The online racing simulator
iRacing
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Quote from tristancliffe :At the prices iRacing charge, and with the claims they make about being "the best" it's unforgivable. I know people think I'm mad for having never, ever rated iRacing but it keeps providing evidence that counts against it.

You're just not going to have a simulation that is free of deficiencies. Even if you had the most powerful computer in the universe running off the equivalent power of many suns, you'd still have borks in the simulation, both from human imperfection and from an inability to simulate enough decimal places of accuracy.

Unlike the latter, the former is usually fixable by diligent folks, which is usually what happens after there's a 20-something page thread on the iRacing boards.
Quote from PMD9409 :......................


And grats to them on Bathurst, now I want driver swaps even more.

This dammit! I want driver swaps so bad.
Quote from MadCat360 :You're just not going to have a simulation that is free of deficiencies. Even if you had the most powerful computer in the universe running off the equivalent power of many suns, you'd still have borks in the simulation, both from human imperfection and from an inability to simulate enough decimal places of accuracy.

Unlike the latter, the former is usually fixable by diligent folks, which is usually what happens after there's a 20-something page thread on the iRacing boards.

I'm aware that no sim will be perfect. But if I was going to pay a monthly fee it wouldn't be to one that is gradually getting worse, and started off pretty bad. iRacing is awful. LFS, nKP, rF2, PCARS, GT5... they're all better simulators in my experience.
Quote from tristancliffe :I'm aware that no sim will be perfect. But if I was going to pay a monthly fee it wouldn't be to one that is gradually getting worse, and started off pretty bad. iRacing is awful. LFS, nKP, rF2, PCARS, GT5... they're all better simulators in my experience.

Heh, well I dunno about Cars and GT5, but I agree on LFS and NKP at least for the driving. iRacing's tracks are still king in my book, and obviously the competition aspect is huge depending on what you want in the simulator.

I do disagree that it is getting worse though. It feels more like driving a car now than it did a year ago, though it still doesn't feel as good as NKP. When AC comes out my iRacing sub will probably lapse for a good few months...

I remember you didn't like the Star Mazda very much when you tried it a long time ago. Have you tried it with the new physics? It is much sharper I think.
I'm surprsied to hear that from a RLR. Tristan what account name have you been driving on if I may ask? Seeing as your account says you've done one race on solstice back in 2008 which ofcourse can't be true because basing your experience on one race would be pretty ignorant.
Apparently gt5 with the latest patch is pretty good and much better than before.

I havent personally tried it but i will.

The problem i have with iracing is that i never quite feel im in control of the car they just seem to be made harder drive than they should. Maybe its my hardware not correctly configured or a setup im using is crap but i just feel like there is something missing.

I can jump in a car on lfs and straight away feel the car, can feel its limits and just get a general good feel factor. Same goes for gt5, nkpro, rf2 even gpl!

Dont get me wrong tho i dont hate iracing i think its decent enough but when you see stupid stuff going on with the physics like on some of the videos it just makes you think.

And why would they not create a flat physics engine which all cars use then change attributes to the cars, why have every car using seperate physics? Just seems a bit old school and possibility of so many issues.

Im sure gt5 just has 1 main physics component and they just change the cars attributes, weight, power, heights, widths etc and the physics engine just sorts the rest out.
Quote from CrAZySkyPimp :I wonder what car he used in LFS as he refers to the V8SC from iR. I think* I could save a FO8 from what Mikko calls a "already gone (high yaw angle)" car by using 2FMSH (if comparing to WF1).

(*anyone with LFS available atm is free to prove me wrong)

Yes, This is possible even en real life if you have 90-100% front brake bias.
As long as you don't make wheel spin with the rear tyres (obviously) the car should save it self without spinning. and that doesn't matter how much it is

Friction>Slide

This is also a reason why many stunt people use their handbrake to spin their cars, it would work the exact same with with 90-100% brake bias.
Try it out.
Quote :And why would they not create a flat physics engine which all cars use then change attributes to the cars....

IHMO they are still using lookup tables for cars attributes (judging by some of the very weird issues) instead of calculating on the fly. Lookup tables are by far the fastest way of doing that kind of thing (that's why iracings foundations, grand prix legends performed so well) but can get messy when trying to interpolate many variables.
Quote from MadCat360 :Heh, well I dunno about Cars and GT5, but I agree on LFS and NKP at least for the driving. iRacing's tracks are still king in my book, and obviously the competition aspect is huge depending on what you want in the simulator.

I do disagree that it is getting worse though. It feels more like driving a car now than it did a year ago, though it still doesn't feel as good as NKP. When AC comes out my iRacing sub will probably lapse for a good few months...

I remember you didn't like the Star Mazda very much when you tried it a long time ago. Have you tried it with the new physics? It is much sharper I think.

I didn't like the Radical either. Or the Skip.

Quote from CrAZySkyPimp :I'm surprsied to hear that from a RLR. Tristan what account name have you been driving on if I may ask? Seeing as your account says you've done one race on solstice back in 2008 which ofcourse can't be true because basing your experience on one race would be pretty ignorant.

That was one of the problems with iRacing (not sure if it still is). You have to play online when THEY say you can, not when it's convenient. So I did about, probably, around 500 laps in iRacing 'offline'. My one attempt online was a track I didn't know, a car I didn't like, with people I didn't know. I don't think I even bothered for more than 5 laps!!! When I did have half an hour to race, there weren't any races for the cars/tracks that I had or wanted to drive.

Other than LFS at it's peak (circa 2004-6) I've never really bothered with online racing. Most people can't drive, or are using unrealistic setups, or don't drive sportsmenlike, or drive the wrong way and crash. I'd much rather have a fun 20 minute blast on my own than than an irritating 20 minute period of 10 restarts and a wrecker online
Quote from tristancliffe : You have to play online when THEY say you can, not when it's convenient. So I did about, probably, around 500 laps in iRacing 'offline'.

Other than LFS at it's peak (circa 2004-6) I've never really bothered with online racing. Most people can't drive, or are using unrealistic setups, or don't drive sportsmenlike, or drive the wrong way and crash. I'd much rather have a fun 20 minute blast on my own than than an irritating 20 minute period of 10 restarts and a wrecker online

It's convenient for you that you did 500 offline laps though given the argument that was placed against you Tristan.

Also, if you think simracers of most just go the wrong way around the track and crash people you'd be very wrong. Also to suggest unrealistic setups isn't an argument of why you don't play, that's an argument of why you're slow, because unrealistic setups don't stop you from racing or racing hard and fair.
1 bad experience..
Well tristan, coming us telling how shit iR is after doing who knows how many laps offline (back in 2008 with OTM's) and just having one bad anti-socialist experience of not being able to drive against people you dont know, I'd just keep my mouth shut since you don't seem to have tried this sim in ages or haven't had further study as to what it is.

Anyhow, had my first ever v8 race last night and was 4th.. Well, same old stupid blockers exist in iR too it seems.. :P Also a stupid pitstop cost me 3rd place
I rest my case.
Quote from tristancliffe :Most people can't drive, or are using unrealistic setups, or don't drive sportsmenlike, or drive the wrong way and crash.

Not my experience at all. Neither in the CTRA servers here back in the day or on iRacing.

Thousands of races with people that most certainly can drive, do drive in a sportsmanlike manner, and don't drive the wrong way and crash.

The times I've had to share the track with a complete idiot or a deliberate wrecker over the last 5 years or so can be counted on one hand. Two at a push.
Quote from BlueFlame :It's convenient for you that you did 500 offline laps though given the argument that was placed against you Tristan.

Also, if you think simracers of most just go the wrong way around the track and crash people you'd be very wrong. Also to suggest unrealistic setups isn't an argument of why you don't play, that's an argument of why you're slow, because unrealistic setups don't stop you from racing or racing hard and fair.

I've done quite a lot of laps on rFactor, LFS, netKar, GTR2, iRacing, GT5 over the past few years, but all bar about 10 in total have been offline. I don't have time for racing online as real racing cars take up nearly every spare minute of my time. I've recently been using netKar (offline) because it's got an F3 car, Spa and the same brand of datalogger that I use, and I've been making a slow setup (about 6 seconds slower than I could go with an optimised one) to correlate with reality. The current issue is that nKP doesn't report ride heights properly, so you have to run an F3 car at about the same height as a Fiat 500 to avoid bottoming. I think. It's hard to tell, as the telemetry never shows the car bottoming or hitting the bump stops, even when it clearly is, and neither does it ever show full droop being reached, even when the car jumps through the air...

Quote from Hahmo :Well tristan, coming us telling how shit iR is after doing who knows how many laps offline (back in 2008 with OTM's) and just having one bad anti-socialist experience of not being able to drive against people you dont know, I'd just keep my mouth shut since you don't seem to have tried this sim in ages or haven't had further study as to what it is.

Anyhow, had my first ever v8 race last night and was 4th.. Well, same old stupid blockers exist in iR too it seems.. :P Also a stupid pitstop cost me 3rd place

I 'owned' iR for several months, twice. Yes, it was with the old tyre model, but I gather that's a good thing, as few people think the new one is actually better.

I've never had a problem with speed in sim racing. I've always been competitive. I had a damn good reputation in the old days as being one of the quick guys in LFS.

Whilst I haven't tried it recently; with the pricing model and the feedback from other people that do play it, I don't think I want to bother. I already own better sims that don't cost me any more money!!!

Maybe one day, 3 or 4 years from now, iRacing will have a physics model that matches the attention to detail of their circuits. Until then I'll avoid it.
Tristan is telling it like it is. From his racing background and personal experiences he knows his shit. So if you dont like what he is saying about iRacing to bad cause his more or less right.

The V8 model though (This isnt against you Tristan) Is spot on which why i feel it handles like a boat hur hur hur.
Though iRacing is clearly a Oval racing simulator with road racing tacked onto it to appeal to the masses. Seeing as they have only got 1 Tire model right for the road cars. ONE!
I think the Caddy skates on ice. I drove around mid Ohio with no feel of what the car was doing i held my breath at every corner hoping it wouldnt slide out cause i didnt know what it was going to do. I think the road cars dont give you any feel of what the car is going to do Bar the V8.
Quote from tristancliffe : I don't have time for racing online as real racing cars take up nearly every spare minute of my time.




Irony is you spend alot of that 'free' time on here. Also, real-life racers can do a full season, and still have time for sim-racing, and they do less forum posting than you btw.
I don't post that often really (compared to earlier years), and mostly it's when I'm at the office. Real life racers don't have to work on their car and customers cars either - I usually start at 9am and finish at 9pm. By the time I've eaten, showered and spent time with the missus, it's usually too late to think about going for a virtual drive.

I'm actually having a night off for once, and will be going out later. And next week I'll take a days leave and play on a professional simulator to prepare for Spa.
Quote from tristancliffe :I don't post that often really (compared to earlier years), and mostly it's when I'm at the office. Real life racers don't have to work on their car and customers cars either - I usually start at 9am and finish at 9pm. By the time I've eaten, showered and spent time with the missus, it's usually too late to think about going for a virtual drive.

I'm actually having a night off for once, and will be going out later. And next week I'll take a days leave and play on a professional simulator to prepare for Spa.

Well I'm not looking at your post count and saying you post alot, I mean just look in this thread, last 2 pages you have something around 5posts all at different times of day about a game you don't even play nor like.


Good luck for Spa btw.
I have an phone! I can post on the porcelain throne, the bath, in the workshop, in bed, in the car (not when driving!), the office... Doesn't imply that I have lots of 'free' time to be playing sims!

Thanks. Gonna need it. I'm too slow this year, and need to up my game. Class podiums isn't what I want...
Quote from tristancliffe :I have an phone! I can post on the porcelain throne, the bath, in the workshop, in bed, in the car (not when driving!), the office... Doesn't imply that I have lots of 'free' time to be playing sims!

Thanks. Gonna need it. I'm too slow this year, and need to up my game. Class podiums isn't what I want...

too slow... haven't I seen a number of write-ups about you on Facebook including a recent chamionship?

Edit: also what's this about online sportsmanship? The last (only?) time I managed to get on the track with you in LFS (2005/6... good times) I do believe you very intentionally weaved your lumbering FZ5 left to create some distance, then full lock right with the sole purpose of pasting me into a wall!

Just saying...
You probably deserved it!! Not trying to overtake would have been much politer and not resulted in tasting wall...
Quote from tristancliffe :few people think the new one is actually better.

That is because it is more difficult to drive on. It is better physically but some people should never have left their arcade racers. All development on the NTM recently has been receiving positive feedback from the community and real world racers who have been testing the physics. So some real fast and hard proof that the physics are good and going in the right direction, which seeing as getting a simulated car to get close to real life is incredibly difficult and ALL simulators have their own independent issues with physics iRacing is going in a good and promising direction.

Quote from tristancliffe :I had a damn good reputation

Had being the important word there... wonder where it went.
But racing cars are easy to drive. The hard bit about being quick is not the cars being difficult... They are engineered and setup with as few vices or compromises as possible. The hardest aspect is coping with the steering loads, the g-forces on the neck, and the sheer pedal effort of braking.

The reputation went because I stopped playing online. It's not because I stopped being quick, or because I started crashing into people. Real racing took over, and that is more important to me than playing sims.
This thread is closed

iRacing
(13603 posts, closed, started )
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