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iRacing World Champion Gets a Shot At the Real Thing
jamie sent in a link to the story of iRacing World Champion Greger Huttu, who caught the attention of the Top Gear guys and got a chance to drive a real Star Mazda racer. iRacing is a realistic driving simulator that recreates the exact physics of race cars and tracks from around the world, and nobody is better than Greger. Top Gear wanted to see how the virtual champion would do with the real thing. Even though he was eventually unable to put up with the physical demands, Greger drove really well.
WTF wants to READ about something like this?
The exact physics? Unlikely.
From what I hear, these simulations break down as your racecar approaches the speed of light. And they didn't even get the Higgs Field right.
They seriously expected me to click through a 12 page slideshow to read a two page article?
There are much better (in all facets, including realism) simulations than iRacing; iRacing's success relies on the company's ability to associate its product with actual racing.
Nice story. It was also nice of the photographers to let him clean the vomit off his face and uniform before taking the "victory" picture.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Did some racing at the local level where I live and can attest to the physical demands needed to race well. I had to do a lot of running and weight lifting to build up my endurance and strength to race well. There are time I came off the race track after a 45 minute race so spent that my arms and upper body would have exhaustion tremors, unable to even operate the release to get out of the seat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-epAyl5zoC8&hd=1
It looks like he doesn't have the stomach for real racing.
WTF wants to WATCH something like this?
Coming here and showing off with your luck and genes. We can't all be poor AND stupid you know?
You insensitive clod!
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
> , and nobody is better than Greger.
Sounds like a song refrain.
Citation needed. In particular remember that you need to point to a HOME PC PRODUCT that is more realistic. I would not be surprised if there are specialized systems out there that are more realistic. Larger screens, motion feed back, that kind of thing. However that is rather different than a program that runs on a home computer.
So let's here it then: What for a home user is more accurate than iRacing? I'm just curious mind you, I steer clear of iRacing because it is a simulator, not a game and games are what I'm after.
I would love to do the same experiment with some Counterstrike gamer, just to dispell the myth of "kill training" in those games. While i noticed the virtual reality approaching the real stuff with cars over the years, shooting is still (and luckily) completely unrealistic.
Geek, rebooted
On a normal Thursday, Greger Huttu sits in the blue glow of a computer screen, in his bedroom in the teeny town of Vaasa on the west coast of Finland. In the afternoons, he joins his fisherman father to land a catch of perch netted from Arctic waters. But not today. Instead, he's wedged into the cockpit of a single-seater race car, in the boiling heat of Road Atlanta raceway, Georgia. He's never driven anything like this before - his regular drive is an old Ford Sierra - yet an empty track awaits him, a full race team is at his service and he has full permission to drive as fast as he pleases. Slippery fish suddenly seem a million miles away.
Why? Because TopGear is conducting an experiment. Back on that computer in Finland, Greger dominates the world of online racing. He is the undisputed grandmaster of iRacing, a fiendishly difficult driving simulator that recreates the exact physics of scores of race cars and circuits from around the world.
It's not some gimmicky graphics-fest, but a serious way to hone racecraft and learn about car control. And in the last six years, in iRacing and earlier online sims, Greger has conquered all - leading 2,339 of his 2,581 laps and winning every race from pole. Just a week ago, he clinched the iRacing World Championship, earning himself $10,000 as he crossed the line. No wonder fellow iRacer and NASCAR king Dale Earnhardt Jr is Greger's biggest fan. He is untouchable. Today's test is to see how such digital dominance translates into real life.
We'll soon find out. Under the searing morning sun in Atlanta, Greger squeezes into his car, a Star Mazda racer provided by the Andersen Racing team. The Mazda is a slicks'n'wings single-seater powered by the same rotary engine as the RX-8. It weighs just 607kg, has 260bhp, a six-speed sequential 'box and adjustable wings. And it's really, seriously quick - as quick as a GT car around some circuits.
In other words, it's a proper car that needs to be driven in the sweet spot where the tyres and aero do their thing. If our thinking is right, Greger could be the man to put it there. Because iRacing's physics programme is so accurate, he already knows the car well - the way it steers, the way it grips, even the way it sounds and every tiny intricacy of its set-up, from wing angles to suspension bump and rebound rates - and he's lapped this track thousands of times online.
As engineer Alan Oppel briefs him on the controls, Greger displays some typical Finnish cool. He's a humble bloke, a quiet 30-year-old with a hint of podge around the midriff and, if we're honest, everywhere else too. Despite the cameras and attention, he doesn't strut like a superstar. Instead his head is bowed, his words softly spoken. He appears thoughtful - analytical, measured - and as he digests instructions, he simulates a gearchange and angles the wheel, like he's sat here a hundred times before. Which he has. Virtually.
After one installation lap to check everything's working, he starts his first flyer. All eyes turn to the final corner, a swooping downhill-right with a vicious wall on the outside, ready to collect understeery mishaps. Here comes Greger. The engine revs high and hard and his downshifts sound perfectly matched. Then he comes into sight and, to the sound of many sucked teeth, absolutely bloody nails it through the bend, throttle balanced, car planted. His only hiccup is a late upshift, that has the rotary engine blatting off its limiter. "Time to crank up the revs," says Alan. "He's quick."
The telemetry confirms it. His braking points are spot on. He's firm and precise on the throttle. And in the fastest corner, he's entering at 100mph compared to an experienced driver's 110 - a sign of absolute confidence and natural feel for grip. Remember, this is a guy who has never sat in a racing car in his life - he's only referencing thousands of virtual laps. Then, on lap four, he pops in a 1:24.8, just three seconds off a solid time around here. He reckons the car feels more grippy than it does onli
It seems this was a stunning success. The guy had never driven a car anything remotely like an actual race car, he had never flown on a plane or even ridden a roller coaster. Yet he was able to hop into a high performance racecar for the very first time, and have lap times within 3 seconds of the best and handle 100 MPH turns within 10% of experienced drivers' speed. Yeah, he was totally physically out of shape for anything remotely like racing, the temp was over 110 F inside the car, and he threw up. But he didn't wreck after 15 laps. So I'd call this a total success, and does prove, at least to some extent, that experience gained playing games can directly translate to real-world performance, assuming the game simulation is realistic enough.
Better known as 318230.
I'm a huge fan of simulators as training tools. I use simulators for remote control airplane flight and credit them with the difference between success and failure in the hobby. Even though their potential for harm is much less than a race car, it's not zero, and I still used a real instructor to get me flying safely.
Letting any driver who hasn't become accustomed to the real thing through the course of real training drive at professional race car driver speeds is nothing short of irresponsible. The thought of jumping behind the wheel of a race car till you puke and then going for even more laps, just because you're a champion on the sim, is mind-boggling. I'd say if he'd had a brain fart and taken himself or someone else out, someone would be up on manslaughter charges for allowing it.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Pfft, CoD4 have been doing it for ages.
The ones that come back aren't allowed to talk about it.
Now, I want to see what happens when a flight sim buff gets in the cockpit of a real fighter jet.
Will they take off and do acrobatics easily?
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
I know that you're trying to make me and everyone else here feel better but we all know that it's the same thing.
Fast cars driving in circles on a fake road until one of them goes over a line in the road and then the driver of that car wins. And then they pour champagne all over him.
Alas, many of us here at Slashdot have been cursed at birth with middle-class families and above average IQs.
Driving fast cars in circles, going nowhere... god.. I'm tearing up here... it will remain... just a dream to us.
I'm sorry. I can't talk about this any more. I'm gonna... start crying like a little girl here.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Is it just me, or does this dude resemble Emperor Palpatine in glasses?
You don't have to tell me! Because of GTA I can kill hookers almost like a professional!
Now, I want to see what happens when a flight sim buff gets in the cockpit of a real fighter jet.
Will they take off and do acrobatics easily?
I'm a licensed pilot and a flight sim buff. Some time ago, I had a chance to fly a T-34 Mentor (military trainer, that prior to an AD was legal for aerobatics). I flew the heck out of one in the sim, and then tried it in the real plane to test exactly this theory and to hopefully be more comfortable in some of the really unusual attitudes that aerobatic flying can produce.
Granted, a T-34 isn't a fighter jet, but it's as close as anybody with a realistic budget can get.
I was able to perform nearly all of the maneuvers that I'd practiced in the sim and other then a headache afterwords was also quite pleased with the outcome. Pleased enough that I flew it subsequently.
To answer your question directly, I wouldn't suggest someone with only sim experience trying to fly without proper training. I also wouldn't advocate trying aerobatics without a proper aircraft, some solid previous real world training in recoveries and a parachute. All of that being said, YES, sim experience definitely translates to the real world up to the point that you have the balls to test it.
it looks as though a zombie is driving the car.
I cant help but snicker at that. I havent seen an accurate game engine that could handle anything at all like real physics. like a sword falling onto its blade and spinning abuot. And I remember when I picked up that one guy's brain, which proceeded to orbit me. Did you know that even in a windy enivornment, quills fall just as fast as iron ore? Its weieeird.
Top gear is about pictures: they usually have fantastic pictures of cars.
Alas, for this story text matters.
UFC legend Randy Couture is 47 and still beating up other elite athletes. I'm 38 and I spent the last year getting back in shape. I allowed myself to get out of shape over the years and now I'm back to a 30" waste with a six pack after a modest exercise program.
For a guy who doesn't work out, Greger doesn't look half bad. What that means is that if you put him on a conditioning program, he would have a good athletic body in a year. I'd be interested in seeing how well this guy does after he addresses his physical inadequacies.
...the best real drivers take a whack at iRacing?
Their they're doing there hair.
... an Apple product? Clearly, we are approaching Dec 21 2012 quite fast.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
I'm pretty good at Falcon 4.0 Allied Force, somebody need to hook me up with Top Gun.
That was the joke you missed, starting couple of posts up.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Elevator riding.
It is a controlled abstraction of climbing a mountain in a car.
It is very similar to racing cars, only it is even more competitive as driver's weight, length of arms and the lack of ass (so as not to get it stuck in the door while rushing in to the "cockpit"), speed and skill at pressing the desired floor are HUGE factors in who will win.
Plus it has a sudden death mode.
It's when they race down with their cockpits unhooked and brakes disabled.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
As a licensed (fixed wing) pilot, who had never flown a helicopter outside of a simulator... The first time i piloted a real helicopter, i was surprised at how much easier it was than flying the sim.
Sims cant communicate things like situational awareness and inertia.... which are a HUGE help in this sort of thing.
But i did already know where all the instruments were & which ones to lean on.