Simraceway

[Bram Hengeveld]

Some 8 months ago SRW announced that they would be releasing an official IndyCar game which sounded very promising. Haven't heard anything since.

Anybody know whats the status of this game?

 

[Ryan Vickery]

I asked in their online chat support on the website, and all they said is that they will have some information about it later this year, I'm guessing it's for 2013 or maybe even 2014 season of Indycar, I'm also guessing the ingame support staff don't know much about it themselves.

Who knows.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

Having fun with that stock car, powersliiiide! ^^

 

[Ryan Vickery]

Some early screenshots of the upcoming dirt track, I'm guessing based on a Dakar Rally style event. Releasing in less than 2 weeks now along with the Dirt Buggy!

 

[Lee Knight]

Cool!
Something different that will give the Dakar & Rally cars something to dig into!

 

[Ryan Vickery]

So a few things. I just got out of my race with Allen Mcnish, and some other pretty fast drivers. Was in the Audi R18 at BRNO circuit, really wish I had made the point to practice it as I wasnt confident with either the car or circuit enough to push hard.

Still, I battled my way into 2nd place, but a faster driver behind beat me under braking and I fell into 3rd, I managed to keep up with him for a good while until at the start of one lap I noticed a few laggy cars and then I was in 4th (Allen was in 5th place at this point, battling behind). Annoyed and confused by what happened I kept racing and caught up to the 3rd place car passing him on the final lap after a good clean bit of battling to finish 3rd, allen finished 5th I believe!

Was landed to be able to get to race him, even though I ended out infront and didn't actually race side by side. Hopefully I can salvage something from the replay!

Next up in... They Released Silverstone today, I'm not sure why, perhaps an early release for the race with Mcnish?

And Tomorrow's Test Drive Tuesday car is the Mclaren MP4-25

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

Ohh TDT for a MP4-25! I'll be testing it for sure, it's still a bit pricy at even at 50% but free to try is free

Oh and congrats on your results Ryan! Very cool
I hope to break into the top 10 some day
What assists did you run if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Ryan Vickery]

Ohh TDT for a MP4-25! I'll be testing it for sure, it's still a bit pricy at even at 50% but free to try is free

Oh and congrats on your results Ryan! Very cool
I hope to break into the top 10 some day
What assists did you run if you don't mind me asking?

The only thing I did was launch control on the start. Was my first time trying it, I didnt know the car had launch control.... Well I think I almost crapped my pants when the car launched with that, much faster than I can do myself and it took me up to 5th gear before it disengaged. A few people had suggested I use it.

Otherwise I was just driving it with no aids, always shortshifting from 2nd to 3rd gear to avoid wheelspin on exit.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

There's launch control? :o
Nicely done though without assists, I enjoy driving without the most, but I s**k at it. ^^
I've tried turning TC, ABS and Stability Control all on low, and I immediately put in a lot faster and more consistent laptimes, which is why I wish there was a event class with no assists allowed bar autoclutch.

 

[Ryan Vickery]

I personally drive slower when the driving aids are on, Stability Control can make some cars faster though, as it can sometimes allow you to go faster on the exit of a corner where without it you would lose rear grip and spin.

Especially noticable in the Go Karts that stability control can make you faster, though in the more well sorted cars it's more likely to just cause understeer and ultimately make you slower, it depends on the driving style. As for ABS/TC I find they restrict me, the ABS makes the braking distances longer in many cars than I'm able to do without it and the traction control again can be the cause of some understeer.

Stability control is the only one they ban in advanced events because it can give a clear advantage, IMO the ABS/TC will make a really fast driver slower. They are also available in advanced because a great deal of the cars we're driving have those aids available in real life, even many of the racing cars.


I've suggested that if they are going to do that, they should rather decide driving aids on an event to event basis, for example if it was a Formula 1 event then those cars do not have either ABS or TC, so in that event both should be disabled for advanced.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

While a good driver can benefit from not having ABS and TC, a horrible driver (me) will benefit from having them on
My point for having them off ain't so I can compete with the best though, it's just so I know theres a level playingfield. To paint an example;
With the M1 event I managed a 13th place with no assists after between 30 and 40 laps on the track. Turned the three mentioned assists on and within 3 laps I had shaved off 4-5 seconds on my laptime and climbed to 11th. If I can improve that much using assists I'm sure there are others as well. So by having a "no assists" event, I would most likely still be placing on the bottom half, but I know that every driver above me have outperformed me behind the wheel, not through assists.

 

[Ryan Vickery]

Apparently Allan Mcnish will be returning to do more racing at 2:30-5pm PST, so in around 1h 20mins from posting. You will need the Audi R18 to race against him.

Will most likely be at the BRNO circuit, as they were having some race start bugs with Silverstone.

 

[Rupe Wilson]

Have fun Guys

 

[Jonathan Holmes]

I bought the MP4-25 the other day and now it's TDT damnit! Oh well, guess this gives me even more of a reason to get into SRO this weekend!

 

[Ryan Vickery]

New car got added last night!

Cost is $1.93 or 1930 credits.


Driving the MP4-25 on tuesday I thought it was fantastic, blasting it around Silverstone was a welcome breath of fresh air after being stuck with the same tracks for so long. From what I'm told there will be another big name track coming pretty soon too, alongside the Dirt track which should be here in roughly a week.

Silverstone is good too, it's definitely more accurate than the versions in the Codemasters F1 games, and I've been able to really enjoy it. Until now I was never really a fan of the new layout of Silverstone, now while I still love the old layout the new one is definitely starting to grow on me.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

Dunno the MP4-25 was my first real disappointment in this game tbh. I imagine a F1 car being harder to control than this was, and to pretty much feel like every tiny bump on the surface through the wheel, much like the MAK addon for Race07. Instead it felt like it had a massive power steering absorbing all feedback from the wheel and like it had TC even though it was off in settings. Granted I have (and will) never driven a F1 car so I might have the wrong expectations.

 

[Ryan Vickery]

Dunno the MP4-25 was my first real disappointment in this game tbh. I imagine a F1 car being harder to control than this was, and to pretty much feel like every tiny bump on the surface through the wheel, much like the MAK addon for Race07. Instead it felt like it had a massive power steering absorbing all feedback from the wheel and like it had TC even though it was off in settings. Granted I have (and will) never driven a F1 car so I might have the wrong expectations.

People always make the assumption that driving an F1 car should be hard. If you watch an onboard and then compare to what you experience in the game you will probably be amazed at how hard and how early they can get on the throttle. I compared my lap around Silverstone with one that Jenson button did in the same car in 2010 and though I was driving hard and fast, he was actually driving harder and faster, especially when it came to how hard and early he was getting on the throttle out of the corners (a lot of that is down to the fact that he is obviously much more skilled), my lap on the test drive tuesday event was one of the fastest overall ( I think top 5) so it wasn't that I was just driving slow.

Also, the feel in the wheel is an issue that some real F1 drivers had a problem with. If you remember it was Kimi Raikkonen and Jarno Trulli who both had issues with the power steering in the wheel causing them to be unable to feel enough of the surface and bumps, while other drivers were able to adjust to it easier, Jarno Trulli especially blamed his lack of speed on this lack of feel problem and even dropped out of 1 race (to be replaced by Karun Chandhok) because of it. So having FFB that perhaps doesn't give you quite as much information as you would want is not necessarily unrealistic, considering that drivers have had the same complaints about the real cars.


In the real world the difficulty with driving the car is half down to having the belief and balls to drive the car fast enough that it will actually function properly, keeping the brakes and tyres in the right temperatures, transfer that into the virtual world and it suddenly becomes a lot easier to manage. The tyre/brake temperature management ingame is also probably a fair bit easier than in the real world too. In practice though the real F1 car is probably no more difficult to drive than the ingame one, they are typically easy to drive from what many people have said, if you can bring yourself to drive them fast enough that they actually function.



Keeping all of that in mind, and keeping in mind the other versions of F1 cars of tried from that era, Ferrari Virtual Academy (2010/2011 car) and iRacing (2009 Williams car), and looking at cornering speeds, braking distances, throttle points and end lap times, I personally think the SimRaceway Mclaren MP4-25 is pretty damn good.

 

[Travis]

People always make the assumption that driving an F1 car should be hard.

I believe this is a common misconception about sim racing in general. In sim racing, hard to control (be it a lack of grip or ill handling) equals real for whatever reason and yet the few times I've had the pleasure of a track day experience, the reality of being strapped inside a real track car is the complete opposite.

 

[Rob Every]

Ryan I think you over simplify, until you have driven an F1 car I dont think anyone can really get across what it much be like.

One thing nothing can prepare you for mis the physical issues, neck, G force, you would not last more than a few laps before your neck just gave up

So, no matter what the car in a game feels like, you dont get any of that physical stuff.

Regarding the games, the main problem you have with F1 cars is belief, you just have to see what you get away with.

In F12012, I was messing about with setups and stuff for ages, the just thought to hell with it, just throw it at a caroner and see if it sticks, if it does great, if it doesnt reign it in.

Problem is on there, at least online, a lot of peopel use aids, and that masks how quick you can be, but I have never been off the podium in 50 odd online races, and for me thats enough to know that at least I know where F1 trakcs go, and I can visualise the lap, lines and stuff.

But thats all, I would have no idea and feel, setup or anything coz it is just a game!!!

 

[Rupe Wilson]

I think Ryan has it about spot on, Its all the other stuff that's hard.. but the simple fact of driving the thing, I think we could all achieve. As to how fast we are is a different matter.. we also don't have the stresses on our body and the fear fact to worry about.. I know id of filled my pants before i even left the pits..