29.04.2022   3 comments   Category: Site news

The 2022 VRC Worlds Spec class is now published.


June 8 - June 20 2022
1:12 Sportscars at VRC Carpet 4
1:8 RallyX at RallyX-1
1:10 nitro Sedans at Cincinnati

June 15 - June 27 2022
1:8 nitro Buggies at Silver Dollar 3
1:8 nitro Sportscars at Heemstede
1:10 ISTC at Eppelheim 2

June 22 - July 4 2022
1:8 nitro GT3 at Luxembourg
1:8 electric Buggies at Montpellier
1:10 Short Course Trucks at Rhein-Main


The VRC Worlds for modified classes will be held in December 2022.

Enjoy the 2022 VRC Worlds for the Spec classes.

22.04.2022   0 comments   Category: Site news

Episode 15: The ‘uncanny valley’ effect and VRC v4

Uncanny valley, what is that about, what does that have to do with VRC? Let me explain what it is why it is relevant for what we do, or what we have tried to achieve with VRC. A bit of background first.

This term ‘uncanny valley’ was first explained to me by my son Tim back in 2005, he was writing a thesis on human interaction with robots. For his experiment, he wasn’t using a realistic ‘human-like’ robot but rather an iconographic ‘cat-like’ robot called iCat who was interacting with people playing a simple card game. I believe it was a study for Philips Medical. Tim explained to me that using an iconographic robot was much more acceptable than trying to make the robot look and act like a real person and that this effect was called the ‘uncanny valley’.

This effect was first studied and published back in 1970 by Masahiro Mori, a Japanese robotics scientist. This was at the very early days of computer science and apparently, he was foreseeing robots ... read more

12.04.2022   3 comments   Category: Site news

Episode 14: The start of VRC v4

Here we are, end of 2005. No longer any Serpent business dealings, a great VRC 3.5 kick-off with Kyosho, Horizon Hobbies and the VRC dealers. A bright future ahead of us, if not only I had already come to the conclusion that VRC v3.5 was not really the software platform which we could use to expand VRC into a lasting future. The gaming industry was developing with exponential speed, and so did computers, monitors, and graphics cards. The VRC v3.5 platform could maybe last for another 2 or 3 years was my estimation before it would become outdated. We needed something completely new.

Building the v4 team
Lothar Pantel had already indicated to me that he would shift his attention away from VRC and focus on his own ‘core’ business, developing hardware solutions for the electronics industry. He had spent a good part of the past 5 years on VRC and simply would not have the time to dedicate to VRC. Lothar’s role changed from game architect and lead programmer to a VRC consultan... read more

04.04.2022   0 comments   Category: Site news

Episode 13: Virtual RC v1-v3 in retrospect

With the release of v3.5 in 2006 came an end of an incredible adventure. Without any idea or knowledge of computer games or sims we had created a very respectable rc racing sim and exceeded everyone’s expectations, except for those who saw Virtual Racing Industries (VRI) as a serious and dedicated game developing studio of which there were so many in these early days of computer gaming. On the contrary, it was by sheer coincidence that I got involved in this adventure. In the years 1995 till 2005 I was fully engaged with running Serpent, VRC was just something on the side for me, let’s see what it brings… But I must admit it was a fascinating journey which coincided with another exciting technological development: the Internet. In this period I also jumped on the promises the Internet had in store for us as a small company. Team Serpent Network (TSN) and myTSN were developed in this period and opened up complete new ways of communicating with our customers from ar... read more