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!

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[RCHeliguy]

Wow! I guess I need to try this out!

 

[naondave]

I’m going to have to renew my subscription it looks like. I’m getting to the point where I’m enjoying Raceroom and ACC because all the tracks and cars are made by the developers so it’s easy to set AI and just run with it. Especially with the Raceroom adaptive AI. I’m loving Raceroom at the moment and it just keeps getting better with the physics upgrades. Mods and the variety in quality in RFactor or Assetto Corsa make it a crapshoot and there is no easy championship manager either. IRacing gives me all the series I need in one package with more to come along with laser scanned and dynamic tracks with night racing. That along with being able to tune each session with length, time and time lapse. You can easily create a WEC season with 4 hour and 24 hour type events.

 

[F_B]

I’m going to have to renew my subscription it looks like. I’m getting to the point where I’m enjoying Raceroom and ACC because all the tracks and cars are made by the developers so it’s easy to set AI and just run with it. Especially with the Raceroom adaptive AI. I’m loving Raceroom at the moment and it just keeps getting better with the physics upgrades. Mods and the variety in quality in RFactor or Assetto Corsa make it a crapshoot and there is no easy championship manager either. IRacing gives me all the series I need in one package with more to come along with laser scanned and dynamic tracks with night racing. That along with being able to tune each session with length, time and time lapse. You can easily create a WEC season with 4 hour and 24 hour type events.

Well, there's Content Manager for AC which offers a Championship Editor. However the AI in AC has some major problems so I'd stick to Raceroom for AI racing.

 

[makan]

 

[thepharcyde]

I dunno, a lot of easy drive byes in that vid

 

[BrunoBæ]

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!

Dohhh . Maybe I will have to shorten my expected timespan before iRacing introduce these bots among humans in online racing.
Because if they allready now with the rather basic standard algoritm driven socalled artificial "intelligence" does behave reasonable to human drivers behaviour - then if iRacing began working on more advanced artificial intelligence using as example neural networks (ala introduced in MotoGP) then maybe nobody would know if the driver changing door paints with you was a human or a bot.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: They would probably have to revise the protest system a bit

 

[maelstrom]

I dunno, a lot of easy drive byes in that vid

I may have missed it but I didn't see a single AI overtake another AI. There were several times when cars pulled out but didn't seem to make a pass. Surely with that spread of field skill, there should have been some overtaking? Someone in an earlier post said "This is by far the best AI I have ever raced against" - without any overtaking?

 

[Kurupt CDN]

I may have missed it but I didn't see a single AI overtake another AI. There were several times when cars pulled out but didn't seem to make a pass. Surely with that spread of field skill, there should have been some overtaking? Someone in an earlier post said "This is by far the best AI I have ever raced against" - without any overtaking?

I did 3 more races last night and saw several over takes through out all 3 sessions with the race having 7 position changes within a field of 15....I myself was passed twice.

Rolling starts need work and some tweaks here and there, but overall it's a very good soft launch.
Looking forward to Future updates and ai for dirt tracks.

I like how they put in a "avoid me" option for those....

 

[SonofAnarchy]

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'?

Yeah, you said 'get up into me', which leads me to believe you could avoid... maybe.
Then you changed it to 'flying into me' which indicates a 'divebomb' which often can't be avoided, you're right, but my first reply was for your first comment...

 

[DND]

@SonofAnarchy to set it right my first comment was:

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.

So please explain what you meant by avoid? As what I meant by 'get into you' is 'lack of race acumen'.

 

[dcully]

Might be time to resub, i would have to buy the porsche though and some more tracks.

 

[AUY2K]

Can you setup endurance races and do driver swaps with the AI?

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Can you setup endurance races and do driver swaps with the AI?

don't think so, at least there is no option i have seen in the setup wizzard

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

first patch of the season is out and we now have the second car for use with AI, the free Mazda MX5. Multiclass racing can be set up, but release notes tell us:
"- AI Races:
...
- - - Multi-Class racing is now possible, however, we are still working out a few kinks. For example, AI Opponents will not currently grid or score by car class correctly.
- - AI Driver attributes are now set immediately upon a Roster being saved, and the interface has been updated to explain in more detail how attribute values are assigned.
- - The Saved Opponent Rosters window now shows if a Roster is used in an AI Season.
- - There is now a warning displayed when a user sets a field of AI opponents to more than 40, due to potential system strain.

The Global Mazda MX-5 Cup car is now available for AI Races!
- AI Incidents are now recorded.
- AI Driver adjustments:
- - Understeer handling has been adjusted slightly.
- AI Car adjustments:
- - Convective tire cooling has been adjusted.
- - Tire load sensitivity has been improved.
- - Tire grip has been adjusted slightly.
- - Long slip stiffness has been adjusted.
- - The likelihood of rolling due to curb strikes has been reduced.
- - Tire grip for the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (991) has been reduced slightly.
- AI Track adjustments:
- - Performance at Lime Rock Park should be slightly improved.
- AI bug fixes:
- - Fixed an issue where AI vehicle tires were not always cold at the beginning of a Session. "


also there is this little gem in the release notes for a handful of tracks: " - Exiled an errant crowd member."

 

[RCHeliguy]

Just downloaded it now.

 

[Bonehead]

If there is an AI section in the iRacing forum, could someone please post the link? I can't find one, thanks.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

iRacing Authentication

members.iracing.com

 

[Bonehead]

iRacing Authentication

members.iracing.com

Thank you sir.

 

[RCHeliguy]

Now that they've added the MX-5 to the AI soft launch people can try it out without having to buy anything. I gave the MX-5 a try and rowed some gears. Felt pretty good, but a little slow. ( car speed )

I'm planning to race in the 2020 season one Porsche Cup and the BMW M8 fixed Series.
They've added a few of the tracks in the Porsche Cup to the tracks supported.

This update appears to be running even more efficiently in VR. Of course Steam VR just had an update recently too. I'm running 120 fps with 150% SS and it's holding 119-120 fps solidly with a pack of 20 cars. I'm going to increase the field size a bit to see how it comes out.

Edit: I can actually run 144 fps in VR on some tracks

 

[AUY2K]

I will be re-subscribing once they have AI multi-class racing with AI driver swaps. I really like the idea of customizing seasons, driver names, etc. I know other sims have a few of these features, but not all of them. For example Project Cars 2 has AI driver swaps but there is no season editor or driver name editor. iRacing is putting all of these features together in an easy user interface!