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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[F_B]

I think I have seen something similiar about 17-20 years ago.

View attachment 337269

Sometimes you have to look back and see that there were things which already worked.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

good to see the idea has been around a while. nascar 2003?

 

[RCHeliguy]

Sometimes it's easy to take things out of context. My bad.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

so, iRacing are going back to their offline roots, the nascar games. Sounds reasonable to me, if it ain't broke don't fix it. i loved the ai in the old nascar games, kept me glued to the wheel all those years back.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Actually when looking at the last page of posts, most of it was positive.

Changed my post.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

changed mine, too

 

[BrunoBæ]

so, iRacing are going back to their offline roots, the nascar games. Sounds reasonable to me, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Offline roots!!
Are you sure you know what you are talking about?
NR2003 had the best netcode of that time - and Kaemmer has acknowledged that was one of the reasons FIRST/iRacing fighted(payed) to get the legal rights to the full NR2003 code.

And without having any numbers Im pretty sure NR2003 (and mods) has at least one of the most used multiplayer platforms and comunities at the time.
If not THE most used and populated one.
Both because of the extremely good netcode and because it was so easy to even set up a dedicated server.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Im ready to bet that in 1-2 years iRacing will also make it possible to include AIs into official races with human drivers. Hehe just like it was possible to do in NR2003 and mods.
But at the moment this would probably piss too many of human multiplayer customers off

 

[F_B]

It would even piss some parts of the members off in two years.
For them Iracing commited a sacrilege with adding AI. Will be funny to watch how the next month/years evolve.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

my bad, it was me who was offline at the time, or rather: i never used the internet to play games, my line was far too slow for that. lol. ...

 

[RCHeliguy]

Posts are a moving target this morning.

 

[BrunoBæ]

my bad, it was me who was offline at the time, or rather: i never used the internet to play games, my line was far too slow for that. lol. ...

The reason I am a bit stubborn on this theme is because I for some years was a member of 3 GTP online leagues (the most famous NR2003 mod).
And at least the US based FSB and the brazilian based LBN leagues had both some extremely dedicated and competitive guys racing - and used solely the NR2003 base because of the netcode.
Even with brazilian, russian and East europeans lousy connections we had very seldom problems - hehe even with some 2.4H LeMans races.
So..

 

[SonofAnarchy]

What would be interesting if you could use the AI opposed to 'real' drivers when building your status. One of the biggest gripes I think is while trying to get your license to advance it only takes an over anxious driver to get into you and ruin it.

You can always 'avoid'...

 

[BrunoBæ]

It would even piss some parts of the members off in two years.
For them Iracing commited a sacrilege with adding AI. Will be funny to watch how the next month/years evolve.

Eventhough Im ready to make a bet on this online AI mixing thingy - I consider it rather counterproductive for iRacing.
At least for me one of the great advantages for iRacing has been that it against all competition stood out as the only 100% pure online racing sim.
But obviously not anymore

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Yep, like Han Solo, I do have a bad feeling about this somewhere deep down. At least SR and iR are excluded from AI races (source: update notes), so nobody will be able to work their way up against AI and then be thrown into an unrealistic scenario online. But on the surface I am now the world's happiest clown. I have the Skip Barber for my beloved online racing, ACC for my favourite GT3 offline and soon iRacing AI for NASCAR oval offline like back in the day, yes!!!

 

[DND]

You can always 'avoid'...

Like watching my mirrors and when someone is flying up on me and has no chance of making the turn I should alter my line to 'avoid'?

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Just had my first test run with 40 cup Porsches at Donington and it is … sort of eerie, it sounds and looks and feels like iRacing, but you can rack up 28 inc points and there are no consequences. Game runs smooth as butter, opponents were fine, but since I have only very limited experience in the Porsche I was more fighting with the rear and the brakes then concentrating on my AI friends. Tony Gardner was one of the AI names, lol. Definitely a new experience.

 

[tlsmikey]

Maybe it's the AI, maybe it's the V8 Supercars...not sure, but there are currently 10,000 people online racing.

I find the AI pretty good. The starts are a little slow and i'd like to see them be a bit more aggressive on passes, but it's pretty good. I'm not convinced it's as good as AMS which to me is the very best I've seen, but it's very good overall.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Like watching my mirrors and when someone is flying up on me and has no chance of making the turn I should alter my line to 'avoid'?

Fully agree with that.
When I complained inside the iRacing forum about being taken out by somebody either divebombing me or completely idiotic crashing into my back I was (allmost) allways told by some clever guys that checking the mirrors and then avoiding being rammed by changing my line was the way to go.

Hehe the worst was if the rammer later explained that it wasnt his fault - because I braked too early.
In such situations iRacing should allow virtual guns.

 

[RCHeliguy]

What you didn't see the teaser for 2nd quarter ?

 

[Bonehead]

I just spent five hours tweaking and racing with the AI. I've been a serious sim racer since N2003, and never had I have had more fun racing the AI. I am not a big iRacing fan at all, however my hat is off to them for the absolute quality of the artificial race car drivers. The massive amount of variables with this development is something I am still learning about, and anxious to learn. I only renewed iRacing for a month to test this release, however I bought into the 'Black Friday' year subscription sale. This is by far the best AI I have ever raced against, and to have 59 other cars on the track running smooth as silk with high graphics on an nVidia 1070 is mind boggling. Back to looking at the AI variables and enjoying iRacing once again!