noooooo internal server error

.... and back to maintenance

I'm slowly getting in!

On the forums.

I wish they'd let us know if that was like catastrophic failure and its going to be 4 more hours, or it will be back in in a couple minutes..

Also, Ctrl + r >>>>>>> f5 for refreshing

Garrrrr I missed it.

lol!

I like how it was pointed out like a year ago that the 5 cones is like them giving us the finger and they haven't felt like changing it

Quote from UncleBenny :

You have until next Monday for Class D-A promotions, unless you're talking about Pro which already happened unfortunately.

I'm pretty pumped about the Lotus tomorrow. Not planning on really racing online with it but it looks like it will be a blast to just mess around with.

I can't wait for the practice servers.

I'm too lazy to run A length races...that's partly why I'm stoked for the jetta

I could have gone pro....

but then I got high

but then I got high

but then I got highhh

not really, but that was a great song back in the day.

lol they're probably done with free stuff for a while, but it would be nice since it seems like there is quite a lot of corporate backing for that one with the whole jetta challenge thing. Would be nice if VW footed the bill.

I finally creaked open my virtual wallet today and resubbed for a year...I had to get it out of the way and now I can pretend like it didn't happen again. At least with $85 worth of credits, and having already spent too much money thus not having any road stuff left to buy, it will last me through quite a few content releases.

WOW

Has anyone noticed how incredibly awesome the Jetta schedule is? Finally a low license car running on real tracks!

Really though this is probably the largest update yet...they really cranked out some serious work in 3 months.

The lotus better be damn good to distract me from the no physics changes in the road cars

They said a while ago it won't make this build..I guess they had some delays or got more data or something.

I'm guessing they needed to cram on the lotus to get it in this build.

Cat herder #10

Quote :

When I was a “civilian” over a decade ago I can remember how the weeks and months would drag on and on as I eagerly anticipated the release of the next Madden or Papyrus title that I had squirreled away my hard earned dollars to purchase. I can most definitely relate to the anticipation you all have when we are nearing the release of our next build and the frustration you may feel by having more questions about a release than answers.
It is amazing how your perspective on the development timeline of a title changes drastically when you are on the other side of the fence and trying to cram in as much content as you can into the very limited time you have to produce a product. In the old days we were spoiled and got 12 months or more to develop a product. Now we are trying to manage many different layers of development into releases every three months which is a superhuman feat if you ask me.

We have made a lot of progress on all levels over the past three months. I think it is often forgotten that your membership dollars are not just being used to fund new features in the sim software, but also improvements to how we host the website, manage the immense amount of data and expand functionality of our member site.
As an example, the team implemented a new design in the database and started using new caching technology on the web tier. The result is that the system has better scalability and performance has improved, in some cases by an order of magnitude. It has dramatically reduced the load on the servers, which reduces our projected hardware and license needs as we go forward. That's a big win for members, as it helps us control our costs, while delivering improved performance.
Your membership dollars also help to pay for some major projects we have been working on for more than three months now that will allow us to put iRacing in front of hundreds of thousands of potential new customers every year. The nice thing about some of these projects is it helps us move the ball down the field on projects like private leagues which we hope will be in the build at the end of next season.
I am really excited for the release of a slew of new website features. We have done a significant redesign of the main page which now includes tickers with all kinds of information. We have also “gadgetized” the main page so that you can customize it to your liking. The release notes will describe in more detail how all this new functionality will work.
Due to popular demand and under the careful study of John Henry we are moving to a completely new club scoring system in which every race counts toward the Club competition. No more dropped races or weeks, no more averaging in the club scoring system. Each non-Rookie driver racing in an officially scored, Advanced Rookie or higher series will have the opportunity to score club points based on where they place and the size of the field. Other championship scoring systems remain unchanged.
On the software side of things we also have some great improvements and additions. I will release the full release notes for the build later this week but here are some highlights.
It is no secret anymore that we will be launching the Lotus 79 with this build and it will be running as a Class B car for the upcoming season. Although the VW Jetta TDI Cup car will not be in this release, I expect it to be released sometime in the second week of August.
We made some minor tweaks to the Solstice and Spec Racer Ford. The Solstice now has anti-lock-brakes and the SRF has had its brake bias adjustment range increased.
We have also made an adjustment in how the tire temperatures work. The temperature distribution is now properly based on a tire’s load and pressure which will allow you to use tire temp to tune your setups.
On the oval side of things the Truck, Nationwide and Cup car now have rear sway bars and rebound and compression are adjustable on the shocks.
I have seen a few posts in the forums about this so we went ahead and made Summit’s Jefferson course and the VIR Patriot course available to be run in the reverse direction as well. Chicagoland will also be released in this build and it is on the schedule for the Oval Pro Series.
We will also be giving away a free track called the Centripetal Circuit which is a 200 meter radius skid pad. This is the only track in our service not modeled after a real track and it will be featured in our driver training series that will be released later this year.
Towing has been added, replacing resets during a race. Tows are always available in any series. Exiting your car or disconnecting while driving will automatically trigger a tow. A tow will place you in your pit stall until the specified tow time has passed. The pit crew as of yet can not repair any damage, but the types of damage we currently support are either not typically repairable during a race, or have no physical effect and are therefore not worth repairing. If you bust your car up too much you may not be able to keep it on the road.
For lower level races (Rookie and D license level races) you get one "fast" tow, after that any further tows are regular speed. A fast tow takes a little less time than a regular tow, and will give you a fresh car, restoring tires, damage, etc.
The camera system has had a massive overhaul and significant functionality has been added. This is probably best left for you to see in person but one highlight is that we have added a camera tool that can allow those that enjoy getting creative the chance to edit, save and share new groupings of cameras.
Brake calibration has been updated to work well with both pressure-sensitive and deflection-sensitive brakes. There is now an option to control the linearity of the simulator’s brake pressure response to your physical brake pedal travel. Potentiometer-based pedals (most pedals) can adjust this value to suit what feels best for them; lower values give a more linear brake response (more initial brake force with pedal travel than before), while higher values give a more non-linear increase in brake force (less initial brake force, more force near full pedal travel). Linear pressure sensitive pedals (with load cells) should set this value to zero for the most linear true to life feel. A brake force curve factor of 2.0 is close to the brake force curve before this change. This factor is now reset automatically to 1.8 any time the brakes are calibrated—you will need to change it to your preferred value after calibrating the brakes if 1.8 is not to your liking. For most pedals this gives a good feel.

The pedal meters on all screens reflect this change. The throttle meter has also been corrected to match on all screens.
There is plenty more and I could keep typing all day but I will save the rest for the official release notes. Just to start you thinking about what is on the horizon, we do hope to have private leagues, an updated tire model and the ability to do night racing in next season’s build along with many other features and improvements. These projects are all underway and progressing very well.
As I normally do, I will just update you and provide a little information that we have been globetrotting in an effort to build our international portfolio of content. Divi and I have just recently returned from a trip to Europe to meet with potential partners and I am optimistic following those meetings.
I will tell you that we have a huge announcement planned towards the end of August that I think everyone will be extremely happy about.
Just to come full circle. All of this work I have highlighted and much more was completed in less than three months of development time. I think all of us internally relish the actual release of these builds because it reminds us of why we do this and what it was like before we stressed out day and night to bring you what we hope you feel is worthy of your time, patience and hard earned dollars.
Steve

thanks

Heres a quick blurb from Steve about next season. I guess they finally gave in to the constant whining.

Quote :

As I mentioned I will post a lot more information over the next few days but some answers to tide you over.

* will the SK be put back on a full schedule?

4 days a week for next season and it will have a different schedule than the LM series.

* will the SC be brought back?

2 days a week for next season and I essentially just copied the schedule that seemed to be very popular in a thread our SC fans started.

* will any other series suffer the fate of the SK and SC?

The Lotus 79 series is going to be a class B series so we have decided to have it alternate days next season with the Radical series. Lotus will be 4 days a week and the Radical 3 days a week.

Steve

Interesting that the lotus is a B class, and that the Riley is the pro car. It somewhat makes sense because we've had the Riley to practice with..but it just kinda sucks to drive at most places imo. Its kinda fun, but it doesn't really have any cool factor to it.

I missed this part.

Quote :

The pro series will be using the Cup car for ovals and the DP car for road.

The race schedules have been made and include almost every track currently released on them. Some of the smaller tracks did not make the schedule because they really did not make a lot of sense with the cars we are using.

The pro series schedule will be released at the same time I release next seasons schedule later this week.

Steve

Last edited by spanks, Tue 21 Jul 2009, 03:29.

Just trying out a new paint scheme on the mazda. I think I'll throw it on everything I've got.

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/5062/newpaint.jpg

I dig it

How can you even consider leaving right as the lotus and corvette come aghhhh

down to a 105.5, only .15 off my optimal. I probably have quite a bit left if I kept pushing...and did about 100 more laps. I usually set my optimal really low while crashing repeatedly and then creep up on it, this time I put some really nice laps together back to back. If I started now with my repeated crashing I'd probably chip away at the optimal and figure more stuff out.

I've only done about 20 laps atm and have no plans to race, so I guess I'm done

What I'm trying to preach (or was it not preach?) about smoother and smaller inputs is you can't saw at the wheel in the mazda. If you just put the wheel 1/2 way between and held it there you would have gathered it back up and you wouldn't have snapped the other way. Also you'll save it just about every time if you breath the throttle a bit when you get sideways like that. If you go to 3/4 throttle for a split second it is 100% easier to catch, and you'll catch it sooner.

You made 3 large sawing motions, two big ones to the left, steered right a bit, then another big one as you were regaining grip which sent you flying away. I'm not saying it would happen in real life necessarily, but if you compare your steering input to the real footage there is quite a difference.

I'm not sure if you were trying to spin or legitimately trying to save it there so it might be a bad video to try and pick apart.

Hehe I was joking about volker. Using his setups, and others like his, have made me a much better sim racer. Really forces you to be smooth and have minimal steering inputs. His setups remind me of karting...smaller inputs of the wheel = faster times.

As usual I turn on fraps and drive like a complete tool I needed to record last night when I wasn't trying. No video for me.

The mazda acts like it has 0 inertia. It feels like there is nothing carrying it to the outside of the turn, and it is frightening to turn the wheel most of the time.

Its still way fun to drive and is most of the time a pretty damn accurate representation of the real thing.

Dave I'm curious how much FFB you're using with your wheel.

I think that is a good video to compare to.

That did not appear to be sideways at all in the sim...but if that was real life it'd be pucker factor 11 right there. There was hardly any countersteer dialed in..but it is very significant that the wheel was already straight while in the center of the turn. The angle of the car was such that it *blah blah blah* I could make shit up and sound smart here but it wasn't really going anywhere.


The steering sensitivity at center in the mazda I think is too high in iracing. I think I'm gonna make a vid using volker's setup because he is well known for sliding anything. Pretty sure he drifted his baby stroller as a child. (probably an uneccesary video but I'm feeling left out of the fun).

restarting my computer fixed it..that was odd

I can't load the iracing site...anyone else having issues?

It just loads half way and thats it. Of course its leaving out the part where I can launch the sim.

I 100% agree that things can be, and hopefully will get better in iracing.

I am just trying to say I don't think this is a good example to start a big campaign to fix the physics

This is what is tough with the mazda. When you figure out how to do this you can drive any setup, and catch any slide.

The car acts like its on fast forward, but your hands have to be in slow motion. That doesn't mean let the car get ahead of you, it means react soon enough that you can be smooth and slow on your inputs. The slower your inputs get the faster you go.

When you get into a nasty oversteer situation sometimes your instinct to catch the slide can get ahead of you. This is when you go hand over hand with about double the countersteer you need..the front gains grip, and you shoot off into the ditch.

I don't know if this is realistic or not...but I know you have to drive like this in real life or you're going to put the car in the wall.

If you want to keep driving the mazda then I highly suggest you work on this a little bit. Slow down your steering and you'll speed up on track I guarantee it.

The radical on the other hand...you're countersteering like a wild man to keep the thing pointed straight. Its lower downforce shorter wheelbase and loads less grip all around. To top that off you've got enough power to powerslide out of any corner on the track.



I'm not trying to preach or anything...and if you know this already than just tell me to shut up and I'll shut up. I just felt like I was being a douche and figured I'd give you the time of day to write out what I was getting at.

edit - you're pretty damn fast so I guess I'll shut up, but what I wrote is true

Last edited by spanks, Thu 16 Jul 2009, 00:33.