Let's discuss iRacing - attempt #2

This "the FFB is only good with DD" always sounded to me as load of rubbish. It's the same damn FFB. Stronger, more accurate, but still same. Mediocre FFB with DD wheel is still mediocre FFB, on steroids. So to speak. It's just easy way to talk down on certain sim with this "oh your sim has simple and basic FFB, sure it works well on cheap consumer wheels, that's what it's designed for". Very few people have access to DD wheel to test if the statement holds true.

 

I've driven iRacing on and off since the beginning, and to be honest it hasn't progressed much. Yes, the mulitplayer and actual RACING bit is great. The physics feel simple and "dumb". There is very little progression and nuance to them. YOu go out, and your tires are getting warm, and once up to temperature there's nothing happening until they are completely worn out, and they lose grip like a switch. There is no backing off after a big slide to bring the temps back down, there is no progressive degrading from overdriving (or underdriving). The FFB has been mentioned several times. There is no feel, and then some massive jolt out of nowhere that seems to have no connection to anything at all. And yes, I do use a DD wheel. The FFB feels "cheap" in a sense, and not nuanced. It's most likely related to the tire model being a little dull.

 

IRacing is just too damned pricey. It's a nice package, but the sub costs and the costs of the content are just too high.

 

I tried iRacing because everyone went so crazy about it.
Once i saw the structure i thought: "WOW!"
Then i saw the prices and thought: "OUCH!"
Then while practicing online i thought: "BAH!"

I tried 3 times during 2 years of updates, paying the 3 months fees.
Nothing to do, TO ME still seems to be on a boat, with cars completely disconnected from road and wheel.
Driving at 50 km/h in iRacing is harder than racing at 150 km/h in real life.

The only aspect that saves it is the online system. All the rest is pure crap imho.

Long live AC.

 

Have the same feeling when tried. And pricing is horrible especially comparing to AC... and fanboys saying learn to drive -it has to be complicated

 

All of my wats

 

When I tested iRacing for a brief period of few weeks back in 2011 (I think...) the driving felt very much like Atle has described above, of course I had a rather low spec DFpro back then.
I always wondered and every so often feel tempted to give it another try for all the talk about their tyre model having been improved upon again and again and what not, but I think I would be dissapointed again.
However, their multiplayer, ranking, and league system is really refined, and that could draw me in if the driving felt more connected.

Maybe it just preference after all, what do I know...

 

iRacing...hah hah what a joke.
they have the same business model as (cr)apple:
take some thing that is in all honesty is below par and not that good; put an i infront of it and charge a premium for it.
the sheep are convinced its good because it costs so much...

 

Jeez, all this hate and prejudice. Where is the objectivity nowadays?
I admit: it’s expensive, that sucks and I guess many members would like it to be cheaper.
But to be honest: I don’t know how complex it is for the them to manage the whole the online part, as it is their main business.
I don’t know if they could afford to lower the prices? Don’t wanna defend them here, just stating that I absolutely have no clue about business models and what prices you can take.
And that’s the moment I’m careful of accusing someone.

 

We'ee talking about driving.
The pricing is just another dagger.

 

Well, that's purely down to personal taste of course.
So let the hate flow through you.

 

Of course is personal. There's my avatar, indeed.
And no hate at all, from my side. Just an opinion. Personal.
Read my post, i paid 3 times in 2 years to try it again. I don't like it, and that's it.

 

Yes, price is high, but my main gripe is the driving. I did a VLN race, Merc GT3 with driver swap. So I drove several stints with the car from full tank/fresh tires to empty tank, worn out tires, and until some switch in the tire model said "worn tires=true" there was really very little to tell me how I did. There were no degradation of grip, I had a near spin that unsettled the car so I slid sideways into Aremberg, and the car felt exactly the same. No flatspot, no overheated tires that I could feel, I could attack Fuchrohe exactly as hard as I could all the previous laps. In the last stint I had to really push (too hard) cause I was under attack, and it felt the same... I was overdriving my abilities quite badly, without consequence. Once I had learned the movements nescessary I could almost close my eyes and drive each lap exactly the same. There is no squirm under braking, there is no little nnuance difference from the last lap.... Dull and sometimes incomprehensible is my brief description of it. And I've tried it on many occasions through the years, and there was one big change a while back, when they went to the "new tire model". I hve no idea what version they are on now, but it was a huge switch, and for the worse. Back then the tire model had some life to it at least. Small slides were possible to recover. Now it feels way too static. ANd the FFB is just random jerking at the wheel, bearing very little relevance to what the car is doing.

 

Despite his constant 'it's not debatable' claims.......it's debatable. Very debatable.

Never take one random person's impressions as gospel, either. Entirely possible that you'd end up loving iRacing but miss out because you listened to one random person's opinion who you might find you disagree with later had you actually tried it out.

 

I would love to be more objective but the fact that you can buy 12 tracks and 4 cars and spend over $200 bucks and once you stop making the monthly payments it all becomes useless... Thats crazy to me.. To each their own! There should be an offline version if you want to just drive by yourself..

Its a brilliant business strategy, clearly their intent is to make as much money as possible. Once you buy a few cars and tracks you will feel compelled to continue the monthly payments.. ughhh

 

Fair enough.
Offline mode would be nice to have, indeed.
And I'm one of the few who'd also like to have AI, just for practicing.
But that's another story.

 

I will add my impressions:

Some months back I got an iRacing account and some discount starter's package with nothing special. Started with the beginner's races right away and found the management amazing. Under the hood it's gotta be crazy complicated but what I as the user could see was straightforward. That's how it should be and I'm willing to pay for that on a regular base. The racecraft was also really neat and the fact that it ticks some boxes AC doesn't was a pleasant side-effect (racing rules, native leaderboards and safety rating etc.) I had a couple of very enjoyable races.

The physics were ok for me but it's like you have to spin your car a couple of times just to know where you can't push any harder...the uncatchable slides in the Mx5 seem really weird to me. In AC i can much better work my way to the limit, then go a bit too much over it (usually without crashing) and find my happy place somewhere in between.
FFB was not bad but AC gives me a more weighty feeling and so many more details.

Simracingsystem had started at around the same time and there was no need for me to continue in iR. Simracingsystem pretty much does the same for free.

TBH the physics and FFB in iR would have been ok for me but since AC is quite a bit better here and not too much worse in terms of race management, safety rating etc. (with SRS, RSR and MR I pretty much have all I need) the huge investment isn't worth it for me.

 

I tried a few years ago so I imagine the physics are different now... at the time the FFB didn't seem to be the problem, the cars just had really bad sliding physics. I mean, I can play AC without FFB and catch slides, if I can play iRacing with FFB and not be able to catch slides then there's nothing there to catch.

Racing was OK (street stock, miata, spec racer ford is all I tried) but with the cost involved I was never going to drive anything else and even finding SRF races was tough to fit into my schedule. (I think they ran spaced 2h apart). A couple weeks in a row where I didn't own the track the SRF series ran on kinda finished it off for me, I didn't come back.

If they could have made a more reasonable bargain like "buy one track in this series and get a 3 month pass to use the rest" where I could have run a full 12 week season for $15 then I might have stuck around and eventually accumulate more content. But it came out to like $50 of content just to count as having participated, $90+ to enter every race.

 

this is a very important part. i have never tried iracing, just started with AC (and loving it), but you will find these kinds of comparisons from both sides.

just 5 minutes ago i was browsing the simracing reddit and there was a posting about how assetto is overrated compared to Project cars (started by a ps4 player) and some replies where "assetto even on PC is a simcade, cannot even compare with anything. try iracing for a real sim" etc...

there will always be people adamantly supporting and defending their favorite game/sim/wheel/beer brand/team and some of them seem to love to lash out at the competition.

i am very happy with assetto corsa at the moment, i am a really novice racer and AC gives me what i personally enjoy. i would probably go for a trial with iracing or project cars, or automobilista, but i am not really into those fast race cars. i actually prefer low powered races... maybe because of my low skill level. i wonder if theres a AE86 league?

 

Yeah. I didn't tried Raceroom cause of that and now I enjoy it much more than AC.