Racing Simulators

SKILL · 19 Feb 2011 at 23:19

That'd be the Daytona 500, they started the 'World Tour' events last year, so things like today they run the iRacing Daytona 500 (scheduled to start at 22:00GMT this evening) because tomorrow is the NASCAR Daytona 500.

Seems like a good idea except an overabundance of both Ovals in general and more specifically the big ovals in the 'boring' cars, bring me some late model/modified goodness, or even Silver Crown around Pheonix which is utterly awesome

Anyway, tonight, just like last year, lots and lots of fools tried to run it (I was one of them last year, 100 laps of good racing, 100 laps of cautions). 1600 people it appears signed up and then the servers fell over, good job iRacing...

Borrish, have you followed the 'reccomended' settings for iRacing (think they're somewhere in the forums, definately in the knowledge base bit), if not that's definately worth doing, plus lowering the ff level in sim, I generally run about 8 or so, this ends up being quite weak in most cars but you feel far more, unfortunately the G25/27 itself are fairly weak compared to the top end wheels so turning it up just means you saturate the wheel's strength and feel less...

Dj_Jestar · 20 Feb 2011 at 00:24

So what sims do you guys recommend for offline racing? Iracing really isn't a sensible choice for me. I only get to play for short stints at irregular times, and I couldn't justify the subscription let alone addons.

PiKe · 20 Feb 2011 at 00:31

Dj_Jestar said:
So what sims do you guys recommend for offline racing? Iracing really isn't a sensible choice for me. I only get to play for short stints at irregular times, and I couldn't justify the subscription let alone addons.

Well I was trying to get GTR Evolution off eBay but I was outbid, cheapest you'll find it is £16.99 on Steam, try the demo off it first.

garsands · 20 Feb 2011 at 01:00

I always think this is impressive with iRacing, live racing with commentary.

boosfuk · 20 Feb 2011 at 08:33

Dj_Jestar said:
So what sims do you guys recommend for offline racing? Iracing really isn't a sensible choice for me. I only get to play for short stints at irregular times, and I couldn't justify the subscription let alone addons.

I suggest the SIMBIN collection as the best, quick to get in to, off-line simulation racing. The bundles on STEAM are around £20.
"RACE ON bundle" has most variation in cars but the "GTR Evolution complete" focuses on the GTR endurance cars. Just make sure you get base "RACE07" as a component as all the others (RACE On, GTR Evolution, STCC) are expansions that require the base. There are also demo versions on STEAM to try.

Borrish · 20 Feb 2011 at 08:45

SKILL said:
Borrish, have you followed the 'reccomended' settings for iRacing (think they're somewhere in the forums, definately in the knowledge base bit), if not that's definately worth doing, plus lowering the ff level in sim, I generally run about 8 or so, this ends up being quite weak in most cars but you feel far more, unfortunately the G25/27 itself are fairly weak compared to the top end wheels so turning it up just means you saturate the wheel's strength and feel less...

I've got the wheel set-up as recommended in the profiler but the recommended settings for the FF in the client are way too high imo. I've tried 8 rather than the 20 they recommend and it's much better.

I have no idea why they recommend the setting to be so high. You don't really get a feel for what's going on and the wheel turns so hard it's hard to correct it.

Andrew_McP · 20 Feb 2011 at 09:09

SKILL said:
1600 people it appears signed up and then the servers fell over, good job iRacing...

I've always felt torn by iRacing. On one level I want to laugh like a drain when their special events turn out to be "special". But on the other I feel like a protective parent. Despite my sometimes harsh criticism of the service I do want them to succeed. Just not in their current form. :->

Dj_Jestar said:
So what sims do you guys recommend for offline racing?

Tricky. GTR Evo/Race On etc are simple because they're on Steam. That engine's showing its age though and isn't very pretty. The physics side of things is ok but it's never really grabbed me by the seat of the pants. I think I prefer GTR2, if you can find a copy.

If you want hardcore physics & tyres then NKPro is the only alternative to iRacing. But offline only the Trento hill climb will keep you occupied for long, as there's no AI. Try the demo though, without doubt.

LFS is as old as the hills now and I really can't enjoy it any more. Plus the AI is possibly the worst in any sim. They just seem to ignore you completely. :-)

rFactor is great if you can find a mod which you enjoy. But with five million (appox) mods to choose from, finding such mods can be very hit & miss and rather frustrating.

So, er... I've no idea what to recommend! I think this is why iRacing has been as successful as it has. There's no modern alternative. Yet. I just wish they'd add AI so I could happily pay up and avoid the online service.

Andrew McP

PS F1 2010 is not a sim. It's just annoying, and useful only for a bit of quick track familiarisation while Eddie Jordan is boring you to tears before the grid walk. :->

SKILL · 20 Feb 2011 at 10:11

Borrish said:
I've got the wheel set-up as recommended in the profiler but the recommended settings for the FF in the client are way too high imo. I've tried 8 rather than the 20 they recommend and it's much better.

I have no idea why they recommend the setting to be so high. You don't really get a feel for what's going on and the wheel turns so hard it's hard to correct it.

I didn't realise they recommended 20, I agree that's far too strong, I think most people use the 5-12 range depending on car etc (if I change from 8 it's to go up on the higher oval cars so I can feel something at least

)

I think a lot of people do associate strong ffb with good ffb though, I've noticed in a few other games you don't get much feedback but what you do get is very strong, not a fan of that though...

Andrew_McP said:
I've always felt torn by iRacing. On one level I want to laugh like a drain when their special events turn out to be "special". But on the other I feel like a protective parent. Despite my sometimes harsh criticism of the service I do want them to succeed. Just not in their current form. :->

Yeah, I like the system they use, although some tweaks could be done, and the sim software itself is one of the best, and I didn't realise before I started how good laser scanned tracks would be (I've raced my motorbike around Brands Hatch, and when that came out I realised just how good they were).

But, there are no excuses for last night, they failed monumentally to sort the system out after last years mess which was about the same number of people I believe, like you said, 'special'

PiKe · 20 Feb 2011 at 19:29

Wow just got a +0.46 after one race, started in pole and finished in 2nd.

Class D when they do promotions next

Neil777 · 20 Feb 2011 at 20:38

Sounds like you went over a whole number upon which you get 0.40, promotions are in about 9 weeks time but you can drive class D before then if you get to 4.00

SKILL · 20 Feb 2011 at 20:45

Rookie promotions are more frequent, end of every 4 weeks so a week on monday you'll get the promotion (at midnight), but you should be eligible for fast-tracking if you get your SR over 4

PiKe · 20 Feb 2011 at 21:04

Need to get used to summit point now.

CatMangler · 21 Feb 2011 at 08:46

Had played with this early last year but never really had the time to really give it a proper bash. I had a free months trial.

Re-subbed for 3 months and have added Pike, Aman and LeJosh to my profile, heres mine:
http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/CareerStats.do?custid=41873

Have only completed TT's atm as I feel I am not quick/consistent enough for racing yet. Managed last night in testing to break below 1:01's round Lime Park in MX5 Roadster. So its getting there.

PiKe · 21 Feb 2011 at 09:11

Struggling to get under 1 minute on Limerock Park

unKn0wn · 21 Feb 2011 at 10:12

Your not the only one. Track changes tomorrow. Back to Laguna Seca. I can't wait.

beefkeef · 21 Feb 2011 at 11:03

I decided to give iracing a bash after reading this thread - i'm really impressed with it. As previously mentioned, i'm not sure how I feel about buying all the extras cars and tracks etc but just having a blast in the mazda's is a good crack right now.

I'm toying with the idea of buying a racing wheel for this F12010 and Dirt2, any recommended for around the 100 quid mark ?

Was looking at these :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GC-025-TH&groupid=702&catid=288&subcat=353

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GC-029-TH&groupid=702&catid=288&subcat=353

Aman · 21 Feb 2011 at 11:08

If you can find one in stock i'd reccomend the logitech DFGT.

PiKe · 21 Feb 2011 at 11:14

You can drive the Solstice and Spec ford once you're 3.0 or higher too

I tried GTR Evolution again last night and the driving physics feel like crap compared to iRacing now.

SKILL · 21 Feb 2011 at 13:30

Best wheel sub-£100 is easily the DFGT, just a bit awkward to find one...

PiKe, I found that as well, I've got LFS and rFactor installed but can't really play them since playing iRacing.

On a random point a couple of years ago I did try to use rFactor to learn tracks I was racing on irl, that didn't exactly work though due to the quality of the tracks, however I may be going to Silverstone in a couple of months and I'm fairly confident that experiencing the track on iRacing will actually aid the learning process a bit (there's still the big difference of car vs bike though)

Aman · 21 Feb 2011 at 14:27

SKILL said:
Best wheel sub-£100 is easily the DFGT, just a bit awkward to find one...

PiKe, I found that as well, I've got LFS and rFactor installed but can't really play them since playing iRacing.

On a random point a couple of years ago I did try to use rFactor to learn tracks I was racing on irl, that didn't exactly work though due to the quality of the tracks, however I may be going to Silverstone in a couple of months and I'm fairly confident that experiencing the track on iRacing will actually aid the learning process a bit (there's still the big difference of car vs bike though)

There is a great vidoe on the iracing site, the worlds fastest alien, definatley reccomend everyone watches this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p_sCrM1CcI

On a note about the other racing sims i found they can be good but require a great amount of tweaking with different files just to get it to handle reasonably well, though nothing comes close to iracing really.