Quote from StableX :

yeah, I bet you're one of those 1.39 freaks on VIR North

I wont be finding out. I haven't got VIR.

Quote from Doorman :

Not sure we need MORE CONTENT. It would be nice if we lesser mortals got to use some of the content already there. For example: Barber,(3 layouts) Silverstone,(5 layouts!) Road Atlanta,(3 layouts) Daytona, Road America(2 layouts) and Watkins Glen.(4 layouts) I've not seen these used in Skip Barber or anything else except hotshot series. Guess I'll just have to become a hotshot. They really ought to show a little imagination as far as track selection is concerned.
A never ending succession of Lime Rock, Summit Vaginia and Laguna Seca is getting a little tedious.
IMO.

It's a deliberate choice to retain the stock tracks that come with the rookie package. As the Skippy is the next car up the line in the Road series, they keep the stock tracks to ensure moving up to the skippy doesn't mean forking out for 6 - 8 new tracks too. That's the reason why you'll see the basic tracks in there

Quote from StableX :

It's a deliberate choice to retain the stock tracks that come with the rookie package. As the Skippy is the next car up the line in the Road series, they keep the stock tracks to ensure moving up to the skippy doesn't mean forking out for 6 - 8 new tracks too. That's the reason why you'll see the basic tracks in there

And therein lies the basic problem. If you want to race the Solstice, Skippy or Spec Racer out of choice you'll never get to drive anywhere else except...stock tracks.
It's not as if various GP track owners around the world don't cater to club racers and lower formulae IRL®

Quote from Doorman :

And therein lies the basic problem. If you want to race the Solstice, Skippy or Spec Racer out of choice you'll never get to drive anywhere else except...stock tracks.
It's not as if various GP track owners around the world don't cater to club racers and lower formulae IRL®

You're absolutely right. However, this is going to change with the introduction of the leagues area that is due soon. If you subscribed a few months ago to be notified and wanted to be included in as a possible private league owner/admin then you can setup a Solstice or Spec Racer League that does the tracks you want Though the skippy does change the custom tracks each series. YOu'll know that Sebring is new to this season's skippy racing for instance.

Quote from Doorman :

And therein lies the basic problem. If you want to race the Solstice, Skippy or Spec Racer out of choice you'll never get to drive anywhere else except...stock tracks.

That's not entirely true, there seems to be small changes in season schedules. For an example Skip Barber race series seems to now run twice on Sebring while LRP Chicane configuration has been dropped from schedule. Also Mazda serie will be visiting Road Atlanta next week, I'm pretty sure that's a new track since I haven't had to buy it before.

I'm down to a 1.39.255 Is anyone else running skippy at VIR?

Quote from Crommi :

That's not entirely true, there seems to be small changes in season schedules. For an example Skip Barber race series seems to now run twice on Sebring while LRP Chicane configuration has been dropped from schedule. Also Mazda serie will be visiting Road Atlanta next week, I'm pretty sure that's a new track since I haven't had to buy it before.

exactly

Quote from racer hero :

I'm down to a 1.39.255 Is anyone else running skippy at VIR?

1.39.1 after 11 laps. Optimal of 1.38.8

Very confident of mid/low 38's by tomorrow.

What a fantastic track!

Quote from The Moose :

1.39.1 after 11 laps. Optimal of 1.38.8

Very confident of mid/low 38's by tomorrow.

What a fantastic track!

Yeh, I'm losing some time somewhere, but I can't figure it out. What set are you running?

Quote from racer hero :

Yeh, I'm losing some time somewhere, but I can't figure it out. What set are you running?

Moose runs the default basic so he can us mere mortals a chance

Quote from racer hero :

Yeh, I'm losing some time somewhere, but I can't figure it out. What set are you running?

This one.

30 laps done. 1.38.675 so far, Optimal 1.38.426


EDIT:- 1.38.429 Optimal 1.37.918

thanks Stu...

Update: I tried it and my time was slightly slower than with the set I use so I have to concede it's nothing to do with the setup at all but my skill.....

However, this combo is sensational

Thanks a lot, I'll try it out later.

Quote from Doorman :

Not sure we need MORE CONTENT. It would be nice if we lesser mortals got to use some of the content already there. For example: Barber,(3 layouts) Silverstone,(5 layouts!) Road Atlanta,(3 layouts) Daytona, Road America(2 layouts) and Watkins Glen.(4 layouts) I've not seen these used in Skip Barber or anything else except hotshot series. Guess I'll just have to become a hotshot. They really ought to show a little imagination as far as track selection is concerned.
A never ending succession of Lime Rock, Summit Vaginia and Laguna Seca is getting a little tedious.





IMO.

Yeah I was just joking, I actually think they might end up with TOO MUCH content and not enough people to race it.

In the past couple of months I've been with iRacing I haven't really touched LFS at all. I've fired LFS maybe 2 or 3 times during this period, but every time I do, it feels so easy compared to iRacing. Has anyone else noticed this? I can just jump car to car, any track, and I just start turning laps in LFS with no problem. They may not be WR laps, but I'm not spinning out every corner like in iRacing if I jump to a car I am not used to. Maybe I just need to adapt to iRacing physics even more, but there's still something about LFS that just let's me feel what the car is doing. I feel like it may be the FFB but I'm not sure, just wondering if anyone else has fired LFS back up after not touching it for a while and felt the same thing. I feel so glued to the track in LFS. I suspect it could also be the tracks themselves, because LFS is so smooth, but even South City didn't give me much trouble. Tire phyrics maybe?

I felt te same when my membership expired a few weeks ago, but I definely think it's because of LFS having tracks that are as smooth as glass. Nothing on the track to make you loose any grip while turning.

Quote from Rappa Z :

I felt te same when my membership expired a few weeks ago, but I definely think it's because of LFS having tracks that are as smooth as glass. Nothing on the track to make you loose any grip while turning.

Bingo! LFS tracks are ridiculously forgiving due to the smooth as glass tarmac.

Car update.

F1 Lotus 79 from season 3 in 5 weeks time.

VW Jetta TDi will hopefully come 4 weeks into season 3.

Corvette is behind schedule. Release date unknown right now.

Can`t wait for the VW Jetta....

I just need another promo offer to come up so I can subscribe again.

Quote from richard dk :

F1 Lotus 79 from season 3 in 5 weeks time.

What a rubbish looking model (or maybe a nice model, but a rubbish graphics engine). The tyres look awful, the wheels look like they're made from smoked perspex, the body is reflecting like it's... I don't know what material, but it isn't anything ever used on an F1 car. The shape looks wrong too somehow.

The only thing that was nice was the detail on the back of the gearbox, with catch tanks and stuff. The rest looks awful.

That's probably more down to shader that is bit too soft to really represent glossy black paint and different livery which makes shapes look slightly different.

Quote from tristancliffe :

The shape looks wrong too somehow.

Considering the fact that they laser scan the cars, i doubt very much the shape is wrong.

The modelling in iRacing is second to none. I find myself spending far to much time watching the suspension of the Skippy in front of me during practice sessions.

The only thing i don't like about the graphics is the over shiny cars. Apart from that it looks fantastic.

O/T
As for the addition of the new cars... it's all well and good having these new series... but there are simply not enough people to fill the series we have already. So to introduce these new ones the only thing they can do is drop others. Resulting in yet more content you've paid for that you cant use.

iRacing are churning out content like theres no tomorrow but not fixing stuff thats been wrong since release. Still no sign of a proper transmission, brake wear/heat, dirty tires,flatspots, improved collision detection... i could go on.

As much as i enjoy the clean racing iRacing provides, it's still lagging behind on the simulation front compared to LFS and nKPRo in many aspects, and for the price we pay i still find that very disappointing. It seems that they are still more interested in making a shedload of cash from new content before fixing and improving what they already have.

John Henry himself commented a while back that there were not enough people for all the series, then they just go and introduce a load more I'm finding it hard to justify re-subbing at the moment. I dont belive they have their prioritys correct.

To try and palm it off as a "training tool" with so many key aspects of driving missing is a bit of a joke. It is at best a track learning tool, after that it's just another sim, albeit the sim with cleanest racing.

Quote from The Moose :

Considering the fact that they laser scan the cars, i doubt very much the shape is wrong.

Laser scanned mesh needs a lot of cleanup and polycount reduction before it's suitable for ingame use. While dimensions are probably very close, some detail has obviously been lost during the process.

As for content, gotta keep in mind that time from licencing negotiations to actual release is quite long. While it depends on what kind of contracts they have with partners, I don't think it's possible to stop work on current content that's in a pipeline and delay it for couple seasons.

I have a feeling at some point they're going to have to start rotating cars that race each season on the road side, there just aren't going to be enough drivers over there to fill series.

I'm also very disappointed by their priorities right now. I don't think its enough to stop me from subscribing but it's frustrating how they keep churning out new content but don't fix what they already have. In the past couple builds I really can't think of any huge changes. They did improve tire physics in a couple of oval cars I guess. But what the hell are they working on all the time? They don't get to use the excuse that only one guy is programming the game like LFS has.

Quote from tristancliffe :

The only thing that was nice was the detail on the back of the gearbox, with catch tanks and stuff. The rest looks awful.

Everything except the too matte shader looks absolutely fantastic.

It's been stated many times that the development teams are split in such a way that physics, track and car development are separate entities within the iRacing development team. If they stop working on cars, it only means that they stop releasing cars, not that they can magically start improving physics at a faster rate. The car modelling teams would just be doing nothing; they don't magically convert to physics engineers and immediately integrate into a completely different team efficiently.

There's no either-or situation on the development side, and they have obviously chosen to keep releasing new content instead of holding finished content in reserve. It's good from a financial and marketing point of view: they get to claim they have more content, and they keep making money to pay out salaries and continue kickstarting the marketing machine to bring in more drivers (or in this case, American NASCAR fans who'll stick around for a month )

I sure would like to know what sort of improvements are going to be released for the core simulation at the start of the next season though. They need to push their aero model in the right direction a bit, it still feels significantly worse than LFS', though I'm obviously no real racing driver...