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!

 

[BrunoBæ]

I'm not an industry expert....
() But then again, I have never had a look at any of these companies' numbers, so all this is guesswork.

Reasonable concession.
My personal guess is that iRacings economy is probably better than than they want members to think.
Its correct that there are bigger gaming companies out there - but it is also correct that iRacing by being the FIRST racing sim company creating a complete 24/7 multiplayer platform - has established a kind of "monopoly" no company from the opposition will (probably) ever come near.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Its allways good for a company depending on users money that the same users believe that
"iRacing needs you".

 

[RCHeliguy]

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Its allways good for a company depending on users money that the same users believe that
"iRacing needs you".

You are really reaching to find things to complain about, aren't you?

I've never seen any literature suggesting that they "need" me.
The only thing they have done is incentivize participation in their racing series.
So if you take part in enough races in a series, you will earn credit towards content or renewal.

They don't bombard me with email either.

on 8/16/19, I got a "Welcome to iRacing"
on 9/4/19, I got an iRacing Community email letting me know the various places I could visit for iRacing related information.
on 10/10/19 they sent an announcement about an NBC Sports Network live event.
on 11/1/19 they sent a survey and a reminder on 11/5/19
on 11/14/19 they had a Black Friday Sale announcement and they did send two of those, just before it started and on the last day and another on 12/4/19
on 12/9/19 They sent a "Welcome to iRacing 2020 Season 1"
on 12/16/19 They sent a "Holiday gift ideas" email with iRacing swag that their partners sell.

That's really not a lot of email

 

[avenger82]

This just goes to prove that there is no pleasing some people who are just out to argue something for the sake of just being right. I would guess that it wouldn't matter if any professional racer said their tire model worked great for a car that they regularly raced. You would say either he was paid for that opinion or that it was great for that one car and proved nothing for any other car.

LOL It’s funny that you presume what I’d say. So it’s fair that I presume you’re iRacing fanboy, who will defend NTM is realistic no matter what evidence there’s on contrary?
Haven’t I asked did he drive same cars? He only said he raced few times on Nords, but To say tires are realistic you would have to drive same car on the limit. also with same compound and similar track conditions. If I’m not mistaken iRacing simulates only one compound per car. There are other variables, but the above are most important.
Actually I’d like to get I.e. Nicki Thiim’s opinions after he drives a car with NTM7 which he also raced IRL. He was very critical about previous tires so
it’d be interesting.
NTM7 fixes some of the issues, but probably tires are still way off at least in some cars. But I haven’t seen hard evidence if new tires behave more realistic at and over the limit and I doubt there is such. I no longer have access to iRacing forums, but perhaps you found pro drivers say that the new tires now behave like the same compound IRL?

 

[RCHeliguy]

LOL It’s funny that you presume what I’d say. So it’s fair that I presume you’re iRacing fanboy, who will defend NTM is realistic no matter what evidence there’s on contrary?

Not at all. I have no idea what the real thing feels like, but everyone gets the same tire model in a race so the playing field is even.

It feels fine to me, but that's as much as I have to say about it.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

… CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Its allways good for a company depending on users money that the same users believe that
"iRacing needs you".

lol, yes, a sentiment i never understood. if, for example, i buy into the acc early access, which i happily did on day one, i do it to gain early access, not because i want to "support" them. it's part of their business model, no frills attached.

 

[mozzie]

LOL It’s funny that you presume what I’d say. So it’s fair that I presume you’re iRacing fanboy, who will defend NTM is realistic no matter what evidence there’s on contrary?
Haven’t I asked did he drive same cars? He only said he raced few times on Nords, but To say tires are realistic you would have to drive same car on the limit. also with same compound and similar track conditions. If I’m not mistaken iRacing simulates only one compound per car. There are other variables, but the above are most important.
Actually I’d like to get I.e. Nicki Thiim’s opinions after he drives a car with NTM7 which he also raced IRL. He was very critical about previous tires so
it’d be interesting.
NTM7 fixes some of the issues, but probably tires are still way off at least in some cars. But I haven’t seen hard evidence if new tires behave more realistic at and over the limit and I doubt there is such. I no longer have access to iRacing forums, but perhaps you found pro drivers say that the new tires now behave like the same compound IRL?

Scott Mansell, (the guy that has the Driver61 YouTube channel), is a pro driver and instructor and commented in one of his latest videos that he thought the v7 tyres were realistic on the Mazda.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Scott Mansell, (the guy that has the Driver61 YouTube channel), is a pro driver and instructor and commented in one of his latest videos that he thought the v7 tyres were realistic on the Mazda.

If you use some time you can find several RL drivers who a few years back said that iracings NTMv6 was veeery realistic.
And the same goes for NTMv5 and ealier incarnations of mistar Kaemmers proud tire inventions.

 

[Deleted member 205301]

haha, now dave is munchausen 'baron ? fair^^

 

[Kurupt CDN]

As long as they have the market cornered with multiplayer, there’s no real incentive for them to make any major changes to the basic sim and the impression you get is that it’s more about the money now than the passion for racing (for them, not their subscribers).

Just curious and have to ask, not trying to start an argument and as I ended my last post....play what you enjoy!

Did you read the opening of my post or just lock in on the ffb part?

8yr member that didn't really care for the title but resubbed due to all the latest improvements and features they have added with more to come...Xauido2, weather..etc. etc and implementing the current new features to all content.

Asides from a new flash graphics engine and a tire model approved by the nay Sayers....what are you looking for and how can you say they have made no major changes to the base sim or passion for racing after they post a video showing what they did in 2019 ?
If it was just about money they would only be releasing content with no improvements to the engine.

Yes, multiplayer is the bread and butter, but for my first 7 yrs I found the cost just for mp and lack of content/features hard to swallow and honestly not worth it. With all the latest stuff I can fully justify the cost knowing they are continuing development of the title.

If it was as bad as some make it out to be and they didn't make any improvements to the title I don't think people would continue paying the high price for just mp.

Just my .02......it's a game

 

[avenger82]

Scott Mansell, (the guy that has the Driver61 YouTube channel), is a pro driver and instructor and commented in one of his latest videos that he thought the v7 tyres were realistic on the Mazda.

I know he is racing driver, but did he race in the Mazda IRL?

 

[RCHeliguy]

Just finished a heck of a race, at least for me. I only finished 7th, but I qualified P11 and had to work my way up. I was at P6 for a little while near the end of the race, but I broke concentration.

That was a hell of a lot of fun!

What the hell are you guys bickering about ?!? This is so much freaking fun!

 

[Kurupt CDN]

I know he is racing driver, but did he race in the Mazda IRL?

There is no sim that perfectly replicates a tire model ask any pro driver that races sims....there games that attempts to simulate a driving experience based off data provided by teams they work with many RL factors being left out the equation.
To me saying it's realistic in a game is about the same as saying it's believable

My question to you....have you driven all these cars in RL in the same conditions/tire compound/track with provided data to prove its all completely wrong and put an end to this?
Even if you do, go back to the top of my response and read.

Iracing is not perfect and either is any other title, from my little experience with track days and karting. Iracing gives me enough detail needed to get around a sim track and the model reacts in a semi realistic Manor.

It's a game
If I am in search of ultra realism...I don't jump into my sim rig....I jump in my vehicle and drive to my local karting track or book a track day

 

[Wil.]

I know he is racing driver, but did he race in the Mazda IRL?

Youre getting repetitive. By reading your argumentations, I have to reply to you again. Driving your point to an extreme means a sim could never prove its actual realism because its simply impossible to drive the same car under the exact same track conditions, same weather conditions and particularly the same personal conditions (e.g. form of the day) in virtual and real life.

Let me put it this way, testing is always a manner of trying to get to the true value as close as possible. There always will be a value error, so me saying sth. is „spot on“ means, that my senses gave me a feedback in that particular moment that sth. felt quite close to sth. I experienced already in reality. So I can only say that my experience gave me the needed impression to call sth. - in thise case the new tire model - realistic, but how could anyone with final certainty say that it actually is? (Especially for what it seems to me you are searching here, proving if a sim is 100% the same as „IRL“.) Test theoretically spoken thats simply impossible. So thats why youre confusing me a bit - I get your point but at the same time I don‘t get it.

 

[Ricardo Rey]

I started with a PC in the early days with 4 color graphics, a joy stick and a few setup options. I have no complaints about what it looks & feels like today. I won't experience the feeling that I might get hurt, no matter how "perfect" a sim is...so I choose to enjoy and have fun...

 

[Jason Mullin]

Really enjoying IMSA in the Ferrari. iRacing is slowly getting a foothold with me as I find myself driving it more and more.

 

[Mike McCormick]

Hey BrunoB since you dislike iRacing so much why do you spend so much time here? If there was a game I didn't like I sure wouldn't visit the forum about it as much as you visit this forum. I probably wouldn't visit it at all. I have better things to do with my time.

Just curious as it seems rather odd to me. I for one would spend my time on the sim's forum I like, not the one I don't.

BTW I have been a member of iRacing since the fall of 2010 and visit their forums a lot and I have never heard anyone say it was the perfect sim as most realize it will never be finished and there is still work to be done improving it. It has improved a lot since 2010, including the tire model.

 

[BrunoBæ]

@McCormick
Sounds like its you that have a problem.
Because its obvious that you completely confuse being "critical" with to "dislike".
So what you would do if you "disliked" something - yes quite honestly I couldnt care less.
And your advice to me in that area I consider as just a joke.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: I have been an iRacing member for 5+ years - but at the moment its Raceroom that is my prefered racing game. Hehe and you can find some other of my often critical posts in this other forum too.

 

[avenger82]

Youre getting repetitive. By reading your argumentations, I have to reply to you again. Driving your point to an extreme means a sim could never prove its actual realism because its simply impossible to drive the same car under the exact same track conditions, same weather conditions and particularly the same personal conditions (e.g. form of the day) in virtual and real life.

Let me put it this way, testing is always a manner of trying to get to the true value as close as possible. There always will be a value error, so me saying sth. is „spot on“ means, that my senses gave me a feedback in that particular moment that sth. felt quite close to sth. I experienced already in reality. So I can only say that my experience gave me the needed impression to call sth. - in thise case the new tire model - realistic, but how could anyone with final certainty say that it actually is? (Especially for what it seems to me you are searching here, proving if a sim is 100% the same as „IRL“.) Test theoretically spoken thats simply impossible. So thats why youre confusing me a bit - I get your point but at the same time I don‘t get it.

I'm repetitive because people keep giving same arguments... basically someone raced IRL so he knows tires in iRacing are realistic...
You simply can't say you feel tires are realistic when you've drove different car. Have you raced with street tires or soft slicks or something intermediate? Which compound iRacing simulates in the car? Was car setup similar (yes it matters)? Have you drove at and over the limit or you're impressions are based on under the limit behavior?
These are essential factors/variables IMO. Even same compound(i.e. soft slicks) provided by two manufacturers behaves differently, to the point lap times differ by few seconds. For instance David Perel said with Pirelli(IIRC) tires he slides much more.
You probably know Nicki Thiim always complains about iRacing tires, says the're really bad i.e. with Porsche GT3 Cup compared them to racing with wets on dry tarmac.

because its simply impossible to drive the same car under the exact same track conditions, same weather conditions and particularly the same personal conditions (e.g. form of the day) in virtual and real life.

Keeping it Real – Our Visit to Duqueine Engineering – Studio-397

www.studio-397.com

That was pretty close. Admittedly that was rather exception from the rule (usually devs just get data from manufacturer/teams, without such validation).

I think rFactor 2 TM is based this: ( but I'm not sure):

https://www.surrey.ac.uk/mes/files/tyre2015/TP1.1_TAMETIRE%E2%80%99S%20TESTING%20PROCEDURE%20OUTSIDE%20MICHELIN_Grob.pdf

so me saying sth. is „spot on“ means, that my senses gave me a feedback in that particular moment that sth. felt quite close to sth. I experienced already in reality. So I can only say that my experience gave me the needed impression to call sth. - in thise case the new tire model - realistic

I get you're impressions are that they feel realistic, and are similar to what you remember, but the problem is three different racing drivers can have different impressions about the same car/mod even if they all drove it IRL. It's quite common. As I said there are many variables.
There are objective ways to verify tires:

http://www.sim-racing.co.uk/pdf/Tires-in-race-simulations.pdf

Although it's quite hard because as you see the machines can still give different results. You'd probably need to crosscheck results with real telemetry and drivers feedback(keeping in mind it's subjective).

So of course it's not possible to be 100% accurate, and it's hard, but there are ways to be pretty close.
But stand by the claim that, when someone says tires in a sim is accurate because he has real life racing experience in different car with different tires is not good argument IMO. That's why I keep asking if at least it was in the same car.

 

[RCHeliguy]

So the bottom line is that we have piles of vocal people who love and hate how various products feel.
There will never be agreement.

We can all find examples of professional racers who have complaints about or love for a product. There is a whole spectrum. So people can decide to believe whoever matches their feelings on the subject. That's confirmation bias. Everybody does it.

All that aside, I hang out on a Discord forum with a bunch of iRacers, and everyone is talking about track times, their races, car setups, with a bit about rigs and VR here and there. They all seem to be having a lot of fun. There is occasional gnashing of teeth over an incident with another driver and who is to blame, but I hear very little complaints about anything. I've heard a lot of positive comments about the new tire model and how things are improving. The key is that people are enjoying the race experience. They are learning to drive faster, enjoying the competition and having fun!

There are other places where debates go on endlessly and I typically try to avoid them.

So for me this thread has devolved from an announcement of a video showing a lot of cool stuff into a few people who want to try to somehow piss in the Wheaties of the people who are enjoying this sim.

Why?

Just pick a sim, and have fun!

 

[avenger82]

My question to you....have you driven all these cars in RL in the same conditions/tire compound/track with provided data to prove its all completely wrong and put an end to this?
Even if you do, go back to the top of my response and read.

Of course not, but I'm not the one claiming a sim's tires are "spot on". . You can read my previous reply - there were attempts to do just that(compare real vs sim). I think there were such attempts in all major sims (AC, iRacing, rF2, even PC2). And I'm not claiming iRacing is "all completely wrong". Actually I think it's one of the most realistic sims overall, but admittedly I'm a bit more skeptical about their tire model, but it'd be hard to "put an end to this"