News detail and comments

MESSAGE TO ALL VRC MEMBERS

10.04.2020   Category: Site news

Dear valued existing and new VRC members,

COVID-19
We are now 3 weeks into the global covid-19 or corona crisis. It has taken the world by surprise, and the sudden surge in new VRC members and online activity taken me by surprise. I only wished it would have been under more positive circumstances that r/c racers from around the world found their ways to VRC. I am pleased and even flattered that VRC now serves as an alternative for real r/c racing and can only hope that many racers will discover how realistic VRC is. No sim reaches 100% realism, but you will soon find out that after some practice, finetuning set-up and adaptation to racing on a monitor, VRC can offer the same thrills and excitement as real r/c racing. Finishing a qualifier on the edge gets the adrenaline pumping just as much. Could this mean a second life for VRC? How long will it last or will VRC fall back to the pre-corona levels I don’t know.

VRC PLATFORM
The surge has led not only to more activity in online racing and especially multi-player sessions, it has also put an enormous load on the VRC platform and especially our servers. Many of you have experienced access or connection problems, not to speak of the earlier email notification collapse.

In my previous newsflash I have already addressed the state of the VRC platform. Due to lack of revenues we have halted all developments since 2015, even the necessary ones, and only focus on what is needed to keep the VRC platform up and running. Not knowing what was just around the corner I said that we really need more revenues to keep the VRC platform going and that probably the only option was to somehow convert Lifetime subscriptions to temporary subscriptions. This is still the plan by the way.

The surge in new members has given us some highly needed extra revenues and I have already decided to reinvest a part of these revenues into upgrading our fragile infrastructure. This is not just a matter of buying new servers, it’s especially the configuration and optimization to newer frameworks that will be costly. This investment should bring the platform in calmer waters again. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to review and update the VRC software, this is too big a job and consequently too costly.

USB ADAPTORS
Forthe 9T 5RX USB adaptor we were also caught offguard so to say. Mr. Smith of 9-Turbo can't produce them any quicker than about 100 every 2 weeks. We have over 250 orders pending right now, what we don't have we can't send. Pls. be patient although I fully understand that you need an adaptor to play VRC. Maybe the VRC USB adaptor Exchange has lifted some of the need in the meantime. The next batch of 100 will arrive around April 23rd, and the following batch around May 8th. Pls. don't create support tickets when to expect the 9T 9RX adaptor, I cannot speed this up.


Let’s look at the positives for now, it is an outright chance for a revival of VRC. We will do our part in upgrading the hardware platform. I can only hope that you will appreciate our efforts, enjoy the racing VRC has to offer and spread the word to your r/c racing friends that VRC is a great alternative for real r/c, not only in these dire times, but also during the week and in the off-season. 


VRC IS 24/7 R/C EXCITEMENT - DON'T WAIT FOR THE WEEKEND



Happy Easter

Pieter Bervoets
founder of VRC


https://www.vrcworld.com/static/news/PB%20TRANSP%20BG.png

Comments

Only active members can post comments
Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 (Total posts: 88)
08.07.2020 [15:03]
sorry but if you change the life time membership to monthly paid membership then your setting yourself up to lose a lot of fans/supporters and money. because people will forcefully get their refunds back regardless if you like it or not. because doing that is false advertisement. leave the lifetime people alone and make all new user/non-lifetime members pay. if the server are that expensive to run then only have a limited amount that run at certain times everyday kinda like how iracing has their servers and races setup. and if people wanna host servers private or public can pay a monthly fee for a server to race on. as a lifetime member who mainly plays offline i should not be subjected to a monthly fee and im sorry but i would join that bandwagon in getting my refund back because you lied to me when you sold me your lifetime all inclusive membership.
05.06.2020 [08:43]
Pieter Bervoets, thank you for being!
This is important for us!
03.06.2020 [03:54]
Thank you for this fun and realistic sim
12.05.2020 [14:28]
Posted by: Allan O'Brien (GB) on 12.5.2020 12:51:18 (UTC)
Posted by: Pieter Bervoets (NL) on 6.5.2020 13:14:26 (UTC) it is not a matter if we want to do a 1:10 buggy, we simply can't because the physics are a closed black box...
In what way is the closed box? I read somewhere years ago, I believe a quote from yourself that the code was complex and would be difficult to interpret and manipulate for someone else. I have a brief coding background, not a lot but I am sure there are people out there more than competent of picking the code up if required. I may be wrong.


Todd developed his model over a period of 15 years, believe me it is extremely complex. Just imagine to calculate the tire forces based on suspension geometry (over 300 parameters), tire parameters (over 50), aero, dynamically between 300 and 500 times per second to make the car behave like it does. It is not so much the coding itself, it is the understanding of the very complex physics that determine how the car responds, how the car feels.
12.05.2020 [13:51]
Posted by: Pieter Bervoets (NL) on 6.5.2020 13:14:26 (UTC) it is not a matter if we want to do a 1:10 buggy, we simply can't because the physics are a closed black box...


In what way is the closed box? I read somewhere years ago, I believe a quote from yourself that the code was complex and would be difficult to interpret and manipulate for someone else.

I have a brief coding background, not a lot but I am sure there are people out there more than competent of picking the code up if required. I may be wrong.
06.05.2020 [14:14]
it is not a matter if we want to do a 1:10 buggy, we simply can't because the physics are a closed black box...
06.05.2020 [10:46]
Posted by: Allan O'Brien (GB) on 30.4.2020 12:20:54 (UTC) I have been a member for 7-8 years and a lifetime member for quite a few years. I have no problem with the lifetime membership was removed but on one condition. That condition is that with future income there will be investment into the platform with popular classes introduced into the game. Game technology has moved on a lot, just like the database infrastructure and this would be amazing to have classes in the future. I am sure if you were to show that there is potential for updates in the future, then there would be definitely be more people willing to commit funds to the cause. Personally for me it would be 1/10th 2WD and 4WD. I understand the work involved, I know this is not an overnight achievement and the cost will be massive but with the extra support VRC has gained due to Covid, this might have been exactly what was needed. Strike while the iron is hot. I'd also like to add a couple of points. 1) To all the people who are angry over the lifetime subscriptions. This was my initial reaction also, but just take a step back and think about it. Would you rather have a paid monthly subscription to a simulator you enjoy? Or would you like a lifetime membership to a game that went bust and closed it's doors? No point have a free membership to something that no longer exists, that's is your choice. 2) This is to Pieter direct. There have been a few suggestions of maybe open sourcing your code. Or if not willing to open source, why not allow people from the community to come on board and help develop? That are many talented coders in the world and I am sure there are many in the community also. Edited by author: 30.4.2020 12:45:14 GMT


How do you see VRC playing out in the future? Is there enough demand for a different company to bring us newer software including the popular 1/10th scale classes?

The problem with VRC, or at least what the founder appears to be saying, is that say they decided to bring 1/10th scale into the game - it would take far too long for them to implement (6 months for a chassis change alone as mentioned). I think by that point the surge of users getting back into the game would've likely died down too.
03.05.2020 [20:14]
I just bought VRC via steam. The game is fun and I'm a lover of RC. I run a web hosting company. Will 1gbps bandwidth enough to support ?
30.04.2020 [17:24]
I find it hard to believe that adding 1/10 scale off road would not be a huge plus to selling this product to a wider audience (physics engine excuses aside). Where I am in the United States 1/10 is almost exclusively raced; with the exception of one Mini-Z track almost 2 hours away I have not seen on road racing in almost 20 years.

Pieter despite what you say I think a lot more can be done to promote this software. Even though this program has been around for ten years I only found out about it last year because I randomly ran into it on Steam while I was looking for something else. I think there are possibly a lot of other people in RC that have never herd of VRC and would love to have something like this for a rainy day. Have you tried sending a few free copies to some of the larger RC YouTube channels to get some more exposure? If it takes nine years for someone already in the hobby to hear about your software I think that says quite a bit about outreach.






30.04.2020 [17:14]
Posted by: Pieter Bervoets (NL) on 30.4.2020 12:57:20 (UTC)
Posted by: Billy Caley (US) on 30.4.2020 6:52:59 (UTC) It is not my opinion, it is a fact that VRC is a failure, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Companies that have the right people behind them are successful, Companies with all the money in the world and the wrong people behind them fail, such as VRC.
Bill, if VRC was ran as a proper business there would be no VRC, it would have gone broke 8 years ago. Blame me for not being the right person for this, at least I did it at my own expense. We have been innovative, we have gone where no one has gone before and I am proud of what we have achieved. Commercially it's a disaster, me to blame too. I have spent hundreds of thousends of dollars to promote VRC but VRC was neglected by the r/c community, much to my disappointment. All I am trying to do now is to prolong the life of VRC, but I am not going to spend even more money on it. I am almost 71 now, enough is enough... Nobody seems to understand what lifetime means, it's not my lifetime or yours, it's the lifetime of VRC. Without adequate revenues it will be hard to keep it alive. It's up the the users, not up to me. During the corona crisis we have reached or actually exceeded the limits of our platform and I am still committed to invest in fixing these problems and update the hardware which should get us going for the next few years. Pieter Edited by author: 30.4.2020 13:04:01 GMT


When I first tried VRC about 5 years ago I signed up for the limited, free version.
With the way the default settings are in the game, as soon as you first try it there is all kinds of latency between the transmitter and the car reacting to driver input making the cars virtually undriveable. Trying a different transmitter did not change the issue. With this game being so big, I didn’t take the time (and perhaps other users as well) to search around the website for setup tips , nor did I easily find any explanation about how to set up the transmitter, exponential which is key in getting rid of latency. Nor was I aware that buying an expansion pack not only gets me faster cars, but that it also will present a more realistic driving experience. I just wanted to install it, try a few tracks and cars without putting a lot of time into it (instant gratification) to see how well it worked and if I should spend money on it.
I was impatient and initially disappointed in the performance of the cars, blamed the game for having a poor physics engine, (which it does not) and after a few days walked away from it never to return.

Something over this winter inspired me to order another adapter and give it another try (before the lockdown) it sat in my toolbox for a few months. Finally , I gave it another go. Only after weeks and hours of tweaking, trying different expansion packs, figuring out how to get better tires, wheels, bodies, watching many replays, and YouTube videos have I been able to get to the point where I have a vehicle that does not have latency and drives like the real thing.


I think if many other people experienced the same same thing early in trying the game maybe they walked away.
Perhaps the free version should have access to better performing and setup vehicles and a brief video link to YouTube about the importance of transmitter setup. I am using a cheap transmitter that has no exp adjustment on it. It took a while for me to find how to tweak it in the game software.
I am not taking a dig here at all or complaining. I am simply sharing my initial experience about ignoring VRC and perhaps it’s an area that’s needs or needed attention.

Now I am so greatful that VRC is still here and I really hope someone or a group of people can take over when you decide its time to move on.


Edited by author: 30.4.2020 16:17:18 GMT

Edited by author: 30.4.2020 16:53:37 GMT

Edited by author: 30.4.2020 16:58:06 GMT

Edited by author: 30.4.2020 17:03:16 GMT

News by month

April, 2024   (3)
March, 2024   (3)
January, 2024   (2)
December, 2023   (19)
November, 2023   (9)
October, 2023   (3)
June, 2023   (3)
May, 2023   (2)
April, 2023   (1)
March, 2023   (2)
February, 2023   (9)
January, 2023   (5)
December, 2022   (6)
November, 2022   (2)
October, 2022   (1)
September, 2022   (1)
July, 2022   (2)
May, 2022   (6)
April, 2022   (4)
March, 2022   (4)
February, 2022   (4)
January, 2022   (6)
December, 2021   (4)
October, 2021   (2)
June, 2021   (1)
May, 2021   (1)
January, 2021   (1)
December, 2020   (1)
November, 2020   (2)
July, 2020   (3)
June, 2020   (2)
May, 2020   (1)
April, 2020   (3)
March, 2020   (1)
February, 2020   (2)
January, 2020   (2)
November, 2019   (1)
September, 2019   (4)
July, 2019   (1)
June, 2019   (1)
May, 2019   (2)
April, 2019   (1)
March, 2019   (1)
February, 2019   (4)
January, 2019   (10)
December, 2018   (5)
November, 2018   (3)
October, 2018   (2)
September, 2018   (2)
August, 2018   (3)
June, 2018   (4)
May, 2018   (1)
April, 2018   (3)
February, 2018   (1)
January, 2018   (8)
December, 2017   (17)
November, 2017   (6)
October, 2017   (12)
September, 2017   (11)
August, 2017   (9)
July, 2017   (2)
June, 2017   (9)
May, 2017   (5)
April, 2017   (7)
March, 2017   (10)
February, 2017   (8)
January, 2017   (10)
December, 2016   (13)
November, 2016   (9)
October, 2016   (3)
September, 2016   (4)
August, 2016   (2)
July, 2016   (1)
June, 2016   (3)
May, 2016   (6)
April, 2016   (4)
March, 2016   (20)
February, 2016   (34)
January, 2016   (4)
December, 2015   (2)
November, 2015   (5)
October, 2015   (5)
September, 2015   (1)
July, 2015   (4)
June, 2015   (6)
April, 2015   (4)
March, 2015   (5)
February, 2015   (6)
January, 2015   (9)
December, 2014   (11)
November, 2014   (3)
October, 2014   (9)
September, 2014   (3)
August, 2014   (4)
July, 2014   (2)
May, 2014   (4)
April, 2014   (7)
March, 2014   (2)
February, 2014   (3)
January, 2014   (9)
December, 2013   (14)
November, 2013   (5)
October, 2013   (9)
September, 2013   (5)
August, 2013   (5)
July, 2013   (7)
June, 2013   (7)
May, 2013   (6)
April, 2013   (5)
March, 2013   (2)
February, 2013   (2)
January, 2013   (6)
December, 2012   (10)
November, 2012   (5)
October, 2012   (4)
September, 2012   (2)
August, 2012   (4)
July, 2012   (4)
June, 2012   (2)
May, 2012   (2)
April, 2012   (1)
March, 2012   (2)
February, 2012   (3)
January, 2012   (4)
December, 2011   (7)
November, 2011   (2)
October, 2011   (3)
September, 2011   (3)
July, 2011   (1)
June, 2011   (1)
May, 2011   (2)

Other news

2020 VRC WORLDS SPEC DATES & TRACKS

29.04.2020   19 comments

This is the schedule for the upcoming 2020 VRC Worlds Spec classes starting June 3rd.

... read more

Event report for: 2020 SEASON 1 1:8 NITRO SPORTSCARS ROUND 4

02.04.2020   5 comments

image

RIETVELD RUNS AWAY WITH THE VICTORY AT LOSTALLO

Round 4 of the 1/8 Nitro Sportscar ... read more

BANNER

BANNER

BANNER

BANNER
To advertise click here
Translate

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter