iRacing Shows First Pit Crew Animation Previews

[Paul Jeffrey]

iRacing have dropped a little preview video of some interesting development content coming to the sim in future builds, a fully animated lollipop pitcrew member!

Pit stops are an integral part of the endurance racing scene since the beginning of motor racing history, a place where you can win and lose those vital seconds that could prove decisive in the final result for you and your team, which makes it even more confusing as to why almost all modern simulations totally ignore this vital element of racing and at best provide the functionality but not the actual visual actions that form part of a busy mid-race stop.

iRacing are looking at changing all that as the plan to bring your racing crew to life with realistic looking team animations for when you come screeching on to pit road and back to your cars box.

Early footage in the above video shows some great promise, and the team over at iRacing have promised more detailed footage in the next few days showing off how they created the animations and hopefully giving us a little more insight into what (or should that be 'who') drivers can expect to see when entering and exiting the pitbox during a race weekend.

With over 40 cars present at the recent Daytona 24 Hour event one can only imagine how hectic that pit road must look. Lets hope the folks at iRacing have developed good penalty system for the dozens of cars plowing down its main rivals pit crews in the haste to win a vital few tenths of a second (or alternatively make them non-collidable, but where's the fun in that?)

Stay tuned to RaceDepartment.com for further updates and footage on this interesting work in progress feature. Looking for a good setup or just want a place to discuss your favourite sim? Why not checkout the iRacing Forum right here on RD?

Why hasn't this been done before? Looks cool doesn't it? What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[nounoubleu]

Back to the future.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Considering we are in 2016 and the evolution other games had since the first gen of sims we should be able to have pit crews replacing damaged car parts by now (mods included), towing cars back to pits, etc. It adds a lot of immersion if you want to simulate full thing rather than only the driving part (yeah driving is the most important part, we all know that)
Good to see they are doing this but still baby steps if it's only the lolipop man

 

[Blimey]

that moment when you realise that GTR2 was almost a complete sim, with some things missing that probably couldn't be implemented back then.

 

[RichardHessels]

A lot of fuzz about a animated lollypopman. C'mon iRacing, GTR2 is 10 years old and did a better job (for that time).

 

[MoerasGrizzly]

A lot of fuzz about a animated lollypopman. C'mon iRacing, GTR2 is 10 years old and did a better job (for that time).

But this is a laserscanned lollypopman!

 

[Andy_J]

Remember folks, SMS/IAN BELL's reason for not having animated pitstops in Pcars is that we, the irresponsible and cruel sim racer will run them over. How silly is that reason? Did we run em over in GTR2 or GP4 or Nascar Racing 2003?

 

[MoerasGrizzly]

Remember folks, SMS/IAN BELL's reason for not having animated pitstops in Pcars is that we, the irresponsible and cruel sim racer will run them over. How silly is that reason? Did we run em over in GTR2 or GP4 or Nascar Racing 2003?

No!

Although to be fair it's only because I was too busy doing something like this:

 

[Will Mazeo]

No!

Although to be fair it's only because I was too busy doing something like this:

This is the kind of stuff that makes me wonder where sims nowadays went wrong. Seriously this is some cool stuff. If only developers didn't stop supporting this wouldn't be as hard as implementing them now.
GTR2 as showed above also gives a nice immersion. I really enjoy when the pit lane is not empty

Hope Reiza can do something good for their next sim in 2017

Edit: the only "bad" thing in GTR2 3d animations is that it only showed yours online, nothing from other cars

 

[Luiz Noguira]

GTR2 is a great simulator.
Far beyond his time!
It was the first to have rain, night racing and excited pit.
a pity that the SIMBIN discontinued.

 

[Grand Tourist]

I hope Kunos will have the offline pitstop soon. Racing for just 10 laps or disabling fuel usage just doesn't do the sim racer justice. Also flags waved by marshalls and such would help the full experience.....but hey, it says 2010-2020 at the startup screen so plenty of time for it....right?

 

[Andy_J]

I actually think the very best animated pitstops are in Codies F1 2015. They are superb. Yes not much interaction, but you can select tyre type prior to pitting. The animations are first class and a pitstop adds so much more immersion in my opinion.

 

[RichardHessels]

This is the kind of stuff that makes me wonder where sims nowadays went wrong. Seriously this is some cool stuff. If only developers didn't stop supporting this wouldn't be as hard as implementing them now.
GTR2 as showed above also gives a nice immersion. I really enjoy when the pit lane is not empty


Hope Reiza can do something good for their next sim in 2017

Edit: the only "bad" thing in GTR2 3d animations is that it only showed yours online, nothing from other cars

It would bring framerate down to much if they would be there for 20+ cars

 

[Will Mazeo]

It would bring framerate down to much if they would be there for 20+ cars

I don't think so, they don't really have to be super mega detailed (or should have option to lower res). Plus other games have more details than sims and are running fine.

Seriously tho. Imagine being in VEC and when changing drivers you have 1st person view in the pit garage waiting for your teamate to arrive, then you get in the car, see them putting the seatbelts, etc. Would be fun

 

[Flammenjc]

iRacing logic : Improve the thing that we lack on our competitors [the physics]? Nah, lets add useless pit crew animations to make the sheep forget their problems

 

[Bernd Graf]

I sense

DIRECT COMPETITION WITH KUNOS

 

[c172fccc]

Remember folks, SMS/IAN BELL's reason for not having animated pitstops in Pcars is that we, the irresponsible and cruel sim racer will run them over. How silly is that reason? Did we run em over in GTR2 or GP4 or Nascar Racing 2003?

Hum, what? He never said that. Actually, you can't control the car in the pits in Pcars, how would you run them over?

 

[xnorb]

Everything that adds more life is welcome.

 

[Andy_J]

Hum, what? He never said that. Actually, you can't control the car in the pits in Pcars, how would you run them over?

Yes he did.

 

[James Nance]

New video

Nice little detail added. Don't know why you would call this a gimmick.