Not much cricket to watch on Willow.tv these days, so they too are now showing professionals playing games, but it's just that, them on an Xbox. It's a world away from watching virtual Motorsport, where many of the same skills are used.
Esports Minute | A Round-Up Of Sim Racing Esports Action
- Thread starter Paul Jeffrey
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Very disappointed by the SRO ACC offering. For me, the game just isn't ready for something so high profile.
No replays. We missed so much, including the leaders taking each other out. There were bucket loads of manual drive through penalties for racing incidents handed out so could stewards see replays?
The PC they were using seemed to have vsync off. Too much tearing.
Game audio was too low.
An over zealous contact model was exposed with cars bouncing off each other from minor taps.
Contact disabled for the first lap again. It's insulting to the viewer and damaging for sim racing.
All major issues, and too many for me. I'd they bring in replays and enable contact from the start I'll try again. If they don't, there's plenty of other stuff to watch.
No replays. We missed so much, including the leaders taking each other out. There were bucket loads of manual drive through penalties for racing incidents handed out so could stewards see replays?
The PC they were using seemed to have vsync off. Too much tearing.
Game audio was too low.
An over zealous contact model was exposed with cars bouncing off each other from minor taps.
Contact disabled for the first lap again. It's insulting to the viewer and damaging for sim racing.
All major issues, and too many for me. I'd they bring in replays and enable contact from the start I'll try again. If they don't, there's plenty of other stuff to watch.
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Hope this SRO series will lead to a lot of new tooling from Kunos to support broadcast.
Agreed. If we can have fairly clean (relatively speaking) starts on many public ACC servers with collisions on, you'd think the pro's could handle it as well.
Watched a bit of the SRO ACC event today, racing was entertaining but the overall stream was pretty weak and hard to get drawn in.
Some parts looked great while others were very choppy.
SRO needs to upgrade there hardware for the streams and ACC needs some serious optimization and more replay tools added.
Some parts looked great while others were very choppy.
SRO needs to upgrade there hardware for the streams and ACC needs some serious optimization and more replay tools added.
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+100
well, the professional sim-players had no ghosting on, it was only the real life drivers. those should be given some leeway, they're after all still adjusting to playing a sim. i totally liked the whole show, though the actual quality of the broadcast could have definitely been better. trust me, replay function for broadcast will be in next patch
iRacing won't add anything graphical that isn't also part of the physics model. So until they get the dynamic track and dynamic weather models fine tuned the way they want them, they don't plan to add rain.
Aren't all sports simply games? They serve no practical purpose after all, outside of entertainment.
Anyway that aside.
I really enjoyed the GT SRO races, and the F1 Challenge thing. I really like this new intake of young drivers like Lando and George - finally we have some drivers that haven't been brainwashed by irritating PR drones - something that afflicts the seniors in F1 greatly (Ok Kimi excepted)
Ha.I am old enough (48)to remember following the RAC rally in about 1981 Mantas,,Quattros & Renault 5 Turbos then.They had nightly Top Gear Rally reports on tv but if you wanted updates through the day on stages you had to use the landline telephone,dial a special number & there was a recorded result & latest standings.This was before teletext & mobile phones & any sport other than cricket & football on the radio.
safi hellie
@Simberia
Of all the ones that i have seen so far, this one was the worst.
As others have said, parts it looked good then it would have really really jarring editing etc.... iRacing V8 supercars and the Indy stuff i saw is ready for proper televised sim racing IMO....slick as you like.
As others have said, parts it looked good then it would have really really jarring editing etc.... iRacing V8 supercars and the Indy stuff i saw is ready for proper televised sim racing IMO....slick as you like.
Iracing has shown it is king for online racing/eSports and deserves alot of credit for building a solid platform for Sim racing and more importantly a platform the non SIM racers can watch and appreciate.
If you haven't watched the iracing Indy race at COTA, you should. Really enjoyable race, seamless. Very professional . Credit to Lando for flying the SIM racing flag.
A bit embarrassing for codemasters, there's no argument here the F1 game was disorganized , ghosting uncessarry penalties and the rest .Max and Grosjean have said the F1 game is as good as trash in the nicest way.
Watched a bit of the ACC SRO race , and while I rate ACC the graphics and quality of the stream wasn't of the highest standard. Not as Sharp as iracing.
As much as people moan and complain about iracing...its represented SIM racing well. Hopefully other Devs will take multiplayer more seriously. .....
If you haven't watched the iracing Indy race at COTA, you should. Really enjoyable race, seamless. Very professional . Credit to Lando for flying the SIM racing flag.
A bit embarrassing for codemasters, there's no argument here the F1 game was disorganized , ghosting uncessarry penalties and the rest .Max and Grosjean have said the F1 game is as good as trash in the nicest way.
Watched a bit of the ACC SRO race , and while I rate ACC the graphics and quality of the stream wasn't of the highest standard. Not as Sharp as iracing.
As much as people moan and complain about iracing...its represented SIM racing well. Hopefully other Devs will take multiplayer more seriously. .....
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Yep, watched bits of the other streams now as well, and your assessments are spot on, Safi and Enagee. The good thing is: noone can complain about iRacing's pricing model because the broadcasts are free
Sidenote: In real life, GT World Challenge is the only series I follow and watch regularly, so I watched more of it than the others, even though quality wasn't the best. Old habits die hard.
Sidenote: In real life, GT World Challenge is the only series I follow and watch regularly, so I watched more of it than the others, even though quality wasn't the best. Old habits die hard.
As for the SRO races:
I hope Kunos further works on the broadcasting platform. I wish they would step up the game and include insta-replays for incidents, overlays for certain analysis, e.g. Player 1 to Player 2 gap evolution, maybe an after race graphics for comparison of player race position evolution etc. I'd also like a separate timing table on browser basis.
Since with sim-racing all the data is there inherently and no external data needed I would think it should be easy to put together a more elaborate data review.
Other than that the Pro and Silver races were more or less what I expected: Lots of melee in the Pro race, inconsistent laptimes throughout the field, large performance gaps, more action. Kind of public lobby racing.
The Silver race looked more Pro and it kind of is, really.
But everybody (like me) also wants to see their favourite real racer in the sim, too right?
I very look forward to future races of the championship and hope that some of the new adopters to simracing will evolve further and bring more close racing and less carnage.
I hope Kunos further works on the broadcasting platform. I wish they would step up the game and include insta-replays for incidents, overlays for certain analysis, e.g. Player 1 to Player 2 gap evolution, maybe an after race graphics for comparison of player race position evolution etc. I'd also like a separate timing table on browser basis.
Since with sim-racing all the data is there inherently and no external data needed I would think it should be easy to put together a more elaborate data review.
Other than that the Pro and Silver races were more or less what I expected: Lots of melee in the Pro race, inconsistent laptimes throughout the field, large performance gaps, more action. Kind of public lobby racing.
The Silver race looked more Pro and it kind of is, really.
But everybody (like me) also wants to see their favourite real racer in the sim, too right?
I very look forward to future races of the championship and hope that some of the new adopters to simracing will evolve further and bring more close racing and less carnage.
So I watched most of the esports offerings over the weekend - some in part, some full.
The one that keeps my attention the most, the one I can lose a few hours in, remains The Race's offering.
For a start, the base presentation team of Jack, Jolyon and Matt really works for me. Especially the Jolyon and Jack show, extremely comfortable with each other, and able to give and take a little gentle ribbing too.
"I have to say, Jack, considering that was a commentator who's lost for words at the winner's performance, interviewing the winner who's speechless at his achievement, that didn't go as badly as I thought it might".
I think if they just played 3 hours of those 3 chatting I'd still watch, so add a bit of action too and I'm hooked.
I find the legends races hugely entertaining. I've had a go at driving that M23. It's a beast. Put those drivers in that car in a sim they're not familiar with, then add a reverse grid too, and, well, you get what you expect. But they somehow find a balance, and we get a lot of skill and close racing too.
Dario Franchitti's beaming, ear to ear grin after the reverse grid race, having caught up, then nerfed Petter Solberg for the lead on the final lap, before being squeezed off the track himself when leading and subsequently being disqualified, was particularly memorable. "Who spun me around on the last lap?" he asked in the post-race interview. "Juan Pablo Montoya", came the nervous reply. Cue laughter. "Ha, just like old times".
And an honourable mention to Jenson Button and Jan Magnussen who've put in some incredibly skilfull, close races in those M23s. Was Jan's son Kevin not Jenson's McLaren team mate at one point? I think I remember them doing something similar at Bahrain once.
But for all those who are there to entertain and have fun, there are some who take it very seriously. And these events need this if they're really going to succeed.
Someone who's really caught my attention in that sense is Mike Epps. I know a little about Mike Epps. He's a former BTCC driver who drove in the Ginetta BTCC support series last year. It was maybe the Croft event when the commentators were discussing him, saying that he simply couldn't generate the budget to run in BTCC, so was driving the Ginetta series to try to get a little exposure and hopefully attract sponsors.
So if I'm Mike Epps, and I get the opportunity to drive in this event that also features such big names as Fittipaldi, Button etc. etc., perhaps I am going to take it seriously. There has been one particular individual for whom the sim racing holiday has been particularly damaging, but I wonder if there are drivers, such as Epps, who could benefit from it in terms of exposure.
Epps certainly had the speed to win his class,. Coming into the final race equal on points with his two championship rivals, Max Gunther and Gabby Chaves, and qualifying ahead of them, he looked favourite. But a bump at the first corner from Stoffel Vandoorne put him on the back foot and he ended up off the track when trying to defend 4th place from a sim racer. He ended up finishing one place behind Gunther in the race, and one point behind him in the championship.
The battle with the sim racer was one he didn't need to fight, and cost him dear. Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned there for virtual and real races.
But more importantly, sim racing esports needs more people like Mike Epps. Recognisable from the real racing world, but for whom this matters, and who would benefit from the exposure it brings. Because now, as a punter, I can't wait for next week. I want to see the battle between Epps and Gunther resume. And let's throw Stoffel Vandoorne in the mix too.
The three of them are starting to mix it with the sim racers now, which is a pretty impressive feat. No idea what's to come next week. Expecting different cars, perhaps a change in format. Hoping we see a lot of the same drivers though as they and their rivalries are becoming familiar and recognisable.
And that's a key factor in any success sim racing esports may achieve.
The one that keeps my attention the most, the one I can lose a few hours in, remains The Race's offering.
For a start, the base presentation team of Jack, Jolyon and Matt really works for me. Especially the Jolyon and Jack show, extremely comfortable with each other, and able to give and take a little gentle ribbing too.
"I have to say, Jack, considering that was a commentator who's lost for words at the winner's performance, interviewing the winner who's speechless at his achievement, that didn't go as badly as I thought it might".
I think if they just played 3 hours of those 3 chatting I'd still watch, so add a bit of action too and I'm hooked.
I find the legends races hugely entertaining. I've had a go at driving that M23. It's a beast. Put those drivers in that car in a sim they're not familiar with, then add a reverse grid too, and, well, you get what you expect. But they somehow find a balance, and we get a lot of skill and close racing too.
Dario Franchitti's beaming, ear to ear grin after the reverse grid race, having caught up, then nerfed Petter Solberg for the lead on the final lap, before being squeezed off the track himself when leading and subsequently being disqualified, was particularly memorable. "Who spun me around on the last lap?" he asked in the post-race interview. "Juan Pablo Montoya", came the nervous reply. Cue laughter. "Ha, just like old times".
And an honourable mention to Jenson Button and Jan Magnussen who've put in some incredibly skilfull, close races in those M23s. Was Jan's son Kevin not Jenson's McLaren team mate at one point? I think I remember them doing something similar at Bahrain once.
But for all those who are there to entertain and have fun, there are some who take it very seriously. And these events need this if they're really going to succeed.
Someone who's really caught my attention in that sense is Mike Epps. I know a little about Mike Epps. He's a former BTCC driver who drove in the Ginetta BTCC support series last year. It was maybe the Croft event when the commentators were discussing him, saying that he simply couldn't generate the budget to run in BTCC, so was driving the Ginetta series to try to get a little exposure and hopefully attract sponsors.
So if I'm Mike Epps, and I get the opportunity to drive in this event that also features such big names as Fittipaldi, Button etc. etc., perhaps I am going to take it seriously. There has been one particular individual for whom the sim racing holiday has been particularly damaging, but I wonder if there are drivers, such as Epps, who could benefit from it in terms of exposure.
Epps certainly had the speed to win his class,. Coming into the final race equal on points with his two championship rivals, Max Gunther and Gabby Chaves, and qualifying ahead of them, he looked favourite. But a bump at the first corner from Stoffel Vandoorne put him on the back foot and he ended up off the track when trying to defend 4th place from a sim racer. He ended up finishing one place behind Gunther in the race, and one point behind him in the championship.
The battle with the sim racer was one he didn't need to fight, and cost him dear. Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned there for virtual and real races.
But more importantly, sim racing esports needs more people like Mike Epps. Recognisable from the real racing world, but for whom this matters, and who would benefit from the exposure it brings. Because now, as a punter, I can't wait for next week. I want to see the battle between Epps and Gunther resume. And let's throw Stoffel Vandoorne in the mix too.
The three of them are starting to mix it with the sim racers now, which is a pretty impressive feat. No idea what's to come next week. Expecting different cars, perhaps a change in format. Hoping we see a lot of the same drivers though as they and their rivalries are becoming familiar and recognisable.
And that's a key factor in any success sim racing esports may achieve.
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FernandoAFM
The CP Driver
I wonder if the one in Automobilista 2 is more realistic then. It's still hard to drive, but it has way more grip and is more controllable.
I have watched most of the Esports stuff over the last few weeks.My observations:
Indycar
For me the Indycar on Iracing is the closest you can get in terms of a real Indycar broadcast on tv.The entire thing,with nearly all the current drivers with 2020 colour schemes,the commentary team & the replays.They really need to capitalize on this with maybe a few official races in the very long (September-March)Indycar off season to attract younger gamer fans.
Nascar
Fox & Iracing do a good job overall with a fun approach to this broadcast.Including Jeff Gordon & Dale Jr is great & I thought the Talladega race was more enjoyable than the real thing because you could LOL at the bad crashes instead of waiting to see if the driver is ok.Just before this I completed a race at Talladega on Iracing & gotta say the pro race drivers have much better awareness of other drivers & they didnt have the random idiot that ruins everyone elses race that you have in Iracing.What is worrying is that so few people were following real Nascar race drivers on Twitch.Lando Norris has 18000 watching his streams.Denny Hamlin had about 500.If young people are not watching now they wont be watching when they are 40.
The RACE/RFactor All Stars
The commentary team is good on this & the lineup in The Legends race of Button,Franchiti,Montoya etc is very good.Combining very good Sim racers with real life drivers works well.Where this broadcast is let down is the car choices.The Legends cars are ok but F4 Tatuus & LMP3 cars are not familiar cars to racing or even sim fans.The Nurburgring looked great but some of the other RF2 tracks look pretty low grade & dated & the tv broadcast pictures can look a bit cartoon like at times.
GTWORLD/ACC
I did not see much of this but it looked good,good pro drivers & I guess the broadcast replays etc. will improve a lot faster with this series happening right now.
F1
Personally F1 in sim racing just does not work for me.The high levels of grip make for spread out races & it ends up looking unrealistic despite having a lot of the young drivers like Leclerc,Albon & Russell.
Nurburgring 24hrs/Iracing
There were various streams available for this with Jimmie Broadbent way ahead in terms of viewers.The ability to talk & race & be entertaining is underrated.Iracing also had an official stream with John Hindhaugh & his regular Radio Le Mans crew doing their usual thing.There were also plenty of real pro race drivers taking part.
Team Redline Real Racers Never Quit Series.(Iracing)
Very good commentary including Karun Chandok.This series has some very good realistic racing from real life racers who are also good at Iracing.Max Verstappen,Norris,Kelvin Van de Linde,Phillip Eng.The car selection is good with GTE,F3,Supercar V8s.
After Covid hopefully disappears I doubt I will watch much of this sim racing content.There simply is not the space in the market for it to become significant.By the time you sim race yourself & watch some real racing there is not enough time!However all the sim titles will improve with the massive increase in sales & subscriptions.The tv broadcasts improve every week.Hopefully the Pro sim racers will also benefit because they have been in the shadow of all the real life drivers jumping into their domain & hogging the limelight.
Indycar
For me the Indycar on Iracing is the closest you can get in terms of a real Indycar broadcast on tv.The entire thing,with nearly all the current drivers with 2020 colour schemes,the commentary team & the replays.They really need to capitalize on this with maybe a few official races in the very long (September-March)Indycar off season to attract younger gamer fans.
Nascar
Fox & Iracing do a good job overall with a fun approach to this broadcast.Including Jeff Gordon & Dale Jr is great & I thought the Talladega race was more enjoyable than the real thing because you could LOL at the bad crashes instead of waiting to see if the driver is ok.Just before this I completed a race at Talladega on Iracing & gotta say the pro race drivers have much better awareness of other drivers & they didnt have the random idiot that ruins everyone elses race that you have in Iracing.What is worrying is that so few people were following real Nascar race drivers on Twitch.Lando Norris has 18000 watching his streams.Denny Hamlin had about 500.If young people are not watching now they wont be watching when they are 40.
The RACE/RFactor All Stars
The commentary team is good on this & the lineup in The Legends race of Button,Franchiti,Montoya etc is very good.Combining very good Sim racers with real life drivers works well.Where this broadcast is let down is the car choices.The Legends cars are ok but F4 Tatuus & LMP3 cars are not familiar cars to racing or even sim fans.The Nurburgring looked great but some of the other RF2 tracks look pretty low grade & dated & the tv broadcast pictures can look a bit cartoon like at times.
GTWORLD/ACC
I did not see much of this but it looked good,good pro drivers & I guess the broadcast replays etc. will improve a lot faster with this series happening right now.
F1
Personally F1 in sim racing just does not work for me.The high levels of grip make for spread out races & it ends up looking unrealistic despite having a lot of the young drivers like Leclerc,Albon & Russell.
Nurburgring 24hrs/Iracing
There were various streams available for this with Jimmie Broadbent way ahead in terms of viewers.The ability to talk & race & be entertaining is underrated.Iracing also had an official stream with John Hindhaugh & his regular Radio Le Mans crew doing their usual thing.There were also plenty of real pro race drivers taking part.
Team Redline Real Racers Never Quit Series.(Iracing)
Very good commentary including Karun Chandok.This series has some very good realistic racing from real life racers who are also good at Iracing.Max Verstappen,Norris,Kelvin Van de Linde,Phillip Eng.The car selection is good with GTE,F3,Supercar V8s.
After Covid hopefully disappears I doubt I will watch much of this sim racing content.There simply is not the space in the market for it to become significant.By the time you sim race yourself & watch some real racing there is not enough time!However all the sim titles will improve with the massive increase in sales & subscriptions.The tv broadcasts improve every week.Hopefully the Pro sim racers will also benefit because they have been in the shadow of all the real life drivers jumping into their domain & hogging the limelight.
Lorenzo Bonder
Wah wah.
@Paul Jeffrey
Just saying, and just saying because this weekend was clunkered with stuff, so not your fault:
You forgot to mention the DTM-ISH series, where DTM drivers like Gary Paffett, René Rast and others (incluiding some RL drivers as guests) took part of (English commentary is below, if you open Racespot page on YT there's a German version of this broadcast as well):
and most importantly, iRacing had the Nürburgring 24h, where John Hindhaugh and the rest of the Radio Show Limited crew broadcasted with me and the Racespot boys the first 6 and final 6 hours, where Racespot (I commentated hour 6-12) commentated the night and morning portion of the race.
Just saying, and just saying because this weekend was clunkered with stuff, so not your fault
:You forgot to mention the DTM-ISH series, where DTM drivers like Gary Paffett, René Rast and others (incluiding some RL drivers as guests) took part of (English commentary is below, if you open Racespot page on YT there's a German version of this broadcast as well):
and most importantly, iRacing had the Nürburgring 24h, where John Hindhaugh and the rest of the Radio Show Limited crew broadcasted with me and the Racespot boys the first 6 and final 6 hours, where Racespot (I commentated hour 6-12) commentated the night and morning portion of the race.
There is also the Subaru iRX All star invitational on iRacing all pro lineup from across the racing world that runs on Fridays.
Subaru iRX All-Star Invitational presented by Yokohama to Launch Friday - iRacing.com
Six-race series to feature world-class racers battling for $10,000 purse for charity Starting on Friday, April 10, the world’s top rallycross drivers and a host of crossover all-stars from NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA, and more will do battle on iRacing in the Subaru iRX All-Star Invitational presented...
www.iracing.com
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and that DTM event is especially poignant as DTM basically folded today: Audi walked out and so only BMW is left ...
