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November 6, 2013

VRC Pro Column – Time-shifted multi players

In the latest instalment of their VRC Pro column Virtual Racing Industries introduce the new time-shifted multi player competitions, the new video and replay interface and they give a short update on 1/8th off-road testing. Let’s start with the multi player competitions. VRC Pro is raced world wide, and with time zones spreading 20 hours from New Zealand to California, it is impossible to organise real-time multi player events where everyone would be able to participate. It would mean having to race in the middle of the night for some, for others in the morning, at noon or in the evening. VRC has developed a unique solution for this problem, called time-shifted multi player.

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October 30, 2013

VRC Pro Column – Nitro Buggy testing

This month’ VRC Pro Column is all about the difficulties VRC encountered during initial 1/8th nitro buggy testing. After the first tests with the new 1/8 nitro buggies early August of this year, it was obvious that Todd ‘Doc’ Wasson, the VRC Pro physics specialist, had to go back to the research lab. The buggy drove, but nothing close enough to the real car so beta testing was halted for 2 months. In these 2 months a lot has happened. A lot of research was done in understanding the dynamics of the buggy better.

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August 22, 2013

VRC Pro Column – 3DS support

This month’ VRC Pro Column is all about suspension dynamics and E-sports. In August VRC Pro released an update on the physics engine with 3DS support. 3DS stands for 3 Dimensional Suspension (geometry and physics) and thought VRC Pro was all 3D already some things have changed. The chassis of a car is defined by its geometry and physical properties. The geometry describes the suspension layout, the wheelbase and track width, centre of gravity, positions of shocks and anti-roll bars and many more. The physical properties describe how heavy the chassis is, the inertias of the whole drive train and wheels, and in fact of the complete chassis, yaw moment for rotation, pitch for forward rotation and roll for rotation around the centre line of the chassis. The geometry and physical properties combined determines how the car handles. With all this information the physics engines calculates several hundred times per second what forces are generated in the suspension and how much grip each of the tyres produces.

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June 19, 2013

VRC Pro is now 100% Free-to-Play

On June 1st Virtual Racing Industries introduced a major change in its membership model. Thanks to feedback from the VRC Pro community, a much simpler, much more attractive membership model has been introduced for all levels of players and racers, Free-to-Play and All-Inclusive.

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March 28, 2013

VRC Pro introduce virtual opponents

VRC Pro have introduced their new event structure with virtual opponents. With this new mode they introduce the possibility to challenge yourself to race while opponents from your own heat or final are also on the track so you can now experience exactly the same sensations and pressure you experience in your real r/c racing. You may ask ‘why not multi-player events then?’ Multi-player requires you and your opponents to all race together, at exactly the same time. If we had no time zones that would be less of a problem, but we have. As much as 12 to 15 hours time difference makes it practically impossible to organize multi-player competitions on a world wide scale. By introducing ‘virtual opponents’ we have come up with a solution that is almost as good. The opponents are actually selected from your own heat or main final. They may have raced a few hours before you but with this mode we can still bring all these runs together as if you are all at the track at the same time.

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February 28, 2013

VRC Pro column – February 2013

Virtual Racing Industries has introduced a new racing format in 2013 which brings the virtual racing competitions in VRC Pro closer to the real competitions. A new option has been introduced to divide the whole field of racers into groups of 10. After the Qualifying round racers are seeded in heats according to their qualifying position, so number 45 would be in heat 5 with start number 5. In these heats you can work your way up to a higher A, B, C or other Main final. For example, if 45 finishes 18th in the next round, he ends up in the B Main with start position 8. You also start from position 8 on the start grid, so back on the grid. The number 1 in the Main has a slight advantage, just like in real! In the Mains you cannot improve more than to the number 1 position in that Main final, so if number 18 wins the B Main he finishes 11th overall. This new system makes the virtual racing experience a lot more realistic and exciting.

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December 15, 2012

VRC Pro Column – 1:8 Nitro Buggy

VRC Pro 1:8 Nitro Buggy

The VRC Pro development team is now working on the next class: 1:8 scale nitro buggies. This is a very popular class worldwide and we are expecting a great reception for this class. With the launch of 1:8 nitro buggies first quarter of 2013 we will also be releasing brand new off-road tracks, among them Silver Dollar Raceway (A Main Hobbies, Ca.), Padova IBR, Italy, Speed Paradise Buenos Aires Argentina (2012 IFMAR Worlds track) and possibly even the famous Pattaya track in Thailand (2010 IFMAR Worlds track). Starting with 1:8 scale buggies VRC Pro will introduce fully animated suspension and shocks. This required a complete overhaul of the 2 ½ D suspension geometry model to turn it into a full 3D model. The new generation of cars will have even more precise geometries and as a result car handling will become even more realistic.

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October 3, 2012

VRC Pro Column – Short Course trucks

11th of August was D-day for VRC Pro: launch of short course trucks class, Virtual Racing Industries’ first attempt into off-road. It became immediately clear how immensely popular off-road racing is compared to on-road racing. In off-road you crash with a smile, in on-road you crash with frustration to say it bluntly. The Intercept SCX-10 is VRC’s own ‘generic’ 4-WD short course truck and is partly based on the popular Associated SC10 chassis. However, the SCX-10 is equipped with 3 adjustable viscous gear differentials to distribute the power the front and rear wheels equally. Suspension, shocks and anti-roll bars can be fine tuned to optimize the handling of the car.

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