep an eye out and look forward to shared memory support being added. I suppose my last question there is, and I'm not trying to pin you down or hold you to anything, but do you have a guess as to when that would come, at least for AC if that's what you're gonna support first? Just a general idea, a week, month, year, decade?

Thanks again for the great attitude and quick replies, if only all developers understood how to communicate like this.

~X

[UNAmedia]

First thing: thanks :)

We like to discuss with users, it's an opportunity for us to explain things, and it's also an opportunity to get other points of views (and collect helpful suggestions and feedbacks!).

About mobile/macOS: SRT runs on PC, iOS, Android, macOS and, using the networking protocol, it's able to capture data from games running on PC or console. So most of the mobile users prefer to use SRT on their smartphone/tablet just for practical purposes (e.g. if you're on a playseat while playing on a PlayStation, a tablet is a great device to look at telemetry data :) ). About the macOS users, I think it's just because they have it as a laptop and they prefer its bigger display screen to the smaller smartphone. BTW we have also (very) few Linux users.

About a (rough! :) ) estimate about the AC availability (only for PC as a first step), I think it could be release in a few months (let's say Q3). The plan is that when it will be stabilised, then we'll add support for the other platforms (iOS, Android, macOS - likely using the PC version as a required "relay" system).

If you'll have the opportunity to use SRT with F1 2021, feel free to share your impressions with us. While we're quite "silent", we collect all the feedbacks we receive :)

Thanks again for this nice chat!