The online racing simulator
#26 - SamH
Grrr! I'm as poor as everybody else, but I'm stuck for a good excuse, and it was the first thing I thought of

How about.. I'm spending everything I have on doing up my house in Malibu? The mooring fees for my 150ft yacht in Monaco are killing me? I'm having to use all my spare cash to prop up my bank, so it doesn't sink like a Rock?...
Quote from SamH : How about.. I'm spending everything I have on doing up my house in Malibu?

Malibu Crescent, Cleckheaton?

Quote from SamH :The mooring fees for my 150ft yacht in Monaco are killing me?

You haven't paid your mooring fees in months, and I'm sick of sending you final notices. If you weren't such a hit with the ladies at my casino I'd have evicted you ages ago.

Quote from SamH :I'm having to use all my spare cash to prop up my bank, so it doesn't sink like a Rock?...

Sadly that's believable!
#28 - SamH
Quote from thisnameistaken :Sadly that's believable!

..and it's the one I'm going for.. therefore, I nominate Tristan to try out iRacing
We're really going to be that masochistic and make him do such a thing?

Excellent...
We've got Americans - we don't need Tristan. Although Tristan will no doubt want to try it out himself because he's never going to take the opinion of an American seriously.
I'm actually going to give iRacing a go for 1 month. I'll have to wait till I have a few weeks off work. I think it's the kind of game (because whatever way they want to dissect it, it is and always will be a game) that the more you put in, the more you get out.
I'm going to be trying it out as well, i have the money, it's time I don't have... we'll see if I can get a few weekends and evenings in on it.
Unless they manage to ruin the whole thing by putting some sony/starforce/trymedia copy-shit-protection in it I'll put my last 35$ (sim+1 decent car) to test the waters. All that being said, hope my mommy understands. No food for 2 weeks. Now, where's that cat..
I'm certainly going to try it out. I think the test of a SIM to me is real cars and real tracks or it's more like a game than a Sim! Not that there is anything wrong with a game. I love games and LFS to me is one of the best out there!
LFS a game ? What manner of herasy is this ? Stone him
Quote from Swiss_Tony :LFS a game ? What manner of herasy is this ? Stone him

knowing sam he's probably already stoned!!.

i might give iracing a try... have not decided yet.
I don't know if I will try it at first but I will try it at somepoint. I think a lot of people are turned away by the subscription, and while I can't say I enjoy subscribing to things it may actually be worth it if they really did do all the field research and things they say... Besides you can't talk good or bad about something unless you have tried it and given it a real try.
Quote from SamH :Tracks with milimetre accuracy and car feel of absolute fidelity.. these are a tall order when.. I can't help feeling that something in the promises made, or the PC required to run it, will have to give

I'm not so convinced. I've been thinking about this a bit recently and I've come to the conclusion that the physics of things like suspension modelling and basic vehicle handling is relatively simple, (for a computer that is), as far as I can see. What I mean is that from the point of view of the physics there are equations which just have to be run, (and by physics standards they are pretty simple ones at that).

Where it does get difficult I suspect is the tyre modeling, (as in deformation, construction, coefficients of grip and slip angles etc), and aerodynamics is definitely a very complicated subject. But then again it's basically just fluid dynamics, but probably would require quite a bit of processing power to accurately model.

I'm not a programmer but I also suspect that where it really gets complicated is the interaction of the car with the road, in the sense of knowing exactly where on the road the car is and the interaction between the two. Obviously it can't be that easy (at least on line) as the crash dynamics are pretty poor from what I can see, (ie it's not uncommon to be thrown up in to the air from a 20-30mph impact with a barrier - something that would never happen in real life).

As for iRacing, I would say that it's only going to appeal to either a) the very rich or b) the extremely serious gamer/real life racer.
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