Even though racing is huge within the gaming market, iRacing software doesn’t support cross-platform play. It’s only available on Windows operating systems, and cannot be played on mobile, or macOS.
The Software can Adopt Cross-Platform Play
iRacing is built as a detailed platform, catered to racing simulations. There’s a huge focus on delivering realistic track conditions, car physics and even player interactions. Developing cross-platform play would involve making sure that the simulation runs seamlessly across different hardware, which would require a huge change to the game engine. With that being said, it can be done.
This is shown by the fact there are online platforms that fully embrace cross-platform play without issue. A lot of bingo sites UK offer cross-platform for online bingo, as well as spins on traditional bingo, including 90-ball bingo and 75-ball bingo. With several variants, including Cash Cubes, Flash Bingo and Link Room to choose from, the platform utilises Virtue Fusion to allow people from all across the world to connect with each other in real-time. This software also creates the possibility to play cross-platform across PC, MacOS, iPhone and Android, with several community features supported.
The fact that iRacing can support players from across the world competing with each other in real-time, in the same way, shows the software has this kind of potential. One thing to take note of here is that iRacing software, although has endless capabilities, has a major limitation, and it all comes down to hardware.
iRacing is designed to make full use of racing hardware, especially when it comes to its physics engine. Racing wheels, VR headsets and multi-monitor setups are all fully supported, and they help to add to the realism of the game too. With that being said, transferring this level of immersion, although possible from a software point of view, isn’t really possible with hardware.
Exploring Hardware Limitations
One of the things that helps to make iRacing software great is the fact that you can use almost any racing wheel you want, with VR headset integration and the chance to experience real track conditions, in real time. There’s also a level of competitive integrity as well. Even professional racers use it as a way to prepare, but with that being said, hardware can’t always be transferred from one device to another. PC wheels can’t be used on mobile, and some can’t be used on MacOS without extra software. The same applies to consoles too. Although in an ideal world, every device would be interconnected by iRacing software, it’s just not plausible with so many third-party providers.
So as you can see, the limitations for cross-platform play don’t come down to the fact that the software can’t accommodate it. It comes down to hardware compatibility. It’d be impossible to regulate the physics across different types of systems, and when you throw different drivers, wheels and racing gear into the mix, it becomes too complex. Developers would have to simplify the PC mechanics to accommodate this kind of adjustment, which would take away from the realism of the game. In the future, when hardware becomes more universal, and the gaming capabilities of other systems increase, it may be that we see iRacing adopt cross-platform play.
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Lol … Bingo is not a great example for cross platform play. There are games like AC and F1 that are made for major gaming platforms.
These games use different libraries for their console ports. However the actual physics engine are the same. Havok physics engine and UNREAL engine run on many systems since consoles are not really much different from todays consoles. There are likely some limits on console versions due to hardware and likely M Series or other Risc SOC are still hard to port to but Apple is actively fixing this. Also the tire sim is pretty close on AC no matter the it being a Ps4 or PC. Fanatec and Logitech are standard for both systems…
Ps4 ps5 xbox and PC all have AC and ACC. I would agree that the drivers and hardware can be somewhat difficult but its not impossible. As long as the OS has an API. The hardest thing to port are the graphic drivers and graphic engine. Good luck porting to a Apple M series or ARM BASED gpu and no racing titles are using pre built game engines like unreal or Unity since they seem to lack flexibility for modeling.
AC did hire console developers to port their engine.
iracing is focused on racing and simulations their graphics engine is being replaced as well as their tire model.
They may very well port their game to Xbox in the future once their graphics engine is replaced. I can see a console being easier to develop and manage anti cheat code on gaming consoles.
If PS and Xbox release next gen consoles that support a vast array of libraries i dont see any reason why iRacing cant easily port their game to consoles. GPU and Cpus on consoles are very similar to PCs since they use the same execution set unlike Arm based SOCs.