By the end of 2018 S1, VRS Datapacks for GT3, GTE, and more will be premium only.

[Peeble]

https://virtualracingschool.com/academy/further-reading/updates/road-datapack-updates-winter-2017/

They've already started rolling it out. The Merc GT3, Renault 2.0, Porsche, and V8SC sets are premium only.

No more VCR sets unless you want to pay $4.99/month for a single cars data pack or $9.99/month for all of the data packs.

 

[Kenadian]

Oh well it's better in the long run so I can stop being lazy and learn to setup these cars for myself.

 

[Skid_Marc_]

I've always found this to be a weird move. I get the telemetry being subscription based, but how are they going to prevent the setups from being passed around. I know they've had a warning on their site telling people not to share them, but I figured that was more about getting traffic to their site. How are they actually going to police this? Terminate your account? Do they have a deal with iRacing to suspend you?

Also, do they really think this is a good time to introduce Pay to Win?

 

[Peeble]

The only issue I have with it is that since VRS became popular people have outright stopped sharing sets on the forums (for the Mercedes at least) since VRS was the default answer. I really hope people start sharing sets on the forums again now that VRS will be behind a paywall.

 

[Kenadian]

If you pick up a VCR set and change the wing it's no longer a VCR set.

We can all chip in $0.50/month and get all the VCR we want.

If you ask me this is criminal. It's just asking way too much given it's already piggy backing a paid subscription service.

I agree with you @Peeble, hopefully we start seeing setups on the forum.

 

[Deb]

Hmmm, I saw the $4.99 charge out by the arrow when I went to get the set for the Merc for RA. I don't think it charged me though. I have no problem getting the one's for the Merc for the team since I would get them anyway.

 

[Kinger]

Yeah I think this will do nothing more than drive people to sharing sets on the forum again which in the long term probably will kill traffic to the VCR site.

 

[Peeble]

Well this is interesting...

I hope having a discussion about this doesn't get me banned from iRacing

 

[Kenadian]

Ya this is just pure nonsense.

This basically means nobody here can run VRS setups in League or Endurance events as both at B2O are built on a foundation of sharing.

 

[Nejtun]

It is not that big of a deal, if I or anyone shares their renamed setup , no way you can know where it came from, and if they somehow could even watermark their setups , it isn't a space ship and would take 60 seconds to say " set this to this " etc.

VRS setups (for GT3 at least) are so close to baseline that it doesn't make a huge difference. cant speak for other sets though.
Seems a tiny bit like "pay to win" which is a shame but I am sure it won't mess us up a whole bunch. most of the sets we use come from adjusted baseline sets from each other for league and we (mostly) start from scratch for the big endurances.

 

[Kenadian]

VRS setups (for GT3 at least) are so close to baseline that it doesn't make a huge difference. cant speak for other sets though.

This isn't always the case, at least not with the BMW last season.

S4 2017 I ran my own custom built setups 50% of the time and VCR the remainder because they were vastly different and superior to my modified baseline.

I would caution anyone about trying to sneak around this particularly since it is in TOS (apparently) and given the fact Google spiders and indexes this Website and there is always somebody streaming as these discussions happen.

Go to Google.com and search VRS datapacks to be premium.

Google has us listed on Page 1, search result 4 for me.

...just sayin'.

 

[Skid_Marc_]

Appreciate you keeping up with this @Peeble. Is this a post on the forum, or is this iRacing's response to you? Have you received an iRacing response? This is the weirdest time to bring this out, but I guess maybe the iRacing community as a whole doesn't follow EA/Bungie as much as we, as a gaming community, do? I'm not running away from VRS, but, as of right now, I don't really feel like I owe VRS anything. Will be interesting to see how this all falls in a season or two.

Just a reminder; It is important to understand the purpose of directing traffic to the VRS site. All websites, including ours, depends on getting traffic to the domain. Hosting setups and by-passing VRS, for instance, robs VRS of traffic which they have genuinely worked for and earned. Giving feedback and comparing VRS setups is okay, but please do not share them in #PracticePals/#B2OBlancpainGT3 sessions or upload them to the TeamSpeak file browser. Instead, direct people to the source, so they can get it themselves. This is not just a VRS or iRacing issue, this stands for ANY file not created by you. If you have a setup, paint, or mod that you enjoy and want people to try, but it isn't yours, share the LINK to that item and let people get it themselves. If it is a paid item, then people will have to decide for themselves whether it is something they want to pay for or not, and you are definitely free to voice your displeasure with the system! However, it is not okay to bypass the system.

 

[Kenadian]

Very good points Marc, well stated.

I wonder if it may be a good idea to add this to our Rules in League? One of our Leagues foundations is one of sharing and if these setups cannot be shared then they cannot be run at all.

We'd also have to add something similar to Endurance.

 

[Skid_Marc_]

I don't really know about "...can't be run". That is getting into our own "...how do you enforce that..." debate. There is nothing wrong with saying "Hey, I'm running a VRS setup. Here is their website so you can get it yourself." It is still technically sharing, because you're not hiding or withholding anything. My point was; whether the VRS setups are paid, or free, they should never be shared via iRacing or TS File Browser, regardless of the convenience. Its not fair to VRS, or the creators of the setup. At the very least, they have earned your website traffic if you're going to use their site.

 

[Peeble]

Sorry I should have linked the source, that quote came from someone who works on VRS in this forum thread, still ongoing discussion: http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/25/3584268.page

And yes, I did get a response from iRacing: https://i.imgur.com/GrsAAIS.png

I asked a followup question about how team events work (does everyone on your team have to subscribe to VRS to use a VRS set?) but I havent gotten a reply.

 

[Kenadian]

I don't really know about "...can't be run". That is getting into our own "...how do you enforce that..." debate. There is nothing wrong with saying "Hey, I'm running a VRS setup. Here is their website so you can get it yourself." It is still technically sharing, because you're not hiding or withholding anything. My point was; whether the VRS setups are paid, or free, they should never be shared via iRacing or TS File Browser, regardless of the convenience. Its not fair to VRS, or the creators of the setup. At the very least, they have earned your website traffic if you're going to use their site.

The problem with that is it constitutes Pay to Win which is not something I'm pro on having around here.

Not everyone can afford the price these guys are charging so for those who cannot this creates an unfair advantage. If you all remember, the potential for unfair advantage was the reason why we started the League running only baseline setups.

 

[Deb]

Reading that makes me rethink my subscription to VRS and I enjoy the Analyze Session function. Perhaps a solution is to have a different model for the road racers and oval racers. Seems so many of the road racers compete in leagues or teams and always share their setups. If that doesn't happen in oval, maybe there needs to be a different subscription model.

 

[Kenadian]

Reading that makes me rethink my subscription to VRS and I enjoy the Analyze Session function. Perhaps a solution is to have a different model for the road racers and oval racers. Seems so many of the road racers compete in leagues or teams and always share their setups. If that doesn't happen in oval, maybe there needs to be a different subscription model.

I agree 100% but I think it's silly just in general. I can understand a few bux/month but this is pretty expensive given iRacing is already Subscription based.

I get that VCR puts in a tremendous amount of effort into their product with all the telemetry and stuff they do but assuming your end user actually cares about this is a bit thick.

Geeze even if they watered down their sets and made the really fast ones Premium I'd get it.

 

[Skid_Marc_]

Deb, if you like the Analyze Session and telemetry features of VRS, then continue to use it! It is the people who don't use the telemetry part of VRS who will have to decide whether a subscription fee is worth it just to get setups or not.

 

[Noodleguitar]

Good question @Peeble, I figure according to VRS's statement you couldn't even share it with your own team and therefore wouldn't be able to use it in a team event. But that would be a little weird at the same time.

I agree with @Duke. If we can't openly share a setup in a league session nobody should be able to use it.

I think it's a bit of a weird decision by VRS since these setups are a simple way of getting a lot of people trying their stuff, even though quite a bit of effort goes into making them.

In the end it doesn't have a huge impact since VRS setups were meant to be stable and competitive for the average user. By editing the iRacing baseline I think many drivers can already find a good baseline that works for them personally, which might be a little slower than a VRS setup. And if you want to drive competitively you're going to have to do some setup testing and developing yourself anyway.

It's also a bit of a gray area, because whose set is it when you take a VRS setup and adjust all dampers 1 click down? It'll drive almost the same. But be careful with this. If you also upload your laps to VRS they can automatically find out how similar your setup is to one of their sets. And of course then they already know whether you're a paying member or not.