iRacing | Dallara LMP2 Preview Video

[Paul Jeffrey]

Another LMP 2 Dallara preview I hear you cry? Yes, iRacing are obviously excited about this one, and looking at the video, I suspect the players are pretty hyped too.

Not much to say here, a video tells a thousand words as they say... so let us have this hear poetry in motion do the talking on this article....

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[Shovas]

I'm seeing a common trend with the GT cars not feeling great (and maybe that's true, but I haven't driven them in iRacing in awhile)...but I drive open wheelers almost exclusively (as well as the about-to-be-retired HPD)

Just tried the FR2, FW31, L79, L49, F2000 at Detroit Belle Isle. It's hard to say since they have loads of grip it's difficult to get into a situation where you need the frontend to communicate grip levels. That said, I put in enough laps that, as far as I can tell, the forces are expressed in the same way just at an increased strength.

I then tried the Ford GTE at the end just to be sure and yep it felt all mushy up front (even though it's mid-engine which struck me as somewhat odd).

All the GT cars, front/mid/rear engine, doesn't matter where, the frontend just feels terrible.

Makes me wonder if they just set open-wheel cars as 100% grip cars and then, because for a certian metric GT cars are 50% grip, they just put that number in there. Like, it may be true a GT car is N% of an F1 car but that doesn't mean grip doesn't get expressed in a usable, meaningful way. That's my problem with iRacing. Every other major sim can express loads in a much more meaningful, usable way, regardless of whether force strengths are weaker or stronger as compared to iRacing. It's just the way they present them through the wheel that makes them more valuable to the driver.

 

[BP]

Just tried the FR2, FW31, L79, L49, F2000 at Detroit Belle Isle. It's hard to say since they have loads of grip it's difficult to get into a situation where you need the frontend to communicate grip levels. That said, I put in enough laps that, as far as I can tell, the forces are expressed in the same way just at an increased strength.

I then tried the Ford GTE at the end just to be sure and yep it felt all mushy up front (even though it's mid-engine which struck me as somewhat odd).

All the GT cars, front/mid/rear engine, doesn't matter where, the frontend just feels terrible.

Makes me wonder if they just set open-wheel cars as 100% grip cars and then, because for a certian metric GT cars are 50% grip, they just put that number in there. Like, it may be true a GT car is N% of an F1 car but that doesn't mean grip doesn't get expressed in a usable, meaningful way. That's my problem with iRacing. Every other major sim can express loads in a much more meaningful, usable way, regardless of whether force strengths are weaker or stronger as compared to iRacing. It's just the way they present them through the wheel that makes them more valuable to the driver.

Well I’m loading up RF2 now for the first time since I got my DD wheel to compare. I own the Ferrari 488 GTE on both platforms so I’ll try that on the Nurb GP and I’ll give the Ferrari in ACC a go as well; even though it’s the GT3 version it should still be close enough. Will report back tomorrow.

 

[BP]

Just tried the FR2, FW31, L79, L49, F2000 at Detroit Belle Isle. It's hard to say since they have loads of grip it's difficult to get into a situation where you need the frontend to communicate grip levels. That said, I put in enough laps that, as far as I can tell, the forces are expressed in the same way just at an increased strength.

I then tried the Ford GTE at the end just to be sure and yep it felt all mushy up front (even though it's mid-engine which struck me as somewhat odd).

All the GT cars, front/mid/rear engine, doesn't matter where, the frontend just feels terrible.

Makes me wonder if they just set open-wheel cars as 100% grip cars and then, because for a certian metric GT cars are 50% grip, they just put that number in there. Like, it may be true a GT car is N% of an F1 car but that doesn't mean grip doesn't get expressed in a usable, meaningful way. That's my problem with iRacing. Every other major sim can express loads in a much more meaningful, usable way, regardless of whether force strengths are weaker or stronger as compared to iRacing. It's just the way they present them through the wheel that makes them more valuable to the driver.

OK so I've compared iRacing to RF2 and ACC with identical car and track: Ferrari 488 GTE @ Nurburgring GP, 25C air temp, did at least 15 laps in each last night and then repeated the test again this afternoon in a different order (again the ACC test isn't exactly identical as it's the GT3 car, not the GTE)

There are some more little nuances in RF2 that indeed makes the experience more engaging. Definitely feeling the weight loading up on the front and the wheel getting heavier under braking, that's probably my favourite difference. I also forgot RF2 does flatspotting, but it reminded me very quickly lol. Last night I felt like RF2 was the obvious winner, with the countersteering forces feeling stronger (i.e. more idiot-proof ) and iRacing did indeed feel dead in comparison so I was ready to throw in the towel, but that's not how the F3 felt so I did some more tweaking today.

I only used the Nm numbers that VRS supplied, forgetting that those are just a baseline...the best way to get it tuned is to check telemetry and set it to whatever the 98% or 99% percentile of FFB Strength is. VRS recommended 33 Nm but telemetry showed about 27.8Nm as 98% so I set it to 28Nm. That 5 Nm made a big difference with road feel and countersteering forces, but 2 things I noticed:

1) It still didn't have some of the little nuances and the feeling of weight transfer in the wheel under braking like RF2's FFB is still absent...so overall RF2 has the more pleasing driving experience.

2) Those lack of nuances in iRacing didn't seem make me any slower...maybe because I used to using a combo of how fast I'm rotating visually and tyre sounds with the wheel to figure out if I'm going too far...but the FFB has enough info for me to be competitive. Can't compare lap times since I couldn't match the setups exactly (gear ratios aren't adjustable in RF2) but I was faster in iRacing overall.

Oh and about ACC: it's in a similar camp as RF2 in terms of little nuances but some of them feel almost like canned effects and not natural...also the wheel just goes very light when you slide but the FFB coutnersteer isn't very strong...have to do some more tweaking to see if I can get it better. Also, is it just me or does the track in ACC seem narrower than the other 2?

Overall I still don't think iRacing FFB is useless, in fact it tells me what I need to know, but yes there could be more added to make it feel more realistic (of course I've never driven a racecar so, grain of salt)...but I don't think it makes you more competitive to have those little things. The tyres are still a little slicker than RF2, won't deny that, but after tweaking the brake pressure, I rarely get lockups so it's a non issue. Try this same test and make sure to bump the Max force in iRacing on the Ferrari to 28Nm and maybe adjust any smoothing your wheel is doing to the FFB signal (since it feels lifeless, maybe less smoothing?).

 

[Shovas]

OK so I've compared iRacing to RF2 and ACC with identical car and track: Ferrari 488 GTE @ Nurburgring GP, 25C air temp, did at least 15 laps in each last night and then repeated the test again this afternoon in a different order (again the ACC test isn't exactly identical as it's the GT3 car, not the GTE)

There are some more little nuances in RF2 that indeed makes the experience more engaging. Definitely feeling the weight loading up on the front and the wheel getting heavier under braking, that's probably my favourite difference. I also forgot RF2 does flatspotting, but it reminded me very quickly lol. Last night I felt like RF2 was the obvious winner, with the countersteering forces feeling stronger (i.e. more idiot-proof ) and iRacing did indeed feel dead in comparison so I was ready to throw in the towel, but that's not how the F3 felt so I did some more tweaking today.

I only used the Nm numbers that VRS supplied, forgetting that those are just a baseline...the best way to get it tuned is to check telemetry and set it to whatever the 98% or 99% percentile of FFB Strength is. VRS recommended 33 Nm but telemetry showed about 27.8Nm as 98% so I set it to 28Nm. That 5 Nm made a big difference with road feel and countersteering forces, but 2 things I noticed:

1) It still didn't have some of the little nuances and the feeling of weight transfer in the wheel under braking like RF2's FFB is still absent...so overall RF2 has the more pleasing driving experience.

2) Those lack of nuances in iRacing didn't seem make me any slower...maybe because I used to using a combo of how fast I'm rotating visually and tyre sounds with the wheel to figure out if I'm going too far...but the FFB has enough info for me to be competitive. Can't compare lap times since I couldn't match the setups exactly (gear ratios aren't adjustable in RF2) but I was faster in iRacing overall.

Oh and about ACC: it's in a similar camp as RF2 in terms of little nuances but some of them feel almost like canned effects and not natural...also the wheel just goes very light when you slide but the FFB coutnersteer isn't very strong...have to do some more tweaking to see if I can get it better. Also, is it just me or does the track in ACC seem narrower than the other 2?

Overall I still don't think iRacing FFB is useless, in fact it tells me what I need to know, but yes there could be more added to make it feel more realistic (of course I've never driven a racecar so, grain of salt)...but I don't think it makes you more competitive to have those little things. The tyres are still a little slicker than RF2, won't deny that, but after tweaking the brake pressure, I rarely get lockups so it's a non issue. Try this same test and make sure to bump the Max force in iRacing on the Ferrari to 28Nm and maybe adjust any smoothing your wheel is doing to the FFB signal (since it feels lifeless, maybe less smoothing?).

Glad we both gave it our best shot and came to basically the same point of view.

The thing with iRacing is I feel I have to acclimatize to its handling and ffb and that could take many laps to feel it out, wheras as with the other sims it feels more natural and I feel acclimated in a lap or two.

You can definitely be just as fast in any sim but you have to learn what iRacing wants from you at the edge where as the other sims seem to be telling you what it wants at the edge.