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!

 

[avenger82]

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.

But there are also people who are very interested in things like issues with the tire model. Some like NTM7 changes and some don't. I just wanted to point that one's feeling is not valid argument that tires are now "spot on" or not. Even if he raced IRL. Again if he raced in the same car, similar tires, similar track conditions then that's different story. That's why I still think it made sense to ask whether it was at least in the same car.

 

[RCHeliguy]

One's feeling is perfectly valid to that person.

I think it feels great, whether I have an accurate reference point is pretty moot since I'll never race a car in real life. I have a great sense of what the tires are doing, that's all that matters to me.

Everything else is just bickering because you obviously can never make everyone happy.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

a few people who want to try to somehow piss in the Wheaties of the people who are enjoying [them]

quote of the day, including image of the day, good shot

 

[Ricardo Rey]

Various quotes:
“People seems not to see that their opinion of the world is a also a confession of their character.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I didn't mean to push ALL your buttons. I was only trying to find the mute" - Unknown & Ricardo Rey

"I heard you. I was just not listening" - Unknown & Ricardo Rey

 

[Deleted member 205301]

Just pick a sim, and have fun!

Amen
....
...maybe bashing is a way to have fun for some people^^ (don't ask me why, people are strange sometimes)
@++

 

[MarcG]

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!

That's the RD forums all over, people arguing for the sake of it and usually without any practical or common knowledge of any kind!

I enjoy each sim for what it offers me, therefore i enjoy them all.

 

[BrunoBæ]

It is quite entertaining to see people unable to use plain arguments in discussions instead turning to criticise other peoples motives behind postings in discussions.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Its pretty rare to see the same people criticise the motives behind postings agreeing with their own oppinions.

 

[Kurupt CDN]

That's the RD forums all over, people arguing for the sake of it and usually without any practical or common knowledge of any kind!

I enjoy each sim for what it offers me, therefore i enjoy them all.

My favorite, most under rated feature in iracing......the private members forms.
For the most part, you can enjoy a thread with like minded people.

 

[Juliusz Baczynski]

the thing that made most happy was that they added motion blur to the sim and created this broad cast feel expereince you get from tv, proud to say I was then on coming up with the idea on the suggetions in the forums. it transformed the sim from looking like something made in the 2000s to a triple a title today. That could possibly help the marketing of this sim appeal to a graphics savvy audience that also like simracing!

 

[Patrik Marek]

those trophy trucks look like fun

 

[avenger82]

One's feeling is perfectly valid to that person.

I think it feels great, whether I have an accurate reference point is pretty moot since I'll never race a car in real life. I have a great sense of what the tires are doing, that's all that matters to me.

Everything else is just bickering because you obviously can never make everyone happy.

Never say never. Trackday, hiring racecar for few laps, is not totally out of reach for most. It’s good to have RL perspective.

I’ll be happy when Nicki Thiim and other pro drivers say that tires in iRacing are realistic. Because that’s the only thing missing in iRacing for me regarding physics. I get it’s not deal breaker for most people, but for me physics are important in a sim. But of course I get that people usually have more fun in Forza or GT. I used to play GT5,GT6 on PS3 a lot, before moving to “hardcore” sims like rF2, AC, AMS or iRacing.
I agree with what someone said we live in golden age of sims, have a lot options to chose from and don’t have to limit to just one sim.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Never say never. Trackday, hiring racecar for few laps, is not totally out of reach for most. It’s good to have RL perspective.

You are probably right about most people here, but I started from ground zero this summer when I started in iRacing. I've never watched more than a few minutes of any race on TV. When I got my SC 2 Pro and someone told me I needed to drive the Ring with it. I had no idea what he was talking about.

Every week when there is a new track in iRacing, I have zero reference point. I've never heard of the tracks or seen them in person or on TV that I was aware of. It's all new to me and my sim rig is as far as I want to go with this.

 

[Motowntom]

As far as how the tires and cars feel, I was blown away by them. 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.

The physics feel amazingly realistic. Balancing your trail braking and application of power feels great! The sense of speed, and everything else feels great. I like the new tire model a lot!

I don't know how much of this is my SC2 Pro or having a great tactile feel in my pedal deck and seat when the front or rear wheels start to slip, or how I can run 120 fps in VR, or the motion queues, but I suspect it is the combination of everything.

I'm loving VRS (Virtual Racing School). Having someone walk you through a track turn by turn with video and then being able to test drive against identical track conditions to see how close you can get to a top driver and compare your telemetry values to see frame by frame where your biggest areas to improve are is helping me learn to drive faster. It's like having a coach.

Now I'm learning about car setup and once again VRS supplies known good setups for specific tracks that you can use to learn how to tweak things starting from known good setups and see how the setups are changing from track to track.

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

Personally I think the graphics look great in VR. I've never played it on a screen.

iRacing has a lot of strengths that work together to make it a lot of fun.

So how do like working for iRacing?

 

[RCHeliguy]

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

So how do like working for iRacing?

Pretty snarky remark.

 

[Kurupt CDN]

iRacing 2019 Year in Review:

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

splendid entertainment, saw this on iRacing and thought it was the OP video, lol.

 

[RCHeliguy]

splendid entertainment, saw this on iRacing and thought it was the OP video, lol.

Yeah, none of that looked fun

 

[whaletail]

But how long do they need to make the improvements? They’ve already had close to 12 years and they’re still making basic changes to fundamental parts of the sim. You get the impression that it’s only only innovation by other devs which is highlighting shortcomings in the basic sim and forcing their hand. People who have have defended the iRacing tyre model for years are suddenly realising that the new one is significantly better. They have a huge budget compared to some other devs but don’t seem to use it to significantly improve the experience. I don’t doubt that iRacing’s multiplayer is the best currently available, but if it wasn’t for this, and if they had to rely on the appearance and fidelity of the sim, I’m convinced that they wouldn’t have nearly as many users. 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).

For anyone privy to Dave K.'s forum and blog posts, the idea that iRacing's developers are in it for the money is laughable. When he describes building the tire model from first principles, and the various inherent trials and tribulations, his enthusiasm is palpable, and David Tucker's FFB posts suggest a similar passion. As do Aussie Greg's audio threads.

Unfortunately, however, as long as the forums are behind a paywall, the larger sim racing community will never really know that.

 

[whaletail]

You are probably right about most people here, but I started from ground zero this summer when I started in iRacing. I've never watched more than a few minutes of any race on TV. When I got my SC 2 Pro and someone told me I needed to drive the Ring with it. I had no idea what he was talking about.

Every week when there is a new track in iRacing, I have zero reference point. I've never heard of the tracks or seen them in person or on TV that I was aware of. It's all new to me and my sim rig is as far as I want to go with this.

If you're already within 3s of the VRS data pack laps as a new member, especially with zero prior sim racing experience, you're definitely doing something right.

What series are you racing?

 

[RCHeliguy]

If you're already within 3s of the VRS data pack laps as a new member, especially with zero prior sim racing experience, you're definitely doing something right.

What series are you racing?

M8 12.0