iRacing: The race that changed my mind!

> I can assure you that when I pull off the racing line it's never a last
> minute or sudden thing... I always do it well ahead of someone filling my
> mirrors. I agree it would be unfair to do that if a driver is close.

I don't "rent" iRacing, but some of these posts have made me curious. Is
the view in iRacing restrictive enough that you can't see far enough ahead
to avoid slower moving cars? I know than in NR2003 I use hood view, for this
very reason, even though it's not realistic. Only a few of use have the money
or the space for a tripple wides screen setup for a proper in car view with
adequate peripheral vision to see far enough ahead in a corner.

I drive a motorcycle in real life, and one of the issues was getting used to
looking a 1/4 turn ahead when on circular freeway on or off ramps (for
safety reasons to scan for potential problems ahead), while maintaining an
proper distance from the curbs, since lane position on a motorcycle is an
indirect combination of lean angle and distance traveled, and by looking
ahead, your using peripheral vision to see your lean angle.

> The fourth race was a farce. My video locked up twice in warmup for a few
> seconds, resulting in a crash.

I leave the sides off on my computer (it's a mid-sized tower). It turns out to
be quieter because the fans run at slower speed. Also, I'm using an Intel
Core 2 X6800 (not overclocked), and the specs state that the in case temperature
needs to be below 40C, which is a temperature that the room the computer is in
never exceeds.

(jeffareid) wrote:

> I don't "rent" iRacing, but some of these posts have made me
> curious. Is the view in iRacing restrictive enough that you
> can't see far enough ahead to avoid slower moving cars?

The view ahead is very good indeed into the distance. There's no 'cut off'
and no excuse for not seeing exactly where people are on the track.
Anticipating where they;re going next may be a different matter. :-)

The view backwards in the Skippy's excellent too. A combination of the
'artificial' mirror at the top of the screen (optional), wing mirrors,
and the F3 list of real-time relative driver positions give you pretty
good spacial awareness.

While I'm here I'm going to repeat what I've said before... despite its
annoying limitations and the purgatory that is the Solstice, I think
every road racer (I can't really talk about ovals) should invest a month
and the $50 it'll cost (altogether) to get into a Skippy.

This morning I've reinstalled N2003 and have been very impressed by it
running with everything maxxed out. If I dump iRacing for a while,
that'll scratch the oval itch very nicely. But I've just been quickly
through GTL, rFactor, GTR2, and LFS(z), then back to a test in the Skippy,
and *nothing* gives me the same sense of car control as I get in the
Skippy... Apart from the neutered first gear (no wheel spin possible) it
really does seem to be the son-of-GPL.

Of course this might be the best reason for *not* trying iRacing. :-) I
did also try GPL again after sorting out some sound problems I had which
stopped me trying it. But the 36fps now seems too flickery for comfort.

How easily spoiled we become in our old age! :-)

Andrew McP

PS I don't think I've mentioned before, but I *hate* the 'iRacing' name...
it's far too Apple wannabee. I also hate calling the Skip Barber 2000 the
'Skippy'. It's a bad habit and I've adopted this shorthand like just
about everyone else on iRacing. I will try to use SB2K instead from now
on. That way I can stop humming Skippy, Skippy, Skippy the bush kangaroo
every time I type it.

(jeffareid) wrote:

> I leave the sides off on my computer (it's a mid-sized tower). It
> turns out to be quieter because the fans run at slower speed.

I'm pretty sure my problems weren't heat-related in this instance. But I
do often run without the case side on during hot weather. My games
machine is built for speed rather than peace & quiet though (despite
having no need to overclock the E6600 since I stop flying flight sims so
often), so it's noisy with the side on, and even noisier with it off.

Although a 2 box solution can be a pain at times, having this quiet PC
for main use suits me very well.

Andrew McP

> While I'm here I'm going to repeat what I've said before... despite its
> annoying limitations and the purgatory that is the Solstice, I think
> every road racer (I can't really talk about ovals) should invest a month
> and the $50 it'll cost (altogether) to get into a Skippy.

Two issues for me. I stopped being into realism once I realized that no
PC based simulator is going to truly capture that final 5% or so of how a
real car will respond when at or past the limits, which varies in the real
world depending on the car and tires involved. There are just too many
very complicated dnamic factors involved to be able to calculate them all
even with the huge amount of cpu power in todays' PC's, and for me, these
games will just end up "getting close but not quite there".

The other main issue is that I like to keep my all my games and replays,
occasionally going back and replaying them (I recenlty redid NFS Undergrond
2's career mode, and ran a few laps with GPL at Kyalami with the Lotus),
which is something I could never do with a rental game.

Someday I might try iRacing, but in it's current state, flaws like the
Mazda getting normal downforce while sliding sideways tells me that there's
a lot more than just tweaking of parameters required to "fix" issues like this.

I bought an LFS S1 license when it came out, because I owned a Caterham
SV at the time and was expecting the LX6 in LFS to have the same cool
go kart like feel, but the LFS S1 version didn't come close and the car
was very unforgiving, and in general significantly different in how
it handled than the real thing (there is a large parking lot nearby
formerly used for Pro Solo Autocrossing and I could get in a lot of
laps or better still time on the small and large figure 8 tracks used
to teach driving at the limits). I was very dissappointed, and the major
physics issues weren't fixed until about a year ago with version "V" of S2,
and it still doesn't come close to the real thing.

On Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:01:09 GMT, Maat wrote:
> (Andrew MacPherson) wrote in
> ddress_disguised:
>
>> Well, maybe. This is *me* we're talking about. ;-)
>
> You had to write a novel just to tell us that you kinda like iRacing?

I for one enjoy Andy's reports. If you don't, killfile him and be done
with it.

Thanks!


--

On Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:40 +0100 (BST), Andrew MacPherson wrote:
> lid (Maat) wrote:
>
>> You had to write a novel just to tell us that you kinda like
>> iRacing?
>
> Some people go for long walks to digest their thoughts, or drink to
> celebrate their happiness. I tent to write my thoughts down for complete
> strangers to be bored to death by.
>
> I can only apologise when I get a 'little' carried away. It's easy enough
> to ignore my posts though. :-)
>

Keep'em coming, Andy, it's always good to read from somebody who still
takes the time to sit and down put some structure into his writing
more than the usual OMGWTFLOLZ!!11Eleventy drivel. Now get off my lawn. ;-)


Cheers, Uwe




--

(Andrew MacPherson) wrote in
ddress_disguised:

> Some people go for long walks to digest their thoughts, or drink to
> celebrate their happiness. I tent to write my thoughts down for complete
> strangers to be bored to death by.
>
> I can only apologise when I get a 'little' carried away. It's easy enough
> to ignore my posts though. :-)
>
> Andrew McP
>
>

OK. But IMO a good writer says as much as they can in as few words as they
can. That's why IMO Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishmwent is a much better
book than The Brothers Karamazov. Reading The Brothers Karamazov is like
reading a long winded soap opera, sort of like your post was.

(jeffareid) wrote:

> Someday I might try iRacing, but in it's current state, flaws like
> the Mazda getting normal downforce while sliding sideways tells me
> that there's a lot more than just tweaking of parameters required
> to "fix" issues like this.

I can't argue with that, or your other points.

Reflecting on a week of highs (ok, high) & lows online, I still think
I'll probably quit iRacing next week. But I'm glad I tried it, and I
think it is -- in the same way that GPL was -- well ahead of the
competition in terms of physics and the 'feel' of the car underneath you.
The combination of aural and force feedback, and the responsiveness of
the cars (well, the SB2K anyway) is well worth experiencing.

However there are, indeed, many flaws, and I think they're definitely
pushing their luck by opening the doors to the general simming public at
this stage. I suspect this is only happening because of poor take-up on
the invites (%-age wise) leading to a smaller racing pool than required
to drive the service at other than peak times. There's too much wheat
online, and not enough chaff like me. :-) Though until they adopt a mass
market, two-tier structure I think that will always be the case. Weekend
racers like myself will struggle to find motivation

I wish the project well though, and I suspect I'll find it very hard to
replace on my HD.

Andrew McP

lid (Maat) wrote:

> But IMO a good writer says as much as they can in as few words as
> they can.

I agree. Thankfully I have never claimed to be a good writer. Like my
racing, it is more enthusiastic than accomplished. ;-)

Andrew McP