iRacing: AI Development Update

[Paul Jeffrey]

Following a community enquiry about the status of AI development in iRacing, RaceDepartment reached out for a comment from those in the know...

Behind the scenes, the new AI code has been in development for the online racing simulation for a couple of years now, in fact I managed to get some seat time with the WIP version of the AI build back at the 2018 Sim Racing Expo, but a little bit of confusion about the current development direction appears to have taken seed within the community in recent days.

Earlier this week I noticed one of our community members mention a curious comment from the iRacing customer services, who noted that AI development within the sim isn't something on the immediate priority plan list. Curious, the community member in question posted a comment asking if anyone knows more about this potential change in development direction by the title.

Having thought about it myself, I noticed we hadn't actually had much in the way of news about the AI for quite a while, which led me to reach out to our friends at iRacing for an update directly from the people behind the sim itself.

Fear not, AI is still very much on the cards for a release "sooner rather than later". What's more, a career mode is also in the works!

"Yes, I can confirm we are definitely on with development of AI for iRacing. In fact we have been for a couple of years" said Executive Director of iRacing, Tony Gardner.​

"We hope to release it sooner rather than later. Although even after we release it, just like everything we will continue to improve it, both the AI itself and the career mode/features around it.

It really just looks look any other iRacing race, if we are doing it correctly that is how it should look. In fact we have put out plenty of videos already using AI, we just didn’t make much of a point that it was AI. For example showing off a new piece of content, like a car or track...." ​

So there you go folks, iRacing will indeed be getting an AI update in the near future... plus a nice and unexpected bonus in the form of some kind of career mode.. rumours be gone!

For more news about iRacing, head over to the iRacing sub forum here at RaceDepartment and get involved with the community today!

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[RCHeliguy]

I was just in a conversation with the guy who just finished 4th in a race where the the top 1-3 spots were held by people with between 1,000 and 2,500 more points than he had. He didn't win that race, but he felt really good because he held on in a very strong field.

Another guy was telling me how he was normally "jacked up (nerves) the first 2-3 laps" before he settled into his race pace.

The last race I just finished started with a bunch of the guys radioing back and forth saying good luck and let's have a clean race.

I've read a bunch of people complaining about iRacing, and I know that races vary but my experience has been very good. I'm in a discord forum with people who are offering help and encouragement. It just seems to me that there is a lot more excitement and the races feel a lot more real than anything I've ever done against an AI.

Rather than having arbitrary AI that you can control to be at your level, this is something very different. I'm currently working on my basic racing skills and I know that for a given track with a given car I need to be able to turn laps consistently at a given pace to be competitive with my competitors in Class D. That's just the way it is. I have very little sim racing experience, this is all new to me and I'm just getting the hang of things. But I'd rather finish at the back of the pack and know what I need to work on to be competitive against real players. It's much more motivating than knowing I need to win a race against dumbed down AI's to get to the next level and then have the AI's run a little faster.

 

[tlsmikey]

I was just in a conversation with the guy who just finished 4th in a race where the the top 1-3 spots were held by people with between 1,000 and 2,500 more points than he had. He didn't win that race, but he felt really good because he held on in a very strong field.

Another guy was telling me how he was normally "jacked up (nerves) the first 2-3 laps" before he settled into his race pace.

The last race I just finished started with a bunch of the guys radioing back and forth saying good luck and let's have a clean race.

I've read a bunch of people complaining about iRacing, and I know that races vary but my experience has been very good. I'm in a discord forum with people who are offering help and encouragement. It just seems to me that there is a lot more excitement and the races feel a lot more real than anything I've ever done against an AI.

Rather than having arbitrary AI that you can control to be at your level, this is something very different. I'm currently working on my basic racing skills and I know that for a given track with a given car I need to be able to turn laps consistently at a given pace to be competitive with my competitors in Class D. That's just the way it is. I have very little sim racing experience, this is all new to me and I'm just getting the hang of things. But I'd rather finish at the back of the pack and know what I need to work on to be competitive against real players. It's much more motivating than knowing I need to win a race against dumbed down AI's to get to the next level and then have the AI's run a little faster.

100% agree. I was one of those guys a couple years ago that only wanted to play against AI and hated multiplayer. Resisted joining iRacing until one day I caved. Some frustration at first when I was learning my craft, but now....oh man, so much fun.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Another guy was telling me how he was normally "jacked up (nerves) the first 2-3 laps" before he settled into his race pace.

The last race I just finished started with a bunch of the guys radioing back and forth saying good luck and let's have a clean race.

I've read a bunch of people complaining about iRacing, and I know that races vary but my experience has been very good. I'm in a discord forum with people who are offering help and encouragement. It just seems to me that there is a lot more excitement and the races feel a lot more real than anything I've ever done against an AI.

From my former membership I can say that I fully agree with you about the common helpfullness inside the forum - hehe and also the excitement before a race.
I have a background from my younger days in FF1600 in RL and the nervosity and excitement before a race in iRacing is quite comparabel to that.
I think it has something to do with the 2x ratings that allways is at stake in iRacing - where it in RL its ones physical safety and the cost of a crashed car that is at stake.

But about the radioing back and forth just before race start I have allways considered it as just as some funny joke.
Because you can often see the same guys wishing good luck and let's have a clean race a few seconds before crashing each others in the first corner - often because they dont want to give space to each other.
So..

 

[Slowdive]

I would have said that (not playing it for the physics) but I must say that since the new tire model is out on some cars I find myself enjoying iracing the most (compared to rfactor 2 and ACC). As the graphics are fine and the sounds are ok-ish, this is my favourite sim right now. I hope the other cars will soon be upgraded to the new tire model. And once AI is there it will be even far better and I'll prefer it even more...

Perhaps they need the AI due to dwindling player numbers. The last time I dipped into iRacing about a year ago, aside from the rookie Miata, rookie stock car, and Skippies, many of the series that I wanted to race would not go official. I fear that having AI as an option might dilute the already meager player base. I'm on the West Coast of the US, so this may not be as much of an issue in Europe or East Coast US. But I'd say 90% of the series they run are just not an option for me.

 

[HAMALO]

i wanna see grahics upgrade with engine 4 and directx 12

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Perhaps they need the AI due to dwindling player numbers.

nope, numbers are solid or even improving a bit, around 4,000 on any night in Europe give or take 1,000 depending on weather or whatever, has been that way for years. The official line is they need the AI for conventions and racetrack presence. I think they are quite big in the oval community in the US and need something the average Joe can test out while the NASCAR race he attends has a break, and seriously, how much fun is cruising on an empty oval track? That seems to be the rationale. However, saying "quite big" is relative, at less than 100,000 regular customers they are tiny compared to Codemasters or EA or even Kunos' AC. That's because they never looked at consoles, I guess.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

But about the radioing back and forth just before race start I have allways considered it as just as some funny joke.

… and I have always considered it waaay too distracting, as in: I am also quite nervous before the start, I don't want some chap babbling on at the back of my mind, there's enough noise there already.

 

[Slowdive]

nope, numbers are solid or even improving a bit, around 4,000 on any night in Europe give or take 1,000 depending on weather or whatever, has been that way for years. The official line is they need the AI for conventions and racetrack presence.

As I said, I'm on the West Coast of the US. I would see plenty of European races go official in most of the series. Here, not so much. The other option I had was Indycar Ovals, but only before 9pm. So for me I just see iRacing as a Skip Barber Simulator(tm). I think the AI would be a benefit if it was used to fill empty races to make them go official.

 

[RCHeliguy]

There were just 120 people registered for the Ferrari 488 GT3 Series for Class D at 12:30PM Eastern (my time )which is still early in Europe. I'm not debating your issue on the West Coast. I work from home and will tend to race in the early afternoon, sometimes morning like today.

Someone just posted this which shows the seasonal average for given time slots every two hours for this particular race. This is GMT, so you can subtract or add to get an idea how much volume is happening around the clock.

This is just for one race series. I'm assuming the proportions are similar for other races.

 

[M D Gourley]

iRacing AI is going to give me the 'Freedom' to race when I want, with whatever Car / Track combo I what, and with limited time to Sim Race, this appeals greatly.

 

[maelstrom]

Just speculating here, but I wonder if the reason the AI has been so long coming is that it's going to hit game performance so hard. Particularly if the AI uses the same physics and tyre model as the player's car - and if it doesn't, what's the point? Also, will VR still perform as well with AI?

 

[Aaron Markham]

iRacing AI is going to give me the 'Freedom' to race when I want, with whatever Car / Track combo I what, and with limited time to Sim Race, this appeals greatly.

Bingo! When I was younger I had plenty of free time to spend racing online but things change. Now, if I only have 30 minutes of free time I can just load up a quick race with a full field of AI cars & get my racing fix. To me that is much more enjoyable than hot lapping in a practice server because I didn't have enough time to dedicate to a full online race.

 

[Kurupt CDN]

Perhaps they need the AI due to dwindling player numbers. The last time I dipped into iRacing about a year ago, aside from the rookie Miata, rookie stock car, and Skippies, many of the series that I wanted to race would not go official. I fear that having AI as an option might dilute the already meager player base. I'm on the West Coast of the US, so this may not be as much of an issue in Europe or East Coast US. But I'd say 90% of the series they run are just not an option for me.

I live on the west coast up in Canada.....if your playing say after 10pm there isn't any sim with much going on at that time unless you play Forza or GT.

Can't say I've had much issue finding a race 95% prior to 10 pm.

That being said, there are some dying classes that may only have a few official races a week, which in that case you could use there forms to find out when peak race times are for each class.

Simracing is an extremely small market in the grand scheme of video gaming.

 

[BrunoBæ]

..numbers are solid or even improving a bit, around 4,000 on any night in Europe give or take 1,000 depending on weather or whatever, has been that way for years.

I understand what you are saying - but if I may refer to my former membership period (lets say 1-2 year back) then almost every time when I in the evening (Europe) logged in to iRacing I could see between 1200-2500 active members online.
While a lot of the series/tracks/races was completely empty!
So my own explanation was that either the majority of these was just logged in (= was "active") without doing anything trackwise - or these figures/numbers was false.
Because more or less except some oval and GT3 racing a lot of the tracks was as said plain ghost towns.
Im probably a bit negatively biased because the 2 series I was interrested in Lotus79 and the Kamel Caravans(Nissan GTP ZXT) didnt often go official exept once or twice on sundays.
The rest of the week no of the official races could gather enough participation to go official.

OK. My serious conclusion was that iRacing probably "upped" these numbers a bit - but at the same time a lot of these socalled active online members was just logged in while doing something else.
Just like a lot of people have their TV sets on while doing anything else than watching what was on the telly.

 

[tomino1270]

Bingo! When I was younger I had plenty of free time to spend racing online but things change. Now, if I only have 30 minutes of free time I can just load up a quick race with a full field of AI cars & get my racing fix. To me that is much more enjoyable than hot lapping in a practice server because I didn't have enough time to dedicate to a full online race.

I can read this scenario very often, why are you guys paying for iracing? For me personally is iracing "better" because i can race a few series with very competitive field and i must give it a time and lot of effort. And there is one car and one track for whole week. If i want to race different cars and tracks every race or just sit and drive, i can play any other sim or game. But here will be wreckers.... a lot of wreckers..... Thats why i tryed iRacing and love it.

 

[danraz3r]

The BEST simulator ever! It should cost a bit more! I propose daily subscription .

Automobilista, rf2 and AC dont get to feel as good as iracing, the unique real simracing title only for 1000 bucks!

 

[BrunoBæ]

The BEST simulator ever! It should cost a bit more! I propose daily subscription .
Automobilista, rf2 and AC dont get to feel as good as iracing, the unique real simracing title only for 1000 bucks!

Hahaha. Good one

 

[RCHeliguy]

I realize it costs money, but I just installed VRS. Being able to go through a lap frame by frame and see where a "good" race car driver is on the track compared to where you are is very helpful. I'm able to compare how much brake, and throttle they are using along with the gear they are in side by side with my own values. I'm learning a lot. Also just committed to finishing the 488GT Fixed series for the season and picked up the remaining 8 tracks I needed with 15% discount for buying 6 or more items.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Conserning pinpointing possible errors in ones driving habits and as example compare them against others I have allways considered iRacings telemetry feature as one of outstanding things in this game.
And eventhough my favorite in this area MoteC can look a bit overwhelming at first sight then its the best(IMO) tool if you want to analyse driver inputs/reactions in certain situations.
You can also use it to compare the effects of different setup tweaks while struggling to set the car up.
Hehe I even saw an iRacing guy who in MoteC had created a socalled "worksheet" able to show the difference in grip between 2 (or more) different car setups.

 

[RCHeliguy]

I just looked at Motec and I've bookmarked it for later. When I recover from the information overload I'm already dealing with I'll give this a look. Thanks.