Le mans 24 virtual

[greeny12]

Crikey, ByKolles came within half a mile of winning Le Mans!

That's about how far the Reb got past the finish line before it ran out of fuel - and that was at parade speed!

That far exceeded my expectations as a race I must say. Even forgot it was a sim for the occasional moment....

[The Leaper]

Watched most of it except for between midnight and 8 O'clock. I was not expecting much but I thought it was a spectacular achievement. The visuals and the commentary were good, and the live interviews very good. I started off thinking it would be not a patch on the real thing but as time went by it became a very good substitute. And a very close race too. Must have cost a fortune.

R.

[Kuy7174]

Great race and I must admit at times we forgot that it was virtual .
We have had a weekend of fun and racing whilst messaging those we usually go with . I hope it does happen in September.

[LM240]

Far better than expected.

Some improvements could make it more absorbing, but it held my attention a lot more than expected.

The circumstances of it being held added something, but I’m not sure I’d watch one if the real race was going ahead as normal.

[giveitfish]

The Leaper said:

Watched most of it except for between midnight and 8 O'clock. I was not expecting much but I thought it was a spectacular achievement. The visuals and the commentary were good, and the live interviews very good. I started off thinking it would be not a patch on the real thing but as time went by it became a very good substitute. And a very close race too. Must have cost a fortune.

R.

Same here. Really enjoyed it.

[//j17]

While the action was far better than I was expecting I also didn't find myself as invested in the results as for the real race.

For the real race I always end up with a few teams (Audi and Strakka back in the day, Rebellion, Corvette, one or two from LMP2) that for underdog/drivers being good sports in town on Friday/colours/other illogical reasons I follow and want to do well. With the VLM24 I just didn't get that. Normally I'd be really happy that Rebellion (who I like for no logical reason) beat ByKolles (who I for some reason dislike for equally illogical reasons) but I greeted the new with just a "Oh." reaction.

Maybe it's just me? Possible
Maybe it's because I wasn't having the Le Mans week I was meant to be having? Quite probable.
Maybe it's because part of my brain knows it wasn't 'real'?

[stewartm]

It was worth it, just for following Nicki Thiim's channel when he was in the 95:

• Singing 5 second samples of various 80's rock 'classics'
• Raging about iRacing
• Raging about F1 drivers
• Raging about well known virtual racers
• Raging about all the wrong places LMP cars were passing
• Raging about Aston BoP
• Singing more 5 second samples of 80's rock 'classics'
• Shouting at his screen through a comedy megaphone periodically
• Inch perfect, all laps within around .5 of each other. For a triple stint, and then double stint overnight.

(Good natured raging)

Good to see they got P2 in class in the end.

[wsn03]

LM240 said:

but I’m not sure I’d watch one if the real race was going ahead as normal.

I would if it was a few weeks before Le Mans just as a nice to have build up. Otherwise no chance

[Jonny_]

//j17 said:

While the action was far better than I was expecting I also didn't find myself as invested in the results as for the real race.

For the real race I always end up with a few teams (Audi and Strakka back in the day, Rebellion, Corvette, one or two from LMP2) that for underdog/drivers being good sports in town on Friday/colours/other illogical reasons I follow and want to do well. With the VLM24 I just didn't get that. Normally I'd be really happy that Rebellion (who I like for no logical reason) beat ByKolles (who I for some reason dislike for equally illogical reasons) but I greeted the new with just a "Oh." reaction.

Maybe it's just me? Possible
Maybe it's because I wasn't having the Le Mans week I was meant to be having? Quite probable.
Maybe it's because part of my brain knows it wasn't 'real'?

A lot of the excitement in Le Mans (and endurance racing in general) comes from the difficulty in just getting a racing car to last the distance. Crashes, punctures, random mechanical failures, unforseen design flaws, all add to the spectacle and tension of the thing.

Conspicuous by its absence from the virtual race were any "will he make it?" moments where a driver desperately tries to limp a partially wrecked car back to the pit, as was footage from the pits of teams of mechanics rushing to replace bodywork/suspension/drivetrain bits in short order.

The virtual racing was really good, possibly even better than reality at times, as the lack of real-world consequences allowed the drivers to take greater risks. But compared with the real Le Mans race it's always going to feel a little one dimensional.

[Red Firecracker]

stewartm said:

It was worth it, just for following Nicki Thiim's channel when he was in the 95:

• Singing 5 second samples of various 80's rock 'classics'
• Raging about iRacing
• Raging about F1 drivers
• Raging about well known virtual racers
• Raging about all the wrong places LMP cars were passing
• Raging about Aston BoP
• Singing more 5 second samples of 80's rock 'classics'
• Shouting at his screen through a comedy megaphone periodically
• Inch perfect, all laps within around .5 of each other. For a triple stint, and then double stint overnight.

(Good natured raging)

Good to see they got P2 in class in the end.

You forgot Mariah Carey!

The streams he used to do when not on official Aston duty where even better

[stewartm]

Red Firecracker said:

You forgot Mariah Carey!

Oh, that was real? Just thought that was my sleep deprivation ...

[Eric Mc]

williamp said:

Eric Mc said:

Interesting up to a point.

I wonder would it be feasible to do a Classic Le Mans - 1955 say - using this technology? You would have all the rawness and crudeness of the circuit of that period and the difficulty of driving 1950s cars with fragile components and not that effective brakes - all in complete safety.

Not sure 55 would be a good idea!! I remember grand prix legends game from the late 90s, which had the old circuits in the old style. Would be amazing to have the same for endurance racing, on original circuits with the older cars...

Maybe early 70s, with an earlier circuit layout..and lets have targa florio too from the early 70s too!

Yes, it was Grand Prix Legends that was inspiring my thinking. But imagine a proper duel between the Mercedes (with their air brakes) and D Type Jags on the circuit as it was in the mid 1950s

[lowdrag]

Well, the circuit has changed immeasurably since 1955 - and from 1955 to 1956 even - but in the virtual world all is feasable. I hate to be a dissenter but I really didn't like it that much, with no weather causing accidents (the torrential downpour at Mulsanne at 1730 Saturday would have sorted a few out - I was driving nearby just then and had to stop the car it was so bad) and the "accidents" didn't seem to need any repairs. Did you see any punctures and cars crawling back? I didn't watch much of it really. At least no drivers were virtually killed.

[Kuy7174]

[quote=lowdrag]Well, the circuit has changed immeasurably since 1955 - and from 1955 to 1956 even - but in the virtual world all is feasable. I hate to be a dissenter but I really didn't like it that much, with no weather causing accidents (the torrential downpour at Mulsanne at 1730 Saturday would have sorted a few out - I was driving nearby just then and had to stop the car it was so bad) and the "accidents" didn't seem to need any repairs. Did you see any punctures and cars crawling back? I didn't watch much of it really. At least no drivers were virtually killed.[/quote

I'm sure with todays technology they could have added the weather to be real time.
We had checked in advance and had seen bad weather was scheduled.

Lucky you being so close 😪.

[//j17]

I think with virtual racing how real to make things is always a balancing act and it's early days for this sort of professional, global scale virtual racing.

Yea they could have had the weather but if the rain WAS that bad there's a chance the ACO would have thrown the SC out in the real race - and who wants to see virtual cars following a virtual SC?

Yea they could have had more damage/realistic crashes, but then do you have debris so virtual slow zones/virtual marshals/etc to clear it up? Does that add anything? Does anyone want a 4hr virtual SC session while virtual marshals repair vitrual damage to virtual armco+? My understanding is that a crashed car got reset to the pits with a crash-size related time penalty so there were consiquencies.

+ Though yes, I would like to see the virtual crowd chear the virtual lorry full of armco as it drives around the SC neutralised circuit to the repair point as the crowd do IRL.

Edited by //j17 on Wednesday 17th June 11:05

[Kuy7174]

//j17 said:

I think with virtual racing how real to make things is always a balancing act and it's early days for this sort of professional, global scale virtual racing.

Yea they could have had the weather but if the rain WAS that bad there's a chance the ACO would have thrown the SC out in the real race - and who wants to see virtual cars following a virtual SC?

Yea they could have had more damage/realistic crashes, but then do you have debris so virtual slow zones/virtual marshals/etc to clear it up? Does that add anything? Does anyone want a 4hr virtual SC session while virtual marshals repair vitrual damage to virtual armco+? My understanding is that a crashed car got reset to the pits with a crash-size related time penalty so there were consiquencies.

+ Though yes, I would like to see the virtual crowd chear the virtual lorry full of armco as it drives around the SC neutralised circuit to the repair point as the crowd do IRL.

Edited by //j17 on Wednesday 17th June 11:05

Haha yes very true

[Alex@POD]

//j17 said:

I think with virtual racing how real to make things is always a balancing act and it's early days for this sort of professional, global scale virtual racing.

Yea they could have had the weather but if the rain WAS that bad there's a chance the ACO would have thrown the SC out in the real race - and who wants to see virtual cars following a virtual SC?

Yea they could have had more damage/realistic crashes, but then do you have debris so virtual slow zones/virtual marshals/etc to clear it up? Does that add anything? Does anyone want a 4hr virtual SC session while virtual marshals repair vitrual damage to virtual armco+? My understanding is that a crashed car got reset to the pits with a crash-size related time penalty so there were consiquencies.

+ Though yes, I would like to see the virtual crowd chear the virtual lorry full of armco as it drives around the SC neutralised circuit to the repair point as the crowd do IRL.

Edited by //j17 on Wednesday 17th June 11:05

Very good points, but I think a system similar to what is possible in Forza would work. On top of visual damage, the car can become barely driveable if the crash is significant enough, meaning having to limp back to the pits. There are yellows in the lead up to the slow traffic. Wouldn't need to go the whole hog of clearing the track/fixing barriers.

On the other hand, there have been some bad crashes due to lag, and while this offers an extra dimension to the racing, it's one of those that can really be unfair...

There is definitely room for improvement, it could become very good, but it's quite scary to think about at the same time. If there is no physical risk, vastly reduced costs, vastly reduced environmental impact, etc, how long before Ready Player One becomes a reality?

[//j17]

Alex@POD said:

On the other hand, there have been some bad crashes due to lag, and while this offers an extra dimension to the racing, it's one of those that can really be unfair...

I though the quick glitches (as opposed to needing to red flag the race to reboot) were actually the best way of adding that random element in to things actually. I mean is it fair in the real race when the car behind you just misses their braking point and punts you in to the gravel/tyres at one of the Mulsanne chicanes? Or when a car with a 2 lap lead happens to hit a piece of sharp edged gravel someone else pulled out of the dunlop chicane and has to limp a whole lap with a puncture? Or when car B goes on a charge and gets within 10s of the car ahead...only to get caught behind a different safety car and lose 60+s?

I think I'd take a random glitch over someone treating it like a game of Dungeons and Dragons and rolling many-sided dice to decide tha car (rattle, rattle, rattle) 69 will have a puncture at (rattle, rattle, rattle) marshel post 12 on lap (rattle, rattle, rattle) 152.

[Alex@POD]

//j17 said:

I though the quick glitches (as opposed to needing to red flag the race to reboot) were actually the best way of adding that random element in to things actually. I mean is it fair in the real race when the car behind you just misses their braking point and punts you in to the gravel/tyres at one of the Mulsanne chicanes? Or when a car with a 2 lap lead happens to hit a piece of sharp edged gravel someone else pulled out of the dunlop chicane and has to limp a whole lap with a puncture? Or when car B goes on a charge and gets within 10s of the car ahead...only to get caught behind a different safety car and lose 60+s?

I think I'd take a random glitch over someone treating it like a game of Dungeons and Dragons and rolling many-sided dice to decide tha car (rattle, rattle, rattle) 69 will have a puncture at (rattle, rattle, rattle) marshel post 12 on lap (rattle, rattle, rattle) 152.

I agree that the examples you mentioned are not "fair" either, however they are all linked to actual realistic risks. The car you're drafting at 200mph suddenly being stationary due to a glitch is a different matter in my opinion.

I also fully agree with your last sentence, random issues "for the sake of it" is not the way to go!

[lowdrag]

//j17 said:

I mean is it fair in the real race when the car behind you just misses their braking point and punts you in to the gravel/tyres at one of the Mulsanne chicanes?

And there was I thinking that Mulsanne was just a right-angle bend and that the chicanes were on the Hunaudières.