All the stuff about laser scanned tracks had me thinking about GPS lately (at which point I must give a nod of appreciation towards GPS Visualiser, a really useful online tool), and then this came up on the BBC news site:

Real Racing in the Virtual World

Quote :

"It's clear that the next trend in gaming is going to be bringing real objects into the virtual world; playing not against other gamers but people doing the real thing,"

Is this where iRental is really aiming to pitch its tent eventually?

Quote from Bee Bee Sea :

The system also handles the results of in-game collisions between real and virtual drivers.
In this case, the real car always drives away. The gamer's fate is less certain.

A truly immersing, realistic experience and a lesson in frustration management all in one. Kinda makes you wonder what will happen if you're stopped at a pit exit because of a red light.

I was trawling BBC today and came across this news article about iOpener. Here is an exert:

Quote :

"It's clear that the next trend in gaming is going to be bringing real objects into the virtual world; playing not against other gamers but people doing the real thing," said Andy Lurling, founder of iOpener Media.
The patented system his company is developing sucks in real-time GPS data from racing events and pumps it out to compatible games consoles and PCs.
The idea is that you could pit yourself against the top drivers in the world, as it happens, from the comfort of your living room.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7440658.stm

Now this does look interesting but quite a way off! Certainly great things to come!

Quote from StableX :

I was trawling BBC today

You too?

how interesting, racing a race recording that you can have no impact upon yayyyyy

Quote from JJ72 :

how interesting, racing a race recording that you can have no impact upon yayyyyy

Beats racing lewishamiltonian AI that _does_ have an "impact" .

Looks very interesting, single player mode would be great with this, even how they plan to solve overtaking is a decent idea.
And note that they can and plan to do this also live, not only recorded. Great for those boring Spanish GPs.

no, you can actually crash in to him in the pits!!!!

Quote from jfgcatalan :

Beats racing lewishamiltonian AI that _does_ have an "impact" .

Well racing against other people online beat that by a long shot.

and if the fantasy is to race against real drivers...hey, as soon as they gets near you it's turn into AI, and you gotta wake up. And the whole point is lost really, the real hamilton didn't detour around you and he didn't pass you, the AI although lost time dealing with you, but magically it will make it up and catch up with the real lewis hamilton by driving faster than the real lewis hamilton!

oh at least intrepid will have an erection over it.

and there's a second concern, in real life the variables that affects race pace just ain't simulated enough in most sims, real drivers are subjected to changes in grip level etc and the gamers are not, so the gamers are basically racing something under very different physics, you could be 2 sec faster in the beginning of the stint, out on your own doing nothing, but near the end you are be 2 sec slower and you cannot physically keep up. At least racing an AI, you are sure it is under the same constraint as you.

As a way of watching races without access to a TV or the live feed, that's a nifty idea. It'd be neat to be able to watch a race from wherever the hell you wanted to - total control.

But selling it as a sim is utterly pointless. It's not a simulation, it's a rigid recreation.

Quote from durbster :

As a way of watching races without access to a TV or the live feed, that's a nifty idea. It'd be neat to be able to watch a race from wherever the hell you wanted to - total control.

But selling it as a sim is utterly pointless. It's not a simulation, it's a rigid recreation.

good point m8.....

Pretty pointless. If they're just using GPS data until the car is "close" or "overtaking", then there's a good chance that the F1 drivers can take lines/do things that aren't possible with the simulation's physics or vice versa. The last thing I want is the GPS based computer drivers (not AI in this case) doing something that's not possible in the game.

I can see this selling for console racing games with arcade-ish physics.

I heard of this type of thing years ago, nothing news worthy here.

i remember they promised this type of thing with the WRC when they brought in the virtual spectator feature, the promise was that they would have a rally sim were live gps data from various cars would appear as a ghost car onto your special stage so you could compete against them. great idea but i suspect no one even considered how hard it would be to map even 1 real special stage per event, especially if the route changed year by year. the only way i could see it working would be with the mickey mouse spectator stages in arenas

Sounds kind of perverse..

Well it would be interesting to see the results of this. If anything it could bring a new aspect. But how does one line up against their favorite driver? That part confuses me.

This is what i found on the web:

First taste of iOpener Enabled: Real-time Racing Portal AUTOSIMSPORT
Aachen – 3 March 2009
The pre-registration has now officially started for the Real-time Racing Portal at
its website ofwww.real-timeracing.com .This portal contains the first game with
the iOpener Enabled feature integrated. With the completion of a series of successful
test days at the race-track of Zolder in Belgium, the beta testing phase is drawing closer.
The pre-registration is aimed at satisfying the widespread interest and curiosity amongst
the people as well as further optimising the iOpener enabled feature.


Source : http://www.autosimsport.net/index2/

Quote from Kinleyfever :

This is what i found on the web:

First taste of iOpener Enabled: Real-time Racing Portal AUTOSIMSPORT
Aachen – 3 March 2009
The pre-registration has now officially started for the Real-time Racing Portal at
its website of [censored].This portal contains the first game with
the iOpener Enabled feature integrated. With the completion of a series of successful
test days at the race-track of Zolder in Belgium, the beta testing phase is drawing closer.
The pre-registration is aimed at satisfying the widespread interest and curiosity amongst
the people as well as further optimising the iOpener enabled feature.


Source : [censored]

kinda' smelly for demo racer's first post, who joined not a long ago.....

Edit: and who got 0 km in LFSW stats, too...............

Quote from Shadowww :

kinda' smelly for demo racer's first post, who joined not a long ago.....

Edit: and who got 0 km in LFSW stats, too...............

What difference does that make? All you ever do is whine at demo users on here.

He posted a some info and a link to the beta - calm down!

Quote from mcintyrej :

What difference does that make? All you ever do is whine at demo users on here.

He posted a some info and a link to the beta - calm down!

It VERY looks like advertisment / spam.

And I don't whine

Quote from Shadowww :

It VERY looks like advertisment / spam.

And I don't whine

Mieghn either

Quote from Shadowww :

It VERY looks like advertisment / spam.

Maybe so, however, considering that there is already a thread on the topic, which has been bumped rather than creating a new thread, and it's very relevant to the nature of this forum, I'd say it's fine. IMO.

Shadowww stop making another headache.
Signed up for beta testing, I'm interested.

Bump:bump:

Iopener Media link...

http://www.iopenermedia.com/company/about-us.aspx

Signed up, Simbin are doing the first game....there goes the credibility IMO

Oh well, I hope it's free