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Started by vobler, July 24, 2008, 05:22:31 PM

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vobler

iRacing are now officially open. Go get it... :D

vobler

Official statement:

August 26, 2008 - iRacing.com Open to the Public!
The next generation of racing is here! iRacing.com is now open to the general public. Pro or amateur, expert or novice, simulation veteran or not - anyone with a serious interest in the sport is welcome.

On this momentous occasion, we offer our sincere thanks to the hundreds of volunteer testers who, along with thousands of pre-launch invitees, have helped make sure that our service has been put through its paces and that our membership is already a thriving global community. And it's only going to get better.

Development continues. New tracks, new cars, new web functionality and new simulation features are all in the works and will be rolling out soon. In the meantime, check out our newest laser-scanned masterpiece, Bristol Motor Speedway, and our newest addition to the Members' Site, the iRacing Gear Store, the link for which can be found in the "Store" section on the main nav bar above.

Another new element of the service we think you'll like is the iRacing Referral Reward Program (see story below), which enables you to take an active role in the healthy growth of the iRacing community - and earn iRacing credits as you do it.

Whether through the referral program, special partner programs or just "walk-ins," our general launch is expected to bring several thousand new members into the service in a short span of time. Experience has taught us that this period of transition requires patience and consideration from everyone, regardless of how recently you joined. Please, do your part: read the FIRST Sporting Code and adhere to these rules at all times. New members, take your time getting acclimated, and veterans, help where you can. We're building this community - and the sport of internet racing - together.

vobler

Yes and PM me for my Email if you want to "sponsor me"... :D

August 26, 2008 - Invite Your Friends, Pick Up Some (iRacing) Cash!
Have some friends who'd like to try iRacing? Invite them to join, and you could earn $10 iRacing credit to use for cars, tracks or the extension of your membership. Simply tell your friends to input your email address (the one you used to register your own iRacing account) in the "Referring Member Email" field when they purchase their three, six or 12 month subscription. We'll send you a promotional code worth $10 for each confirmed new member referral.

Romus

Quote from: vobler;242255Yes and PM me for my Email if you want to "sponsor me"... :D

August 26, 2008 - Invite Your Friends, Pick Up Some (iRacing) Cash!
Have some friends who'd like to try iRacing? Invite them to join, and you could earn $10 iRacing credit to use for cars, tracks or the extension of your membership. Simply tell your friends to input your email address (the one you used to register your own iRacing account) in the "Referring Member Email" field when they purchase their three, six or 12 month subscription. We'll send you a promotional code worth $10 for each confirmed new member referral.

You'll be rich soon =)

EarlHaz

Quote from: vobler;242255Yes and PM me for my Email if you want to "sponsor me"... :D

Why didn't I think of that first?! :sideways:

Doorman

Quote from: vobler;242255Yes and PM me for my Email if you want to "sponsor me"... :D
Shameless pimp. :flirty:










     

vobler

Here is what Dave Kaemmer (the Scawen of iRacing) posted on the iRacing forum

Hello fellow iRacing Members:

As much as I enjoy working on the iRacing code, physics, tire modeling, the competition structure and new models and features, I also enjoy reading the forum posts as often as I get a chance. I often read the posts debating what should be next or to be blunt what is going on inside the walls of iRacing. After all these years, I guess I should not be surprised that my passion for sim racing is shared by so many people. That is a good thing! It certainly gives me the chance to do what I love.

I really do appreciate the passion for what is coming next at iRacing. We really don’t have any big secrets (although we are working on some pretty cool surprises for next year). We are simply hard at work on the things that both you and we want for the service. Some of the bigger feature-related items that we are currently working on were included in one of the questions in our recent survey. Those items include pitting, flags, race control, replays and open practice. Some of these items should be out soon. I hope they ALL will be out soon, but in this business things never go as planned. It is a very complicated and technically challenging endeavor. I have learned not to make promises if I’m not 100% certain we’ll be able to deliver.

Anyway, we will post the results of that survey once we wrap it up – in case you’re curious. Thanks for taking the time to do it; the results are very helpful to us. We also have some very exciting new cars and tracks that we will be announcing shortly and bringing into the sim. I hope you saw the Lotus 79 announcement this week.

I was going to wait until we added blogging and social-network functionality to iRacing and then start a weekly developer’s blog and let the technical, production and design teams here rotate and tell you the nitty gritty as to what they are working on and discuss some of the more technical aspects of iRacing, since there seems to be a portion of the membership interested in that detail. We should have the blogging capability done and up live on the site in a few weeks or so, but in the meantime, I figured I would send out at least a few quick development thoughts each week. Again, some people do seem interested in the details, so I asked Kevin Combs our 3D Art Manager and a terrific technical artist to talk about our collision system (below), one of the many models within iRacing. Hope you enjoy. Talk to you next week and good racing!

Dave


Our collision system is unique compared to systems used in the past. Rather than using a static collision volume to represent the driver’s car, each car has a collection of spheres created by the artists, which represent the car’s solid surface. Each sphere is animated to match the deformation of the visual model, so if you crunch the nose of your race car out of its normal position, the collision will be moved back to match its new position the next time you hit something. The graphical animation of the sphere also controls the damage assigned to the visual model, which in turn controls the damage texture drawn on the model.

Each sphere is imported from the graphical model into the physics definition for each car where physical characteristics such as the material type (plastic, steel, aluminum, carbon fiber, fiberglass, rubber, etc.), material strength, and its breaking point are defined. When a sphere exceeds its breaking point it is removed from the collision detection and any visual model associated with the sphere is detached from the car. In the future, visual models that are detached will remain in the world with their own collision spheres and mass; creating debris that is hittable and can cause damage to other cars.

Although the spheres themselves determine collisions between the driver and the world, as well as the driver’s collisions with other drivers, the remote cars use a convex hull defined by the spheres for performance reasons; in a full field of cars, if all cars used the collision spheres, there would be thousands of sphere collision calculations. Spheres that surround your wheels and tires are treated specially, since the tire forces use a much more sophisticated force model.

vobler

iRacing Goes Vintage With Lotus 79 F1 Car Announcement Comes on 30th Anniversary of F1 Title

BEDFORD, MA (September 10, 2008) - The Formula One championship-winning Lotus 79, one of the significant race cars of the past century, will be the first vintage race car available to members of the iRacing.com motorsport simulation and internet racing service. The announcement was made jointly today, the 30th anniversary of Mario Andretti's Formula One World Championship, by Dave Kaemmer, chief executive officer of iRacing and Clive Chapman, managing director of Classic Team Lotus.

"Many of our members are very interested in historic race cars and a fair number of them compete in vintage racing in the physical world," said Kaemmer, who is well known for an earlier simulation, Grand Prix Legends, which was based on the 1967 Formula One season. "To have the Lotus 79, a technically ground-breaking Formula One car and a World Championship winner, as our first historic car is a great place to start, and to be able to announce it on the anniversary of Mario securing the title is perfect."

"Of all of the racing cars in Lotus's long history, including others that have won world championships, few have had such an impact on the sport," said Chapman, who is the son of Lotus founder Colin Chapman. "The Lotus 78 was designed around the notion of underbody aerodynamics, but the 79 was the first car that fully exploited ground effect principles. And that changed the face of racing. It was an amazing car for its time, and it remains an amazing car today. I'm pleased that iRacing will be making it possible for people today to experience what it is like to drive the 79."

One person who knows the Lotus 79 first-hand is Mario Andretti, who drove it under the checkered flag at Monza to clinch his World Driving Championship and last month was reunited with the car at the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races.

"Driving the Lotus 79 was one of the most satisfying experiences in my career as a race driver," Andretti recalled. "The car was exceptionally responsive to different setups that we used to adapt to different circuits. Because I understood the dynamics of the car so well, I was able to achieve perfect balance with that car most of the time, which was very rare. I always looked forward to crawling into that cockpit. Of course that car also is significant in my life because I won the World Championship driving it."

Andretti won five races in the ground-effect Lotus 79 (and the season-opener in the Type 78) on his way to the 1978 title, but Chapman had been thinking for some time about using the airstream to produce traction-enhancing downforce. His designs evolved for over ten years, including a wedge-shaped body for his Indy turbine cars to kill lift, then to generate downforce. By 1976 Chapman had tacked on side skirts to the "development" Type 77 F1 car in an attempt to produce a low-pressure area under the car and pull the car down harder on its tires.

The Lotus 78 design, with which Andretti won four races during the 1977 season, incorporated sidepods with curved undersides and sliding skirts acting as seals to protect the low pressure created beneath the pod. The advantage over body-mounted front and rear wings was more downforce and less speed-robbing aerodynamic drag.

It was with the Lotus 79 that Chapman realized the full potential of ground effect. With redesigned sidepods and front and rear suspension components repositioned so as not to impede the airstream's entry or exit, the 79 generated 30% more downforce than the 78. The 79, which wasn't introduced until the 6th race of the 1978 season, was miles ahead of the competition and with it Andretti dominated the rest of the season, winning the Drivers Championship and helping Lotus secure the Constructors Championship.

Divina Galica, iRacing's director of partner relations and a Formula One racer in the 1970s, is another driver with relatively recent experience driving the 79. She drove Joel Finn's fine example at Watkins Glen in 2006. "It is a fabulous car," she said, emphatically. "And as Mario noted, it has wonderful balance. But you know, I waited 28 years to drive it."

Galica went on to describe a phone call she'd made to Team Lotus head Colin Chapman shortly after the 1978 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where Andretti's teammate, Ronnie Petersen, had died from complications following surgery to repair legs broken in a crash at the start of the race. "In those days, that's what you did," she recalled. "Someone was going to be driving the car at Watkins Glen, and I thought it might as well be me. Colin was very polite, but he'd already hired (Jean-Pierre) Jarier, who set fastest lap at Watkins Glen, but ran out of fuel near the end of the race, and then led the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal until the car broke.

"I was always a bit disappointed that I hadn't gotten to drive the 79 then, so I was extremely grateful when Joel generously invited me to drive his car at a vintage race at Watkins Glen," Galica said. "And I'm even more grateful now to Joel for kindly providing us access to his 79 to scan and gather data."

About iRacing.com
iRacing.com was founded in September of 2004 by Dave Kaemmer and John Henry. Kaemmer was co-founder of Papyrus Design Group, developers of award-winning racing simulations including NASCAR Racing: 2003 Season and Grand Prix Legends. Henry is principal owner of the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports Group - the co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing - as well as an avid simracer. The iRacing.com team combines more than 100 years of real-world racing experience with more than 50 years of successful racing simulation development.

Doorman

Left me cold I'm afraid. :sideways:










     

vobler

Quote from: Doorman;244505Left me cold I'm afraid. :sideways:

The car? Yes me too.
But the other post is full of good things. Read it again!

Doorman

Quote from: vobler;244507The car? Yes me too.
But the other post is full of good things. Read it again!
"In the future, visual models that are detached will remain in the world with their own collision spheres and mass; creating debris that is hittable and can cause damage to other cars."

Yeah I read that on the forum. I must be conditioned by nKP, I'll be pleased if/when it comes into being. :rolleyes: Having said that, I'm more inclined to believe D.K. than Kunos :flirty:










     

vobler

BEDFORD, MA (September 17, 2008) - Three of North America's classic road-racing circuits will be represented in the iRacing.com motorsport simulation and internet racing service. Sebring International Raceway, home of the famed annual 12-hour sportscar endurance race, will be made available to iRacing subscribers beginning today, while the other two Panoz Motor Sports Group tracks, Road Atlanta and Mosport International Raceway, will enter the production process soon in preparation for release in 2009.

The announcement was made today by iRacing president Tony Gardner and Panoz Motor Sports Group president and CEO Scott Atherton.

"Our members will be very pleased with the addition of these three circuits to our inventory," Gardner said. "Sebring is not only the oldest permanent road-racing facility in North America, but it is one of the busiest test circuits. Our members who race in the physical world will be able to better prepare for tests and races there on any of the track configurations, while members who drive in our internet race series will have the pleasure of being able to compete on this legendary track. Road Atlanta and Mosport are known worldwide as tests of driving ability. We're thrilled to welcome all three Panoz tracks to the world of iRacing."

Atherton noted the remarkable accuracy of the tracks that are already in the iRacing inventory. "We have a simulator in our offices, running the iRacing simulation," he said. "It's incredible how exact everything is. All of us here at Panoz Motor Sports Group are eager to take some laps around Sebring."

Gardner and Atherton agreed on the strategic significance of the relationship between the two companies.

"This partnership will give teams that compete in the American Le Mans Series and other racing events scheduled at Sebring, Road Atlanta and Mosport the ability to better utilize their on-track time," Atherton said. "That ability to make efficient use of track time supports the American Le Mans Series "green racing" initiative. And for our fans, iRacing offers an opportunity to get behind the wheel and actually experience the same tracks as our world-class drivers."

About Sebring International Raceway

Laid out on the runways of a World War II air base and the adjacent roadways, Sebring International Raceway is the oldest permanent road-racing circuit in the United States. The track is best known as the venue for the annual Mobil 1® Twelve Hours of Sebring endurance race, opening round of the American Le Mans Series. For nearly 60 years the world's top racers have competed at this storied track nestled in central Florida's orange groves. The original racecourse was the longest in North America, at more than five miles around. In 1959 Sebring was the site of the first United States Grand Prix before the event found a permanent home at Watkins Glen. After a period of decline in the 1990s, Dr. Don Panoz, founder of the Panoz Motor Sport Group, rescued the facility in 1999, initiating a multi-million dollar enhancement program.

Today Sebring International Raceway has three configurations, the longest of which is the 3.7-mile circuit used for the 12-hour race. Like the original layout, the current one is a mix of smooth asphalt-paved roadway and car-pounding concrete-slab runways. Some experts claim that 12 hours racing at Sebring is twice as hard on a car - and its drivers - as 24 hours at some other tracks. Sebring's shorter configuration is a popular year-round test facility for major racing teams, and a venue for SCCA club races. The full circuit is also host to major vintage race meets.

About Road Atlanta

Opened in 1970 with the running of a Can-Am Challenge race, Road Atlanta has been host to virtually every significant North American amateur and professional road-racing series. For many years Road Atlanta was home to SCCA's club-racing national championship Runoffs. Fans have flocked to see pro racing ranging from SCCA Formula 5000 and Trans-Am to NASCAR Grand National to IMSA's Camel GT, predecessor to the current American Le Mans Series. Since assuming ownership of the track in 1996 and hosting the inaugural Petit Le Mans round of the American Le Mans Series two years later, the Panoz Group has substantially upgraded the facility, with a twin focus on participant safety and spectator amenity. Today, in addition to Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta is home to SCCA and NASA club racing, a variety of historic and vintage racing organizations, Ferrari Challenge and professional and amateur motorcycle racing.

About Mosport International Raceway

Opened in 1961 as Mosport Park (a contraction of "Motorsport Park"), this Toronto-area 2.459-mile roller-coaster of a race track was host to the Canadian Grand Prix until the event moved to Montreal in 1978. Featuring very fast sweeping corners over hill and dale, Mosport is a real driver's circuit, albeit an unforgiving one. Since assuming control of the track in 1998, the Panoz Motor Sports Group has made a number of changes that have preserved the original configuration of the racing surface while making it safer for drivers and spectators. In addition to Canadian club racing, Grand-Am sedans, Formula Mazda, the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, the Parts Canada Superbike Championship, and historic and vintage events, the track is host to the only Canadian round of the American Le Mans Series, the Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport.

Doorman

A lap in a Radical My own view is that I won't buy it. I made trhe mistake of buying everything they had in the belief that at some point we would race on them (tracks) or in them (cars). So far only 4 tracks have been used! Summit, Virginia, Laguna Seca and Infineon and two cars! :sideways: (I'm not counting ovals because the could have done with just one. The small ovals all look the same.
A bit peeved actually.










     

vobler

Quote from: Doorman;245069So far only 4 tracks have been used! Summit, Virginia, Laguna Seca and Infineon and two cars!

I think you forget the Mazda and Silverstone and Road America and the road Legend series and Lime Rock and....

Doorman

Quote from: vobler;245073I think you forget the Mazda and Silverstone and Road America and the road Legend series and Lime Rock and....
For you maybe. :flirty: