Real Racing In the Virtual World

zebadee writes "The BBC has a story about a company aiming to pit gamers against the professionals. iOpener Media has a patented system that sucks in real-time GPS data from racing events and pumps it out to compatible games consoles and PCs. This means you can race in real-time against the like of Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. The company also claims to have an AI that solves the problem of overtaking and crashes." It would be great to see this applied to historical events and other game domains, too -- like trying to beat Amundsen to the South Pole, using best-known weather data.

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How would this work...

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't really call it a race when the gamer sees and reacts to the real drivers, but the real drivers don't see or react to the gamers, can you?

Sounds pretty pointless

[EmbeddedJanitor]

A major limiting factor for any RealWorld racing etc is self preservation. In other words, the risk analysis to determine how fast you are prepared to drive without killing yourself.

The virtual world racers have no such risks.

Re:In real time? Sounds awfully complicated...

[wagnerrp]

let the programmers watch the replays and all reliable information to create an accurate "Ghost" representation of the professional racer

I think doing time trials against a professional ghost would be interesting, but actually racing against them is worthless. Once you reach them (or they reach you), and the AI kicks in, you're no longer racing the professional, but against the AI.

Worthless

[chanrobi]

As a fairly new but hardcore motor racing simulation fanatic (F1 challenge, rFactor, GTR2, GPL) this article is just a load of hogwash. First, simply pumping the GPS data from real racecars into an online track is useless. Why?

Because you cannot replicate exactly

1) the track itself, the bumps, kerbs, asphalt, track layout
2) track conditions at the time the gps data for the "real" racers cars, ambient temp, track temp, rubber laid down by previous sessions, debris etc.
3) car setup (good luck getting real time telemtry of all the parameters of the car from the real F1 teams), this would reveal too much information to competitors

These 3 factors combine to change grip and ultimately laptimes.

As anyone who has raced competitively online will tell you - lap times in the virtual world is incomparable to real world runs with the same cars, same track. As a small example, some of the best line sim race drivers in the world are doing = 1.17 laptimes on the '02 version of silverstone in F1C. While the fastest lap in the real world was a 1:18.9.

Almost 2s difference. Which is huge. This is one example of many. The only way this situation can be rectified is by making a hyper realisitc simulation that has never been seen before or, start fudging grip, engine power and other statistics. Which by the way the article says it won't do because "it defeats the point". Yeah right.

Re:Sounds pretty pointless

[Cairnarvon]

At least if you crash into something you're pretty much guaranteed to have all cameras on you, thereby giving the your advertisers more screen time. It balances out.

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Re:In real time? Sounds awfully complicated...

[dogdick]

The ghost person also doesn't know you are next to them, so they won't try tactics that slow other racers down in real life. Of course the AI could do it, but then its not real, and it would also affect where the ghost racer is . . . then the GPS would be off. Wee.

Re:Sounds pretty pointless

[vux984]

In other words, the risk analysis to determine how fast you are prepared to drive without killing yourself.

Unlike games, and street racing, in professional race conditions, drivers are usually going as fast as they can go without losing control. The question is more about control (holding the line, maintaining ideal friction during turns), and efficiency (drafting, tire wear, fuel). Its really not about going faster. They're pushing the car as hard as they can.

In my limited race track experience the gas pedal is usually floored, except when the brakes are floored. And choosing when to switch from one to the other is part of holding the line. The only exception is through tight S-curves - where you are still going as fast as you can go while holding the line go without your wheels losing traction.

There is rarely a situation where a driver could be going faster, and not be immediately involved in an accident.

Risk analysis is a factor, to be sure, but good professional drivers are pretty good at getting right up against the edge of losing control without going over.

Personally I think the vast majority of gamers will lose to the pros everytime if the simulation is any good. It is much harder to gauge where the control line is in a video game... you don't have the g-force feedback, nor the feel of the tires that you'd have in real life. A pro driver can tell the difference without even trying between wet track, dry track, tell his air pressure is off, how worn his tires are, how warm his tires are, and how tight a turn he can take at what speed without slipping more than 10-15% based on all that ... when was the last time you played a game where that was really relevant...or that you could really tell the difference?

For the gamers to stand a chance the simulations will have to be markedly more forgiving than the real world... and that sort of defeats the point.

Re:Sounds pretty pointless

[Splab]

No, having someone die means even more airtime.

When the Linux sponsored car crashed it got quite a lot time on web based media, if they had managed to kill the driver in the process they would have gained additional airtime - but this time on TV broad casted around the world for all major channels.

Yes this is a sick thing, but thats how the world works.