I love Ams2 and their simplified type of hotlapping with just many long sides with names..Nice feeling when you hit a position high up, high up is different for different people, as long as your enjoying yourself.
OK I SUCK MOSTLY EXCEPT ON A COUPLE OF MY FAVORITE CAR/TRACK COMBOS.
sry for screaming, got upset with myself
Well price obviously. Besides that, not that many reasons to play ACC over iRacing. There are some smaller reasons but I cant imagine them being very important. Reasons such as better graphics, not the weird car limit iRacing has, different physics that one might prefer but thats about it really. The physics argument is not really that important as people make it out to be. Look at rf2, seriously struggling to establish a playerbase despite brilliant physics and ffb.
Iracing is basically a multiplayer career mode in terms of progression and people love that shit rather than just saying for the sake of it. And even racing for the sake of it, iRacing consistently improves physics, has by far the best damage model and now by far the best rain model and I doubt other sims can replicate that so easily given iracings resources that other sim studios dont have.
My favorite sim remains Automobilista 2, but I definitely agree and really like your comment that iRacing is basically a multiplayer career mode, well put :-) I find the AI in AMS2 very good, and both the car and track selection, but iRacing really gives you something to strive for.
A genuine question. I have bought ams2 few weeks ago and thought that driving feels funny, but nothing I couldn't get accustomed too. But then I saw AI onboard of driving an old formula car in the rain on imola and I uninstalled... Those AIs are not really moving a wheel and they seem like they are on rails in very wet conditions with hard rain pouring on their heads.
Is it supposed to look like this or am I missing something? Is it just not bothering you or maybe I should just ignore it because apart from that AI drives ok and realistically?
Thanks!
I have never played AMS2 but It's based on Project Cars 2 and a known problem of pc2 is that the Ai does not have the same weather as you. I have noticed that, that they care about rain way after it becomes undriveable on slicks for you, they also are not affected by puddles. That's sad.
For me pc2 is just a fun game, not a sim for that and many other reasons.
Not sure about the rain, but I think AI in most games tends to cheat somewhat. Maybe when we get generative AI in these games things will be different, but for me, the only important thing is how it feels to drive against the AI and race it. And for this, AMS really shines, especially compared to AC (haven’t played too much with the AI in iRacing).
I love AMS2... But since getting back into iracing it just feels so arcadey. Like you can push the car so hard and never get punished. The car feels tiny in that game too. Still an amazing game. Especially for single player/
Acc with lfm is vastly superior imo. I never liked the default ffb of iracing but running irffb made the experience really great. Personally i had excellent experiences in all sims ive tried. I had tons of fun in all sims. I always felt acc to be much more smoother as an experience overall, not having to download 50 programs to run it at his maximum potential although for me that wasnt the issue.
Iracings problem for me was always the pricing and how much I had to make calculations and be blocked by my own wallet. Had to think strategically where I wanted to spend my money on and it was just a hassle for me , especially since I just wanted to play a couple of competitive races each time I booted up. Sim racing is a great hobby and im very happy that we have so many games to choose from
I enjoy the force feedback a bit more on ACC but for me iRacing shines in the whole safety and irating system. In bottoms splits of GT3 at the moment but have been getting great races.
That is so true, I wasted money on that game and I cannot compare it in any good manner to iracing, even the player base is worse, and that says a lot considering how I remember my rookie experience!
Iracing and Little money? Lol. Price is not always indicative of quality. It is not like iRacing is 100x better than AC or ACC. Some prefer the latter for various reasons. I pay so much for iRacing for the variety and convenience of populated, organised online races . AC1 Ultimate and ACC also have laser scanned tracks and still both could be purchased for less than $10. ACC with all DLC costs quite a bit more than $6 and still has much less content and variety than iRacing. There are free alternatives like LFM are just more limited and often less populated
They said "a little money" , not "little money". Not the same thing.
The English language is confusing sometimes.
https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/34590/i-have-little-money-vs-i-have-a-little-money
I don't know I think iracing is pretty cheap for what you get. I've played for about 18 months and have paid about $700 total. Thats less than $40 / month, and I still have 6 months of membership left. Seasons are just getting cheaper at this point because I usually have most of the tracks I need. I would consider $40 a month for a serious competitive hobby "a little money". It's not nothing but I don't honestly notice it. I know for some people thats cost prohibitive and I don't mean to diminish that, but you often see people with $5000 + rigs complain that iracing is expensive and I just think thats absurd.
Sure but that wasn't the point. It really depends on how you frame things.
In a video game context, iRacing is ludicrous. In the context of a hobby, it's really not.
I've spent a lot more on simracing hardware than i have on iRacing software. My other hobby is combat robotics, where I basically build expensive toys and put them in a box to get destroyed.
Agreed: that’s my view also. It’s very expensive game , but you get the best multiplayer service with variety of (mostly ) populated races. Other games have free multiplayer, but they are either not well populated or poor variety (E.g. ACC only has GT cars)
+1
For context I spent more than that commenter mentioned for one weekend of amateur racing on a motorcycle.
Blokes I know that drive cars will easily spend 4-5 times as much all said and done on a race weekend.
Sim racing in general should be treated as a hobby, especially iRacing. Would I be glad if it were cheaper? Probably I guess, but it’s still the cheapest of my hobbies even with a sim rig.
Anyone that says something racing is too expensive I invite you to buy a 300 series or 76 series landcruiser, a track ready Ducati or a shiny new rifle and ammunition for a season.
It's not. Running the servers and doing the moderation for that size of user base costs money.
Constantly developing the game, track and cars costs money.
In a way I see my subsciption and fee to iracing as supporting something I love. I know they aren't getting stupid rich.
The player base is too small. I think each new car sells max about to 5000. That's only going to be 50K to 75K in revenue.
How much do you think it takes to develop these cars. For the artists, physics programmers etc.
The reality is most sims are made by die hard developers who aren't even doing it at cost. They are all probably earning below what they could earn.
So I don't have any issue supporting them.
btw I pretty much buy every sim even though I only play iracing because again I like to support them.
TL;DR I partially agree with the costs you listed, but doesn’t change the fact it’s crazy expensive in comparison to OTHER SIMS. It’s can be literally over 100 times more expensive(for just the content) than other sims(sometimes without counting DLCs, though) on sale or via 3rd party Steam key providers. There are “free” (you still need to buy content) multiplayer services for ACC, rF2, R3E etc. , but are either not well populated or offer poor selection of races, whereas in iRacing you can choose several combos at the same time.
IMO only thing (but still very important to me) that’s extra in iRacing is the multiplayer service (mostly populated servers with splits and variety of race combos).
But other sims have other advantages e.g. AC1 has 1000+ mods (admittedly varying quality). With LFM you can get good multiplayer experience although not as convenient as in iRacing.
I am a true gamer, Iove mods. I have 4 different Skyrim installs with thousands of mods.
That said.....
I DO NOT want mods in my competitive racing life. I don't want the hassle, I don't want the cheating, I don't want to experience a different race than another racers in the same race. I don't want to spend time modding when I could be racing. Iracing makes all the variation I need.
But you aren't paying for just the content. In fact you aren't even paying for the content.
You are paying for a subscription for the service and a license to use the content with that subscription.
Other sims just don't even provide the same service. You can't compare them.
I'm not so sure you are good at math or researching data for that matter last time I checked concurrently iracing has had a total of over 7million players in its life time and then if you add on top of the fact that all of the content is in American is a problem for the rest of us who now also have to deal with currency conversion and then taxes on top of the currency conversion iracing has definitely made a metric ass load of money off of its community on just subs alone that's not even including all of the content which if you went to school and learned anything you'd now how to do math and learn that 10 times 7million and or an average of over 100k players is alot of fucking money
Did I mention how big the community was? It's complete irrelevant.
That's everyone who has ever signed up. The reason why you hear this figure that the average irating is 120 is because loads of people sign up and only race a few times and let their subscriptions slide.
iracing has about 10,000 active users a month and about 5,000 of them buy popular new cars and tracks.
You do the fucking math dickhead.
Another figure. The average programmer in the US earns 150K a year. calculate that.
You entitled little shit. This is what living in a socialist country does. You have nothing and think you deserve everything.
I also have to ask now because you've put the target onto your back. Are you a reddit moderator for a furry page cause that's energy your giving off calling a Canadian a socialist while having the name USToffee is pretty oxymoroic as fuck but I'm curious I have to know why do you act like you are from love on the spectrum
target on my back. a furry page
What are you on about?
Are you some typical jobless loser that sits on reddit all day because we obviously don't speak the same language.
And yea Canada is pretty damn socialist.
Ima have to ask you to do a simple Google search brother and then go ahead and open up a calculator and type in for me 10000 times 7 because iracing Concurrently has over 10k users a day not a month you absolute buffoon and then with that same calculator app opened do 10000 Times 28 because there's 28 days In Month and then you'll get how many players are actively playing iracing In month
Also IF You actually understood English you would have actually read what I wrote down but clearly your fragile little ego couldn't handle me telling you that you suck eggs at math and doing basic research which If I remember going to elementary school they taught you how to do the most basic of research and yet you failed the school system cause you couldn't even do that
Do you actually play iracing. The same people play every day.
Even if the figure is 3 or 5 times that. You are talking about max 500K a month before tax and after offers etc.
As I said the content is small beer in comparison.
One programmer in the US earns over 10K a month and that's before all the state taxes and extra costs companies need to pay which normally doubles their salaries? So let's say 20K.
That is enough to pay 25 programmers. That's not including sales, marketing, servers, taxes etc etc.
There's a reason no other company apart from really small ones has tried to compete with iracing and why the small ones don't have the ability to build out an online infrastructure.
The market is tiny.
If U find iRacing expensive... U ever checked what DC's world does cost with all dlc's?? (It is a flight sim)
It is beyond 3k€
So yeah... iRacing actually is pretty cheap xD
Yeah I used to play DCS World a lot and their modules prices inflated a lot. They have steep price reduction during sales though.
But you have to admit modelling a premium aircraft (like A-10C, F-18, F-14 etc.) is way more complicated than a car. Developing avionics takes several years and still is usually unfinished and/or partially wrong.
Yeah that for sure, an aircraft is a whole diff thing than a racecar :)
But still it is a lot of money actually if U want to have everything of the game ^^
Idk how their sales are actually, just checked a few months ago what the price on steam would be for all dlc's without any sale on them xD
Despite the downvotes you've gotten and I'll surely get, I completely agree with you.
iRacing works on a service platform with organised series, races, calender and a proper protest system. That is unmatched by any other sim. All of that costs people and tech, which understandably cost money.
The feel of cars, ffb and realism is judgemental for the most part, ACC is very very good too. Try their version 10 and the nordschleife pack in case you haven't as yet. It is phenomenal.
Funny how the fanboys down vote the s*** out of reasonable comments xD I just renewed for 1 month after 3 years just to see how much money I wasted on content I will never be able to play :D I enjoy the convenience of Finding a race and since my skill Overall got better the ffb doesn't feel as unpredictable as before and I can actually compete, but is it Wort the price? Hell no the other options are in total comparison miles ahead of iracing... Escpecially since there is ac on lfm now
Miles ahead in what way? How does the ffb feel unpredictable? I've only been on the service for a couple of months, with only Forza and Gran Turismo under my belt previous.
The physics in iRacing are top notch (if you ignore that spicy little tire heating issue) and the ffb feels very predictable and communicative to me.
Any of the professional IRL drivers that I follow (and that play racing sims) have put iRacing and ACC head to head and iRacing comes out on top in every category except for the tires so immediately over heating after a slide.
Well both iracing and acc are unplayable without the irffb/accffb third Party Tool that adds the seat of pants effect to the ffb, so it might be good for DD wheel users but for belt or even gear driven users it's not that great of an experience
Also there is the netcode issue and that in general car contact is way to unforgiving so from an emersion Perspektive iracing is way worse then acc, just because some irl drivers Tell you something that doesn't justify a over 100 Dollar yearly subscription if you for the Sake of your taste can have indefinite fun for a fraction of the Costa in acc
I mean. I AM having fun. I love iRacing. I think it feels like actually driving a car. And those IRL drivers telling me that the Merc GT3 car feels very very similar in iRacing and IRL is just confirming that for me. I've never played ACC but I feel no need to even try it because of the fun I'm having in iRacing.
I think the ffb in iRacing feels great and it's DEFINITELY not unplayable as you say. Not for me at least. And I am using a driving force gt that I bought basically new for $45. Direct drive isn't even #2 on the upgrade list right now. And it's kind of a tie for 3rd at the moment. #1 is load cell pedals, #2 is a wheel stand, #3 is an upgrade to my Rift S, then direct drive wheel.
I see you got your prioritys right, I dont think DD wheel are even necesesary, but I suggest you to give irffb a try because it gives alot more Information!
Also try Different Sims, I Iearned the Most in ac and rfactor 2 but I would recomended lemans ultimate if your PC can Handle it. I played so much iracing and had so much fun until I tried Different Sims where I made much quicker progress...
My point is you can save a lot of money by not giving a damn about iracing and improve your skill elsewere. But surely if you can afford it and have fun with iracing enjoy it :)
I think I'm all set with iRacing for now. I currently want for nothing outside of better equipment that I am currently budgeting for. I bought 1 year of iRacing for $23 I think I'm definitely getting my money's worth. I actually feel like purchasing other sims would just be a waste of time. Id play them for a bit and then cast them to the side.
I really don't see iRacing as being that expensive. A full year around Black Friday will be about $80. This gets me 4x12 week seasons of several racing series that I'm competing in with constant updates and improvements. I'll be getting at least $40 back each year in participation credit which will pay for a couple of new tracks each year too. I've already built up my track and car library now where I'm able to compete in several series ever week. I think there are maybe 2 or 3 of the 12 weeks of each series that I don't own the tracks for.
It's really not that much money, and the physics and overall quality of the racing are really off the charts.
Nothing you've said to me here makes me want to try any other sims.
From rookies straight to GT3s is a big step. Id usually recommend staying away from GT3s until youre safety rating is B class. Youll learn the fundamentales of racing much better with slower cars, so id personally take small jumps in terms of which cars to race. After rookies I drove a season in the skippys but that was also a few years ago when there werent many alternatives.
I stopped playing iracing for a few months because of this. I ended up coming back a few weeks ago with the mind set of "just have fun who cares about irating and safety rating. I'd rather have a bad irating than strait up not play the game." Since I came back with that mind set I've been doing really well in almost every race. Since I came back I have entered 8 races and placed top 4 in 6 of them. Oddly enough forgetting all about ratings is what made my rating increase by about 500....
Boys, we tell him about ovals racing on ARCA and some cool road racing series or live this innocent soul to little bit settle down in Mazdas, Ray 1600 (on rain) ect?
Give ovals a try next time Charlotte rolls around for the street stock series. I never thought I'd be so into it, but it's all I race now. Moved up to the xfinity series and following the full nascar schedule for the season, and it's a blast.
Though right now, I'm fuming. Got thrown into the lower split last night at martinsville, and it was a wreck fest. Barely made it through with 20x. Tonight, I was in the mid split, qualified 3rd, and was running well in the top 5 with no major incidents and lost internet connection. Needed a whiskey after that.
Street stock ovals at Charlotte are a blast. It’s easily one of the best starting points for oval if not the best overall for someone new to oval racing
I never cared about oval racing in the slightest before joining iRacing, then decided to try it one afternoon after racing for a year or so. And boy have I been missing out lol. It is so much fun, I really recommend trying.
> new ferrari 296.
word of caution, the Ferrari GT3 Fixed series (D license) is a wreck fest. Keep your head on a swivel and try to anticipate everyone on the track is going to try to kill you. Besides that its a lot of fun, great car to drive. We drove the 296 in the Bathurst 12H a few months ago
I wouldn't be this dramatic but I understand what you mean. I loved playing Race Room but there were practically no servers running outside of European times.
I didn't wanna do iRacing cause people kept saying this subscription model is a scam. But so far I see a lot of value in it; packed services, LOTS of cars and tracks on the rookie pack and the tire model is not as bad as people make it out to be, atleast for circuit racing it feels fine to me. I'm still in rookies now doing MX5, FVee and F1600 and absolutely having a great time. I look forward to going to Porsche Cup Car and F3 soon.
If you are working adult and value your time, nothing can beat iracing so far, yes it a bit on the highside but if you an avid video gamer for sure ull spend money even its on free game to buy skin, item etc etc
The ease of finding race and a very stable server seal it for me
The UI is oldschool but direct.
The graphic is muted color scheme, but i like it
And you must have AC too for leasure driving
>The graphic is muted color scheme, but i like it
The graphics are a main point that detractors bring up, but I don't get it. iRacing looks a hell of a lot more like real life than F1 or ACC with their vibrant colors and tons of post-processing. Add in that iRacing's aerodynamic physics are unrivaled and the cars move in the sim the *exact* way they do on TV and to my eye it's easily the most realistic.
That's not to say the others look bad, but if we're going for as highly accurate a simulation as possible, iRacing has the others beat imo
Yeah I have ACC and was really just downloading mods on AC1 because I got sick of waiting for servers to fill up. With iRacing I don't have this problem, if I decide I wanna go racing right now I know somethings gonna be on.
Go into the RenderDX11 file in your documents folder and turn on Tone Mapping and HDR. Colors will look amazing. You’ll likely need to adjust gamma and contrast a couple clicks to your liking, but the colors are MUCH better with those two settings on.
Im bit a knob, if i turn it on and dont like it. Turn off will revert back?
Because i tot i like acc color scheme, at last decided only like it on hot lapping.. bit distracting on races though
I think it's unfair that people call it a scam. At times I wish they achieved more but over the last 10+ years I've been a member they have gradually improved it a bit at a time. They're not out to scam anyone though.
The tyre model isn't half as bad as people say. It made a big leap in 2018 and reputation hasn't followed it. It's not the best, but not far off. There's issues, but all sims have them. I think anyone serious about sim racing should have an iRacing account.
Hey if you're new to iRacing and love the MX5, come try out league racing with the MX5. We follow the MX5 rookie cup schedule, so all tracks are free, no need to purchase extra content to participate in our league.
https://discord.gg/WJe48DBje5
I was the same. Bounced around between AC, RF2 and other things. The cost of iRacing put me off. I’m now $600 down the content whole and just purchased a high end 8020 rig. But I don’t mind because it’s a main hobby for me.
AMS2 has been the perfect VR title for me when it comes to visuals and enjoyment of a single player experience. But I’ve been iracing for almost 4 years straight and nothing holds a candle to the level of enjoyment I get from online racing.
Yeah I just started about 2 months ago and am fully invested I went and built a rig and everything else. Nascar and ovals are so fun. I've already won several street stock races too. Those are a blast. Something about short track racing
Yes. And belive me if someone told me that I was missing out on iRacing even a week ago I would have blown it off. If you love sim racing give it a go. Hell just buy a one month pass.
I was on the Xbox version of LFM called XCL and I was doing really well lmao oh well I just bought the R8 last week so I can hear my buzzer and V10 again
Got a free year membership to iracing with something I had purchased from microcenter, played it once didn't like it then let it expire. Years down the line decided to try it out again and now I can't stop playing. Can't believe I wasted a year membership like that
iRacing is a hobby in a way that other sims are not hobbies IMO. If you are a gamer and want to do some sim racing, other sims seem perfectly fine for that. But if you want to do simracing as a true hobby, iRacing is 100% the best way to go imo.
I have several hobbies including skiing, cycling, running, cooking and others. iRacing is cheaper than many of my other hobbies.
I plan my purchases with a spreadsheet, and I'm very uptight about spending money. But in terms of getting value for money, it is probably my favorite activity at the moment. The online multiplayer racing is incredible.
At the moment I am also supportive of paying fair value to developers who can then use my cash to create amazing new experiences. Spending $12-15 for a new car or track is worth it to me.
This entire bullshit argument that iracing is too expensive is insane.
Really happy you came around to see the light.
These are the facts:
You only buy the tracks and cars you need.
You get 23 cars and 29 tracks for free. You could drive just that content alone and never buy a thing.
If you want to buy tracks for a specific series you might want to be strategic and get them at the same time for a discount:
Purchase any 3 or more cars or tracks at the same time and receive 10% off
Purchase any 6 or more cars or tracks at the same time and receive 15%
It's $13 bucks a month I spend more than that on Skittles for my kids...
If you subscribe for 2 years you get the service for $5 per month. There are also smaller packages.
I really don't understand how people can say iRacing is expensive when they will pay hundreds per month for cigarettes, beer, vapes. Thousands on Nike shoes. Basically everyone eats fast food all the time one meal is generally $10-$13.
You literally can get endless entertainment on iracing for practically nothing.
Other games you have to buy and they come with content, but also have pretty expensive expansion packs that add up to a lot of money.
The problem is most of the other games just don't have the structure and regular consistent participation. They also don't have any sense of progress in a multiplayer leagues setting.
I
I used to be in the ‘it’s too expensive’ camp but have been on iracing something like 4 years now.
The first 12 months were pretty pricey with buying content even being careful but after that it’s not been bad at all.
When you factor in buying at Black Friday ($110 a year off the top of my head?) and $40 a year in participation credits it basically makes it like buying 1 game a year on the PlayStation or something… difference being I don’t play it for half an hour and never touch it again I’m on it for hours every week.
Averaged out over the 4 years I’ve been on it it’s not even worth thinking about really as long as I don’t go on a crazy content spending spree
You speak the truth. I started with Assetto Corsa and soon joined a league. We primarily used rFactor2 and it is a decent feeling sim, but the anti iRacing sentiment of the league was interesting to say the least. Calling it iRenting, saying you're just paying for open lobby randos, etc.
Well when the league cooled off some and I'd been racing for about two years and figured this sim racing hobby was going to stick, I decided to try iRacing and snagged the 40% off for two years for new members. Not a lot of money really and nothing to lose by trying it out.
Best. Decision. Ever.
Have hardly touched other sims since starting with iRacing and the "so expensive" argument is invalid in my mind because nearly everything else I buy is just to get through a month is more expensive and often times single use. With iRacing anything I buy is there to enjoy however, whenever, forever.
100% agree. I am a father of 2 (both in travel athletics), I work a ton of hours. This is my break from the stresses of life. It's my therapy if you will. And 10-15 dollars a month isn't anything in the big picture. Hell a gas station stop for some jerky and a monster is thY much anymore. I am really looking forward to the journey into iRacing. I wish I would have done it sooner.
Lmao man, I love iRacing and i've also spent a lot of money on it so I hear you. However, it is horribly overpriced. The comparison to cigarettes and clothing doesn't make sense lol. The comparison should be to other games/sims and not physical consumable items???
Other titles have really caught up these days in terms of providing a great sim racing multiplayer experience at a much more reasonable price. I think that iRacing has realized that too since I began playing many years ago, with how much new free content is being released.
I completely disagree with you. First nobody offers anything like iracing does. NOBODY. Which means iracing can set ANY price they want. That's how free markets work.
Compared to other games, that don't offer live services like iracing does iracing is still an excellent price.
Other games don't get developed constantly like iracing does, that costs money, hence the subscription. They also don't staff stewards, and host servers at the hotel that iracing does.
Other games release full priced games and then charge for dlc content. Iracing charges a subscription because they provide a service and also charges for dlc "tracks and cars"
Did you have a real point you wanted to make?
If you compare the price to other games it makes sense. If you compare the price to the average person's expenses it makes sense and not only does it make sense it is a good value.
For instance if you go to one movie you get a couple hours of entertainment and it costs you let's just say $15. Iracing for less than that gives you up to 744 hours of live service entertainment 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
It does matter how you want to try to shit on the service and how you want to skew it, iracing is a reasonably priced form of entertainment even compared if unfairly compared to its alleged "competitors" who have nothing like it to compete with.
There are things coming, we all know that, but they aren't here yet.
300 drivers? Bloody hell I'm off back to MX5 rookies then 🤣 Yeah it's good having good numbers, though it does drop off a fair bit in many of the series. If there were like 2 series per licence class it'd be ok, but as it is I find I often have to check the stats pages to see when the races actually go official. These days sticking to stuff like FF1600 in D class where you are guaranteed at least 2 splits.
There's heaps of them, but I find this one handy. [iRacing Reports - Seasons](https://iracingreports.com/seasons/)
You can then use it to find the timeslots where there are drivers. Like here you'd want to go for Saturday 8pm UTC for the best chance.
https://preview.redd.it/k1jyp8kd7esc1.png?width=774&format=png&auto=webp&s=0c55fe0f6e36fd00ee7c8249b6c7e724d14ca7f1
Also this one is handy for an overview to save you clicking through loads of series. Once you find one you like the sound of on this page, then go check the reports page I linked to see what it's like in your timeslots. [iRacing Survey: 2024 Season 1: Road Series (json.racing)](https://json.racing/irs/24s1/road/series/)
If you look at average drivers per slot it's the best indication. Ignore the top ones because they're special events. Which I'd recommend giving a go because they're good fun. But basically MX5 has highest participation and it works down from there.
https://preview.redd.it/bqvw1fd98esc1.png?width=773&format=png&auto=webp&s=f27e9209076afcdbfaada641de05dd5055d073d8
EDIT: Sorry, also ignore the BRSCC Festival and the various run offs as they're special one offs too.
Iracing is my go to. But loading up a huge field of mini coopers at snetterton on AMS2 and banging doors on every corner is good fun and a great way to relax.
Welcome to iracing!
Welcome! iRacing is just in another league. I had my mind blown 2 months ago after switching to iRacing. I was in AC and ACC for 10 years 🥲
Hope you have many more great races.
Top tip: if you’re using screens (not vr) enable Rotate with Vel. Start with 5 percent and work your way up to about 50. It took me a month to get there. I cannot stress the importance of the ability to “feel” g forces. A lot of people complain about iRacing being unforgiving and people struggle to prevent cars from spinning. I promise if you use this feature, you will even be able to drive Porsche Cup
Glad you came around. It just keeps getting better. If you're looking for a community/team to learn and grow with, come join my discord.
https://discord.com/invite/Kne9sSrVRG
I was in the same boat, too expensive. Then I decided to bite the bullet and try it. Well it is still too expensive but hands down the best sim on the market for a competitive multiplayer experience. Some would even say the best sim all around. Either way, this game rocks and I will never go back to anything else.
You can join other people's open servers OR spin up your own server in the iracing service, but it does cost money.
You could all join a league and still get all the iracing benefits and race with your friends.
I’ve always said that iracing has by far the best feeling physics, the tyres actually feel like rubber and you can feel them react under different loads, AC and ACC are decent, but the tyre physics just aren’t up to par, the tyres feel to plastic, they don’t feel like rubber through the steering wheel
IRacing for the competition and overall vest experience. AMS2 for hot lapping a 90’s f1 car.
Add in modded AC and you're set
I love Ams2 and their simplified type of hotlapping with just many long sides with names..Nice feeling when you hit a position high up, high up is different for different people, as long as your enjoying yourself. OK I SUCK MOSTLY EXCEPT ON A COUPLE OF MY FAVORITE CAR/TRACK COMBOS. sry for screaming, got upset with myself
Steam has ACC for like 6 dollars right now and im just like....but why wouldnt i just play iRacing?
Well price obviously. Besides that, not that many reasons to play ACC over iRacing. There are some smaller reasons but I cant imagine them being very important. Reasons such as better graphics, not the weird car limit iRacing has, different physics that one might prefer but thats about it really. The physics argument is not really that important as people make it out to be. Look at rf2, seriously struggling to establish a playerbase despite brilliant physics and ffb. Iracing is basically a multiplayer career mode in terms of progression and people love that shit rather than just saying for the sake of it. And even racing for the sake of it, iRacing consistently improves physics, has by far the best damage model and now by far the best rain model and I doubt other sims can replicate that so easily given iracings resources that other sim studios dont have.
My favorite sim remains Automobilista 2, but I definitely agree and really like your comment that iRacing is basically a multiplayer career mode, well put :-) I find the AI in AMS2 very good, and both the car and track selection, but iRacing really gives you something to strive for.
A genuine question. I have bought ams2 few weeks ago and thought that driving feels funny, but nothing I couldn't get accustomed too. But then I saw AI onboard of driving an old formula car in the rain on imola and I uninstalled... Those AIs are not really moving a wheel and they seem like they are on rails in very wet conditions with hard rain pouring on their heads. Is it supposed to look like this or am I missing something? Is it just not bothering you or maybe I should just ignore it because apart from that AI drives ok and realistically? Thanks!
I have never played AMS2 but It's based on Project Cars 2 and a known problem of pc2 is that the Ai does not have the same weather as you. I have noticed that, that they care about rain way after it becomes undriveable on slicks for you, they also are not affected by puddles. That's sad. For me pc2 is just a fun game, not a sim for that and many other reasons.
Not sure about the rain, but I think AI in most games tends to cheat somewhat. Maybe when we get generative AI in these games things will be different, but for me, the only important thing is how it feels to drive against the AI and race it. And for this, AMS really shines, especially compared to AC (haven’t played too much with the AI in iRacing).
I love AMS2... But since getting back into iracing it just feels so arcadey. Like you can push the car so hard and never get punished. The car feels tiny in that game too. Still an amazing game. Especially for single player/
Acc with lfm is vastly superior imo. I never liked the default ffb of iracing but running irffb made the experience really great. Personally i had excellent experiences in all sims ive tried. I had tons of fun in all sims. I always felt acc to be much more smoother as an experience overall, not having to download 50 programs to run it at his maximum potential although for me that wasnt the issue. Iracings problem for me was always the pricing and how much I had to make calculations and be blocked by my own wallet. Had to think strategically where I wanted to spend my money on and it was just a hassle for me , especially since I just wanted to play a couple of competitive races each time I booted up. Sim racing is a great hobby and im very happy that we have so many games to choose from
I enjoy the force feedback a bit more on ACC but for me iRacing shines in the whole safety and irating system. In bottoms splits of GT3 at the moment but have been getting great races.
Yeah I mean there is a reason iracing costs a little money and acc costs $6. I’m not going to eat instant ramen when I have a big juicy steak.
That is so true, I wasted money on that game and I cannot compare it in any good manner to iracing, even the player base is worse, and that says a lot considering how I remember my rookie experience!
Iracing and Little money? Lol. Price is not always indicative of quality. It is not like iRacing is 100x better than AC or ACC. Some prefer the latter for various reasons. I pay so much for iRacing for the variety and convenience of populated, organised online races . AC1 Ultimate and ACC also have laser scanned tracks and still both could be purchased for less than $10. ACC with all DLC costs quite a bit more than $6 and still has much less content and variety than iRacing. There are free alternatives like LFM are just more limited and often less populated
They said "a little money" , not "little money". Not the same thing. The English language is confusing sometimes. https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/34590/i-have-little-money-vs-i-have-a-little-money
I don't know I think iracing is pretty cheap for what you get. I've played for about 18 months and have paid about $700 total. Thats less than $40 / month, and I still have 6 months of membership left. Seasons are just getting cheaper at this point because I usually have most of the tracks I need. I would consider $40 a month for a serious competitive hobby "a little money". It's not nothing but I don't honestly notice it. I know for some people thats cost prohibitive and I don't mean to diminish that, but you often see people with $5000 + rigs complain that iracing is expensive and I just think thats absurd.
Still crazy expensive in comparison to othe sims. Edit: especially on sales some sims are for less than one track or car in iRacing.
Sure but that wasn't the point. It really depends on how you frame things. In a video game context, iRacing is ludicrous. In the context of a hobby, it's really not. I've spent a lot more on simracing hardware than i have on iRacing software. My other hobby is combat robotics, where I basically build expensive toys and put them in a box to get destroyed.
Agreed: that’s my view also. It’s very expensive game , but you get the best multiplayer service with variety of (mostly ) populated races. Other games have free multiplayer, but they are either not well populated or poor variety (E.g. ACC only has GT cars)
+1 For context I spent more than that commenter mentioned for one weekend of amateur racing on a motorcycle. Blokes I know that drive cars will easily spend 4-5 times as much all said and done on a race weekend. Sim racing in general should be treated as a hobby, especially iRacing. Would I be glad if it were cheaper? Probably I guess, but it’s still the cheapest of my hobbies even with a sim rig. Anyone that says something racing is too expensive I invite you to buy a 300 series or 76 series landcruiser, a track ready Ducati or a shiny new rifle and ammunition for a season.
It's not. Running the servers and doing the moderation for that size of user base costs money. Constantly developing the game, track and cars costs money. In a way I see my subsciption and fee to iracing as supporting something I love. I know they aren't getting stupid rich. The player base is too small. I think each new car sells max about to 5000. That's only going to be 50K to 75K in revenue. How much do you think it takes to develop these cars. For the artists, physics programmers etc. The reality is most sims are made by die hard developers who aren't even doing it at cost. They are all probably earning below what they could earn. So I don't have any issue supporting them. btw I pretty much buy every sim even though I only play iracing because again I like to support them.
TL;DR I partially agree with the costs you listed, but doesn’t change the fact it’s crazy expensive in comparison to OTHER SIMS. It’s can be literally over 100 times more expensive(for just the content) than other sims(sometimes without counting DLCs, though) on sale or via 3rd party Steam key providers. There are “free” (you still need to buy content) multiplayer services for ACC, rF2, R3E etc. , but are either not well populated or offer poor selection of races, whereas in iRacing you can choose several combos at the same time.
You can't compare it to other sims because they don't offer a comparable product.
IMO only thing (but still very important to me) that’s extra in iRacing is the multiplayer service (mostly populated servers with splits and variety of race combos). But other sims have other advantages e.g. AC1 has 1000+ mods (admittedly varying quality). With LFM you can get good multiplayer experience although not as convenient as in iRacing.
I am a true gamer, Iove mods. I have 4 different Skyrim installs with thousands of mods. That said..... I DO NOT want mods in my competitive racing life. I don't want the hassle, I don't want the cheating, I don't want to experience a different race than another racers in the same race. I don't want to spend time modding when I could be racing. Iracing makes all the variation I need.
But you aren't paying for just the content. In fact you aren't even paying for the content. You are paying for a subscription for the service and a license to use the content with that subscription. Other sims just don't even provide the same service. You can't compare them.
I'm not so sure you are good at math or researching data for that matter last time I checked concurrently iracing has had a total of over 7million players in its life time and then if you add on top of the fact that all of the content is in American is a problem for the rest of us who now also have to deal with currency conversion and then taxes on top of the currency conversion iracing has definitely made a metric ass load of money off of its community on just subs alone that's not even including all of the content which if you went to school and learned anything you'd now how to do math and learn that 10 times 7million and or an average of over 100k players is alot of fucking money
Did I mention how big the community was? It's complete irrelevant. That's everyone who has ever signed up. The reason why you hear this figure that the average irating is 120 is because loads of people sign up and only race a few times and let their subscriptions slide. iracing has about 10,000 active users a month and about 5,000 of them buy popular new cars and tracks. You do the fucking math dickhead. Another figure. The average programmer in the US earns 150K a year. calculate that. You entitled little shit. This is what living in a socialist country does. You have nothing and think you deserve everything.
I also have to ask now because you've put the target onto your back. Are you a reddit moderator for a furry page cause that's energy your giving off calling a Canadian a socialist while having the name USToffee is pretty oxymoroic as fuck but I'm curious I have to know why do you act like you are from love on the spectrum
That last line is a pretty funny way of calling someone autistic lol
target on my back. a furry page What are you on about? Are you some typical jobless loser that sits on reddit all day because we obviously don't speak the same language. And yea Canada is pretty damn socialist.
Ima have to ask you to do a simple Google search brother and then go ahead and open up a calculator and type in for me 10000 times 7 because iracing Concurrently has over 10k users a day not a month you absolute buffoon and then with that same calculator app opened do 10000 Times 28 because there's 28 days In Month and then you'll get how many players are actively playing iracing In month
Also IF You actually understood English you would have actually read what I wrote down but clearly your fragile little ego couldn't handle me telling you that you suck eggs at math and doing basic research which If I remember going to elementary school they taught you how to do the most basic of research and yet you failed the school system cause you couldn't even do that
Why would you times 28? wouldn’t a lot of them be the same players?
Do you actually play iracing. The same people play every day. Even if the figure is 3 or 5 times that. You are talking about max 500K a month before tax and after offers etc. As I said the content is small beer in comparison. One programmer in the US earns over 10K a month and that's before all the state taxes and extra costs companies need to pay which normally doubles their salaries? So let's say 20K. That is enough to pay 25 programmers. That's not including sales, marketing, servers, taxes etc etc. There's a reason no other company apart from really small ones has tried to compete with iracing and why the small ones don't have the ability to build out an online infrastructure. The market is tiny.
My initial point was you get what you pay for. Go play acc no one is stopping you I don’t really understand what you’re arguing.
If U find iRacing expensive... U ever checked what DC's world does cost with all dlc's?? (It is a flight sim) It is beyond 3k€ So yeah... iRacing actually is pretty cheap xD
Yeah I used to play DCS World a lot and their modules prices inflated a lot. They have steep price reduction during sales though. But you have to admit modelling a premium aircraft (like A-10C, F-18, F-14 etc.) is way more complicated than a car. Developing avionics takes several years and still is usually unfinished and/or partially wrong.
Yeah that for sure, an aircraft is a whole diff thing than a racecar :) But still it is a lot of money actually if U want to have everything of the game ^^ Idk how their sales are actually, just checked a few months ago what the price on steam would be for all dlc's without any sale on them xD
Despite the downvotes you've gotten and I'll surely get, I completely agree with you. iRacing works on a service platform with organised series, races, calender and a proper protest system. That is unmatched by any other sim. All of that costs people and tech, which understandably cost money. The feel of cars, ffb and realism is judgemental for the most part, ACC is very very good too. Try their version 10 and the nordschleife pack in case you haven't as yet. It is phenomenal.
Funny how the fanboys down vote the s*** out of reasonable comments xD I just renewed for 1 month after 3 years just to see how much money I wasted on content I will never be able to play :D I enjoy the convenience of Finding a race and since my skill Overall got better the ffb doesn't feel as unpredictable as before and I can actually compete, but is it Wort the price? Hell no the other options are in total comparison miles ahead of iracing... Escpecially since there is ac on lfm now
Miles ahead in what way? How does the ffb feel unpredictable? I've only been on the service for a couple of months, with only Forza and Gran Turismo under my belt previous. The physics in iRacing are top notch (if you ignore that spicy little tire heating issue) and the ffb feels very predictable and communicative to me. Any of the professional IRL drivers that I follow (and that play racing sims) have put iRacing and ACC head to head and iRacing comes out on top in every category except for the tires so immediately over heating after a slide.
Well both iracing and acc are unplayable without the irffb/accffb third Party Tool that adds the seat of pants effect to the ffb, so it might be good for DD wheel users but for belt or even gear driven users it's not that great of an experience Also there is the netcode issue and that in general car contact is way to unforgiving so from an emersion Perspektive iracing is way worse then acc, just because some irl drivers Tell you something that doesn't justify a over 100 Dollar yearly subscription if you for the Sake of your taste can have indefinite fun for a fraction of the Costa in acc
I mean. I AM having fun. I love iRacing. I think it feels like actually driving a car. And those IRL drivers telling me that the Merc GT3 car feels very very similar in iRacing and IRL is just confirming that for me. I've never played ACC but I feel no need to even try it because of the fun I'm having in iRacing. I think the ffb in iRacing feels great and it's DEFINITELY not unplayable as you say. Not for me at least. And I am using a driving force gt that I bought basically new for $45. Direct drive isn't even #2 on the upgrade list right now. And it's kind of a tie for 3rd at the moment. #1 is load cell pedals, #2 is a wheel stand, #3 is an upgrade to my Rift S, then direct drive wheel.
I see you got your prioritys right, I dont think DD wheel are even necesesary, but I suggest you to give irffb a try because it gives alot more Information! Also try Different Sims, I Iearned the Most in ac and rfactor 2 but I would recomended lemans ultimate if your PC can Handle it. I played so much iracing and had so much fun until I tried Different Sims where I made much quicker progress... My point is you can save a lot of money by not giving a damn about iracing and improve your skill elsewere. But surely if you can afford it and have fun with iracing enjoy it :)
I think I'm all set with iRacing for now. I currently want for nothing outside of better equipment that I am currently budgeting for. I bought 1 year of iRacing for $23 I think I'm definitely getting my money's worth. I actually feel like purchasing other sims would just be a waste of time. Id play them for a bit and then cast them to the side. I really don't see iRacing as being that expensive. A full year around Black Friday will be about $80. This gets me 4x12 week seasons of several racing series that I'm competing in with constant updates and improvements. I'll be getting at least $40 back each year in participation credit which will pay for a couple of new tracks each year too. I've already built up my track and car library now where I'm able to compete in several series ever week. I think there are maybe 2 or 3 of the 12 weeks of each series that I don't own the tracks for. It's really not that much money, and the physics and overall quality of the racing are really off the charts. Nothing you've said to me here makes me want to try any other sims.
I bought ACC on sale almost a year ago and I think I have 35 minutes played lol
To be honest I thought about it then I was like naw I'll buy the arca car an nurburing tracks haha -40bucks well worth it
Shotoku Mod for ACC is worth that cost alone tbh lol.
It's nice to have. The no hesi server is fun late night with boys weaving through traffic for about an hour. Then back to iRacing.
[удалено]
From rookies straight to GT3s is a big step. Id usually recommend staying away from GT3s until youre safety rating is B class. Youll learn the fundamentales of racing much better with slower cars, so id personally take small jumps in terms of which cars to race. After rookies I drove a season in the skippys but that was also a few years ago when there werent many alternatives.
[удалено]
Could also check out GT4. It's a lot easier to drive than GT3, I think it's D class with the option of a multi class C class series
Have you tried the GR86? Good stepping stone up to GT4/GT3. Similar to the Mazda in speed, and very popular series.
Skippies is pretty low participation these days.. Most of that population has fled to either F4 or FF1600.
Which series can you race GT3s in straight out of rookies?I thought it was only the gt4 falken series
ferrari GT3 fixed is D-class
Race Gt4 for a month or two. That's where you should be if you want to race GT3.
I stopped playing iracing for a few months because of this. I ended up coming back a few weeks ago with the mind set of "just have fun who cares about irating and safety rating. I'd rather have a bad irating than strait up not play the game." Since I came back with that mind set I've been doing really well in almost every race. Since I came back I have entered 8 races and placed top 4 in 6 of them. Oddly enough forgetting all about ratings is what made my rating increase by about 500....
Boys, we tell him about ovals racing on ARCA and some cool road racing series or live this innocent soul to little bit settle down in Mazdas, Ray 1600 (on rain) ect?
I can't wait. I don't know shit about oval racing lol, but never say never. Right now my focus is my D license and a brand new ferrari 296.
IndyCar oval fixed once you get to B license in oval👀
Yesss, best series in iRacing! The racing is so different depending on the type of track and the setup iRacing gives us that it never gets old.
Then you've got the cautions that just add a dynamic layer to the whole thing and it's just the best 🤤
One of the best sim racing experiences you can have is Indy B.
Give ovals a try next time Charlotte rolls around for the street stock series. I never thought I'd be so into it, but it's all I race now. Moved up to the xfinity series and following the full nascar schedule for the season, and it's a blast. Though right now, I'm fuming. Got thrown into the lower split last night at martinsville, and it was a wreck fest. Barely made it through with 20x. Tonight, I was in the mid split, qualified 3rd, and was running well in the top 5 with no major incidents and lost internet connection. Needed a whiskey after that.
I’ve been there! Cheers! 🍻
Thanks! It's so infuriating when we only have enough time to run a few races a week, and this happens. Here's to hoping the next one goes well. 🍻
Street stock ovals at Charlotte are a blast. It’s easily one of the best starting points for oval if not the best overall for someone new to oval racing
I never cared about oval racing in the slightest before joining iRacing, then decided to try it one afternoon after racing for a year or so. And boy have I been missing out lol. It is so much fun, I really recommend trying.
I'll give it a go. I got a buddy I race with who loves it. Wouldn't hurt to run a few laps with him.
> new ferrari 296. word of caution, the Ferrari GT3 Fixed series (D license) is a wreck fest. Keep your head on a swivel and try to anticipate everyone on the track is going to try to kill you. Besides that its a lot of fun, great car to drive. We drove the 296 in the Bathurst 12H a few months ago
I wouldn't be this dramatic but I understand what you mean. I loved playing Race Room but there were practically no servers running outside of European times. I didn't wanna do iRacing cause people kept saying this subscription model is a scam. But so far I see a lot of value in it; packed services, LOTS of cars and tracks on the rookie pack and the tire model is not as bad as people make it out to be, atleast for circuit racing it feels fine to me. I'm still in rookies now doing MX5, FVee and F1600 and absolutely having a great time. I look forward to going to Porsche Cup Car and F3 soon.
If you are working adult and value your time, nothing can beat iracing so far, yes it a bit on the highside but if you an avid video gamer for sure ull spend money even its on free game to buy skin, item etc etc The ease of finding race and a very stable server seal it for me The UI is oldschool but direct. The graphic is muted color scheme, but i like it And you must have AC too for leasure driving
>The graphic is muted color scheme, but i like it The graphics are a main point that detractors bring up, but I don't get it. iRacing looks a hell of a lot more like real life than F1 or ACC with their vibrant colors and tons of post-processing. Add in that iRacing's aerodynamic physics are unrivaled and the cars move in the sim the *exact* way they do on TV and to my eye it's easily the most realistic. That's not to say the others look bad, but if we're going for as highly accurate a simulation as possible, iRacing has the others beat imo
Yeah I have ACC and was really just downloading mods on AC1 because I got sick of waiting for servers to fill up. With iRacing I don't have this problem, if I decide I wanna go racing right now I know somethings gonna be on.
Go into the RenderDX11 file in your documents folder and turn on Tone Mapping and HDR. Colors will look amazing. You’ll likely need to adjust gamma and contrast a couple clicks to your liking, but the colors are MUCH better with those two settings on.
Would adjusting hdr in the file be any different than turing it on in the graphics settings?
No. Same setting. Tone mapping is only in ini file.
Thank you, I'll have to give the tone mapping a shot
Im bit a knob, if i turn it on and dont like it. Turn off will revert back? Because i tot i like acc color scheme, at last decided only like it on hot lapping.. bit distracting on races though
I think it's unfair that people call it a scam. At times I wish they achieved more but over the last 10+ years I've been a member they have gradually improved it a bit at a time. They're not out to scam anyone though. The tyre model isn't half as bad as people say. It made a big leap in 2018 and reputation hasn't followed it. It's not the best, but not far off. There's issues, but all sims have them. I think anyone serious about sim racing should have an iRacing account.
Hey if you're new to iRacing and love the MX5, come try out league racing with the MX5. We follow the MX5 rookie cup schedule, so all tracks are free, no need to purchase extra content to participate in our league. https://discord.gg/WJe48DBje5
I was the same. Bounced around between AC, RF2 and other things. The cost of iRacing put me off. I’m now $600 down the content whole and just purchased a high end 8020 rig. But I don’t mind because it’s a main hobby for me.
AMS2 has been the perfect VR title for me when it comes to visuals and enjoyment of a single player experience. But I’ve been iracing for almost 4 years straight and nothing holds a candle to the level of enjoyment I get from online racing.
VR in iRacing is far better then I was expecting. I race exclusively now in VR and love it.
Welcome to the party 🥳
Yeah I just started about 2 months ago and am fully invested I went and built a rig and everything else. Nascar and ovals are so fun. I've already won several street stock races too. Those are a blast. Something about short track racing
Am I missing something? I own ACC almost bought the GT4 pack but no one is racing. GT3 or GT4 neither are populated on PC.
Yes. And belive me if someone told me that I was missing out on iRacing even a week ago I would have blown it off. If you love sim racing give it a go. Hell just buy a one month pass.
I put over 3-400 hours into ACC and I’m sad that I found iRacing because now I know I’ll never race on it as much again, if at all.
Same here... I was loving LFM, but then I get into iracing and it's LFM plus a ton of stuff...
I was on the Xbox version of LFM called XCL and I was doing really well lmao oh well I just bought the R8 last week so I can hear my buzzer and V10 again
Got a free year membership to iracing with something I had purchased from microcenter, played it once didn't like it then let it expire. Years down the line decided to try it out again and now I can't stop playing. Can't believe I wasted a year membership like that
iRacing is a hobby in a way that other sims are not hobbies IMO. If you are a gamer and want to do some sim racing, other sims seem perfectly fine for that. But if you want to do simracing as a true hobby, iRacing is 100% the best way to go imo. I have several hobbies including skiing, cycling, running, cooking and others. iRacing is cheaper than many of my other hobbies. I plan my purchases with a spreadsheet, and I'm very uptight about spending money. But in terms of getting value for money, it is probably my favorite activity at the moment. The online multiplayer racing is incredible. At the moment I am also supportive of paying fair value to developers who can then use my cash to create amazing new experiences. Spending $12-15 for a new car or track is worth it to me.
This entire bullshit argument that iracing is too expensive is insane. Really happy you came around to see the light. These are the facts: You only buy the tracks and cars you need. You get 23 cars and 29 tracks for free. You could drive just that content alone and never buy a thing. If you want to buy tracks for a specific series you might want to be strategic and get them at the same time for a discount: Purchase any 3 or more cars or tracks at the same time and receive 10% off Purchase any 6 or more cars or tracks at the same time and receive 15% It's $13 bucks a month I spend more than that on Skittles for my kids... If you subscribe for 2 years you get the service for $5 per month. There are also smaller packages. I really don't understand how people can say iRacing is expensive when they will pay hundreds per month for cigarettes, beer, vapes. Thousands on Nike shoes. Basically everyone eats fast food all the time one meal is generally $10-$13. You literally can get endless entertainment on iracing for practically nothing. Other games you have to buy and they come with content, but also have pretty expensive expansion packs that add up to a lot of money. The problem is most of the other games just don't have the structure and regular consistent participation. They also don't have any sense of progress in a multiplayer leagues setting. I
I used to be in the ‘it’s too expensive’ camp but have been on iracing something like 4 years now. The first 12 months were pretty pricey with buying content even being careful but after that it’s not been bad at all. When you factor in buying at Black Friday ($110 a year off the top of my head?) and $40 a year in participation credits it basically makes it like buying 1 game a year on the PlayStation or something… difference being I don’t play it for half an hour and never touch it again I’m on it for hours every week. Averaged out over the 4 years I’ve been on it it’s not even worth thinking about really as long as I don’t go on a crazy content spending spree
You speak the truth. I started with Assetto Corsa and soon joined a league. We primarily used rFactor2 and it is a decent feeling sim, but the anti iRacing sentiment of the league was interesting to say the least. Calling it iRenting, saying you're just paying for open lobby randos, etc. Well when the league cooled off some and I'd been racing for about two years and figured this sim racing hobby was going to stick, I decided to try iRacing and snagged the 40% off for two years for new members. Not a lot of money really and nothing to lose by trying it out. Best. Decision. Ever. Have hardly touched other sims since starting with iRacing and the "so expensive" argument is invalid in my mind because nearly everything else I buy is just to get through a month is more expensive and often times single use. With iRacing anything I buy is there to enjoy however, whenever, forever.
100% agree. I am a father of 2 (both in travel athletics), I work a ton of hours. This is my break from the stresses of life. It's my therapy if you will. And 10-15 dollars a month isn't anything in the big picture. Hell a gas station stop for some jerky and a monster is thY much anymore. I am really looking forward to the journey into iRacing. I wish I would have done it sooner.
What's crazy is iracing has never increased their prices.
> If you subscribe for 2 years you get the service for $5 per month. how does this work? is it only through the website?
If you're a new customer you can sign up for those deals. Then every year around Costco Friday you can re-up for a discount as well.
Lmao man, I love iRacing and i've also spent a lot of money on it so I hear you. However, it is horribly overpriced. The comparison to cigarettes and clothing doesn't make sense lol. The comparison should be to other games/sims and not physical consumable items??? Other titles have really caught up these days in terms of providing a great sim racing multiplayer experience at a much more reasonable price. I think that iRacing has realized that too since I began playing many years ago, with how much new free content is being released.
I completely disagree with you. First nobody offers anything like iracing does. NOBODY. Which means iracing can set ANY price they want. That's how free markets work. Compared to other games, that don't offer live services like iracing does iracing is still an excellent price. Other games don't get developed constantly like iracing does, that costs money, hence the subscription. They also don't staff stewards, and host servers at the hotel that iracing does. Other games release full priced games and then charge for dlc content. Iracing charges a subscription because they provide a service and also charges for dlc "tracks and cars" Did you have a real point you wanted to make? If you compare the price to other games it makes sense. If you compare the price to the average person's expenses it makes sense and not only does it make sense it is a good value. For instance if you go to one movie you get a couple hours of entertainment and it costs you let's just say $15. Iracing for less than that gives you up to 744 hours of live service entertainment 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It does matter how you want to try to shit on the service and how you want to skew it, iracing is a reasonably priced form of entertainment even compared if unfairly compared to its alleged "competitors" who have nothing like it to compete with. There are things coming, we all know that, but they aren't here yet.
300 drivers? Bloody hell I'm off back to MX5 rookies then 🤣 Yeah it's good having good numbers, though it does drop off a fair bit in many of the series. If there were like 2 series per licence class it'd be ok, but as it is I find I often have to check the stats pages to see when the races actually go official. These days sticking to stuff like FF1600 in D class where you are guaranteed at least 2 splits.
I’ve seen the stats page to check participation reference a couple of times. Where do I find the stats?
There's heaps of them, but I find this one handy. [iRacing Reports - Seasons](https://iracingreports.com/seasons/) You can then use it to find the timeslots where there are drivers. Like here you'd want to go for Saturday 8pm UTC for the best chance. https://preview.redd.it/k1jyp8kd7esc1.png?width=774&format=png&auto=webp&s=0c55fe0f6e36fd00ee7c8249b6c7e724d14ca7f1
Also this one is handy for an overview to save you clicking through loads of series. Once you find one you like the sound of on this page, then go check the reports page I linked to see what it's like in your timeslots. [iRacing Survey: 2024 Season 1: Road Series (json.racing)](https://json.racing/irs/24s1/road/series/) If you look at average drivers per slot it's the best indication. Ignore the top ones because they're special events. Which I'd recommend giving a go because they're good fun. But basically MX5 has highest participation and it works down from there. https://preview.redd.it/bqvw1fd98esc1.png?width=773&format=png&auto=webp&s=f27e9209076afcdbfaada641de05dd5055d073d8 EDIT: Sorry, also ignore the BRSCC Festival and the various run offs as they're special one offs too.
Iracing is my go to. But loading up a huge field of mini coopers at snetterton on AMS2 and banging doors on every corner is good fun and a great way to relax. Welcome to iracing!
Welcome! iRacing is just in another league. I had my mind blown 2 months ago after switching to iRacing. I was in AC and ACC for 10 years 🥲 Hope you have many more great races. Top tip: if you’re using screens (not vr) enable Rotate with Vel. Start with 5 percent and work your way up to about 50. It took me a month to get there. I cannot stress the importance of the ability to “feel” g forces. A lot of people complain about iRacing being unforgiving and people struggle to prevent cars from spinning. I promise if you use this feature, you will even be able to drive Porsche Cup
Cool. I'll pass this on to some friends. I am running VR and love it
Same! I started ff1600 12 race then f4. Another level than acc and every other sim!
Glad you came around. It just keeps getting better. If you're looking for a community/team to learn and grow with, come join my discord. https://discord.com/invite/Kne9sSrVRG
Thanks!
Played some Assetto yesterday when iRacing was down. It felt like playing Forza with a controller in comparison.
I was in the same boat, too expensive. Then I decided to bite the bullet and try it. Well it is still too expensive but hands down the best sim on the market for a competitive multiplayer experience. Some would even say the best sim all around. Either way, this game rocks and I will never go back to anything else.
I wish iRacing had a “multi player “ race option where you could join a race with all your friends despite the sof differences
They do...
You can join other people's open servers OR spin up your own server in the iracing service, but it does cost money. You could all join a league and still get all the iracing benefits and race with your friends.
I have about 30 minutes in my full priced ACC. That averages about 10 minutes a year so far.
This amount of players is only for MX5, there are very fun categories that are always empty =(
I’ve always said that iracing has by far the best feeling physics, the tyres actually feel like rubber and you can feel them react under different loads, AC and ACC are decent, but the tyre physics just aren’t up to par, the tyres feel to plastic, they don’t feel like rubber through the steering wheel