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iRacing |OT| The Real Racing Simulator

Frawdder

Member
Congrats on your first win, Orgun. I still haven't scored a race win on the road side yet but have had 5 wins in oval racing. Such a great feeling crossing the line in first.

I recently re-subscribed to iRacing and I've decided to learn the Silverado this season. I've done some testing at this week's track, Dover, and things are going pretty good. I'm not the quickest but the trucks are a lot of fun to drive and I'm not throwing it into the wall which is encouraging. Biggest thing for me to figure out is setup because with the setup I'm currently using the car just wants to understeer into a wall after about 20 laps, not something you want happening in a 110 lap race.
 

Orgun

Member
Frawdder said:
Congrats on your first win, Orgun. I still haven't scored a race win on the road side yet but have had 5 wins in oval racing. Such a great feeling crossing the line in first.

I recently re-subscribed to iRacing and I've decided to learn the Silverado this season. I've done some testing at this week's track, Dover, and things are going pretty good. I'm not the quickest but the trucks are a lot of fun to drive and I'm not throwing it into the wall which is encouraging. Biggest thing for me to figure out is setup because with the setup I'm currently using the car just wants to understeer into a wall after about 20 laps, not something you want happening in a 110 lap race.

Holy crap, 110 laps!? The most i've done is 30 on a 20 second lap oval hehe. Luckily I havent had to mess with setups just yet, all the series i've been racing have had fixed setups.
 

Frawdder

Member
110 laps at about 24 seconds a lap.
Just did my first truck race, took about 50-55 minutes with 3 cautions. Started 12th and thought I was going to be outclassed as the other drivers were all Div 1 & 2 and I'm Div 4. Turns out that wasn't the case, managed to get as high as 5th but got overtaken 2 laps from the finish as my tyres were completely destroyed. Need to fix that in my setup but I'm quite clueless about what to change.
The race was a lot of fun, didn't feel like it took almost an hour, the laps just flew by. Took a few pictures including a big crash that put two guys out of the race.

A few cars get tangled right in front of me (Red & White #12)
iracingsim2011-05-1322k76w.png

Somehow I weaved my way through the carnage
iracingsim2011-05-1322d7zh.png

Shot of the final restart of the race on about lap 65
iracingsim2011-05-1322g715.png
 
iRacing looks better all the time, looking at the base package now I think it's worth giving the game a shot, just need to buy a pc wheel for maximum simulation, it's been a long time since I used one and i'm rather use to analog pads now.
 
Diablohead, if you decide to sign up, make sure to give one of us some referral money. You don't get anything out of it but your referrer will get $10 in credit. :)
 
blurredvision said:
Diablohead, if you decide to sign up, make sure to give one of us some referral money. You don't get anything out of it but your referrer will get $10 in credit. :)
hah that sucks that i'd get no bonus but of course, won't be for a few weeks yet.
 

isamu

OMFG HOLY MOTHER OF MARY IN HEAVEN I CANT BELIEVE IT WTF WHERE ARE MY SEDATIVES AAAAHHH
Hmm, it seems a lot of the veterans are starting to get burnt out on iRacing:

http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/1475277.page

The more I read the forums, the more complaints I see about just about everything from damage system not working properly, to car physics not being what they should, to poor racing etiquette, and some folks are just suffering from fatigue.

The most common complaint seems to be not enough races and not enough people overall. From the impressions I've gotten on the forums, it seems that it's getting kinda hard to find a race every day of the week, in anything other than the rookie, Skippy and maybe SM. Is it true the rookie, skippy and Star Mazda are the only road racing series that holds official races every single day? If so, that's not too encouraging. I would want to be able to jump in the service at any hour of any day, and see several dozen races happening all throughout the day. Is this an unrealistic expectation?

It's impressions like these, that have me re-thinking my plans to jump in the service full throttle. Kinda reminds me that there's a fine line between too hardcore/realistic, and just a simple fun game.

Take F1 2010 fo example. For all its bugs and flaws, it still delivers an insane amount of enjoyment due to the ability for me to just jump in a quick race and compete. The whole plug and play nature of Codemasters' racing games are what I fear I'll be missing if I switch to iRacing. Quick 3 lap races are more up my alley than 25 lap races where things start to get repetitive for me. I swear if iracing had super short 3 lap races for the road series, I would have jumped in ages ago. But 20-30 laps...man that's just nuts to me, LOL. I guess we'll see what happens.
 
You can hire out a server in iracing right? I guess that's the best you can get if you want 3 lap racing with mates or something, shame it costs money to do so also.

I noticed that they have reduced prices on 1 year and 3 month accounts right now, trying to pull more people in?

I do like the idea of it being a closed community with long races as in games like forza I can never find a group of good people to do more then 3-5 laps with, the only endurance I have ever raced in the forza games is from FM1 where 6 of us from forzacentral raced stock NSX on laguna, it was amazing because we all raced clean.
 

Frawdder

Member
isamu said:
Is it true the rookie, skippy and Star Mazda are the only road racing series that holds official races every single day?
The Rookie classes, Skip Barber, Mustangs, V8 Supercars, Star Mazda and the Williams F1 car all race on every day at most 2 hours between races.

I really like the way iRacing has the scheduling set up. Everyone knows when the next race is happening and allows races to be as full as they can be.

If you just want to jump into quick races and go, then iRacing is definitely not for you (Shortest races are probably about 15-20 minutes). Not only are the races long in iRacing (and get longer as you advance licenses) but the time you have to put in to practice and be competitive is something that needs to be considered. Except for those people that can be on the pace within their first few laps, goddam aliens.


Side note: Won my first race in the trucks. Race had 8 cautions with the final restart just 5 laps from the finish. I was in 2nd and was all over the rear of the guy in front. Managed to get by him on the last turn. Won by 0.142 seconds. Total time of the race was 1 hour 10 minutes. So much fun!
 

Orgun

Member
Frawdder said:
The Rookie classes, Skip Barber, Mustangs, V8 Supercars, Star Mazda and the Williams F1 car all race on every day at most 2 hours between races.

I really like the way iRacing has the scheduling set up. Everyone knows when the next race is happening and allows races to be as full as they can be.

If you just want to jump into quick races and go, then iRacing is definitely not for you (Shortest races are probably about 15-20 minutes). Not only are the races long in iRacing (and get longer as you advance licenses) but the time you have to put in to practice and be competitive is something that needs to be considered. Except for those people that can be on the pace within their first few laps, goddam aliens.


Side note: Won my first race in the trucks. Race had 8 cautions with the final restart just 5 laps from the finish. I was in 2nd and was all over the rear of the guy in front. Managed to get by him on the last turn. Won by 0.142 seconds. Total time of the race was 1 hour 10 minutes. So much fun!

How do these restarts work? Havent come across them yet. Does everyone just go into the pit and the game puts them back into order on the track for a rollign start?
 

Frawdder

Member
Cautions and restarts only start appearing in Class C and up, and then only on the oval side. Road racing doesn't have cautions and the safety car.

The way it works, you are in control at all times. The game doesn't reset you or take direct control. A message box will appear and say either 'Pacing' or 'Two/One to go' depending on how far away the green flag is. The pits will initially be closed but will open the first time the safety car nears the entry. Then it's completely up to you whether you pit or not. If it's only been a handful of green laps then nobody is likely to pit, but if it's been quite a few laps then usually the whole field enters pit lane.

All while this is happening the message box tells you which car you should be behind and will notify you if you need to pass or let a car through. If you've done a Legends race yet and gone through the formation laps prior to the start, where it tells you to line up on the inside/outside and stay behind the #X car, it's like that.

I was really worried of screwing something up when the yellow came out in my first race but the game is really good about telling you were you need to be.
 
Frawdder said:
Cautions and restarts only start appearing in Class C and up, and then only on the oval side. Road racing doesn't have cautions and the safety car.

The way it works, you are in control at all times. The game doesn't reset you or take direct control. A message box will appear and say either 'Pacing' or 'Two/One to go' depending on how far away the green flag is. The pits will initially be closed but will open the first time the safety car nears the entry. Then it's completely up to you whether you pit or not. If it's only been a handful of green laps then nobody is likely to pit, but if it's been quite a few laps then usually the whole field enters pit lane.

All while this is happening the message box tells you which car you should be behind and will notify you if you need to pass or let a car through. If you've done a Legends race yet and gone through the formation laps prior to the start, where it tells you to line up on the inside/outside and stay behind the #X car, it's like that.

I was really worried of screwing something up when the yellow came out in my first race but the game is really good about telling you were you need to be.
It's good that every other driver plays along too, sounds really good.

Once I get paid i'm going to try out the 3 month package and give it a shot, for £8 it's a good deal.
 

Orgun

Member
Frawdder said:
Cautions and restarts only start appearing in Class C and up, and then only on the oval side. Road racing doesn't have cautions and the safety car.

The way it works, you are in control at all times. The game doesn't reset you or take direct control. A message box will appear and say either 'Pacing' or 'Two/One to go' depending on how far away the green flag is. The pits will initially be closed but will open the first time the safety car nears the entry. Then it's completely up to you whether you pit or not. If it's only been a handful of green laps then nobody is likely to pit, but if it's been quite a few laps then usually the whole field enters pit lane.

All while this is happening the message box tells you which car you should be behind and will notify you if you need to pass or let a car through. If you've done a Legends race yet and gone through the formation laps prior to the start, where it tells you to line up on the inside/outside and stay behind the #X car, it's like that.

I was really worried of screwing something up when the yellow came out in my first race but the game is really good about telling you were you need to be.

Ah so it's like that, that really threw me off the first time I did one of those! :) Feels kinda neat to do a formation lap behind a pace car though and see everyone go flat out as soon as it dives in.

edit:
Diablohead said:
It's good that every other driver plays along too, sounds really good.

Once I get paid i'm going to try out the 3 month package and give it a shot, for £8 it's a good deal.

You do have a wheel right? I don't think you can play iracing without one, just thought i'd point that out! Just in case :)
 

jlevel13

Member
isamu said:
Hmm, it seems a lot of the veterans are starting to get burnt out on iRacing:

http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/1475277.page

The more I read the forums, the more complaints I see

I would want to be able to jump in the service at any hour of any day, and see several dozen races happening all throughout the day. Is this an unrealistic expectation?

It's impressions like these, that have me re-thinking my plans to jump in the service full throttle.

Quick 3 lap races are more up my alley than 25 lap races where things start to get repetitive for me.

People complaining on a forum? But seriously, sure, people get burned out, it's still just a game. They do seem to add new content in at a somewhat slow and steady pace. They are also working to improve the tire physics and other things all the time. It still feels better to me than any other racing game I've played - especially because the handling is extremely consistent.

In the lower ranks there's racing going on all the time and they are always filled. I've never had to wait more than maybe 30 minutes for something to be scheduled I want to try racing. I can't speak to the higher ranked stuff, sadly (I'm still at D, don't race enough). It seems like there's usually at least a couple thousand people playing online at any time, so I could see some race series may not be as supported as others. Takes at least a month to move up any rank though, so you should be covered with plenty to do for a while. There is also time trials, practice, testing and spectating to be done.

In regards to quick 3 lap races, the whole point, the whole magic of iRacing is getting beyond that and getting to do more serious racing. If you're not looking for that, yes, skip for sure. Some of the short track races can be over in 10-15 minutes too - not everything is super long. Also some things like qualifying or time trials can be just 4 to 8 laps, so very quick.
 

isamu

OMFG HOLY MOTHER OF MARY IN HEAVEN I CANT BELIEVE IT WTF WHERE ARE MY SEDATIVES AAAAHHH
jlevel13 said:
In regards to quick 3 lap races, the whole point, the whole magic of iRacing is getting beyond that and getting to do more serious racing. If you're not looking for that, yes, skip for sure. Some of the short track races can be over in 10-15 minutes too - not everything is super long. Also some things like qualifying or time trials can be just 4 to 8 laps, so very quick.

Wasn't aware of that. Interesting post and something I'll certainly keep in mind. Thanks for the heads up.
 
Guys I am jumping into the 3 month plan tonight, well 1 month + 2 months free :p

Who should I refer if asked? if it earns you 10 bucks then so be it!
 
I'll use this little bump to ask: how would this run in an i3 370M (2.4GHZ), 4GB DDR3 and an ATI Mobility 5470 512MB GDDR3? As a point of reference, SF4 plays fine (~60FPS) at 720p with medium settings, Portal 2 plays at around 40FPS at 720p on medium-high with 4XMSAA, GoW1 and Blood Money run perfectly on very high... is this more demanding? Is there some kind of benchmark or demo I could try in case you can't help me? Thanks :)
 
Orgun said:
You do have a wheel right? I don't think you can play iracing without one, just thought i'd point that out! Just in case :)
I have a 360 controller, I know it's not the best or preferred way to play but in a week or two I want to buy a pc/360 wheel, been a long time since I really used a wheel and miss it back from the days of F355 challenge on DC.
 

jlevel13

Member
Risk Breaker said:
I'll use this little bump to ask: how would this run in an i3 370M (2.4GHZ), 4GB DDR3 and an ATI Mobility 5470 512MB GDDR3? As a point of reference, SF4 plays fine (~60FPS) at 720p with medium settings, Portal 2 plays at around 40FPS at 720p on medium-high with 4XMSAA, GoW1 and Blood Money run perfectly on very high... is this more demanding? Is there some kind of benchmark or demo I could try in case you can't help me? Thanks :)

I'm no expert on video cards, but from what I understand, iRacing is designed to be not demanding at all. I'm sure if you could run SFIV at 60FPS this won't be a problem. For whatever it is worth, here are the system requirements from their site...

•Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7

•Hyperthreaded Intel CPU, AMD Athlon 64 CPU, or any dual-core CPU

•128MB Pixel Shader 2.0 (ATI 9700Pro or nVidia 6600 or better); 256 MB Pixel Shader 3.0 (ATI X1600 or nVidia 6800 GT/GS or better) graphics adapter recommended

•1 GB system RAM

•3Gb free hard disk space
 
jlevel13 said:
I'm no expert on video cards, but from what I understand, iRacing is designed to be not demanding at all. I'm sure if you could run SFIV at 60FPS this won't be a problem. For whatever it is worth, here are the system requirements from their site...

Hmmm, nice. I know that sims aren't usually very taxing to get as much people playing with a good framerate as possible, but this is the best looking sim I've seen yet so maybe it was different.

mclaren777 said:
It should run fine. Do you own a nice wheel?

I'm rocking a DFGT which is the best I can afford now, after being addicted years ago to the LFS demo with both a mouse (yeah I know, but I got to be pretty fast with it, LFS has great mouse support) and a controller, and now that GT5 kinda made me buy a DFGT, I want to see if I like this :D

Thanks to both, I'll try it when I have enough time to dedicate to it because I don't think you can try this for free, am I right? I haven't seen any way.
 
Risk Breaker said:
Thanks to both, I'll try it when I have enough time to dedicate to it because I don't think you can try this for free, am I right? I haven't seen any way.

I'm sometimes seen free month trials, but they seem to be rare. They do more "buy one month get two months free" deals, which only costs you $10 to trail it. They also sometimes do deals where you sign up for a month and they'll give you a free track and car, but those also just come around randomly and you can never plan on them. With the Indy 500 next weekend, I'd somewhat guess to see maybe a package for new members that includes IMS and maybe the Dallara indy car.
 

Frawdder

Member
blurredvision said:
I'm sometimes seen free month trials, but they seem to be rare. They do more "buy one month get two months free" deals, which only costs you $10 to trail it. They also sometimes do deals where you sign up for a month and they'll give you a free track and car, but those also just come around randomly and you can never plan on them. With the Indy 500 next weekend, I'd somewhat guess to see maybe a package for new members that includes IMS and maybe the Dallara indy car.
Yep, exactly as you predicted.

http://www.iracing.com/indy-500/

"1 Month for $15, including the Dallara INDYCAR and Indianapolis Motor Speedway!"



And for existing members there is a promo also

"Renew your membership for a year and we’ll send you $30 iRacing credits."

Kinda tempted if I'm honest
 
Frawdder said:
Yep, exactly as you predicted.

http://www.iracing.com/indy-500/

"1 Month for $15, including the Dallara INDYCAR and Indianapolis Motor Speedway!"



And for existing members there is a promo also

"Renew your membership for a year and we’ll send you $30 iRacing credits."

Kinda tempted if I'm honest

Haha, I guess I should've looked before I posted. I knew about the $30 credit, but since I'm already a member and keep myself signed in, I never visit the non-member site and see those new-member deals.

For any prospective new members (Diablohead too, since you haven't signed up quite yet), here's how it would break down if someone were to think about signing up for multiple months to give it a lengthy trial:

3 Months for 1
http://www.iracing.com/buy-1-get-2/

3 Months with the base car/track package for $10 + any one track for $15 + any one car for $12 = $37

1 Month + IMS + Dallara car
http://www.iracing.com/indy-500/

1 Month, IMS, and Dallara indy car for $15 + 3 Month subscription renewal for $30 = $45
-- or --
1 Month, IMS, and Dallara indy car for $15 + 1 Month subscription renewal for $12 = $27

Whether or not you want IMS and the Dallara (which is pretty fun to drive) would probably swing you one way or another. There's obviously many ways you can figure out what you could get with these deals based on how much you're willing to shell out.
 
Am I looking at something wrong or is literally every series scheduled on the exact same date?

Overall I did the 3 month trial promo deal. While the driving in and of itself is fun, the fact that if you're not available Tuesdays you miss out on a huge chunk of the online component is hugely disappointing to me.
 

jlevel13

Member
Mister Zimbu said:
Am I looking at something wrong or is literally every series scheduled on the exact same date?

Overall I did the 3 month trial promo deal. While the driving in and of itself is fun, the fact that if you're not available Tuesdays you miss out on a huge chunk of the online component is hugely disappointing to me.

You're looking at something wrong.
 
jlevel13 said:
You're looking at something wrong.

Specifically, what? Besides hosted events and other special events, every series I've looked at's next race is tonight (and I believe all at the same time too).

By literally I meant figuratively, of course :)
 

jlevel13

Member
Mister Zimbu said:
Specifically, what? Besides hosted events and other special events, every series I've looked at's next race is tonight (and I believe all at the same time too).

By literally I meant figuratively, of course :)

I'm not exactly sure where the problem is... the interface is confusing.

On the left hand column where it shows upcoming events you will only see stuff coming up soon (today). On the right hand column one widget section has a calendar and you can see the upcoming events using that, by first selecting the series and then the day. Certainly all the rookie and D class races are happening at least every couple of hours, every day. I hope that helps (maybe somebody else on here can explain the interface better)... actually if I remember right, in the tutorial videos they now have a video that explains how the interface works - try to check that out.
 

kashwashwa

Neo Member
Why their promotion on the 1 year subscription is only valid for new accounts is beyond me... how many people really want to commit to that up front?

I'd consider re-subscribing at that price since I'd have the additional tracks associated to my account, but I'm not creating a new account for that price alone.
 

stewy

Member
Mister Zimbu said:
Am I looking at something wrong or is literally every series scheduled on the exact same date?

Overall I did the 3 month trial promo deal. While the driving in and of itself is fun, the fact that if you're not available Tuesdays you miss out on a huge chunk of the online component is hugely disappointing to me.

I just joined. From what I've seen, the races for the series I'm able to race run every evening, hourly. I've raced on tuesday, thursday, and saturday nights so far.

Their scheduling interface is pretty awful.
 
kashwashwa said:
Why their promotion on the 1 year subscription is only valid for new accounts is beyond me... how many people really want to commit to that up front?

I'd consider re-subscribing at that price since I'd have the additional tracks associated to my account, but I'm not creating a new account for that price alone.

I'm not sure what promotion you're talking about, but they currently have a renewal deal going on right now where if you renew for a year, you'll get $30 in iRacing credits. The offer expires end of day GMT, May 31st. That basically makes it $69/year, since you'll get $30 in credits for each year you pay to renew.

Here's what the email says:

"Whether your membership expires this month or next year or you already let it expire, you can still take advantage of this great deal. When you purchase another year it will be added to the length of your subscription so don’t worry about losing time. Feel free to extend by two or three years as well, you’ll get $30 iRacing credits for each year you extend (be sure to choose multiple one year subscriptions in order to qualify).

To take advantage of this offer simply extend your membership by a year, we will do the rest. We’ll email you a promo code for the $30 iRacing credits on June 3rd.

Offer is good for existing accounts only. Offer expires May 31, 2011 at 23:59 GMT. Only 1-year renewals count towards promotion, however, multiple 1-year renewals are allowed on the same account. A 2-year renewal is not eligible for the bonus credits."
 
I find it pretty interesting that they've continually "delayed"* it week after week but now they feel confident on a date that is almost 2 weeks out. I hope for their sake they hit it.



*I put delayed in quotes because they never really had a firm release date other than when they stated "early May".
 

stewy

Member
I love the iRacing service, but it's been completely unplayable for me for the last three weeks. My "skew" rating goes through the roof whenever I get out on the track with any other users, to the point that the game can't even record lap times for me.

I know some other users are having similar problems, but they seem to be limited to specific tracks. So far for me, it's happening no matter where I go.

Anyone else on here running into anything like this?
 

stewy

Member
Still unplayable for me at this point. I'm ready to just let the subscription run out.

It's a shame, because when it was working, iRacing was a blast.
 

Frawdder

Member
Turned a few laps in the Nationwide at Road America a little while ago. The New Tyre Model feels really, really good. The car itself is a bit of a handful to drive but the tyres grip the road nicely and doesn't feel like your driving on a slippery surface. As such the control I have over the car is much greater than with the 2009 Impala, when I've gone in too hot into a corner or am a bit loose under braking I still feel like I've got total control and can recover the car instead of parking it deep into a wall.

Even after the handful of laps I've done, I'm really looking forward to 2.0 more because I can't wait for this to be applied to all the cars.
 

Orgun

Member
Frawdder said:
Turned a few laps in the Nationwide at Road America a little while ago. The New Tyre Model feels really, really good. The car itself is a bit of a handful to drive but the tyres grip the road nicely and doesn't feel like your driving on a slippery surface. As such the control I have over the car is much greater than with the 2009 Impala, when I've gone in too hot into a corner or am a bit loose under braking I still feel like I've got total control and can recover the car instead of parking it deep into a wall.

Even after the handful of laps I've done, I'm really looking forward to 2.0 more because I can't wait for this to be applied to all the cars.

That's great to hear! I was going to give the it a whirl last night but was too lazy to setup my wheel :) Looking forward to a few laps this evening.
 

kashwashwa

Neo Member
Is the new tire model applied to all vehicles? For some reason, the press release made it sound like it's just for the new Nationwide...
 

Arucardo

Member
Awesome, just got a mail offering 3 months for the price of one again for re-subscribing to the service. I was just thinking about jumping back on board earlier today, but decided to hold off for a bit more. I'll def. jump back in tomorrow or the day after.
 
kashwashwa said:
Is the new tire model applied to all vehicles? For some reason, the press release made it sound like it's just for the new Nationwide...

It is currently ONLY on the new Nationwide car. The NTM is in a "preview" state, i.e. beta. It will not see full release on all cars until very late July/very early August. That's when the official "iRacing 2.0" will see release.
 

HenryHSH

Member
So I logged back on iRacing tonight after about a 4 months hiatus. The experience of driving in iRacing is so incredible. It actually annoys the hell out of me because it's relatively expensive to keep playing and trying out different cars/tracks. I hate that it doesn't feel like a game (which it obviously isn't), but I would kill for a GT5-or-Forza-like game running on iRacing's sim engine.

Driving the Williams F1 around Silverstone is a blast. I wish we could set up a Gaf race but their pay model for custom races is absurd. If we ever do race, it better be with road cars! I'm a 2.5 rookie in ovals. :p
 

Branson

Member
HenryHSH said:
So I logged back on iRacing tonight after about a 4 months hiatus. The experience of driving in iRacing is so incredible. It actually annoys the hell out of me because it's relatively expensive to keep playing and trying out different cars/tracks. I hate that it doesn't feel like a game (which it obviously isn't), but I would kill for a GT5-or-Forza-like game running on iRacing's sim engine.

Driving the Williams F1 around Silverstone is a blast. I wish we could set up a Gaf race but their pay model for custom races is absurd. If we ever do race, it better be with road cars! I'm a 2.5 rookie in ovals. :p

I actually wish we had a GAF league like some do with GT5 here. I think the pricing model is fine personally, it actually went down in price recently, too.
 

Orgun

Member
Got a discount code for a years sub - £40. So I resubcribed :) currently burning around zandvoort in a skip barber doodadh
 
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