VRC PRO发布一月

VRC PRO GONE LIVE

On September 1st, after 6 years of development VRC Pro finally saw daylight. At 15:00 the button was pressed to set VRC World, the social network community, online. Nearly 3000 members have signed up in September and have started racing online. With a targeted membership of between 5000 and 10000 by the end of 2011 VRC Pro is right on schedule. Some initial problems had to be tackled due to the massive use of the VRC Pro services but after a couple of days everything was working just fine and racers are having a great time exploring the many features of VRC Pro and racing each other in on-line events and multi-player sessions. The MYLAPS and KYOSHO opening events were a great success, over 600 racers from all around the world participated!

WHAT’S NEEDED FOR VRC PRO

The most important thing is of course a suitable PC or notebook with a suitable gaming graphics or video card. The typical office PC or notebook with integrated video card will not be able to run VRC Pro. Most gaming graphic cards released in the past 5 years will work just fine because VRC Pro will adjust the graphics to the capabilities of the card in your computer. We have found that for the smoothest game play you really want 60 frames per second, and it is always better to sacrifice a bit of graphics quality than frame rate.

The next thing you need is a good controller. The best controller is of course your own transmitter.  The VRC-3NT USB-dongle, available in the VRC Pro e-shop, hooks up to your receiver and sends the steering and throttle input directly to the USB port of your PC. This is by far the best way to control VRC Pro, it gives you the highest resolution (16-bit) and controller sample rate for a very natural feel. On top of that all the changes to your transmitter settings like exponential, dual rate, trim etc. will work directly in VRC Pro too! There are transmitter like USB controllers and regular joysticks on the market which will also work well with VRC Pro.

An internet connection is needed to sign up for VRC Pro, to download and update the software, and to unlock all the content. Once everything is installed and initialized you can also play off-line. The quality of the internet connection becomes important when you want to race in multi-player sessions with up to 9 other racers. You will need a reasonable fast connection with a ping under 100 msec. and a bandwidth of 2 Mb/sec.

Last you will need to be able to pay for your subscription. The preferred payment system is with PayPal. Visa and Master Card credit cards are accepted using PayPal as payment processor only (a PayPal account is not required in that case). The third method is making an international bank transfer directly to VRI. Because the banks charge quite a high fee for international payments this method is relatively expensive.

WHAT YOU GET

The trial member gets a selection of 6 spec class chassis in 1:10 electric, 4 1:10 nitro and 3 1:8 nitro spec class chassis. The spec class chassis have very limited set-up options and can only use limited power motors and engines. These cars are intended to get a first feel for VRC Pro and to explore the many features. It turns out that the 1:10 electric Spec class is by far the most popular class during the first month of racing, so it must be good.  Trial members have access to 3 public tracks and the VRC Practice ground, a large parking like area to test out your car or learn to drive a car without crashing all the time. Trial members can participate in on-line races and multi-player sessions.

Full members have of course all the trial chassis and public tracks, plus 3 ‘almost’ full option chassis and components, one for each of the classes. ‘Almost’ means there are a few options not available, like changing the Ackerman on your steering, setting roll centers and shock positions, the advanced options so to say. Full members also have 6 extra tracks to race on: Heemstede, Messina, Kyosho Atsugi, Eppelheim, Carpet 1 and RC Speedway Long Course. Full members can purchase full option chassis and components, and more tracks using virtual cash. Virtual cash (vEuro’s) can be earned in race events, by practicing, time trials and multi-player sessions.

Another way to earn virtual cash is by referring a friend to VRC Pro. When he signs up for a full account both you and your friend will get extra vEuro’s in your accounts to spend on goodies or tracks!

September 1st marked the beginning of a new era in r/c racing: the next level of r/c sim racing. More realistic, more engaging, more connected with other racers then ever before! Let's see how the new generation RC sim racers will do against non-sim racers at the real track...