Have Your Say: Wet Weather Sim Racing - Is It Even Necessary?

I must admit, it is something I could personally could take or leave, as somebody else mentioned there is more things that would make the sim more immersive, but I can see why, as it would add that extra dimension, which would also add race strategy, it rains, does it rain for long, do you pit in and change tyres etc etc.

In Online racing would this work, hmm, don't think so, unless it was a league of the highest standard of drivers, as some people struggling with 100%.
 
Rain is the one thing Codies F1 games have that is far better than the rest of the competition. They have managed to implement drying lines, changing grip, varied wetness due to bridges and stuff so well.

Which is something Grand Prix 3 from 2000 also had.
Yes it is nice to have it today as well, but I am amazed that a fairly small team led by Geoff Crammond managed to do this 17 years ago, and bigger studios today are just getting to it now.

Nevertheless, if the rain is properly done, with grip-levels being lower on the rubbered in parts of the track, less rain on top of bankings etc. then I approve of it. If not, it just feels wrong to drive on it. I really enjoy driving in the rain in real life, and had more podiums in wet racing that dry racing when I was in karting, but wet weather in games often fail to capture that feel.
 
I'll take PCars as an example because currently it has the most weather options. Among those weathers there are extreme heavy fog and terrible thunderstorm options. I'm quite sure that if a heavy thunderstorm like that in game happens in real life, even open track day events will be halted for safety. If we really want to have realistic racing in wet weather, temporary safety car or temporary red flag IMO must be included, instead of forcing players to get used to all the terrible situations, some even worse than IRL (in the case of offline racing, AI also usually has the edge over players, making the issue even worse).
 
If any of my sims (AMS, AC, R3E) would simulate the real life weather conditions of that particular day in online races, with it's various levels of humidity (there is not only rain or no rain), it would be enough of an edge over the rest to be my only go-to Sim. Same goes for Pcars 2 obviously, if it will reach the simulation level of those mentioned. Not a lot that is more important then propper simulated weather alongside a living track.
 
I'll take PCars as an example because currently it has the most weather options. Among those weathers there are extreme heavy fog and terrible thunderstorm options. I'm quite sure that if a heavy thunderstorm like that in game happens in real life, even open track day events will be halted for safety. If we really want to have realistic racing in wet weather, temporary safety car or temporary red flag IMO must be included, instead of forcing players to get used to all the terrible situations, some even worse than IRL (in the case of offline racing, AI also usually has the edge over players, making the issue even worse).
Yep, that's what I said in rF2 Discord these days, could have the game checking visibility distance and at some meters the game give a poll to see what each driver wants (% set by the server) then a red flag or safety car is called, for offline it would have to be different, just get the game to call it. But also include an option to avoid red flag conditions so the rain wont go beyond a certain point.
Would be very immersive, especially in endurance races
 
Personally I like time related racing. Day/Night cycles more than real weather.

But there is something fun about racing on a wet track when it's done well. I did a few races in wet conditions on F1 2016 (which then turned into a monsoon) and started laughing at the fact that I couldn't see a single thing in front of me! :rolleyes::roflmao: Realistic physics? Probably not. Was it fun? Yes of course it was.

On the other side of the coin I did a Porsche Supercup league on RF2 and the first three races were all in the wet. The car was a complete nightmare and I don't think I managed a single lap without hitting something. Thankfully I wasn't the only one as most of the field crashed almost constantly as well. As you can imagine that league didn't last very long....:D

You could argue a driving sim isn't complete with the full day/night cycle and weather. That's why I still like to race occasionally on something like GTR2.

However I agree with the posts about real track activity in the wet. Having been to a couple of experience days where it's just chucked down with rain and got soaked, it ain't much fun in those circumstances.
 
Personally I like time related racing. Day/Night cycles more than real weather.

But there is something fun about racing on a wet track when it's done well. I did a few races in wet conditions on F1 2016 (which then turned into a monsoon) and started laughing at the fact that I couldn't see a single thing in front of me! :rolleyes::roflmao: Realistic physics? Probably not. Was it fun? Yes of course it was.

On the other side of the coin I did a Porsche Supercup league on RF2 and the first three races were all in the wet. The car was a complete nightmare and I don't think I managed a single lap without hitting something. Thankfully I wasn't the only one as most of the field crashed almost constantly as well. As you can imagine that league didn't last very long....:D

You could argue a driving sim isn't complete with the full day/night cycle and weather. That's why I still like to race occasionally on something like GTR2.

However I agree with the posts about real track activity in the wet. Having been to a couple of experience days where it's just chucked down with rain and got soaked, it ain't much fun in those circumstances.
Enduracers porsche? those rain tires were not good before, no idea if they changed it. Simply going to rain in rF2 is suicide, need to check the rain tires before that, some mods just wont work
 
Personally, I'd love to see wet weather implemented. It adds an extra challenge to the driving. Hotlapping with "optimum settings and tyres" isn't much fun, its the challenge of racing others in the given situation you have. Did a couple of leagues on rf1 with the rf weather plugin (cant remember the right name for it) which made it fantastic, to have a 2 race round at a track with one wet and one dry race really shook things up and made it more enjoyable.
Still remember the first time the rain started during a race in GP4......the latest sim programmers really need to have a word with Mr Crammond!
 
My opinion: proper weather > no weather > badly implemented weather

IMHO we have yet to see proper weather (including proper wet lines). Probably better to focus on dry track evolution for now.
 
Enduracers porsche? those rain tires were not good before, no idea if they changed it. Simply going to rain in rF2 is suicide, need to check the rain tires before that, some mods just wont work

Yes I'm afraid so. It was a shame as we had around 60 drivers to start with across two servers and then it just dropped to just over a dozen people. Not surprisingly they lost interest pretty quickly if you can't make a car go round corners. :D

I did all my practise in the dry for it so it was a major shock when I tried driving the thing in the wet! :rolleyes:

Yes the mod has been updated since then but I'd admit I haven't driven the car since.
 
I think that in 2018 all sims should have this option. If they can make photorealistic graphics, realistic handling and physics and challenging AI, they can make real weather effects as well.
 
Christ!...some developers are having a 'hard enough' time doing good dry weather physics as it stands right now.
Would it be great if they could get a 'handle' on both wet and dry?.... yes.
Absolutely necessary for wet?.... No.
 
I definitely like to see the rain feature in a racing sim since it adds another layer of realism. That being said, in F1 2016 it seems to be a wet weekend every week except for the desert races which does not seem realistic.
 
For me of course its important, why wouldn't it be? A sim without day and night transitions and weather (rain) is NOT a complete sim.

Its not that they can not do it, its about time and money ...

I really hope that Project Cars 2 is good? because for sure, it will give all the others the kick they need.
 
Hi !

Weather is a MUST HAVE for me. Imagine all the great real races on the nordschleife without rain....that would be totally bad !
I cannot wait for PCars 2 !

Greetings from germany :)
 
Does it still rain in the cockpit in tin top cars in rfactor2, does rfactor 2 still not have wipers when it rains, does rfactor 2 simulate wet tires, does rain run down the car body panel in rfactor 2, does the rain still look like letter " I " in rfactor 2.

There are to many weed smokers here that think rfactor 2 does rain or wet weather better than all other sims and racing games, when in reality it does not, stay off the strong stuff guys, there is a reason why the developers themselves are not promoting rain or wet weather in rfactor 2.
 
yes, we used to have rain already in race07 (10 years ago) and GTR2 (even more than 10 years ago), however it was static rain, i.e. all the track was covered in all the same rain all the time. It looked great and was fun to play but far far from realistic. As I said earlier, I'd rather wait for more realistic virtual wetness than rehash what we had before for the sake of including rain. That said, the ice patches in the Monte Carlo Stages of Dirt Rally were nice (but always in the same place, no matter how often you ran the track ...).
 
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