Making a choice, need help please

[Joe Hubbard]

Hello everyone,
I have recently gotten into racing sims as most of my life I have been an avid flight simmer. However I have always loved racing and as a matter of fact photographed the Indy 500 as a final project in a high school photography class. I pretty much only have F1 2010 at the moment and the sounds/graphics are keeping me going for the most part. However I'm looking for the most "realistic" (as a sim can get) with the best graphics as well. I have to have my eye candy...:tongue: My wife calls me Mr. Monk from the TV show when it comes to my graphics. Mostly the antialiasing bothers me the most, I hate the jaggies about as much as I hate fireants.

My concerns are this:

Where we we live north of Houston we are pretty much in Technology hell. Our internet is 512k DSL but we seriously download at 190kb and upload at around 60kb all for $80 a month. Is this speed going to be enough to support Iracing? I do know that my wife and I use to play World of Warcraft together and didn't have any lag problems. I just want to make sure.

My second question is I am looking at getting that promotion with the F1 Williams but I cannot find anything on the site about the additional costs of cars and tracks. Could someone be kind enough to point me in the right direction to find out any and all pricing that I might be in for. Right now I'm racing F1 2010 with a Saitek X52 which has enough control for me and I'm looking at getting the G27 when the stores in this area have them in stock again. So with that said I would just like to wrap my head around the cost so I can have an explaination for the wife.

Thanks for your help

 

[Dario Jagar]

additional cars are 11.95 $ each, tracks are 11.95 (short ovals) or 14.95 $ (long ovals or road tracks)
there is 10% discount for 3+things purchase and 20% for 6+things purchase
your connection will be limited for downloading game itself not fpr playing (lag), however check your ping on http://www.speedtest.net/ if it is less then 50 ms you should have no problems

regarding game/sim itself I tried all possible sims/games on the market and none IMO can come close to iRacing in terms of physics and again IMO graphics as well, best part of it is great community and best online racing

 

[Gonira]

iracing graphics are quite decent. not so polished as f12010's, but some people even find iracing's to be more natural looking.

you won't be able to race the f1 in official series in the start, they're for A license drivers, and getting there is really an accomplishment. there's a f1 series running for fun with no license restrictions tho, but even though i own the f1 car, i never drive in this races. i found it much more rewarding to race only in official series, starting with the slower cars and climbing up the ranks. racing with a mazda mx-5 in iracing is infinitely funnier than playing f12010. the competition really forces you to learn how to be a fast driver, races are fantastic, the physics are top notch with a ton of depth.

imo nothing compares to iracing. it's the ultimate racing simulation software and community. you should definitely try it.

regarding connection, ping is more important than the connection speed itself for playing. i have a 10mbps broadband here, but as i live in brazil, my ping to the american servers is almost always in the 150ms-200ms range, which is far from perfect, but still very much playable, i only have lagging issues in rare ocasions. test yours here: www.pingtest.net

 

[Joe Hubbard]

Thank you for the reply, I tested the speedtest.net to a server that was not close to here. I got this:



I know that a buddy and I play Bad Company 2 on PC together every once in a while and I don't seem to have lag at all in it. However it took me 2 1/2 days to download it on steam...lol... My ping in Bad Company usually hovers around 120 to 140's... I'm ok with that though.

If I may I would like to ask one more question. In regards to the license I'm really only interested in the openwheel cars such as the F1, Indy, F2000, or Star Mazda. Will I have to buy say the mustang, or the V8 touring type cars in order to build the license up to race the others? There are a couple of others that I think might be pretty cool to drive like the daytona prototype, or the sr8 v8 but I'm not really interested in Nascar/modified at this point.

**EDIT** Sorry Gonira you must have been posting at the same time as myself.

 

[Gonira]

you only have to buy the cars and tracks you want to race on, no need to buy touring cars if you have no interest. there are open wheel road cars for every license but rookie. you'll have to start with the mx-5 though, it's the rookie's road car (it comes with the basic content, you don't have to buy it). it usually takes one month to build your safety rating and get promoted to a D license, so you can start racing the formula 2000, it's not a hard task.

don't see having to drive the mx-5 as an annoyance though, it's actually a gift. it's one of the funniest and absolutely the most forgiving car i drove in iracing so far, its races have a lot of higher graded drivers participating, since almost everyone loves them.

 

[stabiz]

Yeah, there is no obligation to buy something you dont want to buy. (Even in championships, since only 8 out of 12 weeks count, so just skip weeks if you dont have/dont want the track)

 

[Joe Hubbard]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm going to go ahead and order the F1 starter pack tonight and see what its all about.

 

[Joe Hubbard]

Well I'm in and downloading the cars/track updates now. Should be done in a few hours, can't wait to check this out. I do have one little problem though.... I can see that I'm going to end up spending alot more money on this stuff such as cars, tracks, wheels and I'm going to need someones couch for a bit after the wife finds out the cost...hehehe j/k...

 

[Abdul Al-Amry]

lol. I'm afraid you gonna be busted one way or the other. Good luck

 

[muscimol]

Exactly . I've started in December last year with $14.95 promo for three months just to try it and have ended with >$600 spent for full content and subscription till March 2012 .
Of course it doesn't must be your case. You can make class A spending only $11.95 for Star Mazda (if you like open wheel cars). Make Class D >4.0 with Mazda MX-5/SRF, then you can drive Star Mazda and make Class B >4.0 and then you can drive Williams - four races/time trials with it and you have Class A . I saw a guy who made it in 10 days .

 

[Joe Hubbard]

This thing is great! Granted for the first 12+ laps of testing I was all over the place and boy to I mean ALL over the place. I was able to after about an hour get my practice time at Laguna Seca down to 1.47 and at lime rock I got 1.01 with other cars running with me. hahaha I thought I was doing pretty darn good at Lime Rock and I was even able to make passes without causing myself or the other cars to crash. Until after the practice I saw that there were a couple of guys/gals putting in 59 second laps. I was a full 2 seconds behind, but one did have a "B" and the other had a "A" license. So that made me feel a bit better...lol...

There is SOOoooo much information to soak up on the site that it isn't funny! Is there a way to see what the average or better times on a certain track is from other drivers from a certain class? I'm basically after how my times are and where I stand really. Also is there a dummy guide to setting your car up to run better, I'm an idiot when it comes to that stuff. Seriously, I know the very basic minimums and last night I just ran the default setups in game. Also is there a way to see what all tracks are involved in a season so I can tell what I need vs. what I have?

**edit** I found the schedule that shows the 4 weeks at two tracks. Is this only taking place at two different tracks because that is all I own?

Thanks
Joe

 

[Dario Jagar]

yes for rookie class, first after that is rookie +3.0SR (inRacingNews Challenge) with following schedule:


WK START DATE TRACK
1 2010-11-02 Summit Point Raceway - Summit Point Raceway
2 2010-11-09 Lime Rock Park - Full Course
3 2010-11-16 Summit Point Raceway - Jefferson Course
4 2010-11-23 Charlotte Motor Speedway - Road Course
5 2010-11-30 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca - Full Course
6 2010-12-07 Watkins Glen International - Cup
7 2010-12-14 Summit Point Raceway - Jefferson Reverse
8 2010-12-21 Lime Rock Park - Chicane
9 2010-12-28 Summit Point Raceway - Summit Point Raceway
10 2011-01-04 Charlotte Motor Speedway - Road Course
11 2011-01-11 Watkins Glen International - Boot
12 2011-01-18 Summit Point Raceway - Short Configuration

or go directly to D class Skip barber or Mustang....

Skip:
WK START DATE TRACK
1 2010-11-02 Lime Rock Park - Full Course
2 2010-11-09 Virginia International Raceway - North Course
3 2010-11-16 Charlotte Motor Speedway - Road Course
4 2010-11-23 Zandvoort - Club
5 2010-11-30 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca - Full Course
6 2010-12-07 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course - Full
7 2010-12-14 Watkins Glen International - Classic Boot
8 2010-12-21 Virginia International Raceway - Full Course
9 2010-12-28 Summit Point Raceway - Summit Point Raceway
10 2011-01-04 Zandvoort - Grand Prix
11 2011-01-11 Road Atlanta - Full Course
12 2011-01-18 Watkins Glen International - Cup

underlined = basic content tracks

btw mostly used tracks in all schedules:

Watkins Glen
Road Atlanta
Mid Ohio
Zandvoort...

check all series here:
http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/Series.do

 

[Joe Hubbard]

Thank you Dario that was very helpful!

 

[Gonira]

only the first rookie series (mx-5 and rookie legends) have this 2-track-only schedule system. it's a shame, i'd love to race the mx-5 in other tracks.

also, there is no setup options in the mx-5 for the rookies. they run with fixed setups in this series, so the newbies can concentrate in learning to control the car.

www.racesetups.com is a good resource to try some setups from the fast guys when you start to race cars that allow adjustments. learning how to do it yourself is always better, though. what works for one person won't always work for you, since driving style must be taken into consideration when setting up the car.

 

[Joe Hubbard]

Thanks Gonira again for the info. Yeah I figured out they were fixed setups after getting into races and such. I can manage to finish in the top three during a race as long as someone doesn't ram the crap out of me in the first turn at Laguna. So I'm looking forward to being able to setup the car more for myself. My fast time at Laguna right now is 1:45 I think and in my final race last night the gent that won pulled 1:42. I was able to keep a good lead from the 4th place car but I was hit in the first turn pretty hard and was driving sideways down the straights. I ended up 3rd and recieved +9 point on my licese so that works for me...lol...

 

[Dietmar]

Until after the practice I saw that there were a couple of guys/gals putting in 59 second laps. I was a full 2 seconds behind, but one did have a "B" and the other had a "A" license. So that made me feel a bit better...lol...

Whether somebody holds a A or B license, does not say anything about speed, only about safe driving style. If you want to do predictions on speed, you need to look at the iRating.

 

[William Nowell]

only the first rookie series (mx-5 and rookie legends) have this 2-track-only schedule system. it's a shame, i'd love to race the mx-5 in other tracks.

also, there is no setup options in the mx-5 for the rookies. they run with fixed setups in this series, so the newbies can concentrate in learning to control the car.

http://www.racedepartment.com/iraci...nds-hatch-gp-sunday-december-12th-2010-a.html

 

[stabiz]

Whether somebody holds a A or B license, does not say anything about speed, only about safe driving style. If you want to do predictions on speed, you need to look at the iRating.

This is very true. If you go to stats/drivers and filter by A licence and iRating, you`ll see several A drivers with less than 1000 IR. Amazingly the lowest is 300 something, I dont even know how that is possible.

 

[AProst]

This is very true. If you go to stats/drivers and filter by A licence and iRating, you`ll see several A drivers with less than 1000 IR. Amazingly the lowest is 300 something, I dont even know how that is possible.

That's the problem with the iRating. They should have implemented a minimum, because if you reach 0 you are so disgusted that you resign your subscription lol