rec.autos.simulators

I don't think vicitms of hurricane Katrina would agree with you.

  It would be working fine, but thanks :)

Back to iRacing and my Skippy (still a slug off the line and in need of a
new 1st gear to enable a little wheel spin) was a pleasure to drive. It's
like GPL all over again, though that awful (ok, 'challenging') Solstice
masks the fact that you're driving quite a revolutionary engine.

Or am I just getting brainwashed? That'd be a shame, because the pound's
sinking like a rock at the moment (probably due to excessive temporary
enthusiasm for the dollar), which means iRacing is getting more expensive
by the day. I could do with some level-headed rationality!

Anyway, after my initial Skippy VIR races, where some truly awful driving
by others marred my experience, I've had three races now in which close,
careful racing at my end of the field has been present, and there have
been fewer hot shots driving routinely beyond their limits. I suppose
that's inevitable as the week wears on and more people find their feet on
the track.

Who knows what's going on in my head... brainwashing, assimilation, or
just the slow, steady, reluctant realisation that this darned sim might
be worth all the money and hassle after all? I've seen enough good racing
now to imagine making it a routine part of my *** life... which has
been dwindling towards nothing over the last 12 months. It's nice to have
something which is actually persuading me to turn on the games box down
the desk which I built for Crysis (which I still haven't finished).

I need to think about all this... or maybe just stop typing so I don't
seem like such an idiot changing my mind every day? ;-)

What I should probably do is give in to the dark side... buy a whole
year's subscription (giving the maximum iRacing 'cashback' to spend on
cars & tracks) and write it off as a hardware upgrade. After all,
everything we buy for our PCs depreciates to just about nothing very
quickly these days. If I just drive for a year, then give up, it'll be no
worse than buying a decent graphics card and watching it fall in price.

Mmm... except at the end of the year I still have a graphics card. :-)

Andrew McP

PS Of course none of this means iRacing, or my enjoyment, will last
anything like 3 years. Perhaps it's simply a time to forget cynicism and
do the carpe diem thing?

  > Mmm... except at the end of the year I still have a graphics card. :-)

That'll be worth loads... :)

At this rate we will all chip in :)

Cheers
Tony

I've heard the GTR2 lobby seems to be back up (run by simbin now), but
I wouldn't hold my breath for a quick restoration of service when
iRacing goes belly up ;-> (still I wish them all the best)

Cheers, Uwe

--

If you are going to sign up for a year, make sure you do it before the 29th.
28th to be safe.  There is a $15 bonus iRacing credit that's going to be
applied to those accounts that have year-long subscriptions at that time :)

Free car!

-Larry

Before then though I have to work out whether it's two weeks of racing
regularly (for the first time in years) which is causing renewed problems
in my hands. I now remember it was a factor in why I stopped driving GPL
regularly, and I think it's because I'm a pretty tense driver... I
sometimes realise I'm*** onto the wheel like it was stopping me
drowning. So I need to work on relaxing my wheel technique as well as
tightening my lap times. So I suspect this may nudge me into a buying a
month at a time.

Besides, the Skippy is the only car I intend to drive* (to stop me
diluting my limited talent across too many tracks and cars), so a bulk
discount for tracks & vehicles isn't top of my priority list.

I also think there will need to be more aggressive discounts available
later on. It's the yearly subs which should form the core of iRacing's
business model (as it allows a degree of predictable income which the
monthlies can't match in business terms), so they have every reason to
actively promote it, especially if growth is as slow as we think it might
be.

Andrew McP

*famous last words!

All iRacing leaves you with is memories.  :-)

Andrew McP

Dave

I must experiment with my Momo's buttons instead of the paddles, but
they're not ideally placed for routine use. At the moment th easiest two
are mapped to view left & right, but a combination of the overhead mirror
and wing mirrors on the Skippy make the view buttons fairly redundant.

Andrew McP

I guess I should make this decision sooner rather than later, before I leave
the ranks of the rookie.

Btw How is the force feedback in iRacing? Worth making the switch for?

RobP

I first raced GPL with a stick and it took quite a while to adapt to a
wheel (especially as I've never driven in real life). Looking at my lap
times, some would say I never have. :-)

I'm not a huge fan of it in any game to be honest... unless it's minimal
I just find it distracting. But everyone seems to say iRacing's FFB is
very good (once you've got it tweaked to your preferences).

I also think FFB is a marketing device by manufacturers... what better
for profits than building in a system of motors & gears which are bound
to wear out long before the pots do? :-)

Andrew McP

Force feedback behaves as an assist in some games. In GTR and GTR2, the
steering goes unrealistically light when the fronts are at the limit.
In LFS, the force feedback tends to unrealistically point the tires in
the direction of travel in the case of severe oversteer. The tendencies
may be based on realisim, but are greatly exagerrated in these games.

I've been racing a lot more recently, and I've noticed discomfort/weakness
in my arms at the inner edges of the arms just in front of the elbow joint.
It's actually getting pretty bad right now.  I couldn't even lift a frying
pan this morning.

-Larry