Having played iRacing in the past but not owning a gaming PC. I don't really follow up anymore updates, etc...
What are the pro and cons vs GT Sport, Project cars, ACC, etc...?
There are comparisons to draw because sim racers have choices to make on where they spend their money.There are no comparisons from those games you mentioned. iRacing is a service, a online racing service used by hundreds of real race car drivers, both road and oval. iRacings strengths include realistic physics and race craft. There really is no comparison, the service gets updated on every 13 weeks. So there are 12 week schedules and week 13 the engineers update the software.
Sorry but the graphics of iRacing are not comparable to any racer out there, iRacing has improved its visuals over the years, but it's still a way behind the best looking titles on the market.Daz you do make some fair points, however iRacings graphics have been upgraded over the years, perhaps not as fast as other games. IMO they are comparable to any racer out there.
Rain is an integral part of racing for almost every real-world racing series sin existence, any objective look at it has to come to the conclusion that its omission is a negative for iRacing.Rain is coming, I feel rain is more of a nuisance and don't like it in any game that I've seen.
100% agree, its its best feature and its biggest draw.iRacing's online racing is head and tails above all the other games combined.
Qualifications don't guarantee accuracy, and iRacings tyre model still has some serious issues in terms of over the limit behaviour being inaccurate.As for the force feedback goes, I use an Accuforce ver II and it is by far superior to any racing game and for pedals the HE Ultimates and they rock in iRacing. Assetto Corsa is close but much to rigid, I know a lot of folks that use a DD wheel feel the same. The tire model 7 has many complaints from oval racers but oval racers complain about everything. lol and that's why I strictly road race. Name one person that has the pedigree that Dave Kaemmer has, he's the chief architect of the tire modelling and has computer degrees for doing just that. His knowledge is far above anyone in the business and that is a well known fact.
Rfactor2 and R3E are both updated that regularly.No software is perfect but iRacing is so far above them all. Name one game that is updated four times per year? iRacing is, iRacings cars and tracks are far better and more abundant.
Many of them use it for the excellent on-line and raking system, however, if you want the real answer to your question in the environment that counts, then its a variant of RFactor and RF2. RFactor Pro is the most commonly used platform for professional race team simulators (right the way up to F1) and the vast majority of OEM's for development and simulation. The source code shares the exact same origins despite the two being separate developments for many years now, with Pro also providing bespoke customisation to teams, as well as supporting OEMs and teams and in their own telemetry and specific software.iRacing is used by hundreds of real race car drivers, more then all racing games combined. I am coming up on ten continuous years as a member now at iRacing, I own every racing game, pretty much. I started sim racing in 1979 and now at the age of 60, I seen them come and go and iRacing only get better.
Being a service doesn't make it a better product or a better simulation, nor stop it still being a video game. SaaS models don't suddenly stop software being software or video games being video games.The one thing that the pro's will tell you, is they are all just games except iRacing, it is a service. A lot of folks don't like their pay model, the fact you don't own but lease. I am fine with that, it was expensive in the beginning. I am a 100% content owner and will support them until the day they have to peel my hand off the wheel, lol.
My main gripe as an iRacing customer however is the pay model. I just wish they would switch to the Netflix model where everything is available for a set monthly fee (maybe even Full, Oval and Road packages). The current Amazon Prime model of subscribing AND having to buy stuff is just bloody annoying.
My humble ipinion as someone that plays all the available sims but not that often iR because i do not have enough freetime that a ongoing subscription would be worth it... And i love details like for real ^^ #addicted
You can't really compare iR pricing to other sims imo. No other sim has a ranked multiplayer in so many different car classes in oval, road, dirt oval, dirt road events...
Beside of that the attention to detail in iR is impressive. You will miss alot features, functions when you go back to others sims.
The downside of iR is the tire model, especially the ntmV7 which still has some issues in a couple car classes.
Are you saying Dave Kaemmer lacks practical experience? Because he is a exceptional coder who wrote much of iRacing's software and prior to those 12 years he wrote most of Papyrus games.And thats the problem. A theorist who lacks practical experience ...
There is a reason that iRacing is used by more pro racers then all other games combined, it really is heads and tails above all others. I own pretty much every racing game ever made, well maybe about 80% of all racers, I started in 1979 and buy everything, except for some of the arcade games like Cars 3 and the Need for speed crap, lol.
Many of them use it for the excellent on-line and ranking system, however, if you want the real answer to your question in the environment that counts, then its a variant of RFactor and RF2. RFactor Pro is the most commonly used platform for professional race team simulators (right the way up to F1) and the vast majority of OEM's for development and simulation. The source code shares the exact same origins despite the two being separate developments for many years now, with Pro also providing bespoke customisation to teams, as well as supporting OEMs and teams and in their own telemetry and specific software.
So, in reality, one of the most common sim platform used by professional race drivers is actually a relation of RFactor. Its closest rival? Well, that would be a company that doesn't play in the 'games' market (and iRacing is still just that, a game, as are all the others as well), which is Cruden.