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.

 

[tourister46a]

I can hop in to the Radical, C6r, FGT, Skip, RufT and drive all of them without it feeling like a chore or getting used to anything weird. I am sure they do not match exactly with their real life counterparts but does it really matter that the C6r understeers a little bit? If you think you cannot touch the curbs in the MP4, drive the Ruf and profit. There are race slots with freaking 150 people signing up in the GT3 series, so you don't even have low participation to complain about.

 

[swervedriver]

I can hop in to the Radical, C6r, FGT, Skip, RufT and drive all of them without it feeling like a chore or getting used to anything weird. I am sure they do not match exactly with their real life counterparts but does it really matter that the C6r understeers a little bit? If you think you cannot touch the curbs in the MP4, drive the Ruf and profit. There are race slots with freaking 150 people signing up in the GT3 series, so you don't even have low participation to complain about.

What's with the hostility? My view of iRacing is different from yours, and there's nothing wrong with that. I ran the Skip all last season and did ok (four wins, 36th in my division, I believe), so I'm not bad in that car, and I'm pretty good in all the others you've mentioned as well. However, driving in this game just doesn't feel right for me in most cars (although it's gotten a lot better with the new tire model), and driving the Skip feels like heavy lifting sometimes because of the concentration it requires. An hour-long test in the Skip is, at least to me, a lot harder than an hour-long test in the RUF Track.

My original complaint was that the new gearbox on the RUF Track basically ruined the car. That was a bit overboard. The car is still great, but the gearbox is broken (iRacing itself has admitted there's a bug and they're working it out). I never said anything about participation.

If you're implying that iRacing has great physics, there are a lot of people who would disagree with you. If you're saying the cars are driveable, I can agree with that-but for many of them, it takes a lot of practice just to be able to string together consecutive laps without spinning.

 

[Bakkster]

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 think the general consensus, even on the forums, is that the 12C is not working the way it should.

I finally feel like the other GTs on slicks can be driven without sudden snaps. The 12C should feel the way the others do, it will get to the level of the others 'soon' I hope. The Ruf feel good, has lots of grip (so much that 'wheel hop' is a huge understatement), and so long as you don't throw it into a corner and spin the tires without correcting it stays pointing forward. It's what I've wanted the GTs to feel like for a while (and why I didn't used to drive them). Of course, there are other people who want it to snap and bite back more, so there's that...

And that's always been the problem with trying one car and judging the entirety. There's always at least one car with issues, or a bad baseline, or that just doesn't feel right. And if you look at the worst stuff, you can miss some gems.

 

[Dazmaniac]

I was on the practice server last night @ Road Atlanta, running the RUF and the MP4-12C.

Firstly I'm no Alien or sim-racing jedi, but the RUF felt great. OK there were the odd blips with gear changing dropping in to neutral, but if that is my bad technique, then so be it, I have to learn.

As for the McLaren, the ones I saw bombing round certainly weren't weebly-wobbling everywhere and some guys were putting in good lap times. I guess the car is not for everyone.

 

[tourister46a]

What's with the hostility?

My post was aimed at the iracing haters in general. Iracing has many road cars with good physics (can't speak for the oval side) and an amazing online service is all I am saying

 

[tourister46a]

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.

Major exaggeration. I haven't driven the McLaren in more than 8 months, jumped into it at Bathurst and went 6 laps without a spin or offtrack or any other incident. It felt nervous sure and the rear was twitchy under power sometimes but it was very drivable as long as I was focused. I was pushing my limits and my last 2 of those 6 laps were in the 2:05s, so 3-4 seconds off WR is my guess. Setup used was Baseline and -2.5 rear camber as suggested by a staff member in the forums. I think it is a fun car with some quirks.

 

[swervedriver]

My post was aimed at the iracing haters in general. Iracing has many road cars with good physics (can't speak for the oval side) and an amazing online service is all I am saying

For me, it's more of a love/hate thing. The online service is phenomenal, light years ahead of what everyone else is doing, but (for me anyway) most of the cars have never felt quite right, especially pre-NTMv5. They're driveable, sure, but they just don't handle the way you expect them to. The RUF is great, though. I'm used to the new gearbox now (I still don't like it but I can deal with it), and I'm looking forward to the bug fix and seeing how it changes the feeling of the transmission.

 

[DewCrew88]

My post was aimed at the iracing haters in general. Iracing has many road cars with good physics (can't speak for the oval side) and an amazing online service is all I am saying

 

[swervedriver]

Just an update to this post:
iRacing rolled out an update for the RUF Track on Monday to fix the gearbox issues, and the car works great now for the most part. Some people are still reporting neutrals, but I haven't seen it once, and the shifting is just better overall.

The new complaint about the car is that it's too fast. The world record time at Silverstone right now is somewhere in the 1:44s, which is seven (!) seconds faster than its real-life counterpart. I don't really care as long as the car is driveable (iRacing cars tend to be quicker than their real-life counterparts in general), but it definitely bothers some.

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

I can understand why some would be bothered...a second too fast is alot but understandable....7 seconds means they are nowhere close to being an accurate simulation...doubly perplexing when it is a fictional car with no real data that they could manipulate to run however they wanted.

Their on-line structure is absolutely second to none and their tracks are amazing.....But....the driving physics and force feedback would be better off using the Forza engine and it really does pain me to say that. I spent over a grand hoping that the next build would always be the one that fixed everything and made the actual driving as good as the rest of the sim and I still hope that someday it gets there.

I borrowed a friends account and tried out some things and for me it is still as borked as ever...It's good that so many of you are happy because it means that my money is safe and the doors will stay open so to speak....Maybe the next build will be The One.

 

[swervedriver]

I've long since given up on the idea of iRacing being realistic. I still play for the same reasons you mentioned: the tracks and the online structure. The seven-second discrepancy is huge, but, as you pointed out, it's a fictitious car. It's hard to argue for realism in a car that doesn't actually exist.

Personally, I think iRacing becomes a lot more fun once you let go of the whole "simulator" idea. Yes, I know that's how the service labels itself, but if it really was the ultimate sim, then RL pro drivers would dominate, instead of getting their asses handed to them by thirteen-year olds who've never sat in the driver's seat of a real car. Perhaps the next build will be the one that delivers on the promises, who knows. Until then, I'll be happily posting unrealistic times in the RUF

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

I've long since given up on the idea of iRacing being realistic. I still play for the same reasons you mentioned: the tracks and the online structure. The seven-second discrepancy is huge, but, as you pointed out, it's a fictitious car. It's hard to argue for realism in a car that doesn't actually exist.

Personally, I think iRacing becomes a lot more fun once you let go of the whole "simulator" idea. Yes, I know that's how the service labels itself, but if it really was the ultimate sim, then RL pro drivers would dominate, instead of getting their asses handed to them by thirteen-year olds who've never sat in the driver's seat of a real car. Perhaps the next build will be the one that delivers on the promises, who knows. Until then, I'll be happily posting unrealistic times in the RUF

>let go of the whole "simulator" idea
>in a game that costs $1000 to own all the content, constantly spams real world racing teams with endorsements about how great they are and how all the real drivers use it, and labels itself as the most realistic PC racing sim ever, creating such a rift in the sim community that 85% of sim racers flat out to refuse to play anything other than iRacing because MUH COMPETITION and MUH ONLINE STRUCTURE

Uh, how bout when I shell out that much for a racing sim, I better be getting the best racing sim ever and not some crap hobbled together from old NR2003 code and microtransactions meant to nickle and dime me.

 

[William Levesque]

The new complaint about the car is that it's too fast. The world record time at Silverstone right now is somewhere in the 1:44s, which is seven (!) seconds faster than its real-life counterpart.

Are you talking about the Cup or the R ? Both are the most recent equivalent of the real life car, and today it's not the same layout as we have in iRacing.

Which year did you take the real life time from ? Just curious.

 

[swervedriver]

Are you talking about the Cup or the R ? Both are the most recent equivalent of the real life car, and today it's not the same layout as we have in iRacing.

Which year did you take the real life time from ? Just curious.

Talking about the R. I got the time from an iRacing forum. I really should have done my own research first, because I discovered something interesting: the car may be a lot slower in real life.

I looked at the 2013 FIA WEC qualifying times from Silverstone. The fastest lap of the session was a 1:43:281, set by an LMP1 prototype. Remember, the world record time for the RUF Track at the same track is a 1:44 something (got that info from iSpeed).

The fastest Porche in the real-life Silverstone session set a time of just over two minutes. The fastest GT3R was in the 2:04s.

At first, I thought the discrepancy was due to track configuration, but it looks as if the configuration run by the WEC and the one in the iRacing GT3 challenge is identical.

I don't know what to make of this. Having an unrealistically fast car is one thing, but a GT car that's as fast as a real-life prototype is ludicrous.

Here's the link to the lap data if anyone's curious. I'd like for someone to take a look, maybe I'm missing something?

http://www.fiawec.com/wpphpFichiers/FTP/results/2013/01-Silverstone/qualif.pdf

 

[Craig Hunter]

Your assumptions are wrong about the track, those times are set on the Hermann Tilke modified Silverstone (about 1km longer). There is no solid comparison I can find for a GT3 around 2008 Silverstone mainly because a) I can't find any data and b) GT3s have moved on a lot since then. They are now comparable to GT2 machinery in outright pace and they ran 48s before the redevelopment which seems correlate with the 3-5 seconds disparity that is seen at other tracks. Bathurst was more telling, we were doing 2.00 lap times on the old surface which had a record of 4.9. Needs some work for sure as it is in GT1 territory for lap times while being heavier and less powerful.

 

[swervedriver]

Thanks for the reply. I figured I was missing something. A twenty-second time disparity is flat-out ridiculous. I figured it had something to do with the track layout, but I didn't know about this particular configuration.

 

[Craig Hunter]

5 seconds is still a bit ridiculous. I can usually accept about 2 before I feel it is just not being simulated properly so I'm somewhat torn on this car because I've had some really good racing in it.

 

[Ben Tusting]

I am taking back my previous comment.

It's just the base setup is so so bad. The car is bloody amazing on a good setup

 

[swervedriver]

I am taking back my previous comment.

It's just the base setup is so so bad. The car is bloody amazing on a good setup

I agree, it's fantastic with a good setup. The setups posted by GTros on another thread here are really good.

 

[DewCrew88]

I looked at the 2013 FIA WEC qualifying times from Silverstone. The fastest lap of the session was a 1:43:281, set by an LMP1 prototype. Remember, the world record time for the RUF Track at the same track is a 1:44 something (got that info from iSpeed).

The fastest Porche in the real-life Silverstone session set a time of just over two minutes. The fastest GT3R was in the 2:04s.

At first, I thought the discrepancy was due to track configuration, but it looks as if the configuration run by the WEC and the one in the iRacing GT3 challenge is identical.