Let's discuss iRacing

Nice how this thread has turned into a somewhat calm and reasonable opinion thread.

So some 2 months ago I got a bit bored with AC's MP racing because apart from RSR there were no results stored anywhere unless you were in some sort of league.
So knowing that it would cost a lot of money I went to iRacing for the 3 months membership. I absolutely love iRacing's approach to MP racing - it's well-organized, rewarding and the races are usually fair.

The physics are ok but they felt unrealistically hard to me in the cup MX5 that you start with, especially off-throttle oversteer leading to uncatchable slides even on warm slicks is what feels off. Still, the physics and FFB are good enough for me even though AC is better. If I compare my iRacing MX5 experience to AC's MX5 it's so much easier for me to feel and drive at the limit in AC.

So there you go: comparable cars have been tested and AC feels better to me.

Before I forget to finish the story: just after I tried iRacing SRS came out for AC and I haven't touched iRacing ever since :-D It's what makes the package complete!

 

What I like about Iracing is the detail in the physics. What I mean is I am aware and need to remain focused on the car and what it is doing. You can't be lazy and switch off your brain. For me, this is the same for when I'm driving on track. I'm very conscious and aware of my inputs to getting the car around track. Both are hyper-sensitive to input and a similar approach can be taken. I find IR does this a bit better than AC. I need to show the cars more respect in IR, the same as if I was to jump into a real life car on track. There should be a very high level of unknown and trepidation when jumping into a new car and taking it out on track for the first time, especially with something like a race car, for example a GT3 which should feel incredibly alien to the every day driver. I would not expect to be able to jump straight in to a race scenario and would expect some seat time first. If you watch the Gregor Huttu video where they put him in a real race car to see his progress, it was very apparent it was not possible to just jump right in to a real race car a drive it. IR simulates this feeling, this alien or unknown experience very well. AC is much better with the latest version but it's still not as good as simulating this as IR in my opinion and still a little forgiving.

What I don't like is how quickly and easily the cars break away, lose grip or spin in IR. In most cases without warning or reason. This I find deeply frustrating as going back to my first point, I'm attempting to drive in the same manner as a real car and pretty much to a degree this is effective and realistic. It's then just let down by the without warning loss of grip or spinning scenario which leaves me baffled. AC for me simulates this better and provides much more balanced, consistent and reliable feedback on what the grip and balance of the car is.

 

So you compared two sims (iR vs AC) and came to conclusion that iR is like real life and AC not, yet the conclusion was made without an actual comparison to real life, correct me if I am wrong.

You sound like you are initially biased that iR=real life.

Personally to me it looks like a troll thread/post, though people here reacted relatively calm.

 

Guess what, you may play both, taking the best of them each time.

 

This is how looks this thread...

"I love pizza, after a couple of slices I want more...
I usually drink a beer while eating pizza, because pizza have a better taste with it...
You should eat this kind of pizza with this kind of beer...
Yeah you should try it too...
Are you doing it???
You really have...
You must...
You must eat this kind of pizza with this kind of beer...
You must be OK with it!!!"

...why people can't just eat their pizza without forcing me to eat it too???

 

Really? My sub ended +6 months ago and back then there was no clutch or gearbox damage. Actually whole pre selecting gears stuff and button clutch options is very unsimlike. Maybe everything has changed since (I doubt that). IMO whole tyre grip has been very strange since their first "new tyre model". Too much grip, or not enough grip. Limit was always bad. Old indycar didn't have enough power to do a burnout. Same time some cars were very nervous like balancing game not like driving a car. I don't have a chance to wreck every possible car in real life Nordschleife to say what is realistic. Just have to go with humble immersion. In iRacing that wasn't happening.

Still I would try it if they once again send me 3 month $5 comeback deal because I like try every car game there is.

 

I take my cars over the limits of grip all the time in my real cars on track. I've done about 40-45 track days and one wheel to wheel endurance event in a friend's car. No traction or stability control. I've spun zero times in my cars. I've gone sideways hundreds of times.

Here's an old video when I had my sway bar set too stiff in my old e92 m3 and the car was oversteering all the time. My car control back then was just mediocre.



And in iRacing I would spin out uncontrollably any time I took the car over the limits of grip.


With that said, this post made me curious so I paid the 12 dollars and installed it again to see how the game is in VR. It's actually better than before. I didn't spin out in the Miata at all (though I understeered off track a bunch of times). It still doesn't feel natural like AC though. Can't quite pinpoint what it is, but AC probably just has a lot more detailed FFB as to what a cars grip is at any given moment. I spun out a lot in the ruf and I wasn't driving very hard. There's just no feedback when the tires start to spin. I think that's the difference between AC and other sims for me. I can rely on natural driving instincts in AC and everything works as expected. If I lose control, I know exactly why it happened. In other sims I have to anticipate or guess when the car is passed the limits because the FFB never tells me those details. And when I spin out, I'm always wondering what just happened? That's not realistic at all. The only time I'm going to wonder why I spun in real life is if I hit a patch of tarmac that is slick and I didn't see it. And even then the few times my car slid unexpectedly because of a slick surface, I was able to catch the car.

The VR implementation is very weird. They sit you like 6 inches in front of the driver and I couldn't figure or how to adjust that in the short period I played. When you move your head forward and back the whole world moves with you. Very weird effect. Not are if that's a bug or what.

The only thing I love is the laser scanned Laguna seca and Sonoma. Driving tracks you know in real life (and that are accurately scanned) is just amazing.

IRacing feels more like project cars now which I also don't care for.

 

I love AC, iRacing, rF2 and AMS. Each one has their own strengths and weaknesses but, my primary Race-titles are AC and AMS. rF2 will get more interesting to me once the EnduRacers mod is released. rF2 and AMS not having VR support is unfortunate but, AMS should get it in time. I would be curious to try VR in iRacing for a short time now that it's been updated. I feel that he driving dynamics of rF2 and AMS are more similar to iRacing than AC but, once acclimated to the subtleties - they all are very enjoyable to drive and I wouldn't be happy only having one to play.

iRacing has some excellent attention to detail, FFB and the overall driving experience is great. I just can't justify the cost when my schedule is very limited for online racing so I will have to stick with titles that have AI to race against and don't require a subscription. I think iRacing does lend itself to increased realism in how it challenges us - especially in regard to a Racing Career and an emphasis on clean racing, and working our way to higher tiers. There's a lot I like about iRacing but, the subscription and lack of AI put it out of reach in my case. I can't fault anyone for liking it though, it certainly has some excellent features.

Regarding apples vs oranges, I love them both but, too many oranges causes acid issues so I have to limit my exposure to them being a rare treat.

 

turned into a great thread interesting responses. those points about trepidation and needing to stay absolutely focused on the car as if in real life, I think that is one of the main things I noticed, AC I can floor the cars and have easy ability to slide and the ability for the cars to get out of my control is less, with IR I don't seem to have the same level of control, braking seems less powerful but realistic.

hats off to those that got the idea about talking with each other as race sim fans, good stuff.

Really interesting to read this. also post #42 by linus, I'm glad some good fokes here.


if you PM me your paypal Radiantm3 I will send you $12 to cover the cost of the interesting input into the thread. if you do not wish to accept it I am happy if any one else out there that is a really high level race simulator maybe even a real race dirver, if you can sign up to iracing and compare to AC and we get some more insight (non bias), its interesting for all to read these inputs, in 24 months iracing wont the same as it is today and nor will assetto corsa, its nice for us all to know about how it is today and not be shy or bias.

I agree about the points of the cars seeming to need closer attention to detail, and also that point about Iracing being sort of the linage of project cars, again I agree, its like project cars is 16months behind iracing in phsycis, like they know what they are trying to do, iracing is basicly a matured fleshed out and pretty dam good version of project cars physics.


The sound in project cars is awful thou (when driving very hard) , it seems like the cars just turn into electric hand drivers, the tone and sound just becomes a loud drone with no flaviour or spectrum.

I was thinking about bringing the F80 to project cars but I am not so sure now. Going to get some nice dinner then Ill take more of the green hell in both assetto corsa and iracing.

I love both of these tittles, great community. its great to race online with real people and if I am honest I do enjoy nudging fokes off occasional


Radiantm3 , that race video of you is awesome, really great stuff for getting better.
I am interested about how Iracing FFB can get increased to communicate better when the tires will slide, I think it could be that Iracing heck even AC can be better once FFB settings are improved. I personally found a page that stated helpful FFB settings for my T500 (hoping to upgrade to the new direct drive Logitech once out.) and it GREATLY improved my involvement with the car. FFB and settings do improve night and day the interaction with the car, I will research if there are any updates for the T500 for iracing, thanks for this highlight, interesting.

 

I'm not a fanboy trying to prove a point. I have pretty much every major consumer driving sim on the market because I'm always in search for the most realistic simulator as far as the acts of driving is concerned. Right now nothing compares to AC. If another sim feels closer to real life than AC, I'll gladly play that more. I don't mind paying the 12 bucks once a year to see how much iRacing has changed.

One thing that I've always been perplexed with is how everyone says all these other sims have great feel and force feedback. I never get any of that with my fanatec v2 clubsport wheel. Even when messing with the games FFB settings it never feels anywhere near as good as AC. I just don't get it. Isn't my wheel a direct drive wheel and supposed to get better feedback than the average wheel?

 

What is it with those pizza analogies here lately??

;-)

 

I am on my laptop at the moment let me take screen shot of my AC force feedback settings, I didn't bookmark the source but it was I think some race department thread or some thing, it completely changed the feel of the cars, I think its guilty of being a little light, oh I am remembering now, my AC ffb settings which I think are global were for the F1 cars, I was driving renaught and found it all completely wrong googled T500 ffb settings and found the correct settings for f1 type car.

I guess if some one who knew what they were doing saw my ffb settings for AC they would laugh but I kept the drive handle of the f1 type car across the board, I think, I don't even know.

On the topic of FFB for AC and Iracing if any one wants to expand on these topics and post any reference setups or links to guides or information on this important area, go right ahead! very welcome.

 

I'm getting hungry I can either log into hungryhouse.co.uk or head to the store,.

store has ice cream...

brb.

edit: I think this was the thread that made a night and day difference to my AC t500 FFB set up settings,
http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/assetto-corsa-thrustmaster-t500rs-settings.65051/

think its post 19,

 

I think it is hard to give a better compliment to any software that claims to be a sim.

 

lol

edit: for ref this is how I am running my t500, I think the points rasied about FFB will mean ill go off and research maybe on the iracing forums to get some input about the "best settings", the direct drive wheel should be the same settings? for above OP ? but be clearer in application like instant ffb and no drop off is my understanding.

Any one have any good FFB threads for leading wheel sets and Iracing / Ac shoot the link is welcome.

 

how much hours on racetrack do you have in real RUF RT 12R AWD? more than in iRacing or less?
AC not really being my first sim of choice and last time playing iR more than year ago when physics were pretty sh!tty I`m not really The One to compare but I`m still curious about you good times in real RUF ... maybe start new thread about you track experience, people tends to like reading about "real vs virtual"

 

You naughty boy

 

@Radiantm3
On what tires do you usually track? semisclicks or slicks?
If I remember corectly most cars in iR are equipped with slicks which would mean there are less people who can compare iR to RL (as slicks are less often used compared to semislicks or high performance road tires).