Virtual Racing School and iRacing

[DND]

I recently reactivated my subscription to iRacing, for a month, and noticed the VRS add on. After watching the the first few videos I realized it is very impressive, yet something that would require significant time in addition to the actual driving.

Not sure why, if these mods/add-on are so good, they don't incorporate them into the game/sim as a VRE/Virtual Race Engineer?

Easy, right? No, I realize it isn't. But in this case data is being collected and compared to a baseline, the action to correct or bring the results closer to base line should be fairly consistent it terms of driving techniques and setup changes. Therefore it seems like there is just another piece or two to this puzzle for it all to come together.

Overall driving techniques like; braking too early for turn seven, missing turn in for turn 11 by two meters early and one meter too far left, need to pick up throttle earlier at exit of turn 4, steering input exceeds traction output therefore reduce speed entering turn 8, etc.. could be the first additional piece.

Once the driver is able to correct/improve these things next piece would be the actual mechanical adjustments same data, different approach.

In order to utilize this app I would either need to allocate more time to this hobby, which isn't going to happen without some difficulty in relationships. Or reduce my driving time to accommodate using this app, which also isn't going to happen.

Cost and time are always a consideration, and in this case I am leaning against spending more time in doing anything that takes away from driving even if means never getting on the podium.

 

[Dennis]

, yet something that would require significant time in addition to the actual driving.

Did you actually give it a try though? For me it saves a lot of time that would otherwise be needed to find setups and learn the racing line (especially on new tracks).

This is my weekly routine:

1. Watch the tutorial video briefly to get an idea about the racing line and gears, download the setup [2-5 minutes]
2. Do some laps until my times are somewhat consistent [10-25 minutes]
3. Check VRS to see in which mini-sector I loose more than 0.5 seconds and identify the reason (braking too early or too hard, wrong line etc) [5 minutes]
4. (Optionally) Look at the video again if I struggle with a certain corner and listen to what the instructor is saying
5. Race

So I spend maybe 30 minutes on my preparation but in return I am competitive from the get go.

If your aim is to be a front runner in top split then of course you can spend a lot more time with all the telemetry and take into consideration all those tips the instructor is telling you, but if you just want to be fast enough to race without much practice than this is the quickest way I have found.

There is also a free tool called iSpeed for telemetry, but then you still have to find setups yourself (nowadays everybody seems to want money for them) and it also doesn't show you such fine-grained delta times as VRS.

 

[DND]

All good points Dennis and thank you for sharing your approach. But no I haven't tried it, as I mentioned the time I allot to sim racing does not include data analysis.

Actually, practice and learning the lines is what I do enjoy and if I am struggling with a particular track or section I watch a YouTube video of a professional driver for help. So your point of watching a video, I also do occasionally.

The setup of a car whether it is reading about it, learning the terminology or looking at telemetry bores me to tears, so I just run as fast as I can with stock setups and be satisfied with it.

I was just wondering out loud why this piece of software has not been developed. Telemetry + AI = Suggested Setup/Driving Feedback seemed like an obvious progression perhaps.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

i don't use it either, main reason being I will simply never be fast. i have been doing this hobby for 12 years now, five of them at iRacing, and i will always be a backmarker. the second reason i don't support them is that they have inadvertently destroyed part of the community at iRacing: three years ago you went on any server and there was a fair chance you could find a good set in the "shared setup" section of your garage. i often tested these and never forgot to thank the chap who posted it. after tweaking them a little to my liking i would in turn share them. this has all but disappeared since vrs appeared, probably not what they intended, but it happened, which is really sad. also the forums have been a lot less visited because these used to be the second place where sets were shared and discussed / optimized. also gone.
on the upside: they give away a free ford gt3 setup every week since noone (but me and a few other freaks) uses the ford anymore and i am hugely thankful for them doing so, the sets are awesome.

 

[tassiebadger97]

Did you actually give it a try though? For me it saves a lot of time that would otherwise be needed to find setups and learn the racing line (especially on new tracks).

This is my weekly routine:

1. Watch the tutorial video briefly to get an idea about the racing line and gears, download the setup [2-5 minutes]
2. Do some laps until my times are somewhat consistent [10-25 minutes]
3. Check VRS to see in which mini-sector I loose more than 0.5 seconds and identify the reason (braking too early or too hard, wrong line etc) [5 minutes]
4. (Optionally) Look at the video again if I struggle with a certain corner and listen to what the instructor is saying
5. Race

So I spend maybe 30 minutes on my preparation but in return I am competitive from the get go.

If your aim is to be a front runner in top split then of course you can spend a lot more time with all the telemetry and take into consideration all those tips the instructor is telling you, but if you just want to be fast enough to race without much practice than this is the quickest way I have found.

There is also a free tool called iSpeed for telemetry, but then you still have to find setups yourself (nowadays everybody seems to want money for them) and it also doesn't show you such fine-grained delta times as VRS.

Totally agree bloke, i've been using it since the day the beta was released and it has improved my laptimes and race results alot in that time and worth every cent of the $9.99 USD it costs me a month

 

[newbert]

Did you actually give it a try though? For me it saves a lot of time that would otherwise be needed to find setups and learn the racing line (especially on new tracks).

This is my weekly routine:

1. Watch the tutorial video briefly to get an idea about the racing line and gears, download the setup [2-5 minutes]
2. Do some laps until my times are somewhat consistent [10-25 minutes]
3. Check VRS to see in which mini-sector I loose more than 0.5 seconds and identify the reason (braking too early or too hard, wrong line etc) [5 minutes]
4. (Optionally) Look at the video again if I struggle with a certain corner and listen to what the instructor is saying
5. Race

So I spend maybe 30 minutes on my preparation but in return I am competitive from the get go.

If your aim is to be a front runner in top split then of course you can spend a lot more time with all the telemetry and take into consideration all those tips the instructor is telling you, but if you just want to be fast enough to race without much practice than this is the quickest way I have found.

There is also a free tool called iSpeed for telemetry, but then you still have to find setups yourself (nowadays everybody seems to want money for them) and it also doesn't show you such fine-grained delta times as VRS.

Dennis - Just wondering whether what you're learning in VRS is also applicable to other sims besides iRacing?

Thanks!

 

[Kurupt CDN]

Dennis - Just wondering whether what you're learning in VRS is also applicable to other sims besides iRacing?

Thanks!

The data supplied is only applicable to iracing so no, tho the skills and Technic learnt can be carried over to any sim