Hello from new iRacer

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DiNet

DiNet

12
Israel
Israel
Hello,
I'm passionate about racing. I've driven karts my entire youth and did compete on some level. Of course racing is extremely expensive and life is not fair. But lately I've been reignited with my passion. Much better equipment and affordability had a huge impact on that. Ordered playseat with g27 bundle few month ago and now waiting for my v2 base, clubsport pedals order to get shipped.
The main problem is clarity in iRacing. The overwhelming amount of videos is only confusing in the matter of how to start iracing. In any other sim racer you know what you are buying, you can find countless videos showing all of the gameplay options.
There's a race line in practice, at least there. The fact is that I failed to find it in videos and was absolutely sure it doesn't exist at all. Must have it, can't memorize all tracks that fast... and I'm starting to see that playing in other sims won't help me as my driving might be severely damaged by lesser quality sims.
The support is awesome, extremely fast. Maybe my luck, but I got answer from iracing faster than my 4/24/7 dell server support...
As of today, I finally understand, that I need to buy a "full series" package to compete in that series.
I was shocked of iRacing support, it is extremely fast and friendly.

I know there are a lot of similar threads, brand me lazy, but there's just too much.
What did I miss? Should I even start on G27 or just wait for my fanatec gear (~2month), should I continue to practice in AC? Play offline sims couple month or just straight jump into iRace and focus on practice there?
Do you print out new circuit layouts in an effort to memorize it faster?
I'm very limited in time I can actually race, I'm not good and I'm not terrible. I'm a mediocre, at least on monza (in AC), first track I memorized.

Thank you for your help!
Also I've yet to register, so I can put somebody as referral :)
 
Hi @DiNet,

Welcome to the wonderful world of iRacing :P

I'll try to answer all your questions, but others may do it better since I myself am a new iRacer (for a few weeks now).

- You're all good with a G27, that's what I use and it's a good wheel, even for a sim like iRacing.
- There is an option to switch the racing line on/off. However, I don't recommend to turn it on because it may slow down track learning. You'll be more focusing on the line than on the reference points, and may take bad habits. I'd rather advice you to practice, a dozen laps should be enough. You'll learn better if you're "forced" to memorize the track.
- There's a lot of paid content, but the game comes with enough free cars and tracks to start racing. You'll have a rookie status at first, then you'll be able to pass licenses in order to race in higher classes. Only then you'll have to pay for new cars and tracks.
A championship lasts 12 weeks. Each week takes place on a single circuit, so you have time to practice (and memorize the track), then qualify, then race, as many times as you want. You will earn points for each race you finish, and the average of your top 25% results will count towards your week result, (i.e. your overall ranking). Keep in mind, the keyword in iRacing is practice!

Hope it helps.
 
Tijee
Hi @DiNet,

Welcome to the wonderful world of iRacing :P

I'll try to answer all your questions, but others may do it better since I myself am a new iRacer (for a few weeks now).

- You're all good with a G27, that's what I use and it's a good wheel, even for a sim like iRacing.
- There is an option to switch the racing line on/off. However, I don't recommend to turn it on because it may slow down track learning. You'll be more focusing on the line than on the reference points, and may take bad habits. I'd rather advice you to practice, a dozen laps should be enough. You'll learn better if you're "forced" to memorize the track.
- There's a lot of paid content, but the game comes with enough free cars and tracks to start racing. You'll have a rookie status at first, then you'll be able to pass licenses in order to race in higher classes. Only then you'll have to pay for new cars and tracks.
A championship lasts 12 weeks. Each week takes place on a single circuit, so you have time to practice (and memorize the track), then qualify, then race, as many times as you want. You will earn points for each race you finish, and the average of your top 25% results will count towards your week result, (i.e. your overall ranking). Keep in mind, the keyword in iRacing is practice!

Hope it helps.
Click to expand...

Hey, and thank you!
I know that G27 is not the worst and is widely recommended, but I'm "that camp" that absolutely hates the gear grind sound it makes. It affects my judgement on the wheel itself.
I do also believe that learning without the racing line is better for some tracks. It is fine until you get into tracks with lots of turns... that what happened to me after monza :)
So I do know that I should learn tracks without the line, but I also believe that it is way too early for me to be so confident about my skills.
My goal is to race in GT3 and Formula and yet it seems impossible to find what license I even need for those... something that I feel should be on their home page. At least there are some very good guides on various forums! :)
So, I'm sure that F1 requires class A, but what about GT3?
And yea, it took me roughly 2 weeks (~ 3hr a day) to be able to do 2 consecutive clean laps in AC :)
Driving in sims is furious compared to my poor i25
 
GT3 Endurance series (3 hr races, 2 per week) is only a D class (Rookie 4.0)
GT3 Sprint series is a B class (C 4.0)

To find this information; from the membersite homepage hover over, 'Find Official Races', then click either 'Current Series' or 'iRacing Race Schedule (PDF)'.
 
ROB 256R
GT3 Endurance series (3 hr races, 2 per week) is only a D class (Rookie 4.0)
GT3 Sprint series is a B class (C 4.0)

To find this information; from the membersite homepage hover over, 'Find Official Races', then click either 'Current Series' or 'iRacing Race Schedule (PDF)'.
Click to expand...
Thank you!
And that seems to be the problem, the information like this is locked behind the membership... and membership costs $, which in a way looks like a pyramid scheme with buying yourself into nothing. That at least what it looks like to newbs like me. I really don't want to pay for something that isn't working as advertised like *cough*pcars*cough*. I do understand that iRacing is in absolutely different league, but still want as much info as possible!
Tho I found promotional codeo n this forum that works and gives first 3 month for 0$, but that isn't information that is on the "surface" for every new person that wants to join iRacing.
I've yet to register as I will not have time to play anything this week.
 
Ah ok. I must've missed the part about not being a member yet. There's very little info outside of the membersite/forum so not surprise you are struggling to find things out.

Only thing i will say about those introductory offers is that you will invariably be stuck paying full price to renew unless there happens to be a well timed 50% off renewal. If not, a years subscription is $99. Also if you let your subscription expire and then go to renew you will not be eligible for any of the offers so will have to pay $99 for a year. There is actually a 50% off renewal till the 30th so if you got the 3 month deal for free, then within the next week renewed for 12 months for $49 (discount code PR-EARLYRENEWAL2015) you'd effectively be getting 15 months membership for $49 which is pretty damn good! It's like what, £30, which you could easily spend on any regular game and be done with it in a matter of weeks.

If you pm me your email address i will send you this season's schedule pdf then you can see all the license/cars/tracks.
 
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ROB 256R
Ah ok. I must've missed the part about not being a member yet. There's very little info outside of the membersite/forum so not surprise you are struggling to find things out.

Only thing i will say about those introductory offers is that you will invariably be stuck paying full price to renew unless there happens to be a well timed 50% off renewal. If not, a years subscription is $99. Also if you let your subscription expire and then go to renew you will not be eligible for any of the offers so will have to pay $99 for a year. There is actually a 50% off renewal till the 30th so if you got the 3 month deal for free, then within the next week renewed for 12 months for $49 (discount code PR-EARLYRENEWAL2015) you'd effectively be getting 15 months membership for $49 which is pretty damn good! It's like what, £30, which you could easily spend on any regular game and be done with it in a matter of weeks.

If you pm me your email address i will send you this season's schedule pdf then you can see all the license/cars/tracks.
Click to expand...
Thanks again!
That part is also absolutely not clear! All I can see on front page is that I can sub for 1 month and if I like it I get 50% for a whole yea...
This game really lack transparency for newcomers.
Thanks for season chart offer, but at this point I'll just get that free 3 month sub +12 month 50% as soon as I can get home. I'm confident that this game delivers in what it advertises and what I'm looking forward to do.
I'm playing WoW for 7 years, so yea, it's not weird for me to pay monthly fee :)
And I managed to find a very nice excel file that shows exact prices per championship! Which is extremely nice to plan things forward. Spent a lot on gear this month, way more that I planned to try out sim racing :)
Looking forward to race with you guys and gals :)
 
Yeah, you will come to realise that iRacing are not great at explaining things fully. Even as paying customers we're kept in the dark about a lot of stuff. Still my favourite sim by miles though, despite the love-hate relationship.

I hope you enjoy it too 👍
 
You really start to learn things by reading the iRacing forums, but of course you have to be a member. I believe there is a 50% for 1 yr subscription going on until the 30th and there usually is one for black Friday.
The G27 is the most popular wheel. Any wheel is fine, there are top level guys using a DFGT.

You do NOT have to buy all of the tracks in a series to be eligible to compete in the series. There are a certain number of drop weeks in a 12 week season (I forget how many). Also, you can compete in any race in any series your license allows even if you only have that one track that the series is running for the week.

I recommend getting good in a car rather than trying to perfect any one track so you can competitively run a whole season in a series.

I do not recommend buying any cars or tracks immediately unless you plan on running in a private league that uses a particular car or track. Also, check the iRacing forums to see which series are popular in class D before buying a car when you make it out of rookie.
 
Some good advice up top.
Get yourself a years subscription.
Now, what are you looking to race? Road tracks or Ovals?

You get some tracks and cars when you pay your subscription.
Now, you need to work up your license to race in the other series.
If you are a good driver, you will do this very very quickly.
It is worth watching the introduction videos.
Then, make sure you steering wheel is set up correctly (many threads and videos on the, i would suggest looking up EmptyBoxs force feedback guide on youtube.)
Then, once you are in the car, set up your Field of View (FOV)
Then practice, once you learnt the track you are ready to race.

even in the rookie series there is some awesome racing in the top splits.
You need to give it a go to understand it fully
 
Roush_fan_99
I do not recommend buying any cars or tracks immediately unless you plan on running in a private league that uses a particular car or track. Also, check the iRacing forums to see which series are popular in class D before buying a car when you make it out of rookie.
Click to expand...

CowboyAce57
Welcome to :gtpflag:
Click to expand...

velly
Some good advice up top.
Get yourself a years subscription.
Now, what are you looking to race? Road tracks or Ovals?
even in the rookie series there is some awesome racing in the top splits.
You need to give it a go to understand it fully
Click to expand...

Thank you all!
EptyBox... I've watched his videos for past 2 weeks! I think the way he drives and shows that on youtube was a huge impact of me wanting to join iracing :)
Now I'm at the part where I sit at work and read through extreme amounts of text on the members site, it seems so odd that all of that info is locked to members only. Would have helped me a lot to understand the game and prepare beforehand.
I am way over my budget, so even if I want to buy more cars/tracks I've no money for that right now.
Did not understand that drop part. To fully compete in championship I don't need all the tracks? Or you mean that I only need 4 official races to advance my license?
Getting good in a car and knowing when to break is what I'm planning to do of course, but learning car is way easier for me than learning track.
 
Roush_fan_99
.
Click to expand...
CowboyAce57
Welcome to :gtpflag:
Click to expand...

velly
.
Click to expand...

Thank you all!
EptyBox... I've watched his videos for past 2 weeks! I think the way he drives and shows that on youtube was a huge impact of me wanting to join iracing :)
Now I'm at the part where I sit at work and read through extreme amounts of text on the members site, it seems so odd that all of that info is locked to members only. Would have helped me a lot to understand the game and prepare beforehand.
I am way over my budget, so even if I would want to buy more cars/tracks I've no money for that right now.
Did not understand that drop part. To fully compete in championship I don't need all the tracks? Or you mean that I only need 4 official races to advance my license therefore I don't have to own all tracks?
Getting good in a car and knowing when to break is what I'm planning to do of course, but learning car is way easier for me than learning track.
I want to race on road, more specifically I want to get into GT3 class asap and learn it to best I can. That's the plan for nearest future. I don't like oval so I really don't think getting into that in foreseeable future.
I've no desire to learn every car there is and for now my plan is to buy mclaren gt3 when I'm allowed to race in that class.
 
DiNet
Did not understand that drop part. To fully compete in championship I don't need all the tracks? Or you mean that I only need 4 official races to advance my license?
Click to expand...

Your season points are calculated from your best 8 results of the 12 weeks, so you can compete in several series with buying a minimum number of tracks.

Here's a complete guide that may help you anticipate the overall cost :)👍
 
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i had lots of fun on the base content.
3 months of getting up in to D Class then using the free cars and tracks when they came up and also run the rookie class too in top slips.
you can race in championships FULLY on base content.

Road
Rookie
MX5 Fixed Championship
Production Car Challenge

Oval
Rookie
Street Stocks
Legends
 
velly
i had lots of fun on the base content.
3 months of getting up in to D Class then using the free cars and tracks when they came up and also run the rookie class too in top slips.
you can race in championships FULLY on base content.

Road
Rookie
MX5 Fixed Championship
Production Car Challenge

Oval
Rookie
Street Stocks
Legends
Click to expand...

That's all good content right there, don't make yourself think that you need all of the content because "what if...." (like I did). Just get what your budget allows and what you feel you would have the most fun in. I've been Class C for a long time because I found that I have the most fun league racing. It's not often that I do an official race so my SR has not moved too much in the past year or so and I don't really care.
 
In a championship only 8 weeks of 12 are counted so if you run in all 12 only your best 8 will count. Likewise if you run in only 9 your best 8 will count.

It's also worth noting how points across a week are calculated. Basically, iracing takes every best result in each multiple of 4 races before it begins to take averages of points. So if you race 5 times it will take your 2 best results and average them. If you race 9 times it will take your 3 best and average them. I've included a brief overview below to help explain this.

1 race - best result
2 races - best result
3 races - best result
4 races - best result
5 races - your 2 best results are averaged
6 races - your 2 best results are averaged
7 races - your 2 best results are averaged
8 races - your 2 best results are averaged
9 races - your 3 best results are averaged
10 races - your 3 best results are averaged
And so on...
 
I would recommend if your goal is running GT3 that you do the following:
  • Focus on MX5 Cup, first start entering lots of practice sessions and learning whichever track is the current one. Learn to drive consistent laps and be able to finish a race distance with no mistakes. Don't worry about
  • Start entering qualifying sessions and trying to better your times.
  • Once you feel you know a track fairly intimately, try and enter races. Always start on the grid, never take a pitlane start because you need the experience of learning to drive wheel-to-wheel...and also the experience of being taken out at the first corner, its going to happen and you want to learn how to avoid it.
  • Complete a season or several weeks of MX5 Cup, you should hopefully eventually elevate your license to class D in road.
  • If you don't, then keep trying to complete clean incident free races in MX5 Cup.
  • Once you're in D, you're going to need to make a decision about what you want to do - if you desperately want to drive GT3 ASAP, then you can drive in the GT3 Endurance series in D but you need a reliable teammate. But if you want to learn more and improve your driving skills, I fully recommend the Spec Racer Ford or the Skip Barber F2000. Both are good and you learn a lot about car control with both. The Spec Racer Ford you learn a lot about a completely different handling car, especially throttle control and how to attack corners with totally different lines to the MX5. The Skippy you learn about momentum and how to attack with a traditional MR-layout open wheel car - which is very similar to GT3 cars.
  • If you do go down the path of wanting to go up the License classes and learn (especially for open wheel or GT3 then I recommend this path (for both the skills you learn and the participation so you can have some fun hopefully with more people of equal skill):
  1. MX5
  2. Spec Racer Ford or Skip Barber
  3. Star Mazda or RUF Cup
To be honest, focus on one thing at a time. Forget about GT3 for now and all this other stuff about buying things and points and whatever.
Focus on MX5 and making sure you enjoy iRacing first. The rest is irrelevant until you've conquered the MX5 and have got used to iRacing. All that stuff is months away so the cost is not till then.
Even then you can always try your hand at the oval racing too for free. I especially recommend the Street Stock races at the USA Speedway because it has a lot more finesse to it than the Charlotte Oval races.


Oh and you absolutely have to forget about the driving/racing line assist that you're used to from other games/sims. While it is useful as a complete and utterly newbie to racing games you need to get away from it asap.
Forget about being rubbish, everyone is on day 1. What you want to do is, firstly drive a track (yes, just one, try whichever is current for MX5s) and drive it slowly so that you dont fall off the track. Like real slow, 30mph or something. Do that until you've memorised it enough that you know which corner is coming up next.
Then start trying to go a little faster and start braking a little later. Focus on making the line you drive around the track consistent and focus on your braking points. Have a look around the track for any useful markers you can use to brake. This can be anything from the traditional 50, 100, 150 meter braking boards (if the track has them) to specific kerbs or buildings on the side of the track. It can be anything that you can remember. This helps you consistently brake at the same point everytime so you can then start testing braking harder and later and trying different lines.
Once you get to the point where you can run 10 laps that are about 1 second off each other you can start then looking at videos on Youtube and try to analyse where people are taking different lines to you, where they are braking, what gears they're using in certain corners and where they jump on the throttle and how they use it.

I hope all of this makes it clear that iRacing is not something you should purchase if you don't have a lot of time to dedicate to practicing and learning. You absolutely need to practice and spend a lot of time doing it unless you are very confident.
 
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Yea @Ardius response is about the best advice you'll get !!
Just take your time, it's not a race to get to the higher license classes. The skills you learn in the lower levels definitely help when you do get to the GT3 levels etc.
When in a practice session you can also switch to the onboard camera of any driver in the session, so pick the fastest guy, ride with him for a few laps and see what they do different to you.
 
Great reply @Ardius
I have been iracing for a year and I still enjoy jumping in the MX5 and racing it, that is in both rookie classes or MX5 advanced. With the way they tyre model has advanced along with my driving skills it is a blast to drive.

This is me and my Team mates messing around in a public test session.
It was a great fun
 
Can I hijack this thread to ask my own question? :D

Yes?

Ok, thanks! :)


After all these years, I still wonder if you are able to continue practicing offline once your subscriptions has ended?
 
kikie
Can I hijack this thread to ask my own question? :D

Yes?

Ok, thanks! :)


After all these years, I still wonder if you are able to continue practicing offline once your subscriptions has ended?
Click to expand...
Nope. No subscription = No iracing.
 
iracing is worth the money IMO, plus if you race in a full official D class series or above you can earn up to 10 bucks per season. that will almost pay for your subscription just for racing :)
 
Proper Day 1 has started for me.
Yes, I am driving slowly the Okayama full track to remember it and learn to control car. So far 2 consecutive clean laps. Which is great imo.
The racing line in iRacing is cancer. It is absolutely the worst. Coming from AC/pcars racing lines I thought it would be great. Disabled it after 5 laps and it was amazing. Instantly did 2 clean laps. They should remove it from the engine or actually put some hours into it.
Also, the GT3 is more of a goal. Not meaning I want to get into it in 2 weeks or something like that. I do enjoy MX5 and I know I'm in for long with it. Doesn't bother me, I still got other racers to play if I want to take a break.
I'm also trying the small oval just to learn how to hold the car in corners and proper power in long corners.
Had some fun with that:



kikie
Can I hijack this thread to ask my own question? :D

Yes?

Ok, thanks! :)


After all these years, I still wonder if you are able to continue practicing offline once your subscriptions has ended?
Click to expand...
Yes you can, just need to "look" for it, I bet ToS of this forum would prevent me linking that. I would assume it is leaked version for showrooms as I could get all of the rookie content +1 track and skip formula.
 
:confused:

Now I'm even more confused than before. One person says NO, it's not possiblen and another says, YES it's possible.

What is your opinion about iRacing compared to AC and pCars @DiNet ?
 
kikie
:confused:

Now I'm even more confused than before. One person says NO, its not possiblen and another says, YES it's possible.

What is your opinion about iRacing compared to AC and pCars @DiNet ?
Click to expand...
pcars is terrible. All the bugs and crap aside it doesn't compare. Its FFB reminds me of an arcade, I mean proper arcade where you buy tokens to play it, with all the crazy motion things. Graphics are 10/10 tho. Haven't launched it for 2 weeks now. Also arrogance is strong with SMS. So many years in development, with people actually PAYING to test their game we have a game that doesn't penalize you for driving straight through chicane... that's not even a bug, like those with invisible walls and cars flying like in gta...

AC, I really like it, it's awesome while you're alone in track. The drifting part really helps you understand how to handle car in emergency situations. Someone mentioned that in video and it really is like that. I can often save the slipping car vs just letting it crash after a day in AC drifting.

iRacing is a most realistic sim with comprehensive online part. Which is why no matter what you'll have to do if you want to actually compete vs real people.
I'm hoping they got big future plans to upgrade their engine and bring visuals into the game. The detail is 10/10 in pretty much everything, it's weakness is old engine I'd guess.
Apart from that I enjoy it very much.
 

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