Rain in iRacing

Skid_Marc_

Staff member
Admin
Don't want, sorry. iRacers can barely keep it on the track in the dry. As a group they barely deal with the temperature changing. I can't imagine the carnage when rain hits official races especially if changing conditions are part of it (which I'm sure they are).
It's a sim. Just like day-night transitions, this was bound to happen. iRacing falling behind the F1 series isn't a big deal, but falling behind Project Cars, ACC, and more, means that iRacing needed to move in this direction to continue to be competitive.
 

Daunt

MLG Pro
Agreed. Catering to the lowest common denominator in a game / sim is poor practice. Just because some or a lot of average drivers will not be able to cope is a bad reason not to add something.

Else they shouldn't have added a lot of great features. Night driving is not easy. There are a ton of fast cars that average drivers have no business driving.
 

Brainling

Hardcore
It's a video game, which I play for fun and relaxation. I know rain is invetiable, it was always coming. I can still be unhappy about the fact that most of the iRacing community has shown no capability to deal with such a thing.
 

Kenadian

Staff member
Site Admin
It's a sim. Just like day-night transitions, this was bound to happen. iRacing falling behind the F1 series isn't a big deal, but falling behind Project Cars, ACC, and more, means that iRacing needed to move in this direction to continue to be competitive.
I know it's inevitable and do believe they have to add rain but I'm with @Brainling on this one, it's a recipe for disaster.

Imagine Nords 24hr at night in heavy rain, omg.

I just hope iRacing plans on overhauling lights because they just aren't near bright enough currently.
 

Skid_Marc_

Staff member
Admin
I hope, at least with D-C license classes, they have "rain weeks" the way other series have "fuel-saving weeks", or some form of longer race. That way people have a full week dedicated to rain practice and they know what they're getting into for the race, and it's not all just random "...will this race be wet or dry...". I think that would just be discouraging... which is obviously pretty realistic... but I also agree I don't do this to get depressed...

I would clearly prefer this be a mechanic mostly used for leagues and maybe endurance.

@Brainling it has nothing to do with broad-brushing sim-racers. Racing in the rain is hard... for EVERYONE... that's just part of it...
 

Kenadian

Staff member
Site Admin
I also wonder if iRacing will force drivers to pit for wet tires in the event of rain rolling in during Endurance?

I think that a mechanic like Black Flagging for not running appropriate tires could work.

That first week in iRacing the Protest system is going to be hammered lol.

Better contact Nim and submit my resume for Racing Steward.
 

Daunt

MLG Pro
In my opinion though there are things that NEED to be added first. Tire requirements is one. Forcing a pit stop for tires should've been done years ago.

Another big one is multiclass starts is another... why hasn't that been fixed in the past few years?
 

Daunt

MLG Pro
I've also watched some acc races where it starts lightly raining with threatening heavy rain in the final 20 minutes... There's nothing else out there like it. The realism and strategy. So you pit for rain tires? Do you try and race through it and hope it lets up?
 

Brainling

Hardcore
Seperate pace car multi-class starts is definitely one I'd like to see. The community has mostly figured it out and does it right, but having it enforced would be nice.
 

Daunt

MLG Pro
For sure agree that plebs will make shit worse overall because of rain but we all love iRacing and sim racing because it is challenging.

"We choose to race on iRacing not because it is easy, but because it is hard."

-John F. Kennedy
 

Deb

Moderator
I saw this on Instagram this morning. I don't know how to feel about it. I wonder if they'll add it to series races as a separate race, like a fixed setup with wets. I would be surprised to see it in the long endurance races, at least initially.
 

Daunt

MLG Pro
I wanted to follow up- because I for sure want rain...
but it made me think about how many major projects they've released in part but not fully that still need addressing...

- Pit crew for GT3 - I didn't think I cared that much about it but it is really awesome in the series it's actually in like Indy, and doing a pit stop in ACC is just so fricking cool. Really underrated.
- Pit Stop Requirements - This seems pretty basic to me but requiring a pit stop for a tire change is something that iRacing has needed for years and it's a shame they still don't have this. I really hate the way they force a pit stop now in VRS as it adds another layer of stuff to worry about on a weekly basis (fuel consumption / calculation)
- Damage Model - From my impressions, the new damage model seems fantastic and it seems especially good in dealing with minor contact. Way better than now. I'm sure they're continuing to roll this out for the more popular series but GT3 neeeeeeds this.
- Multi-class starts - we talked about above and doesn't really pertain to VRS series but still this has been needed for years.

I'm sure there is more that I can't think of but would like to hear others' opinions on stuff that should be done first.
 

Daunt

MLG Pro
Has there been any released updates / news on rain? I thought there was something that was coming with the S1 update (doubted it would be released but at least more news?)
 

Skid_Marc_

Staff member
Admin
Nope. Can't find anything more recent than their initial announcement. Fwiw, the new TCR cars did release with windshield wipers and an option to map a button to them. However, that function isn't actually implemented at the moment.
 

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