The solstice is utterly boring car.

The legend is nice though, very nice at times... but I'm still trying to set it up for road racing, the default setup was pure oval setup...

Biggest issue for me is the lack of feel of speed. With the legend I can barely feel the speeds but in the solstice... well, there isn't any speed to feel...

Hmm, few issues I can see:
1) pedals do not have that extra few %s like in LFS, basically with bad pedals your 100% is more like between 98 and 100%. Not too shabby with my nuclear blasted mouse traps
2) how do I turn off speed ssensitive steering...

Overall it is quite nice although defenately not revolutionary imho

How come I haven't got a ****ing invite?

Whoops, I have!

Quote from OldBloke :

WOW! That was so great hearing about your downloading experience.

If you want to post crap then do it in the iRacing forum. If you want to let the LFS community know your thoughts on how iRacing compares to LFS then, please, enlighten us.

Wow.. Did someone force you with a gun to read this thread?

Anyhow, I'm amazed by the track textures and detail, and the amount of immersion. It was just scary to drive through the corkscrew at laguna seca (broke my suspension a few times in that corner, because I couldnt see shit!)
I drove some rfactor with the c6 mod on lime rock and laguna seca earlier, but iracing and these phenomenal tracks are 2 steps above it. The rfactor version of those tracks are just faulty at all levels.

As for a lfs v iracing comparison, well, I haven't driven iracing enough yet, but i'll try.
Small rundown:
Tire physics are a tie (I honestly could not note a difference in my driving style and end-result)
functionality/usabilty goes to lfs
best GUI goes to lfs (iracing gui is not intuitive tbh)
beauty goes to iracing (seriously, it's stunning)
immersion goes to iracing (first time through the corkscrew had me scared, seriously!)

iRacing did help me realize that high quality graphics are a must for any racing game simply because it looks more real and therefor adds to immersion. Finding markers for braking, turn in etc, is also much easier with these textures.

Btw, don't take this too seriously as I've not even driven on a server with more then 1 person on it, let alone a race, and the solstice is not the best car ever made to review a whole game.


I do have to revise my opinion on the solstice though; it's crappy. So now im gonna do some oval racing with the legends to compare

Honestly, that was the greatest downloading I've ever had, 2 MB/s the whole time, was done faster than a speeding bullet (or sam in bed... )

It takes Debit cards for all the Europeans who were under the impression it only takes credit cards and that we'd have to mess about borrowing cards then sending e-mails to get names changed. In fact it took my details very painlessly, so it seems iRacing is good at collecting money. The license agreement is rather scary and installer is only 158mb, although I have a suspicion I'll be installing more files before I'm racing.

EDIT - after the installer the free content adds up to 590mb, downloading just the Solstice, Lime Rock and Laguna Seca for now which is 245mb.

Quote from ajp71 :

EDIT - after the installer the free content adds up to 590mb, downloading just the Solstice, Lime Rock and Laguna Seca for now which is 245mb.

The Lowe's infield road course has some nice corners too, you defenately want to download that as well

Enough iracing for me tonight, but I'm totally in love with :heartbeat lime rock :heartbeat

5 minutes away from a race at Lime Rock in the Solstice...

I can't find pretty basic information though like how long the race is or how many have entered, or what the pit speed limit is (despite the fact there's lots of info about not breaking it and where it starts).

Having done a few test laps I'm not really sure what to make of it, force feedback and basic physics seem alright, but the gearbox simulation is non-existent, something that I thought should have been high on the agenda from N2003.

The car seems incredibly dull to drive and I can't really make any comments on the sounds because the engine barely makes any.

I too am shocked, it is very fun! The Solstice on lime rock is amazing!
And the Legend on the circle track is good too!

Quote from ajp71 :

The car seems incredibly dull to drive and I can't really make any comments on the sounds because the engine barely makes any.

Well it is a 4 cylinder production road car

Race distance is shown at the top of the screen when you join. Pit speed limit and your current speed is shown on screen when you're driving in pit lane.

The number in brackets on the button with the countdown at the top right corner of the browser windows is how many have signed up to the session. Same goes for the session selection page. The number in brackets next to the session is the number of people signed up for it.

Quote from Sarge9191 :

I too am shocked, it is very fun! The Solstice on lime rock is amazing!

If you think the Solstice is fun you're in for a huge surprise when you get in a proper car.

I'd bet once you get past the Solstice you'll never drive it again. It's crap, with a capital C.

Just done my first race, the system itself seems good, maybe I was just lucky but a short wait then short warm up is just right. The actual format of the race itself is awful, 10 cars and a 20+ minute is not what beginner racing should be about.

Off the start line I had to bring the car to a complete stop because both cars in front of me either stalled (not sure if that is possible in iRacing) or didn't bother reacting to the lights. After picking a way through, into T1 I drove straight into the back of a car driving round at pedestrian speeds, partly my fault but this guy was going ridiculously slowly. At that point it was effectively race over, damaged car (but still drivable) and lost the best part of a lap recovering.

Later on the muppet I hit seemed to be less damaged than me and caught me up with some interesting understanding of the concept of overlap took me out twice in as many laps, I think he genuinely was clueless about what is and isn't acceptable but given the ban on sorting things through chat there's little one can do to try and explain. After that it was just an exercise in limping round tripping over cars limping slower and being lapped. Only 3 cars finished the race on the lead lap, and only the front two cars seemed to have a race.

There also don't appear to be any blue flags in iRacing which leaves it a bit of a guessing game who is in your mirrors.

It also appears it is only one race every two hours

Oval Races are every 2 hours, Road Course Races every hour. If more people have joined the Service there will be more Races.

As a Rookie you can reset your car twice during a Race, you have to stop and click Shift R, you will be given a new car and sent back to your pit.

TBH, if I were signing up now I wouldn't be doing races already. There will be plenty of guys jumping into races with very little practice and a lot of accidents are bound to happen.

I'd stick to practice, qualifying and tt sessions for a day or 2 until everything settles down and people get a handle on the sim and the cars.

It'll also take a bit for people to shift their attitude to how they approach the sim compared to others. Every race should really be approached as if it were a league race because just jumping on and crashing around like a traditional pickup race will send your SR backwards in a hurry. It takes a bit for that to sink in with some people

Road races are every 2 hours as well, George. Offset 1 hour from the oval races.

So far I've just run a test in the Solstice at Laguna Seca. Not the most thrilling ride ever, but y'know...

I'm not sure whether the laser-scanning lark is all it's cracked up to be, unless Laguna Seca has a totally smooth track surface? It's nice that there's greater resolution in the elevation changes than in LFS though - feels less like you're going over a series of sudden steps (think South City) when taking a corner on a gradient.

Physics feel pretty good. The "rookie" Solstice handles pretty much how I expected, no big surprises, responds to the brake very well on the way in but can't comment on power oversteer because power oversteer seems impossible. That's probably just the car though. Tyres feel a bit like nK-Pro, suspension reminds me more of RBR but this is a "road" car so maybe that's why.

Agree with Mikey about immersion. The track environment looks very good, audio feedback is also very good both from the engine and tyres. I'd like to try a more powerful car though - it's hard to get too excited driving this thing so I haven't been able to get the LX6-type experience I enjoy with LFS.

I think if anything the content will put me off. Paying for more content on top of a monthly fee still sounds pretty crazy to me, and the launch content is of course tailored for the american market so I'm not all that enthused about the prospect of buying any of the cars (with the exception of the Radical I suppose). It's also not as convenient to pick up and play as LFS (what is?), so it probably won't work for me on that score either. But once you're on-track, it's good.

I would completely disagree with you there, the starter cars are slow and easy enough to go straight into racing with a few laps testing so long as people drive sensibly, after all a lot of racers have never been on a track before there ARDS course and go straight into a race meeting after getting their license in harder cars to drive than we've got in iRacing.

I did an oval race, much better than the Solstice, the grid was still pathetically small though and I don't understand why if over 100 people are signing up for the oval race there isn't one starting at least every 30 minutes, which would mean people could get action with a few minutes of pause between.

Quote from ajp71 :

and I don't understand why if over 100 people are signing up for the oval race there isn't one starting at least every 30 minutes, which would mean people could get action with a few minutes of pause between.

Remember that they opened the doors today, they have already said they will probably do it down the road when members are rolling in.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

So far I've just run a test in the Solstice at Laguna Seca. Not the most thrilling ride ever, but y'know...

Laguna has really just the one corner. Try Lime rock, you will be surprized how addictive it is. The solstice is awful boring car and yet I have done about 50 or 60 laps on it and can't get enough. The T1 on Lime rock is a blast and the last corner has its catches too! I heartily recommend forgetting Laguna seca

Quote from thisnameistaken :

Physics feel pretty good. The "rookie" Solstice handles pretty much how I expected, no big surprises, responds to the brake very well on the way in but can't comment on power oversteer because power oversteer seems impossible. That's probably just the car though. Tyres feel a bit like nK-Pro, suspension reminds me more of RBR but this is a "road" car so maybe that's why.

The solstice reacts very well to corner entry lift-off oversteer. The car doesn't really have an engine so on power it does nothing unless you get into big angles. Unlike LFS, or the XRG, the solstice isn't that sensitive to throttle induced oversteer, it really needs a push to get things to go wrong. (...or putting your rear tyre off the track... :schwitz

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I'd like to try a more powerful car though - it's hard to get too excited driving this thing so I haven't been able to get the LX6-type experience I enjoy with LFS.

Already tried the legend on the Lowe's infield road course? A word of warning though, you need to setup the car for the road course, it's been setup for ovals and drive really strangely because of it (A proper caterham would be great though, something I've been hoping since the car lists have been discussed)

---
I just tried some time trialing and imho that's the way hotlapping should be. Doing 8 clean fast laps in a row on Lime rock with the solstice was something that was fun, new and a bit scary too, but all in a good way. I thoroughly enjoyed every 30 laps of it until I slipped off in T1 and totaled the car (and died painfully in a lousy solstise)

For me as a whole this has been a bit positive surprize so far. I'm sooo tempted to buy the Skippie car, the infineon raceway and the VIR. So damn tempted But I will resist. I'll post more moaning tomorrow. I just happen to have free day from work so loads of dirty talking coming from northern Finland!

Well I just did a race at Lime Rock (because I wasn't allowed to race anywhere else, for some reason... Again, for an online racer they're really not very flexible in how they allow people to race). And I officially suck.

Slowest "average" lap of the race, slowest fastest lap of all the drivers, hehe. And I thought I was belting it. Not sure where I'm losing time, probably T1, but I was concentrating more on staying away from that concrete barrier.

Slightly weird racing, because the side mirrors don't do anything, and the engine sounds of cars behind you are way louder than they ought to be, so you think you've got a car right alongside and he's about 5 car lengths back. Maybe I'll get used to it.

I would have to say so far it feels more realistic than LFS. It's still rough in places, and as a multiplayer it's nowhere near as slick as LFS, but the racing has a much better feel, the Solstice - to me - feels more like a believable car than anything in LFS. Although I think a lot of that's down to sound, and a sensible default setup. I suppose the way we set up cars in LFS means they're never going to feel realistic.

Quote from ajp71 :

I would completely disagree with you there, the starter cars are slow and easy enough to go straight into racing with a few laps testing so long as people drive sensibly

I just looked at the results of that race you were in and there was a guy who got 28 incident points in 13 laps. That's the kind of guy I'm talking about

The flipside though, is that if you can race and finish in the top 1/2 of the order your iRating will go up which will stop you from being gridded with those guys.

Well, I just got through playing a couple of hours of iRacing. Here's some completely random thoughts...

First, I believe I hold the current world record for incident points: 90+ over my last 3 practices in the Solstice @ Limerock (good thing practices don't count!). As I got more comfortable with the car and track I guess I enjoyed pushing it a bit too much

Anyway, the game is amazing! I really wish it wasn't because I'm an LFS fanboy at heart I've only driven the Rookie Solstice so far. You can really feel the suspension and the weight of the car when you're driving this thing. Everything just feels very realistic. A friend watching me drive stated that "[LFS] looks very cartoony in comparison" and sadly I have to agree with him. Physics-wise it seems quite similar to LFS. The solstice handles much like an XRG but with more mass and a softer suspension than most race prepared XRG setups. The solstice is quite controllable when it gets sideways (which I happen to do frequently in T1 at limerock). The only issue I'm having is handling the extra degrees of rotation when the car rotates enough where I need to cross my hands over (I'm using 900). But I have the same problem in RL so it's good practice

I've only encountered minor issues thus far.
1) Updating failed the first time
2) The wheel configuration GUI crashed on me
3) In a practice session I received incident points for car to car contact but I never actually made contact with the car. It was a very dangerous pass and I must have missed the car by a matter of inches. Since I was going about twice as fast if I made any sort of contact it would have sent both of us spinning out of control. I didn't hear any collision noise nor did I see his car move at all in my rear view mirror.

LFS does have some strong points though. It's definitely more approachable. I haven't even joined a race yet in iRacing due to the fact that every race is being scored. I don't just play for fun, I'm usually hardcore when it comes to competing in official events. I don't like to lose Since every race in iRacing is like a league race I feel like I have to keep preparing offline or in a practice sessions until I know I have a good shot at winning. It's kind of like people that are heavily into LFS leagues. You rarely see them online in public servers because they spend all of their time preparing for the next race

Anyway, back to iRacing!

Quote from DarrenMarsh :

I just looked at the results of that race you were in and there was a guy who got 28 incident points in 13 laps. That's the kind of guy I'm talking about

The flipside though, is that if you can race and finish in the top 1/2 of the order your iRating will go up which will stop you from being gridded with those guys.

pfft.. I've gotten 31 in 10 laps. In practice that is I should probably try not to drive like a madman. It's fun though.

To anyone bored with the solstice, get the skippy, IMO, it's the best car in the whole sim.

So I finally did a race. Did I mention in my previous post how I don't like losing? I was also nervous about collecting incident points.

66 drivers registered for the 1am race. I was split into a grid with ~12 drivers. In the warmup I spun, but luckily no one was around. I collected 3 incident points for off track and losing control. Oh well. That's all I planned on collecting.

Then, the race. I started in the 2nd or 3rd row. The start lights appeared on the screen. I held my revs near 5000rpm ready to launch. I was determined to finish well. The green flag waved, I floor it, and BAM smack right into the guy in front of me. With all the thoughts going through my head, I wasn't expecting the guy in front to just sit there when the green waved. So, 4 incident points for me since I caused the contact. That driver immediately reset, so I parked on the track and reset. I'm now in last place. In a rush to catch up with everyone I violated the pit lane blend line while exiting and was black flagged. Oh f***. Coming in to serve my black flag I almost missed the pits and came in too hot crossing over the pit entrance blend line. So I had to serve 2 penalties and sit in pit lane for ~30 seconds. I made sure I exited fine after the penalties (!). Out of pit lane and into T1... someone gets wobbly then loses it right in front of me. I had no where to go (and no time to react) and slammed into him. Another 4 incident points. I drove several clean laps but I kept thinking about all this crap that happened, lost focus and got 2 wheels in the grass sending me out of control. Finally, I just retired. Great way to start my iRacing career!

Adding insult to injury.... one of the few laps I was able to put in was the fastest lap that race @ 01:04.204. I could have had atleast a top 3 in my first race... asdfoiasdifoiasdfioaiosdfiasdfoioiasdf

That sounds like something I'd do... :rolleyes: (everything but put in fastest lap bit)