It’s Williams. Okay? This isn’t McLaren or Ferrari. A comparatively small lately mid pack team. It isn’t likely that somehow a virtual version of their car will suddenly make the competition faster than them.

Who has actually seen the values that are going into the iRacing sim? I for one havent. Yes, with the ISI based sims I can open em all up and see what values are going where, but I don’t know anyone who has done the same with iRacing.

Plus it’s LAST YEARS car. People who think it’s absurd clearly don’t recognize just how fast F1 is constantly moving. If Williams showed up with the FW31 adjusted for next year @ Bahrain – no development or tweaking – they’d likely be near the back, if not the back. Consumer technology outdates itself fast – imagine F1 cutting edge technology.

Huttu vs Schumacher

Hawk: A Williams F1 employee who works on the teams simulator has been posting in the iRacing forums.

Hawk, good post. Yes, and he said he’s been on the Williams simulator for more laps than the drivers.

I also heard Williams had laser scanned some of the F1 tracks. Not sure if this is accurate though. Maybe someone could confirm. If so, then maybe the might share the laser scan data for some F1 tracks like they did with the 3D Cad Cam data for the Williams F1 car.

I’m very excited about this, other than Geoff Crammonds GP2 this is the only sim/game I know of that will get the same level of technical input from a Formula 1 team. With the data that we’ll be giving iracing it should be the first realistic sim of a modern day F1 car (instead of the games guesstimates)..they’re getting the 3D CAD data.

If iracing go down to the level of detail I’d like then we’ll be able to:

1) have a movable front wing flap from the cockpit (as per the real car)
2) No KERs as Williams didn’t run it (even though the wheel has a KERS button on it!)
3) adjust the Diff for entry/mid/exit
4) adjust engine torque and Engine braking
5) adjust clutch maps
6) movable brake balance bar (a must really)

With regards to the 3D CAD data, let’s just say I know because I do!

Yes I am a WilliamsF1 employee

The reason I’m here is because of this announcement and I’m quite keen for iracing to make this the best F1 sim out there.

Well I’m not expert on iracing as I’ve only just started to have a play. When we spoke to the guys at iracing they seemed pretty enthusiastic to add as much as possible and if I’ve got anything to do with it then I hope they can add it all including exactly how the dash works! No doubt there will be some compromises because iracing won’t have the time to put everything in.

I’m lucky enough to work on the simulator and I get to drive it more often than our race drivers so I know how the car handles and what each button does, it would be great to see this in game (sorry sim!), because the Dash is now standard McLaren electronics each team has the same display meaning there is no conflict of competitive advantage being given to another team. I remember the days when I couldn’t even say I was working on the simulator!

FooAtari:
If they are working closely with Williams, their drivers may test it… Justin Wilson has vouched for the Indycar in iRacing. True it can only be so realistic, but he has stated it’s a fairly good representation.

My point wasn’t really that the car wasn’t realistic or that it isn’t verified to be realistic by a real driver but that average person, even one with track experience isn’t going to know the difference. I personally don’t find enjoyment driving F1 mods because I can’t relate it to any real life track experience I have had. But that’s just me.

ChadSmith2: [b]pleb[/b]
For the people who don’t agree with the price; Really it is not too bad.
Buy a year sub. for $99, comes out to $8/month.

Chad2, and don’t forget you can earn up to $10 particpation credit by doing as little as 2 races per week for 8 of 12 weeks. That’s $40 a year of credits off the $99. :-)

I don’t really know what type of games/sims you like, but iRacing isn’t for everyone.

You mentioned driving offline or with friends. You are able to test, by yourself, still requires an internet connection though.

Then if you want to gather your friends and drive around with them, iRacing offers hosted sessions. Although, they do cost $3 dollars per session, sessions can last up to 4 hours.

They also off open practice sessions where you can just jump right in a session and start driving. No pressure, just have fun turn some laps.

For the people who don’t agree with the price; Really it is not too bad.

Buy a year sub. for $99, comes out to $8/month. The only real cost is the cars and tracks, but they will add up after you have been with a service for awhile.

If you don’t have a certain car or track for this week just race another car/track combo. That is how I started out. I just jumped from series to series, it added variety. Now that I own close to 100% I stick to just the Corvette and Indy Car.

They may be missing some features right now, but all of that stuff is going to be added. The cool thing is iRacing actually listens to the members. That is one of the great advantages to having the forum strictly for iRacing members.

You should give it a try for at least a month.

Also, as a guy who does trackdays – found open practice – though not racing – very entertaining, and in fact a great place to develop many skills.

The only reason I’m back driving GPL/GTR2 offline now is I need to race with *different* cars on track for awhile – sitting in a field of identical cars every time has grown old. Noticeably – i don’t even bother to look for an online race/practice session – without iRacings structure i doubt that I’d like it much.

pleb:I’m yet to back down on the argument that Codemasters F1 2010 will be purly arcade. I try not to judge artists on previous work, if that work was aimed at a particular crowed which was not myself.

I’d love to share your optimism but based on the success of Dirt 2 and Grid I will be astonished if F1 2010 doesn’t use the same engine and have very similar physics. At best I think it will be a sim/arcade hybrid. Where it feels quite real, but is easy to drive. These games can be a lot of fun, but a very different to a proper sim

I saw the interview recently with iRacing dev’s and heard them mention possible AI with iRacing, but that racing offline vs AI was quite a way off yet. Maybe that is something that will tempt me to try it out, depending on the success of rfactor 2 and/or Codemasters F1. Obviously the thing that’s appealing to me about the likes of rfactor 2, is that i pay once for the product, and then it’s mine for good, i can use it offline (which suits my working hours) and is updated oftern with free mods by the community. (oftern bad, but now n then we get gems which are a delight to drive)

I’m yet to back down on the argument that Codemasters F1 2010 will be purly arcade. I try not to judge artists on previous work, if that work was aimed at a particular crowed which was not myself.

The problem they have to overcome is one that plagues NFS Shift and such like, and that’s that something very pretty with some not-so-bad physics can be a very grey area, with people on both sides arguing to death wether its feel is accurate to real-life or not.

pleb: “As for your “…personally I don’t do subscriptions” comment my guess is you do? Do you own a cell phone? How about cable tv or satellite? Gym membership?”Ok, maybe i worded it wrong by saying ‘period’.I own a cell phone, but that’s a nessecity, and i dont get it taken off me if i can’t afford top-ups in 12 months, and i can always recieve calls wether i have credit on it or not. Not all sub-based systems are the same.iRacing has no offline option if you don’t pay the subs, as far as im aware?I don’t own Cable, i get my tv channels Freeview, but living in England, i have to pay my TV licence.I don’t have a gym membership as i have a modest home multi-gym that im content with.I understand the point you’re making, but not all sub-based systems are comparable.
Personally i would like to try iRacing, but i would only do so on the basis that i could race offline, which as far as im aware, isn’t happening, atleast not for a long time?
I think in the 15 or so year’s i’ve been racing ’sims’, i can count the amount of time’s i’ve raced online with 1 hand. I’ve generally always raced around circuits on my own playing around with set-up. I know im probably in a small minorty, but, that’s me, and that’s why i probably won’t be subbing to iRacing, atleast for the time being.

Pleb, I think you’re reasons for not joining iRacing are legitimate and I’m glad you realize subscription based iRacing is just another type of business model. It is not necessarily more profitable than any other business model or necessarily a ripoff by definition.

No offline racing is a big issue if you don’t enjoy online racing. I can understand how you feel. iRacing does have test mode where you just race by yourself, but you still need to have an internet connection. And test mode isn’t a ton of fun… Most iRacers use practice mode where you practice with others, but again you need to be online. Practice mode is quite a bit of fun, because there is a leaderboard for each session where you can compare your times to the others in the same practice session.

I understand the enjoyment you can get with offline AI racing. iRacing has said they will have offline AI racing, but my guess is it’s 1 year away or so. Dave Kaemmer and team have had AI in all 20 plus sims he’s created except for iRacing, so it’s just a matter of time and I believe they’ll do a fine job with AI racing when it does happen.

On the subject of online connections, there is one big advantage to requiring an online connection at all times, they do a lot of checking for cheats. Combine that with iRacing not allowing mods and you have a solid service without some of the server crash issues you get with rFactor and GTR2 etc. It’s very plug and play and cheats would be very hard to implement. Certainly on the level of some of our previous sims.

I think when iRacing does have offline AI racing it will bring in more offline racers like yourself. I expect they’ll integrate offline and online leaderboards, qualifying, essentially merging the two worlds and the online racing will be just a click away. It should be easy to compare your times with the online iRacers in the same cars and tracks and spectating races will be easy. Spectating races will already happen in 1 weeks time with the next build, so it’s going to will be easy to see how much more interesting online racing is than AI racing. AI racing just can’t match online racing for strategy and variety of styles.

The whole online concept can be intimidating, but for most people, once they jump in it’s very hard to go back to predictable AI drivers only.

Hopefully, you’ll give iRacing a try when AI comes out or sooner. If you want to get your heart pounding online competition is hard to beat. Justin Wilson say’s he gets more nervous before the start of an online race than a real one, because he doesn’t want to mess up and ruin anyone’s race. Online racing is a lot of fun.

Ok, maybe i worded it wrong by saying ‘period’. I own a cell phone, but that’s a nessecity, and i dont get it taken off me if i can’t afford top-ups in 12 months, and i can always recieve calls wether i have credit on it or not. Not all sub-based systems are the same.

iRacing has no offline option if you don’t pay the subs, as far as im aware?

I don’t own Cable, i get my tv channels Freeview, but living in England, i have to pay my TV licence.

I don’t have a gym membership as i have a modest home multi-gym that im content with.

I understand the point you’re making, but not all sub-based systems are comparable.

Personally i would like to try iRacing, but i would only do so on the basis that i could race offline, which as far as im aware, isn’t happening, atleast not for a long time?

I think in the 15 or so year’s i’ve been racing ‘sims’, i can count the amount of time’s i’ve raced online with 1 hand. I’ve generally always raced around circuits on my own playing around with set-up. I know im probably in a small minorty, but, that’s me, and that’s why i probably won’t be subbing to iRacing, atleast for the time being.

ermax18: Even if they got all the data in the world and created an accurate car. How on earth could anyone validate that it is realistic if they have no clue how the real car drives.

If they are working closely with Williams, their drivers may test it… Justin Wilson has vouched for the Indycar in iRacing. True it can only be so realistic, but he has stated it’s a fairly good representation.

pleb:It’s easy to critise people for being too cheap when either A/ your parents pay your way because your not yet old enough to work, or B/ have a well paid job and not too many over-heads / out-goings.Personally I just don’t do subscriptions, period. they can be bottomless pits. My brothers and friends work in the buisness sector. Subs = ch-ching. Especially when you have x amount of content you can pump out every few months/years.

I don’t have a problem with that. If you can’t afford it or don’t think it’s worth it thats fine. But it’s not a reason to go about trolling… Just say, iRacing isn’t for me as I find it expensive. No need to go into every thread and moan and bitch like hell about it.

pleb: “So spare us all your excuses and shut up until you try it or just be honest and say I’m to cheap or poor to do iracing.”It’s easy to critise people for being too cheap when either A/ your parents pay your way because your not yet old enough to work, or B/ have a well paid job and not too many over-heads / out-goings.Personally I just don’t do subscriptions, period. they can be bottomless pits. My brothers and friends work in the buisness sector. Subs = ch-ching. Especially when you have x amount of content you can pump out every few months/years.

Look at all the subscription services like MMORPG’s that have gone out of business. It’s a different business model, but if it was and easy as you say, every software company in the world would have already done it and none would be out of business.

Count the number of failed MMORPG’s as just one example.

Some people have the mistaken assumption that subscription equals rip off. Incorrect.

As for your “…personally I don’t do subscriptions” comment my guess is you do? Do you own a cell phone? How about cable tv or satellite? Gym membership?

I am an iRacing sub. But I haven’t written off rFactor. It you are a pickup racer you will be blown away by iRacing. If you where already a member of a league and used to having quality races then iRacing isn’t as mind blowing.

It’s easy to critise people for being too cheap when either A/ your parents pay your way because your not yet old enough to work, or B/ have a well paid job and not too many over-heads / out-goings.

Personally I just don’t do subscriptions, period. they can be bottomless pits. My brothers and friends work in the buisness sector. Subs = ch-ching. Especially when you have x amount of content you can pump out every few months/years.

It is better for the community, other game developers have to work harder to have a competitive product.

I am not saying I don’t want a best effort to get as realistic as possible. I just get sick of the constant bashing back and forth about rF vs SimBin (rF) vs iRacing.