Virtual Le Mans - Post Race Sim Analysis/Comparisons

[Aysedasi]

It just occurred to me that following the weekends races there might be interest in making comparisons, perhaps to help those who might be inclined to give one or more of the sim platforms a go. (This leads on from the thread in the Le Mans sub-forum).

I know we have quite a bit of expertise in the various platforms and it would be good if those 'in the know' could share their knowledge here (perhaps avoiding the platform 'fanboy' stuff that sometimes creeps in - I promise I won't mention GPL..... .)

[Adam43]

I’ve got Project Cars 2. We’re planning on sorting a set up out after we’ve moved house. Not used it that much. I’m open to suggestions.

[Akrapovic]

Project CARS 2 is perhaps the most accessible of all the sims. It's getting pretty arcade now, but it's really not terrible. It does have a lot of bugs when you get into career mode though, same as the original. I'm pretty sure this has a good Le Mans.

ACC is pretty amazing overall. Has good AI. Full Blancpain series. Wet weather is great, sound and physics are lovely. But it is challenging. There's currently no Le Mans for it, but it has the full IGTC which is fun.

rFactor 2 is perhaps the most adaptable. So moddable that you can get any cars you want for it. I recommend CART Factor, since I did half the work on it. There is Le Mans versions for it obviously.

Anything by Reiza Studios tends to be extremely good too. They do slightly more unusual cars compared to other sims too. I was a texture artist for Reiza Studios - the cars in Game Stock Car 2013, Formula Truck 2013 are all mine and were carried through into the later games. I highly recommend Reiza titles. Le Mans is available as a mod.

iRacing has by far the best online system. Pickup racing in iRacing is miles ahead of anything thanks to the safety systems. But it's not cheap. Some of the content is quite old too. But the online system is second to none. In fact, the gap between its online system and everything else is massive. It has Le Mans, and as always it's pretty damn accurate.

I'm doing this weekends Le Mans 24 Hours in the LMP2 class. We did the Le Mans 6 hours last weekend and it was epic. I've done the VLN and N24 events this year too.

[Aysedasi]

Thanks for that. So is ACC purely GT cars?

[Akrapovic]

Yeah, ACC is purely GT. Currently it's purely GT3 as it's basically an SRO game.

But the plus side of it is that it simulates a full series, and I think it's the only sim which currently does. So you can do a full offline championship of the Blancpain series with the real drivers, cars and tracks. Also has a IGTC pack, to add Kyalami, Bathurst and Laguna Seca, along with the cars.

There is apparently a British GT pack coming too. GT4s would be cool. No chance of getting ACO cars and tracks in it, but certainly worth a drive if you want offline racing and an actual simulation of a real series.

[Aysedasi]

OK, that pretty much rules out ACC for me as I have little interest in driving GTs. And demonstrating my shallow approach again, if it doesn't have Le Mans, then I wouldn't cough up the cash for it. I still have the original AC, but never drive it. For some reason I just didn't like it.

[Akrapovic]

Not shallow - I don't drive F1 games as it doesn't interest me .

ACC won't really have mods either. I mean it kinda does, but it's not built for it the same way rFactor 2 is. But it will do offline championships really well.

If you're after Le Mans, then narrow it down with this -

Do you want mods and options and flexibility - rFactor 2
Do you want really easy accessibility, but maybe slightly less realistic - pCARS2 (or 1)
Do you want structured online racing, and willing to pay a bit more for it - iRacing

[Aysedasi]

That's useful, thanks very much

[Akrapovic]

Oh also worth adding -

rFactor 2 has AI. pCARS2 has AI. Neither are amazing, but they do work.

iRacing really doesn't have AI. The AI is heavily beta. So if it's offline you want then iRacing is not the game for you.

ACC vs AC - very different games, that share a similar name. It's surprising how different they drive. I also couldn't get into AC, but ACC is excellent. I'd say ACC is the most polished of all these games, especially for offline. (No Le Mans!)

[Akrapovic]

The iRacing Le Mans 24 Hours race in about 40 minutes from now. Race green around 90 minutes from now. We'll hopefully have timing and scoring up for our split. Under the name Team RLD.

http://theracingline.net/timing/

We've got 2 cars entered. 1 Porsche RSR with 3 drivers. 1 HPD LMP2 with 3 drivers. I'll be starting the HPD.

[Akrapovic]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo7nEOiYhXI

[Akrapovic]

http://theracingline.net/rldtiming/

[Adam43]

Good luck

[Akrapovic]

Stream part 2

[Akrapovic]

Sorry for spam. Seems I didn’t post the link to part 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoV7Jot0m-0

[Adam43]

I watched a few laps at the beginning. Chaos into the Ford Chicane on one lap! How did the plan to save fuel go in the first stint? did you stick to it, or decide to come in early instead? What did everyone else do?

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Adam43

I watched a few laps at the beginning. Chaos into the Ford Chicane on one lap! How did the plan to save fuel go in the first stint? did you stick to it, or decide to come in early instead? What did everyone else do?

We got caught in someone else’s accident so the fuel saving idea went out the window. We lost 3 laps in repairs.

But in some sort of weird “only could happen in a game” sort of thing, the car was fully repaired and now manages an extra lap of fuel with minimal fuel saving!

I just woke up. Quick look at the times, looking good. My stint in an hour. This is epic fun.

[Adam43]

Will you see daylight in this stint?

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Will you see daylight in this stint?

Unfortunately not now. Engine just went bang out of mulsanne. 31 minute change

[Aysedasi]

Engine change?!

[Akrapovic]

Yeah. we’ve changed the engine. Now 18th. 20 seconds behind 17th. So gives us something to race against.

I guess that’s old school Le Mans. Bringing a repaired broken car home. Bit annoying. We were one of the fastest cars during the night.

[Aysedasi]

Slightly different rules then - but good to be able to keep running......

[Akrapovic]

We eventually finished 15th out of 55 starters. The attrition was no where near what we expected, so we weren't making as much ground back as expected.

The iRacing weather stuff is very cool. The car does feel different during the night and you can see the lap times change. Our car got faster, whilst many others got slower. Lot of fun

[Aysedasi]

Good stuff.

I persevered with rFactor but I can't get it to run as well as I want it to, so I went back to PC2 and ran a few laps in a Ligier. Great fun. I may have to investigate iRacing.....

[Akrapovic]

iRacing is kinda a bigger commitment than most people want to make (understandably!). It's not cheap (Monthly subscription, plus buying content), it's not just jump in and drive (like GPL, it's hard), and it has licenses to progress to the best cars and series.

But the flip side is, if you're willing to spend a lot of time and a bit of money, the online system is second to none. So so many online races, at a higher standard than pickup racing.

I believe there's a modern LMP2 coming to iRacing soon, but it isn't confirmed yet.