Best racing sim for PC currently?

dnme

Just built a nice big decent gaming rig for flight sim, but I also wanna play racing sims if I can.

Last car sim I played was the wonderful GP4 a few years back. I am thinking to myself that since then, graphics, physics and sheer game play must have moved on in quantum leaps ?

So I installed Live for Speed just now and was a little underwhelmed, Graphics are a bit grainy and I decided to try a crash (always a good test). The car went into a hyper unrealistic spin up in the air before landing like it was coded by my labrador, my heart sank.

I have a decent steering wheel/pedal kit, trackir, you name it. All I want now is a decent racing game.

Any recommendations ?

Many thanks

DiscoStu

Dirty poors = rfactor
Filthy rich = iracing

ferrari virtual academy, netkar pro 1.1, race07+expansions and the rest of the old simbin stuff bring up the rear.

dnme

DiscoStu wrote: »

Dirty poors = rfactor
Filthy rich = iracing

ferrari virtual academy, netkar pro 1.1, race07+expansions and the rest of the old simbin stuff bring up the rear.

Can iRacing be played as a standalone with AI, single races, career mode etc

or

do you have to play it as part of an online league?

DiscoStu

iracing doesnt have any ai or any offline componenets. everything is done online including solo hotlapping. the quality of the racing is a step above public rfactor or simbin servers though, mainly due to the rep system and the ludicrous
amount of money it costs to play.

rfactor has some reasonable ai but it comes down to the quality of the mods and if they include proper aiw files for the tracks you are using. in my experience most dont. all in all its a very fragmented game but the quality of some of the cars and tracks are excellent. ae86 v2.0, formula nippon 08, fsone 09, ctdp f1 06 plus all virtualm tracks are above the quality of simbins stuff.

the simbin games are probably the best for solo and ai play. the amount of content in race07 and the expansions is staggering with proper chamionships set up for most classes. in addition gt legends and gtr2 still hold up today and are well worth getting.

comes down to what you are looking for though.

iracing for the purist hardcore more money than sense racer, rfactor if you like tweaking the crap out of everything and simbin if you just want to get down and race with the minimum of fuss.

Dcully

Nothing comes close to iracing in terms of realism and organised racing.
The depth of the service is simply massive plus you will possibly race alongside real life professional racers, Dale Earndhardt jr being just one.
Yes it is expensive but you can pick whatever series you wish to run and only purchase its required content.
Im still a subscriber, but rarely bother with it, its just so time consuming.

Dont forget GTR2, GT Legends, GTR Evolution/Race 07 and Live for speed.

Some decent online racing for all of these sims here http://www.racedepartment.com/content/

dnme

Dcully wrote: »

Nothing comes close to iracing in terms of realism and organised racing.
The depth of the service is simply massive plus you will possibly race alongside real life professional racers, Dale Earndhardt jr being just one.
Yes it is expensive but you can pick whatever series you wish to run and only purchase its required content.
Im still a subscriber, but rarely bother with it, its just so time consuming.

Dont forget GTR2, GT Legends, GTR Evolution/Race 07 and Live for speed.

Some decent online racing for all of these sims here http://www.racedepartment.com/content/

Many thanks
I just hate that model though, you are basically renting a licence to use the cloud for a racing game. It's so expensive that I just cannot go there. I emailed them to ask if there was an offline version, they replied telling me there was a test version with no ai for STG900+ quid. !!!

It is a truly magnificent simulator but beyond my means I'm afraid. Plus I want the option to own a game, and play offline against AI and friends ona network, I do not want to be forced to go online just to start a game, that sucks.

dnme

DiscoStu wrote: »

rfactor has some reasonable ai but it comes down to the quality of the mods and if they include proper aiw files for the tracks you are using. in my experience most dont. all in all its a very fragmented game but the quality of some of the cars and tracks are excellent. ae86 v2.0, formula nippon 08, fsone 09, ctdp f1 06 plus all virtualm tracks are above the quality of simbins stuff.

Stu, can you explain the premise here to me?
Is rFactor a game or is it a company? when you mention ae86 v2.0, formula nippon 08, fsone 09 etc.....are these mods (does this mean word mean modification?) or are they separate games released by rFactor?

Let's say, you wish to use ae86 v2.0. What do you need or buy for this?

Many thanks

Redvaliant

rFactor is a downloadable title that is largely a frame for mods. And man, are there mods! Hundreds of them, most average but some are sublime. If you go to rfactor central there is a handy hall of fame that pretty much sorts the best out from the rest. 1971 F1 is my current fave but the Historic touring cars are really good as are the Aussie V8s. The mods are all free but rfactor - which comes with tracks and several types of car - is about 19 euro.

Personally, I rate Netkar Pro as the most realistic sim racer available ( haven't tried iRacing), it is available as a demo with a 1600 formula ford car, but the full version has 3 other openwheelers and the Fiat 500 Abarth. It too runs about 19 euro and is a promising work-in-progress with new updates coming soon. It is nowhere near as bountiful as rfactor in the mod and extra track departments, nor does it include AI, but for pure ,white knuckle racing online it rocks.

Mike Litoris

Do yourself a huge favour and try to get your hands on Grand Prix Legends.

Leprekaun

There are different sims for different types of racing. To me, these are the ones to get


Single Seater racing: netKar PRO / iRacing (Although I really haven't tried the single seaters in iRacing but from what I've read/heard, they're meant to be very good). There is also Grand Prix Legends and Nascar Racing 2003 but both can be considered as older iterations of iRacing.

F1: Ferrari Virtual Academy (its actually based on netKar PRO)

Tintops: RACE07 (although there are a couple single seaters in there with it (F3000 and Formula BMW) (Also, there are a bunch of mods and tracks that can be downloaded over its massive content) and its expansion: GTR Evolution (if you want to drive big proper GT cars (DBR9, C6R, Viper GTS-R etc.)

Rally: Richard Burns Rally with the RSRBR 2010 mod

Various (Single seaters, touring cars, GTs etc.): rFactor (there are countless mods and tracks for it, all which can be found here: rFactor Central)

If you're anything like me when it comes to racing sims and care about physics above anything else and like single seaters, I would suggest netKar PRO and Ferrari Virtual Academy. Something that it is to be said though is that netKar PRO has a low number of multiplayer servers (15-20) (and an even lower number of players) but if you want to get serious, there are a couple leagues which have full grids which are very well organised. There is no online play for Ferrari Virtual Academy, its just pure hotlapping and no ai racing for netKar PRO. But in my honest opinion, physics wise, they're above the rest.

The game that I've played with both the best offline and online play has to be RACE07. The physics are also quite good so it keeps things challenging. Also, when it comes to force feedback, in my opinion, it has one of the best coding of any sim (only netKar PRO and Ferrari Virtual Academy are better).

rFactor is nice and varied but there just isn't much feel to the cars, there is the RealFeel plugin but only a handful of mods use it properly. It has offline play as well but like DiscoStu said, only some mods have good ai but most modders design their mods to be used mostly online.

Richard Burns Rally is easily the best rallying sim out there, nothing really compares to it. It has good offline play (championship, rally school etc.) and the physics are just incredible. With RSRBR 2010, its also possible to set up online games so each driver posts up their time and that is automatically uploaded to the server after completing a stage.

There are only three sims I'd play seriously now (netKar PRO, Ferrari Virtual Academy and RACE07 (with GTR Evolution) and Richard Burns Rally) I play the other sims once or twice every so often but just aren't as appealing as those ones.

Dcully

Nice post and i agree with all you say but both iracing and netcar have tintops , not just single seater.
The Nascar,Late Model and nascar trucks in iracing are probably the most popular series thanks to the rather large US player base.
I must disagree about the force feedback, iracing again is easily the best of the bunch for FFB.
The laser scanned tracks are great with every little bump modelled and felt through the FFB, in other sims the FFB while decent seems canned,for example you go over a rumble strip or curb etc in Race 07 it all feels the same every time,in iracing every bump and dip can be felt and feel different.
All fine sims you listed however.

I dont race much these days at all but if i wanted to have the greatest sim out there it would definitely be iracing,it comes with a hefty price however but as the saying goes you pay for what you get.

DangerMouse1978

Well I personally race in iRacing and Netkar Pro. iRacing is very pricey but the tracks are amazing the racing is great fun especially when you need to be careful to improve on your Safety Rating which can seem harsh at times but encourages very clean racing. The new Mazda MX5 roaster and cup edition are really great fun to drive. And the Williams F1 car is also great fun except at limerock park which is way too bumpy and way to short for an f1 car. My favourite still is Netkar Pro . There is a new version of Netkar Pro out at the moment NKpro 1.2 which includes a host of updates to the physics and new tyre model including a new car the KS2 which is basically a GP2 Kunos style. The KS2 handles great, amazing speed too obviously not as fast as Ferrari Virtual Academy but mighty quick none the less. There are upcoming updates which I am looking forward to see in Netkar. Two new cars and wet weather conditions. These updates are hopefully coming out by Christmas this year. Hopefully something worth waiting for. One thing that stands out with Netkar pro is the tyre physics(though im looking forward to seeing iRacing's new tyre model coming out in January) , you can really feel when your tyres are overheating, you can feel the changing grip levels of your tyres. Netkar Pro also has a great community of racers from all over the world. And there are the likes of the Radiator Springs Team (whom I am great friends with) who run championships in various classes and develop new tracks for netkar like the amazing mugello circuit which was only released a few hours ago, which is available to download at the radiator springs website. I just had a blast around it in the KS2 .. what a pleasure to drive well worth the €19.90 .. yes you don't have to pay anything else .. just once off €19.90 which is a bargain in my eyes. All things considered including value for money .. in my eyes Netkar Pro wins the prize as my favourite racing sim.

dnme

Great posts by everyone and many thanks.
I signed up for iRacing and you are all right about it. It's truly amazing. Best physics and graphics are sweet. I tried out all the others but after iRacing, they all seem to disappoint.

If you're into your racing sims, here's a great link for a weekly dedicated video magazine - http://insidesimracing.tv

here.from.day.1

Sorry for the tread raise, but does nobody rate Live for Speed?

I have the demo at was going to get the full version, I really like it compared to rFactor (again demo, seems very finiky and the clutch did not work well,) GTR Evolution (only bought the Race 07+GTR-E bundle from Steam during the sales, havent given it much of a play yet) and the rest of the arcadeys F1 2010, DiRT, Grid etc.

I am a bit overwhelmed with all the mods available for each game and I don't really know where to start.. I have a G27 though.

RichieC

iRacing is the best, I have all the sims, LFS and iracing are the two best most certainly.

The skip barber in iracing is imo the best racing car ever made in a simulator.

RichieC

here.from.day.1 wrote: »

Sorry for the tread raise, but does nobody rate Live for Speed?

It is absolutely worth every penny for the full version.

Redbassist

I agree, def worth it.

redhot

I rate GTR2, amazing downloads for new tracks cars etc, the graphics and frame rates are good too. Forcefeedback is good, and now for the best bit, the engine sounds are recorded frm the real cars, so if you have a good sound system you'll love it (nothing comes close).

I recently tried rFactor, graphics a bit dissapointing, BUT the car physics are amazing, I use Forcefeedback logitec formula force and pedals (bolted to diamond plate), Buttkicker gamer fixed to a rally seat, forcefeedback bass headphones, trackIR5 head tracker and a custom Dell XPS gaming PC. With the Zonda rFactor download, I swear I can feel the back end breaking away on the corners and can tell just when to ease off the gas. I downloaded the excellent rfactor add-on called "real-feel", it rocks.

I've been tempted by consule drivingsims, but from what I've seen, they don't cut it (framerates, realism etc), Gran Tourismo 5 looks good from some of the demo shots, but I hear there are bugs and it goes downhill from there. Have tried all the Need for speed games on my PC and they all suffer frame rate issues.

I've started makind short video clips using the FRAPS application, which also helps you monitor frame rate performance.

Latest news is the team at SIMBIN are working on GTR3, which I hope will take the best bits from GTR2 and rFactor. I'm going to stick with PC racing sims.

I'm based near Ennis in Co Clare, if any of you are nearby, you should get in touch.

OSiriS

Unfortunately the design team that made GTR2 no longer exists. Argueably the more talented half split off to do their own thing, but have gotten involved with Need For Speed with the Shift branch of the series, so for the time being they are making "arcadey" sims. The rest continued with SIMBIN, and produced the Race series, which was no-where near as good as GTR2, sadly. I wouldn't get my hopes up too high about GTR3, if it ever does emerge.

GTR2 was good in it's day, but the gMotor2 engine is very dated, and left in the dust by the physics engines of more modern sims. It remains to be seen what ISI will do with rFactor 2, and subsequently what their customers will do with sims based on their engine.

Pdfile

redhot wrote: »

I rate GTR2, amazing downloads for new tracks cars etc, the graphics and frame rates are good too. Forcefeedback is good, and now for the best bit, the engine sounds are recorded frm the real cars, so if you have a good sound system you'll love it (nothing comes close).

I recently tried rFactor, graphics a bit dissapointing, BUT the car physics are amazing, I use Forcefeedback logitec formula force and pedals (bolted to diamond plate), Buttkicker gamer fixed to a rally seat, forcefeedback bass headphones, trackIR5 head tracker and a custom Dell XPS gaming PC. With the Zonda rFactor download, I swear I can feel the back end breaking away on the corners and can tell just when to ease off the gas. I downloaded the excellent rfactor add-on called "real-feel", it rocks.

I've been tempted by consule drivingsims, but from what I've seen, they don't cut it (framerates, realism etc), Gran Tourismo 5 looks good from some of the demo shots, but I hear there are bugs and it goes downhill from there. Have tried all the Need for speed games on my PC and they all suffer frame rate issues.

I've started makind short video clips using the FRAPS application, which also helps you monitor frame rate performance.

Latest news is the team at SIMBIN are working on GTR3, which I hope will take the best bits from GTR2 and rFactor. I'm going to stick with PC racing sims.

I'm based near Ennis in Co Clare, if any of you are nearby, you should get in touch.

firstly, ive played quite a bit of r-factor... its quite rubbish imho ( not graphics or anything... the simulation is what im on about, their is none )

GTR2 by modern standards is need for speed...

GT5 has a few bugs, but its a game where you make what you want of it ( i.e start leagues n such) but is being developed and fixed faster then most games, the only error with it as far as i can see is the players... but then again, most playing i meet have crappy net or just beg for cars...

also, you need heeps more AA.
anyone here played Live for speed ? had an account years ago, was alright back then but id say its the same now ( the GM was a nice guy... but fairly lazy in terms of dev work )

Zebrawire

Redvaliant wrote: »

rFactor is a downloadable title that is largely a frame for mods. And man, are there mods! Hundreds of them, most average but some are sublime. If you go to rfactor central there is a handy hall of fame that pretty much sorts the best out from the rest. 1971 F1 is my current fave but the Historic touring cars are really good as are the Aussie V8s. The mods are all free but rfactor - which comes with tracks and several types of car - is about 19 euro.

Personally, I rate Netkar Pro as the most realistic sim racer available ( haven't tried iRacing), it is available as a demo with a 1600 formula ford car, but the full version has 3 other openwheelers and the Fiat 500 Abarth. It too runs about 19 euro and is a promising work-in-progress with new updates coming soon. It is nowhere near as bountiful as rfactor in the mod and extra track departments, nor does it include AI, but for pure ,white knuckle racing online it rocks.

Yes, but there are at least 40 or more extra tracks you can download for free...Darn good ones at that. http://www.racedepartment.com/netkar-pro/57440-netkar-circuits.html