Opinions about sim vs. sim physics on different forums.

Not really as I'd bet the majority play all or most of the current Sims.

It's only fanbois get hung up on their favourite sims and feel the need to endlessly compare or berate others.

The rest of us are smart enough to realise all sims have their strengths and their weaknesses and enjoy all of them for what they are.

 

I would say iRacing wouldn`t make it to top 5 .. but one doesn`t play iR cause supperior physics, right ? ..

 

could be just FFB .. AC has good FFB in regards of road feel but medicore in giving information about car (depends on car) at least when comparing to other FFBs on the same wheel (will vary with better wheels probably) ... in AC I often react cause I`m expecting something to happend not cause I feel it (that would be too late) ..

 

rF2 doesn't look that bad anymore and they are gonna improve it a lot in the coming months.

The looks have noting to do with DX9, look at pCars and iRacing for example.

 

looks at this video, Prost being super smooth and Senna correcting everywere and the laps were pretty close

look at the tyre for reference


in AC this is even more noticeable in slower cars, the ruff is a good example

 

As far as rFactor 2 physics, I just leave this here

http://www.planetmarrs.net/rfactor-full-steam-ahead/

http://www.virtualr.net/meet-simfunding-sim-racing-crowd-funding-platform#comment-1871850631

http://rfactor.net/web/rf2/devscorner/introduction-to-physics-tool-ptool-and-flexible-chassis/

http://ravsim.com/2012/11/09/unravelling-the-realness-of-the-road/

 

Recently it was posted on the iRacing forums that iRacing uses an FEA model for the carcass and tread performance, whereas AC uses some sort of empirical model.
http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/3301629.page

The way I understand it is that the difference between iRacing and AC's approaches is that iRacing's model can predict behavior given the right parameters, while AC emulates specific tire data (oversimplified of course.) It has also been posted that the reason why iRacing fees like falling off the edge is due to higher temperature build up. It's still being worked on, so eventually things will get better.

This to me implies that AC's physics will get more realistic with better data, and iRacing's physics will get more realistic with better input. The real difference is that in theory, if iRacing's model is perfect, they can simulate many different types of tires without having data for them!

Also, as others have pointed out, the ultimate perception by the driver also depends on your hardware. Better and more sensitive hardware does make a difference. A big one too.

Plus "more realistic" doesn't equate to "better hanlding" or "easier to drive" which some people might mean by "better".

 

Now put the time of the day at some normal hour instead of late afternoon (what game doesn't look better under those conditions?) and have fun with the crappy HDR and horrible color palette (GSCE Interlagos destroys rF2 version there).

 

The problem with R Factor has always been the lack of official content, and it looks dated now.

AC has tyre flexure in the physics model, it just not represented visually.

 

I do have the feeling that in some years, those sims who are dealing now with those kind of tire models (rF2, iRacing) will have a big advantage towards other sims using empirical tire models. Those tire models seems very hard to get right, but if they are right, I only see positive things... rF2 has already a very advanced, complex but also very believable tire model atm. If they manage to improve some of the known issues, it will be huge.

 

iRacing has 2 tracks that I spend a lot of time on in real life. The fact that I spin all day long in a mazda miata, but can drift around the corners in real life in a much more powerful RWD car says a lot about the physics/FFB of iRacing. I really want to use iRacing as a lapping tool, but it's just unusable for me. In fact, I honestly think Gran Turismo 6 has much better physics than iRacing.

I can jump into Assetto Corsa and the cars feel fantastically close to their real life counterparts and the physics feel very natural. The only thing iRacing has going for it is all the laser-scanned tracks and actual racing with a solid community and leagues.

 

I've no doubt that the physics and tyre modelling in rFactor 2 are state of the art but that doesn't necessarily give an enjoyable driving experience. I know many top teams use rFactor Pro for setup and the testing of new virtual components, but the success of that session isn't about how much their test driver enjoyed driving it, it's about the data and feedback gathered. I also get the impression that most of the development of rF2 is as a result of work done to improve rFactor Pro, lots of technical improvements under the hood and less that make it a more fun game. Maybe they have to give their business clients priority over gamers as that's where they're revenue mostly comes from? I dunno.

 

Their philosophy is to create a racing simulator, not an enjoyable game...

 

Why are those two things mutually exclusive?

 

I dont trust the cars in iracing. The cars dont comunicate enough and when they do its just to say godbye.
And then they have the random collision and damage physics....
You got Wheel damage, anyone???

 

They are not exclusive, I'm only talking about their main target.

 

rFactor2 is already an enjoyable game, it has good AI can have 100+ cars on track, even have AI in multiplayer, proper race/flag rules for multiple types of series, pitstops etc. You can do a full race weekend.

It also has resume from replay feature
http://rfactor.net/web/rf2/devscorn...ce-groening-about-resume-from-replay-feature/

Ironically it also has good steering assist to make it even playable with just a keyboard.
http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/22387-rFactor-2-s-keyboard-support-should-be-advertised-more
http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/23707-rFactor2-How-to-drive-with-only-a-keyboard

 

rFactor 2 looks ok under normal hours and the interlagos is a quick GSCE conversion that doesn't make proper use of the engine capabilities yet.

 

So now we have the AC fanboy (me), rf2 fanboy (associat0r), iracing fanboy (Caleb), who is going to step up and represent GSCE and pcars? Once those two show up the thread will be complete.

 

I got rFactor 2 since the first day (actually, a bit earlier than official release). I was talking only about their philosophy, which doesn't mean that they don't work on anything else than on the pure simulation part (btw, many of the things you mentioned are also related to the simulation POV, such as realistic racing rules, race weekends etc).

If they wanted to make something more "enjoyable", they would have added more casual things, like career modes and such.

I'm a GSCE whore, so you just need to find the pCars one