BHMS: How did you approach the physics for each vehicle? Where did you get the data and how do you know it feels real?

ISI: Over the years, we've acquired many contacts in the sport of motor racing and being in the Detroit area sure helps. We make use of these contacts and their expertise to create the initial data sets and then allow developers and testers to make adjustments. We take those for a spin, discuss it, and iterate. Now and again, different people will have opposing views on how a car should feel, or what makes it more realistic; therefore, the best part of this process is the ability to make your own refinements. Additionally, in the past, we have also used simulation packages to verify performance results. It's worth noting that, prior to coming to ISI, a few of the members of ISI were deeply involved in the development of vehicle simulation systems and retain many ties to this industry.

BHMS: Our visitors are mostly hard-core simmers and they love to get their fingers dirty in the garage. What setup options will we be able to change?

ISI: The majority of settings will be similar to our previous games. However, additional settings are being added to accommodate the different vehicle types. For example, we have 3rd spring settings for some open-wheel cars, and lateral weight for oval courses.

BHMS: Racing is not just about being fast, it's also about being fast at the right time. Will we see pit stops and different racing strategies in rFactor?

ISI: Yes, pit stops will exist, although we completely scraped our old pit stop character animation system and are rebuilding it from scratch, so the final version will not likely find its way into the initial release.

BHMS: Your company is known to develop titles which can be edited pretty easy, and that is also one of the reasons so many people still play your older titles. Are you planning to go the same route with rFactor?

ISI: The modding capabilities of rFactor are well beyond those of any of our previous games. We've added allot over the past six months, making the system much more powerful, but also more complex. This complexity has contributed to the delay in the release of our Multiplayer Stress Test demo. Once this test is released we hope to spend some time documenting the new additions so it will be easier for others to get up to speed more quickly.

BHMS: Will rFactor feature multiplayer racing over the internet and LAN? Realistically, how many clients per server will rFactor support and will it have a dedicate server feature?

ISI: Yes, we are actively working on expanding our Internet and LAN multiplayer capabilities, which obviously include a dedicated server. In addition, we plan to add full remote control to the dedicated server so that users can put one up anywhere they choose. We are currently stress testing the MP system to find the best settings to support a large number of clients without warping. An exact number of clients will depend on your settings and the connection type. By the way, we now allow the server to add AI's to multiplayer games or the clients can vote to add them.

BHMS: We've read that you are still looking for publisher and licensing deals are still in progress. Is there anything new that you would like to share with our readers?

ISI: Publishing, distribution and licensing talks are ongoing, there is nothing official we can report at this time.

BHMS: Thanks for doing the interview and all the best with the development of rFactor.

ISI: You're welcome, and thank you.