iRacing | 2019 Content and Features Review Video

[Paul Jeffrey]

iRacing recently released a rather cool video - looking back on the many achievements by the simulation over the course of the last 12 months.

Reviewing in video form the changes within iRacing that have happened since last December, the American racing simulation has certainly undergone some significant development this past year - adding many new features and pieces of content as they bid to grow and advance within the sim racing genre.

Literally too many changes and content releases have occurred since December 2018 to write down here in list form, but I'm sure many of you will agree that the improvement to weather and time of day changes have been welcomed, as has the addition of AI and a brand new damage model... but to get the full flavour of the changes, check out this awesome new video from the developers:

Got questions about the sim? Ask our community and start a thread at the RaceDepartment iRacing sub forum!

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Cool video. Did I buy all the new stuff? Nope, just Barcelona, I think. But still a great year for everyone subscribing, the players online numbers really show the developers and marketers did a lot right, atm there are always about 30% more players shown than the years before. I suppose most of those are playing the AI, here's hoping for a trickle down effect onto the classic online servers.
My personal iRacing wishlist for 2020: one more German track and a NASCAR oval series in AI.

 

[Enagee]

As long as its the same for everyone else deal with it I say. It's great you can try it for £5.00..really that money won't buy a pack of cigarettes that will last a couple of days and still kill you. The price point has been mentioned a million times. I don't like it but it is what it is.

If people like Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, Nicki Thiim, and many other real live drivers can live with the graphics then maybe your missing the point... Iracing usp is organised online racing to the highest level. Graphics and FFB might not be the best but its the same for everyone.
Iracing continues to improve and its going to be a hard task for any dev to take their place in online racing.

For me it's the most stable sim I have for VR. I personally like the tyre model... After 4 laps lol

 

[BrunoBæ]

The overall experience is more than having races against real people available every half hour. However a couple of the better racers in the Discord group I've been learning from raced 6 races in the morning yesterday. They posted their results that varied by who they were pitted against in each race. Another took a snapshot of his race that included Dale Earnheardt Jr

At least we can agree that iRacing to the contrary of all other racing games come close to RL racing events "pittalk ambience".
As example before a race there is friendly messages between drivers while some drivers test setups options and stuff.
And after a race there is often/or nearly always some talk about what happened while people share setups.

Hehe in as example Raceroom everything closes completely abrubt as soon as you have crossed the finishing line.
Not much socialising posible there.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: The Dale Earnheardt thing would just have given me a good laugh if I still had been a member

 

[Alex72]

I keep being amazed by all the details in iRacing. Cant afford it but all the dirt on window, sparks, flapping fabric etc makes it feel and look more real. Not so synthetic and sterile. Not even mentioning the MP system. Wish more sims had more "grit" effects to them like iRacing.

 

[A man with a Harmonica]

Those emotional iRacing haters.. just skip it and play something else instead of wining & bullying around every time, every game has its own permission to be on the market. An advantage of iracing is not only the license system but also the four different motorsport genres, including oval racing. iRacing is solid for what it is, a raw competitive racing system with a good service, graphics don‘t have to be shiny for what it is. The new tire model is spot on.

There's the emotional haters team and there's emotional fan boys squad which get offended as their mothers were part of the software staff.

I don't know yet which group is more irritating. And it's not only about Iracing but for all games.

But I'm sure the fan boys squad makes more damage because they pretend there's no issues with the the software which produces a false impression to the developers.

Quick example although being off topic is the new rF2 UI that takes 2 years and it's a catastrophic fail, if you point the obvious flaws and the wrong SW management you're invited by the FBS to play something else even you're paying for the SW and for DLCs.

The inconvenient true is the racing simulators developers are, in general, amateurs at a number of SW developments aspects with few exceptions.

We need a professional team like Microsoft organised for Flight Simulator 2020 to create a basis benchmark. All racing sims have terrible SW development flaws nowadays.

 

[Fucitol]

Just one track guys, just a single track in a whole damn year.. The rest is just polish of very (very!) old content. Tsukuba was released in 2018 so including that in this video shows that they haven't done a lot of work the past year..

Still agree that it's great in VR and online, but please look at other developers as this amount of content is even less than what Kunos and Studio 397 did in a few patches being a very small studio that get most of their funds from small DLC items. Compare the ancient Nordschleife in iRacing (€30 for the endurance layout) to the epic rf2 edition (€12!) and you know that iRacing isn't spending its money correctly.

I only pay for endurance team racing and that's worth it for me, but I can understand the frustration I and other people have with the developers. And of course I'm ignoring all the off-road oval stuff as it seems that that has participation for a single season after which those series go somewhat extinct. Also, as the special events calendar for 2020 is complete rubbish I'm not sure if I'll renew for 2021 unless they pick up this element of iRacing.

 

[RCHeliguy]

FYI, This is the VRS data after my practice this morning. I'm still 3.1 sec off their known good driver for the test conditions at Donington in the BMW M8 GTE. I'm still not smooth enough with my braking and throttle, but my line is getting a lot closer to theirs.

I can brake down the sections of the track and watch video comparing my inputs to his.

BTW taking this shot required dropping the screen brightness to min and contrast to 35% and then excluding the screen and pulling from the shadows and color correcting the rest of the image in post.

Edit: just realized what I was doing wrong looking at my telemetry again. I wasn't getting completely off the throttle in my turns slowing the rotation and then carrying too much speed and having to get off the throttle to complete the turn when I should be at full throttle! I bet I can get another second off my lap time! Doh!

 

[BrunoBæ]

@RC
Looking good.
Specially the massive farting blower(?) behind the seat.
Does it help on the odeur when exitement raises?

 

[RCHeliguy]

@RC
Looking good.
Specially the massive farting blower(?) behind the seat.
Does it help on the odeur when exitement raises?

That is a transducer. There is one on each side of the pedal deck and another on the wheel support.

The best use for them is wheel slip. I can feel when the front wheels or rear wheels are starting to slip because of this. It works well working with FFB from the steering wheel. However the seat transducer also gives me a thunk with each gear shift and track bumps like when I go over a rumble strip, and a nice lumpy idle, etc..

 

[Cote Dazur]

I don't get the sim racing Gestapo

I agree, me neither, if you express reservation or disappointment then some people feel personally attacked. Some will even question why you come to a particular thread and criticize, as if a rule existed saying you have to like this title to write here.

. Now granted I have a motion, tactile and high end controls and play in VR, but the MX-5 feels like a small car that slides easily, the BMW M8 GTE feels heavy powerful and planted The Porsche 911 991 cup car feels in between, in weight and power. It distinctly feels like a rear engined car it terms of how easy it is to rotate the tail.

I like your post as it might remind every one that what hardware you are driving (playing) with has a big influence on what the software will feel like for you. When I added tactile to my set up, it changed the opinion I had on some FFB title. Without tactile I depended 100% on my wheel to tell me about road vibration, with tactile, all I want are traces of vibrations in the wheel and the tactile now communicate that to me. I would not be surprised if IRacing takes full advantage of rig with full set up, as the people driving IRacing might be more prone to spend money on their hobby. The polar opposite situation would be a console base like GT sport where a majority drive from a couch using a controller.

 

[BrunoBæ]

That is a transducer. There is one on each side of the pedal deck and another on the wheel support.

Okok. So its not because some exhaust issues when the exitement goes up?

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Where have you got the 4 snap-on wheels that can raise the frame for transport? A link maybe

 

[RCHeliguy]

Okok. So its not because some exhaust issues when the exitement goes up?

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Where have you got the 4 snap-on wheels that can raise the frame for transport? A link maybe

There is a link to the retractable casters with additional pictures and information on the modifications I made to them in my build thread.

Mobile Driving/Flying Cockpit with Motion and Tactile ( Build )

Table of Contents: https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/mobile-driving-flying-cockpit-with-motion-and-tactile-build.165289/post-3489238 It was suggested that I created a dedicated thread for this build so it wouldn't be buried in another thread and because it might be of use to others. I had...

www.racedepartment.com

 

[Turn1Hero]

i actually prefer Iracing graphics to any other sim, they look natural and realistic. I don’t know wether it’s the colour pallet or what but with the dynamic sky it looks very real to me.
ACC is undeniably beautiful but it looks over saturated to me and It looks like a computer game albeit an absolutely gorgeous one!

It also helps that Iracing graphics look great in VR and aren’t demanding for VR or triples.
For me, Iracing in VR is the best experience in all of simracing right now.

 

[Wil.]

There's the emotional haters team and there's emotional fan boys squad which get offended as their mothers were part of the software staff.

I don't know yet which group is more irritating. And it's not only about Iracing but for all games.

But I'm sure the fan boys squad makes more damage because they pretend there's no issues with the the software which produces a false impression to the developers.

Quick example although being off topic is the new rF2 UI that takes 2 years and it's a catastrophic fail, if you point the obvious flaws and the wrong SW management you're invited by the FBS to play something else even you're paying for the SW and for DLCs.

The inconvenient true is the racing simulators developers are, in general, amateurs at a number of SW developments aspects with few exceptions.

We need a professional team like Microsoft organised for Flight Simulator 2020 to create a basis benchmark. All racing sims have terrible SW development flaws nowadays.

Agree, but the actual problem is that both haters and fanboys acting emotional, which on both sides isn‘t a good indicator for the actual quality of a game/sim. Its always pro and cons, but fun is an emotion and thats what keeps us playing, boredom/anger/frustration instead keeps us away. the challenge is to get to the rational reasons behind it and dont be on a black/white scale. For me its just frustrating to see someone blackpainting sth (in this case iRacing, which has its own pro & cons), maybe destroying the potential of fun of somebody else.

 

[Deleted member 205301]

i actually prefer Iracing graphics to any other sim, they look natural and realistic. I don’t know wether it’s the colour pallet or what but with the dynamic sky it looks very real to me.

Agree on that point.
ACC is very nice, looks great, but, maybe it's cause of my equipment (i7, GTX1070, 16GB...Win7), but in "mouvement" (sorry, bad english) it comes to be a bit blurry...i don't have that on IR (or RF2), graphics are maybe a bit "old" (To be honest, I don't really care about that, i'm 39, started simracing with horribles graphics, and everything since rF1 seems to me beautifull^^), but it's the more "precise" (or accurate) I see on my screen (don't use VR)...as you said, some other titles (ACC is good example) looks more like a video game (but I won't bash it, it's nice, and after the last patch, it's much better, I can say it's a good sim, not my favs, but a good one)
The only thing still struggling is the Tyre Model on IR : I really like it, and for my opinion, it's the best I know (maybe just a personnal taste), but, I'm going crazy with t° and tyre pressure, wich are still wrong (I mean, ok, I deal with, they are wrong, but when you know it, you act like they were ok), i'm still surprised that after so many years (they implemented the first NTM in 2011 or 2012) they are still struggling with that...
@++

 

[Jonny Austin]

There's the emotional haters team and there's emotional fan boys squad which get offended as their mothers were part of the software staff.

I don't know yet which group is more irritating. And it's not only about Iracing but for all games.

But I'm sure the fan boys squad makes more damage because they pretend there's no issues with the the software which produces a false impression to the developers.

Quick example although being off topic is the new rF2 UI that takes 2 years and it's a catastrophic fail, if you point the obvious flaws and the wrong SW management you're invited by the FBS to play something else even you're paying for the SW and for DLCs.

The inconvenient true is the racing simulators developers are, in general, amateurs at a number of SW developments aspects with few exceptions.

We need a professional team like Microsoft organised for Flight Simulator 2020 to create a basis benchmark. All racing sims have terrible SW development flaws nowadays.

I think people invest their money in their favourite sim titles & then become tribal about it for some reason.Iracing cops a lot of flak due to the pricing.There are a heck of a lot of racing/car guys that have graduated from titles like Forza & GT that are completists.They have to finish the career & have to have all the tracks,cars & all the DLC.They look at Iracing & know its going to cost 1000s.You will always spend more than you think as well.I just renewed for £80 for a year so it is pretty good value for me.

I would agree with the other comments about the latest tire model.The Mazda MX5 is terrible & feels more like a Austin Healey 3000 on cross ply tyres.The Porsche Cup car feels great so I think they will make some changes to the Mazda.

 

[RCHeliguy]

moved

 

[Andrea9805]

I subscribed about two weeks ago, I'm having great fun at the moment

 

[RCHeliguy]

New Damage model in action!

 

[adriel]

such a shame Iracing is so prohibitively expensive for anyone not living in the civilization...