IRacing - a rookies 3 week report

In Sum: not bad, I'll continue supporting it

Me: I've been sim racing since sometime before GPL. I was also involved with
online aircombat sims going back to the $2/hour days so pay to play doesn't
bother me much. The question is always; do I receive value for my money? I'm
not particularly good at racing but I enjoy it and look for a good race
rather than an affirmation of any sim racing god fantasies I might have.
I've got the sort of job that makes it difficult to commit to a set league
race time so the possibility of organized and moderated pick up racing is
really attractive to me. My favourite televised racing isn't the big deal F1
NASCAR or other big league stuff but the SCCA runoffs where all the amateurs
go to fight it out for nothing more than bragging rights.


Install: painless. Since the sim is run off the central server you are
installing the front end and the graphics files. This is pretty standard
stuff going back to late '80's with Air Warrior. Updates are part of the
sign in process so you'll always be playing the same version as everyone
else.


Configuration: easy. A series of steps guides you through the basic setup
while also taking the opportunity to introduce you to the IRAcing sporting
code. (Hint: while a basic graphics setup is performed at this step you
should, on entering your first practise session, go to the ingame options
panel, graphic tab and adjust things to your satisfaction. In my case the
basic setup only utilized 128 of my graphics cards onboard memory. Changing
this to its proper value of 512 made a significant difference)


Graphics: This will be dependent on the strength of your machine. Mine is
pretty good so I've got most of the features enabled. Looks good in
that bright Papyrus way. Can't say I prefer it to rFactor or the Simbin
creations but it does look good. I have a solid lock on 60fps (vsynced to my
screen refresh rate) that doesn't vary with the 12 car fields of the rookie
classes


Pre-race and community: the website is more or less the standard thing you'd
expect for any pay as you play online world. It contains
everything you'd expect out of well run league with forums , stats, race
sign up , race type changing etc. All easy to use as it should be since
this sort of stuff ain't exactly cutting edge anymore. Best thing is that I
don't have to administer any of it

The Tracks: excellent. There are no better modeled tracks to be had and I'm
not talking about grandstand placement here.. The racing surface is bumpy
where the originals have bumps and smooth where the originals are smooth.
The feeling as you go over them is really that of a car travelling along a
real road as opposed to the more roller coaster feeling of other sims. Not
to dump on those other sims since I've had plenty of fun with them but once
you've done IRacing the other tracks seem rather characterless. The degree
and expense of modeling them pretty much eliminates any sort of community
track making as seen in rFactor and the Simbins. Unfortunate but if that's
what it takes to get tracks of this level and fidelity then all I can say is
that's the cost of progress. This brings me to what for me is the biggest
drawback and that is that you're unlikely to see any historical tracks such
as old Spa or Rouen or any of the interesting tracks we've come to enjoy
over the last decade. If the track or the car doesn't exist in the present
so that data can be obtained from it then it probably will never be modeled
in IRacing


The Racing: At the rookie level 30 minute (or thereabouts) races are
scheduled every 2 hours with oval race held on the even hours (in my time
zone) and road race held on the odd hours. If you are willing to switch back
and forth between oval and road you can race every hour. Qualifying is
optional though all qualified cars grid ahead of all unqualified cars.
Qualifying is a completely separate session from the race and your
qualifying
time remains in effect for a week so you don't need to qualify for every
race to get the preferential grid spot. Qualifying cars grid according to
their time (well , yeah) while the non-Q cars grid according to their racing
record as reported by your IRating.
When you sign up for a race the software attempts to sort you into groups of
12 or less racers (this is max at rookie level, higher levels have more)
that are grouped according to your previous results. Obviously it takes
several races before the software has enough data to sort you into the
appropriate group but once that had happened I usually end up in a group
whose abilities are reasonably similar to my own which gives the potential
for a decent race. I even managed to win a couple to my complete surprise.
Racing is good and close for the most part. As always there are a few guys
who are of the win-or-bust style but I just try to stay out of their way.
Either I'll pass them propped up against a guard rail somewhere or , if they
really are
as good as they think, they are automatically promoted up into a faster
field where the big dogs can teach them a lesson . Either way they aren't
going to be bothering me for long.


Safety Rating: This is probably the most controversial feature of IRacing.
Lots of people object to being penalized for something that isn't their
fault. If someone overshoots a corner and plows into you you are also
penalized even though you were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It is "unfair". However as a former league steward who had to review race
incidents regularly I can tell you that it is a *lot* of work to assign
responsibility. Certainly I can see no way that IRacing could staff at a
level that would allow review of every driving incident at every race. I
also don't see anyway that you could come up with a software solution of
assigning responsibility without opening the doors to all sorts of gaming
the game on the part of wreckers. There is a protest system in place that
does allow you to get a manual review if warranted. On the whole the
solution they've come up with is the best of those that are reasonably
possible.
Since the SR system is a problem I've been tracking it during my 3 weeks
online. I've come to the conclusion that to lose SR points you have to be
either 1) really inept to the point of driving off road at least once per
lap or 2) a deliberate wrecker or 3) someone who gives up too early in the
race after your incident. You start at a level of 2.5 and you can rise to a
max of 4.99 or to a min of .01 depending on what happens. Its based on some
formula involving # of corners safely navigated per incident. You can go
off track a couple of times per race or even have a serious accident
requiring a reset without downgrading your safety rating as long as you keep
going. The only time I lost SR was when I quit after an accident since I was
no longer accumulating safe corners to change my corner/incident ratio.
Getting through a race with 0 incident points is not uncommon and the boost
from that is much bigger than any loss I ever had. Going from the 2's to the
3's and from the 3's to the 4's you are given extra Safety rating points so
that if you have a bad race in your next race you don't immediately fall
below the line again. It takes *work* to negatively affect your SR to any
degree and that is the sort of person that I want weeded out of my races.
If you get your SR over 3 you can race the advanced rookie cars (same as
rookie cars except there are some suspension adjustments you can fiddle
with) and if you get over 4 you can race Late Models or Skip Barber cars
providing you've bought them. I've managed to get my SR over 4.5 in both
oval and road and in each case it took me less than a week of casual racing
to get it there

The rookie cars: both the rookie Legend (oval) and Solstice (road) are fixed
setup cars so everyone is driving the same vehicle. The Legend is a fun car
to drive and if ovals are your thing you'll get good racing with it and will
be able to advance easily given a modicum of skill and restraint. The
Solstice acts like I'd expect a street car with street tires to act and ,
contrary to the sometimes expressed thought that the "purpose of racing the
Solstice is to get out of the Solstice" I actually enjoy racing it. Sure it
wallows and slides but at least it goes slow enough that my ageing reflexes
can mostly keep up with it. It's not all about sheer speed but more about
the racing which is pretty good. Your opinion may differ.

Money: First month is $20 and I feel that I've got my monies worth so far.
At least 20 races under my belt along with lots of practise and time trails
all at times convenient to myself. The races are rarely boring and some are
positively sweat inducing in their intensity. For the most part the racing
is clean and I 've had more positive experiences than negative. Going with
the year at a time payment reduces your per month cost to $13 (pretty
standard rate for online subscription rate games) and $60 of that $156 is a
credit towards more content. Still money out of pocket but at least you see
something extra for it. The additional cost for more content does stick in
a lot of throats since if you want to go beyond the rookie cars and the
starter tracks you need to buy more cars and tracks. If you go a little
crazy it would be easy to blow a couple of 100 buying everything in sight
but the way I figure it I'll be good to go with the $60 credit for many
months. Considering how much I've spent of graphic cards that are obsolete
within a year the software costs are not that onerous . Particularly so if
the continuity of the software over several years allows a longer life for
the hardware on this computer. We shall see.
As I said before having come from the era of $2/hour flight sims I am not
put out by pay to play as much as some might be. I can see myself enjoying
IRacing as it evolves over the next couple of years . It's a little feature
poor at the moment but that'll come.

DavErb

(DavErb) wrote:

> In Sum: not bad, I'll continue supporting it

Thanks Dave, that's a very informative report.

Andrew McP

I wanna caution those who put forth the notion, or keep saying and comparing
that iRacing is a Pickup Racing venue. It is far from that. Im not saying
you cant look at it that way, but that is much like saying a pocket knife is
a great surgical scalpel.

It's not, and was never intended to be, an pick-up racing service.
Alot of new subscribers seem to have an 'issue' with that - but if they
read the Sporting Code and all the press releases out there... they'll know
that before subscribing.

there are 2 cars you get when you sign up. A Pontiac Solstice (more or less
factory-stock sports car, that you run road courses. And the Legends cars.
your "rookie" licence starts with a 2.0 rating for road and one for Ovals,
which is only good to race in the "rookie" series for both cars. if you
drive without wrecking in races, or time trials, you can move your rating up
to 3.0 this will allow you to race in the NON-ROOKIE series for those 2
cars. each series runs thier own schedules of tracks (like a league, but
everyone just has to race sometime in the 7 days as apposed to say, 5pm
friday evening like leagues usually to at some "set" time during the
week.... when you get up to 4.0 then you can buy and race other cars, while
you are on your rookie license, like latemodels etc. right now Ive only
seen the legends series's, latemodels, solstice, and skip barber car/series
running.

I still hear that, iRacing is looking into ways to implement leagues, which
in a way (I think), will hurt the whole thing for the rest of us non league
types. right now the appeal "to me" is that, you get on one or 2 nights a
week (or all dang day & all week, it doesn't matter) qualify for the race
that week, run a race that week, for one series. Sure,
practice-timetrial-etc infinitely around the two main things, and see
yourself scored pretty fairly with thousands of other drivers.



"DavErb" > wrote in message
news
> In Sum: not bad, I'll continue supporting it
>
> Me: I've been sim racing since sometime before GPL. I was also involved
> with
> online aircombat sims going back to the $2/hour days so pay to play
> doesn't
> bother me much. The question is always; do I receive value for my money?
> I'm
> not particularly good at racing but I enjoy it and look for a good race
> rather than an affirmation of any sim racing god fantasies I might have.
> I've got the sort of job that makes it difficult to commit to a set league
> race time so the possibility of organized and moderated pick up racing is
> really attractive to me. My favourite televised racing isn't the big deal
> F1
> NASCAR or other big league stuff but the SCCA runoffs where all the
> amateurs
> go to fight it out for nothing more than bragging rights.
>
>
> Install: painless. Since the sim is run off the central server you are
> installing the front end and the graphics files. This is pretty standard
> stuff going back to late '80's with Air Warrior. Updates are part of the
> sign in process so you'll always be playing the same version as everyone
> else.
>
>
> Configuration: easy. A series of steps guides you through the basic setup
> while also taking the opportunity to introduce you to the IRAcing sporting
> code. (Hint: while a basic graphics setup is performed at this step you
> should, on entering your first practise session, go to the ingame options
> panel, graphic tab and adjust things to your satisfaction. In my case the
> basic setup only utilized 128 of my graphics cards onboard memory.
> Changing
> this to its proper value of 512 made a significant difference)
>
>
> Graphics: This will be dependent on the strength of your machine. Mine is
> pretty good so I've got most of the features enabled. Looks good in
> that bright Papyrus way. Can't say I prefer it to rFactor or the Simbin
> creations but it does look good. I have a solid lock on 60fps (vsynced to
> my
> screen refresh rate) that doesn't vary with the 12 car fields of the
> rookie
> classes
>
>
> Pre-race and community: the website is more or less the standard thing
> you'd
> expect for any pay as you play online world. It contains
> everything you'd expect out of well run league with forums , stats, race
> sign up , race type changing etc. All easy to use as it should be since
> this sort of stuff ain't exactly cutting edge anymore. Best thing is that
> I
> don't have to administer any of it
>
> The Tracks: excellent. There are no better modeled tracks to be had and
> I'm
> not talking about grandstand placement here.. The racing surface is bumpy
> where the originals have bumps and smooth where the originals are smooth.
> The feeling as you go over them is really that of a car travelling along a
> real road as opposed to the more roller coaster feeling of other sims. Not
> to dump on those other sims since I've had plenty of fun with them but
> once
> you've done IRacing the other tracks seem rather characterless. The degree
> and expense of modeling them pretty much eliminates any sort of community
> track making as seen in rFactor and the Simbins. Unfortunate but if that's
> what it takes to get tracks of this level and fidelity then all I can say
> is
> that's the cost of progress. This brings me to what for me is the biggest
> drawback and that is that you're unlikely to see any historical tracks
> such
> as old Spa or Rouen or any of the interesting tracks we've come to enjoy
> over the last decade. If the track or the car doesn't exist in the present
> so that data can be obtained from it then it probably will never be
> modeled
> in IRacing
>
>
> The Racing: At the rookie level 30 minute (or thereabouts) races are
> scheduled every 2 hours with oval race held on the even hours (in my time
> zone) and road race held on the odd hours. If you are willing to switch
> back
> and forth between oval and road you can race every hour. Qualifying is
> optional though all qualified cars grid ahead of all unqualified cars.
> Qualifying is a completely separate session from the race and your
> qualifying
> time remains in effect for a week so you don't need to qualify for every
> race to get the preferential grid spot. Qualifying cars grid according to
> their time (well , yeah) while the non-Q cars grid according to their
> racing
> record as reported by your IRating.
> When you sign up for a race the software attempts to sort you into groups
> of
> 12 or less racers (this is max at rookie level, higher levels have more)
> that are grouped according to your previous results. Obviously it takes
> several races before the software has enough data to sort you into the
> appropriate group but once that had happened I usually end up in a group
> whose abilities are reasonably similar to my own which gives the potential
> for a decent race. I even managed to win a couple to my complete
> surprise.
> Racing is good and close for the most part. As always there are a few
> guys
> who are of the win-or-bust style but I just try to stay out of their way.
> Either I'll pass them propped up against a guard rail somewhere or , if
> they
> really are
> as good as they think, they are automatically promoted up into a faster
> field where the big dogs can teach them a lesson . Either way they aren't
> going to be bothering me for long.
>
>
> Safety Rating: This is probably the most controversial feature of IRacing.
> Lots of people object to being penalized for something that isn't their
> fault. If someone overshoots a corner and plows into you you are also
> penalized even though you were merely in the wrong place at the wrong
> time.
> It is "unfair". However as a former league steward who had to review race
> incidents regularly I can tell you that it is a *lot* of work to assign
> responsibility. Certainly I can see no way that IRacing could staff at a
> level that would allow review of every driving incident at every race. I
> also don't see anyway that you could come up with a software solution of
> assigning responsibility without opening the doors to all sorts of gaming
> the game on the part of wreckers. There is a protest system in place that
> does allow you to get a manual review if warranted. On the whole the
> solution they've come up with is the best of those that are reasonably
> possible.
> Since the SR system is a problem I've been tracking it during my 3 weeks
> online. I've come to the conclusion that to lose SR points you have to be
> either 1) really inept to the point of driving off road at least once per
> lap or 2) a deliberate wrecker or 3) someone who gives up too early in the
> race after your incident. You start at a level of 2.5 and you can rise to
> a
> max of 4.99 or to a min of .01 depending on what happens. Its based on
> some
> formula involving # of corners safely navigated per incident. You can go
> off track a couple of times per race or even have a serious accident
> requiring a reset without downgrading your safety rating as long as you
> keep
> going. The only time I lost SR was when I quit after an accident since I
> was
> no longer accumulating safe corners to change my corner/incident ratio.
> Getting through a race with 0 incident points is not uncommon and the
> boost
> from that is much bigger than any loss I ever had. Going from the 2's to
> the
> 3's and from the 3's to the 4's you are given extra Safety rating points
> so
> that if you have a bad race in your next race you don't immediately fall
> below the line again. It takes *work* to negatively affect your SR to any
> degree and that is the sort of person that I want weeded out of my races.
> If you get your SR over 3 you can race the advanced rookie cars (same as
> rookie cars except there are some suspension adjustments you can fiddle
> with) and if you get over 4 you can race Late Models or Skip Barber cars
> providing you've bought them. I've managed to get my SR over 4.5 in both
> oval and road and in each case it took me less than a week of casual
> racing
> to get it there
>
> The rookie cars: both the rookie Legend (oval) and Solstice (road) are
> fixed
> setup cars so everyone is driving the same vehicle. The Legend is a fun
> car
> to drive and if ovals are your thing you'll get good racing with it and
> will
> be able to advance easily given a modicum of skill and restraint. The
> Solstice acts like I'd expect a street car with street tires to act and ,
> contrary to the sometimes expressed thought that the "purpose of racing
> the
> Solstice is to get out of the Solstice" I actually enjoy racing it. Sure
> it
> wallows and slides but at least it goes slow enough that my ageing
> reflexes
> can mostly keep up with it. It's not all about sheer speed but more about
> the racing which is pretty good. Your opinion may differ.
>
> Money: First month is $20 and I feel that I've got my monies worth so far.
> At least 20 races under my belt along with lots of practise and time
> trails
> all at times convenient to myself. The races are rarely boring and some
> are
> positively sweat inducing in their intensity. For the most part the racing
> is clean and I 've had more positive experiences than negative. Going with
> the year at a time payment reduces your per month cost to $13 (pretty
> standard rate for online subscription rate games) and $60 of that $156 is
> a
> credit towards more content. Still money out of pocket but at least you
> see
> something extra for it. The additional cost for more content does stick in
> a lot of throats since if you want to go beyond the rookie cars and the
> starter tracks you need to buy more cars and tracks. If you go a little
> crazy it would be easy to blow a couple of 100 buying everything in sight
> but the way I figure it I'll be good to go with the $60 credit for many
> months. Considering how much I've spent of graphic cards that are obsolete
> within a year the software costs are not that onerous . Particularly so if
> the continuity of the software over several years allows a longer life for
> the hardware on this computer. We shall see.
> As I said before having come from the era of $2/hour flight sims I am not
> put out by pay to play as much as some might be. I can see myself enjoying
> IRacing as it evolves over the next couple of years . It's a little
> feature
> poor at the moment but that'll come.
>
> DavErb
>
>
>