Quote from The Moose :

Hmm, fair enough. Physics wise i didn't notice a whole lot of difference tbh. Certainly not the massive revolution i expected from all the hype.

That's what I meant. nKPro physics are great, iRacing just has that final bit of polish on it getting rid of the bugs nKPro has like tyres not locking properly under brakes and the car turning into a boat at low speeds in the sand traps.

I didn't really expect a huge revolution in the physics. It's the track detail that makes the difference over LFS, rFactor etc and I think that aspect lives up to the hype. The Eastern Creek laser track is good, but again just lacks that final polish that time and money can bring.

Quote from brianmcd :

That's not true. It's not as cut and dry as that. I think it's based on how many turns you complete versus how many incidents you get, but I could be mistaken. I do know that I've run 0 incident races with no change to my safety rating, and I got a big increase in my safety rating during a race where I had 4 incidents. I just race cleanly and let the safety rating do it's thing, and it seems to work out.

Yes, it's corners per incident. The numbers I stated were just what I, and other people in my club, were getting in the early stages, so it's what people can expect when they start.

In later stages when I had some incidents on my record it got harder to get ratings increases in time trials and qualifying as it took more laps to keep the average down.

Quote :

Edit: Also, different licenses have different requirements for attaining a given safety rating. Once I got the Class D license (the first license after rookie), my safety rating dropped 1.0. This is because the class D license requires fewer incidents per...whatever they base it on, to maintain the same safety rating. Some of the guys who have been in the sim longer kept their 4.9s (maxed out safety rating), because they had few enough incidents to qualify for that.

The rating always drops 1.0 when you go up a license. While the maximum displayed is 4.9, the rating is continually calculated above that internally, so those that were still at 4.9 after the license upgrade must have had 5.9 or higher internally in the system.

Last edited by DarrenMarsh, Fri 6 Jun 2008, 02:42.

Quote from The Moose :

Have you driven nKPro? I'm interested in other peoples comparisons of the feel of both sims. They both feel excellent to me, but i didn't find iRacing significantly better in feel than nKpro like i was hoping. I think that just shows how good nKPro's physics and FF really is.

I've driven nKPro a fair bit and I've been in the iRacing beta. To me iRacing is where netKar PRO would be if it were ever finished and had the extra polish that a larger dev team and budget could bring.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Er, duh! That's going to happen almost immediately with the promise of a Pontiac Solstice that you can't adjust!

Now that the NDA is lifted we should start seeing more information. I'll start with this aspect.

You start in the rookie solstice with a safety rating of 2.4. You get 0.2 for every incident free race and 0.1 for an incident free time trial or qualifying (assuming you do enough laps in those sessions)

With your rating at 3.0 and higher you can race the advanced solstice which you can change the setup on (it also has a softer front arb, so it's much more fun to drive). It took me 2 nights driving to get to that stage.

With your rating at 4.0 or higher you can start driving the next license level up cars, which are the Skip Barbers (which are a lot of fun to drive) It took me a further 2 nights to reach that point.

So although the rookie season is 4 weeks long, it only takes 4-5 evenings and you have 3 series to compete in.

The advanced solstice and the tracks for it's series come in the base subscription. It cost $48 to get all the content needed for the Skip barber series. Easily covered by the $60 free credits you get with a 12 month subscription

Obviously they would have had wider appeal with an MX5/Miata over the Solstice, but it's still a fun car to race.

Last edited by DarrenMarsh, Fri 6 Jun 2008, 02:32.

1) Simracing. I perfer participating than watching.
2) F1
3) Champ Car
4) V8 Supercars

Quote from ajp71 :

Presumably the Radical coming out the pits must have been another car online, doesn't really look like they've got rid of some of the N2003 online issues like the over excessive visual movement you saw when another car lifted or changed gear online which is disappointing.

Looks more like it's going over a bump.

That problem in NR2003 was only on downshifts wasn't it?

Quote from dontsimon :

They came first.

Hehe, good on me for not reading properly

So iRacing only helps you come 2nd. rFactor helps you win

http://rfactor.net/index.php?page=news_06-05rolexdiaz

Quote from ajp71 :

But given the fact that the majority of new racers will be experienced and fairly serious sim racers who are capable and used to running large grids of much faster cars the fact that we won't be able to quickly join big grids is disappointing.

How would they determine who is an experienced racer capable of running in big fields though? Or more importantly, who can race cleanly? With a ranking system you need to start everyone from the same point, though I guess sticking 30 newbies on the grid would soon sort the wheat from the chaff so to speak

Quote from bbman :

You are either retarded or ignorant, your pick...

Or I just realize they aren't selling a sim, they're selling a league. Therefore complaining about them not letting you race is based on a misconception.

Quote :

First, I don't take part in a league that doesn't fit me. Second, if I choose not to take part in one league, I can always find another or start my own. And third, I certainly don't pay for something dictating how I should spend my time!

Then iRacing is probably not for you. No point getting agro about it, is there?

Quote from Linsen :

A maximum of 12 or 14 racers is an appalingly low number, I must say. Very disappointing.

30 for the higher license levels isn't though

Quote from SamH :

Now the simulator is the league.. or the league is the simulator.. or something.

Or it's a league with a bespoke simulator.

With LFS and other sims you pay for the sim and go run your own league/online service.

With iRacing you pay for the league/online service and the sim comes with it.

That's the whole difference between subscription and one off pricing. With one off pricing you're just paying for the game/sim. With subscription pricing you're paying for the online service, not the sim. Running an online service has higher ongoing costs, so the subscription is needed to cover that.

iRacing is double dipping by having the subscription for the online service then having one off payments to buy what you drive online. That's the one aspect of their pricing I'm not keen on, but the free credits should cover most of the extra cost.

Quote from aoun :

Money. The LFS Team seams like the only people out there not driven by it.

And the downside is slow development, no real tracks, few real cars and not much new content since release.

Quote from bbman :

Am I reading the knowledge base right that we're not only robbed of the freedom to choose whom to race, but where (in terms of track) as well???

Show me a league where drivers can drive whatever track they want each round instead of what is determined by the league schedule.

Damn commie league admins, robbing everyone of their freedoms! :thumbsdow

Quote from Christopher Raemisch :

the only two cars that will be available I though for Iracing was a stockcar and legend car. IIRC with Nascar you can get different cars as well.

RF is ok, it just feels funny at the limit and you don't need to be at the limit to learn which corner is next =)

You start with the Legends car and a Pontiac Solstice, which is a road car more akin to a Mazda MX-5 than a stockcar. The other road cars we know about so far are the Skip Barber, Formula Mazda and Radical SR8.

Given the choice, to practice for a real world event I think I'd rather do practice on a reasonably recent laser scanned model of the track than a modders approximation. You might learn more than just what corner is next, which would only take 1 lap at Lime Rock

AstroBoy, you have to decide that for yourself, but imo it's a yay. I'm sure everyone be able to get a better idea of things once the nda lifts and the discussion turns from conjecture to facts

Quote from wien :

Too many businessmen and too few actual developers with a passion for the product.

Spending millions of dollars and several years developing a product which many think won't, or don't want to succeed and which conventional game publishers wouldn't touch with a barge pole must take some passion for the product, don't you think?

Quote from nihil :

making it illegal for me to touch it or change it in any way

Try reading the EULA for just about any piece of proprietry software you've ever installed on your pc, including LFS. You might get a nasty shock

Can you sell your copy of LFS? What about Windows? You don't actually buy software with the right to do anything you want with it, you buy the license to use it. Same with iRacing.

And based on a 12 month subscription it's $156 (80 pounds), plus $60 credit towards extra cars and tracks.

So for the cost of 2 PS3/360 games you get a years driving in a global, ranked competition in a controlled environment with more accurate cars and tracks than anything else we've had so far.

Last edited by DarrenMarsh, Fri 9 May 2008, 04:43.

107% was the old qualifying rule. Any cars that couldn't do 107% of the pole position time weren't permitted to start the race.

I thought they dumped it a few years ago, but it could be in there.

FIA site would be the best place to look

http://www.fia.com/sport/Regulations/f1regs.html

You might find something about black flag rules in the standard regulations which will cover what you're after rather than the F1 specific stuff.

EDIT: Appendix H has the bit about the flag rules

e) Black flag with an orange disc 40cm in diameter:
This flag should be used to inform the driver concerned that his
car has mechanical problems likely to endanger himself or others
and means that the he must stop at his pit on the next lap. When
the mechanical problems have been rectified to the satisfaction
of the chief scrutineer the car may rejoin the race.

Last edited by DarrenMarsh, Mon 5 May 2008, 05:25.

Quote from nihil :

I just disagree completely with the OP's claim that iRacing is vastly better than GPL in that department.

No realtime lighting or shadows. No bump mapping. No multitexturing afaik.

You can tart up up and add fake lighting all you like, but it's still no comparison to modern graphics engines. I'm no GPL hater, I'm just being a realist in light of the claim made by ATC Quicksilver.

I'd still like to see those mods he/she was downloading that look twice as good as iRacing, or any other recent sim for that matter.

Last edited by DarrenMarsh, Sun 16 Mar 2008, 06:20.

The specular highlight probably needs to be a bit sharper. Having it blurry gives the impression that the surface isn't as polished/shiny as it could be.

That GPL shot might look good in a screenshot, but cars with the highlighting painted on look crap in motion. That eagle paint job is a bit over the top IMO.

As for looking like they're made out of plastic, given that they have a fiberglass body, they should.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Some of it is very nice, but don't you think the cars look like they've been lifted out of a cartoon?

Not really, no. Everything does look too new/clean (walls on ovals are usually covered with scuff marks aren't they?) and a little oversaturated, but the cars look realistic to me. Certainally vastly better than GPL which is what I posted them for.

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

Most of the GPL mods I am having to download again look twice as good.

Show me a GPL mod that looks anywhere near as good as these, let alone twice as good, and I'll eat my G25. Especially the Radical.

Mods with hand painted highlights don't count because they look crap in motion.