WRC To Crown Virtual Rally Champion In New Sim

Back in June, I published first news about a new World Rally Championship simulation that is planned to be released in 2011.

As reported back then, a key-feature of the new WRC sim will be iOpener’s Realtime-Racing technology, allowing virtual racers to go head to the head with WRC stars like Sebastien Loeb & Mikko Hirvonen.

Players will not just be able to start the same stages the same time the real drivers do, the virtual champion is also planned to be receiving the same honors as the real-life WRC according to ISC chairman Neil Duncanson as revealed in an interview for the WRC website.:

“When I explained this plan to [FIA president] Max Mosley, he was very taken with the idea. And he has offered me the opportunity, when we get this up and running, to award a trophy to the winner of the on-line World Rally Championship at the same time that we are handing out the actual silverware to the world champions at the FIA’s awards evening in Monte Carlo.”

The new WRC simulation is planned to be released in 2011 as a multi-platform title for both gaming consoles and PC. Other than iOpener’s involvement in this project, no development studio has been revealed for the new title yet.

GTOmegaRacing.com

  • scca1981

    As long as its not made by Codemasters or Blackbean we should be ok :cool:

    One could speculate maybe Simbin might even have a hand in it considering their past partnerships with FIA and their recent partnership with iOpener.

  • JocoG

    Looking forward to that :)

  • AmericanTGMan

    Now we just have to wait and see if Ari Vatanen or Jean Todt like the idea as well… :tongue:

  • ForzaBarca88

    Im still a bit fuzzy on this iOpener concept – do the tracks (stages in this case) and the physics of the car need to be just about perfectly replicated for it to work correctly? Awesome idea but its pretty ambitious considering even our most hardcore sims have realism issues….
    And apparently it will be multiplatform as well :eek: Anyways, I do hope they get Eero Piitulainen (RBR main physics guy) involved somehow.

  • Sensekhmet

    I agree. It’s simply impossible today to make a PEFECT simulation of a real rally car, and more importantly, a real rally stage.
    And even if it would be possible, take Rally of Poland for example. 30 kilometer stage, Citroen C4 WRC, 216kph on the clock in places… no one would able to pull it off, save maybe for the factory drivers themselves.
    There’s got to be a catch here somewhere.

  • yztop2002

    I have been leading the development team which will make the reproduction of the stage perfectly possible. Dev started 2004. Global launch of the technology on BBC1 and BBC Worldwide TV in Week 1 October.

    It is a completely new technology which has never been seen before for the creation of simulations..

    We are looking for several administrators to maintain a forum and perhaps blog. If anyone fancies it drop me an email with past experience

  • Uff

    ForzaBarca88:
    Anyways, I do hope they get Eero Piitulainen (RBR main physics guy) involved somehow.

    Considering that the now works for Slightly Mad Studios, it’s a bit difficult to make it happen. :wink:

  • Peregrinne

    iOpener doesn’t need realistic physics, it can be used with any racer from arcade to sim. All iOpener does is plot the position, speed, and acceleration of a recorded car on track at any give time (maybe some other things too). The racing game/sim provides the track, cars and physics to race against the recorded iOpener opponent.

  • Sensekhmet

    But unless you have the exact same conditions (car, track, weather, etc.) how can you enable gamers to replicate real data?

  • gtrNL

    God I’m hoping this will be the new RBR.

    And iOpener doesn’t mean it has to be perfect when it comes to realism.
    So what the real drivers take 16 minutes for a stage and the digital racer takes 10 minutes for the same stage. He doesn’t have to beat the real drivers. He just gets a price if he wins from the other digital racers.
    At least, that’s what I understand from the concept.

  • Sensekhmet

    So what’s the point of iOpener if it isn’t accurate? You could just post real driver’s times and save yourself the trouble.

  • joseki

    I’m afraid that RBR was the first and the last decent rallye sim ever but I would be grateful if some title gets even half way of that master piece.

  • Peregrinne

    Sensekhmet:
    So what’s the point of iOpener if it isn’t accurate? You could just post real driver’s times and save yourself the trouble.

    There seems to be a misconception about the function of iOpener. iOpener essentially a plugin for a racing game that allows you to import saved races. It plots the recorded drivers locations over the course of the race. You then race against these recorded drivers.

  • Sensekhmet

    Exactly. But it still requires a perfect mirror of the real location and vehicle, deosn’t it? Unless it’s just racing drivers playing racing games and recording their ghosts.

  • Peregrinne

    No, it is neither. Conceptually it doesn’t require much, besides an accurate representation of the track. You seem to be looking at iOpener as it it is the sim itself. It is only a recording. Ultimately the realism of the end user experience is wholey dependany on the realism of the game running it. If you are running an ultra realistic racing sim, you should potentially have the capability to match the recorded driver lap time for lap time (if you’re good enough). If you are running it inside an arcade racer, your pace will be dictated by the game itself, so you may run much faster or slower. I would imagine that there would be some form of compensation in place with arcade racers to make sure you can’t just blow your opponents away, making the exercise trivial. Anything I might say about that, though is pure speculation, as I’m only familiar with the concept of iOpener, not how it will be implemented into each game.

  • Sensekhmet

    Ah, so here’s the catch I was reffering to. Potentially, in the worst case scenario, iOpener can function with cell phone racing games.

  • Peregrinne

    I don’t know why you see that being a bad thing. The intention of iOpener is to bring the fan closer to their favourite racing series than thay have every been before. Some of us only like realistic sims, but there is no need for us to turn our noses up or scoff at those who prefer the arcade racer variety. The fact that someone enjoys racing an FIA GT feed on Need for Speed or, for arguement’s sake, their iPhone, in no way impacts my ability to enjoy racing the same feed in GTR2 or whatever future supported sim takes my fancy. To each their own. You will not be racing people on PS3s or mobile phones while you drive your PC based simulator. You’re racing the recorded opponents, not everyone else who also wishes to rach those opponents as well.

  • Sensekhmet

    I don’t see it as ‘bad’, but I think it’s understandable that as a simracer I will see it as dissapointing if it really turns out to be an arcade platform. All the comments about ‘scoffing’ and ‘holding my nose up’ are really unnecessary. It’s clear you don’t know my opinion on arcade racing games so please, keep such comments to yourself.

  • Peregrinne

    Sensekhmet: , but I think it’s understandable that as a simracer I will see it as dissapointing if it really turns out to be an arcade platform.

    I made those comments because you comtinue to make statements like that. iOpener is not an arcade platform, or any platform. As I mentioned above it is a method of recording real world races to be played back and participated in within any supporting simulation. If you only care about sim racing, why should you care of other people who don’t get to enjoy the experience themselves too within their arcade racer? It doesn’t impact you in any way or detract from any enjoyment you might get from your sim racing. iOpener records the races and provides them to people to download and replay within their preferred racing platform.

  • yztop2002

    Argghh my post being ignored. Watch BBC1 Week 1 October.

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