iRacing vs. rFactor 2

[Jan Roman]

Hello,

I would like to make one thing clear. Please, don't argue which one is better, because you dislike the other one and so on. I would like to get as much objective feedback as possible please.

I have been an iRacing driver for some time. I am relatively new to the world of SimRacing so I don't really know where is my place yet. I had no desire to play rFactor since I need at least some graphics immersion in the game and the original rFactor was not really "pretty". The situation changed when rFactor 2 came.

I am thinking about buying it, but since I know nothing about various simulators (I have only bought iRacing and won NetKar PRO), I would like to know what's your opinion on rFactor 2 (ideally in comparison to iRacing). rFactor 2 seems amazing at the moment (as well as Assetto Corsa and iRacing, I would say these three are the biggest opponents right now), but I have no experience with modding, league racing and so on. I am used to simply join Testing/Practice/Qualy/Race at iRacing webpage and be ready, but I quite like the idea of community developed game. I have to say I am a big fan of laser scanned tracks (which will probably be a problem in rFactor) so I don't really know what to expect.

P.S. I know that it's an everlasting issue and people discuss these games a lot, I am going through various forums an so on, but I'd like to know your personal opinion.

Thank you.

 

[Jan Roman]

I would like to add that I am not a big fan of open wheelers. I would like to focus on faster hard tops like GT series. Not sure if that's relevant though

 

[Jari Vinnari]

You can try rFactor 2 for period of two months and ask refund if you dont like it. So in your shoes I would try it myself.

 

[Jan Roman]

I will for sure, thank you. Even though, I would like to know what you think about it I don't want to compete at a very high level. I am looking for a fair competition and a place where I would be able to educate myself.

That's a problem in iRacing sometimes. I have learned A LOT there, but thecommunity is... well, not very friendly sometimes.

Are there any regular GT series for instance in rFactor? (now or in rFactor 1?)
Lets say I would like to race with friends. Do I need a server of my own or is there a way of making one just with my client?

Thank you.

 

[Jari Vinnari]

RFactor 2 has given me the best and most entertaining driving experience of any game that I have tried. Its still has bugs and is missing many features but they will (or should ) be fixed and added in future batches.
I would buy it again in heartbeat.

Its moddable so there will be lots of different cars, tracks and mods coming one day.

 

[Caramidaru Andrei Bogdan]

well here's the point of view of a newb

1.i have race simbin race07,gtr2 and rfactor 1 and nektar pro so far
2.recently i have done some racing in Iracing for first time and to be onest,i dont like it, it does not feel so real(i dont care much about graphics but more about simulation)and with mazda i found out that if u are in a slide,push brake/acc at same time,and slide over...well that is not very realistic.(more on this subject here)
as a simracer also i love the comunity,so i can have friends and among friend race enemys and here at RD also TPS it is great

don't know if it helps,but this is my point of view

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

To counter some of the above comments, I have recently purchased rF2 for the second time, asked for a refund last time due to a extremely unfinished game and no progress over two months. The game is still very much unfinished even though the beta tag is gone.
The ingame menus are poorly designed and cumbersome to use, even rF1 is better on this.
The way they push content having you download each track, car and mod from their website and install them manually via their "mod manager", which could just have been scrapped and let us place the mods in folders like we used to do before, because it serves no purpose afaik (at least not yet).
The graphics is piss poor on most of the content I've tried, some cars and tracks look "ok", but I've yet to see anything that puts a smile on my face. Most of the current sims out there look as good or in most cases better imo, Race07 series, rF1, iRacing, R3E, GSC2012, GT Legends, NetKar Pro are the ones I own and compare with.

All that having been said I think rF2 excels in the driving feel, the physics and FFB are stellar! So if you can live with a cumbersome ugly halfbroken game you will have a great time while on track.
Personally I won't race it much, not yet at least, there's too many other sims out there that offers good enough driving experience while not having the drawbacks of rF2. But I'll be keeping the game this time, hoping it will improve with time.

As far as iRacing goes, I love it, it's not quite rF2 in terms of physics and FFB but I think it's VERY good nonetheless, and moreso it's the complete package you get with iRacing which is appealing to me, no game is even close to it imo as of yet. I do hope however that AC (and dare I hope pCars?) will change that in the future, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Rupe Wilson]

Well looks like the rFactor2 sync manager is working, this made the update so much easier

 

[David Wright]

As an outsider owning neither rF2 nor iRacing, I would have thought that iRacing's strengths were

1) easy pickup racing - lots of drivers, better than typical driving behavior in pickup races.

2) laser scanned tracks

I'd be surprised if rF2 on-line racing was as well populated or as well behaved as in iRacing and it doesn't have laser scanned tracks.

rF2s strengths are

1) lower cost
2) ability to race against AI
3) variable weather and track conditions
4) moddability - which in the long term will offer far more cars and tracks than iRacing though the quality will vary and most will probably not be to iRacing standards.

 

[Niel Hekkens]

As an outsider owning neither rF2 nor iRacing, I would have thought that iRacing's strengths were

1) easy pickup racing - lots of drivers, better than typical driving behavior in pickup races.

2) laser scanned tracks

I'd be surprised if rF2 on-line racing was as well populated or as well behaved as in iRacing and it doesn't have laser scanned tracks.

rF2s strengths are

1) lower cost
2) ability to race against AI
3) variable weather and track conditions
4) moddability - which in the long term will offer far more cars and tracks than iRacing though the quality will vary and most will probably not be to iRacing standards.

I think one of the strength of iRacing is that you always race against real people and no AI.
Racing against people is to me 100 times better than racing AI.

But this all depends on what somebody wants and is subjective.

 

[David Wright]

I think one of the strength of iRacing is that you always race against real people and no AI.
Racing against people is to me 100 times better than racing AI.

But this all depends on what somebody wants and is subjective.

Indeed While this is a forum focused on on-line racing and so I'm sure your viewpoint is popular, 80 to 90% of sim-racers don't race on-line.

My own experience of on-line racing is mixed. At its best it can be very good but pick-up racing often compares badly to racing the AI. I won my first on-line race because I was the only driver who could keep the car on the track for five laps. In many races people dropped out of the race after a couple of laps when they realised they weren't going to win. And then there were the occasional wreckers.

I appreciate iRacing have tried to tackle the issues of pick-up racing while trying to keep the convenience of being able to race at a time convenient to the player. But racing the AI gives you complete freedom to race whatever car you want on whatever track for however many laps you choose at the exact time you want, and you even have the option to pause the race if you are interrupted. And you can set the difficulty level so you get a race rather than just be left racing alone which can happen racing humans.

 

[Niel Hekkens]

Pick-up racing in games like rF(2), RACE 07, GTR are an hell indeed and you already have won when you survived the first lap. This is where iRacing shines. Every 1, 2 or 4 hours (depending on the series) there is a race. Also, nobody disconnects after 2 laps thanks to the rating system in iRacing and there are always people who are on the same level as you. So most of the time there is somebody to battle. You can race the whole day long if you want, against other real drivers who want to race too. Wreckers are very rare in iRacing and if there is one, he can be reported and he is gone for a while.

Indeed you have a lot of freedom racing against AI. In my opinion there is nothing like racing other real people door to door for a couple of laps.

 

[Birddogg66]

Well I own a lot of game titles ATM none are subscription based. Also I do own rF2 but is not loaded ATM due to a catastrophic update and have not gotten around to reinstalling it and redoing all the mod data I did not need the headache at the time and felt I needed some time away from it.
With the regards to iRacing vs rF2 I have since the start of my sim racing leaned more toward ISI based titles and that flavor stuck with me. While I thought iRacing was pretty good the differences in their physics model is enough that it does not work for me as well as ISI stuff. I do think iRacing MP platform is the best in the market but I need more things that suit my tastes that rF2 offers more of. Offline mode, Multi driver view cams. and more options for things like adding mods. I like the freedoms ISI titles offer in comparison. It seems like iRacing wants your total commitment almost suggesting you drop every other title you enjoy to give it the commitment that is needed. I for one don't want to do that so I decided to get out and stay out.

 

[RaceNut]

iRacing is great for the online aspect but, for those who don't have the time needed to be competitive in it - it just doesn't make good financial sense IMO. I have limited time to run some laps late at night and rF2's AI fit the bill just fine for that. I agree that racing against human drivers excels in the end but, where time is an issue for some of us - good AI can be useful. Hotlapping in iRacing gets old pretty quick and the practice sessions don't offer much in the way of competition.

iRacing's new sounds are top-notch though, those I will miss when my sub runs out.

 

[Ryan Vickery]

In terms of an infrastructure to allow racing I don't think anything touches iRacing, but with the driving experience you may (or may not) with certain cars find that Rfactor 2 is more to your liking. I'm a bit hot/cold with both, though I haven't played Rfactor 2 in quite a while I was getting a driving experience that I thought was awesome in some cars, and in other cars that I thought was terrible and unrealistic. But then again, at times I've felt the same thing from iRacing.

My biggest issue with Rfactor 2 is the way it all works, the UI is just bad and once you start adding mods things start to get buggy, some mods wants certain other mods to run, so if you updated one then the other mod would break, and it all became a bloody pain in the ass. I honestly wish they would give the engine to a game developer who could sort it out into something more usable, to me Rfactor 1 was better in respect to modding and the UI.

You should try SimRaceway too, no subscription, 3 cars for free, laser scanned tracks (all free), good physics (atleast enough in my opinion to compete with iRacing) and ultimately you don't have anything to lose since it doesn't cost anything. Due to pricing I ended up stopping my iRacing subscription because this worked out better value for me and gave me what I wanted.

 

[Cote Dazur]

You should try SimRaceway too, no subscription, 3 cars for free, laser scanned tracks (all free), good physics (atleast enough in my opinion to compete with iRacing) and ultimately you don't have anything to lose since it doesn't cost anything. Due to pricing I ended up stopping my iRacing subscription because this worked out better value for me and gave me what I wanted.

Trying Simraceway is very good advice, nothing to loose and for me too it gives me a great time racing online.
The setup of the wheel, for a SIM experience, requires a little effort, but you will be rewarded with a good driving feeling. All necessary info is in the Simraceway forum.

 

[David Ignjatovic]

AC will destroy both unless the modders save rf2, but iracing seems destined to fail unless it fixes physx/FFB and develops a deep offline mode for busy people IMO.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Jezus "destroy" really? Is it really that hard to just have multiple games that you can enjoy.

No one needs to "destroy" the other.

 

[Peter]

I was happy to play multiple "old" racegames and I'm waiting to enjoy the new generation of sims.

 

[RaceNut]

I was happy to play multiple "old" racegames and I'm waiting to enjoy the new generation of sims.

With new game development spanning such long terms, revisiting older titles is a great way to pass the time and can help us to appreciate the energy that goes into the whole process of improving on the past titles.