iRacing adding AI

[kneebon5]

Sorry I felt this needed its own new topic since it essentially changes the game. Not a whole lot of info at the moment, if it will be a cheaper sub for AI only, and which cars it will be offered on at first. It starts at the bold part in the info.

From Tony Gardner

First of all, Happy New Year to all of our members. We also want to sincerely thank you for your membership.

We know that some members are always curious what is next in regard to development. We do try and share what we can when appropriate. Various factors may dictate when we start discussing development on xyz feature, upgrade or xyz content.

We also might not exactly work on what you want as fast as you want, but keep in mind we are developing for many types of racing. The totality of all the “niches” makes iRacing a much better and sustainable sim for everyone. We also believe action speaks louder than words and we are proud of what we accomplished in 2017.

It would be too long for a forum post to cover everything we are working on nor can I talk about everything for various reasons. However, I can confirm a few of the larger projects in the works that we have already discussed publically and spill the beans on a new project.

New graphical and physical damage model. Making great progress on this massive project and we are really excited about it. There are so many different parts to it but getting to the polish on many parts of it. We expect to move it into the testing environment in the coming months and shooting for a 2018 release but as usual no promises.

Dynamic time of day/moving clouds/day to night. Working night and day on day to night and the goal is to release this year.

New Tire Model Version. Already testing locally and we are excited about it, Dave Kaemmer to write about in the coming weeks. Again, should release this year.

New Interface and User experience inside and out of the sim. The new app is now in beta, and members have access to it. The first giant step is to get the new design and application up and working with our new technology to include all the functionality and more of our existing website. We are almost there in that regard. We still have many plans once that happens so it will be a continued evolution over a long period of time. For example, we have much more we want to do when it comes to user-experience, this new system and app will allow us to do that. For example, we want to create an onboarding process for new members including getting them on track with some basic instruction, guided tours, more on-line help, better organization and much more.

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.

Alright, well, this is getting long but much more in the works in terms of features and improvements.

As far as content, working on multiple new tracks including road, oval, dirt and GRC and a complete redo of an oval track. Hopefully we will plug away on more tracks. Literally dozens of cars in the works in some form of production or licensing. Including many new road cars and updates to existing road and oval cars. We already shared working on LMP1 cars, you should have those as soon as the next season build. These cars are a lot of work to build! More to come on content and everything else as we move forward. I hope you liked the Chili Bowl Video.

We are expecting another good year, and we hope you agree when the year is over.

Thanks again!

[SandGropeR]

Never bothered with this as I am a SP only player due to the work away schedule and limited time available but a AI and career in their new dirt Sprint Cars would see me seriously consider this.

[sikolec]

I'm all for this. I've been itching for a new Sprint Car game and if iRacing adds AI and career, it would fill that itch. Work schedule and limited time available makes it hard to do multiplayer.

[kneebon5]

Yeah that is going to be the cool part about this once they get AI.

We haven't had a (decent) dirt game since DTR2 which was forever ago
We have never had a short track paved oval game, with late models, street stocks, legends, etc...

I think this will be good, even though it still will cost more than normal, it isn't much different than any flight sim out there.

[RunN1st]

When will the AI go live? Any estimates?

[franko3219]

I will be renewing my membership for this. It's a great addition. Of course the one of the biggest opportunities with iracing, are people with little experience wrecking others on the first lap. This will not completely solve that issue, but it will help those that actually want to gain experience before stepping in to the ring. It's hard to get a practice session organized enough to actually simulate racing conditions, and this will help people learn how their car will handle in lots of traffic, on restarts, and with running different lines in traffic. Plus it will help provide an additional appeal to those that prefer more of a single player/small group of friends. I thinks it's long overdue, and a win win for iracing. This is assuming that ai will be implemented properly and be competitive.

[kneebon5]

Quote: Originally Posted by RunN1st

When will the AI go live? Any estimates?

I have not heard but sounds like 2018 hopefully early but again, you never know for sure.

Maybe I can talk them into doing an article with me for OS about it.

[franko3219]

I'm assuming that iracing has gone away from offering their buy one/get one/50% renewals? I have not seen an offer like that in a long time. That's really why I haven't rewewed yet. However, they do love to send me the 50% off new membership emails, which is head scratching. You know the email belongs to a current/former member, why are you rubbing it in?