jae

@jkap

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jae @jkap3/5/2023, 5:33 PM

my scca new member packet included a free three months of iracing so i've been trying to get a feel for it and i am having so much more trouble than makes sense to me.

focusing on the mx-5 cup (of the rookie series it's by far the most interesting to me) and despite everything i am doing to practice and learn (watching other peoples' laps taking notes on their inputs, positioning, brake/turning points, relative speeds, etc etc) i can not keep the fucking car on the track for more than a lap unless i am being so cautious as to effectively be a hazard. genuinely can't figure out what i'm doing so wrong and it's making me insane.

like i'll finish an extremely slow test lap, be like "ok let's push a liiiiiitle bit" and immediately oversteer into a wall, and i'm STILL going much slower than even the slowest other rookies i'm spectating. it's frustrating that it's not even "ok that was a good baseline lap, let's improve it" it's "ok i can't even set a fucking baseline lap for some reason" and that i really don't know how to get out of that hole.

obviously i'm not going to immediately be good at everything i attempt, that's just not how things work, but i'm not used to being incapable of materially improving. not loving it.

(this is mostly a vent but if you have actionable advice you are welcome to share it in the comments)

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in reply to @jkap's post:

vicki scott @victoria-scott3/5/2023, 5:42 PM

hmm so one thing I would say is what's your wheel setup and have you customized the software profile for it? I have noticed that I frequently need to play pretty intensely with my FFB/pedal inputs/etc down to the minutiae in almost every different racing game so I get enough feedback and can actually keep the car on the track. I have an old Logitech and it's not great but if you play with the parameters you might be able to get more communication out of it that will help.

jae @jkap3/5/2023, 5:49 PM

the big thing (that i'm aware of at least) is that iracing only sends FFB for the steering column simulation specifically, no extra effects for understeer/curb/whatever. i tried playing around with irFFB, which is supposed to interpolate that data with suspension data that comes from iracing's telemetry output, but switching it on just removed all FFB data entirely so i gave up on that.

i might need to fuck with my pedal setup more, unsure. i've got a thrustmaster t300 so on the hardware front it's Totally Fine, but i'll probably check on if i'm able to tweak pedal response at all in software

vicki scott @victoria-scott3/5/2023, 5:52 PM

oh ugh that would make it extremely hard for me (I have not played iRacing, I played AC online with mods because I am Cheap) but I always cranked shit up for curbing/oversteer because I am used to feeling those things in my seat - driving without them at all feels like trying to race while half-sedated. I hope someone else can suggest some good answers!!

Stryx-9 @hootOS3/5/2023, 5:51 PM

if you need a driver coach/spotter to get your feet wet in iR i can help with that 100%. iR is by far the most unforgiving of all the other sims because of how the tire heat is simulated, but I can help you get your head around it and get faster

jae @jkap3/5/2023, 5:52 PM

thank you for the offer, i am going to take you up on that some time

Stryx-9 @hootOS3/5/2023, 5:54 PM

bet, i am literally free all day everyday so whenever you open iR again throw me a discord message. I've been driving iR off and on since 2014 so I'm pretty confident saying i can get you up to a good comfortable pace in the sim

Stryx-9 @hootOS3/5/2023, 5:56 PM

(also if you ever want custom paints hit me up i got u covered ez pz)

Plum @plumpan3/5/2023, 8:18 PM

I used to play a fair bit of racing sims, spent some decent hours in AC and rfactor 1, and live for speed. Plus lots of wheel hours on not-really-simmy-but-semi-realistic games. All of that is enough that I'd like to think I know when something is wrong.

The iracing miatas are fucking horrible, they have zero grip and it feels like being on ice the whole time. It's terrible, bad, no good, poopy doo doo. You're basically forced to get through them to drive anything better but MAN they're just bad. It's not you. Maybe there's some magic setup BS, I'm not sure. The other cars in iracing are not as bad but ugh. IMO avoid spending any money on it.

jae @jkap3/5/2023, 8:56 PM

genuinely reassuring to know that, regardless of how i'm doing, the cars themselves are Not Good. unfortunately the rookie series is fixed setup so there's no magic to be had there. bummer that you just sort of Have To Do It to do anything else.

i sort of have the issue of not knowing what is out there to some extent; iracing very much seems to dominate the conversation around What Good Multiplayer Sims Exist. i know that AC and others have multiplayer, but the lack of any coherent System makes it difficult as a newcomer to know what i'm supposed to be doing.

Plum @plumpan3/5/2023, 10:06 PM

Unfortunately the thing that iracing has which nothing else does is, an adequate multiplayer system that can exist on it's own. Basically every other game doesn't REALLY function in multiplayer unless you find a league outside of the game somehow. At least that's what I recall from back in the day, I haven't heard much otherwise. Hopefully if that's incorrect, someone else will chime in.

And that's the BIG barrier to sim racing (along with hardware), just finding people to have a good race with. It's not very fun when people aren't at a close skill level to you, there's no rubber banding or game code designed to make things fun despite a skill gap. Plus, how fast someone is can vary a lot from different types of car and even on different tracks. If you haven't taken the time to make a setup for a particular car+track combo you often don't have a chance in most sims compared to anyone that has. This obviously is a huge time sink alone.

Getting those Good Matches is very difficult and the nature of sim racing or more-sim-like-racing ala Forza Motorsport is that you can sink a lot of time in and still have your result ruined by a simple mistake from multiple parties. It requires a level of respect and planning that is extremely difficult to automate into a game. It's the kind of thing that, historically, has worked a lot better being organized externally. And even then there's plenty of issues as anyone who has ever been in any sim racing league will tell you.

Iracing does an alright job of trying to do so, far from perfect or even good, but I'd argue having that system in place is a large part of why it hasn't been abandoned despite it's many flaws and, frankly, pretty shit pricing structure.

That got a bit long, sorry. I find sim racing very fun but all of the above pushed me away from it long ago.

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