*Excuse the long read*
Yeah, to do a one-off session you need to setup a 'hosted session' which are, iirc, $1-3 depending on 2, 4 or 6 hours long.
crinkleshoes, odd you should find the comparison so different to how I see it, and it's not just you it seems there are some that feel that the 'feel' (specifically not physics) of iRacing are vastly better than rFactor2 (and that's my camp
) whilst others like you seem to have found some feel in rf2 that I just can't see.
One further thing, you mentioned that trailbraking doesn't work 'properly', could you expand on that, just curious really?
And off-track physics, yeah, the grass is like ice in iracing which isn't great, but on the other hand I've gone wide in the megane on rfactor2 and just been able to keep my foot flat to the floor and rejoin, neither seem right to me...
First thing, let me just say... I'm not claiming rFactor 2 to be perfect, it does still need quite a bit of work
iRacing is definitely a more polished product at this stage, the feel of rf2 really sells it to me though.
Maybe the hardware has something to do with it, I'm not sure... I'm running a CSR Elite + Clubsport pedals (high enough fidelity to get full signal from the game and i think there may be some scaling/clipping/damping issues in the beta... but that's just a guess).
One thing that really winds me up in iracing is the inability to catch some really simple slides - things I wouldn't even think twice about in real life & is something that even Forza emulates (note, not simulates) better than iRacing. And it's not uniform - same speed, same corner, same throttle position... one time it just spins-out unrecoverably because it feels like it :S
This isn't frequent, but something that really stands out when it happens. I also find it very un-communicative when past the limit, so when making genuine errors/mistakes - it's not generally easy to figure out what went wrong which lends itself to a very frustrating experience and it's just not enjoyable. rf2 is very communicative - I almost always know what I've done wrong and it's enjoyable to push past it - that's one of the main reasons I like rf2... it makes me feel like I'm on a real track and is the first game/sim that's made me feel that way.
As for trail-braking... as you're reducing brake pressure pedal, the car should begin to stabilise (weight shift back toward the rear)... this doesn't happen... on any car I tried. The cars will continue to understeer as if the front tyres are fully loaded. rF2 simulates this weight change brilliantly! Perfect examples of this are the first turn at Lime Rock and the final corner at Okayama.
I really hate the SR system, it would take me over a month to get a class d license. I don't pay for a game to go out and drive sedately for weeks on end. There are too many corners where you can't ride the curbs (not going past the curb) without getting an off-track warning and/or a slow down flag - I can understand how the model has to work, but it drives me bonkers... I can't drive as I would in real life in a way that would be permitted in any style of racing. A better model would be just to enforce 2 tyres on-tarmac at all times, this would be much more realistic.
Another big gripe - the sense of speed just isn't there... the graphics themselves might be slightly better than rf2 (i think this is subjective, hdr and weather effects are much better in rf2), but the impression of speed just does not exist. It "feels" the same to be doing 150mph in the formula fun as it does 80mph in the mx5. Sure, the corners arrive quicker - but you don't feel like you're going any quicker, this took me a while to adjust to.
And again - you can take your hands off the wheel on the straights with no ill-effects in iracing... wtf? That's for the most part, at least... you definitely can't do that in the Radical on Oulton
yeah if you even clip off track on Iracing your off but you can't feel any ffb from been off track it's too smooth, but then if you go off track on rfactor 2 you 8 times out of 10 can get it back on the racing line but the ffb is too violent.
agree neither are right...
There is a bit of FFB off-track, but to be perfectly honest... I don't care that much about off-track FFB as long as you can feel a bit of a transition, ideally - it's the physics that I dislike.
Very tiny steering and throttle inputs make the car over-react, even in 3rd gear in the MX5 with part throttle on grass can spin out from a stand-still... try doing this in real-life
Then there's the cars swapping-ends under 0-throttle when re-entering the track from grass. If the cars had no weight, this might happen in real life... but they do, they have momentum... this isn't emulated in iracing. rf2 does this a lot better - although sometimes in can go a bit OTT of course - i've come off at high speed in the formula renault and been able to re-join too easily... so that needs work.
In real life... that's highly dependant on track and weather & without driving the specific tracks & going off... it's hard to know what you can do on each surface.
I will say this though, in something like the megane (or mx5) especially... when it's dry with a relatively low grass coverage - it is more than possible to keep your foot planted and re-join from grass/dirt. It will of course be less grippy than the tarmac - but still more than enough control.
I've done quite a few grass autotests and similar in a few different cars. rf2's behaviour is much closer to realistic in its current state.
One simple little thing that rf2 has wrong with the force feedback is going off on gravel - try going off at 30mph, then go off at 100mph... they feel pretty much the same. In reality, at the higher speed you'd feel fewer bumps through the car and wheel & the impacts would be more severe and more spread-out.
In rf2... car setup is much more important to how the car handles. Default setup vs my current setup in the FR3.5 on Malaysia sees a time difference of 2.5s... and I expect that difference to grow as I learn the track more and tweak the setup.
Partly annoying that you have to tweak... but it's been interesting and i've learnt quite a bit about setups over the last few days.
Here's what I've posted elsewhere too:
I absolutely love the FFB in this game, it's really brought alive my CSR Elite (something I was feeling rather depressed about buying after trying the "realistic" games like iracing).
iRacing was the best I'd tried - but even then, there just wasn't enough communication when things were going wrong, it just felt so disconnected... cue incredible amounts of frustration and annoyance as you have no idea why you just span (not every time, of course - some was obvious).
rFactor2 is so communicative, I find myself catching some evil slides that I wouldn't be able to in any other game and the feel is simply second to none.
The only thing I feel I need to work on now is the lack of communication from the brake pedal when the wheels lock up - but that is entirely down to lack of hardware - nothing the sims can do about this yet.
Here's some bits I've posted on other forums:
I downloaded the rFactor2 beta yesterday and holy crap it's amazing!
Loving this game, what I was hoping iracing would feel like! And it's still just in beta - so time for things to get even better still, nice!
Definitely the most realistic physics and force feedback I've experienced with the CSR Elite... iRacing is good, don't get me wrong... I just find some car behaviours to be frustratingly abnormal under certain conditions, especially off-track and trail braking.
Whereas rfactor2 cars behave as I would expect them to in real life... maybe a touch tail-happy in the formula renault 3.5, but it could just be me getting used to the game.
Helps when you win your first race, too
Shaping up to be a fantastic game, didn't expect to like it quite so much as I wasn't too keen on rfactor1.
Yes, I really disliked rfactor 1... didn't even persist with it to try the plug in you mention.
Up until this, iRacing was by far the most realistic driving game I'd tried (both feel and physics)...
Radical on Oulton is simply incredible (a very recently scanned track), I would describe this as slightly below the feel and physics of rFactor 2, albeit not by much.
There's talk of iRacing scanning Interlagos and Catalunya, my fav tracks - I will be very happy if they do.
The other track/car combinations don't match up to this and like you said, feel a bit more springy nascar physics... this doesn't affect the Radical on that track for some reason, even other tracks feel good with that car - it's a shame you can't race in it for months or a lot of hours to get an early license promotion
I still have a long way to go in rookie mode before I can race the radical and i've been playing it over a month.
To begin with, you can only race the mx5 and formula fun... like a soft formula 1 car which is actually quite fun to drive & yet nobody seems to want to join any of the formula fun races... so if you want to progress, you are forced to drive the mx5 endlessly around some pretty boring tracks & it's much harder to drive than a real mx5, not just because of the lack of forces or pedal position. It just feels wrong... almost like its on stilts.
I haven't played iRacing since rFactor2 and have no desire to go back to iRacing for a while, maybe that says enough?
Some other impressive things I haven't mentioned yet... the track rubbers in during practice & lap times can improve by 2s because of this. You can feel the difference as soon as you drop off the line. And it's dynamic too - it won't just rubber in a pre-determined line, if you (and others) take a weird line, that's where the rubber will be.
Wet + Night racing is a fun experience... in the wet, after a few laps the line starts to dry out & again, you can really feel the difference, even just drifting in to the wet on a straight.
When stationary, moving the wheel, it's as if you can feel the rubber its connected to - it'll bounce back again.
The difference between wets/slicks actually feels like the difference between them in the kart I had... wets feel more... knobbly is the best word i can think of.
All of the above, first time I've ever felt a sim represent these feelings so realistically. Massive jump from other games I've played.
Other thing is, I've been finding this game so much fun... even when things are going wrong. In other games, including iracing - it can be really frustrating as the combination of the odd bit of weird behaviour and a bit of an unrealistic feeling really struggles to communicate to me why i've spun out/couldn't catch an easy slide etc...
In rFactor, I can generally tell how I've cocked up... so much more communicative when things go wrong. The only thing it can't communicate brilliantly are the wheels locking up... but that's more due to the lack of a real motor in the pedals & the vibration doesn't work on PC yet due to laclustre fanatec drivers :S However, if you're trail braking in to a corner and lock up, you can feel that in the wheel of course..
