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Post by Administrator on Jan 24, 2008 12:59:06 GMT 2
... at least if it comes to iRacing, formerly known as those guys who made N2k3 and killed it's community with commerciall aforethought by threaten all modders with prosecution racesimcentral.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=38It's exactly what the iRacing fanboys over there at RSC always have denied: pay to race, pay for additional cars, pay for additional tracks Now if that business model will be a success ... ... then farewell modding communities.
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Post by oldnslow on Jan 24, 2008 16:50:07 GMT 2
well, as a business model their efforts might work out. But, i would see there only real extra is the name of kaemer. i don't see anyone with a superior product at this time. lfs, rfactor, gtr2 or i racing; thinking you can get (enough) people to pay extra for yours is at best a long shot. while i look wistfully at some of the tracks (from outsiders) of rFactor, the weather effects of gtr2. etc. ; these are frosting for sim racing i am still getting more enjoyment from Heat. i think things will change, but the modding communities will continue and iracing is not going to be the big bad bear it hopes to be.
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Post by trucky on Jan 24, 2008 21:52:10 GMT 2
Well what can i say about that . Let me say this. HEAT rulez(you can play one off the best sims ever made for free,a amazing community ;D) GPL rulez(one of the biggest and commited community there is) Looks like those 2 sims will survive everything. Why?The community offcourse ;D Try to beat that without prosecution.
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Post by BurnOut on Jan 25, 2008 12:25:36 GMT 2
I'll check out the student version, but there is no way I pay $156 per year to use a sim, no matter how good it is.
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Post by Administrator on Jan 25, 2008 12:48:52 GMT 2
As far as I have understood, 156€/year would only be the base package... additional tracks/cars = extra fee
iRacing has already made up the pricing, but don't exactly say what you pay for. Will you be able to run offline, or do you need to be online all the time, even at practicing ? What about additional content if you only pay for race only 3-4 month each year. Would you have to start at 0 each time ?
I suspect it will be some SCGT-kind of gameplay (not the racing, that will probably be hardcore sim). You start on a base car and have to win (or buy) iRacing simdollars to upgrade or buy a better car. That would add a need to stay and improve to the gameplay. And some kind of addiction, same as with WoW or 2ndL
But IMO the best is that even running the iRacing demo will cost a 20$ fee
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Post by Kenny Blankenship on May 15, 2008 13:20:53 GMT 2
Jesus, the lower case 'i' is taking over the world - iPod, iPhone, iTV, iRacing... Seriously, they must have a really good product to demand such money for it. There are already tonnes of free online racing groups, including this legendary community here (which I might add uses a 9-year-old game engine as a base for all the mods and tracks ) for all sorts of gamers and racers, so what is so great about iRacing that it demands such a pay packet? Ridiculous. Off-topic: has anybody played GTR/GTR2? any good?
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Post by Administrator on May 15, 2008 16:33:39 GMT 2
I got a free GTR2 CD when I purchased my shifter, but noticed it was trying to install some copyprotect malware on my PC.
GTR had that Starforce malware as a "free add-on"; and this was known to have corrupted some PC. Dunno what shit GTR2 came with, as I refused to find out. Instead I canceled install and sold the CD at ebay...
I guess GTR2 is a better choice than rF - or at least it would be without that copyprotection malware
The main problem with rF and GTR2 IMO is that almost all and any mod is NOT made for competitive online racing, but historical accuracy. Which means that cars are usually NOT equally competitive - unless you switch identical physics to all cars in a mod, which is an option on some mods
Puts it down to single car type racing most of the time
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Post by Kenny Blankenship on May 15, 2008 18:23:56 GMT 2
Cool. I only ask because Im getting into GT racing alot recently (thanks mainly to someones SCGT mod and I see GTR/2 are very good. What kind of PC specs are needed to run GTR/rFactor? And just to remain ontopic - paying for online racing is stupid
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Post by Administrator on May 15, 2008 23:35:15 GMT 2
I'd guess you'd need some rather decent PC for GTR2 - and definitly more performance than Heat needs to have ;D. I couldn't say what GPU/CPU specs are required for GTR2, but I'd expect at least some 3GHz CPU and a fast graphics card with 128 MB RAM
Furthermore racing online with any ISI based sim is a no-no; DSL is required minimum
What I have checked and don't like on any of the "more modern" sims is their way of "lag buffering" - the way the games handle cars that don't always respond in time. While NHeat let those client cars run the AI line and fades them slowly out, in ISI based games and LFS too these cars seem to erratically move left/right - they even do this on fast DSL connections (though less intense then). Quite annoying IMO - and some hint never to run too close to any other client car
I've not seen any car in any of these games seen move that smooth as cars do in thick mode in Heat - in a 9 year-old game....
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Post by Kenny Blankenship on May 16, 2008 17:43:54 GMT 2
Okay. Ouch, imma haveto upgrade my PC some for that - i got a 512MB ram and about 2.4GHz CPU i think. Not being in front of my own pc (Im stayin at my nan's house for this week, thankfully with NHeat on it i cant tell you exactly. Online racing on GTR2 dont bother me - there's always only one sim I'll ever do online racing on Im just a huge fan of GT racing, so I just wondered how good it was.
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Post by oldnslow on May 16, 2008 19:56:57 GMT 2
those specs look awful close to the minimum for gtr2, i tried it off a bit torrent version and while it looks pretty with all those pixels and some people have put a LOT of work into the tracks just like at rFactor; racing wise it really has nothing over heat. i do enjoy some of the older tracks in rFactor and a few of the older cars there too. but some of the mods are pretty crude and i am still unconvinced that gtr2/rfactor physics is yet as realistic as heat. still hoping for that next racing sim that should get it done, but i see nothing on the horizon.
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Post by BurnOut on Jun 24, 2008 12:13:29 GMT 2
Hi fellas! According to the latest ASS iRacing review, and pretty much everybody else who has tried it, Kaemmer's new baby blows everyone else out of the water: rF, LFS and GTR. TBH that dont mean much since all of those are like dinosaurs to me (yes, if you havent noticed I've completely lost my faith in LFS after 9 months of utter shit patches). So too bad iRacing is gonna cost an awful lot, because it seems its definitely the way to go in the future, as soon as they polish a few things out. PS Im hoping to be racing Group C with you guys again soon! I've seen theres fresh & fast blood!!
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Post by Administrator on Jun 24, 2008 16:20:03 GMT 2
Well, even if iRacing will have the very best simulator in the world out there (if !) - there's still some points that may kill all fun
- hardware requirement: what ASS wrote is much different to what I was told when I was invited to join the beta testing. And it's way more hardware than I have today.
- Online performance: something that has got on my nerves in rF as well as in LFS. Actually nothing compares to NHeat thick mode yet. Nothing. Unless iRacing will be able to provide as much, I won't care much for their sim
- cost ! Not the least. 10$ for each car ? 15 $ for each track. Sorry, but no matter how precise the track will be: for 15$ I can get a couple of laps on the real life Nordschleife... but I won't pay about half the price of a normal game for just a track ! Or a car. Plus a monthly fee on top. Sorry, but that's just ridiculous to me. But I havn't purchased any audio CD anymore as well since the industry pushed prices to beyond 15-20 EUR. So it may just be the Dagobert Duck in me ;D
Apart from the above... ASS articles were cheering iRacing all the time, so I don't give a damn on what's written there concerning iRacing. They're no better than the RSC folks concerning iRacing. Look like a bunch of Kaemmer fanboys to me. Or did you notice any critical remarks concerning iRacing in ASS or from RSC stuff on the past 3 years ? I didn't
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Post by Administrator on Jun 25, 2008 13:31:36 GMT 2
To add some meat to the thread: What you get for monthly base fee : www.iracing.com/membership/subscriptions.php?lc=2Everything else will have extra cost... What minimum specs your PC needs to meet: www.iracing.com/membership/tech.php?lc=3Bottomline: in comparison to this, every other sim will feel as like a supermarket offered for free Well, somehow Dave Henry will have to get back that (mentioned) 10 million dollar invest + expected win; and as there's not that much hardcore racers out there (and most likely even less willing to pay a substantial monthly fee), the bill had to be divided among the number of those who are expected to join ... ah - I forgot... the RSC guys claim DH is hardcore simracer himself and put out the money for the love of simracing. So the high cost is probably only for server rent and monthly staff payment ... LOL Bad (?) news for Carlos: looks like keyboard steering isn't supported ;D
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Post by BurnOut on Jun 27, 2008 14:25:43 GMT 2
Its getting pretty good reviews from pretty much everyone, including the most hardcore, short sighted, LFS fanboys in the official LFS forum, so it MUST be good.
I think the real question is if you can afford it. For me its out of the question for several reasons, big and round NO, but the nature of the super controlled and level playing field is a huge bonus for many people.
If you add that there is NOTHING out there competing at iRacing's level, it looks like it has a really nice future.
As for keyboard, LOL, my kb days are long gone, been using wheel for 2+ years with LFS, and last time I used keys with Nascar Heat I sucked big time ;D
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