Opinion | Racing In The Rain

[William Hud]

A sim without rain is not a sim for me. Rain is a part of racing.

 

[gazman]

less than 10% . i only use rain in PCARS 2 , only game where it works decently .

 

[digital1nk]

Less than 10%, but i like to have the option.

 

[Andy Kettler]

A simulation has to have all the needed features... Weather is one of them !

 

[GagarynGaribaldi]

No rain, no buy!

 

[paywell]

His father was a mudder... His mother was a mudder...
Loves the mud!

 

[Troy Barman]

Only makes sense when racing other people online. AI often is broken when weather starts changing and either becomes super easy to win or they become unbeatable.

 

[mantasisg]

I have messed up quite a bit with physics of rF2 the whole past year, and it is actually quite easy to match AI to players speed for both dry and wet conditions, there is ton control of it. I figure if there is some content in rF2 that drives way differently in rain (usually way way too fast), then the physics maker of that car was probably simply uninterested to make those behave properly in rain...

 

[BrunoBæ]

I have to say that the few times I have tried driving in rain I hated it.
Considered it a waste of time - because no sim (I have tried) does simulate the slippery in rain reasonable realistic.
But then I read some of the proff reviewers of ACC saying that this sim does simulate water on the track completely different from other racing games.
Because where others does just dump/lower the tire grip then ACC try to simulate the effect when the weight of the car does penetrate the water film and get in contact with the tarmac underneath the water.
But eventhough I own ACC I have not tried rain driving.
Mainly because Raceroom is my prefered racing game at the moment.

 

[mantasisg]

I guess weight is very important too, but it is not really the weight that penetrates the water layer, it is the tire pressure that has to overcome hydrostatic pressure. There is very simple direct relation between pneumatic tire pressure and hydroplanning speed, the lower the pressure - the lower is hydroplanning speed, well at least it should be this way. Low pressures on wet surfaces are also bad because they results in more squishy tire and even can unload middle of the tread which will limit water removal significantly. Well at least thats how it should work.

Also speaking of water film... that is entirelly different beast and it is really more like just simply lowered grip of the surface. Water film gets built up on smooth surfaces, such as very smoothly worn out tarmac, or smoothly rubbered tarmac, or smoothly painted tarmac. This thin film of water will not be removed by tire, and it will cause hydroplaning which is called - viscous hydroplaning. And it is actually essentially similar to the ice, as ice itself is slipery for similar reason - there is thin layer of partly free water molecules on top of the ice, very much like water film (it freezes out in extreme cold though, like bellow -35C).

Driving in the rain may not be as enjoyable, but if you would actually know how to cope with it, and perhaps even if you would win a wet race, then you probably would speak differently. It is all just a point of reference. It is like if you would drive GT3 and would quickly change to 50 years older car. Or imagine if tracks would be made of super insanely adhesive tarmac, almost a superglue tarmac... imagine then you would feel like regular dry track is as bad, as wet track is slippery for you comparing to dry track. It is all just this silly image that we create for ouselves, it is al just perception that we set our beliefs that it is something that is normal and how it should be.

 

[Jugulador]

I have fun when people say that "it's not a sim if don't have this or that feature" and here are much more important things that can be easily simulated (because other genres did it) and not a single sim does.

When I go in a real car, the first thing I care about is to not damage it in anyway. In all the major sims you can entire destroy your car and nothing happens.

The tuning is other thing... iRacing get closer when try to use some real measures, but that is just a tinny layer of the real thing... they could at least add some time cost to car changes, because gear ratios don't change in some clicks, to say the least. And real cars had no default setting... the standard is it being a complete mess that you run against time to put together.

Will not even start to talk about real work on tyres... that is really pretty on major leagues, but everywhere "less professional" it's a very big mess to deal with, not just some numbers and clicks.

Them there is the most important thing, that is your integrity. There is no injuries nor even death on those simulators. The only thing more important than preserve your car is to preserve yourself (ok, that could be debatable for some people )...but on actual sims, just hit "Esc" and try again.

Track conditions is something else. Sims started now to flirt with dynamic tracks, but there is a lot of room to improve it.

Rain? To me is a lesser stuff compared to it all. And, IMHO, simulation is not a collection of features, it's a collection of features WORKED IN A REALISTIC WAY. Until developers are able to implement a good fluid simulation, is better to not have it. Ok, GAMES could have them... but if the talk is about simulation and what videogame is or isn't a simulator, them it will be serious talk, or otherwise will be just fanboy/hater BS.

I have to say that the few times I have tried driving in rain I hated it.
Considered it a waste of time - because no sim (I have tried) does simulate the slippery in rain reasonable realistic.
But then I read some of the proff reviewers of ACC saying that this sim does simulate water on the track completely different from other racing games.
Because where others does just dump/lower the tire grip then ACC try to simulate the effect when the weight of the car does penetrate the water film and get in contact with the tarmac underneath the water.
But eventhough I own ACC I have not tried rain driving.
Mainly because Raceroom is my prefered racing game at the moment.

You probably will be disappointed, because ACC still does not come even close to RL nor far from what was done before on other games.

 

[Coasterider99]

its fun. nothing wrong with rain to me, makes a strategy

 

[graphicaluserinterface]

content no longer available

 

[M D Gourley]

Night, storm, rain, the ultimate challenge as far as I'm concerned and it's even better with the latest updates.

Awesome video ...if there is a reason for me personally to get VR this video would be it ...thanks for sharing.

 

[bsmooth]

I'd have to agree I'm not sure its implemented very accurately, not sure. Most f the sims I have don't have it at all, AC and Automobilista. But I have to ask when it is in a sim, does it have the racing line as the most slippery? Does offline have more grip? Is puddling in there?
Does lack of vision appear from water spray?, I probably couldn't run it anyways with the PC I have.But for those who can enjoy it.

 

[Case_]

There used to be quite a bit of lack of vision from water spray in ACC before they adjusted it

 

[mantasisg]

Adjusting to likes of players is always the final adjustment...

 

[Zoltan76]

Adjusting to likes of players is always the final adjustment...

Sadly...

 

[Martin Vindis]

I like driving in the rain for one reason and that's that it seems like everyone else hates it and while I can keep my cool and not over driver the car so my results ends up being a lot better in the rain.
I don't like it for several reasons and the biggest ones are the huge fps drops it comes with, it sometimes more than halves my fps.
Second one is that no sim really achieves a good experience. Most of them just lower the grip level of the track, put some drops of rain on the windscreen (that looks more looks more like glue than water) and calls it a day.
Next one is AI, the AI is usually under tuned or over tuned in the rain compared to dry conditions.

 

[BrunoBæ]

You probably will be disappointed, because ACC still does not come even close to RL nor far from what was done before on other games.

Probably.
But as I mentioned in my post then at least the explanations of the different way ACC try to simulate the tarmac slippery in rain sounds as a fresh "new" approach to me.
But I agree with you that one thing is an explanation and another thing is how it actually does work.

I guess weight is very important too, but it is not really the weight that penetrates the water layer, it is the tire pressure that has to overcome hydrostatic pressure.
()
Also speaking of water film... that is entirelly different beast and it is really more like just simply lowered grip of the surface.

You are probably right. But I dont really care about WHAT it is that penetrates the water layer and HOW water film works.
Im not about to make a dissertation but just wanted to describe that some reviewers pointed out that ACCs simulation of rain was different (principally) than the competitions.