Simraceway

traind · Jan 28, 2013

A few thoughts based on comments above:

The Audi LMP car does use traction control in real life although I agree with Kjell that a "no driver aids" division would nicely level the playing field.

Ryan-- beating McNish is pretty cool!

F1 cars feel "controllable" (if you can call it that I don't know but it works for now) if you can get the tires/brakes warmed up and are cornering at the speed there is significant downforce. The downforce makes it feel "easy" at that point. They can be edgy at low speeds when turning. I think the SRW model gets it pretty good on these two basic characteristics. I agree that physically, F1 cars are at a whole other level IRL and few of us are in shape to keep up. Also, reaction time is stressed massively to actually race F1 cars along with the great forces involved. Braking at 5-6G ( and 200+ pounds of pedal pressure required to do it!) next to another car while gradually turning in....man, I don't think it sounds easy at all.

Ryan Vickery · Jan 28, 2013

Aye, not being in a car subjected to fairly crazy forces is taking away much of the hardest part of it. The fact that you're sitting on your ass infront of a screen is in itself reducing the difficulty level by quite a big margin for the average person!

I decided to upload one of my TDT laps in the MP4-25 at Silverstone.

Aside from that, tomorrows test drive tuesday car will be this!

Kennett Ylitalo · Jan 30, 2013

Time to uninstall and wait for that FFB fix.. Just downloaded the competition, R3E open beta and what do you know? Wheel worked out-of-the-box, nothing to adjust but personal preferences... Comparing that FFB to this, both being Free2Play models and i'm sorry, SRW is miles behind. This is not a commercial for the competitor but a serious critique about he issues i've stated before. Test it, come back and say that it stinks, i dare you. Specially the devs should take a look at it. It hasn't got a lot of content (5 cars, 2 tracks...) and no online races yet so you have plenty of time to fix SRW before it's too late.

Rupe Wilson · Jan 30, 2013

Hi Kennet, im not doubting what's happening with your experiences of this sim, but I don't seem so suffer at all from what your experiencing with your wheel,
I will say the wheel feels firm but that was fixed with a quick adjustment on the sliders and it works very well for me .. I feel what id expect to feel I don't get overloads or times were there is no feeling of what the car is doing.. I turn into the corner and my wheel loads up I feel the movement of the car.. I have a better feel than in Race07 ..
But I will agree R3E ffb is better for me if I have to compare the 2..

Ryan Vickery · Jan 30, 2013

I was in the closed beta for RaceRoom so I've played it quite a lot. Since open beta is now out and I can talk about it I will leave you with my thoughts.

1. FFB is below par, infact a lot of people complain about the lack of detail and information in the RR FFB, I was certaintly one of those people, and made that known on the RR forums. RR to me felt worse out of the box than SRW, with a lot of fiddling I got it pretty decent but it still lacked the right details in both oversteer and understeer and felt almost lazy in it's communication. With proper setup + the FFB fix file I can get SRW feeling just like a real car (Sierra Cosworth was used for this example). The closest I managed in RaceRoom was with the Touring Classics BMW, though that still left something to be desired, even if it was in my eyes leaps ahead of the other cars.

2. Physics were very half/half, personally don't think they are on par with the quality in SRW, if you're on the RR beta forums you will see a more detailed response in this area on my part. I don't really want to turn this post into an arguement about physics so I'l just leave it at that.

3. Prices, RR is very expensive, the tiny content list available right now in RR is more than I've spent in total on SRW, paying for the tracks certaintly bumps up the price. You can't really compare when SimRaceway really is a free to play game, the tracks are all free and if you want to put in the effort so are all the cars. There are guys in SRW who have saved and bought the expensive cars using ingame credits, like they might have done in a Gran Turismo game. RaceRoom does not have anything like this, it does not have low cost cars and the only tracks provided for free are fantasy creations.

Now if you have followed this thread you will see I've kept up to date on what is coming to SimRaceway and posted it here, and if you did that you would see that a great deal is being done to improve SimRaceway as a complete service and many big changes are currently in the process of being implemented.

Dirt Racing
Multi Car Racing
Social aspects, stats, friends, groups, racing leagues, user created events.
Content including many more big name tracks (For FREE!) and cars, road cars, racing cars, offroad vehicles, classic cars etc.
Graphical improvements including Direct X 11 implementation.

Not to mention that every month they fly over a user to their track at Sonoma for a track day in an EVO X, or that they have world class drivers pop along to give 1 to 1 tuition over teamspeak to help ingame members. Or that they also allow everyday folk to race against these guys, and chat with them, I recently had a race against Allan Mcnish. On the 6th and 9th of February they are holding 2 seperate evenings at pubs in England (Leeds and London) with an open tab bar for members to come along and discuss the future of the sim, what improvements they would like to see happening and other things racing related.

SimRaceway are putting in a lot of effort to try to connect with the community and improve their game. I woudn't write them off so easily!

Kennett Ylitalo · Jan 30, 2013

1: Totally different experience. SRW is almost undriveable, it's either on/off everything the wheel has FFB or taking the slider to 1, losing almost all forces.
2. I agree you on this 50/50, i don't yet know if the thing is without steering aids. Cars feel like they are lacking mass or more precisely, inertia. Grip is huge.. This review has to wait until we get some kind of setups for the cars, only then we can judge it right (and make extensive testing..) Too early to say.
3. Totally agree with you on this, R3E content is expensive. Very expensive.

But the thing is, you simply don't need any fixes on R3E FFB. This might be that Momo is just not supported in SRW, which is odd since gMotor2 is perfectly capable of handling all kinds of wheel. That's why i'm crying, i know perfectly well what the engine can do and the way it is now, in my mind, is a bug/glitch And the fact that it has gone so long like this, is unacceptable. It was the same when SRW came first out... Users shouldn't have to find help on forums and apply un-official fixes for long (it's in beta too right? all free2plays are beta, so beta is the new 1.0, that is a fact... Using open beta is a trick to use so all these titles can get away with even huuuge bugs. Hell, they can break your PC, wipe your HDD and not hold accountable.. "It's beta". . ALL free2play titles use it and i think it's a cheap trick. Well , except TF2 but Valve is in different league all together putting big firms like EA to shame.. they know how to do things..)

An no doubt you've criticized in R3E forums. I really am giving you my feedback as i want SRW to succeed for multiple reasons (good pricing, content, the devs..). If i just compliment everything, nothing will move forward.

BTW, WRC3 is THE worst on wheel issues, at least SRW still recognises all wheels... So it happens to large titles too. No amount of competitions, real racers really matter to me if i can't really play the game, you agree?

Ryan Vickery · Jan 30, 2013

About the FFB fix file, it is an official file. The reason it is not on the default ingame is because firstly it's only originally intended for G25/G27 users and secondly because many people prefer the FFB without it, In certain cars I definitely prefer not to use it, other cars I like it (and was able to use it to get a completely realistic feeling in the wheel with some of the road cars). A bit of a compromise has to be found there but either way I can get a really quality FFB. There are many MOMO users on SRW but obviously I cannot understand where you are coming from as I don't use the wheel.

So I just jumped onto the open beta of RaceRoom and recorded this, litterally my first attempt and just pressed record so ignore the driving. I'l be the first to admit I had a blast doing it, but the whole time I was thinking that physics and realism wise it was more towards the Codemasters Dirt2/3 type gameplay than that of a proper sim. Though I thought the BMW Touring Classics car was far far better in terms of realism, and was the car I spent most of my time driving during the closed beta.

And now to be on topic, even if it seems a little forced. I uploaded a video of yesterdays Test Drive Tuesday car event in SimRaceway. Just a lap around the hotlap event from TV camera and onboard perspective. The car was very nervous and difficult to drive, lots of offthrottle oversteer aswell as on mid-corner and exit.

To be honest I didn't enjoy the car much, the nervousness of it and all the oversteer (though typical of a short wheelbase MR car) does not suite me at all.

Kennett Ylitalo · Jan 30, 2013

GetReal changes everything (You need to do the Apex Challenge to unlock it, it's easy as a pie..)... The interface is a bit of a bomb, it's hard to find that mode. But i'll stop posting here, wrong forum, off topic. SRW just needs to check this one really carefully, i still believe that SRW can, if they wan't, produce more unforgiving and realistic sim.

EDIT: Damn that interface.. I just found out that etReal and that Hillclimb was on closed beta, that interface really does suck.

Ryan Vickery · Jan 30, 2013

Kennett Ylitalo said:
GetReal changes everything (You need to do the Apex Challenge to unlock it, it's easy as a pie..)... The interface is a bit of a bomb, it's hard to find that mode. But i'll stop posting here, wrong forum, off topic. SRW just needs to check this one really carefully, i still believe that SRW can, if they wan't, produce more unforgiving and realistic sim.

EDIT: Damn that interface.. I just found out that etReal and that Hillclimb was on closed beta, that interface really does suck.

The video above was with the Get Real mode, only autoclutch was used. was already unlocked when I loaded up the game, didn't have to do any apex challenge, you simply had to set the difficulty in the difficulty options, and the type of damage/tyre wear etc that you wanted.

Kennett Ylitalo · Jan 30, 2013

And no TC? Just checking, i think you don't use that kind of things.. And i'll be first to admit that SRW is more than capable of producing more realistic simulator, on 4 scale i would put R3e on 3/4 simulator range (mario kart = 1/4, granturismo/forza = 2/4, , rfactor/race07/iRacing = 4/4 scale that i just made up) and SRW, well, can't judge due to one most sold hardwares not being properly supported, but i'll trust you and my friends that there is potential.

My original point is the package: how it looks, how it installs, how it operates out of the box. My experiences with SRW were like starting rF once again: million little pieces of information to put together until it started to be pleasurable (same feeling, not the same cause or result). SimBin products have been most user friendly, straight-out-of-the-box enjoyment, SRW really should take notice.. It even doesn't take that much resources or personnel, just focusing on different things. And yes, i am SimBin fanboy but don't agree on all the decisions they've made having modded the hell out of that engine. Neither did ISI get it right, rF1 is just p"ss poor excuse of a game until modders came. beautiful platform, poor execution. WHat i'm hpoing to accomplish with all this bashing? Someone, for once, take the most of that engine! Simplicity in it's purest form and it works (on tarmac, really hoping for that FFB bugfix before dirt tracks come, something i desperately want to do. RSRBR can only go so far, time for replacement for real rally enthusiasts..)

Bram Hengeveld · Jan 30, 2013

Guys you can go here for R3E discussions: http://www.racedepartment.com/forum/forums/raceroom-racing-experience.131/

Ryan Vickery · Jan 31, 2013

Might be worth mentioning that in a primitive form the Multicar racing has already been put into the game for testing in the Quick Races. I wouldn't expect fireworks and miracles yet but its a step forward. Currently only GT2 and GT3 classes are being tested and only 2 cars each for now. The BMW M3 and Corvette C6R in the GT2 class and the Mclaren MP4-12c and BMW Z4 in the GT3 class.

I've always suspected that the GT2 class racing was going to be offbalanced as currently the Corvette GT2 car is too fast compared to the BMW M3 GT2 and that is the case. But on the bright side the GT3 class racing is excellently balanced with the Z4 and MP4-12c GT3 cars.

For now you must own all the cars in the class to race, they did mention that this would change in the future, so is only temporary.

Ryan Vickery · Feb 1, 2013

New car got put in today!

Priced at 600 credits or $0.60. I've already bought it and all I will say is that it is absolutely mental, 949 Bhp. I have no Idea what this could be used with racing wise (drag racing?) but I love it all the same.

Kjell Eilertsen · Feb 2, 2013

Haha yeah that hotrod was really insane, good fun ^^
This has become my go to sim lately, even though I can find some feature in other games that I like better i just prefer the overall package I get with SRW, and I'm having more fun.

traind · Feb 5, 2013

Ryan--- I have to side with you in your assessment of the R3E driving model... I have been disappointed. I am a fan of Simbin from their first title to now and still play GTL and GTR2 so I am sorry to see that it isn't quite coming together for them. Hopefully it will. At least their graphics have finally taken a nice step forward and the sound too. And I do love the Portimau track they built!

Kennet's experience with SRW seems to be driven by his equipment... it certainly isn't mine! SRW has been completely plug and play for me thus far except for a few glitches with an install update. But then I thought the customer service response was better than I expected and got me the fix quickly. I guess now that I think of it I should mention that the UI is certainly in beta at SRW and needs some work and options added but it seems like they are coming in due time. The car selection, free tracks , FFB and handling are easily fun enough to overlook the teething pains.

Mod-edit: this thread is holding multiple discussions running through eachother. Please make a new thread for each new subject and carry on the discussions

Dave Flower · Feb 5, 2013

Whats the in game Indy Car like any good?

Bram Hengeveld · Feb 7, 2013

For the last years I have been following the development of SimRaceWay closely with growing interest. Just at the moment when my faith was restored and I thought: this is going into the right direction with the release of many properly priced good quality cars the developers manage to release yet another car with an absolutely gigantic price tag as the 1931 Bugatti Type 51 GP is now for sale for a whopping $35 (try reading it again: thirty-five-dollars for a single car).

With a formula that should define the price of a virtual car based on the value of a real car the community can now buy this classic on the SRW website. To compare the real car is for sale at $2.750.000 on this auction website.

The community has been on various websites such as VirtualR, Bsimracing and RaceDepartment in a debate about the pricing of new racing games/simulations that don't use a classic one-time payment anymore. While I personally think that within reason most games justify a higher/proper price (as we are spending tenths, hundreds and sometimes thousands of hours on our, believe it or not, relatively cheap hobby) but now I am even getting on a point where I don't find this funny anymore.

Everybody knows of course that developers need to eat and get paid for their work and they get all our respect and support but please SimRaceWay have a good objective look on the pricing of this car and please reconsider what you are asking your customers to pay.

View the Post on the Blog

Nathan Robinson · Feb 7, 2013

Ridiculous. I wouldnt spend that kind of money on a car I actually want to drive

GTAce · Feb 7, 2013

Well, I agree that some of the cars are WAY too expensive, BUT I have to defend SimRaceWay. I now own over a dozen cars and haven't spent a single cent. The best thing about this is, that I do actually have Cash on my account, because I won it in some tournaments, with my driving skills, not with luck. Tracks are free and you can drive a certain car for free every Tuesday. Customer support is also great and you can win prizes worth a couple of hundred dollars +.

Warren Dawes · Feb 7, 2013

I'll pass.
The price trends are getting demotivating, especially with this game still in it's infancy. I'd have thought they would be trying to appeal to the masses to build a strong (widespread) customer base before expanding into niche, high priced addons.
This could easily scare many potential customers off. You can hardly try linking the prices of real cars to Sim Cars, at least the real thing will maintain it's market value over time.