I don’t play too many offline championships, but I do not remember being able to move the difficulty slider once I was in a season. If I’m correct, you have 2 options.
-you could run practice races for all the tracks in your proposed season, and then set the difficulty level to some appropriate “average” setting for all the races. You would then just have to accept on a few tracks your pace will be over/under the AI
-you could text edit the AI strength in the track file for each race before you run it in your championship. This gives the effect of changing the slider for each race, but involves a bit more work and also possibly makes your tracks mismatch if you race online.
Thanks, I guess I’ll see how it is. I suppose I’m not playing for the realistic challenge so I don’t mind some inconsistency, but I don’t want them trying to punt me in corners like mentioned above.
iRacing is sorta out, by the people that brought us GPL or NASCAR2003.
They are doing a staggered gmail-style release, and the first wave of paying customers has been let in by invitation from the beta testers.
I got my invite last night and from my first short test I’m impressed.
I was doubful, as it’s quite expensive: a monthly MMOG style subscription gives you access to a basic package: a couple of rookie cars and a bunch of tracks. As you advance to faster series you have to buy the new cars and tracks at about $15 each, discounted if you sign up for longer terms.
iRipoff? iRobbing?. In perspective I played Aces High back in 2001 at $30/month with a strong $, so can afford a cheaper iRacing with a strong €.
And the upside is the quality of the thing: They have laser-scanned the real tracks and modeled even the correct branches for the trees around them. Might sound gimmicky, but the result is a quite inmmersive “being there” feeling.
The physics, sound and driving are above anything else out there. Even the most rabid LFS fans that hate everything else are praising the feel of the cars.
There’s no offline play, nor even AI, but a well thought out advancement scheme that rewards being safe as much as being fast.
The best virtual racers seem to be flocking there (and some real life ones too).
Not for everyone but really good.
Could you interpret that for me? Maybe in the context of how LFS is these days – does it have a really good dynamics model or anything interesting?
It’s a runnning meme on the LFS boards. While the LFS physics modeling is arguably superior to what ISI based sims are using, there’s a quite vocal bunch that has been dismissing any sims that come out as instant crap. Typical fanboy stuff, yet with a bit of reality in the background.
So a new sim getting praise there is quite a novelty.
As you run the tracks, you will get a feel for where the AI is fast/slow. In places where the AI is really fast, you will sometimes want to drive a different line entering a corner if you are ahead of an AI to prevent getting hit. I had a good battle with the AI last night at Birmingham. An AI driver came up on me after I had botched a corner. I was entering a corner that I knew the AI typically carries more entry speed on, so I got offline and let him go past. I then passed him back a few corners later but couldn’t get any distance on him before we again reached the corner where the AI is fast, so he passed me. We went back and forth for maybe 3-4 laps until I was able to pull enough of a gap on him to keep the position until the end.
Seriously, for a single-player F1 season, you might be better off with Grand Prix 4, if you can find it.
Anyone sporting a racing seat setup? I’ve been toying with getting a seat, g25 wheel/shifter/pedals, flatscreen (or maybe hook it up to the plasma in the living room)… My favorite racing game ever so far is Richard Burns Rally, although the colin mcrae games are fun for arcadey internet racing. I just bought an ‘08 evo gsr, so I’m jonesin’ for some rally action.
There are plenty of geeks posting about their rigs. Here’s one I saw recently: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001030.html
Use your own speakers and it looks like it’s about $600 for the seat and G25.
I just tried the G25 the other day and it was kind of neat rowing through the gears, though it’s too bad the shifter’s not a little beefier and more precise and solid.
More rigs: some good, some bad, some ugly, all low Wife Acceptance Factor:
http://www.thewayiplay.com/mainforum/index.php?PHPSESSID=b936986106e811c8a30775f33348f0b4&topic=200.0
I saw Race07 has a new track. It was on Steam News through Blue’s, so I don’t know if it’s exclusive. Not sure what the Crowne Plaza Raceway is. (Ah, RSC says it’s a fantasy track. Palm trees might be cool though.)
I like the subwoofer by the feet. I wonder if I can get away with the same effect by just moving mine closer, but it’s carpet.
Great, thanks! that sounds like a reasonable price for a nice setup, I’m gonna go read through that…
I just got a one month free subscription to iRacing. Will report.
OK, he has the $$ to get all that hardware, but he uses Freetrack and not TrackIR. I don’t get it…
This thread inspired me to boot up Rfactor this weekend for some fun. I ran several kart races for the adrenaline rush, then switched to the Euro racing trucks mod. I’m not sure about the physics of driving something that big and tall, but I laughed out loud several times as I lost control of my truck. Finally I ran the BMW 320 E21 mod had had a blast. The collision detection is a bit off, but the cars are a great challenge of a very peaky 2.0 L engine, primative aero, and moderate-grip/high-slip tires.
What’s the best / most realistic kart mod?
Have I already asked about my weak results in my GTR2 season? I’m on the third race and my laptimes are only good enough to beat one or two GT cars (and all the NGT cars). I am using the C5R for the hell of it. I’ve heard the Ferrari 550 is a bit overpowered, not sure if the C5R is competitive enough. I usually just grab a setup online or from a zipped settings pack that I have (not sure where I got it) and play around until I find something decent. I set my tires until my temperatures are reasonable; soft fronts and medium rears usually give me around 170F when I’m up to speed I think.
On the start I can blow by a few cars and sneak my way to around 13th-ish spot, but my laptimes aren’t really good enough to hold the cars off, especially if I make a mistake. I’m running 25 or 35 minute races, can’t remember which.
Any advice would be appreciated. If I just need to get better, that’s fine too. And if my car is uncompetitive, that’d be nice to know and I can stop worrying. I just like it because it’s easy to drive.