iRacing release price details

J1nxy said:
I cancelled my membership after trying both the Solstice and the other basic car. Just found it no fun with them. Is it worth getting one of the others as until I've raced a bit with the basic cars I'm not going to be able to race online with say the Mazda or other open wheel.
Click to expand...

I quite like the solstice, but then I love momentum racing, the original ToCA games, and in Race07, the WTCC cars, there's a lot of fun in the "keep her moving" style of racing.
The faster cars are quite the handful at times, although it's worth noting that the Mazda has moron-proof T/C hardwired into it.
I know you like Race/GTRevo, and nothing in iracing has that same "frantic intensity", mainly I think due to the lack of head g effects which Race07 onwards have. But the actual driving is far more involved, much more direct, I think anyway.
The quick cars are certainly very different from the solstice, but as you say, you need to beat your way through the lower ranks to get to race the good stuff.
I dunno if it would be worth it for you. Maybe they should allow us to "lend" cars to people for a night :D
 
I think you learn to love the solstice, iRacing is a difficult learning curve and it takes time to learn how to drive consistently on the edge. But once you start to understand and master driving the car with the throttle and reduce wheel input it makes the solstice much more fun and a damn sight quicker.

And I think the system (ie SR) probably creates the most intense/clean races of any sim.

Having said that I'm absolutely loving the skippy at the mo, (just had it out in test sessions) but through the esses (I think at VIR) it just feels fantastic.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, the Solstice was fairly awful at first, but now I love it, even prefer it to the skippy atm (think that will change though)

Bigsy, Have you tried the skippy at Jefferson yet (this weeks series track), it's an interesting track I just can't get into a 'rythm' with it like I do with LRP and to a lesser extent Laguna, Final corner is good fun though, except on cold tyres in mid-pack where I fly in quicker than the person in front like an idiot, go to the outside and can't quite keep it on track :p

Might give the skippy a try round LRP tonight see if I enjoy it better there, I tried Jefferson with the adv solstice and didn't like it with that either, whilst the full summit point is quite nice in the adv solstice...
 
I will be tonight, I generally enjoy long, open, fast sweeping tracks so I probably won't get on well with it tbh, but we'll see :)
 
SKILL said:
Yes, the way this game works is suited to people progressing through the various skill levels,

At the start of the game you're given a Rookie licence, which allows you to drive just one type of road car and one type of oval car, these are both fairly forgiving cars (oval especially) but also cars which will teach you to be smooth, consistant and use things like weight transfer to maximise the speed into and out of corners,

you then progress and as you progress you can race (after purchasing, that fickle thing about money again) progressively quicker cars, on the rookie licence you can race (on road circuits):
Rookie Solstice (first car, no setup options, fairly good learners car)
Advanced Solstice (same car, different front arb I believe and some setup options)
Skip Barber (single seater, setup options, not too hard to control but not easy either)

When it comes to races you are matched, in theory, with people of roughly your ability (you have a 'rating' in terms of performance, as well as safety), and the safety rating means that races are generally clean but also quite close at times.

But you, like others, might not get on with it, either for cost or just simply not liking the game, my advice would be to spend $20 (around £11) to get the one month's subscription, and give it a go :)
Click to expand...

Quite helpful, thanks :)

As far as actual training goes, is it a matter of learning from your mistakes or is there any sort of tutorial (perhaps not dissimilar to GTR2)? From what I can gather it is a case of getting out there and doing the best job you can, causing as little grief as possible and increasing your rep, which seems to work from what I've heard. I just don't want to pick up any bad habits and make them stick.
 
No tutorials at present, think there is a guide on 'driving fast' somewhere maybe, and lots of help available on the forums on lines and stuff,

But it's mostly just practice, lots and lots of practice, trying different things with the car and the line to find something that suits you and enables you to be both quick and consistant,

It's also a good idea to practice taking weird lines round a corner (this is something I should do more before racing, as it's something that is needed for clean/incident free racing really, I end up learning those bits of the tracks during races, mostly by going off, oops)
 
I'd also say have a look at some of the you tube vids people have posted up, that way you can see the lines that they are taking. It's not brilliant due to the low res of the vids on you tube, but it does show some of the possibilities.

I'm just learning myself, done a couple of races, but finding it quite addictive trying to shave of those fractions of a second by taking a slightly different line or braking at a different point. I find I get a superb run through one corner, just over confident and promptly throw the car off the road at the next corner.

Taff
 
SKILL said:
No tutorials at present, think there is a guide on 'driving fast' somewhere maybe, and lots of help available on the forums on lines and stuff,

But it's mostly just practice, lots and lots of practice, trying different things with the car and the line to find something that suits you and enables you to be both quick and consistant,

It's also a good idea to practice taking weird lines round a corner (this is something I should do more before racing, as it's something that is needed for clean/incident free racing really, I end up learning those bits of the tracks during races, mostly by going off, oops)
Click to expand...


I was having a hard time getting past this bloke at Laguna. Coming out of the corkscrew I got a sort of half-assed run at him, no way I was getting past, but drew more or less level. So I went right out on the racing line for the next left hander, thinking I'd force him in tight and cut back under him on the way down to the right, where I had been quicker all race.....and he shot off the road. And I remember instantly thinking......poor sod, he's NEVER approached that bend from an inside line before.


So.....weird lines......definitely your friends, and will save your bacon in a race.
 
Well in the solstice at LRP, ive got my lap time down to 1:04.125...so close to hitting the 1:03's...Also mostly all the races i do consistant 1:04's which keeps me in touch with the leaders (1:03 guys) as they always make a mistake at some point.

Im addicted.
 
Well I am getting into this now and I think its rather good. It takes dedication and time to get the most from it and I am focused on the Solstice at the moment at Lime Rock. I am still in the 1.05's but I did a set of several laps in the 1.05's which shows I am getting more and more consistent. I have never really played online racing games (or anything online bar BF2) before so it takes some getting use to but I think its rather good and once you understand how it all hooks up very clever too.
 
I've just re-subscribed. Missed the free $15 by a day as my CC was playing up. Also if I'd ponied up a month ago the $ was a lot weaker. Oh well.

My previous PB in the Solstice at LR was 1.01.594 for the Advanced car and 1.02.342 for the Rookie car. However these were before physics changes which increased lap times / slowed the car. No idea what my times will be now - I'll probably go straight to the Mazda anyway. The Solstice can be fun, but doubt I'll bother with it much.
 
Oh what a genius I am............

Entered the advanced solstice championship.......and never put in an appearance at Sumit Point (work and the fact that it's a nightmare to learn.....and the gear ratios are just the wrong ones, as usual.).

Ah well. NEXT season :D (should probably change my name to DC LOL).



Tell me, can you access the forums from any machine other than the one on which you have the client installed?
I do 90% of my internet from my laptop, which, even if iRacing wouldn't set fire to it at 1fps, only runs linux. I can't seem to access the forums from it.....am I just being numb?
(Nor from another windows machine it seems).
 
Not tried from linux but I can access the forums on my works computer, have to log in to the members site as usual, and then the forums from there I think, works fine but don't get things like the helmet colours next to the user names but that's about it...

Just tried the skippy round VIR South, love those esses, need to learn how to take them nicely though, atm i'm sideways through the whole thing (but somehow never crashed there, yet ¬_¬) which isn't so good :p
 
Right with the new Track being Seca, im having stuttering problems, in turns 1 to 3 and the 3rd to last corners of the track, resulting in some very interesting driving..

Now LRP never had a problem and was as smooth as butter, Seca is fine for the most part but just the above stated corners are a slideshow....anyone else have the same problem? or Know of a fix?

E6300 @ 3.2ghz
2gb Geil
HD4850 512mb
1440x900 res.

If any other details are needed ill grab them.
 
What detail level are you using, i've got a similar system ([email protected], 4Gb ram, HD4850 512Mb), I run 1600x1200 and with shadows on my framerate was never amazing (not bad, with everything else on including full shadows it was 60 ish most of the time, which was fine around LRP but could give some slowdown whilst racing in laguna seca)

So I turned off shadows completely, don't really notice when I'm racing and that with changing the mirror detail to low (still plenty to see whats happening behind you) meant I get a pretty much constant 120fps (limited there) and that's using 4x AA and 16x AF, I'd rather have those than shadows,

So i'd have a look at tweaking the details to get the framerate higher, but depends what you're already running, some people on the forums have mentioned stuttering with a high frame rate but i've never had that. Also might be worth checking on the hardware/problems forums on iRacing, seem to remember something about v-sync as a possible fix?
 
Dunno about ATI cards, but with my GTX280........

2-Pass shadows off produces a noticable improvement.
Extra Shadows, a teeny one *unless* 2 pass is also on.
If you run the "real" mirrors, that is a BIG drag on FPS, doubly so if you leave the floating mirror active too.

Changing the field of view, unlike a lot of other games, does no good at all (didn't in GPL either).

I've got everything cranked full up, except extra mirror detail (I honestly can't see a difference in them, but lose a couple of FPS), and am running at 1920x1200 with 16Q AA (Iracing chokes badly on AA, not Crysis badly, but badly....GTR2, Rfactor Race07 GPL etc are all running at 32ssAA). I can keep 60 FPS everywhere with a bit of an overclock, except T3 and the last turn at Laguna, and T1 at Lowes, these spots need a BIG overclock. Last Turn at Laguna is worst of all. I use Vsync, so the 54-56 FPS it produces is stutter city. With Vsync off, it's tearing instead, and also the card hits 90-100 FPS elsewhere on the same circuit, which shows the difference at the "blackspots". Also worth noting that with the card clocked senseless, letting it fly off to 90FPS is turning an awful lot of power into an awful lot of heat.....vsyncing it to 60 is not only cleaner looking, it gives the stressed vid card a breather.



SKILL....BTW....I'm V.Thick, I was typing http://www.members...... instead of http://members......
 
well thanks for the reply, i had a little mess around, still get stuttering in the mentioned corners, rest of the track is perfectly fine....anyways heres a quick screen of the settings, easier than typing it out

Image1-4.png
 
Maybe knock the AA down to x2?

I run x2 AA at 1920x1600, everything on bar high mirror, this is with a [email protected] and a 4870. I get slight stutter with a large pack on screen but its fine otherwise.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom