AI Drivers are Coming to iRacing This Year

Might actually convince me to get an iRacing account if the AI is any good i.e. up to rFactor2 / Raceroom Racing Experience level
 
I cant argue against this. Each series needs a minimum number of players before is counts as a point race or it invalidates itself. Most of the time a series will run all week seeing only a few races daily while others run around the clock.

It will be nice to have every series open to race regardless of if there are at least 8 players or not.
 
Not to thread jack too much, but.... is there any dirt track oval racing games for ps4? This picture reminds me of an old dirt track racer I used to have for pc back in the day. Was so fun!!!
 
I still have never played iRacing, but my reaction is a bit mixed. I think this is a great thing first because this will give you a chance to enhance your skills in taking on different opposition. On the other hand, proing your worth against other human racers have lent to the challenge and character of iRacing. This may all come down to how iRacing handles and implements AI drivers. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

About the only thing I've seen in regards to combining many human gamers with some AI drivers is the modern Mario Kart games, where some lobbies have had AI drivers to fill the grid if such lobbies allow for them. So this is about the only thing I am reminded of in the case of filling out grids for races with so few entrants.
 
I could be wrong because I haven’t looked much into it but I would think the ai is going to be completely separate feature. I wouldn’t think they are going to have ai in official races.
 
MadRR
I could be wrong because I haven’t looked much into it but I would think the ai is going to be completely separate feature. I wouldn’t think they are going to have ai in official races.
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That's what I think too
 
This could be interesting...

AI drivers in F1 cars on a Rallycross circuit anyone...?
 
Going on 8 years at iRacing and I do NOT want to see AI at all. Let the arcade games like pCars2 and console racers and all the others have AI. iRacing was so good cause it was real racin' against real competitors. Call me old fashion but I am dead against AI, it will sully iRacin's reputation. I did a survey at iRacing and a full 40% were dead against AI as well.
 
left888
Going on 8 years at iRacing and I do NOT want to see AI at all. Let the arcade games like pCars2 and console racers and all the others have AI. iRacing was so good cause it was real racin' against real competitors. Call me old fashion but I am dead against AI, it will sully iRacin's reputation. I did a survey at iRacing and a full 40% were dead against AI as well.
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40% that doesn’t seem like an overwhelming majority.
 
i cant see AI being used in anything 'official'.
If it's some kind of separate mode then I dont see anything wrong with it.
Personally I wouldn't use it anyway, if I want some on track battles but not join an official race I will just jump in the most popular practice room I can find, in a full practice room you will always find someone to have some battles with.
 
mjm23race
40% that doesn’t seem like an overwhelming majority.
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In what world is 40% a majority? My point being, that there is a lot of opposition in bringing in AI. When close to half the membership dislike AI says a lot. Clearly iRacing's goal is to bring in the console players, i.e. "revenue". It won't surprise me, if in a few years iRacing is on the consoles.


Wayne, to your point, AI won't be used in any offical races. iRacing has already stated as much. I agree with you, joining a full practice server is much funner, than racing "mindless AI".
 
I'm a little confused. Single-player mode with AI, does this mean that you are still able to play iRacing when your subcription is expired?
 
left888
Going on 8 years at iRacing and I do NOT want to see AI at all. Let the arcade games like pCars2 and console racers and all the others have AI. iRacing was so good cause it was real racin' against real competitors. Call me old fashion but I am dead against AI, it will sully iRacin's reputation. I did a survey at iRacing and a full 40% were dead against AI as well.
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And this exactly the kind of typical arrogant comment by the racing sim community that puts off people wanting to take the next step after they've got hooked through the likes of GTS and PCARS - which I'll add are sims, just with certain gaming elements. An arcade racer would be Ridge Racer or Track Mania.

You see here's the question that I have. Would I like to give iRacing a shot? sure I would. Would I want to race with people who say that kind of thing and hold an elitist attitude towards sim racing? probably not.

Also consider this - wouldn't it be good for a newbie to iRacing to face off against AI first in order to hone their race craft before they pile in and ruin a load of races. I don't think anybody is saying that you have to use the AI, but if it's a good AI then you might also be able to benefit from it in terms of practice races as well.
 
I don't get it why 40% for iRacing sim racers don't want AI in iRacing. It is very selfish on their part. AFAIK, racing against AI in iRacing is a separate mode and has nothing to do with online racing.
 
Having some beginner championships with AI to help the rookies is a very good idea,you can even create some racing scenarios with AIs to teach race techniques to beginners.

Like what Gran Turismo did with the driving school.
 
Sometimes play with the AI if is good is more realistic that play with others players, I don't know how the community of Iracing is, but in Assetto Corsa or in Project cars there are a lot of players that only ruin the inmersion by doing stupid things like crashing, runing on a wrong race line or quiting on the first corner. Those are reasons why I prefer to play with the AI.
 
left888
Going on 8 years at iRacing and I do NOT want to see AI at all. Let the arcade games like pCars2 and console racers and all the others have AI. iRacing was so good cause it was real racin' against real competitors. Call me old fashion but I am dead against AI, it will sully iRacin's reputation. I did a survey at iRacing and a full 40% were dead against AI as well.
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What a pig headed arrogant attitude. How is it old fashioned to be against AI? AI was here before online racing, weird! And how exactly does AI make it arcade? I have never tried iRacing purely because it doesn't have ai, I am not into online racing, never tried it, doesn't interest me. Don't have time with a job and family to sync my time racing at obscure times with others. With ai I can race when I want with whatever car combo and track I want. And 40% against it? That means 60% weren't and if extra people came onboard purely because of AI then that would make your 40% even lower.
 
Typical arrogance from a sim-racer fanboy. I for one welcome the addition of AI, especially well-programmed, competitive ones. AI was a thing looong before online was even thinkable, and having the option to race against AI opposition would make this game a lot more accessible to those who don't want, have, or care about online modes. But that's just my two cents :cheers:

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
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- George Bernard Shaw
 
I wrote an email to iRacing to ask when they are going to release this AI-offline mode.

Answer:

Chris,


Thanks for your message. We may have something like that in the future, but you would still have to be a member.
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So does this mean you still have to pay for subscriptions?
I thought it was going to be an offline mode separate from the subscription based online part.
 
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kikie
I wrote an email to iRacing to ask when they are going to release this AI-offline mode.

Answer:



So does this mean you still have to pay for subscriptions?
I thought it was going to be an offline mode separate from the subscription based online part.
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Yes it appears you are going to still have to be a current member if they do eventually have ai for an offline mode. The new ai is just going to be an addition to what they have now. I never read anything anywhere saying it would be an offline mode. Even if so you’re still going to have to pay for it and be a member.
 
Ok, this will be a “shocker” to some. We are working on AI/Artificial cars and in fact very far down the road with the project. In fact, we should release it this year as well. Hardcore folks take a deep breath. We are not straying even the slightest from our philosophy of trying to create the most accurate and detailed simulation we can along with the best head to head racing competition. This has been an isolated project being done by a small team and has not impacted any other development.

However, having this feature will allow for many opportunities for members and for us to continue to grow. It will allow members to practice in a simulated setting before getting on track with real cars which is a good thing, especially for people new to sim racing. It will also allow for a more relaxed and fun format which will be a welcome addition from time to time for even hard-core members. Now you don’t need to go to another racing game for AI. Ha Ha. It will bring in many new members who will use it as a stepping stone to head to head racing. It allows us to have a much more competitive demo option for potential new customers in various settings like trade shows or even on-line trials. At the end of the day, it is a huge feature and request in regard to the overall market. It will be a free addition to members and yet another option for you under your membership. If AI not for you, great, but you will still benefit. The work has helped improve our multiplayer net code and player car code which will be out on members about the time we launch AI. We also feel it will help novice drivers and again boost the overall service.

Right now our plan is roll out options of one-off AI races along with a season-long “career” in which you can build your own schedule/series. We have other plans as well down the road to increase the fun factor in regard AI. We likely will roll out AI for a large chunk of the racing including oval and road. Some cars and types of racing might be held back initially because of all the different variables we need to work out. For example joker laps and going over the jumps for GRC. There are many other things like that which we are working on now. The web development side of this is also significant and still much work to do there before we can roll it out. There will be a "difficulty" choice or “slider” option. More information as we get closer will be available.
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Source.

As far as I understand, you have to become a new member (if you're not a member yet). But that is what I don't understand. iRacing is subscription based as we all know. But what about this offline free addition for existing members? Do I, as a new member, have to pay for a new subscription as well every time when the subscription ends? Or is it a one time pay and you can only access the offline addition? It would probably be a base sim with a few tracks and a few cars. All the other tracks and cars can be purchased just as you do for the online iRacing.
 
kikie
Source.

As far as I understand, you have to become a new member (if you're not a member yet). But that is what I don't understand. iRacing is subscription based as we all know. But what about this offline free addition for existing members? Do I, as a new member, have to pay for a new subscription as well every time when the subscription ends? Or is it a one time pay and you can only access the offline addition? It would probably be a base sim with a few tracks and a few cars. All the other tracks and cars can be purchased just as you do for the online iRacing.
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It’s safe to think that you’re going to have to keep your subscription active to be able to acces anything iracing does online or offline. Anything offline would be some ways down the road I would imagine but you’re still going to have to have an active membership if I had to put money on it.

This is just going off instinct from being a member for 7 years and what I’m reading. I have no use at all for ai or any reason to ever cancel my membership so it doesn’t bother me what they do.
 
I actually left iRacing years ago because of the lack of AI. And I only raced against real people when I was a member because of the lack of AI. As some have mentioned, AI was around in all racing games and sims from the very beginning. It is not like it is some sort of novelty or that we are going into un-chartered waters. From memory, Kaemer's AI implementations in previous sims were amongst the very best. And I doubt he has lost his programming skills.

For those concerned about AI having a negative impact upon iRacing, consider the possibility that people such as myself who are no longer members may be enticed back along with new members who have never attempted the sim before. I don't see how there can be any negative impacts on account of its implementation. On the other hand though, if people are worried that real human races will lose numbers, perhaps you should be asking yourselves why.
 
The way the cars drop onto the track is immediately reminiscent of the Papyrus days. Glory be.

Still, they don't look much elevated from those path followers at this point. The inclusion of AI can only be positive in my opinion, especially if they can tune it to effectively "train" players.
 
Got an answer from iRacing. The offline AI mode will be subscription based as well.
 

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