iRacing

OSiriS

I don't know how many of you have been following iRacing recently, but it seems finally about to hit the public. For those that do't know, it is a subscription based sim racer from many of those responsible for GPL and NASCAR 2003. It is trying to model itself after real world racing, in that you start small, prove yourself in the slower cars before gaining access to faster machines.

At the moment they cater for oval and road racing, but they plan on introducing go-karting, motorbike racing, and off-road. While no official announcements have been made, they seem to have hinted that they may be aiming for the likes of GT and Formula 1 styles series in the future as more content is added.

You'll find great information in the FAQ on RSC: http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=314586

The initial roll-out will be invitation only, they have about 1000 beta testers, and each of them were giving 10 invitations. Those 10,000 will probably get invitations of their own at a later stage, until the developers feel it the sim is ready for open applications. I managed to secure my own invitation, and if you keep an eye on this thread on RSC, you might get lucky yourselves.

It remains to be seen if the subscription model will work, but initial reports are that this blows all current sims out of the water.

You can find a decent preview done by Inside Sim Racing here: http://www.insidesimracing.tv/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=148&Itemid=206

You can also see some videos the beta testers have put on You Tube here: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=iRacing&search_type=

And Redline Racing are starting to put some up on their forum here: http://www.teamredline.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=118

SouperComputer

hmmm, not sure sure on this one.....This climb the ranks thing is a bit silly IMO. Most people have been simming for sometine, not to mention those that have RL experience, I dont see it a selling point and I doubt many others do.

The point system for loss of control, going offroad or whatnot is another pointless system. I think if you spin out and damage your car/loose places that thats punishment enough. Its good enough for real life. IMO you cant call it a sim with a silly system like this.

We'll see I guess. Maybe it will be a huge success, im sceptical ATM though.

SouperComputer

This however impessed me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlyArct33g8&feature=related

The idea of being able to run on a low spec machine is a good one, assuming that its planned to be part of production.

I know quite a few people who have naff computers that would like to get back into simming. This could work.

OSiriS

I don't know the specifics, but there apparently is the facility for good drivers to move through the classes very quickly if they prefer to do so. I'm interested to see some proper reviews from experienced sim racers. I want to get an overall impression of how it compares to the competition.

SouperComputer

OSiriS wrote: »

I don't know the specifics, but there apparently is the facility for good drivers to move through the classes very quickly if they prefer to do so. I'm interested to see some proper reviews from experienced sim racers. I want to get an overall impression of how it compares to the competition.

Did you get an invite yet? Fingers crossed here......

Looking at the vids, im very impressed with the inertia and general physics behaviour. Looks promising.

Niall09

It'll cost trillions!

OSiriS

I did, yes

OSiriS

Sim HQ have a preview up here :

http://www.simhq.com/_motorsports4/motorsports_121a.html

c0rn

OSiriS... man thanks for the links... I got my self a invite now.

WAY COOL!

Dcully

Ive been hooked on MMOs and havent ben watching the simracing world but OMG Papyrus are back, this is just a must have.
The kings of sims are back

Hmm after researching a bit more into it and im not sure about paying for extra content like cars and tracks on top of the monthly subs.
Im sure this will be a Godlike sim if papy have anything to do with it but i think its a bit of a pistake having to pay $15 for a car and $20-$25 for a track.

I love the whole concept it seems amazing but at this rate ill be paying 2-3 grand if i want cars and tracks like i have in other sims.

SouperComputer

Dcully wrote: »

I love the whole concept it seems amazing but at this rate ill be paying 2-3 grand if i want cars and tracks like i have in other sims.

This is great IMO, the problem with the mods and tracks around is that it has diluted things. I dont plan buying all cars or tracks, ill be sticking to whatever is the most compeitive.

Leagues are great, but pickup racing is what will work for me with a babeh on the way and it looks like this will be a good way to get into a competitive race, without muppets/wreckers in a matter of minutes.

Now if iracing start messing about and indirectly forcing people to buy more tracks cars thats another thing. Ill be reading the EULA closely in case I decide to terminate my contract.

Dcully

Yeah fair point, this looks like the game to bring me back to simracing prperly

Dcully

Its close but fair racing like this that im confident this sim will be all about with clean racers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XOh5M6jlc0

nikimere

Anyone know where i can get a invitation? I'm really excited about this one!

OSiriS

People of have posting invites on RSC here.

Dcully

Yeah its pretty easy to pick up invites,i think they all had to be submitted by today however 13th june?

OSiriS

Yup the deadline is today.

nikimere

Some guy on RSC has confirmed he added me to a list.... He said wait to hear from iracing.com. What happens next?
Have many people had the chance to actually play it yet?

Dcully

All i know is a guy on RSC has added me to his 10 invites.
Thats all i know,i assume the next step is to wait for an email from iracing and details of links to dowload and register an account.
I was chatting to Tim Wheatley [ex RSC staff and webmaster] via pm lastnight and he swears by this sim and that its gonna be huge, thats good enough for me
Cant wait at this stage.

SouperComputer

I think these invites ae for the first group of people to buy it. iRacing put the system in place to control how many people sign up.

Dcully

Yeah its only for the first wave of people who can actually purchase,its not a beta invite.

nikimere

anyone here heard anything from iracing yet?

SouperComputer

nikimere wrote: »

anyone here heard anything from iracing yet?

Nothing yet, PM I got said: "I would think they would roll out the week of June 16th. If iRacing shares more information with me over the next few days, I will happily share it with you."

So I guess its going to be anytime this week.

In the meantime, you can mull over the iRacing "green book"

OSiriS

Word is that over 1000 invitations will go out this week.

Dcully

Im living on iracing.com and RSC iracing forums hitiing my F5 key

OSiriS

I'm not paying as much attention to RSC anymore, only about 1% of the new posts provide any interesting information, the rest is idle speculation, posts about what people want added, or whines about what iRacing doesn't have. I downloaded Lime Rock and Laguna Seca for GTR2 and I've been trying to improve my close, safe racing in the Elise. It is surprisingly fun trying to keep within three tenths of a second of a car, but not try to overtake or bump. I still get wheels off the circuit far too often. I've been hearing the safety rating system is very strict about that kind of thing.

Dcully

I'm not paying as much attention to RSC anymore, only about 1% of the new posts provide any interesting information, the rest is idle speculation, posts about what people want added, or whines about what iRacing doesn't have.

Agreed but one things for sure,news of iracing going live will be faster on RSC than pretty much anywhere else

nikimere

the wait is killing me!

Dcully

the wait is killing me!

Likewise!

Its the clean racing that will make this worth subscribing to i feel.
We know from Papyrus past that the physics will be ultra real but the clean racing and the whole structure of events etc is what i hope will make me subscribe on a yearly basis.

LFS and a few more are excellent sims they really are,especially LFS online play but they have far too many wreckers and drivers taking chances with little in the way of a penalty to discourage them.
I really think iRacing will offer what us simracers have wanted for years that being good honest clean racing.

Yes when you run in leagues you more often than not get clean racing but its the time in between your league events when you want to do some racing on public servers that are so frustrating.

nikimere

From what i have read on the iracing.com website there will be support for private leagues.
Who is up for organising an National Irish Championship in a few months time?

OSiriS

The deadline for invites closed a week ago. After all of them have been sent out, the next round will be to those registered for updates on the iRacing site, so I would recommmend doing that, if you haven't already.

SouperComputer

keep in mind that "private league" support wont be happening for a while, r at least thats how I interpet it.

nikimere

Was hoping to hear/receive something before now....
Anyone heard any possible dates on the grapevine?

OSiriS

To quote one of the beta testers: "the release date has been changed as of today from "soon" to "very soon".

Whether very soon is today or a week from now is anyones guess :P

I know many are anxious for the private leagues to be implemented as soon as possible, but I don't see their absence as being altogether a bad thing. It will give people time to aclimatise themselves to iRacing and work on their safety ratings.

Dcully

Members section of iRacing is believed to state the following,wont be long now i feel

"Welcome, new iRacing.com members! We have officially crossed the threshold to launch, and we're very excited to have you with us. Some of you have been waiting for this day for quite a while - we certainly were, too................................................. .".

nikimere

Ok well i got a fair bit of racing done over the weekend. I like iRacing, the physics are great, netcode is excellent and the graphics when up full whack are amazing. However, there are some bad points. 1st of all, what the hell is with the breaks!? It just locks up every time you go anyway hard on them... I don't really like the "structured" way the pick-up races work... i much prefer the way RACE/LFS and other work... Also the fact that i can't join a room/server that is the same as one that a friend is in also annoys me a bit.
Once you've looked beyond all that it is still a nice sim. Physics wise it's the best (if you leave aside the brakes). I love the Legend and the Star Mazda. I can see myself playing this for a long time, and even longer if they had a more casual "pickup race" option.

SouperComputer

nikimere wrote: »

Ok well i got a fair bit of racing done over the weekend. I like iRacing, the physics are great, netcode is excellent and the graphics when up full whack are amazing. However, there are some bad points. 1st of all, what the hell is with the breaks!? It just locks up every time you go anyway hard on them... I don't really like the "structured" way the pick-up races work... i much prefer the way RACE/LFS and other work... Also the fact that i can't join a room/server that is the same as one that a friend is in also annoys me a bit.
Once you've looked beyond all that it is still a nice sim. Physics wise it's the best (if you leave aside the brakes). I love the Legend and the Star Mazda. I can see myself playing this for a long time, and even longer if they had a more casual "pickup race" option.

Thats funny, I thought the brakes were really good and I'm an aweful man for locking up wheels! You might like this: http://www.nixim.com/pedmod.html

I think the sound of the tyres give a really good idea of when they are near the limit. You really have to focus, you cant just cruise around. I love the physics, really immersive and "connected". The cars, even in the replays have real inertia and looks very authentic.

Blue flags would be nice, but thats only a matter of time. Pickup racing would be nice, although if you are signed up for two or more series, it looks like you can pickup a race every hour. Not quite as good as LFS, but not to shabby.

Overall impressed (and addicted) so far, and the fact that I can compare my times with some NASCAR drivers, and subsequently get really pi$$ed off is great. I'm about .2s off Dale Jr at Lanier in the Legend rookie car, been working my a$$ of to get closer. He's around the 15.8's.

I hate the Solstice, its horrid, but a challenge nonetheless. Very frustrating at times, reminds me of playing GPL all over, except its pathetically slow!

Dcully

I feel the brakes are spot on,did you try recalibrating inside the sim?

Id be happy if there were more frequent races but then again its not released officially yet.
They say there will be more frequent races once its fully up and running.
I also spoke to some iracing crew guy in the pre race chat lobby [well so he said] and they may be planning pick up non ranked races.
If so that would be awesome.
I cant get enough of the Skippy at the moment,i bought a few more tracks too.
I cant decide on my next car,either the mazda or the late model.

Im totally addicted,once theres more frequent races ill be even more so

Oh forgot to ask,what are your racing names guys?
Id like to see how much slower than you lads i am
My iracing name is Damien Culleton

Currently down to 1:18.892 in the skippy for the currenst session in VIR south.
Ive seen some guys do 1:16s

nikimere

Nah i haven't tried messing with the brake calibration. I don't feel i should have to... However, i will give it a go and hope it helps.
I'm comparing the brakes to a real Legend and i do realise i can hear them locking etc.... It's easy not to lock the brakes, i'm just saying how easy it is to lock the brakes compared to a real racing car... Only a small gripe, couldn't find much else to fault the game on!

SouperComputer

nikimere wrote: »

Nah i haven't tried messing with the brake calibration. I don't feel i should have to... However, i will give it a go and hope it helps.
I'm comparing the brakes to a real Legend and i do realise i can hear them locking etc.... It's easy not to lock the brakes, i'm just saying how easy it is to lock the brakes compared to a real racing car... Only a small gripe, couldn't find much else to fault the game on!

The more I think about it, I get what you are saying. It does lock very early in the pedal travel, I can remember having that issue at first too.

Dcully

What pedals are you guys using?

nikimere

I'm using standard DFP

SouperComputer

G25

IanCurtis

I just got my invite!!!

HAPPY DAYS!!!!!

G25 will be on the go this very evening!!:D

Dcully

Congrats Ian,add your name in the iracing members forum to the thread Ireland rol call

Niall09

Got mine too, and i added my name to the roll call

nikimere

Ok well i'm probably going to get shot here... but what the heck...
I've cancelled my iRacing subscription.
I found this sim very hard to "get into", just seemed to lack personality, if you know what i mean. It's really annoying the fact you can't choose who you want to race against and when you want to race. The physics are great, the graphics are great, the cars are great and the tracks are great. But, for some reason it just doesn't appeal to me as much as LFS.
To be honest i'd given up on both iRacing and LFS, but lastnight i went on LFS for a couple of hours and i still love it! I dont really like the constant seriousness of iRacing, it's good to have a bit of a hard race every now and then, by hard i mean a little wheel and door banging. It is possible to race like that without being dirty, but iRacing punishes you for every bit of contact.
Maybe in a few months i'll renew my subscription for another month and see how it goes, but right now, it's still LFS for me. I'm not an LFS fanboy, it does lack in a lot of departments, but there is just something about it that keeps drawing me back...

c0rn

nikimere, I did the same thing.

Though I haven't really been into racing sims for that long but I just could not get into iRacing, just wasn't me.

I am no fanboy of any sim (yet), but I have to say that LFS is damn fun.. just love the FBM.

Would there be any interest in a league for Irish players?

Ill start a new thread and check.

SouperComputer

For sure, theres a lot to be said for just being able to jump online with LFS and have a decent dice with someone, or at least a nicestorm through from the back of the grid

I think I echo the sentiment, iRacing is a bit overly-serious. I guess time will tell if that changes as its model develops.

Dcully

I cant get enough of it to be honest.
Nothing comes close in terms of physics,driving feel and force feedback.
LFS is great but like all other sims is light years behind iracing while actually racing out on the track.
To me thats the meat of any sim and iracing does it far better than anything else.
Remember iracing is not officially released yet,they still have lots to add.
Ive gladly signed up for a year,yes its expensive if your going to run all series but i see it as a hobby and money well spent.

I do however see your points of the always serious races because of safety rating but its only there for good reason,thats to weed out the careless racers so overall is a massive plus.

I would love to see fun races schedueled every day which are unranked where racers can just go out and enjoy the best sim on the planet without worrying about ratings.

OSiriS

I fail to see this "seriousness" that is being spoken of. IT seems that the safety rating has been very misrepresented. It only tends to be an issue starting out, and was implemented to encourage racing that is as clean as possible. You can still race hard and have the odd knock. Light taps don't even count as incidents, and even hard knocks won't affect your Safety Rating as long as you don't do i too often.

I was in a race today where i hit a guy hard under braking for 4 incident points, and spun into a wall avoiding someone else crashing in front of me for 3 points, but because the rest of my race was incident free, my safety rating still went up. I'm still nowhere near as consistent a driver as I'd like to be, but now when I spin, I don't so much worry about my safety rating as I do my iRating.

I can understand the price is a bit steep for some people which is fair enough only they can decide for themselves what is value for money. I think it is the sense of community that is most lacking (I believe this is what nikimere means by the "personality"), but that is because it is a young sim. If the likes of LFS was released today and all of the current members joined at once, it would be the exact same. Community builds up over time.