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Jimbo70
Joined: 05 Feb 2002
Posts: 59
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 Posted: Tue Nov 14, 03:16 |
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I'll preface my comments with the fact that I haven't been around sim racing for a while, so I was unaware of the animosity between iRacing and elements of the sim racing community.
I had the opportunity to sample the latest beta of the iRacing program today, and its good. Real good. Our sample was hot laps at Lime Rock Park in a Skip Barber R/T 2000 race car. First of all, the graphics are stunning; like nothing I've ever seen in a sim, in terms of being true to life. The physics were pretty good; driveable while still allowing you to get in trouble if you don't know what you are doing. The quick guys were driving the R/T 2000 around Lime Rock Park in about a minute flat, which is very close to what the real car can do. Having driven an R/T before, I can tell you that the sim characteristics are about as close as you can get to the real thing.
I won't get into the politics of the situation, as I have acquaintances on both sides of the aisle, and can see both sides of this argument. I will say however that the sim I experienced today was the real deal, and was a blast to drive.
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James Altemus
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dice65
Joined: 13 Mar 2003
Posts: 100
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| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 09:30 |
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yeha....sounds great !! been looking forward to this for some time now.....whens it coming out ?
d |
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2re
Joined: 28 Aug 2003
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Jimbo70
Joined: 05 Feb 2002
Posts: 59
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| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 13:56 |
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You know, I didn't even ask. What I sampled was the program itself, and some of the replay functions. I didn't look at or ask to see menus or other functionality. While it looked good to me, when I spoke with the iRacing people the answer was that they were still working on the secondary physics.
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James Altemus
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cujo35
Joined: 15 Apr 2006
Posts: 6
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| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 17:17 |
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Where did you get this demo is it available to everyone? let mek now thanx
Rick |
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cujo35
Joined: 15 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 17:18 |
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Where did you get this demo is it available to everyone? let mek now thanx
Rick |
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Jimbo70
Joined: 05 Feb 2002
Posts: 59
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| Posted: Wed Nov 15, 01:31 |
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This wasn't a downloaded demo, but a demostration by iRacing using their equipment. As far as I know there is not a downloadable demo available.
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James Altemus
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Jovica
Joined: 15 Nov 2006
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Jimbo70
Joined: 05 Feb 2002
Posts: 59
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| Posted: Thu Nov 16, 02:43 |
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Please excuse me if I'm a bit vague here. I don't know how close they are to a release of a product, so I'd rather not speak out of turn. That being said, here is what I observed.
- I have more than my share of experience with the entire Papyrus library over the years. You could see that influence in the graphics, particularly in the trees. The difference was in the crispness of the graphics and the accuracy of where elements like the trees, and buildings were located, and their appearance. An example is the tread and sidewall on the tires, which appeared to be almost DVD quality of the BFGs the R/T 2000 wears.
- Because of the audience this was being demonstrated for (everything from non drivers to professional race car drivers, but apart from myself, non sim racers) the damage was turned off, but so was any traction control/stability control/ABS. The system was set up for manual shifting, and while the wheel/pedal setup did have a clutch pedal, it was not required to start or shift. I lifted on my upshifts, more out of GPL habit and my experience in the real R/T car than anything else.
- Because of the nature of the demonstration, and the red mist that developed while I was trying to set quick time of the day (which I did  ) I didn't pay much attention to some of the controller details, but it appeared to be a higher end wheel/pedal/seat setup. The video was on a wall-mounted 42 inch or so LCD HDTV monitor, and the sound was through a 4-channel surround system with a honkin' subwoofer near the seat.
- There were on screen displays for things such as pedal inputs and steering angle, and a lap timer/counter, very much like you can turn on or off in any of the Papyrus sims. Like other Papyrus sims, there was a head's up type display for gauges, and the in dash tach worked as well. Like everything else in this demonstration, the graphics of the tach and needle were much better than previous releases. We did watch replays of some of the more interesting off-course excursions, but I didn't play with any menus, views, or other settings, either in the sim or in the replay mode.
When I told them how impressed I was with the whole setup, the reply I received was that they are still working on it and that it will be that much more polished by the time the start the rollout.
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James Altemus
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Jovica
Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Thu Nov 16, 19:06 |
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| Very interesting read, thanks a bunch Jimbo70!! |
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Chris17
Joined: 19 Jan 2005
Posts: 32
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| Posted: Sat Nov 18, 13:22 |
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Thanks a lot for your report. Very interesting. Will you be involved in further beta tests? If so, then pls keep us informed  |
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D_Lee
Joined: 17 Mar 2004
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Sat Nov 18, 15:53 |
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Jimbo70--
Can you expand on what the physics were like? I raced alot of N2003, and it always seemed that the gap from slightly sliding the tires to completely losing the car was very small. In other words, the loss of grip was very fast when you made a mistake (which I often do...). Since I've never driven a real race car I have no idea whether this is realistic or not, but in the IRacing demo was it different than N2003?
And also thanks for the review. |
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Jovica
Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Sun Nov 19, 00:17 |
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| I dont want to answer the question for Jimbo but certainly you will have a huge difference in the Grip Level on the tires when you have a 150hp engine compared to a 700hp V8 NASCAR Engine. Thats a World of a difference. Going from the Cup Cars to the Trucks is quite a big difference already and then its only about 200 hp less. |
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Jovica
Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Sun Nov 19, 00:21 |
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I would like to add that you might want to try these things:
Change the Steering Input rate to something like 28:1 or higher. It gives you finer controller. Also you might want to use Force Feedback and 100% Steering linearity. Just a Tip |
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