Nerdiest thing you do

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

I wank myself silly, reading dirty messages in Binary code.

That's seven shades of awesome my friend!

That being said, you could be spending that time reading the new issue of "Bat-Wing". You need to prioritise!

 

[Baines' left foot]

Ok

1. The software is called Iracing, its for PC only.
2. Its a hardcore simulator that is so in depth that real life drivers use it for training. It makes GT5 and Forza look like Mario Kart.
3. Its only online, there is no AI to race against. There are also no aids such as TC/ABS etc and you HAVE to use cockpit view.
4. Its split up into Oval and Road Racing, with various series available within both categories (both tin top and open wheel)
5. It has a system involving licenses and something called Safety Rating. In order to move up licenses and race the faster cars you need to maintain a good safety rating, you do this by avoiding collisions, not going off track etc.... if your SR falls below a certain level you get demoted down a license. it basically makes everyone drive how they would if they were racing in real life (clean !)
6. It's pretty expensive. The base monthly membership is about £6 and you get a few free tracks and cars with it but if you want the full experience you will need to buy the extra cars/tracks needed to run in the various online series. Each car costs about $11 and each track $14. In total i've been on the service for about 2 and a half years now and own all the content (25 odd cars, 30 + tracks). Its not hard to work out how much i've spent... most people on the service don't see it as a video game they see it as a cheaper replacement for real life motorsports which they can't do on a regular basis !
7. The tracks are expensive because they are laser scanned to within 1mm accuracy, every little bump in the road surface is modelled accurately and will be felt via force feedback effects through your wheel. The tracks are even more accurate than the ones F1 teams use in their simulators (due to a higher resolution of laser scanning being used). These highly accurate tracks are the reason lots of real life drivers use the sim for training to get to know tracks before they race on them for real.
8. 99% of people on the service use a wheel and pedals, the userbase is very hardcore... you can use a joypad but you will be at a big disadvantage.
9. Most of the time you will race against similarly skilled drivers, races happen at specific times of the day (rookie series races are always on the hour), if 150 people sign up for one race/time slot it will split everyone into say 10 different races (called splits) based on skill level.
10. Its highly competitive, people get properly vexed if you wreck them out even if its by accident and people will sometimes protest bad driving which can result in you getting a week ban (or more) from the service if you purposely wrecked someone or cussed them down or whatever.

Thats just scratching the surface, its the most in depth racing sim ever made...

Few more vids for you

[video=youtube;y_WbYGuR90E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_WbYGuR90E[/video]

That looks and sounds incredible mate, thanks for telling me a bit more.

I take it you need a pretty high spec PC to run this though?

Maybe I'll give it a go in a few years when I can afford it!

 

[BlueWeasel]

Ok

1. The software is called Iracing, its for PC only.
2. Its a hardcore simulator that is so in depth that real life drivers use it for training. It makes GT5 and Forza look like Mario Kart.
3. Its only online, there is no AI to race against. There are also no aids such as TC/ABS etc and you HAVE to use cockpit view and shift manually.
4. Its split up into Oval and Road Racing, with various series available within both categories (both tin top and open wheel)
5. It has a system involving licenses and something called Safety Rating. In order to move up licenses and race the faster cars you need to maintain a good safety rating, you do this by avoiding collisions, not going off track etc.... if your SR falls below a certain level you get demoted down a license. it basically makes everyone drive how they would if they were racing in real life (clean !)
6. It's pretty expensive. The base monthly membership is about £6 and you get a few free tracks and cars with it but if you want the full experience you will need to buy the extra cars/tracks needed to run in the various online series. Each car costs about $11 and each track $14. In total i've been on the service for about 2 and a half years now and own all the content (34 cars, 60+ tracks). Its not hard to work out how much i've spent... most people on the service don't see it as a video game they see it as a cheaper replacement for real life motorsports which they can't afford to do on a regular basis !
7. The tracks are expensive because they are laser scanned to within 1mm accuracy, every little bump in the road surface is modelled accurately and will be felt via force feedback effects through your wheel. The tracks are even more accurate than the ones F1 teams use in their simulators (due to a higher resolution of laser scanning being used). These highly accurate tracks are the reason lots of real life drivers use the sim for training to get to know tracks before they race on them for real.
8. 99% of people on the service use a wheel and pedals, the userbase is very hardcore... you can use a joypad but you will be at a big disadvantage.
9. Most of the time you will race against similarly skilled drivers, races happen at specific times of the day (rookie series races are always on the hour), if 150 people sign up for one race/time slot it will split everyone into say 10 different races (called splits) based on skill level.
10. Its highly competitive, people get properly vexed if you wreck them out even if its by accident and people will sometimes protest bad driving which can result in you getting a week ban (or more) from the service if you purposely wrecked someone or cussed them down or whatever.
11. Every 12 weeks a new build is released with new features as well as new cars/tracks to purchase.

Thats just scratching the surface, its the most in depth racing sim ever made...

Few more vids for you

I have absolutely no interest in either motor racing or video games but you've just sold that to me!

 

[moosed]

That looks and sounds incredible mate, thanks for telling me a bit more.

I take it you need a pretty high spec PC to run this though?

Maybe I'll give it a go in a few years when I can afford it!

you only need a high spec pc if you run it with high graphics settings, if you run it on lowest settings it should run on most pcs built in the last 6 or so years (it will look ugly though...)

I have absolutely no interest in either motor racing or video games but you've just sold that to me!

lol

 

[Hellerad]

Tabletop gaming, fantasy/sci-fi books, and I collect vinyl records.

If you haven't played Pathfinder or read The Name of the Wind, your life is incomplete.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

Tabletop gaming, fantasy/sci-fi books, and I collect vinyl records.

If you haven't played Pathfinder or read The Name of the Wind, your life is incomplete.

As a Sci-Fi buff, have you read any of Iain Banks sci-fi books?

I've been tempted to give one a go. I've read his non sci-fi stuff and have really enjoyed it. Not taken the plunge yet though

 

[Hellerad]

As a Sci-Fi buff, have you read any of Iain Banks sci-fi books?

I've been tempted to give one a go. I've read his non sci-fi stuff and have really enjoyed it. Not taken the plunge yet though

I have not. I have read much less sci-fi than fantasy.

 

[McBain]

Reading Comics at the moment.

For the record my favourite so far have been..

Kingdom Come
Waid and Ross - 1996

Batman: Year One
Miller and Mazzucchelli - 1986

Watchmen
Moore and Gibbons - 1986/1987

Swamp Thing
Moore and Totleben - 1984/1986

All Star Superman
Morrison and Quietly - 2005/2008

V For Vendetta
Moore and Llloyd - 1982/1985

 

[The T-Dex]

Read a lot of the books on Skyrim.

 

[McBain]

Read a lot of the books on Skyrim.

Nothing nerdy about that mate. You could have said you read books based on a video game and then maybe.

Okay heres some Comics I want to read.

Batman : The Dark Knight Returns
Miller and Janssen (1986)

Arkham Asylum : A Serious House on Serious Earth
Morrison and McKean (1989)

Marvels
Busiek and Ross (1994)

The Invisibles
Morrison and Yeowell (1994/2000)

Seaguy
Morrison and Stewart (2004/2009-)

Astro City
Busiek and Ross (1994)

Superior
Millar and Yu (2010)

 

[Gwladys St. Glory]

Every album I buy, I rip to wav and then encode to MP3 at 128,192,256 and 320 kbps and, lately, also to FLAC and Monkey's Audio. I have over 7TB of music, currently.

 

[StracsEyebrows]

Every album I buy, I rip to wav and then encode to MP3 at 128,192,256 and 320 kbps and, lately, also to FLAC and Monkey's Audio. I have over 7TB of music, currently.

How many songs is that ?

 

[Brownie86]

Im just xbox mad, I have 60k+ gamerscore...

For those of you that dont know, there are little achievements in games that are awarded when you finish levels or get a certain amount of points. Typically each game has around 1000 points towards your gamerscore. Now you understand why a 60k+ gamerscore is bad......

 

[Baines' left foot]

How many songs is that ?

If each song is 10mb (a high-ish quality MP3), then about 700,000 (I think). Although WAV and FLAC songs can be as much as 50MB+.

Bloody hell GSG.

 

[Brennan]

Probably gaming ? Although i don't do much other than FIFA anymore.