iRacing created a great car...then broke it

[swervedriver]

Hello, all. I'm new to the forum, and I joined specifically to vent about iracing (I have to watch what I say on the official forums, for reasons familiar to many here).

A little while ago, iracing produced a gem of a car called the RUF Track. All the RUFs were fun, but this one was special. It had power, grip, predictable handling, and was an absolute blast to drive-in short, it was everything most cars in iracing aren't. And it was (and still is) going to be featured in the first multi-make, single-class category in iracing.

It was a great car. Many proclaimed it to be the best in the service. So iracing did the only thing they could: they broke it.

Last night, they released a build of the car that features a weird, wonky gearbox. Downshifting plain doesn't work. Missed shifts are now common, with the gearbox either slipping into neutral or not shifting at all. Driving the car now requires keeping one eye on the gear indicator, as you can never really be sure what gear you're in.

The car was great. Now it sucks. I can't think of any reasons they changed it, except for one:

Every car in iracing generates a ton of complaints. There were no complaints about the RUF, and we all know how nature abhors a vacuum.

What's worse is that there's a perfectly good build of the RUF out there, but iracing won't switch back to it, because to do so would be to admit a mistake. That doesn't happen often.

This was an idiotic move. There was no reason to try and fix something that wasn't broken. And there was definitely no reason to charge $11.95 for one car, only to turn that car into something else entirely just before the start of the new season.

I used to think iracing was flawed but fun. After this little stunt, however, my opinion has changed to two words: iracing sucks.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

No idea who that is directed at but if you can't handle people having conversations, opinions, and debates maybe you shouldn't read forums.....or maybe you should take your own advice and grow some (???) and get over it.

@Bakkster Only the cars that are applicable of course.

Well if you can't figure out that it is not directed at the people who are just discussing it rather than the people arguing about then clearly you are still growing yours eh

 

[muscimol]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_iy6NVSZnBw#t=205
Timo didnt miss any downshifts when he rapidfired. What an unrealistic transmission model real life has.

This is not the transmission used in Porsche 911 GT3 R (Type 997). He uses manual sequential, the same as in C-Spec, not the fully automated one as used in GT3 specification cars.
This is the video with proper car:

and I can't see or hear anything unusual that you cannot do in iRacing car.

 

[Ben Tusting]

Car was crap before the new build and is still crap

 

[muscimol]

Car was crap before the new build and is still crap

Thank you for you well-reasoned and articulated opinion and appreciate your effort to present it here.

Edit. Update from the iRacing staff about the problem with transmission stuck to neutral:

It's a bug. Turns out we didn't have enough throttle blip with downshift attempts. The same problem could happen on the McLaren but was much more rare because of the characteristics of the driveline. Therefore there wasn't enough force to get the gear to change down. Fix will be rolled out asap.

 

[RaceNut]

Okay - that makes more sense as there were times where nothing I did would bring it out of neutral and the rev's didn't seem to matter.

 

[Ben Tusting]

Thank you for you well-reasoned and articulated opinion and appreciate your effort to present it here.

Edit. Update from the iRacing staff about the problem with transmission stuck to neutral:

Not a problem sir , glad you appreciated it

 

[Dazmaniac]

Not a problem sir , glad you appreciated it

If we are talking of the RUF, have you actually driven the car in anger in the service? Just that it doesn't appear in your stats.

 

[Ben Tusting]

Drove it when it was released around montreal and spa before the update and brands hatch indy on the latest build.

 

[Rhys Gardiner]

Edit. Update from the iRacing staff about the problem with transmission stuck to neutral:

It's a bug. Turns out we didn't have enough throttle blip with downshift attempts. The same problem could happen on the McLaren but was much more rare because of the characteristics of the driveline. Therefore there wasn't enough force to get the gear to change down. Fix will be rolled out asap.

So there we are... I sheepishly stand corrected.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

I too had it for the first time last night running some laps around Atlanta....

 

[DewCrew88]

This is not the transmission used in Porsche 911 GT3 R (Type 997). He uses manual sequential, the same as in C-Spec, not the fully automated one as used in GT3 specification cars.
This is the video with proper car:

and I can't see or hear anything unusual that you cannot do in iRacing car.

not sure what you just showed me, i heard him do a few quick double downshifts in the first minute or two of the video?

 

[swervedriver]

Just wanted to add this video to the discussion:

www.youtube.com/v/3uGhK_mhmr8

If that's not "machine-gun" downshifting, I don't know what is.

Anyways, as Rhys pointed out, iRacing has admitted there's a bug and they're working to correct it. Should be interesting to see how the car drives afterwards. My guess is it still won't shift like the old car (or the car in the video, for that matter), but it will downshift a lot more reliably.

Edited to add: Sorry the video isn't embedded. I tried to embed it but apparently I suck at the internet.

 

[Emerson Meyer]

So, the "realistic experience" was nothing more than a "bug"

iRacing fanboys are the best.

 

[Bakkster]

So, the "realistic experience" was nothing more than a "bug"

iRacing fanboys are the best.

The refusing to shift if the revs haven't dropped is the appropriate response. Any time it dropped to neutral should have been a successful shift.

 

[DewCrew88]

So, the "realistic experience" was nothing more than a "bug"

iRacing fanboys are the best.

It's the ultimate Stockholm syndrome. Creating false scenarios to justify why iRacing is right for some reason I assume to justify all the $ spent.

I got to go to a buddies house and try out the Super Late Model(which isnt too bad) and MP4-12c today. Mainly because I wanted to see if re-upping was worth it. If you really think that an MP4-12c drives the way iRacing depicts it driving(which is how I hear all the GT cars drive) I really dont know what I can do to help or get through anymore. It weeble-wobbles every where, touching a curb either spins you out or breaks the suspension, the front end has zero grip and it plows perpetually mid corner. Im not even going to touch how bad the FFB was.

I honestly think the car is worse than when it was first released, and may possibly be worse than pre-NTM road cars were. If this is v5 and "progress" their only hope or maybe sim racings only hope is that either iRacing hires Kunos and fires Dave K, or someone gives Kunos the $ for an iRacing competition structure.

 

[swervedriver]

@Chris DiBenedetto: You're right, the new build seems to have destroyed the McLaren. I tested it a few days ago and found it undriveable. Apparently everyone is having serious issues with it.

The only reason I play iRacing is because of the online community. I prefer racing with human beings to racing against AI, and in iRacing I can get into a race pretty much any time I want. But the driving itself borders on the ridiculous. Last season, I drove the Skip and wound up in a qual session with one of the fastest drivers in the series. I watched his replay after and saw him drift the car through some corners like he was playing Initial D.

Bottom line: if there was a good alternative to iRacing, I'd be all over it. There isn't, so I'm stuck. But the RUF is a good car, though, with or without its gearbox issues. Give it a spin if you get the chance.

 

[Craig Hunter]

Don't know who told you the McLaren is indicative of the way all GT's drive, that isn't accurate at all. The other GT's seem to range between 'okay, need a bit of work still' (Ruf's general bouncing and sensitive brakes on the C-Spec) and 'still needing a lot of work' (The Vette and Caddy), Nothing else comes close to the McLaren from what I've tried, it is well beyond needing a lot of work, it is seriously munted. Easily the worst it has ever been.

What amazes me is they seem to have nailed the BoP between them but only the most skilled drivers can keep the McLaren under control to get the times out of it.

I did get a chuckle out of those claiming such an obvious bug on the Ruf was it working as intended. All you needed to do was look at the auto blipping only giving 40% throttle on downshifts to realise the problem.

 

[Rhys Gardiner]

If this is v5 and "progress" their only hope or maybe sim racings only hope is that either iRacing hires Kunos and fires Dave K, or someone gives Kunos the $ for an iRacing competition structure.

That in bold is something I think any sim racer worth their salt wants. If AC had the competition structure that iRacing has, there would be no argument IMO. Done, shut up shop, everyone can go home now, THAT would be the best thing to happen to the current sims.

On-topic, I think that the RUF handling and feel-wise is the best thing iRacing has done yet - with respect to their other cars. Certainly not a patch on anything Kunos has done (or many other sims for that matter), but definitely a step in the right direction. They did kind of screw up the McLaren's handling though, not a fan of the way that thing takes kerbs at all. All people are wishing for is a bit of stability in the handling...

 

[muscimol]

I did get a chuckle out of those claiming such an obvious bug on the Ruf was it working as intended.

No one here said that getting stuck in neutral is working as intended, but the over-rev protection by electronics indeed is.

 

[swervedriver]

On-topic, I think that the RUF handling and feel-wise is the best thing iRacing has done yet - with respect to their other cars. Certainly not a patch on anything Kunos has done (or many other sims for that matter), but definitely a step in the right direction. They did kind of screw up the McLaren's handling though, not a fan of the way that thing takes kerbs at all. All people are wishing for is a bit of stability in the handling...

Very well put. I own most of the road cars in iRacing and driving most of them just plain feels like a chore. The RUF is different; you can hop in and just drive without having to adapt to any weird handling characteristics first. This is such a departure from the usual iRacing experience that the iRacing forums started filling up with threads about how amazed people were that the RUF is so competent.

No one here said that getting stuck in neutral is working as intended, but the over-rev protection by electronics indeed is.

Actually, someone did